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Watching the World

UN Controversy

● Two agencies of the United Nations are engaged in an apparent conflict of interest. The issue is tobacco cultivation in Third World countries. In its official journal, Ceres, the Food and Agriculture Organization maintains that “tobacco provides rural work, industrial employment, and national income. . . . Tobacco is, in fact, one commodity in which even smaller developing countries can find immediate, tangible, social and economic benefits.” The World Health Organization, on the other hand, “considers that the control of cigarette smoking in the developing countries ‘could do more to improve health and prolong life . . . than any other single action in the whole field of preventative medicine,’” according to The Journal of Toronto, Canada. A recent meeting of the two agencies in Geneva was described as “revealing considerable differences of approach to the problem and reflecting very different constituencies,” says The Journal.

Luther Honored at Home

● Along with celebrating the 100th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, this year the German Democratic Republic is also commemorating the 500th anniversary of the birth of native son Martin Luther. Luther was discredited by the communist state partly due to his popularity with the Nazi regime and partly for his opposition to the peasant rebellion of 1524-26. Lest the present change of position be mistaken for a sign of religious revival, East German leader Erich Honecker was quick to point out that “our socialist state considers it a noble duty to care for and advance the progressive inheritance of our people,” and that the observance will “strengthen their feelings of nationality and homeland.”

Another African Drought

● Africa has been once again ravaged by drought and famine far worse than in the early 1970’s, when at least 200,000 people died of starvation. At that time, disaster was confined mainly to Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan countries. But this year some 18 countries from Morocco to South Africa have been hard hit, with the resulting food shortages presenting “a forbidding picture,” according to a World Bank official. In South Africa the drought has been described as the “worst in 200 years”​—so bad that it could even bring the wheels of industry to a halt. The situation is said to be seriously compounded by border and internal unrest among several of the affected nations. Problems with government bureaucracy and lack of food emergency programs have left some nations almost powerless to help their people.

Buddhist Nuns’ Rights

● It appears that equal rights and ordination of women are not issues unique to the Western world. Many of the 20,000 Buddhist nuns in Thailand are becoming dissatisfied with their status in the Buddhist hierarchy. Traditionally, their role is to serve the monks​—cook their meals, tidy up their premises and even go begging for them. A recent study shows that “80 out of 100 nuns think that they can contribute more to society if they are not limited to doing menial labour in the temples,” says The Bangkok Post. Improvements sought by the nuns include “reviving the status of women priests . . . giving the nuns a rightful place as members of the clergy in the ecclesiastic hierarchy. Develop ‘New Nuns’ who take more part in social welfare activities and give them the necessary training in medicine, home economics, and other sciences.”

Earthquake Hits Japan

● The earthquake that hit northern Japan on May 26 registered 7.7 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter about 200 kilometers (125 mi) off the coast in the Sea of Japan. Resulting waves (tsunami), as high as 3 meters (10 ft), lashed the coastal region, causing most of the reported toll of more than a hundred killed or missing and presumed dead. The quake damaged a power station, cutting off electricity to about 30,000 homes. Telephone and rail services were interrupted. The Daily Yomiuri reported that “43 pupils of Aikawa-Minami Primary School in Aikawa-machi, Akita-ken, on an excursion to the beach of nearby Oga, were swept away by tidal waves.” The Japan branch office of the Watch Tower Society reported that missionary homes in Akita and Yamagata were not damaged, and none of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area were harmed.

Mafia Power Play

● After centuries of silence on the part of his church, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, finally spoke out and condemned the Mafia (underworld) by name for its criminal activities, including 150 slayings last year in Sicily. The result? The National Catholic Reporter disclosed that at the annual Mass held in the city prison, all 850 inmates stayed away, leaving the archbishop standing alone before the altar in an empty courtyard. Why? According to prison officials, word got around that the Mafia would consider anyone attending the Mass an “undesirable element.” After waiting for an hour, the archbishop, “grim-faced, boarded his car and drove back to his offices,” said the Catholic journal.

Costly Thirst

● According to the Sunday Times of London, even though the Falkland Islands get about 76 centimeters (30 in.) of rain a year, it costs British taxpayers five pence (8 cents, U.S.) per 0.5 liter (a pint) to supply the 4,000 troops stationed there with fresh water. This is because there are no lakes or reservoirs on the Falklands, and the desalination plant can turn out only enough water for the 1,500 local residents. Now, a 33,000-ton tanker, Fort Toronto, carrying six million gallons of fresh water, is permanently moored outside Port Stanley as a reservoir, and at least three other vessels are employed to replenish its supply. The total bill for quenching the soldiers’ thirst thus far has run well over £2,500,000 ($3.8 million, U.S.).

Academic Epidemic

● American government statistics show that one in every four students who enter a U.S. public high school as freshmen will not receive a diploma four years later. A review of the class of 1981, for example, shows that of the nearly 3.8 million students who enrolled as freshmen four years earlier, over one million failed to graduate. Experts at the National Center for Education Statistics report that most of them simply dropped out of school.

● While many students are failing, what about their teachers? A school principal in Florida had a group of sixth graders take an exam made up of 20 questions involving reading and mathematics selected from a teacher-competency test. The result? “The lowest score was 70 percent, the highest 100 percent,” reports The New York Times. But last year when 14,000 prospective teachers took the test, only 85 percent of them passed on their first try. “We did not do this to pit our kids against adults,” said the principal. “I just feel that the teachers’ standards should be raised.”

● What about the echelons of higher education? The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has uncovered at least 38 mail-order “universities” in the United States, Canada and Europe that offer “diplomas and medical degrees for a fee without requiring their graduates to do any school work or even attend classes,” reports The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada. A medical degree can be bought for as little as $600 (U.S.), but in at least one case, a Ph.D. costs $5,000. None of these “universities” actually exist, says the FBI, and many addresses turned out to be mail-service agencies, which forwarded the mail to a New York City apartment. Who are the “graduates”? They include “a high-ranking Washington official, a National Football League player, employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and state, municipal and federal employees in the United States,” says the report.

Insecure Securities

● Bonds and securities may be some people’s idea of sound investment, but to Edwin S. Marks of a Wall Street securities firm and others, some of them are a source of aggravation. These are owners of bonds and securities issued decades ago by countries that have since come under communistic rule and decline to honor the commitment. According to a report in The New York Times, lawsuits amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars are in the courts, but some governments, such as the Soviet Union and China, have flatly refused to pay. One owner said of his bonds: “They have Chinese characters on them, they have attractive illustrations, they look very nice framed.” Another man who owns czarist bonds said, “A friend of mine once offered me a nickel apiece” because he “wanted to paper his bathroom wall with them.” Marks, who owns “carloads” of such bonds said, “We don’t count them. We weigh them.”

Churches “Pressure” Politicians

● After concluding a three-day conference in Vienna, Austria, Christian and Muslim leaders united to call for a ban on nuclear weapons. They urged fellow clergymen to put pressure on politicians for disarmament. According to the Associated Press, Theodore Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame University, declared: “For the first time we have had sessions among church leaders of many different faiths from all over the world. Politicians tend to react to public pressure and public discussion.”

Astronomical Economics

● Argentina’s huge foreign debt is not only a heavy burden on the country’s economy but also a headache to the bookkeepers. The foreign debt recently was about two quadrillion pesos ($38.5 billion, U.S.), or 2 followed by 15 zeros. Such astronomical and unwieldy numbers confounded even the Central Bank’s computers. They “couldn’t handle any more zeros,” proclaimed Economy Minister Jorge Wehbe. In June the country instituted a monetary reform by cutting off four zeros in the currency. Ten thousand old Argentine pesos suddenly became just one new peso.

Dearer Is Better?

● With so much talk about pollution these days, many people do not mind paying extra for health foods in exchange for a little peace of mind. And pay they do, for the Consumer Affairs Department of New York found that 11 out of 30 common items are more than twice as expensive in health-food stores as in supermarkets. For example, whole chicken is higher by 244 percent, cabbage by 234.8 percent, tuna fish by 189.3 percent, and so on. But are they safer? “The department says that pesticide analyses by two independent laboratories turned up no evidence” that they are safer, reports the consumer magazine Changing Times.