Watching the World 5

Sacrifice for the Poor?

? In parts of Africa and Asia thousands of people are now very hungry. At the same time, earth’s rich nations continue to glut themselves. Thus, of the international food situation, Science News concludes: “The issue is finally a moral one: Will the United States and other industrialized countries be willing to cut back on meat consumption to free grain for the world’s poor?” Perhaps that question can be partly answered by what took place during the recent petroleum crisis. The National Opinion Research Center says that most Americans, in spite of requests to the contrary, did not use car pools or greatly reduce the amount of driving that they did. Says director James Davis: “What they basically gave up was the Sunday ride.”

“Cult of the Self”

? Campus rebellions have died down in the U.S. A recent study by Daniel Yankelovich, called “Changing Youth Values in the Seventies: A Study of American Youth,” reports that young people now largely reject old-fashioned patriotism, mainline religions and corrupt governmental and business institutions. The report claims that students want to “find self-fulfillment within a conventional career.” On the surface this may seem like a good change. But is it? Not according to Fred M. Hechinger, a member of the New York Times Editorial Board. He says: “No amount of rationalizing can pretty up a picture of a new cult of the self.”

New York Homosexual Issue

? In May, a bill banning discrimination against homosexuals was put to a vote in New York. During the period before the vote the Catholic Church revealed how divided it is on the subject. Two New York Catholic newspapers, The Catholic News and The Tablet, had editorials opposing the bill. But twenty-eight New York Jesuits had other ideas; they issued a statement protesting their archdiocese’s opposition. Members of Dignity, a Catholic homosexual organization, received communion at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before going outside to demonstrate against the editorials. Meanwhile, The Advocate, official newspaper of the nearby Newark, New Jersey, archdiocese, favored the bill, stating: “To Catholics, homosexual acts are objectively wrong in the moral order, although individual homosexuals may be personally free of moral guilt, and should not be condemned by the community around them.”

Lowest Church Membership

? Church membership is declining just about everywhere. But in some parts of the U.S. low church membership is more obvious. Where? A recent study shows that in the Pacific region—Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington—no more than 37 percent of the population are church members. Washington State has the lowest figure—32.5 percent. About half the U.S. population does not have any religious affiliation, according to the study.

The Story’s Other Side

? Dr. George L. Kirkham, an assistant professor in Florida State University’s school. of criminology, wanted to study law enforcement firsthand. So he became a policeman. With what change in his outlook? He writes in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin: “Persons such as myself, members of the academic community, have traditionally been quick to find fault with the police. . . . Now, as a police officer, I began to encounter the offender for the first time as a very real menace to my personal safety and the security of our society. The felon was no longer a harmless figure sitting in blue denims across my prison desk, a ‘victim’ of society to be treated with compassion and leniency. He became an armed robber fleeing from the scene of a crime, a crazed maniac threatening his family with a gun, someone who might become my killer crouched behind the wheel of a car on a dark street. Like crime itself, fear quickly ceased to be an impersonal and abstract thing.”

Fewer Farmers

? Food grows scarcer around the world. But farmers continue at a rapid pace to forsake the land for other occupations. Now, Europe’s Vision magazine reports, farmers in the southern part of the continent are quitting in “massive” numbers. In 1964, for instance, Greece is said to have had 57 percent of its civilian labor force in agriculture; in 1971 the figure was 37.3 percent. Other outstanding drops in the European agriculture labor force about the same period include: Portugal, 42.1 to 30.6 percent; Spain, 37.9 to 27.6 percent; Norway, 20.6 to 12.3 percent; and West Germany, 11.6 to 7.5 percent.

Problems of Dams

? Egypt’s mighty Aswan Dam has come to be considered the “present-day symbol of schistosomiasis,” a parasitic disease already afflicting some 200 million persons in Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. The dam will soon irrigate millions of Egyptian square miles—and spread the disease to millions more persons. Meanwhile, the Colorado River, a major U.S. stream laced with innumerable dams, irrigates some of the most arid land in the southwestern U.S. In its flow, it picks up mineral salts, which poison crops in neighboring Mexico’s fertile Mexicali Valley.

A Bishop’s “Gibberish”

? In this secular age one might expect atheists to refer to the Biblical account about the Tower of Babel and the changing of languages by God as a “myth.” But would a Catholic bishop say such a thing? Fulton J. Sheen recently did, adding: “This was no supernatural phenomenon.” Well, then, what was it? Sheen answers: “A direct result of the complexity of their technology. Architects, engineers, builders, brick masons, astrologers, bookkeepers developed their separate jargons and scientific gibberish so that one could not understand what the others were saying.” The Bible’s report on what happened was “inspired of God.” Where did Bishop Sheen get his information?

Greasy Grease

? Why did not someone think of it before? Make grease greasier! How? Engineers at General Motors Corporation have mixed tiny ball bearings into grease and, in doing so, claim the friction is greatly reduced. At slow-speed applications the new procedure is almost as effective as roller bearings, though at a fraction of the cost. A thousand-pound load placed on the new grease reportedly can be moved with one pound of force.

Drugs and Kidneys

? Both narcotic and medicinal drugs can bring about kidney disease. Dr. Garabed Eknoyan, professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, recently informed the American College of Physicians that kidney disease complications can arise from addiction to narcotics like heroin and cocaine. Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas G. Murray, with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, claims that in a study of 101 cases of one form of kidney disease that he studied, some 20 percent were due to heavy use of non-narcotic analgesics, including aspirin, as well as other pain-killing, popularly sold drugs.

100th Derby

? On Saturday, May 4, the 100th Kentucky Derby was run in Louisville. But for the 100,000 spectators of this horse race much of the show was not on the track. One man wrote the Louisville Times: “Marijuana smoke filled the air. Drunken teen-agers streaked. Several males relieved themselves in the presence of the spectators. The mob tore down fences.” The city fielded a fourteen-man anti-pickpocket unit. At least 63 persons were theft victims.

Millions Cannot Read

? “There may be over a million adults of normal intelligence in Britain who cannot read properly,” reports London’s Daily Mail. And in the U.S., the results of a four-year testing program reveal that about a million youngsters between the ages of twelve and seventeen cannot read at a fourth-grade level. The test suggests, says the New York Post, that illiteracy is “more pervasive than ever before realized.”

“Increasing Lawlessness”

? Some people like to think that crime is limited to the big cities. But a report from Roundup, Montana (population about 2,000), indicates otherwise. The local weekly newspaper recently ran a front-page editorial referring to the “increasing lawlessness” that has led to talk of vigilantes; it urged citizens not to “take matters into their own hands.” County Sheriff George A. Palmer says that Roundup faces problems similar to those in the big cities: “Drinking, drugs and no respect for the law whatsoever.”

Non-Tobacco Cigarettes

? Non-tobacco cigarettes have been found to be just as harmful to the respiratory system as those made from tobacco. Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, using lettuce and bluestem grass cigarettes, conclude that smoke from any burnable material causes respiratory damage. Their report is found in a recent issue of Archives of Environmental Health.

The War’s Children

? The war in Northern Ireland has brought youngsters into contact with bloodshed and violence. The Irish Republican Army has warned children to stay away from soldiers. The British Army has even cautioned that youngsters should not play with toy guns, which often appear real. No one wants an innocent child to be shot by mistake. However, some youngsters are not entirely innocent as far as the fighting is concerned. According to a London Daily Telegraph report: “The young are rapidly becoming veterans of violence. Many thoroughly enjoy the stonethrowing and gun fights. The other night an 11-year-old told his mother he was going out to ‘pelt the soldiers.’ All the mother replied was: ‘Not in those best shoes you’re not.’”

No Stability

? “Stability,” says a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, “is a larger problem than ever.” As a consequence, around the world fewer leaders seem to be able to hold onto their positions. “It seems,” continues the Journal, “that the modern environment is an acid that attacks democratic leaders. The pace of life is so fast . . . that any problem or dislocation is likely to divide and inflame the public. In such a hectic and impatient age, political leaders cannot build enduring support; they are bound to fall victim to one passing crisis or another. It would be a mistake to underestimate this air of perpetual crisis.”

Bank Losses

? In the last six months of 1973 banks lost about $100 million to criminals. But less than $13 million was taken in holdups. The amount lost to embezzlers is said to be over five times that lost to robbers. California banks lost about $3.8 million as a result of illegal credit cards. “Robberies,” says the Los Angeles Times, “are small potatoes compared to bank losses from forgery, credit card fraud or embezzlement.” Banks are said to spend ten times their actual losses in attempts to protect themselves from criminals.

Doctors’ Hazards

? U.S. physicians suffer the highest rate of alcoholism of any profession, says the head of alcoholic detoxification at San Francisco General Hospital. Their “obsessive, compulsive, industrious” personalities lend themselves to addiction, he adds. These traits may be one reason that their wives have been found to seek mental help out of proportion to the general population, as their doctor husbands often fail to supply the affection wives need. Stresses on female physicians are such that their suicide rate is three times that of women generally.

Soviet Women

? Well over two thirds of the doctors in the Soviet Union are now women. Also, “women scientists account for 39 per cent of the country’s total,” says Soviet Life magazine.