Information Related to "An Overview of Conditions Around the World - Nov/Dec 2000"
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European Union plans armed force
The European Union plans a 5,000-strong armed force capable of carrying out "preventative and repressive" actions in support of global peacekeeping, to be operational by 2003. The small army has tentatively been labeled the European Security and Intelligence Force.
Although apparently intended for trouble spots like Kosovo, some observers are apprehensive about the ultimate intentions for such a force. A prominent member of the British Conservative Party reacted to the news: "Although they say this police force would only be in places like Kosovo, once the structure is in place, there is an implied threat of deploying it anywhere, including the home soil." (Source: The Sunday Times (London).)
Divorce's affects felt well into adulthood
Each year more than a million children under age 18 are impacted by new divorces in the United States. According to psychoanalyst Judith Wallerstein, founder of the Center for the Family in Transition in Corte Madera, Calif., the impact of broken homes lasts well into adulthood.
Dr. Wallerstein recently wrote her third book on the effects of divorce on children. In The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25-Year Landmark Study, she asserts that destroyed marriages affect children for life. Continuing her long-term study of the lives of 130 people who were 3 to 18 when their parents divorced, she concludes that divorce abruptly ends childhood, makes children depressingly lonely and can prematurely hurtle them into a tumultuous adolescence.
"But it's in adulthood that children of divorce suffer the most," she says. By the time they reach their 30s, only half have stable, productive personal lives.
What sort of problems do they face? Repeated failure and heartbreak in adult relationships are common, she says. Not knowing what kind of person they are looking for and having a pessimistic outlook from the start, they are likely to enter into relationships that are doomed as soon as they begin. Even when relationships are good, many expect disaster and find it impossible to handle inevitable conflicts.
When we better understand the long-term consequences on society and children, the innocent victims of divorce, we can better understand why God tells us He hates divorce. (Sources: USA Weekend, Malachi 2:16.)
Marriage, traditional roles in trouble
A recent report from The Hague does nothing to support the sanctity of marriage. It said: "Long in the vanguard of gay rights, the Netherlands enacted a bill converting the country's registered same-sex partnerships into full fledged marriages, complete with divorce guidelines and wider adoption rights." The vote of 107 to 33 was not even close.
A vocal political opponent fears for the future of the country. He talked of "a world without foundations, where the historical understanding of marriage is torn from its roots."
Across the Channel in Britain the news emerges that the breakup of families costs the taxpayer 30 billion British pounds a year. Britain has the highest divorce rate in Europe, with twice as many marriage breakups in 1998 as in 1971.
Meanwhile, in the United States, groups advocating the rights of homosexuals held rallies in 21 states against the Boy Scouts of America's exclusion of avowed homosexuals as scout leaders.
If you would like to understand the divine basis for the marriage institution, please request our free booklet Making Life Work. (Sources: The Daily Telegraph (London), International Herald Tribune, The Washington Times.)
Europe's fuel shortage
Conditions are virtually back to normal, but just a short while ago newspapers devoted page after page to the fuel shortage in Britain and several other European nations. The problem began in France and spread from there to other countries.
Pictures of empty gasoline stations appeared everywhere in the news. With protesters blockading fuel movements, countries were fast grinding to a halt, and food shortages threatened.
What should we learn from this? One of the disturbing realities is how fast things can grind to a halt when a resource as important as petroleum stops flowing. If nothing is done to remedy the situation, a nation soon runs out of its vital supplies, and monetary costs quickly mount into the millions.
The protest problem may not be over-not only because of restricted market supplies of oil, but perhaps because of the exorbitant taxes on gasoline, particularly in Europe. People whose lives depend at least in part on the free flow of liquid black gold are fed up with high prices at the pump. Increasing environmental regulations that restrict petroleum-related exploration, development, refinement and transportation compound the problem.
Blizzard of catastrophes ahead for Russia?
A series of disasters-the sinking of a nuclear submarine, a fire in a Moscow television tower and nuclear-plant shutdowns-may be a harbinger of greater catastrophes, warns a Russian parliamentary commission. "Russia is afflicted by three fundamental destructive trends, which will converge in 2003 to accelerate and magnify all our problems," said commission member Viktor Opekunov.
Of immediate concern is the nation's infrastructure, said to be literally crumbling. Roads, bridges, railways, oil pipelines, the electric-power grid, houses and even the once-vaunted military are collapsing. Power blackouts in recent months led to emergency shutdowns at several military bases and nuclear-power plants.
A study found that in the last decade investment in basic infrastructure was only a fourth that of 1989. "We live amid the functioning relics of the Soviet age as if in a museum, and no one is building anything new," observed Alexander Yashin, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's industry-and-construction committee. "The point of massive, self-sustaining breakdown is approaching within three years."
If that isn't bad enough, in 2003 Russia's foreign debt is expected to balloon, potentially leaving the government with even less money to address critical problems.
Beyond that is a predicted major demographic crisis caused by shrinking birth rates and increasingly early deaths. Currently there are three working-age adults for every pensioner; that ratio is expected by some to reverse in less than 20 years. For more about Russia's problems see "Russia's Time of Troubles" on page 14. (Source: The Independent on Sunday (London).)
Locusts plague Australia
Journalist Mark Chipperfield filed a report from Sydney saying that "Australia is facing a plague of locusts on an unprecedented scale which threatens to destroy vast swathes of the country's richest farmland and devastate lucrative vineyards."
The troublesome pests have struck simultaneously in four Australian states on both sides of the island continent. Field workers expect the plague to be twice as bad as the one in 1990. (Source: The Sunday Telegraph.)
Instability returns to currency markets, world economy
Halfway through the 31/2-year transition planned for the adoption of the euro by 11 of the 15 member nations, the European single currency appears to be in trouble.
Since its launch at the beginning of last year, the euro has lost almost a third of its value against the U.S. dollar. This means Europeans are spending considerably more on imported items, including fuel for their vehicles. It also means Americans are finding it harder to sell their products to the European market, the biggest single marketplace in the world.
International economists and bankers agree that the European countries' economies overall are fairly strong so there is no logical reason for the euro to fall. That the currency is new and unknown may be one reason for the lack of confidence in it, but the main reason, according to those who supposedly know, is that European investors continue to buy into the lucrative American market, where returns on their investment are higher than back home.
The continuing U.S. trade deficit would normally cause the dollar to decline in value, making it easier for America to sell its products around the world. The deficit reached an all-time high this summer. By the end of the year it will be about $400 billion. That's the biggest trade deficit any country has ever had. The deficit appears set to continue as Americans continue to buy more from overseas than they sell to other countries.
Under normal circumstances this would be a cause for grave concern, but the rest of the world seems content for now to reinvest that $400 billion into the American economy. Many American companies are being bought out by foreign companies.
Currency fluctuations are caused mainly by perceptions and resulting speculation. When people in various countries perceive that the U.S. economy is doing well they want to buy into it and reap the rewards of their investment. If their perception should change, "things could turn nasty very quickly," as a commentator on National Public Radio put it recently.
If the rest of the world suddenly decided it was no longer willing to finance America's trade deficit, the dollar would plummet in value around the world, and other nations would start looking for an alternative international trading currency. We could then see the euro rising in value against the dollar.
A repeated lesson for Christians in times of uncertainty is not to put their trust in money. Repeatedly, throughout history, people have lost substantial amounts through periods of financial instability and economic upheaval. Just two years ago many fortunes were lost during the last major crisis in the world's financial system when the Russian currency collapsed, followed by similar falls in currency values across Asia.
Jesus Christ taught Christians to put their trust and confidence elsewhere: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19-20).
-John Ross Schroeder, Scott Ashley, Melvin Rhodes
Containing South Africa's crimes
South Africa has the world's worst peacetime statistics for murder, rape and robbery. To add to the problem, police forces have a reputation for incompetence and corruption.
The start of a solution: Create a special force of "untouchables" modeled on the special squad led by the legendary Elliot Ness, who combated crime in Chicago during the American Prohibition era in the 1930s. This solution is being implemented.
Among the minimum requirements for a member of the force are a university degree and the ability to speak no fewer than four of South Africa's official languages. The final 100 recruits were selected out of 7,000 applicants. The main determining factors were integrity and intelligence. (Source: The Independent on Sunday (London).)
British insects: significant species loss
According to Times science editor Nigel Hawkes, a fifth of Britain's insect species have disappeared during the 20th century. The country has suffered the loss of some 400 species. Proper pollination has been put at risk, threatening complex food chains.
Said George McGavin, assistant curator of entomology at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History: "The problem is that insects are small and so the majority of people tend to overlook them. But in terms of how ecosystems function, insects are vital. Food chains depend on small things right down there at the grass roots and if you take them away, everything else collapses." (Sources: The Times, The Daily Mail (both London).)
Danish referendum
By the time you read this the Danes probably will have decided whether to use the European common currency (the euro). At the time of this writing the vote was balanced on a knife's edge. Whatever the outcome it could be important, affecting similarly planned referendums in Sweden and Britain.
An observer saw the dangers in joining: "If you have a common currency, political power will be transferred from the national parliaments to Brussels, to bureaucrats and technocrats. When you have an economic union, you also have a political union.
A no vote could mean Sweden would abandon its plans to call its own referendum. But a yes vote could encourage Sweden to accept the common currency. If this happens it will put pressure on Britain to join as well. (Sources: The Observer, The Guardian (both London), International Herald Tribune.)
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