What Caught My Eye Today

Hurricanes - Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks set out across the flood-stricken Texas coast in a monumental effort to reach tens of thousands of people who stubbornly ignored warnings of "certain death" and tried to ride out Hurricane Ike. I don't want to make light of an obviously dire situation, but if these folks faced "certain death", then who exactly is there to be rescued? The storm roared ashore hours before daybreak with 110 mph winds and towering waves, smashing houses, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, and cutting off power to more than 3 million people, perhaps for weeks. Because Ike was so huge — some 500 miles across, making it nearly as big as Texas itself — hurricane winds pounded the coast for hours before and after the storm's center came ashore, though by evening, it appeared that Ike was not the single calamitous stroke that forecasters had feared. Oh, I'm pretty sure the folks that live in Texas might disagree with that assessment. How would you feel if you were without power for a month? I think what the report suggests is that there isn't enough mayhem and destruction to make it onto the six o'clock news.

Canada - Again, my intention isn't to trivialize the devastation caused by natural disasters, like Hurricane Ike, but this next story is rather amusing, if not cautionary. Canadian agencies can't adequately prepare for natural disasters because they cannot understand one another's bureaucratic jargon, according to a recently released government report. At first I was thinking that this was an English-French issue, you know, what with Canada being bi-lingual and all. Turns out they really did mean bureaucratic jargon. The report titled "Emergency Preparedness in Canada: How the Fine Arts of Procrastination and Bafflegab Hobble the People Who Will Be Trying to Save You When Things Get Really Bad," (like I could come even close to making up a title like that), said that little had been learned from past disasters. And check this out. Apparently, 'bafflegab' is a real word, at least in the Canadian lexicon. According to a Canadian senator who co-author the report, "Bafflegab is a peculiar kind of language that is unique to public servants who are trying very hard to justify their existence." Well, see now, you learn something new everyday. Here I was thinking dude had ripped of a word from one of those Harry Potter books.

India - How much do you know about the nation about to overtake China as the most populous in the world? Clearly, I don't think you know enough, otherwise why would I bother with this next item? Here are some interesting statistics about the global reach of India.

• Wealth - Ten of the 100 richest people in the world are Indian or of Indian origin.
  I'm guessing the other 90 are in the oil business.
• Government - The leaders of Singapore, Mauritius and Guyana are all of Indian descent. Curiously, the dude running Indian is rumored to have been born in Queens, NY
• Money - Several billions of dollars were sent home by Indians living abroad in 2007. The leading regions were North American ($10.8 billion), Persian Gulf ($5.9 billion), Europe ($3.2 billion), East Asia ($2 billion), South American ($1.5 billion) and Africa ($500 million).
  Big deal. America thinks nothing of sending $10 billion a month to Iraq.
• Population - Several countries have more than 1 million Indians living within their borders including Malaysia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
  That might have something to do with this last item.
• Media - In 2007, overseas audiences spent $200 million on Indian movies, music and television. The major foreign markets were the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
  Okay, this one is a bit deceiving. I totally misread the category description on those DVDs I just bought--those new "Hollywood Releases" turned out to be new "Bollywood Releases". They should make that distinction a little more obvious.

Potpourri - Here's another installment of interesting factoids related to current events.

• Healthcare - The annual health spending per person from all sources is nearly identical for the richest and poorest Americans: Poorest fifth, $4,477; Second poorest, $4,426; Middle fifth, $4,388; Second richest, $4,941; Richest fifth, $4,451.
  Is it just me or is there something seriously whack about this?
• Word of the Day - The word most often uttered by speakers during the Democratic convention was "change"--used an average of 89 times a day, followed by "McCain" (78) and "energy" (49).
  Just out of curiosity, did the term "win" (as in Democratic win in November) even appear on the list?
• Chores - The average 6 to 12 year old spends just 24 minutes a day doing household chores such as cleaning, loading the dishwasher and laundry--a 25% drop from 1981.
  To be fair, kids today are a lot busier. Learning how to text and keeping that Facebook profile up-to-date is rather time-consuming. Besides, what good are parents if not for taking care of all that manual labor stuff?