Watching the World
THE BEST MILK
A recent study of Scottish mothers and their newborn infants shows that the nutritional value of mother’s milk and the protection it provides cannot be imitated by commercial formulas. The study published in Le Figaro, a French newspaper, shows that infants who were breast-fed for 13 weeks or longer clearly had fewer infections during their first year of life than had those who were completely weaned before 13 weeks or were given bottle formulas from birth. Mother’s milk favors the formation of a certain type of bacteria that inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria in a baby’s intestines. The complex composition of mother’s milk also varies from day to day according to the age and needs of the infant, even permitting the nursing infant to adapt to climatic changes. Le Figaro says: “It has no equal.”
IMPOTENT BISHOPS
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States recently announced its plans to use the services of an international public-relations firm. The goal, according to the National Catholic Reporter, is “to peddle a moral message that the bishops themselves cannot get across.” The issue in question is the church’s position on abortion, which is not shared by many Catholics. The National Catholic Reporter notes that “with 342 bishops, 53,000 priests, 20,000 parishes, 100,000 women religious, more than 230 Catholic colleges and universities, 7,000 parochial schools and more than 50 million laypeople—the U.S. bishops still can’t persuade people that abortion should be outlawed.”
“FALSE VALUES”
At 22 years of age, Boris Becker is one of the leading tennis players in the world; he is also one of the wealthiest—with holdings estimated at $75 million (U.S.). His fortune was built on winning tennis matches. However, the young German athlete believes that he is overpaid: “It’s a joke when you think of it—how much I get for just hitting a tennis ball over the net.” According to Parade Magazine, he said that in today’s society “there’s so much money around that nobody should go hungry or homeless. People pay too much attention to false values.”
PLATINUM BRIDE
Platinum is more precious than gold and as an investment commodity, well sought after. According to The Times of London, at a promotional presentation of Platinum 1990, an annual review of the industry, a bridal gown made of platinum was unveiled to the public. The dress was designed and made in Japan at a cost of £300,000 ($500,000, U.S.). Superthin platinum foil, lined with Japanese paper, was cut into 0.013-inch [0.33 mm] strips for weaving. Strict instructions from Japan included the terse statement: “Ironing the costume is strictly prohibited.”
ROCKING BUILDINGS
According to the Tokyo newspaper Asahi Shimbun, a number of residents in the city of Kawasaki, Japan, had been expressing concern over what they thought to be a series of earthquakes. “There are times when we feel a tremor that could reach 5 on the seismic scale,” said a sushi-shop owner. Water from the tank in which he kept fish for sushi would splash out on his customers. Kawasaki city’s Environmental Protection Bureau investigated the matter and located the epicenter—a newly opened hall for rock concerts. “The cause of the quakes,” reported the Asahi Shimbun, was “the jumping of rock fans in rhythm as one person.” The man-made “earthquakes” were felt within a radius of 820 feet [250 m] of the concert hall.
AIDS IN CHINA
“It’s a sad fact that the AIDS virus has appeared in China,” noted the magazine China Today. Yes, this vast land has recently been added to the long list of AIDS-afflicted countries. The magazine adds that “in China, scientific and medical efforts towards AIDS control have therefore gone hand in hand with attempts to wipe out the rather ugly social phenomena that can lead to the disease in the first place—pornography, prostitution, drug abuse and so on.” Some victims have been infected through the injection of blood products. Accordingly, in an effort to slow down the spread of AIDS, the Chinese government has since 1984 been limiting the import of blood plasma.
FUTURE BUSINESS ETHICS
A study carried out among 1,100 students across Europe shows that the business world of the future may be under the control of “a new breed of young men and women, go-ahead, profit-oriented and not always guided by sound ethics,” according to the German newspaper Wiesbadener Tagblatt. The newspaper added that there was a clear tendency to sacrifice good business ethics in the pursuit of success. Over 70 percent of those questioned held that ethics have little or no place in business life.
KILLER MICROBES
“Contrary to widespread impression, pneumonia never disappeared as a major killer after the introduction of antibiotics. It remains the most common cause of death from infections and is the sixth leading killer of Americans,” reports The New York Times. While a number of modern health measures, such as antibiotics and vaccines, have reduced the incidence of bacterial infection considerably, such measures “cannot always be relied on to be a last-minute salvation, particularly if the microbes have gotten the upper hand by spreading through the body.” The Times added that “of an estimated 500 infectious diseases, no effective treatment exists for about 200.”
CATHOLICS AND THE BIBLE
A parish priest in Sydney, Australia, has publicly admitted that Catholics traditionally have little knowledge of the Bible, according to the Sydney Daily Mirror. To help rectify this dearth of Bible knowledge, the Catholic Church has decided to offer courses on the Bible in ten suburban centers throughout the city of Sydney. The planned course will cover four five-week terms, and the hope is that about 2,000 will enroll. The Daily Mirror commented that the Catholic Church and the Bible “do not go hand in hand for many worshippers” and so fittingly headed its article: “Back to Basics for the Faithful.”
ALCOHOLISM AND GENETICS
In a recent scientific study reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists claim to have pinpointed a gene that puts people at risk of becoming alcoholics. However, scientists caution that no single gene leads to alcoholism. The head of the research team said: “The good Lord did not make an alcoholic gene, but one that seems to be involved in pleasure-seeking behaviors.” Rather, “some people with the gene they studied did not become alcoholics, while some who lacked the gene did become alcoholics, [the researchers] said. Social and cultural factors may set off the affliction for many alcoholics who are not genetically predisposed to [it].”
CHILD STRESS
Children are not exempt from excessive stress. The Brazilian magazine Superinteressante reports that according to the World Health Organization, “one in every five children in the Western world is stressed.” The most common causes listed for stress in children are “separation of the parents and too much school work.” The magazine quotes Francisco De Fiore, a professor of pediatrics at the University of São Paulo who explains that “cardiovascular problems do not show up in children since the still-growing heart can handle the overload of stress. However, this is not the case with the stomach and the immunological system. Hence, stress in children normally is synonymous with poor digestion, frequent colds, and all kinds of allergies.”
CLERGY MORALS
According to The Toronto Star, the Ottawa archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada was recently ordered by the courts to pay $150,000 for failing to act on a complaint against one of its priests. The priest was accused of sexually assaulting young boys. The victims’ families “felt driven to seek a civil remedy because, having gone to the church for help after the assaults, they were shut out by officials, including the archbishop,” noted one lawyer. According to the Star, another lawyer stated that Catholic Church officials, on discovery of child-abuse complaints, have historically kept the priests in the clergy. He said: “Instead of reporting them to the police or booting them out of there like most any other institution, they have, out of loyalty to their own, just moved them around secretly.”