Watching the World
Deadly Peace Missions
So far, more than a thousand persons have been killed while engaged in United Nations peacekeeping missions, reports the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This figure does not include those who lost their lives during UN combat missions, such as in the Gulf War. Of these 1,000 deaths, more than 200 occurred in 1993 alone. Why so many? The paper explained that the United Nations is now getting involved in a different type of war. Whereas in the past the United Nations mediated in and monitored the settlement of conflicts between countries, the organization is now involved in “civil wars, in which the authority of the state disintegrates and even the parties engaged in the war fail to protect the personnel of the UN.”
Mental Illness Among Children
According to The Sunday Times, in Great Britain’s schools, more than 1,000 children below 10 years of age and about 1,200 between 10 and 14 years of age are being treated for psychoses, severe depression, or eating disorders; and the suicide rate is likewise climbing, with children as young as six years of age threatening to take their own lives. Some mental-health experts think that one of the reasons is the lack of meaningful conversation between children and their parents. They note that many children live in a home environment where television dominates. As a result, the children are unable to discuss and share their anxieties with their parents. One expert observed that lack of communication between parents and children can cause “worries [to] build up and culminate in an unhappy child.”
Running the Lights
In Argentina, according to the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin, there were 7,700 serious automobile accidents during 1994. These accidents left 13,505 people seriously injured and 9,120 dead. A study conducted by a government agency has revealed that 90 percent of all automobile accidents are caused by driver and pedestrian violations of traffic laws. The most frequent accidents in cities are the lateral collisions that result from running through a red traffic light. Eduardo Bertotti, a government official, noted that while in other countries it is unthinkable to disregard a red traffic light, in Argentina “it is not only a frequent occurrence but there are those who even take pride in doing it.”
Teen Violence
For three consecutive years, the United States has experienced a downward trend in the number of reported serious crimes. However, the number of teenagers responsible for crimes is increasing, especially among youths between 14 and 17 years of age. Some experts predict that violent crime will escalate as the number of teenagers rises. One expert, James Alan Fox, of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston, noted that “the number of young people in the United States will climb sharply in the next few years, with 23 percent more teenagers by 2005,” reports The New York Times. Fox warns that “unless we act now, while our children are still young and impressionable, we may indeed have a blood bath of teen violence by the year 2005.”
Unbaptizing the Dead
Recently Jewish Holocaust survivors were shocked to learn that some of their relatives had been baptized as Mormons long after their deaths. The New York Times reported on the practice “in which dead people are baptized as Mormons by living church members who stand in as their proxies.” Mormons had obtained the names of some 380,000 Jews who had died in concentration camps or who were otherwise victims of the Holocaust. Then, over a period of time, they baptized them in ceremonies in which church members were immersed in water as stand-ins while the names of the deceased were read. Some Jewish organizations have protested this procedure. As a result, Mormon leaders agreed to delete from their list of baptized Mormons the names of Jewish Holocaust victims for whom such ceremonies had been performed.
Stress in Hong Kong
A recent survey in which 5,000 people from 16 different countries were interviewed revealed that Hong Kong rates as the most stressful city in the world, reports The Medical Post. For many, the stress is job-related. Researcher Dr. David Warburton, of England’s University of Reading, notes that “some 70% of Hong Kong men and 64% [of] women complained of stress at work, compared to 54% of people worldwide.” About 41 percent of the interviewees from Hong Kong felt that their jobs were boring in contrast with 14 percent in other countries. The Post adds that “one in five people in Hong Kong (compared to less than one in 10 worldwide) said that not liking their boss was the main reason for stress at work.”
Electrical Devices Under Suspicion
According to FDA Consumer, a magazine of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, medical equipment can malfunction when exposed to electromagnetic interference, such as from a nearby cellular phone. “Some European hospitals have already banned cellular phones from their buildings, and FDA has encouraged hospitals in the United States to take such action if warranted,” says the magazine. Electromagnetic interference is suspected in numerous accidents in which lifesaving medical devices such as pacemakers and apnea monitors have malfunctioned. FDA Consumer warns: “Patients and doctors who routinely use sensitive medical devices should be aware of the problem and consider keeping cellular phones away from their equipment.” Electromagnetic interference can also be caused by wireless computer links, microwave signals, radio and television transmitters, pagers, and other electrical devices. Researchers are exploring ways to minimize the threat.
The Myth of the Missing Link
Evolutionists have long sought fossil evidence to prove the theory that man descended from the ape. However, the Paris newspaper Le Monde says that “theories on the origin of man have been shaken” by the discovery in Ethiopia of a series of 90 bones representing what paleontologists believe to be the remains of an adult humanoid skeleton. The problem, according to paleontologists, is that the new fossils do not fit in with any of the theories that attempt to show a link between humans and apes. Rather, the fossils have raised more questions than they have answered. Some researchers have concluded that the so-called missing link between man and ape may be “nothing but a myth,” says Le Monde.
Computer Porn Available to Children
As Australian schools connect up to the Internet global information network, they are also linking up to what amounts to a moral minefield. According to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, they can access “X-rated photos of nude children, orgies, video clips from on-line brothels, a ‘bill of rights’ for people wishing to have sex with animals—and information on how to join a masturbation ‘chat-line.’” The article adds: “Passwords or proof of age were not required—just an ordinary dial-up connection.” Experts say it is impossible to censor the network “because its structure was designed . . . by the US Defence Department to survive a nuclear war.” The data is not tidily located in one spot but is mirrored on thousands of data bases around the world. Recently a Swedish researcher counted 5,651 messages or postings about child pornography in just four news groups in one week.
Troubled Priests
“Fifty percent of the priests who come to me to be treated for psychological disturbances have problems of a sexual nature,” states Valerio Albisetti, one of the best-known Italian Catholic psychologists, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. More than anything, sexual desire and the need for fatherhood are the things that torment these men, whose obligation of celibacy was recently reiterated by John Paul II. Albisetti suggests encouraging men to enter the priesthood when of a more mature age and raising the age for entrance into seminaries. He suggests that “it is very harmful for the mental health and psychological equilibrium of the future priest” to live his adolescence “within structures characterized by female absence.” Besides problems relating to sexuality, Albisetti comments that “often churchmen suffer from depression, obsessive-maniacal disturbances and bulimia.”