Vital Concerns for the World

Monday, May 02, 2011

Developments worth following recently

China struggling with inflation
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/business/global/18yuan.html?_r=1&hp

Illicit Church in China tries to buck Beijing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/asia/18beijing.html?ref=global-home

Syrian Protests continue despite killings by police
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/world/middleeast/19syria.html?ref=middleeast

In Yemen protests contiue
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/middleeast/18yemen.html?ref=middleeast

women irate in Yemen
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/world/middleeast/17yemen.html?ref=middleeast

Pakistan and US struggle over drones
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/asia/18pakistan.html?ref=asia

Fariba Nawa's defense of wearing the Hijab
http://www.faribanawa.com/2003/05/15/my-veil-my-decision/

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A major source of the American debt problem

Notable Concerns

"Not one has taken responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history." Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rica, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. AlJazeera 10/15/11
GE, America's largest corporation, paid no taxes last year even though it made 5.1 billion dollars profit in the country [and even more outside the country] [source: same as below]
In 2009 the richest 5% held 63.5% of American wealth; the bottom 80% controlled 12.8%. [source: same as below]
Between 2000 and 2007 the richest 10% in America benefited from all of the average growth in the period. In the post WW II period the top 10% benefited from only one third of the growth, the bottom 90% benefiting from the rest of the growth. [Economic Policy Institute, cited by Bob Herbert, NYT 3/26/11]
In 2010 a "premier" investment bank paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000. [Bill Gross Pimco Investment Outlook Feb, 2011.]
In 2005, one-quarter of the corporations in America making a trillion dolars in revenue paid no taxes.
The 833% Medical Insurance Ripoff: Medicare charges 3% for service; the health insurance companies in Missouri charge 25% for services
The richest 1 percent of Americans have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
The richest 1 percent of Americans receive more income than the bottom 50%. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/10/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-viral-speech-says-top-1$ >