Watching the World
Guerrillas in Bishops’ Clothing?
◆ An editorial in Brazil’s respected O Globo newspaper commented on the Catholic Church’s Fourth International Ecumenic Congress in São Paulo: “Actually, theology and ecumenism were only pretexts at the São Paulo theology meeting for political and ideological manifestations.” During the gathering, some delegates reportedly “offered a guerrilla uniform to Brazilian bishop Dom Pedro Casaldaliga.” Then, says the editorial, “according to the São Paulo diocesan paper, Dom Casaldaliga immediately donned the guerrilla uniform amid a wave of applause, and declared that he wore the uniform just as though it were ecclesiastic garb because both expressed the same hope.”
O Globo observed that “this guerrilla theology continued throughout the congress.” And in a speech broadcast afterward, the archbishop of Porto Alegre remarked that, instead of a theology congress, the conclave gave the impression of “an international meeting of some left-leaning political organization making preparations for the conquest of power.”
How Patriotic?
◆ The Kentucky State Senate recently voted to open their sessions with the flag salute ceremony. Senator Georgia M. Davis Powers also voted in favor of the ritual. “But when it came to actually saying the pledge, she didn’t,” reports the Louisville Times. “She stood with fellow senators, but remained silent while they faced the flag and recited.” Why? The senator answers: “I was thinking it was so ridiculous to have to display my patriotism every time I come into the Senate.”
‘God Makes Comeback’
◆ “In a quiet revolution in thought and argument that hardly anyone could have foreseen only two decades ago,” observed Time magazine recently, “God is making a comeback.” And this is occurring “in the crisp, intellectual circles of academic philosophers, where the consensus had long banished the Almighty from fruitful discourse.” In fact, says the article, “now it is more respectable among philosophers than it has been for a generation to talk about the possibility of God’s existence.” Why the change? Time indicates that apparently the world’s thinkers have learned that their materialistic philosophies are “inadequate to deal with human experience,” and therefore science “has become less presumptuous and ambitious . . . its promise as savior and absolute explainer of the world somewhat tarnished.”—April 7, 1980, page 65.
Building Blood in the Veins
◆ Stanley J. Dudrick, chairman of surgery at the University of Texas, tells of his success using an uncommon method to rebuild the blood of severely anemic patients. Two young Jehovah’s Witnesses had chronic ulcerative colitis, a serious bowel disease, but refused blood transfusions during proposed surgery. “If I had to, I could have operated, taking meticulous pains to avoid bleeding,” he related. “But I decided instead to try to rebuild their hemoglobin without any blood or blood products.”
He fed the two intravenously to give their bowels a rest, and included elemental iron directly in the solution, rather than giving it by mouth or injection, as is most common. “The effect of these regimens on the teen-agers far exceeded Dr. Dudrick’s modest hopes,” says the report in Medical World News, “with the boy showing complete remission of colitis after seven weeks, the girl after five months.” Blood iron levels jumped dramatically in both cases. Said one of his colleagues who heads the hyperalimentation team at Houston’s M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute: “I’ll know now to give this [iron] supplementation by vein when trying to restore the hemoglobin levels of postop or malnourished patients.”
Graham and the Presidents
◆ An Indiana State University researcher has found in White House files nearly 100 letters and telegrams from evangelist Billy Graham to U.S. presidents. Newsweek magazine notes that two of the letters “proffered something more than spiritual advice to his favorite presidents.” In one letter to former president Eisenhower during the election campaign between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy, a Catholic, Graham wrote: “With the religious issue growing deeper, I believe you could tip the scales in a number of key states” in behalf of Nixon. “I believe the rewards to the nation would be as great as when you led the armies at Normandy.” Graham also wrote to President Lyndon Johnson urging a candidate for the United States Supreme Court who “might not be popular with the extreme liberals and radicals who are already fighting you anyway, but he would make a great Chief Justice.” In another letter Graham told Johnson: “I am convinced that you were not only the choice of the American people—but of God.” Observes Newsweek: “The Graham correspondence reveals an evangelist awe-struck by the Presidency and ever ready to nourish the egos of the men who bear its burdens.”—April 21, 1980, page 117.
Pandas in Peril
◆ Pandas thrive on bamboo. But New Scientist magazine reports that many pandas “have starved to death” in the Sichuan province of the People’s Republic of China “because of the unusual reproductive behaviour of their favourite food.” It seems that some types of bamboo reproduce like grasses, branching off shoots, or clones, in all directions from an original root. Some of these bamboo clone groups may flower and seed only once in a hundred years or more, and then die. This affects the food supply of the pandas, which no longer have as many bamboo forests of varying ages to select from since the inroads of man.
No Space for Space Rides
◆ An unclearly worded news-magazine article led some people to believe that $500 would reserve a place in line to ride the American Space Shuttle. Shortly thereafter, letters requesting rides inundated the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and 14 persons were said to have sent $500 checks for reservations. But since the magazine article actually was referring to reservations for scientific payloads, NASA had to send out a statement correcting the matter, as well as return the checks.
Passion Play Furore
◆ The Federal Republic of Germany’s famed Oberammergau Passion Play has been at the center of controversy in recent years because it portrays the Jews as being responsible for Jesus’ death. Offended Jewish organizations were able to promote the cancellation of 70,000 reservations for the last performance in 1970. Normally about half a million attend the performances once every 10 years. To respond to Jewish complaints, this year 36 script changes cut the play from eight hours to six. This still did not satisfy one group, who complained that the script is “inherently anti-Jewish.” But, since Jewish complicity in the death of Christ is a matter of Biblical history, one member of the cast observed: “To take all hints of anti-Semitism out of the Christ story would be as impossible as taking all anti-German passages from the history of World War II.”
Recycling Trash
◆ According to an official estimate, households throughout Japan get rid of 39 million tons of garbage a year. If all of this were burned, enough energy could be obtained to generate 10 percent of the electricity consumed in the country. Eight major cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Sapporo now have a total of 25 plants that burn household trash to generate electricity. Other Japanese cities are building plants to use home rubbish in this way.
Surgical Laser Beam
◆ The Toronto Star reports that Canadian doctors have started to treat digestive-tract bleeding by means of a laser beam, an intense form of light energy that liberates heat. A laser is attached to a device like a periscope and is inserted down the throat. When the laser beam hits living tissue, it causes the water in the cells to vaporize and tissue proteins to coagulate, or fuse. The laser eliminates surgical cutting and is especially useful for the elderly, chronically ill and chronic bleeders. The device was developed in Germany, where it is said to have controlled bleeding from ulcers in 90 percent of cases. In Canada, the success rate is estimated at about 70 percent so far.
Mining Pine Trees
◆ In some areas of northern Idaho, mountainsides have been denuded of trees due to pollution, mining operations and forest fires. As one step toward reforestation, a mining company hired a greenhouse operator to grow young pine trees. The greenhouse is 3,000 feet (914 m) underground in a mine, where conditions are conducive to growing pines from seedlings. These are later planted on the mountains. The temperature in the mine is 78 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), with 100 percent humidity and proper amounts of the carbon dioxide that plants need in photosynthesis. A ventilation shaft provides air, and sodium-vapor and mercury-vapor lamps provide “sunlight.” A side benefit is that there is a total absence of insects and fungus.
Gonorrhea “Running Wild”
◆ New York City health officials say that gonorrhea is virtually out of control among youths. Dr. Thomas Abruzzo of the Nassau Health Department stated: “It is approaching the point where they will have to see a doctor every time they have sex.” He said that in 1979, high-school-age youths in his area had a 50-percent increase in gonorrhea and pregnancies. Increased sexual activity among youths and a casual attitude toward it were blamed.
How Much Work?
◆ The Union Bank of Switzerland recently published its 1979-80 survey of world prices and incomes. It used the number of working hours required to buy certain basic goods and services as a measure of relative living standards in various cities world wide. For example, an average worker in Rio de Janeiro may have to spend almost 225 hours on the job to obtain the goods and services that a worker in Chicago could get by working about 75 hours, or one third the time. On the other hand, a worker in Manila would have to work well over twice as long (548 hours) as his counterpart in Rio and more than seven times as long as the Chicagoan. The working hours required to obtain the same goods and services in some other cities are: Zurich, 84 1/4; Vienna, 104 1/4; Tokyo, 136 1/2; London 150 1/4; Mexico City, 189 1/4; and Hong Kong, 362 1/4.
Energy Alternative
◆ In a recent three-month experiment to conserve energy, the government of Thailand ordered television stations to stop broadcasting between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. Officials also requested dimming of household lights during evening hours as a means of reducing oil imports. But the local Population and Community Development Association saw danger of a population increase due to the government measures. To combat this, the Association offered free birth-control supplies and sterilization for the duration of the “blackout.”