Information Related to "World News Review February 2004"
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In Brief... World News ReviewContributors: Darris McNeely and Cecil MaranvilleTerrorist Threat to Sea Gate Where will the next big terrorist strike occur? Experts are predicting it could happen in a little known but vital waterway, the Strait of Malacca off the coast of Indonesia. According to the Wall Street Journal, Asian Edition, "Lloyd's List International, the International Maritime Bureau, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Aegis Defense Services and a host of other maritime and security organizations have begun to warn that al Qaeda and its local Southeast Asian affiliates may be planning attacks that would render the Bali bombings of October 2002—al Qaeda's biggest attack since Sept. 11 in the United States—small potatoes" (Jan. 27, 2004). More than 50,000 ships pass through the strait each year, carrying half the world's supply of crude oil. Attacks in the strait—which narrows to 1.5 miles wide at some points—account for more than half the piracy in the world. Fears are that a hijacked ship could be sunk in the strait, thus blocking one of the main shipping lanes of the world. Ships have already been hijacked as "trials" and captains forced to teach hijackers how to guide and maneuver ships before being released. These training exercises could be a prelude to a ship carrying liquefied natural gas being run into a port, such as Singapore, then being set off as a bomb. The result would be "more devastating than any bomb" and "too horrible to think about," said an official with the International Tanker Operators Association. The Strait of Malacca connects the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the world's critical sea gates or choke points. Once part of the British Empire, it was a strategic pass for both naval and merchant ships, the guardian and supplier of the empire. After World War II American power replaced the British in the region. Today this vital passageway remains a key factor in shipping for Asia, especially China. China has become the world's second largest user of imported oil, behind the United States. Like the rest of the world, most of that oil comes from the Middle East and passes through the Strait of Malacca. China's leaders will watch any terrorist threat to this area closely. Their emerging economy grows increasingly dependent on imports of oil and other raw materials. —Source: Wall Street Journal, Asian Edition. The Slave Trade of 2004 Slavery is something of the past, isn't it? A shocking Dateline report on Jan. 23 shows again that it is an everyday occurrence in Cambodia. Even more despicable is the reason: The victims are sold as slaves for sex. But the most deplorable aspect of the story is that these slaves are children, some as young as 5 years old. Dateline's investigation was about poverty-stricken Cambodia, and the poverty is itself part of the story. A 14-year-old girl related that she came from an extremely poor family in neighboring Vietnam. A woman approached her on her way from school one day and offered her work in a café. The "café" turned out to be a brothel in Cambodia, where slaves are beaten and starved into submission. The Cambodian government works with human rights groups to rescue children from the slavery of brothels. But an estimated 40 percent of girls who are freed will return to prostitution to support themselves. They are trapped by the ever-present poverty, as well as by the psychologically crippling experiences of working as sex slaves as little girls. Mu Soc Hua, Cambodia's Minister of Women's Affairs, estimates that the number of children involved in this unthinkable horror is 30,000. But Cambodia isn't the only part of the world where children are so exploited. Dateline estimates the number runs into the hundreds of thousands worldwide. Some Cambodian children are sold by their own parents into sexual slavery. In their undercover investigation, Dateline's people posed as tourists in a café. A 15-year-old boy quickly approached them and began his spiel. He introduced his mother to them; she knows what he is doing and gets a cut of the money he makes. Westerners might ask, "How could parents do such a thing?" While it is no excuse, the oppression of poverty, year after year, decade after decade, dehumanizes people to the point of doing these wretched things. And it's tourists from the West who are making the sex slave trade profitable. Approximately 750,000 tourists visit Cambodia annually; many, it seems come expressly looking for children. One American radiologist was so unashamed of his intent that he told Dateline his name, profession and where he came from! The United States' government is actively involved in stopping the sex slave trade in Cambodia. It granted $1 million to a human rights group, International Justice Mission, which is dedicated to the battle. And the U.S. State Department is now investigating Americans who may have been involved in the crimes. What a shame that the government has to clean up after its citizens, people who ought to be lending a helping hand to the less blessed of the world. God will not long continue those blessings, if our people squander them on their base lusts. Holding up a model of how not to live, Paul wrote to Corinth (a cosmopolitan city of sinners) about a time when Israel's people "played," that is, freely indulged their sexual lusts. God, Paul reminded, struck dead over 20,000 people. To give you a sense of those figures, if Israel at that time (shortly after God rescued them from Egypt) had a population of 2 million people, that's more than 1 percent. Current U.S. census figures estimate the U.S. population at just under 300 million, so 1 percent would be about 3 million people! We're not saying God is going to strike millions of people dead; we're just telling you what Paul said. "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). Do the American (and other Western) people want to "play," or live moral lives of self-control and care for others? We need to know that God will not long allow us to misuse Abraham's heritage. —Source: Dateline NBC. Southern Africa in Water Crisis It rained in Lesotho a few weeks ago—the first real rain since April 2003. Clearly, no country could long support itself in such a prolonged drought. Lesotho is looking at near total crop failure this year. Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are also looking at significant losses. Swaziland needs food aid for 25 percent of its population; 11 percent of Mozambique's children under 5 suffer from malnutrition. Zimbabwe's self-destructive policy of stripping its farms from productive families and giving them to people who have neither the skill nor the intention to farm them only worsens the weather-caused crisis there. Aid from other countries was needed—and received—last year. But this year, the aid is slow in coming. The UN's World Food Program (WFP) says it's short about a third of the money it needs to feed the 6.5 million people in these countries who will not be able to feed themselves this year. WFP officials have the extremely difficult task of rationing food, due to the insufficient contributions. They suspended general food in Lesotho in January, able to feed only the sick, elderly, children under 5 and pregnant women. Lesotho's situation is worse, due to steadily declining work in South Africa's mines and on its farms. The changing economic equation means that thousands of Lesotho's migrant laborers can no longer provide an alternate income. To the grief of those who care, Africans are again among the world's citizens suffering more than most. WFP fears that families will turn to desperate and further damaging actions, including prostitution (see, "The Slave Trade of 2004") and migrating from rural to urban areas. Crowding cities makes the problem of disease an even more frightening potential than it already is. Famine gives way to disease epidemics. In our age of routine international travel and trade, one country's disease should be the world's unease. It would be irresponsible to cry, "The end is near" every time we learn of famine and disease. Jesus listed both of these woes in Matthew 24:7, after which He said they were among events that would be only "the beginning of sorrows" (verse 8). Christ added in Revelation 6's "Four Horsemen" prophecy, "Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth" (verse 8). The scope of this warning (potentially more than 1 billion deaths) far surpasses the tragedy in the making in Southern Africa—and even then, it seems that is only "the beginning of sorrows." What is the world in for? —Source: Alexandra Zavis, "Serious Drought Threatens South Africa," Associated Press, Jan. 28, 2004. A Book About a Spoiled Generation "Attention, parents. Better yet, attention parents, grandparents, future parents and [future] grandparents," wrote columnist Betsy Hart in November 2003. She went on to advocate that her readers run, not walk to the nearest bookstore to purchase two recently published books on parenting. This World News and Prophecy writer took her advice, but I recommend only one of the books: The Epidemic—The Rot of American Culture, Absentee and Permissive Parenting, and the Resultant Plague of Joyless, Selfish Children by Dr. Robert Shaw with Stephanie Wood. They capture a "snapshot" of this generation, illustrated by these quotations: "Far too many children today are sullen, unfriendly, distant, preoccupied... They whine, nag and throw tantrums and demand constant attention from their parents..." "Take a good look around you. Can you go into stores, restaurants, or libraries without seeing [and hearing] joyless children screaming, sulking, resisting their parents...?" "Do you not notice all the whining, bickering, tantruming... while parents, in turn, nag, complain, and often try desperately to ignore their unruly, surly offspring?" With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Dr. Shaw lists "15 ways to ruin your child and your life," both advising people on what not to do and commenting on what he sees parents doing. They include: "Keep yourself stressed and busy. Give in to your child's whims... and demand nothing in return. Let your child think he is the boss of the universe. Don't subscribe to a code of ethics or morality that can override your own impulses—and definitely don't expose your child to such a code." The book is worth reading, not only to find out what is going wrong, but also for some sound advice on what to do about it. Perhaps without knowing so, Dr. Shaw and Ms. Wood confirm the prophecy of 2 Timothy 3:1-5. "You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly" (New Living Translation). —Sources: Betsy Hart, "Spare the Rules, Spoil the Child," Scripps Howard News Service, Nov. 7, 2003; Dr. Bernard Shaw with Stephanie Wood, The Epidemic, 2003. |
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Origin of article "World News Review February 2004"
Keywords: South Africa American culture slavery terrorism
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