Watching the World
MASS FAMINE THREAT
“In Ethiopia upwards of 4.5 million people, more than four times the number wiped out by the great famine of 1984-85, may starve this year if food relief is not provided—and soon,” states Time magazine. “In Sudan, where as many as a quarter of a million people died of hunger in 1987-88, the most dire estimates suggest that 3 million could suffer the same fate by the middle of this decade.” This time the threat of mass starvation cannot be blamed mostly on drought, crop failures, or other “acts of nature.” Relief supplies of foodstuffs have been pledged by wealthier nations, and distribution networks stand by to move them. But political policies and wars in the affected nations stand in the way, as the leaders “are more intent upon winning their wars than feeding the people they are supposedly fighting for,” says Time. Starvation and disease can be used as weapons to crush rebellion.
“CAN’T COMPETE”
“With a frequency many consider alarming, Southern Baptist pastors around the [United States] are being dismissed from their pulpits,” notes The New York Times. Over 2,100 Southern Baptist ministers were dismissed over a recent 18-month period. Why the 31-percent increase compared with a similar period in 1985? “The television evangelist has become the model pastor,” says cleric Bruce Grubbs, who himself trains Southern Baptist ministers. “The local pastor is being compared with the television preacher and, of course, he doesn’t come off looking as good; nothing does, not the building, not the choir. You can’t compete with Hollywood.” Southern Baptists form the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with 14.8 million members and 37,800 churches.
NEW EXERCISE FINDINGS
Even regular, moderate exercise can substantially reduce a person’s chances of dying from heart disease, cancer, and other causes, a new eight-year study shows. Over 13,000 men and women were tested in the most comprehensive study measuring fitness yet done, to determine how physical fitness is related to death rates. And rather than just accept the word of those studied as to their physical activity, the subjects’ fitness levels were continually measured. The results showed that the greatest gain came from just getting out of the sedentary category, rather than by engaging in strenuous exercise. “You don’t have to be a marathoner,” states Dr. Carl Caspersen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. “In fact, you get much more benefit out of being just a bit more active. For example, going from being sedentary to walking briskly for a half hour several days a week can drop your risk dramatically.”
MEGACITIES
“Around the world, several million people a year move to the urban centers of South America, Africa, and Asia,” states the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. “The people of the Third World are migrating toward their vision of the promised land.” Few, however, find one. Without employment, many are forced to live in slums and are reduced to begging and peddling in order to survive. Half the inhabitants of Nairobi and Manila are said to live in slums. In Calcutta it is 70 percent. Often, even the employed cannot afford housing because of extremely high inflation rates. Many bureaucrats and soldiers, for instance, live in shanties in Djakarta, Indonesia. It is estimated that by the year 2000, 17 of the 20 largest cities in the world will be in the developing areas of the globe, São Paulo and Mexico City heading the list with populations of about 25 million each. And with big cities come big problems in the form of crime, corruption, water and air pollution, and lack of sanitation.
INCONGRUITY
“Three years ago, when Pope John Paul II visited Colombia, he was visibly moved by the warmth and religious fervor that greeted him in Medellín, vowing that if he ever had to relocate the Vatican, he would move it to that city,” says the Times of London. But Medellín is also home to a drug cartel that is said to control some 80 percent of the world’s cocaine traffic. And it is here that many Catholic youths, regular in their attendance at Mass and in religious veneration, make their living as contract-killers, giving Medellín the world’s highest homicide rate: over 4,000 a year in a population of 2.5 million. “After carrying out a lucrative contract, the killers often pay for a special Mass to give thanks at the same time the victim’s funeral Mass is taking place elsewhere.” They find no conflict between their beliefs and their activity, says the Times.
FROZEN ASSETS
“A scheme to store seeds of the world’s most important food crops for posterity in the permafrost of the Arctic Circle is now under way,” notes New Scientist magazine. The plan is to place “seeds of staple foods and species of unique economic importance” to each country deep within an unused mineshaft on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway, as security against natural disasters. The permafrost there ensures a temperature of less than 26° F [-3.5° C.]. Under the plan, an international treaty would grant each nation the right of access to the island but only to its own storage unit. The low temperature should allow apple seeds to remain viable for 100 years, barley for 300 years, and cowpea seeds for about 800 years.
VYING FOR AIRSPACE
“Commercial jetliners increasingly are striking birds, and airline industry executives say the resulting mechanical damage is contributing to the growing problem of flight delays,” states The Wall Street Journal. “About 6% of bird collisions world-wide caused such emergencies as aborted takeoffs and obscured visibility.” In one instance, a goose crashed through an airplane cockpit window and blinded the captain in one eye. Experts believe that bird strikes are among the “most underrated and underreported safety problems facing airlines.” To cope with the problem, airports usually resort to firing harmless explosive devices near their runways or to playing recorded bird distress calls. But Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport has gone a step further, reports National Geographic, by using falcons to frighten the birds away. The falcons “rarely kill but are sufficiently terrifying to frighten away other birds for hours,” it says.
SKY MAP
According to Sarah Law, writing in New Scientist, a sky map cataloging 18,819,291 bright points of light by position and magnitude has been made by scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. Of these, the report states, “approximately 15 million are stars and most of the rest are galaxies.” This is 60 times larger than any previous catalog. It is hoped that such an accurate reference grid will help cut down observation time on telescopes by making it easier for astronomers to observe faint objects, such as brown dwarfs. So far, objects down to the 15th magnitude (4,000 times fainter than can be seen by the naked eye) have been pinpointed, and objects 250 times fainter still (21st magnitude) have been stored on optical disc. Work is now proceeding to include star movements in the catalog at a later date.
FOR PUBLIC DISPLAY ONLY
“[The state of] Bihar [India] is a graveyard of stones without legacy,” states the magazine India Today. “Camouflaged by garbage and weeds, by grazing cattle and scavenging pigs, these commemorative stones dot Bihar’s landscape.” What are they? Foundation stones for building projects that were never realized. One was laid in 1972 by Mrs. Indira Gandhi as a foundation for a bridge at Chittouni. Work has not yet started, and travelers are forced to detour 60 miles [100 km] through Nepal. Another was to be the foundation stone for a residential complex at Patna for local municipal employees. Now, 11 years later, housewives use it to dry clothes. Sometimes there are several stones in a row, as patronage was given to various organizations but “without any fund allocation or sanction.” In other cases, the foundation stones were laid and relaid by successive state ministers. “The hunger of the state’s politicians to etch their names on stone is virtually insatiable,” says India Today.