December 2000 Vol.3, No. 10

Contents What Lies Ahead for U.S. Leadership?    by Darris McNeely U.S. Election Crisis - End of Political Stability?    by Melvin Rhodes World Watches U.S. Post- Election Predicament    by Cecil Maranville The Perfect Prophetic Storm    by Mario Seigle In Brief...World News Review     by Darris McNeely,    Cecil E. Maranville    John Ross    Ross Schroeder This is the Way...One Moment in Time    by Robin Webber In Brief... World News Review U.S. Population Statistics Show Looming Issues "United States in Throes of Rapid Change" headlined an Agence France Presse article published November 1, 2000. Statistics recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau are indicators of issues that will confront the U.S. government and citizenry in the next few decade.... The report showed that 26.4 million of the 275 million people in the U.S. population, nearly 1 in every 10, was born outside of the United State.... Famous for its "melting pot" attitude, the U.S. has championed its historic ability to assimilate people from diverse cultural and political backgrounds into the fabric of its representative republic. That's not necessarily the case any longer. Consider the language issue. Increasingly controversial measures to legislate or to deny bilingual education resound in states with large Hispanic population.... Some 6.5 million people speak little English, while 17.3 million speak Spanish exclusively. The recent U.S. presidential election campaign demonstrably illustrated the need to reach out to and include the sizable block of Hispanic voter.... Immigration during the years of nation building for the U.S. was chiefly from white nations of Europe and other Anglo-Saxon people.... However, a fundamental shift is underway that portends political and cultural changes in years to come. Within the next 50 years, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans will outnumber white.... Presently, 71 percent of the population are white. The number of people 65 and older will double in the next 30 years In the world's wealthiest nation, poverty is still an issue. Over 2 million have been lifted out of "statistical poverty," defined as an income of $17,000 or less for a family of four, between 1998 and 1999. Nonetheless, people living in poverty still account for 11.8 percent of the population, or 32.3 million people. The debate rages on over how to address the attendant needs, including providing health care to the 10 million children not currently covered. Some believe that the strong economy will eventually eliminate poverty and that the country needs only to continue on its current path. A more realistic view holds that the economic growth is tenuous and likely to cycle downward. Should the basic needs of the poor be met by government welfare programs or by programs that help the poor to obtain the education and job skills that will enable them to earn their way out of poverty? Or, is a combination of these methods required? The debate will undoubtedly continue. Finally, a burgeoning senior citizen population promises persisting disputes over Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and programs to ensure reasonably priced prescription drug.... Those aged 65 and older currently make up 12.7 percent of the population, or 34.4 million people. The Census Bureau forecasts that the figure will double in the next 30 years! "And There Will Be...Pestilences...in Various Places" Concurrent with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, intravenous drug usage has exploded, and with it, the spread of AIDS in those region.... The World Health Organization (WHO) reported November 24 that there are approximately 250,000 new cases of AIDS in the area this year, which brings the total in the region to 700,000. WHO estimates that 3 million people worldwide will die from AIDS during the year 2000. The agency estimates that this will bring the total number of adults and children who have died because of the disease to 21.8 million. United Church of God publications have reported the tragedy of millions of AIDS orphans in Africa. In a bizarre related development, Mole Songololo, a child welfare organization in Cape Town, South Africa, reports that thousands of orphans, ranging from age 4 to 17, are being kidnapped and sold into slavery for prostitution. Primary targets are orphans who roam the rural regions in sub-Saharan countries, for these children are easily abducted and trucked to South Africa for sale. Among those trafficking in children, according to Bernadette van Vuuren, an official of Mole Songololo, "were brothel owners, government officials, crime syndicates, former military and police personnel and border officials inside South Africa" ("AIDS Orphans Sold into Sex Trade" by Adriana Stuijt, NewsMax.com, September 7, 2000). If anything could add to the revulsion of this gross evil, it is the fact that family members are sometimes involved in selling the children. Ignorance fuels the multifaceted disaster. Van Vuuren explains that, "Adults scared of contracting the HIV/AIDS virus view children as safe sex option.... And many in Africa with AIDS believe that sex with children could cure them" (ibid.). AIDS has also been a factor in the return of tuberculosis (TB). "Tuberculosis Roars Back" reported Catherine Arnst for the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. in early October. Because tuberculosis bacteria become active after the patient's immune system weakens for some other reason, TB is the leading cause of death for AIDS victim.... Scientists did not refer to the surge in incidences of TB as an epidemic, but rather described it as endemic, that is, permanently lodged in the world's population.... WHO reports that TB has now affected two billion people worldwide. Statistically, about 10 percent of carriers develop the disease and therefore become infectious. Everyone who does become infectious will spread the disease to between 10 and 15 others, which translates into another 2 to 3 billion people - and so, the potential horror escalate.... TB is now the fifth-largest cause of death in the world and the number one killer of women. Industrialized nations are not spared. About 15 million U.S. citizens have already been infected. Treatment costs will severely impact health-care program.... According to the Institute of Medicine, TB treatment costs more than $16,000 per patient in the United State.... M.... Arnst reports, "Any commercial drug is still at least seven years away from approval." She's speaking of a drug under development that would block the bacteria which causes TB from becoming active. The bacteria can remain dormant in an infected person for 60 years! Even further away is a vaccination that would prevent infections altogether. BSE Disease Now in Western Europe What peaked as a minor British epidemic in 1992 and 1993 has more recently spread first to France, and now to Germany. BSE is popularly known as mad cow disease. CJD is the acronym for the human form of BSE, often fatal especially to young people. It is a rapidly debilitating disease of the brain. As the Times (London) explained, "Over the past month (October) it has belatedly dawned on France that people have long been eating meat from cattle infected with BSE." Now in late November, BSE has been confirmed in two German cows with one possible case of CJD, the first human victim in the Federal Republic. This disturbing disease has been a political football in Western Europe as, until fairly recently, British beef was basically banned on the European Continent. Now public pressure is being brought in Britain to ban French beef. Sources: The Daily Mail, November 25, 2000; Times (London), November 10 and 21, 2000. Dutch Approve Euthanasia The Netherlands has become the world's first nation to approve mercy killing. For years the country tacitly approved the practice, but now allows it as a policy of the state. The bill's supporters, including many doctors, say it champions patients' rights and brings a long-standing practice into the open, but many religious and medical groups were swift to condemn it, claiming killing would replace caring. "Again, we are faced with a law of the state which opposes the natural law of human conscience,) Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuter.... Dutch Calvinist opposition parties fear the proposed law will be abused. Some drew parallels with Nazi Germany. "The same line of reasoning is being used as in Germany in 1935.... In the Netherlands, your life is no longer safe,) said Bert Dorenbos of the Scream for Life group. "If doctors are not hesitating to kill people then they will not hesitate to withdraw medical treatment from people they do not like,) he added. Some feel what is now termed one's "right to die" could someday translate into one's "duty to die." At issue is the sanctity of human life. A significant, and potentially terrifying, threshold has been crossed when the state presumes the right to sanction the termination of life in this manner. Contributors: Darris McNeely, Cecil E. Maranville and John Ross Schroeder

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