May 22

Page Two

One of God’s gifts to humankind is the wild kingdom​—the tremendous variety of animals and birds. Yet one after another, man is annihilating whole species of creatures, depriving his children of a very special heritage. Why is he doing this? And what about the hunter​—how does he fit into all of this?

The Wild Kingdom​—Is It Vanishing? 3

The Hunter’s Role in the Wild Kingdom 9

The Wild Kingdom​—Is It Vanishing?

THE chilling presence of evil quickens the human pulse as the unmistakable sound of automatic weapons blasts the silence and echoes and reechoes in the distance. It is too far to hear the victims stumbling and falling to the ground and to see them writhe in their death throes in the dust. Walk over and count the dead. There are hundreds, possibly 300, here.

The executioners have gone away. They had no intention of burying the dead. The innocent victims, stripped of their material wealth, are left where they fell to rot in the sun or to be eaten by scavengers. One look at the carnage is a graphic reminder of the perils and the increasing wanton slaughter that faces victims carrying articles of great worth but with inadequate means of protection and virtually no place to hide.

Multiply this scene by thousands. Count the total dead by tens of thousands. And only then can you begin to get a true picture of the ruthless slaughter by which the once great elephant herds of Africa are being decimated. Today, they are being killed faster than they can reproduce, and there are strong fears that soon they will go the way of the buffalo that once roamed the American plains in vast numbers, only to be massacred by man almost to extinction.

The great elephants have given their lives for humans who have an eye for the exotic. Expensive ivory carvings that range from several feet high to the size of a thimble are in popular demand by those who can afford them. Twenty years ago the price of ivory was about three dollars a pound. Today it commands a huge $40 price tag. It has been estimated that 2,300 elephants lost their lives to supply the 8.3 million dollars’ worth of ivory imported into the United States in 1980 alone.

An elephant poacher with the slightest knowledge of mathematics knows that his prey, bearing, say, two 100-pound (45-kg) tusks, could bring him at least $8,000 on the ivory market. In Tanzania police confiscated a cache of tusks valued at $360,000, the result of poachers at work. The crackdown by game wardens and rangers in some African countries has resulted in a number of deaths of both poachers and rangers. “It’s like a war,” said one warden. But with the inflated prices paid for ivory tusks, the poachers are willing to take the chance. Even some game rangers have turned rebel to the cause and joined the poachers. The kill of just one large tusk-bearing elephant could equal more than a year’s salary for a ranger.

Those with an eye for the exotic do not necessarily stop with the ivory carvings. They may be willing to pay $400 for a briefcase made of elephant hide or to buy a wastebasket or an umbrella stand made from its feet and legs. A pencil holder made from the feet of a mere baby elephant may strike their fancy. A man may like the idea of having a wallet made of elephant hide, and a woman may like to show off her elephant-hide purse or belt. But have they considered that an elephant gave its life so that they could have something unusual?

So insensible have the poachers become to the wanton slaughter of these animals that in some countries water holes, used not only by the elephants but by other animals as well, are being poisoned. By poison spears, by poison fruit, by darts, pitfalls and fire, and by automatic weapons, the defenseless elephant falls easy prey to those who have but one intent: kill! And kill they do, in East Africa up to 70,000 elephants a year.

Not long ago the country of Uganda boasted 49,000 elephants. Soldiers in the army of the then president, Idi Amin, turned part-time poachers and systematically gunned the elephants down by the thousands, hacking out their tusks and leaving them to rot where they fell. Park rangers once counted 900 carcasses in just one area.

Amin’s government was overthrown in 1979, but, unfortunately, the elephants of Uganda were not to breathe a sigh of relief. Today, the weapons from Amin’s army​—either abandoned by fleeing soldiers or confiscated—​are prized possessions in the hands of poachers. With them the poachers can methodically kill anything that moves and offers a cash return. Today, the head count of elephants left in Uganda stands at about 1,500.

When will the slaughter end? As long as there is a demand from couldn’t-care-less consumers it is hard to see how the extinction of the wild elephant in Africa can be avoided.

Unfortunately, the elephant is not the only endangered species that grows those coveted tusks of white gold. Africa’s black rhinoceros, sprouting horns from one to two feet (30 to 60 cm) in length, have been hunted so wantonly that the estimated population of 100,000 ten years ago has been reduced to between 10,000 and 20,000 today. Like the elephant the rhino is being destroyed faster than it can reproduce. Experts speak bitterly of the prospect of the extinction of all Africa’s wild rhinos. “Prospects for their survival in the wild are shrouded in pessimism,” they say.

The affluent may not think twice about paying $40 a pound (454 gm) for carved elephant tusks, but they may wince in disbelief at the prices commanded by rhino horns​—in many cases a shocking $14,000 a pound. Why so high? It is a traditional belief in some lands that powdered rhino horn has magical and curative qualities, and it is highly prized as an aphrodisiac for those with waning sexual powers. Thus the wealthy pay high sums for it.

Medical experts find no evidence that powdered rhino horn is an aphrodisiac. The sexually impotent might as well save their money and eat their own finger nails or hair trimmings, since rhino horns and human nails contain the same substance, called keratin. Yet many are convinced that there is a difference, and they are willing to pay over $600 an ounce (28 gm) on the retail market for powdered rhino horn, to the delight of the poachers. One game warden commented, “There would be no rhinos here within three weeks” were it not for the patrols. Since many Asians still believe that the rhino horn has magical powers, the Asian species has been hunted nearly to extinction.

In North Yemen the rhino horn is highly prized for making handles for daggers that are traditionally worn strapped to the waist of males from 12 years old and up. The daggers are decorated with silver and gold, and the North Yemenites will pay enormous sums, from $6,000 to $13,000, for them. In less than a decade, according to published reports, North Yemen imported nearly 50,000 pounds (22,680 kg) of rhino horns, representing about 8,000 rhino lives. What a price to pay for tradition!

Far removed from the elephant and rhino ranges of Africa, the 12-foot-long, 3,000-pound (1,360 kg) walrus rests on his ice floe in the Arctic. Those large, downward-pointing teeth that give him his formidable appearance are made of ivory​—all three feet of them (nearly one meter). Once he was hunted almost exclusively by the Eskimo, who used him for food and hand carved his tusks to sell for income. Now he has moved into the big time as a source of ivory, and an estimated 5,000 are killed annually. If the kill increases, someone will have to tell the walrus to have his offspring more quickly, or else he will join the ranks of those who have vanished from the wild kingdom.

And there is more, much more. The fastest known animal, the cheetah, has been clocked as running at 70 miles (113 km) per hour. Yet even he cannot run fast enough to escape his most savage predator, man. That beautiful, sleek animal, yellowish in color with black spots all over his body, was once the pride of India and plentiful on the plains of Africa and Asia. Since the turn of the century, however, he has been so inexorably hunted that he has totally disappeared in India and is nearly extinct in the rest of Asia. In Africa his numbers are pitifully few and being halved every decade.

Why such slaughter of the cheetah? Because milady wishes for a new coat, and one made from the pelts of the beautiful, disappearing cheetah tribe will please her very well. The poachers find her desires most rewarding. A recent confiscated shipment of 319 pelts, all the illegal harvest of poachers, was reported to represent “a 5 to 10 percent reduction in the total number of wild cheetahs.” Fashion and vanity push this beautiful creature toward extinction.

Again, the beautiful markings of the majestic leopard make its fur extremely valuable for coats. How valuable? About $10,000 on the poacher’s market. It is obvious that only the wealthy can afford such luxury. However, the number of those who can afford it is increasing, and so is the demand for leopard skins, while they can still be found. In some countries laws forbid the import of leopard skins for coats, but for the tens of thousands of leopards that gave their lives for the sake of fashion this is too little too late.

The same can be said of the tiger, the largest member of the cat family. Once the king of the wild kingdom in Asia, living in abundance throughout most of the southern half of the continent, he reigned supreme until the 1800’s. Yet he lacked one absolute necessity for survival​—the ability to use guns with which to repel his worst enemy, man. He could not shoot back. Can you imagine how many brave human hunters would have gone after the tiger if he could have shot back? As it is, men relentlessly killed the tigers off and destroyed their natural habitat, and today only a few remain. The tiger is another endangered species.

Of what possible value could a gorilla be to man, apart from food for the rare few? Seldom does one hear of a gorilla coat, and gorilla teeth do not give ivory. But man still kills gorillas for trophies. He even cuts off their hands to make ashtrays of them. Because of poaching and the destruction of their natural habitats, the gorilla population of Africa is declining rapidly. Scientists fear that its survival is in jeopardy.

Once, the wild kingdom was thought of as a bottomless pit. Yet can even such an apparently limitless source give up, for example, 10,000 zebras in five years to make drums and rugs for tourists and not start to run dry? Nevertheless, the slaughter goes on, and the wild kingdom seems to be hastening to oblivion.

The grievous thing is that the demise has largely come about not to feed stomachs but to feed vanity. People do not need leopard or cheetah coats. We can do without elephant briefcases or purses. Who needs an unusual pair of shoes so much that a rare monitor lizard or a crocodile should die to provide it? When you think about buying a carving made of ivory, would your conscience flinch at the thought of an elephant writhing in the dust and having his tusk cut out while he is still alive, just to satisfy your whim? Remember, as long as there is a demand for these exotic items, animals will die and species will become extinct.

Despite the fact that many countries have enacted good laws to try to stem the disappearance of species from the wild kingdom, sadly, much damage has been done. A hope exists, however, that in the years to come there will still be animals on earth for man to enjoy. In a prophecy reflecting future conditions under God’s Kingdom, the Bible says: “Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats. Calves and lion cubs will feed together, and little children will take care of them. Cows and bears will eat together, and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace. Lions will eat straw as cattle do.”​—Isaiah 11:6, 7, Today’s English Version.

But woe to those who heap contempt on God’s earth by recklessly destroying his wild kingdom! Surely, He will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” He has promised that.​—Revelation 11:18.

[Blurb on page 5]

The once great elephant herds of Africa are being killed faster than they can reproduce

[Blurb on page 8]

Fashion consciousness and vanity on the part of humans are pushing the beautiful cheetah toward extinction

[Picture on page 5]

The walrus is an important source of ivory. About 5,000 are killed each year

[Pictures on page 6]

Enthusiastic hunting and a diminishing habitat have put the tiger on the endangered species list, while the rhino has been hunted almost to extinction so that its horn can be used for dagger handles or aphrodisiacs

The Hunter’s Role in the Wild Kingdom

IMAGINE the scene. The skies are rapidly darkening, although it is only a few hours after dawn. As you keep looking, darkness gradually blankets the whole area from horizon to horizon, yet there is not a cloud in the sky. There is an ominous, deafening sound like thunder, and you cover your ears. The earth beneath your feet resonates with the roar. What violent tempest has nature unleashed? You need not be afraid. It is only birds.

No, you never saw such a magnificent display of birds. Neither did anyone alive today. But in 1813 the famed American naturalist and artist John Audubon described a spectacular display just like this. He saw the beautiful passenger pigeons passing by in such large numbers that they darkened the sun for three days!

It makes the imagination reel just to think of a flock of birds as huge as that. Yet at one time such flocks existed. A few years before Audubon’s sighting, a large flock was seen in Kentucky, U.S.A., that was believed to have in it more than 2,230,000,000 passenger pigeons. Experts believe that there were 6 billion of these birds in the United States even as late as 1885.

Surely, an inexhaustible supply, you may think. The passenger pigeon would never be in danger of extinction. But no​—man the hunter accomplished the seemingly impossible. By killing on an average more than 566,000 of these beautiful birds every day of the week for over 29 years, he did it. On September 1, 1914, the very last passenger pigeon on the face of the earth, named Martha, died in an Ohio, U.S.A., zoo.

Thus, the passenger pigeon was lost to the world. Because of what one source terms “the hunters’ greed and waste,” a species that seemed completely unendangered was hunted to extinction. Does man have the right to value so lightly the lives of his fellow creatures and destroy whole species, one after the other? Moreover, why should such destroyers have the right to deny future generations the pleasure of observing the wild kingdom?

Man’s Accountability

The Creator of this earth’s teeming life forms does not view their destruction lightly. Jesus once said: “Do not two sparrows sell for a coin of small value? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s knowledge”; “not one of them goes forgotten before God.” (Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6) Surely, God’s eyes have not been closed to the destruction of 6 billion passenger pigeons.

Not all have agreed with the indiscriminate killing of wildlife. In a letter written to the president of the United States in 1855, an Indian chief of the Duwamish tribe, in the state of Washington, voiced his concern about the wanton slaughter of animals: “The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brother. I am a savage and I do not understand the other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairies left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. . . . What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to man. . . . One thing we know which the white man will one day discover. Our God is the same God. . . . This earth is precious to him. And to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.”

This Indian chief seems to have instinctively grasped something that the Bible tells us: man has been entrusted by God with stewardship over the animals. The first book of the Bible tells us of this mandate to man: “I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.” (Genesis 1:28, Today’s English Version) Man’s wanton, almost frivolous destruction of the wild kingdom is a gross abuse of that trust.

The Nimrod Syndrome

Does the fact that man has stewardship over the animals mean that he is forbidden to kill them at all? No. Remember, God himself prepared clothing from animal skins for the first human pair and accepted the sacrifice of a lamb from their son Abel. And after the Flood of Noah’s day he gave Noah and his descendants permission to eat the flesh of animals for food.​—Genesis 3:21; 4:4, 5; 9:3.

However, in giving these concessions Jehovah God did not imply that animal life should be viewed lightly. To highlight the sacredness of the life of those animals that would be killed for food, God commanded that man should not eat the blood of an animal along with its flesh. The blood symbolized the animal’s life, and that belonged to God. (Genesis 9:4, 5) At no time did God give man authority to kill animals for the sheer joy of killing. Where, then, did man learn to do this?

Shortly after the Flood, a notorious man of those days, Nimrod, began to distinguish himself as an outdoor sportsman. He became “a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” (Genesis 10:8, 9) He evidently violated the God-entrusted stewardship over the animals by wantonly killing them. Others followed his lead, and soon the sport caught on in a big way. Hunting became the sport of kings.

Archaeologists have unearthed much evidence that the kings of the ancient world delighted in the hunt and boasted of their prowess. Even the Egyptian boy-king Tutankhamen fell victim to what could be called the Nimrod syndrome. Hunting scenes painted on the walls of his tomb and carvings on wooden chests pictured him standing in his chariot, riding at full speed, with bow and arrow in hand, bowstring tightly drawn and arrow ready to be released, while wild animals fled before him.

In more recent times wealthy Europeans hunted animals for sport in their own land, or traveled to India or Africa in search of more exciting game. Many decorated their homes with stuffed heads of the beautiful animals whose lives they had extinguished for sport. In the New World whole herds of buffalo were slaughtered and left rotting where they fell. And hunters came to prize moose heads, deer heads and other symbols of their hunting skills.

Man the Preserver

In order to protect some of the threatened animals from the hunter, governments set up hunting restrictions outlawing the killing of these animals. In the United States, for example, a herd of 3,000 Rocky Mountain mule deer in Arizona was protected. The result? With thousands of its natural predators being trapped, shot or poisoned by government hunters, the mule deer increased its population within 10 years to about 40,000 animals.

A happy result? In a way, yes. But, alas, the deer began to die en masse. What was wrong? Their habitat became overpopulated. Dead deer were found with stomachs full of pine needles, certainly not on the menu of deer unless they are on the verge of starvation. The check and balance of wildlife had been overlooked. With their natural predators destroyed, their population unchecked, they ate every vestige of food available. It was only when hunters were allowed to enter their area and harvest some of the surplus that the deer population was brought back into proportion with what their habitat could support.

Wildlife experts have learned their lesson well. From past experience they know that in order to protect the herds from starvation and disease, a harvest of surplus animals is necessary. Thus, in the United States restricted seasons are opened when licensed hunters can kill a certain number of the surplus animals each year. In other countries this is done by government game wardens and rangers.

In this way stronger herds are maintained and allowed to grow. In 1895, for example, there were only about 350,000 white-tailed deer south of Canada in continental North America. Today, there are approximately 12 million of them. In 1925 an estimated 13,000 to 26,000 pronghorn antelope survived in the United States, mostly in just two western states. Today there are at least 500,000 in all the western states. There are today about a million elk in 16 states, whereas in 1907 there were only 41,000 in one state. The official census of fur seals in the Pribilof Islands in 1911 was put at 215,900. Today, the herd is maintained at about 1.5 million. Without proper harvesting, all these now unendangered herds would be in serious trouble.

The “Disney Syndrome”

There is, however, an antihunting sentiment growing in urban United States, Canada and other countries, which wildlife management fears will be counterproductive. Some of the forces are highly organized with offices in England, the Netherlands, France, New Zealand and Australia, as well as in the United States and Canada.

Why is hunting coming under attack? “Very simply,” answered the editor of Montana Outdoors magazine, “many people today grow up without direct ties to the land and the wild creatures it sustains. Understandably, they derive most of their knowledge of wildlife from television and movies, which all too often present a distorted view of wildlife . . . and ignoring natural processes such as predation, disease and starvation.” One wildlife service director referred to this view as the “Disney syndrome.” “After watching Disney movies of animals and birds in the forest,” he said, “some people, particularly children, get the idea that animals can talk.” They think they are just like people.

Another spokesman maintained: “Youngsters simply aren’t getting the truth about wildlife. They know very little about game management or the success we’ve had with it in the last 50 years. It stands to reason that large numbers of children are turning against hunting. They think hunters are killing the few deer and other animals left in the country.”

Christians do not condemn those who kill animals for food. If, however, someone kills beyond the allotted number specified by the laws of their land, or if he kills for the thrill of it and uses the meat as an excuse, then it is to God that he is answerable. He is overstepping the stewardship that has been entrusted to mankind. And even though man is permitted to use animal skins for clothing, to hunt these creatures to extinction for unnecessary luxuries is an even worse abuse.

Many of the problems related to the wild kingdom are unsolvable in this system of things. As human populations grow, and wildlife is squeezed into smaller and smaller areas, the managing and preserving of that wildlife will become more and more difficult. And it is hard to see how governments with limited means will stop the poaching of disappearing species in this greedy, commercial system of things.

Just how many more species of animals God will allow to be destroyed before he calls a halt, we do not know. But sometime soon a halt will be called. God has promised that his Kingdom is soon to take over the day-to-day running of this earth, and at that time “they will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.”​—Isaiah 11:9.

At that time man will be trained to exercise his authority over the animals in a proper way. Meantime, Christians at least can show a proper respect for animals, being realistic but compassionate as they view their relationship with the wild kingdom.

“And for them I shall certainly conclude a covenant in that day in connection with the wild beast of the field and with the flying creature of the heavens and the creeping thing of the ground, . . . and I will make them lie down in security.”​—Hosea 2:18.

[Blurb on page 11]

At no time did God give man authority to kill animals for the sheer joy of killing

[Blurb on page 13]

“Youngsters simply aren’t getting the truth about wildlife”

[Picture on page 10]

The last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in an Ohio zoo in 1914

[Pictures on page 12]

1. American elk, or wapiti

2. White-tailed deer

3. Pronghorn antelope

4. North Pacific fur seal

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A World in Decay​—Is There Any Hope?

TODAY, newspaper headlines are dominated by the threat of nuclear catastrophe and the relentless, worldwide, economic decline. But are these the only threats to modern civilization? Well, other civilizations have fallen in times past. None of them fell because of nuclear warfare. And often their economies were still functioning adequately when they collapsed. What caused their fall? In many cases historians trace it to the collapse of moral standards, a rotting from within.

Is our civilization rotting from within? The following reports indicate that indeed it is. Can individuals do anything about it? For many years Jehovah’s Witnesses have pointed to God’s Kingdom as the only solution to the problem. And those who subject themselves to God’s Kingdom now can fight the moral decay in their own families. The following scriptures indicate how God views the things happening around us, and how we can avoid being corrupted by them.

‘Preserve the Family,’ Experts Plead

Child-care experts gathered from 17 countries. “We must seek to support the family as the most important of all institutions,” they implored.

The family institution needs all the support it can get. In the United States in 1981, when 2,438,000 said “I do” in marriage, 1,219,000 said “I don’t” in divorce. Unmarried couples living together nearly tripled between 1970 and 1980, while one out of every six babies is born out of wedlock. The result? Children are being robbed of the sense of security that goes with a solid family upbringing.

At that same gathering, Professor Geoffrey P. Ivimey of the University of London said that too often the parents who try to hold the family together practice “parking” children at nursery schools, day-care centers or in front of the television set. Such practices, the professor said, have spawned a generation of people “who have never learned to be parents.”

“Has one found a good wife? One has found a good thing, and one gets goodwill from Jehovah.”​—Proverbs 18:22.

“Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.”​—Hebrews 13:4.

“Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another. . . . But, besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.”​—Colossians 3:13, 14.

“Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.”​—Proverbs 22:6.

Abuse of the Children

What makes a mother scald her three-year-old daughter to death for taking a can of soda without permission? Or another to hit a four-month-old baby so violently in the face that the child will spend the rest of its life in an institution for the mentally handicapped? Or why would a former mayor be guilty of five counts of sex crimes with young girls? Or a school counselor sodomize an eight-year-old boy?

As many as 10 million children in the United States alone are physically or sexually abused, or severely neglected, each year. Several thousand die as a direct result. What kind of society acts like that toward its children?

A director of a Connecticut sex-offender program comments: “If we saw these same numbers of children suddenly developing some kind of illness, we’d think we had a major epidemic on our hands.”

“But now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, badness, abusive speech, and obscene talk . . . Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality.”​—Colossians 3:8-10.

“You, fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.”​—Ephesians 6:4.

“Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you, just as it befits holy people.”​—Ephesians 5:3.

“The Devil’s Strategy”

“As more of us take our paper-work jobs home or our jobs take us away from home, there is less time for family and neighborhood contacts,” asserts psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo. “The Devil’s strategy for our times is to trivialize human existence . . . creating the delusion that the reasons are time pressures, work demands, or anxieties created by economic uncertainty.”

And the consequences? “I know of no more potent killer than isolation. . . . It has been shown to be a central agent in the etiology [starting cause] of depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, rape, suicide, mass murder, and a wide variety of disease states.”​—Psychology Today, August 1980.

“One isolating himself will seek his own selfish longing; against all practical wisdom he will break forth.”​—Proverbs 18:1.

“Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own.”​—Philippians 2:3, 4, Today’s English Version.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.”​—John 15:12.

A Dog-Eat-Dog World

Many people today are cynical and disillusioned. This is evidenced in cutthroat business practices, unscrupulous politics and especially in crime. “Crime is on the rise in almost every country around the world. . . . Crime is becoming more violent . . . Juveniles and women, in growing numbers, are turning to crime,” reports the U.S. News & World Report.

Are criminals just a small minority? Hardly. Crime is woven into the fabric of society. For example, in the Federal Republic of Germany, employee dishonesty costs taxpayers one billion marks a year (over $400,000,000, U.S.). Employee dishonesty is not far removed morally from cheating on taxes, and “the loss in tax dollars due to the underground economy [taxable income not reported] came to some $97 billion last year,” according to the estimate of one economist. Another said: “The real total could be more than $200 billion.”

“Cheating has replaced baseball as the great American pastime,” added an Internal Revenue Service investigator.

“Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard work, doing with his hands what is good work, that he may have something to distribute to someone in need.”​—Ephesians 4:28.

“Neither . . . thieves, nor greedy persons . . . nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.”​—1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.

“Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities . . . Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax.”​—Romans 13:1, 7.

“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.”​—1 Timothy 6:9.

When Ideals Are Lost

When ideals are lost, people no longer care. They become hardened. Thus, six times Thelma Qualls’ heart stopped as she lay in the rain on Main Street in Richmond, Virginia. Six times Doug Waldrop revived her. For 50 minutes rush-home drivers by the hundreds ignored his plea for someone to stop and help or call an ambulance. Thelma died. But doctors say that if she could have got to the hospital more quickly, it would have tripled her chances of living.

In Hartford, Connecticut, police officer James Quigley saw a girl slashing her wrists with a razor. He tried to approach her. She ran to the steps of the Immaculate Conception Church. Brandishing the razor at her throat, she held police, priests and friends at bay for 45 minutes. A crowd gathered. People jeered, “Do your thing, sister! Right on!” “What has society come to?” muttered an incredulous policeman.

“Where there is no vision the people go unrestrained, but happy are they that are keeping the law.”​—Proverbs 29:18.

“All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them.”​—Matthew 7:12.

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion!”​—2 Peter 3:11.

Today’s collapse in moral standards was foreseen in the Bible. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) In fact, it is one of the many signs that we are living close to the time when God’s Kingdom will finally replace the present chaotic system with a stable, righteous government. (Daniel 2:44) At that time, God’s King, Christ Jesus, “will have subjects from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”​—Psalm 72:8.

Does today’s moral decay bother you? If you would like to avoid being contaminated by it now and would like to be confident that the earth will be freed from it in the near future, why not see for yourself what the Bible says? Jehovah’s Witnesses will be happy to give you any help you need. Then you can hope to benefit from the promise God himself has made: “They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.”​—Isaiah 11:9.

Young People Ask . . .

How Can I Get My Parents to Understand Me?

“I COULD see we were making each other miserable,” revealed 17-year-old Vickie. “Though I’m sure Dad loved me, I knew he would never understand me, and Mom was just ‘out of it’ emotionally. I hated coming home.” Vickie wanted to get married​—anything to get away from home. “My parents didn’t realize how hard I was trying to do what was right. I just couldn’t handle trying to communicate. I couldn’t go where I wanted or see whom I wanted. I just had to get out!” But she talked to an older friend first.

“Vickie, just think about your parents​—your flesh and blood. They raised you,” said the discerning older woman. “If you can’t handle this relationship, how can you handle one with someone of your own age that hasn’t put 17 years of love into you? Why not work to improve your personality?” This made Vickie think.

If you were Vickie, what would you have done? The easiest course would be to leave. But Vickie took the harder one. She thought, ‘I will work like crazy to make things right and to improve my personality. Maybe then Mom and Dad will understand me better.’ How have Vickie and others succeeded in getting their parents to understand them?

Be Honest With Your Parents

Vickie was, to some extent, living a double life; secretly dating a boy against her parents’ wishes. She was sure her parents just wouldn’t understand her feelings for her boyfriend. Naturally the gap between her and them widened.

But Vickie is not the only young person who has played two roles. Conflicting emotions or “desires incidental to youth” may well up in a youth’s heart so that there is a feeling of being caught between these emotions and what parents expect. (2 Timothy 2:22) Ann, for example, began secretly having sex relations with boys she met at school at age 14. Though complaining that her parents were not understanding, she admitted: “My life at school was completely different from my life at home. I was a split personality. At school I followed my heart’s desire and was like my friends, while at home I appeared totally innocent.” At age 15 she was pregnant.

“I didn’t realize the results until it happened. The life of fun and freedom I had behind my parents’ back resulted in the complete opposite,” explained Ann. “While I was playing the part of being so innocent at home I wouldn’t discuss my feelings about boys with Mom, thinking that she wouldn’t understand. Now that I am rearing an illegitimate child I realize she did understand. I was the one who couldn’t see how wrong my heart had been.” Ann understood​—but too late—​the truth of the Bible proverb Pr (28:26): “He that is trusting in his own heart is stupid, but he that is walking in wisdom is the one that will escape.”

Vickie, on the other hand, took an honest look at herself. She soon realized that her parents were right and her own heart was wrong. She began to ‘walk in wisdom’ and terminated her association with her boyfriend, though it was very difficult. This was her first step toward closing the emotional gap between her and her parents. She also escaped the fearsome consequences that sexual immorality could have brought her.

Perhaps you too need to be honest with yourself and your parents. Playing two roles will surely hinder your parents’ efforts to understand you.

Take the Time to Talk

“The best time I ever had with my dad,” said John of a trip he and his father made up to their summer cottage. “I’d never spent six hours alone with him in my whole life. Six hours up, six hours back. No car radio. We really talked. It’s as if we discovered each other. There’s more to him than I thought. It made us friends.”

Why not make it a point to sit down regularly with your mom or dad and have a good talk? Catch them up on activities in your life and draw from their experiences. You might find it awkward at first. Vickie did. “I had absolutely no rapport with older ones. But I made a point of tagging along with my parents when they associated with other adults. In time I developed friendships with these who were my parents’ age, and this gave me a more rounded outlook. It was easier to carry on conversations with my parents. The atmosphere at home improved dramatically.”

Associating with those who have gained wisdom over the years will prevent you from adopting a narrow, limited outlook on life, which can happen if you keep company only with your youthful peers.​—Proverbs 13:20.

Communicate Your Feelings

“I talk straight from my heart and speak sincerely the knowledge coming from my lips.” Thus spoke a young man who lived over 35 centuries ago​—Elihu. (Job 33:3, Beck’s version) He addressed the older man Job ‘straight from his heart.’ Is that how you talk with your parents? This can be extremely hard.

For example, Gregory, when a teenager, felt his mom was totally unreasonable. He coped with the heated conflict by staying away from home as much as he could. But finally the situation became critical. So he approached the congregation elders for help at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses that he and his family went to. They kindly urged him to talk more to his mother, speaking ‘straight from his heart.’​—James 5:14.

“For the first time in my life I began to tell Mom how I felt,” said Gregory. “I told her why I wanted to do things and did not just assume she knew. Often I poured out my heart and explained that I wasn’t trying to do anything wrong and how bad I felt because she treated me like a little child. Then she began to understand and slowly things got a whole lot better.”

Gregory was honest. He was not living a double life and trying to hoodwink his mother into letting him have his own way. No, he truly ‘gave his heart’ to her, and she responded with increased understanding. Though it may seem painful to reveal to your mom or dad that you can be vulnerable or have certain touchy problems, so doing can be a giant step toward getting your parents to understand you.​—Proverbs 23:26.

What if You Disagree?

When you and your parents don’t see eye to eye, remember: talk, don’t fight. “All his spirit [impulses] is what a stupid one lets out, but he that is wise keeps it calm to the last.” (Proverbs 29:11) Raising your voice, ‘letting out all your spirit,’ is not the way to improve understanding.

Show that you are wise, not stupid, by calmly discussing the rational merits of your viewpoint. Stick to the issues rather than arguing, “Everybody else does it!”

But you have to face the fact that at times your parents are going to say No. This does not mean they do not understand you. They may see a harmful course or a bad tendency and they want to protect you. “My mother is strict on me. She knows things,” revealed a 16-year-old girl. “It bothers me that she tells me I can’t do something, or come into the house at a certain time. But deep down inside, she really cares.” Then, after reflecting on her friends, she continued: “They just roam the streets, do what they want and their mothers don’t really care. But my mother . . . she looks out for me.”

This girl was one of 920 females aged 12 to 18 living throughout the continental United States, Alaska and Puerto Rico who were interviewed in an extensive study done by Dr. Gisela Konopka of the University of Minnesota. In her book Young Girls​—A Portrait of Adolescence (1976) she concluded: “It was not the strictness that most girls resented but being ‘put down,’ being treated like little children. Strictness in itself, if combined with respect, was appreciated.”

Yes, appreciated. This is how most young people feel about parents who listen and give them firm guidelines. In fact, Dr. Konopka reported: “It is striking that the vast majority of adults who ranked highest in the list as people who understood them were family members.” Nearly 75 percent of the young women reportedly felt close to adults and able to confide in them.

The security and warmth that mutual understanding brings to a family is beyond words. It makes the home a haven in times of anguish. Vickie, Gregory and others found this to be true. But real effort is needed. Do your part. If you do, then you, too, will be able to say, ‘I got my parents to understand me.’

[Picture on page 18]

Communicating your feelings is one of the best ways to help your parents understand you

Gilead​—Forty Years Old and Going Strong!

FIVE YEARS. In the beginning, that is how long it seemed Gilead School would last. Funds were limited, and the school’s president wondered if they could even find enough willing students to fill its roster. Today 6,000 students have the unique distinction of being Gilead graduates. But what kind of school is it? And to what does it owe its success?

Gilead School was born amidst the turmoil of a second world war. Jehovah’s Witnesses were the object of bitter persecution worldwide. Branch offices of the Watch Tower Society were closed down in a number of countries. The then president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, therefore feared the Society’s Brooklyn headquarters would be closed down. So in 1941 he arranged for a large brick building to be constructed on a farm in upstate New York to house the headquarters staff in such an emergency. Rutherford named the building Gilead (meaning “heap of witness”), which is derived from the name of a Biblical site mentioned at Genesis 31:48, 49. The name, which was carved over the building’s entranceway, turned out to be prophetic.

John Booth lived in Gilead and recalls: “There were just three of us assigned to live there in September of 1941. And I was given a room in which I lived for the next 28 years . . . But after Nathan Knorr became president [in 1942] other members of the farm staff moved in too.” Knorr, however, envisioned a loftier use for the building.

For many years the Society’s president had served as the primary spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses. But Knorr wanted all Witnesses to be able to speak the truth to others on a one-to-one basis. So as part of a vast educational program, he arranged for a school that would train and send out evangelizers to all parts of the world. The semioccupied Gilead building was just perfect to house such a school! Appropriately, Knorr decided to retain the name Gilead for the school itself. For a great worldwide witness would be heaped up as a result.

December 1942 saw confidential questionnaires being sent to full-time ministers meeting the basic enrollment requirements. One hundred were selected for the first class​—and given just a few days to arrive! So from all corners of the United States they trekked, by car, train and bus, every one of them arriving before classes convened on February 1, 1943.

The school was a resounding success! Gilead-trained missionaries helped to establish Christianity solidly in parts of the world previously untouched by the Bible’s message. Generous contributions made it possible not only to extend the school past five years but also to invite students from all over the world. To date, students from more than 50 countries have attended Gilead and have been assigned to serve in over a hundred foreign lands.

The School Today

In order to have closer contact with the Society’s headquarters staff, the school was moved to Brooklyn in 1961. The school’s basic textbook is the Bible. By means of classroom reports and discussions, students enjoy a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the Bible. Other courses teach basic Bible doctrines and Bible history. The students are also given opportunity to sharpen their teaching techniques by engaging in the preaching work.

Those completing this five-month course put what they have learned to a very special use. At the graduation of the first class, Nathan Knorr explained: “Your principal work is that of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom from house to house as did Jesus and the apostles.” The 38 students of the recently graduated 74th class plan to do this in 16 lands! Just as Jesus foretold, the good news is being spread “to the most distant part of the earth.”​—Acts 1:8.

What has motivated these missionaries to take up this way of life? One student from Asia recalls a missionary of the eighth class. He “was willing to face the swarms of mosquitoes and the oppressive humidity. . . . More impressive still was his ability to make presentations in both the Chinese and Malay languages though he was from England. . . . His calmness and confidence inspired me to want to become a missionary when I grew up.”

Felix Okpalefe similarly tells how he was helped by Peter Obarah, a graduate of the 38th Gilead class. At the time Felix was assigned as a full-time minister in a part of Nigeria where living conditions were wretched. He therefore told Peter, “If I stay in this place I will die!” The missionary, however, strongly urged Felix to remain there, which he did. Not only did Felix not die but he was emboldened to reach out for an even more difficult service​—as a missionary!

But will this present class of Gilead be successful as missionaries? One indication that they will be is their positive response to the schooling they have received. Said one student: “It has been a tremendous privilege to be able to receive this training at Gilead. . . . It has drawn us closer to Jehovah.” Said another, “It has been the happiest time in our lives.” And said yet another, “We’ve been here soaking up Jehovah’s spirit and getting built up and strong. And although at first we’ll only be teaching people the basic truths, we now see the value of deep personal study that will sustain us in our assignments.”

Though 40 years old, Gilead School, in spite of its humble beginnings, continues to succeed in ways far beyond human expectations. And this can only be attributed to the blessing of Jehovah. Students of the 74th class can be sure of his backing wherever they have been assigned. Of course, they will do everything they can to make their assignment a success. After all, they have a marvelous 40-year record of former graduates to follow.

[Picture on page 20]

Watchtower Bible School of Gilead 74th Class March 1983

In the list below, rows are numbered from front to back and names are listed from left to right in each row.

(1) Bailey, P.; Guerreiro, F.; Blankenship, R.; Mumma, C.; Larson, J.; Agnew, C. (2) Briggs, A.; Okpalefe, F.; Anderson, C.; Woolston, M.; Jorge, B.; Ascenção, L. (3) Underwood, S.; Ward, B.; Blankenship, L.; Frisbee, G.; Jorge, F.; Petruzzi, G.; Petit, M. (4) Ward, B.; Ascenção, R.; Mumma, Jr., J.; Woolston, Jr., R.; Blythe, P.; Ashoff, M.; Guerreiro, R.; Nwogwugwu, G. (5) Frisbee, B.; Ashoff, D.; Anderson, G.; Donna, K.; Blythe, A.; Underwood, D.; Weller, A.; Petit, C.; Crespo, J.

I Grew Up in Nazi Germany

ONE terrifying day in 1935, when I was five years old, the security of my young boyhood was shattered. Changes occurred that I could barely understand, and soon I was treated badly for reasons that I did not know. But eventually I was able to echo the psalmist’s words: “In you my soul has taken refuge; and in the shadow of your wings I take refuge until the adversities pass over.”​—Psalm 57:1.

My parents had been Bibelforscher (Bible Students, or Jehovah’s Witnesses) since the 1920’s. When Hitler came to power in 1933, I was three years old and my sister, Herta, was five. Hitler soon began to persecute the Witnesses viciously, and my parents did not escape the close attention of his regime.

In 1935 a group of Gestapo officers, huge to my five-year-old eyes and menacing, barged into our home. I can still see my father standing there quietly as they roughly searched the house for evidence that he was a Bible Student. Finally, they took him away. I did not see him again for 10 years.

But the Hitlerian regime had not finished with us. Two years later the Gestapo returned in the shape of a man and a woman. Pointing at Herta and me they said to my horrified mother: “We are taking these children.” Why? “You are not qualified to bring them up.” They accused us of being delinquents and took us away to a juvenile camp. Can you imagine my mother’s feelings as she watched us being forcibly carried off by the Gestapo?

I endured the military discipline of that camp​—kept separated from Herta—​until 1943. Then I was sent to a farm near a little town in the province of Altmark.

All this time I had no idea why these things were happening to me. My parents had been careful about what they told me, probably because five-year-old boys are not noted for being careful about what they blurt out. Hence, I did not understand why I had been separated from them. Nor did I understand why the farmer who was responsible for me used to scold me and shout at me that I was a criminal, or why other children would have nothing to do with me.

The educational system eventually dictated that I had to spend some time each week in a special school to learn religion. I resented this. After attending twice, I told the school authorities: “I don’t want to go there anymore.” They tried to force me, telling me I would not get a diploma or I would not be able to learn an occupation. But inside I just did not care about that. I felt a strong resentment at being forced to go to that school.

Then I decided: “All right. If they want me to learn religion, I will read the Bible on my own.” And soon I wondered if the Bible could help me to discover why I was being treated so unkindly. I enjoyed reading the Gospels, and slowly I began to see how badly Jesus had been treated. In my youthful mind I tried to compare his situation with mine, thinking: ‘It looks a little similar. I am being mistreated, looked down on, for no real reason, just as Jesus was.’

Finally, the war came to an end. I wanted to go home immediately and planned to pack my suitcase and leave early in the morning when no one could stop me. However, I did not realize how dangerous things were. Germany was in the rubble of defeat. The countryside was chaotic. Nothing worked. There were no cars, no railroad. People were starving, and there were many weapons left around from the recent fighting. I doubt very much if I would have made it back to Magdeburg.

However, I now received a heartwarming indication of Jehovah’s care for me. I was, after all, dwelling ‘in the shadow of his wings.’ The very day I was preparing to leave, a stranger, a woman, came to the farmer with a special permit to take custody of me. The permit had been issued by the military authorities who were temporarily in control. The farmer did not like it. He tried to persuade me to stay. But I was glad to leave with this unknown person.

She had come with a horse and buggy, and the two of us rode in it together to her place, about three hours away. We traveled in silence for a while. She did not say much and I did not feel like asking questions. Then she started to talk. “Well, Hans,” she said, “I know all about you. I remember you as a little boy.” I looked at her. To me she was a complete stranger. “I know your father and your mother,” she went on. “Your father was sent to a concentration camp for reading the Bible.”

She went on to explain that he was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and she was, too. In fact, she had been working secretly as a pioneer (full-time preacher) in that area during the war. As she went on telling me about myself, I gave way to tears. This faithful Witness had kept track of me all along. She knew exactly where I was, but neither she nor my mother had been able to come and visit me since the authorities wanted me to be brought up as a good little Nazi. Now, though, at the first opportunity, she had managed to get me into her custody.

I came to know her as Sister Scheibe. In the following weeks she took every opportunity to teach me what my parents had suffered for. I read a copy of the book Children that she gave me. The copy she had was divided into little booklets for reading in secret, and she showed me how to read the sections and then discussed them with me. Overjoyed at what I was learning, I began to see how Jehovah had maneuvered things for my benefit through the difficult years.

After a month and a half Sister Scheibe thought it was time for me to go home. Travel was still difficult, but there were now some trucks running, so she was able to arrange a ride for me as far as the outskirts of Magdeburg. Then I picked my way for about three hours through the rubble that had once been the city of Magdeburg. Finally I found my home, which, happily, was still standing.

My mother happened to be looking out of the window as I walked up to the house. She recognized me and rushed out to hug me for the first time in 10 years. Can you imagine how we both felt? Quickly, we set about procuring the release of my sister, Herta, who was still in the juvenile camp. After walking and hitchhiking the 50 miles (80 km) to the camp, my mother and I secured her release over the objections of the camp authorities, and joyfully the three of us returned home. Now there was only one person missing.

Soon he arrived, pushing an old bicycle piled with his few possessions. Father had spent 10 years in different concentration camps. He told us he had been in the infamous “death march”a of thousands of prisoners from the Sachsenhausen camp toward Lübeck, where the authorities apparently had plans to kill them all. The 250 Witnesses were starving and weak, but they kept together and helped one another.

On the last night of the march the prisoners were hiding in some woods. Russian and American forces were closing in. On advice from some guards, many prisoners tried to break out to the American lines. About 1,000 of them were then shot down by the guards. The Witnesses, though, had been suspicious and, after praying to Jehovah, had stayed in the woods. Soon, organization among the SS guards crumbled, and within a few days the Witnesses contacted the liberating armies. Not one Witness had died during the ordeal. “We always supported one another,” Father said.

There were also some things that he never told, which we heard from other Witnesses. There was the afternoon, for example, when he was beaten so badly by the guards that he lay apparently dead on the ground, with joints dislocated. The guards picked up his body and threw it onto a cart that they used to move dirt and small stones. Then they dumped him in a ditch and left him sprawled in the mud like so much garbage. Happily, the other Witnesses crept out after dark and found he was still alive. They carried him back inside and nursed him back to health.

Then there was the time in Buchenwald when he was so weak from hunger that everyone thought he would die. For no apparent reason the authorities suddenly transferred him to another camp where his skills as a craftsman were to be used. Hence, in many ways, Father owed his life to the saving power of Jehovah and to the love of his brothers.

Now we were a family again and we quickly busied ourselves in Jehovah’s service. From 1945 to 1949 there was fine increase all around us, and we enjoyed a freedom that had not been experienced in Germany since before Hitler’s time. But Magdeburg is in the Eastern part of Germany, and after the war it came to be under Communist rule. These authorities did not leave us in peace for long.

The last time we could freely attend an assembly was in 1949, in West Berlin. It was a very important assembly for me because I was baptized there. But bad things were already happening. Witnesses were disappearing, not being arrested, just disappearing as if they had been kidnapped. At first there was no official ban, but the pressures were mounting. Then I heard that the brothers in the branch office in Magdeburg had been led away in chains, and a ban was officially announced.

So Jehovah’s Witnesses went underground again. We had to be careful because some who came to the meetings were spies. Hence, meetings were held in secret, at different times on different days. If you missed a meeting, you would not know when the next one would be.

We were careful in house-to-house preaching, too, avoiding carrying anything that would identify us as Jehovah’s Witnesses. We became skilled at judging people’s reactions. If anything made us uneasy, we would immediately cut the conversation short and leave the area. Normally we would visit just one house in a street, then go to another house in another area. We found many people in East Germany who really loved the truth.

Of course, the authorities knew that all in my family were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and it was not long before we received a visit. This time the police seemed more interested in me, and I was taken away to prison. However, thanks to Jehovah, I did not stay there long​—only three days.

While I was at the police department, I had a fine opportunity to witness about my faith. There were 10 policemen sitting there, and for some reason they were not unfriendly. Perhaps they thought they could convert me to communism. They asked me what I believed and why, and I can still see them sitting there listening without a word. I was about 18 years old and full of joy as I told them the truth from the Bible.

Afterward they let me go and said: “We are giving you a chance. But you cannot preach from house to house, and twice a week you have to report to us. We will be watching you, and if we find you doing something wrong, we are going to send you to Russia, to Siberia!” They laughed when they said it, but if it was a joke, it was a grim one.

In 1951 we heard that an assembly had been arranged in Frankfurt, West Germany, and the president of the Watchtower Society would be there. I desperately wanted to attend. A small group of about 12 of us carefully arranged to get across the border. But when we got into West Germany our problems were not over. Because of the currency situation, our East German marks were not worth much in West Germany. So we had to try to hitch a ride to Frankfurt.

Some truck drivers would have taken us, but our group was too big. However, there were some buses near where we were openly discussing our problem. A man got out of one, noticed us and got back into the bus. A little later, he got down again from the bus and approached us. “I heard you speaking,” he said. “I know you are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that you have come from East Germany and want to go to the assembly at Frankfurt. Well, we are Jehovah’s Witnesses too. We are all going to Frankfurt, and we have made a collection so that you can ride with us.”

We could hardly believe it! All the brothers came out of the bus, and we hugged one another. They recognized the risk we had taken crossing the border, so they helped us to travel a little more decently to Frankfurt. And when we got there we had free food and accommodations at the assembly. At the end of the assembly we were given train tickets back to the border.

However, friends soon warned me that the police were after me again. I had been identified in the preaching work! I remembered those threats about Siberia, and it seemed the course of wisdom to escape. So at three o’clock one summer morning in 1952, I got on a train in East Berlin and made the short trip across the border into West Berlin. After a few days of formalities, I was granted permission to live in West Germany. Jehovah had helped me through another crisis.

Soon after, the opportunity of moving to the United States presented itself. I arrived in that country in 1957 with a whole year ahead of me in which to learn the English language before attending the Yankee Stadium convention in 1958. After all those years working in secret, it was a wonderful experience to mingle freely with a quarter of a million fellow believers!

My sister and my parents finally left East Germany, too, and settled in West Germany. My parents have finished their lives, both faithful to the end. My sister, Herta, is still an active Witness in Germany, as I am in the United States.

We have experienced much in our lives so far, and through it all we have been able to echo David’s stirring words at Psalm 63:1, 7: “O God, you are my God, I keep looking for you. . . . For you have proved to be of assistance to me, and in the shadow of your wings I cry out joyfully.”​—As told by Hans Naumann.

[Footnotes]

[Blurb on page 24]

Imagine my mother’s feelings when my sister and I were forcibly carried off by the Gestapo

[Blurb on page 25]

“Your father was sent to a concentration camp for reading the Bible”

[Blurb on page 25]

I began to see how Jehovah had maneuvered things through the difficult years

[Blurb on page 26]

My mother rushed out to hug me for the first time in 10 years

[Picture on page 24]

My sister, Herta, and me with Mother in 1937

From Our Readers

Paramedics

Your article “A Paramedic Tells His Story” (January 22, 1983) was fairly accurate in day-to-day events, but any paramedic worth his salt would not dream of using his position to influence ex-patients with his religious beliefs. You insult my profession with your article. A true professional paramedic asks for and expects no thanks.

J. W., Ambulance Officer, Australia

We do not think that Larry Marshburn uses his position to influence his patients with his religious beliefs, but, rather, in his personal life he continues to show a kindly interest in his fellowman beyond the call of his profession, telling them of the hope for life when there will be no more sorrow, suffering, sickness or death.​—ED.

I have recently completed a CPR course and was told that the correct position for administering CPR is kneeling next to the victim. Your cover shows the paramedic standing.

A. V., Michigan

The picture was based on an actual photograph in a paramedic magazine. We understand that CPR can be administered from a kneeling or a standing position, but that the kneeling position is the more recommended and most often used.​—ED.

Handling a Job Interview

The night before I was going on a job interview I read your article “How Do I Handle a Job Interview?” (February 8, 1983) I noted the suggestions given as to what to do before going on the interview, while on the interview and after leaving the interview. One thing the article stated that really gave me confidence was that while others are going out for the same job, you can be the one to get the job. I followed your suggestions and I was the one who got the job. Please keep on with these articles. We young people need such articles, so that we can cope with the problems we face.

M. F., Pennsylvania

Your article on handling a job interview is a very important answer in times of high unemployment. I thought, however, that you might be interested in an article printed by the Seattle Post Intelligencer regarding the recent murder of a young Seattle woman. Apparently people’s thoughts are changing regarding the accompaniment by another person to a job interview, due to the extreme dangerousness of our times.

J. R., Washington

Our article quoted a consultant who conducts job seminars as stating, “always go alone.” The newspaper article tells of a young woman who was murdered when she answered a “receptionist wanted” ad for a nonexistent firm. She had called the Seattle office of the Better Business Bureau, trying to find out if the ad was placed by a reputable business, but no information was available. The spokesman for the Better Business Bureau stated: “She did the right thing​—trying to check out the ad before answering it—​but she also should have taken someone with her when she went for the interview. Our advice to any female job hunter is: Never go alone to an interview if it’s not during daylight hours and it’s not at the offices of an established business.” We are pleased to pass this information on to our readers.​—ED.

Watching the World

Abortion Casualties

● Russia: Ten million abortions are performed in the Soviet Union every year, according to Western medical experts on Russia. For every live birth, two to three pregnancies are said to be aborted. The average Soviet woman reportedly has four abortions, thus increasing her chances of premature birth or stillbirth when she decides to bear a child.

● Spain: A government plan to legalize abortion is causing political shock waves in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. The relaxing of the penal code would allow for abortions only under special circumstances​—rape, an abnormal fetus or when the life or health of the woman is endangered. The penal code would still retain stiff prison sentences for both the woman and the doctor if the abortion is performed for other reasons. Many opposing groups object and call abortion murder, pointing to the antiabortion speech of Pope John Paul II during his November 1982 visit to Madrid, when he said: “Nothing can legitimize the death of an innocent.” Strangely, though, in spite of severe penalties and the anti-abortion stance of the church, 18,000 to 20,000 Spaniards reportedly traveled to England for abortions in 1980. Those who favor legalized abortion claim that perhaps as many as 300,000 abortions were performed in Spain last year.

Growing “Youth Rebellion”

● Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky stated that unless the superpowers show a genuine willingness to negotiate weapons control the Western powers run a risk of a “youth rebellion in democratic countries much deeper and more serious than the student revolts of 1968.” Referring to the arms race, in an interview reported in the International Herald Tribune of Paris, he warned: “The whole young generation, not just students, but Catholics, Protestants, Socialists and others want to show their opposition.” This growing atmosphere of protest and what it may produce he calls “a tremendous danger for democracies.”

Bushfire Rampage

● Recent bushfires raging out of control wasted 500 miles (800 km) along the drought-plagued southeast coastal states of Victoria and South Australia in just 24 hours. Fanned by gusty winds of more than 60 mph (96 km/​h) that swept in from the central Australian desert, fierce fires ignited the dry eucalyptus forest, or bush, and scorched 740,000 acres (300,000 ha) of land. In Victoria alone the timber loss is valued at over $45 million. The death toll from the fire storms rose to over 70. Churches, schools, hotels and over 2,000 homes were destroyed by the engulfing fires. The hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area are grateful that none of them suffered injury and that none of their Kingdom Halls were destroyed or damaged.

Jobless Teenagers

● ‘Living like wild animals,’ is how Kenneth Livingstone, leader of the Greater London Council, describes unemployed English teenagers in the capital city. “We have got thousands of children wandering the streets of London and living rough,” he said, as quoted in the Daily Telegraph. “It’s an appalling situation for 1983, when we have the resources in this country to provide everybody with a decent home, employment and health care.” Another spokesman for the council added that this results in teenage delinquency and lawbreaking because “they feel unmotivated and alienated by the failure of the country to provide them with any employment opportunities.”

“Diploma Disease”

● “Throughout Africa, the desire to land a white-collar job has led to the Paper Qualification Syndrome: the view that it does not matter what you study as long as there is a diploma at the end, and better to remain a perennial student [than] to finish without one,” says the magazine Africa Now. According to a recent study made by the International Labour Office’s Jobs and Skills Programme for Africa, in French-speaking West African countries a diploma is the key to a white-collar job with a good salary. But opportunities are limited because the economy is mainly agricultural. So growing unemployment among diploma holders is a source of concern. To compensate for the disparity, Benin has embarked on an agriculture-oriented program to encourage and educate young adults toward an agricultural future.

“Computermania”

● Singapore is gearing up to challenge Japan as the Asian hub for electronic technology. A massive effort is being made by the Singaporean government to computerize everything “from the bus system to civil service departments” with an “ambition to move Singapore out of assembly-style manufacturing into the ‘brain services’” and to make it “the computer centre of Southeast Asia by 1990,” reports South magazine. The intense publicity and exposure caused by the government’s campaign to be number one in computers, says South, “has led to a small outbreak of computermania” in the school systems.

Sucking-Token Thieves

● New York City youths have discovered a new method for stealing subway tokens​—suck them from turnstile slots! “Some kids are making $50 to $100 a day sucking tokens” and reselling them, a deputy inspector of the Transit Authority Police Department told The New York Times. Before a subway patron can pass through the turnstile, a youth runs up to the slot with open mouth and “all of a sudden, you’ve got no token,” complained a Transit Authority spokesman. Sucking tokens is “unhealthy and illegal and you will get caught,” he added. At one subway station the token clerk sprinkled chili powder into the token slot to prevent this unusual form of theft. Did it work? The Times reported: “The kids came back with buckets of water, threw the water on the turnstiles and then threw the rest at the token clerk.”

Church-State Battle

● On an island in the center of the Mediterranean Sea a battle is raging between the government of Malta and the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries, until the 1971 election of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, the church dominated Maltese political, social and educational affairs. Things began to change. Now, says The New York Times, Mr. Mintoff, who was educated by the Roman Catholic school system and whose brother is a priest, “has openly declared war on church schools” that educate between one fifth and one fourth of Malta’s pupils. The government maintains that all education must be free. Last year, continues the report, it “outlawed voluntary donations to church schools, froze school fees and decreed a bonus in admission points for university entrance to state high school graduates.”

Sub-Saharan Famine

● “The food situation is becoming more critical from day to day” for sub-Saharan Africa, reports The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Serious shortages threaten large regions of Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands. Chad, a country of 4.7 million people, is in greatest danger. Its agricultural production plummeted 40 percent and its livestock is menaced by an infectious cattle disease. The Republic of Mali’s 6.9 million inhabitants also face serious problems due to a drought. Through international donations of grain, UN officials hope to avert famine-caused devastation similar to what happened 10 years ago to hundreds of thousands in the sub-Saharan region.

Bandit Queen

● Phoolan Devi, the 26-year-old notorious bandit queen of central India, and her 25 gang members surrendered to Indian authorities last February in a town 180 miles (290 km) southeast of New Delhi. For three years she and her gang terrorized the people of the wooded Chambal Valley and eluded up to 2,000 police. She is accused of some 50 murders and 70 armed robberies, and has a reputation as a deadly shot. Her bandit life, glamorized to the point of legend, enticed 5,000 people to gather and witness her announced surrender. But the glamor of her life was shattered by a senior police official’s comments, as reported in Time magazine: “All dacoits [bandits] are dead by the time they are 30. . . . The nights are lonely. She is no longer the beauty she once was.”

Really “Superglue”

● How to transport a casting weighing 333 tons over a bridge that had a capacity of only 110 tons was solved by using “giant tubs of glue.” According to a report in the Yorkshire Post, workmen “spread the glue on to steel plates and then stuck them underneath the bridge.” The bridge was thus strengthened to handle the combined weight of nearly 500 tons for both casting and lorry, which was more than twice the weight of the heaviest load previously carried on a British road.

World’s Infant Mortality

● According to the World Health Organization, the number of infants who die before reaching one year of age varies greatly among the nations of the world. For example, of every 1,000 babies born in Niger, 200 die. Yet only 7 die in Sweden. The nation with the greatest wealth per person, Qatar, has a staggering infant mortality rate of 138, while 13 out of every 1,000 born in the United States die before the age of one. The mortality rate for France is 9.9; Australia, 11; United Kingdom, 12.2; Federal Republic of Germany, 13.5; Thailand, 15.6; Greece, 18.7; Soviet Union, 36; Mexico, 44.1; Brazil, 84; and South Africa, 97.

Telephone “Hang-up”

● The Trans-Canada Telephone System reports that 23 billion telephone calls were made by Canadians in 1981 and that the nation ranks fourth in the world in number of telephones per 100 population. The United States heads the list, with 83.7 phones per 100; Sweden is second, with 79.5, followed by Switzerland, with 72.4. Canada rings in with 67.2 telephones for 100 inhabitants.

Cough Control

● Coughing spells can be frightening, and, when in public, embarrassing. Yet coughing is useful when it brings up mucus and clears the air passages. How can you control your cough and make it useful? When you feel a cough coming on, the Brooklyn Lung Association in its Fresh Air News letter suggests: “1. Breathe in deeply. 2. Hold your breath for a few seconds. 3. Cough twice, first to loosen mucus, then to bring it up. 4. Breathe in by sniffing gently. 5. Get rid of mucus. Use strong tissues or paper towels. Swallowing mucus can upset your stomach.”

Living Forever Not Just a Dream

This is the opening chapter of the exciting new book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. Sound reasons are given why this is possible. But, more importantly, you are shown how you can live forever in Paradise on earth. Among the fascinating chapters are:

□ Why We Are Here

□ Resurrection​—For Whom, and Where?

□ What Happens at Death?

□ Judgment Day and Afterward

□ What Kind of Place Is Hell?

□ What You Must Do to Live Forever.

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