poetry, politics, pirates, and the wealth of the world, in a wiki list

friday. still trying to catch up with all the news of this week.

poetry
so good about the Nobel Prize of Literature, honoring a poet, and pointing at the quality of poetry: to give a fresh access to reality. i started to browse Tranströmer links, then came across his collection, published by an indie press. which gave the impulse to piece a blog entry together for the blueprint blog: New Collected Poems - Tomas Tranströmer

then the post man arrived, delivering: A Foal Poem by Rose Hunter. i read it as pdf, but it feels different as complete book. Rose is still sending out PDFs if you are interested. opening the pages of poems also made me think of what poet Daniela Elza said about poetry: "I see freedom in poetry because we all own the materials it is made of, and it provides a spiritual self sufficiency which materialism does not like, since it wants you to be dependent on it. I think when we are emotionally in tact we need less stuff." (link)

value systems and literature
later, i picked up the new "Zeit". their feature theme this week, in celebration of Frankfurt Book Fair (which will happen next week): books. they even have an extra book magazine included in this week's paper, which features new German books, and on the guestland of the book fair: Iceland. "Wenn die Aktienkurse in den Keller rutschen, steigt der Wert der Literatur," they titled their main article. "When the stock markets fall, the worth of literature rises."

it sounds like an author's dream at first, but if put slightly different, it connects to a conversation i had with a friend about money as value system: that the human mind tends to falls for money, maybe also because it seems like a system that is simple to understand, and allows easy comparisons: what is more expensive, what is cheaper? who are the richest persons? who has the most expensive villa, car, wedding, divorce, etc? there are hundreds of money lists out there, and the group of the "rich and beautiful" (as if there was a logic connection) are one of the main role models of our society. but in times like this, with the Euro suddenly being unstable, and whole countries on the verge of national bankruptcy - a time of stock markets falling daily, and millions and millions of $$ lost there daily, gone (gone where? all this ghost money). - so back to value: in those times, money isn't so easy to understand. and it feels, there should be other, deeper values to life. and if literature seen as a contemplation on life - then the quote actually makes a lot of sense.

politics & pirates
which now also connects to the book i am reading: "Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce" by Peter Clothier, who blogged about the Wall Street happenings in his blog this week: Democracy not Corporatocracy - here's a quote from it, from the "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City":

"As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power."

the Wall Street protests are main news here in Germany, too (right next to the Euro-drama). altogether, the year seems to bring a time of citizens standing up for a better world, in so many places. here in Germany, a wave of protests started in 2010, induced by a mega-railway-project. first everyone ignored the protesters. now the political scene is shifting - the "Green Party" reached the majority of votes in a regional election, which lead to afirst Green regional governor. and there is a new politial party: The "Piratenpartei" - the Pirate Party, with unexpected first success (here's a Guardian article: Pirate party snatches seats in Berlin state election - Irreverent campaign that initially focused on filesharing, data protection and censorship draws 8.5% of vote, exit polls indicate)

as an effect of that, currently all political parties discover their green and citizen-interested side. some of the conservative hardliners now get replaced by more moderate and sympathic candidates. it's a huge shift in the political landscape, a process that no one expected to happen.

percentages
the question is, though, if any political party currently is able to solve the massive problems that keep tumbling through the news-tickers in fast forward: the Euro-crisis, the possible state bankruptcy of Greece, the famine in Africa (which now dropped to the end of the news stream), the growing gaps in society - "Which party is best equipped to solve the political problems?" a recent national study asked. "Keine Partei kann das", 40% answered. "None of the political parties."

who, then? (they didn't ask that. i wished they had, though)

and following the theme of percentages: it's scary to see the statistic of the distribution of wealth in the US, with 1% of the citizens holding 40% of the nation's wealth, and induced through it, also a strong influence on political processes and decisions (wiki "We are 99%", "5 Facts", "Who are the 99%" - Washington Post).

reading through the articles and looking at the numbers adds a question mark to the American way of life. where is it leading to? and also, how well does it work as role model for other states - and how is the actuall concentration of wealth affecting other societies through global corporate companies?

the wealth of the world, in a wiki list
taking these percentages a step further is a global List of countries by distribution of  wealth.
this list looks overwhelming, but allows sorting by user:

• click "share of world population". you get the same list, now starting with the world's largest populations: China and India, then a gap, then the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia.
• click "share of world wealth" to arrive at a list that show the richest countries (by summed-up wealth): USA, Japan, China, UK, Germany, Italy, India...
• now, click "wealth per adult" - which logically is the quotient of wealth/population: which puts Hong Kong and Luxembourg on top, followed by the USA, Switzerland, UK and Netherlands.
• the last column, "Wealth Gini", shows if the wealth is equally or unequally distributed. the higher, the more unequal: starting with Namibia, Zimbabwe, Denmark.. and then: the World as a whole, then Switzerland and the USA 
• on the other end of the Gini-list, the countries with a more equal distribution of wealth are: Japan, China, Spain, Korea, Macao, Ireland, Italy, Yemen, Finland, Australia...