Watching the World
Impact of Honesty
◆ The Charleroi, Belgium, newspaper Métro published the following news item: “The other day, while making deliveries, the son of Franz André, butcher in Ransart, lost a wallet containing the day’s receipts: 22,000 Belgian francs [about $750, U.S.]. As the wallet carried no means of identification, our butcher was convinced that all hope of recovery was lost. However, on Monday morning, when he went to Ransart police station to report his loss, you can imagine his surprise when he learned that his wallet, together with its precious contents, were awaiting him! It was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, while preaching at Ransart, who had found the wallet and had immediately handed it over to policeman M. Defosse, living at Ransart. What a fine example of honesty! And an additional reason, in the future, to have even more consideration for those Jehovah’s Witnesses whom we do not always greet with the kindness that they generally deserve.”
‘Churches Must Share Blame’
◆ Church of Ireland Bishop Donald Caird has declared that the churches must share some of the blame for the violence in Northern Ireland. Speaking in Westminster Cathedral during a St. Patrick’s Day ecumenical service, he explained: “The churches have too often fallen into line with traditionally linked political attitudes and have failed to be critical and independent of political parties, and have failed to find a common Christian stance in face of violence and injustice.”
Shuffling Instead of Rioting
◆ Police in the seaside town of Brighton, England, have their own way of preventing the recurrence of a riot by youths. They swooped down on scores of youths arriving for a spring vacation and confiscated the shoelaces from their boots. “There’s no way they can run and kick without laces in their boots,” a police official explained. They just shuffled down the street.
Good News for Travelers
◆ The World Health Organization announced in a news conference that smallpox has been eliminated from the earth. It is claimed to be the first time that this has been accomplished with any disease. When the health organization began its eradication program back in 1967, the disease that year killed 2,000,000 persons, scarred and blinded another 8,000,000 and was reported in 42 lands. This announcement brought good news for travelers: “No person,” said the New York Times, “will need to have evidence of a smallpox vaccination for travel to any country at any time.”
Deadly Enemy
◆ Smoking, according to the Athens, Greece, Daily Post, is such a deadly enemy that it kills at least one million persons every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proclaimed 1980 as the year against smoking and has launched the slogan: “Smoking or good health? It is your choice.” WHO has published the following facts: Smoking is responsible for 90 percent of all deaths caused by lung cancer; for 25 percent of all deaths caused by heart ailments, heart failures and especially vascular disorders; and for 75 percent of all deaths caused by chronic bronchitis.
Said the Daily Post: “The fact is that the harm done to a human body by smoking has been so well studied and determined, that had the habit of smoking been just established, it would have been prohibited by law in the same manner narcotics are prohibited in most parts of the world.”
Quitting the Smoking Habit
◆ In the journal World Smoking & Health, two scientists report that the best way to stop smoking is the “cold turkey” method: quitting abruptly. This is better because when one stops little by little, the agonies of withdrawal are stretched out. The withdrawal problem is said to be the most acute during the first two weeks and especially at about 7 p.m. This induces relapse among many who try to quit little by little. Another advantage of quitting all at once is that there is an easing of withdrawal symptoms in the first few days. This, in turn, makes it easier to hold out until the symptoms have subsided.
Life Expectancy and Divorce
◆ The Japanese Institute of Population Problems of the Ministry of Health and Welfare found in a recent statistical study that life expectancy for divorced people is shorter than that of those who remain married. The study involved four groups: married, divorced, one spouse deceased and those never married. Life expectancy was five years shorter for divorced women and as much as 12 years shorter for divorced men. Eight times as many divorced men were found to commit suicide as do married people.
Tunnel Under Suez Canal
◆ When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat recently pressed a button, the first tunnel under the Suez Canal was opened as the first land link with Sinai. The highway tunnel is three miles (4.8 km) long. It took 16 months to build and required 2,000 workers, including 85 British experts.
Friendlier During Good Weather
◆ A survey made in Minneapolis has revealed what many persons have long suspected: People are more friendly, helpful and willing to talk when the weather is clear and sunny than when it is cloudy and gray. Those conducting the survey asked 540 passersby how many of 80 questions on social opinions they would be willing to answer. Sunny days brought the most cooperation, with people offering to answer an average of 63 questions. On the most dismal days, however, people would answer only 13.
Stiff Phone Bill
◆ The U.S. Government’s yearly phone bill now runs at more than $1 billion! Much of the expense is from long-distance calls. In Washington, D.C., alone, federal agencies make about 41 million telephone calls long distance, the majority of them during the daytime. This huge telephone bill does not include all the calls made by the Defense Department and secret agencies.
Clergy Alcoholism
◆ At a meeting of religious superiors in the Vatican, priest Joseph McNamara declared that priests and nuns were drinking too much. He noted: “Alcoholism among priests and the religious orders is increasing and is a problem of world dimensions.” The priest has firsthand knowledge of the problem, since he is superior general of the American-based religious order Servants of the Paraclete, whose work is to help priests in trouble.
Cancer in Fish
◆ A high incidence of skin cancer has been found among fish off the coastal regions of Japan, reports the Science and Technology Agency. Dr. Ikuo Kimura of the Aichi Prefecture Cancer Institute says that this is the first time cancer has been reported among fish that have grown in the open sea. The six-year study found that nearly half of the full-grown white croakers caught in a given area had the disease. Of 1,928 caught, 913 had black malignant tumors. Incidence was also notable among stone flounder (14 percent), starry flounder (16 percent), and smoothback flounder (7.3 percent). It is believed that the disease may be caused by water pollution.
Too Much Stress
◆ Chicago police reported that a 30-year-old man walked into an office of the Chicago Federal Savings and Loan Association and handed the teller a note demanding all the cash at her counter. He kept his hand in his pocket, as if he had a gun. The teller put all the money into an envelope and gave it to him. But he demanded more, asking also for the coins. As the teller stuffed the coins into the envelope, it broke. She then told the robber that she would have to get a cloth bag for the coins. When she returned with the bag, the robber had fainted. Another teller, thinking the robber was a customer, phoned for an ambulance. But when the would-be robber opened his eyes, a policeman was there to arrest him.
Snakes Will Be Snakes
◆ The zoo in Monroe, Louisiana, reportedly sent a male cobra to mate with a lady snake in Texas, with the understanding that the Monroe zoo would get half of any offspring. Six of the 12 little crawlers resulting from the liaison did go back to Louisiana, “but their dad never came back,” reports the New York Post. “Soon as he’d performed his appointed task, the ungrateful client ate him.”
Church/State Join for Sex
◆ “A member of the British House of Lords, several Church of England vicars and a member of Ireland’s Parliament were among customers found when a London brothel was raided,” according to Reuters news service. The information was revealed in court during the trial of a woman who managed the brothel’s prostitutes.
Japan’s “Stardust 80”
◆ “Stardust 80” is the name of a new program that turns some of Japan’s household trash into marketable toilet tissue. Since about 43 percent of people’s household trash is paper, a project has been under way mechanically to separate some of this paper from other trash. Now the Industrial Science and Technology Agency says it has succeeded. At the time of the announcement, a pilot plant in Yokohama had sent reclaimed paper to a local paper manufacturer where it had been processed into 40,000 rolls of toilet paper. The quality was said to be comparable to that on the market, and it was claimed that the paper could sell for half the going price.
Precious Land
◆ A Japanese builder recently paid 25,080,000 yen per 3.3 m2 (over $2,800 per square foot) for land in downtown Tokyo—the most expensive land transaction ever in Japan. The total price came to 2,400,000,000 yen (over $9,500,000) for just 315.68 m2 (less than one-tenth acre). It was estimated that even if 10,000 yen bills—the largest Japanese currency denomination—were stacked 10 deep over the property, it still would not be enough to pay for the land. The government fears such transactions may push up land prices all over the country.
Down to Earth in China
◆ The People’s Republic of China reportedly has ruled that Communist party leaders no longer be glorified by such things as exaggerating their historical contributions or naming streets after them. The move was said to be the result of a new party policy designed to prevent the virtual deification of some political leaders that has occurred in the past.
TV Triggers Terror
◆ When the motion picture about demon possession “Exorcist II” was shown recently on U.S. television, a mother and her four-year-old daughter in Wichita Falls, Texas, reportedly watched it together. One scene is said to depict the cutting out of a girl’s heart to get rid of a demon. The little Texas girl was later found murdered in the same fashion. Her mother was charged with the homicide.
More Women Working
◆ World wide, some 600 million women are “economically active” now, according to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization. This compares with about 344 million in 1950. The organization says that women compose more than a third of the worldwide work force, yet, generally, they still are not treated equally with men when it comes to jobs, pay and working conditions.