TR EMERITUS

Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens. Britain is only halfway up the Happy Planet Index (HPI), calculated by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in 74th place of 143 nations surveyed. The United States features in the 114th slot in the table. The top 10 is dominated by countries from Latin America, while African countries bulk out the bottom of the table. The HPI measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. First calculated in 2006, the second edition adds data on almost all the world's countries and now covers 99% of the world's population. NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today. "The HPI suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and 'one-planet living'," says Saamah Abdallah, NEF researcher and the report's lead author. "Instead we need a new development model that delivers good lives that don't cost the Earth for all." Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world, they live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint that is less than a quarter the size. The country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of what NEF calls "one-planet living": consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources. The report says the differences between nations show that it is possible to live long, happy lives with much smaller ecological footprints than the highest-consuming nations. The new HPI also provides the first ever analysis of trends over time for what are supposedly the world's most developed nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). OECD nations' HPI scores plummeted between 1960 and the late 1970s. Although there have been some gains since then, HPI scores were still higher in 1961 than in 2005. Life satisfaction and life expectancy combined have increased 15% over the 45-year period for those living in the rich nations, but it has come at the cost of a 72% rise in their ecological footprint. And the three largest countries in the world – China, India and the US, which are aggressively pursuing growth-based development models – have all seen their HPI scores drop in that time. The highest placed western nation is the Netherlands. People there live on average over a year longer than people in the US, and have similar levels of life satisfaction – yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size. The Netherlands is therefore over twice as environmentally efficient at achieving good lives as the US, Nef says. The report sets out a "Happy Planet Charter" calling for an unprecedented collective global effort to develop a "new narrative" of human progress, encourage good lives that don't cost the earth, and to reduce consumption in the highest-consuming nations – which it says is the biggest barrier to sustainable wellbeing. Source: Guardian   EDITORS' NOTE: While Guardian uses the latest findings, the Singapore media decides for some strange reasons to use data from 3 years ago in 2006 to frame their report on Singaporeans being a "happy lot".  Read More →

Model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno can still appeal against the Pahang Syariah Court decision to cane her for consuming alcohol, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He said she should not merely resign herself to the fact that such a sentence had been meted out on her and that there was still an avenue for her to appeal against the court decision. He said the authorities were always willing to consider such an appeal. “I feel that she (Kartika) should not be too quick in (redha) accepting the fact that she has been punished. Actually there is still avenue for her to appeal her case. “The authority concerned is always sensitive and considerate,” he told reporters after chairing the National Finance Council on Tuesday. On July 20, the Pahang Syariah High Court had fined Kartika RM5,000 and ordered her to be given six strokes of the rotan after she pleaded guilty to drinking beer at a hotel lounge in Cherating last year. The 32-year-old part time model was scheduled to be caned on Monday but religious authorities, who fetched her from her parents house in Sungai Siput in Perak to go to Kajang prison for the sentence to be executed, literally made a U-turn and released her, citing that it was not advisable to mete out the sentence now as it was fasting month. The Pahang Religious Affairs committee chairman Datuk Mohd Sahfri Abdul Aziz had said that the sentence on Kartika remained and that she would be caned after the fasting month. However, Kartika had always declined to be caned insisting that she was willing to be whipped as she knew the law prohibited Muslims from consuming alcohol. As such she was determined take the punishment. Her case made international headlines and into most blog charts. Later, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the ministry needed to look into the proper methods to carry out the caning sentence on Kartika. He said he had instructed the ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam to discuss the methods to be used by the prison authorities with the Islamic Religious Development Department of Malaysia , the Syariah courts and other experts in the field. He said that it did not have the expertise to carry out the sentence. "No way will I allow the sentence to be carried out if we do not have the expertise, skills and knowledge to carry out the sentence according to Syariah law. These need to discussed with the relevant authorities," he told reporters at the Ministry here. He sdded that this was not a normal sentence involving caning as the sentence on Kartika was related to Syariah provisions. "At the moment, as far as I'm concerned, we are not ready because our officers have not had to face this kind of situation," Hishammuddin said. Source: The Star  Read More →

North Korea has invited the U.S. envoy overseeing relations with the reclusive state to visit for nuclear talks next month, South Korean media said on Tuesday, the latest in a recent series of conciliatory gestures. In another sign it is ready to take the chill out of relations, the North agreed to talks on Wednesday between Red Cross societies from either side of their heavily armed border to resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang stopped the reunions almost two years ago in anger at the hardline policies of the South's conservative government. Analysts say the North may be softening its tone with U.S. and South Korean adversaries in an attempt to ease pressure on its coffers, depleted by U.N. sanctions for its nuclear test in May and facing the threat of a poor harvest. U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth would lead a delegation first traveling to South Korea, China and Japan to discuss stalled six-way disarmament-for-aid talks with the North before heading to Pyongyang, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing a senior diplomatic source in Washington. It would mark the first official nuclear talks between North Korea and the Obama administration. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a diplomatic source in Washington as saying the North extended the invitation when former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang this month to win the release of two jailed U.S. journalists. U.S. embassy officials in Seoul, where Bosworth was this week, would not comment on the reports. U.S. officials have said separately they are willing to hold direct talks with North Korea but only as part of six-country disarmament negotiations involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The six-party talks, hosted by the North's biggest benefactor China, broke down at the end of last year with Pyongyang saying it sees the format as dead. REACHING OUT TO SEOUL Philip Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for the U.N. sanctions on North Korea, has been in Asia in the past week to seek support for the punishments aimed at stamping out the North's arms trade, which analysts say provides it with hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The North's vital agriculture sector has also taken a blow this year by flooding that hurt farmland and could bring more harm to its wobbly economy. The latest gestures by the impoverished state have made little impact on South Korea's financial markets, long used to sharp changes in the North's diplomacy and which continue to weigh as a background risk for Asia's fourth largest economy. North Korea has all but severed ties with the South after President Lee Myung-bak took office in February 2008 and ended the steady flow of unconditional aid. Lee last week had his first chance to directly tell North Korean officials of his policy when he met a delegation that had flown to Seoul to mourn the death of former President Kim Dae-jung, who was buried on Sunday. Under his proposals, the South would pour investment into the North to rebuild its decayed infrastructure and lift the population out of abject poverty in return for Pyongyang giving up efforts to build a nuclear arsenal. But few believe the North is ready to give up dreams of having its own atomic weapons and experts said the moves by Pyongyang represent a switch in tactics rather than any change of heart, warning Washington not to relent on sanctions yet. Source: Reuters  Read More →