Everybody wants to be wealthy, which is usually measured in terms of GDP (GDP: the sum of all domestically produced goods and services). While this is important to our life, it is clearly not enough. Also, the value of existing goods and of nature is not taken into account, even they very important for the…
Income Inequalities – Germany Repeating the US Disaster
In Germany market economy is social, unions strong and income disparities refreshingly small. While not completely wrong, this is not quiet true anymore. New figures suggest that in the last decade despite rapid economic growth and exploding wages for already high-income earners, the lowest income class has suffered a significant net loss in purchasing power….
US – Teachers Cheats to Reach Standards
Cheating in schools doesn’t seem to be noteworthy enough to be mentioned here. In this particular case however it absolutely merits your attention. In order to answer the yearly progress requirements of the “No Child is Left Behind Act”, which is linked to financial support and in the last consequence to a school’s existence and…
US-Census – More Colorful America, Living in the South And the West
Japan’s population is aging and shrinking quickly, Europe – with the notable exception of France – is heading the same way and is only slightly growing because of immigration. Now the newest figures from the US-census are available. During the last decade, total population grew by 10% to 309 million people. 92% of growth came from…
Wealth Distribution – Citizens Misjudge Reality
Asking Americans about the real and the desired distribution of wealth (how much of total wealth are/should be owned by the richest 20% of citizens) reveals some interesting perceptions. On average it was estimated that the richest fifth of the population owns 59% of total wealth. Yet, in the same study, participants indicate that ideally,…
England – Over-Protected Kids as Major Societal Risk
England is obsessed with security. Especially children are affected by regulatory and parental care aiming at eliminating every possible risk in their children’s life. Therefore, some 20 millions English working with children has to pass police security checks – numerous authors who declined are now banned from reading their books to school classes. In one…
Religion – Unknowing Believers
Who knows the most on religious matters? The most obvious answer is wrong. According to a recent US study, not particularly religious people but agnostics and atheists are the most religions-savvy. For the president of America’s atheists this outcome can be explained by the fact that agnostics and atheists generally engage intensively with religion. Further…
Obesity – Mexikans Are Catching up
The worldwide highest rate of overweight people? Almost everyone would unerringly hint at the US and would be right – for now. Its southern neighbors are catching up quickly; 7/10 Mexicans are overweight, 3/10 are obese! As a consequence, diabetes is the second-most frequent reason for hospital admission and for death. Now, the government tries…
Fastfood – A Pill to Every Burger
Fast-food is – despite all publicity – unhealthy but – despite all warning – very popular. Now an English Cardiologist suggests giving a Statin-pill to every sold fast-food-menu in order to compensate its unhealthy effects right on the spot. A much criticized measure however, since Statins can have unpleasant side-effects and people probably would eat…
Saudi-Arabia – The Society is Moving After all
Imam Al-Kalbani has revolutionary ideas: He considers Music not to be prohibited by Islam. By publicly announcing this sacrilegious opinion, he invariably triggered an outright rejection by the extreme Wahhabi scholars. They, intending of making an example, advised the believers to omit Al-Kalbani Friday prayers. However, the silent, but apparently quite music-friendly, masses didn’t exactly…
Languages – Living in the present, without tenses but happy
Linguists generally assume that human languages have a common basic grammar. Yet the US researcher and missionary David Everett tries to proof the contrary after having studied for years the isolated Brazilian indigenous tribe of the Piraha. Its language has no numbers (just many and few), no tenses, no colors, no sub-clauses and the like….
Normality – Soon Every Child Needs Deficit Treatment
Back in 2006, 46% of school children in Zürich (the most populous Swiss Canton) were in special pedagogic treatment – it is safe to assume that today more than half are suffering from some kind of deficit. The cited article appropriately argues that the once broad road of normal development variability has become a small…
Al-Jazira – At a Crossroad
Al-Jazira is known as one of the very few, if not the only truly independent and critical television channel for the Arab speaking word, otherwise lulled by state-owned propaganda press. Thanks to the complaisant Sheik of Qatar, the Doha-based group is enjoying an unusual freedom to cover sensitive subjects such as corruption, inefficient administrations and…
Iraq – Temporary Marriages as Easy Way to Get Toghether
The still war-torn Iraq is lacking many things, one of them being men for marriage-ready women and money for traditionally very expensive regular marriages. This is a real problem because Islam doesn’t particularly encourage extramarital relations. But since Islam is caring about complete life satisfaction of both men and women, it also offers a solution…
Switzerland – Tricky Languages in a Small Country
Switzerland is a special case, not only in politics – even if probably more in conservative-fantasy than in reality – but also language-wise. There is the French-speaking part, which considers dialects as backward and went to great lengths to eradicate them even more quickly than centralized France. Standard French united the French-speaking regions and motivated…
USA – Republican Internet Site Kidnaped By Websavvy Democrats
In order to learn about their followers and to establish a list with urgent issues, the conservative US Republican Party launched the heavily subsidized internet site www.americaspeakingout.com. Well done, one might think and indeed their democratic rivals took the opportunity to make themselves noticed in the conservative world. After a short while they published numerous…
Russia – Get Rich Without Working
According to this interview, new society with new values and ideals is growing in Russia. Actually it is rather one new ideal: money! The more, the better, ideally without working for it and typically without any consideration for social, moral or ecological losses. In the west, money is usually – with the obvious exception of…
USA – Lack of Translation Leads to Intellectual Isolation
In the English-speaking world and particularly in the USA only 2-3% of published and sold books are translations – in Latin America and Europe the figure is 35%. US-publishing houses deprive their readers of the vast worldwide diversity in literature and focus almost exclusively on homegrown authors. Like this, the US are isolating themselves from…
Spain – Translating Speeches Even Though Deputes Have Common Language
For some time now, Spain isn’t a centralistic country anymore. Several autonomy agreements have given considerable power to the regions and fundamentally changed the way of Spanish statehood. Now, the parliament is making another step and is planning to accept speeches in all recognized local languages (Basque, Catalan, Galiciano and Valenciano). This is the prize…
Obama – Many Republicans Believe in Conspiracy Theories
In the US gossips are running high and particularly republicans have sometimes difficulties to properly identify conspiracy theories as – pretty bad – political propaganda. Consequently 57% of republicans believe that Obama is a Muslim (for them most probably the incarnation of evil), 51% consider Obama to be willing to turn over US-sovereignty to a…
