Ritu recently posted the following random factoid: September 11 this year will mark the 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s launch of Satyagraha in South Africa. As the commenters note, unfortunately bad actions get remembered more than good ones. It’s strange that that particular date ended up being big days for two strongly religious people, especially the difference between their mothods and attitudes towards violence.
Tag: politics
Show Me The Benefits
Adam’s posted something (and something else) that fits well with the observations of John Ralston Saul regarding the relationship between free trade and wealth: it’s not just Canadians that are worse off, it’s everyone. CNN reported: Between 1995 and 2005, productivity — a measure of the quantity and quality of what workers produce per hour — grew 33.4 percent. But hourly wages rose only 11 percent, with almost all of that increase coming during the late 1990s, according to EPI. Looking back even farther, the disparity is greater. Since 1979, productivity rose 67 percent, while wages rose only 8.9 percent. …
MissIzzy on Traditional Values and Economic Status of Nations
MissIzzy always has something interesting to say, and this time, what caught my attention was her thoughts in a post titled Traditionally bad is the Contemporary Good.A sampling: Countries that suffer from the yoke of traditional values and survival ethics are the worse off (Nigeria, Parkistan, Ghana) Countries that are extremely secular-rational but are on the extreme end of the survival/self-expression dimension, on the survival side (the bit characterized by low levels of subject well being, report relatively poor health etc.) make somewhat about twice as much in GNP per capita (and are some of the most progressive nations in …
War Museum Controversy
About a year ago, whilst traveling in Canada, I happened on a news report about a display at the Canadian War Museum being altered because some soldiers were embarrassed at the statistics about STD rates among Canadian soldiers serving during the Korean War. I clipped the article, intending to blog it, but then misplaced it and only found it again just now.
Kofi Annan on the World Cup
This piece, titled At the UN, how we envy the World Cup, came to me via the mailing list I’m about to go into withdrawal from, as I’ve unsubbed until after Clarion West is over. You may wonder what a secretary general of the United Nations is doing writing about football. But in fact, the World Cup makes us at the United Nations green with envy. As the pinnacle of the only truly global game, played in every country by every race and religion, it is one of the few phenomena as universal as the United Nations. You could even …