Information Related to "World News and Trends - May/June 2008"
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Famine stalks the earth
Said a striking feature article in The Wall Street Journal: "Now and then across the centuries, powerful voices have warned that human activity would overwhelm the earth's resources. The Cassandras [i.e., prophets of doom] always proved wrong. Each time, there were new resources to discover, new technologies to propel growth. Today the old fears are back" (March 26, 2008, emphasis added throughout).
A UN agency projects that our planet's population will grow by 1.4 billion more people by 2025. Significantly more food and water is being consumed by the average individual. A middle class is growing rapidly in countries like China and India, resulting in increased demand for high-protein diets.
The article continued: "Demand for resources has soared. If supplies don't keep pace, prices are likely to climb. Further, economic growth in rich and poor nations alike could suffer, and some fear violent conflicts could occur."
Other mainstream magazines and newspapers are covering this major story. Time magazine stated: "Prices of rice, wheat and other basic foodstuffs are soaring beyond the reach of the world's poor, triggering riots, pleas for aid and fears of a deepening threat to security. Add this to the list of items that could threaten world peace: food" (March 17, 2008).
The Economist weighed in with these insightful comments: "High food prices do help poor farmers, but they also hurt the more numerous category of people (poor city dwellers as well as landless rural folk) who must buy food to survive . . . The World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, has just issued an urgent appeal for $500m, to cover higher food costs. America's Agency for International Development (USAID), a huge financer of food aid, is asking for $350m. The short term outlook seems grim" (March 29, 2008).
Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, stated: "We are seeing a new face of hunger. People who weren't in the urgent category now are" (ibid.).
Overall world food prices have risen by more than 75 percent since the year 2000, increasing by more than 20 percent in 2007 alone. For instance, London's Financial Times reported on March 28, 2008, "Rice prices jumped 30 percent to a record high yesterday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest across Asia, where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5 [billion] people." Rice also remains a staple foodstuff in Africa, and some smaller countries there have experienced riots and social unrest.
Richard Watchman offered this insight in The Observer: "Scratch beneath the surface of major social or political upheaval . . . and you will find that food shortages, brought about by crop failure, naval blockade or spiralling price, lie at the heart of the matter" (March 2, 2008).
Does the Bible provide any insight on our growing global food plight? In His lengthy prophecy of the end time, Jesus Christ spoke of a pattern of epochal events that would periodically trouble the earth from His time some 2,000 years ago, intensifying just before His second coming: "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences [disease epidemics], and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:7-8).
The book of Revelation primarily concerns itself with events that will happen prior to the end of this age of man. Paralleling the specific "sorrows" mentioned in Christ's prophecy, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are featured in Revelation 6. The third rider, of the black horse, stands clearly identified as the specter of famine (verses 5-6)-to plague the earth just prior to Christ's return.
To understand the significance of these four horsemen, identified respectively as religious deception, war, famine and disease, request or download our free booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: The Economist, Financial Times, The Observer [all London], Time, The Wall Street Journal.)
Ill effects of apparent recession afflict Americans
It's ironic that while China and India are enjoying greater economic prosperity than ever before, the United States is suffering the ill effects of what increasingly appears to be an economic recession. A London Independent reporter on site in New York City wrote: "Emblematic of the [American] downturn until now has been the parade of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes" (April 1, 2008).
The situation in Denver, Colorado, is a case in point. Notice a USA Today cover story: "Foreclosures are ripping through the row of new homes in the flatlands where Denver turns prairie. Every week 10 more families here need to find someplace else to live . . . For hundreds of homeowners in this mostly middle-class corner of Denver-and an estimated 1.2 million more nationwide-the wave of foreclosures battering U.S. financial markets is quickly unraveling the American dream" (April 2, 2008, emphasis added throughout).
But The Independent focused on yet another symbol of the economic downturn: "Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story."
Earlier the same article had stated: "Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on food stamps to survive- a sure sign that the world's richest country faces economic crisis."
The growing use of credit cards just to stay afloat financially is yet a third aspect of the economic anxiety now afflicting the nation. Increasingly the payment of plastic credit now comes before paying the monthly mortgage bill. Credit counselor Ann Estes stated: "We've never seen anything like this . . . Their homes are at risk, and they know it. But people say, 'I don't want to let my credit cards go because that's my cash flow'" (USA Today, Feb. 29, 2008).
Is the media using hyperbole for effect? Possibly, and perhaps probably. Nonetheless, most Americans know that the country has a serious economic problem on its hands. If you would like to improve your own financial profile and reduce your debts should serious money challenges come your way, request or download our free booklet . (Sources: The Independent [ London], USA Today.)
Is a middle class utopia practically affordable?
Mankind has periodically sought to bring about a prosperous, plentiful and peaceful paradise well before God is ready to produce it. In the past Britain's Labour Party manifesto has read like a blueprint for the Kingdom of God.
Now we read that "the middle class in poor countries is the fastest-growing segment of the world's population. While the total population will increase by about 1 billion in the next 12 years, the ranks of the middle class will swell by 1.8 billion . . . The middle class will almost double in poor countries where sustained economic growth is lifting people above the poverty line fast. For example, by 2025, China will have the world's largest middle class, while India's will be 10 times larger than it is today" (Foreign Policy [FP], March/April 2008).
That is, of course, if we don't suffer a major world famine first. Serious repercussions are already manifesting themselves. For instance, third-world riots over rising food costs have already occurred. And Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moises Naim said, "Prices are soaring not because there is less food, but because more people can afford to eat more."
The impact of the emergence of a large middle class in Asia will also inevitably drive upward the costs of world resources other than food. The insatiable demand for electricity in China and India boggles the mind. The FP article continued: "The adjustment to a middle class greater than what the world has ever known is just beginning. As the Indonesian and Mexican protestors [to higher food prices] can attest, it won't be cheap. And it won't be quiet." (Source: Foreign Policy.)
A tipping point: Muslims outnumber Catholics
For the first time in modern history, Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world (Reuters, March 30, 2008). Muslims number 1.3 billion, compared to 1.13 billion Catholics-although if all Christian groups were considered together, the number would be about 2 billion. Higher birthrates have tipped the scales in favor of the Muslims over the Catholics.
Islamic extremists want to dominate and conquer both Europe and America. This seems an impossible task, but they are dedicated to this end. Some of them opt for Europe first, since it is next door. Others argue for toppling America first, since it is seen as the greater obstacle to Muslim domination of the world.
In the view of these extremists, both are enemies. They remember the Crusades from Europe in the late 11th century and view American intervention in the Middle East as simply the latest Crusade to subjugate Muslims. To learn how this will all play out in Bible prophecy, download or request your free copy of . (Source: Reuters.)
Marriage crisis grows in Britain
Young people in the United Kingdom are increasingly choosing not to get married. Living together without getting married is becoming ever more popular. A Times article stated, "The proportion of Britons choosing to marry is at the lowest level since the figure was first calculated in 1862" (March 27, 2008). First marriages are experiencing the biggest decrease.
Moreover, the average age for tying the knot has increased by about five years. Both men and women are now around 30 when they choose to marry-about age 31 for men and close to 29 for women. Another disturbing fact is that "of the 244,710 marriages in 2005, only 34.4% were religious ceremonies, with the remaining 65.5% being civil ceremonies" (Scotland on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008) .
We are increasingly leaving God out of our marriage plans and marital lives. Yet we should all remember that He created the first man and woman and instituted marriage in the first place.
The predictions for the state of modern marriage are grim indeed. According to another Times article, half of newlywed couples are predicted to split and "one in ten will not make it past five years" (March 28, 2008).
If you would like to protect your marriage, or if you are single and would like to learn how to choose a spouse wisely, request or download our free booklet . As it reveals, we live in a moral universe ruled by God, and we ignore His spiritual laws at our peril. (Sources: Scotland on Sunday, The Times[London].)
STD crisis in America
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) continue to plague America. For example, "the U.S. syphilis rate rose for the seventh straight year in 2007, driven by a continual surge in cases among homosexual and bisexual men, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] said on Wednesday . . . Homosexual and bisexual men accounted for 64 percent of syphilis cases in 2007" (Reuters, March 12, 2008).
CDC authorities are concerned about the increased risk of those already afflicted with syphilis being more susceptible to contracting the AIDS virus and more likely to pass it on it to others. CDC epidemiologist Dr. Hillard Weinstock stated, "Syphilis can increase the likelihood of HIV transmission from two to fivefold."
Dr. Weinstock also stated the obvious: "Having multiple sex partners and other high-risk behaviors, like not using condoms, do put you at a higher risk for HIV and syphilis." Of course, condoms are not true safeguards against disease transmission, while premarital abstinence and monogamous marriage are.
Young women are very much at high risk from STDs as well. An AP report stated that "at least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease," with human papillomavirus [HPV}, a virus that causes cervical cancer, by far the most common (March 11, 2008).
Research indicates that nearly half of sexually active teenage girls are infected with an STD at any one time. (Sources: Associated Press, Reuters.)
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Keywords: food prices hunger foreclosure food stamps middle class Islam's growth marriage in Britain STD
Sexually transmitted diseases: