The H-Factor
Five H-words that drove the narrative of news this week.
Monday, the world got Hotter.
If a 45C heatwave is causing South Sudan to close their schools, Kuwait City has seen birds free-falling from the sky at 52C. This Middle Eastern city has air-cons being placed on the streets to cool things down. What they don’t have on their streets is lava, like in Iceland’s evacuated town of Grindavik, where its defenses are literally melting away.
But not many hearts were melting away due to a historic “landslide” event in Russia. People have been taking to the streets around the world in protest against Putin, who came into power 25 years ago in 1999, and secured another 6 years to ensure his reign until 2030. Meanwhile, Washington is wondering if the early peaking of cherry blossoms for the second time in over a century is due to a warm March. What they have stopped wondering is how long Gaza will burn.
Tuesday, the Happiest of them all.
Evaluated on 6 factors: the nation's healthy life expectancy, economy (GDP per capita), levels of corruption, social support, generosity and freedom, we have the top 20 happiest countries. Leading the pack is Finland at #1, Israel at #5, Australia at #10, Canada at #15, and UK at #20.
Not happy according to this report which is published on the International Day of Happiness, is the United States dropping from #15 to #23. Apparently, this happiness check reveals that’s American youngsters are lonelier than ever. The TikTok ban is not going to help.
Also, do these reports really mean much? The Pakistanis are definitely not happier than the Indians. Pakistan (#108) is having an economic, political, and border crisis. India (#126) as the 5th largest economy is seeing an unprecedented growth. But then, how is the State of Palestine (#103) happier than Pakistan? You can read the full scorecard in this report but take it with a grain of salt.
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Wednesday, who’s Hungry?
Not the Aussies, what with their local supermarket, Adelaide’s Saints Foodland, being named the world’s best. Not the Americans, who can still put food on the table with our 3% inflation, getting ready for a soft-landing. Not even the Turks, who are troubled by high-prices and lack of savings due to a whopping 67% inflation. Much of the world may be hungry for inflation to end, but can keep their tummies from growling.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a global partnership of 15 organizations formed in 2004 to monitor and implement food security measures across the world. They classify food shortages in 5 stages: 1-Minimal, 2-Stressed, 3-Crisis, 4-Emergency, 5-Famine. Their interactive mapping tool helps us see hunger in its extreme state of suffering: starvation.
The gang wars in Haiti since 2020 is pushing Haitians quickly from crisis to emergency status. They will join Sudan facing the world’s worst hunger-crisis from the year-long conflict between the military and parliamentary forces, where a child dies every 2 hours according to a recent survey. But nothing compares to the famine, and only the people of Gaza know what that feels like, from just 6 months of devastation at the hands of Hamas and the 5th happiest country in the world.
Thursday, on the Health of babies.
The latest CDC data shows that the death rate among children is on the rise in the US. Of the babies born every year, over 5,000 are diagnosed with Down Syndrome. A new campaign by the National Down Syndrome Society reminds us why their life matters, are not to be looked down upon, or to be stereotyped, all with a simple message: “Assume that I can, So maybe I will.”
Meanwhile, Icelanders remain happy with their genocidal approach of aborting babies post-diagnosis to claim a near-eradication of Down Syndrome, which was first revealed by a CBS News report over 7 years ago.
Friday, and some Hope for Humanity.
Last week, the US House of Representatives announced a definitive bipartisan decision when they passed a legislation to ban TikTok in 6 months if ByteDance, the Chinese-owned company, does not divest its ownership.
This week, there were two more moves by governance bodies. First, at the UN General Assembly, 193 countries unanimously passed a first global resolution to safeguard human rights, protect personal data, and monitor AI for risks.
Second, the US Justice department filed another antitrust lawsuit in their effort to tame BigTech’s monopoly, This one was aimed directly at Apple’s App Store policies that prevent a fair fight in what is supposed to be an open market. The European Union and India are also challenging Apple’s dominance in separate yet related issues.
So, not a good week for TikTok, AI, or Apple but good moves for the happiness of humankind, for privacy matters.
Cover Photo by Nikhil Mitra on Unsplash
Oooh man, I'd be falling from the sky in that kind of heat too!