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The Middle East:
Ticking toward disaster?
According to veteran journalist Robert Fisk, "the West is ignoring all the signs that the Middle East is about to explode." To him and some other observers, the Oslo peace process is long dead. He believes "a war is not far away" and writes that "almost anyone in the Middle East will tell you this."
And yet he says: "Almost no one in the United States or Europe believes it." Americans and Europeans simply talk of a "low point in the peace process."
It was back in April that Israeli commentator Hemi Shalev wrote in Maariv, an Israeli paper, that "more and more people, including those who should know, are starting to believe that an enormous explosion is unavoidable. If the Americans do not succeed in stopping the deterioration at the last moment, and if the leaders do not come to their senses before it is too late, the region will go up in flames and the historic act of conciliation will sink into rivers of blood, both ours and theirs."
Intelligence reports indicate that Israeli commandos have undergone intensive training for "snatch raids" in search of terrorists in Palestinian territory-one of which ended disastrously in early September with the deaths of 12 Israeli commandos-and there is talk of a possible "reinvasion."
Even more frightening in the longer run are persistent reports of further weapons development in Iran and Syria, not to mention the intentions of Iraq. For instance, the American commander in the Persian Gulf "gave a stark warning that Iran might be closer to developing nuclear weapons than had previously been assessed." Gen. Binford Peay "predicted that Iran could be a nuclear power by the turn of the century." Though he declined to be pinned down on an exact year, the U.S. Gulf chief nonetheless warned that the time "is coming closer." Also, Israel has long persisted in her warnings about Iranian weapons-development potential.
Reports are also extant that, "with peace talks deadlocked for more than a year, Syria has been accelerating its missile programme and building new launch pads." (Sources: The Independent on Sunday, The Jewish Chronicle, The Times of London, emphasis added.)
The pope is from Poland, the first non-Italian pontiff for more than 400 years. Some observers believe that John Paul II helped precipitate Eastern Europe's break on the communist stranglehold when he visited Poland early in his Vatican reign.
Then recently the pope returned to Poland for meetings that could influence events in Europe. The Los Angeles Times reported: "In an extraordinary gathering, Pope John Paul II brought seven European presidents together, telling them during an open-air mass in Gniezno attended by 250,000 Poles that a wall of economic and political selfishness as divisive as the Communist-era Berlin Wall threatens unity in Europe. The presidents from Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine later had a private meeting with the Pope."
Apparently this is the first time a pope has met with so many presidents of countries at once. John Paul's private comments to them were believed to reinforce the importance of Europe retaining its identity.
Also seen as particularly significant were the observations of Germany's President Roman Herzog: "What links us in Europe is the Christian roots, our common culture. This is why I see all the nations that want to join the community joining in." No one should forget the pontiff's remarks during mass: "Europe will never achieve authentic unity if its Christian roots are ignored."
Unlike in the United States, the secular and the religious are not necessarily seen as separate entities in Catholic Europe. The church is viewed as having a strong role to play in uniting Eastern and Western Europe. The pope sees Europe as one entity "from the Atlantic to the Urals." (Sources: The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times.)
Gay movement continues to make inroads
This summer some 250,000 people converged on central London to celebrate the 26th annual Gay Pride Festival. All three major British political parties sent their warm regards.
One newspaper reported that "homosexual campaigners for more rights were given a double boost . . . when the Church of England edged towards accepting the ordination of gay priests and the government made clear that the age of (homosexual) consent would be lowered to 16."
At the same time some government officials were advocating that the legal smoking age be raised to 18.
Fortunately, among all the politically correct voices commenting on the homosexual scene there are a few dissenting voices. One such is Daniel Farson, author and a homosexual himself, who wrote: "This Government, headed by a church-going Christian, is engaging in political correctness of the worst sort. It is driven by the aggressive gay lobby. And it will do untold damage to the vulnerable young."
British columnist and author Leo McKinstry made the following sensible observations about the gay-rights agenda: "This agenda, including calls for gay marriages, gay sex education in schools and a lower age of consent, is based on the concept that every form of sexual behaviour is valid and should be respected, no matter how promiscuous or bizarre. This outlook is the dominant creed of our age. But it has damaging consequences for our society.
"Take marriage and the family. In the brave new world of gay rights, no moral distinction is made between the sacrifices involved in bringing up children within a stable relationship and irresponsible hedonism. Both are presented as just different lifestyle choices. Such a disastrous message is now given out to schoolchildren." (Sources: The Sunday Times, The Times of London, Daily Mail; emphasis added.)
Resistant staph found in America
A deadly strain of antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria was recently identified in a Michigan man, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This find follows on the heels of a similar discovery of drug-resistant staph in Japan earlier this year. Both strains showed an intermediate level of resistance to vancomycin, one step away from immunity to the antibiotic long considered to be the last line of defense in the medical arsenal.
Many strains of staph bacteria inhabit the planet. They are the collective cause of 13 percent of hospital infections in the United States, some two million cases each year leading to 60,000 to 80,000 deaths annually. The bacteria spread on exposed surfaces such as clothing, equipment, walls and floors, and thus can be passed to patients. To deal with the problem, many hospitals strictly isolate their weakest patients and carefully regulate use of their most powerful antibiotics lest additional strains of staph mutate and develop resistance to the drugs.
Although doctors successfully treated the cases in Michigan and Japan with other antibiotics, concern is growing in the medical community over the lack of alternative drugs to treat such infections, considering that it often takes years to successfully develop and test new antibiotics.
Scientists expected such a staph strain to eventually appear in the United States. "The timer is going off," commented William Jarvis, medical epidemiologist with the CDC. "We were concerned it would emerge here, it has emerged here, and we are concerned we're going to see it popping up in more places." (Source: The Associated Press.)
Record number of Americans in jail
The number of adults in U.S. jails, on parole or on probation grew to 5.5 million in 1996, up from 5.3 million in 1995, according to U.S. Justice Department reports.
These figures have skyrocketed since 1985, with the prison population soaring upward 131 percent, those in jail jumping 100 percent, those on parole rising 134 percent and those on probation increasing 61 percent. The total represents 2.8 percent of the American adult population.
Although women make up only 6.3 percent of the prison population, they account for an increasing number of the incarcerated, said the report. Nearly 75,000 women were serving prison sentences in 1996, a 9.1 percent increase over the previous year. More than 650,000 women were on probation and 79,000 on parole. Officials attribute much of this increase to mandatory sentencing for drug offenses.
Although four of every five arrests are of men, the number of women involved in criminal activity is increasing at a much higher rate. While the number of men arrested rose 12 percent between 1986 and 1996, the number of women arrested rose by an extraordinary 38 percent. (Sources: Associated Press, USA Today, The Washington Post.)
Britain's violent-crime rate equals America's
According to recent reports, British muggings and other robberies and sexual assaults on women rival U.S. rates. England and Wales lead European crime statistics on car theft, burglary and general violence. European statistics show a 31 percent increase in crimes in England and Wales as recorded by police between 1987 and 1995, easily leading the rest of Europe. Somehow Scotland has escaped this grim increase, showing a 4 percent increase over the same period. A recent wave of muggings has particularly alarmed authorities.
Not much more than a generation ago Britain was the most civilized, relatively crime-free society on earth, a great place to live and bring up children. What has happened? (Sources: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Birmingham Post, The Independent.)
El Niño to affect worldwide weather?
In 1982-83, "El Niño," a warming of waters in the eastern Pacific that researchers believe leads to changing global weather patterns, is believed to have been responsible for 2,000 deaths and $13 billion in damage. Some scientists caution that the El Niño now developing could be even more severe in its effects on world weather in coming months.
The El Niño weather pattern typically recurs every three to five years, bringing extremes of storms and flooding in some areas and drought in others. Scientists blame this year's developing El Niño weather pattern for recent dry weather in Australia, where poor germination and early growth for winter grains portend a low winter wheat harvest. El Niño is also expected to bring drought conditions to Indonesia, Thailand, India, Pakistan and much of the African continent.
At the same time, El Niño is expected to bring wetter weather and flooding to Peru, Uruguay and southern Brazil. Excessive rains in Argentina have already caused flooding and planting delays. (Source: U.S. Wheat Associates newsletter.)
-John Ross Schroeder and Scott Ashley
(c) 1997 United Church of God, an International Association
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