Watching the World
One-Million-Percent Inflation
The inflation rate in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia rose to a million percent in December 1993, according to the country’s Federal Statistics Bureau. The cost of living was 2,839 times higher than it was the previous month, and 6 trillion times higher than it was toward the beginning of the year. As a result printed currency is rendered worthless within days of issue. To cope, the central bank has been dropping zeros from the dinar. In just three months, 5 trillion dinars shrank to just 5 dinars.
Religious Involvement
In a survey, over 90 percent of Americans said they believed in God, and more than 40 percent claimed to attend church services each week. A 1992 Gallup poll showed that 45 percent of Protestants in the United States and 51 percent of Catholics attended church in any given week. However, new studies show that many more people claim to be religious and to be regular church attenders than actually are. According to one team of researchers, only 20 percent of Protestants and 28 percent of Catholics actually attend church weekly. Another team has found that only 36 million adult Americans—19 percent—regularly practice their religion and that nearly a third of Americans over 18 have a totally secular outlook. “While religion pervades the American landscape, only a minority take it seriously,” says Newsweek. “Half of the American population claims a religion that does not inform their attitudes or behavior.”
Water Shortages Looming
“Since snow and rainfall are relatively constant, renewable water is essentially finite,” notes Science magazine. “By 2025, the number of people living in water-short countries will nudge the 3 billion mark,” and already “by 2000, countries in Africa and the Middle East will be especially hard hit.” According to a report from Population Action International, many countries are already depleting groundwater supplies, and a number are failing to distinguish between nonrenewable and renewable water in their long-term planning. Although efforts have been made to improve water supplies, so far they have been nullified by population growth.
Closing the Door to Refugees
Refugees have increased more than eightfold in the last two decades, says Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and this has resulted in “an alarming upsurge of hostile and xenophobic attitudes.” By the end of last year, 19.7 million refugees lived outside their home countries, and 24 million more were displaced within their own borders. Worldwide, 1 out of every 125 people has been forced away from normal home life by violence, civil war, or persecution. This has overwhelmed “the world’s ability to respond” and the “human tradition of giving asylum,” reports The Washington Post, commenting on this first global study of refugees. A number of countries, already burdened by recession and weary of the seemingly unsolvable conflicts, have taken steps to close their doors to refugees. “Virtually all the refugee-producing conflicts taking place in the world during . . . 1993 were within states rather than between them,” the study said, calling for an international policy to end civil wars. Meanwhile, a “less hospitable climate” faces refugees.
Pope Backs Door-to-Door Work
Accepting the urgings of John Paul II, a number of adherents of the Catholic Neo-Catechumenal movement have agreed to preach from door to door and in the streets of Rome and its suburbs. As reported in the newspaper La Repubblica, these “loquacious rivals of Jehovah’s Witnesses” will “tell the life story of Jesus.” The first group is composed of only 15 families, but the pope hopes that the project “may yield abundant fruit everywhere.” Why this new initiative? The Catholic hierarchy realizes that it “has lost its ability to captivate, its religious attraction,” says sociologist Maria Macioti, and the pope encourages such movements “to win converts by means of a powerful emotional appeal.” Catholic writer Sergio Quinzio adds: “It is as though he does not want to overlook any opportunity, in the hope, or the illusion, that anything may be useful.”
Ecological Disaster in Russia
“Viktor Danilow-Daniljan, Russia’s Minister for the Environment, has declared 15 percent of the surface area of Russia to be an ecological disaster area,” reports German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to the report, half the agricultural land in Russia is unfit to be used as farmland, and more than 100,000 persons are living in places where radioactivity is too high. Furthermore, tens of thousands of persons are reported to have died from poisoning in factories where chemical weapons used to be manufactured. Lew Fjodorow, president of the Union for Chemical Safety, remarked: “Viewed from a medical standpoint, our preparations for a chemical war had disastrous consequences.”
Violent Children
Children who murder, rob, rape, and torture are found in many lands, and the incidence of violence and brutality is increasing. The number of murders committed in the United States by youths under 18 years of age rose by 85 percent in the last five years. Equally disturbing is the cavalier attitude demonstrated by many of the perpetrators. What accounts for these changes? “Our aggressive society, with its eroded standards, has made violence acceptable,” says the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. “Clear measures of right and wrong, good and evil . . . are hardly recognizable anymore.” It adds: “Young culprits are also victims. They are the mirror images of the adult world in which they grow up. . . . Every child who behaves violently has observed and internalized unbelievable quantities of violence.” By means of TV, children see the “violence of the entire planet.” They are influenced by violent videos, computer games, and songs that glorify killing and other violent acts. TV programs promote violence as a reasonable way to solve problems and settle disputes. “We have become an inhuman society,” says Hamburg psychology professor Stefan Schmidtchen, “and our children are developing that way, too.”
Sleeping With Baby
“Not only would we reduce SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but we’d raise healthier, happier babies if moms did just one thing: Take their babies with them to bed for the first year, rather than isolate them in their own cribs,” says James McKenna, a professor at Pomona College in California. Sleeping in contact with a parent “helps regulate the baby’s physiology throughout the night,” reports The Dallas Morning News. Tests have confirmed that when a baby sleeps next to its mother, the infant’s “breathing patterns, heart rates and sleep stages follow those of its mother.” And as mother and child usually face each other, the baby can easily feed whenever it wants to. “Babies alone in cribs suffer sensory deprivation,” says Mr. McKenna. “We think this can lead to lack of crucial intellectual development and possibly to conditions more conducive to the risk of SIDS.” Statistics show that in countries where babies customarily share beds with their mothers, SIDS rates are much lower.
Israel and Vatican Sign Pact
After years of refusal and 17 months of negotiations, the Vatican has signed a diplomatic pact with Israel. Delegates on both sides wore skullcaps as Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin signed for Israel and Undersecretary of State Monsignor Claudio Celli signed for the Vatican. “The Holy See,” said Celli, “is convinced that a dialogue and respectful cooperation between Catholics and Jews will now be given new impetus and energy both in Israel and throughout the world.” The agreement commits the Vatican to fighting anti-Semitism, and Israel agrees to allow the church freedom of expression and the right to carry out social programs in Israel. Some matters still need to be ironed out, such as taxes on church properties in Israel and access to holy places. While the question of Jerusalem was not mentioned in the accord, the Vatican hopes that it will now have a say in the final status of the city.
Biological Treaty Becomes Law
A treaty signed by 167 nations in Brazil in June 1992 became international law at the beginning of this year. Called the Convention on Biological Diversity, the agreement commits the signatory countries to devise ways to conserve the animals, plants, and microorganisms within their boundaries as well as the needed habitats. The signing nations are required to pass laws to protect endangered species and to promote public awareness on the proper use of biological resources and the need for conservation. The treaty was prompted by the knowledge that extinctions were rising at an alarming rate and the fear that half of all remaining species may vanish by the year 2050. The signers are to meet later this year to decide how the treaty will actually function.