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What's the world made of?
Written by: Ruth Gidley
Imagine you're arguing late into the night with your best friend over what's more important - world peace or homeland security - well, now there's a new website to settle all your debates within seconds. Just type your rival categories into "What's the world made of?" and it will come back with the answer for you in a nice, easy-to-read pie chart. World peace wins with 88 percent. Homeland security trails with 12 percent. Which is more topical - Iraq or Darfur? Iraq - it gets 93.6 percent. Do capitalist pigs or tree-hugging lefties rule the world? Tree-huggers score only 1.7 percent. The website compares how many pages search engine Google finds for each one. Which means Darfur champion George Clooney gets just 30 percent, while refugee rights pin-up Angelina Jolie stars with 70 percent. Angelina gets better press for her international adoptions than Madonna, but the queen of pop wipes the floor with Angelina if you compare their general search hits, scoring a massive 91.1 percent. Is good more powerful than evil? YES! (84.8 percent). Truth or beauty? The world is very superficial, apparently - beauty is well ahead on 77.4 percent. War or peace? Sadly, war gets three-quarters of the pie. Fair trade coffee or conflict diamonds? Sixty-five percent for the guilt-free beverage. Fair trade bananas don't do so well, by the way. Just 51 percent, compared to 49 percent for the blood-stained jewels. It's completely pointless and very silly, and yet strangely compelling.
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Ruth Gidley has been on the AlertNet team since late 1999. Before that, she lived in Guatemala, working first with a small local NGO and then as a journalist for a Central American news service. Ruth, who has a Masters in Latin American Studies, has edited a book on human rights in Guatemala, and written chapters for books on truth monuments and on Native American traditions.
16 Feb 2007 13:57:07 GMT
Dear Ruth, I came across "What's the world made of?" in the Blogs page of my website. Keep it up, Ruth. Addresses good causes and difficult and forbidden subjects like equality, justice, Palestine and making poverty history is what makes our planet promising, green, rosy and shiny. I should be grateful if you would encourage us in visiting and commenting on our website Toufic Barakeh, Editor http://sayitonline.net