October 22

Meet the Challenge of Your Environment

WHY should you want to meet the challenge of your environment? Because creatures that cannot meet the challenge of their environment die; the challenge must be met if one is to continue to live. In fact, if you are to enjoy a measure of health and strength, to keep making progress, to keep from becoming frustrated, you must, at least in some measure, meet the challenge of your environment.

In our very bodies we have examples of how the challenge of environment can be met. As you know, the higher the altitude the less oxygen there is in the air. The human body meets this challenge of high altitude by increasing the number of red corpuscles in the blood. People living in high altitudes generally have larger hearts. Similarly people living in the tropic zones have more pigment in their skin to protect them from the sun’s rays, which there beat down more directly.

You Can Protect Yourself

Today not only is the selfishness of man making his physical environment more and more unwholesome, but, more importantly, man’s mental and moral environment is also being polluted by men without moral principles. We are quite limited in avoiding or correcting the physical pollution surrounding us. But what about the moral pollution? Can we meet the challenge that this represents? Yes, we can. How? Basically by guarding our hearts and exercising self-control.​—Prov. 4:23.

Discussing man’s relation to his environment, the late Dr. Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize-winning biologist, in his book Man, the Unknown states: “Each individual has the power to modify his way of life, to create around him an environment slightly different from that of the unthinking crowd. He is capable of isolating himself in some measure, by imposing upon himself certain [physical] and mental disciplines . . . of acquiring mastery of his body and mind.” Yes, men have a natural ability to shut out from their minds certain things surrounding them. But this natural ability is not enough. One needs the aid of God’s Word of truth and his spirit to overcome in a bad moral environment. This is vital to the Christian who is in the world but not a part of it.

Of course, as far as it is possible, it is in the Christian’s interests to stay away from or leave an environment hostile to his spiritual well-being. ‘Bad associations do spoil useful habits.’ Wisely God’s Word counsels: “Do not have companionship with anyone given to anger; and with a man having fits of rage you must not enter in, that you may not get familiar with his paths and certainly take a snare for your soul.”​—1 Cor. 15:33; Prov. 22:24, 25.

But a Christian may have to earn his living by working alongside such kinds of people. And nearly all Christian youths are thrown in close touch with bad associations in school. Then again, a Christian man or woman may have an unbelieving mate who is selfish if not also immoral. All such comprise the environment of Christians and are a real challenge.

How to Meet the Challenge

The Christian witnesses of Jehovah have demonstrated time and again that this challenge can be met. Very notable was their conduct in concentration camps in Nazi Germany, Russia and other lands. The conditions, the environment of these camps, were such as to degrade most of those incarcerated in them. But of Jehovah’s witnesses, Professor Ebenstein wrote, in The Nazi State, that “each member seems to be a fortress that can be destroyed but never taken.” They not only met the challenge of such an environment, being ‘like rocks in a sea of mud,’ as another author expressed it, but were even able to influence others to adopt a better, a Christian, way of life.

Although today there are comparatively few Christians in concentration camps, nearly all of them are living in a hostile environment that represents a challenge. A Christian may be discriminated against, taunted or ridiculed because of his race, nationality or religion. How shall he react? Withdraw into his shell, as it were, become bitter and resentful? Or give way to violent outbursts? That would not be meeting the challenge successfully but would represent defeat. To meet the challenge and come off victor he will have to imitate Jesus, of whom it was written: “When he was being reviled, he did not go reviling in return. When he was suffering, he did not go threatening, but kept on committing himself to the one who judges righteously.”​—1 Pet. 2:23.

Or a Christian’s environment may be extremely immoral. Those about him at his place of employment or at school may be using obscene speech, be telling filthy stories. How can he successfully meet this challenge? Certainly not by sharing in such talk, being amused by it, nor by giving it a curious ear. Again God’s Word gives good advice, saying: “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and quit sharing with them in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness, but, rather, even be reproving them.”​—Eph. 5:10, 11.

At times a Christian may find his fellow employees stealing goods from their employer or loafing on the job. To avoid accusations of being ‘overly righteous’ or ‘trying to show others up,’ may he join in with such practices? Not if he wants to be pleasing to God.

What will aid Christians in meeting such challenges? One thing is replacing the fear of men with trust in Jehovah. (Prov. 29:25) To have that trust a person must feed his mind by regularly studying God’s Word, and strengthen his heart by meditating on it, and keep associating with others who seek God’s guidance.

How Do You View the Customs of Others?

IN A luxurious restaurant in London an Englishman and an African began to eat their dinner. As the African nimbly picked up his food with his fingers the manager’s eyes flashed in anger. “All right,” he said to the Englishman, “I must ask you to leave​—and take your friend with you.” A lady snorted, “Why don’t they learn to eat properly?”

The two got up and left, as all eyes followed them. What had gone wrong? Were they not well dressed and polite? Ah, but the fingers! It is not considered proper to eat with the fingers!

Often persons are unaware of how peculiar or offensive their customs can be to people of another background. This was also illustrated a few years ago when a visitor from Canada had an audience with an African chief in Ghana.

The Canadian gestured freely with his left hand. He also presented a book to the chief with his left hand. This shocked the tribal elders. Speaking to the chief in their native language, they demanded that the man be set straight as to what are proper manners.

You see, to Ghanaians the left hand is unclean. This is because it is associated with toilet matters. So it is never used to give or receive things, or to eat food. Even though one may wash both hands equally well, according to Ghanaian custom the left is still considered unclean.

Customs vary a great deal, since people have such widely different backgrounds and educations. Do you think that your own customs are necessarily the best? Or do you think that there is merit to the ways and practices of other people? Let us examine some customs. It will help us to answer such questions.

Gift-giving Customs

Consider, for example, the differing customs relative to gift-giving. Europeans and Americans are inclined to try to select gifts to suit the person, the need or sentiment. They generally remove the price tag, since it is usually the custom not to have gifts reckoned according to cash value. In Ghana, however, money is a suitable gift for every occasion.

When you think about it, is not the Ghanaian custom a practical one? Does it not save a lot of time and effort? Yet, on the other hand, is there not something heartwarming about receiving a fine gift personally selected by a friend? Really, both customs have merit, do they not?

Even the customary ways that people receive gifts vary. A polite American or European will generally open a gift with obvious delight, thank the giver profusely, and then probably be conscious of a need to reciprocate in some way to show that the friendship is mutual. But what if you should give a gift to a Ghanaian?

He would probably thank you briefly, tuck the gift under his arm and open it when he got home. The next morning when you may have concluded that he does not really appreciate gifts, he would return to thank you formally. And somehow this extra effort makes the thanks seem a little more genuine. Also, the Ghanaian will not feel the need to reciprocate​—at least not too soon. He will allow you the honor of being his benefactor.

Views Toward Dress and Hospitality

In Ghana a woman when dressed will customarily have her legs covered, but not necessarily the upper part of her body. Thus a mother will chat with a visitor while breast-feeding her baby. And inside, one may meet an older woman at work covered from only the waist down. Do you consider that shocking? Perhaps so. But it is not shocking to persons who have been brought up in a community where this is the customary dress.

On the other hand, consider a Ghanaian who visits a European or American home. He may find the housewife in shorts. And in some communities he may see her go out in public in the same attire. While this behavior may be acceptable to an American, the African would think: “Going outside in her underwear!” So, you see, how one is brought up affects greatly what one considers to be proper.

What if you arrived at a host’s house and were offered a bath? Would you perhaps be offended, viewing it as an implication that you must smell? Or would you accept the offer as a gesture of hospitality? Ghanaians bathe twice a day, and they show their hospitality to guests by offering them a bath. If you were visiting the hot country of Ghana, you would probably agree that it is a fine custom, since a bath is indeed refreshing!

In America greetings are inclined to be brief. It may simply be a quick “Hello,” and then parties proceed with the business or pleasure at hand. In Ghana, on the other hand, a guest is comfortably seated in a chair, and a period of time is spent formally greeting and welcoming him. Traditionally he is also given a glass of water.

Perhaps you have a definite preference of one custom over another. You may feel that the lengthy welcome is a waste of time. Or it may be your view that the brief greeting is too hurried, even rude. But can you be tolerant of the ways of others? It will make for better relations if you are.

Pace of Life and Details

The custom of formally greeting persons at length can be better understood when one considers the pace of life in Ghana. It seems that in a highly industrialized society people customarily time their activities, and have little races with the clock throughout the day. But not so Ghanaians. They generally take it slow and easy. Would you find frustrating their unconcern about time? Or do you see merit in their relaxed way of life?

Americans and Europeans are also concerned with specifics and detail. They give attention to population figures, precise travel schedules, shades of color, names of plants, and so forth. But a Ghanaian generally does not bother with details. For example, one might ask a Ghanaian concerning the death of a person: “How old was the gentleman?”

“Oh, very old, about 120 years,” may be the reply. But that only means old. Nobody actually calculated the years. It is just not considered important here.

Pursuing the matter further, one might ask: “What was the cause of his death?”

“Fever,” or, “We don’t know,” may come the resigned reply. And after all, does it really matter? The result is just as final if one knows or not. At least that is how Ghanaians customarily reason.

The Family

In Ghana the family is a large clan operated much like a corporation. Several generations of relatives usually live together in a family compound. This represents security, for theoretically the individual has the backing of a whole group of relatives whose number, wealth and power are ever at his disposal. A Ghanaian will introduce someone, saying, “This is my brother.” But technically the person may be only a cousin.

In other places in the world families are usually smaller and less closely knit. In speaking about his family, a European or American may mention that his mother is doing well. “She has her own home and lives on her own,” he may tell his Ghanaian friends.

“Not living all alone?” someone interrupts.

“Oh, yes, she is quite able to manage on her own,” is the reply.

“How terrible! How lonely! How cruel to leave your mother living by herself, not surrounded by children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews!” will be the reaction.

The person may be sorry that he mentioned his mother. And he is careful not to breathe a word about the old folks’ homes that are common back in his country. Are you inclined to feel that there is merit to the African family style with its closeness?

To an American or European, polygamy may indeed seem a strange practice, but in Africa it is a common, accepted way of life. The ease with which it is accepted is indicated by these common introductions, “This is my father’s wife,” or, “This is my brother​—same father, different mother.” Understandably, then, a polygamist often finds the Bible standard of having only one living wife difficult to meet. (1 Tim. 3:2, 12) However, many Africans who come to an understanding of the Bible forsake this custom because they really do love God and want his approval.

Status Consciousness and Servants

Ghanaians are quite status conscious. Age gives one status. Money also does. Men are viewed as being higher than women. And educated people are considered better than noneducated people. Younger members of the family, though adults, have little influence. Do you approve of such status consciousness?

A help in maintaining status in Ghana is the availability of inexpensive servants. According to his means, a householder gradually acquires a house servant, a wash boy, a gardener, a chauffeur, and so forth. Almost every lady of moderate means has a maidservant. Usually she is acquired when young, possibly eight to ten years of age. She gets very little in the way of pay, and much is expected from her in the way of chores around the house. Is your reaction to pity the little maidservant?

However, the girl benefits. Her mistress is responsible to see that she has basic schooling, or at least is taught a trade such as sewing, selling or whatever the lady herself does. She is cared for as part of the household. She learns to take responsibility, to cook and care for a household, which training will make her a desirable wife.

Marriage Customs

In Ghana a bride price is customary. The going price for a bride varies greatly according to the community, the status of her family, her education and her beauty. Does this custom of buying a bride seem a little too calculating to you? But it does have practical aspects.

The money will provide the bride necessary things, such as cooking utensils and other household items to start her new home. Cloth for dresses may also be included in the bride price, enabling her to dress well after the wedding. Many members of the big family have contributed to the girl’s upbringing and training, so the prospective groom shows his appreciation by giving them a gift. All these arrangements take time, sometimes years, especially if the man is not too well off and has to pay on the installment plan.

When the wedding day finally arrives, the couple are presented publicly in their finery. Close friends accompany the newlyweds to their new home. The following days are customarily spent by the couple visiting and thanking those who helped with the arrangements. Friends, too, greet them in their new home, and especially the bridesmaid must visit them daily to see that all is well.

Do you think, “How awful! So little privacy”? You may if you are an American. But in Ghana going away on a honeymoon would be viewed with suspicion. What are they running away from? people would wonder. Which custom do you prefer?

Childbearing and Rearing Children

To some peoples companionship is considered of chief importance in marriage. Ghanaians, however, place primary importance on childbearing. In fact, when a mother has given birth to ten children there is a celebration in which a sheep is presented as a gift. “To the woman, of course, for her hardship endured ten times,” you may conclude. No, but rather to the man. This is because he has cared for ten children, and these, according to the ancient clan system, will build up the population and prestige of the mother’s clan.

A Ghanaian who visited New York did not like the custom there of caring for children, observing that many a woman “pushed her baby in a box in front of her and held her dog to her bosom.” In Ghana, babies are usually tied to their mother’s back. The baby is secure, the mother’s hands are free and paraphernalia is kept to a minimum. You will no doubt agree that there is merit to this custom.

Also, a Ghanaian could well be disturbed by the American and European custom of giving many toys to children, or of favoring them with their own special plate, their own chair, even their own room. Is the child not being catered to as an adult? he may ask.

An African child, on the other hand, is just one of the group. Rather than have a room to himself, he shares his sleeping mat and rates a stool to sit on if no adult needs it. He is surrounded by a crowd of relatives, and eats from the same bowl with his parents and friends. He has few commercial toys, but uses his fine imagination and ingenuity to make his own. He is loved and cared for, but is unpampered. He is more likely to grow up respectful of all adults.

Often, when first learning about customs of other peoples, a person considers them strange or even objectionable. But when he examines them more carefully and objectively, he frequently finds merit to them, in fact, that he likes some of them better than his own. Have you found this to be the case?

​—By “Awake!” correspondent in Ghana.

Is Japan’s Prosperity Genuine?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

IN THE summer of 1945 Japan lay in ruins. Atomic bomb blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki culminated dramatically the devastation of her major cities. The nation was destitute.

Yet twenty-three years later, in 1968, Japan climbed to third place among the world’s industrial powers. And judging by her astounding rate of economic growth, some predict that in thirty to fifty years Japan could bypass both the Soviet Union and the United States to become the richest nation on earth. Materially, Japan is indeed prospering.

Evidences of Prosperity

Recovery from almost total devastation was unbelievably rapid. Already by the mid-1950’s Japan led the world in shipbuilding. Today she so dominates the industry that she builds over half of all the world’s new ships, including the largest ones ever constructed!

Japan also has set the pace in rapid train transportation. In 1964 the Japanese opened the world’s fastest railroad line. Superexpress trains cruise between Tokyo and Osaka at 125 miles per hour, and can travel as fast as 157 miles per hour.

Remarkable progress, too, has been achieved in the manufacture of motor vehicles. By 1955 Japan was in eighth spot among the world’s top producers, but now she is Number Two, ranking behind only the United States.

Japan produced less than 150,000 motor vehicles in 1955, but by last year had raised production to an amazing total of nearly five and a half million! In April of this year some 43,000 Datsuns and Toyotas were sold in the United States. If that total were equaled each month, over half a million Japanese cars would be sold in the United States in 1971! No wonder there is talk of Japan, in time, becoming Number One in auto production.

The growth of Japan’s steel industry has also been phenomenal. In 1970 her output of steel jumped to 103 million net tons from 90 million the year before, while the United States’ production dropped to about 132 million net tons in 1970. By 1975 Japan is expected to match the output of the world’s biggest producers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Already the Nippon Steel Corporation is the biggest in the world. Its largest blast furnace has twice the capacity of the biggest one in the United States.

The construction business in Japan, too, is booming. Skyscrapers thirty, forty and even more than fifty stories high are going up. In Tokyo alone a skyscraper luxury apartment is completed every day of the week!

Material prosperity is also evidenced by the TV sets in more than half of Japanese homes, and radios in nearly every household. Also, people throughout the world watch Japanese-made TVs, listen to Japanese radios, play Japanese cassette recorders, ride Japanese motorcycles, and use Japanese cameras. The familiarity of the names “Sony,” “Panasonic,” “Honda,” “Nikon,” and so forth, indicates the Japanese success in capturing world markets.

The economic outlook has indeed appeared bright in Japan. The main cloud on the horizon at this time is what effect the August 15 decision of America’s President Nixon will have. Then, you may recall, he increased by 10 percent the tax on items imported into the United States. His action also resulted in Japan’s currency, the yen, being made more costly in relation to the dollar. All this, Japanese leaders fear, may work to restrict sales to the United States. That would have a dampening effect on Japan’s economy. Nevertheless, there is still, at this time, a high degree of material prosperity.

But is this prosperity in Japan genuine? At first glance it might appear so. But let us take a closer look.

True Prosperity?

Japan’s material prosperity has meant the choking of her streets and highways with millions of motor vehicles. The blaring horns and terrible traffic jams are enough to fray anybody’s nerves.

But worse yet, millions are maimed, crippled and killed in accidents​—over a million being either killed or injured in 1970 alone. Japan’s traffic death toll is nearly 20,000 a year​—a direct result of the booming auto industry.

Prosperous industries have also meant putrid, poisonous air to breathe. The number of babies born deformed has been found to be twice as high in areas of much air pollution as elsewhere. It has also been learned that 20 percent of Tokyo schoolchildren suffer physically from air pollution.

When pollution levels reach a critical point, sound cars tour city streets advising people to stay indoors. Traffic policemen wear gas masks, or they return to their station for whiffs of oxygen between tours of duty.

Prospering industries have also poisoned the waterways, spreading deadly pollutants to growing rice, vegetables, fish and eventually to man who feeds on these things. The Welfare Ministry reported this spring that cadmium pollution of rice has spread to all areas of Japan. Hundreds of persons have already been crippled and killed by these widespread pollutants.

But why cannot Japan control this terrible pollution? It is due to material self-interest, which has also brought other nations to the edge of ruin. As the Japan Times said regarding a meeting of leading nations this year: “The conference revealed that many nations are unwilling to take the lead in investing heavily in antipollution devices, since the added costs involved would weaken the competitive position of their industries on the international market.”

But traffic and pollution are not the only problems. Families are no longer as closely knit. Fathers do not give children the attention they require. Pointing toward a reason for this, one survey revealed that 68 percent of Japanese managers polled said that business was more important to them than their families. Can it be said that Japan’s business prosperity is genuine when it has contributed to a breakdown in family life?

There has also been a terrible deterioration in morals. In the climate of prosperous big-city life immorality has become widespread. Declared the director of the Public Sanitation Bureau of the Health and Welfare Ministry, Tadashi Takizawa: “It is estimated that there are roughly 2.5 million syphilis patients in Japan now.”

Crime has also become rampant. Apartment dwellers are fearful of every caller. Adult gangsterism flourishes. There are over a hundred gangs with some 34,000 members in Japan. Also, juvenile crime is increasing sharply. But has material prosperity really contributed to this situation?

The Japan Times noted: “Economic prosperity has produced a leisure youth class such as traditional Japanese society never had before. We are not accustomed to the problems innate in this. Thus, to underscore another point in the (National Police) agency’s report, the upsurge in juvenile delinquency is marked by an increase in ‘crimes for fun.’”

Although Japan has been successful in becoming one of the richest nations on earth materially, many of her citizens are saddened by the deterioration in the quality of life. Material prosperity has not brought happiness, but rather greater anxiety, fears and distress.

Realizing Genuine Prosperity

This is not to say that material prosperity itself is bad. But if one’s goal is to be Number One in material riches, and one neglects all else to attain that goal, then the prosperity achieved will not be genuine. It will not bring true contentment or happiness, but rather trouble.

The inspired sayings of God in the Holy Bible show this, explaining: “Those who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have . . . stabbed themselves all over with many pains.”​—1 Tim. 6:9, 10.

This is what has happened to Japan. Her quest for material riches has resulted in a stabbing of herself all over with many pains. These pains have included not only a ruining of the nation’s land, water and air, but also the ruining of the moral fiber of the people. Yet, happily, this has not been true of all the people.

Many Japanese are seeing the senselessness of determining to be rich. Some of these are turning to God’s Word the Bible to see what He says about life and its purpose. What happiness and contentment this is bringing to them! They are obtaining genuine prosperity, the type that comes only with knowing and serving one’s Creator, Jehovah God.

For example, one young man in Yokohama owns a thriving business that handles food packaging. He had the prospects of enlarging and becoming even richer materially. But by studying the Bible he saw the foolishness of determining to be rich. So he has halved his business operation, and now both he and his employees spend their afternoons and evenings helping their families and others to grow in appreciation of Jehovah God and his purposes. Serving as witnesses of the true God is bringing them true contentment, yes, genuine prosperity.

Thousands of persons in Japan are now enjoying this prosperity, including a number of medical doctors. Some of them now arrange to work just a day or two a week in a local hospital. The rest of the time they spend with their families and in the Christian ministry helping others to learn the purposes of God.

Do you, too, desire genuine prosperity? To obtain it, knowledge of Jehovah God and his purposes is necessary. Why not, therefore, accept the invitation to study the Bible with the next one of Jehovah’s witnesses who visits you? You, too, can learn how to enjoy genuine prosperity!

A Visit to the “Divine Name” Assembly

WHAT kind of surroundings do you enjoy? If you could have what you want, would you choose a situation in which you could feel a sense of real peacefulness, love, security and cooperation, with a general atmosphere of cleanliness?

These things are very hard to find, all at one time and in one place, no matter where you live. But if you were told that you could experience a day or so in such surroundings, would you accept the invitation?

Well, were you invited during this past summer to one of the “Divine Name” District Assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses? If you live in one of thirty-four cities in the United States, or in certain large cities in Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Japan or even in some islands of the sea, you may well have received an invitation.

If, for one reason or another, you did not attend some of the assembly sessions, we would like to invite you to “go” now. That is, we would like you to enjoy some of the events from your armchair and to see for yourself whether the above-mentioned good things are a reality in our day.

The things we want to describe for you will give you at least a taste of what occurred, for the most part through the eyes of persons who like good, right things, but who are not Jehovah’s witnesses. For a while, put yourself in their place.

Perhaps you read an item in the newspapers that aroused your curiosity. Maybe you saw a “Welcome Jehovah’s Witnesses” sign on one of your city’s buildings, such as there was in Milwaukee. Or perhaps you heard about the welcome by city officials like the one in Greenville, South Carolina, where the convention delegates were given 5,000 ‘keys to the city.’ These were large ‘keys’ of pink cardboard to put behind car windshields for free parking at city lots and parking meters.

You may have heard that Jehovah’s witnesses put forth strenuous efforts to attend these assemblies. They arrange their vacations to coincide with the assembly, and they take their families. Why? There must be a strong reason. Take, for example, the mother of five children whose husband, not a Witness, is a lighthouse keeper off the coast of British Columbia. She made a petition to officials to ride the grocery helicopter that brings supplies to the lighthouse. Her request was approved, so she took her five children to Victoria, caring for some medical and dental needs, attending the assembly, then returning home by helicopter.

Let us suppose that your interest is aroused somehow, and that you visit a typical convention and view the arrangement and enjoy the program. We will assume that the site is a sports stadium.

On arriving, you notice that the crowds are well integrated, mingling without prejudice. If you ask anyone of the crowd, he will tell you that it is not that integration is an issue with the Witnesses. It is just that they are drawn from all races and walks of life by a heart’s desire to learn better to serve God. They know that they are all God’s human creation, and that He “made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.”​—Acts 17:26.

Clean, with a Decorative Stage

You may want to visit some of the departments set up to take care of the needs of such a large number of people. But at that moment a floral display in the field catches your eye. It is part of a platform or stage. Surrounded by flowers of varied colors and by pools and fountains, the broad platform has a comfortable look, with large bright-colored umbrellas to provide shade for participants in dramas and a decorative canopy over the speaker’s podium. Above the platform in Los Angeles, suspended in red letters, was the Divine Name, JEHOVAH. Four-foot-high cutout letters across the field spelled out the assembly title: “‘Divine Name’ Assembly, 1971.”

The program is ready to start. But can you sit on the seats without dusting them? Assuredly so. The care given by the Witnesses to all the facilities and equipment is one of the reasons why officials welcome them. Testimony to this is the comment to news reporters (of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin) by the superintendent of Connie Mack Stadium. He stated that his fondest memory in his thirty-seven years at the park was the convention of Jehovah’s witnesses in the 1950’s. “They cleaned off every seat in the park with soap and water before they started the meeting on Monday,” he said, “and then cleaned off every seat the same way before they left on Sunday. It had to be the neatest, cleanest and quietest convention in history.” And the custodian of the Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, Louisiana, remarked, after the usual preassembly cleaning: “[My men] got it clean, but you’ve got it sanitary!”

The keynote talk during the first session, on the subject “Whose Name Do You Respect More​—Your Own, or God’s?” reveals that the guiding principle of the Witnesses is to make known God’s name, Jehovah, not only the name itself, but the qualities for which that name stands. They recognize Jehovah God as the Universal Sovereign, the God of loving-kindness and mercy, who will make his name known to all by destroying wickedness and establishing righteousness and justice in the earth for all whose hearts desire it.

Assembly Departments

After the session you may be hungry. But that is easy to remedy, for the convention has set up its own cafeteria. They first have obtained inspection and approval of the health authorities, and they take pride in serving clean, wholesome food at a nominal cost. Or, if you wish, you can walk over to a refreshment stand where a smiling attendant will serve you a hamburger, coffee, a cold drink, pie, ice cream or other refreshments.

The convention also provides rooming accommodations, either in the homes of local Witnesses, free, or at reasonable rates in hotels or homes of local citizens who have a room or two to rent. The Witnesses have built up a reputation for respecting the property of others, and this has opened many homes to them.

Additionally, businessman and others in a great number of instances have shown willingness to help, having experienced pleasant dealings in the past. One man in Vancouver donated twelve and a half tons of potatoes for cafeteria use. A lady in Tulsa, not having as much space as she wanted to house assembly delegates, went from door to door until she found more accommodations for them.

A man in Memphis allowed his meat-packing plant to be used to process all the meat for the assembly. And the president of a bank in Portland, Oregon, broadcast an appeal for rooms, saying about the assembly there: “It’s a fine thing for Portland.”

On the third morning of the assembly you are treated to an unusual sight. After a talk explaining the purpose and meaning of Christian baptism, the speaker asks those desiring baptism to stand. In most of the assemblies you would see several hundred who have enjoyed a course of six months or more in Bible study and who now want to devote their lives wholeheartedly to the service of God. These rise to answer questions asked by the speaker, to indicate their qualifications to undergo baptism. Then (as in several of the stadiums) you can remain in your seat and observe the orderly baptism in large portable pools set up right on the grounds.

The nature of this procedure is all quiet and peaceful. A news reporter observing the baptism at one of the German assemblies wrote in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung: “There was nothing fanatical in the eyes of those saying ‘yes’ to the questions asked, rather they seemed to be filled with a certain peaceful joy, as did all of the other people in the hall. . . . Thus it was really nothing to be laughed at that this group went to the beautiful exhibition pool with its [73° F.] warm water.” In another instance, a German man wrote to his newspaper: “Just ask the caretaker Mr. S— about his experience with 700 people, who within one hour were baptized there. It would be a contribution to the peace within our midst.”

On the assembly’s fourth day you hear a Resolution enthusiastically presented, stressing the need of proclaiming the Divine Name. Those saying “Aye” to the Resolution realize the urgency of the time, with “the ‘sword’ of divine warfare that is hanging as if by a slender thread over the head of all races, peoples and nations,” as the Resolution declared. All pledge themselves to bend every effort to sound the divine warning, that as many as possible may be preserved for life in God’s new order, promised in his Word the Bible.

Education Stressed

You notice that, throughout the program, daily Bible reading, family Bible study and attendance at Bible study meetings are recommended. Talks and dramas urge all to help one another, and encourage fine moral conduct.

You see a new large-print revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures presented, also a book Aid to Bible Understanding, which is a product of much Bible research. There is a book for teaching children, a publication considering the prophecies in the Bible book of Ezekiel, and a book as a guide in the Theocratic Ministry School carried on in each congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses. All these Bible study helps are released at this assembly to promote the Bible educational work.

But as the closing song for the day is sung, you may discover that you have mislaid or lost your purse. You experience momentary panic. However, the person sitting near you, after helping you look around where you might have left it, assures you there is little cause for worry. If it was found by one of the conventioners you will recover it at the Lost and Found department next day. Sure enough, the next morning your purse is there, its contents intact.

Do things like this actually take place? Well, out of a number of similar accounts, take the experience of a delegate to the Jackson, Michigan, assembly. He stayed at a motel forty miles from Jackson, and drove back and forth each day. On Saturday evening he lost two ten-dollar bills in front of the motel. Sunday morning the money was at the assembly’s Lost and Found department, left there by a Witness who had found it.

In another case, parental teaching and example in application of Bible principles made a notable impression on an operator of several food stands in California. At the assembly in Pomona, the assembly’s refreshment stands were accepting a twenty-five-cent contribution for hamburgers, but this man near the assembly grounds was asking fifty cents. The children, not knowing about this difference, would get a hamburger from him, then find out they needed another twenty-five cents. They asked the server to wait, please. The man admitted that he was “flabbergasted” when, in a half hour or so, the children would come back to settle their debts. He then asked if his eight-year-old daughter could work alongside the other children who were helping in the assembly work.

The Public Talk

Finally you come to the assembly’s concluding day and you hear the public lecture “When All Nations Collide, Head On, with God.” You may at first have had misgivings about the title. But as the discussion develops, dealing with God’s creatorship, ownership and sovereignty over the earth, you see its reasonableness. The speaker points out that God will surely carry out his original purpose to provide mankind a righteous, clean paradise home. He has tolerated the wickedness of the nations, giving time for them to demonstrate that they cannot rule the earth in peace. However, they refuse to acknowledge Him, and instead go on ruining the earth. Furthermore, they now tell the people to put their trust in a peace-and-security organization, the United Nations, in place of God’s Messianic kingdom. Therefore, he must smash them in order to clear the earth for righteous rule.

This presentation, backed up by copious Scripture quotations, gives you something to think about. You find of particular interest the concluding portion, which outlines from the Bible the course that will mean preservation for the individual.

You may have noticed, in the Awake! magazine earlier this year, the listing of times and places of the various assemblies and that, wherever there are sizable groups of foreign-speaking persons, there would be multilingual assemblies, where the same program could be heard by these groups in different sections of the stadium, or in different buildings. This was the case in England, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Japan and various places in the United States. Among the languages were Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Croatian, Slovenian and Turkish. There is also a special arrangement at several assemblies for the deaf.

Because of a cholera outbreak in France, the convention scheduled in Toulouse was canceled. This was a disappointment to hundreds of Portuguese Witnesses. They are prevented by the Portuguese government from holding assemblies, so they had been all ready to go to Toulouse, France. How happy they were made when the London, England, convention arranged for Portuguese sessions! Not only that, but the London Witnesses, their homes already crowded by delegates, made arrangements almost overnight to house and care for the Portuguese delegates as well as to finance bus travel to the assembly site daily. The 886 Portuguese able to attend were very grateful, for an assembly is a very special occasion to them.

Spiritual and Physical Refreshment

Attending the assembly involved time and effort​—a real sacrifice on the part of many. Was it worth it? How do you feel? Even after just reading about it, do you not feel refreshed, especially to know that there is a people who have a hope in God’s promises and who are trying to live now according to principles that will govern the earth when His promises fully come true?

Such a feeling was expressed by an elderly conventioner who has attended scores of assemblies over a period of many years. He said: “Perhaps the best way to describe the overall effect of this assembly is to say that the program spiritually satisfied and physically stimulated. The latter undoubtedly comes because, even though traveling a considerable distance to the assembly site each day, arising early and returning late, the mental exhilaration dominated fatigue.”

What is your viewpoint, after reviewing such an assembly? We hope it is not that of a TV cameraman in Buffalo who said to his superior after an assignment: “I shouldn’t cover them any more. They were too nice to me, and I’m too negative. They might change my thinking.” Rather, we trust that you have the spirit of the cab driver in Milwaukee who, although the convention was an occasion to keep his cab busy at a profit, said: “I am very much impressed by the neatness and cleanliness and the fact that there is no smoking. They are just beautiful people. They get along like real brothers and sisters. There is no tension, no prejudice, just plain peace. I know it is impossible, but everyone seems to know each other. And the food is real good. I have eaten my third hamburger. In fact, I’m going to go and put this cab up right now and I am coming to the meeting.” Yes, we hope you, too, will desire more association with Jehovah’s witnesses and can share their beliefs and their hopes.

[Picture on page 13]

At each assembly the principal talk was “When All Nations Collide, Head On, with God”; 32,516 attended here at Milwaukee

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The assembly delegates were a warm, happy people and grateful for the aid given them in teaching their children

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Assemblies such as this one at Dortmund, Germany, were held in many lands and frequently in several languages at the same location

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Two tanks were built for the baptism right in Yankee Stadium; 861 were baptized here

[Picture on page 17]

Bible dramas such as this one about Ruth and Boaz were used to teach lessons for modern-day life

Craftsmen in Miniature

I WOULD like to introduce myself. I am a bug​—more technically, an insect. It seems to me that the giants of creation excite more awe than we bugs do. But really we bugs have some rare credentials. You might say that many of us are craftsmen in miniature. In this age of tiny transistors, we miniaturized, hardworking craftsmen should be of interest.

Let me tell you about some cousins of mine, the Amazon jungle ants. These craftsmen construct hanging gardens on trees and shrubs, where they also make their nests. Here is how they do it: They carry earth up and place it in increasing quantities on branches. Next, passages and chambers are deftly tunneled and strengthened with paperlike material. Then special seeds from older gardens are planted. The new gardens increase in size and finally surround the ant nest in the tree, sheltering it from intense sun and rain.

These hanging gardens intrigue humans who study us. One reason is that the plants in these insect-made hanging gardens are apparently distinct from any that grow elsewhere. So far your experts have identified fourteen distinct species of plants, and not one has been found growing anywhere except in these hanging gardens! Perhaps only the ants know their locations. Babylon’s hanging gardens were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but we have performed a similar wonder for centuries, and in miniature!

Upholsterers and Tailors

We have many fine upholsterers among my family. I know a variety of bees that do a splendid job. These delicate artisans line their entire brood cells with successive layers of an amazingly delicate membrane that is more lustrous than the most beautiful satin. It even glitters! Just imagine, they use their own tongues as delicate trowels and produce from their own bodies all the upholstery material, a special secretion.

Among the bumblebees or carder bees there is a species that measures no greater than one-half inch. The female gathers material from abroad rather than secreting it from her own body. The material is a soft substance that she gets from various plants. Her delight is to upholster her base of operations. Some species make their cells by lining hollow reeds, empty snail shells or earthworm burrows, and even gun barrels may be upholstered.

Other members of my family are tailors. They must be, in order to avoid being eaten or in order to obtain a meal. My relatives differ from human tailors in that insect tailors make clothes just for themselves, not others. We do sophisticated work.

You may think her a pest, but the clothes moth is a good tailor. The clothes-eating larva of this moth lives within a case or cocoon made of bits of wool, fur or other cloth bound together with silk. As the larva grows in size, the case gets too tight. Since no seams can be “let out,” the larva makes a cut along one side from end to middle and inserts new material and increases the size of the cocoon. Then it does the same to the other side, to preserve symmetry. The result? You may be angry, but my cousin has a roomy jacket made without depriving itself of protection during alteration.

Experimentally this little tailor has been made to weave a coat of many colors by placing it successively on cloth of different hues.

I am also impressed by the abilities of Cousin Caddis fly. The caddis fly larva usually lives in streams. Here it builds itself a small house or case, each species constructing its own kind of underwater house. First of all, the larva makes a tubular shelter of silk. But more must be done to protect the caddis’ deliciously soft body from would-be diners, so the caddis strengthens the shelter by adding whatever material it chooses: stones, sand, shells and so forth. Some species make themselves a protective covering of leaves that is wrapped around their silken tube. If the material preferred by a particular species is not available, caddis will make do with whatever is available.

One species of caddis prefers to attach to its silken shelter a number of small water snails, the tenants of which are still inside, fully alive. Such a protective covering of living snails is apparently cumbersome, so this tailor adds a bit of stick to each side, giving the required buoyancy, though not enough to float the wonderfully tailored structure. Caddis’ long legs protrude from its shelter and it easily drags its mobile home as it moves along to feed. As if that were not enough, this little creature can increase the girth and length of its fabulous home, all the while being submerged under running water!

Builders

We bugs have some marvelous builders. And the way we build is architecturally just right for our needs. Take a familiar example, the cell of a bee’s honeycomb. It is a six-sided structure​—a hexagon. For the honeybee that is the precise shape needed! You see, a six-sided cell holds more honey than a triangular or square one. Also this design gives strength by contact with all the neighboring cells. Of course, the bees know nothing of geometry, and so this example of craftsmanship has been called “the most wonderful of known instincts.”

Yes, due to the instinct with which we were created, we tiny craftsmen perform some amazing feats. Take, for example, the craft of web building. Though spiders are not technically classed with us insects, they are craftsmen in miniature. Involved in their web building is the measuring of distances, calculating angles, drawing threads parallel to one another and the intricate geometry of construction. Consider a twenty-two-inch web that a spider built. How much work was required? It took just thirty-six minutes. There were 122 feet of thread, which were attached at 699 places. The spider had traveled over 178 feet without once getting confused or stuck!

Interestingly, spiders oil themselves only at spots that contact their web. A six-inch Indian jungle spider begins oiling at sunset for about one hour, showing an instinct that involves foresight, allowing nothing to be wasted.

We bugs have some termites in Africa that construct mounds that even you humans consider marvels of engineering. Some of these structures resemble gigantic mushrooms. And the architectural styles vary according to the conditions they meet. In one area, termite builders might construct a kind of castle with turrets; in an area with different soil, the mound may look like a twenty-foot-high steeple.

One of the most amazing mounds built by an insect is found in Australia. Here certain termites build what you call a “compass mound.” It may be twelve feet high and ten feet long, and is almost always built so that it points north-south; the flat sides face east and west. I understand that your insect specialists still do not really understand why these miniature craftsmen build their mounds compass-fashion. And, as for us, we are not telling.

Drillers and Miners

Then there is the female ichneumon fly that has a hairlike tube two to five inches long. With it she can drill several inches into a tree trunk and reach the concealed tunnel of a wood-eating insect. Then through the tube she deposits her eggs, which, when hatched, will eat the other insects. How does she drive a slender tube through solid wood? At the tip of the tube are tiny teeth, which are used to saw the fiber apart. Also amazing is this fly’s ability to determine where to drill. She simply explores a tree carefully, tapping now and then with her antennae. Finally she is satisfied and puts the claws of her feet in the bark and starts drilling into the hidden target​—bull’s-eye!

Amazing miners are the grubs of the wood wasp. In one instance the wood wasp laid its eggs in a piece of pinewood that was subsequently encased in one and a half inches (fifteen layers) of lead. When the time came for the grubs to emerge, they tunneled through the wood and bumped into the lead casing. Vigorously attacking with their jaws, they gnawed through layer after layer, losing some in death at stages of the journey, but others got right through one and a half inches of solid lead. And it was done by babies, driven by instinct!

Other amazing miners in bugdom are the sauba ants and certain termites. A number of sauba ants once mined a tunnel under the bed of the river Paraíba, a Brazilian river as broad as the Thames River at London Bridge. And certain desert-dwelling termites dig vertical tunnels as much as 130 feet deep into the sandy soil! When they reach water, they carry what they need up to the nest.

There is much more that I could tell you. After all, we bugs far outnumber you humans, so there are many of us to get acquainted with. But what you have read is enough for today. I have enjoyed this chance to help you get better acquainted with us as craftsmen in miniature. I hope it will give you a new perspective that might make us seem more wonderful than pesky.

Changing Baby Koala’s Diet

◆ The bearlike koala, an animal indigenous to Australia, dines only on the leaves of the eucalyptus tree. Naturally, baby koalas must have milk. However, when they reach six months of age they are helped to adapt to a vegetal diet. How this change of diet occurs is a curious phenomenon. François Bourlière describes it in his book The Natural History of Mammals:

“At the time of the weaning . . . the mother is able to provide her offspring with a kind of pap made of eucalyptus leaves which the young eats directly from the mother’s anus. This vegetable ‘soup’ contains no excrement and is produced during only one month, every two or three days, between three and four o’clock in the afternoon. At this period the growth of the young is greatly accelerated.”

Wanted: An Economic System That Works

THE Western world’s economy has not been the same since last summer. In fact, it will never be the same again.

When the system it had been using was given its death stroke by United States President Richard Nixon on August 15, a long period of uncertainty set in.

The President’s action created an economic nightmare for the noncommunist world. Since then those nations have been in search of a new economic system, one that will work.

But why was the old one cast aside? What hope is there that a new one will work any better than the old one which failed?

The Old Economic System

The previous economic system was established at a conference of Western nations meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. They formed what was called the International Monetary Fund, an arrangement eventually joined by well over one hundred noncommunist nations.

What was the foundation of that system? It was based on the United States dollar. At that time the U.S. was the most powerful country in the world and its currency the strongest. So the nations agreed to set values for their money in relation to the dollar.

They agreed that they would not allow their currency to vary more than 1 percent up or down from the established values. This stability would make world trade much easier, since governments and businessmen would know at all times what their money was worth in terms of another country’s money. This made it relatively easy to determine the prices that should be charged for a country’s products, since no great fluctuation in money rates needed to be considered.

It was also agreed that the United States dollar would form the basic reserve currency of the Fund. And if a nation accumulated too many dollars because of running a surplus in its trade with the United States, it could turn those paper dollars in and get gold at $35 an ounce. Thus, the economic system begun in 1944 had as its basis the American dollar, which in turn was guaranteed by its vast gold reserve.

Why Did It Happen

Why was this system cast aside? Why did the United States take action, on its own, that threw the entire noncommunist world’s finances into turmoil?

A basic reason was noted by an American industrialist who declared that the leaders of the United States were “spending the taxpayers’ money around the world like drunken sailors.”

While that may be an oversimplification of a complex matter, it does portray a basic truth. Since World War II, the United States has indeed spent gigantic sums of money in other countries, principally on its military expenditures, foreign-aid programs and business investments. While it had a surplus in its commercial transactions, that is, it exported more goods than it imported, this surplus was not enough to offset the huge spending in the other areas.

Hence, throughout the period after World War II, and especially in recent years, the United States generally spent more money than it was making in foreign countries. That resulted in repeated deficits in what is called its ‘balance of payments.’ So year after year, it was losing money overseas. How long can an individual or a company keep doing that before it gets into trouble? If it continues, the end is bankruptcy. There has to be a day of reckoning sooner or later.

That day came in 1971. By then, the deficits in America’s balance of payments had grown so great that more than five times as many dollars were in the hands of foreigners as there was gold in the United States’ reserve.

To make matters much worse, for the first time in the century, indeed, since 1893, the nation’s import-export balance turned sour. It began to spend more on imports than it made on exports.

The years of military spending, foreign aid and other foreign spending, plus now a disastrous trade balance, were taking the United States toward bankruptcy in its financial dealings with other countries. It simply was not making enough money to pay its huge bills in other lands.

In mid-1971 Treasury Secretary John Connally acknowledged that America’s financial situation was deteriorating swiftly. It was also disclosed that the deficit in its balance of payments for the first half of 1971 was gigantic​—nearly three times as bad as it ever had been.

In addition, there was a huge deficit of about 23 billion dollars in the internal budget for the year, with a projected deficit even larger for the coming year. And wages and prices were soaring; inflation was nearly out of control. This, in turn, was helping to price American products out of world markets, making its trade picture much worse.

By the end of July, the deterioration had picked up so much speed that something had to be done. As Newsweek of August 30, 1971, reported:

“At a White House chat with legislative leaders early last week, Mr. Nixon offered a chilling account of the hazards of inaction: if he had waited just two weeks longer, he said, the dollar would have faced ‘catastrophe.’ One who was there thought the domestic situation was just as grim​—and equally important in the President’s calculations. ‘The signs indicated a devastating unemployment picture by December,’ he said, ‘perhaps more than 9 per cent.’”

What had become painfully obvious was that the economic policies of the United States had failed. Drastic measures had to be taken immediately to avoid “catastrophe,” measures the president himself had previously said he would not take. And an economic catastrophe for the United States would have plunged the entire noncommunist world into a calamity as severe as or worse than the depression of the 1930’s.

Trying to Stem the Tide

Thus, on August 15, President Nixon addressed the nation on television and announced his plan for trying to halt the slide toward catastrophe.

Major aspects of the president’s program included a 90-day “freeze” of prices and wages; halting the outflow of gold by forbidding other nations to exchange dollars for gold; a cut in government spending; tax relief for citizens and business; and a 10-percent additional tax on many imports coming from foreign countries.

But by refusing to redeem its own dollars for gold, as it had agreed to do in 1944, the United States killed the Bretton Woods agreement. It felt it had little choice. Why? Because, while the United States had over 24 billion dollars’ worth of gold in 1948, it had only a little over 10 billion left in mid-1971. Yet, foreigners held about 55 billion paper dollars in claims against that gold!

While the other nations had generally been polite enough to agree not to cash their dollars in for gold, they could not long continue to do this without endangering their own economies. Yet, a ‘run’ on the gold would have bankrupted the United States and in turn jeopardized all the nations of the Fund. So the gold window was shut until further notice.

By cutting the dollar from gold, the U.S. set the dollar “adrift” in world financial markets. It would now have to find its own level according to the law of supply and demand. And because the dollar was not doing well, the demand for it was poor compared to other currencies, especially the German mark and the Japanese yen. So the dollar’s value declined in relation to other currencies. This amounts to a devaluing of the dollar.

That simply meant that the dollar was no longer worth as much as it was before in other countries. Thus, for example, if you had paid $100 for a German product, it would now cost you more like $105, or more. Indeed, nearly all foreign products coming into the United States would become more expensive.

This extra cost, it was hoped, would encourage Americans to buy fewer foreign products, cutting imports and helping to correct the deficit in the trade balance. Also, since foreign currencies would buy more dollars than before, it would make American products cheaper for other countries, encouraging them to buy more and correcting the trade balance further.

Restoring its trade surplus was considered vital. Why? U.S. News & World Report notes: “In the Nixon view, a surplus in the U.S. balance of trade in goods must be restored in order to finance the country’s foreign outlays on military and economic assistance and on American investments abroad.”

To encourage the other nations to revalue their currencies upward, the president also imposed the 10-percent surcharge. That tax makes foreign products more expensive, discouraging Americans from buying them. It was said that when the other currencies have been revalued upward to America’s satisfaction, the surcharge would be dropped. The American goal is revaluation of the Japanese yen from 12 to 15 percent upward, the German mark about 8 percent, and smaller increases for other currencies.

Related to this was the “freezing” of wages and prices for 90 days, after which some other form of control was scheduled. This would help to halt inflation. Prices of American products would not keep going up as fast, making them more competitive in world trade. It would also help lower the rising fury of Americans who each year saw their money buy less and less.

Reaction Abroad

How have the other countries reacted to all this? Ralf Dahrendorf, West German member of a Common Market trade commission, said: “Few expressions have been used more widely to describe the effects of President Nixon’s new economic policy than that America’s partners are ‘shocked’ and ‘stunned.’ There are several reasons for this: the swiftness of the measures, the absence of consultation, the immediate effects of some decisions taken.”

What was particularly shocking was the 10-percent surcharge and the breaking of the 27-year-old promise to redeem dollars for gold. The prospect of decreased sales to the United States was a threat to the economy of other nations, even raising the specter of rising unemployment. As Dahrendorf said: “It is estimated that very nearly 90 per cent of the exports of the European communities to the United States, which amount to approximately $7 billion, will be affected. . . . There can be little doubt that we are going to see considerable dislocation of trade.”

Will the other nations meekly submit to this? It is not likely that they can for long. Newsweek commented: “The Russian Communist Party paper Pravda was not too far from the truth in saying that the U.S. had declared economic war on its allies.” And a banker said that the American president “has tossed a bombshell into others’ laps, and they might just decide to throw one back.”

Interesting reactions were also forthcoming from the common people abroad. At a European resort, British tourists delighted in asking Americans: “Well, how does it feel to be poor?” And in another country, when an American tourist offered to pay for a product in dollars, the clerk acidly said: “We don’t want that junk.”

Accurate, then, was a New York Times guest editorial that stated: “The disgrace of the dollar in world financial centers is sobering.”

Will It Work?

Will the American action work? Will it pull the United States out of its downhill slide? Can the dollar regain its former power and prestige? Will a new economic system that works rise out of the ashes of the old?

That some new kind of international economic system will emerge was a foregone conclusion. Whether it will work any better than the old one remains to be seen. The truth is that none of this world’s politicians or economists really know what will happen. As Treasury Secretary Connally conceded: “We have awakened forces that nobody is at all familiar with.”

A sobering appraisal came from a Toronto Globe and Mail editorial by Richard Needham, written just before the peak of the crisis last summer. Noting the decades-long decline of the British economy and currency, he said: “The world’s engaged in a flight from the dollar comparable to the flight from the pound that’s been going on through most of my lifetime. The reasons are much the same; the dollar no longer commands respect because the industrial effort behind it no longer commands respect.”

The similarity of the two countries is there: both have lived beyond their means for years and they have ceased to produce the best goods at the most competitive prices. Hence, Needham concluded: “Can the decline of the American dollar be reversed? More accurately, can the decline of the U.S. be reversed? I don’t think so, and here again we must look at the British pound. Once the process of decay sets into a nation, there seems no way of stopping it.”

Students of Bible prophecy do not need to depend, however, on the speculations of world leaders or economists to know what the future will bring for this world’s economies. They know what the future holds for these economies because God’s prophetic Word is clear: they are all scheduled to disappear soon, along with their governments. All these systems will be replaced by a government, and economy, under God’s direction.​—Dan. 2:44.

Gibraltar​—More than a Symbol of Strength

By “Awake!” correspondent in Morocco

STANDING as a sentinel guarding the western entrance of the Mediterranean Sea is a huge rock​—the famous Rock of Gibraltar. It has become so closely associated with the quality of strength that, whenever it is mentioned, the expression immediately comes to mind, “As strong as the Rock of Gibraltar.”

But Gibraltar is more than a strongly fortified rock. It is also the home of many people. From even before the first century of our Common Era there is record of its occupation by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans; the Romans relinquishing possession to the invading Goths in the fifth century C.E.

More Recent Occupants

In 711 C.E. Tarik ibn-Ziyad led some 12,000 Moors in the capture of the strategic citadel. The Moors named it “Jabal Tarik” (Mountain of Tarik) after their leader. In time the name became corrupted to “Gibraltar.”

Six hundred years later the Moors’ occupation was interrupted by Spain’s seizure of the Rock in 1309. King Ferdinand IV of Castile issued a decree designed to encourage people to settle here. The decree exempted settlers from military service and payment of royal taxes. It even made Gibraltar a sanctuary for criminals escaping from justice. Their crimes would be pardoned upon completion of a year and a day of residence.

Spanish efforts to hold the fortress failed, however, the Moors retaking it in 1333. In the following years ferocious fighting for possession erupted intermittently, with Spain finally capturing the prize again in 1462. Although fortified by the Spanish so that it was considered impregnable, Gibraltar fell to the British in July 1704, and they have held it ever since.

When capturing Gibraltar, the British permitted the 6,000 Spanish residents the choice of either staying or leaving. Fewer than one hundred stayed. The rest crossed the isthmus to found the little town of San Roque about six miles away. Gibraltar’s population was thus drastically reduced.

In time the human vacuum filled, principally with Spanish and Italian settlers. But also Jews, Moroccans, Indians and others took up residence. Eventually these all became welded into a distinct people​—Gibraltarians. Today the colony has some 25,000 inhabitants. Most of them speak both Spanish and English.

A Distinctive Home

The home of Gibraltarians is a rocky peninsula, less than three miles long and one mile wide, that juts out from the Spanish mainland. It is about one-tenth the size of New York’s Manhattan Island, and would be an island, too, except for the low, sandy isthmus that forms a heavily guarded “neutral zone” between Spain and Gibraltar.

The massive Rock, of course, is the colony’s predominant feature. It rises to about 1,400 feet, and from the top one can see Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The colony’s only town lies on the western side of the Rock, where a good deal of land has been reclaimed from the sea. The entire business district is on level ground; however, the residential area clings spectacularly to the terraced slopes.

Here there are shaded lanes and hanging gardens, and the air is scented with blossoms. According to actual count, there are more than five hundred species of plants. These include date palms, pine, cypress, eucalyptus, carob, fig, pepper, wild olive, orange and lemon trees and a variety of cactus plants. Almost all this rich vegetation grows on the western side. The eastern and northern faces of the Rock are bare and precipitous.

Gibraltarians are blessed with a warm but not extremely hot climate that favors outdoor activity. In summer almost everyone likes to spend time on the beaches. Many families prepare their meals the previous evening so that they can be on the beach bright and early. Some youths like to go underwater fishing, often returning with young octopus or other tasty delicacies of the sea.

On the other hand, many persons enjoy riding to the top of the Rock in one of the new cable cars. These travel up the aerial ropeway in a matter of minutes. From there one can see Morocco’s Rif Mountains and, upon looking the other way, Spain’s Costa del Sol. How spectacular!

Inside the Rock

Some of Gibraltar’s most remarkable attractions are inside the Rock itself, where many natural caves are found. St. Michael’s cave is sometimes used as an auditorium in which up to six hundred spectators have watched musical performances. It is thrilling to observe the stalactites and stalagmites as they take on various hues from the colored lights that are played on them.

But besides the natural caves, the Rock is literally riddled with man-made tunnels and huge excavations that serve as reservoirs. During World War II the British blasted thirty miles of underground passageways. There they had hospitals, barracks, ammunition dumps, workshops​—a regular city! Recently my family and I took a tour inside the Rock.

Our guide showed us several reservoirs, explaining: “Each one is twenty-one feet deep and its bottom is 340 feet above sea level. They have all been blasted out of solid rock.” All together, there are thirteen reservoirs, We learned, with a total capacity of sixteen million gallons of water. To give a better idea of their size, the guide said that one of them had been used as a three-story barracks housing four hundred soldiers during the war!

It had not rained for several months when we took our tour, so a number of the reservoirs were empty, ready to receive anticipated rains. “One inch of rainfall,” explained the guide, “produces three-quarters of a million gallons, which lasts only three days.” So to supplement the colony’s water supply freshwater wells have been dug, and also a couple of distilling plants have been set up to produce freshwater from seawater.

At last we came out of the tunnel on the eastern side, right at the edge of the huge water catchment area. Here 72,000 sheets of corrugated metal covering a thirty-four-acre area catch the rain and channel it into the reservoirs. So even the bare surface of the eastern slope is utilized beneficially.

As we made our way back through the tunnel, it became obvious that Gibraltar is not really so strong as one might think. It is not granite, but limestone. And certainly it is not solid, lined as it is with caves, reservoirs and tunnels. But, then, Gibraltar is much more than a symbol​—it is home for thousands of people.

“Your Word Is Truth”

‘Happy Those Persecuted for My Sake’

THE teachings and principles that Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount have been criticized by many as being unrealistic and impractical. But such critics overlook the fact that this sermon was not directed to pagans or other unbelievers but to the disciples of Jesus, although there were other Jews, also believers in God, who were listening in. This is quite apparent from the way the last happiness or ‘beatitude’ he gave on that occasion reads:

“Happy are you when people reproach you and persecute you and lyingly say every sort of wicked thing against you for my sake. Rejoice and leap for joy, since your reward is great in the heavens; for in that way they persecuted the prophets prior to you.”​—Matt. 5:11, 12.

Only Jesus’ true followers could be said to be persecuted for his sake. And persecuted they have been. That is why the early Christians were told: “We must enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations.” And again, “All those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.”​—Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12.

That the world persecutes Christians should not in the least surprise them. Why not? Because of what Jesus told his apostles: “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” “They will do all these things against you on account of my name, because they do not know him that sent me.”​—John 15:19, 21.

What does the world have against Jesus’ followers? One of the chief things it has against them is their following Jesus’ example and obeying his commands: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” “You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.” “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.”​—Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8; Matt. 24:14.

Indeed, it was the preaching done on the basis of Jesus’ name that so irked the religious leaders in apostolic times, even as we read: “They called them and charged them, nowhere to make any utterance or to teach upon the basis of the name of Jesus.” And when the apostles refused to keep silent they were summoned before the Sanhedrin where they were flogged and ordered “to stop speaking upon the basis of Jesus’ name.”​—Acts 4:18; 5:40.

How did the apostles react to this persecution? The way Jesus said they should, for we read that after they had been flogged they “went their way from before the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of his name.”​—Acts 5:41.

Then there were Paul and Silas who were preaching in Philippi, and who caused a demon to come out of a young fortune-teller. This so enraged her owners who were making a profit from demon-inspired activities, that they caused a mob to be formed and haled Paul and Silas before the civil magistrates. These, “after tearing the outer garments off them, gave the command to beat them with rods. After they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison.” While in prison what did Paul and Silas do? Bemoan or bewail their lot? By no means! “But about the middle of the night Paul and Silas were praying and praising God with song; yes, the prisoners were hearing them.”​—Acts 16:22, 23, 25.

Most fittingly, Peter, who himself heeded Jesus’ words in this regard, wrote: “Go on rejoicing forasmuch as you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ, that you may rejoice and be overjoyed also during the revelation of his glory.”​—1 Pet. 4:13.

In modern times true Christians have done the same. When the president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, and seven of his companions were sentenced to long years in the Atlanta penitentiary because of their Christian stand, he said: “This is the happiest day of my life.” Thus also the 1971 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses tells that when some Cuban Witnesses were sentenced to prison for holding Christian meetings they were not at all discouraged. “On the contrary they felt it was a privilege from Jehovah for them and they showed this by preaching and meeting together while in prison. In fact, they had the joy of helping many of the prisoners to know the truth, and by their conduct they set a good example as Christian witnesses of Jehovah.”

Then there was the Negro teen-age Witness who for refusing to join in racial violence with other Negroes in his school was punched, kicked and beaten repeatedly. Then he was dragged to a fire escape and pushed outside. Fortunately this took place on the first floor so his fall was of no great distance. He said of his experience: “Through all that I suffered I was very glad Jehovah had aided me to take a firm stand till the end of the persecution.”

Why can those who are being persecuted for Jesus’ sake rejoice? “For in that way they persecuted the prophets prior to you.” It is indeed cause for rejoicing to be in the company of Jehovah’s ancient faithful prophets. Concerning them we read that they “stopped the mouths of lions [as did Daniel], stayed the force of fire [as did Daniel’s three friends], escaped the edge of the sword [as did Elijah], from a weak state were made powerful [as was Samson], . . . were tortured.” Yes, to be associated with servants of Jehovah God who proved faithful under such conditions is in itself a great reward and cause for rejoicing.​—Heb. 11:33-37; Judg. 16:18-30; 1 Ki. 19:1-8; 2 Chron. 36:16; Dan. 3:1-29; 6:1-27; Jas. 5:10, 11.

Another reason that Jesus gave why those who were persecuted for his name should rejoice was that their reward would be great in the heavens. Clearly these words that assure Jesus’ anointed footstep followers of a heavenly reward are cause for rejoicing. But his promise is not limited to these. Those who suffer for Jesus’ sake but who do not have the hope of a heavenly reward can nevertheless be said to have a great reward in the heavens in that Jehovah God, who is in the heavens, will give them their reward. Their reward will descend from heaven in the blessings of God’s kingdom. By their course of faithfulness they can be said to lay up treasures in heaven, even as did the faithful patriarchs of old.​—Matt. 6:19-21; Heb. 11:10, 16.

Yes, the happiness that Jesus promised his followers if they were persecuted for his sake has proved true and has given them cause for rejoicing. It will yet prove true when they receive their reward in the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness is to dwell.​—2 Pet. 3:13.

Watching the World

Typhoon Rose

◆ On Monday, August 16, Hong Kong was hit by typhoon Rose, which lashed the island with 100-mile-per-hour winds. By Tuesday the wind velocity had risen to 120 miles per hour. A fire started by a short circuit in a big power substation was fanned by the winds to such intensity that firemen were unable to control it. The result was a total blackout of the Kowloon peninsula, also panic and near riots in restaurants. Thousands were trapped in elevators. Ships were torn from their anchorages and driven ashore. Forty oceangoing vessels were strewn along the rocky beaches. One ship capsized in heavy seas with a loss of 76 lives. The storm took more than 100 lives, injured 400 and left 1,500 without homes.

Nigerian Churches Condemned

◆ The head of Nigeria’s West Civil Service condemned the churches in Nigeria as being infested with corruption and deviating from the “path of honour.” At a symposium organized by the Agbeni Methodist Church and which was entitled “The Christian Church has failed in Nigeria” he stated that the “Church,” referring to the churches collectively, “pampers to the high tastes of the rich and powerful even when such dignitary revels in corruption and anti-christian habits.”

Church Influence Declining in Quebec

◆ According to the Toronto Daily Star of September 4, 1971, there is widespread disaffection with the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, Canada. It said that in 1961 only “2 percent of the Quebec population reported having no religious affiliation. Now less than half the French-speaking residents of the larger cities are considered practising Catholics.” The three Catholic universities in Quebec are planning to sever formal ties with the church and become public, nondenominational institutions. Recognizing the church’s declining influence, a Jesuit is quoted by the paper as saying that ‘the growing unpopularity of organized religion amounts to a worldwide crisis.’

Tokyo’s Dead Air

◆ Much to the surprise of Tokyo officials, pockets of air that are deficient in oxygen have been found in basements, wells and construction tunnels. A survey of 158 buildings revealed that 30 of them have dead-air sites, some with less than 10 percent oxygen. Normal air contains 21 percent oxygen. Almost no oxygen was found in the water-pumping room of one of Tokyo’s main auditoriums. The problem seems to stem from a construction practice in Tokyo. Air is forced into holes at construction sites and subway tunnels that are under construction in order to prevent water from seeping in. A layer of iron-bearing sand that is about 30 feet underground absorbs the oxygen in the pressurized air by oxidation. The oxygen-deficient air seeps to the surface, where it accumulates in enclosed spaces in or under buildings. Two construction men working in the basement of a new Supreme Court building were killed by such oxygen-deficient air.

Recycling Sewage

◆ With supplies of freshwater declining in the face of a continually growing demand for water, some American communities are seriously thinking about recycling their sewage. This could be cheaper in some instances than desalting seawater or piping in freshwater from great distances. Plans are already being made in Denver, Colorado, to build a sewage plant that would be capable of converting sewage into 10 million gallons of drinking water a day. The resort area of Lake Tahoe, California, is already giving sewage advanced treatment that produces water sufficiently pure for use in a recreational lake in which people can swim. Americans use, on the average, 42 billion gallons of water a day just to flush wastes through their sewers.

Improving Land with Garbage

◆ Food canners in California have begun an effort to improve local farmland by dumping on it pear peelings, tomato skins and culled fruit resulting from the canning process. Nearly 70,000 tons of such garbage were spread over 700 acres of marginal farmland in 1970 and mixed with the soil. The soil absorbed this organic waste and tests indicate improvement in the soil.

Newspaper Electronics

◆ A new 68-page newspaper is being published in a unique way for stock investors and brokers. Its pages consist of statistical information about the performance of thousands of stocks, and it is prepared at lightning speed by computers. A cathode-ray-tube typesetting unit automatically sets a full newspaper page in 63 seconds. The page is photographed, and then plastic plates are made that go on the printing press. A day’s production of 30,000 newspapers can be turned out in five hours.

Crime Continues to Rise

◆ According to a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, crime in the United States continued its alarming rate of increase during 1970. It was up 11 percent for the nation. There were over 5,568,000 major crimes committed in the U.S. during 1970 as compared with over 4,466,000 in 1968. Crime by women showed a sharp rise. The chance of becoming a victim of a major crime in 1970 was two and a half times as great as in 1960. It is also of interest to note that the crime rate in the United States rose 176 percent during the 1960’s as compared with a population rise of 13 percent.

Methodists Approve Infanticide

◆ The Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church has voiced approval of the killing of developing, unborn infants. It unanimously agreed “to support and encourage the Wesley Medical Center in providing legal, medical abortions.” The board also stated: “The state laws of Kansas today provide a safe and appropriate way for any mother to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. We support these laws and encourage their application.” How contrary this is to the Divine command against murder. Whether an infant is intentionally killed before he is born or after he is born, is it not still murder?

Teaching Children to Read

◆ The National Foundation for Educational Research in England studied the progress of 450 students in London who were seven years of age. It found that one-third of the boys and 15 percent of the girls could not read. Regarding its findings the London Daily Express reported: “Those brought up in classes firmly controlled by the teacher and with an early start on vocal-sound learning, were the best readers.”

Biggest Killer of Youths

◆ The automobile, when driven by young people, is regarded as the biggest killer of young people. The National Transportation Safety Board reported that of the total number of persons between the ages of 15 and 24 who die each year half are killed in automobile accidents. While young drivers make up only 21 percent of the total number of automobile drivers, they were involved in nearly 33 percent of the traffic fatalities in 1969.

Religious Disunity

◆ Dissidents in the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches are mapping separate routes that will mean further disunity in these churches. Representatives of four Presbyterian groups met in Atlanta to plan a constitution and confessional documents for a separate church. They disliked the decision of the governing assembly of the Southern Presbyterians to merge with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Conservative Lutherans have formed the Federation for Authentic Lutheranism. They have a constitution and plans for a Lutheran group that is independent of the Missouri Synod. They dislike church involvement in social actions.

Church-sponsored Sex Film

◆ The Unitarian church has produced a sex film that is mainly for junior-high-school students in Unitarian churches’ weekly religion classes. It is a well-lighted color film of three separate couples having intercourse. The film is part of a course that covers masturbation, intercourse, contraception, homosexuality, petting and so forth. It includes recordings in which young people describe their first heterosexual sex experience. No effort is made to teach the children Christian moral standards, but the course is built upon the unchristian principle of “situation ethics,” in which a person decides his ethics according to the situation facing him. If a student asks if it is all right for junior-high students to have intercourse, the teacher is instructed to say neither yes nor no. The student is left without moral guidance. Would you want this church to teach your children?

Rape Often Invited

◆ According to Dr. Menachem Amir in his book Patterns in Forcible Rape, the crime of rape is often victim-precipitated. After examining 646 cases of rape he found that in 19 percent of them the victim either agreed in advance to sexual relations or failed to resist strongly when the suggestion was made. In 87 percent of the cases temptation and verbal coercion were used by the attacker rather than physical force. He also noted that 20 percent of the victims had police records for such things as disorderly conduct, drunkenness or prostitution. Another 20 percent had promiscuous reputations in their neighborhoods.

Blood in Food

◆ The Agriculture Department of the United States has expressed its intention of permitting the use of swine blood in human food. Federal regulations already permit the use of blood from cattle in human food. Any person that wants to respect God’s law against eating blood will avoid foods that contain blood. If he is uncertain as to whether a certain food product contains blood or not, he can always write the manufacturer for information about its ingredients.

Soaring Medical Costs

◆ Medical treatment for Americans is becoming so expensive that the average family can hardly afford it. Ten years ago the cost of an appendectomy in New York city was $485, but now the going rate is $1,175. Over this same period hospital rates have shot up fivefold, to $100 a day. Doctors’ fees are 70-percent higher than they were a little over ten years ago. This rise is nearly double the Consumer Price Index.

Soft Water and Heart Attacks

◆ The British medical magazine Lancet is reported by the London Daily Express as presenting evidence that softening a city’s water supply contributes to heart attacks. It was found that in British towns where the water was hardened, coronary deaths between 1948 and 1964 averaged 8.5 percent. But in towns where the water was softened, the coronary deaths averaged 20 percent. Regarding these findings, Dr. Margaret Crawford observed: “We are well aware that there are many other causes of coronary disease, but this is a consistent picture.”

Face Peeling

◆ For some people the approach of middle age and its signs in one’s face is so upsetting that they are willing to endure the risks associated with chemosurgery or face peeling. This is a process in which the outer layer of skin is burned off with a chemical solution. It is hoped that the new layer will give their face a more youthful appearance. But there is a real risk of being scarred for life. One woman was permanently disfigured, being burned so badly that she could not move her neck.

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