enthalpy

Sunday, June 27, 2010


Interesting story of the sixty failed nations of the world. I'm not sure what the distinction of "failed state" and "abject poverty" is, but the pictures are devastating. Think about the majority of the world starving to death and eating their own shit the next time your Tivo doesn't record Seinfeld.
This year's index draws on 90,000 publicly available sources to analyze 177 countries and rate them on 12 metrics of state decay -- from refugee flows to economic implosion, human rights violations to security threats. Taken together, a country's performance on this battery of indicators tells us how stable -- or unstable -- it is. And unfortunately for many of the 60 most troubled, the news from 2009 is grave.
And I do think there's something to the point Radley [where I saw the link] that there's an interesting link between climate and cultural development. Northern Europeans have long cited this difference to justify African racism. I don't it's earned, but there's certainly something to be said for locations where food is plentiful and those where it's not.



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