Watching the World
International War Game
● When it comes to war weapons, there is no national boundary. In the recent Falkland conflict, for example, the British South Atlantic task force was assaulted by aircraft made in France, Israel and Britain, attacked by ships and submarines built in the United States and Germany, as well as a British-made aircraft carrier. The French-designed Exocet missile was used by both sides. “The Falklands War, in short, is brought to you by the armaments industry, which is indiscriminately saturating the planet with half a trillion dollars a year worth of military hardware,” says Canada’s Globe and Mail. Eugene Rostow, director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, compared international arms trade to “a fever chart recording the disintegration of world public order and the consequent spread of anarchy, fear and panic in many parts of the world.”
Sabbath Switches
● In a laboratory at the Institute of Science and Halacha (Jewish law) in Jerusalem, Orthodox scientists are working “to find a way to live a twentieth-century life according to Halacha,” says the Institute’s director. Talmudic law forbids anyone to make a fire on the sabbath, and modern rabbis interpret that to include turning on a light or an appliance. The scientists at the Institute have come up with an electrical switch, which, instead of turning on the light or appliance, removes a plastic shield from a photoelectric device, which then turns on the electricity. This indirect action is permitted by Talmudic laws. But a “switch” of another kind was pulled by the Israeli Supreme Court. It overturned an earlier government order, issued at the demand of Orthodox activists, that El Al Israel Airlines must shut down all flights on the sabbath and other holy days. Whether the government will pursue the matter further remains to be seen.
World Hunger Persists
● The Council of Europe, at its recent meeting in Strasbourg, announced that one in every eight persons on earth, or 530 million, suffers from hunger, with millions condemned to die each year. In the developing nations, the ratio is about one in every four (23 percent), according to statistics given by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN. Spokesmen at the conference blamed dropping grain production and the arms race for the plight. Johann Windsteig, an Austrian socialist, pointed out that all the wheat imported by Africa in 1979, valued at $1.8 billion, cost $200 million less than one nuclear submarine. The Council called for international food price stabilization, more aid, better distribution, land reform and greater production of staple foods rather than cash crops, such as tobacco and coffee, in developing nations.
Expensive Living
● Lagos, Nigeria, heads a list of eighty-four cities around the world as the most costly place to live, according to a survey by Business International of New York. It replaced Tokyo at the number one position this year. The survey took into account the cost of certain food items, alcohol, tobacco, clothing, household supplies, entertainment and transportation. Fashionable places like Paris, London and New York do not even make the top ten. The one dozen most expensive places to live are: 1. Lagos, 2. Tokyo, 3. Oslo, 4. Djakarta, 5. Baghdad, 6-7. Abidjan and Helsinki, 8. Taipei, 9. Zurich, 10-12. Geneva, Singapore and Tehran.
Bibles From China
● The next Bible you see could well say “Printed in China” or “Printed in Hong Kong.” Last year, at least eleven million Bibles were printed in that part of the world for the United Bible Societies of America, one of the largest of its kind. That was more than 50 percent of the agency’s total worldwide distribution. Printers used by United Bible include a China-owned company in Hong Kong, C&C Joint Printing Co., Ltd., which at one time printed only Mao’s sayings and posters. Now it produces two to three million Bibles a year for United Bible on new presses brought in from Peking. The ideological conflict does not seem to trouble either side. “Those decisions we made purely on business grounds,” said Euan Campbell, United Bible’s regional production consultant. Apparently, mammon has a stronger pull than either Mao or Marx.
Unemployment—“A World Illness”
● “Joblessness is becoming a world illness,” says the Post-Intelligencer of Seattle, Washington. Department of Labor statistics show that, besides the US, countries such as Britain, Canada, France, Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany are all experiencing record or near-record levels of unemployment. In Britain, where unemployment is the highest among the Western industrialized nations, 13 percent of the work force are unemployed. In America, 10.3 million people, or 9.4 percent of the work force, are out of work—highest since World War II. Although the figures for Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany are relatively low, 2.2 percent and 5.5 percent respectively, they are rising nonetheless. In Japan, 90,000 more workers are unemployed this year than last year. In the Federal Republic of Germany, unemployment was less than 1 percent in the early 1970’s.
Japan’s Supertunnel
● For seventeen years now, two teams of 1,800 men have been digging their way toward each other beneath some 500 feet of water of the Tsugaru Strait, Japan, to complete what will be the world’s longest tunnel. The two crews, though advancing only inches per hour through the hard volcanic rock, are expected to meet sometime in 1983. When completed, the thirty-three-mile Seikan tunnel will have tracks for the famed 160-miles-per-hour Bullet Train service between Honshu, the main island of Japan, and Hokkaido to the north. The ultramodern tunnel will be equipped with a supersensitive seismograph, a ventilation system that can change the air in the tunnel in half an hour, and giant pumps that can move 700,000 gallons of water every minute. The cost? Five years ago it was set at $666 million, but due to inflation, it will probably be around $2 billion.
Anticrime Fashion
● The latest fashion accessory from Italy is the brassard, a leather piece worn around the upper arm under the sleeve of a dress or suit to conceal valuables from muggers. It comes in various colors and is reported to be selling well in better stores. Meanwhile, an Israeli company is test-marketing its new line of sportswear with “optional ballistic resistance” in the US. It is not clear whether the choice is based on the Americans’ love of casual wear or on their fear of crime. Then there is an enterprising designer in Beverly Hills who is turning out bulletproof pinstripe suits, along with a collection of designer pistols for added protection.
More Cattle Thefts
● Livestock experts estimate that about $50 million was lost in cattle thefts in the United States during 1981. In Missouri alone, rustlers stole about 5,000 head of cattle, with thefts increasing. A cattleman said: “Rustlers used to drive rattletrap trucks and rope two or three calves, but now they’ve become more sophisticated. Today, the thieves will steal a man’s trailer, load it with 20 of his cattle and haul it off.”
Huge Ocean Waterfall
● The Soviet newspaper Selskaya Zhizn reports that scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in Leningrad are exploring a giant “waterfall in the ocean.” It is located in the Greenland-Scotland arc, formed by underwater barriers that divide the Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic Sea. Running along its shelves, the cold waters of the Arctic basin fall in a powerful underwater stream into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The height difference is said to be up to 3,000 meters (9,900 ft). The stream’s overall volume is estimated at more than 150,000 cubic kilometers (36,000 cu mi), far exceeding the runoff of all the rivers in the world. It is thought that this giant waterfall plays a key role in the circulation of the entire Atlantic Ocean down to its southern boundary.
High Fertility Rates
● Africa has the highest fertility rate of any continent, an average of 6.4 children for each woman. In Kenya the rate is 8.1; Algeria, 7.3; Niger, 7.1; Morocco, 6.9; Ghana and Liberia, 6.7; Sudan, 6.6. Several Middle-Eastern countries also have very high rates: Jordan, 7.8; Syria, 7.2; Iraq and Kuwait, 7.0. Among the world’s lowest: Federal Republic of Germany, 1.4; Austria, 1.6; Italy and Sweden, 1.7; United States, 1.8; Cuba, German Democratic Republic, France and United Kingdom, 1.9.
No Safe Cigarette
● What is a “virtually safe” dose of cigarette smoke? According to a recent study reported on by SciQuest magazine, a “virtually safe” dose of cigarette smoke “would come to no more than one two-hundredth of a cigarette. This dose is less than that received by nonsmokers in many public areas, and carries as much risk as many other cancer-causing agents that are more strictly regulated than passive smoking.”
North Pole on Move
● Since it was discovered in 1831, the magnetic north pole has moved about 500 miles (800 km) to the north. It has always been in motion. “It now describes an ellipse each day and drifts north at a rate of about 15 miles a year,” reports Geo magazine. “Its movement is affected by the electric currents of the earth’s molten core.”
Childhood Depression
● Though childhood is often thought of as a carefree and happy time, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that as many as one in every five children “may at some point have a significant episode of depression.” Because depressed children are usually withdrawn, parents, being more concerned with overt misbehavior, tend to overlook the problem. Prolonged depression can affect sleep and eating habits, energy level, interest in schoolwork and other normal activities. This can lead to serious physical and mental health problems. Susan Erbaugh, an assistant professor of psychiatry, points to today’s fast-paced, competitive society and the two-career family where “parents devote themselves to other activities and ignore the long-standing needs of children” as the culprits. Divorce, child abuse, death in the family, illness and disabilities are other causes cited.
Eunuchs of Today
● The cruelty of castration is by no means a thing of the past. The magazine Parade reports that there are an estimated 3,500 “sexless ones,” or eunuchs, in Bombay, India, today. They no longer serve in harems, but they wear women’s clothes and work as entertainers and prostitutes. Young boys are initiated in an eleven-day ceremony, but some die as a result of the crude operation.