i sent you mail hawk.
hopes ya gots it.
-Zev
Learn about the Wtbts and the U.N.
** http://www.geocities.com/plowbitch69 **
WTS/UN UPDATE - IMPORTANT
by hawkaw 41 Replies latest jw friends
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zev
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hawkaw
Thx,
Hope you got mine?
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rolling rock
thanks hawk!!!
Sorry I have not been around on the touchstone. I got busy working on the farm, and that comes first. Besides you do a better job then I do ,and I am starting to think that most of them are dumber then a box of rocks. I mean do I not make myself clear enough on there or what. Thay pushed my thread back, so that changed the subject for me.
thanks.
skiingcowboy... -
outnfree
Hawk,
Here are 1992 and 1993 Awake! references to the UN:
*** g92 3/8 29 Watching the World ***
Improved Child Care
Following UNICEF’s (United Nations Children’s Fund) recommendations, the Brazilian state of Ceará has “lowered its infant-mortality rate, from 95 deaths for every 1,000 babies to 65,” reports Newsweek. A UNICEF representative says: “No country or state has obtained the same dramatic results in the same short period of time as Ceará state.” Newsweek says that after 80 hours of training, 4,000 health workers have gone into the countryside, traveling by foot, bicycle, horse, donkey, and canoe, to teach mothers basic baby care, such as breast-feeding. When taught how to prepare a lifesaving oral rehydration formula of sugar, salt, and water, a mother of three said in surprise: “I thought it had to be more complicated.”*** g92 5/22 14-16 Drift-Net Fishing on the Way Out? ***
Just last year a report submitted to the United Nations said that the Japanese drift-net fishery, in the process of harvesting 106 million squid, killed 39 million fish that the fishermen did not want. In addition, their unwanted toll included 700,000 sharks, 270,000 seabirds, 26,000 marine animals, and 406 sea turtles, which are endangered.
Marine biologists are convinced that if drift netting continues unchecked, it “will inevitably exhaust a natural resource once considered inexhaustible.” In fact, much havoc may already have been caused. In 1988 a fishing captain told biologist LaBudde: “We don’t kill nearly as many dolphins as we used to.” Notes LaBudde: “That’s probably because there aren’t that many left to kill.”
Global Agreements Surfacing
Recently, however, calls for action against drift netting have been heard from London to Washington, D.C., and from Alaska to New Zealand, and some measures have been taken to pressure fishermen to cut back their fleets and haul in some of their nets for good. To name a few: A group of South Pacific States adopted the so-called Wellington (New Zealand) Convention, permitting them to eliminate drift netting within their 200-mile [320 km] fishing zones and prohibiting their own fishermen from using drift nets anywhere in the South Pacific.
In December 1989 a UN resolution recommended a moratorium on large-scale drift-net fishing on the high seas by June 30, 1992. The World Watch Institute said that without curtailment of drift-net fishing, “humanity [will] have little hope to protect its seas for future generations” and added: “We must work out comprehensive global agreements.” South Pacific States, grouped in the Forum Fisheries Agency, therefore proposed the creation of an international commission to regulate fishing and urged fishermen to adopt responsible fishing practices.
But is international pressure having some effect? Yes, dramatically so!
On November 26, 1991, Japan agreed “to comply with a United Nations moratorium on the use of huge fishing nets in the northern Pacific Ocean that scientists say are responsible for widespread destruction of marine life.” The decision “defused a controversy that had threatened to do further damage to Japan’s reputation on environmental matters.” Japan agreed to end half of its drift-net operations by June 1992 and the remaining half by the end of that year.
One day later an editorial in The New York Times said: “‘A sweet victory for the global environment’ was how one elated marine biologist described Japan’s announcement on Tuesday that it would shut down its drift-net fishing industry by the end of next year [1992].”
A report in Time magazine, December 9, 1991, said that Taiwan and the Republic of Korea indicated that they would also discontinue their use of drift nets.
“As for this sea so great and wide, there there are moving things without number, living creatures, small as well as great.”—Psalm 104:25.*** g92 5/22 28 Watching the World ***
Watching the World
In Search of a New World Order
For the first time in more than 40 years, the United Nations is being revived as an instrument of collective security. On January 31, New York City was the scene of a historic gathering of the high and mighty and the small and poor as heads of governments opened the first UN Security Council summit meeting. This unique one-day assembly of the Security Council was to search for what world leaders have called a new world order to replace the dangers of Cold War confrontations. British prime minister John Major called the summit a “turning point in the world and at the United Nations.” The world leaders want to enhance the UN’s peace-keeping capacity. Thus, the summit meeting’s declaration states: “The members of the Council agree that the world now has the best chance of achieving international peace and security since the foundation of the United Nations.”*** g92 5/22 28 Watching the World ***
“Baby Killers”
Respiratory illnesses, such as bronchitis, pneumonia (even when caused by minor disorders like the common cold), are the “number one killers of children under the age of five,” United Nations statistics show. “Eight children die every minute because of these illnesses, making a total of four million infant deaths each year,” reports the weekly supplement Corriere salute. The solution? According to the experts, “earlier use of antibiotics, and, in addition, building up the children’s defenses, improving their diet, and making more widespread use of vaccination.”*** g92 6/22 28 Watching the World ***
Victory Over Insects
For seven months, plane after plane flew over Libya, opened their cargo bays, and unleashed a powerful biological weapon: sterile male screwworm flies. It was “an emergency campaign to eradicate the New World Screwworm, a pest threatening animals and humans in Africa and beyond,” says New African magazine. Now, 1.3 billion flies later, victory has been proclaimed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, at a cost of $65 million—just over half of what was originally estimated. When the females mate with the released sterile males, no offspring are produced. As a result, the flies eventually die out. Surveillance is to continue until the summer of 1992.*** g92 8/8 7 Why Is Africa Suffering So Much? ***
But the most tragic mark left by AIDS is upon children. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) estimates that as 2.9 million women die of AIDS in Africa this decade, up to 5.5 million children will be orphaned. An official from one country that has at least 40,000 AIDS orphans reports that already “there are villages . . . of children only.”
Typical of the dilemma are infected mothers with their infected children. The South African Medical Journal explains that “a question commonly raised by a mother of a seropositive infant is that of ‘who will die first?’”*** g92 8/8 29 Watching the World ***
More People
The United Nations Population Fund recently released their latest estimates for worldwide population growth. According to The New York Times, the “new projections show the world adding 97 million new people every year until the end of the century and 90 million a year thereafter until 2025.” Ninety-seven percent of this population growth is expected to take place in developing countries. Such population increase poses a serious threat to the quality of human life. “The report warned that such rates of growth mean greater numbers of poor and hungry people, increased migration toward cities and richer countries and increased pressure on the world’s reserves of food, water and other natural resources,” noted the Times. The present world population of 5.5 billion is expected to rise to about 10 billion in the year 2050.*** g92 9/8 12 Space Exploration-What Does the Future Hold? ***
Of course, the United States and the Russian Federation are not the only nations involved in space exploration. Among other initiatives, the European Space Agency, through the French Arianespace company, produces expendable rockets for commercial satellite launchings. Japan is also reaching for the stars, and “by the turn of this century, Japan plans to become the first Asian nation to establish a permanent human presence in space,” according to recent information published in Asiaweek. The first official Japanese astronaut, Mamoru Mohri, is scheduled for a seven-day mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1992. The same report says that “the mission is an important prelude to Japan’s plans to contribute to the [U.S.] Freedom space station.” This project will also have the cooperation of European and Canadian space scientists.*** g92 10/8 11-13 Shantytowns-Hard Times in the Urban Jungle ***
Hundreds of millions live in rapidly expanding slums and shantytowns like this one. According to United Nations statistics, 1.3 billion people are jammed into the cities of the developing world, and 50 million are added each year.
Life in Developing Countries
Does your home have a measure of privacy, tap water, a toilet? Does someone collect your garbage? Hundreds of millions of people in developing countries do not enjoy these things.
In many cities poor areas are so crowded that it is common for a family of ten to share a single room. Frequently, people have less than ten square feet [a square meter] of living space. In some parts of a city in the Orient, even small rooms are subdivided for multiple occupancy, with caged bunk beds for privacy and protection against thieves. In another land, a “hot-bed” system enables people to rent beds by the hour so that two or three persons can sleep in shifts each day.
According to the 1991 annual report of UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), 1.2 billion people worldwide have unsafe water supplies. Millions must buy their water from vendors or collect it from streams or other surface sources. Where piped-in water is available, sometimes more than a thousand people struggle to share a single standpipe tap.
UNICEF also estimates that 1.7 billion people lack sanitary means for disposal of human wastes. It is not unusual for 85 percent of shantytown residents to have no access to toilet facilities. In most cities in Africa and Asia, including many with populations of over a million, there is no sewerage system whatever. Human waste goes into streams, rivers, ditches, canals, and gullies.
Garbage is another problem. In the cities of the developing nations, from 30 to 50 percent of the solid waste is not collected. The poor areas are neglected most. One reason is that the poor throw away less waste that can profitably be used or reclaimed by garbage collectors or recycling businesses. A second reason is that since many poor settlements are not recognized as legally established, governments deny them public services. A third problem is that many poor areas, because of their location and crowded nature, are difficult and expensive to service.
What happens to the garbage? It is dumped to rot on the streets, on open land, and in rivers and lakes.
Health Risks
The plight of the urban poor varies from place to place. Yet, three factors are almost universal. The first is that their homes are not merely uncomfortable, they are hazardous. The book The Poor Die Young states: “At least 600 million people living in urban areas of the Third World live in what might be termed life and health threatening homes and neighborhoods.”
In what way can inadequate housing promote ill health? Crowded conditions in poor urban areas help promote the spread of diseases, such as tuberculosis, influenza, and meningitis. Overcrowding also increases the risk of household accidents.
Lack of adequate, clean water increases the transmission of waterborne diseases, such as typhoid, hepatitis, and dysentery. It also results in diarrheic disease that kills a child in the developing world, on the average, every 20 seconds. Lack of sufficient water for washing and bathing makes people more prone to eye infections and skin diseases. And when poor people must pay high prices for water, there is less money for food.
Contamination of water and food results in fecal-oral diseases and intestinal worms, such as hookworms, roundworms, and tapeworms. Uncollected garbage attracts rats, flies, and cockroaches. Stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry malaria and filariasis.
The Poverty Mire
A second characteristic of shantytown life is that it is extremely difficult for residents to break free of it. Most of those who come to the city are migrants driven from the rural areas by poverty. Unable to afford decent housing, they begin and often end their urban lives in slums and shantytowns.
Many of the people are industrious and willing to work hard, but they are faced with no alternative but to accept jobs with long hours and low pay. Hard-pressed parents often send their children to work instead of to school, and children with little or no education have little prospect of rising above their parents’ situation. Even though youngsters earn very little money, what they do earn is often crucially important to their families. Thus, for the majority of the urban poor, there is not much hope of improving their lot in life; their goal is day-to-day survival.
Unloved, Unwanted
A third feature of life is that tenancy is uncertain. To many governments, shantytowns and slums are an embarrassment. Rather than working to improve shantytowns, which is not always practical, governments often send in the bulldozers.
Governments may justify shantytown clearance by saying that it is necessary to beautify the city, to rout out criminals, or to redevelop the land. Whatever the reason, the poor are the ones who suffer. Usually there is nowhere for them to go and little or no compensation is provided. But when the bulldozers move in, they have little choice but to move out.
The Role of Government
Why do the governments not provide adequate housing with water, sewerage, and garbage-disposal services for all? The book Squatter Citizen answers: “Many Third World nations have such a shortage of resources and so little chance of developing a stable and prosperous role within the world market that it is possible to question seriously their viability as nation-states. One can hardly castigate a government for failing to address the needs of its citizens when the entire nation has such an inadequacy of resources that, under current conditions, there are insufficient resources to allow basic needs to be met.”
In many countries the economic situation is deteriorating. Last year, the outgoing secretary-general of the United Nations reported: “The position of most of the developing countries within the world economy has been deteriorating for some time. . . . Over 1 billion people now live in absolute poverty.”*** g92 10/22 28 Watching the World ***
Watching the World
A Turning Point for the UN?
“The United Nations may never be the same after the Earth Summit,” commented Charles Petit, a science writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He added: “The world body finally seems to be gaining the stature assigned to it when its charter was signed 47 years ago in San Francisco.” The UN-sponsored Earth Summit meeting, which took place in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, attempted to address some of the environmental problems now facing the world; many are clearly too large in scope for individual nations to solve. Hilary French of the Worldwatch Institute commented: “Nations are, in effect, ceding portions of their sovereignty to the international community and beginning to create a new system of international environmental governance.”*** g92 11/8 28 Watching the World ***
Watching the World
Rich-Poor Gap Widens
The gap between rich and poor has doubled in the past 30 years, says the Human Development Report 1992, published for the United Nations Development Programme. Based on national averages, in 1960 the wealthiest 20 percent of the world’s population was 30 times richer than the poorest 20 percent. By 1989 they were nearly 60 times richer. On an individual basis, the world’s billion richest people are at least 150 times better off than the billion poorest.*** g92 12/8 3 Resolved to Help the Children ***
The final day of the summit was hailed by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) as “perhaps the most momentous day ever for children around the world.” Why such enthusiasm? Because world leaders had adopted a concrete “Plan of Action” to reduce the suffering and death of youngsters throughout the earth.
Admittedly, the history of conference diplomacy is rife with broken promises. Yet, many sensed a new spirit of sincerity and cooperation as a result of the end of the Cold War. James Grant, UNICEF’s executive director, enthusiastically stated: “The heads of State and Government took, in effect, the first step toward establishing the well-being of all people—of ‘grown-up children’ as well as children—as the central objective of development in a new world order.”
Indeed, within a year following the summit, most nations had already drawn up national plans to implement the summit resolutions. This prompted Director Grant to say: “We now see a very realistic prospect that health for all children will be achieved by the year 2000.”
But just what is the plight of the children, the world’s shameful family secret, that has been exposed by the international media? Is there now, in the post-Cold War atmosphere of international cooperation, sound reason to believe that the United Nations will spearhead a marvelous new world order? Can we realistically hope for a bright future for our children? The next two articles will consider these questions.*** g92 12/8 7 Children in Crisis ***
Presently, military expenditures—conservatively estimated by the United Nations to be over $1 trillion annually—exceed the combined annual incomes of the poorest half of humanity. The diversion of even 5 percent of this vast sum would be enough to speed up progress toward reaching the summit goals. For example, the price tag of a single F/A-18 fighter jet (over $30 million) is equal to the cost of enough vaccines to protect 400 million children against killer diseases.
The nations are able to meet the ambitious goals set out at the summit. They have the knowledge, the technology, and the money. The question remains, Will they?
[Box/Picture on page 6]
Combating Malnutrition
Six Points Parents Should Know
1. Breast milk alone is the best possible food for the first four to six months of a child’s life. It provides complete nutrition and immunizes the child against common infections.
2. By the age of four to six months, the child needs other foods. Introducing solid foods earlier increases the risk of infection; introducing them later leads to malnutrition.
3. A child under three years of age needs to be fed twice as often as an adult, with smaller amounts of more energy-rich food.
4. Food and drink should not be withheld when a child is ill or has diarrhea.
5. After an illness, a child needs an extra meal a day for a week to catch up on the growth lost.
6. At least two years between births is essential for the nutritional health of both mother and child.
[Credit Lines]
Source: United Nations Children Fund
UNICEF/C/91/ Roger Lemoyne
[Picture on page 5]
Only half the developing world’s children have access to clean drinking water
[Credit Line]
UNICEF/3893/89/ Maggie Murray-Lee
[Picture on page 7]
Each child, with it’s unique personality, is precious to God and has as much right to thrive as anyone else
[Credit Line]
Photo: Cristina Solé/Godo-Foto*** g93 1/8 4 How Has Our World Changed? ***
Just a few years ago, the United Nations was mainly an arena for the struggle between capitalist and Communist powers, with the so-called unaligned nations hedging their bets and looking on. Now the nations of East and West are talking about peace and security, and the United Nations has more teeth. It can send military forces to crisis areas all over the world. Three years ago, there were countries known as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Now both have fragmented into smaller independent States.*** g93 1/8 5 Our Changing World-Where Is It Headed? ***
Today’s crime is also more violent. Life is cheap. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an area of slums on the edge of the city has been “officially recognized by the United Nations as the world’s most violent place. More than 2,500 people are murdered there every year.” (World Press Review) In Colombia, drug lords send out their adolescent sicarios, or paid killers, on motorbikes to settle accounts with competitors and debtors by means of their special kind of swift death penalty. And often, woe betide you if you witness a crime—whether in Colombia or anywhere else. You may be the next victim.*** g93 1/8 6 Our Changing World-Where Is It Headed? ***
The proliferation of nuclear know-how presents new threats, while war with conventional weapons continues to flourish—much to the delight of the world’s arms dealers. In a world crying out for peace, many political leaders are beefing up their armies and their weaponry. And an almost bankrupt United Nations is kept busy trying to put Band-Aids on the world’s chronic ulcers.*** g93 1/8 12 Our Changing World-What Does the Future Really Hold? ***
Using symbolic language, the Bible indicates that God will soon put it into the hearts of the political elements, including the United Nations, to destroy the power and the prestige of perhaps the most negative force in mankind’s history—the nationalistic and divisive influence of religion earth wide. According to Martin van Creveld, in his book The Transformation of War, “there appears every prospect that religious attitudes, beliefs, and fanaticisms will play a larger role in the motivation of armed conflict than it has, in the West at any rate, for the last 300 years.” Possibly because of meddling in politics, religion is going to suffer at the hands of the political powers. Yet, those powers will unwittingly be fulfilling God’s will.—Revelation 17:16, 17; 18:21, 24.*** g93 1/8 26 You Can Make Flying Safer ***
The Airlines and Your Safety
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), operating under the supervision of the United Nations, has made an effort to improve flight safety, working with the commercial airlines. IATA (International Air Transport Association) and ATA (Air Transport Association of America) have been in very close association with ICAO as far as safety matters are concerned. They have published instructions and requirements and prepared training material and information for the benefit of their members and the general public.*** g93 2/8 31 Freedom Index ***
Freedom Index
THE UNDP (United Nations Development Program) published a “Human Freedom Index” that indicated how much freedom is enjoyed by the populations of 88 different countries. Based on the 40 rights and freedoms laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the index awards a country one point for each freedom.*** g93 2/22 6 Children-Assets or Liabilities? ***
Many couples understand the benefits of family planning, yet do not practice it. The result? The State of the World’s Children 1992, published by the United Nations Children’s Fund, said that approximately 1 pregnancy in 3 in the developing world during the year would be not only unplanned but unwanted.*** g93 4/22 5 What Hope for an End to War? ***
The setting up of the United Nations in 1945 after World War II was intended to give war-weary humans a hope for a world without war. That hope is expressed in an inscription on the wall of the UN plaza in New York City, which reads: THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES. AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING HOOKS: NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION. NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE.*** g93 4/22 13 My Reflections as a Military Historian ***
Meanwhile, our children were growing. Our son, Gary, after graduating from high school, felt adrift and rudderless. He joined the Marine Corps and served in the Vietnam War. After he had spent two years overseas, we were grateful to have him safely home again. Clearly, wars fail to preserve peace. Instead, we have had the continuing spectacle of member nations of the United Nations warring against one another while starvation and disease ravage their peoples.*** g93 6/8 29 Watching the World ***
“Air pollution is posing increasingly serious health problems in some of the world’s biggest cities, and is now an almost inescapable part of urban life everywhere.” So states a recent report published jointly by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. The report, based on a scientific study of 20 cities, indicates that motor vehicle traffic is a major cause of air pollution. It also points out that the number of motorized vehicles worldwide, about 630 million at present, will probably double in the next 20 or 30 years. Air pollution adversely affects the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, leading to increased disease, disability, and death.*** g93 7/8 29 Watching the World ***
Breathing Dangerously
From Buenos Aires to Beijing, from Seoul to Calcutta and Cairo, the air in the world’s largest cities is becoming more and more dangerous to breathe. Citing a report by the UN Environment Program and the World Health Organization, the French newspaper Le Figaro says that the ever-increasing toxic levels of airborne pollutants (such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and lead) are clearly damaging the health of people living in large urban areas and can even be linked to the premature death of some city dwellers. Based on a 15-year study of 20 cities, the joint report warns that urgent measures must now be taken to decrease the pollution and to protect the health of the world’s urban populations. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2000, almost half of mankind will be living in urban areas.*** g93 7/22 28-9 Watching the World ***
Journalists Slain
At least 60 journalists were killed while covering conflicts around the world in 1992. This report, published by the International Federation of Journalists in Brussels, Belgium, and carried in the Manchester Guardian Weekly, named Turkey and Bosnia as the most dangerous places. At least ten journalists were said to have been murdered in those two countries during the past year. Journalists have also been threatened while covering the clan warfare and famine in Somalia. The federation is asking the United Nations and the European Community governments to declare that censorship is a “gross violation of human rights.”*** g93 9/8 23 Why I Left the Priesthood for a Better Ministry ***
The upbuilding Bible-related discussions that followed brought me inner peace and happiness. These were the kind of people I had been searching for—God’s people. I prayed to God for guidance and in due time began associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses as an unbaptized preacher of the good news. I was indeed surprised to learn that this organization’s headquarters was located in Brooklyn, New York, only a few miles from the Holy Family Church in Manhattan, where I had served (in 1969, 1971, and 1974) as associate pastor of the Parish Church of the United Nations.*** g93 9/8 31 "Learning the Lesson of Tolerance" ***
“Learning the Lesson of Tolerance”
AS WE approach the end of the 20th century, has mankind in general learned any lessons from its violent history since 1914? Federico Mayor, director general of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), was not too optimistic in an article he wrote for The Unesco Courier. “The world whose emergence can be discerned . . . does not inspire whole-hearted enthusiasm. Religious fundamentalism, nationalism, racial and ethnic prejudice, anti-semitism: the winds of freedom have rekindled the embers of hatred. . . . The collapse of the old order has left the field open for all kinds of new initiatives, some of them extremely chaotic—and violence thrives in a vacuum.”*** g93 9/22 12 The Case for Mother's Milk ***
The Best Nutrition
Have scientists improved on the Creator’s built-in method of feeding infants? Hardly. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) states: “Breast-milk alone is the best possible food and drink for babies in the first four to six months of life.” Breast milk contains all the proteins, growth stimulants, fats, carbohydrates, enzymes, vitamins, and trace elements that are vital to an infant’s healthy growth during the first few months of life.*** g93 9/22 20 World Government-Is the United Nations the Answer? ***
World Government—Is the United Nations the Answer?
IN RECENT years the United Nations has won renewed confidence and admiration in the world. To millions the abbreviation “UN” evokes heroic images: troops in blue berets bravely rushing to the world’s trouble spots to establish peace, relief workers bringing food to the starving refugees of Africa, and dedicated men and women working unselfishly to establish a new world order.
According to a nine-month investigation undertaken by The Washington Post, as reported in the International Herald Tribune, the reality behind the image is “an enormous, largely uncontrolled bureaucracy, subject to abuses and deficiencies that impair its effectiveness.” The study, based on thousands of pages of documents and interviews with current and former UN officials, revealed the following picture.
Aid to Africa: The UN has poured billions of dollars of badly needed aid into Africa, a continent wracked by war, famine, poverty, and disease. Countless lives have been saved.
Yet, thousands of lives and millions of dollars have also been lost because of mismanagement, negligence, and, at times, corruption. The UN has pumped relief aid into famine-stricken Somalia, where many people have been dying each day. But Aryeh Neier, executive director of the Human Rights Watch, is quoted in the Tribune as saying: “The United Nations and its various organizations have been so monstrously negligent and incompetent that they have played almost no role at all in alleviating Somalia’s misery.”
The report also charged that some UN officials have been implicated in diversions of food aid, embezzlement of humanitarian assistance, fraudulent procurement, black-marketing, and currency-exchange manipulation. UN investigators found evidence of such fraud in no fewer than seven African countries.
Peacekeeping: Keeping the peace is a primary goal of the UN, though in the years since its founding in 1945, there have been over a hundred major conflicts, and 20 million people have been killed in war. Since 1987, however, the UN has embarked upon 13 peacekeeping operations, as many as in its entire history before then.
While some might argue that the cost of these operations is preferable to the terrible price of war, many complain that things have gone too far. For example, peacekeeping operations drag on for decades, eating up hundreds of millions of dollars while negotiations remain deadlocked. The UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia allocates more than $1 million for TV sets and VCRs for the troops and another $600,000 for magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
Reform: There are widespread cries for reform within the UN, but opinions vary as to what needs to be reformed. Developing countries are calling for a greater voice in the decision-making process and would like to expand economic and social programs. Industrialized nations want to cut back on these programs and end corruption, mismanagement, and waste.
Said a senior UN official: “To really reform, you have to do something that is absolutely undoable in a bureaucracy: You have to clean the place out. To do something meaningful, you have to scrape away 45 years of barnacles, and that’s a lot of barnacles.”
While Christians see the need for a single body to administer mankind’s affairs, they do not believe that the United Nations is the answer. Instead, they look to God’s Kingdom, the government that Jesus told his followers to pray for.—Matthew 6:10.*** g93 10/22 6 What Kind of World Do You Want? ***
The doctors listed first “a world without war.” After suffering a number of horrible wars, many long for a world in which people will never again fight and kill one another. Their hope is expressed in an inscription on the wall of the United Nations Plaza in New York City, which reads: THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES. AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING HOOKS: NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION. NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE.*** g93 11/22 28 Watching the World ***
Child Prostitution Spreading
“Doctors, police officers and social workers . . . are reporting that children and adolescents are increasingly in demand as prostitutes because clients see them as ‘safer’ and likely to be free of AIDS,” says the International Herald Tribune of Paris. At a recent UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) conference on “the sex trade and human rights” held in Brussels, Belgium, experts confirmed that customers are willing to pay far higher prices for children who are considered to be virgins. While acknowledging that the global AIDS epidemic was a major factor, the experts also pointed out that the many facets of the highly lucrative sex industry “have normalized the open buying and selling of sex and have eroded taboos against sexual exploitation of children.” UNESCO studies show the problem to be particularly rampant in Benin, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, and the Philippines. An estimated 800,000 of the 2 million Thai female prostitutes are children and adolescents, and over 10,000 boys from 6 to 14 years of age are said to work as prostitutes in Sri Lanka.*** g93 12/22 14 How the World Will Be United ***
Yes, the result of heeding this divine teaching would be no more fighting, no more ethnic violence, no more war. Human rulers assumed that they could fulfill this Bible prophecy and even inscribed the last portion of it on a wall of the United Nations Plaza in New York City. Yet, war and hatred among national and ethnic groups has only increased right up to the end of 1993. So would you say God’s prophecy has failed?----------
More to follow.outnfree
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts -- John Wooden
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outnfree
Sorry, triple post!
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zev
i think outnfree beat me to it
i think she has everyting i found and then some.
i'll print all this out and look at the stuff i have on the laptop and compare.
i also found some other things too.
heres some thoughts i had hawk.
knowing the deviousness of the wtbts, they may have submitted incomplete articles, missing the usual disclaimers at the end, stating how gods kingdom would solve all the problems of the world.
as you can see from outnfrees post, there are ALOT of paragraphs, and articles which, do not shed "positive" views, but to me, even a neutral view, is as good as a stamp of approval.
they certainly are not negative.
whens your cut off hawk? whens the last check in before you print this stuff off and head for the big city?
even as i was leaving for work this morning, i found even more stuff, all in all 24 references, that i'm sure you'll find in the archives.
all they had to do is cut off the end paragraphs, and submit it, and i'm willing to put my paycheck on it.
i did get your mail, btw. and thanks.
-Zev
Learn about the Wtbts and the U.N.
** http://www.geocities.com/plowbitch69 ** -
hawkaw
Outnfree,
Thanks. This will be of major help.
Zev,
Saturday afternoon your time.
I will be able to take a peek at that time and make a print.
Again, thanks for all of your help and look forward to your further responses.
However, Zev, remember - you are finally out. Do not kill yourself on this. Your priority in life is to enjoy life and your freedom.
Go out with your buddy and enjoy your time. This research stuff comes if you have a little time here and there to spare.
But again thanks for your & everyone elses help.
hawk
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JT
as you can see from outnfrees post, there are ALOT of paragraphs, and articles which, do not shed "positive" views, but to me, even a neutral view, is as good as a stamp of approval.
they certainly are not negative
#########and this is the point
wt speaks in double speak one that is understood by jw and one for the nonjw and if a nonjw read this they would come away with the thought that wt is praising the UN
yes it is during those 10yrears that every article in ref to this subject of the UN was either favor or neutral in the AWAKE
while the WT/talks/CO/DO/Betlites talks were slamming THE BEASTbut to be very honest about it i really find that for some it will matter and i hope that it is the spark that gets them out and to that i am thankful
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outnfree
Hawk,
I have been finding the references below by doing a search on the 1999 WT CD-ROM (Thank you, Dung!) for "United Nations". I have focussed on the Awake! because that is where the factoid, neutral or favorable UN references seem to appear. But there are also lots of references in other WT publications.
Perhaps it would be better to save Simon bandwidth by allowing me to have your e-mail address and I could send the material directly? My e-mail is open and you could contact me there if my suggestion is agreeable to you. If I don't hear from you within a few hours, I'll post 1995 Awake![/i] references here.
Regards,
outnfree
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*** g94 1/22 16 Wetlands of The World-Ecological Treasures Under Attack ***
The Attack Is Worldwide
At the opening of a worldwide campaign promoted by the United Nations to save wetlands, threats to Brazil’s Pantanal ecosystem were cited. It is one of the world’s largest wetlands. The magazine BioScience stated: “The Pantanal, with its extraordinary diversity and abundance of wildlife, is a threatened region. Deforestation; expanding agriculture; illegal hunting and fishing; and pollution of the water with herbicides, pesticides, and by-products of fuel alcohol production have caused a progressive deterioration of the natural environment, placing at risk one of Brazil’s most important ecosystems.”
The New York Times pointed out the threat to the wetlands along the coast of the Mediterranean. “The loss of wetlands has quickened in the last three decades as the Mediterranean coasts have become more coveted than ever and large stretches of coastline have been covered with concrete in the name of sun worship, comfort and profits. United Nations studies cite major losses in Italy, Egypt, Turkey and Greece.”*** g94 2/22 3-4 Illiteracy-A Worldwide Problem ***
According to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), more than a quarter of the world’s adult population—over 960 million men and women—can neither read nor write. In developing nations, 1 in every 3 adults is illiterate. Like Almaz, Ramu, and Michael, these millions are unable to decipher a street sign, a newspaper, or a passage from the Bible. They are denied access to the vast storehouse of information found in magazines and books. They cannot write a letter or fill out a simple form. Most cannot even sign their name. Unable to compete for jobs where basic reading and writing are required, many remain unemployed, their talents untapped, their abilities undeveloped.
These figures do not include the legions of adults who are functionally illiterate—able to read and write at an elementary level but not well enough to handle the more complex reading and writing tasks of everyday life. In the United States alone, functionally illiterate adults number 27 million.
And what of children? Although figures are incomplete, since surveys have not been conducted in all countries, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 100 million school-age children worldwide will never enter a classroom. Another 100 million will not complete even a basic education. In fact, the UN Department of Public Information claims that in the rural areas of the developing world, only half the children receive more than four years of primary education. And in some industrialized nations, many children spend far more time in front of television than they do in school.*** g94 2/22 4-5 Helping People to Read ***
War and civil strife also contribute to illiteracy. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that seven million children languish in refugee camps, where educational facilities are often poor. In one African country alone, 1.2 million children under 15 years of age have not been able to attend school because of an agonizing civil war.*** g94 3/8 28 Watching the World ***
Who Has the Most Children?
Which nation has the highest fertility rate in the world? According to the United Nations, in first place is Rwanda, where women of childbearing age give birth, on the average, to 8.5 children each. Next come Malawi with 7.6 children, Côte d’Ivoire with 7.4, and Uganda with 7.3. The world average is 3.3 children, while for developed countries it is 1.9. Surprisingly, the nation with the lowest fertility rate in the world, with only 1.3 children per woman of childbearing age, is once prolific Italy. Gone are the days when it was common for an Italian family to have three, four, or more children. Evidently, the times have also passed in which Italians followed the instructions of the Catholic Church with regard to birth control and contraception.*** g94 3/8 29 Watching the World ***
Deaths During Pregnancy
“Child-bearing is one of the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age in developing countries,” states the 1992 Report issued by the United Nations Population Fund. Each day during 1992, an average of 1,359 women in the developing world died as a result of complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. In contrast, says the report, during that same year, pregnancy-related deaths in the developed countries took 11 victims per day. Although a woman’s risk of dying during pregnancy in some developed countries varies from 1 in 6,000 to 1 in 9,000, the risk in the least developed countries is 1 in 20. These figures, notes UNFPA, reveal “a staggering disparity between the developing and the developed worlds.”
Decibel Damage*** g94 5/8 4-8 Efforts to Save the Children ***
Efforts to Save the Children
“We have gathered at the World Summit for Children to undertake a joint commitment and to make an urgent universal appeal—to give every child a better future.”—United Nations Conference, 1990.
PRESIDENTS and prime ministers from over 70 countries gathered in New York City on September 29 and 30, 1990, to discuss the plight of the world’s children.
The conference focused international attention on the deplorable suffering of children, a global tragedy that has been swept under the rug. United States delegate Peter Teeley pointed out: “If 40,000 spotted owls were dying every day, there would be outrage. But 40,000 children are dying, and it’s hardly noticed.”
All the assembled heads of government agreed that something must be done—urgently. They made a “solemn commitment to give high priority to the rights of children, to their survival and to their protection and development.” What concrete proposals did they make?
Over 50 Million Young Lives in the Balance
The primary objective was to rescue over 50 million children who would likely die during the 1990’s. Many of these young lives could be saved by implementing the following health measures.
• If all mothers in developing countries were persuaded to breast-feed their babies for at least four to six months, a million children would be saved annually.
• The extensive use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) could halve the death rate due to diarrhea, which kills four million children every year.
• Widespread vaccination and the use of inexpensive antibiotics could prevent millions of other deaths due to diseases such as measles, tetanus, and pneumonia.
Is that type of health program feasible? The cost would probably reach $2.5 billion a year by the end of the decade. In global terms this outlay would be minimal. American tobacco companies spend that amount each year—just on cigarette advertising. Every day the nations of the world lavish that same amount on military expenditure. Could such funds be better spent on the health of endangered children? The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child pointedly states that “mankind owes the child the best it has to give.”
Of course, giving “every child a better future” involves a lot more than saving them from a premature death. Sandra Huffman, president of the Center to Prevent Childhood Malnutrition, explains in Time magazine that “ORT doesn’t prevent diarrhea, it only saves children from dying from it. . . . What we need to do now,” she adds, “is focus on how we can prevent the illness, not just the death.”
In order to improve—besides save—the lives of millions of children, several ambitious programs have been launched. (See box on page 6.) None will be easy to fulfill.
Clean Water Within Walking Distance
Felicia Onu used to spend five hours every day fetching water for her family. The water she carried home was often contaminated. (Such water brings with it an annual scourge of guinea worm infection and contributes to outbreaks of diarrhea.) But in 1984, in her village of Ugwulangwu in eastern Nigeria, a well was dug and a hand pump installed.
Now she has to walk only a few hundred yards to get clean water. Her children are healthier, and her life has become much easier. More than a billion people like Felicia gained access to clean water during the 1980’s. But millions of women and children still spend many hours each day lugging pails that contain less water than the amount that is casually flushed away by an average Western toilet.
Ups and Downs in Education
Maximino is a bright 11-year-old boy who lives in a remote area of Colombia. Despite spending several hours a day helping his father tend their crops, he is doing well at school. He goes to an Escuela Nueva, or New School, that has a flexible program designed to help children to catch up if they have to miss a few days’ school—a common occurrence, especially at harvest time. Teachers are a luxury in Maximino’s school. Textbooks are in short supply. The children are encouraged to help one another with what they don’t understand, and they themselves do most of the work involved in running the school. This innovative system—specially tailored to meet the needs of poor rural communities—is being tried in many other countries.
Thousands of miles from Colombia, in a large Asian city, lives another bright 11-year-old, named Melinda. She has recently left school in order to devote 12 hours a day to salvaging bits of metal and plastic from one of the city’s huge garbage dumps. “I want to help my father so that we can have a meal every day,” Melinda says. “If I didn’t help him, we might not be able to afford to eat at all.” Even on a good day, she brings home only about 35 cents (U.S.).
Child Health Workers
On the outskirts of the Indian city of Bombay is a shantytown called Malvani, where disease has long been endemic. At last things are improving, thanks to energetic health workers such as Neetu and Aziz. They visit families to check whether the young children have been vaccinated or if they are suffering from diarrhea, scabies, or anemia. Neetu and Aziz are only 11 years old. They volunteered to work in a program in which older children are assigned to monitor the health of the children under five. Because of the efforts of Neetu and Aziz—and the efforts of dozens of other children like them—nearly all the youngsters of Malvani have been immunized, most parents know how to administer oral rehydration therapy, and general hygiene has improved.
All over the world, enormous strides are being made to vaccinate young children against the most common diseases. (See chart on page 8.) Bangladesh has now immunized over 70 percent of its infant population, and China has immunized well over 95 percent. If every developing country could achieve the 90 percent mark, health experts believe that a collective immunity would result. When the vast majority are immunized, it is much harder for the disease to be transmitted.
Poverty, War, and AIDS
Nevertheless, the sad reality is that while headway is being made in health care and education, other problems remain as entrenched as ever. Three of the most intractable are poverty, war, and AIDS.
In recent years the poor people of the world have been getting poorer. Real income in impoverished areas of Africa and Latin America has decreased 10 percent or more in the last decade. Parents in these lands—where 75 percent of the family’s income is spent on food—just cannot afford to give their children a balanced diet.
‘Give the children vegetables and bananas,’ Grace was told at her local health clinic. But Grace, a mother of ten children, who lives in East Africa, has no money for food, and there is not enough water for her to grow those crops on the family’s quarter-acre [0.1 ha] plot. They have no choice but to subsist on corn and beans and to go hungry at times. If present trends continue, prospects are not likely to improve for Grace’s family or for millions of others like hers.
Grace’s children, poor as they are, fare better than eight-year-old Kim Seng of Southeast Asia, whose father was killed in a fratricidal civil war and whose mother subsequently died of starvation. Kim Seng, who also nearly died of malnutrition, eventually found sanctuary in a refugee camp. Many of the five million children who languish in refugee camps around the world have suffered similar hardships.
At the turn of the century, only 5 percent of war casualties were civilian. Now that figure has mushroomed to 80 percent, and the majority of these war victims are women or children. Those who may escape physical injury still suffer emotionally. “I can’t forget how my mother was killed,” says one child refugee from a country in south-central Africa. “They grabbed my mother and did bad things to her. Afterwards they tied her up and stabbed her. . . . Sometimes I dream about it.”
As violent conflicts keep on erupting in one country after another, it seems inevitable that innocent children will continue to suffer the ravages of war. Furthermore, international tension also harms children who are not directly involved in the conflicts. The military gobbles up money that could be spent providing better education, sanitation, and health care. World military spending by industrial countries exceeds the combined yearly income of the poorest half of mankind. Even the 46 poorest countries of the world spend as much on their military machines as they do on health and education combined.
Apart from poverty and war, another killer stalks the children of the world. During the 1980’s, while notable progress was being made in the fight against measles, tetanus, and diarrhea, a new health nightmare emerged: AIDS. The World Health Organization calculates that by the year 2000, ten million children will be infected. Most of these will never reach their second birthday, and hardly any will live for more than five years. “Unless something is done soon, AIDS threatens to wipe out all the progress we have made in child survival in the last 10 years,” laments Dr. Reginald Boulos, a Haitian pediatrician.
From this brief review, it is evident that despite some praiseworthy achievements, the aim of ‘giving every child a better future’ remains a mammoth task. Is there any hope that one day the dream will be realized?
[Footnotes]
ORT provides children with the liquid, salt, and glucose needed to counteract the fatal dehydrating effects of diarrhea. The World Health Organization reported in 1990 that already more than one million lives a year are being saved by this technique. For more details, see the September 22, 1985, issue of Awake!, pages 23-5.
[Box on page 6]
Goals for the ’90’s—The Challenge to Save the Children
The nations attending the World Summit for Children made several concrete commitments. This is what they hope to achieve by the year 2000.
Vaccination. The present vaccination programs save three million children each year. But two million others are still dying. By immunizing 90 percent or more of the world’s children against the most common diseases, the majority of these deaths could be avoided.
Education. During the 1980’s, school enrollment actually declined in many of the poorest countries of the world. The goal is to reverse that trend and to ensure that by the end of the decade, every child has the chance to go to school.
Malnutrition. United Nations Children’s Fund officials believe that “with the right policies, . . . the world is now in a position to feed all the world’s children and to overcome the worst forms of malnutrition.” Proposals were made to halve the number of malnourished children during the present decade. Such an achievement would rescue 100 million children from the pangs of hunger.
Clean water and sanitation. In 1987, the Brundtland Report explained: “In the developing world, the number of water taps nearby is a better indication of the health of a community than is the number of hospital beds.” At present over a billion people have no access to clean water, and twice as many are without sanitary waste disposal. The aim is to provide universal access to safe drinking water and sanitary means for human waste disposal.
Protection. In the last decade, wars have caused over five million child casualties. Five million other children have been made homeless. These refugees, as well as the millions of street children and child workers, urgently need protection. The Convention on the Rights of the Child—now ratified by over a hundred countries—seeks to protect all these children from violence and exploitation.
[Chart on page 7]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
MAIN CAUSES OF CHILD DEATHS
(Children Under Five)
MILLIONS OF DEATHS EACH YEAR (1990 estimates):
0.51 MILLION Whooping Cough
0.79 MILLION Neonatal Tetanus
1.0 MILLION Malaria
1.52 MILLION Measles
2.2 MILLION Other Respiratory Infections
4.0 MILLION Diarrheic Disease
4.2 MILLION Other Causes*** g94 6/22 29 Watching the World ***
The London-based International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency fighting piracy and armed robbery of ships, reports that piracy has “increased substantially in recent years both in number and brutality to crew members.” Although most of the 400 reported incidents of piracy took place in Southeast Asia’s Strait of Malacca, pirates are also prowling along the western coast of Africa and the northeastern coast of South America. Piracy, writes UN Chronicle magazine, “threatens to become a worldwide problem.”*** g94 7/22 13 Mexico Changes Its Laws on Religion ***
“Furthermore, these constitutional dispositions were clearly contradictory to what was established in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) and to the American Convention of Human Rights (Article 12), which international instruments the Mexican State has endorsed.”*** g94 8/8 29 Watching the World ***
Children in War
During the past ten years, about 1.5 million children have been killed in war, according to The State of the World’s Children 1994, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another four million have been disabled, maimed, blinded, or brain damaged. The number who have become refugees is estimated to be at least five million. Children have even been recruited into armies. In many countries children have been tortured and forced to watch or take part in atrocities. In one area the rape of girls has become a “systematic weapon of war.” The report says: “It seems right to conclude that the veneer of civilization has never before been worn so thin.”
A Losing Battle Against Locusts
“The UN is losing its war against locusts,” reported New Scientist magazine early in 1994. According to a recent meeting of agricultural scientists in the Netherlands, the $400 million battle the United Nations waged against locusts in the late 1980’s accomplished little. What really ended that plague was a fortuitous wind that blew the insects into the sea. Locusts breed and then swarm when an occasional rain sprinkles the desert, causing green patches of vegetation to appear. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization tries to kill locusts before they swarm, relying on satellite pictures of green patches in the desert. The problem is that the satellites miss many of the smaller patches. On the ground, local wars and lack of resources often prevent spray teams from reaching even the known breeding sites.*** g94 8/22 11 Breast-Feeding Basics ***
“Virtually every mother can breast-feed her baby,” assures the United Nations Children’s Fund. So likely you can too. You may discover, however, that breast-feeding is not as easy as you expected, especially if you are trying to do it for the first time. This is because breast-feeding, while natural, is not instinctive; it is a skill that you must learn. You may find that it takes you and your baby several days or even a few weeks to establish a comfortable and enjoyable routine.*** g94 8/22 13 Breast-Feeding Basics ***
Breast Versus Bottle
“Breastmilk is more nutritious, more hygienic, immunizes babies against common illnesses, and reduces the mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Infant formula, apart from being expensive, is often overdiluted with unclean water and fed to children from unsterile feeding bottles. In poor communities, the difference is so vital that an estimated 1 million young lives could be saved every year if the world’s mothers went back to exclusive breastfeeding for the first four to six months.”—The State of the World’s Children 1993, a publication of the United Nations Children’s Fund.*** g94 9/8 28 Watching the World ***
Global Refugee Crisis
During 1992, nearly 10,000 people a day became refugees. So affirms The State of the World’s Refugees, a new book by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). There were 18.2 million refugees worldwide in 1992, eight times as many as there were 20 years earlier. An additional 24 million people have become displaced in their own countries. In all, about 1 in every 130 people on earth has been forced to flee from home. The UNHCR magazine Refugees states: “The relentless increase in numbers—both of genuine refugees and of economic migrant—has imposed a serious strain on the 3,500-year-old tradition of asylum, bringing it close to collapse.”*** g94 11/8 28 Watching the World ***
Watching the World
A Water Crisis
The latest report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) says that some 30 countries around the earth will be facing serious water shortages by the year 2000. According to the FAO, with ever-increasing competition for limited water resources, hundreds of millions of people will not receive the minimum amount of water needed for their survival. The populations in greatest danger are those in northern and sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, and Hungary. The report, appearing in the Paris newspaper Le Monde, says that agriculture uses approximately 70 percent (90 percent in developing countries) of the earth’s freshwater supplies for irrigation. The FAO estimates that up to 60 percent of this water is wasted because of ineffective irrigation methods.*** g94 11/22 28 Watching the World ***
Watching the World
UN Failure
“It is a failure not only for the United Nations; it is a failure for the international community. And all of us are responsible for this failure,” lamented UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali in speaking of the slaughter in Rwanda. “It is a genocide which has been committed. More than 200,000 people have been killed and the international community is still discussing what ought to be done.” As reported on May 26, the secretary-general said that he had written to over 30 heads of State and begged them to send troops and had worked with different organizations in an effort to find a solution. “Unfortunately,” he added, “I failed. It is a scandal. I am the first one to say it.” Few African nations can afford the costs of sending troops, especially since the UN has delayed reimbursements because of its own financial difficulties. Most Western nations have declined to get involved, and U.S. president Bill Clinton mentioned that using American military power was not justified by the interests at stake. Mr. Boutros-Ghali placed the blame on “donor fatigue,” as the nations who supply personnel and money are being asked to do so for 17 different United Nations operations, according to The New York Times.*** g94 11/22 28 Watching the World ***
Teenage Mothers
Each year over 15 million women between the ages of 15 and 20 give birth worldwide, estimates Populi, a magazine of the United Nations Population Fund. This figure does not include girls younger than 15, nor does it account for abortions or miscarriages. In Africa alone about 28 percent of all women give birth before they are 18 years of age. Researchers say that among the reasons for increasing teenage pregnancy on that continent are ignorance about sexual matters, early marriages, and economic hardship that tempts young women to enter into sugar-daddy relationships with older, wealthy men. “Not only do teenage women face, on average, twice the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth than women 20-34 years old,” says Populi, “but the infants of teen mothers are more likely to die, too.”*** g94 11/22 29 Watching the World ***
Refugees Get the Worst of Both Worlds
In 1993 there was a great global increase in the number of refugees to over 20 million, says Sadako Ogata, commissioner of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. There were only 15 million refugees in 1991, when she took office. Political instability and ethnic conflicts are the chief reasons for the surge of refugees, reports the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. It seems, however, that refugees get the worst of both worlds. Why? Because in their new host countries, the commissioner added, often refugees were more and more the target for violence. Racial hatred and contempt for foreigners are becoming widespread, she said.*** g94 12/8 13 Megacities Slowly Suffocating ***
A recent report from UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) and the World Health Organization shows that air pollution in 20 of the world’s biggest cities has been getting drastically worse. “In some cases,” says Our Planet, a magazine published in Kenya by UNEP, “the air pollution is as bad as the infamous London smogs of 40 years ago.” The inhabitants of Mexico City are the hardest hit in this respect, but the tens of millions of people living in such cities as Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, and São Paulo are not much better off.*** g94 12/22 28-9 Watching the World ***
Deserts in Europe
Desertification, the deterioration of fertile farmland into deserts, is “one of the most serious global environmental problems,” asserts the United Nations Environmental Program. The newspaper The European reports that although generally associated with Africa, desertification now plagues some 10 percent of Europe’s agricultural land. Spain is the most severely affected country. Scientists believe that a combination of overgrazing and water wastage has left the ground prone to drought and erosion, costing farmers some $1.5 billion a year. A serious consequence is the migration of people to urban areas, which leads to overcrowding and civil unrest. Meteorologists predict a worsening shortage of rain for southern Europe.
----------------Just a note: It does seem to me that almost every issue when the Writing Dept. was working on its articles that somebody was scouring the UN's database (or those quarterly reviews?) for information that would dovetail with the subjects at hand. Just so that a little UN tidbit could be included somehow.
outnfree
It's what you learn after[/i] you know it all that counts -- John Wooden
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hawkaw
Skiing Cowboy,
Well I think "touchstone" finally could not take it anymore and have "archived" the threads.
I hope a lot of you were following it. It really shows how a JW has to rationalize stuff no matter what and take the side of the WTS no matter what or their belief system would be in big dodo.
I think we made some inroad though. And I also got some topics on the blood doctrine as well.
You can't say we didn't have fun.
I think the most interesting part of that discussion is that they treat the UN as the nicest thing you have ever heard and would not call it the "beast". And also interesting was when they kept saying that the WTS did nothing wrong. So I told them to go infront of their congregation and tell them that their aims and goals conform to the UN Charter. Not one person dared to even go there.
One thing is for sure - seeds have been planted.
hawk