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An Overview of Conditions Around the World

UN describes worsening world economic conditions

The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting even poorer, according to this year's United Nations annual human-development report.

The report states that in the last 15 years more than a billion people worldwide saw their income fall. The report characterized this figure as an indicator of increasing widespread economic trouble throughout the world, noting that only 200 million had experienced similar loss of income in the 15 years from 1965 to 1980.

This overall drop in income affects almost 100 countries and nearly a third of the world's population, according to the report. Incomes in 43 countries were lower in 1995 than in 1970, 25 years earlier.

The UN report described these income declines as "unprecedented, far exceeding in duration, and sometimes in depth, the declines of the Great Depression of the 1930s in the industrial countries."

The economic impact of AIDS is huge, said the report. On average, the world lost 1.3 years of development in the last decade because of the devastation in some countries brought about by AIDS. The nation of Zambia was set back more than a decade and Tanzania eight years as a result of AIDS. It is now said to be the leading cause of death for adults under 45, affecting the poor the most, said the report.

The report also described quality of life in the post-Cold War era and noted that the United States' obsession with sex, drugs and television "gives cause for concern." Television consumes 40 percent of the free time of Americans, resulting in "a sharp reduction in voluntary activity."

It also noted that the United States ranks second in drug crimes in developed countries, and its 90,000 rapes a year are four times that of the next-highest industrial country. (Source: Gannett News Service.)

Nonsmokers in jeopardy

Earlier this year researchers from South America presented their studies on 2,000 nonsmokers (regularly exposed to smokers) to the European Society of Cardiology in Birmingham, England. Their conclusions reinforce concerns about the dangers of passive smoking.

Writes Glenda Cooper: "Living with a heavy smoker more than doubles your risk of heart attacks . . . The more your relatives smoke, the greater the dangers you face. And for people who already have known risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of coronary heart disease-the hazards are even greater."

In years past not much was known about the scientific dangers of smoking. However, the increasingly harmful effects become more obvious with every passing year. Of course, long-time smokers can experience great difficulty in kicking the habit.

However, society has a moral obligation to take the lead in protecting people from the dangerous effects of smoking. The evidence is clear that smoking is a killer, not just for smokers themselves, but for their loved ones. (Source: The Independent.)

Middle East peace process in deep trouble

Reports Ross Dunn in Jerusalem for The Times: "Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, called on followers yesterday to rise up against Israel in a campaign of civil disobedience, saying that the Jewish state had declared war on his people." Though we may put these words down to political rhetoric and concede that the state of Israel is not without its own impediments, they are hardly a call to buttress the peace process.

Con Coughlin, also in Jerusalem for The Sunday Telegraph, put it this way: "As both sides in the Arab-Israeli dispute continue to display their pathological penchant for diplomatic brinkmanship this weekend, the delicate fabric of the Middle East peace process is in danger." He aptly titled his article "Peace Turns to Dust."

Mr. Coughlin called his accompanying article "Foundering on the Rock of Jerusalem." This title recalls to mind the words of the Hebrew prophet Zechariah: "I shall make Jerusalem a rock too heavy for any people to remove, and all who try to carry it will be torn by it" (Zechariah 12:3, Revised English Bible). These ancient words lend poetic justice and prophetic truth to current events in the Holy City and its environs. (Sources: The Times; The Sunday Telegraph.)

Northern Irish peace also in jeopardy

The situation in Northern Ireland fares no better than that of the Middle East. One local politician observed: "In all my years I have never seen so much bitterness and hatred on both sides." Writer David McKittrick surveyed the bleak political landscape and titled his article "Ulster: Back to Square One."

Mr. McKittrick quotes a 16th-century English civil servant: "It is a proverb of old date, that the pride of France, the treason of England, and the war of Ireland, shall never have end. Which proverb, touching the war of Ireland, is like[ly] alway[s] to continue, without God set in men's breasts to find some new remedy that was never found before" (emphasis ours). (Source: The Independent.)

The Bible makes clear that this new remedy will be found. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Northern Ireland will one day lay aside their arms and embrace their former enemies as brothers (Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-4).

Fathers' involvement important to children's well-being

A father's attention pays off in more education and less delinquent behavior, according to an 11-year study of 584 intact American families.

"Fathers seem to play a real role here, and in some cases it's different than the mothers'," said Kathleen Mullan Harris, sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at a meeting of the American Sociological Association.

The study tracked children who were 7 to 11 years old when the research began and followed them for 11 years until they were 18 to 22 at the study's end.

Although the children said they participated in activities with their fathers almost as often as with their mothers, differences in the impact of fathers were significant by the end of the study period. Two results were evident: The more the children shared activities with their fathers and the closer their emotional bonds with them, the fewer the problems with juvenile delinquency and the higher the educational level attained by the children.

Emotional bonds with fathers and shared activities with them led to these results irrespective of whether the children were male or female. (Source: USA Today.)

Do-it-yourself morality condemned

The archbishop of Canterbury told 20,000 people in Corby, England, that Christians should stand up for traditional moral values and not be sidelined by a do-as-you-please philosophy.

"At present we live in a society where so often the impression is given that the only thing that cannot be tolerated is saying that something is wrong," the archbishop is quoted as saying. "In the midst of such thinking the truly radical Christian disciple is going to have to swim against the tide and say that there are moral standards-both personal and corporate-we set aside at our peril."

Morality, then, is much more than a matter of personal opinion. There is only one opinion that possesses all the essential moral credentials worthy of our allegiance. It is contained in a large document composed over a 1,000-year span. Queen Elizabeth II was reminded of its existence and value during her coronation in 1953, when these words were written and spoken.

"Our gracious Queen: to keep Your Majesty ever mindful of the Law and Gospel of God as the Rule of the whole life and government of Christian princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom: This is the royal Law. These are the lively oracles of God."

This book, of course, is the Bible. Similar words were written in its pages for biblical monarchs (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). Yet in Britain, according to the archbishop's own words, "we are now seeing the consequences of privileged DIY [do-it-yourself] morality working itself out in our society." (Sources: The Times; The Daily Telegraph; The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, June 2, 1953, publisher: The Queen.)

Bacteria, parasites, viruses threatening U.S. water

Microscopic waterborne organisms are replacing potential cancer-causing chemicals as the primary threat to drinking water in some U.S. cities, according to health officials.

"Most of these organisms have been around for eons, but we're just now beginning to detect them," said Dennis Juranek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He noted that more people are aware of the problem because of reports of serious illness and deaths caused by microbial complications.

The centers estimate that up to 1,000 people die annually and as many as a million are sickened from microbial illnesses stemming from drinking water. In 1993 some 100 people died in Milwaukee from water containing cryptosporidium, an organism resistant to chlorine, the disinfectant most effective and most widely used for drinking water in the United States.

Most healthy people are relatively unaffected by ingesting such bacteria, parasites and viruses and may feel discomfort that can be mistaken for intestinal viruses. However, for those with weakened immune systems unable to fight off bacterial attack-such as cancer patients, the elderly and those suffering from HIV-related infections-water containing such organisms can be fatal, as was shown in Milwaukee.

Even in Washington, D.C., residents have expressed concerns about their drinking water since the city's aging water pipes were found to harbor large concentrations of bacteria.

Many of these organisms have only recently been detected, and efforts are under way to study them to find ways to prevent further threat to the nation's drinking-water supplies. (Source: The Associated Press.)

-- Scott Ashley and John Ross Schroeder