Just saw 'Avatar' Last night....

Media consumption is interesting to me... access to what and how, who benefits from hollywood's stable industry and how much, and what we humans are interested in in terms of entertainment (and the existential dilema of why we need to be entertained at all, of course)

Here's a statistics-rich Economist article about the release of the largest grossing film to date "New Moon" and the recent release of "Avatar."  Toward an understanding of human entertainment consumption patterns...

Who's making hunger worse?

“It’s the role of the state and not the level of wealth, that determines progress on hunger,” said Anne Jellema.

Findings from an ActionAid study say that Brazil, China, and India (in that order) score the highest in the study.  US scores 8 out of 100 for eradicating poverty within its borders. Pretty crappy compared to other developed countries.

Economist article commenting on the study and comparing growth rates of the world's three largest developing countries here.

Indian Federalism

The Economist talks about the different separatist movements here happening in India, most notable the Gorkhas living in West Bengal who have been "at" the Gorkhaland movement since the 70's (check facts)

With states created as recently as 2000, Indian government seems to pay attention to the needs of disenfranchised ethnic groups and listen to their struggles presuming that creating a separate states does indeed address the needs of these communities.

At what cost? What is the goal of Indian nationalism? How does this impact the region economically?

How does India's bent toward balkanization of the country show an example for Nepal who's government is trying to address the same issues?

Obama's international diplomacy

So, how's it going for our "young, charismatic" leader?

This article from the Economist talks well about the embarassment that insued because Mr. President bowed to the Japanese Emperor.

Here, another Economist article talks through "Amateur Hour at the White House," with quotes from folks presiding over the Council for Foreign Relations.  Interesting to me that the Economist quotes CFR - I wonder if readers know who/what they are...

In general, regarding Mr. President, I'm still left with the question -

Penchant for conciliation is excellent - being viewed as passive isn't so excellent. Where's the balance?