Watching the World
Murder Epidemic
The homicide rate in the United States continued to soar in 1991. Time magazine predicted that when all the figures are tallied up, they will show about 25,000 murders for the year, well beyond 1990’s record of 23,440. This grim total, according to Time, makes the U.S. murder rate “by far the highest in the Western world,” with some 10 homicides for every 100,000 citizens. In Britain the rate is 5.5 killings per 100,000; in Japan it is only 1.3. Little wonder that the Federal Centers for Disease Control now considers murder an epidemic; every 22 minutes another life is lost to shooting, stabbing, strangling, or beating. For women, murder is now the leading cause of death in the workplace. Police are too swamped to cope with the epidemic. In the mid-1960’s, they brought 9 out of every 10 murderers to justice; these days, they track down fewer than 7 out of 10.
Church Tragedy in Mexico
Tragedy struck recently in a Pentecostal church in the town of El Charquillo, Mexico. Butane fumes—possibly from a gas lamp that was lit for the church’s evening service—overpowered and killed 30 people in the church. According to a report in The Christian Century, three men who survived the disaster claim that the church’s pastor discouraged the congregation from leaving the building even though some were feeling faint, ill, and disoriented because of the fumes. The pastor allegedly told his ailing flock that these feelings were not due to illness but rather to the presence of Christ or the spirit of God entering their bodies.
For Safer Cycling
Last year, accidents killed some 710 bicyclists in just the western part of Germany, with another 64,000 injured. According to the Rheinische Post, a Düsseldorf newspaper, scientist Dietmar Otte led an investigation into 1,200 bicycle accidents occurring over a five-year period. About half involved head injuries. Otte figures that bicycle helmets could have reduced the severity of half of these injuries or prevented them outright. But helmets may be even more effective. A report published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) found that from 1984 through 1988, bicycling accidents in the United States caused nearly a million head injuries. Of those, 2,985 were fatal. According to JAMA, “universal use of helmets by all bicyclists could have prevented as many as . . . one death every day and one head injury every 4 minutes.” Children in particular benefit from wearing helmets, since they are likely to sustain more serious head injuries than adults.
In Name Only
Although there are about 45 million Catholics in France, for the majority of them, being Catholic means little more than a church baptism, a wedding, and a church funeral. A recent survey sponsored by the magazine Madame Figaro reveals that 2 out of 3 of those in France who call themselves Catholic never take Communion; 4 out of 5 never go to confession, and just 1 in 10 regularly attend Mass. As to prayer, 36 percent seldom pray, and 34 percent never pray at all. Commenting on the survey, the magazine states: “Catholicism is more a religion of tradition than a real-life religion.” Citing French cardinal Lustiger’s words that “man is a religious animal,” Madame Figaro adds: “Undoubtedly he is. But he is obviously becoming less and less aware of it.”
Bible Translation Spreads
According to statistics from the United Bible Societies, as quoted by the German Bible Society, parts of the Bible were translated into 32 new languages in 1991. Hence, Biblical texts are now available in a total of 1,978 languages, reports the German newspaper Wetterauer Zeitung. (Another source gives 1,982 tongues.) The complete Bible has been translated into 322 languages, the Christian Greek Scriptures into 758, and other portions of the Bible into 898. In Africa, Bible texts are available in 566 languages. In Asia the figure is 490, in the Americas 411, in the Pacific area 321, and in Europe 187.
Still Deadly
Two years after the end of the war with South Africa, land mines are still claiming the lives of children in Namibia. In December 1991, the newspaper Lesotho Today reported that “more than 40 people have been killed in the last 18 months, and about 100 injured.” This was in spite of television and newspaper warnings. One mother, who lost three of her eight children to these explosives, lamented: “It is hard to believe that two years after the war has ended we are still being robbed of our children.” Although thousands of land mines have been removed, it may not be possible to locate and get rid of all of them, as they are dispersed over a large area and many are well hidden underground.
Transvestite Burglary Rings
An unusual crime wave has swept through Florida, U.S.A., in recent years. Transvestites—men dressed up as women—have been robbing clothing boutiques in dozens of towns. According to The Wall Street Journal, police estimate that there are over a hundred transvestites in the rings. Detective Michael Roggin told the Journal that last year these gangs accounted for some 25 burglaries in the city of West Palm Beach alone, stealing some $400,000 worth of clothing. They robbed one boutique six times in eight months, and when the owner put a metal grate inside the store window, they tried to drive a car through it. Yet, for all their flamboyance, these gangsters are hard to catch. “If this were 20 years ago, they’d stand out like a sore thumb,” one police sergeant explained to the Journal. “But in today’s society, you know, it’s become second nature to see all sorts of people out walking around.”
Shoplifter Repellent
Fed up with frequent shoplifting in his store, a bookshop owner in Iwaki City, Japan, came up with a new way to deal with the problem. “He decided to edit and sell the video footage taken from the security cameras set up at five locations within his store,” reports Tokyo’s Mainichi Daily News. The edited tapes clearly show nine people, including five minors, in the act of shoplifting. The shop advertised the tapes with the words: “Now on sale for 280 yen [about $2, U.S.], footage of shoplifters in this store.” Despite warnings from the authorities that he may be infringing on the customers’ rights, the shop owner intends to continue his antishoplifting tactics. “It’s a lesson for them,” he says. The first batch of tapes sold out quickly—and put a sudden stop to shoplifting in the bookstore.
Brazilian Coffee Plague
Coffee growers were already facing hard times due to falling prices—and now this. New Scientist magazine reports that “crickets have reached plague proportions in one of Brazil’s most important coffee growing regions.” Swarming over farmlands by the millions, the crickets lay their eggs on the roots of coffee plants. The newly hatched young, called nymphs, eat the roots and kill the plant. Where the crickets swarm, coffee plantations are likely to lose up to 60 percent of their coffee crop. For the last six years, this plague has steadily grown worse. According to New Scientist, the Brazilian Coffee Institute blames human damage to the environment for the plague. Among other factors, mankind has killed off the crickets’ natural predators, especially the armadillo.
Unreliable Astrologers
Early in 1991 the Association for Scientific Research into the Parasciences in Germany gathered 152 predictions by 27 astrologers. They then evaluated them at the year’s end. Wetterauer Zeitung reported that 103 of the predictions “were completely wrong.” For instance, astrologers predicted an atomic disaster and a cure for AIDS during 1991. The 14 prognoses that came true were simply general statements. Others were too vague to be judged for accuracy, while some even contradicted one another. On the other hand, all astrologers had said nothing about several momentous events of 1991. “If just one of the astrologers had known what he was doing,” commented the manager of the association, “he would, for instance, have seen Gorbachev’s resignation in advance or the decline of the Soviet Union.”
Self-Defeating Technology
Almost 25 percent of Americans killed in the Persian Gulf war and 15 percent of those wounded were victims of what the military calls friendly fire—being hit by their own forces. In previous wars such fire accounted for less than 2 percent of American casualties. Much of the problem has resulted from increased use of high technology. More sophisticated weaponry has enabled tanks and helicopters to fire at targets as far as five miles [8 km] away with great precision. This may reduce retaliatory strikes, but it is beyond the range of current technology to distinguish between friend and foe when distant vehicles are close together—especially in fast-paced fighting when visibility is poor.