Watching the World
Witnesses “Worry” Soviets
◆ “Soviets Worry Over Jehovah’s Witnesses” headlines a news article from the Moscow bureau of the Agence France Presse news service. “The religious sect Jehovah’s Witnesses, founded more than 100 years ago in the United States, appears to be worrying leaders of the Soviet Union’s ideological front,” said the report. “Several anti-religious publications have recently revealed that many young Soviet citizens are joining this sect, which is banned in the Soviet Union.” The article also states:
“Witnesses are criticised harshly for their indifference to Soviet social life: they do not join the Communist Party or trade unions or vote in elections and they refuse to let their children join the Pioneer or Konsomol (young communist) movements. . . . On the other hand, believers show impressive energy in spreading the good word of their faith, for missionary zeal is a duty of each witness.”
‘More Hungry than Ever’
◆ “There are still more hungry people in the world than ever before—both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of total world population,” reports the New York Times. “By most estimates, more than 500 million people—roughly one out of every nine—suffer from serious malnutrition today, compared with 100 million to 200 million—one out of every 14 to 25 people—in the 1950’s.” Major causes of the problem are said to be rapidly rising food costs and unequal distribution of rising incomes, not less available food. “As more countries—particularly the rapidly developing middle-income countries—and wealthier people in those countries gain in purchasing power, they consume more food,” explains the Times. “This in turn puts pressure on food prices, and means that poorer people everywhere have a harder time buying enough to eat.”
‘Moral Majority’s’ Morals
◆ After Israeli F-16 jets bombed an unfinished Iraqi atomic reactor, clergyman Jerry Falwell of America’s so-called Moral Majority movement reportedly spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Begin on the telephone. Falwell proudly told 4,000 gathered at Landmark Baptist Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio, what he had said to the Jewish leader: “Mr. Prime Minister, I want to congratulate you for a mission that made us very proud that we manufacture those F-16s.” And of the U.N. vote condemning the Israeli bombing, he told the crowd: “We ought to be congratulating them for doing what we haven’t had the backbone to do in Cuba.”
Changing Times
◆ “Do you think that a couple should live together for a time before deciding to get married or not to get married?” asked a recent Gallup poll of Canadians. More than twice as many people said “yes” as did 10 years ago. In fact, more agreed (46 percent) than disagreed (40 percent). In more conservative times 10 years ago, 70 percent said “no.” Showing the direction in which public morality is heading, 70 percent of those under 30 now approve of trial marriages compared to 40 percent 10 years ago, and among those 50 and over, three times as many now approve (27 percent) as did 10 years ago (9 percent).
Etiquette of Permissiveness
◆ Called the ‘British bible on manners and morals,’ the book Debrett’s Etiquette and Modern Manners has apparently decided to accept the realities of today’s permissive society. The Sydney Morning Herald of Australia observes that the decorum guide “gets to the point at once, and says that attentions paid by either sex to the other may ‘legitimately’ have sex as their object.” Among other things, the understanding by each party of the other’s sexual aim is said to be part of good manners. “When Debrett gives its imprimatur to unmarried love you know the permissive society has really come to stay!” declared the Herald.
Witnesses as Neighbors
◆ A columnist for New York’s Brooklyn Heights Press recently published part of a complaining letter sent in by someone using the pseudonym “Miles Standish.” In response to the complaint that the Watchtower Society’s headquarters staff was taking up too much space in the neighborhood, the column satirically observed: “Sorry to hit you with this Miles Standish, but we’re glad to have the Witnesses as neighbors. First, they’re so clean. . . . there’s not a dirty one in the whole bunch. They sweep their own sidewalk, so to speak . . . can you imagine what Montague Street [a local business district] would look like if the Witnesses had anything to do with it? . . . We say, Give those holies a building on Montague . . . give ’em two! We’ll all have a nicer looking place to shop.”
Getting in on the Action
◆ Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979 was “said to have cost almost $8 million,” reports the Financial Post of Toronto, Canada, and “the Church had to come up with almost $6 million . . . while fly-by-night entrepreneurs cashed in by selling trinkets and souvenirs.” According to the Post, to see that the Church gets a share of the booty this time, a new company called Papal Visits, Ltd., has been formed by the bishops of Scotland, England and Wales. The company reportedly has appointed a commercial organization to manage the sale of commemorative programs, T-shirts, books and a multitude of other souvenirs—all carrying an official logo, of course.
Unwanted Attentions
◆ A scientist who had worked with synthetic insect sex attractants was the object of amorous attentions by male gypsy moths as much as two years later. Writing in the Journal of Chemical Ecology, Dr. E. Alan Cameron said that the synthetic pheromones, as they are called, must be far more potent and less biodegradable than had been thought. Even though he had all new clothing, the window screen near his desk would be covered with male moths seeking his attentions as late as a year after his last contact with the chemical. The scientist concluded that the long-wearing attractant must have contaminated his body.
Fat and the Heart
◆ A so-called Seven Country Study of how fat in the diet affects the heart was recently published in England’s medical journal Lancet. The 10-year study of 12,000 men in five European nations, Japan and the United States reportedly revealed a link between high-fat diets and the risk of death from heart disease. According to the report, there is evidence that “saturated fats not only promote an increase in the cholesterol in the serum [the blood], but also increase the probability of early death.” Men on low-fat diets were found to have no greater risk of other diseases such as cancer. The meat and dairy industries and some experts have claimed that there is no dietary link between high-fat diets and heart disease.
More Climbing Deaths
◆ The Alpine Club of New York has reported a total of 664 mountain climbers killed in climbing accidents in the United States from 1951 to 1979. For 1979, the last year reported, there were 40 deaths, compared to 29 ten years previously. Earlier this year, 11 men died in an icefall while climbing Mount Rainier in Washington. Hours later five others died when a climbing group fell 2,000 feet (610 m) on Mount Hood, Oregon, 100 miles (160 km) away.
Smokers’ Jobs Endangered?
◆ Employers are beginning to find that smokers are costing them too much to keep on the payroll. This is according to a study by William Weis, professor of accounting at Seattle University in Washington. Of 371 managers interviewed, he found that 55 percent already hire nonsmokers over smokers when both are qualified for the job. He pointed out that there are good economic reasons for such “discrimination.” A firm whose cost per employee is about $20,000 per year may be paying a smokers’ premium of over $4,600 because of higher absenteeism, lower productivity, higher cleaning costs and higher medical costs (including nonsmokers affected by the smoke). Smokers were found to be absent from work 50 percent more often than nonsmokers, and time lost on the job to “smoking ritual” was about 30 minutes a day for cigarette smokers and 55 minutes for pipe smokers.
Cigars Safer?
◆ After all the medical warnings about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, some smokers have switched to small cigars in the belief that they are safer. But instead of being safer, a recent Danish study found them to be twice as dangerous as cigarettes in causing heart attacks. Dr. Finn Gyntelberg, the author of the study, said that cigarette smokers were found to have twice the number of heart attacks as nonsmokers, but smokers of small cigars had four times as many heart attacks. The findings were published in Britain’s well-known medical journal Lancet.
Last Puff
◆ An elderly Englishman suffering with chronic bronchitis was on an oxygen inhaler at London’s Colindale hospital. Even under these conditions, he felt he had to have a cigarette. With what result? Oxygen from the inhaler caused the cigarette to blow up in his face, ending a life that cigarettes no doubt had already contributed to shortening.
Where Are the Doctors?
◆ Dr. Rosalinda Valenzuela of the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) says that “there is a flagrant discrepancy in the distribution of physicians” in the world. For example, she noted that “East Africa is the world’s most disfavoured sub-region, with a ratio of six physicians per 100,000, or a doctor for 17,480 people.” On the other hand, Dr. Valenzuela pointed out that “the most favoured is the sub-region of western Europe, with a ratio of 190 physicians per 100,000, or one doctor for 528 people,”—33 times as high as East Africa! In all of Africa, there is an average of about one physician for 5,400 people, while in Asia the ratio is one for 2,800 and in North America, one for 600.
“Protection” Backfires
◆ Fearful Americans rapidly have been arming with handguns to “protect” themselves from crime. Some incidents from this past summer illustrate the value of such “protection.”
● “Do I pull this?” a three-year-old tot in suburban Maryland asked his mother as he played with the .357 magnum handgun his father had bought for “protection.” Rather than protecting her, the gun sent a bullet to the mother’s chest at the hand of her own bewildered child. She was taken to Baltimore’s Shock Trauma Unit in critical condition.
● A Chicago divorcee bought a .22 caliber revolver to “protect” herself and three sons. She showed her 13-year-old where the gun was hidden, in case there were intruders when she was away. Hearing noises in the basement, he got the gun out, but found it was the family dog. Then the youth began loading and unloading the gun in the living room. “The gun was cocked,” related Chicago police detective James Houtsma, “and he apparently didn’t realize how little pressure it took on the trigger to fire it.” The boy’s 10-year-old brother was struck in the chest and killed.
● ‘Shoot first and ask questions later,’ was the advice from an elderly woman’s husband on how to handle intruders, should they invade their Bronx, New York, home. She did, and he died. He had risen from an afternoon nap to throw some refuse away. His wife, napping in another room, thought her husband was still in bed, so ‘shot first’ when she saw a shadowy figure approaching her. Her spouse of 40 years had bought the gun for “protection” after their apartment had been robbed twice.