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Watching the World

Street Children Flee From Abuse

“Ninety percent of street children have a family. About 90 percent [of these street children] are assaulted by their parents and therefore flee, getting involved in crime, drug abuse, and sexual exploitation,” states Enza Mattar, coordinator of the Regional Center for Attention to Mistreated Children (Crami). Mattar, quoted in Brazil’s O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, advises health professionals and teachers to be alert to signs of abuse, including “sudden changes in conduct, becoming withdrawn, and marks on the body.” Intervention can be vital, since only 5 percent of cases handled by Crami involve children who ask for protection themselves. Abusive parents often reject help. Why? Says João Roberto Scomparim, president of Crami: “Parents who violently assault their children are repeating the pattern they themselves experienced when they were young, and they believe that they are educating their children.”

Forgetful People

In an Italian study involving 1,600 adults, 77 percent indicated that they suffer from forgetfulness, states La Repubblica newspaper. More than a third had forgotten an important anniversary during the preceding year. In addition, 42 percent regularly forgot where they parked their car, over 30 percent forgot their house keys, over 25 percent forgot their wallet, and 1.2 percent even forgot their own name and surname. On the other hand, 28 percent of Italians say that they still remember at least one piece of poetry they memorized in school. How can you improve your memory? One authority recommends associating the thing to remember with something else, making notes in a diary and reviewing them, and doing exercises by memorizing phone numbers, tunes, and even license plate numbers.

Why Your Line Seems Slowest

If it seems that you always wind up in the slowest line when shopping, it may just be the laws of probability functioning. As the German newspaper Die Zeit points out, the probability that one of the two neighboring lines will be faster than yours is 2 out of 3. The more lines involved, the less favorable the odds. What irritates people, researchers found, is not so much the waiting but rather “the feeling of frittering away one’s time.” To make waiting for an elevator less annoying, some hotels have mounted mirrors in elevator lobbies. This gives people something to do—comb their hair or adjust their tie. Letting people know how much time they still have to wait also helps. Thus, some subway systems use electronic display panels to show how many minutes it will be until the next train leaves.

Abuse by Clergy in Africa

“Clergy sex abuse cases are beginning to surface in Africa,” reports the magazine Catholic International. To prevent such abuse, some Catholic bishops are recommending more rigorous screening and training of potential seminarians. Other areas of clerical misconduct that concern the African bishops include “misuse of alcohol, and involvement in activities that are unbecoming or alien to the priestly state and vocation, such as business or trade, politics.” Why have these cases only recently come to light? “A freer press and a lessening of previous Church control over the mass media,” answers Catholic International, adding that “initial attempts by some Church authorities in parts of Africa to prevent unflattering news . . . have failed.”

Preachers Carry Guns

In Kentucky, U.S.A., state law was recently amended to permit pastors to carry concealed guns in church if they hold a concealed weapons license, reports Reuters news service. Previously, pastors licensed to carry concealed deadly weapons could not do so in places of worship in the state. In 1997, some Kentucky churches were robbed of their collection money at gunpoint. Although no one was hurt, “ministers and priests of rural churches lobbied state lawmakers to allow them to carry concealed guns,” states the report. Not all clergy, however, are in favor of the change. Nancy Jo Kemper, Executive Director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, asked: “How can we expect our children to learn that guns will not solve problems if they see even ministers, who are supposed to be agents of peace and reconciliation, carrying weapons that can kill?”

Babies Need Touching

“Children raised without being regularly hugged, caressed or stroked . . . have abnormally high levels of stress hormones,” according to a study reported in the Toronto Star newspaper. The researchers believe that maternal separation or neglect in infancy “can have serious long-range effects on learning and memory.” Harvard Medical School scientist Mary Carlson further observed that youngsters whose families kept them in “poor-quality day-care centres on work days had abnormal levels of stress hormones on weekdays but not on the weekend when the children were home.” This research adds further evidence that gentle touching and lots of love are important for our children.

Dumping Trendy Dogs

Australian animal shelters are being flooded with dogs that have fallen out of fashion, says Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper. “Alaskan malamutes are the latest to be dumped in large numbers,” says the report. Owners abandon their dogs because they are no longer in style or have grown too big for the owner’s taste. The Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) expects that Dalmatians will be the next to be dumped when this breed, made popular by a recent movie, becomes unfashionable. RSPCA chief executive Richard Hunter says that dumping trendy dogs is not new. In the 1970’s it happened with Afghan hounds; and in the 1980’s, with English sheepdogs. Sadly, many of the abandoned dogs have had to be destroyed. The RSPCA urges people to select dogs on the basis of temperament and the owner’s life-style rather than fashion trends.

Kids—Get Moving!

A report in the German consumer’s magazine Test states that the inactivity of children who watch too much TV causes their perception, reflexes, and muscular coordination to suffer, making them more accident-prone. Physical examinations of children entering school in Germany revealed that up to 30 percent were overweight, up to 40 percent had difficulty with coordination, and up to 60 percent had posture problems. To get children moving, German sport, safety, and traffic educators have developed a game box containing soft Frisbees, balls, and other toys to help children have fun while being physically active.

Victims of the Sex Trade

An ad in a Ukrainian newspaper reads: “Girls: Must be single and very pretty. Young and tall. We invite you for work as models, secretaries, dancers, choreographers, gymnasts.” This ad is typical of those placed by sex traffickers to trap naive young women into prostitution, reports The New York Times. Each year, thousands of Ukrainian and Russian women go abroad in the hope of improving their life financially. But when they arrive in their foreign destinations, some have their passports taken away by criminal “bosses” and are forced to work in brothels. Refusal can mean beatings, rape, and grisly murder. Ukrainian psychologist Lyudmilla Biryuk, who has counseled women who have escaped from such bondage, says: “You want to tell these kids that if something seems too good to be true it usually is.”

Knee Lights for Jet Lag?

Until now, it has always been assumed that the human biological clock is regulated by cells in the retina. A new study, however, indicates that humans have light-sensitive cells on parts of the body other than the eye, reports the French newspaper Le Quotidien du médecin. In an experiment by researchers in the United States, some volunteers were subjected to a bright light via a fiber-optic tube strapped behind the knee, while others, wearing the same apparatus, were not. None of the volunteers knew just who was getting the light treatment. Body clock measurements were made based on body temperature and levels of the hormone melatonin. Also reporting on the study, the International Herald Tribune relates that the circadian rhythms of those treated with the light were “shifted by up to three hours.” Just how this happens is as yet unknown. But the results could have interesting applications in the treatment of jet lag, seasonal depression, and sleep disorders.