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This is www.acurioustraveler.com/c_&_c_v_i_p_14.htm COUNTRIES
and CULTURES of the WORLD, THEN and NOW, VOLUME I [Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. I, P. 370-381] State of Israel ("The Holy Land") Population 5,500,000 (1.5 % per year natural increase, higher for Arabs, high rate of immigration for Jews), including about 1,400,000 Arabs and 200,000 Israelis in the West Bank and Golan. Jerusalem has around 600,000 people, Tel Aviv has about 400,000. Area 20,000 sq. km. (7,700 sq. mi.); GDP $70 billion; average income $13,880; literacy rate Jewish 92%, Arab 70% History. The early Books of the Old Testament indicate that the world was created between 4,004 and 3,761 B.C., scholars have found. Some people still believe all of the books of Genesis, Exodus, and the other early books. Could two of each type of animal, mammal, bird, and insect on Earth fit into a large fleet of cargo ships? When Voltaire in the 18th Century questioned whether they could fit into Noah's little Ark, the king and Church in France had him imprisoned. Abraham is believed to have left Ur in Chaldea (modern Tell el-Mukay-yar, southeast Iraq) around 1900 B.C. (or around 2300 B.C.?) for Canaan, or modern Israel and the West Bank. Long before, the Sumerians of Babylon told about the creation of the world, the great flood, the forcing of a Satan to leave heaven for a burning hell, and the resurrection of Ishtar. The stories were written in the Semitic language around the time of Abraham. Both Jews and Muslims believe that God told Abraham to sacrifice his most-beloved son at Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock to prove his faith. Just before the killing of a son God stopped Abraham. Muslims believe Abraham was about to kill Ishmael, their religious ancestor. Jews believe Abraham was going to kill Isaac, their ancestor. (See The Major Religions, Gilgamesh Epic.) The exodus of Jews from Egypt, led by Moses, is believed to be about 1225 B.C. They invaded Canaan about 1200. King David is said to have captured Jerusalem from the Canaanites about 1,000 B.C. He united the northern tribes of Israel with the tribe of Judah. Kings Saul, David, and Solomon ruled from about 1025 to 930 B.C. Sargon II of Assyria captured Samaria (modern Israel from Jerusalem south) in 722 B.C. His son Sennacherib captured Judah (Judea, west of the Dead Sea). King Nebuchadnezzar of Chaldea captured and destroyed Jerusalem about 586 B.C. Persia's Cyrus the Great captured the area of modern Israel in 530 B.C. The Jews probably adopted the ideas of heaven, hell, and the judgment day from the Persians. Alexander the Great of Macedonia (Greece) captured the area in 332 B.C. In 165 B.C. the Maccabees revolted against Greek and Syrian rule. The revolt and the re-dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem is honored by the eight-day Hanukkah or "festival of the lights." The Maccabees controlled the area from about 142 B.C. Rome began its control about 63 B.C. At the time of Jesus most of the area west of the Dead Sea was Judea, Samaria was north of it, and Galilee was west of the Sea of Galilee, except that Phoenicia had the coastal area. The 2nd Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Romans around 70 A.D., leaving only the Western ("Wailing") Wall. From the 16th until early in the 20th Century Turkey controlled most of the Middle East. In the late 19th Century people in Russia and other Eastern European countries often harassed Jews. The Zionist movement encouraged Jews to settle in Palestine, among the Arabs. Turkey was defeated by 1918, partly by soldiers such as the British Lawrence of Arabia, who destroyed many Turkish railways. After World War I the League of Nations gave to Britain a mandate over Palestine, including Transjordan. The League asked Britain to separate Transjordan and to permit Abdullah Ibn Hussein to operate it as a semi-autonomous kingdom. When the Nazis in the mid-1930s began to harass Jews, many found their way to Palestine, despite British attempts to keep them out. In Palestine there were squabbles as the new Jewish immigrants settled on land the Arabs had long claimed. After World War II Zionists, led by David Ben-Gurion and others, insisted upon a separate Jewish state. The United Nations recommended a separate state for Jews and for Arabs, with Jerusalem to be an international city.
Girl entering Bethlehem refuge camp, under constant Gaza, older man weeping because Israeli soldiers had just surveillance by Israeli soldiers, like many Palestinians killed his only son, for throwing rocks The State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948. Many nations, including the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union, recognized Israel. However, the neighboring Arab nations soon attacked it. After nine months, Israel had largely won and the Arab nations stopped fighting. In 1956 Britain and France, then Israel, attacked Egypt, but the U.S.A. pressured all sides to stop fighting. (See Egypt.) Israel got an outlet on the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan continued to control the West Bank of the Jordan River and Jerusalem. Jews were unable to visit Jerusalem and other places very important to them. In May 1967 Egypt occupied the Gaza strip and closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping. On June 5 Egypt, Jordan, and Syria attacked Israel, but in the "Six Day War" Israel defeated all of its Arab neighbors and took control of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Sinai Peninsula. A short time later Jewish organizations in the U.S.A. persuaded Congress to begin giving several billion dollars each year to Israel. Presidents of the U.S.A. continued to warn Israel not to build settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights, because those areas would ultimately be given back to Arabs. Those warnings were openly and blatantly ignored, but politicians of the U.S.A. and Israel failed to acknowledge the existence of or the importance of the settlements and the exploding population. On October 6, 1973 Syria and Egypt made a surprise attack, on Israel's main holiday, Yom Kippur. The Soviet Union gave Egypt military supplies, Syrian tanks came into the northeast part of the West Bank. The U.S.A delivered many military supplies to Israel by airlift. Israel recaptured the northeast and occupied the Golan Heights area to the summit of Mt. Hermon, with views of Damascus. Israel troops invaded Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982, largely defeated Syrian troops, forcing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leaders to evacuate for North Africa. After a year or so Israel left Lebanon but established a "security zone" at its southern border with Israel. In 1979 U.S.A. President Carter persuaded Egypt and Israel to sign a peace treaty, at Camp David, returning to Egypt the Sinai. In April 1996 Israel again attacked Lebanon, killing many civilians. The U.N. General Assembly has often censored Israel but in the Security Council the U.S.A. vetoes any disciplinary action against Israel. In elections in mid-1996 the conservative Likud party won a plurality of votes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that more Jewish settlements would be built in the West Bank. This will lead to much more violence. Background. The Jewish Sabbath is celebrated on Saturday. Moslems in Israel and the West Bank celebrate their Sabbath on Friday, and Christians celebrate on Sunday. The Jewish Creation dates from 3761 B.C. A year has 353 to 355 days, while a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. New Year (Rosh Hashanah) begins in September or October. Succoth or the Feast of the Tabernacles, is a week-long harvest festival celebrating the 40 days in the wilderness. It ends with Simchat Torah, celebrating the receipt of the law or torah. Hanukkah, usually in December, is celebrated with a candelabrum with eight candles. Gifts are sometimes exchanged. Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, the 10th day of the seventh month (Tishri), is celebrated with fasting and prayer for the atonement of sins. Purim celebrates the delivery of Jews from slavery by the Persians, with the help of Queen Esther. Gifts are exchanged. Pesach or Passover, a weeklong festival, celebrates the exodus from Egypt. Jerusalem's average January high is 13 degrees C, the average low is 5 C. The average July high is 31 degrees C, the low is 17 C. There is little rain, most of it falls November through March. Jewish men and women age 18 are drafted for military duty. Men serve three years and women serve two years. Men must also serve in the military a few weeks each year until they are age 45, women until they are 26 or have a child. A woman with a child is usually exempt. Jews born in Israel are called Sabras, they are said to be tough. There are big differences in the background of Jews living in Israel. Some from Asia and Africa, Shepardin, are backward in education and dress styles. Others, Hassadim Jews, from Eastern Europe, are also backward. Many, Ashkenazim Jews, from Western Europe or the U.S.A. are well-educated and dress in modern Western styles. More than half of the Jews are said to be secular, they rarely attend any religious services. Others are very conservative fundamentalists, in dress, actions, and beliefs. Israel continues to receive far more tax dollars each year from the U.S.A. than any other country. It had received more than 70 billion dollars from the U.S.A. as of late 1995. Nearly 5 percent of Israel's gross domestic product has for many years come from the U.S.A. Israel has far more social programs than has the U.S.A. for its own poor. Palestinians are usually not eligible for aid. Much of the money for the social programs and Israeli's military comes from tax dollars in the U.S.A. A large part of aid money ends up in the pockets of contractors building new settlements in traditional Arab territory. Many of those contractors had immigrated to Israel from the U.S.A. Jewish organizations in the U.S.A. contribute small fortunes in campaign funds to elect to the Congress of the U.S.A. their "friends," and to defeat their "enemies." The U.S.A. often vetoes in the U.N. Security Council the enforcement of a vote in the U.N. General Assembly to censor or punish Israel for an atrocity done by Israel's military or government. If the U.S.A. votes its conscience, what is morally correct, it will make many more friends in other nations. All except a handful of the world's countries have refused to move their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is an important city for peoples of three religions. It must remain neutral and open for all visitors. The Congress of the U.S.A. has unwisely voted to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jewish organizations in the U.S.A. frequently pay for trips to Israel for Senators and members of Congress of the U.S.A. In Israel they are allegedly given a carefully structured tour, avoiding problems of the Palestinians and troubled areas. The Supreme Court of Israel has upheld the use of "moderate physical pressure" or force during the interrogation of Palestinian prisoners. The Court has approved severe shaking of a prisoner even if it kills the prisoner. Is there any torture of Palestinians that the Court would not approve? Some 17 percent of the land is arable. There are 1,530 people per square km. of arable land in Israel and Palestine--they are very crowded. Inflation is around 11 percent, unemployment is around 10 percent for Jews, much higher for Arabs. Many Romanians, Turks, Africans, and others have recently moved into Israel, often illegally. Immigrants follow the work. They are willing to work for less than the prevailing wage. Palestinians find that there is no work for them, partly because they are unreliable. They are unreliable because they are frequently locked by Israeli soldiers into their living compound or town for weeks at a time, unable to leave for work or school. The population explosion increases tensions. Travels. My wife and I first visited Israel and the West Bank in 1985. In JERUSALEM we were "pilgrims," staying in the pleasant Notre Dame de France Center, operated by the Vatican, just outside the New Gate of the Old City. Ottoman Emperor Suleyman I, The Magnificent or The Lawgiver, rebuilt the city walls in the 16th Century. We enjoyed walking the ramparts of the city wall, with great views of the Old City. It is divided into the Muslim (northeast), Jewish (southern and center, but it is expanding), Christian (northwest) and Armenian (southwest) quarters. The Tower of David (Citadel) features a slide show showing Jerusalem's history, peoples, and culture. Its museum displays artifacts and some 50 models of people wearing traditional clothes of the region. At the Western Wall Jews were "wailing" over the destruction by Herod of the Second Temple, he rebuilt it. Jews were prohibited by law from entering the Muslim sector, but we were permitted to. The Dome of the Rock mosque, 3rd-most important in Islam (after Mecca and Medina) adjoins the Western wall. Mohammed on his great white horse is said to have vaulted from the rock into Paradise to meet with Allah. I needed considerable imagination to see a footprint of Mohammed's horse on the rock. Under the big rock there is a small cave. Abraham is said to have offered his son Isaac (or his son Ishmael ?) for sacrifice on the rock. Nearby is beautiful Al Aqsa Mosque, with a high golden dome that dominates the city. One Friday afternoon we joined a group of Orthodox and Roman Catholic priests, and others for a walk of the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus is said to have walked while carrying the cross. At Station 3 he fell from exhaustion, he met Mary at Station 4, at Station 5 a pilgrim helped him carry the cross, he fell again at Stations 7 and 9. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has the final five of the 14 stations. Its keys have long been held by an Islamic family because Christians would never agree that another sect could have the keys. On the low hill, the Golgatha, the clothes of Jesus were torn off and he was killed. He is said to have been anointed on a rock slab. On two visits we squeezed into the rock tomb where Jesus is said to have been buried for three days before arising. Churches in the world often face the rising sun--east. Synagogues face toward Jerusalem. Mosques and Moslems while praying face Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. Some people believe Mary is buried in the Tomb of the Virgin just east of the Walled City. Jesus is believed to have ascended to heaven at the site of the Chapel of the Ascension, an octagonal building also east of the Walled City. David's Tomb is just outside the city walls near the Zion Gate, southwest. The Kidron Valley is a short distance east of Jerusalem. Many Jews want to be buried there or in the Mount of Olives, further south, because they believe the Messiah will come there to raise the dead. The Garden of Gethsemane is nearby. West of the Old Walled City of Jerusalem are government ministries, the Knesset (parliament), and the Israel Museum. A campus of Hebrew University is a short distance downhill. The museum has a great collection of artifacts found in the nearby Rift Valley where a tectonic plate is pushing under another plate. The Dead Sea Scrolls are displayed in the nearby Shrine of the Book. During our first visit to Israel we made two trips to BETHLEHEM and on our second visit we spent a day there. Most of the local people are Arab Christians. Manger Square has the Basilica of the Nativity church, first built in 326 A.D. Nearby tourist shops sell camels and "Last Suppers," carved from olive wood. The church has a low doorway so horsemen couldn't enter, part of the original mosaic floor, and a 4th Century sign stating in Latin "Jesus was born here." An old arched stone ceiling is over what is said to be the manger where Mary and Joseph stayed. In those days a donkey was worth more than a human, so mangers were often as nice as the homes. The original manger is said to be in Rome's The Vatican. Biblical scholars believe Jesus was born in 4 B.C. or earlier. December 25 was chosen much later as the birth-date of Jesus because that was the birth-date of Mithras. He was the sun-god of Mithraism, the leading pagan religion in Rome at that time. On one visit an Armenian caretaker invited us to climb to the roof of the church for a great view all around. My wife and I then went hiking, looking for Shepherd's Fields. Two Arab Christian boys from the village of Beit Sahur directed us to the area, saying "God bless you" as they left. On our third visit to Bethlehem vendors were more active, selling carved wooden Nativity scenes, crosses, and baby dolls in diapers. HEBRON, a large town, is where King Solomon reigned and Adam and Eve are said to be buried. In the Negev Desert Bedouin sheepherders often have a TV antenna and a car or truck outside of their comfortable long tent. The big pipeline carrying water to Masada has many valves so Bedouins can stay in one place and have water for the family and the sheep. Arad, in the desert, with high rises and hotels, is popular with Israelis who suffer from asthma. Not far south is a nuclear power plant. Many authorities believe that Israel has perhaps 100 atomic weapons. We walked up the west side of the hill to MASADA, the cable car on the north end wasn't operating on our first visit. Masada was one of a string of forts built by Herod, a Roman vassal king. In 88 A.D. a group of Jews, unhappy with Roman rule, captured the fort by surprise, with a good supply of food and water in cisterns. Romans sent a big army, laid siege to it, and built a wall so no one could escape. Romans built a ramp, pushing a battering ram and catapult up it. Romans knocked the gate down, the Jews quickly rebuilt it at night. Romans burned the gate, but the 967 men, women, and children inside committed suicide rather than be captured by Romans. Masada is a symbol that Israel will never "give up." Many Israeli soldiers have taken an oath of loyalty at Masada. The fort on the flat top covers some 20 acres. It has "the world's oldest synagogue." The Northern Palace has Roman baths, with a dressing room, a hot room, cold water nearby, and a steam room. The ceilings are arched so condensing steam flows back to be reheated by fires in the floor with heating ducts. The Western Palace has beautiful mosaic floors; on the plastered walls a few frescoes remain. We descended to the DEAD SEA, about 1300 feet (396 m.) below sea level, the lowest land surface on Earth. The water is so salty we could almost "walk" on the water, the way Jesus is said to have done. The beach at Ein Bokek has fresh water showers to rinse off the salt, which stings the eyes and any cuts. Leaving, we rode north to visit some of the caves near QUMRAN. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd found big jars inside some caves. In the jars were parchment scrolls dated as early as 200 B.C., containing many of the Books of the Old Testament, written in Hebrew. Jesus was believed to be an Essene, living for awhile in the nearby monastery. The scrolls were considered to be valuable, so they were hidden before the Romans invaded about 68 B.C. Not far away, on the Dead Sea, electric generators are powered by heavy deep water heated by the sun, it is warmer than lighter water above. During both of our visits to Israel we rode to Jericho, along the Jordan River, and the border, with parallel barbed-wire fences, electronic listening devices, land mines, and a strip of ground regularly carefully raked. The old Roman theater at Bet Shean is still used. At the Jordan River we stopped to watch the baptism of several people dressed in white. Towns near the Lebanese border, subject to occasional shelling, have bomb shelters and many immigrants from Ethiopia and Asia. In NAZARETH we visited the Church of the Anunciation. Wall panels are from many countries, those from Japan and China show Mary with slanting eyes, those from Ethiopia show a black Mary. European and North American churches show a white Mary, unlike everyone else who lived in the area, with skin the color of a dark suntan. The church was built on the ruins of a Crusaders church, which was built on the ruins of a 4th Century Byzantine church; part of the mosaic floor is preserved. Joseph's carpentry shop is said to have been nearby. Our Jewish guide explained that when Mary learned that she was pregnant she wondered how to explain it to Joseph, since he had nothing to do with the pregnancy and would cancel their engagement. Mary told him that it was an "immaculate conception" and Joseph believed her. In nearby St. Joseph's Church we were permitted on our 1985 visit, but not our 1993 visit, to approach the grotto where Joseph and Mary are said to have first lived together. Caves were cool in summer and warm in winter. At Kafr Kana Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. We ate lunch of St. Peter's fish in Tiberias on the SEA of GALILEE (Lake Tiberias). Peter must have starved, the fish was mostly bones. We rode north in a boat on the fresh water "sea" to CAPERNAUM, an old fishing village with a 3rd Century B.C. synagogue. The village of small houses and temple were made of black volcanic basalt stone. The temple had columns with carvings of fruits, a children's play area, and cisterns. Jesus' apostle Peter is said to have lived in one of the houses. Palestinians in the Gaza occupied by Israel in December 1987 began the intifada or resistance to the occupation. The intifada started later in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In 1993 my wife and I joined a study group to Israel and the occupied territories outside of the Green Line, the pre-1967 boundary. We met with 33 groups of Israelis and Palestinians, many peace groups, members of the Knesset, wives and children of some of the 413 Palestinian leaders who were deported to Lebanon for nearly a year, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, a Jewish settler in the West Bank, Palestinians who had since 1967 lived in refugee camps, and many others. A spokesman for the Likud Party bragged that Israel could control the U.S.A. Congress. He also laughed as he admitted that Israel had misled American presidents and the U.S.A. Congress by stating that the several hundred large Jewish towns recently built in the West Bank were only "temporary weekend homes for archaeologists." Only politicians have believed that to be the purpose of several hundred large new towns that Israel has built in the territories they occupied. One of the main settlement areas is East Jerusalem, an area that was long almost exclusively Arab. On a hill overlooking Jerusalem we met with an elderly man, Muhana Arab. His family had acquired land in East Jerusalem from a family who moved to America. His home for 55 years had been demolished by Israelis, he lived in an old bus. He won the first case in court, permitting him to stay. Israeli settlers were cutting down the olive trees his family had cared for many years. Nearby were expensive satellite antennas operated by Shin Bet, the Israeli spy organization. Huge new Israeli settlements are encircling East Jerusalem, long Arab territory. Friends who returned to Israel late in 1995 said his trees were cut down, a big Israeli settlement was being built, and they could not find Muhana Arab. We met with all members of the Palestinian team then negotiating a settlement with Israel. Our group stayed in an Arab hotel in East Palestine, as well as in kibbutzes in the West Bank and in Israel. One kibbutz where we stayed, near the Sea Of Galilee was established in the then almost-empty desert in 1937. By hard work and good irrigation and agricultural practices it has become wealthy. A spokesman said only about two percent of Israelis live on kibbutzes, but the strict discipline, hard work, and cooperative living has produced 44 percent of Israel's military officers. Israel's military has been the government since 1967 in the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza. Palestinians have had no right of appeal of their actions or decisions. Many of the Palestinian men had been locked in prison ("administrative detention") for up to six months (renewed several times) by the military with no charges filed and no right of appeal, but many Palestinians were told that if they reported regularly what their friends were doing, they would be immediately released. "Moderate physical pressure," including deprivation of food and water, and regular beatings, are common, we were told. Refugee camps, surrounded by high fences, with Israeli soldiers armed with machine guns patrolling around the clock, were often locked up 24 hours a day for many months because of an incident that may have happened in a distant part of the West Bank or in Gaza. Residents had to store a lot of food. Several Palestinian university students told us that they required seven or eight years to complete four years of studies, because their refugee camp was locked, they could not get out for months, or because the universities were closed for months. Several conservative Islamic Palestinian teenage girls told us that Israeli soldiers took their photographs, told them that they must spy on their friends for Israel, "or I'll tell everyone that we made love." Two Arab girls, citizens of the U.S.A., each going to school a year in the West Bank to perfect their Arab language, said Israeli male soldiers had harassed them several times. We visited a young Palestinian couple in their home in a refugee camp, surrounded by a high fence, a turnstile gate, and heavily-armed Israeli soldiers constantly patrolling on flat rooftops. Each finally earned a degree from a local university. They required almost two times the normal time because the entire camp was often under 24 hours of curfew for months at a time, and they could not go to classes. The man, whom I shall call "Mohammed," had also served three periods of six months each in prison. He was never charged with any crime. However, his jailers promised immediate release if he would make regular reports to the Israelis as to what his friends were doing. Mohammed continued to be a moderate, hoping for peace. One day he talked with a friend just outside the fence of his refugee camp. A "crazy" Israeli settler stopped his car nearby, then shot at them with a machine gun. He received several bullets in a leg and foot and was unable to work or go to classes for a year. Israeli soldiers saw the crazy settler shoot but made no attempt to stop him. The Israeli Defense Forces had issued orders that soldiers were not to intervene, even if Israeli settlers murdered Palestinians near the soldiers. Mohammed had learned the identity of the settler. I suggested that he sue him. Mohammed said "It would have to be in the Israeli military court. I could not win. I would be targeted by settlers groups for killing." Our study group also visited typical tourist sites in Israel and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi resort, Masada, Qumran Caves, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, and Nazareth. We saw the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus is said to have preached the Sermon on the Mount. In TEL AVIV we visited the Museum of the Diasporo, with exhibits and movies showing that Jews were badly treated in many countries. Short movies tell the story of Jews in Morocco, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Jews prospered in Spain under the Moors, but when the Moors were ousted about 1492, the king's orders and the Spanish Inquisition required the Jews to leave or be killed. Turkey then controlled much of eastern Europe, wisely inviting the Jews, their skills, and their money to move to Eastern Europe. Jerusalem's Museum of the Holocaust has photographs and other exhibits showing the Nazis search for and persecution of Jews, including the concentration camps. When Jews who escaped made their way to Palestine, Britain sent some of them back to Europe, and death by the Nazis. The art museum has drawings and paintings by prisoners, grouped by camp, and by survivors. It includes a homemade "monopoly" game in German or Yiddish. Drawings in the children's museum were painted by children in ghettos or concentration camps. When we visited the Museum of the Holocaust in 1993 I noticed that some 50 feet (16 m.) of exhibits showing discrimination against Jews in the U.S.A. had been removed since our visit in 1985. However, only a few months earlier Israel had successfully lobbied Congress for a 10 billion dollar "loan" from the U.S.A. In 1993 our small group visited the GOLAN HEIGHTS, passing stone ruins of several villages and Crusaders castles. Many Israeli tanks, guns, and soldiers were on maneuvers. One large deserted town formerly in Syria has many bullet holes in the stone buildings and the mosque. We saw concrete pillboxes, bomb shelters, and big rocks arranged along the road so that each vehicle must almost stop for a turn. The Golan Heights has about 36 small Israeli settlements, four Druze villages, and one Alewite village (a branch of the Shiites). We continued to climb higher toward Mt. Hermon, used by Israelis for snow skiing. We spent most of the day in the most northern town on the Israeli side, captured in the 1973 war, MASDAL SHAMS. Nearby we saw many black drip irrigation pipes, fruit orchards, and a fruit packing plant. The town square has a statue of a great swordsman who helped to fight the French occupying army during a "revolt" in 1925. It is a Druze town; the sect split from the Shiite Moslems in the 12th Century. Little is known about the secretive religion. Knowing that the Druze were sometimes harassed in Syria, Israel offered them Israeli citizenship, which was refused. Villagers sometimes go to the edge of the minefields and shout across the border to relatives on the Lebanese or Syrian side. Syria and Israel permitted some to visit relatives in Syria and Lebanon, but upon their return Israel tried to get information about Syria's defenses. For several hours we met village leaders in a cold room, drinking tea to thaw out. They said many Druze have spent years in Israeli prisons for no reason except to end Druze or Syrian nationalism. In Syria Druze are required to live in refugee camps "but they are better treated." Druze refuse to carry an Israeli identity card or to serve in the Israeli military. The men we met with agreed that Israel had the right to exist as a nation, but insisted that Israel must stop new settlements in occupied territory and stop imprisoning and killing innocent people. Most of the Druze villages are agricultural, and they believe they would have a better market for their fruit in Arab countries than the little marketing help that Israel provides. We visited the Arab hospital in NABLUS and were told that Israeli soldiers often visit the hospital to interrogate even very sick patients for hours, to search for alleged terrorists. We talked with some of the more than 2,200 Palestinian families throughout the West Bank who were ordered to leave within five minutes, then their nice home for generations was destroyed, allegedly to find terrorists. We were told none had been found. New roads to the many new settlements destroy orchards or fields that Arabs have cultivated for centuries. Israel has confiscated with little or no payment much Arab land that had been in the family for many generations, but the Palestinians sometimes had no paper documents to prove ownership. Palestinians often have large families. Many have asked for permission to build an extra room onto their crowded home. We were told that the requests are uniformly refused. Everywhere in Israel there are fences made of coils of barbed wire. The hundreds of big settlements on land held for many generations by Palestinians are surrounded by barbed wire. Many Palestinians complain that the huge new Israeli settlements on hilltops take the scarce water, leaving little for much older Arab villages below. Settlements drill deep wells, taking water long used by a Palestinian village. Water is valuable in the arid Mid-east. The population explosion of Jews and Palestinians will lead to a shortage of everything, to more suffering and violence. Many Israelis feel insecure. The Israeli government cannot control the many extreme right-wing and religious settlers and zealots who cause most of the problems. There are many others like the terrorist who assassinated Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995, because he tried to peacefully settle issues with the Arabs. I saw a gun shop in Tel Aviv doing a booming business selling Uzzi machine guns and pistols, even late in the evening. Many Israelis, with their identifying yellow license plates, rarely go to the West Bank since the intifada began. Many would be willing to give up much territory for peace. Israel would like to lock away any place where Palestinians cause trouble, and become independent of the need for Palestinian labor. Israel has encouraged the immigration of Jews from Russia and other countries, and is even importing Third World laborers, while many Palestinians who worked many years for Israelis are now unemployed. In April 1996 the PLO stated that it had abandoned its policy calling for the destruction of Israel, and Israel's Labor Party stopped opposing a Palestinian State. The Israeli government may have agreed to more than limited Palestinian self rule in small areas. However, the conservative Likud Party won a plurality in elections in 1996. My conservative Palestinian friends reported at the end of 1995 that travel restrictions are worse for them now, they cannot legally visit friends or look for work in other towns a short distance away. Under Israel's plan there would be two countries within the same external borders. Jews and Palestinians would be "separate but unequal." In the U.S.A. from 1865 until 1948 or so the "separate but (un)equal policy for Blacks and Whites did not work. Apartheid did not work in South Africa. Perhaps it will in Israel. Palestinians want their own country--most of the West Bank as well as Gaza. They want to control immigration and would like to permit most of the several million Palestinians living abroad to return to their ancestral home. However, they would like to cooperate with Israel and Jordan in an economic union, something like the European Union. The Israelis and Palestinians need and can help each other. They are Semite brothers. As Palestinians suffer and Israelis worry more about their security, the extremists on both sides are likely to become much stronger. However, a situation that looks impossible may yet have a happy ending. During a 1986 visit in South Africa, my wife and I spent 10 days with a well-educated Jewish couple from Tel Aviv. I remarked that I saw many similarities between Israel and South Africa. They were quick to disagree. I pointed out how in each country a minority of well educated rich people with a strong military controlled the economy and future of a larger group of a different color or religion, that Israel and South Africa were then outcasts among most of the world's nations. The later almost-peaceful result in South Africa surprised me. I hope that Israelis and Palestinians will also surprise me. Jews have been harassed and discriminated against in many countries for several thousand years. They need a homeland. Their homeland is also the homeland for another great people, the Palestinians. The population of Israel has been growing fast, due to the welcome mat it spread for Jews from all countries, and the high birth rate for the more conservative Jews and for Palestinians. A small crowded desert country cannot easily support both groups. But it must. It can if each group respects certain basic rights of the other group. Jews, as well as Palestinians, need security and freedom from fear. How can they get it? Not by violence and military means. "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Violence begets violence." Extremists (right-wing religious Jewish settlers, Palestinian Hamas, Islamic Hezbollah, and others) on each side must be controlled. Most of the Jewish settlers must be removed from the West Bank, by the Israeli Defense Force if necessary. Palestinian self-rule must be expanded. If the U.S.A. continues to give billions of dollars to Israel, at least 40 percent of that money should go to Palestinians--similar to the division of aid for Greece and Turkey. Tax dollars from the U.S.A. should not continue to support the present inequities. [Excerpt, P. 382] Conclusions [about Israel]. The first president of the U.S.A., George Washington, in his Farewell Address, told Americans in September, 1796 that we must:
Since money and votes controlled by Jewish groups has long controlled the Congress of the U.S.A., the U.S.A. must have election law reform. Congress must be free to vote for what is fair, not to get money and votes for re-election. The U.S.A. should help Palestinians draft a constitution providing for true democracy and self government. Jews and Palestinians long ago were brothers. They must learn to live cooperatively together in peace. Outsiders, such as the U.S.A., cannot force peace upon them. If the Palestinians are not treated fairly the U.S.A. should discontinue sending all money from taxpayers to the area.
[Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. I, P. 409-427] World Problems and Solutions 1. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE. In 1798 Thomas Malthus in his Essay on Principles of Population wrote: Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. Malthus concluded that the population would soon outgrow the food supply, resulting in widespread starvation. In 1500 world population was around 450 million, in 1900 it had risen to 1.6 billion, in 1930 to 2 billion, and today it is almost six billion. It is expected to reach 10 billion before 2050. We now know that population does not increase geometrically but it has been increasing far faster than the planet can comfortably support. Most of the population increase is in the poor countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With limited land or other work in villages the poor are migrating to cities at a rapid rate. There will soon be several metropolitan areas with more than 25 million people. However, many of the poor are finding ways to move into the rich countries of Western Europe, the U.S.A., Canada, and Australia. Wars also chase people out of their traditional home into another area or country. The Worldwatch Institute in a mid-1995 report estimated that there are 23 million refugees in the world, an all-time high. Many of the refugees fled from wars. CARE reports that there are an additional 26 million people displaced from their homes within their country--usually because of war or drought. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimated late in 1995 that there are 14.4 million refugees in another country, and 50 million displaced within their own country. The way to reduce migration to a rich country, such as Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S.A., is to make life more attractive in the home country. MOST PEOPLE PREFER TO LIVE IN THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY. The main exceptions are young people who want the glamour and adventure of a rich country. We must help poor countries make life more pleasant and secure there. Merely making birth control or abortion available doesn't mean that births will be reduced substantially. There must be a desire to limit family size. In poor countries where families have few savings and there is no social security, or where inflation discourages savings, sons will provide security for parents in their old age. Many women, particularly the illiterate, need to produce several sons to accomplish something in life. The status of women must be raised everywhere. Girls should have an equal right with boys to an education. The simplest way to reduce the birth rate is to increase education for girls and women. In much of the world land that should be left in its natural state is being used to grow food. Erosion caused by water and wind turns much of the marginal land into desert. Villagers must go farther away each year to get food and water and grazing for their cattle, goats, or sheep. Each poor person, however, uses less of the Earth's limited resources than a person in a rich country. Births are only slightly higher or are lower than deaths in Western Europe and Japan. The U.S.A. has more than two times as many people as it had when I began to study geography intensively, using the 1930 census figures. A typical baby born in a rich country uses in its lifetime some 30 times as much land, water, minerals, and other resources as does a baby born in a poor country. In a good year, with the use of fertilizers and improved seeds there is currently enough food available in the world, though poor distribution means that many don't get enough to eat. The world's weather appears to be playing some mean tricks. Droughts, storms, or a rising sea level as glaciers and ice packs melt will result in massive starvation. As overcrowding and tensions increase there will be more wars. Rwanda, Burundi, and Haiti, for example, could be delightful places to live, with beautiful hills, adequate rainfall, and some rich soil. Each has far too many people, unequal distribution of land and assets, and governments that have not been helpful to most people. The result is poverty, starvation, and violence. Many of today's 35 or so wars in the world are caused by too many people and not enough land and food, increased by ethnic or tribal tensions and the large number of weapons available. Desperate people may do anything to make a change, including the use of violence that harms innocent people--we call it terrorism. The world is like a big Easter Island, where people lived for centuries in relative peace until overcrowding caused a depletion of forests and land erosion, frequent fighting, and war. We are like rats in a cage: a few may get along with each other, but overcrowding produces fights and cannibalism. Cities everywhere are expanding, taking up valuable farm land. Governments must encourage people to stay in the home village, making it more attractive. Cities will become more compact, so they use less scarce land. In rich countries suburban homes with big yards will disappear, lots will become smaller. A big yard requires more water to irrigate grass and other plants, and gasoline to power a lawn mower. As there are more people, food prices go up, more and more peoples in the world can no longer afford to buy enough food, and every square meter of arable land must be used to grow food. We must CONTROL POPULATION. No one advocates more deaths as a means of controlling population. This means that births must be reduced. Every woman must have available the information and tools to prevent pregnancies. If this fails she is entitled to medically safe means to terminate a pregnancy. While few people, if any, like abortions, it is often better than the alternative--the birth of an unwanted baby. The best way to reduce abortions is to have a comprehensive family planning and health program that teaches girls, women, boys, and men contraception methods and makes condoms and pills readily available. Two 1988 studies in the U.S.A. found that Roman Catholic women have 30 percent more abortions than Protestants. It is far better to control births by contraception than by abortions. A study in the U.S.A. in 1987 found that 82 percent of the pregnancies were not intentional among teenagers, and 75 percent of the pregnancies of poor women were not intentional. Sometimes an abortion is called for in situations other than rape or incest. The mother may know that the fetus has mental or physical problems, because she had inadequate diet or was using alcohol or drugs harmful to the fetus. A baby cuts short the education and career of many young women, casting the mother and baby into the cycle of dependency upon welfare of the government or her parents. Will those who would deny a woman's right to control her body, either by law or violence, adopt and care for the baby, even if it is black, brown, or defective mentally or physically? The cost of a medically safe abortion is less than one percent of the cost of raising a baby for 18 or more years. Information and the inexpensive pill must be readily available to young women to abort an early-term pregnancy. Which has greater value, (1) an ovum, which is produced monthly by a young woman for 25 or 30 years, after it has been recently fertilized, to become a fetus, or (2) a young woman in whom society has invested 20 years or so of food, shelter, education, and love? Which has greater value, (1) a recently-laid fertilized hen's egg, produced almost daily for several years, or (2) the hen itself, that produces the eggs? There are too many unwanted children in the world. The parents may be too poor to care for the children or the parents or children may be physically or mentally ill. Unwanted children are often beaten or sexually abused. They are problems for teachers, world-wide. They often turn to drugs, prostitution, burglary, and robbery. They grow up to commit more crimes until they are imprisoned, at a huge cost to taxpayers.... The natural increase, listed in this book for most countries, is the percentage by which the birth rate exceeds the death rate for a year. A birth rate of 2.0 percent and a death rate of 1.0 percent results in a natural increase of 1.0 percent. These figures ignore the immigration into and the emigration out of the country. Rich countries not at war usually have many immigrants, legal and illegal. The time required for the population to double in a country (or a city, or the world) can be computed by the following formula: time in years = 70/growth per unit.... Merely making birth control or abortion available doesn't mean that births will be reduced substantially. There must be a desire to limit family size. In poor countries where families have few savings and there is no social security, or where inflation discourages savings, sons will provide security for parents in their old age. Many women, particularly the illiterate, need to produce several sons to accomplish something in life. The status of women must be raised everywhere. Girls should have an equal right with boys to an education. The simplest way to reduce the birth rate is to increase education for girls and women. Deaths from epidemics and other disease and wars have had little effect on controlling the increase in population in the 20th Century. The African countries with the greatest number of people infected by AIDs (HIV, SIDA), and dying from tuberculosis and dysentery, have several times as many people as they had in 1900. Today, wars and disease merely increase the suffering, they have only a small effect on population. If control of epidemics and other diseases lowers the death rate, families will have fewer children, since more will grow up to become adults. In countries where many babies die before becoming an adult, a couple may want to have many babies, knowing that few will survive. To reduce migration into crowded cities or to rich countries, THE STANDARD OF LIVING IN VILLAGES MUST BE IMPROVED. This means a better distribution of land, government help with pumps, irrigation, schools, health, immunization programs for all children, electricity, and all-weather farm-to-market roads. The gross domestic product (GDP) of a country is the total value of goods and services produced in that country during a year. We compute the per capita average income by dividing the gross domestic product by the number of people living in the country. Inflation is the increase in the cost of the same quantity of goods and services over a period of time, usually expressed in terms of a year. If a country has a five percent increase in gross domestic product during a year, but a three percent increase in the number of people (births and immigration exceed deaths and emigration) and a three percent inflation rate, then the people have suffered a one percent loss in their standard of living. But if another country also has a five percent increase in gross domestic product, but only a one percent increase in population and a one percent inflation rate, then the people in that country are enjoying a three percent increase in their standard of living. Thus, we must control the birth rate! Countries such as Peru or Egypt, with big increases in population, find that great efforts must be made to prevent the standard of living from dropping rapidly, causing much suffering, protests, civil disorder, and violence. ... 2. There is TOO MUCH UNEMPLOYMENT in the world. Manufacturing of mass-produced products is reduced in the rich countries as factories move to low-wage countries. The rich countries can slow this trend only by offering a trained work force that produces better-quality products. Retraining should be provided to laid-off workers in skills where there are jobs available. ... The U.S.A. should ratify nearly all of the International Labor Organization's standards establishing worldwide labor rights and standards. They include freedom of association (to join unions), elimination of discrimination, minimum wages, and protection of workers' health and safety. 3. TOO MUCH MONEY IS SPENT ON THE MILITARY around the world. Some 767 billion dollars is spent on the military each year. The U.S.A., with only 4.5 percent of the people, spends 35 percent of this. The U.S.A. has not significantly reduced military spending after the end of the Cold War, partly because the military-industrial complex is so strong politically. The U.S.A. is also the major seller of military weapons in the world, some 15 billion dollars yearly. The United Kingdom is usually the 2nd-largest seller. Russia, usually the 3rd, sells less than two billion dollars yearly. Many of these weapons are bought by poor countries with money that could be spent on far more useful projects. Since many of the weapons are sold on credit they increase the national debt of countries that are already burdened with debt. A high percentage of all exports is used just to service the debt--to pay the interest, with no payment on the principal. Thus the country will forever remain in poverty. Many of the weapons are used by an unpopular government to control, harass, and kill minority groups or advocates of true democracy within the country. According to a United Nations report in mid-1994 the world's developing nations each year spend 125 billion dollars on the military, but only 15 billion on primary health care, 10 billion on population planning, and five billion dollars on education. Nearly all of today's 35 or more wars are an attempt by a dominant group to get more land or economic and political power, often at the expense of a different ethnic group or tribe. Few of the wars seek to change external borders of a country. While many of the borders are arbitrary, and some are vague, based upon precedents set by distant European powers, the borders should not be changed unless both countries agree. Any change in existing borders anywhere is likely to result in war. Almost all attempts to split up a country into smaller units should be discouraged by the world community. There are many countries where a split is imminent: Russia, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Sudan are a few. If every group should get its goal the world would be little more than hundreds of tribal groups. A high percentage of the 50 to 65 million refugees in the world (see #1 above) are fleeing wars, including fights and other frictions between tribal or religious groups. Others are fleeing a shortage of food or water caused by a war. Far fewer are fleeing a repressive government.... Some two-thirds of the national debt of the U.S.A. was accumulated during the period 1981-1992, when expenditures on the military were greatly increased and income taxes were reduced. Critics called it "voodoo economics." The debt of the U.S.A. increased three times as much during that 12 year period as the total debt accumulated during the previous 205 years of its history as a nation! The U.S.A. pays some 166 billion dollars yearly for interest on the military portion of the debt.... The U.S.A. should cut the cost of the CIA and sister spy agencies, by at least half. The CIA, by meddling in wars and the internal affairs of other nations, including activities generally acknowledged by a civilized society to be immoral and illegal, has also harmed long-term interests of the U.S.A. Many of the CIA's activities are shameful for a peace-loving democracy. The U.S.A. has no natural enemies. Our goal should be to help improve the standard of living of people everywhere. 4. TOURISM should be encouraged by all governments. Tourists provide income that goes to needy employees of restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, and transportation companies. Since tourists often buy local craft products and see entertainment programs they promote traditional local skills and industries. Tourism encourages the improvements in roads, painting and repairing of buildings, cleaning up the environment, as well as the creation of national parks and game preserves. A nation that seeks more tourists is more likely to control a repressive government. Travel encourages the study of other languages and other cultures. There are few adverse side effects of tourism, except that in high season traffic is worse and local people have more competition in hotels and restaurants. In low-wage countries tourists sometimes cause an increase in wage rates as well as an increase in the cost of living. Tourist hotels use a lot of scarce water for flushing toilets, drinking, cleaning, and maintaining lawns and plants. We must use more toilets that save water (see below). 5. Few governments spend enough on the future of the country--EDUCATION. Children often do not have school books, annual class hours are short, and secondary schools do not have a decent library or equipment to teach science or computers. There is too much emphasis on a traditional education in a university. In much of Africa, Latin America, and Asia anyone who graduated from a university refuses to work with his hands, to do "laborers work." Skills needed to do a better job should be emphasized. Africa and Latin America need more people trained in technology and in making repairs, such as in plumbing. In the U.S.A. workers must be more flexible, they may have to retrain and start a new career several times during a lifetime. Most countries are more traditional than the U.S.A., workers can do only one type of work. We should show more appreciation for work done by people who work with their hands. A housecleaner, painter, gardener, or mechanic can see an immediate improvement as a result of his/her work. Since students rarely go beyond primary school in much of the world, a curriculum must be developed everywhere for primary schools to teach not only reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography, but also basic nutrition, health, sanitation and purifying drinking water, sexuality, and family planning. 6. It is in the best interest of the RICH COUNTRIES to HELP THE POOR COUNTRIES improve the standard of living of their people. Poor people cannot buy their products. All men are brothers on a shrinking planet. Improving the education level and the standard of living will tend to stabilize or reduce the population. This will result in less tension and fewer wars. If people are reasonably satisfied they are less likely to support a demagogue who wants to start a war against a neighboring tribe or country. We must recognize, however, that many peoples do not want to copy the Western style of living, with its emphasis on hard work, greed and acquiring material possessions. The traditional life style is better in many respects. The U.S.A. typically spends less than 13 billion dollars yearly for foreign aid, less than one-fifth of a percent of its GDP, or five percent of the amount spent on the military! Half of that goes to Israel and Egypt. Much of the aid is in the form of unneeded military weapons. Much of the foreign aid should go to basic education, health, and population control programs, especially contraception. Poor countries have spent enough on big projects such as hydroelectric dams. Emphasis in aid should be on making life in villages more attractive: farm-to-market roads, agronomy and conservation, health and education, and on projects that help local people to help themselves. These include small loans, to establish cottage industries, for farmers to buy a burro or buffalo, to improve their housing, for women to buy a sewing machine or start a small business, for a village to install an electric generator, dig a well or install a water pump, build sanitary privies, etc. More banks need to follow the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh in making small business loans for household industries. Perhaps government aid should be distributed through international private aid organizations. Oxfam, for example, has developed low cost homes than can be built by villagers using local materials that do not adversely affect the environment. The Peace Corps of the U.S.A. and similar programs by Japan, Germany, France, the U.K., and other countries have helped to improve the lives of the poorest. 7. LAND REFORM, with title to underutilized land going to those who work on it, should be encouraged. However, if a big landowner is making efficient use of land it should not be redistributed. In the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe agricultural production dropped when big State or co-op farms were split up. Small farmers often don't have the horses, tractor, or other equipment to properly make use of the land. A solution is the return to co-ops, with farmers sharing the more expensive farm equipment. 8. Government policies should encourage the PRESERVATION OF FORESTS, CONTROL OF SOIL EROSION, and REDUCING POLLUTION of the land, water, and air. Many poor countries still consider the cutting of natural forests to be "developing" or improving land. Europe was once heavily forested. People everywhere once believed (and some still believe) that each tree had a soul, and a ceremony was required when a tree was cut. When Christianity spread northward the forests were quickly cut, and the population grew. When gunpowder made knights on big horses obsolete the horses were used to cultivate larger and more fields, permitting the population to grow more. In the U.S.A. until recently the cutting of forests and plowing virgin land was considered to be developing the land. Today Brazilians, for example, question the sincerity of the rich countries when we object to cutting trees and building ugly roads in the Amazon basin. Widespread use of inexpensive technology such as solar cookers built for 20 dollars can save trees and reduce soil erosion. The shortage of water will limit growth in much of the world. Nations must make better use of water. Methods include the use of water-saver toilets, using the drip-method of irrigation perfected by Israel, and low dams and raised fields, like those used by ancient civilizations in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Bolivia. The planting of trees, as in China, Libya, and Uruguay, should be encouraged. The stock of fish in the world's oceans has been going down, as the world's population shoots upward. Over-fishing by modern fleets, and poor conservation, must be brought under control. At least half of the people in the world live within 100 kilometers of a coast. Their pollution is devastating to many forms of sea creatures. Fish are harvested faster than they can reproduce. The world-wide catch of 100 million tons of fish, in 1989, seems to be the maximum. Of the 17 major ocean fishing areas, 13 are declining. 9. RESTRUCTURE U.N. and ADMIT GERMANY JAPAN TO SECURITY COUNCIL. The United Nations should be restructured. Germany and Japan, now economic powerhouses, should be admitted to the Security Council. However, they should make much greater payments to support the U.N. The U.S.A. was the world's economic and military superpower in 1945 when the U.N. was established, but it now pays more than its share for U.N. operations, even though many of the payments are in arrears. The U.S.A. is supposed to pay 31 percent of the U.N. budget, but Congress has reduced that to a more reasonable 25 percent. The 1995 budget of $1.3 billion for the U.N. shows only $300 million, or 23 percent, from the U.S.A. The U.N. has been allowed to develop a huge bureaucracy, which should be trimmed. However, the power of the U.N. should be increased in one respect--it should have a sizable permanent military force, with emphasis on rapid deployment to trouble spots before little wars become big wars. It should have authority to arrest any individual indicted by the World Court. Each of the major nations should contribute a military force. The military command should rotate. The organization could be something like the European Union or NATO. 10. ENGLISH, THE WORLD LANGUAGE, MUST BE SIMPLIFIED. Each word should be spelled as it is pronounced. A few accent marks may be needed due to multiple pronunciations of some letters. Fewer capital letters should be used--more like French or Spanish. Leading English-speaking countries, such as the U.K. and the U.S.A., should have a committee to study how to simplify the language, make it more uniform, and to make recommendations to governments and universities. To write the date, the standard day-month-year format should be used, not the month-day-year. The 24-hour clock should be used, reducing the need for the confusing A.M. and P.M. All countries should ADOPT the simpler and better METRIC SYSTEM for measurements. It is a far better system than the antiquated feet-inches-ounces-pounds. We should get used to young women whose measurements are 91-61-91 and are 173 cm. tall. (36-24-36, 5 ft. 8 in.) .... II. Problems of the U.S.A. 1. NATIONAL SINGLE-PAYER SINGLE-POOL HEALTH PLAN. Americans pay far more than any other people for health care, more than 15 percent of the huge gross domestic product. Yet some 44 million people, or 16 percent, have no medical insurance. If they get sick many hospitals will provide basic health care without reimbursement, or with only partial reimbursement by government welfare. However, the hospital greatly increases prices charged to others by "cost shifting." Health maintenance organizations ("HMOs") and health insurance companies seek to get only younger and healthier members, leaving the government to take care of the "pool" of sick or elderly who use health care the most. The lack of a national health plan also results in a feeling of insecurity. If a family member has a serious illness or accident the medical and hospital costs will bankrupt a typical family. Many men and women are afraid to change jobs, to retire, to marry, or divorce because they would lose health care coverage for themselves, a spouse, or child with a chronic and expensive medical problem. Some 20 to 30 percent of our health care dollar goes for administration, wading through forms to determine who is eligible for what, and seeking payment. Under the (mis)Managed Care Plans the quality of care is reduced so profits will be higher. Physicians are rewarded if they deny treatment and may be punished if they give treatment they believe the patient needs. Physicians, once considered to be "professionals," are becoming serfs. Health insurance companies often try to avoid making a valid payment. However, they may pay their chief executive a million dollars or more per year, and they have made huge profits while the sick suffer. To make a profit the plan must either overcharge patients or deny payment for legitimate physical or mental ailments. It is in the personal interest of executives and stockholders to advertise, do aggressive selling of policies or memberships, to get only the healthiest people as members, then to deny benefits. It often becomes a long struggle of many months of phone calls, letter writing, and even court actions to require the insurance company to live up to its obligations. Insurance company clerks, by denying benefits for certain procedures, medicines, and treatments, or by limiting the number, are telling the physicians how to practice medicine. ... Europeans, Canadians, and many Latin Americans cannot understand why America doesn't have a government-sponsored health plan like theirs. They are not aware of the great volume of misleading advertising on TV, direct mail, newspapers, and magazines by rich insurance companies and for-profit HMOs. Under a single-payer plan the government would collect all payments for health care, a total far less than present costs. Patients could go to the physician or HMO of their choice. The government would pay the health care providers. There would be no bills to pay. Americans often criticize government, but governments, local, state, and federal, do many things very well. One possibility would be to make the popular Medicare parts A and B available to everyone. Administrative costs are very low. Those who can afford it could buy private supplemental insurance, as those covered by Medicare do now. An ideal health care plan would emphasize preventive medicine more. Many Europeans buy supplemental health coverage to get a private hospital room or for faster elective surgery. U.S.A. citizens now pay enough in total for health insurance to provide Medicare for everyone, it is a matter of redistributing payments. Of course, a single-payer plan, emphasizing preventive medicine, would in the long-term be cheaper and better. 2. There is TOO MUCH GREED by a few in the U.S.A. Few people realize that the well-being of the nation as a whole is more important than accumulating an extra few hundred thousand dollars. In 1950 the chief executive of our largest corporations were paid about 40 times what a beginning employee was paid. Now the executive gets around 200 times as much. Corporate executives are not worth more than a few hundred thousand dollars a year, including stock options, regardless of how good a job they are doing. Since small shareholders lost control of corporations some 30 years ago, they cannot effectively limit the total compensation for executives. Federal income tax laws should be amended to MAKE GREED LESS PROFITABLE by taxing high incomes, including capital gains, at a high rate.... A 1995 study found that the gap between average income for a poor family and average income for a rich family is greater in the U.S.A. than in any other country. The income for middle class families, adjusted for inflation, has dropped in the past 20 years, while income for the rich has shot upward. Unions should be strengthened so they can assume their traditional role of fighting for a better share of corporate income for rank and file employees and to limit abuses by some members of management. Workers do not always need a union to protect their rights, but the possibility of bringing in a union persuades nonunion employers to be more fair with their employees. Savings for a rainy day by people in the U.S.A. is among the lowest of all industrial countries. It is less than 4 percent of income.... Large corporations take advantage of loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Thirty years ago corporations paid about one-fourth of the income taxes in the U.S.A.. They now pay less than half as much. A 1995 study found that the percentage of corporate income paid in taxes has dropped from an average of 44.3 percent in the 1954-1979 period to an average of 31 percent now. The General Accounting Office reported that in 1993, 40 percent of the corporations with assets of 250 million dollars or more either paid no taxes or they paid less than 100 dollars! However, corporations get big welfare payments from the federal government, such as for sugar and tobacco subsidies, logging in national forests but paying only a fraction of the cost of growing the trees and building roads, and mining three billion dollars worth of minerals each year on public lands at almost no cost. The U.S.A. needs a constitutional amendment to provide (like Mexico) that all underground minerals are owned by the nation as a whole, not landowners or owners of mineral rights. There would be some compensation by the government to legal owners for taking those rights. The minerals could be extracted only by paying the fair market value for the minerals. Ranchers pay for only a fraction of the value of grazing animals on public lands. Farmers and ranchers pay only a fraction of the cost of providing irrigation water. Realistic charges would encourage the use of water-saving methods of irrigation, such as drip irrigation for orchards. Wheeler-dealers acquired many savings and loans in the early 1980s, then persuaded the Reagan administration to stop regulating them. It cost taxpayers some 200 billion dollars to bail them out [Recent studies found that the cost was much higher.]. Tax policies should encourage activities that are desirable for the nation as a whole and discourage undesirable activities. Reduced taxes for research and development is desirable, while taxes should be increased when a corporation merges with another, often with great losses of jobs, or when it pollutes the environment. 3. UNPATRIOTIC BIG CORPORATIONS, MORE THAN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, CAUSES UNEMPLOYMENT. Corporate officers and directors are quick to close a plant in the U.S.A. that has produced a good quality product at a competitive price, if they can pay lower wages in a plant abroad. The greatly reduced payroll and lower labor costs results in more profit for the corporation. Part of this profit is passed on to shareholders, making them happy. Much of it goes to the corporate officers and directors, in the form of more stock and increased value of the stock they have. A plant may have thousands of hard-working employees and middle-managers who are very loyal, but they suddenly find themselves without a job. Their jobs have moved overseas or vanished. Successful corporations and countries such as Japan and Germany also pay high wages but they have a stronger feeling that they owe some loyalty and support for their employees and their nation. Corporate officers are paid far less in all other countries than the greedy corporate leaders in the U.S.A. Equally harmful to the well-being of employees, managers, and the nation are most mergers of corporations. Wheeler-dealer speculators acquire or join forces with other wheeler-dealers and bankers to acquire a controlling interest in two corporations. They then merge the two, closing plants or "downsizing," laying off thousands of once-loyal employees. There are instances when corporations should be permitted to work together to improve production and sales in their industry. However, the government antitrust and tax departments should prevent or heavily tax mergers that result in big losses of employment while speculators profit. 4. GASOLINE at the pump IS TOO CHEAP in the U.S.A., compared with most of Europe and Japan, where it costs three times as much. Cheap gas results in many vehicles clogging roads and streets, poor-quality public transportation, urban sprawl and people living far from town, where it is expensive to provide them with public utilities and other services. The U.S.A., with 4.5 percent of the world's population, uses some 35 percent of its petroleum products. Imports of petroleum products worth 47 billion dollars yearly is a major reason why the U.S.A. has a negative balance of payments--it imports more than it exports. The U.S.A. maintains a large and expensive military, partly to protect its sources of petroleum in the volatile and unstable Mid-east. Gasoline taxes should should be increased substantially, in steps, to give people time to adjust their life styles. Higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel would help to get some of the trucks off of clogged highways, and more freight would be hauled by railroads. Much of the increased tax revenue should be spent on improving public transportation, local and interstate, and in building paths for hikers and bicyclists, much like those in Germany.... A national gasoline tax of only 25 cents per gallon (3.85 l.) would produce revenue of more than 35 billion dollars yearly. This is based upon the 198 million motor vehicles in the U.S. A., and the current average consumption of 707 gallons per year for each vehicle. One French minister said concerning the national debt of the U.S.A. "Any nation that gives away gasoline, like the U.S.A., does not have a serious national debt problem." World Watch reports that each person in the U.S.A. consumes the same amount of energy as 3 Japanese, 38 Indians, or 531 Ethiopians. It is important, especially in the U.S.A., to reduce that consumption and to stabilize the population. 5. CONTROL FIREARMS. There are an estimated 221 million firearms in the U.S.A., or a firearm for nearly every man, woman, and child. More than 40,000 people were killed in 1994 in the U.S.A. by firearms. Many more were injured, and each gunshot wound costs an average of $41,000 in health care. Handguns are often dangerous for those who own or carry them. One of the risks of being a law enforcement officer is that members of the family are often killed by the officer's handgun, by accident or in fits of anger. My hunting friends say that a deer or elk rifle and a shotgun is all they need. As a farm boy I had my own "22" rifle and used my father's shotgun by age 13. However, we were taught how to use a weapon, and our weapons were adapted for their limited use. Only the military and law enforcement officials, plus a few others, should be entitled to own or use an assault weapon. Only a few civilians not in law enforcement should be licensed to own a pistol. Most people in other countries can't understand why the U.S.A. doesn't regulate firearms the way the rest of the civilized world does. Nations that have a lot of firearms, such as the U.S.A. and Israel, also have much violence, and deadly assaults and robberies with firearms. Countries with fewer firearms, such as Canada and most European and Asian countries, have fewer crimes committed with firearms. Most federal courts have ruled that the 2nd Amendment's right to keep and bear arms is a collective right of the state, not an individual right. 6. It is time for a NATIONAL I.D. CARD for all citizens and legal residents. Modern technology, plus a photograph and fingerprint, can make an identification card foolproof. Access to welfare, other government aid, and jobs, plus illegal immigration, could be more easily controlled. Many of us have resisted the idea of Big Brother, the government, knowing more about us, but the national benefits of a card outweigh the disadvantages. Most European countries and many lesser developed countries have a national I.D. card. We are no longer the frontier nation that Daniel Boone lived in. 7. The LEGAL SYSTEM in the U.S.A. NEEDS REVISION. Many other attorneys agree that we spend too much time and money in litigation, and justice is often not done. Each of our 50 states has a legal system that supplements our federal legal system. The state-federal system provides confusion but it also permits us to experiment to determine which changes provide the best improvements in the administration of justice. We need to discourage lawsuits by shortening the period of time within which a lawsuit can be brought (the statue of limitations), to cap punitive damage awards (such as three times the amount of actual damages or $250,000, whichever is more), by limiting the types of cases that can be tried before a jury, by using six person juries rather than 12, by permitting less than 100 percent of the jurors to determine a case except in murder and similar "capital" crimes, by giving judges more power to limit or shorten trials, and by cutting the abuse of discovery in civil cases. We must encourage the trend toward the use of mediation (where a judge or other leader attempts to get a voluntary settlement) and arbitration (where a neutral hears both sides and makes a decision binding upon all sides). For tort cases (a private action for money damages, such as an automobile accident) we should experiment with payments of a uniform amount to the injured party, like workmen's compensation claims. New Zealand's system seems to work well. Most of us use the legal system to protect our rights. However, we often forget that we also have duties--to family, friends, co-workers, and others in our city, state, nation, and world. 8. TOO MANY PRISONERS. The U.S.A. has more than a million people in state and federal prisons--far too many. Each prisoner costs nearly $30,000 per year. [In 2001 there are almost two million prisoners.] Building new prisons is very expensive. Taxpayers and prisoners pay for this expensive system. Most of the prisoners are there because of substance abuse. A 1993 study showed that 62 percent of federal prisoners were convicted for drug offenses, the figure was expected to rise to 70 percent by 1995. State prisons are also filled with drug offenders. Our "war against drugs" has not solved the problem. We need to look more at why do people use drugs? What can we do to prevent them from using drugs? Should we legalize some drugs but control its distribution, as with the methadon program? The popular "three strikes and you're out" laws will fill our prisons even faster. The "strikes" should be increased to five, or to crimes committed with violence. The "three strikes" laws are often too severe punishment for, say, a young Black man raised in a high-crime area who follows the crowd to commit three minor felonies. The percentage of Black males in prison is seven times that for Whites, for Hispanics it is more than two times the rate for Whites. Alternative sentences, such as work programs, minimum security camps, or boot camps for young offenders should be used. Many countries use prisoners for various public work projects, with one or two guards. We need to again make greater use of prison labor, as well as to train them for a job when they are released. Of course, prisoners working outside with guards, should have adequate protection against the weather and insects or other hazards. Certain dangerous prisoners should not be eligible for outside work. 9. Government programs can put the unemployed, prisoners, and the physically able on welfare to work in CLEANING UP AND BEAUTIFYING AMERICA. Projects needed in cities include razing abandoned buildings, cleaning up rubble and trash, making parks by planting trees and grass, expansion of the urban homestead law to encourage renovation of buildings, and reducing water and air pollution. Local governments need more power to take property that is causing pollution or eyesores, and to reward owners who improve their property, by reducing their taxes. The National Service Corps should be expanded. We also need something like the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s. It taught many young men discipline, how to work, work skills and trades, and how to hold a job. 10. ELECTION CAMPAIGN REFORM. It is unlikely that laws favorable to the general public will be passed unless politicians can vote their conscience rather than their pocketbook. Election campaigns in the U.S.A. begin more than a year before balloting and are very expensive, with TV and newspaper ads. Only the very wealthy or those who receive fortunes from special interest groups can hope to be elected. A majority of our politicians are perhaps "the best that money can buy," or has been bought. However, we need statesmen (and many more women) who consider what is best for the nation and the world as a whole. France, Italy, and other countries prohibit election campaigning within 15 or 30 days before balloting. They also prohibit the publicizing of poll results during that period. This helps to create a period of calm before the actual balloting. Most of the peoples of the world vote on the weekend, and a far higher percentage vote than in the U.S.A. The long campaigns with much mud-slinging seems to turn off many voters, who look upon all politicians as "dirty" or "all the same." It requires initiative to register to vote in the U.S.A. Registration to vote is automatic when a person reaches age 18 in Australia, Belgium, Costa Rica, and many Lesser-Developed Countries. Failure of a registered voter to vote is unlawful, punishable by a fine, in many countries. Perhaps we need to follow the practice of Australia, Argentina, Ecuador, and others in fining any eligible voter who does not vote, unless he/she has an acceptable reason. Many countries prohibit campaign contributions greater than a small amount, and the government provides a campaign fund for each candidate or political party able to show a minimum of support. Campaign contributions should be limited to $100, and only by a registered voter who lives in that electoral district.... TABLE OF CONTENTS, COUNTRIES AND CULTURES, VOL. I Page List of Photographs in Volume I Introduction 1 ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS and MAJOR RELIGIONS 1 I. ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 1 China 3 Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar 4 Sri Lanka, India 5 Pakistan 6 Jordan, Egypt 8 Malta 9 Crete, Mycenaens, Greece 12 Roman Empire 15 Mayans 16 Aztecs 17 South America 20 II. The MAJOR RELIGIONS 20 Buddhism 21 Hinduism 22 Gilgamesh Epic, Mithraism, Zorastrianism, Judaism 23 Christianity, Islam 24 Conclusions Concerning Religions Photographs 27 AFRICA 35 Egypt 51 Tunisia 64 Cueta 65 Morocco 69 Togo 73 Ghana 84 Burkina Faso 88 Mali 104 Kenya 121 Tanzania 122 Zimbabwe 131 South Africa 156 Swaziland Photographs 159 ASIA (Except Philippines and Former Soviet Union) 162 Japan 182 South Korea 193 China 235 Hong Kong 240 Taiwan 247 Vietnam 258 Cambodia 269 Laos 281 Indonesia 295 Singapore 300 Malaysia 311 Thailand 334 Myanmar (Burma) 340 Bangladesh 343 Nepal 346 Sri Lanka 355 India 370 Pakistan 375 Bahrain 376 Israel 388 Palestine 390 Jordan 392 Lebanon 395 Syria Photographs 405 TRAVEL HINTS, WORLD MARKETS, and PROBLEMS and SOLUTIONS AROUND the WORLD 405 TRAVEL HINTS 405 Individual Travel 407 Tours 408 Cruises, Children, Packing 410 Money and Travel Security, Before Leaving Home 411 Computing the Cost of A Trip, Jet Lag 412 Discomfort Time, Beds 413 Luggage, Cameras and Photos 414 Toilets, Languages 415 Conversation and Criticism, MARKETS for BUSINESSES 416 WORLD PROBLEMS and SOLUTIONS This is www.acurioustraveler.com/vol..I p.14.htm |
