Our Times Tally, Volume 12 – January 2011

● Number of Canadians who are officially unemployed: 1.4 million
● Number of net jobs added to the Canadian economy in October 2010: 3,000
● Percentage of Canadians who currently “expect the economy to improve”: 18
● Percentage of Americans who disapproved of interracial marriage in 1968: 73
● Percentage who disapprove of legal recognition of same-sex unions and marriages today: 36
● Percentage decline in average real wages in G20 countries during the past three years: 4
● Number of cities in Canada that have instituted a living wage policy for its public sector workers: 1
● Estimated number of women around the world who are subjected to genital mutilation each year: 3 million
● Estimated number of women each year in Britain: 2,000
● Chance that a girl in Cameroon has been subjected to “breast ironing”: 1 in 4
● Number of barrels of oil consumed by the average Canadian each year: 61
● Rank of Iraq in being the most corrupt country in the world: 4
● Rank of Afghanistan: 3
● Chance that a Canadian over the age of 65 either has a job or is currently seeking work: 1 in 10
● Percentage of Germans who would currently “welcome a Fuhrer to run the country with a firm hand”: 13
● Combined income of the top 25 hedge funds managers in the United States last year: $25.3 billion
● Total amount the U.S. government spends on foreign aid each year: $25 billion
● Number of days during the first three months of 2010 that the four largest banks in the U.S. posted a daily revenue loss: 0
● Mathematical odds of this actually happening: 1 in 5.7 billion
● Number of temporary employment agencies in Canada: 4,300
● Number of ice rinks in Canada: 2,486
● Annual total revenues of the temporary employment agency sector in Canada: $9.2 billion
● Estimated number of Mexicans who have been murdered from drug-related violence since 2006: 28,000
● Monthly income of a Disney factory worker in China, in American dollars: 335
● Amount that is deducted each month by Disney for “dining and dormitory rent”: 54
● Percentage of Canadians who would allow for the proposed takeover of Saskatchewan Potash by BHP Billiton: 7
● Number of local government public sector workers in the United States who lost their jobs in September 2010: 76,000
● Amount of wealth extorted by France from Haiti from 1825 to 1944, in current U.S. dollars: $18 billion
● As of 2010, amount that France had paid back to Haiti: $0
● Change in the amount that Canadian corporations will pay in taxes this year to what they did ten years ago: – $12 billion
● Percentage of Canadians who support capital punishment for murderers: 40
● Percentage of Americans who do: 83
● Percentage of Americans who believe that “capital punishment acts as a deterrent”: 39
● Chance that a child labourer in the world today works in agriculture: 7 in 10
● Number of children under the age of 12 working in Canada 100 years ago: 300,000
● Number of teachers, principals and support staff formerly working at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island: 93
● Number who were fired in February after the teachers’ union disagreed with the state’s “education reform model”: 93
● Percentage that a unionized part-time worker earns more than that of a non-unionized part-time worker in Canada: 66
● Number of Tamil refugees being held in detention centres in British Columbia under suspicion of “war crimes”: 492
● Number who are children: 49
● Date on which RyanAir CEO Michael O’Leary proposed eliminating co-pilots to reduce labour costs: 09/06/2010

Our Times Tally, inspired by Harpers Index, is compiled by freelance writer Sean Cain (www.seanc60.sg-host.com).

SOURCES: 1.4 million, 3,000 – Sylvain Schetagne (Canadian Labour Congress); 18 – Angus Reid Poll (Oct 2010); 73 – Gallup Poll (June 1968); 36 – CBS News Poll; 4 – International Labour Organization (Nov 2010); 1 – Toronto Star (May 10, 2010); 3 million – United Nations Population Fund; 2,000 – The Guardian (July 25, 2010); 1 in 4 – German Society for Technical Cooperation Development Agency; 61 – World Resources Institute; 4, 3 – Transparency International (Corruption Perception Index, 2010); 1 in 10 – Statistics Canada; 13 – Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Oct 13, 2010); $25.3 billion – CNN Money (April 2010); $25 billion – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; 0, 1 in 5.7 billion – Bloomberg News (May 2010); 4,300 – John Peters (Laurentian University); 2,486 – Hockey Canada; $9.2 billion – Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services; 28,000 – Liz Goodwin (Yahoo News – Oct 25, 2010); 335, 54 – China Labor Watch; 7 – Angus Reid Poll (Oct 2010); 76,000 – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Economic Situation Summary, Oct 2010); $18 billion, $0 – The Guardian (Aug 16, 2010); – $12 billion – Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; 40 – EKOS Poll (March 2010); 83, 39 – Angus Reid Poll (Oct 2010); 7 in 10 – International Labour Organization (October 2010); 300,000 – Ed Finn (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives); 93, 93 – The Huffington Post (Feb 2010); 66 – Ontario Federation of Labour; 492 – Globe and Mail (August 2010); 49 – Tom Godfrey (Canoe News); 09/06/2010 – MSNBC (Sept 7, 2010).