February 2001 Vol.4, No. 2

Contents Quake in Gujarat: Foretaste of the Future?    by Matthew Fenchel Germany and Russia-Shifting Balance of Power    by Melvin Rhodes When the Angel Leaves the Storm    by Darris McNeely In Brief...World News Review    by Cecil E. Maranville This is the Way...Sharing the Front Porch    by Robin Webber In Brief... World News Review by Cecil E. Maranville News Trends Among Youth: Telephone Chatlines Trap Teens Many parents are aware of the dangers of Internet chatrooms, which are often visited by sexual predators looking for child victims. Parents now need to be aware of the danger of their home telephones, which some officials have dubbed a "poor man's Internet chatroom." Teens alert each other to telephone numbers where they can hear "party talk" and "party action." Far from the kind of parties they are looking for, teens are often put in contact with predators seeking to lure them into prostitution. Atlanta, Georgia, has experienced a number of problems with telephone chat lines, which have led to the disappearance of many teens. At least one girl was violently assaulted. Heroin Use on the Rise Flush with increased spending money and the availability of a lower-priced, purer product, U.S. teens are using heroin at an increasing rate. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports an estimated 81,000 new heroin users in 1997-and suggests that this estimate may be on the low side. Nearly 90 percent of new users were under the age of 26. (In 1992, only 61 percent were under 26.) A branch of NIDA that collects data on drug-related hospital emergency department episodes (ED) from 21 metropolitan areas, estimates that 14 percent of all drug-related ED episodes involve heroin. ED episodes more than doubled between 1991 and 1996. During the same time, ED episodes involving youths aged 12 to 17 nearly quadrupled. NIDA also provides information about the nature and patterns of drug abuse in 21 cities. Heroin was the primary drug of abuse recorded in drug abuse treatment missions in Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Newark, New York and San Francisco. Sources: Cox News Service, National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series. News in the Race to Clone Humans This January, an Italian doctor announced in Lexington, Kentucky, that he plans to clone a human in 2001. Defending his project in the name of helping couples unable to have children, the fertility expert said, "The goal to be a father, to be a mother, is a human right, an absolute human right." Addressing the weighty moral objections to cloning, Dr. Severino Antoniori of Rome declared that humans will be cloned in the very near future, "whether we like it or not." In a related development, the U.K. government voted January 21 to allow British researchers to clone the genetic material of humans to pursue treatment of several serious diseases. The controversial vote was defended by some as having nothing to do with the cloning of humans and everything to do with the compassionate treatment of the ill. Others said it had everything to do with cloning humans. The bill was challenged with equal passion by Lord Alton who warned that it was wrong to treat the human embryo as "just another accessory to be created, bartered, frozen or destroyed." He added, "These are not trivial questions that preoccupy a few moral theologians. They are at the heart of our humanity." Half a world away, Japanese scientists have succeeded in circumventing that country's law banning the cloning of humans. They have, instead, succeeded in creating the technology that will allow them to clone human sperm. The scientific team from Tokyo believes they will also be able to re-program cells from men, literally producing eggs-so that a man could both "father" and "mother" children. In this confused world, their research would enable homosexual couples to reproduce. Finally, the creation of "ANDi" was recently announced. ANDi is an anagram for "inserted DNA" spelled backwards. DNA from a jellyfish was inserted into the genes of a rhesus monkey, as an experiment to determine if genes could be transferred from one species to another. So far, it appears that the jellyfish gene is present in all of the monkey's cells. The next step is to determine if the monkey will reproduce itself, with its engineered genetic makeup. Conservative columnist George Will warns that this is but a step away from human genetic "enhancement" and human cloning. He foresees that parents will "design" their children by selecting the traits they would prefer their offspring to possess. Genetic engineering is being conducted in the name of medical research. Quoting biologist and ethicist Leon Kass, Will called it "moral myopia to think that all values must yield to the goals of better health and desirable traits. A cost of such yielding can be the reduction of human beings to the status of just another man-made thing. But such warnings may be overwhelmed by what Kass calls 'the technological imperative'-whatever science can do will be done." Will concluded his column with this sober and stark warning: "ANDi is an intimation that nuclear explosions are not the only way science can end the human story. Biology might do that more gradually than physics can, but no less decisively, and even more repugantly." Sources: UPI; BBC; Times Newspapers Limited, "The Monkey That Could Mean the End" by George Will, January 22, 2001. Middle East: War Exercises and Water Responding to the increasing tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, the United States recently sent a Patriot anti-missile defense battery to Israel. The battery is manned by 400 members of the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade who will participate in a joint exercise with Israel beginning February 8 in cooperation with the newly elected Israeli government. The exercise will last 15 days. An increasingly important issue in the Middle East is water. The availability of water is important enough a concern to be included in the "final status" issues yet to be resolved between the Israelis and Palestinians. It's also a key element in Israel's reluctance to surrender the Golan Heights in order to achieve a peace agreement with Syria. Arabs are understandably jealous over the amount of water possessed and used by Israel. Israel's per capita daily use of water is about 66 gallons. In Syria, the average citizen uses 50 gallons of water per day. In Lebanon, the rate is 41 gallons per day in contrast to Jordan, where the average citizen uses 25 gallons every day. In stark contrast is the consumption rate of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, where the people manage on only 20 gallons per capita per day-and their water is heavily polluted with nitrates. Sources: WorldTribune.com; WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.; Time, Inc. Persian Gulf Council Meets, Acts The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) angered Iran and Iraq with the communique issued at the end of their December 2000 summit. The communique called on Baghdad to comply with UN resolutions, as well as to end its criticism of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The GCC backed the United Arab Emirates in a territorial dispute with Iran over three Gulf islands. Iran and Iraq both accused the GCC of being puppets of American foreign policy. However, many Westerners will not view the GCC as friends in light of its decision to reduce oil production to counter falling prices and boost profits. Even Saudi Arabia pushed for a cut in production of between 1.5 million and 2 million barrels per day. The six Gulf monarchies, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, account for 45 percent of the world's reserves and presently provide about 20 percent of the world's crude. The GCC members were able to set aside differences and reach an agreement on plans that could boost their 5,000-member Peninsula Shield defense force to 25,000. In the immediate future, this development could reduce the dependence of GCC members on the U.S. military for defense. Persian Gulf nations, as well as Israel, may again be looking to the United States and its European allies for protection from the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. An Iraqi military engineer who recently defected to the West claims that Hussein has at least two operational nuclear bombs and is working on more. Hussein has threatened to destabilize the efforts of the United States to negotiate a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians with any means at his disposal. U.S. officials, including President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Powell, have warned that any attempt by Hussein to build a weapon of mass destruction could lead to military action. Sources: BBC, Telegraph Group Ltd. wnp

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