rss feedIn Seattle last week, UN Secretary General left a trail of numbers, plus news
On Election Day 2009 in the United States, which was Tuesday, I thought I’d review last week’s speech from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
He spoke at the University of Washington – where he received an honorary doctorate - and before other organizations during his visit to Seattle.
The UW posted a video of his talk as well as a summary and a copy of his speech.
The Seattle Times covered his visit, interviewed him, looked at how successful he is and examined his interest in global climate change.
What I found interesting about his speech were the good, old-fashioned numbers in it.
I’ll throw out one before I refer to his information: The world’s population stands at 6.8 billion people.
- 1 billion: Hungry people in the world
- 100 million: People the U.N. feeds daily
- 100 million: People who could fall below poverty line in 2009
- 30 million: Refugees, most women and children
- 115,000: Peacekeeping troops the U.N. is deploying
- 500: Multinational treaties the U.N. has helped establish
- 170: Peace agreements brokered by the U.N.
- 80: Countries that have received U.N. help to become independent
- 50: Countries that have received electoral assistance in the last year
From his speech:
Today, people look to the United Nations across a broad agenda of aspiration and need. They look to us to defeat poverty and hunger. They look to us to keep the peace, to expand education and to stand up for human rights in every corner of the globe. They look to us to stop the spread of deadly weapons and disease, and to protect people and families hit by disasters.
Before it slips by, other news:
- Warren Buffett is spending billions of dollars to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the railroad. Note the Walter Bagehot quote, which is at the bottom.
- General Motors turns to its China design team for the new Buick LaCrosse.
- In about five years or so, Shanghai will get a Disneyland, worth about $3.5 billion.
From The New York Times story about Disneyland:
About 300 million potential customers live within two hours of the site, located between the city’s airport and downtown.
The U.S. population this year is about 308 million people.
From The New York Times story about Buick:
For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.
In the context of the General Motors design studio in China, here’s one question I asked last month:
Is it possible for the Chinese economy to simultaneously make strides in lower- and higher-end sectors, such as manufacturing and sophisticated research, given the way Chinese leaders are embracing the free market?
