The Global Peace Index (GPI) consists of 23 indicators and covers 99.7% of the world population. The 2021 GPI report shows that global peacefulness has deteriorated by 2% since 2008, calculates that the global violence price tag is $14.96 trillion dollars per year, and says that its latest increase comes from growth in military expenditures. The three indicators with the largest deterioration in 2021 are violent demonstrations, political instability and militarization. The three with the largest improvement are deaths from internal conflict, number and intensity of internal conflicts, and deaths from terrorism. A poll with 150,000 people in 142 countries shows that 15% of people globally feel that crime, violence, or terrorism is the greatest risk to their daily safety. Only road accidents are cited as a bigger risk (19%).

Sunita Sah’s “Mental health: pressure to return to the office could be making employees more anxious” [H/T Anthony Renshaw] shows that nearly all employees are anxious about returning to the office. They fear being exposed to COVID-19 and dread loosing flexibility, commuting, wearing a mask at work and needing childcare. What is preoccupying is that many employers have not consulted their staff when drafting return-to-work policies adding to the overall stress of their workers. 

The “Sustainable Development Report 2021” shows that for the first time since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, the global SDG Index score – assessing each country’s performance against the 17 SDGs – decreased in 2020. The drop was driven by growing poverty and unemployment globally, including in OECD countries. The three countries that have progressed most on the SDG Index score since 2015 are Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, and Afghanistan; and the three that have declined the most are Venezuela, Tuvalu, and Brazil. The regions that have seen most progress are East and South Asia.

My [edited] quote is from Pink Floyd Roger Waters: “How did [Mark Zuckerberg] – who started off by saying, ‘She is pretty, we’ll give her a four out of five,’ ‘She’s ugly, we’ll give her a one’ – how did he get any power in anything? And yet here he is, one of the most powerful [person] in the world.”