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Watching the World

World Court Weak

◆ The United Nations’ International Court of Justice was recently called into the hostage situation between Iran and the United States. During its 35 years of existence, it had considered only 45 cases and given just 14 judgments and 16 formal advisory opinions. “The tribunal was supposed to succeed​—and surpass—​the Permanent Court of International Justice, a creature of the League of Nations,” observes Newsweek magazine. But that court also handled few cases and, “like the league, it failed spectacularly at preventing war or resolving volatile issues.” Of the U.N.’s 151 members, only 43 have allowed the International Court jurisdiction, often with “reservations.” And, due to “the rampant nationalism of the times,” says Newsweek, “the court’s meager record should come as no surprise.”

“No. 1 Highway Menace”

◆ Many people believe that speed is primarily responsible for traffic deaths. But the head of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Joan Claybrook, recently called drunken driving “America’s No. 1 Highway Menace.” She said that “about one-half of all fatal highway crashes in this country involve alcohol,” and in crashes involving only one vehicle “upwards of 65 percent of those killed are legally drunk.” An estimated 25,000 traffic deaths annually involve alcohol, according to Miss Claybrook, and “about one-third involve the social drinker, while the balance involve problem drinkers.”

Shroud Silliness

◆ One American entrepreneur recently saw a chance for profit in the Shroud of Turin and advertised, in a nationally distributed tabloid, his own “Miracle Cloth” emblazoned with a shroud image. It is a “miracle image that has been preserved for nearly 2000 years and now its incredible powers are ready to go to work for you,” enthused the ad. “Now, you do not have to just read about other people’s miracles. You can have them for your own self.” What kind of “miracles” is this “religious” keepsake supposed to perform? Among other things, “you can take it with you to win at bingo, the races, card games, the casino and other games of chance,” it declared. “Take it with you to buy your lottery tickets and touch it to your entry form when you enter a sweepstake or contest.” Such is the foolishness to which worship of relics can lead.

Religion Under Communism

◆ According to a recent report in Time magazine, the Soviet Union has about 11,000 Orthodox churches open throughout the country, compared to 53,000 before the Communist revolution. It has three seminaries for training priests, whereas there were 57 before 1917. Under what circumstances does the Church operate? “The Orthodox Church is completely loyal to the state,” answers a Soviet Council for Religious Affairs spokesman. “It is good that its priests go to a seminary where they see the relationship clearly​—the archbishops on one wall and the Soviet leaders on the other.”

◆ As of January 1, 1980, the new criminal code for the People’s Republic of China authorizes prison sentences for anyone who interferes with another’s practice of religion. However, the recent 1978 Chinese constitution states: “Citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism.” Take note, no allowance is made to propagate religion.

Brazil’s ‘Serious Health Problem’

◆ According to Dr. Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, president of the Brazilian Hematology Congress, Brazil’s “hematologists use a blood transfusion with extreme caution and this caution tends to increase, but there is no doubt that a blood transfusion is at the moment the greatest transmitter of Chagas’ disease and hepatitis. Brazilian medical authorities consider the matter one of the most serious health problems Brazil is facing.”

Crime in China

◆ Juvenile delinquency in the People’s Republic of China has grown tenfold since the early 1960’s, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Even so, by Western standards such crimes are still low among China’s 210 million school-age children. A New China News Agency report attributed much of the blame for growing delinquency to China’s 10-year “Cultural Revolution” where children “were brought up in an atmosphere in which beatings and smashing and looting were considered revolutionary actions,” and “were taught that rebellion is justified.”

New VD Menace

◆ A previously little-known and ignored disease called nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) “has become the most common venereal infection in the United States, England and other developed countries,” according to a report in the Reader’s Digest. It is said to infect four to nine million persons a year and “is increasing at an epidemic rate, far faster than gonorrhea.” Caused by the chlamydia bacteria, the disease has symptoms similar to gonorrhea. “It makes you miserable and it robs young women of their chances of motherhood,” says the director of the U.S. National Center for Disease Control (CDC). “Babies acquire it from their mothers at delivery,” he adds, and “it also is considered the most common cause of pneumonia in children under eight weeks of age.” Can it be avoided? As in other forms of VD, “uninfected partners who are faithful to one another can’t get NGU,” answers another CDC official.

Surgery: Experience Counts

◆ According to the New England Journal of Medicine, patients for certain high-risk surgical operations would be wise to look for surgeons who have had a lot of practice. The study of over 840,000 operations in almost 2,000 hospitals revealed that as many as 1,947 unnecessary deaths may have occurred due to unpracticed surgery. Hospitals handling fewer than 200 cases annually of open heart, coronary bypass and blood-vessel surgery had higher death rates than those doing a higher volume of such procedures. On the other hand, the fatality rate of simpler surgery such as removal of gallstones did not seem affected by the surgeon’s degree of practice.

Conservation Results

◆ The energy shortage and high prices have had a significant effect on energy consumption in the United States. According to U.S. News & World Report magazine, in five years “industry turned out 21 percent more goods while consuming only 1 percent more energy.” And gasoline consumption in six years went up just 5 percent to fuel 25 million more vehicles.

Churches Pushing Porn?

◆ The Methodist Board of Discipleship recently ruled that 10 films intended for sex counseling could continue to be used for limited audiences. But a dissenting member of the Board commented: “The films were not, nor were the [sex counseling] forums, biblically based. The films showed men and women through the act of masturbation, and they also showed male and female homosexuality. Each one of these movies was from beginning to end​—from the point of undressing to the point of climax.” Methodist Minister Ted McIlvenna of San Francisco, who made most of the films, defended them, noting that they “were shot and produced by Methodist ministers.” About 78,000 persons are said to have seen the explicit movies in the past seven years.

A book titled “The Sex Atlas,” produced by an official publishing arm of the Episcopal Church, is being sharply criticized by two Episcopal priests who feel that “it seems to be an apology for any aberrant sexuality.” Among other things, they point to passages in the book that seem to minimize child molestation and sex with animals. The book says that molested children may be more “disturbed by adult hysteria about a gentle and friendly ‘child molester’” than by the molestation itself. Also, it predicts that in the future “our society will be much less preoccupied with sexual contact between humans and animals. After all, as long as the animal is not hurt or mistreated, there is no need for social interference.” Apparently this religious publishing house does not consider God’s opinion on such matters to be relevant.​—Ex. 22:19.

Crisis Restores Togetherness

◆ The traditional kotatsu, a family leg-warming device, is enjoying a resurgence among chilly Japanese. The government’s recommendation of an energy-saving 60-degree F (16-degree C) maximum winter room temperature has encouraged families to get back together. The modern version of the kotatsu has a heating element built into a low table, under which members of the family put their legs and tuck quilts. The cozy group can then have meals, conversation, reading or games together as a family.

Embarrassment of Riches

◆ Seven prosperous money institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany are owned by the Lutheran Church and five by the Roman Catholic Church, according to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper notes that “some of them are proud of this, whereas others shamefully try to hide their success, although it cannot be concealed completely.” German Lutheran and Catholic churches are supported by state tax money, and Süddeutsche Zeitung contends that the churches fear a change in tax laws that would dole out the money on the basis of need rather than the set percentage they now receive.

Car Breaks Sound Barrier

◆ The first land vehicle to break the sound barrier was said to have reached 739 miles per hour (1,189 km/​h) in a mid-December run. The car streaked across a dry lake bed in California powered by a 48,000 horsepower rocket engine and boosted by an 8,000 horsepower Sidewinder missile engine when it reached 612 miles per hour (985 km/​h). A Hollywood stuntman drove the vehicle.

Sound for Sleep

◆ Some enterprising people have marketed a Teddy bear that plays back to infants the sounds they heard in their mothers’ wombs. When the recording, taken from the womb of a pregnant woman, was tried in a Florida hospital’s nursery, the nursery supervisor complained: “It’s the most boring sound you’ve ever heard. It drives the help crazy.” But babies were said to get to sleep after about 15 seconds of the pulsing sounds of blood whooshing through a mother’s pelvic arteries.

Saturated with Sugar

◆ The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that Americans have little control over three fourths of the sugar they consume, since it is put into so many processed foods and drinks. Now the Department has ruled that cereals distributed by a federal food program for pregnant and breast-feeding mothers and preschool children can contain, at most, 21 percent sugar, hardly a small amount.

“Me First” Tragedy

◆ When 11 rock music fans were trampled to death and dozens of others were injured trying to get into a recent Cincinnati, Ohio, rock concert, part of the blame was put on the seating arrangements. A portion of the seats were sold as so-called “festival seating,” in which those who are the earliest​—or most aggressive—​get the best seats. In this case, when the Riverfront Coliseum opened, the “me first” spirit took control even though enough seats were available for all. “It was mayhem​—bodies were all over,” said Assistant Fire Chief Norman Wells. Even so, the rock group performed because “we figured it would be better to let it go than create another panic situation,” he said.