Information Related to "An Overview of Conditions Around the World - Jan/Feb 2002"
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An OverView of Conditions Around the World
The euro: Europe's crucial new reality
The biggest currency experiment in history has begun: The euro is now the official common currency of 12 European nations: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Starting Jan. 1 more than 300 million people in Europe began the adjustment to the new money in their pockets, wallets and purses. During two months of transition, Europeans may use old national currencies alongside the euro. However, after Feb. 28 only the euro will be accepted as legal tender in the 12 nations.
For most Europeans the initial
change will be limited to getting used to new coins and bills. For the first
time in the history of the European Union (EU), citizens of participating
countries will be able to make quick, clear price comparisons across national
borders. Within the 12 nations it will no longer be
necessary to exchange money when visiting other countries.
Much less noticeable than the highly visible exchange of banknotes will be the inevitable realignment of national sovereignty resulting from the euro's introduction. Control over national currency has always been vital to a country's national sovereignty.
With the euro, however, monetary policy cedes to the European Central Bank (ECB), which as a supragovernmental agency already determines key interest rates and will set money-supply levels for all 12 countries in the euro zone. The national banks of those nations are in essence now mere vassals of the ECB, implementing its policies on a national level.
The sovereignty issue is one of the main reasons some in noneuro EU countries such as Britain are reluctant to join the monetary union. There is no question that exchanging the British pound sterling for the euro would mean a loss of independence for the United Kingdom.
The other key element in influencing the value of national currency remains in the hands of each national government: economic policies. Critics of the euro have warned for several years that the euro may experience difficulty in becoming a stable hard currency unless economic policy is coordinated among euro countries in the same way that monetary policy is determined by the ECB, for, after the euro's introduction, there will be no return to national currencies without irreparable damage to the European Union.
The question, then: What nation will supply the steady hand needed to guide the economic policies of the euro zone to monetary stability? If this currency experiment is successful, the inevitable result will be more political sovereignty transferred from the 12 national governments to the European Union.
Indeed, when it was announced in December that the euro had won the International Charlemagne Prize for 2002 (a prestigious award normally given annually to people or groups seen as most greatly contributing to European unity), prize-committee spokesman Walter Eversheim said: "From January 2002, the euro will be far more than the single currency for Europe. It will contribute to a common European identity (and) foster peace."
Unknown to most people, however, these moves toward forging a European superstate will not lead to peace but ultimately the opposite. To understand the biblical significance of these developments, read the cover article "Who Will Be the Next Superpower?" in the May-June Good News and request our free booklets You Can Understand Bible Prophecy and The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: The Daily Telegraph (London), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.)
According to a government-funded study of sexual habits in Britain, the average age at which British teenagers first have intimate relations is 16, the lowest level ever recorded. Analysis of the available data indicates that a third of teenagers indulge in illicit sexual relationships before they reach 16. This government study went on to show that one in three underage teens engages in sexual activity.
Millions of pounds of tax money have been spent in dealing with this problem, which naturally results in countless unplanned pregnancies and helps send rates of sexually transmitted disease soaring.
The human cost to society in needless
suffering is incalculable. Competent sex education is important in dealing with
the dilemma, but even that can prove counterproductive if it is not accompanied
by sound moral teaching from the Bible. If you do not yet have a copy, please
request our free booklet The Ten Commandments. (Source: The Sunday
Times (London).)
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A feature article in USA Today, quoting a recognized authority, catches one's eye. It said: "With the increase in the divorce rate, the increase in the age at which people first get married and with our increasing longevity, the experience of being single is now one of the most widely shared experiences of adulthood." So says Bella DePaulo, visiting professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Nearly 10 percent of Americans live by themselves. If you add those who are cohabiting, whether in college dorms or elsewhere, the ranks of the singles swell even more: from 38 million in 1970 to 82 million in 2000. Singles constitute about 40 percent of the U.S. adult population.
In Genesis 2:18 God makes it clear that "it is not good for the man to be alone." This is the wisdom of our Creator, who knows us better than we know ourselves. So the lonesome Adam woke up from a deep sleep to find Eve standing by his side. God joined them together in marriage and thus set the divinely intended social pattern for humanity.
The tragic fruits of not heeding our Creator's advice are apparent all around us. Suzanne Fields, columnist for The Washington Times, recently reviewed a book called The Broken Hearth by William Bennett. She summed up an aspect of his worrying assessment of our social plight today: "Those who do not marry are having sexual relations at an earlier age, and contracting sexually transmitted diseases at much higher rates, cohabiting in unprecedented numbers, and having a record number of children out of wedlock."
Of course, not everyone needs to
marry to live a happy and moral life. Undoubtedly single life will work out
better for a relatively small minority. But, if men and women follow God's laws,
marriage is by far the best option for most people if they want reasonable health,
happiness and a longer life. To learn more, please request our free booklet
Making Life Work. (Sources: USA Today, The Washington Times.)
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European Union loses £2.5 billion annually to fraud, mismanagement
The European Union (EU) constitutes a huge bureaucracy, much of it based in Brussels. According to The Sunday Times, a recent auditor's report revealed that last year the EU lost the equivalent of £15 for every family in Europe because of fraud and mismanagement. Two years ago a similar report led to European commissioners being forced out of their positions because of allegations of fraud and corruption.
In spite of promises from Italian
president Romano Prodi to transform the European Commission into a "modern
efficient administration that has put its house in order," the 15-member
court of auditors reported that "the situation is unchanged." The
public is left to figure it out. (Source: The Sunday Times (London).)
"Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?" So asked Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president during World War I.
This presidential observation is probably more true of the squabbles over black gold than any other material substance in the modern world. Even the present conflagration in Afghanistan is no exception. According to an article in The Guardian, "Afghanistan is as indispensable to the regional control of oil in Central Asia as Egypt was in the Middle East."
Afghanistan's northern neighbors contain abundant oil reserves that may prove critical to world supplies. The American military presence in Afghanistan is not only a crucial strategic blow against terrorism but may have another major benefit: the opportunity to secure ready access to Central Asian oil reserves as a countervailing measure against too much dependency on Islamic nations in the volatile Middle East.
As an editorial in The Washington Times points out: "Americans depend on fossil fuels for much of their material prosperity, even though much of that fossil fuel comes from unfriendly Islamic states in the Middle East. Almost 60 percent of American oil is shipped from overseas-Americans annually pay Saddam Hussein nearly $4 billion for the 700,000 barrels of oil that he provides them."
Therefore, the recent Russian-American cooperation against terrorism may also work to America's long-term advantage in securing adequate oil reserves. Russia is not a member of OPEC and therefore has the option of dragging its feet in reply to requests for substantial cuts in oil production.
The Times recently reported: "Russia (is) where oil output is increasing in leaps and bounds. The world has forgotten the contribution of Russian oil to global energy supply." Of course the Russians are as concerned about oil reserves as the Americans. A Daily Telegraph feature article recently observed: "For all the talk of international alliances and the future of Afghanistan, the real concern for Moscow is cementing its control of the oil supply."
America wants to build one or more oil pipelines in Central Asia. It has already invested $30 billion in developing oil in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Suddenly these faraway countries, difficult for most of us to spell and pronounce, take on an important role in our welfare. The Telegraph article continued: "Washington is now proposing a $3 billion pipeline from Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean Coast. U.S. companies could build a similar pipeline from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Karachi at half the cost, if the next Afghan government can guarantee its security."
Let's not forget China. The International Herald Tribune reported that in September "Prime Minister Zhu Rongji of China was in Moscow meeting with his Russian counterpart and signing off on a $1.7 billion feasibility study for a proposed 2,400-kilometer pipeline that by 2010 would deliver 30 million tons of oil to Chinese refineries each year." China's fast-growing economy of the past several years has created a voracious and expanding appetite for energy, and oil is one of the main sources.
Watch the oil chessboard as nations seek to secure their supplies and control world prices to their national advantage. Wars have been fought over oil, and the strivings over black gold may give us valuable clues as to how certain aspects of Bible prophecy may be fulfilled. (Sources: The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times (all London), The Washington Times, The International Herald Tribune.)
-John Ross Schroeder and Melvin
Rhodes
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Keywords: currency sex, underage teen sex fraud mismanagement oil
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