World less peaceful than five years ago The world - especially the Greater Middle East - has become less peaceful than it was five years ago, according to the 2013 edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) released here Tuesday by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
Consistent with that trend, the index also found that global peacefulness declined over the past year, chiefly due to the intensifying civil war in Syria; the rising number of homicides, especially in Mexico, Central America, and several sub-Saharan African countries; and increased military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in many nations. This year's index also estimated that the impact of violence - as assessed in major part by the costs, such as budgets for defense and internal security - on the global economy in 2012 came to at least US$9.5 trillion, or 11% of the gross world product - nearly double the value of the world's total food production. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-120613.html Interestingly enough, I just saw the US is going to provide military support to the rebels in Syria. Wonder if they should deduct points if your country's leader has a Nobel Peace Prize. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:364562 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
