Information Related to "World News and Trends - Jan/Feb 2003"
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The
End of the World: What Does the Bible Say?
 World News and Trends by John Ross Schroeder World opinion judges the United States How does the rest of the world view the United States? With decidedly mixed feelings, according to results of a survey of 38,000 people in 44 countries released in December by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. "Despite an initial outpouring of public sympathy for America following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, discontent with the United States has grown around the world over the past two years," begins the report."Images of the U.S. have been tarnished in all types of nations," including longtime allies, poor countries "and, most dramatically, in Muslim societies." While America and its citizens have a considerable reservoir of goodwill and are viewed favorably by a majority in most countries surveyed, compared to survey results from two years ago, favorable views of the United States have fallen in 19 of the 27 countries where comparable data are available. Critical views were especially strong in Germany and France, where huge majorities oppose U.S. military intervention to depose Saddam Hussein in Iraq (see "The Coming Clash Between Europe and America," beginning on page 16). The report also notes that "true dislike, if not hatred, of America is concentrated in the Muslim nations of the Middle East and in Central Asia, today's areas of greatest conflict." Among supposed U.S. allies, 75 percent of Jordanians, 69 percent of Pakistanis and Egyptians and 55 percent of Turks held unfavorable views of the United States. While the United States "is nearly universally admired for its technological achievements . . . in general, the spread of U.S. ideas and customs is disliked by majorities in almost every country included in this survey." Many countries see the export of sleazy American culture, such as music, movies and other entertainment that wallows in violence, sex and materialism, as significant threats to their families and children, and this no doubt contributes to increasing negative views toward the United States. As Proverbs 14:34 tells us, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Not coincidentally, the survey also found that 80 percent of Americans interviewed thought that moral decline was a significant problem for their nation.The big question is whether they have the heart and will to reverse it. For a biblical perspective on these trends and where they are ultimately leading, please request our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.(Sources: The Pew Research Center, Associated Press.) Echoes of an old German nightmare: The Weimar Republic Niall Ferguson, professor of political and financial history at Oxford University, set out a chilling scenario in Britain's Sunday Times.His opening words were: "As Chancellor (Gerhard) Schröder grapples with a seriously sick economy, he is making the same mistakes which led to the 1930s crisis that opened the door for Hitler."
Comparisons with the old financially disastrous Weimar Republic are rife in the British and European media."Hidden jobless(ness) takes Germany back to the level of the Weimar era,"wrote Tony Paterson for The Sunday Telegraph. He reported that "public fury has spilled into the streets of Berlin with demonstrations of health workers, teachers, builders and lorry (truck) drivers." Bild (a German newspaper) ran a simple headline, "We've Had Enough,"expressing the frayed emotions of the unemployed. Part of the problem is high wages. Actually,"Britain's hourly labour costs are 30 percent lower than they are in Germany" ( The World in 2003). The Guardian's correspondent in Berlin reported that the "German tax rise evokes Weimar comparison." Another Guardian headline tells us that "Europe's most powerful banking sector is on red alert-German money machine grinds to a halt." The Mail on Sunday also calls Germany the "sick man of Europe"-talking of "debts, dole queues (welfare waiting lines) and industry in crisis." In reality, conditions are nowhere near as bad as the skyrocketing inflation that plagued the Weimar Republic in the late '20s and early '30s when the proverbial wheelbarrow full of marks would not so much as buy a pound of butter. Nonetheless, the German economy bears close watching. Totalitarianism in the form of Hitler's Third Reich emerged out of economic frustrations. (Sources: The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The World in 2003, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday (all London).) Iran's latest longrange missile threat Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has strongly suggested that after Iraq the United States should turn its attention to Iran.Though the Iraqi story tends to dominate the news, readers of The Good News should be alert to the activities of a Middle Eastern state that is clearly a part of the "axis of evil."
Successful desert test firings were conducted this past summer with Russian and North Korean scientists in attendance.Western and Israeli intelligence has also established that China is making a crucial contribution to the Iranian missile program.We don't live in a world of friendly nations. Much of end-time Bible prophecy will find its ful- fillment in the Middle East. Predicts Dudley Fishburn, editor of The World in 2003, "With Saddam Hussein gone by the end of 2003, the Middle East will become a sharply better place."Yet in his general assessment Mr. Fishburn writes that 2003's headlines "will be dominated by war, the Middle East and recession." The Mideast is destined to host Armageddon-an area that will be replete with armies and weapons of the deadliest kind-culminating in a great battle array that will bring Jesus Christ back to earth before we destroy ourselves (see Matthew 24:21-22; Revelation 16:14-16). To better understand what is coming, please write for our free booklets Are We Living in the Time of the End? and The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: The Sunday Telegraph, The World in 2003.) Selling weapons to unstable governments Britain is far from the only Western nation to sell arms to some of the most unstable countries. However, a fairly recent investigative report by The Independent on Sundayrevealed that the United Kingdom has unabashedly marketed its military hardware to nations embroiled in ethnic conflicts and civil wars. For instance, "Britain sold arms worth tens of millions of pounds to India and Pakistan last year, before the Kashmir crisis reached boiling point."Angola and Kenya were also recipients of British military wares, as were several unstable former Soviet republics. During a tour of the African continent earlier this year, Prime Minister Tony Blair commented:"We cannot ignore these conflicts because sooner or later they end up on your doorstep." Often overlooked, however, are that Western arms have been marketed to nations in which serious potential conflicts are already apparent. The predictable comeback: "If we don't sell them these arms, other nations will." This is a good example of the conundrums countries get themselves into through greed and lack of foresight. International affairs have gone awry.We suffer if we do and we suffer if we don't.These are catch-22 situations. Only God can sort out the world in its present state. Man has had his chance and failed miserably. Our free booklet The Gospel of the Kingdom shows how we will finally emerge from our great global problems. (Source: The Independent on Sunday (London).) GN © 2003-2008 United Church of God an International Association |
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Table of Contents that includes "World News and Trends - Jan/Feb 2003"
Military weapons:
Philip
Sherwell, the foreign-affairs correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph,has
not neglected Iranian affairs. In a recent feature article,he tells us
that "Iran has been supplied by Russia with powerful new technology and
parts for long-range missiles that will put Israel and the whole of the
Middle East-including British and US forces in the region-within its reach."Africa
and parts of southern Europe will also be reachable.