Awake!, May 22, 1959

Download: PDF — Awake!, May 22, 1959

^bd’s Answer to Prayer of Distressed Humanity

^erlin—A Bone of Contention

^baching by Television

^he Great Lakes of North America

MAY 22, 1959

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

Newt source* that are able to keep you awake to the vita! Issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "AwakeI” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unpreiudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

"Awake!" uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them, its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, rn many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural worjders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

"Awake!" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.

Get acquainted with "Awake!" Keep awake by reading "Awake!"

Published Simultaneously in the United States by the WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, INC. 117 Adams Street Brooklyn 1, N. Y., U. S. A.

and in England by WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY

Watch Tower House, The Ridgeway N. H. Knorr, President

Printing this issue; 2.850,000

"Awake!” h piblbhed In the fallowing 19 I an a a ages:

Semimonthly—Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch. Einjllsli, Finn’ ish, French, German. Greek, fUliitn, Japanese. Nonce* Portuguese. Spanish, HwedKii. Tagalog.

Monthly—Cinywija, Indonesian, Ukrainian, Zulu

Yearly subscription riles

(jffitM for semimonihlv editions

America. 117 Adams St,, Brooklyn 1, N.Y. $1

Australia, Il Beresford Rd., StrilMkld. N.S.W. 8/’

Canada, 150 Bridge1 land Are., Toronto Id, Ont. $1 E ns I and, SVatch Tiiwer House,

The Ridgeway, London N,W. 7 7/-

New Zealand, 621 New North Rd., Auckland, S.W. 1 7/-

South Aft lea, Private Rag. Elandsrontein, Tvl. 7/-Monthly editions cost halt the above rates.

London N.W. 7, England Grant Suiter, Secretary

4d a copy

Remittances for subscription* should be sent to the office In your country. Otherwise send your remittance tn l^ncfoji, Notice of expiration la sent at least two issues before aubscrilHlon expires.

CHANGES OF ADDRESS shoild reach d» thirty dayl before year moving date. Give ■$ ynsr aid and new address (If possible, your old address label). Watch Tnwir, Watch Tower House, The Ridgeway, London N,W. 7, Eng and.

Entered aa second-class matter at Brooklyn, N.Y. Printed in England

The Bible translation used In “Awake!" h the New World Translation of the Holy Scrlptirei. When other translations are used the following symbols will appear behind the citations:

jIjS — American SMudard Version AT “ An American Translation jlV - Airliirrizeil Version f 161T :•

<Da — J. N', Darby's version

JJy — CaLb।il!C l)ni|jLy Vi'i’.LOJl ED - The E tn plunk Hui k loti JP - JewlHli Publication Lf? — Jme LeiiKer'i version

■" Jiunus. MoCl'.i It's vendnn ??□ “ J. B. Rotherham's versim; J3S - Rcvj ofl Stauriarr! Vcnsiyn Yr/ - Robert Young's version

CONTENTS

Do You Want to Retire?

God’s Answer to the Prayer of

Distressed Humanity

Mandalay- Golden City of Burma

Berlin—A Bone of Contention

Teaching by Television

"The Great and Agonizing Danger”

The Great Lakes of North America

Preaching Against Galileo

Latin Gestures

Serums and Vaccines Not the Same

“Your Word Is Truth”

Israelite Wars No Precedent

Watching the World

WHEN your alarm clock awakens you on a Monday morning, how do you feel ? Do you sit on the edge of the bed wishing for the day when you do not have to get up and go to work? If you do you are not alone. But is retirement the happy time you imagine it to be? Many social scientists and retired persons do not think it is.

The big problem that would face you is what to do with your time. It is

Do YOU want to RETIRE?

uselessness and loneliness mounted, he killed himself.” This, of course, Is an extreme case of retirement shock.

The way to avoid the bad effects of retiring is to work. Instead of sitting about the house doing nothing day after day some retired persons develop hobbies to occupy their time; others find part-time jobs and still others engage in small money-making enterprises.

true that you could sleep in every morning, but what would you do the rest of the day? When this problem confronts you every day, will you not wish for your old job?

For some persons the change from daily work to daily leisure upon retirement produces bad effects. Regarding this the New York Times Magazine of February 15, 1959, said: "Gerontologists—medical men who specialize in problems of old people— have testified that forced leisure often results in ‘retirement shock’—a numb inability to adjust that leads to depression, illness and premature death.” The article cites the case of an executive who was compelled to retire at the age of sixty-five because of company rules and states: "After eleven months in which a sense of

Work may seem unpleasant while you are engaging in it, but it is far better for you mentally and physically than doing nothing. Idleness is deteriorating. In his book The Retirement Handbook Joseph Buckley states: "The secret of longevity in retirement is to keep active both mentally and physically. If the mind and the body are allowed to remain inactive for any considerable period of time, the result is a rapid deterioration of their functions."

Although there are many companies that compel employees to retire at the age of sixty-five, there are a number that consider this practice unwise. By permitting an employee to continue working after sixty-five the company benefits from his

experience and knowledge and does a service to the employee. His retirement can come as a gradual tapering off. Some companies rehire their retired workers on a part-time basis or use them as consultants.

A person’s usefulness as a worker does not cease when he reaches the age of sixty-five. He is more stable, more careful and more responsible than many younger employees, not to mention that he has much greater experience. He can learn new things if he wants to. Buckley states that it is “the lack of interest in learning rather than biological degeneration [that] is responsible for the myth that older people are slow, or unable, to learn.” At the age of eighty-five Arturo Toscanini could memorize the score of an entire opera. Justice Holmes began the study of Greek at the age of ninety. A widow of ninety-one has taken up the study of philosophy at a New York school. These examples prove that older persons can learn new things and need not be idle when they retire. There are many retired persons who pursue studies they never had time for before.

Man was pot designed to live in idleness but rather to work. When the first man was placed in the garden of Eden by his Creator he was given a work assignment. “Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15) He also had the task of thinking up names for "every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens.”

It is a mistake to think that lying under a tree in total idleness would be living in paradise. That was not true in the first paradise, and it will not be true when paradise is restored. Idleness is degenerating. It was one of the contributing factors to the wickedness of Sodom. "This was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters lived in pride, plenty, and thoughtless ease.”—Ezek. 16:49, AT.

idleness conrriourea to me cowman oi more than one civilization. Regarding this Hr. Edward Stieglitz said that “superabundance of leisure, or the abuse thereof, has marked and initiated the decadencx of cultures throughout history.” An out standing example is that of ancient Rome The historian John Lord tells us, in his book Beacon Lights of History, that in Rome “habits of industry were destroyed, and all respect for employments that required labor. The rich were supported by contributions from the provinces. . . . The poor had no solicitude for a living, since they were supported at the public expense. All therefore gave themselves up to pleasure. Even the baths, designed for sanatory purposes, became places of resort and idleness, and ultimately of intrigue and vice.”

It is God’s purpose that man should work. This is evident not only from his commands to the first man but also from his commands to Christians, as voiced by his chief Representative, Jesus Christ. On one occasion Jesus said: “We must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.” (John 9:4) Those works consisted chiefly of preaching and teaching the commands and purposes and truths of God. The divine will that Christians should work was also expressed by the apostle Paul: “If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat.” (2 Thess. 3:10) The ministry provides upbuilding work for all Christians today, whether they are engaged in secular occupations or are retired from them.

If you realize how essential work is to your mental and physical well-being you will not want to retire to a life of idleness. No matter how unpleasant it may be for you to get up in the morning to go to work, you are better off by far than the person who wakes up to face another day of boredom and a feeling of uselessness. Look upon productive work as a blessing. For your own good keep working.

WHAT IS IT?

WHERE CAN THIS ANSWER BE FOUND? HOW CAN YOU BE

God's ansivef

to the PRAYER of DISTRESSED

HUMANITY 5

COMFORTED BY IT NOW?

The

NEVER before has humanity been so greatly oppressed by so many woes. Newspapers are filled with distressing news of juvenile delinquency, crimes, inflation, higher taxes, greed and dishonesty in politics, the cold war and threats of a hot war, food shortages and diseases. Heart disease and cancer yearly claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of persons. To lose a loved one to death is one of the most unbearable things that distressed humanity must endure. How long, people ask, will such frightful conditions plague mankind? Will it always be like this?

Many from distressed humanity have prayed to God to show them what hope there is. Has God answered their prayer? Indeed he has. God’s answer is found in his Holy Word, the Bible. Fittingly God has used his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, to express his answer. In his sermon on the mount Jesus gave us God’s answer when he taught his followers how to pray: “You must pray, then, this way: ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.’ ” (Matt. 6:9,10) Ah, here is God’s answer to the prayer of distressed humanity—his kingdom!

“The Kingdom of the Heavens”

Because God’s kingdom will bring about God’s will right here on the earth, nothing is of greater importance to mankind than the Kingdom. All other interests are secondary to the Kingdom, since Jesus said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom.” (Matt. 6:33)

Because of its primary importance Jesus quit the carpentry work and worked full time at preaching God’s kingdom, thereby bringing good news to distressed mankind: “Jesus set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom.” —Matt. 9:35.

Kingdom is a real government It

is a heavenly government. Showing that God’s kingdom is heavenly, Jesus introduced many of his illustrations by the phrase: “The kingdom of the heavens is like ...” (Matt. 13:31) It is impossible to read very far in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark or Luke without reading about the Kingdom. Matthew’s account contains twenty-eight chapters. Did you know that the Kingdom is mentioned in twenty-one of these chapters? In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew alone Jesus used the phrase “the kingdom of the heavens” eight times. Al] together the word “kingdom,” referring to God’s heavenly kingdom, appears in that one chapter twelve times’ Jesus truly stressed God’s kingdom as the only hope for distressed mankind.

God’s heavenly government has a King and 144,000 royal associates. Those who reign with Christ in his kingdom are chosen from among men and are an exception to the rest of mankind, since they will be the only ones ever taken to heaven. They are “the hundred and forty-four thousand,

who have been purchased from the earth.” (Rev. 14:3) The Bible shows that there will be many earthly subjects of God’s kingdom. In the same sermon in which Jesus told us to pray for the Kingdom, he indicated that the Kingdom would have earthly subjects, in his well-known words: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.’’—Matt. 5:5, AV.

How does God’s kingdom answer the prayer of distressed mankind? By bringing an end to all wickedness, wars, crime and violence. Showing what the Kingdom would accomplish, Christ, the King, said he would “send forth his angels, and they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness, and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace, ... At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt. 13:41-43) For the Kingdom’s earthly subjects to shine “as brightly as the sun” they need relief from the oppression of sickness and death. This God’s kingdom will provide, for of its King it is written: “He must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. As the fast enemy, death is to be destroyed.”—1 Cor. 15: 25, 26.

But what of those who have died? How will the Kingdom benefit them? By means of the Kingdom, death and Hades (the common grave) will give up those dead in them. (Rev. 20:13) Pointing forward to that grand time when the kingly “judge of the living and the dead” raises all those in the graves or memorial tombs, Jesus said: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28, 29) All who are raised from the dead in an earthly resurrection are in line to “inherit the earth” by gaining the prize of everlasting life by being obedient subjects of the Kingdom.—Acts 10:42; Matt. 5:5.

Power of Established Kingdom

Distressed humanity should take heart in the fact that the long-prayed-for kingdom is already established in heaven. Bible prophecies and related facts show that the Kingdom’s establishment took place in heaven A.D. 1914. That year the “seven times” of the "appointed times of the nations” ended, and it was time for Christ to be made "King of kings.” Prior to 1914 Christ was sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God, "awaiting until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet,” (Heb. 10:12, 13) But in harmony with Daniel 7:14 Christ received the long-promised kingdom A.D. 1914 and, invisible to human eyes, “there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,”—AS.

Following the birth of God’s kingdom, there was another event invisible to human eyes: “War broke out in heaven.” (Rev. 12:7) In this heavenly conflict Satan and his demons were “hurled down to the earth.” This meant increased woes for distressed mankind, as the Bible shows: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:9, 12) During this “short period of time” left for this old world and its false god, Satan the Devil, the good news of the Kingdom’s establishment must be preached to all the nations, just as Jesus foretold in his great prophecy concerning the “end of the world” or “last days.” Said Jesus: “This good news of the kingdom

win be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.

Kingdom Makes a New World Possible

Ah, so the Kingdom will bring a complete end to this oppressive old, wicked world! The “accomplished end” that Jesus said would come after the Kingdom preaching is finished is not the end of this earth; it is the end of the present evil world or system of things. Its destruction at God’s universal war of Armageddon makes way for a righteous new world. Showing the invincible power of God’s kingdom are the words of the prophet Daniel: “In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44, AS.

But more than the removal of the nations of the earth must take place to bring in a new world and relieve distressed mankind. The invisible god of this world, “the god of this system of things,” the Devil, must be put out of the way along with his demonic spirit creatures. The Bible assures us that God’s kingdom will destroy the symbolic heavens of this wicked world and thus put Satan and his demons out of the way. Foretold the apostle Peter: “Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be discovered [destroyed].”—2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Pet. 3:10,12.

The destruction of the symbolic “heavens and the earth that are now” does not leave a void. No, God replaces the wicked heavens and earth with “new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—2 Pet 3:7, 13.

New World Society Now

This promised new world of righteousness is at hand, for the Kingdom is established, and within this generation God’s heavenly government will destroy this wicked world. Since the birth of God’s kingdom there is, in fact, a New ’World society on earth. The New World society is the outgrowth of the Kingdom’s operation and, unlike the Kingdom, is visible to human eyes. It has been functioning on earth since 1919 with visible results. Each year tens of thousands of new believers declare themselves for God’s kingdom and associate themselves with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses in proclaiming God’s kingdom as the hope of mankind.

Having embraced God’s answer to the prayer of distressed humanity, those of the New World society are not despondent over the world’s grim situation. Why? Because they know these distressing things were foretold to come upon the earth following Satan’s defeat in heaven. None other than Christ Jesus foretold these things: "On the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . ., while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” (Luke 21: 25, 26) Concerning the woes, such as world wars, food shortages and pestilences that were foretold to come upon the generation of mankind in the “last days,” Jesus said: “These things are a beginning of pangs of distress.”—Matt. 24:8.

“Lift Your Heads Up”

Since 1914 (A.D.) these foretold “pangs of distress” have come upon one generation in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Though those of the New World society

take a serious view of these woes and pangs of distress, they are also obedient to the command of Christ: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28.

Ah yes, when one understands the meaning of these pangs of distress, then these very distress-causing happenings are in themselves cause for casting off the garments of distress and dismay. No more should the head be held low in despondency; no more should the true Christian be dispirited in hopeless dejection, for now is the time of all times for lifting up one’s head in joyful expectation of impending deliverance at God's war of Armageddon. “Rejoice in the hope ahead.”—Rom. 12:12.

Though deliverance is so very near, death still is with us. How, then, can those of the New World society seem so happy? Because even death does not hold the terror or produce the hopelessness that it does for those who do not know the Kingdom hope. When those of the New World society lose a loved one to death, they are not overcome by despondent grief. They do not grieve overmuch, because the Bible declares: “We do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who are sleeping in death, that you may not sorrow just as the rest also do who have no hope.” (1 Thess. 4:13) This does not mean that those of the New World society do not sorrow at the death of a loved one. They do. Even the Lord Jesus “gave way to tears” at the death of his beloved friend Lazarus. (John 11:35) But the grief is not excessive or hysterical. The resurrection hope comforts them, for, like Paul, they "have hope toward God... that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Acts 24: 15.

No More Tears and Tombstones

After Armageddon, during the reign of Christ the 'King, those dead in the memorial tombs will be raised to life again. Nevermore will they have to die because of sin inherited from Adam. By being obedient subjects of the Kingdom they may prove worthy of the gift of everlasting life in God’s glorious new world. And how wonderful it will be! For God “will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Rev. 21:4.

Yes, the former things that oppressed humanity will have passed away forever. Gone then will be the streams of tears that have flowed in dimly lighted funeral parlors! Gone the somber work of grave digging, casket buying and cemetery-lot purchasing! Gone the work of embalmers and tombstone makers! Gone the dreary funeral procession and the mourning garments of black! Gone any need to visit cemeteries to remember dead loved ones with flowers, for cemeteries will exist no more! “All those in the memorial tombs” will have heard the voice of the reigning King and come forth in a resurrection in a new world. Those who stay obedient to the Kingdom will “inherit the earth” everlastingly and for them “death will be no more.” Jehovah will have fulfilled his promise that “he will actually swallow up death forever, and the Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.” —Isa. 25:8.

Begin now to wipe the tears from your face and the faces of others by embracing the Kingdom hope, telling it out to others, that they too may know God’s answer to the prayer of distressed mankind.

Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by yr ay er and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God.—Phil.

BY “AWAKBl” CORRESPONDENT IN BURMA

ANDALAY” is the title of one of *** Rudyard Kipling’s poems, one that many persons have read. Many more persons have heard the song, "On the Road to Mandalay,” that Oley Speaks composed, thus setting Kipling’s poem to music. Yet few of these persons perhaps have heard much about the intriguing city that inspired Kipling’s pen, the city that is often called in Burmese “Shweman," meaning "Golden City.”

Mandalay really had a golden past. Not that the city is an ancient one—actually it was founded in 1857. But one of the "Golden Kings,” as the Burmese kings were called, did the founding. King Mindon established the city believing that a royal city under the shadow of famous Mandalay hill would perhaps counteract the rising importance of British-held Rangoon.

Near Mandalay hill King Mindon built a magnificent gold-gilded, wooden palace, surrounding it with high walls. What a tourist attraction! Unfortunately, during World War II, the palace was destroyed; but the square brick walls that guarded the palace still stand. One of the main attractions of Mandalay today, the four great walls are twenty-seven feet high, ten feet wide and about a mile square. It is surrounded by a moat seventy-five yards wide and eleven feet deep!

One marvels at the vast amount of back-breaking labor necessary to dig this nearly five-mile-long moat and build those huge walls without help of modem machinery. Here and there portions of the wall are crumbling away, and the old structure seems to brood sadly over the loss of its former glory. The area inside the walls, originally containing the palace and other irm portant buildings, was spoken of, not only as the “Golden City," but even as “The Center of the Universe"! But alas! in 1885 British troops from Rangoon arrived at the palace, and King Thibaw, son of King Mindon and last of the Burmese kings, was compelled to surrender to British General Prendergast. Though Burma secured her independence from Britain in 1948, the Burmese line of kings has not been restored. Little wonder that Mandalay clings to the golden past and somewhat jealously eyes Rangoon, the present capital of Socialist Burma.

Mandalay Hill and Its Pagodas

Another place of great interest to visitors is the nearly thousand-foot-high pagoda-crowned Mandalay hill. Three covered stairways, marked at intervals by giant statues of Buddha, lead up to the top of the hill. From here a magnificent view of Mandalay and its environs can be obtained. Everything around the hill seems to speak of King Mindon, who here built several pagodas.

By far the most famous of these is the Kuthodaw pagoda, lying just southeast of the hill. Here one sees a truly remarkable religious work. Inside the pagoda compound stand row upon row of small white pagodas. Each little pagoda covers an upright marble slab on which has been inscribed in Pali a portion of the Buddhist scriptures. These slabs are four or five feet high and three or four feet wide. To inscribe one slab alone would take a great deal of painstaking work, yet there they stand by the hundreds’ The grand total is given at no less than 729! A veritable Buddhist bible in stone!

This remarkable work was performed at the order of King Mindon in 1871. He sum-.moned an assembly of 2,400 monks to the palace. These discussed and examined the Buddhist scriptures for five months and then had them inscribed on the 729 marble slabs in the hope that the words might endure forever. By this work King Mindon secured for himself a place in the Buddhist hall of fame.

Here in the quiet of famous old Kutho-daw pagoda, under the cool shade of the kayay trees, Burmese students come to study and meditate.

Mandalay’s modern-day population of about 180,000 makes it the second-largest city in Burma. More than 77 percent of the people are Burmese Buddhists. There are, however, large numbers of Pakistanis, Indians of various groups and a large Chinese population. There are also a sprinkling of other Burmese tribes and a few Anglo-Indians and Europeans. All in all it is a colorful population indeed.

Located on the mighty Irrawaddy River, Mandalay sprawls over a large area, being some twenty-five square miles in extent. It is well laid out, although the streets are apt -to be narrow, with sidewalks only in the main business section. Some scars of war still remain—battered, roofless, windowless, bombed-out buildings thrusting their bare walls upward as if in mute protest against the horrors of modern warfare.

Street Scenes

The tourist is fascinated by the traffic on the narrow streets. Often long rows of carts laden with merchandise and hauled by patiently plodding, brown-colored oxen move slowly along in spite of the loud shouting and urging of their stick-waving drivers. Here and there a wheel screech-ingly protests its lack of grease. Small ponies trot smartly along with some halfdozen passengers crammed into the little pony carts. Hundreds of trishaws swarm on the streets, especially after office hours, since only two bus lines operate in the city. Bicycles carrying one, two and even three members of a family weave in and out among the traffic. Jeeps both new and old are commonly used. Great lumbering trucks, mostly of the older types, are much in evidence. An occasional new car comes shooting down the street, only to stop suddenly as a cow saunters across the road. So in the busy mornings and evenings especially this mixed mass of traffic moves along to the accompanying raucous blowing of horns as the car and truck drivers try to blast their way through the mass of vehicles.

One can hardly leave the subject of traffic hazards without a word about the cows that frequent the streets of Mandalay. Mixed up with the jostling, horn-blowing traffic, there are always a few large and small white or brown cows wandering up and down or across the streets,, according to their bovine will. Since cows are considered holy by many people in the East, no one would think of harming these sleek, well-fed creatures; and well do they seem to realize this.

Naturally they are especially fond of the bazaar section with its stalls and boxes of lush vegetables. The cow intent on getting a free feed will usually make a quiet, flanking movement at a time when the stall owner is loudly arguing over prices with

a prospective buyer. Unobserved, bossy will seize a mouthful of juicy carrots or lettuce and, backing slowly away, will enjoy the repast. Again she will edge in for another raid, but alas for bossy! Chances are that the stall owner will not be caught napping a second time. Shouting loudly in indignation and backing this up by feebly thumping a stick on bossy’s ribs, he scares the animal away. But bossy is determined, and she simply saunters on to the next stall and repeats the process until the heat of the sun reminds her of a nice shady spot nearby where she will nap during the hot afternoon.

READ THE NEXT ISSUE 9 What is the attitude of modern-day churches toward hell-fire teaching? Is the Bible hell hot? Learn the facts from the article ’‘Dante's Inferno and Modern Religion.” Q How is the economic future of Europe involved in the issue of the Common Market versus The Free Trade Area? Do you know how Britain, France, Germany, yes, and even the Vatican, are involved? Read the next issue.

Building a dam across Africa’s Zambezi River proved to be both an engineering feat and a dramatic struggle against the force of a mighty river. Don't miss JiTaming the Mighty Zambezi?' e Colombia is a land of scenic splendor and delightful variety. You will enjoy reading what an “Awake!1’ correspondent in Colom, bia has to say about it in the next issue.

Yes, Mandalay is in the hot and also dry belt of Burma. How does the city get its water? There are a number of wells both ancient and modern. However, here again the city has to remember King Mindon, as the main water supply is drawn by pipe from no other place than the old five-mile-long palace moat. Fresh water flows into the moat from a canal to the east and empties out through an underground pipe to the west. At regular intervals much of the water is drained out so that the thirsty city can be certain of a regular supply of clean water.

Crafts and Religion

Two small industries or crafts now attract our attention. In the southwest corner of Mandalay there is a street set aside for the making of images of Buddha out of stone or marble. Here blocks of stone are skillfully chipped and carved until the finished product, a small or medium-sized, highly polished image of Buddha, is turned out. This is truly one of Mandalay’s ancient crafts, another link with its golden past.

In certain southeast districts of the city one hears a steady rhythmical hammering noise. This comes from the gold beaters. These craftsmen, assisted by women, laboriously beat out, for days on end, small pieces of gold to a leaflike thinness. The beating is done with wooden hammers or mallets. Often the gold beaters work in deep underground pits so that the wind cannot blow the precious gold dust away. Women wire the fine beaten gold leaves together. Then they are sold throughout Burma for covering images or pagodas.

Though Rangoon can boast of larger buildings, Mandalay, with its thousands of yellow-robed monks, remains the Buddhist heart of Burma. Yet, we are glad to say, freedom of worship prevails in Mandalay. Among the thousands of Buddhist pagodas in the city and its environs, Moslem mosques can also be seen; a large Catholic church lifts its spires upward; there is also a large Baptist church and other smaller churches are in evidence. Awake! readers will be interested to know that there is a small, active group of Jehovah's witnesses here, who, throughout Mandalay, daily preach of the incoming of the glorious new world by the hand of Jehovah God.

Now, indeed, is the time for men of good will in Mandalay and elsewhere world-wide to look, not backward, but forward and learn of the time when God’s kingdom will bring in a truly golden era to the everlasting joy of its obedient subjects.

War II. Hitler’s allied foes directed their attacks in increasing measure at the very heart of the German Reich, at its capital, Berlin. American and British bomber squadrons took turns in attacking both day and night so as to systematically wear down Berlin. Anyone who was there will remember the horrible night of November 22-23, 1943, when the larger part of the Hansa district was laid low in rubble and ashes, leaving over 4,000 persons homeless. The “thousand-year Reich” was on its last legs. Its military

ON November 10, 1958, the attention of the whole world was suddenly drawn toward this divided city of Berlin. That day Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, speaking at the Sport Palace in Moscow’s Lenin Stadium, declared that the time had apparently come for the powers who had signed the Potsdam agreement to relinquish their occupation rights and for “the Soviet Union to hand over to the Soviet sector government her part in the supervision of Berlin.” Since Khrushchev gave the Western powers six months to think it over, his declaration had the effect of a planted time bomb. The world fixed its gaze on the approaching deadline date, May 27,1959.

It is not surprising, then, that there is hardly a city in the world more often mentioned in news reports than Berlin; and for many of our contemporaries, regardless of the continent on which they live, Berlin is not just a dot on the map, but rather the foremost outpost of the Western world. Its unique position allows it the most intimate contact with the Eastern bloc.

What led up to the present situation? Let us go back toward the close of World might had been broken. Allied armies flooded in. As the fronts were collapsing, the Russian army moved into Berlin. The rulers, who had directed the last-ditch stand from Berlin, either shot or poisoned themselves or attempted to escape under disguise. The end of a most disastrous period in human history had arrived!

Especially in such situations does it become apparent how the inborn desire in man to live spurs him on to activity. A shining example of this can be found in the people living in Berlin. In spite of the distress already reigning in their destroyed homes, and in spite of the hunger peering from the sorrowful eyes of their children, they set their impoverished bodies to work rebuilding their city. For many years a well-known sight in Berlin was the “rubble women” hard at work. Not less than seventy million cubic meters of rubble and ruins covering the territory of the onetime metropolis had to be gotten rid of, because 63 percent of the buildings had either been partially or completely destroyed. In spite of the hopeless political and economic situation, West Berliners, with unexcelled courage, began rebuilding the city they considered their home and

which they did not want to leave. The reconstruction would naturally have been impossible but for foreign aid.

West Berlin Today

In the meantime large sections of residential and business districts have been reconstructed. But the inhabitants of Berlin have not let up on their work. They are now busy constructing new traffic arteries, increasing their industrial capacity and once again setting into motion their educational and cultural institutions. In other words, they are building on the capital of Germany and, as they see it, on what will one day be among the foremost cities in Europe,

Today anyone taking a tour of West Berlin is definitely impressed by what human assiduity has been able to accomplish in just a few short years. This former capital of the German Reich is, as it is often called, truly the Western world’s show window in the East. Explanatory models everywhere show the direction future building will take.

Without a doubt the largest and most daring undertaking is the new superhighway circling the city, its first section having been opened to traffic last November. In his words of welcome Federal Minister Lemmer took the opportunity to say: “I wish that Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, who came to East Berlin on Wednesday, would look at this work so that he could see what could be done for all of Germany if everyone would just live in freedom.”

One of the largest building projects during the last few years was the reconstruction of the Hansa district, which was completely devastated during the war, Many celebrated foreign architects participated in this work. Buildings up to seventeen stories high were erected. The “Interbau,” a construction exposition well known outside Germany, presented testimony to Berlin’s determination to rebuild. Over 1,300,-000 visitors were counted, of which 36 percent were from East Berlin and the East Zone.

One might refer to Berlin now as “one mammoth building site.”

Furthermore, large orders are channeled to Berlin businesses by the Federal government; and yearly up to five hundred conventions, conferences and workers' meetings of German and foreign groups, large fairs and expositions are held. Then, too, Federal offices and buildings are being transferred to Berlin; in addition, sessions of the “Bundestag,” church assemblies and other cultural events are held, in harmony with the government’s declaration of October 13, 1957: “Berlin can continue to rely upon the support of the Federal Republic.”

East Berlin

How different it all looks in East Berlin! A visitor who crosses the border at the “Brandenburger Tor” suddenly finds himself in an entirely different world, laying before his eyes the stark contrast between West and East. Visitors to East Berlin explained:

“We scarcely believed we were still in Berlin. Ruins and more ruins. One can hardly speak of reconstruction plans. This does not mean, of course, that no reconstruction is going on in the East sector. But, nevertheless, it must be stressed that one must keep his eyes wide open if he wants to see any new buildings. And when a person does see such buildings, then they are government buildings meant to put up a good front. The picture changed as soon as we drove along the Stalin-Allee. Here an ostentatious street has been built with many magnificent buildings, all according to the Soviet pattern. Whereas all the streets in West Berlin were once again

bathed in a sea of light, in East Berlin there were still hours when there was no electricity; the factories were asked to observe instructions given in this connection and housewives were exhorted to economize.”—Rote Foden, April, 1957.

The 1,381-kilometer-long line of zonal demarcation, with its more than 400 watchtowers, hundreds of bunkers and other observation posts as well as barricades of all kind, such as ditches, embankments, alarm systems, barbwire entanglements, tree barricades, lookouts for snipers, automatic shooting systems, etc., passes through the middle of Berlin.

So it is understandable that West Berlin, as an island in the East Zone, acts as a center of attraction for East Zone inhabitants and that daily hundreds of them desert over into West Germany, leaving all their belongings behind. It is only too clear that East Zone officials are determined to do away with this “show window of the West.”

Khrushchev made this very plain on November 10, 1958, during a Soviet-Polish friendship meeting with his friend Polish Communist boss Gomulka, held in the Moscow Sport Palace, when he made his plans known. He had chosen his words carefully, to be sure, when he said: “It is now proper that the Soviet Union turn over its part in controlling Berlin to the Soviet sector government.” He called upon the Western powers to take similar steps.

The West could not completely hide its displeasure either. Concerning this the magazine Der Spiegel wrote on December 10, 1958: “The person who desires to see Berlin as the capital of a reunited Germany . . . should actually like nothing better than to have all Allied troops evacuated from the city. Actually, however, the continued Allied occupation of Berlin is the only, even though purely formal remainder of the claim for a united Germany. As long as Berlin is controlled by the victorious powers, then the division of Germany into two states cannot yet be formally declared binding.”

To Divide or Not to Divide

The question arises: Was it originally the plan of the victorious powers to partition Germany? An unprejudiced observer who closely follows press reports on this matter is forced to answer, No. According to Der Spiegel of December 10, 1958, it was actually Stalin who, in December, 1941, first expressed the thought of partitioning the German state. He probably thought that the Germans, who only a few months before had started the war with Russia, would capitulate before ever a Russian soldier would tread upon German soil.

This plan of Stalin’s to partition the country was enthusiastically applauded by his Western allies. But, as a German saying has it, it is easier to catch a bear if several help out, but when it comes time to divide the skin, difficulties often arise, since everyone wants the biggest piece.

As Stalin saw the progress being made by the Soviet attack, he moved the East German border back to the “Oder-Neisse Line,” thus benefiting the Soviet Union and Poland, so that this de facto settlement would not be contested at some future date.

However, when this plan for partitioning Germany was brought up for discussion by Russia’s Western allies at Potsdam, Stalin suddenly did not want to hear any more about it. As Lenin’s pupil aspiring toward world revolution, he saw the unexpected possibility of bringing all of what still remained of Germany under his control. His new plan was to “begin a revolution in the social structure in Germany,” or, in other words, to dethrone the monopolists, then demilitarize Germany and place it under the leadership of a

Marxist-Leninist party. Here the views held by those who had conquered Hitler began to drift apart. Stalin’s agreement to having a Kommandantura (military command) in Berlin only reveals what he thought the future development of things would be. He apparently imagined Berlin as the future seat of a central German government and obviously did not feel that under these conditions anything could stand in the way of saturating Germany with Marxist theories.

Even though their political goals were completely different, it was apparent here, too, that neither the East nor the West was striving for a divided Germany.

The Soviets Act

In the summer of 1945, while the West was still thinking about the Potsdam agreement, the Soviet Union began following an established and fixed plan to get the “social revolution” under way. To the Kremlin's strong men the most appropriate method seemed to be taking steps such as closing all Soviet sector private banks and opening provincial and state banks, expropriating “feudal landlords” and large farms of over a hundred hectares, and confiscating or temporarily seizing control of industrial concerns, and also forming a communistic party for Germany. Still this caused no suspicion on the part of the Western powers.

With the fall of 1946 came the first test of power over Berlin. Elections held in Berlin on October 26, 1946, were won by the Social Democratic party and this aroused the mistrust of the Soviets.

Two years later, on March 20, 1948, the Allied Control Council practically ceased to exist, and a few days before the currency reform in West Germany the Soviet commandant in Berlin left the Kommandantura. Now it was blow for blow. On June 24, 1948, the West mark was introduced in West Germany and in Berlin’s three Western sectors. Two weeks later Stalin answered with the blockade. What should the West do now? Sacrifice Berlin?

'If Berlin falls, West Germany will be next. If we plan on holding Europe against Communism, then we cannot budge an inch’—this was the gist of General Clay’s words of burden to his superior officer in Washington; the West retorted with the airlift, a gigantic undertaking that demanded much of the organizers as well as of the pilots who, without letup in all kinds of weather and at the risk of their lives, delivered to Berlin its needs by air. On May 5, 1949, Stalin called a halt to the blockade. He realized that it had failed to prevent Germany from being divided. Three days later the constitutional assembly adopted West Germany’s Bonn Constitution, thus making the division of Germany an actuality.

Ten days after Khrushchev’s ultimatum, local elections were held in West Berlin and 93 out of every 100 eligible Berlin voters appeared at the polls. * Khrushchev was forced to realize that West Germans, as well as West Berliners, were farther away from recognizing the Eastern regime than ever before. West Germany’s living standard is undeniably much higher than East Germany’s, and since this does not contribute to the glory of Moscow it is termed a “threat to the world.” Khrushchev said Berlin was like a match that was getting nearer to the powder keg.

All this has led up to the present situation, a situation in which the Soviet Zone has at least been able to start fraying the nerves of Bonn politicians. One high CDU official put it this way: “Our position is like that of a man who has been sentenced to death but who has at least been given the possibility of a revision of his sentence or perhaps even the possibility of a pardon.”

hich ch

ren are t

t-

TEACHING

TELEVISION?!

minated by

at extent

: In

audience

are

FOR most persons television means entertainment. Particularly is this true in the United States, where 47.5 million or more than two thirds of the world’s sets are to be found. There 90 percent of the families have sets, in Great Britain 45 percent do, whereas in West Germany by now from 10 to 15 percent do. Unfortunately, however, where television is watched most it is synonymous not only with entertainment but all too often with the lowest grade of entertainment. Ironically, just the opposite situation prevails where TV is in its experimental stage, as in New Zealand. There licenses are granted for broadcasting only educational programs!

Repeatedly the press reports the complaints of leading figures in the cultural world, such as Mischa Elman and Edward L. Murrow, regarding the situation. Waxing sarcastic, Fortune, December 1958, America’s foremost Big Business magazine, described the current TV fare as compounded sentimentalism, counterfeit intellectuality, “barbarisms from the police blotter,” and monstrosities “from Hollywood’s celluloid cemeteries.” To the same effect but in a more dignified vein, the editor of the New York Times, September 23, 1958, wrote: “Few thoughtful persons will deny that television has sunk into a malodorous quagmire. The hours during

t importa

ern’ gii crime.” To

lay and urban

this is so Fortune ope week there appeare on U.S. television networks “221 killings, 192 attempted murders, to say nothing of robberies, kidnapings, attempted lynchings that made up the remainder of TV’s tableau of violence.”

An Instrument of Education

However, as the Times editor went on to say: “TV has, in the educational field, some chance to redeem itself. It can prove that it is a constructive force for good in the Society. If that development is welcomed by those who watch and listen, there is a possibility that children will get something better than mayhem and murder in the entertainment hours.”

Systematic experiments to use television to supplement conventional schoolroom teaching have received favorable reports in England, France and Canada. Press reports also tell of the increasing popularity of educational TV programs in Mexico, Italy and especially in Puerto Rico. And

today Venezuela is making extensive use of TV to overcome her educational problem. That the way out of the school crisis in the United States lies in the same direction is a point effectively made by New York University professor Charles A. Siep-mann, in TV and Our School Crisis.

Among the pioneers of teaching by television must be mentioned the Board of Education of New York city, which in 1951 began its broadcasts “The Living Blackboard” over station WPIX for the benefit of some 500 home-bound high-school students. In that year TV came to the rescue when a strike shut down the public schools in Minneapolis and two years later it served a like purpose in Baltimore, even as it did late in 1958 in Arkansas when the segregation issue resulted in the governor of the state closing down the high schools in Little Rock. As was well observed, such emergencies quickly reaffirm “the potential of television as an instrument of instruction.”

With the year 1958 ETV (Educational Television) appeared to be coming into its own in the United States. Now practically all subjects taught in regular schools can also be learned by TV. In fact, ETV ranges from preschool-age material to college postgraduate courses. Says the New York World Telegram, July 21, 1958: “More than 200 colleges and school systems use TV regularly. More and more colleges are offering credit courses using the medium of television. Fifty thousand students take courses via ETV. Some eight million public school pupils receive at least part of their instruction via ETV. Over 30 million persons watch ETV stations.” At present thirty-four noncommercial ETV stations operate in the United States.

Obstacles to Overcome

One of the obstacles that all progress has to face is prejudice. Thus while the friends of ETV compare it to the printing press or to the combustion engine as to its also being a radical, far-reaching forwardlooking invention, some conservative educators have opposed it, emphasizing its negative features. However, it must be said that this obstacle is steadily decreasing in size.

Another major obstacle to overdome is, of course, the cost of building or buying and then operating an ETV station. ETV usually means buying or building a station exclusively devoted to ETV, as commercial stations generally have neither the available time nor such rates as ETV can pay. The cost of a good ETV station is about $250,000, and it costs from $100,000 to $250,000 annually to operate it. An exception is found in New York city, where station WPIX, which is, according to Fortune, its most profitable local station, broadcasts seven hours of ETV five days a week as prepared by the Board of Regents of New York State and by the META, the Metropolitan Educational Television Association. The cost, about $250,000 annually, is borne by the state.

Thus far about half the cost of ETV in the United States has been borne by such institutions as the Ford Foundation and the Fund for Adult Education. The rest of it has been borne by universities, colleges, boards of education, city governments, local industry and business. Members of women’s clubs have made house-to-house canvasses seeking $2 contributions for their ETV station. “Contributions have ranged all the way down to nickels and pennies from children and their families who were anxious to have available the services of an educational television station,” says a META Newsletter.

The fact that the lighting and acoustics of most schoolrooms are not ideal for presenting television programs presents another major obstacle. And more important

still is the high standard required of television teachers. What is good enough for the average classroom is not good enough for ETV. An ETV teacher must not only be truly a good teacher, an exceptional one, but also something of a showman. As a report on ETV in England expressed it: “Humanity and assurance were as important as actual clarity of exposition, and it was the first two qualities rather than the last which amateurs not used to the medium were most often unable to convey.” (Siepmann) A fact, incidentally, worthy of note by all who teach in public: the importance of warmth and conviction to hold interest.

And still another obstacle to ETV has been loss of talent. When an ETV station strikes gold in an unusually interesting program, more likely than not some commercial station will offer the professor more money to present his prograjn on its channel.

Pioneer Experimenters

Among the very first, if not the first ETV station ip the United States, was KUHT, sponsored by the University of Houston, Texas, which opened in 1953. And among the more notable examples of pioneering in ETV must be listed the Pittsburgh station WQEJD, which in 1955 launched a “television teaching demonstration” that was to last a year. It proved to be such a success that not only has the program continued but in 1958 a second ETV station- was built in the Pittsburgh area. Its success has attracted nationwide attention. Among other features, it offers a complete high school course and the necessary lessons during the summer for high school pupils that failed so that they can make their credits by attending TV classes in their own homes.

While the emphasis in the Pittsburgh ETV is on supplementing and enriching regular classroom instruction, in Hagerstown, Maryland, the goal is to relieve the teacher shortage as well as provide better instruction. Begun in 1956 and due to run five years, it is an experiment in “closed circuit” television, which means that the programs are fed by coaxial cable to the various classrooms. This, of course, limits the reception to the classrooms, but has its advantages in that it permits a number of programs to be sent out at the same time over the same cable, each classroom tuning in its own program. Currently 18,000 pupils in all forty-eight of the county's schools are receiving some of their instruction by television and that on a variety of subjects. Teachers still conduct the reviews, recitations, etc., but by this method a classroom can have as many as a hundred pupils instead of the usual thirty. This experiment has well been termed “the most significant thing going on in United States education today.”

Going even farther than the foregoing is “one of the strangest and boldest experiments in education ever undertaken,” that being carried out in the St. Louis area. There subjects are taught entirely by television. Students come together in classes ranging from 70 to 146, the older the students the larger the classes can be.

And pioneering the field, but no longer in the experimental stage, is ETV’s fountainhead, the Educational Television and Radio Center at Ann Arbor, Michigan, which, in conjunction with the University of Michigan and ETV stations throughout the United States, provides material for use by ETV stations; acting as a clearinghouse, as it were, for kinescopes, the name given to simultaneously filmed television programs for use in schools and on ETV.

Advantages

The chief argument for ETV can be summed up in better education for more

students. The very fact that not only students but also parents and colleagues can view a lesson has a salutary effect on the teacher, a fact readily admitted by some instructors. Then too, an ETV teacher spends far more time to prepare a lesson and most likely has far more authentic and illustrative material at his disposal than the average teacher, making his lessons more valuable as well as more interesting. Also, in ETV the most gifted teachers, as well as men and women outstanding in their field, can be used, persons who would not otherwise be available for classroom instruction.

A good illustration of this is the physics lesson broadcast by Dr. Harvey E. White, University of California professor and the author of the most widely used college textbook on physics. In this particular instance some three hundred colleges are offering full credit for those taking this television course, truly showing the possibilities of ETV. This particular course is supplemented by discussions in college classrooms, local teachers giving reading and problem assignments and laboratory work as well as the examinations. This, doubtless, is the largest class ever to be taught by one teacher.

Another advantage of ETV is that it permits high schools and colleges to offer courses in languages or the sciences, even though not having facilities or instructors for such subjects. And still another advantage ETV has is that it gives an unlimited number of students a front row seat at scientific experiments and operations by noted surgeons.

Further, in colleges where large enrollments require a number of classes of fifty each to be taught the same subject, they can all be taught at the same time by the one teacher by means of TV. And according to META, “there are even those who state that a television lecture is actually more intimate than one viewed in a large lecture hall.”

Still another advantage of ETV, the open-circuit kind, is that it permits parents to drop in on their children’s classrooms any time and see how they are being taught, not to say anything of their benefiting from these lessons themselves. In one course for children in England it was found that more adults were taking the course than children for whom it was designed. Many who have been unable to get the schooling they needed in their youth are now able to get it by ETV. In fact, it is estimated that some fifty million adult Americans are trying to improve their education by means of ETV. There is much talk about colleges not being able to provide instruction for all who want it, especially in the years ahead. They could by means of television.

Results and Opinions

More so than in most other lands, in the United States scientific research has been done to evaluate the merits of education by television. The picture on the whole is most favorable. Classes have been taught by television, and “controls,” or like classes, have been taught the same subjects by the conventional method and then the results compared. It was found that, “by and large, children learn as much and as fast by television as under normal conditions.” It was further found that it made no difference whether the classes were large or small, whether the students were second or ninth grade, whether the classroom teacher took over for the oral review or whether the TV teacher handled the entire lesson. At one university experiment 46 percent of the TV students earned A’s or B’s, whereas only 30 percent of the students did that were taught the conventional way.

As for the students themselves, the vast majority liked learning by television; in one instance 80 percent and in another instance 75 percent stated they would like to have the experiment continued the following year. In one university 220 students were given five weeks of instruction on a certain subject by television and then five weeks in a regular classroom, after which they were given their choice: either to go to the auditorium where the instructor spoke in person or go to classrooms where TV sets were used. Actually 79 percent preferred the TV method.

…