Watching the World
Abortion Casualties
● Russia: Ten million abortions are performed in the Soviet Union every year, according to Western medical experts on Russia. For every live birth, two to three pregnancies are said to be aborted. The average Soviet woman reportedly has four abortions, thus increasing her chances of premature birth or stillbirth when she decides to bear a child.
● Spain: A government plan to legalize abortion is causing political shock waves in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. The relaxing of the penal code would allow for abortions only under special circumstances—rape, an abnormal fetus or when the life or health of the woman is endangered. The penal code would still retain stiff prison sentences for both the woman and the doctor if the abortion is performed for other reasons. Many opposing groups object and call abortion murder, pointing to the antiabortion speech of Pope John Paul II during his November 1982 visit to Madrid, when he said: “Nothing can legitimize the death of an innocent.” Strangely, though, in spite of severe penalties and the anti-abortion stance of the church, 18,000 to 20,000 Spaniards reportedly traveled to England for abortions in 1980. Those who favor legalized abortion claim that perhaps as many as 300,000 abortions were performed in Spain last year.
Growing “Youth Rebellion”
● Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky stated that unless the superpowers show a genuine willingness to negotiate weapons control the Western powers run a risk of a “youth rebellion in democratic countries much deeper and more serious than the student revolts of 1968.” Referring to the arms race, in an interview reported in the International Herald Tribune of Paris, he warned: “The whole young generation, not just students, but Catholics, Protestants, Socialists and others want to show their opposition.” This growing atmosphere of protest and what it may produce he calls “a tremendous danger for democracies.”
Bushfire Rampage
● Recent bushfires raging out of control wasted 500 miles (800 km) along the drought-plagued southeast coastal states of Victoria and South Australia in just 24 hours. Fanned by gusty winds of more than 60 mph (96 km/h) that swept in from the central Australian desert, fierce fires ignited the dry eucalyptus forest, or bush, and scorched 740,000 acres (300,000 ha) of land. In Victoria alone the timber loss is valued at over $45 million. The death toll from the fire storms rose to over 70. Churches, schools, hotels and over 2,000 homes were destroyed by the engulfing fires. The hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area are grateful that none of them suffered injury and that none of their Kingdom Halls were destroyed or damaged.
Jobless Teenagers
● ‘Living like wild animals,’ is how Kenneth Livingstone, leader of the Greater London Council, describes unemployed English teenagers in the capital city. “We have got thousands of children wandering the streets of London and living rough,” he said, as quoted in the Daily Telegraph. “It’s an appalling situation for 1983, when we have the resources in this country to provide everybody with a decent home, employment and health care.” Another spokesman for the council added that this results in teenage delinquency and lawbreaking because “they feel unmotivated and alienated by the failure of the country to provide them with any employment opportunities.”
“Diploma Disease”
● “Throughout Africa, the desire to land a white-collar job has led to the Paper Qualification Syndrome: the view that it does not matter what you study as long as there is a diploma at the end, and better to remain a perennial student [than] to finish without one,” says the magazine Africa Now. According to a recent study made by the International Labour Office’s Jobs and Skills Programme for Africa, in French-speaking West African countries a diploma is the key to a white-collar job with a good salary. But opportunities are limited because the economy is mainly agricultural. So growing unemployment among diploma holders is a source of concern. To compensate for the disparity, Benin has embarked on an agriculture-oriented program to encourage and educate young adults toward an agricultural future.
“Computermania”
● Singapore is gearing up to challenge Japan as the Asian hub for electronic technology. A massive effort is being made by the Singaporean government to computerize everything “from the bus system to civil service departments” with an “ambition to move Singapore out of assembly-style manufacturing into the ‘brain services’” and to make it “the computer centre of Southeast Asia by 1990,” reports South magazine. The intense publicity and exposure caused by the government’s campaign to be number one in computers, says South, “has led to a small outbreak of computermania” in the school systems.
Sucking-Token Thieves
● New York City youths have discovered a new method for stealing subway tokens—suck them from turnstile slots! “Some kids are making $50 to $100 a day sucking tokens” and reselling them, a deputy inspector of the Transit Authority Police Department told The New York Times. Before a subway patron can pass through the turnstile, a youth runs up to the slot with open mouth and “all of a sudden, you’ve got no token,” complained a Transit Authority spokesman. Sucking tokens is “unhealthy and illegal and you will get caught,” he added. At one subway station the token clerk sprinkled chili powder into the token slot to prevent this unusual form of theft. Did it work? The Times reported: “The kids came back with buckets of water, threw the water on the turnstiles and then threw the rest at the token clerk.”
Church-State Battle
● On an island in the center of the Mediterranean Sea a battle is raging between the government of Malta and the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries, until the 1971 election of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, the church dominated Maltese political, social and educational affairs. Things began to change. Now, says The New York Times, Mr. Mintoff, who was educated by the Roman Catholic school system and whose brother is a priest, “has openly declared war on church schools” that educate between one fifth and one fourth of Malta’s pupils. The government maintains that all education must be free. Last year, continues the report, it “outlawed voluntary donations to church schools, froze school fees and decreed a bonus in admission points for university entrance to state high school graduates.”
Sub-Saharan Famine
● “The food situation is becoming more critical from day to day” for sub-Saharan Africa, reports The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Serious shortages threaten large regions of Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands. Chad, a country of 4.7 million people, is in greatest danger. Its agricultural production plummeted 40 percent and its livestock is menaced by an infectious cattle disease. The Republic of Mali’s 6.9 million inhabitants also face serious problems due to a drought. Through international donations of grain, UN officials hope to avert famine-caused devastation similar to what happened 10 years ago to hundreds of thousands in the sub-Saharan region.
Bandit Queen
● Phoolan Devi, the 26-year-old notorious bandit queen of central India, and her 25 gang members surrendered to Indian authorities last February in a town 180 miles (290 km) southeast of New Delhi. For three years she and her gang terrorized the people of the wooded Chambal Valley and eluded up to 2,000 police. She is accused of some 50 murders and 70 armed robberies, and has a reputation as a deadly shot. Her bandit life, glamorized to the point of legend, enticed 5,000 people to gather and witness her announced surrender. But the glamor of her life was shattered by a senior police official’s comments, as reported in Time magazine: “All dacoits [bandits] are dead by the time they are 30. . . . The nights are lonely. She is no longer the beauty she once was.”
Really “Superglue”
● How to transport a casting weighing 333 tons over a bridge that had a capacity of only 110 tons was solved by using “giant tubs of glue.” According to a report in the Yorkshire Post, workmen “spread the glue on to steel plates and then stuck them underneath the bridge.” The bridge was thus strengthened to handle the combined weight of nearly 500 tons for both casting and lorry, which was more than twice the weight of the heaviest load previously carried on a British road.
World’s Infant Mortality
● According to the World Health Organization, the number of infants who die before reaching one year of age varies greatly among the nations of the world. For example, of every 1,000 babies born in Niger, 200 die. Yet only 7 die in Sweden. The nation with the greatest wealth per person, Qatar, has a staggering infant mortality rate of 138, while 13 out of every 1,000 born in the United States die before the age of one. The mortality rate for France is 9.9; Australia, 11; United Kingdom, 12.2; Federal Republic of Germany, 13.5; Thailand, 15.6; Greece, 18.7; Soviet Union, 36; Mexico, 44.1; Brazil, 84; and South Africa, 97.
Telephone “Hang-up”
● The Trans-Canada Telephone System reports that 23 billion telephone calls were made by Canadians in 1981 and that the nation ranks fourth in the world in number of telephones per 100 population. The United States heads the list, with 83.7 phones per 100; Sweden is second, with 79.5, followed by Switzerland, with 72.4. Canada rings in with 67.2 telephones for 100 inhabitants.
Cough Control
● Coughing spells can be frightening, and, when in public, embarrassing. Yet coughing is useful when it brings up mucus and clears the air passages. How can you control your cough and make it useful? When you feel a cough coming on, the Brooklyn Lung Association in its Fresh Air News letter suggests: “1. Breathe in deeply. 2. Hold your breath for a few seconds. 3. Cough twice, first to loosen mucus, then to bring it up. 4. Breathe in by sniffing gently. 5. Get rid of mucus. Use strong tissues or paper towels. Swallowing mucus can upset your stomach.”