Watching the World

A Water Crisis

The latest report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) says that some 30 countries around the earth will be facing serious water shortages by the year 2000. According to the FAO, with ever-​increasing competition for limited water resources, hundreds of millions of people will not receive the minimum amount of water needed for their survival. The populations in greatest danger are those in northern and sub-​Saharan Africa, the Near East, and Hungary. The report, appearing in the Paris newspaper Le Monde, says that agriculture uses approximately 70 percent (90 percent in developing countries) of the earth’s freshwater supplies for irrigation. The FAO estimates that up to 60 percent of this water is wasted because of ineffective irrigation methods.

A Dying Japanese Tradition?

The deep reverence Japanese people have traditionally shown their elders seems to be declining. Physical and psychological abuse of the elderly is on the increase. Mainichi Daily News explains that according to one expert, many modern families find themselves caring for their old relatives unwillingly and are not able to cope with the stress. They often resort to violence and neglect. According to the Mainichi Daily News, in one case a man got into the “habit of beating his 75-​year-​old father black and blue whenever he refused to hand over his pension money.” Other typical examples include tying up the arms and legs of a senile parent and then locking him in a room and stuffing rags into the mouth of an old woman.

Aerobics Alert

The Times of London reports that “the obsessive pursuit of high-​impact aerobics” can result in inner-​ear injuries. Apparently too many sessions of vigorous jumping can permanently damage the delicate granules of the inner ear. Some of the common symptoms are dizziness, loss of balance, motion sickness, and ringing in the ears. A recent survey of women who taught high-​impact aerobics classes twice a day revealed that 83 percent had problems hearing high-​frequency sounds. Another cause for concern is that some women seem to develop “exercise bulimia,” an addiction to excessively vigorous exercise. Its victims “end up exhausted, with strained muscles, stress fractures and, if they take high-​impact classes, balance problems,” notes The Times.

Why So Few Cars in China

With a population of more than one billion people, China has only 50,000 privately owned automobiles. Still, according to China Today, this figure represents “an astronomical leap.” In 1983 there were only 60 private cars in that country! The number of car owners is expected to grow in the near future. However, a prospective buyer must count the cost. In China there are more than 40 different types of taxes that inflate the cost of an automobile. For example, a “car might sell for 300,000 yuan (about US $37,000) in China, yet cost no more than US $10,000 in other countries.” What about the cost of learning to drive? One driving school charges “double the annual income of the average wage earner,” notes China Today.

Cameras Make a Difference

The Department of Transport in London, England, reports a dramatic reduction in the number of speed violations in areas where cameras have been set up to photograph the speeding vehicles’ license plates. These cameras provide the authorities with photographs that are used to prosecute speeding drivers. They can also produce incriminating evidence against those who run red traffic lights. The magazine New Scientist reports that since the cameras were installed, “the number of people seriously injured on the roads chosen for the project has fallen by a third.” Once the cameras started clicking, the average number of vehicles exceeding the maximum legal speed limit by 20 miles [32 km] per hour dropped from 1,000 to 30 cars a day. “There has been a drop of 40 per cent in the number of drivers jumping the lights and a 60-​per-​cent reduction in the number of accidents at the crossroads,” notes New Scientist.

The 1914 Generation

Only 272,000 of the 4,743,826 U.S. men and women who participated in World War I were alive in 1984. (Awake!, April 8, 1988) Today that number, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, has dwindled to an estimated 30,000, and their median age is 95. Worldwide, however, in 1992 there were still 61,486,000 persons living of the generation born in 1914 or prior to it.

Save the Bugs

Without insects and other invertebrates, “the global ecosystem would collapse, humans and other vertebrates would probably last only a few months, and the planet would belong mostly to algae and fungi,” notes The New York Times. Based on a recent study, the Times article warns that the popular concerns over saving whales, tigers, and other endangered species should be extended to include invertebrates. These small creatures are responsible for a number of important ecological processes, including consuming decaying matter, pollinating plants, dispersing seeds, and eliminating waste. In the United States alone, humans produce about 130 million tons of excreta every year, and livestock a further 12 billion [12,000,000,000] tons. According to one expert, 99 percent of this waste “is thought to be decomposed by invertebrates.”

Dying Languages

Several languages are at risk of disappearing in the linguistically diverse country of Papua New Guinea. Already five languages have died in the past 40 years. That “leaves the country with just 867 languages,” according to the Post-​Courier of Papua New Guinea. The country’s “linguistic diversity is attributed to the geographical isolation of many tribes in the mountainous, forested terrain of the country’s centre,” explains the Post-​Courier. The newspaper adds that there are “22 languages with fewer than 100 speakers, seven languages with less than 20 speakers and 10 languages with less than 10 speakers.” One of the endangered languages is Uruava, spoken by five people. Bina and Yoba are each spoken by only two people.

The Snake’s Forked Tongue

Of what use is a forked tongue to a snake? According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, the tongue helps the snake follow an aromatic trail in much the same way that our two ears work together to detect the direction of a sound. When on the trail of its prey or a mate, the snake repeatedly flicks out its tongue, spreading the ends apart as far as possible. In this way, the snake tests the strength of the scent at two points, enabling it to know the direction of the animal it seeks to find.

Sexual Harassment by Patients

A recent study reveals that sexual harassment on the job is a serious problem for many female physicians. In the survey, 77 percent of the respondents “reported some form of sexual harassment from patients,” explains The Medical Post. Many believe that the solution to this problem rests on the shoulders of the doctors themselves. They are encouraged to act businesslike and professional, wear a lab coat, and wear a wedding ring when treating patients. Others, however, feel that there is nothing that can be done to avoid the sexual harassment of female doctors. The Post voices this opinion when it says that “women doctors are part of a society where sexual harassment and the fear of it is part of the fabric of being female.”

Burning Corneas

A medical journal recently reported that many young women are accidentally burning their corneas by jerking curling irons into their eyes while styling their hair. According to Dr. Dean Ouano of the University of Pennsylvania’s Scheie Eye Institute, this is “probably the most common thermal injury to the cornea.” One study shows that in most cases there is no long-​term damage to the eye, and in many cases the burned eye heals within three days. However, Dr. Albert Cheskes of the Bochner Eye Institute in Toronto describes this type of accident as one that can be “very dangerous.” He adds that it happens “because there are more and more curling irons that are being used and women are in a rush.”

School-​Yard Crimes

“School violence is ugly, prevalent and fast becoming the hottest issue facing educators and politicians,” claims The Toronto Star. The number of violent acts is increasing with each passing year. In 1993, school-​yard crimes in the Toronto area included 810 assaults, 131 sexual assaults, and 7 poisonings as well as 141 dangerous-​weapon charges. Police have “seized a virtual arsenal of guns, knives, sticks, bats and other weaponry from students,” adds the Star. Frantic parents see schools as a dangerous place to send their children. Schools used to be a haven for learning, “but now you get gangs, group intimidation, weapons,” reports the Star.