Watching the World 10

Witnesses Recognized in Portugal

? The Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses was legally recognized by the government of Portugal in mid-December. The statutes of the Association, as required by law, were published in the country’s principal newspaper and eventually copied by other papers in Portugal. This information was also printed in the government Gazette. Official recognition in Portugal means that the Witnesses will be able publicly to meet and do their Bible education work and carry on the activities of any legal ‘religious association.’

Three days later, the Watch Tower Society’s president, N.H. Knorr, spoke to a group of 7,586 persons who attended a special Witness meeting in Pôrto. The next day, December 22, he and the Society’s vice-president, F. W. Franz, again lectured, this time in Lisbon, to a crowd of 39,284. Thus 46,870 people were in attendance at the two sessions; that is over three times the number of Witnesses in Portugal.

Navigation in Birds . . .

? How do pigeons find their way home? Experimenters have suggested that the birds are able to identify visible landmarks. But those taken in covered cages to places they have never visited are able to return home; no landmarks guide them. Does the sun direct pigeons? Perhaps it aids in determining compass directions, but that is not enough to locate a precise spot. In a current Scientific American, W. T. Keeton concludes: “The old idea that birds use a single method to determine the home direction has given way to the realization that there are probably multiple components in the system.”

. . . And Bugs

? Meanwhile, a recent Natural History theorizes as to how insects can fly on a beeline across large open areas without apparently relying on visible landmarks. W. G. Wellington argues that insects use polarized light. Under certain conditions, light waves from the sun vibrate in only one direction. In some unknown manner insects (unlike humans) perceive this light and use it to navigate across long stretches. When there is little or no polarization, he says, insects depend on familiar ground markings or other assistance for their guidance.

What Is First to You?

? In recent months the public press has printed a number of accounts about athletes who gave up collegiate and professional careers when they became active as Jehovah’s witnesses. Why did they stop? Do they believe that sports in themselves are wrong? Not necessarily. One top basketball: star recently explained to the Dallas (Texas) Morning News: “To be successful in basketball . . . you’ve got to devote almost nine months to it and just about every hour of the day during that period . . . So by playing basketball, what I was saying in essence was that I would serve Jehovah [God] when I got time.”

Palmistry Exposed

? According to the pseudo-science of palmistry, the lifeline in a person’s palm is supposed to indicate the length of his life. Does it? No. Two University of Washington researchers measured the lifelines of the palms of 51 corpses, correlated this to body size and fed the information into a computer. They say, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, that when palmistry is used to predict life expectancy the results have no “scientific worthiness or usefulness to life insurers” whatever.

Billion-Dollar Question

? “Is there life on Mars?” asks U.S. News & World Report. The answer is of more than academic interest. It is costing the American taxpayer dearly. Says the magazine: “For centuries this question has absorbed scientists, poets and dreamers alike. Now it has become the driving force behind a 1-billion-dollar mission into space.” In the U.S., a billion dollars would also build about 70,000 low-cost homes.

Stealing a City

? Vandalism, rampant in New York city, is simply another word for stealing. Says New Times magazine: “This city—the undisputed world’s capital of larceny—is being stolen. Physically stolen right out from under its residents. . . . Parks, plazas and botanical gardens are being stripped as if they were abandoned autos. Public monuments are being heisted. Statues are being mugged. All with increasing frequency and ever greater audacity.” Why does the problem grow? Joseph Bresnan, Parks Department director of monuments, says: “No one takes vandalism seriously.” Police say that they are busy trying to take care of people.

Auto Slump

? The automobile industry is a major victim in the current inflation/recession period. U.S. domestic sales were down 30 percent in the last quarter of 1974, the worst in 14 years. Imported-car sales are also down. A similar picture appears in Europe, where at least 300,000 auto workers were laid off by year-end. One European job in ten depends on the auto industry. Related industries also suffer: A major U.S. steel producer reports a 25-percent decline in early 1975 orders; a glass supplier says that 1974 sales were off 20 percent. Auto makers are optimistic about an upturn. But A. E. Sindlinger, one of their leading consultants, reminds them: “People went four years without new cars in World War II. They learned they don’t have to buy, and they won’t if they don’t need or can’t afford a car.”

Winking at Gambling

? In the last decade thirteen U.S. states have adopted legal lotteries as ways of raising revenue. But, observes an editorial in The Christian Century, “the sudden rise in public acceptance of state-sponsored gambling appears to have been accomplished with only a minimum of church opposition.”

Plenty of Nothing

? The Department of Consumer Affairs in New York city estimates that residents bought $25 million worth of nothing last year. This is what was paid for “short weights,” when merchants did not fill up packages to the stated quantity. A frequent trick, the department says, is for a customer unknowingly to buy a box. Suppose fancy bakery cookies are $4 per pound. If the clerk places a three-ounce container on the scale and then puts in the cookies, the customer has paid $3.25 for the cookies and 75 cents for the box.

Sunday Magazines

? There are now fifty-six U.S. Sunday newspaper magazines. The Writer claims that these are the best-read part of the paper; over 90 percent of newspaper purchasers read that section.

Soybean Demand

? In 1974 the U.S. produced 1.3 billion bushels of soybeans. Yet demand grows for more soybeans. Why? Protein. One bushel of soybeans makes 48 pounds of meal for animal feed and 11 pounds of oil for products like margarine. Plans call for soybeans to replace meat in processed foods such as chili, hot dogs and bologna. Their importance is emphasized by Richard Rhodes in Atlantic: “With fully efficient agriculture and a vegetable diet, the world could theoretically support a population of forty to fifty billion people. Meat proteins couldn’t even support the population we already contend with.”

‘Can’t-Win Dilemma’

? Growing numbers of experts feel that greater food shortages are inevitable. R. P. Sinha of the University of Glasgow notes: “The immensity of the problem of the poor and the landless farmer is such that nothing the international organizations, with their limited resources, can do will make any significant difference.” Meanwhile, an editorial in Farm Journal entitled “World Famine: A Can’t-win Dilemma” notes: “The world food crisis is another of those terrible ‘can’t-win’ dilemmas now coming at us with such frequency.”

Peat for Power

? Among the fuel alternatives that have been discussed since the petroleum crisis is peat. Peat is partly decayed vegetable matter, said to be in the process of becoming coal. More than half of the world’s peat is found in the Soviet Union. That nation has over 70 peat-fueled generating plants. Both Finland and Ireland plan large increases in peat production. New Scientist says that as peat is removed in Ireland, farmland is being reclaimed. North America, with about 14 percent of the world’s total of peat, has no plans to develop it as a fuel.

Want Your Letter Read?

? Companies are getting more mail than ever and more of their personnels’ time is used in reading it. Does this put the person who cannot type his letter to a large company at a disadvantage? Not if his letter is short and to the point, says Gene M. Brown, of the Austin Company of Cleveland, Ohio, who reads large volumes of mail: “From fellows in small firms we often get letters written in longhand and that suits us fine because the writer usually has neither the time nor the inclination to get into a lot of nonrelevant stuff. He just says what he means and throws it in the mail.”

Duty-Free Shops

? Travelers know that with care they can save money by making purchases at duty-free airport shops. Europe’s Vision magazine says that travelers now put out over $300 million yearly at west European airports. Alcoholic drinks account for 45 percent of the total; tobacco, 35 percent; perfume, 15 percent; other sales, the remaining 5 percent. West Germany has the highest number of duty-free sales, followed by Britain, the Netherlands and France.

Going on TV?

? Industry Week says that more management people than ever are being compelled to appear on television. How can one best prepare for such an appearance? It suggests: “Brief yourself, anticipating questions you may be asked. Don’t opinionate if you are unsure of supporting facts. Don’t let an interviewer intimidate you; occasionally ask questions yourself or volunteer information. Use notes or cue cards only if your story is complex. . . . Don’t lose your temper. Be casual, but assume you are on camera until the show is over. Dress in medium-colored suits and pastel or off-white shirts.”

Nuns Awaken

? Italian nuns are awakening to the world outside their convent, says a Reuters report from Rome. “television aerials are sprouting on convent roofs.” More nuns are working away from their convents. But the Church does not care for all the consequences. Hundreds of nuns now quit every year; many openly disagree with the Hierarchy. For instance, one Rome nun, a doctor, says: “In individual cases I approve of the [birth control] Pill.”

Crimes in Churches

? Washington, D.C., area churches are locking their doors and installing security systems in an effort to combat vandals who no longer consider them ‘sacred ground.’ In the year ending June 30, 1973, there were 209 crimes involving churches; the following year this rose to 306. But in just four recent months there were 209 crimes. “Suburban Maryland and Virginia churches,” says the Washington Post, “also report glue sniffing, dope smoking and beer drinking parties in their churches at night.”

Baptist Blues

? The Baptist Church, according to some of its leaders, is too worried about survival to serve people. Emory Wallace, president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, says that the “old way” does not work and that his church needs some “bold experiments.” The Shreveport Times adds: “If Baptists don’t change their strategy, he said, it will become an impossible task to gain further converts and halt the increasing percentage of those disinterested in the church.”