World News and Trends

Coming: A United States of Europe?

These days the leaders of continental Europe disguise their ambitions less and less. Some obviously desire the creation of a European superstate. Romano Prodi, European Commission president, continues in the forefront of those calling for a virtual United States of Europe.

Mr. Prodi said in his latest state-of-the-union address: "We want to build something that can aspire to be a world power. It will make European citizenship a tangible daily reality." Mr. Prodi clarified what he meant: "In other words, [we want] not just a trading bloc, but a political entity."

In quick response, the British Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Francis Maude, articulated his countrymen's fears: "Following yesterday's admission that membership of the Euro would result in a Britain run from Brussels, Romano Prodi has provided more proof of the EU's superstate ambitions."

Meanwhile, Chris Patten, EU external-affairs commissioner, announced EU plans to raise its profile on the world scene. "We should try to ensure that our political influence comes nearer to matching our economic weight," he said. The Telegraph described the plan as designed "to boost [the EU's] role as global policeman" and Mr. Patten's intention as "chas[ing a] superpower role."

Mr. Patten's comments highlighted the growing divide between the European Union and the United States. Tory foreign-affairs spokesman Geoffrey Van Orden observed that EU anti-American hostility has become the "sub-text"of the EU's foreign and security policy. "People are very quick to say they support the transatlantic links and the NATO alliance," he said, "but the actions taken are all going in a different direction. The truth is that anti-Americanism is the binding theme."

Another Balkan crisis?

A potential civil war looms in Macedonia, a small Balkan country bordered by Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. The majority of Macedonia's two million people are Christian Slavs, but about a third are ethnic Albanians and Muslims.

A century ago the region was engulfed by ethnic divisions, but until recently it managed to avoid the wars that led to the breakup of former Yugoslavia a decade ago. Then in March ethnic-Albanian guerrillas began to attack hard-pressed Macedonian forces, which were immediately supported by U.S. and British advice and intelligence. At this writing the guns have gone silent as NATO tanks moved into the area of conflict.

An advantage for Macedonia is that 42,000 NATO troops are garrisoned in relatively nearby Kosovo, with U.S. and British contingents of perhaps a few thousand each. Unlike during the initial Balkan outbreaks of 10 years ago, NATO is already in the area. Although Albania itself has professed that it has no territorial ambitions in Macedonia, the existence of Albanian guerrillas is a cause for considerable concern.

The head of the International Administration of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch, made this observation, ostensibly for the benefit of the United States: "Our work in Bosnia and elsewhere in Southeastern Europe is slow and painstaking. But the progress is real ... [For NATO] to walk away now would be to throw away billions of dollars and years of effort." (Sources: The Guardian, The Times, Scotland on Sunday, The Economist [all London], International Herald Tribune [New York Times].)

The plight of British farmers

According to government figures, British farmers' incomes dropped by almost 75 percent in five years. Their average annual income stands at about £7,500 ($12,000). This decline of farm income in Britain is so marked that the situation has come to the attention of newspaper columnists such as William Rees-Mogg, who wrote in a recent column that "many farmers feel trapped in a financially sick industry in a morally sick society. They feel that society has lost its sense of reality."

Observers cite several causes for the malaise among farmers: the failure of an urban-oriented government to recognize the scale of the economic disaster plaguing agriculture; unpopular European regulations emanating from Brussels; the marked rise in rural transportation costs and weather disasters of recent years ranging from droughts to floods.

In a time of supermarkets overflowing with groceries, it is easy to forget where food originates. Most comes from seeds grown and plants cultivated by dedicated farmers. The vast majority in the business do not expect to get rich quick from agriculture. As Rees-Mogg remarks: "The disciplines of farming are those of long-term patience and hard work. All farmers have to plan for the long term. It takes a full generation to build up a well-managed farm."

For more details of problems plaguing (literally) British farmers, be sure to read "Foot-and-Mouth Disease: A Virus With Global Reach" in this issue.

Perhaps it is time for city dwellers to show more appreciation for the agricultural industry-the one that provides the food that graces our tables. (Sources: The Times [London], Daily Mail [London].)

European sex-slave traffic increases

Some young women in Eastern European nations, desperate for a better way of life through well-paying jobs, are tricked, then threatened and abducted and finally bought and sold like so much livestock. Prices range from £325 to £1,300 ($520 to $2,080). Many are forced to stand on wooden crates as bidders callously examine them like slaves. Those considered to be of the highest quality wind up in Britain and America.

Paul Holmes, head of London's Metropolitan Police vice squad, estimates that "more than 70 percent of women working in brothels in Soho [a district in London] are from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe."

Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, stated: "Trafficking in people, taking women and children into slavery and prostitution, is producing profits second only to those from the drug trade within organized crime. The trafficking in people is the fastest growing transitional criminal activity." (Source: Sunday Times Magazine [London].)

Violent children: the hidden connection

"An astoundingly high level of personal violence separates the United States from every other industrial nation. To find comparable levels of interpersonal violence, one must examine nations in the midst of civil wars or social chaos. In the United States of America in the 1990s, two million violent crimes and twenty-four thousand murders occurred on average every year. The weapon of choice in 70 percent of these murders was a gun, and thousands more are killed by firearms every year in accidents and suicides.

"In a typical week, more Americans are killed with guns than in all of Western Europe in a year ... In no other industrial nation do military surgeons train at an urban hospital to gain battlefield experience, as is the case at the Washington Hospital Center in the nation's capital." So writes Michael Bellesiles in the introduction to his book Arming America, published last year (page 4).

Since colonial times Americans have had ready access to guns. But only recently have school shootings become a problem, with children killing children. Why this problem has suddenly arisen perplexes a nation increasingly worried about the safety of its young people.

Although the news and entertainment media saturate us with coverage of every such incident, a contributory factor in many of these situations has been conspicuously overlooked. It is to be found in the last book of the Old Testament.

"For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one's garment with violence" (Malachi 2:16). This verse makes a connection between two societal trends: divorce and violence. Most of the perpetrators of school shootings have come from broken homes.

One of the latest was committed by a young boy who recently moved across the country after the breakdown of his parents' marriage. Traumatic changes like these in the lives of young people inevitably lead to anger, and anger unrestrained can lead to violence. Feelings of impotence and rage accompany the frustration of being trapped as victims in a situation they can do nothing about.

God created the family. The family unit is supposed to be based on love between a man and his wife. God intended the family to last until one or the other spouse died (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:3-9). Having created the institution of marriage, God instructed our first parents to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). Children need parents, both parents, not just for the act of procreation but for the emotional support they require before they in turn are ready to leave home, marry and start their own families.

There have always been divorces, but the breakdown of the traditional family that has taken place in the last three decades since the introduction of "no-fault divorce" is without precedent in history. The social consequences of this trend include violence such as that we are witnessing in American schools. As families break down further, we can expect more violence. It is not mere coincidence that the majority of violent crimes are committed by young males from broken homes.

Lung cancer top killer of women with cancer

Lung cancer caused by smoking is now the biggest killer of females with cancer, says United States surgeon general David Satcher. "One woman dies from smoking every three minutes," he said. "Yet women may not fully realize the threat: Lung cancer claims 27,000 more women's lives [in the United States] than the breast cancer that women dread so much."

Tobacco companies aggressively target women in advertising campaigns. They spend nearly $1 million an hour to promote a product that significantly reduces life expectancy and threatens or reduces the quality of life of those who use it. Female smokers face additional risks such as menstrual irregularities, earlier menopause, infertility and bone-thinning osteoporosis.

Christians have a responsibility to set an example in how they treat their bodies. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit ... and you are not your own." Elsewhere in the same epistle he states: "If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Corinthians 3:17).

It is the responsibility of Christians to take care of their physical bodies along with caring for themselves spiritually. (Source: The Associated Press.)

-- John Ross Schroeder and Melvin Rhodes