May 22

Page Two

The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima was dubbed Little Boy, but its effect was anything but little. It was horrendous! Today, Little Boy has been replaced by 50,000 nuclear bombs, some of them supergiants. If the two superpowers used only 5 percent of their nuclear weapons, within minutes 200 million people would die​—four times the number slain in World War II. Carl Sagan said: “There is a real danger of the extinction of humanity.” In the age of the bomb, what hope is there for mankind?

The Search for Security in the Age of the Bomb 3

The Ultimate Weapon and the Race for Security 4

The Bomb and Man’s Future 6

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Cover Photo: U.S. National Archives

The Search for Security in the Age of the Bomb

ON THE night of July 27, 1943, thousands of firebombs pummeled Hamburg, Germany. The result was something new to warfare: a vast, consuming inferno, a fire storm. Rising currents of air caused hurricane-force winds to feed the fire from all sides, sucking people into the flames. The heat was intense. Air-raid shelters became ovens, baking and shriveling those huddled within. Other people were bogged down in molten asphalt. Over 40,000 perished, more than 20 times the number killed in an ordinary bombing raid.

Two years later, on the other side of the globe, another fire storm consumed Hiroshima, Japan. This time the conflagration was lit by a single plane that dropped only one bomb.

The bomb, an atom bomb, was dubbed Little Boy. But its effect was anything but little. It was horrendous. It blinded with brilliant light. It killed and maimed by fire and heat and blast wave. It poisoned by deadly radiation.

Three days later, another bomb, named Fat Man, obliterated half of Nagasaki. A ridge that runs through the center of this hilly city protected the other half.

The Nuclear Arsenal Today

Today, there are about 50,000 of these weapons of mass destruction in existence. Consider:

◻ If the two superpowers used a mere 5 percent of their strategic nuclear weapons against each other’s cities, within minutes 200 million people would die, four times the number slain in World War II. The huge number of wounded survivors could expect little or no care from overburdened medical centers.

◻ Just one U.S. Trident submarine is equipped with enough nuclear missiles to blast 192 separate targets. Each of those explosions would be eight times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.a

◻ The world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has 2,600 times more explosive power than the combined munitions used in World War II.

Such statistics are mind-boggling, and they underscore the magnitude of the problem.

A West African proverb says: “When elephants fight, the grass too will suffer.” Likewise, the consequences of a nuclear war would not affect merely the combatants. In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs magazine, scientist Carl Sagan said that a nuclear war “would imperil every survivor on the planet. There is a real danger of the extinction of humanity.”

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Today’s nuclear stockpile has 2,600 times the explosive power used in World War II

16,000 million tons

6 million tons

The Ultimate Weapon and the Race for Security

“A WEAPON of unparalleled power is being created which will completely change all future conditions of warfare . . . Unless, indeed some agreement about the control of the use of the new active materials can be obtained in due time, any temporary advantage, however great, may be outweighed by a perpetual menace to human society.”​—Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr. Written in 1944.

A United Nations study states: “There is . . . no target strong enough to resist the intense effects of nuclear weapons, no effective defence against a determined attack . . . In this sense, mankind is faced with the absolute weapon.”

Men quickly realized that not only could cities be blotted out within a few seconds but the devastation could be accomplished with relative ease​—there would be no need to defeat an army first. With nuclear weapons a country’s population could be annihilated and its economy utterly destroyed within a day, without a single skirmish.

The realization that there was no effective defense against atomic weapons led to the concept of nuclear deterrence. In November 1945, U.S. Army Air Forces commanding general Henry H. Arnold stated in a report to the secretary of war: “Real security against atomic weapons in the visible future will rest on our ability to take immediate offensive action with overwhelming force. It must be apparent to a potential aggressor that an attack on the United States would be immediately followed by an immensely devastating air-atomic attack on him.”

Many do not agree that such deterrence provides real security. Robert J. Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist who led in the development of the atom bomb, likened opposing nuclear powers to “two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” More recently, President Ronald Reagan said that U.S./​Soviet posture was like two people holding pistols at each other’s heads.

Attempt to Internationalize the Atom

In June 1946 the United States presented a plan to the newly formed United Nations organization. The plan called for the creation of an international agency that would have authority to control and inspect all atomic-energy activities worldwide. After such an agency was established, the United States would hand over its atomic secrets, scrap its existing atom bombs, and not make any more.

The Soviet Union asserted that atomic weapons should be done away with first. Once that was done, then control and inspection arrangements could be worked out. The issue became deadlocked, and in the cold-war years that followed, hope of UN control of atomic weapons perished.

The Arms Race: Action and Reaction

In 1949 the Soviets exploded their first atom bomb. Suspicion and distrust deepened between East and West, and the arms race began in real earnest. The U.S. response to the Soviet bomb was the development of a vastly more powerful weapon, the hydrogen bomb. The first one tested (in 1952) was about 800 times more powerful than the early atom bombs. After only nine months, the Soviets had successfully developed their own hydrogen bomb.

Next came the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile). The Soviet Union was first with this in 1957. Now a nuclear strike could be accomplished in minutes rather than hours. The United States rushed to catch up and by the following year had added the ICBM to its arsenal.

In the meantime other countries worked on and tested atom bombs of their own. In turn, the United Kingdom, France, and others became nuclear powers.

The action-reaction syndrome continued unabated in the 1960’s. Both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented with antiballistic missiles. Both learned how to fire missiles from submarines. Both developed multiple warheads.

The race continued into the 1970’s with the significant development of MIRV (multiple independently-targeted reentry vehicle). One missile could now carry many warheads, each of which could be directed to a separate target. For example, the modern American MX, or Peacekeeper, missile carries ten such warheads; so does the Soviet SS-18. Each missile, therefore, can destroy ten cities.

Missiles were becoming more accurate too, and this, along with the development of MIRVs, led to renewed fears. Instead of targeting cities, opposing missile bases and military installations could be and were targeted many times over by MIRVs. Some now speculated that nuclear war might be winnable. A powerful first strike might eliminate the capacity or will of the adversary to strike back.

Each side felt compelled to counter such a threat by ensuring its ability to retaliate even if the other successfully hit first with a surprise attack. Without the ability to strike back, it was reasoned, there would be little to deter enemy aggression; indeed, aggression might prove to be irresistibly tempting. So​—more weapons.

Now well into the 1980’s, the arms race continues at breakneck speed. A recent addition to the gallery of arms is the neutron bomb​—a small hydrogen bomb designed to kill people with radiation but to leave buildings and vehicles intact. Another is the cruise missile​—able to skim through the air just above the trees (and below enemy radar) to deliver a nuclear punch with accuracy to a target 1,500 miles (2,400 km) away. The latest entry, popularly called Star Wars, adds outer space to the battlefield.

Attempts at Arms Control

Though the history of weapons development may suggest that the nuclear arms race has continued with absolutely no restraint, a number of agreements have been reached. Some of these limit testing or establish ceilings on certain weapons systems, while others inhibit the spread of nuclear weapons to nonnuclear states.

These agreements have been reached only through painstaking, time-consuming efforts. And no agreement has significantly reduced existing weapons.

At the core of the problem is this: The superpowers deeply distrust and fear each other. Ironically, the insecurity that results merely generates a demand for more weapons. More weapons, in turn, make each side appear increasingly sinister and menacing to the other; hence, people feel less secure than ever.

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“When elephants fight, the grass too will suffer”

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One MX missile has the power of 300 Hiroshima bombs, enough to destroy an area of 240 square miles

MANHATTAN

Hiroshima blast

MX missile blast

The Bomb and Man’s Future

THE elusive search for security in the nuclear age has resulted in the stockpiling of thousands and thousands of weapons of mass destruction.

Informed people recognize that the nations have steeled themselves actually to use their weapons if provoked. Indeed, willingness to unleash them is at the very core of deterrence. General B. L. Davis, commander of the United States Strategic Air Command, wrote recently: “In the final analysis, our ability to maintain credible deterrence is a function of two interdependent factors. First, we must have​—and potential adversaries must understand that we have—​the capability to deny them their goals at any level of conflict. Second, we must have​—and adversaries must perceive that we have—​the will as a nation to exercise that capability in defense of our national interests.” (Italics ours.)​—Air Force Magazine, July 1985.

Nuclear weapons haven’t been used in anger in 40 years, but past restraint gives no guarantees for the future. Recent national polls indicate that 68 percent of the American people believe that nuclear weapons will eventually be used if the arms race continues.

Such anxiety is felt throughout the world. Consider what an 18-year-old student in Sierra Leone wrote: “A nuclear war will affect each and every human being on this planet . . . Thus even people in Africa need to feel alarm although they are far away from the territory of the superpowers. . . . By and large, people deal with the threat of global holocaust by means of what researchers call ‘psychic shutdown,’ i.e., refusal to think about it at all. As world tensions increase, however, it becomes increasingly harder to perform this feat of emotional gymnastics and simply ignore the threat.”

Other Threats to Security

But apart from the obvious threat of deliberate war between the superpowers, mankind’s security is menaced in other ways. One danger is that ever more countries will obtain nuclear weapons. In addition to the five nations positively known to have them already, there are at least six other countries that either already have or are close to possessing atom bombs of their own. By the end of the century, experts believe, 20 or more nations will have the bomb.

Another danger is that a terrorist organization will obtain one of these weapons. Just think what a terrorist could do with an atom bomb! Why, an entire city could be held for ransom!

How could such a group acquire a nuclear bomb? In one of two ways. They could steal one​—remember, there are 50,000 to choose from! They could also make one. The technology of atom-bomb building is no longer secret. And plutonium, the basic ingredient needed, is becoming increasingly plentiful. In fact, it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be enough plutonium produced through civilian nuclear programs alone to make 750,000 Nagasaki-size bombs per year!

Added to these threats to security are the possibilities of accident, miscalculation, or systems failure.

Human Solutions

Scientists, scholars, generals, and politicians have written extensively about this subject. Increasingly they view the nuclear arms race as costly, futile, and extremely dangerous. They propose various solutions. Some call for complete disarmament. Others want a freeze on weapons production. Still others suggest a ‘star wars’ defense. Last January the two heads of the superpowers offered encouraging statements. Mikhail Gorbachev proposed a step-by-step process to rid the earth of nuclear weapons by the year 2000. Ronald Reagan said he was grateful for the offer. A serious peace plan or a propaganda ploy? All these proposals have one thing in common​—they all point to some human solution.

This raises a fundamental question: Is it realistic to put our confidence in humans to bring about freedom from the peril of nuclear war, since humans are the very ones who created the peril in the first place? Men have demonstrated awesome genius in the mastery of computerized weapons of death and destruction, but have they mastered their own nature? This generation has seen two brutal world wars, the scope and destruction of which dwarfed any previous war in the history of mankind. And in the 40 years since World War II, some 150 smaller wars have been fought; 30 million people have perished in them.

God’s Solution

Little wonder the Bible says: “Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.” Jehovah has purposed a solution of his own to the nuclear dilemma. Unlike those of man, his solution will result in the elimination of warfare completely and forever.​—Psalm 46:9; 146:3.

That solution rests in God’s Kingdom, a world government that will bring lasting security to lovers of peace everywhere. Three million people in over 200 lands of the earth recognize that this Kingdom will soon assert its authority on the earth, ending forever the prospect of a nuclear holocaust. These people are Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In submission to the righteous laws of that Kingdom, they are fulfilling the prophecy at Micah 4:3, which says: “And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.” One fourth of the world’s scientists are engaged in defense-related pursuits. None of them are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some 70 million people are directly engaged in military-related occupations. Not one is a witness of Jehovah.

But far from being merely passive observers of the nuclear predicament, the Witnesses lovingly teach people what God will do to remedy the situation. The facts are in your own copy of the Bible. To get help to understand these things, contact Jehovah’s Witnesses in your community. They will be glad to assist you.

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The core of the problem: The superpowers deeply distrust and fear each other

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Some 70 million people are directly engaged in military-related occupations. Not one is a witness of Jehovah

Working Women​—A View From the Third World

By “Awake!” correspondent in Nigeria

Since 1950, the number of women in the paid labor force has virtually doubled worldwide. Much has been written about the effects of this revolutionary trend in marriage and family life. However, in the so-called Third World, this is hardly a new development. In many such countries, men and women have long worked together as economic partners. But how similar are the problems of Third World working women to those of their counterparts in the industrialized nations? What motivates them to take on such a weighty role? In order to gain some insight into these fascinating questions, Awake! here presents an interview with three Nigerian working women: Elizabeth, Ulrike, and Lola, along with Lola’s husband, ‘Shola.

Awake!: Why do African women work?a

Elizabeth: In the midwestern regions of Nigeria, women do not work merely to make ends meet or to provide extras. In many families the wife is expected to earn money. She​—not the husband—​often must care for her extended family, that is, nieces, nephews, cousins, and so forth.

Ulrike: I am a native-born German but have become a naturalized Nigerian. I observe that for women here, working is simply part of their culture. A husband regards his wife as an asset only if she is productive, and that often means more than just having children and supplying meals. In many cases, the responsibility of providing for the children materially still rests to a great extent on the mother.

Lola: Among the Yorubab people, husbands have long recognized that their wives have a gift for trading. Hence, while the husbands produce the goods, the wives market them. This has proved to be a rather efficient division of labor. The woman sees it as her role to support her husband in bringing to a successful conclusion what he started on the farm. Besides, it is seen as a sign of industriousness to combine homekeeping with some trade or business. Like the capable wife described in the Bible in Proverbs chapter 31, she gets up early, looks after her home, and feeds her family. This allows her to use the rest of her day for other things, such as planting a field, sewing for the merchants, or running a small business.

Elizabeth: Too, many women feel the need to be exposed to the world outside the family. Often their only real education comes by means of trading or other forms of work.

Awake!: How is that?

Elizabeth: Well, trading improves their arithmetic and basic language. Business teaches them organization, which helps them manage their homes and families better. Further, working gives the women self-confidence and respect.

‘Shola: Polygamy is another strong reason why women work. Few wives in polygamous homes can expect their husbands to satisfy their every need. A wife thus reasons that if she does not look out for herself, she will get in trouble. Indeed, the uncertainty of polygamous relationships has driven many young wives to become economically independent of their husbands. Also, many women want the very best education for their children. Since the husband’s resources may also have to be used to support his children by other women, the wife works​—and works hard—​to educate her children and perhaps leave an inheritance for them.

Awake!: What kind of work do women do?

Elizabeth: Mostly trading.

‘Shola: It differs among the various ethnic groups. Some farm, others trade.

Ulrike: Women are often willing to do work that men do not wish to do, such as sitting by the roadside roasting yams or maize, selling iced water, or even running sewing shops. Yet these can be very profitable little industries!

Lola: Interestingly, when families move away from rural communities, the wives often become restless. They find it difficult to sit at home doing nothing. This shows that their initial motivation to work was not merely economic. For in the past, needs were few and sights were lowered.

Awake!: To what extent is a wife’s income really important to the husband?

Ulrike: Because of the instability of the economic situation in Africa, a wife’s income is very important. Companies regularly lay off workers. Why, even government workers often have to wait for months to receive their salaries. And Christian men frequently lose their jobs because they refuse to yield to worldly pressures and compromise Bible principles. But a woman who is a trader cannot easily lose her job if she is skilled. Often she becomes​—at least temporarily—​the sole breadwinner!

‘Shola: As the structure of society has changed, needs have become more complex, expectations have heightened, and the economic pressures have grown. So a wife’s contribution to the family budget has become increasingly more significant. A husband may therefore choose to pay the rent, electricity, and a fixed sum for food. The wife, in turn, may buy extra food and clothing, and pay school fees.

Awake!: What are some of the problems working wives face?

Elizabeth: Working is obviously physically demanding, and often a working wife comes home tense and irritable. It can also cause marital strain. Men do not mind that their wives are reasonably successful. But if she is too successful, the husband may become jealous and feel threatened.

Lola: The wife may find herself neglecting her children and ignoring her husband​—which makes him jealous and resentful.

‘Shola: The greatest danger for a Christian wife, though, is that her spirituality may suffer.

Lola: Yes, often so much time is spent on becoming successful that spiritual activities, such as preaching the good news of God’s Kingdom, may become secondary. Attendance at Christian meetings may suffer, and there may be little time left for personal study of the Bible. And her children see an example of striving for success in business placed before them. They just might decide to make that their goal in life.

Awake!: How can the Christian working wife prevent that from happening?

Lola: She must keep her balance in all things so that her family and her spiritual life do not suffer.

‘Shola: It can be done. There are many Christian women who are fine examples of such balance.

Although the economic and cultural forces at work in Africa are different from those in industrialized nations, the working women quoted here express needs and aspirations that are universal.

True, following Bible principles can relieve such women of some of the pressures to work secularly. Many Christian couples, however, find it necessary to have two incomes. Such couples should count the cost of secular work. (See Luke 14:28.) Where an economic need exists, “a capable wife” can feel proud that she is making a material contribution to the welfare of the family.​—Compare Proverbs 31:10, 13, 16, 24.

On the other hand, Third World families​—like other families—​must remember that marital harmony and spiritual activities are of more value than material comforts. (Proverbs 15:17; Matthew 6:19-21) And if a wife simply feels the need of a more fulfilling activity than housework, she does well to remember the Bible’s encouragement to ‘have plenty to do in the work of the Lord.’ (1 Corinthians 15:58) Some, like Lola, can arrange to engage in the full-time preaching work of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For the most part, though, Christian wives in African Third World nations must face the challenge of being housewife and breadwinner. Balance is the key. And as Lola’s husband ‘Shola reminds us: “It can be done!”

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Elizabeth

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Ulrike

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Lola

Young People Ask . . .

Is the Bible Relevant for Me?

“I DON’T want to hear anything from you,” the young man snapped. As Grace turned to leave, he emptied a basin of dirty water over her. She stiffened momentarily, then relaxed and calmly walked away.

But was not this young woman’s response to aggression foolish and perhaps weak? Should she not have retaliated? Grace thinks that the Bible’s counsel to be “peaceable with all men’’ is best. (Romans 12:17, 18) But what was the result of her following the Bible instead of angrily hitting back? We shall see.

Lydia, a 16-year-old student in Nigeria, tells of a classmate “who ran after boys and slept with the biology teacher.” This girl apparently felt that the Bible’s counsel to flee from sexual immorality was irrelevant. (1 Corinthians 6:18) She likely reasoned that youths should be left unfettered to do what they want. But what resulted from her actions?

The experiences of Grace and of Lydia’s classmate raise two important questions: Is the Bible still relevant? Or are present social doctrines and life-styles better for good living?

Modern-Day Standards

Consider the “liberation” movements and the “new morality.” These reject the Bible’s laws restricting sexual relations to married people​—between a husband and his one legal wife. (1 Corinthians 7:1, 2) Great changes in social attitudes have resulted. Sexual promiscuity has increased. Homosexuals and prostitutes demand acceptance and now practice their life-styles openly. Young couples simply live together without marriage. But has all of this produced better family life? Has it improved the quality of life in your community?

Reflect on this example of what can happen to permissive teenagers: Lydia’s classmate became pregnant by the biology teacher, a married man. She ruined her schooling and family life. Others have died in attempting illegal abortions. The deaths of teenagers and of unborn babies, the sexually transmitted diseases some have contracted, the breakdown in family life​—are these fruits of current social philosophy good fruits?

Perhaps you can think of other developments that raise a similar question. For example, the 20th century has seen the popularizing of doctrines like evolution and atheism, which reject the Bible’s authority. But in view of the wars, violence, and unrest of this same century, can it be said that those doctrines have offered something better? Actually, men are constantly changing their philosophies and theories. Social doctrines are often discarded. So how unwise it is for them to reject the Bible!

A Need for Guidance

What explanation would you give for the disappointing results that human ideas have led to? One could be that man is imperfect. So are his thinking and plans. As the Bible says, “It does not belong to man . . . even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) We do need direction from the highest source, that is, from God. True, people say that he does not exist. But seeing how unreliable their ideas have been, we can hardly rely on that assertion, can we? On the other hand, being the Creator of man and having observed him throughout history, God absolutely knows the human makeup. Can you think of anyone more qualified to guide us? He tells us: “I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself.” (Isaiah 48:17, 18) But how does he teach us?

God’s Provision for Guidance

The Bible is Jehovah’s communication to us. (2 Timothy 3:16) It deals with real people and with concerns such as we have. It tells how and why God created us and how we can best live our lives. This is something that Eyo, a 16-year-old Efik-speaking youth, appreciates.a He says: “The Bible gives advice from past times, things that are relevant to youths. Even though its counsel seems restrictive sometimes, it does help me to avoid doing things that could harm me or damage my relationship with Jehovah.” Agreeing with him, Lydia adds: “The Bible teaches young people how to behave. I can see the difference between youths who follow the Bible’s counsel and those who do not.”

These young people believe that they need and are receiving help to develop wholesome personalities. They are supported by two older Nigerian youths​—Nicholas and Richard—​who say: “We are inexperienced and are living in a corrupt society.” “Jehovah knows more than the so-called wise ones of today. If we follow his advice, we will not regret it later.” This echoes Jehovah’s own assurance: “My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) Is it not wise to be guided by the thoughts of the Supreme Mind?

You Can Benefit Too

To illustrate the Bible’s value further, let us examine some of the people and situations it deals with, and the beneficial advice it gives.

Genesis tells about Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, who unwisely befriended Canaanite girls. These did not worship Jehovah as she did, nor did they live by the moral standards of her family. She soon attracted the attention of a young Canaanite man. The result? He sexually violated her! (Genesis 34:1-7) Do you see the lesson to be learned from this? Fittingly, the Bible counsels: “Keep your way far off from alongside” immoral persons, and “flee from fornication.” “Bad associations spoil useful habits.” (Proverbs 5:8; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 15:33) Remember what happened to Lydia’s classmate. Yet, by following the Bible’s advice, Lydia preserved her own human dignity and moral purity at school and earned the respect of others.

Think, too, about Cain, Adam’s first son. He became jealous of the favor shown his brother Abel and killed him in an act of unrestrained aggression. Yet, Jehovah had warned him that his wrong inclination would lead to grave sin if he did not “get the mastery over it.” Aggressively asserting his own desires, Cain disregarded God’s counsel. (Genesis 4:1-16) Are youths today much different? Perhaps some whom you know are like Alozie. This young Nigerian avoided opportunities to study the Bible. Lacking its influence in his life, he retaliated at the aggression of another youth. In the ensuing fight, he was seriously wounded with the jagged edge of a broken bottle. Would following the Bible’s counsel have worked out better for him? Very likely it would have. It did in the incident mentioned at the outset, involving Grace.

She was calling from house to house, discussing the Bible with people in her Nigerian town, when the young man poured water on her. Her self-control, though, impressed him, and he ran after her, apologized, and requested forgiveness. Grace arranged for him to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and now he is also a Christian. Yes, a person who can “get the mastery over” his emotions is strong, and such strength is a protection.

These, however, are just samplings of what the Bible offers. It is indeed relevant today, much of its counsel being directed to you. And it points out that, although you can choose to follow your own independent course, it would be wiser to follow God’s direction. Doing so, you will “ward off calamity from your flesh.” Such calamity could include sexually transmitted diseases, injury sustained in fighting, or other unpleasant things.​—Ecclesiastes 11:9–12:1.

So let the Bible guide your life. “Flee from the desires incidental to youth, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.” This will earn you the blessing of a wholesome life now and of everlasting life in the future.​—2 Timothy 2:22; 3:16, 17; 1 Timothy 4:8.

[Footnotes]

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Dinah’s unwise course had a bad outcome. The fruits of following the Bible’s guidance show it to be the wisest way

Gypsies​—Are They Misunderstood?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Britain

“THE Gypsies are here!” Few neighbourhoods would welcome such news. Many view Gypsies as thieves, social misfits.a They are accused of turning neighbourhoods into eyesores by dwelling in campsites that are unkempt and filthy. This feeling of disdain, however, is quite mutual. Indeed, Gypsies call non-Gypsies gaji or gorgios. These words and their variants mean “yokels” or “barbarians.”

Who, though, are the Gypsies? Why do they have such a difficult time maintaining friendly relations with the settled community? Are they really misfits or, perhaps, simply misunderstood?

Their Mysterious History

In a general sense, the word “gypsy” means “a person of nomadic habit or origin.” True Gypsies, however, are a race of people with a language of their own. They call themselves Rom, which means “Man” in their language. From this we get the word “Romany”​—another name for the Gypsy. However, the origin of the Gypsies was long a puzzle.

The word “Gypsy” itself derives from “Egyptian.” But it is most unlikely that they originated in Egypt, though at one time they claimed to do so. As recently as the 1780’s, philologist Grellmann noted the striking similarity between the Gypsies’ Romany language and the Indo-Aryan languages of northern India. His studies led him to conclude that India was the motherland of the Gypsy. Today this is generally accepted as fact. However, when and why they began their westward migration remains a mystery. As Gypsies themselves have never been keepers of written records, historical traces of them are found only in the annals of the nations in which they have sojourned.

Such records reveal that the Gypsies have seldom been welcome as guests. Indeed, their carefree way of life​—and occasional rapacity—​have often triggered vicious persecution. In the 16th century, England ordered them out of the country, declaring death for any who remained! Gypsies fared just as badly in what is now Romania. There they were bought and sold as slaves up until the middle of the 19th century. In 1726, Emperor Charles VI of Germany declared that Gypsy men were to be hanged. Their women and children were to have their ears cut off, so as to be easily identified if they dared return. In France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, Gypsies were chased by dogs and hunted like deer for “sport.”

What of modern times? The Nazi regime labelled Gypsies “enemies of the people” and set about exterminating them. Over 400,000 perished.

Their Life Today

In spite of this gruesome history of persecution, Gypsies today thrive in Europe, the United States, South America, and Australia. A common language, an undying urge to keep on the move, an unwritten culture kept alive around the campfire, and a conviction that they are a superior people have helped preserve the identity of this diverse and scattered people. Time, however, has wrought some changes.

While there is a growing tendency among some of them to settle, thousands still travel the roads. Fewer and fewer, though, do so in their colourful, horse-drawn vardos. In Western Europe, most of the Gypsies are motorized, losing, as a result, much of their former romantic image. However, in Eastern Europe and Spain the old culture lingers: dancing, making music, telling fortunes, taming bears, dealing in horses, and making a living in the Gypsies’ own inimitable ways. Thousands of spectators can thus still thrill to the vivacious flamenco dancing of the Spanish Gypsy and the heart-stirring music of his Hungarian brother!

Although extreme persecution has died down, the Gypsy still is often in trouble. For example, according to a British government report in 1982, “there are 8-9,000 or so gypsy families in England and Wales, and of those about half live on permanent authorised sites. The rest park their caravans on unauthorised sites, with the constant threat of eviction and frequently to the annoyance of nearby residents.”

Modernization has forced the Gypsy to rethink his feelings toward secular education. In the past, this was generally considered a waste of time. However, a recent report by The National Gypsy Council states that ‘our children need education so that they can mix with the children of the settled community in order to ensure a peaceful co-existence.’

Changes in the Making

Modernization has also forced some changes in the ways the Gypsies make their living. In times past, seasonal farm work was very popular among Gypsies. Usually, farmers would allow them to camp on their land while they worked. Mechanization, though, has sharply reduced such work opportunities. Not needing their labour anymore, farmers are generally unwilling to allow Gypsies to camp on their land. Thus the Gypsy has been forced to the cities where scrap-metal dealing and the building trade have afforded work opportunities.

Since Gypsies have a way with animals, some have chosen, instead, to work with travelling fairs and circuses. Because they are lovers of music, some do well as entertainers. The women, keen observers of human nature, often make a good living telling “fortunes.” (See following article.) The Gypsy is well suited for such occupations. They allow him to avoid being tied too long to one place. Freedom to roam is far more precious to him than accumulating material possessions.

The following first-person story shows how one Gypsy found a new life-style, the best one of all.

[Footnotes]

A Gypsy Finds “The Way”

IN 1929 I was born in a tent in north Wales to a family of Romanies, or, as most people call us, Gypsies. For years thereafter, I lived according to the ways of the Gypsies, travelling throughout Wales and southwestern England. It was a simple way of life, disturbed only by the fact that every week or two we were forced to move.

My parents, along with us four children, travelled in two horse-drawn waggons. We children slept in a four-wheeled “barrel” waggon that carried our household things. (If a haystack or barn was handy, we all slept there.) A two-wheeled “matchbox” cart carried our camping equipment and tools. To lighten the load on our horses, we children generally walked.

Whenever possible, we would find campsites in the woods, well out of the sight of house dwellers. This helped us avoid their hostility. Before each move, Father had us pick up any litter and sweep the grass. We left everything tidy.

The Ways of the Gypsy

How did we make a livelihood? Hop picking in Wiltshire and Herefordshire was one of our seasonal occupations. This was always a happy time. Gypsy families, though camped apart from one another, would gather round a campfire in the evenings, playing music, singing, and telling stories. We were poor but free from the cares that go with material possessions.

At other times of the year, Father made mats and baskets out of bulrushes (marsh plants). We would collect the rushes and also small willow branches for the basket frames. These we boiled, bleaching the rushes and enabling us to remove the bark from the willows. Using dyes he made from plants, my father decorated the finished articles with paintings of wild birds or animals. Gypsy men, though, never participate in actual selling. So the rest of us would sell them from door to door, and for good prices at that!

Father also showed us how to make such things ourselves. We learned, too, to form flowers from paper and wood, to break and train horses, and to identify wild herbs and use them as medicines. He took us to the garbage dump and showed us how to take whatever was of use, including food. But we also knew how to catch rabbits, hedgehogs, and all sorts of wild game for our pot. When these were in short supply, we saw no wrong in taking a chicken or two, or a few vegetables, from a farmer. We reckoned that he could well afford it, and after all, we were hungry. We also learned to cook nettles, rose stalks, honeysuckle flowers, all kinds of wild herbs, and, as a special delicacy, snails. But many a day we had no food at all.

From the time I was four, my mother taught me to beg, sell, and steal. First she would make sure that I was poorly dressed and without shoes. Then she would send me alone to a house, ordering me to cry at the door. If I did not feel like crying, she would slap my legs so that I had tears in my eyes anyway! I would tell the householder that I had nothing to eat. Few could resist the appeal of a bedraggled, weeping little girl.

I also learned another craft common among Gypsies: fortune-telling. Actually, our “fortune-telling” usually amounted to little more than observing people and discerning what they wanted to hear. But as I learned in later years, this craft can also involve the supernatural. For me, though, using cards, tea leaves, or the lines of a palm was only a gimmick. And I was successful only with people who wanted to cooperate.

Fears of Hell

Like most Romanies, my father was very religious. I do not mean that he went to church. Far from it. He used to say that the pomp and ceremony of the churches showed they belonged to “the old man,” as he used to call the Devil. Early every morning, rain or shine, my father would go into the open, kneel down, and pray aloud to God. Sometimes his prayers awakened us. I asked why he prayed aloud, and he replied: “God gave me a voice, so I should use it when speaking to him.”

So from my father I got to understand a little about God, Jesus, and creation. Once, we were camped in a limestone quarry, near a kiln in which rock was burned to produce lime. We used to climb onto the kiln to soak up its warmth. Father told us that hell was like that kiln, burning day and night. There is where I would be going, he said, if I was a bad girl. That thought terrified me!

My parents thus maintained strict discipline. We were not allowed to wear makeup or short dresses or to smoke. I remember one occasion when my married brother, then 25 years old, visited us. By mistake he lit a cigarette in my father’s presence, only to have it knocked from his hand with a firebrand!

Family Problems

When I was about 11, my parents’ marriage broke up, and they separated for the second and last time. I stayed with Father. We travelled around together until I was 19, when I married a young soldier. He was not a Romany. Father was terribly upset and refused to come near me for 15 years.

Leaving the Gypsy ways was far more difficult than I ever imagined. For the first time in my life, I lived in a house. Yet I had no idea how to manage a house or even how to cook on a stove.

Then my mother developed tuberculosis and sought my help. While nursing her, I contracted the disease myself. Five years in a hospital left me with one kidney and three quarters of a lung. Meanwhile, my husband divorced me and remarried. Eventually I also remarried, but after a troubled​—and at times violent—​ten years, this marriage, too, ended in divorce.

Finding “The Way”

The year 1959 brought the most dramatic change yet in my way of life. Two ladies who were Jehovah’s Witnesses called. I listened and accepted a couple of their Bible magazines, not revealing that I could not read. One of them, Marie Nightingale, came back to see me. Though I did not want to get involved, I kept accepting her offer to return. She came twice a week, sometimes leaving magazines. After she left, I would be so frustrated by not being able to read that I would tear the magazines to shreds.

But I did like what she was telling me about the Christian Way, particularly the thought that Jehovah was a God of justice and freedom. (Acts 9:2) He did not punish humans in a fiery hell as my father believed. Why, the Bible hell, I learned, was simply the grave! (Psalm 37:28) Too, I learned of God’s marvelous promise of an earthly paradise.

So after three months, I admitted that I could not read or write. Marie, though, urged me to learn and offered to help. It was painstaking work, for my mother tongue was Romany and my English was very poor, consisting mostly of slang. When my children started school, they treasured learning to read and write and were also glad to help me. After four years, I was baptized in December 1963. I had found “The Way.” Marie continued to help me twice a week for five more years. Her persistence overwhelmed me. She had not despised me as an illiterate Gypsy nor abandoned me because of the enormous task involved in teaching me.

Keen now to tell out the good news that so comforted and delighted me, I enrolled as a pioneer, or full-time preacher, in 1972. I am still enjoying this soul-satisfying work of helping others learn of “The Way.” And what a joy to have my own daughter, Denise, join me in the full-time ministry! For five years my son Stephen also was a pioneer, which laid a fine foundation for carrying his present responsibilities both in the congregation and as a parent.

I am glad to say, too, that my father and I were reconciled. He stayed with me from time to time during his closing years, attending Witness meetings and enjoying especially the lack of ceremony and the emphasis on the Bible. He died at 87 years of age. In accordance with his request and with Romany custom, his brother then burned my father’s hut and all his possessions.

The Gypsy way with its travelling and campfires and music is but a distant memory to me now. I give thanks daily that I have been liberated both from the darkness of illiteracy and from spiritual ignorance. For with Jehovah’s help, I have found a far better “Way.”​—As told by Beryl Tuck.

[Picture on page 18]

Beryl Tuck, on the left, with her immediate family

In the Making of Paper, Egyptians Were Copycats

THE EGYPTIANS are said to have begun papermaking in the third millennium B.C.E. They peeled the rinds from the stems of a water plant called papyrus. The pithy cores that remained were cut into broad but thin strips and laid out vertically, overlapping slightly. A thin paste was applied, and another layer of papyrus strips laid down on top of the first layer but with the strips running horizontally. The two layers were then bonded together by being beaten with a mallet. After drying in the sun and some polishing, the sheets were ready for use in writing. Of all the early writing materials, papyrus most closely resembled paper.

In the making of paper, however, the Egyptians were latecomers​—late by many thousands of years! Number one in papermaking are the paper wasps. The largest are the hornets Vespa crabro in Europe and Vespa maculata in North America. The paper nest begins small, the work of a single female; it ends up an imposing paper ball one to two feet in diameter, housing a work force of thousands. The work begins with this lone female, a queen. After selecting a building site, usually in a tree, she scrapes off small particles of old weathered wood and mixes them with her saliva to form a pulp.

With this paper pulp, she forms a very small comb and attaches it to a branch or other support. The pulp quickly hardens. She surrounds the comb with a protective shell consisting of several layers of paper, the layers separated from one another by dead-air spaces for insulation. This covering does not touch the comb, but for support intertwines itself around the branches and twigs just above it. The only opening in this hollow paper ball is a hole at the bottom​—the doorway in and out of the nest. The few hexagonal cells of the comb face downward, and in each one she lays an egg.

In a few days the eggs hatch. The queen feeds the larvae​—they beg for food by making scratching noises on the cell walls. In three weeks the larvae enclose themselves in the cell chamber by spinning a membrane of silk over its opening. Three more weeks in this pupa stage and completed hornets gnaw their way through the membrane. They are ready to go to work, and the queen is ready to retire from papermaking and concentrate on egg laying.

That means paper production must go into high gear! More cells to accommodate the eggs. The original comb increases in circumference as more cells are added around its edges. Columnar supports are dropped down from it to hang a new and bigger comb below it. More combs and bigger combs are added, until there may be eight or more. Men build from the bottom floor up; hornets build from the top floor down. Man’s floors sit on the ones below it; hornets’ floors hang from the ones above it. To make room for this interior expansion, inner walls are torn down as outer ones are added. As the family increases, the nest expands like an inflating balloon.

Hornets can sometimes be seen adding these outer layers to the covering. They bring small pellets of thoroughly chewed paper pulp, and as they walk backward, they stretch out these pellets into strips, adding strip after strip. The pattern of these joined strips may be seen on the finished covering. The hornet’s saliva in the paper pulp serves as a glue.

Interestingly​—and amazingly—​the hornet can govern the position of the fibers in its paper. When made into sheets for wall layers, the fibers form an irregular pattern, crisscrossing one another to give added strength​—similar to what the Egyptians did with their strips of papyrus. But when the paper is for making the stems, or columns, that suspend the first comb to a branch or attach additional combs on the ones above, all the wood fibers are arranged in a parallel pattern. This gives greatly increased strength to hold the heavier structures in the nest. One authority comments on this: “Considerable load-bearing strength is achieved by aligning all wood fibers longitudinally​—just as the tendons of muscles derive their immense toughness from the fact that all the fibers of connective tissue are aligned parallel to each other in the direction of stress.”

Incidentally, does this resemblance of hornet columns and human tendons prove an evolutionary connection? Evolutionists usually argue that resemblance proves relationship. Of course, when resemblance does not fit, they arbitrarily and conveniently dismiss it as accidental convergence. Just as humans use similar principles in widely divergent inventions, so the Creator of heaven and earth has done, and that long before man did. In actuality, by God-given instinct, the hornets consider the varying strength requirements of the different structures and arrange the wood fibers in the pulp accordingly.

It is also by instinctive wisdom that the hornets maintain a constant temperature in their nest of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30° C.). Maintaining a constant temperature is greatly facilitated by the many layers of paper used in the nest covering, with dead-air spaces between the layers​—like the thermal windows man makes. “This outside wall,” one authority notes, “can be as effective an insulator against heat and cold as a 16-inch brick wall.”

Even so, this is not always enough. When the temperature drops below 86 degrees Fahrenheit, a special group of worker hornets rapidly work their flight muscles with wings uncoupled, like an automobile with engine running but in neutral. This muscular activity generates heat. If the nest gets too hot, the hornets bring in water to moisten the cells, and then they fan their wings to evaporate the water and thus cool the nest​—as a car radiator cools the engine.

Now please, do not tell us that all this wisdom just happened to evolve by chance, without any proof that it did or how it could. These amazing papermakers are near-robots, created with this wisdom programmed into them: “They are instinctively wise.”​—Proverbs 30:24.

And when it came to making paper, they preceded the Egyptians by thousands of years!

“Now You Are Going to Die!”

​—A Rapist Invades a Christian Home

CRUDE hands choked me. I struggled to scream.

“Stop it! Stop your screaming and I won’t hurt you,” he demanded, squeezing my throat harder.

But I didn’t believe him and I didn’t obey him. I kept trying to scream. I clawed at his face, knocking off his glasses and wrenching the false teeth out of his mouth. As he struggled to touch and control me, I jammed my fingernails deep into his eye sockets. And I screamed. When his fingers got near my mouth, I bit with all my might.

Believe it or not, I was not afraid​—the fear came later. Right now I was angry! This fiend wasn’t going to force his way into our house and rape me, not here or anywhere else!

But he kept trying. He grabbed a nearby belt and tied my hands behind my back​—the first of several times, since I was repeatedly able to work them free. With one arm around my neck, he groped for his teeth and glasses on the floor. Suddenly I broke free and, inexplicably, began hurling things in the room and shrieking incoherently, as though I had gone out of my mind.

My attacker was momentarily stunned and paused to ask, “What’s wrong with you?” During the pause, I bolted, but he caught me, forced me to the bedroom and threw me on the bed. After tying my hands again, he was able to undress me partially. I writhed and thrashed to get him off me. I hated his filthy language and the filthy act he was trying to force me into!

A final time I freed my hands from the belt, pushed him away, and streaked for the outside door. I reached the handle, but as I turned it, he clutched me from behind and flung me to the floor. I was able to grab a nearby kitchen knife and slash at his legs. “That’s it,” he roared. “Now you are going to die!” He began pounding my head, and I collapsed into unconsciousness.

I can see now that I should have been more careful. I had always been alert to avoid trouble and troublemakers outside our home. I always traveled with my Christian husband. I always avoided places that such criminals might frequent, and I always dressed modestly. I just never expected that a rapist would have the venom to attack me right inside our own home.

This man was working on a construction site next door to our house. The building contractor had arranged for an electric line from our house to supply power for tools on the job site. Occasionally, when the line was overloaded, a worker would come back over to our house to reset a circuit breaker in our basement. It was a practical arrangement, but it was not wise.

He clearly planned to catch me off guard. He must have expected me to freeze and cooperate mindlessly, in a state of shock. Well, I was shocked when he lunged for me, but I did not cower. I didn’t stop to think about it either. I just reacted, instantly erupting in a frenzy of yelling and clawing and kicking and biting. It was the best thing I could have done, for my intense counterattack surprised him. It gave me an important psychological lift right from the start to know that he was not in full control of himself or me. It made me more determined to fight and reinforced the hope that I could win.

I regained consciousness in the front seat of a car moving in traffic. The same belt was now yanked tight around my neck, like a dog leash, which he held taut as he drove. As my mind began to clear, the realization of where I was and how I got there flashed through me like a burning fuse that quickly detonated my rage anew.

I elbowed the steering wheel in a desperate effort to force the car off the road. I was convinced that this deranged man now was more concerned with getting rid of me than raping me. He would kill me so that I could not later identify him. Although I was exhausted from nearly an hour’s constant jostling, my dogged resistance had taken its toll on him too. Tired and bewildered, he finally pulled to the edge of the road and shoved me out of the car. Another motorist stopped for me and took me to a hospital.

But I had won! I had not been raped! I was the victor, not the victim! My conscience was clean, my self-respect and dignity were intact. And I had kept my integrity to Almighty God, Jehovah!

That is not to say I felt so elated and noble during my hospital stay over the next few days. I was badly shaken, I hurt all over, and I looked terrible. The fear that did not come during the attack now washed over me in great waves. Unproductive thoughts of what could have happened kept crowding into my mind. During this time, I was questioned by police detectives and learned, to my horror, that this monster had been paroled from prison just six weeks previously after serving a sentence for rape!

On the day I was released from the hospital, there was the trauma of going to the police station to identify this man in a police lineup. Yes, I intended to press charges. I felt that to see him punished was something I owed to the other women he might attack, and I owed it to myself as a means of righting the wrong and reassuring myself that I was in control of my life. It was easy to pick him out in the lineup. He was the one with the bandages on his face and the cast on his hand!

At the hospital and at home in the weeks following, I was comforted by the many cards, letters, and visits from my fellow believers in the local congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some said they were proud of me. Some did not know what to say, but they showed their concern by coming to see me. Some called me a heroine, which, false modesty aside, I am not. When I could not get out of harm’s way, I simply applied what I had learned from my Bible study, and it worked.

Like the ordinary person I am, I needed to be reassured many times during my recovery. I had some very gray days. I did not want to go out in public for a while. While on some days I was able to put up a pretty brave front, my husband can tell you that at times I just shivered and could find no comfort as my mind and heart strained to process this nightmare and put it behind me. Probably the single greatest help to my recovery was knowing that with Jehovah God’s help I had done the right thing to the best of my ability. In my brighter moments I even found a little reason to rejoice. Time and again these Bible verses were my soft blanket:

“In case there happened to be a virgin girl engaged to a man, and a man actually found her in the city and lay down with her, you must also bring them both out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones, and they must die, the girl for the reason that she did not scream in the city, and the man for the reason that he humiliated the wife of his fellowman. So you must clear away what is evil from your midst. If, however, it is in the field that the man found the girl who was engaged, and the man grabbed hold of her and lay down with her, the man who lay down with her must also die by himself, and to the girl you must do nothing. The girl has no sin deserving of death, because just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him, even a soul, so it is with this case. For it was in the field that he found her. The girl who was engaged screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.”​—Deuteronomy 22:23-27.

I was profoundly thankful to know these simple words. They had taught me my moral duty. They had prevented confusion and uncertainty. Because of them, I had known exactly what to do. I screamed, besides which I also fought back. I had trusted the Bible’s instructions and found them to be bedrock. My husband and I prayed often; my strength and stability returned.

I wish that no other woman would ever have to go through an attempted rape​—let alone a rape. But a rape takes place every 7 minutes in the United States, according to Uniform Crime Reports​—Crime in the United States, 1983 edition, page 5, published by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. In my case, I relied on Jehovah, I remembered his words, I screamed. Besides that, I fought back.

In due course, this paroled rapist that attacked me was brought to trial. On February 7 of this year, he was convicted of the following crimes: attempted murder, second degree; burglary, first degree; attempted rape, first degree; and kidnapping, second degree.

So our courageous trust in God must always prevail over any dread of man. Let the psalm of David be our psalm, too, as we stand by these words unflinchingly: “In God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can earthling man do to me?”​—Psalm 56:11.​—Contributed.

[Box on page 23]

Why you should resist an attacker from the first moment:

1. Attacker may be startled and leave you

2. You may incapacitate attacker and be able to flee

3. Attacker may lose sexual urge or tire out and retreat

4. You can attract others to assist you

5. Your conscience will be clear. (Even if you are raped, you will not sacrifice your self-respect or cleanness before God)

6. Injuries you inflict on an attacker will help police identify him later (for example, bits of his skin under your fingernails)

The Great Wall​—Monument to an Emperor’s Dream

IT WAS bound to happen one day. A man directed that a wall be built around his home. The man was the emperor. And his home? All of China! But who was this monarch? And why did he mobilize an entire kingdom to erect such a rampart?

To answer these questions, we must look to the period in Chinese history called the Warring States (403-222 B.C.E.). But remember, it is sometimes difficult to separate historic fact from legend. China was splintered into little kingdoms or states, and war erupted among them frequently. Adding to the chaos, the terrifying nomadic “barbarians” to the north were constantly seeking to plunder the yield of the fertile southern land. To protect themselves, many of the states became occupied with wall building.

The dust stirred up by these political struggles at first obscured the rise of a small Chinese state named Ch’in. But gradually this aggressive state, scorned by the cultured Chinese, conquered all but six of the quarreling kingdoms.

Then in the year 246 B.C.E., 13-year-old Prince Cheng assumed rulership of Ch’in. He envisioned an empire united under the rule of his iron hand, and he wasted no time in striking out against the other kingdoms. By 221 B.C.E., the last of the Chinese states fell to Ch’in’s army. At last, the king of Ch’in had attained what past Chinese kings had hardly dared to dream of. He was lord of China​—all of it! The jubilant Cheng dubbed himself with a new title: Ch’in Shih Huang Ti, or First Sovereign Emperor of the Ch’in dynasty.

Ch’in Shih Huang Ti was a man driven by his ambition to unite his empire and by his egocentric obsession with immortality. On the one hand, he was hailed as a political genius. He centralized his government, standardized the written Chinese language, reformed the monetary system, and built extensive highways originating at his capital city of Hsien Yang.

On the other hand, history also portrays a dark side to this man. Ch’in Shih Huang Ti was terrified of death. Several assassination attempts intensified his fear to the point of hysteria. So he commanded that imperial residences be built by the score, eventually numbering 270 around the capital alone, and connected with covered tunnels so the haunted emperor could move about secretly and sleep in a different place each night.

An Emperor’s Dream, an Empire’s Nightmare

Official Chinese history has it that, in 214 B.C.E., Ch’in Shih Huang Ti came upon the idea of drawing a curtain across the entire northern border of his empire. Imagine this emperor excitedly painting before his court engineers a glorious picture of his latest fantasy. ‘We will build a wall!’ he is said to have proclaimed. This wall was to be 24 feet high in many places, and at the top it was to be wide enough for eight soldiers to march abreast.a The burden of the incredible task fell to the tireless Meng T’ien, one of Ch’in’s most distinguished generals. Mobilizing his army, he drove the masses to fulfill his master’s dream.

Since the Wall was ostensibly built as a defense against the feared raiders to the north, watchtowers were needed to monitor the enemy’s movement along its length. So Meng T’ien set about constructing these giant sentry posts measuring 40 feet square at the base and tapering to 30 feet square at the top. They were placed two arrow shots apart so that archers would be able to defend every inch of the Wall from the towers. A total of 25,000 towers arose on hilltops and in valley entrances across the land.

Wherever possible, Meng T’ien utilized the walls and towers left behind by the previous states, linking them into what the Chinese later called Wan Li Ch’ang Ch’eng, or Ten Thousand Li Long Wall. (A Chinese li is about a third of a mile or half a kilometer.)b Actually, however, the Wall stretched approximately 1,850 miles. Succeeding generations added to the rampart, looping and extending it in many directions. The latest surveys by the Chinese government “tracing the remains of the wall in remote or mountainous areas have shown that the actual length is about 10,000 kilometers,” reports China Reconstructs.

It is believed that some portions of the Wall had foundations made with huge granite blocks 14 feet long by 4 feet wide and stone facing 2 to 5 feet thick, similar to construction methods employed by Ming dynasty engineers in the 16th century. The space within was filled with earth pounded down and topped with a roadway of bricks. As the Wall marched westward, it crossed a vast fertile plain where few stones were to be found. So the builders were forced to use what was available​—the fine yellow soil called loess. Some sections were constructed by piling up moistened loess in wooden frames. Other sections were built simply by chipping away blocks of the loess on either side, leaving a raised strip of soil as the Wall. Of these sections, little more than a heap of rubble remains today.

The Great Wall scaled China’s towering mountains, plunged into the lowest valleys, and marched across burning desert plains. In the east, bone-chilling winds and blinding snowstorms tormented the workers. To the west, merciless desert sun and stinging sandstorms oppressed them. Its construction bespeaks the agony of hundreds of thousands of laborers toiling almost beyond human limits. Those who did not work fast enough were tossed alive into foundation trenches together with others who perished from hunger and exposure. The Wall earned the grim distinction as “The Longest Cemetery on Earth,” as some 400,000 lay dead in its wake.

Among the casualties were many of China’s intellectuals who were branded as a threat to the political stability of the empire. Their feudal ideas and their criticism of the emperor’s sweeping reforms led to the infamous ‘burning of the books and burying of scholars’ in 213 B.C.E., which blackened the name of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti for posterity. To this day, ballads bemoan the loss of life resulting from the Wall’s construction. A nightmare indeed!

A Dynasty Crumbles

But a nagging question remains. Why would an emperor deliberately exhaust his empire in such a monumental pursuit? On the surface, it might appear that protection was the reason. And it is true that the nomads were effectively repelled, at least for a while. But recall for a moment Ch’in’s kingdom at its zenith​—a mighty war machine triumphant in conquest over all within its reach. Where could it next channel its energies? Perhaps the emperor was in greater fear of this vast, restless army than he was of the nomads.

The building of the Wall, nonetheless, proved to be a devastating blow to the empire. South of the Wall, rebel armies began to grow. Peasant revolts erupted because of the crushing tax burden from the emperor’s extravagant projects. The man who had struggled so desperately for immortality died in 210 B.C.E. The ensuing power struggle left the empire crumbling in ruins. The mighty Ch’in dynasty had lasted a mere 14 years, from 221-207 B.C.E. Yet, that brief rule had witnessed some of China’s most sweeping events.

As Ch’in was unable to evade man’s greatest enemy, death, so, too, little remains of his original Wall, to pay tribute to the millions who slaved to fulfill an emperor’s dream. The impressive sections of the Wall that have endured and are viewed by tourists today were built in the 16th century by Ming dynasty Emperor Wan Li.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 27]

How Great Is the Great Wall?

◻ The original Wall when stretched out would reach from the Pacific over the Rockies to the Mississippi or from the tip of Brittany in France through northern Europe to Moscow.

◻ The Great Wall contained enough material to build a wall eight feet high and three feet thick completely around the world once at the equator​—a distance of 25,000 miles.

[Map on page 26]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

MONGOLIA

CHINA

Jiayuguan Pass

Lintao

Yanmenguan

Shanhaiguan Pass

KOREA

■​—The Great Wall during the Quinshihuang rule

●​—The Great Wall of the Ming dynasty

From Our Readers

Help for Depression

To help with my husband’s serious depression and resulting family conflicts, my husband and I went to special therapy with a psychologist. During the six months of treatment, we kept checking the counsel we were given with that found in the September 8 and October 22, 1981, issues of “Awake!” We found that much of the same counsel we were paying for had already been in these magazines for free, but it confirmed that the professional counsel we were getting was sound. Then I read the January 8, 1986, issue on “Peace in the Family.” I thought to myself, ‘There is $2,000 worth of counseling bound up in the pages of this magazine.’ That magazine should be required reading for all married couples and those who are even contemplating marriage.

C. S., Missouri

Working Vacation

I want to thank you very much for the article “Would You Take a Working Vacation?” (February 8, 1986) It is inspiring to read of the faith and self-sacrificing spirit of these volunteers from around the country. However, I was disappointed at your failure to mention the self-sacrificing spirit of their wives and children. They no doubt wholeheartedly supported their husband’s and father’s decision to work there during their vacation, though it meant they would not be spending that time with their family.

C. T., Massachusetts

Our warmest expression of appreciation to all the wives and children of these volunteer workers. Without their wholehearted support, the sacrifice would not have been possible.​—ED.

Improve Your Reading

I am 15 years old, and I never did like reading. Then I read your article “Improve Your Reading​—You Can Do It!” (September 8, 1985) I was really lazy about reading, but now I appreciate that reading can really enrich our life.

G. A., Brazil

Cold Water for Burns

We want to offer our gratitude for the information provided in your article “What You Should Know About Burns.” (April 22, 1980) My daughter suffered burns from hot fat on her arm and got relief by packing the arm with crushed ice. My wife suffered scalding on her arm and hand from boiling bacon water, and she applied the ice-water treatment immediately. Dr. Stephen R. Lewis’ report stated that with the ice-water treatment the pain usually disappears within about three hours. In our daughter’s case, she had to persist for about 10 hours, and my wife continued the treatment for upwards of 15 hours. Anyone using this treatment should not give up too soon. In both cases, there were no blisters and no problems with healing.

M. and J. D., Wales

When Parents Yell

Thank you for the article “Young People Ask . . . What Can I Do When My Parents Yell at Me?” (November 22, 1985) It was a remarkable article to help us to get along with our parents, husbands, and others. All the articles I have read have given me courage to overcome the evil around us. If everyone would just read them and put in practice what is said, the world would truly be a paradise.

M. S., Portugal

Watching the World

Transmitting AIDS

An intensive study involving family members of AIDS victims claims to have established conclusive evidence that the spread of the fatal disease does not occur from daily personal contact with one infected with AIDS, says a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study that involved more than a hundred household members of 39 AIDS patients, a “substantial sharing of household facilities and items likely to be soiled with body secretions took place,” said the scientists. Kissing and hugging of AIDS patients by family members, as well as the sharing of towels, drinking glasses, toothbrushes, toilets, and beds, were included. Only one person, a five-year-old, showed any signs of infection by the AIDS virus from among the 101 whom researchers examined. Doctors concluded that the child, whose mother had the disease, likely was born with the infection, having a history of related disorders from infancy. Commenting on the study, Dr. Harold Jaffe, an official with the Federal Centers for Disease Control, noted: “This is a strong piece of additional evidence that casual transmission [of AIDS] does not occur.”

Time Troubles

Swedish teenagers seem to be having trouble telling time on conventional clocks, apparently because of the influence of digital clocks and watches, reports The Times of London. According to a recent survey of some 2,000 Swedish teenagers, one out of five could not understand the expression “quarter to three.” Instead, they preferred “2:45” or “14:45.” The survey also noted that one in three teenagers had problems counting time with a digital watch “because it is a question of 60ths, rather than 10ths or 100ths.”

Suicide Crisis

Every 20 minutes a suicide occurs in the United States. From 1970 to 1980, 237,322 suicides were recorded, establishing it as the tenth leading cause of death in the country. Dr.Mark L. Rosenberg, of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, states that for persons between the ages of 15 to 34, suicide is the third leading cause of death. For males age 15 to 24, suicide has increased 50 percent. Addressing a recent national conference on youth suicide, Dr. Rosenberg noted that “years ago, it might have been your father who committed suicide. Now it’s your son.” Explosives and firearms are listed as used most frequently in suicide deaths.

Infant Victims

By the beginning of this year, the Federal Centers for Disease Control reported that 231 infants in the United States were born with AIDS. Over 40 percent of them, or 103 cases, were in New York City, making AIDS the “most common infectious disease in newborn infants” in some parts of the city, reports the Daily News. One city official noted that 69 percent of the city children with AIDS have died as compared with 52 percent of adults with AIDS, suggesting that the disease may more quickly be fatal in children than in adults. It is reported that the majority of these infants are born to women who are intravenous drug abusers and who likely contracted the disease through shared needles.

Coffee Capers

Brazilian bandits have discovered that holding up a van or a truck carrying coffee is more profitable and less risky than robbing a bank, reports the Latin America Daily Post. In Brazil, where the national beverage, coffee, has now become a luxury item, small vans and station wagons transporting from 220 to 880 pounds (100 to 400 kg) of coffee have become easy targets. Rio de Janeiro saw at least 25 holdups in the first month of this year, involving the theft of eight tons of coffee, then valued at more than $148,000!

Chinese Palate Pleaser

‘First steam it, then soak it in brine with ginger and pepper for a few hours. Next, press it into a steak, and then air it for a day. Cook it on a mixture of rice, bran, and sesame oil until the aroma fills the kitchen.’ What is the main ingredient in this popular South China delicacy? Rat meat! Promoting the dish is part of an attempt to reduce China’s rat population, presently estimated at about “half the world’s eight billion rats,” reports The Guardian of London. It is hoped that the more than 15 million tons of grain consumed by the rodents last year will not be entirely wasted. Why? A correspondent for China’s Economic Daily reports that rats raised on a grain diet make a tasty dish that is ‘easy to cook.’

Life-Saving Reflections

Mirrors seem to be saving lives in Japan, reports the Asahi Evening News. The transport bureau of Sapporo City recently installed large mirrors on platform walls at four of its subway stations in an effort to prevent suicides. Since the subway opened in 1971, 60 people have committed suicide by jumping in front of oncoming trains. However, since the large mirrors were put up in Odori Station in 1984, there have been no suicide attempts. Authorities do not know the reason for the mirrors’ success but indicated that seeing their reflection while contemplating suicide, or the presence of groups of people who tend to gather in front of the mirrors, may be what causes potential suicides to reconsider.

Child Abuse Rises

Sexual assaults on Canadian children are believed to have increased 50 percent last year, reports The Globe and Mail of Canada. Girls as young as three years of age have had sexual intercourse forced on them, says an Ottawa police official. He adds that because of such abuse, “children are receiving sexually transmitted diseases.” Statistics involving sexually abused children in Ottawa suggest that 93 percent know who their abusers are.

More Than Beef

While the average 1,000-pound (454 kg) steer may provide only about 435 pounds (197 kg) of meat, the Beef Information Centre of Canada claims that not a scrap of what remains is wasted, reports The Toronto Star. What is left is used in the manufacture of by-products that include gum, marshmallows, and violin strings. Additionally, the bones and horns are used in the production of gelatin products, canned meats, and ice cream. Other by-products are china, soap, buttons, lipsticks, explosives, and fabric softener. More than a hundred lifesaving and life-improving drugs contain important ingredients from the animal. Insulin used in the treatment of diabetes can be found in the pancreas, and heparin, which is used during operations to prevent blood coagulation as well as in the treatment of frostbite and burns, is derived from the animal’s lungs.

Shaky Treatment

The recent development of a device dubbed a bone shaker has made doctors optimistic about improving the recovery time of patients with serious bone fractures, reports The Times of London. What is it? A special metal frame with a spring-loaded mechanism linked to a compressor. When attached to the broken limb of a patient, it creates a gentle vibration that is designed to stimulate new cell growth. Since the device supplies movement similar to walking, patients in early treatment can “go for a walk” without getting out of bed. The metal frame is designed to provide controlled movement to the fracture once the patient gets on his feet, thus minimizing the danger of muscle atrophy. Fractures treated with this method are said to heal up to 20 percent faster than they would in plaster casts.

“Age of Lawlessness”

Britain now has over a hundred thousand children in care or subject to court supervision orders​—more than any other European country, claims a National Children’s Home report. The highest rate of criminal offenses in recent years has been among boys from 14 to 16 years of age, and over half the men guilty of criminal acts were under 21 years of age. This means that two out of every five men in Britain will have a criminal record during their lifetime. Little wonder that London’s Daily Mail headlined its analysis of the facts: “An Age of Lawlessness”!

Illegitimacy Costs!

A recent study shows that teenage pregnancies cost the United States $16.6 billion last year. By the time the children of these teenage parents reach their 20th year, the government will have spent $6.04 billion on such programs as Medicaid and food stamps for their support. It is estimated that families started by teenagers accounted for 53 percent of all families receiving assistance through such government-sponsored programs. The report noted that if teenage mothers had waited until they were 20 years of age to have their first child, $2.4 billion, one third of the welfare total, could have been saved. Each year, of the 385,000 teenage girls who have their first child, half are under the age of 18.

Economic Blues

The theme of the 16th World Economic Forum, held this past February in Davos, Switzerland, was “courage for global action.” Enthusiasm for coordinated global economic action, however, was sadly lacking. Quentin Davies, a director of a British merchant bank, bemoaned: “There was a feeling of uplift in Western economies here last year, but this year there is a cloud.” The 600 delegates, representing 52 countries, included 44 government ministers. While government officials emphasized the theme of courageous action for growth in both industrialized and developing countries, the businessmen present responded with considerable apprehension. Falling oil prices, an unsteady dollar, and the enormous debts of many developing countries are among the factors that are giving international businessmen the economic blues.

Is Television Your Baby-Sitter?

Trouble may lie ahead if it is. Give your children something better.

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Please send, postpaid, the hardcover book Listening to the Great Teacher; I enclose $1 (U.S.).

“A Magnificent Companion”​—Aid to Bible Understanding

Could a book really be that? A lawyer who was in prison in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, thought so. He wrote the man who had provided him with the volume Aid to Bible Understanding:

“From the time that I received the Aid book from you I have found my stay in prison much easier to bear. That is because I have found in this book a magnificent companion that helps me to overcome the loneliness of this place. The Aid book is an endless source of historical and Biblical information that really helps me to understand words and passages from the Holy Scriptures. . . .

“Every day I feel myself more and more proud to be the owner of such an excellent book but even prouder the last week. Thanks to the Aid book I was able to intervene in a discussion that took place between some guards and prisoners concerning some Bible passages and their interpretation. Because the discussion was very heated, and it seemed that it would not come to a peaceful end, I ran from the yard to my cell and got the Aid book and looked up the words and passages under discussion and found their exact meaning, so the argument stopped.

“Well, the Aid book deserves praise because of the depth with which it deals with words, actions, and people mentioned in the Bible. From the moment I produced this book, there was no more argument between the guards and the prisoners because they all accepted and were pleased with the fine explanation of this encyclopedia. . . .

“I am writing you this letter because I want you to know that I appreciate the Aid book as something of great value, and I am using it not only for my own benefit but also for the benefit of others who are interested in knowing the Truth as contained in the Holy Scriptures.”

We are confident that you, too, will find this 1,700-page volume a magnificent companion. You can obtain your copy by filling in and mailing the accompanying coupon.

Please send, postpaid, Aid to Bible Understanding, for which I enclose $7 (U.S.). (Outside the U.S.A., write to local Watch Tower branch for information.)