Salient

Pecking Order

By Salient | 9 Jul, 2007

Peacefulness ranking of New Zealand compared with 121 other countries: 2

Ranking of Australia the United States and Iraq (respectively): 25, 96, 121.

Percentage of Baghdad residents who have a family member or friend who has been wounded or killed since 2003: 77

Number of U.S. soldiers who have died in combat or non-combat situations while on duty since 2001: 9,185

Chance that New Zealand will win the Americas Cup according to Blanketman: 0

Percentage chance that Helen Clark texts Grant Dalton as if she were a teenager: 100

Average self-esteem of a U.S. teenager, as measured by sociologists on a scale of 0 to 10: 7.61

Average self-esteem of a Baghdad teenager: 7.91

Percentage of Kiwi mums who are being treated for post natal depression according to a recent study: 13

Projected rank of heart disease and severe depression among the leading causes of death and disability in 2020: 1, 2

Number of packets of chewing gum containing aspartame that a New Zealand woman has consumed during the last two years: 4

Hours after giving up the habit that her muscle cramps, anxiety attacks, depression and skin rashes, which appeared five months ago disappeared: 24

Litres of chewing gum scraped up each year by the maintenance crew at the Statue of Liberty: 148

Number of complaints local British councils received in 2003 about gum on pavements, on shoes, or in hair: 500,000

Percentage of Kiwis who think the government should intervene in the property market: 30

Percentage of Kiwis who think the government shouldn’t intervene in the property market: 33

Ratio of the budget of the film Volcano to the property damage caused by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helen’s: 1:1

Height of a recently discovered underwater volcano close to New Zealand, off Raoul Island in kilometers: 1000

Weight in kilograms of the hay bail which fell on a New Zealand farmer and resulted in his death last month: 150

Number of millennia before humans first farmed that farmer ants were farming the spongy fungus on which they feed: 50,000

Number of leaf-cutter ants required to lift a 4.5 kilogram picnic basket: 60,1331

Portion of the worldwide revenue from food retailing accounted for by ten corporations: 1/4

Percentage of workers at Russia’s retail markets that can be foreign-born, according to a law that took effect in April: 0

Portion of the stalls at these markets that are now empty: 1/4

Score by which Russia defeated Kazakhstan in the 2006 Homeless World Cup final last September: 1-0

E-mail Pecking Orders to editor@salient.org.nz

SOURCES: 1, 2. Global peace index ratings; 3. ABC News (N.Y.C.); 4. U.S. Department of Defense; 5. Personal conversation with Salient editor; 6, 9. Sunday Star Times June 24 2007; 7, 8. Steve Charlton-ford, University of Connecticut; 10. Harvard School of Public Health; 11, 12. The Dominion Post, Thursday 21 June 2007; 13. Statue of Liberty National, Monument and Ellis Island (N.Y.C); 14. The Observer July 3 2005; 15,16. www.stuff.co.nz; 17. The Dominion Post, 23 May 2007; 18. Sunday Star Times; 19. www.stuff.co.nz 21 June 2007; 20. Prof. Ulrich Mueller, University of Texas; 21. Prof. James K. Wetterer, Florida Atlantic University; 22. Action Group on Erosion, Technology, and Concentration; 23. International Organization for Migration; 24. Federal State Statistics Service; 25. Homeless World Cup (Edinburgh).