"3% chance" (and more percentages!)

Tuesday 17 April 2012

"3% chance" (and more percentages!)

Via FLC

"... A U.N.-Arab League peace plan for Syria has only a three percent chance of working, the emir of Qatar said on a visit to Rome Monday, as a U.N.-backed ceasefire was marred by ongoing violence.Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a press conference that the chances for success "are no higher than three percent", and that the Syrian people should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms"...."

Elsewhere,

"... Qatar, the richest nation on earth, is also the fattest with half of all adults obese and 17 per cent of the population suffering from diabetes........Out of a population of 1.7million, just 250,000 are native Qataris, who, in the space of just two generations have switched from a tribal existence to living in air conditioned villas being waited on by armies of servants.

The tiny Arab state, with its vast supplies of oil and natural gas, became the richest nation in the world last year as measured by per capita gross domestic product.
Mr Big: Qatar's leader Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani have developed a love of fast food with branches of KFC and McDonald's springing up in the many air conditioned malls.
Hassan Tiaz, 19, told Atlantic magazine: It's because in Qatar we just sit, smoke and eat junk food. 'There's not too much work. Everything is automatic and most of us just sit in air-conditioned offices and cars. Everything is done for us.'
The nation also suffers from a high rate of birth defects and genetic disorders - which experts put down to the custom of inter-marriage between close family members and cousins..."

Qataris are developing diabetes a decade younger than average, which, in turn, is pushing up rates of illnesses like hypertension, partial paralysis, heart disease, and blindness.