In Today's Propaganda...

[bjarvis]

My dear Gov't of Canada sent me an e-mail earlier today spouting off that Canada is now #4 in the UN's Human Development Index. The top ten best countries in to live are:
1 Iceland
2 Norway
3 Australia
4 Canada
5 Ireland
6 Sweden
7 Switzerland
8 Japan
9 Netherlands
10 France

The US is #12.

The bottom ten are:
168 Congo (Democratic Republic of the)
169 Ethiopia
170 Chad
171 Central African Republic
172 Mozambique
173 Mali
174 Niger
175 Guinea-Bissau
176 Burkina Faso
177 Sierra Leone

Comments

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

I'm quite surprised that Afghanistan and the DPRK aren't in the bottom ten...

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Neither are listed anywhere I can find.

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they aren't UN members?

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly, the US rated that high.

15 missing nations

[greyguy-sf.livejournal.com]

But there are 192 members of the United Nations. See http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/org1469.doc.htm What is the status of the other 15?

Re: 15 missing nations

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find Somalia, North Korea, Iraq, Afganistan or Mongolia on the list. Tt seems some areas have no coherent gov't which can generate the statistics or the numbers aren't trusted.

[manley1.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that more Middle Eastern countries aren't in the bottom, until I thought about how much money they have to elevate at least some of their population. I guess you can buy your way out of gross human rights abuses?

I'm also surprised that Sudan isn't there, but it also has some money thanks to oil and China. Oy.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I was surprised not to see Somalia in that bottom ten. It looks like the competition for unlivability in central Africa is intense.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I don't see Somalia in the list. They may not be ranked because they lack both a gov't and a local UN humanitarian team capable of collecting the statistics required for a ranking, but that's speculation on my part.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Sudan is #147 out of 177.

Checking the middle east...
Israel #23
Kuwait #33
Qatar #35
UAE #39
Bahrain #41
Saudi Arabia #61
Jordan #86
Iran #94
Occupied Palestinian Territories #106
Syria #108
Egypt #112
Yemen #153

I couldn't find Iraq in the list.

Hmmmm

[brokebackvol.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised Zimbabwe is not at the bottom - their inflation is like over 1000%

Re: Hmmmm

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

It's not far off: #151 out of 177.

My feeling is that the bottom 50 on the list are all so bad that it's tough to rank any one worse than another.

Re: Hmmmm

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

The last article I saw said that it was incalculable. Since the gov't imposed price controls, production had all but ceased as nobody could afford to sell things for below cost.

Zimbabwe was once relatively prosperous, so I guess there are still remnants of that or they still have further to fall, whereas DR Congo, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, etc., have always been destitute.