Watching the World

Children and Religious Services

“Are children going to religious services?” asks a recent edition of the publication Canadian Social Trends. It answers that according to a Statistics Canada study, “over one-third, 36%, of Canada’s children under 12 years of age attended religious services at least once a month, and the majority were weekly participants. A further 22% attended less frequently, but did go at least once during the year.” However, the article pointed out that “religious affiliation accounted for the largest differences in children’s regular participation in religious services. . . . Children in what many observers consider the mainline faith communities, such as Anglican and United Church, reported the lowest weekly attendance rates (18%).” Roman Catholic children did a bit better, with 22 percent attending weekly. While 44 percent of Muslim children attended Islamic religious services each week, “they also recorded the highest rate of nonattendance (39%) during the year preceding the survey.”

Baby Walker Warning

Using baby walkers can affect the physical and intellectual development of infants, reports the Independent newspaper of London. Researchers at the State University of New York discovered that baby walkers with a large front tray restrict infants’ view of their legs and prevent them from reaching out to touch things around them. Babies using walkers were observed to sit upright, crawl, and walk more than five weeks later than those who had never used a baby walker. Additionally, investigation revealed that every year 50 percent of infants using baby walkers are injured by accidents such as falling down stairs or into fires or just toppling over. Dr. Denise Kendrick, of Britain’s Nottingham University Medical School, states: “Baby walkers are unsafe. They seem to fulfil the needs of parents by keeping their children occupied rather than offering any benefit for the child.”

Spices Fight Bacteria

The world’s worst food poisoning outbreak occurred in Britain in 1996, killing 18 people. The culprit was E. coli O157 bacteria in contaminated meat. Recently, researchers found that adding cinnamon to unpasteurized apple juice killed 99.5 percent of the bacteria within three days, according to The Independent of London. On another occasion, the scientists added spices to raw beef and to sausage and found that cinnamon, cloves, and garlic were the most effective in killing E. coli O157. Researchers think that these spices could be effective in fighting other bacteria, including salmonella and campylobacter.

British Personal Debt

The British owe $170 billion through personal loans, credit cards, and installment purchases and pay $5.5 billion in interest every year, according to data published by People’s Bank and reported in The Times of London. More than a third of the population have some form of unsecured debt, an average of $10,400 per person. Credit card spending in Britain doubled over a period of three years, reaching $115 billion in 1998. The survey also found that only 13 percent worry that their debts could get out of control. And 1 in 5 admitted to borrowing “in order to maintain their lifestyle,” says People’s Bank.

Against Her Will

Of the 304 young women surveyed in a study reported on by the German magazine Psychologie Heute, nearly one quarter said that they had been pressured into some form of sexual activity against their will. Further, the report notes that more than a quarter of the women reported that men had tried to use drugs and alcohol to induce them to have involuntary intercourse. It adds: “Taking into account the attempts of young men to erode female resistance by means of psychological pressure, drugs, or alcohol, the odds in favor of a young woman between 17 and 20 being forced into sex against her will climb to well over 50 percent.”

 World’s First Dark-Sky Park

“Hidden by the glare of city lights, cloaked in a haze of air pollution, is a sight many never see now—the velvet beauty of the heavens at night,” says The Globe and Mail of Canada. Astronomy writer Terence Dickinson laments: “It’s possible for people to grow up, even to adulthood, without ever having seen the beauty of the night sky.” For instance, he notes, after an earthquake knocked out power in parts of California a few years ago, some residents phoned the police to tell “about the strange appearance of stars and a misty band” in the sky. To offer Canadian stargazers views of the night sky that are unobstructed and nearly free of light pollution, a 4,900-acre [1,990-ha] tract of Crown land in the Muskoka Lakes district north of Toronto has been designated as a “dark-sky preserve.” Called the Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve, it is believed to be the first dark-sky park in the world.

Dads and Daughters

A recent Health Canada study based on surveys of 2,500 teenagers reveals a communication gap between fathers and their children, especially daughters, reports the Globe and Mail newspaper of Canada. Only 33 percent of girls ages 15 to 16 find it “easy or very easy to talk to their fathers about things that really bother them,” compared with 51 percent of boys. Still, “girls tend to value their fathers highly and need their support,” says the report. Professor Alan King of Queen’s University acknowledges that “it’s difficult for fathers to talk to their kids, especially during those years of turmoil in early adolescence,” when many dads ignore sexual issues and risky behavior. But he urges fathers to meet the challenge, especially since many mothers now find less time than before to spend with their children.

‘Not Without a TV!’

What would you take along if you had to spend some time on a lonely island? This question was put to 2,000 youths in Germany. For the majority, the most important items would be TV sets and radios, together with CDs and cassette recordings, reports the newspaper Westfälische Rundschau. Food and beverages came in second, while family members and friends were in third place. One 13-year-old explained his preference: “I couldn’t cope without a TV.” Only about a third of those questioned said that they would include useful tools such as knives, hoes, and saws. A mere 0.3 percent mentioned taking a Bible. The youngest participant, a seven-year-old girl, said: “I would only take along my mom. When she’s there, nothing can go wrong.”

Super Sumo Wrestlers

Sumo wrestlers, world renowned for their great girth, are becoming too heavy for their own legs, say sports physiologists in Japan. New Scientist magazine reports that the incidence of injuries in the two top sumo categories doubled during the past five years, prompting a panel of physiologists to compare the body fat and leg strength of 50 wrestlers. “A quarter of them didn’t have strong enough leg muscles to support their bulk properly,” states the report. The top sumo wrestlers’ average weight rose from 280 pounds [126 kg] in 1974 to 340 pounds [156 kg] in 1999. “It’s partly related to the increase in the average size of the Japanese in general,” says sumo commentator Doreen Simmonds. But greater weight does not necessarily improve performance. “The ideal sumo shape is pear-shaped,” notes Simmonds. “Low hips, massive thighs and oak-like calves.”

Children at Risk

Angola, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan are the world’s most dangerous places for children, and ‘chances of a child surviving until the age of 18 are slim,’ says a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Wars, persistent poverty, and the spread of HIV and AIDS are putting the lives of children more at risk than they were a decade ago. Using a “child risk measure” with a scale of 1 to 100, UNICEF calculates a risk factor of 96 for Angola, 95 for Sierra Leone, and 94 for Afghanistan. By contrast, the average risk factor for children in Europe is 6, reports The Times of London.