Opinion Read All About It,Keeping the PIIGS Healthy & Smile
There are many mighty people in the world,but amongst the mightiest has to be Rupert Murdoch. A man demonstrative of real power,as world leaders would wait in line to speak to him,Murdochs News Corp.
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Read All About It
There are many mighty people in the world,but amongst the mightiest has to be Rupert Murdoch. A man demonstrative of real power,as world leaders would wait in line to speak to him,Murdochs News Corp. (responsible for our very own STAR) has a global overreach outranked only by football and American foreign policy. But the explosion of the phone hacking scandal in the UK,as well as scandal looming in America regarding corruption and whether the families of 9/11 victims had their phones tapped,have taken their toll.
Not only has Britains highest circulating Sunday tabloid,News of the World at an estimated 2.7 million,been scrapped after 168 years,but Mr Murdoch also had a foam pie thrown at him as he testified in front of British parliamentarians. Although both of these occurrences are in themselves excellent news (given that the NotW is not worthy to soak up the excess oil from,well,my foam pies) they do not match the most satisfying fact: the pictures of Murdoch and associates being hounded relentlessly by the paparazzi he so shamelessly employed.
Perhaps surprisingly,much of Britain hasnt enjoyed the fall from grace as much as some (cough). Maybe it says something about the Brits,with their stereotyped stiff upper lips,that there is no English translation of the German word schadenfreude,which losesly translates as deriving pleasure from another persons misfortune. Indeed,the foam-pie thrower was more harangued than Mr Murdoch when foam-pie man tried to justify his actions in a Guardian column. Even though schadenfreude may not be very nice,lets make an exception this once.
Keeping the PIIGS healthy
Global markets have been jittery for over a year now,as attempts to rescue Greece and the PIIGS (Portugal,Ireland,Italy,Greece and Spain) were about as effective as Ian Harpers umpiring. Further,as contagion spread,culminating in jitters over Italys fiscal health (obviously nothing to do with Berlusconis preference for bunga-bunga parties over actually,well,governing) the situation became as up beat as an actual pig in a pork chop factory.
We Indians may well look over at the Eurozones problems with a little bit of schadenfreude too. Ha! You are PIIGS and were a BRIC! Were so much more useful than you! After all,BRICs are used for all sorts,like building houses,whereas PIIGS are just pretty stupid and dirty. If only it were that simple. Indeed,although the PIIGS have been pretty stupid at times,what happens in the Eurozone will have ramifications for the world. Therefore the recent agreement by Eurozone leaders to a new package for Greece,which finally sees reality and accepts default in resolving the issue,is tentatively positive. Even though it would ruin such a lovely acronym,lets hope the plan takes some of the letters out of PIIGS.
Smile
Bhutan,a mover and shaker on the global stage? Surely not? Yet it seems the Himalayan kingdom is exerting its international significance. Whilst the Arabs might have oil to make the world listen,Bhutan has its special weapon happiness! This week the UN general assembly adopted a resolution from Bhutan that had 66 co-sponsors,making happiness an indicator of development. Based on Bhutans GNH (gross national happiness),the idea certainly has something to it,even if utopian. It reminds one of Amartya Sens quote: One of the reasons that most people may perceive themselves as being worse off even though average GDP is increasing is because they are indeed worse off.
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