Week in Review

Hello,

We are glad to share a few headlines with you after another busy and eventful week. This week, highlights include: corruption, terrorism, volunteerism and a video interview with Nic Marks.

Corruption
Transparency International released the 2012 edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index on Wednesday. The index scores 176 countries with high levels of corruption, scored at 100 to low levels of corruption scored at 0. The index shows that two thirds of the countries ranked scored below 50, meaning they are significantly corrupt. 

See 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index

Terrorism
The Institute for Economics and Peace released the inaugural Global Terrorism Index this week that ranks 158 countries according to the impact of terrorism. The research shows that since the Iraq invasion, the number of terrorist incidents have increased by over 460%, however the number of deaths caused by terrorism has decreased. 

See Global Terrorism Index

Are terrorism and corruption related?

Rank*	Corruption Perceptions Index	Global Terrorism Index
1	Somalia	Iraq
2	North Korea	Pakistan
3	Afghanistan	Afghanistan
4	Sudan	India
5	Myanmar	Yemen

*  the country suffering the most from corruption or suffering the largest impact from terrorism

Volunteerism
On Wednesday, the world celebrated the International Day of the Volunteer. Wikis rely on volunteers to create and share information. According to Internet guru Clay Shirky, a wiki is a hybrid of tool and a community. On behalf of this Wiki family (Wikiprogress, Wikigender and Wikichild) we would like to thank every one who have taken time to write, edit, create and share information.

Number Crunch
If volunteers were a nation they would be the 10th largest country in the world. That's 140 million volunteers.

16% of people worldwide volunteer their time for an organisation

Nic Marks
Nic Marks is a key progress thinker and one of the champions of the well-being movement. In this interview he talks about the need for a system where the economy serves human well-being, not the other way around.



Yours in Progress,
Philippa Lysaght

Media review

Recent highlights from the Wikiprogress Community Portal

What a month it has been! It seems every time I open a newspaper, click on blog post or turn on the radio someone is talking about the importance of measuring wellbeing. To my delight, my top 3 favourite news sources: The Economist, The New York Times and The Guardian, have all been a part of the March Media Madness. Here are a few highlights I’d like to share with you.

On China

China announced earlier in the month that ‘happiness’ will be an element incorporated in their growth strategy. Many different news sources picked up on this and we have created a Special Media Review on China’s Move the Measure Happiness. A few of the highlights are listed below:

Don't worry, be happy (The Economist 17.03.2011)

On Japan

All eyes have been on Japan since the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit on the 11^th of March. The economic implications of this have had a fair but of negative media time, but here are a few articles that highlight the importance of measuring and appreciating non-economic indicators of human wellbeing.

Why no looting in Japan? (Aidwatch 15.03.2011)

The Impact of Disaster (NewsWeek 20.03.2011)

On Happiness

There have been loads of news items on the UK’s bid to measure happiness since Cameron’s announcement back in November last year. And a fair bit of coverage on happiness in general. Here are a few great articles on the importance’s of measuring happiness.

Stimulating Happiness (New York Times 14.03.2011)

10 steps to happiness (The Guardian 12.03.2011)

And last, but not least, our dear friend Hans Rosling gives a TED talk on the Magic Washing Machine. To see more news items, see the Wikiprogress Community Portal – updated daily with news and blog items from around the world.

Philippa Lysaght

News Review – how happy is Britain?

The Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom has released a survey asking 200 000 people to rate their life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10. It is the UK’s largest household survey and responses will be used as part of the ONS programme to measure national wellbeing. Questions include:

• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?

• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

Wikiprogress has been gathering news items on the UK move to measure happiness since David Cameron’s announcement back in mid-November last year. See the special media review for all related news and blogs.

A few of my favorite articles from the media review that I want to share with you:

Happiness = Work, sleep and bicycles (BBC 25.02.2011)

Statisticians to tackle ticklish issue of happiness (The Financial Times 24.02.2011)

How are you feeling today? Let the Government know in £2m 'well-being' survey (The Mail Online 25.02.2011)

And to finish… a few fast facts on the UK that you won’t find in the media review:

The UK climbed from ranking 108th on the Happy Planet Index (HPI) in 2006 to 74th on the 2009 HPI. The UK ranks 6^th in the world for GDP (IMF 2010), 31^st on the 2010 Global Peace Index and 26^th on the 2010 Human Development Index. The UK has a total population of 61,838,154 (World Bank 2009) and a life expectancy at birth of 80 years (World Bank 2008).

(In case you missed it, Laura Stoll from the Centre of Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation blogged for us on last week on Measuring our progress: The power of well-being. The nef report)

Philippa Lysaght