Watching the World
FORGOTTEN VICTIMS
Men whose wives, or girlfriends, have been raped are being called the forgotten victims. According to London psychiatrist Anthony Bateman, these men suffer severe problems—such as depression, guilt, and sexual difficulties—long after the crime. They may become overprotective, escorting the victim everywhere or requiring that she ‘report in’ at certain times. Dr. Bateman is reported as saying that such men may need intensive psychotherapy if they are to come to terms with what has happened.
CONDOS FOR HORSES
In southwest Vancouver, Canada, equestrians are being offered condominiums to house their horses. A horse with a private condo can enjoy a 120-square-foot [11 sq m] stall featuring built-in plumbing that automatically fills up a drinking bowl, a cedar-shake roof and wooden siding, and access to a patio. Rising land prices and the consequent high property taxes have prompted this condos-for-horses project. The purchase price of $26,000 (Canadian) may appeal to some who pay “$300 a month or more to board their horses in commercial stables in the affluent Southlands area,” reports The Sunday Star.
BOMBARDED BY BRUTALITY
The Association of Teachers in Germany is urging parents and educators to counteract children’s exposure to brutality displayed by the media. “The alarming glorification of Satanism, drugs, death, and brutality” in hard rock music and on videos can make adolescents insensitive to violence and emotionally impair them, claims the president of the association. Teachers and parents seem to know very little about what videos and hard rock music contain. It is reported that one out of every two young persons does a great amount of horror-video viewing. Young ones rate the films as either good or very good.
CRIME-STOPPING CURFEWS
To keep young people indoors after 11 o’clock at night, a country town in Queensland, Australia, established an informal curfew. The results were positive. Police and local council members reported a definite reduction in area crime. As a result, the Queensland government is now seeking Cabinet approval for trial curfews to be placed on all young people under 15 years of age. The plan is for two trial curfews to be monitored, one in an urban area and the other in a provincial town. If results of the trial curfews prove positive in cutting down the crime rate, the government will then be asked to consider legislation imposing curfews on all young people throughout the state.
RUGBY SPINAL INJURIES
In a recent 23-year period, one hospital in South Africa handled 88 cases of young men who sustained acute spinal injuries while playing Rugby football. Rugby injuries are sometimes caused by the flying tackle, though this usually lacks the violent impact of the American football tackle. Another danger is the scrum, that is, when players of opposing teams are locked together in a tight mass, and shove for possession of the ball. “The scenario occurs all too frequently,” reports the South African Medical Journal. “The scrum collapses and, as the players get up from the ground, one player lies motionless. First-aid personnel rush onto the field and carefully place the injured player on the stretcher and transport him to a hospital. His neck is broken, the spinal cord injured and he remains permanently quadriplegic.” In 1989 three South African schoolboys were killed while playing Rugby.
EXPENSIVE DELAYS
Air-traffic delays in Europe are estimated to cost airlines and their passengers a staggering $4 thousand million a year, according to a report from the German Airspace Users Association. The reason for the problems, the report contends, is bad use of airspace. Europe has 44 air-traffic-control centers, compared with 20 for the entire United States. Creating a single integrated air-traffic-control system for the whole of Europe would cost between $5 thousand million and $10 thousand million, but such an investment would virtually eliminate all present air-traffic-control delays, says the Financial Times of London. The present lack of coordination results in aircraft being given inefficient flight altitudes and routing, making the typical European flight 10 percent longer than it needs to be.
WINNING AND LOSING
Under the heading “Having Luck Can Be Fatal,” the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo reported on the tragic experience of a recent lottery winner. As the sole winner of the lottery, he received 930,000 Novos Cruzados (about $400,000, U.S.). Afterward, however, the man also received the sad news that three of his relatives were killed by thieves who were looking for some of the lottery prize money.
WEDDINGS FOR SALE
Japanese tourists traveling to Europe have been able to purchase tour packages that include Catholic church weddings. Despite protests from the Vatican against “commercializing the holy rite of marriage,” an increasing number of non-Catholic Japanese couples “have undergone a marriage ceremony at churches in Italy and France,” reports The Daily Yomiuri. The Vatican is upset because their priests are directed to perform weddings only for Roman Catholics or those who have received instruction in the Catholic faith. Japanese travel agencies, however, were able to circumvent church policy by choosing “less strict churches to perform such weddings.”
LONG-RANGE LOCUSTS
Last year, when a hundred million migratory locusts invaded Caribbean islands, Guyana, and Venezuela, it raised a question among specialists: “How could locusts successfully have crossed the Atlantic Ocean?” These insects were previously unknown to those parts of the world. This four- to six-day trip, over a distance of from 2,500 to 3,000 miles [4,000 to 5,000 km], was a real achievement when one considers that migratory locusts usually fly during the day, their flight being easier in the hot air. They land when the air cools in the late afternoon. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, researchers conclude that the locusts probably stayed in the air during their transatlantic flight, as they had nothing to land on and nothing to eat. Of one thing, however, they are certain, that more insects perished at sea than survived the ocean crossing.
“BIGGER KILLER THAN AIDS”
After studying liver disease for 15 years, the director of clinical research for a major hospital in Australia recently warned that hepatitis is “a much bigger killer than AIDS.” He added: “It’s estimated that about two million people a year die from hepatitis and to my knowledge AIDS hasn’t reached that proportion yet.” He alerts people to the deadly hepatitis C virus, which attacks the liver and for which, so far, there is no detection test. Researchers believe that every year between 10 and 15 people die in Australia from hepatitis C contracted from transfusions of contaminated blood. The Australian, a Sydney newspaper, reports that 1 in 400 bags of blood used in Australian transfusions is contaminated with the deadly hepatitis C.
EXPERT WATER-TESTER
“The best way to test water is to bring in an expert,” says a Water Authority advertisement in Wales. The expert in question, though, is a fish—the humble rainbow trout. Fish are naturally sensitive to water pollution. As they breathe, their gills generate minute electrical currents. Pollution disturbs the breathing and the currents as well. These electrical fluctuations can be checked and monitored by computer. An official of Britain’s Water Research Centre says that the trout “will also detect and warn you of some substances you have never dreamt of, which is a major advantage.” According to The Times of London, this monitoring technique is now attracting not only national but international interest.