Tag: world

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The world of the future

What does the future of the U.S. and world look like?

The present is, well, not all that encouraging, according to an essays today in The Motley Fool:

“Unemployment is stuck painfully high. GDP growth is painfully low. The American political system has been deadlocked in shutdowns, fiscal cliffs,

and partisan bickering. People are genuinely concerned about the future.

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“But the present is constantly becoming the past. Every moment the future becomes the now. And every day, it’s the millennial generation that is defining that future. With help from a great infographic from Badgeville (see below for the full graphic), here are nine facts that paint a picture of the future, a future designed, defined, and directed by the next great generation of Americans.

“Millennials: The good, the bad, and the ugly

“1. Millennials have already witnessed three wars (including the longest in U.S. history), a presidential impeachment, a Great Recession, and the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. Oh, and there’s this Internet thing. Millennials see the world as a dynamic place. Their existence is both local and global. It’s connected. An infinite amount of information, knowledge, and content is available anytime, anywhere, and in the palm of your hand (and soon perhaps on the lens of your glasses). The future of America is not the suburban two-car garages and white picket fences of the baby boomer generation.

“2. Millennials are overeducated, underemployed, and in debt. But they still want to work hard and do a good job. Sixty-three percent of millennials have a bachelors degree, 48% of those with college degrees are in jobs that do not require a college degree, and the average millennial has $45,000 in debt. The promises of their youth have not proven themselves out. The mantra of “go to college, get a job, be successful” has proven to be a false promise. As a result, many millennials are even more distrustful of authority than their parent’s generation was. And yet, millennials still strive to succeed. Ninety-five percent of millennials work harder when they know where their work is going. Eighty percent prefer on the spot recognition instead of formal reviews. Ninety percent want their workplace to be fun and social. The disconnect is a contrast between the business culture of the baby boomer generation that — from a millennial perspective — has failed them, and the expectations a generation raised on the Internet, Facebook, and near constant smartphone notifications. Continue reading “The world of the future”

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The new global depression

Depression can have a profound impact on a person’s life, work, and relationships. But a new study shows the true toll of mental health conditions on a global scale.imgres

“New research led by Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland and the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia found that depression is the second leading cause of the global disability burden.

“Depression, defined as a persistent state of sadness or disinterest in things once found pleasurable, is one of the most common mental disorders.

“The World Health Organization states that approximately 350 million people worldwide have depression, or about four percent of the world’s population.

“While many people have chronic depression that ultimately leads to a disability, it’s common for it to become debilitating immediately. It’s not necessarily something that builds and becomes worse over time,” Dobrenski, who was not involved in the study, said. “Unfortunately, the system moves very slowly so it can take a long time for someone to become qualified [for mental health care], even though they are ‘eligible’ within days.”   However, he added, some types of depression can fade away just as quickly, so it’s sometimes a disservice to designate someone as disabled so quickly. The new study, appearing in the journal PLOS Medicine, shows that rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) vary by country and region, but are highest in Central America and Central and Southeast Asia. Afghanistan, which has seen political turmoil and war since long before the U.S. occupation began 2001, leads the world in rates of depression, the researchers discovered. Japan, on the other hand, has the lowest rate of depression disability worldwide. To reach their conclusions, researchers scoured published studies on MDD, or clinical depression, and dysthymia, which is a milder form of depression. Continue reading “The new global depression”

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World income declines

Personal income in the world went down in the last year, as reported today from Gallup.

“Twenty-six percent of the world’s adult population was employed full time for an employer in 2012, down slightly from 27% a year ago. imgresThis decline reverses the upward trend in Gallup’s Payroll to Population (P2P) measure since the height of the global recession in 2009.

“Gallup’s P2P metric estimates the percentage of the adult population aged 15 and older — not just those currently in the workforce — who are employed full time for an employer for at least 30 hours per week. Gallup does not seasonally adjust its P2P metric. Gallup does not count adults who are self-employed, working part time, unemployed, or out of the workforce as payroll-employed in the P2P metric.

“The percentage of people working full time for themselves was 18% in 2012, a slight decline over 2011 (19%). Thirty-eight percent were out of the workforce (38%), up slightly over 37% in 2011.

“On a regional basis, Northern America, made up of the U.S. and Canada, has the highest P2P rate (42%) of all regions in 2012, followed the group of European countries and areas not in the European Union (40%), which includes Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and North Cyprus. In both regions, 5% of the population is self-employed, while approximately one-third is not actively participating in the workforce.”

 

More at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163841/global-payroll-population-rate-drops-2012.aspx?utm_source=feedly

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U.S. leads world in income inequity

Wealth data is not easy to get.

Still for three years now, Credit Suisse Research Institute has published an annual Global Wealth Databook which attempts to estimate global wealth holdings.

As posted today in Sociological Images: “The most recent issue includes data covering 2012.  According to Credit Suisse, the goal “is to provide the best available estimates of the wealth holdings of households around the world for the period since the year 2000.”

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“According to the publication, global household wealth was $222.7 trillion in mid-2012, equal to $48,500 for each of the 4.6 billion adults in the world.  Wealth is defined as “the marketable value of financial assets plus non-financial assets (principally housing and land) less debts.”

“Not surprisingly, average global wealth varies considerably across countries and regions. Continue reading “U.S. leads world in income inequity”

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China’s economy slowing

China’s manufacturing activity fell to an 11-month low in July, hurt by a decline in new orders, according to the BBC

“The bank’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 47.7 from 48.2 in June. The PMI is a key indicator of activity in the sector and a reading below 50 shows contraction. This is the third month in a row that the HSBC reading has been below that level.imgres

“The data comes amid fears of a slowdown in China’s overall economy. Data released earlier this month showed that China’s economic growth slowed in the April to June period, the second straight quarter of weaker expansion. The world’s second biggest economy grew by 7.5% compared to the previous year, down from 7.7% in the January to March period. China’s manufacturing and export sectors have been key drivers of its economic growth over the past decades. However, demand for China’s exports has slowed recently, especially from key markets such as the US and Europe as they grapple with slowing economic growth. At the same time, policymakers have found it tough to boost domestic consumption enough to offset the decline in foreign sales. Continue reading “China’s economy slowing”

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Third World in Every First World

Years ago, Trinh T. Minh-ha famously wrote that “there is a third world in every first world, and vice-versa.” In todays le Monde Jo Comerford and Mattea Kramer write about the growing reality of this in the United States:

“The streets are so much darker now, since money for streetlights is rarely available to municipal governments. The national parks began closing down years ago. Some are already being subdivided and sold to the highest bidder. Reports on bridges crumbling or even collapsing are commonplace. images-2The air in city after city hangs brown and heavy (and rates of childhood asthma and other lung diseases have shot up), because funding that would allow the enforcement of clean air standards by the Environmental Protection Agency is a distant memory. Public education has been cut to the bone, making good schools a luxury and, according to the Department of Education, two of every five students won’t graduate from high school. Continue reading “Third World in Every First World”

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Chinese tourists lead the world

The United States is ranked as the world’s biggest economy and the world’s largest military spender. But Chinese people lead the world in global tourist spending. Asia times reports that:images-2

“China, which has outranked Japan as the world’s second-largest economy and moved ahead of Russia as the world’s second-largest military spender, has hit the top spot in global tourism.

“Chinese tourists spent US$102 billion during their travels in 2012, more than any other nationality, making the Asian nation the world’s number one tourism source market, according to a report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

“Asked if China will be able to hold on to the number one ranking inyears ahead, Lakshman Ratnapala, chair of Enelar International, San Francisco, and emeritus president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), told IPS, ”Yes, the primary reason being the continuing growth of the Chinese middle class.”  Continue reading “Chinese tourists lead the world”

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The New “mean world syndrome”

Decades ago media theorist George Gerbner coined the term “mean world syndrome” about a mindset of disproportionate fear among individuals.

Now the mean world syndrome is taking on international proportions. The communist enemy, with the “world’s fourth largest military,” has beentrundling missiles around and threatening the United States with nuclear obliteration, writes Tom Englehardt in today’s issue of Le Monde.  Guam, Hawaii, Washington: all, it claims, are targetable. The coverage in the media has been hair-raising. The U.S. is rushing an untested missile defense system to Guam, deploying missile-interceptor ships off the South Korean coast, sending “nuclear capable” B-2 Stealth bombers thousands of miles on mock bombing runs, pressuring China, and conducting large-scale war games with its South Korean ally.

Only one small problem: there is as yet little evidence that the enemy with a few nuclear weapons facing off (rhetorically at least) against an American arsenal of4,650 of them has the ability to miniaturize and mount even one on a missile, no less deliver it accurately, nor does it have a missile capable of reaching Hawaii or Washington, and I wouldn’t count on Guam either. Continue reading “The New “mean world syndrome””

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Global warming and world hunger

For a time, world hunger was decreasing – as mutual aid and agricultural advances were reducing global poverty in the aggregate. But things seems to be reversing because of environmental changes.

The world is unprepared for changes that will see parts of Africa turned into disaster areas, say food experts in a report published in The Guardian

“Millions of people could become destitute in Africa and Asia as staple foods more than double in price by 2050 as a result of extreme temperatures, floods and droughts that will transform the way the world farms.images

“As food experts gather at two major conferences to discuss how to feed the nine billion people expected to be alive in 2050, leading scientists have told the Observer that food insecurity risks turning parts of Africa into permanent disaster areas. Rising temperatures will also have a drastic effect on access to basic foodstuffs, with potentially dire consequences for the poor. Continue reading “Global warming and world hunger”

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Death penalty diminishing worldwide

Iraq executed almost twice as many people last year compared to the year before, while India and Pakistan resumed executions after abandoning the practice for years, global human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesdayimages-1

In a story appearing in today’s Al Jazeera, “Amnesty said China still led the top five countries carrying out executions, followed by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Despite setbacks in several countries, the group said it was encouraged by overall signs of progress in the global trend toward ending the death penalty.

In the US, nine states carried out executions in 2012, compared to 13 in the previous year. Continue reading “Death penalty diminishing worldwide”

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Eat less meat, the scientists now say

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People in the richworld should become “demitarians” – eating half as much meat as usual, while stopping short of giving it up – in order to avoid severe environmental damage, scientists have urged, in the clearest picture yet of how farming practices are destroying the natural world, say today’s The Guardian

“They said the horsemeat scandal had uncovered the dark side of our lust for meat, which has fuelled a trade in undocumented livestock and mislabelled cheap ready meals. ‘There is a food chain risk,’ said Professor Mark Sutton, who coined the term demitarian and is lead author of a UN Environment Programme study published on Monday . ‘Now is a good time to talk to people about this.’

“The quest for ever cheaper meat in the past few decades – most people even in rich countries ate significantly less meat one and two generations ago – has resulted in a massive expansion of intensively farmed livestock. Continue reading “Eat less meat, the scientists now say”

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CIA gets kidnapping help from around the globe

Alternative news sources from around the world are reporting today about findings from the Open Society Justice, documenting how 54 countries have been helped the American CIAin it’s kidnapping program, known as “rendition,” in which terrorism suspects were held in secret prisons overseas or turned

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over to foreign governments for interrogation.

Governments in Europe, Asia and Africa have been secretly involved in global kidnap, detention and torture of at least 136 people on behalf of the United States after September 11, 2001 attacks, reports Al Jazeera.

“’By engaging in torture and other abuses associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition, the US government violated domestic and international law, Continue reading “CIA gets kidnapping help from around the globe”

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Danger in the shower

“The other morning, I escaped unscathed from a dangerous situation. No, an armed robber didn’t break into my house, nor did I find myself face to face with a mountain lion during my bird walk. What I survived was my daily shower.”  Thus writes Jared Diamond, whose recent book The World Till Yesterday was recently released. Diamond makes some good points, a few of which are excerpted below:

“You see, falls are a common cause of death in older people like me. (I’m 75.) Among my wife’s and my circle of close friends over the age of 70, one became crippled for life, one broke a shoulder and one broke a leg

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in falls on the sidewalk. One fell down the stairs, and another may not survive a recent fall.

“’Really!’ you may object. ‘What’s my risk of falling in the shower? One in a thousand?’ My answer: Perhaps, but that’s not nearly good enough. Continue reading “Danger in the shower”

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Billions for the world’s schools?

Globally speaking, not much money goes to schools. Which is too bad since so many other issues can be traced back to education. How about a billionaire like Bill Gates taking up global education?

“This week, business leaders are gathering in Davos to debate global priorities at the World Economic Forum” reports Al Jazeera.  The forum declares itself to be “committed to improving the state of the world”. So why isn’t education higher up on the agenda?imgres-2

“On the face of it, there should be little need to make the business case for education. It is intrinsically tied to all positive development outcomes. Economic growth, health, nutrition and democracy are all boosted by quality schooling. If all children in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, poverty would fall by 12 percent – and that’s good for business. The private sector benefits directly from an educated, skilled workforce. Continue reading “Billions for the world’s schools?”

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The wide world of “wellness”

imgres-1Like a lot of things, people define “health” differently around the world.

A recent global study of ‘wellness” attitudes revealed that

– One quarter of young men and 17 percent of young women think that Facebook contributes to a sedentary lifestyle.

– Globally, cancer is thought to be the top disease people think will kill them, though heart attacks are also of utmost concern to people in the U.K. and Alzheimer’s disease is of utmost concern to people in Japan.

– Americans want to live the longest, saying in the survey that they hope to live to 92. Meanwhile, people in Turkey hope to live to 59, and people in China hope to live to 84.

– Mental health would be chosen over physical health if it came down to it for people in the U.K., U.S., Brazil and Turkey. Continue reading “The wide world of “wellness””

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Half of world’s food is wasted

A recent report from the British Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IME) says that as much as half of all the food produced in the world – equivalent to 2-billion tons – ends up as waste every year. As reported today in The Guardian:

“The UK’s IME blames the “staggering” new figures in its analysis on unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free and Western consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food, along with “poor engineering and agricultural practices”, inadequate infrastructure and poor storage facilities.

“In the face of United Nations predictions that there could be about an extra 3 billion people to feed by

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Continue reading “Half of world’s food is wasted”

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Global wealth in the new millennium

imgres-1In his now well-known book The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria popularized understandings of shifts in the global landscape, especially in economic terms. The book explained that while the U.S. was retaining it’s military superiority, the country was draining itself financially – as other nations were quietly prospering. Today’s edition of Le Monde carries an article by Serge Halimi giving further details:

“Today’s emerging powers are not worthy successors to their anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist ancestors. The countries of the South control a growing share of wealth, which is only proper, but its distribution is so inequitable that income differences are even greater in South Africa and China than in the US. The money Continue reading “Global wealth in the new millennium”

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Where’s the transgenic beef?

No, we are not talking your regular “tofurky” or “not-dogs” of veggie days gone by. Today’s Guardian carries a story about the very serious work being done to synthesize protein into meatish food. It all sounds a bit dreadful, but as they say…..

“With billions of mouths to feed, we can’t go on producing food in the traditional way. Scientists are coming up with novel ways to cater for future generations. In-vitro burger, anyone?

“The future feast is laid out around a cool white room at Eindhoven’s University of Technology . There is a steak tartare of in-vitro beef fibre, wittily knitted into the word “meat”.imgres-3 Continue reading “Where’s the transgenic beef?”

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SuperBetter

The intersection of positive psychology and game design was described by Jane McGonigal in her popular book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. See  SuperBetter to see what this means.

“SuperBetter is a tool created by game designers and backed by science to help build personal resilience: the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of difficulty challenges.images-2 Resilience has a powerful effect on health — by boosting physical and emotional well-being. Resilience also helps you achieve your life goals — by strengthening your social support and increasing your stamina, willpower and focus. Every aspect of the game is designed to harness the power of positive emotions and social connection for live, feel, and act better. Continue reading “SuperBetter”

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The world as game

“Congratulations. Reading the first paragraph of this article has earned you a badge.” In a curious piece in today’s New York Times, Nick Winfield discusses a concept already well known in gaming circles: that the tasking and reward systems of video games have broader social implications. As the article continues:

images-1“If this made-up award makes you feel good about yourself, then you are on your way to understanding gamification, a business trend — some would say fad — that aims to infuse otherwise mundane activities with the excitement and instant feedback of video games.

“Many businesses are using these game tricks to try to get people hooked on their products and services — and it is working, thanks to smartphones and the Internet.

“Buying a cup of coffee? Foursquare, the social networking app that helped popularize the gamification idea, gives people virtual badges for checking in at a local cafe or restaurant. Continue reading “The world as game”