Watching the World
Witnesses Commended
● “I am not a Jehovah’s Witness,” said the writer in her letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “but I feel it necessary to comment on the new Kingdom Hall in Lyndhurst. On Friday, May 20, I had the opportunity to pass by the almost-empty site at the corner of Ridgebury Blvd. and Richmond Rd.
“On Sunday, May 22, I made a special trip to check on the much-publicized predicted progress. What I saw brought tears to my eyes. There in the early morning hours, overcast and with scattered showers, were hundreds of people busily putting the final touches on the new house of worship. Many of these people had traveled many, many miles and many of them might never pass this way again.
“The final finished product was not just a new Kingdom Hall but was a place of worship truly built by love and brotherhood. These people are to be commended. Is this not what religion is all about?”
Completely built within 36 hours by some 500 Witness volunteers from five states, the 50- by 73-foot (15- by 22-m) building—with landscaping and lawn—will be used by two congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their first meeting in the newly constructed Kingdom Hall was held that very Sunday afternoon.
“Nation” of Migrants
● “If they were a nation, the world’s migrants would be one of the biggest—possibly equal to an Egypt or France,” states a report in The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa. “There have been three great flows of migratory labour in recent years: from East Asia and North Africa into the Middle East oil empire, from Latin America into the US and from the West African interior to the fast-growing coastal strip.” According to the report, the largest concentrations of migrant workers are in the Middle East (three million documented foreign workers), the United States (five million documented and three to six million undocumented aliens), Western Europe (six million foreign workers and four million other aliens) and Malaysia (one million illegal aliens). “Countries are often unprepared for such flash floods of humanity,” says The Star.
Unnecessary X Rays
● Too many X rays are being requested by doctors in diagnosis of patients, according to a World Health Organization report, and very often they yield little information that is useful clinically. “Yet often the patients believe that no examination is complete unless there has been an x-ray and physicians ask for x-rays as a comforting ritual,” says the report. “Frankly, unnecessary radiation is bad and we have to try to reduce it as much as possible,” adds Dr. George Klempfner of the Royal Australasian College of Radiologists. He cited pre-employment back X rays, preoperative chest X rays, screening for cancer without positive indications and tuberculosis screening as among the areas where improvement is needed. “They have all been found to have low clinical value,” he said.
100-Year Dispute Ends
● A dispute that began many years ago with the separation of the traditional Shinto religion from Buddhism has finally been settled out of court. Both Buddhists and Shintos claimed the rights to the seven classic religious structures in Nikko, Japan, which attract more than seven million tourists each year. How did they settle? By agreeing to double the admission fees and split the money between them.
Famine Stalks Africa
● At least 18 African countries have been hit hard by drought and serious food shortages. As the drought worsened, Donald C. Kimmel, director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Washington office, declared: “We are coming into something far worse than what we had in 1972-73.” At that time an estimated 300,000 Africans starved to death in a belt of six countries south of the Sahara—mostly because of drought. For many African nations, this is their second year of drought. Internal unrest and border clashes in some nations have compounded the problems, as thousands of farmers have fled and roads have been shut, stranding food supplies. Poor agricultural practices that keep the land from recovering, increased use of land for livestock, the rising African birth rate and depressed world trade are other factors cited. Aid has been sought from other nations, but, says Mr. Kimmel, “in times of bumper harvests, major exporting nations are less willing to step up food aid because of the costs” for the food and shipping.
Teenage Crime
● “University research into consumer fraud has revealed that 50 percent of all shoplifters in South Africa are teenagers,” reports The Star, a newspaper of Johannesburg, South Africa. “The study was conducted to find out the attitude of young people towards consumer crimes and the analysts have clearly been startled by the results.” One finding, in regard to the use of counterfeit coins and slugs, was that “youngsters took the view that if they could ‘score’ at the expense of a local authority or Government department they should exploit the opportunity.” The study also revealed that youths held the view that theft could be tolerated “as long as it is gentle and unassuming and does not involve guns or threats,” and that business is “responsible for the commission of criminal acts because they are made so easy to commit.”
Documentary “Scrambled”
● An oyster catcher—a seabird—built its nest just inches below a high-speed railroad track in Anglesey, northern Wales. Its eggs remained undisturbed as express trains hurtled by at speeds of 75 miles (120 km) per hour. A British Broadcasting Corporation cameraman was sent out to document it on film. As he walked along the tracks with his camera, he suddenly heard a crackling noise. “You’ve stood in it,” a horrified railman said. And there, underfoot, was the scrambled nest. “I feel terrible and very embarrassed,” mourned the cameraman.
Body and Mind
● Not only will regular exercise make you feel better, says Professor A. H. Ismail of Indiana’s Purdue University, but it can also make you smarter. As reported in Health magazine, his study showed that the “cognitive skills of the exercisers improved significantly,” and that they became “more organized, and their ability to do mathematics, logical reasoning and the like increased.” According to Professor Ismail, those who exercised regularly also “seemed more emotionally stable and less neurotic.” Just why cognitive skills are improved by physical fitness is not known, but it is theorized that exercise increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, providing it with the nutrients and energy it needs to perform well.
Paralytics “Walk”
● “An Austrian woman who was totally paralyzed from the waist down for 21 years is today able to stand up at will and, using crutches, leave her house and walk around outside for a distance of about 50 metres [164 ft],” reports The Medical Post of Canada. “Another patient who had been paralyzed for four years now can do the same.” The technique that makes this possible differs from others in that the electrodes that stimulate the leg muscles are permanently implanted rather than mounted externally. “Patients did not like the external electrodes used in the laboratory,” said bioengineer Herwig Thoma of the University of Vienna. “The whole procedure made them feel like puppets.” Patients can stimulate leg motion with the touch of a finger, using a control unit mounted on one of their crutches.
Food Stockpiled
● “The [U.S.] government’s surplus food stockpile this year will include 1 million tons of rice, 18 million bushels of wheat, 431 million bushels of corn, 33 million pounds of honey, 715 million pounds of butter, 1.8 billion pounds of dried milk and 1.1 billion pounds of cheese,” says Parade Magazine, citing a congressional report. The annual storage costs alone are estimated at $383 million, notes Parade.
Taj Mahal
● “The Taj Mahal has survived sackings and robberies and a long period of 19-century neglect and disrepair” in the 330 years since it was completed, says The New York Times. But authorities “fear that the Taj will not altogether withstand the threat posed now from sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid” from nearby industries. Already the beauty of what has been called “the finest example of Mogul architecture” is no longer unblemished. Large areas have changed color due to the pollution and have also become gouged and pitted. Efforts to stop its deterioration include the use of low-sulfur fuels, special industrial devices to eliminate dangerous fumes and the planting of deciduous trees near the monument for the purpose of absorbing the acid.
Total Insurance
● “The insurance industry, ever alert to new sources of fear, supplies a fresh crop of gimmicky policies,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “They join such previous innovations as cancer insurance, pet insurance and mugging insurance (for victims).” Now being offered are: A “sunshine guarantee for vacationers” policy, covering excessive rain, a “space-debris policy” against injury from falling satellites and a policy for those who fear they will not receive the “promised payments of alimony and child support” in case of divorce. Says an insurance representative: “The public seems to have a perception that they want to live in a riskless society.” Of what value are such narrow risk policies? “You are handing your money to the insurance company with almost no expectation of recovery,” says one authority.
“Garlic Breath” for Trees
● “The same malodorous gas that the human body exudes after a garlic meal is eaten has proved effective in preventing deer from feeding on tree seedlings,” reports Science News. To give the seedlings their “garlic breath,” researchers placed a slow-releasing tablet containing the responsible chemical ingredient, selenium, next to the plants. Dissolved by rainfall, it was absorbed through the roots and eliminated through the needles of the tree as the same gas that escapes from humans. Tests have shown the treatment to “reduce deer browse damage to seedlings by 80 percent and to have no measurable effect on tree growth rate.” One treatment is said to last for three years—exactly the time the seedlings need to reach the height where they are no longer vulnerable to browse damage.
Abortion Like ‘Pulling Tooth’
● A recent survey of marital sex among Japanese couples revealed that two out of three women had had an abortion. But in the 50 to 54 age group, four out of five admitted to abortions. Remarked gynecologist Etsuko Negishi: For some people “having an abortion is like having a tooth out.”