Watching the World
ANYTHING FOR A “HIGH”
Drug abusers will go to extraordinary lengths to attain the chemical highs they seek. The following three items illustrate this.
▪ New York City drug abusers have found a way to counteract the nervous depression that commonly follows the brief, explosive high they get from the drug known as crack. They mix the crack, a form of cocaine, with heroin and smoke the combination in a pipe. The high from the heroin lasts for hours and softens the crash of coming down from crack. The popularity of heroin had been on the wane, as many younger drug abusers were reluctant to use needles. But now a whole new clientele may someday be in heroin’s addictive thrall.
▪ In Juárez, Mexico, local children were seen sniffing strange green rocks that they had found in the municipal dump. The rocks turned out to be hardened toxic waste, allegedly illegally dumped by U.S. companies located in Mexico. Sniffing the rocks reportedly acted on the youths much the way sniffing glue would, with similar dangers: possible kidney, liver, and brain damage, and even sterility or the risk of one day producing deformed offspring.
◼ According to the San Francisco Examiner, some people will even lick toads in order to get high. A chemical called bufotenine oozes from the skin of certain toads. Ingested in small quantities, it affects the senses and causes some disorientation. In larger quantities, it becomes dangerously poisonous and has been classified by drug experts with other illegal drugs, such as LSD and heroin. Although it is hardly a common practice, people are reportedly trying to get high from toad skins in regions as diverse as South America, the United States, and Australia.
“A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE”
Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, writing in The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada, notes with some concern that many North American children suffer from obesity. Why? The doctor blames consumption of fatty fast foods and insufficient exercise, remarking: “Children do not burn up calories when they are watching TV and munching on potato chips.” Children, the doctor observes, may pay a high price for their obesity with a variety of potentially serious health disorders. Further, obese preschoolers have a 25-percent chance of becoming obese adults, while those who remain obese into their teen years have a 75-percent chance of facing a lifetime of obesity. He asserts that “a fat child is a sick child,” concluding: “It is a form of child abuse to allow young children to develop this disease because of sheer neglect.”
BUGS IN THE GREENHOUSE
New Zealand scientists warn that the greenhouse effect, the gradual warming of the earth caused by human pollution, would have an unexpected by-product: Insect pests could flourish. The scientists predict that the projected rise in temperature would allow the many insects that filter through New Zealand’s quarantining procedures or drift there on wind currents to survive the winters, breed, and thrive. According to the New Zealand Herald, the scientists forecast swarms of locusts, disease-spreading mosquitoes, and thousands of millions of dollars spent on combating the invasion. The Herald notes that entomologist Dr. Garry Hill said that “some of the effects of the change seemed to be showing already.”
SQUANDERING FOOD
In Europe, destroying food has long been a matter of policy. In order to keep fruit and vegetable prices stable, the European Common Market organization buys up surplus produce. But according to a recent report of the European audit office, almost 84 percent of the surpluses bought in Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Greece are destroyed—nearly 2.5 million tons of produce each year. Of the remainder, “10 percent is converted to animal fodder, 5 percent is distilled to alcohol, and barely 1 percent is distributed to the poor,” comments German newspaper Wetterauer Zeitung.
TOO HIGH A PRICE
Some aging rock-music stars, long known for playing their music at ear-splitting volume, are now speaking up about the hearing loss they have suffered as a result. According to The Toronto Star, rock guitarist Ted Nugent admits that his left ear “is there only for the looks. It doesn’t work.” And Pete Townshend of the group called The Who told the same paper that “one of the great agonies . . . is that long before you grow old, you can’t hear what children are saying to you.” Of his years of blaring rock ’n’ roll, he adds: “I think it’s worth saying that there is a price to pay for that: it’s premature deafness.” While he and other veteran musicians are now lowering their volume, many newer performers are not.
A DWINDLING FLOCK
“Decrease in Flock Challenges Catholic Church,” read a recent headline in the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Reporting on a survey of city dwellers taken at the request of the National Council of Bishops of Brazil, the article noted that while 73 percent of young people between 18 and 29 were of Catholic families, only 26 percent had been to church in the last month. Archbishop Geraldo Majella is reported as saying: “Baptism alone is not enough to make a Catholic. There are people who claim to be Catholic and practice abortion. There are serious faults in the formation of the faithful.” He concluded that, as a result, Brazil can no longer be considered a Catholic country.
FEEDING THE RATS
New Yorkers are being blamed for their city’s exploding rat population. Experts claim that the chief problem is improper garbage disposal. People feed the rats by hurling garbage out their windows, throwing food on subway tracks, leaving leftovers on park grounds, and so forth. In spite of $10.5 million spent by the city each year on a rodent-control program, the rat community continues to thrive. Tousaint Vogelsang, a New York City exterminator, observes: “Why would rats eat the poison we put down when they can have caviar—chicken, steak, pizza—straight out of the garbage bags! You gotta starve a rat. No food, no water. Then he’ll eat poison.”
FEMINISTS SWAP RELIGIONS
Some feminists think that foreign religions elevate women more than their local religions do. According to a columnist for Tokyo’s Mainichi Daily News, there are feminists in the United States who reject Christendom as male-oriented and instead worship the sun goddess Amaterasu, the principal female deity of Japanese Shinto. On the other hand, Japanese feminists have little time for Amaterasu, whom they link with Shinto-backed wars and subjugation of women. Many of them have joined Christendom’s churches, reasoning that the churches’ opening of schools for girls has liberated women in Japan.
FLOATING WALLS OF DEATH
Drift nets are a controversial way to catch fish. Nicknamed “walls of death,” they hang invisibly under water, some 50 feet [15 m] high and up to 35 miles [56 km] long, snaring not only fish but also sea turtles, seals, dolphins, and even small whales. Now their use has spread to the South Pacific, much to the concern of Australia, New Zealand, and several island nations. Most of the fishing boats using the nets are Taiwanese and Japanese vessels in search of albacore, a species of tuna. But the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries claims that fishing with drift nets could wipe out tuna from the region within two years. The loss of the species could be a staggering blow to the smaller island nations, whose economies hinge on the fishing industry.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
Recent court cases in the United States have held drug-abusing pregnant women responsible for the effects of their habit on the unborn. A mother that uses cocaine during pregnancy is, in effect, delivering drugs through the umbilical cord. In Illinois, a juvenile court convicted a mother of prenatal child abuse and neglect for taking cocaine while pregnant. Judge Frederick J. Kapala concluded: “It’s the same as if a mother gave a child a pack of razor blades to play with.”