World News and Trends

An Overview of Conditions Around the World

• U.S. AIDS infection rates on the rise again?
• European cocaine flow flourishing
• Papal trip prepares ground for next papacy
• TV turns toxic
• The house that debt built
• A better life for senior citizens
• Display of Ten Commandments endangered?
• Number of cohabiting couples surges

U.S. AIDS infection rates on the rise again?

Twenty years after AIDS was identified as the source of an epidemic that claimed the lives of many homosexual men, a new generation of males is contracting the HIV infection at an alarming rate.

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4.4 percent of U.S. men aged 23-29 who admitted having sex with other men became infected with HIV each year between 1998 and 2000. Infection rates varied drastically by race, with a 2.5 percent annual infection rate among whites, 3.5 percent among Hispanics and 14.7 percent among blacks. Linda Valleroy, senior author of the six-state study, likened the higher infection rate to "what's been seen in eastern and southern Africa."

"That rate means that of 100 men who are healthy at the start of a year, 15 will end up infected," Dr. Valleroy said. "These are explosive HIV incidence rates that we haven't seen since the early '90s."

Although the study is too small to indicate a national trend, "I think it gives a very good picture of what potentially could be happening in other parts of the country," said Helene Gayle, director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.

In the 20 years since AIDS was identified, an estimated 21.8 million people have died from the disease—including three million last year—and 36 million are believed to be infected.

More than five million people—an average of 15,000 daily— are infected each year. More than 30 experimental AIDS vaccines have been tested in humans, but none has been found effective. Margaret McCluskey, head of a vaccine study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and vaccine manufacturer VaxGen, said: "Most public health professionals agree that unless we find a definitive vaccine, which is questionable, we may not see an end to the pandemic in our lifetime. Not just an end to it. We may not even be able to control it." Even optimistic researchers caution that an effective vaccine, if it can be developed, is probably a decade away. (Source: Scripps Howard News Service, The New York Times.)

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European cocaine flow flourishing

While U.S. cocaine use leveled off in recent years, the flow of the drug into Europe has nearly doubled—to 220 tons annually—in the last five years.

Although the United Stated remains the undisputed leading market for the drug, consuming an estimated 330 tons yearly, the increased flow into Europe worries European governments and law-enforcement agencies.

Europol, the European Union's police agency, estimates that 35 percent of Colombia's cocaine production found its way to EU nations, primarily through the Netherlands and Spain. In 1999 EU member nations seized 43 tons of the drug, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year. (Source: The New York Times.)

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Papal trip prepares ground for next papacy

John Paul II is fully aware that he is 80 years old and infirm. He also knows that his present actions will help shape and undergird the Vatican's policies for the next papal government. He has never been one to shirk what he considers to be his responsibilities.

Frequently on the move throughout his pontifical reign (with some 100 major tours to date), this pope's most recent trip began in Greece and was followed by an excursion into Syria, ending in congenial Roman-Catholic Malta. The theme of this April-May journey was reconciliation, the attempted healing of bitter wounds reaching far into the past.

John Paul II was the first pope to visit Athens since 1054, when the Catholic Church divided into its Eastern and Western wings. Since some ultraorthodox Greeks view the pontiff as a heretic, 5,000 police were on hand to prevent trouble. The pope sought to heal a bitter rift between Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox Church. When he concluded his address, the Greek clergy burst into applause. But one Greek abbot downplayed the pope's actions: "He is doing this because he wants the Orthodox Church to recognize him."

In one sense the pope's Syrian excursion was even more ambitious. He sought to mend fences with the Muslim world and influence the tattered Middle Eastern peace process. The pontiff became the first pope ever to enter a mosque as well as the first to visit Syria.

After some inflammatory remarks against Israel by President Bashar Assad of Syria, John Paul II said: "Real peace can only be achieved if there is a new attitude of understanding and respect between the followers of three Abrahamic religions [Christianity, Judaism and Islam]."

He followed by preaching from the rubble of a Golan Heights area that Syria uses as a symbol of the supposed brutality of Israel. In effect the Pope also called for Israel to abide by UN resolutions urging its withdrawal to the pre-1967-war borders, which would include Israeli abandonment of the Golan Heights—a monumental step backwards in terms of the country's security.

Presumably his papal successor will most likely seek to carry out John Paul's wishes in this arena. If you would like to understand the biblical background of these highly significant events, please write for our free booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail [all London], USA Today, The Cincinnati Enquirer.)

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TV turns toxic

Except for reruns, the days of Perry Mason, Lawrence Welk, Jack Benny and Bob Hope are gone forever. By comparison, what we generally see on television appears dark and vulgar. Our viewing fare includes young ladies in mortal combat with vampires and monsters—not to mention Temptation Island, Sex and the City, The Jerry Springer Show and a whole range of imitators.

Even more sobering are modern TV-viewing statistics compared with those of 40 years ago. In 1961 the average daily viewer watched television for five hours per day. Now viewing has grown to more than eight hours. Added to that are the multiplication of multitelevision homes, the runaway growth of households with cable or satellite connections and the more than doubling of commercial TV stations over this 40year period.

Let's face it. Most people in the Western world spend far too much time watching television. Good TV has its uses, but many profitable leisure pursuits are easily more wholesome— reading, walking, hiking, bicycle riding and a multiplicity of available sports and games, just to name a few. (Source: USA Today.)

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The house that debt built

The Financial Times tells us that "in the US and the UK, household debt has reached a record level as a percentage of disposable income." Of even more concern for consumers is that "the real burden of debt has shifted from paying the interest to repaying the capital, and the figures can be startlingly large."

In Britain and the United States millions of credit-card users are trapped in a potential lifetime debt sentence. Monthly payments used to be 5 percent of the total amount owed. In same cases this has dropped to as low as 2 percent, assuring thousands of pounds and dollars of extra interest payments for many cardholders.

If you would like to know how to properly handle your own credit cards, please see "Do You Know How to Use a Credit Card?" on page 10 of this issue. You might also want to request our free booklet Managing Your Finances. (Sources: Financial Times, Daily Mail [all London]).

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A better life for senior citizens

A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that elderly Americans live longer, with fewer seniors requiring nursing-home care. Eight out of 10 people over 65 routinely care for themselves. Figures spanning two decades show a steady decline in the proportion of older people who are chronically disabled.

According to USA Today: "Researchers credit the decline to improved medical care, diet, exercise, public health advances and education about how to stay healthy." Most of these points parallel the contents of our full-color booklet Making Life Work. Please request a free copy if you would like to improve your life: healthwise, mentally, emotionally and most, important, spiritually. (Source: USA Today.)

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Display of Ten Commandments endangered?

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that the city of Elkhart, Ind., may not keep a granite pillar engraved with the Ten Commandments on its town-hall lawn.

The lower court had earlier decided that the display of the Ten Commandments amounted to an unwarranted governmental endorsement of a particular religious belief. The case originated in 1998 when several Elkhart citizens, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the city to have the Commandments removed. The ACLU has since begun a legal offensive to remove the estimated 4,000 Ten Commandments displays at city halls and civic buildings throughout the nation.

For the Supreme Court to hear the appeal, four of its nine justices would have had to agree to hear the case. However, only three conservative justices voted to accept it.

In expressing his desire for the court to hear the case, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said: "This monument does not express the city's preference for a particular religion or for religious belief in general. It simply reflects the Ten Commandments' role in the development of our legal system." He noted that the display emphasizes the relationship between the Commandments and the U.S. legal tradition—as does a carving of Moses holding the Ten Commandments that adorns a wall in the Supreme Court's own courtroom.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, declared that "[this] religious display must come down." He lauded the decision as "another hindrance" for religious conservatives in the United States.

Regrettably, many liberal legal scholars and judges seem determined to rid the United States of its strong JudeoChristian values and heritage. For a little-known perspective of America's founding, be sure to read "America's Astounding Destiny: Was It Foretold in the Bible?" beginning on page 4 of this issue. To better understand the supreme importance of God's Commandments, be sure to request our free booklet The Ten Commandments. (Sources: The Washington Post, The Washington Times.)

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Number of cohabiting couples surges

According to the latest census, the number of unmarried couples living together in America skyrocketed 71 percent over the last decade, far outpacing the 7 percent increase in married-couple households.

The census showed other changes that reflect trouble for the traditional family. For example, the number of people living alone increased 21 percent, and the number of women rearing children without husbands increased 25 percent.

Of the nation's 105.5 million households, slightly more than half—54.5 million—are married-couple families. Unmarriedpartner families—both heterosexual and homosexual— totaled 5.5 million, or 5 percent of all U.S. families, up from 3 percent a decade ago. (Source: The Associated Press.)

-- John Ross Schroeder and Scott Ashley