Watching the World
Europe Warned on Ethnic Strife
“People can be transformed into hating and killing machines without too much difficulty,” warns José-María Mendiluce, special representative of the UN high commissioner for refugees. Mr. Mendiluce, who spent 19 months overseeing the UN’s refugee program in the former Yugoslavia, said that it is a “very dangerous mistake” to view Balkan people as “fundamentally different from other Europeans,” and he noted that similar ethnic conflicts could easily break out in other European countries. “All it takes is an economic crisis and a few cynical politicians who blame it on immigrants or poor people or people who are somehow different,” he said. According to The New York Times report, Mr. Mendiluce noted how easily leaders can stir up hatred “by spreading lies in the media and fomenting provocations,” asserting that those who signed peace agreements did not change their behavior, but kept on “hating and killing.”
Australia’s Alcohol Abuse
The good news in Australia is that the amount of alcohol consumed nationally is dropping. But the bad news is that alcohol abuse still costs the nation “$6 billion and 6,000 lives a year,” states The Sydney Morning Herald. A recent report called Dimensions and Effects of Alcohol Abuse revealed that 88 percent of Australian males and 75 percent of females drink alcohol, and it cited increasing drinking among women and “binge drinking” by teenagers as major causes for concern.
UN Peace Efforts Falter for Lack of Cash
UN peacekeeping costs are expected to reach $3.7 billion this year. However, “the failure of member countries to pay their share is raising doubts about the organization’s ability to finance future operations or adequately sustain peace efforts under way now,” states The New York Times. The UN is supposed to reimburse nations that help with peacekeeping operations about $1,000 a month for every soldier sent. But months have gone by without reimbursement to countries that sent troops for operations in the former Yugoslavia and in Cambodia. By the end of April, unpaid peacekeeping dues had reached $1.5 billion, with an additional $970 million unpaid for the regular budget. Lacking reimbursement, governments of some developing countries have already withdrawn forces or have refused to participate in new operations.
Year of Hate
“A year like 1992 gives new prominence to some old questions about human nature,” notes Newsweek magazine. “These divisions—neighbor against neighbor, race against race, nationality against nationality—are something we have always been prone to, and this year’s events raise doubts about whether we are getting any better at bridging these gaps.” It noted: “‘Hate thy neighbor’ seemed the motto of the year.” Why was “human nastiness” so particularly prominent in 1992? “Sheer anarchy accounts for much of the violence of the past year,” says Newsweek, as well as the “sudden economic insecurity” that followed the collapse of Soviet Communism. Added to this were communal hatreds stirred up by government authorities. Are military peacekeepers the solution? “U.N. troops have been in Cyprus, separating the Greek and Turkish communities, for nearly 20 years. Safe behind this screen of U.N. protection, neither side has had the slightest incentive to compromise with the other,” replies Newsweek.
Missing Women
Women outnumber men by a ratio of 105 to 100 in developed countries, such as Britain, France, Switzerland, and the United States. But UN statistics show that in Asia tens of millions of women are missing. For example, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have only 94 women for every 100 men, India has 93, and Pakistan has only 92. Official figures for China showed 114 boys between the ages of one and two for every 100 girls. Why the difference? “Experts point to the life-threatening discrimination that women must endure, making their chances of survival lower than men’s: sex-selective abortion and infanticide, poor nutrition and health care, multiple pregnancies and backbreaking physical labor,” says The Washington Post. Besides, in some cultures, male census takers either ignore women or are not allowed to talk to females. And some fathers, ashamed that they have more daughters than sons, lie about the sex of their children.
China’s Declining Birthrate
Statistics for 1992 show the lowest birthrate level ever recorded in China—18.2 births per 1,000 persons, down from 23.33 in 1987, reports The New York Times. Though not expected to be reached until the year 2010, the target was achieved “because party and Government officials at all levels paid greater attention to family planning and adopted more effective measures,” says Peng Peiyun, minister of the State Family Planning Commission. Under the program local officials were held personally responsible for reducing the number of births in their jurisdictions and could be punished for failure to do so. In many cases this translated into compulsory sterilization of women who already had a child and very stiff fines for those who had an unauthorized birth. When villagers cannot pay the fines, their belongings are either confiscated or smashed, and their houses are often knocked down. China’s 1.17 billion inhabitants already make up about 22 percent of the world’s population.
‘Major Health Problem by the Year 2000’
French medical officials are predicting that “chronic type-C hepatitis will be a major health problem in France by the year 2000.” Excerpts from a medical report appearing in the Paris newspaper Le Monde said that the problem has two essential characteristics: the “significant part that blood transfusions play in spreading the virus” and the “especially aggressive development [of the virus] in its chronic form.” It is estimated that between 500,000 and 2,000,000 persons in France are now infected with the virus and that 62 percent of these will likely develop chronic hepatitis, with the risk of cirrhosis of the liver or cancer within 10 to 30 years. Doctors say that although most people infected with hepatitis C have no symptoms, their prognosis is just as grim.
Space Garbage Danger
“Space refuse is becoming more and more of a problem for space flights,” reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The first European Conference on Space Garbage, held in April in Darmstadt, Germany, addressed the “question of what should be done with the ever-increasing belt of rubble made up of inactive satellites, burned-out rocket stages, or lost equipment from earlier space missions.” It is estimated that over 7,000 objects the size of a tennis ball or larger are hurtling around the earth, as well as more than 100,000 smaller pieces. Russian and U.S. flights account for 95 percent of the garbage in space. “There have been several near misses in recent years between active space equipment and refuse that is flying around,” the newspaper added. “Strict prevention of garbage and international agreements on future space projects are the only solution if flights into space are not to be threatened with termination in the next millennium.”
Japan’s Controversy Over Flag and Anthem
Recently released records in Yamato, Japan, show that school principals have “enforced an Education Ministry directive on the hoisting of the national flag and the singing of the national anthem . . . , despite strong opposition from rank-and-file teachers,” states Mainichi Daily News. “The issue of including the Hinomaru [national flag] and Kimigayo [national anthem] in school ceremonies has caused controversy nationwide due to their association with Japan’s wartime ultranationalism and imperialism.” According to Asahi Evening News, opposers link the flag and anthem with emperor worship and say that forcing children to sing the anthem “would be imposing a specific religious creed on them.” Constitutional rights of freedom of religion and conscience are being violated, they say.
Nuclear Disasters Uncovered
New information about the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents has been made public after years of secrecy, says the Paris daily International Herald Tribune. In its race to develop nuclear weapons, the former Soviet government built a plutonium plant in the Ural Mountains. From the start of construction in 1948 to 1951, the plant’s radioactive wastes were simply dumped into the local rivers, which were also used for farming and drinking water. Then, in 1957, some nuclear wastes there exploded, releasing huge amounts of radioactive material into the earth’s atmosphere. Another incident took place in 1967, when a nearby lake that had been used as a nuclear dump site dried up. Winds carried the radioactive wastes over a vast territory. Scientists believe that radioactive contamination from the three incidents affected some 450,000 people.