Awake!, February 22, 1969
Download: PDF — Awake!, February 22, 1969
PAGES 3-15
Miracle Rice-for Asia's Hungry Millions
PAGE 16
Flight Around the Moon
PAGE 20
FEBRUARY 22, 1969
THE REASON FOR THIS MAGAZINE
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awakel" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ties; it is unhampered by traditional creeds. This magazine keeps itself free, that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
The viewpoint of "Awake!" is not narrow, but is international. "Awake!" has its own correspondents in scores of nations. Its articles are read in many lands, in many languages, by millions of persons.
In every issue "Awake!" presents vital topics on which you should be informed. It features penetrating articles on social conditions and offers sound counsel for meeting the problems of everyday life. Current news from every continent passes in quick review. Attention is focused on activities in the fields of government and commerce about which you should know. Straightforward discussions of religious issues alert you to matters of vital concern. Customs and people in many lands, the marvels of creation, practical sciences and points of human interest are all embraced in its coverage. "Awake!" provides wholesome, instructive reading for every member of the family.
"Awaket" 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 God's righteous new order in this generation.
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, N.Y. 11201, U.S.A.
AND IN ENGLISH BY
WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
Watch Tower House, The Ridgeway
LONDON N.W. 7, England
N. H. KNORN, President
GRANT SMITH, Secretary
Average printing each issue: 5,450,000
59 a copy (Australia, 54; South Africa, 39)
Registration rates
For semiquantity editions
America, U.S., 115 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 12301 $1
Australia, 11 Benedict Street, New York, N.W. 12301 $1
Canada, 113 Bridges Avenue, Toronto, N. 10, Oct. $1
The Highway, London, N.W. 7
New Zealand, 631 New North Rd., Ankara 3
South Africa, Private Rd. 2, P.O. Blankfordstown, TN. 706
(Monthly editions sell half the above rate.)
Sensitivities for subscriptions should be sent to the office in your country; subscriptions need your remittance to Brooklyn.
In case at least two weeks before subscription expires.
Swedish, Italians-Armenians, German, Danish, Dutch, English,
French, German, Greek, Italian, Dutch, Japanese,
Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog,
Talik.
Montalp—Chinear, Cinyanja, Elligaynor, Malayalam, Polhi,
Tamil, Ukrainian.
CHARGES OF ADDRESS should reach us thirty days before your moving date. Give us your name and new address. Call us at 1-800-745-1234. Watch Train, Watch Tower, Watch House. The Ridgeway, London W. W. 7, England.
Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N.Y.
Printed in England
The Bible translation regularly used in "Awaken" is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 1961 edition. When other translations are used, this is clearly marked.
CONTENTS
What Is Happening to Youth? 3
The Burden Parents Must Bear 9
Why the "Generation Gap"? 13
A Busy Port 15
Miracle Rice—for Asia's Hungry Millions 16
Evolution Science Fiction 19
Flight Around the Moon 20
Searching for Sapphires 25
Rain and Snow 27
"Your Word Is Truth"
Are They Really Prophecies? 28
Watching the World 30
Number 4
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUTH?
WHAT is happening to modern youth? That is a question that not only parents, educators, policemen and judges are asking but also all who are sincerely interested in leading a calm and quiet life. True, according to some statistics, today's college youths differ little from their elders when they were in college. Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III recently stated: "Instead of worrying about how to suppress the youth revolution we of the older generation should be worrying about how to sustain it."
But that something serious is happening to modern youth is apparent from the reports appearing in the public press. Lawlessness among youths is increasing in viciousness as well as in extent.
In New York city alone youthful vandals destroy $5,000,000 worth of public property each year. One St. Louis slum area policeman estimated that 80 percent of the robberies in his beat are committed by teen-agers. And according to Look magazine, June 11, 1968, the most frequently arrested person in the United States is fifteen years old.
In giving a report on crime in the United States, J. Edgar Hoover, head of
the F.B.L. stated: "A particularly tragic facet of the crime and violence problem in this country is the increasing involvement of young people. A disproportionate share
of national crime is committed by persons under eighteen years of age. In 1967, for example, 49 percent of those arrested for serious crimes were in this age bracket; and arrests of persons under 18 years increased a startling 69 percent from 1960 to 1967, while the number of persons in the age group 10 to 17 increased just 22 percent."
A like picture was painted by the United States Attorney General. He reported that young people between the ages of eleven and seventeen make up about 13 percent of the population of the United States, yet account for 50 percent of all convictions for burglaries, larcenies and car thefts.
Not Only Lawless, but Vicious, Sadistic
Among the more disturbing aspects of the situation is the vicious and sadistic nature of much of the lawlessness. For example, there are the roving bands of teen-agers reported on in the New York Times, November 15, 1968. These arm themselves with aerials snapped off autos, long thin steel rods, and then beat up pedestrians "just for the pleasure of it," not bothering to rob their victims.
One of the victims required thirteen stitches to close the gashes on his forehead and left ear.
A leading New York child psychiatrist, Dr. Fredric Wertham, in his book A Sign for Cain (1966), under the chapter heading "Tired of Home, Sick of School, and Bored with Life," reports on the great increase in vicious violence among youths, of which the following are representative: A boy of eight years murdered a girl of four years after sexually abusing her. A boy of thirteen raped a six-year-old girl and then killed her with a large rock. When her almost nude body was found, its condition appalled veteran policemen. A girl of ten years threw her seven-month-old baby stepsister out of the window because she "didn't like the baby." A boy of nine was shot and killed by a girl of fourteen because he had teased her brother. A fourteen-year-old girl took a revolver out of her loose-leaf notebook and killed a sixteen-year-old student. Until recently violent crimes among girls were rare.
Then again, The Saturday Evening Post, November 16, 1968, under the heading "Law and Order—What It's All About," reported on what a policeman in a slum area of St. Louis had to say about a certain crime: "A couple of teen-agers bashed in the front door . . . of a . . . family's home. They started drinking beer and then took the husband . . . and shot him in the back. Killed him. Then they took the wife and shot her in the stomach. She tried to run, so they shot her again—in the back. Then they raped her. All this took place in front of the couple's three kids."
And describing a certain teen-ager he arrested, he said: "Till never forget that
kid. Thirteen years old. He was the youngest member of the gang, but all the others were afraid of him and I can see why. He was just cold, hard; I couldn't get near him. I've talked to professional criminals who weren't that hard. . . . He had 100 arrest cards, including one for rape." And only thirteen years old!
A far younger criminal was told about in the New York Daily News, November 19, 1967. The lad was only six years old. Yet he was old enough to settle an argument with a seven-year-old playmate by killing him with a .22-caliber rifle. Since Texas law makes no provision for dealing with six-year-old murderers, Ward County Judge Ernest King released the lad in the custody of his parents.
These boys today are just too fresh, said one of Boston's municipal court judges, Elijah Adlow, as he fined seventeen-year-old Arthur Frederico $100. Of what did his 'freshness' consist? He tried to choke his fourteen-year-old "date" or girl friend and then threw her into Boston Harbor. Fortunately for her, a passerby saw him do it and rescued the girl.
This evidence does not tell nearly all the story. Recent surveys show that half of the crimes are not even reported to the police. Yet there are some who would have us believe that there is no more violence today than 100 years ago!
While these reports relate largely to what is taking place in the United States, where admittedly the situation is severe, youth is giving cause for concern in other lands. This is true of the Red Guards in Communist China. That countries such as England, Sweden, West Germany, France and Italy are plagued with the same difficulty is clear from the book Troublemakers, written by English social and political analyst T. R. Fyvel. And that Russia has the same problem is testified to in Allen Kassof's book The Soviet Youth Program, Regimentation and Rebellion.
The situation is not merely a national one; it plagues the entire world.
Drugs and Promiscuity
Youths are also giving concern to their elders by reason of their fling into promiscuity and drug addiction. Especially is the use of marijuana spreading like wildfire. That its use is no mere innocuous pastime was made clear about a year ago by a superior court judge of Massachusetts who upheld the ban on marijuana, citing the pernicious harm that can result from its use. About the same time the American Medical Association went on record as condemning the habit.
According to one report, in some California communities from 50 to 75 percent of high-school students have experimented with marijuana, and one-third of these are habitual users. While the use of marijuana or "pot," as it is popularly called, first became a fad among college students, now it is reaching down even to the grade-school students. And some of these, like their exemplars, are indulging in more harmful drugs.
There is also the matter of promiscuity, or, in Bible language, "loose conduct," "uncleanness" and "fornication." (Gal. 5:19) The use of "pot" often results in such loose conduct. It, together with many other factors, has brought about a veritable epidemic of venereal disease. And what in particular disturbs the health authorities who are combating it is its spiralling incidence among youths. Furthermore, a report tells that one out of every six female teen-agers in the United States becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and that one-third to one-half of all teen-age marriages in the United States are prefaced by illegitimate pregnancies. No wonder, with so many 'shotgun' marriages
among teen-agers, one-half of them soon end in divorce.
The College Scene
The New York Times, June 29, 1968, published the results of an extensive Gallup poll which purported to show that "Polls Find Youths Aren't So Radical. Shows Most Students Are Involved, Not Rebellious." Yet the "involved" majority is bound to be judged by the "rebellious" minority if the majority meekly stands by and lets the rebellious minority disrupt the college scene.
Thus, as reported in U.S. News & World Report, "it was a students' revolt in France that sparked the uprising that threatened to doom the government of President Charles de Gaulle." But when he took the issue to the people, the French people voted for De Gaulle and against the radicalism of the students.
The New York Times, November 5, 1968, told of about 500 West Berlin students battling the police. It resulted in more than 150 being injured, the great majority of whom were policemen, some twenty of whom had to be hospitalized.
Still another report tells that Japanese students have been on a rampage for more than six months. About 90 percent of Japan's 377 universities have been affected. On October 21, Tokyo's Shinjuku railroad station was closed for fourteen hours, causing inconvenience to a million commuters. Rock-throwing students, several thousand strong, wrecked trains and equipment valued at nearly 4.5 million dollars. This particular violence was part of a demonstration against Japan's foreign policies.
Some weeks earlier Mexico City was the scene of violent student outbursts day after day. On one occasion 50,000 students marched in protest. "Ten days before the Olympic Games were scheduled to open in Mexico City, October 12, at least 21 persons were killed and 200 wounded in a new outburst of violence."
U.S. News & World Report, October 14, 1968.
A few weeks earlier the same news weekly told that the United States schools of higher learning were "Hit by New Violence," calling to mind its report of May 6, 1968: "Anarchy Spreads in U.S. Colleges. Terrorism by Student Mobs Is Creating Turmoll on U.S. Campuses." It told of one university after another capitulating to violent student pressure.
What does this global upsurge of lawless conduct on the part of youth mean? Some nineteen hundred years ago the greatest prophet that ever lived, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, foretold that the era marked by widespread wars, food shortages, earthquakes and pestilence would also see an 'increase in lawlessness.' He pointed out that this would be visible evidence of the nearness of the time when God would intervene to destroy the wicked system of things. And his apostle Paul prophesied to the same effect, saying: "But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . having no natural affection, . . . without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God." (Matt. 24:12; 2 Tim. 3:1-4) We live in those "last days" now.
No question about it, youth, more than any other segment of modern society, is contributing to making these times perilous indeed. But why is this happening to youth? Why all this lawlessness? Why all this resorting to drugs and indulging in sexual immorality? Who is responsible? How can parents protect their children, and how can youths protect themselves from being sucked into this maelstrom of wickedness and violence?
WHY? Why? Why? That is the question that ever so many are asking as they note what is happening to modern youth. What has gone wrong? Who is to blame? Not least among those deserving severe censure for their part in youth's undoing are the producers of "pop" music, crime comic-book publishers, motion-picture producers, the television industry and those trafficking in pornography and illegal drugs.
Yes, ever so many men in these industries are without principle. They do not believe in doing to others the way they would have
others do to them. The thing farthest from their minds is to love their youthful neighbors as themselves. They flatter youth, and by appealing to youth's weaknesses they spread a snare for youth's feet, all for the sake of selfish gain.—Mark 12:31; Prov. 29:5.
Concerning some of these exploiters of youth a woman executive in a New York advertising agency stated: "If you could see how shrewdly and calculatedly the kids are led to buy things, almost by push-button control, it would make your blood run cold."
And in a similar vein Manhattan psychiatrist Robert Silbert observed: "Barriers have been removed and the suppressive forces that used to help the young maintain control are disappearing. Just when we should be helping them to master their drives, we surround them with suggestions of things they're not ready for."
Thus regarding the "pop" music business High Fidelity magazine says: "No industry manipulates youth with the cool surgical skill of the pop music business. Since the young are, and always have been, rebellious, the industry is shrewdly selling them rebellion." "It will make and market anything that it thinks will sell, as witness its processing of propaganda for drug use." And says a report from Great Britain, as published in the New York Times: "There has, in fact, been a general realization among the top groups that the best thing in rock is its excitement, its beat and sexuality and insanity, and the best of English pop [music] sounds fiercer right now than at any time in the last five years." No wonder we read that popular songs are one of the contributing factors in the increase of sexual immorality.
The Comic-Book Industry
For years the comic-book industry, especially in the United States, has been producing comics about violence and crime. It does an annual business in that country alone of 100 million dollars. While, due to public protest, some of the most sordid comics are no longer being published, millions of these are still in circulation and being read. And those being published still reek with violence and crime. In one story, which is but one of a number of stories in just one comic
book, thirty-seven killings are portrayed. And featured are not only killings but all manner of tortures.
As Dr. F. Wertham notes: "Killing is commonplace . . . Brutality, torture and sadism are featured . . . Shooting policemen to the accompaniment of contemptuous remarks belong to comic-book repertory." In these crime comics people are shown being dragged behind autos, face down over rough terrain, for the purpose of 'erasing their faces.' All of this is bound to have an effect on children. Yes, children become fascinated by horror stories and seek to imitate them. No wonder sadistic crimes are committed by preteen-age children.
Motion Pictures and Television
There is also the violence and moral degeneracy depicted on the motion-picture screens. Motion pictures fit to take children to are becoming ever fewer.
There was the film that was advertised: "It is written that you can sin 490 times and be forgiven. This motion picture is about the 491st." One reviewer described it as "a steady and enveloping climate of evil and corruption [which] pervades the whole picture, a crafty, surly and hopeless lot, an ice-cold warning of insidious evil triumphant." The plots of such degrading pictures often are preposterous and make those concerned with law and order look ridiculous, merely serving as an excuse to depict sensational and shocking immorality.
The television industry must also share in the blame for what is happening to youth by its portrayal of vice and violence. In one week one American television station showed 334 completed or attempted killings, and in one large city in one week 7,887 acts of violence and 1,087 threats of violence were shown. Not without good reason does Professor Ross Snyder state in his book, Young People and Their Culture, that electronic communications are "a menace of staggering proportions."
American television is especially bad in this regard. According to the British "Report of the Committee on Broadcasting," television programs from America, with the exception of comedies and musical shows, almost always contain scenes of violence. As Juvenile Court Judge Phillip D. Gilliam of Portland, Oregon, ex-
lion "dirty" paperback books are published.
Concerning such material J. Edgar Hoover, head of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, in an interview stated: "Pornography in all its forms is one of the major causes of sex crimes, sexual aberrations and perversions. . . Lewd and obscene material plays a motivating role in sex violence. In case after case the sex criminal has on his person or in his possession pornographic litera-
pressed it: "The communications explosion is the major factor in delinquency. In every poverty-stricken home is a television set—instant violence all around." Judge Gilliam knows what he is talking about. In the past thirty-two years he has had more than 150,000 youthful offenders appear before him.
No wonder then as a leading New York city child psychiatrist noted: "Younger and younger people are committing more and more crimes of greater and greater violence. Children of 12 and 13 years are
ture or pictures. . . Forcible rape has increased 10 percent in 1966 over 1965."
The flood of pornographic material being spread abroad together with lewd motion pictures and television programs helps account for such crimes as that of the eight-year-old boy sexually abusing a four-year-old girl and then strangling her with a clothesline. Neighbors termed this boy "a normal, very nice boy from a wonderful family."
But without a doubt the most vicious of all orphiators of youth are those who
killing now. This was not so 15 years ago. We seem to be running a sort of 'head start' program for violence, with all the emphasis we give it in films, on television and in those awful comic books." U.S. News & World Report, June 17, 1968.
The Pornographers and Drug Traffickers
Then, there are the conscienceless outand-out corrupitors of youth who produce and distribute pornography, lewd, lascivious pictures, motion pictures and litera-
or an exploiters of youth are those who operate the drug traffic, for drugs not only corrupt but also destroy youths. Thus, U.S. News & World Report says that "heroin, marijuana and other illicit drugs are pouring into the U.S. in a rising tide from every quarter of the globe. Prime target is young Americans. . . One certain fact: The drug market, more and more, is a youthful market." And another report states: "Along with the increased use of drugs by the younger generation, the crime rate has grown rapidly among
ture. At least 75 percent of their products fall into the hands of youth. Recently the United States Supreme Court ruled that material with frankly pornographic appeal may not be sent through the U.S. mails. In the state of California pornography is a 19-million-dollar business annually, and it is estimated that each month 700,000 sex magazines and 1.5 mil-
the same group. Street holdups and robberies of stores and homes are often motivated by the desire to get money to buy drugs."
No question about it, blame for what is happening to youth today must be shared by the exploiters of youth, the many mentioned above. But what about the parents? and the youths themselves?
AWAKE!
Parents MUST BEAR
AMONG the most rewarding things that a married couple can do together is to "be fruitful and become many"—provided their children turn
out well. Such is indeed a great joy, even as recognized by wise King Solomon: "Look! Sons are an inheritance from Jehovah; the fruition of the belly is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of youth. Happy is the able-bodied man that has filled his quiver with them."—Gen. 1:28; Ps. 127: 3-5.
Yes, when children turn out well they are a great blessing, a source of comfort and joy. But what if they fail to turn out well? Then what? Then there is regret, grief, shame. And who is responsible for it all? Time and again parents have asked: "What did we do wrong? Wherein have we failed our children, that they turned out so badly?" No doubt the greedy commercial exploiters of youth must share in the blame. But to what extent could the parents have counteracted these bad influences? To what extent did they come short, and in what respects?
No doubt one factor in the failure of many of today's parents is the "new affluence." On the one hand, this has resulted in youths' being less dependent upon their parents, and, on the other hand, it has caused parents who lack sound spiritual values to be tempted to sacrifice the interests of their children for the sake of pleasures. In other words, it is the modern trend of materialism, as
T. R. Fyvel, British social and political analyst, so well shows in his work Troublemakers.
Quite likely another reason why so many parents have come short is that they have let the theory of evolution crowd out Bible principles. The law of survival of the fittest is credited with bringing man to where he is today, and that law knows nothing of justice, empathy or fellow feeling. As far as the East is from the West is it from the Bible principle: "Just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them." Would any teen-ager have become delinquent if he had truly learned to adhere to that rule?—Luke 6:31.
Also contributing to making the job of being parents more difficult have been the churches themselves. Generally either the unreasonable creeds of the Dark Ages are taught or modern liberal theories that deny the inspiration of the Bible. Far from teaching their flocks the fear of Jehovah God, which is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13), many clergymen teach either that God is dead or that no human need fear to displease him, for he will do neither good nor bad. Zeph. 1:12.
Some clergymen even go so far as to approve of premarital sex relations and homosexuality. Thus a club operated by a clergyman was raided by the police, who arrested twenty teen-agers and found in the club "a shotgun, several whiskey bottles, contraceptives scattered on the floor, obscene expressions written on the walls, several drunk teen-agers and one teenage girl who was unconscious because of drinking."
(Chicago Tribune, February 7, 1968) So, false religious teaching has been a major factor in loosening moral restraint. Even well-meaning parents, by sending their children to religious organizations that belittle or misrepresent God's wholesome Word, in this way contribute to the corrupting of the lives of their offspring.
Firmness and Discipline Neglected
That neglecting firmness and discipline also contributes to delinquency is a conclusion reached by ever so many having to deal with delinquent youths. Said a New York city official regarding the city's widespread subway vandalism: "We are not speaking of . . . young hooligans who come under police custody. We are referring to the youngsters who come from so-called good families who will walk through a car and slash seats with a knife or some other sharp tool. Just plain pampered youth. When I was a kid a paddle was used. Perhaps we ought to go back to it." Yes, as the Bible says, "Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him."—Prov. 22:15.
Of similar import is the testimony given by Ruben Pannor, a district director of a California child-care service. He has interviewed literally hundreds of unwed fathers for the purpose of helping them to shoulder their obligations in one form or another. He stated that young folks actually want their parents to be more firm in teaching them morals. "These kids want someone to say 'No!' and say why."
Among other things, he has found that going steady on the part of teen-agers contributes to illegitimacy. Yet, as he said, "parents will find that it isn't such a tough problem if they take a stand against it." In this regard it might be said that parents of previous generations were wiser than those of today, for they would not permit young folks to court without being chaperoned.
Thus also there is the testimony of Dr. J. M. Babbitt, Ph.D., who has given many years to the study of mental and emotional problems of youth. When asked about parents' being to blame for delinquent children in middle-class suburbs, he said: "To a large extent, I suppose the answer is 'Yes,'—although it is also true that the broad changes . . . in society and the economy make child-rearing more complex and difficult than it was for our parents. But today's parents still have to assume a large part of the responsibility for what is happening . . . One could say that middle-class parents may have been over-indulgent. Too often the middle-class child comes to feel that he should have everything he wants, that he should never be frustrated, that he should never have to work for anything."
Showing the importance of discipline, psychiatrist Rittwagen in Sins of Their Fathers stated: "In the final analysis parents must be parents. They cannot slough the job onto someone else. And they very definitely do have an obligation to . . . discipline . . . Its chief value lies in strengthening the [personality] so that the adolescent can deal adequately and independently with his inner drives and with outer pressures. It prevents the child from becoming a victim of anarchic impulses, narcissistic indulgence, and a false sense of omnipotence. The parent must employ this discipline in a manner that will lead to self-discipline."
As District Judge L. H. Loble of Helena, Montana, who has been successful in reducing juvenile delinquency in his district, put it, "Discipline should begin in the high chair, not the electric chair."
Among other matters in which parents have failed to be firm is the spending of money. According to the chief of child psychiatry at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center, Dr. New, parents should limit the amount of money they give their children until they are sure that their children can handle it wisely. "One way for parents to protect their children from [drugs and pornography] is by seeing that they don't have enough money to pay for them."—New York Times Magazine, June 9, 1968.
Neglect to Set Right Example
Why are so many parents not sufficiently firm with their children? No doubt one reason is that modern theories of child training have popularized permissiveness. Another reason may well be that the parents are not firm with themselves, do not exercise discipline and self-control regarding their own selfish tendencies and so lack the courage and will to be firm with their offspring. Thus T. C. Purtell in Tonight Is Too Late, writes: "The fact remains, inescapable and damning, that there are parents in every community who drink too much and who do not seem to care what their children do. . . At best one could hope for parent rather than child education."
A recent American television program that dealt with the "generation gap" was reported, as sketching "with acid strokes the hypocrisy of adults who have one code for their children and another for themselves." As Dr. Bernard New put it, "Mothers and fathers have to realize that
it's part of their job to be standard setters." And wrote psychiatrist Robert Silbert: "When mothers dress like little girls and fathers pride themselves on doing the frug [a modern sexy dance], children lose their models of behavior. How can they identify with us when we seem to be identifying with them?"
Without a doubt many children fail in school because their parents fail to take an interest in acquiring knowledge themselves. Thus the New York Times, November 5, 1968, reported that "one of the most serious problems in the education of the city's Negro children is 'a lack of educational enrichment in their home.'" It quoted a public-school official as saying that some homes have four television sets but no dictionary.
Need to Show Loving Concern
Not only is it necessary for parents to be firm with their children and set a right example, but they must also show loving concern for them. This means that they must be willing to give their children much affection as well as much of their time. They cannot expect their children to turn out well if the parents are lovers of pleasures or of wealth more than lovers of their own children. Thus regarding a teen-ager who went wrong we are told: "Leon was alienated from his parents, both of whom worked and who were too busy to give him the attention he craved," and it might be added, he so much needed.
Bearing this out is the report on Bishop Pike's son who committed suicide: 'Pike and his son, as the bishop readily admits, had not been close for much of the boy's life. While his father kept busy with church affairs, young Jim as a teen-ager was turning on the hippie way of life. In his freshman year at San Francisco State College, he moved out of the family home for a pad at Hashbury [Hippie headquarters] where he experimented with marijuana, peyote, LSD and Romilar.
. . Pike admits he allowed his son to use LSD. 'Had I forbidden him to take trips [with
LSD] in the flat, he would no doubt have gone out with friends when he wanted to.' (Time, November 15, 1968) Are deep concern and discipline apparent here? Who, then, largely bears the burden for this young man's suicide?
Right Principles Not Inculcated
Still another basic aspect in which modern parents have failed their children is in not inculcating right principles in them.
God's Word says: "Train up a boy ac-
COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Listening to the Wisdom of Mother.
An Open Letter to Sincere Catholics.
Micronesia—Islands in Trust.
Three Men for a Diamond.
In particular is the loving concern of the father vital to the proper development of a son's personality. As long-time Juvenile Court Judge P. D. Gilliam once said: "When a man asked me the one thing he can do to keep his children from becoming delinquent, I told him 'love your wife.' If parents love each other the kids will be all right." Why? Because they will also be loving the kids.
Well has psychiatrist Rittwagen observed: "A father whose attention is concentrated on his wife and children makes the family a strong unit. . . . Here it is that our families fall down most. . . . We . . . tend to underplay the father role which is an extremely important one. . . . It is mainly through him that the young school child internalizes his values and precepts of right and wrong, good and bad, permissions and prohibitions." But when a father is too busy, either with work or in the pursuit of pleasures, to give needed time to his children, how can he accomplish these all-important things for them?
And as McCann wrote in Delinquency —Sickness or Sin?: "The dockets of our juvenile courts . . . reveal in one child after another a common experience; parental indifference, neglect, rejection."
"Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it." (Prov. 22:6) As one New York city school official expressed it: Real involvement by parents "means talking to your children and showing them right from wrong in school and out. A lot of times children will say nastily to a teacher, 'My mommy said you can't touch me.'" New York Times, November 5, 1968.
The law of Moses put Hebrew parents on the right track. It commanded them: "These words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up."—Deut. 6:6, 7.
No question about it, the burden of guilt that so many parents must bear because of the burgeoning of juvenile delinquency is great indeed. Many parents have failed to be firm with their children, failed to discipline them properly. They have failed to set them the right example, have failed to show them loving concern and neglected to inculcate in them right principles. All this, together with changed economic conditions and the greedy exploiters of youth, no doubt largely accounts for what is happening to youth today. But do not the youths themselves also come in for a measure of blame and censure? At the bar of justice are they not also shown to come short? Indeed they are, even as we shall presently see.
GENERATION GAP
WHAT is happening to youth' today includes also its estrangement from its elders, commonly called the "generation gap." Author G. Grant, writing in the Saturday Review, March 18, 1967, well noted that "there is a qualitative difference between what's happening now and what traditionally have been the impatient utterances of youth. . . Those over thirty would be foolish not to see in it the symptoms of deep and alarming disquietude."
This gap is a worldwide phenomenon. It is apparent throughout Europe, as noted by British writer T. R. Fyvel in his book Troublemakers. And according to the New York Times, December 1, 1968, "The Generation Gap in Japan Is Almost an Abyss."
Regarding its prevalence in the United States, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren warned that 'one of the most urgent necessities of our time is to resolve the growing friction between the daring of youth and the mellow practicality of the more mature.'
What accounts for this gap? Without a doubt the same factors accounting for the increase in lawlessness among youth have also contributed to this gap. Included therefore are also the change in economic conditions, television and the
knowledge explosion, from all of which youth has benefited most. Concerning the responsibility that adults, the older generation, have for this gap, Harold Howe II, United States Commissioner, observed: "Perhaps we . . . have given too little attention to the youthful
questioners and dissenters in our homes and schools. It may be that if we listened to them a little more closely, we could speak to them a little more convincingly."
But youth must also bear their share of the blame for their course of action as well as for the "generation gap." Telling is the point that Mr. Barr, headmaster of the Dalton Schools, makes: "When I was in college we students . . . didn't make sharp distinctions between ourselves and our elders. . . . Youths today think they can cheat on tests, steal from each other's lockers, and exploit each other emotionally, so long as they have the right opinions about war or civil rights or something else. That is not morality."
Muddled Thinking
Look where we will, we see evidences of muddled thinking on the part of many youths. Thus one of the leaders of America's youth rebellion said, "First we'll make the revolution—then we'll find out what for." Does that make sense? A leader of the New York High School Union betrayed the same mentality when he said: "We don't want to take over the government.
We want to destroy it. I believe people should have power over their own lives, but not over other people's lives." But how can you keep the stronger from dominating the weaker without an orderly and strong government?
Another instance of such kind of thinking is furnished by the teen-age male star of the film "Romeo and Juliet." According to him, "in school or anywhere else it's rotten to take orders from anyone. . . . No matter how ridiculous it may seem, there are dads who think they have the divine right to rule their offspring simply because they have engendered them." —New York Sunday News, November 17, 1968.
Parents, however, not only engender their offspring, but they invest much time, money and energy over a period of years to rear, feed and clothe their offspring and to provide them with education and entertainment. Because of this they have a far greater vested interest in the way youth turns out than many youths appear to have. Typical of the calloused attitude of many youths is that of the college editor who treated as a joke a youth's committing suicide while under the influence of LSD. But did the youth's parents think it was a joke?
In similar muddled thinking another youthful editor of a college paper wrote: "The reason you can't trust anyone over thirty is that they lie; they cannot be trusted. You hear what they say drugs are like and you take drugs and find out it isn't true." But that makes as much sense as accusing cancer researchers of lying because one has smoked cigarettes for a year or two without getting lung cancer. The UNESCO Courier, May 1968,
spelled out in detail the many dangers inherent in taking such drugs as LSD, and both legal and medical authorities have warned against marijuana.
The same youthful college editor further complained: "And about sex. It just isn't true that sex is bad unless you're married. Once you've had the experience you can't accept the old standard." But do adults speak against premarital sex merely to rob youth of pleasure? Premarital sex is self-defeating, even as such an authority as F. Alexander Magoun shows in his book Love and Marriage. It not only carries the risks of venereal disease and unwanted pregnancy but also greatly decreases the chances of continued marital happiness. Underscoring one of these points is the American Medical Association's report that "the United States is in the grip of a 'serious' epidemic of teen-age venereal disease."—New York Times, December 4, 1968.
Questionable Methods
Youths themselves have also contributed to the "generation gap" by the questionable methods they resort to to gain their ends. When Vice-President Hubert Humphrey visited Stanford University late in February 1967, the students gave him a rough reception: "They rushed at us, threw urine which they had saved up, called out dirty names," according to a report published in U.S. News & World Report.
The New York Times, December 3, 1968, told of thousands of New York city students going on a rampage, trying to break up classes where students were not striking, beating up teachers, breaking windows and even disrupting subway service on one line. Why? Because they objected to attending school 45 minutes longer each day so as to get caught up with the studies they missed during the teachers' strike, But for whose benefit were their studies extended?
For the teachers?
Youthful demonstrators protest their sincerity, but as political scientist Leo Rosten pointed out in Look, November 12, 1968, such youths are sincerely unhappy, sincerely frustrated, sincerely confused and sincerely illogical.
Many youths think that the Vietnam war is unjust and that racial segregation is unjust, but so do many adults. Does that justify violence?
By its violence and obscenities youth betrays an unreasoning mind, an uncontrolled spirit. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas shows in Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience: "We have an alternative . . . Good motives do not excuse action that will injure others. The individual's conscience does not give him license to indulge individual convictions without regard to the rights of others." In other words, as Jesus Christ expressed it: "Just as you want to do to you, do the same way to them."—Luke 6:31.
What Can Be Done About It?
What can be done by individual families about the "generation gap"? Parents can take their obligations more seriously, be lovers of their children rather than lovers of pleasures. They can alert themselves to the dangers facing their children by reason of the greedy commercial exploiters and bad school associations. They can make a sincere effort to understand their children, to spend time with them and, above all, to keep open communication with them.
Parents can also be firm and exercise discipline, set a fine example and show loving concern for their offspring. And important also is not only inculcating right principles but giving their children a vision of God's purposes and kingdom, for "where there is no vision the people go unrestrained." To the extent that parents show understanding and keep integrity, children will be more likely to respect and obey their parents.—Prov. 29:18.
And as for youth? Does not youth owe a debt of gratitude to parents for food, clothing, shelter, education and entertainment? Each year many fathers desert their families because these burdens become too grievous for them. Fathers willing to bear these burdens should be honored and respected for it. Mothers also deserve honor and respect for all their toil in making a house a home and nurturing the young from infancy to maturity.
Not only parents, but also you, their offspring, need to exercise empathy. Put yourselves in the shoes of your parents, as it were, and try to see things from their standpoint and make a sincere effort to communicate. Remember, your parents are far more concerned with what happens to you than are any of your teenage companions. Rightly and wisely God's Word commands: "Honor your father and your mother . . . that it may go well with you." "Observe, O my son, the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother."—Eph. 6:2; Prov. 6:20.
Where both parents and their offspring follow Bible principles, there will be no "generation gap."
A Busy Port
Though there are a number of ports from which large passenger vessels sail, a report from the New York State Commerce Department showed that half of all the persons sailing from the United States to a foreign country pass through the Port of New York. One reason for this might be the fact that a quarter of the population of the United States lives within 250 miles of New York city.
Miracle Rice For Asia's Hungry Millions
By "Awake!" correspondent in the Philippines
"MAGTANIM hindi biro," sings the Filipino youngster. That means "Planting rice is never fun." And it is true that in almost all Asia rice-growing is a backbreaking job. The truth behind that Tagalog folk song is evident in Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia and elsewhere. It is grimly true in India. In the state of Bihar alone some forty million people are slowly dying of hunger.
In the Philippines, as in most of these other lands, the problem is not merely confined to the fact that it is hard work to raise rice. The great problem is to grow sufficient rice so as to meet the minimal food requirements of a burgeoning population. Today's population of 35,000,000 may perhaps be tomorrow's of 40,000,000. So rice-farming is, in fact, a race against hunger and death.
And when we speak of rice we are speaking of Asia's staple food crop, her
staff of life. How important a place it occupies in the economies of Oriental lands may be gathered from this comparison: In the United States of America consumption of rice on the average is about seven pounds of rice a year for every person; in Asia it is not uncommon for one person to eat almost a pound a day and to feature it in every meal of the day.
To Ka Tomas, one of the multitude of small farmers in the Philippines, planting rice was a depressing business. The average yield on his farm per hectare was only about 30 cavans (44 kilos or 96.8 lbs.) of unhulled rice per season. Since he only had two hectares or about five acres to cultivate, that meant a seasonal harvest of sixty cavans. If weather permitted a second harvest, the greatest crop he could hope for would be 120 cavans.
But that is not all. Since he and his fellow farmers are for the most part merely tenants, half the crop must go to the landlord. Consequently, there was barely enough rice for his family to tide them over until the next harvest. His wife had to turn to laundering and sewing dresses to augment the family income. And as his children grew up they turned their backs on farm work and sought brighter-looking opportunities in the big city. Not at all a happy situation.
The Breakthrough
Then came the breakthrough for the thousands of Ka Tomases throughout the rice paddies of the Philippines. It was in
A worker at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) took pollen from a short, flowering Taiwanese rice plant called Dee-geo-woo-gen to fertilize the pistils of a tall, tropical Indonesian-Philippine variety called Peta. The result was what the daily press described as "miracle rice."
It was no sudden miracle, however. It was the result of four years of tireless experimentation at Los Baños, Laguna, where IRRI, the world's largest rice research center, is located. But though scientists objected to the name "miracle rice," it has stuck.
From the initial cross-pollination 150 seeds were produced. They were planted in pots, and the seeds from these provided a second generation of 10,000 plants. Those that grew tall, matured late or had other undesirable qualities were discarded. Seeds from the remainder were planted in a blast nursery, and again the undesirables were treated like weeds. About 298 plants survived and were sown separately. And again those that did not measure up to the standards set were ruthlessly eliminated.
In row number 288, plant number 3 had every indication of a promising future. Its seeds were planted, and what resulted? Why, miracle rice! To the technicians it is IR8-288-3, or IR8 for short. Another variety is the IR5-47-2, or just IR5.
It took a lot of hard work. The propagation of the plant itself was only part of the project. It had to be accompanied by intensive study of soils, fertilizers, irrigation methods and weed and insect control. But the hard work finally paid off. With miracle rice Ka Tomas could harvest five times the amount of rice he had formerly harvested. And a good season would now bring him a maximum yield of 164 cavans. In other parts of the country came reports of even better yields
as high as 250 cavans and more! Better harvesting techniques and improved milling methods gave promise of still better production.
The Farm Work Involved
Ka Tomas smiles more often these days. Now he thinks of building a sturdier home, not the nipa-and-bamboo affair that fought a losing battle with every typhoon. And he hopes to pay off all his debts within one more year.
But now, oddly enough, he finds himself bound ever tighter to his plot of land, with less time for leisure. The miracle rice demands constant, loving attention from seed-sowing to the time of the ripening grain. A man may spend double for fertilizer and insecticide, but if he does not spend increased hours with his growing crop, the yield will still be less than expected.
Since weeds grow just as fast as rice on the fertilized soil, Ka Tomas and his whole family have to weed the fields day after day without letup. He hopes sometime soon to use mechanical weeders so as to keep abreast with necessary work. His eye, too, must be quick to detect the early evidences of insect infestation, and chemical spray must be applied right away.
But Ka Tomas is willing to pay the price, for now he can look forward to three bountiful harvests each year. As compared with his former scanty harvest, he can now look forward to a yield of five to seven tons of rice in the wet season and seven to nine tons in the dry season. If only he had more land to plant with miracle rice, he dreams.
Advantages of the New Rice
Rice farmers see many benefits from planting miracle rice. Most other kinds gobble up fertilizer, with most of the benefit going into stalks and leaves—a waste of good money.
When the stalk grows too long and gets to be leaf-heavy it will bend over and droop into the mud. The flowers get crushed by the weight of piled rice stalks and leaves, resulting in too many empty rice grains. Grains that do ripen among the tangled stalks sprout prematurely in the mud, and that means more rice lost.
In miracle rice, however, the same amount of fertilizer goes to where it will do the most good—into the grains themselves. And the more fertilizer that is used on miracle rice the more rice grains result—something that was never true of other strains of rice. Even without fertilizer, miracle rice still outproduces other varieties.
Then, says Ka Tomas, this new rice has a high tillering ability, that is, it can produce more tillers or offshoots per stalk. On the spot where two stems were planted you may well get seventeen or eighteen later on. At times there are as many as twenty-six new stems, all heavy with rice grain!
Again, since each stem of the new rice is short and stiff, from 90 to 105 centimeters long, it can stand up under its own weight and refuses to bend. And the ripening rice grains do not easily get dislodged from the stalks in heavy wind or rain. Thus not so much rice is lost in bad weather.
Birds, such as the maya or the pipit, think twice before swooping into a field of the ripe miracle rice, for this strain has razor-sharp stiff leaves that can hurt thieving birds. That is good, for it means less rice for birds and more for Ka Tomas' bodega or storehouse.
Another thing, miracle rice is nonphotosensitive. That means it is not allergic to a little loss of sunlight. It will go on growing and producing regardless
of the number of dark days in the course of the year.
Not a Perfect Rice
No, not a perfect rice, our rice farmer will admit. There is no such thing. It is true that other varieties of rice taste better, and miracle rice does not cook up as fluffy as might be desired. And since it hardens when cold, it is best to eat it while still hot. Otherwise one must do quite a lot more chewing. The new rice is chalky, too, and prone to breakage at the mills, with the result that the precious germ often gets thrown away with the hulls. IRRI experts are at work on methods of increasing the milling ability of miracle rice. Already it has been suggested that parboiling the unhulled rice and drying it in the sun before the milling process might produce better results.
Those who want tastier rice must be prepared to wait the extra time it takes to grow it and be content with the smaller yields. As against the seven months it takes for other rice strains to mature, miracle rice takes only four months, making it possible to harvest three times a year. Anyway, in lands where there are hungry millions, people cannot afford to be fastidious in taste.
Another drawback to promoters of the miracle rice is the fact that its shorter plants will have trouble in countries where floods are a seasonal hazard. Such countries would require longer-stemmed rice that can hold its head up above the water. Nevertheless, there are signs that the new rice is spreading and easing somewhat the near-famine conditions in various parts of the East.
Miracle Rice for All
The Philippines is no longer dependent on other countries for extra rice supplies, it is claimed. In fact, it can now export the grain.
In 1968 much of the miracle rice exported was for seed: 45,000 cavans to South Vietnam, 46 to Laos, 69 to Liberia, 3,545 to Israel, 273 to Spain, 227 to Venezuela, 9 to India and 4,774 to Ceylon. That adds up to 53,943 cavans.
In India, where miracle rice was released for cultivation in 1966, production shot up more than 30 percent. There is now excitement among farmers there as more and more land is brought under cultivation to this new rice with its anticipated greater yields. In Vietnam farmers admit that the miracle rice may not win a medal for taste, but it grows abundantly and fast, and that is just what they want. Heretofore depending on vast imports of rice, this country hopes, with the use of the new rice seeds, to feed its people with homegrown rice in three years. Meantime, those who prefer Vietnam's own delicious varieties of rice can grow them in garden plots for their own tables.
Taiwan grows excellent rice, but it seems that her subtropical variety is not too well suited to the tropical climate. The miracle rice will be a boon to them. As might be expected, too, the miracle rice will not thrive in the northerly climate of South Korea. In Thailand, where people prefer flinty and tastier rice, scientists have experimented with the crossbreeding of IR8 with local rices, and now their Ministry of Agriculture has reported the "successful development of a new high-yield strain."
But other countries speak highly of the miracle rice. Malaysians call it Ria or the "happiness rice," and the Vietnamese refer to it as than nong, "rice of the agricultural god." They see an end to the importation of rice, to the perpetual dickering for purchase loans, to the saddening sight of long queues of people waiting with bowls outstretched for rice. It was expected that some 13 to 16 million hectares of Asian countryside would be planted in miracle rice in 1968. That means that within four months of planting there should be a single bumper crop of some 91 million tons of rice.
It must be admitted, however, that miracle rice alone cannot solve Asia's food problem. As long as typhoons lash the Far East each year, as long as bombs go on tearing up the precious agricultural land, as long as unscrupulous manipulators can toy with the world's rice market to their own selfish benefit, as long as superstitious attitudes hold people to antiquated farming methods, hunger will continue to haunt vast populations. The population explosion, too, increases the mouths to be fed at a pace that cannot be matched by increased crops.
Nothing short of the replacement of this selfish system of things on earth with a new God-provided system can bring about the removal of want, hunger, sickness and death. Ka Tomas and his family should pray and hope for the coming of that new system, under which the planting of rice will become a delight.
Evolution Science Fiction
In the book The Origin of Vertebrates, author N. J. Berrill discusses the supposed evolutionary chain leading up to vertebrates. However, on page 10 in his introduction he admits: "There is no direct proof or evidence that any of the suggested events or changes ever took place . . . In a sense this account is science fiction." But the Biblical account of creation by God is not fiction; it has been verified by scientific facts. Everywhere these facts are in harmony with the Genesis account that God created basic forms of life 'according to their kind.'—Gen. 1:25.
BEFORE the fascinated gaze of television viewers around the world three astronauts left the earth on December 21 for man's first flight to the moon. Leaving behind an immense trail of fire, their giant Saturn 5 rocket lifted them by stages into earth orbit. On the second orbit the third stage of the rocket fired again for five minutes, giving them a velocity of 24,200 miles per hour. This sent them on their way to the moon.
With that initial shove the spacecraft coasted the rest of the distance of more than 230,000 miles. By the time it had reached a distance of about 212,000 miles the pull of earth's gravity had slowed it to 2,225 miles per hour. Shortly thereafter the gravitational pull of the moon began to make itself felt, causing the craft to pick up speed. When it reached the vicinity of the moon on December 24 it was traveling at a speed of over 5,700 miles per hour. The rocket on the spacecraft was then fired to slow it down sufficiently so it would go into a moon orbit.
The astronauts thrilled the public by sending back live television pictures of the earth as it appeared to them from their spacecraft. What the viewers saw was a cloud-covered globe, part of it in darkness and the other part in light.
So impressive was the view that the astronauts were moved, while in moon orbit, to read for broadcast to the earth ten verses from the first chapter of the Bible book of Genesis. Each took a turn in reading a few. Two verses in this account of creation speak of the division between night and day that was so evident to the Apollo crew. "God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness. And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night."—Gen. 1:4, 5.
When commenting on this reading of the Bible by the astronauts, however, the pastor of the Episcopal church attended by Captain Lovell manifested the faithless attitude that so many clergymen have today. He discredited the Bible by claiming that its account of creation is only a "myth." How different from Jesus Christ, who spoke respectfully of God's Word, saying: "Your word is truth!"—John 17:17.
During the spacecraft's ten orbits of the moon, television pictures were beamed back to earth showing the moon's cratermarked surface. Viewers could see the craters move slowly across their television screens as the craft passed over the lunar surface.
At 1:10 a.m. on December 25 the main rocket on the spacecraft fired again, increasing its speed to 5,400 miles per hour, the speed it needed to break away from the moon's gravitational pull. This relatively small rocket could do this because the moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of earth's. The craft then coasted toward the earth, gaining speed when the earth's gravity took hold on it. By the time it slammed into the earth's atmosphere it was traveling over 24,500 miles per hour.
…