US No 1 in wealth, Not is prosperity and the pursuit of happiness!

What is the difference between wealth and prosperity.  More importantly the difference between happiness and the pursuit of happiness?

The US is known to have the country that promotes the pursuit of happiness and prosperity than any other country and this report that its populations do not fair well in happiness index is disappointing.  However, the fact that the US is a wealthy nation is comforting to the one percent wealthy people who tend to have the 90% of the nation's wealth.

Imagine being wealthy and yet about to be bankrupt due to non payment of taxes and high deficit.  One has to wonder how the Taxed Enough Already Party candidates are controlling the Congress and want to control the Senate and the White house too.

This is an interesting story and needs every body's attention

with due respect

Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH
www.GlobalBelaiJesus.com


US ranks No. 1 in wealth, not in happiness
By Allison Linn

Americans make more money and are slightly more satisfied with their lives, on average, than people in other countries, but here’s the catch: We live slightly shorter lives.

Those are among the findings of an updated study of well-being released Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which promotes economic and social satisfaction.

The OECD’s Better Life Index was launched in 2011 as a more nuanced way to gauge well-being in its 34 member countries, which include the United States. Besides the usual data points, such as income and education, the Better Life Index looks at things like work-life balance and life satisfaction.

In the updated version released Tuesday, the U.S. ranks well in several traditional and nontraditional areas, especially income, compared with the other 33 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Average earnings in the U.S. are higher than in many other member countries, although the OECD notes that the gap between rich and poor is relatively high. The U.S. rankes No. 1 in average household wealth, at $102,000. Only Switzerland comes close, with average household wealth of about $95,000.

The U.S. also gets high marks for housing. That ranking looks not just at the quality of housing – including  rooms per person and access to indoor plumbing – but also relative cost. On average, Americans spend about 20 percent of their disposable income on housing, a little bit less than the 22 percent average, the index finds.

The United States also ranks above average in life satisfaction, with 76 percent of people reporting having more positive than negative experiences in an average day. That compares to 72 percent overall in the 34 countries.
But plenty of countries report higher levels of life satisfaction, including Denmark, Norway and Switzerland.


It might not be a surprise that we do less well in terms of work-life balance. People in most countries report a better balance between career and personal lives than we achieve, with Denmark, Belgium and Spain leading the way. Mexico, Turkey and Japan rank lower than the U.S.

In addition, the OECD reports that the average life expectancy in the United States is just under 79 years, lower than the OECD average of 80 years.
Related:
U.S. taxpayers get off easy, compared to some others

Parking spaces in New York City can be hard to come by, as evidenced by the 12 by 23-foot spot in Greenwich Village currently on sale for a cool million.

Profit motives are the Incentives for Corruption? What about Good Governance?"

World Economic Forum in Addis Sheraton
9-11 May 2012


Re:  Win-Win Public Private Partnership for Agricultural Transformation Agency








I read with interest this commentary that was drafted following the recent World Economic Forum Meetings in Addis 9-11 May 2012.


Good governance is about transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to all stake holders.


Exorbitant profit margins demanded by foreign private investors  based on exorbitant risk speculations by wall street speculators who are planning to create food balloons like they did to technology bubbles, followed by real estate and now energy (petrol) balloons are going to hold the global population hostage.


African leaders are learning fast across the new Capitalist Crisis generated speculative corruption machines, but they do not seem to have the tools to manage it.  If Europe and USA cannot curb the Speculative Vulture Capitalists how  can African governments survive this challenge where their people are starving to death.


Any error they make is going to be a serious disaster.  Win-win Partnerships between the private and public sector in manufacturing, industrialization or the new buzz word is Agricultural Transformation, with an agency funded by the richest two people Bill, Melinda and the famous Buffet.


I trust this Transformation Agency might have a good chance for sustainable food security than all the other speculative transformations.


Time will tell how Bill Gates and Meles Zenawi will treat this Agricultural Transformation Agency


All the same, please read the VoA take of the World Economic Summit in Addis


with regards and seeking your alternative perspective,


I remain


Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH
www.GlobalBelaiJesus.com


















Meles Zenawi blames African corruption on foreign investors

By Peter Heinlein, VOA | May 11, 2012

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What is the poison that corrupts many African leaders, no matter how honorable their intentions when they take office?  That was the question put to a panel of that included heads of state and government at the World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday.  The question received a surprisingly candid answer.

It was promoted as a conversation on Africa's leadership.  Among those on stage were the leaders of Africa's two most populous nations - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The conversation was routine until the floor was opened to questions from youth leaders.  A young South African woman stood up to ask the question that many had pondered, but few dared to pose.

"Good day.  My name is Gobano Madnamaraso," she said. "When our leaders are young - most of our African leaders - they are visionaries.  They have wonderful visions for our continent.  They are admirable.  The speak good, they do good.  But something happens to them once they are seated in those chairs of power.  My question is:  We want to see our continent change, but we are afraid of this power that corrupts even some of the best, most admirable leaders on our continent, and what is this poison that happens in these chairs of power and how can we prevent it? "

But perhaps just as frank as the question was the reply.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi pointed to greedy foreign corporations as a main driver of corruption.

"What is the poison that leaders face when you go to national palaces, and transforms people with vision sometimes into ordinary thieves?  Let's start with the total amount of loot in Africa, and what our role as leaders in that loot[ing] is," said Meles. "The vast majority of the loot[ing] is done by properly organized companies through all sorts of accounting gimmicks."

Meles said African leaders are forced to be facilitators for foreign companies who demand favors in return for their investment that might means jobs for their people.

"It's a difficult thing to manage because our bargaining cards are very limited," he said. "We need these companies to create jobs, in order for them to come to Africa.  The image is very negative, so the risk is artificially spiked.  And if the risk is artificially spiked, the return has to be commensurate with the risk.  And so it's difficult to attract them without extraordinary returns."

The Ethiopian leader said that sometimes leaders give in to temptation.

"Sometimes we facilitate without being paid," he said. "At other times we say, 'Okay, if your family's farm is being looted, why not join in?'  I think that is the most insidious form of corruption.  It affects everybody, including those whose hands are not in the till."

Another question that was less confrontational, but no less pointed, came from young Sudanese woman who wanted an explanation for the lack of female representation among African leaders.

"Hello, I am Jihada Bonefice from the Khartoum hub in Sudan," she said. "It's quite wonderful to see all you gentlemen up there.  But my question is:  How do you envision the role of African women in shaping the future?  And is there any way you are trying very hard to maybe to get African women where they belong - right up there [on stage]?"

Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba answered, saying “Women are Africa's chance for success tomorrow.”  But panelists agreed that solutions to the continent's leadership gender imbalance will be difficult.

Increasing the ranks of female leaders will be among topics discussed at Friday's closing forum meetings, along with China's rising prominence in Africa.

Cassiopeia A, the supervoa remnant of a neutron star l(pulsar) ocated 10,000 light-years away!

By NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO

The universe is an amazing place of history of creation, life and death.  Even the dead stars leave behind remains of the supernova blast or the corpse or the neutron star who x-ray radiation (pulsar) we can photograph some 100,000 years later and call it Cassiopeia A.

Thanks to the briliant scientists at Hubble telescope who continue to amaze us with pictures of the elegant universe.

What happened in the past, our current understanding defines our future.  The reason why we learn the past, explore the present and charter a better future.

Belai Habte-Jesus,MD, MPH

www.GlobalBelaiJesus.com

Supernova remnant.  This false-color image from three of NASA's Great Observatories provides one example of a star that died in a fiery supernova blast. Called Cassiopeia A, this supernova remnant is located 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. 

The orb.  At the center of this orb, visible only as a tiny turquoise dot, is the leftover corpse of the now-dead star, called a neutron star. The multi-hued shell outside the neutron star is the rest of the original star's scattered remains. 

Neutron STAR.  NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found a dusty disk circling around a similar neutron star called 4U 0142+61. 

Pulsar.  This particular neutron star (not pictured here) spins and pulses with X-ray radiation, so it is called a pulsar.

 Its disk is made of material that was blown off the exploding star but never reached a high enough velocity to escape the star's gravity.

 A photograph of 4U 0142+61 would only show both the pulsar and disk as one small dot, without any outer shell of expelled material. 

A pulsar that exploded 100,000 years ago.  This is because the pulsar exploded about 100,000 years ago, and its shell has since cooled to the point where it is no longer visible. 

The death of the star that gave rise to Cassiopeia A was witnessed from Earth about 320 years ago, so its shell is still hot and glowing. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red; visible data from the Hubble Space Telescope are yellow; and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are green and blue.