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Watching the World

Clergy Morals

● A two-year study by the Washington Association of Churches concludes that “church organizations are part of a ‘conspiracy of silence’ about ministers and pastoral counselors who have sex with their parishioners or clients,” and that the problem is “more widespread than commonly believed,” says The Seattle Times. While the majority of clerical personnel do not misuse their influence in this way, “some of them genuinely do believe that it’s the best thing for their client or parishioner,” said Marie Fortune, a member of the report committee. The study puts the blame on lack of proper training and standards. “In the seminary, we never talked about it,” Fortune said. “We were not trained to deal with it as professionals, not given the sense that there was a standard of conduct for us as ministers that precluded sexual conduct with our parishioners.” In some cases where such conduct was discovered, the minister was simply moved to another position, Fortune noted, but the matter “was never dealt with, or acknowledged, and the people in the place he was moved to were never told about it.”

Acid Rain Costs

● “One inch of Portland stone eaten away from St. Paul’s Cathedral, 4,000 biologically dead Swedish lakes, and more than £100 million of damage to Dutch historical archives.” These are but a few of the devastating results of acid rain mentioned in a report by the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, according to The Guardian. Earlier, the committee had put the annual cost of acid-rain damage to the European Community at £33 to £44 billion. The new report concludes that those estimates “have been underplayed” because acid rain is “responsible for damage to nature” and “an equally heavy toll in socio-economic terms which cannot be quantified with accuracy.” Calling acid rain “one of the greatest environmental problems of our time,” the report points to power stations and automobiles as the chief source of pollutants, and “the mass of different laws and standards” as the major block to successful control.

Fetus’ Musical Taste

● When earphones were placed on the belly of a pregnant mother, the fetus was observed to respond immediately to the lilting waltz “as if it wanted to get up and dance,” said Clifford Olds, a British researcher. But no such effect was observed when the earphones were placed over the mother’s ears. Further investigation revealed that “different kinds of music evoke different patterns of heartbeat,” reports Science Digest, “and the same music quickens the heart in some fetuses, slows it in others.” Olds discovered this effect in one set of twins and he predicted that one would grow up to be an extrovert and the other an introvert. “Two years later, the twins’ mother said he’d been right.” Music also caused the fetus’ heart to beat more regularly, and the researcher foresees that the method will be used “as a treatment for fetal distress.”

Nuclear Power Slump

● The greatest concern in the field of nuclear power nowadays appears to be, not the threat of radiation leakage or environmental pollution, but whether the whole industry will survive. Technical and financial problems have closed a number of major nuclear plants in the United States and halted construction of others. Countries around the world likewise have cut back their plans for future development. As a result, “the global commitment to building nuclear plants has declined by 31,000 megawatts since 1978,” reports The New York Times, and “most of the 20 to 30 plants not yet under construction or mothballed are candidates for cancellation.” The future for nuclear power as an alternate source of energy appears dim indeed.

Chief Justice’s Rap

● America’s legal system “is too costly, too painful, too destructive, too inefficient for a truly civilized people,” Chief Justice Warren Burger told members of the American Bar Association in his annual State of the Judiciary address. Factors contributing to the high cost and low public esteem of the legal profession, according to Burger, include “absurd” and frivolous lawsuits to generate large fees, advertising tactics similar to those used for “other commodities, from mustard, cosmetics and laxatives to used cars,” the lack of uniform disciplinary action against dishonest and unethical lawyers, and the rapid swelling of their ranks. “Any fair-minded examination of the whole picture today will reveal that what we have done falls short of what is needed,” said the chief justice.

Suicide Cycle

● ‘Monday blues’ appears to be more than just a figure of speech. A study at the Harvard School of Public Health finds that suicide attempts are most likely to take place on Mondays and in the month of May. On the other hand, Saturdays and the month of December are the least likely time for suicides. The study, which analyzed 185,887 suicides, also finds that the monthly suicide rate reaches a peak on the fifth of each month except in the month of April when the peak occurs in the week before the 15th​—the income-tax deadline. The researchers say the data “reveal a remarkable cyclic variation which has not previously been recognised.”

Nepal’s Natural Resource

● Mount Everest and other peaks of the Himalayas not only attract climbers from all over the world but also constitute an important source of income for Nepal. Last year, about 700 mountaineers came to Nepal and spent over 17 million rupees ($1.125 million, U.S.), according to a Tourism Ministry official. The government also collected peak fees, which vary according to the height of the peak attempted, amounting to another one million rupees. These expeditions also provided employment for 6,000 porters and 700 guides in the country, said the official. And, as far as outsiders are concerned, the mountains really put the country on the map.

Traffic Death Trend

● The U.S. Secretary of Transportation reports that in 1983 there were 43,028 traffic deaths in the United States, the lowest in 20 years. Much of the success is attributed to the government’s efforts in combating drunken driving, which accounts for about half of all traffic deaths, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates. However, experts warn that the impact of such measures usually is short-lived. Studies of similar programs in Europe found that after initial successes, drunken driving returned to previous levels once the pressure of arrests tapered off. One official feels that the present level of enforcement is “pretty close to the ceiling of what we can accomplish,” and he says, “We’re talking about arresting only one of every 300 drunken drivers.” Authorities agree that ‘to really solve the problem we’re going to have to change the attitudes of this nation with respect to drunk driving,’ but they say that it may take years, perhaps generations.

Save the Bugs

● The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, in its publication The IUCN Invertebrate Red Data Book, has earmarked 247 endangered species of beetles, snails, spiders, worms and the like for preservation, says The Wall Street Journal. But why them? Most people think of them only as pests, says the book, but “the many ways in which they are beneficial to man are rarely considered.” For example, they pollinate plants, renew soil fertility, purify water, recycle nutrients and constitute an important link in the food chain. The “genetic diversity” in the millions of species of invertebrates is a source of information man has not even begun to tap, say IUCN scientists. “How many cures for cancer or other diseases will be lost before they are discovered?” they ask. And their wholesale destruction, perhaps up to one million species by the end of the century, is creating “potentially adverse effects on the balance of nature on which man himself depends.”

Bad Medicine

● “Exposure to drugs in our country is staggeringly high,” says Hershel Jick of Boston University. About 75 million adult outpatients take one or more drugs once a week, reports Science News, and “the average hospital patient receives 9 or 10 drugs during his stay.” The result? One of every 30 hospital admissions is due to bad reaction to some medicine, and about 30 percent of all hospital patients suffer at least one of such reactions during their stay, says the report.

Japanese Divorce

● While marriages in Japan dropped to an all-time low of 65 per 10,000 people last year, the divorce rate soared to 15 per 10,000, the second highest on record. The previous high of 15.3 was in 1899 under the social system of the Meiji period. The number one reason for divorce is “chemistry mismatch,” says Mainichi Daily News. Other reasons given by men include: “Wives refused to live with in-law parents, wives’ extramarital relations, and wives’ poor relations with in-laws and kins,” while those given by women include: “Brutality, husbands’ extramarital relations, and that husbands refused to hand over living expenses.” In Japan, about half the divorces are not contested and involve no monetary settlement.

Brazilian Defense

● “A jewel of defense”​—that was how a leading jewelry store in Brazil last December advertised a line of diamond-studded handguns for women. Other ads offered pistols at $65 to $135 (U.S.) with the promise: “Feel more secure.” In São Paulo, 40,000 handguns were sold legally in the first nine months of 1983, according to the State Security Department, and 7,000 illegal guns were confiscated, reports The New York Times. The brisk gun business, along with rising sales of locks, alarms, guard dogs and the hiring of bodyguards, are all the result of a wave of crime and violence that has struck fear into the hearts of the Brazilians. A Gallup survey found that in São Paulo, four of every ten were victimized at least once. Officials attribute the rising crime wave to “the financial situation of people, lack of work and difficulty in surviving in general.”

Costly Bullets

● Most people are troubled when they hear about the huge sums governments are spending on nuclear bombs and other modern weapons of war. But what about the cost of supplying the American soldiers with plain bullets for their M-16 rifles? Andy Rooney, columnist of New York’s Daily News, reports that the Defense Department bought 613,700,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition in 1983 and ordered another 705,000,000 rounds for 1984. “Remember, that’s without being at war,” writes Rooney. “At half a dollar each shot, it comes to $650,000,000 we’ve spent in bullets alone, not to kill anyone.”

Amazing Brain

● In ten seconds the human brain with its one hundred billion nerve cells or neurons, is capable of processing ten million bits of data, says Professor Marco Trabucchi, director of the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Brescia, at a conference in Milan. (In comparison, the five computers on board the space shuttle Columbia together perform only about 325,000 operations a second.) Equally amazing is the fact that in those ten seconds, all the ten million bits of information must be gathered and transmitted to the brain through the various organs of the body. The professor’s figures show that over four million bits come from the eyes, five million from the skin, 300,000 from the ears and the remainder through smell and taste.