Watching the World
The Holy Scriptures in 2,123 Languages
Hannah Kickel-Andrae, press secretary of the German Bible Society, recently announced that the Holy Scriptures can be read in more than 2,100 languages, according to the Wetterauer Zeitung. It is estimated that mankind speaks about 6,000 languages and dialects. That means that at least parts of God’s Word are available in more than a third of all spoken languages. According to the magazine Bibelreport, the complete Bible is now published in 349 languages. The “New Testament” is available in an additional 841 languages, and other portions of the Bible in 933, for a total of 2,123 languages. Most translation teams need about four years for the translation of the “New Testament” and about eight for the “Old Testament.” Work is proceeding on 600 other translation projects.
Toxic Whale
The newspaper International Herald Tribune relates that a sperm whale found dead in busy shipping lanes off the northern coast of Denmark contained so much “mercury and cadmium that its intestine had to be buried at a special site for hazardous waste.” The source of these toxic metals is not as yet known. Time magazine, in discussing the same incident, added that while some see this as a clear indication of serious pollution of the seas, zoologists suggest natural causes. Cetologist Carl Kinze, of the Copenhagen Zoological Museum, points out that sperm whales feed mainly on octopuses, some of which have naturally high levels of cadmium.
Gambling’s Heavy Toll
In the Australian state of New South Wales, a government-sponsored survey revealed some shocking statistics regarding the effects of gambling. According to The Sunday Telegraph, close to 40 percent of those surveyed said that they gamble weekly. Of those, more than 2 out of 10 admitted to spending over $100 a week on the habit. “Young single males who preferred gaming machines or racing” were the group most likely to develop gambling problems. Other high-risk groups included “people who earned less than $20,000 a year and the retired or unemployed.” Moreover, the survey revealed that “almost 15 per cent of NSW [New South Wales] families have experienced difficulties with excessive gambling.” In addition, it is estimated that “gambling addicts are costing NSW $50 million a year in lost productivity, bankruptcy and divorce costs.”
Catholic Untouchables?
Over the centuries in India, many of those born into the caste of the so-called untouchables have become Catholic converts in hopes of escaping the Hindu caste system. “But that did not mean they were able to shake off the trappings of their caste,” says the Paris newspaper Le Monde. High-caste Indian Catholics have continued to treat low-caste Catholics like untouchables. “As a result,” says Le Monde, “when low- and high-caste Catholics go to church to pray, they sit in separate pews.”
Fictitious Titles
In the United States, the titles “nutritionist,” “physician,” and “dietitian” are often used by self-proclaimed, unqualified people. According to the Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter, in many states “anyone, regardless of education, can claim to be a nutritionist without fear of legal recourse.” Recently, researchers examined telephone directories in 32 states and discovered that “less than half of the so-called professionals listed under the headings ‘nutritionists’ and ‘physicians’ are reliable sources of sound, scientifically based nutrition information.” In the yellow pages (commercial telephone listings), about 70 percent of the nutritionist “Ph.D.’s” listed were found to hold fictitious degrees or to offer fraudulent information.
Child Power
“Brazilian children are in command at home, influence their parents’ decisions, and spend nearly $50 billion (U.S.) a year,” reports Veja magazine. “Children choose TV programs alone because the adults are occupied with other things. They go to school camps without the supervision of the father or the mother. . . . They are left at parties and sleep in friends’ homes.” Today, many parents “prefer confident and independent children, even if they are less obedient than children of former generations.” But according to mental-health professional Alberto Pereira Lima Filho, “abandoning their role as educators, [parents] cannot provide clear limits for their children.” It may come as no surprise that a study shows that “40 percent of the children admire soccer players more than their parents.”
Voodoo Receives Government Approval
The West African country of Benin has given “official recognition” to the “practice of voodoo,” reports The Guardian of Nigeria. According to the newspaper, it was the “first time any government” has granted official status to an “African traditional religion.” Such recognition means that practicers of voodoo have a legal right to build temples in which offerings can be made to worship and appease unseen spirits. It is estimated that 70 percent of the people in Benin practice voodoo.
Expensive Disarmament
“Between 1985 and 1994, military expenditures dropped worldwide by about 30 percent, to ‘only’ 800 billion U.S. dollars,” according to German researchers. The Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) published these facts in their first yearbook, entitled Conversion Survey 1996. Of 151 countries, 82 reduced their military outlay, while 60 increased it. According to the German magazine Focus, the “hope for ‘peace dividends,’ that is to say, the redistribution of billions of dollars for the development of aid and social programs, has as yet gone unfulfilled.” BICC experts stated: “The reduction of military equipment has created expenses that cancel out the money that was saved in the sector of armaments.”
Dishcloths Can Make You Sick
Scientists have found significant amounts of harmful bacteria in used dishcloths and kitchen sponges. According to the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, a recent study revealed that of 500 wet cloths and sponges examined, “two-thirds contained bacteria that can make people sick.” About one fourth “contained salmonella or staphylococcus, two leading causes of foodborne illness” in the United States. Experts recommend that sponges be replaced regularly and that dishcloths be washed often. “You can put dishcloths and sponges in the dishwasher with your dirty dishes, or in the washing machine,” says the Wellness Letter. After they come in contact with raw meat, surfaces can be cleaned up with paper towels rather than with reusable cloths or sponges.
Open-Heart Video Surgery
A Paris hospital recently achieved an international first by performing open-heart video surgery on a 30-year-old woman, reports the Paris daily Le Monde. Conventional open-heart surgery requires an approximately nine-inch [20 cm] opening of the thoracic cage along the sternum. This new technique, however, only requires a two-inch [4 cm] incision, while another small hole allows for a fiber-optic camera to guide the surgeon. In this case blood loss, postoperative shock, and the risk of infection were reduced considerably. The patient was able to leave the hospital just 12 days after the operation. Each year, about one million people undergo conventional open-heart surgery worldwide.
Tuberculosis Scourge
“A third of the world’s population is infected by TB [tuberculosis],” and the disease is expected to kill 30 million people this decade, reports The Times of London. The World Health Organization stresses that the new plague, as it terms it, will be more widespread and devastating than AIDS, likely infecting 300 million people in the next ten years. The fact that the bacilli are airborne means that TB is therefore much more contagious. TB is already epidemic in parts of Russia. Drug-resistant strains of the bacillus have emerged because many TB patients have not completed their six-month course of antibiotics, reports a British medical relief agency. As a result, bacilli develop immunity and survive.