Information Related to "An Overview of Conditions Around the World - Jan/Feb 1997"
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by Scott Ashley and John Ross Schroeder
Illegal-drug trade builds worldwide economic powerhouse
The trade in illegal drugs has grown to a $500 billion annual business, according to a report by Freedom House tracking the meteoric rise of the trade. The market in cocaine, marijuana, hashish, heroin, opiates and other mind-altering substances accounts for 10 to 13 percent of global commerce, an amount equal to the world market in crude petroleum.
The influence of drug money has led to the rise of "narco states" in South America, so called because of the predominance of corruption on virtually all levels of government. Some Caribbean islands are, in essence, drug fiefdoms that are nothing more than huge financial laundering operations. Drugs are now produced in at least 31 nations, with drug money laundered in 33 countries.
In some areas illegal drugs are so widely available that they have attained a de-facto legal status. Authorities lack the resources—and sometimes the will—to dampen drug use. In some situations drug smuggling has grown simply too pervasive to stop. For example, customs officials in America inspect fewer than one in 30 ship containers arriving in the country and only a fraction of the 8,000 trucks arriving from Mexico each day.
Because of the vast amounts of money at stake, law enforcers hold out little hope of cutting off illegal drugs at the source or of eliminating suppliers. The only way to end this scourge is to curb demand, and that can come about only through a change in human attitudes. (Source: Gannett News Service.)
Conflict sharpens over European Middle East role
In the first half of this century European involvement figured heavily in the Middle East during both world wars and their aftermath. Arab oil and the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 assured a continuation of that interest right up to the present.
Recent setbacks in the Middle East peace process have brought about a sharp renewal of interest on the part of France, Russia and the European Union. President Jacques Chirac in particular has evinced a growing enthusiasm for an increased French role in the diplomatic process with recent state visits to Syria and Israel.
Whatever their individual motives, at least two or three European powers apparently believe that a diplomatic vacuum has been created by the perceived peace failures ostensibly brought about by the intransigence of a new right- wing Israeli government. This has caught America's eye, and, in spite of Irish foreign minister Dick Spring's assurances that the United States "must not believe Europe is trying to muscle in," the Clinton administration plainly does not want European diplomatic help at this time.
Reports Robert Fisk from Damascus: "In a letter which has both angered and astonished the European Union, Warren Christopher, the United States secretary of state, has warned all 15 EU foreign ministers not to meddle in the U.S.-led Middle East peace process." Secretary Christopher referred to the present as a "delicate moment" in the process. This only adds to the foreign-policy differences America already has with the EU over Cuba.
However, the Middle East is destined to continue to play a major role in European and world affairs. The 11th chapter of Daniel foretells a great confrontation in the Middle East at the "time of the end" involving a major power in Europe, referred to as the "king of the North." Daniel 12 indicates that frightful world tensions will be followed by the second coming of Jesus Christ. One Bible translation refers to this panorama of events as "the crisis at the close" (Daniel 12:9, Moffatt Translation). (Source: The Independent; Reuter.)
British rule over Gibraltar threatened
At the beginning of 1947 most of the British Empire was still intact, but the next 40 years saw a rapid unraveling of the empire on which it once could be said the sun never set. Threatened now are its vestiges.
The British fought a war to retain sovereignty in the Falkland Islands in 1982. Hong Kong is to be returned to China this year. And Spain has never been happy with the status of Gibraltar.
Recently Marcus Warren reported that "Britain's commander in Gibraltar could soon be taking orders from a Spanish officer, ending nearly 300 years of sole British military control of the Rock. A change in NATO's structure, now under discussion, to put a Spaniard above the British officer in the Mediterranean chain of command would be a huge propaganda victory for Spain, which has never recognised British rule of the tiny peninsula."
Ever since the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has struggled to find a new role for itself. Who would have thought that its very command structure could figure in the future of Spanish claims on Gibraltar? (Source: The Sunday Telegraph.)
Major species in jeopardy
The creation epic in Genesis 1 mentions God making "great sea creatures" and "beast(s) of the earth." The epilogue tells us that "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (verse 31). What must God think of mankind's stewardship of the earth (see verse 28) and that so many major animal species are now in danger of extinction?
Take the awesomely beautiful tiger as a case in point. Writes Stuart Wavell in The Sunday Times: "In the forests of the night, the tiger is facing extinction. Its last great stronghold in India is under siege by rich men who grind its bones to make their bread."
Scarcely 3,000 Bengal tigers remain in India (2,500), Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The Indochinese tiger is down to but 1,000, the Siberian 160, the Sumatran 400 and the South China tiger fewer than 50. Already extinct are the Ball tiger (gone since the 1940s), Caspian (1970s) and Javan (1980s). Reports from India estimate that Bengal tigers are killed at the rate of one a day. The earth boasted 80,000 tigers of all species in 1900. Fewer than 5,000 may remain.
In addition to the tiger, elephants are under siege in Africa and Asia. The white rhino is near extinction, with only about 7,500 left in Southern Africa. And, says one source, of the 11 great whale species, seven are on the danger list.
As far back as 1961 The Daily Mirror headlined the problem: "Doomed to Disappear From the Face of the Earth Due to Man's Folly, Greed, Neglect." Today illegal-wildlife trade rages out of control. (Sources: The Sunday Times; The Independent; The Express.)
Pope discusses evolution
Nearly 140 years after the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, the pope has recently written about the theory of evolution. Said a recent papal letter: "New knowledge leads us to recognise in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis."
Yet the pope's version is something akin to so-called theistic evolution—the belief being that God somehow had a hand in the whole process. Pope John Paul II wrote about "spiritual readings of evolution" and spoke of "the spiritual soul" being "directly created by God."
Still, this latest papal revelation is a significant departure from the position of Pius XII in 1950. According to one source, he "claimed that Catholics must believe there was a literal Adam, a first man (from) whom all subsequent humans descend(ed)."
Even earlier in this century a French priest, Teilhard de Chardin, pioneered in the metaphysical study of human evolution, drawing on what was then known about early humanlike creatures and the fossil record. He wrote several such books, with perhaps The Phenomenon of Man his principal work in that field. The Catholic Church, however, viewed his writings with suspicion.
According to a recent book review, the church has some 100,000 priests and 200,000 nuns. One wonders what they think of this latest letter. (Sources: The Sunday Times; The Independent; The Independent on Sunday; Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, Harper & Row, New York, 1959.)
Sexually transmissible diseases plague America
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexually transmissible disorders were the three most commonly reported infectious diseases in 1995.
Chlamydia, which the CDC began tracking nationally in 1994, was the infectious disease most commonly reported, with 477,638 cases. However, as noted by Dr. Denise Koo, CDC medical epidemiologist, that figure includes only the number of cases actually reported to the centers. Experts estimate that the true annual number of new cases is around four million. Gonorrhea was the second most commonly reported disease, with 392,848 cases. AIDS took the third spot, with 71,547 new cases reported to the CDC.
Chlamydia is transmitted by a microorganism acquired during sexual relations. It is often undetected because it usually produces few symptoms other than abdominal pain or a vaginal discharge in women and a burning sensation during urination or other discharge in men. If undetected and untreated, chlamydia can lead to more-serious problems.
Similarly, gonorrhea can lead to severe problems, including pelvic inflammatory disease, sterility and spreading of the infection to joints, muscles, heart and brain. Barring some medical breakthrough, AIDS still appears to be fatal to everyone contracting the disease.
The most ironic and tragic aspect of this epidemic is that the staggering social, financial and health costs of these diseases are unnecessary because they are preventable. The many biblical prohibitions against extramarital, premarital and homosexual relations are based on sound principles that protect mental, physical and spiritual health and serve to strengthen families and societies. When these laws are broken, human suffering is inevitable. (Source: Newsday.) GN
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Keywords: pope evolution drugs sexually tranmitted diseases European Union - Middle East
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