Awake!, September 8, 1977

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Awake! — September 8, 1977

Source: jw.org

Contents

Women Flood the Job Market

Why Women Seek Employment

The Problems of Workingwomen

Should a Woman Work . . . or Not?

A Meaningful Oath?

Fishing in Arctic Waters

Would You Like to Make Home Movies?

Is It a Christian Practice?

The Sarawak Pepper Gardener—Spice Supplier to Your Table

Peering into the Amazon Jungle

Why Does God Allow His Servants to Be Persecuted?

Watching the World

How Did It All Get Here?

How to Keep Delinquency Out of Your Home

Women Flood the Job Market

IF YOU asked a little girl a generation ago what she wanted to be when she grew up, she may have remarked: “A mommy.” Today, in the United States, if you asked the same question, the answer more likely might be: “The president,” or, “An astronaut and a mommy.”

It used to be that women with young children and who worked at a secular job were either pitied or criticized. But there has been such a shift in attitudes that more and more women now apologize if they are “just a housewife.”

Over 47 percent of all adult women in the United States now work outside the home, and the numbers are rising rapidly. Women account for about 40 percent of the U.S. labor force. In 1976 alone, a large new group of 1.5 million women went out and found a job.

This flood of women into the job market has surprised economists and Labor Department forecasters. They have called it “extraordinary,” and “the single most outstanding phenomenon of our century.” It was not expected that women would account for over 40 percent of the labor force, at least not until 1985.

It is similar in other countries. In Belgium, a Ministry of Health official blamed the reported increase of lice, fleas and cockroaches on women working outside the home. “Man and wife now more often go to work together in the morning,” he said, “and are often too tired to start cleaning up the house when they get back in the evening.”

In Israel, women serve as army drill instructors. “It increases the men’s motivation,” one explains, for “when I complete a two-mile run at the head of my platoon, no one drops out.”

What is surprising U.S. observers is not just the numbers of women suddenly desiring to work, but the ages of the women. In the last two years especially, the most striking increases have been among women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four, the age group that traditionally stays home to raise their families. Many of these women are choosing to work, not because they don’t have husbands who support them, but because they prefer working outside the home “to just being a housewife.”

A Swinging Pendulum

Recent patterns of women in the job market have been like a swinging pendulum. Prior to World War I, women seldom worked outside the home, and then generally only in jobs considered suitable for women. Even typing and secretarial work was viewed as strictly a man’s job until the late 1880’s. But the labor needs of World War I brought women into the marketplace in force. Then, in the economic crash of 1929, women were the first to be fired in the wave of unemployment that swept the nation.

World War II, even more dramatically, brought women into the nation’s labor force in record numbers. They did all kinds of work formerly considered fit for men only, producing much of the war matériels. “Rosie the Riveter” became a national heroine of the day. But with peacetime, large numbers of women again returned to the home, as defense plants shut down and women were fired to make room for millions of returning servicemen.

Many women were glad to return home, and the spirit of the country strongly shifted away from encouraging secular careers for women. The wartime period of record numbers of workingwomen—some 37 percent of all women—was replaced by the highest marriage and birth rate in the twentieth century. But beginning around 1950, the number of workingwomen began to rise again, and by 1962 it was back up to 36 percent, just short of the record World War II level; and now, at over 47 percent, it continues to soar.

This has raised a hotly debated question: Where do women belong? In the home? On a job? Or both? But before considering this, let us examine reasons why women are entering the job market in such numbers.

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Child-development expert Urie Bronfenbrenner recently reported: “Over 50 percent of women with school-aged children are now employed. So are over one-third of those with children under six. In fact, one-third of women with children under three are working.”—“Psychology Today,” May 1977.

Why Women Seek Employment

SOCIOLOGISTS cite several reasons why women seek employment outside the home. In particular, the modern woman simply has less to do in the home than her great-grandmother did. With longer life-spans, fewer children, more laborsaving devices and new convenience foods, a modern woman can find herself at age thirty-five with the youngest child in school and wondering how to fill the hours of a day.

For many women, working outside the home after the children are all in school or are grown has become a solution. As a result, by 1962 the average age of workingwomen in the U.S. was forty-one, as compared with twenty-six in 1900 and thirty-seven in 1950.

The mushrooming divorce rate—in the U.S. alone over a million women divorce annually—also pushes women into the job market. Often they must work to live. A recent study showed that court-ordered child-support payments, even when they are faithfully paid, typically are less than half the cost of rearing the children involved. This helps to explain why divorced and separated women now make up nearly two out of three women in the labor force.

Furthermore, as they see friends, neighbors and even parents divorcing, many modern women wonder whether it is not more prudent to plan on the possibility that they, too, may, later in life, have to support themselves. Is it realistic, women may ask, to count on a man for a lifetime of support? So working throughout marriage is seen by a woman as a form of insurance against finding herself, at forty, divorced and with children to support, and no job skills or work history on which to lean.

Another reason that many married women seek employment is to supplement their husband’s paycheck. With the high rate of inflation, some families need the extra money for necessities. Others simply want to purchase luxuries that the family could not otherwise afford, or to raise the standard of living to a level that the husband alone could not maintain.

If the husband’s work is seasonal or subject to periodic layoffs, income from a wife’s job can provide a stabilizing economic support, tiding the family over difficult times. Especially is this true since most women work in service professions, which are less likely to be quickly hard hit by unemployment than traditionally male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing.

A Dominant Influence

While the above factors have contributed to many women getting employment, the women’s liberation movement is apparently largely responsible for this trend. Concepts brought to the fore by the movement have caused many women, even those having no direct ties with it, to express a dissatisfaction with homemaking and to seek personal identity and independence. They desire to be involved in a world beyond their own family.

To some women, marriage itself seems on the way out, as no longer being a viable institution in the modern world with its new morality. Also, growing numbers of women are repudiating their traditional role—that of nurturing the young. The U.S. birth rate is at an all-time low, down from 3.7 children for each family in 1957 to 1.8 in 1975, with the trend continuing to slide dramatically in 1976.

While in the 1950’s mothers had a tendency to stay at home with newborn and preschool children before entering the job force, many of today’s women don’t want to wait. The life of a housewife and mother, with its degree of isolation and emphasis on service to others, seems to many women today outmoded, boring and limiting.

“After my first daughter was born, I felt that I had given birth to her and that I had died myself,” says one young mother of two, a college graduate who was accustomed to working. “It was the end of me as an independent person with ties to the outside world.”

This woman found the adjustment to being a full-time housewife and mother depressing. “I decided to go back to work after I found myself buying ladies’ magazines with articles on things to make to save money,” she said. “I realized that I could make more money holding a job.” So leaving her two young daughters, one only a few months old, in the care of a housekeeper, she returned to work.

The view that a housewife is the “lowest of the low” as far as status is concerned has caused many women to seek employment. “If you stay home, people think it’s because you’re too dumb to hold a job,” one young woman explains. More husbands, too, are urging their wives to get a job. One encouraged his reluctant wife to return to work shortly after the birth of their first child. Why?

“Partly selfish on my part,” he says. “I don’t like coming home and hearing that the price of carrots has doubled.” He is afraid that eventually his wife will bore him if she stays in the home. “I think of her mother,” he explains. “She started out an intelligent woman but now I can’t remember her ever saying anything vaguely interesting. She’s never done anything except keep house, and the result is that her mind is now stultified. I don’t want my wife to be like that. Most of the things my wife does for the baby are strictly mechanical—like cooking food and mashing it up, and so forth. You can take some pride in a job well done, but I don’t think that’s much fun or very interesting.”

A comparison of two surveys shows the effect of such attitudes toward the traditional role of women. In the survey taken in the 1960’s, before the women’s movement had such an impact on the average woman, 72 percent of the women polled said that they really liked their work as homemakers. Most of them even enjoyed, or said they didn’t mind, work defined as drudgery, like cleaning the house. But in a recent survey, only about half the women polled said that housework provided them even “occasional pleasure.”

But how do married women and mothers feel who take on the responsibilities of holding a job and caring for a home? Does this bring them satisfaction and happiness?

The Problems of Workingwomen

HEADLINES often tell of women having glamorous and well-paying jobs formerly held almost exclusively by men. Some become presidents of countries, government cabinet members, TV anchor women, stock brokers, and so forth. Yet it remains true that the vast majority of women have low-paying, low-status jobs, with very little chance of advancement.

The fact is, despite legal victories and federal laws outlawing discrimination against women in employment, the job picture appears to be getting worse for women workers, not better. “Progress? What progress?” the National Organization for Women admitted last year. “We are slipping back. Things are not even staying the same.”

Recent government statistics show that the gap between what the average man and woman earns has been widening, not narrowing, in the last twenty years. More than 80 percent of all workingwomen in the U.S. make less than $10,000 a year, while only 38 percent of all men do. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some female college graduates earn only 60 percent of what male college graduates earn. Furthermore, a study by a New York research organization reported that more than two thirds of the increase in female employment between now and 1985 would be in modest clerical jobs, and that wages would continue to lag substantially behind men’s wages.

What this all means is that a woman who hopes to find an exciting job at a high enough rate of pay to provide her with financial independence is likely to be disappointed. Not only will her job probably be of a mechanical and menial nature, but also if she pays someone to care for her children while she is working, she may just barely break even, if that. For there are usually other costs: transportation, lunches away from home, a working wardrobe, higher priced convenience foods, laundry service, trips to the hairdresser—all of which can take a big bite out of a paycheck.

On the Job Problems

Further, the work environment frequently can take a toll on a woman’s nerves. Many do not like the backbiting, office politicking, competitiveness and sometimes dishonesty of the “dog-eat-dog” business world. Nor is the moral climate always an upbuilding one. Many women have experienced sexual harassment on the job by male employees or bosses.

The Cornell Human Affairs Program conducted a survey on this subject and found that 92 percent of the women that they polled felt that sexual harassment on the job was a serious problem, and a full 70 percent said that they had personally experienced it. The poll showed that sexual harassment, which they defined as constant leering and ogling, squeezing and pinching, continually brushing up against a woman’s body, sexual propositions backed by the threat of losing a job, and, in extreme cases, even forced sexual relations, occurred across all job categories, ages, marital statuses and pay ranges.

What About the Home?

Another problem of many working mothers is that their job exhausts them. Yet, when they come home there are still many things there for which to care. In many cases, their taking on the extra burden of working outside the home does not result in their husbands’ pitching in and helping out at home any more than they did before their wives began working.

For example, consider a survey taken of women doctors in the Detroit, Michigan, area in 1976. It showed that besides being full-time physicians, three out of four of these women took care of all their families’ cooking, shopping, child care and money management. Two thirds of them had some domestic help one or two days a week to assist with laundry and cleaning, but the remaining third even did all their own housework.

The energy drain on such a woman can be a serious problem if she tries to carry such a superhuman load for long. Women who have tried to do it admit frankly that inevitably the housework suffers. One working mother acknowledged that she now removes towels from her drier and literally throws them into the linen closet to save folding time. Another said that her husband used to complain if she didn’t iron his handkerchiefs; now that she is working he is glad if she even takes them out of the drier and puts them in his drawer.

What Happens to the Children?

Although many husbands nowadays may be willing to overlook a great deal that they at one time expected of their wives, there is another matter that working mothers find harder to sweep under the rug—the needs of their children. They may argue that it is the quality of time spent with their children, not the quantity, that counts, and there is truth to that. Yet a working mother may become so frazzled that both the quantity and the quality of time with the children suffer.

Recognizing this problem of working mothers, the authors of a book that encourages housewives to work offers this suggestion to them when they arrive home only to be greeted by their children wanting to tell them about their day: “Tell those adorable dimpled faces to button their lips until Mommy has 15 minutes alone in her room to make the transition, pull herself together, change clothes, and maybe have a quick martini. Lock the door if you must, because, as far as we’re concerned, this is a very important part of any working mother’s schedule.”

The problem with this advice is that the working mother may discover, as some have, that by the time she is ready for her children, they may have withdrawn from her. Their precious earnestness to share with their mother the things important to them has faded, having been replaced by a silent barrier.

One psychiatrist who specializes in the emotional conflicts of career women says that children don’t like to have their mothers working, period. “While the children rarely complain about the father being away from home, they freely express their anger at their mother for being away,” he claims. “The mother, they feel, should be for them alone.”

This psychiatrist claims that career women, due to the women’s liberation movement, have become intolerant of any kind of dependence. “For those with children,” he says, “it means that they expect their children to grow up as soon as they’re born. They want the children to be more like themselves, resourceful and independent. And the children are not prepared for this.”

Nor are small children the only ones that require attention, as one mother and homemaker, who has two grown children and one sixteen-year-old son still living at home, points out. “You have to prod children,” she says, “really show that you’re interested in them, in what happened to them that day. They won’t volunteer it. And if you’re not at home to discuss these things with them, they’re going to find someone else to confide in. How do you know but that they may choose to confide in someone immoral or immature?”

This mother went on to add: “Two girls in the neighborhood, whose mothers work, often come here to visit after school until someone is home. They tell me things that they never tell their mothers. When I suggest that they do so, they say that their mothers are too busy for them.”

The Problem of Success

Some women become real successes in the business world. They make a lot of money, exercise considerable influence and are respected by business associates. But their work often requires overtime and even travel. For a mother, this means having to leave not only her children but her husband as well. Yet refusing overtime and travel can mean losing her job.

One woman executive on the American Stock Exchange, a job traditionally classified as ‘male only’ until recently, needs to travel more than 30 percent of the time. She also has twin infant daughters. Her solution? She has a housekeeper daytimes and, when she is traveling, her husband baby-sits for her after he comes home from his job. When she is traveling, an average workday is from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m.—a schedule that precludes mothering even if she were physically near her children.

So for a true “career woman,” the home and family must become secondary in importance, because, as anthropologist Margaret Mead points out: “The continuous care given to small children, a husband, and a household usually is incompatible with the single-minded pursuit of a career. The life style of the good wife and mother contrasts sharply with that of the good scientist, artist, or executive.”

Attempts at mixing an outside career and caring for a family often prove disastrous. One woman whose marriage broke up explains: “My work had become almost a lover to me. When I say my career comes very high in my life, it’s because it is my life.”

Yet even workingwomen who are not committed to a career need to recognize how deeply a job can affect their marital relationship. One woman who, after some twenty years of marriage, went back to work observes: “I think Lew misses having me home quite a lot . . . And now I get kind of irritated with ‘Come help me pack my bag.’ I think: ‘Pack your own bag!’ And I never used to feel this way. I was always delighted to help him because I felt that was what my role was.”

This brings us back to the question: Where does a woman belong? In the home? On a job? What is her proper role?

Should a Woman Work . . . or Not?

TRADITIONALLY the woman’s place has been in the home, not working at a job outside. In the past there was plenty for her to do at home, as it was said: “A man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.”

Some argue that women still belong in the home, although in many places the situation has changed dramatically. For example, in over 47 percent of the marriages in the United States, both the husband and the wife hold a job.

Even those wives who have children often work. In fact, in the U.S. nearly half the wives with children under age eighteen have a job. And about a third who have preschool children are working at outside jobs. Commonly now day-care nurseries look after the young.

Pointing to the tremendous change, the U.S. Labor Department reports: “The concept of a family where the husband is the only breadwinner, the wife is a homemaker out of the labor force and there are children may be a useful one for many illustrative purposes, but it does not represent the typical American family of the mid-1970’s.”

Is this situation desirable? Is it best that a woman hold a job? What if she is married and has children?

When Working May Be Necessary

Many women today need to work outside the home. For example, millions are divorced or separated from their husbands; some have children to support. Holding a job may be the only way that they can meet living expenses. Many other women are single, perhaps waiting to marry, and these often must hold a job to support themselves. But what about women who have husbands and, perhaps, children?

With skyrocketing inflation, many of these, too, may need to work. The husband may be unable to make an adequate wage to support his family. (Jas. 5:4) So his wife might be called on to take a job outside the home. But are many families today really in need of two wage earners?

Some persons think so. In 1970, according to a U.S. Public Affairs pamphlet: “About 21 million women were working because they and their families needed the money to live on, for food, clothing, and housing.” The writer added: “These figures ought to demolish the myth, still believed by some persons, that a significant number of women in this country work only because they like to work or because they want extra money.”

No doubt some mothers with children, even those with a husband as well, need to work in order to help to meet living expenses. And what these married women do is in keeping with God’s purpose that a wife be a “helper” to her husband. (Gen. 2:18) But a serious question that the husband and wife should consider together—especially if they have children—is whether the wife really has to work outside the home.

Do Mothers Really Need to Work?

This is indeed an important question, because children need their mothers much more than many realize. Our Creator made women so that they could bear children. But he did more. He also instituted marriage and the family arrangement, equipping mothers to nurse and give the young the tender care that they really need. (Matt. 19:4-6; 1 Thess. 2:7) If husbands and wives fully appreciated this, perhaps they would adjust their way of living so that the mother could be at home with the children.

One young woman, looking back, feels strongly that she would gladly have done with fewer material things if she could have had her mother’s closer guidance and association. The woman explains:

“After I left home I roomed for a while with a girl who was raised in a much poorer home, and she really taught me the difference between what you really need and what you think you need. She was happy on beans and tortillas and secondhand clothes. I was not used to that. She taught me to be more thrifty and made me realize that my family spent more money than we really needed to.

“Maybe if we had been satisfied with less in a material way, my mother could have stayed in the home. Two of my sisters got into serious trouble—one took drugs. I just keep wondering: What if someone had been at home to know what my sister was doing? These kids are exposed to the world all day in school. How can parents counteract all of that if they’re not home to talk with them in a natural way while doing things together, like baking or whatever?”

This is something for parents to think about seriously. More children are getting into trouble these days, and no doubt a big contributing factor is that their mothers are away from home working. One woman, who had an interesting job as a journalist, explains: “I wasn’t a militant feminist, but I had bought the woman’s movement line that any job was more important than taking care of children. It was supposed to be drudgery.” Nevertheless, this woman quit her job to care for her son and, after a period of adjustment, now prefers being a housewife.

Although not all mothers may be able to quit working entirely, perhaps they can compromise and obtain part-time work. In this way they may only be away from home when the youngsters are at school. It is suggested that women looking for part-time work try small companies, nonprofit organizations, banks, stores, tax-preparation firms, temporary agencies, and any company that hires large numbers of women.

Deciding What to Do

Does this mean that if a wife does not have children she should get a job outside the home if she so desires? Not necessarily. It is a matter that couples need to work out between them. Some men resent their wives holding a job, preferring to be the sole wage earner for the family. It may be important to them that their wives care well for their home, which generally precludes holding a full-time job.

One woman, who had gone to work after the children grew up, had such a husband. She explains: “I realized the situation was irritating him. We’d been married too many years for me to be blind to it. And then we talked about it and I just had to sift it all out. Was this job just an ego trip for me? I had to pay day-help almost as much as I was making, so it didn’t make much sense financially. . . . I wasn’t resentful about giving up my job. Hal needs a lot of backing—who doesn’t—to carry the load he does.”

But why do so many women feel unfulfilled unless they hold a job? Modern propaganda is largely responsible. As noted earlier, homemaking has lost status or prestige in the eyes of the world. A housewife is often viewed as a person not smart enough to get a job. But this is wrong; it takes real skill to be a good homemaker.

Just think for a moment: A wife must combine the talents of an interior decorator, teacher, secretary, nurse, maid, laundress and cook! Speaking of “the intricacies of keeping house,” one authority says: “It is without question one of the most complicated and many-sided operations one person is ever expected to handle.” Husbands who have had to manage the household in an emergency appreciate that doing a good job of it is no easy task.

Yet, wives need to be reassured that their work in the home is truly appreciated and is important. As one woman said: “When you’re home all the time you keep mumbling: ‘I’m a worthwhile person.’ But there’s nobody to say, ‘Sure, you are.’” So a good husband, especially today, wisely praises his wife for her work in keeping the home a clean, comfortable place to which to come home. And that managing a home is no easy job is evident from the lengthy Bible description of the work of a good wife.—Prov. 31:10-31.

Obviously times have changed; circumstances are somewhat different from what they were in the past, requiring more women to work outside the home. Nevertheless, when the Scriptural encouragement is heeded for women to be “workers at home,” a more stable, happier family life is likely to be enjoyed.—Titus 2:3-5.

A Meaningful Oath?

In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, sometimes called the ‘father of medicine,’ required his students to take an oath. For over two thousand years the graduating young doctors of many countries have repeated it. But how meaningful can this vow be today when we consider that one of the promises made is: “I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abortion”?

Fishing in Arctic Waters

BY “AWAKE!” CORRESPONDENT IN NORWAY

SHRILL cries of seagulls and the monotonous humming of diesel engines meet the ear. The nostrils encounter scents of salt water and seaweed, as well as vapors of fresh and decaying fish.

Where are we? At Svolvær, a fishing village far north of the Arctic Circle. This is the site of one of the world’s largest cod fisheries.

Approaching the harbor are fishing cutters, their undersides extending deep into the water due to heavy cargoes of fish. The activity on shore is hectic; everyone is scrambling to his place, ready to unload and process today’s catch.

When I noticed Havternen, or “The Ocean Tern,” getting fastened to a quay, I seized the opportunity to speak with the skipper. He is a native of Lofoten, a large group of islands off northern Norway.

“The Lofoten fisheries have really changed,” he explains, “even if it is still a giant operation. During my youth, the Lofoten fishing season would involve some 32,000 men at work. Now it’s barely a tenth of that number.”

Fishing for “Skrei”

I learned that large fleets of fishing cutters hunt for skrei. These are six- to fifteen-year-old cod that come from the Barents Sea, northeast of Norway, to spawn. They seek out a location where warm, salty Atlantic water from the Gulf Stream mixes with cooler, less salty Arctic water. The resultant temperature and salinity lure shoals of cod to this location at the beginning of January each year. Along with the cod come fishing vessels from all over Norway.

I was curious as to the type of equipment used to haul in huge catches of fish. “A hundred years ago,” says the skipper, “we used boats with sails and oars, similar to the ancient Viking ships. Today we use engine-driven cutters between twenty and seventy feet (6 and 21 meters) long. These are furnished with advanced technical equipment.

“Most vessels use nets bound together in large links, often 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) long. These nets do not stand vertically in the water, but bulge out like a sail filled with wind, making it easier to entangle fish in the meshes. Others prefer the purse seine, a baglike net put out while the vessel is in motion and then hauled in by a winch when the boat lies still. Smaller boats may use lines with thousands of baited hooks. Or they may fish with what we call juksa, a single line with several fishhooks. When a fisherman jerks this line rhythmically, fish go after it.”

It seemed to me that so many fishing vessels at work with different types of equipment would result in much confusion. When I asked the captain about this, he replied:

“No, the fishing operations are subject to detailed regulations. The ocean itself is divided into fields, and vessels with the same kind of catching equipment must keep within the same fields. Patrol boats see to the enforcement of this law.”

Catching Herring

Besides cod, a fish that constitutes an attractive catch for fishermen of many nations is herring. The most important of Norwegian fishing activities has been for herring. Our skipper comments: “And they are even more exciting than the cod fisheries because herring are more of a gamble.

“The fishing efforts begin when herring move toward the Norwegian coast to spawn. We remain in harbor, waiting. When the radio flashes a message that herring is on the way, we leave port. As a herring measures only about twenty-eight to thirty-three centimeters [11 to 13 inches] in length, we generally use a purse seine with a fine mesh. On board everyone is tense, excited. The radio is on, tuned to a special ‘Fisheries Wave,’ and we all listen eagerly for reports of catches made.

“On the bridge of our boat alert eyes scan the sea. When sea gulls and terns are seen diving into the sea and coming up with herring in their beaks, we know that fish are there. Helpful too is an ‘echo sounder.’ This instrument sends out sound waves under water and records their echoes. If the sound waves bounce off a shoal of herring, we ‘see’ it on our registering screens.

“When this happens, we notify our seine master. He is the one who decides exactly when to throw the seine. Before doing this, he jumps into a small boat with another member of the crew and gets a close look at the herring shoal. Then comes the order: ‘Let go the seine!’ With a shrill whistle, the cutter circles the shoal at full speed, at the same time letting out the net. When the circle is closed, the seine becomes a purse. But the question is: ‘Did we get the shoal, or did it get away?’

“As the seine is being winched in slowly, carefully, we watch. When successful, the purse seems to have no water remaining in it; just glittering, silvery herring. A single throw of the seine may net us 300 to 400 tons of herring.”

When the Catch Is Hauled Ashore

I watched interestedly as barrels of fish were hoisted ashore. The fish were poured into a large basin, around which stood men with sharp knives. I observed one of them grab a fish. A cut opened the abdomen. Three quick movements of the hand disposed of the bowels. One or two more cuts and the head was off. Within seconds hard roe, liver and intestines ended up in three separate barrels, while the head went into a pile on the ground. Then it was on to the next fish with the same quickness and expertise.

After weighing and rinsing, some of this processed fish is put in large wooden boxes, cooled with ice and sent for immediate consumption all over the country. Another part of the catch is salted, dried and exported as klip fish. The largest part of the catch (around 50 percent), however, becomes “stock fish.”

This gets its name from being hung up on special stocks to dry in the open air. It remains on the stocks until summer. By then it weighs just a fraction as much as fresh fish. Stock fish has a high food value and does not easily decay. If a disaster suddenly strikes in an area, this type of fish comes in handy as an emergency food.

“Almost every part of the fish is utilized in some way,” our friend the skipper says. “For instance, children may earn good money cutting out the tongues from the fish heads. Many view fried cod tongues as a real delicacy for dinner as well as for sandwiches. The remains of the heads and other remnants go to fish-meal plants. The hard roe is frozen, canned or made into caviar. The liver is steamed into cod-liver oil, rich in vitamins A and D.”

Are We Robbing the Sea?

Our skipper has one big worry these days: “We are overtaxing the resources of the ocean. There is grave danger of total extermination for several types of fish.

“Take, as an example, fishing for herring. In the 1950’s oceanographers estimated the stock of winter herring at somewhere between fourteen and eighteen million tons. Today it is almost exterminated, and winter-herring fisheries are totally prohibited. Some voice the opinion that the only way to save winter herring is to prohibit fishing for them altogether. And the cod stock in the Barents Sea, the basis for Lofoten fishing activities, is in danger too. Though some refer to present-day catches as ‘good,’ oceanographers have termed the stock ‘alarmingly low.’”

I asked about the possibility of different nations coming to some agreement on common quotas so as to preserve stocks of fish. “That seems difficult to achieve,” said the skipper. “One problem is the reaching of agreement on how much each shall be allowed to catch. Even if they agreed on that, the quotas would be too high. Everyone is greedy. A notable example is what happened with whaling in Antarctica. Some decades ago tens of thousands of whales were caught down there each year. Today the whale is almost extinct in that area. And all that despite numerous conferences, lots of agreements and dozens of quotas! They just talked.

“Economic considerations further complicate matters. Fishing vessels with their equipment are costly. Such investments must yield interest. When stocks of fish diminish, bigger efforts are made to catch them. Moreover, other nations are expanding their fishing fleets at an explosive rate. They, too, want to share the riches off our Norwegian coast. You can see that setting limits on catches is not easy.”

Fishing in Arctic waters not only benefits mankind but is a vigorous and exciting activity. Depleted fish supplies do not stem from any inability of ocean life to reproduce sufficiently. The cause of this problem is the same as that resulting in so many others that afflict mankind—human greed.

Would You Like to Make Home Movies?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Germany

SOME time ago we were invited to the home of our friends the Millers for an evening. Their little girl Tina welcomed us with her childish charm. “This evening we’re going to see a movie,” she said. “I’m in it too! Daddy made it all by himself.”

We were eager to see the film. When it finally came it was colorful, yes, very colorful. At first we thought it was modern art—a lot of colorful spots swiftly whisked by on the screen. “That was our convention a couple of weeks ago,” Heinz Miller explained. Without his explanation, we would never have known.

Then it got quite dark on the screen; no one was sure what had happened. “Too bad,” Heinz said. “It was already late in the evening when I took that picture of grandma.” No one recognized her.

But, then, on the screen appeared Tina’s charming smile, clear and big as life. “That’s me,” she cried. The explanation was not necessary, for it was Tina as she is—a good picture. Then other people were seen in the garden. But before one could identify them, the next scene appeared. Scenes flashed back and forth, up and down; at times one nearly got seasick. Every once in a while a dog could be seen. Aha, that was a game in the garden—a wild chase! So it went for three minutes and seventeen seconds. The first reel was finished. Everyone applauded and agreed that the start of anything is always difficult.

Does that sound familiar? More than one person has seen such home movies or made them himself. As someone once expressed it: “I don’t admire his ability but his courage to show such a film.”

But, then, this should not be taken too seriously. One has to learn so as to avoid mistakes. There is no need to throw away that first film. It is a nice souvenir and a means for measuring any future improvement.

What does it take to get fine pictures? If the camera’s lens and mechanism are good, an experienced photographer can make better movies with a cheap camera than a beginner with the best and most expensive equipment. For good movies, then, it is necessary to improve one’s abilities. It is useless to try substituting lack of know-how with better equipment.

How to Avoid Blurred Pictures

One thing to avoid is blurred pictures. Doubtless you know that jiggling a camera when taking snapshots results in fuzzy, blurred pictures. If the camera is not held still when filming, the pictures also are jiggled. With a movie camera, eighteen pictures are taken in one second, so that in five seconds of jiggling you have ninety blurred pictures. Hence, the camera must be kept dead still. Do not try to substitute lack of motion in front of the camera with camera movement. With some exceptions, this is a basic rule.

Another thing that must be watched is the time allowed for exposure. Time plays a more important role when filming than when just taking one picture. Our mind requires time to register conscious impressions. When pressing the shutter release button, think primarily about your prospective audience, not how much film you are using (beginners always want to save). Consider how much time is needed to comprehend the scene. This depends on what there is to see or what is happening. The simplest rule is: When there is much to see, or much action, the scene has to be longer. If there is little to see and not much movement, the scene must be shorter. Yes, it must be. Otherwise it will be boring.

Two to twelve seconds of exposure may be sufficient. When you press your shutter release, count the seconds—twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, and so forth. (If you are filming a text, read it through twice while filming; that is sufficient.) Never make the scene too short. If it is a little too long, it can always be shortened when you are editing or cutting the film.

You should also keep in mind that your eye and the camera’s eye are very different. The camera’s eye is only a poor imitation of the human eye. Therefore, do not expect to see on the screen what your eye saw. The human eye can also adjust to and register much greater contrasts in light than can the camera. When it is still light enough for the eye, it may well be much too dark for the camera. Then, again, in snow and brilliant sunlight it can be much too bright for the camera. When it comes to great contrasts, the camera has limits. For example, the shade of a tree on a sandy beach will give the camera trouble. The fully automatic exposure in most cameras only adapts to an average value. This means that on the screen the sand may either be too light or the shadow too dark. Since the film cannot register both correctly at the same time, one has to decide which is more important for the scene.

At times the human eye has difficulty adjusting from bright sunlight to shade. It takes time for the eye to get accustomed to a change. The light meter of a camera also needs time to adjust to a change in lighting conditions. So, if you want to film scenes wherein there is great contrast, give your light meter time to adjust. Otherwise, part of your film will be either overexposed or underexposed. Sometimes it is good to make manual adjustments, if that is possible.

Have you ever wondered why your pictures are sometimes very yellow or blue, although all conditions are normal? The human eye works in cooperation with the brain. Like a computer, the brain compares the impressions it receives with experience and makes the necessary corrections. This the camera cannot do. Therefore, if you use a film that is made for artificial light and you take pictures in the sunlight, the scenes will be quite blue. A film for daylight would appear yellow when you are filming in artificial light. If you use film for artificial light when filming in the daylight, you will need to use a filter. Of course, this filter has to be removed when you are filming indoors.

If you want to get closer to your object than the distance your lens will allow, you will have to put “glasses” on your camera or the picture will not be sharp. With most cameras the distance has to be set manually. If the camera has a zoom lens and a built-in range finder, one always has to use the greatest focal length for setting.

Doubtless you have noticed that some people always have clear pictures. The explanation is very simple. They always throw the blurred, overexposed, underexposed or otherwise ruined pictures into the wastebasket.

Editing Film

Despite your best efforts, doubtless you will make mistakes, even if it is only pushing on the shutter release without realizing it. For this reason, if you desire to show quality films, a splicer and a film viewer are essential. Overexposed spots and the like can simply be cut out.

Editing film for a showing also includes arranging it as desired and then splicing it to match the theme or the setting that you choose. A “scene arranger” can be made very easily. Take a small strip of lath and, about every inch or so, drive a thin nail into it. By means of the perforations, you can hang film on these and number the nails. With the aid of the numbers and a short note regarding a particular scene’s contents, you can easily sort and arrange the film strips into logical sequence.

This is also a help in shortening scenes that are too long and in determining whether scenes have to be filmed. To determine the length of the individual scenes, make yourself a ruler. Just a piece of lath will do. Then take eighteen pictures from a piece you are throwing away and mark the length of your straightedge accordingly. Eighteen frames being the number of pictures taken in one second, you now have a means of determining the length of a scene in seconds. This does not cost anything and can be a big help.

The Projector

A projector is, of course, a vital part of movie equipment. It should be durable, should give enough light and should not scratch the film. Also, a quiet machine is desirable, as this type makes it easier for any comments or musical accompaniment to be heard during a showing. Moreover, it is good to have at least one, or better still, two extra bulbs on hand. Often a good showing must be discontinued because no extra bulbs are available.

A Hobby to Be Controlled

Filming can be a very instructive hobby and very interesting, but only if it remains a hobby. Do not let it become your second vocation and a burden that crowds out more important things. In its place, filming can enrich one’s life and train the eye to be more observant. It can also be a fine means of letting one’s friends enjoy delightful scenes.

We anxiously await the next movie at the Millers. Will there be any improvement?

Is It a Christian Practice?

By “Awake!” correspondent in El Salvador

THE evening was warm, with the typical humidity of the tropics. As my wife and I rounded a certain corner on our way home, something interrupted our thoughts and conversation. We were hearing the sounds of what seemed to be a fiesta, or party.

Drawing near the house from which the sound came, we noted the usual evidences of a wild party. Some had become loud and belligerent from heavy drinking. On the sidewalk just outside the house men were arguing.

But there was something different about this gathering. Everyone in attendance was dressed in black. After crossing the street to avoid the crowd, something in the house caught our eyes. At one end of the room was a small casket, apparently that of a child. Wreaths (coronas) of flowers covered the casket. In front of it someone had placed candles.

All of this filled us with curiosity. Evidently noting our puzzled expressions, a man walking on our side of the street approached us and explained: “Es una vela,” meaning: “It’s a wake.” He added: “They’ll be there all night.”

This left us with many questions. We wondered: What is the purpose of staying awake throughout the night in the presence of someone dead? Why adorn the coffin with wreaths and put lighted candles nearby? Since someone had died, was it appropriate for mourners to engage in heavy drinking and partying? Is holding all-night wakes for the dead a Christian practice?

Digging Up Some Answers

We returned home that evening determined to dig up some answers to these questions. Our research included interviews with persons here in El Salvador, as well as consulting reference works. What did we find out?

The Spanish-language Enciclopedia Ilustrada Cumbre notes that the purpose of a wake is to be with the family of the deceased and to bestow homage upon that one. Not always is the body in a casket. At times it may be left on the deathbed. Religious objects and lighted wax candles usually surround the corpse. On occasion the wake includes burning herbs or incense as well as placing flowers around the coffin. As was the case with the wake we observed, frequently the household provides food and drink for mourners in attendance.

We discovered that customs at wakes vary somewhat in different areas. For example, in some Latin-American countries a dead child is placed in a chair and dressed as an angel. This is in the belief that the youngster’s “immortal soul” will go straight to heaven. In the same vein, we read in El Salvador’s daily paper, El Diario de Hoy:

“In some communities of El Salvador and Central America when someone dies, especially if it is a child, fireworks are set off and joyful songs are sung to the beat of guitars and violins. Tamales are made along with pastry and these are served with alcoholic beverages. . . . The people from these communities believe that the children fly immediately to heaven and turn into ‘little angels of God.’ According to those who know, this custom of singing in a wake or burial occasion is a rare mixing of Christianity with unknown native [Indian] traditions.”

Non-Christian Origin

That last expression, “a rare mixing of Christianity with unknown native [Indian] traditions,” emphasized an important point. Wakes do not have a Christian origin. Confirming this is an item in the Encyclopædia Britannica regarding wakes in England:

“The custom, as far as England was concerned, seems to have been older than Christianity, and to have been at first essentially Celtic. Doubtless it had a superstitious origin, the fear of evil spirits hurting or even removing the body, aided perhaps by the practical desire to keep away rats and other vermin. . . . With the introduction of Christianity the offering of prayer was added to the mere vigil, which until then had been characterized by formal mourning chants and recitals of the life story of the dead. As a rule the corpse, with a plate of salt on its breast, was placed under the table, on which was liquor for the watchers. These private wakes soon tended to become drinking orgies.”

Besides the non-Christian origin of wakes, the ceremonies that accompany them, such as the use of wreaths and lighted candles, as well as the strange custom of dressing dead children to look like “angels,” are opposed to Christianity. How so? Because these things suggest to many that people have an immortal soul that goes on living after death.

The Bible, however, presents death in an entirely different light. Jesus’ words about one of his friends who had died are revealing. We read: “‘Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there to awaken him from sleep.’ Therefore the disciples said to him: ‘Lord, if he has gone to rest, he will get well.’ Jesus had spoken, however, about his death. But they imagined he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. At that time, therefore, Jesus said to ‘them outspokenly: ‘Lazarus has died.’”—John 11:11-14.

Jesus likened death to sleep. Just as people are unconscious while asleep, so the Bible assures: “As for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.”—Eccl. 9:5; Job 3:11-13; Ps. 146:3, 4.

Does this mean that we can never again see our dead loved ones? On the contrary, Jesus promised: “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.” (John 5:28, 29) During his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated his power in this regard. The Bible records three resurrections that he performed. (Luke 7:11-17; 8:41, 42, 49-56; John 11:1-44) Interestingly, when resurrected, the deceased individuals came back to life as humans. Jesus was thus demonstrating the certainty of the resurrection hope, rather than the survival of an immortal soul into some invisible realm.

Our research was indeed revealing. Summing up, we learned that all-night wakes for the dead originated in pre-Christian, non-Biblical religion. Also, this custom promotes the false belief that at death an immortal soul passes on to life in an invisible realm. Bible principles, too, are violated at wakes due to the heavy drinking and unrestrained conduct that often occur.—Rom. 13:13, 14; 1 Pet. 4:3.

Of course, visiting bereaved persons to offer comfort and help is a fine thing. Whether one does this during visiting hours at a funeral home or otherwise is a matter of personal choice. However, observing extended periods of mourning and all-night vigils is not a Christian practice.

The Sarawak Pepper Gardener—Spice Supplier to Your Table

As related to “Awake!” correspondent in Malaysia

IN THE year 1897 my great-grandfather Ting sailed from China for Sarawak, to begin a new life at the foot of a jungle-carpeted mountain range. He had been invited by some friends to join a growing number of families from southern China. Together with the native Sarawakians, they engaged in cultivating some of the finest and most fragrant pepper available in the world.

In later years many immigrants found it more profitable to grow rubber, but the pepper industry did revive. Today Sarawak has more than 21,000 acres (about 8,500 hectares) of pepper gardens and ranks with India, Indonesia and Brazil as one of the world’s most important pepper-growing regions. The gardens in Sarawak, each averaging an acre (.4 hectare) or less, produce a quarter of the world’s pepper.

For pepper cultivators the busiest time is from March to October. March is the fruit-setting season. During June and July the whole family is busy harvesting the peppercorns from firm ladders placed alongside the twelve-foot ( 3.7-meter ) vines. Our own garden extends over an area of two acres (.8 hectare) and we have over 1,300 vines from which to collect the berries that hang down in small clusters.

After being harvested, the peppercorns must be cleaned, blown, brushed, washed, dried and graded before they are ready to be brought to the table.

To ensure a good crop, one must insist that visitors use the footpaths. About ten years ago, all our vines were destroyed by the dreaded foot rot. This disease is easily transmitted and can ruin large acreages of vines in a very short time. The disease probably was brought to our tract of land by someone who had walked through an infected area.

Something else that must be watched is fertilizing. During one period, when pepper prices were rather high, father decided that he could afford to give the vines extra fertilizer. But the results were most disappointing. In fact, the harvest was not as good as in previous years. Now, with proper fertilizing, our vines produce more than 27,000 pounds (12,250 kilos) of green berries annually. The vines are seven to eight years old, just the right age for high yields. In the future we expect the amount harvested to decline.

Methods of Producing White and Black Pepper

It is commonly thought that there are two distinct types of pepper, black and white. Actually, only the processing of the berries is different. From our 27,000 pounds (12,250 kilos) of berries we can produce either 7,200 pounds (3,260 kilos) of white pepper or 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilos) of black pepper.

The Pepper Marketing Board of Malaysia believes the process of bleaching pepper with chemicals is unnecessary, and so Sarawak white pepper reaches your table unadulterated. Our method of processing pepper is typical. We pluck the berries when one of the fruits on the spike becomes red. Next we load the harvested berries into jute sacks. The sacks are then carried to a pond fed by a stream. Here the berries are soaked completely for about ten days until the pericarp softens and rots. The berries are then emptied into a tub, where we trample on them with our feet and afterward wash them clean to remove the decayed pericarp, along with the stalks. Next the berries are soaked for another day or two before being washed a second time. We hope for a minimum of three days of dry, sunny weather so that we can dry the peppercorns outside on woven grass mats.

Delay in drying will adversely affect their white color and spicy flavor. If the weather is wet or otherwise unfavorable, we must keep the peppercorns submerged in water. If removed and placed in damp air, they are likely to mold.

Sometimes we find it more profitable to sell black pepper. When this is the case, we prefer to dry only the green berries. (Red or yellow berries, when dried, will produce a pepper of uneven color.) The stalks, with their green berries, are first stored for a couple of days. This makes it easier to push the berries through the mesh and to take out the unwanted stalks. The berries are then dried on the grass mats, without soaking them beforehand, as when producing white pepper. The dried pepper is cleaned and blown, to remove any extraneous substance.

How do we test peppercorns to determine whether they are well dried? One way is simply to let them run through our hands. If properly dried, they will run freely and not tend to stick together. But I feel that the best method is to crack one of the berries between the teeth. If the pepper has the desirable low-moisture content, it will grind to powder rather than split in two.

Marketing the Pepper

Pepper is like money to us. It can be kept for a long period without deteriorating in quality. In fact, we have set aside a small dry room in the house for pepper storage. This room could be called our savings bank. Here the pepper is kept in jute sacks imported from Pakistan. To give it more strength, the filled sack is placed inside another one. Plastic bags cannot be used, as these reduce the quality of the pepper. We try to determine the right time to sell our valuable produce, taking it either to the dealers or to the exporters, who will purchase it at the market rate for the day.

Some small-scale pepper cultivators living in remote areas, however, are obliged to sell their produce to the nearest village shop. Sometimes the tracks to their gardens are too narrow for a small pick-up van and, therefore, the heavy sacks must be placed on a bicycle and wheeled out, one at a time, to the nearest road. Still other growers bring their produce to the shop by river. In these cases, the shopkeeper provides the farmers with household goods, hand tools and fertilizer in exchange for the pepper the farmers bring to the shop. The growers instruct the shopkeeper when to sell. Usually the relationship between the parties concerned is cordial. However, I have heard my brother talking of cases where the shopkeeper exploits the pepper grower.

Not many years ago father, too, transported his pepper by bicycle. Times have changed and now we have a small pick-up van of our own. We take our pepper and other produce to the Main Bazaar in Kuching. This enables us to earn a few extra dollars by selling to the exporters. Some of these exporters are able to deal directly with overseas buyers.

By far the majority of the peppercorns will be sent to Singapore, where the spice traders specially grade the pepper to meet the specifications set down by such important bodies as the American Spice Traders Association.

Truly, we pepper farmers enjoy a fine outdoor life, as well as satisfaction in our work. Though we are far from rich in material possessions, we find pleasure in growing this rather special spice that serves so well as a seasoning. The next time you shake pepper on your food, think of me. Who knows? That very pepper might have been grown on our Sarawak acreage.

Peering into the Amazon Jungle

By “Awake!” correspondent in Peru

THE small jet plane is winging its way eastward over the Peruvian Andes bound for the vast Amazon jungle. Leaving the snowcapped peaks behind, we peer out the window. Below us stretches a vast carpet of hazy green. Examined more closely, the landscape resembles a mass of densely packed florets of broccoli. As in a work of embroidery, the “loops” of meandering rivers and the “eyelets” of lighter green, formed by the spreading tips of palm trees, add a pleasing variation to the scene. Soon the plane begins its descent. The green carpet transforms itself before our eyes into a staggering variety of trees of contrasting size and description.

The Amazon jungle is known as the richest plant area on earth. Tens of thousands of varieties have been identified. On just about every square mile (2.6 square kilometers), well over a hundred different kinds of trees flourish. Depending on geographical differences in altitude, there may be dense thickets of mangrove trees, ebonies, fine mahoganies, cedars and aromatic rosewoods, chestnuts, tall brazil-nut trees, various types of willows and the handsome rubber trees. Interspersed among all of these are numerous varieties of palms and tropical fruit trees. Branches drip heavily with vines and creepers. So thick is the greenery that treetops struggle toward a barely visible sky.

…

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Awake!, September 8, 1977