June 22

Page Two

There is a worldwide love affair with parks. Millions flock to them each year. Since Yellowstone (seen here) became the world’s first national park in 1872, over a hundred countries have established some 2,000 protected areas, for example, Glacier National Park in the United States (seen on the cover).

Why are people so enamored with parks? Could the earth ever become one worldwide park? What dangers are there in many parks, and how can you enjoy them in safety? This issue of Awake! not only answers these questions but explains how the dangers certain animals now present will, in time, be eliminated.

We Were Made to Enjoy Parks

MOST of us experience a feeling of peace and contentment when we can get away from the hustle and bustle of city life to enjoy the beauties of some natural setting. John Muir, a well-known early conservationist, noted: “Mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

So it should not surprise us that our Creator provided the first human pair a beautiful gardenlike park as a home. It occupied a portion of the region called Eden and so was called “the garden of Eden.” This gardenlike park was very large. This is shown by the fact that a river watering it separated and formed the headwaters of four major rivers and that “every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food” was found in the garden.​—Genesis 2:8-10, 15.

Until the present century, most of humankind lived where they could be refreshed by such “fountains of life.” But then people started cramming together into large cities, and wilderness areas began to be damaged and even ruined by man. The idea, therefore, to set aside areas as national parks has rightly been called “a grand and fabulous notion.” When and how did this notion originate?

The First National Parks

Its origin might be dated to 1870. After exploring the Yellowstone region of the United States, an expedition of men gathered around an evening campfire and reviewed the remarkable sights they had seen. One of them, Cornelius Hedges, later a governor of the Montana Territory, proposed that the region be preserved as a national park for the benefit of future generations. The others enthusiastically agreed. Two years later the idea won approval, and in 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill that made Yellowstone the world’s first national park.

Later, imitating the example of Yellowstone, a natural sanctuary in New South Wales, Australia, was created that is now known as the Royal National Park. Then just 13 years after Yellowstone was inaugurated, the world’s third national park was created in Alberta, Canada. It was interesting how this occurred.

Canada was then a new nation committed to a rail link through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. One day in November 1883, three railway workers exploring the wilderness near Fort Calgary came upon warm mineral water bubbling up from the earth. The value of these springs was realized, and legal battles to establish ownership rights followed.

Soon, however, the Canadian government stepped in. It could see that the area had the potential to draw tourists, and it was disinclined to give the rights to any private entrepreneurs. So, in 1885, the government passed an order-in-council decreeing that the area be set aside for “sanitary advantage to the public” and be “reserved from sale or settlement or squatting.” The original 10-square-mile [26 sq km] site has been enlarged to become part of a 2,564-square-mile [6,641 sq km] reserve known as Banff National Park.

Canada now has some 30 of such parks throughout the country, with a land area equal to that of England. The United States has more than 300 such areas in its National Park System, totaling well over twice the land area of England. Worldwide, the “grand and fabulous notion” of having national parks has caught on to such an extent that there are more than 2,000 protected areas in about 120 different countries.

A Change in Emphasis

Originally, the Banff area was, in effect, a spa for the privileged few. “Since we can’t export the scenery,” one early promoter stated, “we’ll have to import the tourists.” And tourists did come. In fact, tourists have so inundated some national parks that these are overcrowded and congested beyond belief. “The crowds,” said one family after visiting Yellowstone, “dismayed us​—it was like the streets of Manhattan [New York City].” Rangers in some parks have had to be trained in police techniques and narcotics control.

Recently, however, there have been greater efforts to preserve the natural state of the parks. For example, in Yosemite, a famous California park, removal of such facilities as the commercial garage, gift shops, ice rinks, golf courses, tennis courts, and swimming pools has been an issue. Park managers are trying to provide recreational facilities that are compatible with long-range protection of the natural resources.

This is certainly true in Canada, as evidenced by the Parks Canada Policy of 1979. It states that the national parks are designed ‘to protect for all time representative natural areas and leave them unimpaired for future generations.’

One of the main functions of many parks is to protect the animals. In Italy the Gran Paradiso National Park, created in 1922, protects the ibex, once hunted to the verge of extinction. And the Gir Wild Life Sanctuary created in 1965 in India protects the last of the Asian lions that once roamed the country. An estimated 60 million bison, or buffalo, once roamed North America, but by 1900 the bison faced extinction. Now, as a result of protective measures, many thousands of them are found in such places as the large Wood Buffalo National Park.

Indeed, visiting national parks, hiking in wilderness areas, and seeing animals in their natural settings is refreshing to the spirit. It is, as it were, a fountain of life. But there are dangers to be aware of.

Enjoy Them in Safety

By a warden in the Waterton Lakes National Park

WARDENS are often involved in search-and-rescue missions because tourists fail to use good judgment and get in trouble. To illustrate: Two young men were overdue from climbing a mountain near Banff National Park. Their parents contacted the warden service, shortly after which we located their car. Through our spotting scope, we sighted a climber perched on a ledge, unable to move.

Climbing close to him, we called out for the whereabouts of his partner. “Is he above you? Is he below?” We received only a grunt in reply. People in stressful situations sometimes detach their mind from reality. We found his partner below; he had fallen to his death. Human error is invariably involved in such incidents.

So when people come to us and inquire about a hike or a climb or a trip through bear country, the information we give is simple, clear, and specific. At times park visitors must feel that we talk to them as if they were children. Many just cannot comprehend what can happen to them in the wilderness or on the mountain. They seem impatient to get started but have no understanding of what’s ahead. Therefore, our message is repetitious and full of warnings.

In the case of the two youths, all they had for a climbing rope was a sash cord with a metal hook on one end. They got into a situation where they couldn’t go up and couldn’t go down. The youth on the ledge was overcome with fear. He sat down and couldn’t move. So his friend decided to climb down with the rope to the next ledge and go for help. Knowing he would be gone for a while, he left his jacket so that his companion could keep warm. On his descent, the hook to which the rope was attached came undone from a crack in the rock, and he fell to his death.

In Bear Country

In another incident, a couple were completing the last stages of a hike down Boundary Creek outside Waterton in southern Alberta. Suddenly they caught sight of a bear coming down the trail toward them. The woman, who had a pack on her back, threw herself down on the trail in a fetal position, hands behind the neck, knees up over her stomach. Her husband froze with fear, standing about 20 feet [6 m] from her, watching the approaching bear.

The bear immediately went toward the woman, scratching at the pack on her back in an effort to get food. It inflicted scratches on her back, hip, and buttocks. Finally, realizing he had to do something, her husband reached into his pack and threw some sandwiches on the ground. In doing so, a pot fell from his pack onto a rock, and the noise caused the bear to break off and scurry back into the woods. The couple then made a hasty retreat. We had to destroy the bear, as it had been involved in previous incidents with humans.

The lesson from this is: If you are wearing a pack and are approached by a bear, get rid of the pack. Bears will often approach people to get them to drop their packs for the food they contain; they very quickly learn to do this. The discarded pack or camera or whatever object you have can distract the bear, buying you time to escape.

Photographers must take care to avoid getting too close to bears in efforts to take pictures. In the spring of 1988, a man and his wife were camped at a site in Glacier National Park. They spotted a sow grizzly bear with three cubs. The husband left with a camera that featured automatic multiexposures. He took the first pictures from a safe position on the slope opposite the bears. Then he began to get overconfident, as the bears seemed to ignore his presence.

He cautiously crossed the slope until he was on the same avalanche path as the bears. The pictures, developed later from this multiexposure camera, showed the bears closer and closer. He wanted to get the shot of a lifetime and was far too close to the sow, violating her space, forcing her to make a decision either to run or to attack.

The final pictures in the camera showed signs that the bear had had enough​—and it charged! The photographer tried to climb a tree, but it was too late. The bear got to him first and inflicted fatal injuries.

In another incident in the Lake Louise area of Banff National Park, a man was bitten on the thigh and hand by a female grizzly. She had two cubs with her. The incident didn’t make sense. She had charged from a distance of about 500 feet [150 m], leaving her cubs unprotected. It is not likely a bear would run that distance away from her cubs to attack a person for no apparent reason.

We had a feeling that the hiker’s dog had gone up to the bear and that the bear had chased the dog back to its owner. When we suggested this to the dog’s owner, he denied it, citing the park regulations that a dog must be on a leash, under physical control at all times. I turned to the warden with me and said that we’d have to destroy the bear. Immediately, the hiker’s response was, “Why?”

“The bear attack appears to be unprovoked,” we answered, “so the animal has to be destroyed.”

He thought it over for a moment and then confessed: “OK. You’re right. What you said is exactly what happened. My dog on the loose provoked the bear.”

Some people, when hiking the backcountry, feel that a dog is a protection. It is exactly the opposite. An untrained dog will often run up to a bear, bark, and then bring the pursuing bear back to its defenseless master.

To give another incident involving a bear attack: A child was reported to have been bitten by a bear. We learned that two children had been playing on a gravel bar while the father was fishing not far away. The bear suddenly bolted out of the bush and grabbed one child and dragged it off. The father rushed after the bear and retrieved the child, whom he found abandoned by the bear.

It was our opinion that it was a case of mistaken identity. The children playing down on their hands and knees could have been mistaken by the bear for fawns, or perhaps elk calves. The bear had apparently abandoned the child of its own volition when it determined its prey was human. Unfortunately, the one bite was enough to injure the child fatally. So remember, bears are not tame just because they are in the park. They can attack children and sometimes do, as this experience shows. So keep your children with you.

Another thing to remember is to make noise while in bear country. This way you will not surprise the bears. There is safety in numbers; a group of seven or so will displace nearly any bear. On the other hand, if you have been relatively quiet and then see a bear and it hasn’t seen you, it may be best not to make any sudden, unexpected sound that may provoke an attack. At times a surprised bear will bluff an attack, huffing or growling and approaching in a threatening manner. You are too close and are being warned. It’s time to use discretion and back out quietly, leaving the area to the bear. This is one argument you cannot win.

So take the time to read park brochures about bears so as to know what to do and what to look for while in bear country.

Other Warden Duties

Besides managing the bears, we frequently patrol the park’s highways, lakes, campgrounds, and backcountry. We are also responsible for law enforcement, resource management, fire control, and public safety. While we protect and care for the park in many ways, we also protect people from themselves. To illustrate:

In Banff National Park, there is a popular area called Johnston Canyon. It’s a pleasant one-hour walk to the Upper Falls. Signs are posted and barriers erected so that hikers will stay on the trail. One woman ignored the signs, walked around the end of the fence, and climbed down to the water’s edge to wash her feet. Another woman coming up the trail decided that this was a good idea and did the same. The simple task finished, she stood up on the smooth rock slab, lost her footing, and slipped into the fast-flowing stream.

The first woman reached out and touched her hand but couldn’t hold her. She was swept to her death over the falls. The really sad thing was that she was on her honeymoon, married for just three days. What a needless waste of life​—if only she had not disregarded the signs and the barrier!

The life of a park warden is generally a rewarding life. We are very much immersed in nature, having a hand in the preservation and restoration of what is natural. But the human element is always there, and as I’ve recounted, some visits to parks end in tragedy. Most others, however, have a happy and sometimes even humorous ending.

For example, while driving down a busy park highway, a park warden noticed a motorist parked on the shoulder of the road. A passenger in the vehicle was feeding a bear through the passenger’s window. The warden walked over to the driver to discuss the matter, as the animal was being fed on the opposite side of the vehicle. On being informed that what they were doing was both unsafe and unlawful, the passenger quickly rolled up the window to the chagrin of the bear, which promptly ran around to the other side of the car, where the warden was still talking to the driver. The surprised bear came to an abrupt halt a scant three feet [1 m] from the warden and waited, looking for all the world as if to say, “I’ll wait my turn, warden, but hurry up, will you!”

Our duties in the park have changed considerably in the last two decades. The modern visitor is not as well-equipped to cope with the wilderness as were visitors in years gone by. So a bit of advice: If you are planning to hike into the backcountry, shorts, T-shirts, sandals, and a light lunch just won’t do. A beautiful summer’s day can change ever so quickly to wind and snow, causing you to suffer from exposure or hypothermia. Be prepared for the unexpected, and always carry extra food and clothing to complete your trip safely.

In addition, you should never climb or hike alone. Climb within your ability. Amateur mountaineers come from sea level and can’t perform the same at 4,500 to 8,000 feet [1,400 to 2,400 m]. So don’t overestimate your strength; the demands will always be greater than you imagine. Start early and turn back in adverse weather.

In conclusion, remember that in a wilderness park, you are a guest. Even rocks and small creatures are protected, as are also flowers and vegetation. So leave only footsteps. Take only pictures and fond memories back home with you.

[Picture on page 7]

Extreme caution is vital when in the territory of grizzlies

[Picture on page 8]

I serve as a warden here in Waterton Lakes National Park

Beautiful Parks of the World

NEW ZEALAND

Fiordland National Park, the largest in New Zealand, was created in 1904. It features a spectacular seacoast, high mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forests, and glaciers. Discovered here in 1948 was the flightless takahe, which was thought to be extinct.

KENYA

Nairobi National Park is situated at the gate of the nation’s capital, only a few minutes’ drive from Nairobi’s city center. It offers views of buffalo, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, ostriches, rhinoceroses, and sleeping lions, which are undisturbed by the presence of visitors.

U.S.A./​CANADA

Waterton Lakes National Park, where prairies meet the mountains, was established in 1895, and Glacier National Park in 1910. Upon the urging of many, these two parks were united in 1932 as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the first of its type. The parks contain spectacular scenery, situated as they are astride the Continental Divide. Grizzly bears, black bears, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, moose, and cougars make this frontier park their home, along with mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elks.

BRAZIL/​ARGENTINA

Iguaçú National Park is, in fact, two parks; the Argentinean park was created in 1909, and the adjoining Brazilian park in 1939. The world-famous Iguaçú Falls are higher than Niagara Falls and wider than Africa’s Victoria Falls. Here also is some of the most luxuriant, beautiful vegetation found anywhere in the world.

JAPAN

Nikko National Park embraces a large area of lakes, waterfalls, plateaus, and mountains and is typical of the Japanese landscape. It is the home of the protected Japanese serow, or goat antelope. Other animals in the park are the Japanese black bear and the Japanese macaque, or short-tailed monkey.

An Earth-Wide Park​—How?

TO SATISFY their natural longing to understand and enjoy creation, millions of people each year visit parks. Surely we would be delighted to live in a beautiful place such as seen here. Perhaps you find this scene reminiscent of the Paradise in Eden where our Creator placed the first human pair.

Significantly, two of the four rivers whose headwaters originated in Eden still flow today. They are the Hiddekel, more commonly known as the Tigris, and the Euphrates. (Genesis 2:10-14) The Bible translator Hans Bruns commented on this Bible account, saying: “The rivers are meant to indicate that this is not a fairy tale, but rather something that actually happened here on earth.”

Just as many parks today had small beginnings but expanded to a size many times the original area, so God had a similar purpose in connection with the gardenlike park in Eden. Its borders were to be extended by the growing human family until Paradise enveloped the entire earth and adorned it with exquisite natural beauty.

True, the disobedience of the first human pair lost for them the privilege of any longer enjoying that original Paradise. But our Creator’s purpose for humans to enjoy an earthly paradise did not change. (Isaiah 46:11; 55:11) Thus, the Bible often points to the re-creation of Paradise on earth under the rule of God’s Kingdom. For example, one prophecy foretells: “For Jehovah will certainly comfort Zion. . . . He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert plain like the garden of Jehovah.” Later, the prophecy also speaks of people building houses, planting vineyards, and enjoying the earth’s produce.​—Isaiah 51:3; 65:21-23.

Similarly, in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, there is a vision of a yet future “new heaven and a new earth.” The “new heaven,” or new rulership by God, is seen directing attention to the earth. With what result? “Look!” we are told, “the tent of God is with mankind [note that God is spoken of as being with men, not men with God in heaven], and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”​—Revelation 21:1, 3, 4.

These Bible promises of a paradise restored are not fanciful predictions. While conservationists and naturalists have had visions of limited wilderness parks, dependent on sympathetic legislators, the Bible promises have as their Backer the Creator of the universe, Jehovah God, whose Word cannot and will not go unfulfilled.

Today, particularly in mountain parks, hikers experience a measure of trepidation. But in the globe-encircling park to come, the animal creation will not do injury to humans or be any threat to them, nor will animals run away and tremble at the sight of man, for the Bible promises: “The wolf will actually reside for a while with the male lamb, and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed animal all together; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. And the cow and the bear themselves will feed; together their young ones will lie down. And even the lion will eat straw just like the bull.”​—Isaiah 11:6-9.

How exhilarating it will be then to take a walk in the woods and be joined for a while by a mountain lion at your side or perhaps even by a huge, friendly grizzly bear! Never again will any living thing fear another.

The founders of the beautiful parks of today had noble intentions, setting aside areas for the protection of vegetation and wildlife. But only God’s unfolding purpose of one global park system under his Kingdom government can guarantee permanent conservation of earth’s treasures. Only this Kingdom in the hands of his Son, Jesus Christ, can establish a permanent earth-wide paradise and true peace between man and man and between man and beast.

Young People Ask . . .

Is Love as It Is in Love Songs?

LOVE songs​—songs that extol true love, songs that lament love lost—​are the staple of the radio airwaves. And whatever their guise, be it rhythm and blues, soul, pop, or rock, they are enormously popular among teenagers. What accounts for this?

Many of the songs simply have strong musical appeal​—tuneful melodies, heartrending lyrics, danceable rhythms. They touch emotions and can create an almost hypnotic romantic mood. “If I’m talking on the phone with my girl about some difficult situation and the words just don’t flow,” says a youth named Rusty, “a nice love song heard in the background puts me in a mellow mood, and the words come easier.”

However, the popularity of love songs is not solely due to any musical merit the tunes may have. When you are a teenager, you are learning how to deal with your sexual feelings. Curious about the mysteries of love and romance, you may easily identify with songs that tell of the pleasures and pains of dating and breaking up. As one writer puts it, through love songs, teens “can taste a little of what it feels like to be in love, and so experience certain of love’s pleasures and disappointments.”

Inexperienced in the ways of romance and perhaps unsure of their ability to express their feelings, some even look to love songs to find the right words to say to that special someone. Some youths admit to trying to charm members of the opposite sex with phrases lifted right out of popular songs. But to what extent do love songs really teach youths about love?

The Lessons in Love Songs

Consider, first, one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. Called The Song of Solomon, it is the Bible’s account of a beautiful Shulammite girl and her love for a shepherd boy. Their love is threatened by King Solomon, who, with his dazzling glory, wisdom, and wealth, tries to steal the young woman’s heart​—but to no avail. Her love proved to be not the fickle sort. Declared the young girl: “Insistence on exclusive devotion is as unyielding as Sheol is. Its blazings are the blazings of a fire, the flame of Jah.”​—Song of Solomon 8:6.

Do today’s love songs similarly promote a lofty, yet realistic, view of romantic love? Quite the contrary. Writer Sally Helgesen observes that love songs “celebrate a world of melodrama and tortured passion, in which love” often finds the “perfect resolution.” Unfortunately, ‘perfect resolutions’ are few and far between in real life, and one who seeks them invites frustration. Why, even King Solomon’s sublimely poetic expressions failed to win him the love of the Shulammite girl! Adds Helgesen: “The songs evoke an amorphous [shapeless] dream of adult life in which romantic passion consumes every other emotion and responsibility does not weigh anyone down.” Again, a far cry from real life.

Sheila Davis, a professor of lyric writing at New York University, says that love songs further foist on people the idea that commitment is “out of style.” Yet another popular motif in love songs is that love is instantaneous. One popular song declared that love came “suddenly” after “the first hello” and “the first smile.” Love songs thus teach that love is blind, recognizing strengths but refusing to see even glaring weaknesses.

How valid are such lessons? Well, consider: Can a first impression really be the basis for a lasting relationship? Hardly. Notice how the Bible describes true love: “Love is patient and kind . . . Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable . . . Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Love is eternal.”​—1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Today’s English Version.

Real love is thus not an instantaneous occurrence, nor does it simply involve feelings and passions. Mature love has eyes; it sees strengths but does not ignore weaknesses. Real love is developed over a period of time as knowledge is acquired of another’s personality and qualities​—“the secret person of the heart.” (1 Peter 3:4) True love does not recoil at commitment; it stays with a relationship and works to improve it even when things are not rosy. How different is real love from the love often described in songs!

Explicit Lyrics

Love songs also tend to equate love with sex​—a lesson being taught nowadays with shocking brazenness. True, the love songs your parents or even grandparents once danced to may occasionally have had a subtly suggestive line or two. But many of today’s songs are far from subtle. Sheila Davis, quoted earlier, says: “Not only has explicitness displaced subtlety, and the erotic territory expanded to include masturbation and [perverted] sex, but lyrics have even invaded the once taboo terrain of incest.” A number of U.S. record companies have now agreed to put warning labels on records containing explicit lyrics dealing with sex or violence.

Sixteen-year-old Leslie argues: “Lyrics aren’t all that important if you can dance to it. I don’t think it’s going to corrupt anybody. It’s just music.” Experts disagree. “To have the same popular music repeated many times daily enables easy memorization of sexual messages,” observes one researcher. Have you, as some have, found yourself mouthing offensive or immoral lyrics simply by virtue of having heard them over and over again? (Ephesians 4:29) Dr. Joseph Stuessy, a professor of music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, warns: “Any kind of music affects our mood, emotions, attitudes and our resultant behavior.”​—Italics ours.

Could it possibly be healthy to listen to or sing words that graphically describe or promote sexual immorality? Might not doing so corrupt your view of the proper role of sex in marriage?​—1 Corinthians 7:3-5.

“A Time to Love”

Another dangerous misconception taught in popular music is that teenagers are ready for intimacy with the opposite sex. True, there is “a time to love”​—but the Bible is not referring here to erotic love. As for marital love, is that time for you really now? Is it not more likely several years from now, when you will be old enough? (Ecclesiastes 3:8) If the latter is true, does it make sense to arouse strong desires for something you cannot yet have?

Having no outlet for their turned-on romantic feelings, some youths become caught up in a romantic dreamworld. Some fall “in love” with their favorite singers, fantasizing that every tender word sung is being whispered into their own ears. They collect every album, photo, and poster of the artist they can get their hands on and dream about marrying that one. But the only outcome likely for such a fantasy relationship is disappointment and pain.

The Song of Solomon thus teaches yet another important lesson. Desirous of staying loyal to her shepherd boy, the Shulammite girl urged her girl companions ‘not to awaken or arouse love in her’ for King Solomon, who sought her affections. (Song of Solomon 2:7) Knowing its potential power, she simply refused to listen to talk that might adversely affect her emotions. A similar course would prove wise for you in your choice of music. Why not simply avoid music that arouses strong romantic feelings in you or that makes you feel sad and lonely?

Remember: Music is a gift from God. And you can be sure that he is not pleased by music that degrades and demoralizes, that distorts Christian values or encourages loose morals. Christian youths must therefore be selective in their choice of music. Nineteen-year-old Scott says: “Before I buy a record or cassette, I examine the cover and get an idea of the lyrics. If they are suggestive, I don’t buy it.”

Love just isn’t as it is in love songs. You will learn this fact through the sometimes painful experiences of life. Remember, too, that beautiful songs are not a substitute for real friends. Instead of isolating yourself in a musical dream world, spend time with people​—your parents, God-fearing youths, and mature Christians. (Proverbs 18:1) Such association will result in your feeling loved in a godly way​—a feeling that far surpasses the fantasies of love songs.

[Blurb on page 14]

“Any kind of music affects our mood, emotions, attitudes and our resultant behavior”

[Picture on page 12]

Do all love songs portray real life?

[Picture on page 13]

Be selective about what you listen to!

How Safe Is Your Food?

JEAN was upset to find in the back of the refrigerator a cut of meat she had bought for last Saturday’s supper. When the family had unexpectedly gone out to eat that night, she had forgotten to put the meat in the freezer. Now four days had passed.

Reluctantly, she pulled the package out, unwrapped it, and confirmed her fears with a quick whiff. Yet, she thought: ‘Perhaps the slightly off odor will disappear with thorough cooking.’ As she weighed the matter, however, she recalled a familiar rhyme: ‘When in doubt, throw it out.’ By discarding the meat, Jean spared her family the possible health complications of eating unsafe food.

But the problem of unsafe food presents far more serious situations. Sickness resulting from contaminated food is a major cause of suffering and death in developing countries. Millions are affected even in prosperous lands. In the United Kingdom, for example, more than ten thousand cases of food poisoning are reported yearly, and possibly a hundred times that many actually occur. But what makes food unsafe?

Why Unsafe?

Food may become unsafe because of contamination by harmful bacteria. This may occur when a jar of home-canned vegetables is improperly sealed, the lettuce in a fresh salad is not washed, cooked meat is left at room temperature too long, or there is careless handling by those preparing food. Food can also be contaminated by pesticide residues or by accidental contact with harmful or poisonous substances.

Vast quantities of unsafe food are exported and imported daily. During just one three-month period, the United States rejected over 65 million dollars’ worth of food as unfit for importation. Many lands, though, don’t enjoy the luxury of being able to reject unsafe food. It is often sold and consumed.

World Health magazine reports that “food-borne diseases are practically endemic all over the world, and not just among poverty-stricken households.” The magazine also says: “Illness and the lack of wellbeing leading to reduced economic productivity due to contaminated food constitute one of the most widespread health problems in the contemporary world.”

It is estimated that perhaps as many as 20 million people in the United States yearly suffer health problems from consumption of contaminated food. And in Europe, food-borne diseases are considered the major cause of death after respiratory-tract infections. “The industrialised countries have their own preferences and customs that promote food-borne diseases,” says one scientist. “One of the most obvious problems is the preference for large pieces of meat, often grossly undercooked.”

Eating Out

Usually no one thinks twice about dining in a restaurant or picking up a quick snack at a fast-food establishment. Hundreds of thousands of meals are served daily with no ill effects to restaurant patrons. Yet, even in developed countries, people have been affected by serious food-borne illnesses as a result of eating in restaurants.

At a restaurant in northwestern Europe, for example, more than 150 people developed food poisoning following Christmas dinner. It was later found that cooked turkeys had been carved on the same wooden chopping blocks as were used to prepare raw birds for roasting. Salmonella bacteria were later found in the cracks of the wooden blocks.

During one seven-day cruise, 20 percent of the passengers developed diarrhea. The ship’s galley was found to be overcrowded and dirty, with inadequate safe storage space. Food sat out on serving tables for long periods with no refrigeration, and leftovers were served the next day.

Although unsafe food is a problem even in developed countries, the consequences are disastrous in developing lands.

A Part of Daily Life

World Health magazine reports that in many areas of the world, the high prevalence of malnutrition is not due simply to a lack of food “but rather [to] the eating of contaminated, unsafe food.” This leads to repeated episodes of diarrhea and other infectious diseases.

“In 1980,” World Health reported, “there were 750-1,000 million episodes of acute diarrhoea in children aged under five in the developing world (excluding China). Nearly five million children died, at a rate of ten diarrhoeal deaths every minute of every day of every year.” But children are not the only ones who are at risk. A 1984 report on “The Role of Food Safety in Health and Development” noted that “travellers’ diarrhoea is now a widespread phenomenon, affecting about 20 to 50 per cent of all travellers.”

Ignorance regarding proper hygiene no doubt is the cause of most food-borne diseases. Food may be safe to begin with but then becomes contaminated by the consumer or by a middleman, such as a shopkeeper or cook.

Likewise, cultural beliefs may lead to the contamination of food. In certain areas of Mexico, for example, people believe that hands made “hot” by sewing, ironing, baking, and so on, should not be washed immediately. Too early chilling by water, it is thought, will cause rheumatism or cramps. Thus, a woman with “hot” hands may use the toilet and then turn to preparing the family meal without washing her hands. As a result, harmful bacteria are spread.

On the other hand, some cultures have traditions that, if followed, are helpful in curbing the spread of food-borne disease. In many homes in India, where cooking is done at floor level, shoes worn in the streets are removed before entering the house, especially the kitchen. Also, fruit is peeled before it is eaten. Meat is eaten within a few hours after the animal is slaughtered. And meals may be eaten from freshly washed leaves instead of plates.

Tackling the Problem

How near is man to reaching the goal of providing an adequate amount of safe food for all people? Commenting on the problem, a United Nations report on food safety said: “In the last 40 years, international organizations have produced a large number of technical reports and initiated many programmes to deal with this issue. Yet food-borne illness continues to increase.”

What is needed to cope with the problem is education for the public in general and mothers in particular. Then individuals can take precautions against contaminating food and can maintain safe eating habits for themselves and their families. The following article provides some suggestions.

[Picture on page 17]

Food can be safe when the preparation area is kept clean, as in this home in India

Make Your Eating Safe

BACTERIA that cause food-related illnesses have certain requirements for life​—food, water, air, warmth, and time. If one of these essentials is removed, growth is stopped or inhibited. So eating safely means that food must be prepared under conditions that do not allow bacterial growth in the food or the spread of contamination in the kitchen. Consider the following suggestions for safe eating, and wisely make application in your home where necessary.

Wash your hands, preferably with soap, before handling food. Be sure to bandage any hand injuries. Avoid sneezing and coughing over food, and refrain from touching your hair or wiping your nose while handling food. If your food preparation is interrupted and you attend to other things, such as using the toilet or handling animals, be sure to wash your hands before touching the food again.

Wash the food you are going to prepare. Never use fresh fruits and vegetables directly from the market or your own garden without washing them, even if they will be cooked. The water used for washing should be clean. If unpeeled vegetables and fruits are to be eaten raw, scrub these foods (preferably with a vegetable brush) to remove dirt as well as pesticide residue. Leafy vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce, should also be thoroughly washed to remove sand and soil.

If you live in a tropical area where parasites, such as intestinal worms and flukes, are common, then all fresh fruits and vegetables that will be served raw or only lightly cooked should be washed in clean water with a small amount of disinfectant added to kill these organisms. Hypochlorite is a common, effective disinfectant, marketed under a variety of brand names. Normally, a small amount is dissolved in clean water, and the fruits and vegetables are submerged. The food can then be washed off with plain, clean water before it is eaten.

Thoroughly cook all meat, fish, and poultry to destroy harmful organisms. Frozen meat and poultry should be thawed out completely before cooking it, so that heat can penetrate to the center. Pigs may be infected with trichina worms, and humans who eat improperly cooked pork may develop trichinosis. In some countries 10 percent of the sausage meat sold in large city markets is said to be infected with trichinosis. Trichina worms can be killed by thorough cooking at high heat, but other processing methods, such as smoking and pickling, do not kill them.

Fish and shellfish may harbor liver or lung flukes, which will pass into the human system if the fish is not cooked thoroughly. Salting, pickling, or soaking them in rice wine is not sufficient to kill such parasites. Although raw fish and shellfish are customarily eaten in some cultures, caution should be exercised if water pollution is severe.

When water is from a questionable source, it should be boiled before consumption, for at least 15 minutes where water contamination is severe. In some areas drinking water may be purified by chlorination, but it should not be relied upon where bacteria and parasites are common. Boiling is best.

In many countries contaminated water spreads cholera, jaundice, typhoid, paratyphoid, bacillary dysentery, and amoebic dysentery, among other diseases. In some places even city water supplies cannot be assumed to be safe. Once water is boiled, store it in clean, covered vessels.

In some areas the filtering of water is also recommended. Filters are available as faucet attachments or as separate units into which water is poured and allowed to drip through unglazed porcelain or other filtering substances. Filtering removes suspended particles and contaminants, but it usually does not get rid of harmful bacteria. However, some new filters and attachments evidently do remove harmful bacteria, although they are relatively expensive, and if they are not regularly changed, they themselves may contaminate. Modern filtering equipment even enabled the astronauts to drink their own urine.

If your milk is not pasteurized, it is wise to sterilize it by heating. Indian nutritionist Dr. Sucy Eapen warns: “There is danger of contamination of the milk by the animal itself, by the milk vendor and his handling of it, and also by the containers used for the milk.”

Milk should be heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit [72° C.] or higher and kept at that temperature for at least 15 seconds. Then chill it rapidly to 50 degrees Fahrenheit [10° C.] or cooler. Another method involves heating the milk for a longer time at lower temperatures: 145 to 151 degrees Fahrenheit [63 to 66° C.] for 30 minutes.

Keep flies away from food. Flies may carry germs that cause typhoid, cholera, dysentery, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. They can also transmit the virus of polio and the eggs of intestinal worms and parasites. The best way to deal with flies around the home is to keep them from breeding. You can examine your own situation and see if refuse needs to be cleaned up. Containers for garbage should be properly covered and disinfected. Don’t allow anyone to dump filth near your living quarters. Manure should be covered or disposed of so that flies cannot breed there.​—Compare Deuteronomy 23:13.

Eat food soon after it is cooked, especially during hot weather. Harmful bacteria will quickly multiply. If you want to prepare food early and eat later, then chill the food after cooking it and thoroughly reheat it before serving.

Cooked food should be kept sufficiently hot (above 140° F. [60° C.]) or cold (below 50° F. [10° C.]). The danger zone​—where bacteria will grow and multiply—​is in between. This means that leftovers should not be kept if they cannot be chilled. If you have no refrigeration, cook enough for one meal only. In some lands herbs and spices are often contaminated with bacteria. So these should be added to food at the beginning of cooking to receive full heat treatment.

Keep your kitchen clean. This includes your cooking utensils, your clothes, and you. If you normally cook and prepare food on the floor, make it a habit in your family to remove street shoes before entering the cooking area. Shoes can carry diseases from contact with human and animal fecal matter and contaminate the food you work so hard to prepare. Pets and other animals should be kept away from food-preparation areas.

Wash dishes with hot water and soap. If you are washing a number of cooking utensils, discard the water when it gets dirty and replace it with clean hot water and soap. Dry dishes with clean cloths, or let them air-dry in an area away from dust and insects.

In many lands utensils are scrubbed with ash, rinsed with water, and dried in the sun. This produces satisfactory results where soap is not economical to use, as the alkaline ash kills microorganisms, and the heat and ultraviolet rays of the sun sanitize the utensils.

Outside Your Home

At restaurants or large gatherings where food is served buffet or cafeteria style, try to choose foods that appear to be either very hot or very cold. If you note that food has been sitting out at room temperature for a long time in hot weather, it may be best to avoid it.

Since it costs money to boil water, many restaurants in developing lands do not boil the drinking water served to their customers, so it is safer not to drink it. Also, avoid juices or drinks that require added water or ice. Bottled drinks or hot drinks are generally safer.

If worms and other intestinal parasites are a problem in the area, avoid all raw salads. And no matter how tempting they are, avoid vegetables and fruits that cannot be peeled. It is likely that such foods were not properly washed or disinfected. In some places fresh fruits and vegetables are cut up and sold on the street for easy eating. These may well be unsafe to eat.

In many Oriental lands, street vendors are a popular sight, serving up a variety of mouth-watering items. Before eating food at such a stand, observe the sanitary conditions. Does it seem dirty? Is the food already cooked and sitting uncovered? Is there a provision for garbage disposal, or is garbage strewed about? Does the one preparing the food appear dirty and unkempt? Are there animals nearby and many flies? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you’re inviting problems if you eat there.

Nearly everyone delights in eating well-prepared, tasty food. But exercise good judgment and care when handling and selecting food. Then enjoy safe eating!

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Wash your hands, preferably with soap, before handling food

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Thoroughly cook all meat, fish, and poultry to destroy harmful organisms

[Picture on page 19]

Water from a questionable source should be boiled

[Picture on page 20]

If milk is not pasteurized, sterilize it by heating

[Picture on page 20]

Keep flies away from food

[Picture on page 20]

Safeguard your food from contamination

[Picture on page 21]

Keep dishes and utensils clean

[Picture on page 21]

There is often good reason to question the safety of food sold by street vendors

Snails​—A Plague or a Delicacy?

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

THE time: six o’clock in the morning. The place: town of Kavieng, in the province of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. A man takes a 1 1/3-gallon [5 L] pail and walks from his house to a vegetable plot in the backyard. It takes him about ten minutes to fill the pail​—not with vegetables but with snails! He goes through this routine every morning in an effort to stem the onslaughts of the snails so that he might enjoy some of the vegetables himself.

Years ago the snails were practically everywhere and rapidly spreading along the coastal regions of Papua New Guinea. It has been estimated that in the town of Madang alone, there were over a million of these snails. They caused a great deal of damage to food crops and gardens. Not only did they cause such in Kavieng but they were a motorist’s nightmare, especially on a rainy night. The roads were literally crawling with them. Driving and turning could be a slippery, and a noisy, experience.

But where did all the snails come from? One thing for certain, they are not natives of Papua New Guinea. They are of the variety known as the great African snail (Achatina fulica). In the native New Guinea Pidgin, they are called demdems. They were introduced to the islands of the South Pacific from East Africa via Southeast Asia.

According to the natives, Japanese soldiers brought the snail to the New Britain/​New Ireland regions of Papua New Guinea during World War II. Why? Because the very effective allied blockades prevented Japanese supply ships from reaching their troops occupying the Papua New Guinea islands. So the snails were introduced to relieve the acute shortage of food.

These edible snails have never been successfully bred in Japan because the climate there is too cold for them. But they found conditions in Papua New Guinea just perfect, so perfect that they lay up to 6,000 eggs in a lifetime. It did not take long for the demdems to multiply to such an extent that there were enough of them in just a small garden to fill a pail every day!

Efforts to Control Them

The shell of a demdem may grow to be four inches [10 cm] long. So this is a good-size snail. And being such prolific breeders, they cause considerable damage to crops and plants. What can be done about them? Once introduced, it has been virtually impossible to get rid of them. But they can be controlled.

Baits containing poisonous chemicals, such as methaldehyde, have been used with some success. Efforts have also been made to introduce cannibal-type snails that prey on the demdems. But still the demdems multiply in sufficient numbers to hold their own.

What else can be done with the snails? Well, why not meet the challenge head-on and use them for the very same purpose that they were introduced to the islands? Why not eat them?

A “Demdem” Delicacy

The Melanesians feed the demdems to their fowl and pigs. It is also recommended that they be shelled for chickens, as well as cooked or sun-dried. Pigs learn to crack the shells themselves, but they should be cooked, since pigs can get disease from the parasites carried by the snails.

If snails do not appeal to you raw, boiled, or sun-dried, be assured that there are other ways to prepare them. Just remember that in such places as Switzerland, France, Spain, China, and many parts of Africa, the lowly demdem is a delicacy! It is generally known as escargot, and it graces the tables of some of the finest restaurants.

In Papua New Guinea, a Demdem Committee was recently set up. Its purpose is to show the public how these snails can be prepared, cooked, and served. It even offers a recipe from the owner of a top restaurant in Melbourne, Australia. Whether the committee will succeed in getting the Papua New Guineans to learn the fine points of eating demdems remains to be seen.

Religion’s Future in View of Its Past

Part 12​—100-476 C.E.​—Snuffing Out the Gospel Light

“Men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves.”​—Charles Caleb Colton, 19th-century English clergyman

BEGINNING in 33 C.E., when Rome put Christianity’s Founder to death, that sixth world power of Bible history was at constant loggerheads with the Christians. It imprisoned them and threw some of them to the lions. But even when threatened with the martyrdom of serving as human torches to light Nero’s gardens, Roman Christians of the first century continued to let their spiritual light shine. (Matthew 5:14) In time, however, the situation changed.

“In the early part of the third century,” says the book From Christ to Constantine, “the church was beginning to become respectable.” But respectability had its price, “a lowering of standards.” Accordingly, “Christian living was no longer seen to be a requirement of Christian faith.”

The gospel light had waned to a glimmer. And “by the fourth century,” says the book Imperial Rome, “Christian writers were claiming not only that it was possible to be both Christian and Roman, but that the long history of Rome was in fact the beginning of the Christian epic. . . . The implication was that Rome had been divinely ordained.”

Sharing this view was the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. In 313 C.E., Constantine made Christianity a lawful religion. By combining Church and State, putting religious leaders into the service of the State, and allowing State control of religious affairs, Constantine did a real disservice.

Already in the early second century, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, had introduced a new method of congregational government. Instead of a group of elders, the monarchical episcopate provided for a single churchman to be in charge of each congregation. About a century later, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, expanded this hierarchical clergy system into a monarchical seven-grade hierarchy, the supreme position being occupied by the bishop. Under him were priests, deacons, subdeacons, and other grades. The Western church subsequently added an eighth grade, while the Eastern church settled for a five-grade hierarchy.

Where did this form of church leadership, combined with State approval, lead? The book Imperial Rome explains: “Only 80 years after the last great wave of persecution of Christians, the Church itself was beginning to execute heretics, and its clerics were wielding power almost equivalent to that of the emperors.” Surely this is not what Christ had in mind when he said that his disciples were to be “no part of the world” and that they should conquer it, not by force, but by their faith.​—John 16:33; 17:14; compare 1 John 5:4.

“Saints” and Greek Gods

Long before Constantine’s time, pagan ideas had already adulterated the Christian religion. The mythical gods of Greece that had once strongly influenced Rome’s religion had also already influenced the Christian religion. “By the time Rome had become an imperial power,” says the book Roman Mythology, “Jupiter had become assimilated to the Greek Zeus . . . Later on Jupiter was worshipped as Optimus Maximus, the Best and Greatest, a designation which was to be carried over into Christianity and appears on many a monumental inscription.” The New Encyclopædia Britannica adds: “Under Christianity, Greek heroes and even deities survived as saints.”

Author M. A. Smith explains that this meant that “the many sets of gods were becoming intermixed, and the regional differences were getting blurred. . . . There was a tendency for people to think that the various deities were really only different names for one great power. . . . The Egyptian Isis, Artemis of the Ephesians and the Syrian Astarte could be equated. The Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter, the Egyptian Amon-Re and even the Jewish Yahweh could be invoked as the names of the one great Power.”

While being fused with Greek and Roman thinking in Rome, Christianity was also undergoing changes in other places. Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and Edessa, all centers of theological activity, developed distinctive schools of religious thought. Herbert Waddams, a former Anglican Canon of Canterbury, says the Alexandrian school, for example, was “particularly influenced by Platonic ideas,” assigning allegorical meanings to most “Old Testament” statements. The Antioch school adopted a more literal, more critical attitude toward the Bible.

Distance, lack of communication, and language misunderstandings served to intensify the differences. Chiefly responsible for the situation, however, was the independent spirit and selfish ambition of religious leaders willing to adulterate the truth for personal advantage, thereby snuffing out the gospel light.

“Falsely Called ‘Knowledge’”

As early as the first century, Christianity was influenced by false religious teachings, causing Paul to warn Timothy to turn away “from the contradictions of the falsely called ‘knowledge.’” (1 Timothy 6:20, 21) This may have been a reference to a movement called Gnosticism that gained prominence early in the second century but that evidently got started in the first century, possibly with a certain Simon Magus. Some authorities claim that this may be the Simon mentioned in the Bible at Acts 8:9.

Gnosticism got its name from the Greek word gnoʹsis, meaning “knowledge.” Gnostic groups contended that salvation is dependent upon special mystical knowledge of deep things unknown to ordinary Christians. They felt that possessing this knowledge enabled them to teach, as The Encyclopedia of Religion says, “the inner truth revealed by Jesus.”

The origins of Gnostic thought were many. From Babylon, Gnostics took the practice of attributing hidden meanings to Bible numbers, which supposedly revealed mystical truths. Gnostics also taught that whereas the spirit is good, all matter is inherently evil. “This is the same chain of reasoning,” says German author Karl Frick, “that was already found in Persian dualism and in the Far East in China’s ‘yin’ and ‘yang.’” The “Christianity” presented by Gnostic writings is definitely based on non-Christian sources. So how could it be “the inner truth revealed by Jesus”?

Scholar R. E. O. White calls Gnosticism a combination of “philosophic speculation, superstition, semi-magical rites, and sometimes a fanatical and even obscene cultus.” Andrew M. Greeley of the University of Arizona says: “The Jesus of the Gnostics is sometimes incoherent, sometimes unintelligible, and sometimes more than a little creepy.”

Twisting the Truth About Christ

The Gnostics were not alone in twisting the truth about Christ. Nestorius, an early 5th-century patriarch of Constantinople, apparently taught that Christ was actually two persons in one, the human Jesus and the divine Son of God. In giving birth to Christ, Mary gave birth to the man but not to the divine Son. This view did not agree with Monophysitism (“one nature”), which held that the union between God and the Son was inseparable, and that although of two natures, Jesus was in reality only one, wholly God and at the same time wholly man. Accordingly, Mary would indeed have given birth to God, not just to the human Jesus.

Both theories were outgrowths of a controversy that had arisen during the previous century. Arius, an Alexandrian priest, argued that Christ is inferior to the Father. So he refused to use the term homoousios (being of one substance) in describing Christ’s relationship to God. The Council of Nicaea rejected his view in 325 C.E., ruling that Jesus is indeed ‘of the same substance as the Father.’ In 451 C.E. the Council of Chalcedon stated that Christ is God incarnate. The Babylonian-Egyptian-Grecian concept of a triune God had now crowded out Christ’s teaching that he and his Father are two separate individuals, in no way equal.​—Mark 13:32; John 14:28.

Actually, Tertullian (c. 160-c. 230 C.E.), a member of the North African church, introduced the word “trinitas,” which found its way into Christian usage sometime before Arius was born. Tertullian, who was the first theologian to write extensively in Latin instead of Greek, helped lay the foundation for Western theology. So did “Saint” Augustine, another North African theologian of some two centuries later. “[Augustine] is generally recognized as having been the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity,” says The New Encyclopædia Britannica. But its next words are cause for concern for every sincere Catholic or Protestant: “His mind was the crucible in which the religion of the New Testament was most completely fused with the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy; and it was also the means by which the product of this fusion was transmitted to the Christendoms of medieval Roman Catholicism and Renaissance Protestantism.”

Catholicism in Crisis

Toward the end of the fourth century, Emperor Theodosius I finished what Constantine had started by making Catholicism the State religion. Soon thereafter the Roman Empire split, as Constantine had feared it might. Rome was captured in 410 C.E. by the Visigoths, a Germanic people who had long harassed the empire, and in 476 C.E., German general Odoacer deposed the Western emperor and proclaimed himself king, thus ending the Western Roman Empire.

Under these new circumstances, how would Catholicism fare? As of 500 C.E., it claimed as members some 22 percent of the world population. But of these estimated 43 million persons, the bulk had been victimized by religious leaders who had found it to be more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves. The gospel light of true Christianity had been snuffed out. But “Out of Darkness, Something ‘Holy’” would soon be born, as our next issue will discuss.

[Box on page 26]

Samples of Gnostic Belief

Marcion (second century) differentiated between an imperfect “Old Testament” God inferior to Jesus and Jesus’ Father, the unknown “New Testament” God of love. The idea of an “unknown god is a fundamental theme of gnosticism,” explains The Encyclopedia of Religion. This unknown god is identified as “the supreme Intellect, inaccessible to the human intellect.” The creator of the material world, on the other hand, is inferior and not absolutely intelligent and is known as the Demiurge.

Montanus (second century) preached the imminent return of Christ and the setting up of the New Jerusalem in what is today Turkey. More concerned about conduct than doctrine, he evidently tried to restore the original values of Christianity, but given to extremes, the movement finally fell victim to the very situation of laxity it condemned.

Valentinus (second century), a Greek poet and the most prominent Gnostic of all time, claimed that although Jesus’ ethereal body passed through Mary, it was not actually born of her. This was because Gnostics viewed all matter as evil. Thus, Jesus could not have had a material body or it too would have been evil. Gnostics known as Docetists taught that everything about Jesus’ humanity was mere appearance and illusion. This included his death and resurrection.

Manes (third century) was dubbed al-Bābilīyu, Arabic for “the Babylonian,” since he called himself “the messenger of God come to Babylon.” He strove to form a universal religion fusing elements of Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism.

[Picture on page 25]

Constantine helped snuff out the gospel light by fusing Christianity with pagan worship

Watching the World

BHOPAL SETTLEMENT

Although India Today magazine said that “the end is nowhere in sight” for victims seeking compensation for the Bhopal chemical accident, it seems that an end of sorts has come at last. (See Awake! April 8, 1989.) In a recent out-of-court settlement, Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to victims of the disaster, although lawyers had demanded $3 billion. Victims will receive an average of $14,460, which, notes the British magazine The Economist, is “roughly equivalent to $1m[illion] per person in the United States.” The journal also observes that the settlement may have been low enough to motivate big corporations to build dangerous plants in poor countries, where they will have to pay less to victims of accidents. The low settlement even caused the price of Union Carbide’s stock to rise, adds The Economist.

ADVANTAGES OF CIRCUMCISION

The American Academy of Pediatrics has had to reverse its position on the matter of circumcision. In 1971 the group held that there were “no valid medical indications” to warrant circumcising newborn males routinely. However, recent studies have shown that circumcision may help prevent kidney and urinary-tract infections, which can be quite dangerous. In one study, uncircumcised boys were 11 times more likely to suffer urinary-tract infections than circumcised boys. The pediatric academy now says that circumcision “has potential medical benefits and advantages.” While Christians are not bound by the Mosaic law requiring circumcision, the new findings do suggest that the law was of practical benefit to the ancient Israelites who obeyed it.

WHAT THE FETUS HEARS

Researchers were amazed recently upon discovering how much external sound may be heard by the unborn fetus. Placing a microphone in the womb near the head of a baby, doctors could hear with clarity a variety of sounds from outside, from conversation 12 feet [4 m] away to the sound of a cart passing in the hallway on the other side of a closed door. In a similar vein, a psychologist in Ireland noted that newborn babies seemed to recognize the theme music from a television program their mothers had watched regularly while pregnant. Such findings may lead to further research on what effect all this sound might have on the tiny ears of unborn babies, reports the U.S. magazine Woman’s World.

A LETHAL CROP

According to the U.S. State Department, global production of drugs is rising sharply. From 1987 to 1988, the following harvests increased: marijuana, by 22 percent; opium, by 15 percent; hashish, by 11 percent; and coca from four countries, by 7.2 percent. The lethal bumper crops were produced in spite of more arrests, more drug seizures and destruction of crops, and more treaties promising international cooperation. According to The New York Times, the State Department report “has become an annual admission of the inability of the United States to singlehandedly fight narcotics.”

CHRISTENDOM IN CHINA

“Christianity in China has gained ground in recent years,” notes the New Zealand Herald, citing an official Chinese newspaper, News Digest. Three years ago, most of the country’s professed Christians were said to be among the elderly, the illiterate, and the semiliterate. The Digest said that a more recent survey shows a large portion of China’s seven million adherents of Christendom​—as many as 25 percent of them—​to be “intellectuals,” such as doctors, university professors, students, writers, and engineers.

CHILD ABUSE IN GERMANY

In the Federal Republic of Germany, every ten minutes a child is beaten severely enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, reports the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Of the 11,000 children assaulted each year, 100 die. Further, experts estimate that 150,000 children suffer constant sexual abuse from family members and relatives. A mere fraction of these​—some 10,000 cases—​are reported to the police. One expert estimated the total number of children suffering from constant physical, mental, or sexual abuse at 300,000. The victims are both male and female and are often no more than babies.

PORNOGRAPHY FOR PRISONERS

Inmates of a prison in Iowa, U.S.A., have the right to subscribe to the same magazines as nonprisoners, including hard-core pornographic magazines, ruled a federal district judge. The prison has complied with the court order by establishing an official “porno reading room” where such magazines are kept. For some time, prisoners have been allowed to have soft-core-pornography subscriptions come to their cells. While a prisoner’s psychological status and record must be reviewed before he is eligible to subscribe to the hard-core materials, there is no crime that would automatically disqualify him. However, not everyone was pleased with the ruling. The New York Times noted that many Iowans “questioned the wisdom of arousing the passions of people whose aggressive behavior had landed them in prison in the first place.”

THAILAND PROTECTS FORESTS

In a last-ditch effort to save its dwindling forests, the government of Thailand recently banned all logging in the country. Officials estimate that forests now cover only 18 percent of Thailand, down from 70 percent after World War II. Conservationists put the current figure as low as 12 percent. In the south of the country, recent floods and mud slides, which killed 350 people, were blamed largely on illegal logging. The disaster helped the government to impose the ban in spite of fierce opposition from the logging industry.

FOUR-LEGGED CHICKENS

What would be considered ideal for the fried-chicken industry was an ordeal for some junior-high-school teachers in Hiroshima, Japan. When 153 pupils were told to draw a picture of a chicken, over 12 percent came up with chickens with four legs. When checked on nine points of design, “only three children had drawn chickens accurately,” reports the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “There is less contact with nature than before,” explains the teacher who conducted the survey.

REPORT ON THE POPE’S DIOCESE

The parish priests of Rome had some disheartening news to report to their bishop, the pope, in their annual meeting with him this year. According to the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, one priest lamented the “frightening dechristianization of his parish, where only 3 percent attend mass and 90 percent of those intending to marry ‘know nothing about religion.’” “Last year,” the priest continued, “there were 18 funerals, but nobody asked for the sacraments.” Avvenire added that another problem facing parish priests is the presence of Jehovah’s Witnesses, “whose growth is widespread”​—one worried priest even claiming erroneously that they have “made Rome their capital in Europe, Asia, Africa.”

SOVIET WATER BABIES

Some Soviet women give birth to their babies in an unusual way: in water, either at home or in the sea. The Soviet magazine Sputnik reports that of 700 such births, none have resulted in complications or death. A water environment is felt to be more like the environment the newborn has just left. The article claims that children born this way tend to sit, stand, and even walk earlier than others. They certainly swim earlier. “Within four hours of birth such babies can keep afloat unaided, and after just a few months they can swim distances of several kilometres,” notes Sputnik. Still, some Soviet doctors disapprove of births in water because “the baby passes into a nonsterile environment of inadequate temperature” and because of possible bleeding problems.

PASSIVE SMOKE THREATENS CHILDREN

Smoking parents may contribute to the deaths of from 10 to 20 Australian children every year, reports The Weekend Australian newspaper. Thousands more are hospitalized. The article cites a study of some 500 children hospitalized for respiratory illnesses. The researcher found strong chemical evidence that breathing in smoke from the cigarettes of those taking care of them contributed to the children’s sickness. The article also noted links between passive smoking and pneumonia, influenza, childhood asthma, and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). It concluded: “Of most concern is the rise in numbers of female smokers.”

From Our Readers

Preemies I have a daughter, now in her third year of junior high school. I have observed over the years that both her reading ability and her ability to listen are deficient. In trying to encourage her, I have said words that must have sounded cruel to her ears. When I read your article, however, I was made to recall that my daughter too was a preemie. (“Born Early, Born Small,” February 22, 1989) Your article helped me to realize that I should take her background into account when dealing with her.

A. I., Japan

Thank you so much for your sensitive and balanced approach. Your articles moved me to tears. I especially appreciate your acknowledgment that these tiny humans indeed have feelings and that loving care from mother and family can contribute greatly to their well-being.

J. J., United States

Bats I appreciated your article on bats. (January 22, 1989) I actually put off reading it because the thought of them made my skin crawl. Now after reading the article, I can appreciate them. In the photographs, they seemed to be gentle, innocent animals. I could even find humor in their little faces. Jehovah’s creation is certainly beautiful.

C. S., United States

Lost for 20 Years The experience of Uncle Jimmy encouraged me immensely. (December 8, 1988) I have leukemia, but I am able to function very well. Every once in a while I get depressed and go through my ‘woe is me’ period. But, now, I can reflect on how Uncle Jimmy’s faith carried him through his difficult and trialsome times. I’ll never forget him.

J. B., United States

My eight-year-old daughter was so moved by Uncle Jimmy’s experience that she had to sit down and write him a letter. (Actually, if she had had her way, we would have got in the car and driven down to the United States to visit him.) She wrote him: “It is really encouraging to read that when people tried to stop you from serving Jehovah, you just kept right on going. I am eight years old, and I hope I can be as strong as you are in the [Christian faith].”

J. R., Canada

Loneliness A schoolmate of mine said: “The girls in my class are cold, and no one will be friends with me.” The next day I brought her the article “How Do I Make My Loneliness Go Away?” in the August 8, 1987, issue of Awake! I didn’t really expect this girl to read it. But the next day she told me: “I read it as soon as I got home. Do you have any more?” I gave her other “Young People Ask . . ” articles that I thought might interest her. A few days later, she said excitedly: “I’ve made friends just as it was explained in that magazine!” As a result, we are now studying the Bible together.

M. S., Japan

Same-Sex Crushes I am a 17-year-old girl, and for the longest time I have been asking myself, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ I was so incredibly relieved when I read your “Young People Ask . . ” article on that very subject. (April 8, 1989) It was also a relief to find that there were others who were experiencing the same feelings as I do, and that one day they will be outgrown. Thank you so much!

M. R., United States

Steroids and Football

IN 1987 the NFL (National Football League) in the United States began testing players for anabolic steroids, which are synthetic derivatives of the male hormone testosterone. Although the tests revealed that nearly 100 of the 1,600 players in the league were using the drugs, there were no suspensions. The situation remained the same during the 1988 season​—the preseason tests for steroids exposed common use of the drugs, yet again there were no suspensions. But soon after the 1988 season started, changes were proposed.

The use of steroids during the 1988 Olympics, along with the stiff penalties imposed, no doubt was a factor. Dr. Robert Voy, the chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee, noted the heavy use of steroids in football. “What most people do not realize is that athletes on steroids become mean and aggressive,” he said. “Their girlfriends and wives can tell you about that.”

Furthermore, steroids give their users a real advantage. A rookie lineman in the NFL said: “I played against a lot of guys that I know for a fact were using steroids. I played them one year, the next year they come back 15 pounds [7 kg] heavier, stronger and they looked different. They played better and hit harder. That was one piece of the pie in my decision. I will do anything to become the best lineman in the N.F.L.”

However, the use of steroids has serious side effects, including liver damage, and in time they can kill. So, starting with the 1989 NFL season, it is proposed that players who test positive for steroids in several successive tests will be subject to a permanent ban from the NFL. Former League commissioner Pete Rozelle explains: “We know the dangers of steroids to the body and we want to do all we can so that players enjoy a quality of life after their football careers.”

1914​—A Turning Point

Historians say that 1914 was a turning point in history. Yet the Bible long before had foretold that it would be. What does the Bible say regarding 1914? How have you been affected by what occurred then?

Intriguing answers are provided in the book True Peace and Security​—How Can You Find It? See the heading “The Marked Year​—1914 C.E.,” beginning on page 70. This book, which was revised in 1986, has thus far reached a remarkable circulation of over 39 million copies in 69 languages. Get your copy. Only $1.

Please send, postpaid, the hardbound, 192-page book True Peace and Security​—How Can You Find It? I enclose $1 (U.S.).

[Picture Credit Line on page 32]

U.S. National Archives photo