Watching the World
“Divine Rulership” Assemblies
◆ Jehovah’s witnesses’ “Divine Rulership” District Assemblies took place in the United States, Canada and the British Isles from late June through August. God’s rule was highlighted throughout the four-day gatherings. Thus, one newspaper writer described the Montgomery, Alabama, program as “strictly religious, with the speakers sticking to the Bible and ignoring social and political issues.” One highlight of each convention was the public lecture “Divine Rulership—the Only Hope of All Mankind.” The speaker noted: “The number of thoughtful persons is increasing who honestly admit that human rulership has failed. Their hopes based on man have been blasted.” Does Christendom represent true Christianity, and does she have a better hope? he asked. “Absolutely not!” Rather, he pointed out, the kingdom of Jesus Christ “is the commissioned representative of the Divine Rulership of the Most High and Almighty God, Jehovah.” Total attendance at this meeting for the first fifty-seven United States assemblies was 670,538.
Environment Conference
◆ U.N. environment representatives from 114 nations met in Stockholm, Sweden, in June. They agreed on some 200 points regarding environment improvement, a declaration of principles and a plan for a permanent secretariat to coordinate matters. Still, national pride dominated the meeting. Less developed countries will press for technological progress regardless of its effect on the environment. China insists population is not a world problem and, with France, sticks to the right to carry on atmospheric nuclear tests. The United States refuses to spend money on international environment problems. Understandably, a writer in World magazine commented: “The Stockholm Conference was no symposium of scientists to decide what is best for the planet. It was a political gathering of governments. . . . The conference slogan, ‘Only One Earth,’ might therefore more suitably have been ‘Only One Hundred and Fourteen Earths.’”
Churches Dying
◆ Some time back, London philosophy professor H. B. Acton observed: ‘In the years since 1918 Christian institutions have lost influence.’ Has time improved their situation? The work Ministry in Question by A. Gilmore (1971) answers: “Certainly, at the heart of the church, there is an inner insecurity that is sapping its life. Of recent years we have lived in the midst of an orgy of self-criticism and a frenzy of self-reproach that has about it the smell of death . . . it is a sign that the very foundations are crumbling, that a crisis of faith is upon us.”
Religious ‘Credibility Gap’
◆ Politicians have reputations for distorting truth. The ‘Pentagon papers’ affair in 1971 highlighted their ‘credibility gap.’ Journalists and advertisers are also guilty of deception. And the clergy? Veteran United Press International writer Louis Cassels says: “Time and again, as a reporter covering religious news, I have found church spokesmen resorting to deliberate obfuscations [confusions] and torturing the truth in an effort to keep the public in the dark about what actually happened in a particular situation.”
Families and Drugs
◆ Much of the drug menace centers around the family. A year-long survey in the Miami, Florida, vicinity reveals family problems as a primary cause of student drug abuse. Ten percent of junior and senior high school students there habitually use drugs. Another study shows over 40 percent of the families in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and Fort Greene areas are touched by drugs. The New York Times reports that almost all of 612 persons interviewed were “first prompted to use drugs by friends or members of their families.” A Pennsylvania juvenile official says most drug abuse goes unobserved by parents who think children are “just tired.”
Illegitimate Children in Sweden
◆ Some 20 percent of children now born in Sweden arrive out of wedlock, according to the nation’s statistical bureau. This is about twice the 1960 rate and up from 18 percent two years ago.
Teen-Age Morals
◆ According to a study released by the Presidential Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, nearly half of the nineteen-year-old single girls in the United States have had sex relations. Beginning with fifteen-year-old girls, the study showed that 13.8 percent were no longer virgins. By the age of sixteen there were 21.2 percent who had had sex relations. By the age of seventeen the figure went up to 26.6 percent. By the age of eighteen it was 37 percent and by the age of nineteen it was 46 percent. Is there any wonder that venereal disease is epidemic among teen-agers?
Mexican Life Expectancy
◆ In less than forty years life expectancy in Mexico has almost doubled. In 1925 Mexicans could, on the average, expect to live 32 years; current expectancy is over 60 years. Preventive medicine, improved hygiene and prenatal care are considered primary contributing factors.
Mental Patient Upheld
◆ A New York State Supreme Court justice upheld the right of a 31-year-old woman to reject electroshock treatment. While considered “sufficiently mentally ill” to be retained, she was, nevertheless, competent to decide on the therapy prescribed. The ruling justice observed: “This form of treatment is the subject of great controversy within the psychiatric profession, both as to its efficacy, and as to its dangers. It has been known to aid significantly in the cure of the mentally ill, as well as to cause such other ailments as pulmonary edema, bone fractures and, in exceedingly rare instances, even death.”
Kidney Transplant Complications
◆ It now appears that serious eye damage comes as a complication of kidney transplanting. One third of thirty-nine transplant patients surveyed at the Royal Victoria Infirmary at Newcastle upon Tyne had eye abnormalities. One patient was virtually blind and another lost the sight of one eye. The eye damage has been traced to immunosuppressive drugs used in connection with the transplant operation. In another group of thirty-nine patients treated by dialysis on artificial kidney machines (not transplants) only one patient had any form of eye disorder.
Too Much Sleep
◆ Excessive sleep is as unwise as too little sleep. Dr. William C. Dement of Stanford University estimates there are 100,000 hypersomniacs in the United States. They, medically speaking, sleep too much. Tests show that most people need seven and a half to eight hours sleep to perform well during the day. Any great excess leads to a listless feeling and irritability, and jeopardizes clear thinking. The Bible’s proverb is true: “Do not love sleep, that you may not come to poverty.”—Prov. 20:13.
Effects of Today’s Noises
◆ Modern homes are traps for dozens of noises. Inside noises, such as clocks, telephones, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, radios, stereos, televisions, garbage disposals, mixers and fans, all vie with outside noises from the streets, freeways, lawn mowers and airplanes. Current research indicates that unwanted sounds cause pupils of the eyes to dilate, mucous membranes to dry and adrenals to secrete. It often prevents deep sleep, leading to irritability and emotional problems. Many noises are within an individual’s control, though certain ones are not.
Alcoholism, a Major Problem
◆ Almost one tenth of ninety-five million people in the United States who drink are said to be victims of alcoholism. Half of all traffic-accident victims and one third of all murder victims checked showed high alcohol content in their blood. More than half of the 500 persons drowned in the Moscow area last year had been drinking. Britain now reports about a half million alcoholics, twenty times the number doctors had earlier supposed.
Cause of Automobile Accidents
◆ The United States’ two-millionth traffic death is predicted to occur in 1974. Traffic accidents cost that country $18.6 billion annually. The largest problem, according to F. M. Kreml, president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, is the ‘human factor.’ Calling for more stringent licensing requirements, he noted: “In most jurisdictions, anyone who can walk into an office, read a written paragraph or two, answer a few simple questions, read part of an eye chart, sign his name and drive a car around the block is automatically granted a license.”
Discourage Burglary
◆ Do you invite burglars when you leave your home for an extended period? A few precautions may save you loss. Open some drapes and blinds part way; possibly set a timer to turn lights on and off automatically. Put away all loose equipment. Stop deliveries, including mail. You may also want a friend to take care of the lawn and check inside the house periodically while you are gone.
Zoo Guard
◆ Rising vandalism problems prompted a Des Moines, Iowa, zoo director to employ a new night guard: Becky, a 180-pound lioness. Known as a “wrestling lion” that neither bites nor claws, she will, nevertheless, do her work while attached to a leash.
Baffling Pulsars
◆ Another pulsar has been found in the Milky Way. This celestial object emits X-ray ‘pulses,’ in an unusual cycle of nine days ‘on’ and twenty-seven days ‘off.’ Authorities offer several possible explanations for its peculiar behavior, but admit that the whole subject of pulsars is puzzling.
Lakes Polluted World Wide
◆ Lakes world wide are threatened with biological death. In West Germany, Lake Constance “has aged 10,000 years” in twenty years, according to biologist R. Zahner. Dangerous waste compounds pouring into it have caused overproduction of algae and other plants in shallow areas. Up to 20,000 motorboats, most with oil-releasing outboard motors, appear on a single day to add thick petroleum residues. Siberia’s Lake Baikal similarly suffers pollution damage. A faculty member at a Toronto, Canada, college suggests draining heavily polluted Lake Erie to use beneficially the retrieved land.
Corn Salad
◆ Would you like fresh salad greens even while snow is on the ground? Corn salad (or, field salad), virtually unknown in some parts of the world, is popular in Europe. It does not thrive in hot weather but will withstand frost and snow. Planted as seed in September corn salad produces from October through January.
Successful Limb Restoration
◆ Six persons have had severed arms successfully restored at Massachusetts General Hospital. In the latest incident a man’s arm, severed in a fishing accident, was restored after eleven hours. Ten years ago a twelve-year-old boy’s right arm was severed below the shoulder. He uses his arm today as an auto mechanic. In another case, two years ago a man’s amputated wrist was replaced. Less than a year later he used his hand rescuing a child from a burning building. Doctors at the hospital also report three unsuccessful attempts at restoration.
Newspapers Close
◆ Two more United States daily newspapers have suspended publication. The Boston Herald Traveler closed down in June, followed by the Washington (D.C.) Daily News in mid-July. Reportedly, the News had lost money for five years. New York is now the only city in the nation with more than two separately owned, general circulation, daily newspapers.