Off the Wires

How much a country's leader is paid compared to GDP per person

ON MONDAY July 5th Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, rejected the pay increase he was awarded by the country's parliament last week. MPs had granted Mr Odinga a rise to nearly $430,000 a year, while giving themselves a 25% increase to $175,000.

If crowd sourcing can be used to help tackle economic problems in Ireland—not to mention those of the more personal kind—then why not the global environmental imperative? That, indeed, is just the aim of the Globe Forum, which hopes to use crowd sourcing to help people around the world build a more sustainable future.

Now in beta, Stockholm-based Globe Forum operates conferences and active online communities to help match the creators of good ideas with those who can help bring them to life. Specifically, the organization hopes to bring together innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and the public sector in a natural space “where breakthrough solutions can occur collaboratively,” as the site puts it. Its matchmaking service, for instance, aims to match supply and demand for sustainable solutions, with expert facilitation, consulting and project management by the Globe Forum organization.

Its intelligence arm, meanwhile, strives to provide market-leading research, industry insight and access to innovation. A crowd funding section lets potential investors browse through promising new project ideas and fund the ones they like, while projects and organizations with sustainability challenges to be solved can post those in Globe Forum's “Challenges” section for a little collective brainstorming.

After hosting a conference in Stockholm this spring, Globe Forum's next large-scale event will take place in Dublin in November. 

Ten years ago, the richest countries accounted for a large majority of economic activity.

But the pendulum is swinging the other way.

A new O.E.C.D. report finds that rich countries and poor countries now each contribute about an equal share of the global economy.

And by 2030, developing countries will account for 57 percent of world G.D.P

In the storm of public and political fury that has hit BP in the US since the Deepwater Horizon disaster on April 20, the company’s shortage of native knowledge of America and how it responds to crisis has been painfully exposed.

The accident, which killed 11 men and risks the livelihoods of millions, would always have threatened BP’s future in the US. But a series of cultural misunderstandings has made its position more difficult.

The US accounts for about a quarter of BP’s production, almost a third of its reserves and more than half its refining capacity and retail outlets, according to analysts at ING.

Yet in spite of the country’s importance, BP is short of Americans in senior roles. Tony Hayward, the chief executive who has become the lightning rod for American anger, is British, as are the heads of its two main operating businesses and Andrew Gowers, head of media, a former editor of the Financial Times.

Brunswick, BP’s public relations consultancy, although well staffed with high-powered Americans, is a British firm. 

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