Watching the World
The Drug Scene
◆ Teen-age heroin use has gone wild among white and black, rich and poor, in the suburbs as well as in the city, among girls as well as boys. In 1960, fifteen teen-agers died of drug abuse in New York city. In 1969, the toll soared to 224 teen-agers, which is an increase of about 1,500 percent! By the third week of March 1970, drugs had already killed 58 teen-agers—192 of all ages—in New York city. Today, drugs are the principal cause of death in the 14-35 age-group. Not all were addicts. Many were children having their first experience with drugs. It has been estimated that by this summer there will be 100,000 young heroin users in New York city alone. It is said that each addict influences three or four others. Do you realize what this can mean in two or three years? If you love your child, inform him of what is happening on the drug scene. It may be a grief saver—and a lifesaver.
Quakes in Turkey
◆ Gediz, a town of 8,000 about 200 miles west of Ankara, Turkey, was hard hit by an earthquake the night of March 28. Over a thousand were known dead. This was the beginning of a series of more than 300 earth tremors. The quake leveled every building in the town of Gediz and flattened villages for miles around along the Anatolian Fault. The tremors that followed caused deaths in the villages of Siman and Emet. The latest total of homeless was placed at 90,000 in an area inhabited by 150,000 people.
Air Pollution Blamed
◆ How bad is air pollution? It is now being blamed for more than half of all diseases suffered by man. This was the opinion of a Toronto surgeon, Dr. Joseph McKenna of York-Finch Hospital. McKenna linked increased air pollution with a 700-percent increase in the number of “respiratory cripples” in Toronto in the last 15 years.
Postal System on Strike
◆ During March the United States postal system went on strike. The strike, which began in New York city, swept across the country. On March 24 President Nixon declared a state of national emergency and ordered troops to help move essential strikebound mail in New York city and pledged to use military personnel elsewhere if necessary. About 30,000 servicemen were ordered out. On the following day the union felt that it had made its point and the strikers began returning to work. On March 31 an “unconditional” offer of a 12-percent pay increase was made by the government to the postal workers, half of the pay increase would be retroactive to October 1 and half would be effective next July 1. The workers had requested a 40-percent increase.
Assaulted Outside Notre Dame
◆ Outside the church of Notre Dame de l‘Assomption in Paris, a mob of 150 demonstrators prevented theologian Marc Oraison from speaking on the subject “Sexual Morality and Sin.” After being manhandled, Oraison and the parish priest fled the scene. Later Oraison said that the incident was “much more serious than I first thought at the time,” and that his coming out of it with only a few bruises and dye stains on his head was “miraculous.” His opposers were believed to be Catholic traditionalists. He is not the first priest to have been so assaulted. René Laurentin, a progressive priest, had been maltreated in a Paris church a short time before.
Salt Danger
◆ David Caverly, general manager of the Ontario Water Resources Commission, warned that salt used for snow removal is running off into Toronto’s rivers and could build up concentrations in tap water, which could be dangerous to heart patients. The Toronto area uses about 140,000 tons of road salt a year. W. A. Steggles, supervisor of water quality surveys for the resources commission, said that salt levels in one river have been climbing to as high as 600 parts per million daily after heavy runoffs. This is far in excess of the 250 parts per million considered acceptable for health.
Violence Vexes London
◆ “Law and order” has suddenly become a hot political issue in Britain because of what police officials term a surge in violent crime. There were 6,820 incidents of “wounding and assault” last year, the highest figure yet recorded and a 28.7-percent increase from 1968. Sir John Waldron, the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, said: “This is part of the day and age of permissiveness, the age of fiddling, of everyone living up to the hilt. There is little pride, little dignity, no stigma if you appear in court—and no shame.” He termed this “an age of violence.”
Legal Dictatorship for America?
◆ The American journalist-historian William L. Shirer during a recent interview said: “We might be the first people go Fascist by the democratic vote, and that would be something not even the Germans or the Italians did.” He was speaking of America. He said: “Hitler never got more than 39% of the vote in a free election, but I think the American people now would vote for almost anything which would put down the so-called peaceniks and the college kids and the blacks.” “If our affluent society turned into one of hardship,” he said, “I think you’d get by the consent of the people a very right-wing society and government in which freedom would be greatly restricted. . . . It would be a sort of dictatorship by approval.” The author said he had been astounded that the Germans would give up what might be said to be the equivalent of the American Bill of Rights in return for the law and order that Hitler promised. “Now I’m astounded that an awful lot of middle-of-the-road Americans . . . would give up a lot of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in return for a promise of law and order.”
Meddling in Politics
◆ The Vatican was accused in March of interfering in Italian politics. The accusations were made by three prominent Jesuit scholars. The three priests argued that the church’s forceful opposition to pending legislation, a bill to permit divorce, violated the principle of religious liberty expressed by Ecumenical Council Vatican II. “Thanks to the council,” said the young priest Paolo Tufari, “the right to religious liberty is now part of Catholic doctrine. It is therefore evident that the church cannot demand that a state coercively apply a given law to force its citizens, Catholics or non-Catholics, to observe one of the church’s given truths.” Nevertheless, as shown by circumstances involving Italy’s divorce law, the church still tries to do it.
Slow-Motion Earthquake
◆ Earthquakes usually strike without too much notice or warning. But in Italy the entire seaport of Pozzuoli is on the verge of being toppled into the Bay of Naples by a slow-motion earthquake, known as bradyseism. New volcanic fissures opened up early in March and scientists said the new fissures, which are giving out sulphurous vapors from an underground, hot lava sea, indicated a sharp increase in seismic activity. Mass-evacuation plans were under way to move the town’s 70,000 population out of the danger zone.
Legal Heroin Unworkable
◆ The British for some time have practiced giving legal heroin to addicts as a way of bringing drug addiction under control. They are now giving up the idea, at least, in its present form, because it simply has not worked. Dr. Peter Chapple, authority on addiction, stated that the British system is “in total disarray.” According to a published report, “only 94 heroin addicts were known to the [British] Government 10 years ago. But between 1960 and 1967, the number of recorded new addicts doubled every 16 months.” Some people in the United States had suggested copying the British system as a means of drug control. Yet now this system, which is not a system at all, but a series of social and medical responses to increasing drug abuse, is described by British authorities as totally inadequate, groping and confused.
Contraception Ban
◆ What effect did the 1968 papal encyclical against artificial contraception have on Roman Catholic wives? According to two sociologists affiliated with the Office of Population Research, it appears to have had no effect at all. Studies showed that 64 percent of Catholic wives interviewed acknowledged the use of birth-control measures disapproved by the church.
Italy’s Smog Problem
◆ Visitors to Italy are seldom prepared to meet the smog problem. In Milan, the smog is so bad that many people go about with handkerchiefs around their heads to cover nose and mouth. At Mestre, near Venice, a reddish dust settled on parked automobiles one smog-filled winter day and literally ate holes in the paint. In the 1968-69 winter, 80 percent of the children of Milan suffered respiratory ailments. Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous painting of the “Last Supper” reportedly was in danger of serious damage from smog residue settling on it. The Venetian lagoon is almost empty of all fish life because of pollution.
Languages and the Bible
◆ The written Bible is now available in the languages spoken by 97 percent of the world’s population. In 1,413 languages at least one book of the Holy Scriptures has now been printed. The complete Bible has been published in 244 languages and the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) in 324 languages.
Brazil Extends Limits
◆ Brazil joined Chile, Peru and Ecuador when she issued a decree on March 25 to extend her territorial waters to 200 miles. The old limit was 12 miles. Brazil’s growing interest in offshore oil production may be a reason for the new move. She may also be interested in protecting a growing fishing industry.
Low Attendance at Mass
◆ Archbishop John F. Whealon of the diocese of Hartford requested that a survey be taken to determine how many parishioners attend Mass on Sunday. A head count taken by laymen during October showed that 48 percent of the Catholic population attended Sunday Mass, and of that number only 35 percent received communion. There are reportedly 819,000 Catholics in the archdiocese. During October the average attendance on Sunday was 395,102.
Divorce in Argentina
◆ In 1888 a law was passed that in substance permitted divorce, but prevented the divorced person from remarrying. It is estimated that today there are some 300,000 persons in Argentina who cannot live together in wedlock because of this law. Many couples flout this law by marrying abroad, usually in Mexico, Bolivia or Uruguay, or simply by living together without benefit of marriage. In recent years there has been a marked decline in the family’s social influence. Sons and daughters rarely leave home to live on their own until the family pressures them into marriage—often at an early age. This apparently serves to increase the chances of a breakdown later in the marriage. According to official statistics, three of ten Argentine marriages break up. In Buenos Aires last year 15,234 marriages were registered and no fewer than 8,736 petitions for divorce were filed.
Converting to Metric System
◆ The prime minister of Australia, Mr. Gorton, announced that Australia would convert to the metric system of weights and measures. He said the government had decided that the changeover should take place “as soon as possible.” The aim was to complete changeover ‘within ten years.’ A metric conversion board would be set up to plan the conversion program.
Women Judo Classes
◆ Times have changed. Albertus Magnus College, a Roman Catholic school for women, has added judo as a required course. The reason given by the head of the physical education department was that it “is timely, fitting and suitable for our times.” All freshmen will be required to take the six-week course.