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Watching the World

The High Cost of Vehicle Theft

According to recent figures released by Statistics Canada, 146,846 vehicles were stolen in Canada in 1992, a record high. This amounted to a theft rate of 8.4 for every 1,000 vehicles, while the rate for the United States was about 8.3, said the newspaper The Vancouver Sun. Stolen vehicles were seldom returned in their original condition, and the report noted that “losses from the theft of autos, of property from autos, and from vandalism to vehicles amounted to $1.6 billion in 1992.” These losses are some 30 times greater than those from credit-​card fraud and theft and about 500 times greater than what is lost through bank robberies. Joyriding was cited as the most common reason for vehicle thefts. “Youths aged 12 to 17 years accounted for nearly half of those charged with auto theft,” added the Sun.

Serial Diner

One New Yorker has been in and out of prison over 31 times for the same offense: stealing a meal. The 36-​year-​old man will enter a restaurant, order a fine aperitif and a nice meal, and finish with black coffee. When the check arrives, he informs the waiter that he has no money and waits to be arrested. Why does he do it? “It’s tough on the outside,” the homeless man says. There is order in prison, you dine on time, and the food is good, he contends. Besides, he does not want to rob or hurt people; he just wants to eat well and have a clean bed and a peaceful place to sleep. So he always pleads guilty in court and seeks the full sentence. Housing him in prison costs taxpayers $162 a day. In fact, his recent $51.31 meal cost them $14,580 to keep him in jail for his 90-​day sentence. He has cost New York over $250,000 during the past five years. “Legal Aid lawyers,” says The New York Times, have “seen a small but growing number of people who commit petty crimes with the intent of going to prison” for “refuge from poverty or hunger.”

Ask Your Dentist

Recent speculation on the possibility of transmitting the AIDS virus through dental procedures is making people nervous. A study conducted by the American Dental Hygienists’ Association revealed that 83 percent of dental patients worry about contracting an infectious disease while receiving dental care. According to American Health magazine, patients should make sure not only that the dental staff wear gloves and masks but that they change them between patients. Reusable instruments should be heat-​sterilized after each patient. American Health notes that “cold-​sterilization techniques, such as cleaning the equipment with alcohol, are inadequate.” The magazine adds that “if your dentist is unwilling to answer your questions, find another dentist.”

Contaminated Travelers

Between 20 and 50 percent of the four billion people who travel each year are affected by diarrhea, usually because of contaminated food or water, estimates WHO (World Health Organization). Travel fatigue, jet lag, or a change in diet and climate may contribute to the problem by weakening the travelers’ resistance. To reduce the likelihood of diarrhea, WHO recommends the following: Make sure that food is thoroughly cooked and is still hot when served. If drinking water may be unsafe, boil it or disinfect it with reliable tablets available in pharmacies. Avoid raw foods except for fruit or vegetables that can be peeled or shelled. “Remember the dictum,” says WHO, “Cook it, peel it or leave it.”

Catholic Transgressions

According to The New York Times, Pope John Paul II is urging Catholics to atone for their transgressions committed against humanity over the past 2,000 years. The pope said that the church should “become more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children.” Evidently these transgressions are related to the role Catholics played during the horrific Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi Holocaust. The Times notes that “the question of atonement for Catholic errors is sensitive because it implies fallibility in the church’s depiction of its truth.” The newspaper added that some cardinals felt that “it was more important to examine modern ethical failures.”

Guns in America

According to a recent report, there are about 200 million firearms circulating among the general public in the United States. On the average, someone is shot every two minutes. Every 14 minutes someone dies from a gunshot. Every six hours a child or a teenager commits suicide with a firearm. The report states that on any given day, American children bring to school about 270,000 firearms. Redbook magazine explains that “between 1979 and 1991, nearly 50,000 children were killed by guns​—roughly equal the number of all Americans killed in the Vietnam War.”

India’s Couples Under Siege

In India, marriage “is under siege in what is rapidly turning into a ‘me-​first’ society,” states the magazine India Today. More and younger couples are streaming to the courts with their quarrels. Counselor Dr. Narayana Reddy reports that “the number of people coming in for professional counselling in the first few years of marriage has doubled in the last five years,” according to India Today. Some couples have sought professional help within days of their wedding. For the most part, there is nothing new about the factors causing havoc among Indian marriages: adultery, alcoholism, financial and property disputes, difficulties with in-​laws, and sex issues. Stress “has become the omnipresent, invisible and malevolent stranger in the Indian home.”

Antimosquito Radio?

It is claimed that a radio station in Poland has introduced an innovative method to combat that age-​old pest the mosquito. The French nature magazine Terre Sauvage reports that during a mosquito hatching season in Poland, thousands of radio listeners were able to fight these annoying insects without the use of pesticides. They merely tuned in their radios to a station named Radio Zet. According to Terre Sauvage, the radio station broadcast a continuous signal that, while inaudible to humans, could be heard by mosquitoes. The broadcast was an electronic imitation of the high-​frequency sounds emitted by bats that feed on mosquitoes​—enough to drive off any mosquito within hearing distance.

More Are Growing Old

The human family is getting older. World Health, a journal of the World Health Organization, explains that “every month, the present world total of 360 million persons aged 65 and over increases by 800 000 individuals.” During the next 30 years, the number of elderly is expected to reach an estimated 850 million. Europe and North America are experiencing a sharp growth in the percentage of older people because of “persistent low fertility and increasing life expectancy” in those countries, says World Health. The magazine notes that “Sweden now has the world’s ‘oldest’ population, with more than 18% of its citizens aged 65 or over.”

Food and Health in Britain

“Britons are among the unhealthiest of Europeans,” claims the British magazine The Economist. A recent study revealed that about half the adult population in Britain is “clinically overweight or obese​—which may explain why Britons are, after the Czechs, more liable to heart disease than any other nation,” says The Economist. The government’s Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food Policy has made a number of recommendations to improve the situation. Its suggestions included eating more “fish, bread, vegetables and potatoes” and reducing the intake of salt, sugar, and fat.

Ozone Depletion

OMM (World Meteorological Organization) in Geneva, Switzerland, predicts that despite efforts to reduce damage to the earth’s ozone layer, the depletion of the protective layer will continue to accelerate at least until the end of the 20th century. According to the news service France-​Presse, OMM’s conclusions are based on the observations of 266 scientists over the last four years in 29 different countries. Measures taken thus far to reduce ozone-​damaging industrial emissions are apparently beginning to have the desired effect. But the OMM report revealed that there is a “global and continuing decline” in the integrity of the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer and warned that the most critical period “is still ahead of us.”