Watching the World
Military Madness
◆ Reports out of Sweden state that every fifteen years the military budget for the world doubles. In 1968 the world spent $159,300,000,000 for military purposes. Seventy percent of that total was spent by the United States and the Soviet Union. Between 1918 and 1938, 3.5 percent of the world’s resources were spent for the military. Now that figure has increased more than 100 percent to between 7 and 8 percent of the world’s resources.
7,000 Priests Ask Release
◆ More and more Roman Catholic priests are leaving the ministry to marry or because of doctrinal disagreements. A study carried out on Pope Paul’s instructions in October disclosed that at least 7,137 priests had asked for dispensation from the vows of celibacy during the previous six years. Latin America had 661 applications for dispensation, followed by France, 553, and North America, 455. The Brussels center says priests are leaving the ministry at all ages, but particularly in the first five years after ordination.
Expo ’70 Pavilion
◆ The U.S. Pavilion for Expo 1970, the world’s fair to be held in Osaka, Japan, features a translucent, inflated roof. The structure is 274 by 465 feet and covers an area almost the size of two football fields. The roof is the largest clear-span air-supported roof ever built. The roof is extremely light, weighing only a pound per square foot. But it is said that it will withstand earthquakes and typhoon winds. The cost, including exhibits, will be around $10 million.
History Plotted by Ignorance
◆ British cabinet secrets used to remain locked away for fifty years before others could see them. By an act of 1967, the Wilson government made them available annually on January 1, just thirty years after the event. This year, 1939 cabinet papers were made public, opening the story of how Britain went to war against Hitler in September 1939. Said a report: “The British cabinet papers for 1939 are a revelation, not of what was done, but of the astonishing ignorance and misinformation on which statesmen of the time based their policies. . . . The information on which other statesmen acted was probably no better than that of the British. And there is no assurance that governments today act on any better information. . . . Britain’s annual revelation of cabinet secrets may be healthy for a democracy. But it doesn’t inspire the citizens to march into the new year with a touching faith in the wisdom and omniscience of their political leaders.”
The Air You Breathe
◆ The last vestige of clean air in the United States disappeared six years ago, according to the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. Defining air pollution as at least 2,000 particles of pollution in a section of air half the size of a sugar cube, biologist Alfred Hulstrunk estimated that most metropolitan areas today average 15,000 particles, and the concentration is increasing at the rate of 1,500 particles a year. Hulstrunk predicted that, at the present rate, within 10 to 15 years most animal life and much plant life in the northern hemisphere would die, and the only human survivors would have to don semi-space suits when venturing outside the home. “We have no solution,” he added.
Church Art for Sale
◆ According to Parade for January 25, “Spanish priests are selling art treasures from their own provincial churches to antique dealers in Madrid, who in turn are re-selling them to wealthy American buyers or local merchants.” The Spanish government has called upon the bishops to stop this practice, but the bishops have informed the Vatican that they would stop the practice as soon as the Vatican sent additional help. Spain’s Director of Fine Arts, Perez Embid, said he has seen chalices, altar pieces, and holy paintings decorating Madrid nightclubs. Markets in Madrid now are reportedly overflowing with pulpits, stained-glass windows, wooden statues and other church artifacts, some of it dating back to the 12th century.
Rock Music and Sex
◆ According to a study of 400 pregnant teen-agers and 91 nonpregnant college girls, rock music turns young girls to premarital sex. And so do television soap operas that feature “sexy” singers. The music is found especially disturbing to 12- and 13-year-olds who are just beginning to be aroused and have trouble expressing their feelings, says Dr. Patricia Schiller of Washington, a psychologist and a mother of two college students. The college students listed movies, books, records and television, in that order, as sexual stimuli. The 12- and 13-year-olds put the emphasis on records and television, particularly afternoon soap operas with their heavy doses of adultery, illegitimate pregnancy and illicit sex.
No Merger in Sight
◆ Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, general secretary of the world Protestant-Orthodox body, said that he is skeptical that church union would ever become a reality. “Not only am I fearful it won’t happen,” he said, “but I‘ve just about lost all interest in it.” The aim of a united church, he said, is to effect spiritual renewal and fervor, to develop a church that would confront today’s problems head on. “This is not a time for business as usual when the world’s falling apart,” said Blake. But those involved in church mergers seem to be so involved in the organizational concerns that they have just about forgotten the reason the proposal was made.
Born a Drug Addict
◆ At the Tucson Medical Center a baby was born a heroin addict. The infant’s mother and father became addicts after their fourth child. The mother said that if she did have a “fix” for two or three days during pregnancy, the baby would start kicking violently. After birth the infant showed the classic signs of heroin withdrawal: restlessness, running nose, tiny legs drawn up to abdomen in response to severe stomach cramps. After fifteen days of treatment, the baby seemed to have recovered. Some physicians believe the effects of such addiction are lasting.
Who Are the Drinkers?
◆ “Drinking is an extremely influential component of American culture,” said Dr. Ira H. Cisin, sociology professor at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. “Alcohol facilitates social relations and that’s apparently how it’s used.” To find out who uses it, 2,746 persons were interviewed. All of them were 21 and over. In the study “alcoholic beverages” meant all kinds—wine, beer and whiskey. Almost one-third of the men and women surveyed, 32 percent, were listed as “abstainers,” that is, they drink less than once a year or not at all. “Infrequent drinkers,” who drink at least once a year but less than once a month, accounted for an additional 15 percent. That leaves a 53 percent majority who drink larger quantities and more often, with heavy drinkers the smallest percentage. More men drink, and they also drink more than women, but drinking among women is on the rise. About 60 percent of the women drink at least once a year—up from 45 percent a dozen years ago. Italian-Americans are said to rank highest among nationality groups in the proportion of drinkers, 91 percent. But sons of Irish-born fathers have the highest proportion of habitual drinkers, 93 percent, and of heavy drinkers, 31 percent.
Housewife Prostitutes
◆ A published Associated Press report from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, quotes sociology professor William Morrison as saying that many of Winnipeg’s “better-class” prostitutes are suburban housewives and that some husbands do not mind at all. He said that more than 50 prostitutes he interviewed were married, and many had families. Some said their husbands knew what their wives were doing, but do not mind because “it brings in more money to support the family.” Professor Morrison said: “These girls honestly believe they are doing a service to society . . . and their clients are usually happily married upper-middle-class types who think they cannot get sexual satisfaction with their wives.” Morrison, a married man with two school-age children, sees no reason why prostitution should not be made legal in Canada, particularly since restrictions have been removed on homosexual relations between consenting adults. Do you share his view? The Bible does not.
Talkative Nations
◆ Leading the world in the number of telephones are the United States, with 109 million; Japan, with 21 million, and the United Kingdom, with 13 million. Since 1951, Canadians had been the most talkative, but they dropped to second place with 693 conversations per person. Iceland was third, with 632. In the Number One spot now as the most talkative people in the world, at least on the telephone, are the Americans, with an average 701 telephone conversations per person during 1968, an increase of more than 33 conversations per person over the previous year.
Traffic Deaths in 1969
◆ It was a year of slaughter on America’s highways. More people died than in any previous year. The National Safety Council reported 56,400 traffic deaths in 1969. Howard Pyle, the Council’s president, said that unless people take an interest in highway safety, “1970 promises to be even worse.”
Catholic Women “Ministers”
◆ The shortage of priests has forced the Roman Catholic diocese of Dubuque in northeast Iowa to use two Catholic women to distribute communion. They are reportedly the first laywomen in the United States to be granted the right to distribute the Eucharist, a duty usually performed by ordained Catholic priests.
Discouraging Drunkenness
◆ The government of the Soviet Union is making a concerted drive nationwide against heavy drinking. Vodka prices have doubled in Moscow’s restaurants. Cafés have locked away their cognac and now serve only wines. Liquor outlets around factories and plants have been ordered to move or close, and hours of sales have been curtailed. The reason behind the move to reduce drunkenness is believed to be, not morality, but a rumor that drinking is partly responsible for a sag in industrial production.
“Stinkville”
◆ The inhabitants of Coccolia, Italy, became aroused by the pollution of its river and renamed their town “Puzzolia,” freely translatable as “Stinkville.” The stench of the Ronco River, beside which the village lies, has become intolerable. Studies have been made that show the stream is six times as filthy as the ordinary sewer. Italy, a country of 50,000,000 people, has fewer than twenty sewage treatment plants, according to experts in Rome. Many inhabitants remember when they used to wade in the Ronco River. “We used to wash our clothes and take baths in the Ronco,” said an inhabitant of Coccolia. “Now, just the smell of the river makes you want to vomit.” Another aroused citizen points to a blackened metal railing of a bridge painted two years ago and now fiercely corroded. He says, “If the gases from the river do that to paint, imagine what they do to humans living here.”
A VD Epidemic
◆ Venereal disease in America is increasing at a rate approaching epidemic proportions, according to Dr. William J. Brown, chief of the National Communicable Disease Center’s venereal disease branch. He says the incidence rate of the disease has climbed from an all-time low in 1957 to an alarming high today. In the past five years, the reported cases of gonorrhea rose 60 percent. The actual number of cases in the nation is placed at 1,680,000. The disease has baffled the experts, and according to Dr. Brown, medical science’s lack of knowledge about this disease makes it impossible for them to design an effective control program.