Information Related to "World News and Trends - September/October 2008"
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Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the opening of the iron curtain, observers of the world scene have noted an increasing inability to resolve mounting global difficulties. They look back on the Truman-Marshall-Acheson era following World War II with considerable nostalgia.
Think of the Marshall Plan, which bailed Europe out of its economic difficulties. Recall Truman's rescue of Greece from communism. Remember the creation of NATO, which spared Western Europe from a total communist takeover. The Korean War (1950-1953) ended in a stalemate, but the allied effort rescued South Korea from communism, which for decades has impoverished North Korea and isolated it from the rest of the world.
More recent times tell a very different story. Where do we begin? The global economic order is gradually weakening. India dug in its heels at the fairly recent Doha world trade talks and they collapsed in tatters. Also, Russia and China derailed UN sanctions designed to put pressure on the rogue nation of Zimbabwe. China's desire for Sudan's oil effectively blocked Western efforts to prevent genocide in Darfur .
In the Middle East, Iran continues to play political games with the West while proceeding with its nuclear ambitions. Some Israeli observers fear that America has changed direction and is now appeasing Iran. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is bogged down with talks going nowhere.
Pakistan is in political chaos with many believing that former President Musharraf was responsible for all that country's problems, but with no consensus on how to solve them now. Russia appears to be taking steps to reclaim the states of the former Soviet empire. The country of Georgia, recently invaded by Russia, remains under grave threat, and the Ukraine is deeply worried about Russian intentions.
Traditionally, first Great Britain and then the United States took the lead in policing and controlling world problems. Now American and Western authority appears to be waning in the world. President George W. Bush's domestic approval ratings are hovering at around 29 percent, with Japan's Yasuo Fukuda at 26 percent and Britain's Gordon Brown at only 17 percent.
Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi's ratings in Europe are somewhat higher, but nowhere near what they should be to effectively lead their respective nations. The inescapable conclusion is that citizens don't have much faith in their political leaders. The mantle of authority has grown ragged, and rogue regimes defiantly push their agendas.
It appears that we are living in a unique period in world history-a time of transition from this age of man to the millennial period when Jesus Christ and His saints will rule over all nations. Only the Bible can put these confusing global happenings into a proper perspective. To understand how, request or download our free booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End? (Source: International Herald Tribune.)
Politicians of every stripe are notorious for their lack of ability to solve the deep-seated problems of our societies. However, sometimes they are able to state the problem clearly. On July 7, Conservative party leader David Cameron spoke in Glasgow on behalf of his party's national candidate there.
What he said about morality makes a lot of good sense. He stated: "We have seen a decades-long erosion of responsibility, of social virtue, of self-discipline, respect for others . . . Instead we prefer moral neutrality, a refusal to make judgments about what is good and bad behaviour, right and wrong behaviour.
"Bad. Good. Right. Wrong. These are words that our political system and our public sector scarcely use anymore . . .Refusing to use these words- right and wrong-means a denial of personal responsibility and the concept of moral choice . . . There is a danger of becoming quite literally a de-moralised society, where nobody will tell the truth anymore about what is good and bad, right and wrong.
"That is why children are growing up without boundaries, thinking they can do as they please, and why no adult will intervene to stop them-including, often, their parents. The values needed to repair our broken society and build a strong society are values that should be taught in the home, in the family. I want a mandate for restoring responsibility to our society, to call time on the twisted values that have eaten away at our social fabric" (excerpts from text of East Glasgow speech, emphasis added).
During his speech Cameron said nothing directly about God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, the Christian religion or any other religion for that matter. But his words about morality were generally based on the Judeo-Christian ethic. They ring true, not applying just to the United Kingdom but to the entire Western world and especially the English-speaking peoples around the globe.
Afterwards Cameron suffered caustic verbal punishment from members of the liberal press and the intelligentsia behind it. His words did not fit with their amoral stance on basic issues governing morality. But regardless of whether his political party can or would carry out a program designed to repair British society should it ever become the ruling government again, what he said in Glasgow remains fundamentally true.
According to Jorge Castañeda, Mexico's former foreign minister and now a professor at New York University, "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's surprising announcement in early August that his country would seek to 're-establish' ties with the Soviet Union's old allies in Havana stirred up excitement in many foreign newsrooms and raised eyebrows in a few foreign ministries around the world" (Newsweek, Aug. 18, 2008).
We wonder why the surprise, since such a development would be in perfect keeping with the Russian Federation's foreign policy moves for the entire year.
The possibility of the Russian military using Cuba as a fueling station for its Bear bombers has been broached. These bombers are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Russia is also increasing its ties to Venezuela, with President Hugo Chavez having already bought between $4 and $6 billion of arms from the Russians, with an apparent deal to purchase $60 billion more in the next six years. We may well ask the question as to why Venezuela needs all those arms. (Source: Newsweek.)
From 1991 to 2007, the rate of personal bankruptcy among those ages 65 or older jumped by 150%, according to AARP [the American Association of Retired Persons]. The most startling rise occurred among those ages 75 to 84, whose rates soared 433%" (USA Today, June 18, 2008). Medical bills are a huge factor. Experts believe that health care is the biggest factor in increasing bankruptcies among elderly Americans. A major health problem in old age can wipe out a person's savings and put one deeply in debt.
Many senior citizens, instead of entering retirement in good financial shape, are loaded with debt. Social security payments often are simply not high enough to meet rising costs of food, medicine and housing.
It's never too late to begin to get your personal finances back on track. If you do your part, according to the financial principles laid down in the Bible, God will help! He has resources at His fingertips that we cannot even imagine. (To see how, request our free booklet Making Life Work.) (Source: USA Today.)
Time magazine reports that "despite years of aid from the West, millions of Africans are on the brink of starvation again" (Aug. 18, 2008). The Guardian added: "Despite appearances, a cycle of drought and escalating food prices is taking its toll" (Aug. 1, 2008).
Ethiopia is the main cause of concern. The Guardian article stated: "As hunger across the country grows, a shortfall in food aid resources and a grain shortage in the country's strategic reserves have forced the government to reduce the monthly rations it provides to more than 4 million Ethiopians."
The United States has sought to help Ethiopia. American aid is around $800 million, including $460 million in food aid and $350 million in help for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The Time cover feature concluded: "The sobering lesson: Even the best efforts to eliminate hunger are expensive, slow and uncertain of success." (Sources: The Guardian [London], Time.)
We live in a fast-food, throwaway society bent on immediate gratification. Now reports say that many Americans have become obese.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the heading of "U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2007," sounded these warning notes on its Web site: "During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States . . . In 2007, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; three of these states (Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%."
What's so remarkable about this is that most Americans believe that many fast food chains are healthy eating establishments. Affluent America remains ignorant, lazy and apathetic about what it eats. Heart disease and cancer have become more prevalent while the medical field still treats the symptoms, not the disease.
There are alternatives. We can eat smarter and better, if we choose. We can also exercise more and get the right amount of rest. Interested readers may also want to request or download our free booklet Making Life Work. (Source: www.cdc.gov.)
In Britain the age of consent for sexual relations is supposedly 16. However, according to a Daily Telegraph report in June 2008, more than 1,000 girls younger than 14 had abortions in the previous year.
Concern is also growing about the spiraling rise in teen pregnancies in Britain , including those that are not ended by an abortion. According to the government Web site "Every Child Matters," the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy (TPIAG) published its fifth annual report suggesting strategies for halving conception rates for both the 16 to 18 age range and establishing "a firm downward trend" in the rate for those under 16.
Not surprisingly, there is a corresponding upward rise in the rates of sexually transmitted diseases. The British government plans to combat this by offering around 300,000 girls between the ages of 17 and 18 vaccinations against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes genital warts and, if not treated, can lead to cervical cancer. (The Sunday Times, July 20, 2008). The government also plans to vaccinate younger girls.
Merely treating the effects of early sexual promiscuity and making information on sex and its hazards more readily available appears to government departments to be the only solution. Few consider obeying the law, and more importantly God's law, as an answer to the problem. (Sources: The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times [both London ], www.everychildmatters.gov.uk.)
According to Lionel Beechner, formerly a senior writer at the Council on Foreign Relations, "Americans today are embracing world affairs, and international news coverage is picking up and feeding on the trend-looking to broaden a growing audience" (USA Today, July 10, 2008).
From 2000 to 2006 there was a 200 percent increase in applications for foreign service in the United States . And from 1993 to the present, Americans have doubled their readership of The Economist, a British weekly newsmagazine covering international affairs. Beechner concludes: "It took a few wars and wobbly oil markets for us to learn that, as the song goes, it's a small world after all."
If you'd like to better understand what is happening around the world and why, request a free subscription to our sister magazine World News and Prophecy. (Source: USA Today.)
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Keywords: Globosclerosis global difficulties Russia bankruptcy teen pregnancy Cuba STD world news
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