Watching the World
Bibles Flow Into U.S.S.R.
The flow of Bibles into the Soviet Union has grown from a trickle into a veritable flood. In May of 1988 The Mainichi Daily News of Japan reported that when 20 Russian Bibles went on sale in Moscow, a young engineer named Vladimir reacted in surprise: “I have never seen a Bible in a store anywhere in my life.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the Soviet government allowed only 20,000 Bibles to enter the country between 1985 and 1987. Then came the news that the U.S.S.R. had accepted some 100,000 Bibles in the fall of 1988. (See Awake! of March 8, 1989.) The final tally for 1988 was reportedly nearly 500,000 Bibles and New Testaments sent from Europe. More dramatic still, the Times reported that the U.S.S.R. had accepted offers of some two million New Testaments from two Western sources that were known for having previously smuggled Bibles into Soviet territory.
Bhopal’s Tragic Aftermath
The tragedy is far from over for the victims of the disastrous chemical leak four years ago at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The magazine India Today reports that while the lethal fumes of methyl iso-cyanate killed some 1,800 in December 1984, by the end of 1988 the death toll had mounted to 3,289—an average of one victim dying every day since the deadly leak. “Tens of thousands” more are condemned to a “slow death.” But the magazine observes: “Some of those who survived almost wish they hadn’t. They have gradually been reduced to frustrated despair as hopes of relief and compensation recede.” Apparently, the legal battle to win compensation for the victims is quite complex. The end of the process, according to India Today, is “nowhere in sight.”
Third World Dumping
Developed nations that have trouble getting rid of their garbage have begun to eye Third World countries as possible dumping sites. According to the Journal Water Pollution Control Federation, industrial nations use the prospect of easy earnings to lure less developed nations into accepting foreign wastes under the guise of landfill or fertilizer. But this garbage is often dangerous. For example, when many tons of industrial ash from the United States were dumped on an island off the coast of Guinea, West Africa, most of the trees died. In Nigeria 4,000 tons of toxic chemical waste from Italy was discovered. “Local residents are getting sick,” said the report. One official from a Third World country told the Journal that less industrialized countries “lack the technical sophistication to measure the degree of toxicity in wastes and are at great risk when receiving such waste.”
Pollution Update
Countries as diverse as Poland and Colombia share an all-too-common denominator: pollution. In Poland, the Academy of Sciences published a report in Warsaw, declaring that a third of the country’s population is inhabiting an ecological disaster area. The river Vistula carries tens of thousands of tons of noxious pollutants out to the Baltic Sea, ruining beaches for vacationers and upsetting the ecological balance. Similarly, the Bogotá River in Colombia is saturated with more than a thousand different pollutants. It contains 50 times more mercury than the accepted safe level. The pollution is said to be the likely cause of the high rate of deformities among babies in riverside villages. Both the Colombian government and the Polish government have mounted programs to control pollution.
“Safe Sex” Unsafe?
According to The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Claude Newbury has evidence proving that so-called safe sex, the wearing of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, is not all that safe. Citing statistics on the failure rate of condoms, Dr. Newbury concludes: “The only safe method of avoiding sexually transmitted AIDS, or for that matter any other sexually transmissible disease, is to maintain your virginity before marriage, marry a virgin and be totally and exclusively faithful to your spouse until death.” Why, then, is the promotion of “safe sex” so popular? “Because,” Dr. Newbury writes, “most doctors, under the influence of the permissive society, have lost the moral courage to tell a hedonistic world that sodomy, and other forms of extra-marital sex, are morally, socially and medically harmful, and could even be fatal.”
How Much to Be Young Again?
How much would you be willing to pay to be made young again? A Tokyo bank asked 600 women that question, and their responses were enthusiastic: Women in their 40’s were willing to pay about ¥10 million ($80,000, U.S.), while an eager 10 percent of the group was willing to part with as much as ¥30 million ($240,000, U.S.). The highest bidder was a woman who said she would pay ¥70 million ($560,000, U.S.) to be rejuvenated. Of course, no amount of money can make such a hope possible. But God can. He promises a time when old age and death will be done away with. (Revelation 21:4) That is why in the Bible book of Job we read: “Let his flesh become fresher than in youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.”—Job 33:25.
Generic Is Cheaper
Generic drugs are generally 50 percent cheaper than their brand-name equivalents, according to a recent FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) report. But are they as good? The FDA concluded that generic drugs can be safely used as equivalents to the brand-name ones.
Global War Machine
“Some 27 million men (and a few hundred thousand women) are trained to kill each other,” noted Asiaweek magazine in reporting the size of the world’s armed forces. That figure includes all those who make up the overall war machine, such as clerks, drivers, and cooks. What is the point of maintaining these gargantuan forces trained in destruction? The magazine answers: “By being so prepared, they won’t need to kill.” But it goes on to note that many armies for enforcing peace have “clashed in recent history,” sometimes with “horrific loss of life.”
School Bullies
“Thousands and thousands” of students are in fear of going to school, declares a study by Norwegian psychologist Dan Olweus. Based on figures from the study, The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada, estimates that there could be 45,000 Canadian students victimized by 35,000 bullying classmates. According to the newspaper, Olweus said that “60 per cent of these schoolyard bullies will have at least one formal conviction by the age of 24.” In an interview, Olweus stated that “often parents don’t know what’s going on and schoolteachers do little to interfere.” Some of the terrorized pupils are said to “develop somatic symptoms such as headaches and stomach pains to cope with the stress.” The Scandinavian study has prompted the development of intervention programs involving parents, teachers, and students.
Third World Children Dying
According to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), in 1987 backsliding economies in Third World countries caused the death rate for children under five years of age to swell by some 500,000. UNICEF’s director, in an interview with The New York Times, explains why: “Most societies under the pressure of economic adversity have cut back disproportionately on services: health, education, social welfare programs.” What has brought on all the economic adversity? One culprit is the debt crisis. Governments in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have fallen deeper and deeper into debt of late, and so have less to spend on services that the poor need. As UNICEF’s director told the Times: “A resolution of the debt crisis is required if you’re going to get light into those tunnels.”