c. 1997 Religion News Service
Malnutrition kills more than 6 million children each year
(RNS) Malnutrition kills between 6 million and 7 million children each year worldwide, a United Nations’ agency reported Tuesday (Dec. 16).
Hunger is now more lethal than any disease since the bubonic plague, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated in its annual”State of the World’s Children”report.
And hunger is not limited to the developing world. In the United States, about 13 million children _ or one in four younger than 12 _ do not receive enough nourishment, the report said.”It tends to be worse at the end of the month, when people’s paychecks run out,”said Carol Bellamy, UNICEF executive director.
In addition, one-sixth of children in the United States are born into poverty, a proportion higher than in any other industrialized country, the Associated Press reported.
Malnutrition is even more prevalent in developing countries. One-third of children in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from it, as do half of South Asian children.”Those malnourished children who do survive often don’t grow well,”Bellamy said.”They have more frequent and severe bouts of illness. They are at high risk and have very bad intellectual development.” The report showed how a lack of access to adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and food affects development. For example, a lack of iodine in the diets of pregnant mothers can lead to”profound mental retardation”in children. Vitamin A deficiency, a problem for about 100 million young children across the globe, can cause blindness and harm immune systems.
The report also included some positive developments. The percentage of malnourished children in Latin America was cut in half since 1970, from 20 percent to 10 percent. This occurred despite only a slight increase in the rise of income levels in that region in the past 27 years, Bellamy said.
In the effort to reduce iodine deficiency, more than 60 percent of the world’s salt has been iodized, an increase from 12 percent five years ago.
Overriding governor, N.J. Senate bans `partial-birth’ abortions
(RNS) New Jersey lawmakers have overridden Gov. Christie Todd Whitman by voting to ban the late-term abortion procedure opponents call”partial-birth”abortion.
The New Jersey Senate voted 27-13 Monday (Dec. 15) to ban the procedure except when a woman’s life is at stake. The margin was the minimum needed to override Whitman’s veto of the law last June.
The New Jersey General Assembly had voted to override Whitman two weeks ago.
Whitman, a moderate Republican, said she would have accepted the ban if it also took into account a woman’s health short of her possible death. She called the law unconstitutional as written.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states may place restrictions on late-term abortions as long as the life and health of a woman are taken into account.
The Senate vote made New Jersey the 17th state to pass legislation banning the late-term abortion procedure known medically as”intact dilation and extraction.” President Clinton has twice vetoed congressional attempts to impose a federal ban on the late-term procedure that was the focus of the New Jersey action.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood urged a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to block the New Jersey law from taking effect. However, U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson denied the motion.
Further court challenges are expected, according to the Associated Press, and Whitman has ordered the state attorney general not to defend the law. That means the legislature will have to hire its own attorney.
Cities with legalized gambling have higher suicide rates
(RNS) Three cities with legalized gambling _ Las Vegas; Reno, Nev.; and Atlantic City, N.J. _ have higher suicide rates than other U.S. cities of comparable size, according to a new study.
David Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California at San Diego, conducted the study by reviewing death certificates in the three cities. He found that rates of suicide were as much as four times higher than in cities of comparable size where gambling is illegal.
His results are featured in the December issue of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior magazine, the New York Times reported.
Phillips searched for a relationship between gambling and suicide by examining death certificates that included how people died.
Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate in the country, he said.
Suicide patterns would indicate that a city the size of Las Vegas would have 310 suicides in 1990. But Phillips said the actual number in that city was 497.
Visitors to Las Vegas also commit suicide at a higher rate, Phillips found. For most cities, on average, one in 100″visitor deaths”is recorded as a suicide. A visitor death is defined as someone from another state who dies while visiting a particular state. On average in Las Vegas, one in 25 visitor deaths is a suicide _ quadruple the national average.
Atlantic City was the only one of the three cities studied that could be analyzed for the suicide rates before and after gambling was legalized.
In Atlantic City, which legalized gambling in 1978, there was a statistically insignificant difference in expected and actual suicides in 1975 _ 45 and 52, respectively. By 1990, the expected number of suicides remained 45 but the actual number was 64, an increase of statistical significance.
Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, said the study demonstrated”quality sociological research”and should prompt further research.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association in Washington, which represents major casino and hotel companies, said legalized gambling may have little to do with suicide. He cited studies that show people who move to the American West are often isolated and kill themselves because they lack personal support systems.
Pope warns of economic globalization; decries abortion to Boggs
(RNS) Pope John Paul II Tuesday (Dec. 16) warned of dangers associated with economic globalization and told the new U.S. Vatican ambassador that abortion was a”deadly anarchy”that threatened to undermine America’s founding principles.
In a message issued for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace, celebrated Jan. 1, the pope said economic globalization had brought the world to the threshold of a new era.
But he questioned whether”economic competition and rivalries between people and nations (will) lead humanity towards even greater instability.” The pope said the challenge facing the world was to insure that increased economic links between nations was accompanied by greater solidarity among people.”This is a clear duty in justice, with serious moral implications in the organization of the economic, social and the political life of nations,”the pontiff said.
Also Tuesday, John Paul attacked abortion during his first official meeting with Lindy Boggs, the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. The occasion was Boggs’ presentation of her credentials. Boggs and the pope met for about 15 minutes.”The United States,”said the pope,”was founded on the conviction that an inalienable right to life was a self-evident moral truth, fidelity to which was a primary criterion of social justice.” Continued U.S. credibility, the pontiff continued, will depend more and more on its promotion of a genuine culture of life, and on a renewed commitment to building a world in which the weakest and most vulnerable are welcomed and protected.
At 81, Boggs, a practicing Catholic, is the oldest ambassador ever to be accredited to the Vatican. Following her meeting with the pope, she prayed alone in a private area of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Israeli chief rabbi, Egyptian Muslim leader meet in Cairo
(RNS) An unprecedented meeting between a leading Arab Muslim and an Orthodox Israeli rabbi has produced a condemnation of terrorism and a promise that both men would use their religious authority to promote moderation in the Middle East.
Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, grand sheikh of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the world’s most respected Sunni Muslim educational institution, met Monday (Dec. 15) with Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau. Both men are government appointees.
Lau, who represents Israeli Jews of northern European descent, also met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during his one-day visit to Cairo, the first by an Israeli chief rabbi while in office, Reuters reported.
In remarks published Tuesday, Tantawi said he agreed with Lau that terrorism is wrong”whether it is in Algeria, or Jerusalem or Europe.” Both men also”asked the other to use his influence over the political leaders on the Palestinian and Israeli sides,”said Cobie Brosch, minister-counsellor at the Embassy of Israel in Cairo.
Quote of the Day: the Rev. John Ohmer of Arlington, Va.
(RNS)”You can’t buy affection _ it’s a shallow way to make up for a lack of attention year-round.” The Rev. John Ohmer, assistant to the rector, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Va., quoted in the Washington Times Tuesday (Dec. 16) about how Americans go overboard in their Christmas gift shopping.
MJP END RNS
