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  • New HDI Rankings; Canada Apparently Sucks Now

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    Norway Heads Quality of Life Index; Canada Miffed
    Tue July 8, 2003 08:07 AM ET
    By Evelyn Leopold
    UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands ranked as the best countries in which to live in the 2003 U.N. Human Development report on Tuesday but Canadians were miffed.

    The United States ranked seventh and Canada was eighth in the report that seeks to go beyond per capita income and include such factors as educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.

    The report also gives a separate index for women's participation in political and economic fields, with surprising results. It says that women fare better in Botswana, Costa Rica and Namibia than they do in Greece, Italy and Japan.

    But Canada, which had been in first place in the overall index of 175 countries for seven years until 2001, conducted its own poll, apparently timed to the U.N. report.

    Canadian media reported that 89 percent of the country had an "absolute conviction that we have a better quality of life than the United States."

    Canada's seven years of first place ratings had prompted Ontario province and others to use the U.N. index in its advertisements. Last year, Canada slipped to the third place.

    Mark Malloch Brown, head of the U.N. Development Program that produces the index, said there was little difference among the top 10 rated nations. The change in Canada's status was due to new methods of calculating educational standards.

    The overall index shows a decline in 21 nations in the 1990s while in 1980 only four countries among the 175 tracked by UNDP showed similar decade-long decline. South Africa, now in 111th place, fell 28 ranks from 1990 because more people died younger from AIDS-related illnesses.

    Roughly half the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean recorded either a decline or stagnation in income during the 1990s. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia per capita income also fell, with steep drops in Russia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine.

    The top ranked nations were: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, United States, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Britain, Finland, Luxembourg, Austria, France, Germany, Spain and New Zealand.

    Those with low development rankings, from 156th to 175th place, were: Senegal, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.
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    Worse than the Americans?!

    "The change in Canada's status was due to new methods of calculating educational standards."

    I'm surprised that the reason we fell so much was due to education, not, say, per capita income or somesuch. We'll need to get on that, I guess.

    Ah well, at least we're still better than those godforsaken Brits.

    "I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?" -Frank Zappa
    "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice."- Thomas Paine
    "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." -Bob Dylan

  • #2
    What's important to bring out of this:

    Canada was #1 before Chretien and the Liberals came into power, Canada continually fell ever since. Now we're at #8.

    Chretien wanted a legacy, and he has one.
    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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    • #3
      We're behind Belgium? WTF...
      “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

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      • #4
        Roughly half the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean recorded either a decline or stagnation in income during the 1990s. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia per capita income also fell, with steep drops in Russia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine.

        The fall of the SU.
        urgh.NSFW

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        • #5
          Gangerolf You Bastard!!!!!!!!!!!!!
          urgh.NSFW

          Comment


          • #6
            CBC has some interesting insight into this:

            Poor countries worse off: UN report


            "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
            Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

            Comment


            • #7
              Id hardly say 8th place in the world sucks... and who gives a damn about these reports anyway? As hard as they try, these things will always be too subjective to be worth much to me anyway.

              Canada is a fine country, and i look forward to visiting soome day (cant say the same about Belgium )
              "I bet Ikarus eats his own spunk..."
              - BLACKENED from America's Army: Operations
              Kramerman - Creator and Author of The Epic Tale of Navalon in the Civ III Stories Forum

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Asher
                What's important to bring out of this:

                Canada was #1 before Chretien and the Liberals came into power, Canada continually fell ever since. Now we're at #8.

                Chretien wanted a legacy, and he has one.


                The HDI only goes back to 1990 and Canada was number one for all but the last two years. That leaves about 7 years or so of Liberal rule to account for.

                And you'll notice that the top 6 all have well developed welfare states.
                Only feebs vote.

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                • #9
                  I also notice I would never want to live in any of the top 6.

                  They have a welfare state because it can't get much worse.

                  I mean, come on: Norway. LOL.
                  "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                  Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I can't believe we did so bad.. #14.. after few crappy countries. It's a lie!
                    In da butt.
                    "Do not worry if others do not understand you. Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius
                    THE UNDEFEATED SUPERCITIZEN w:4 t:2 l:1 (DON'T ASK!)
                    "God is dead" - Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" - God.

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                    • #11
                      Darn. Belgium dropped from fourth to sixth. Lower than the Netherlands?? I guess they didn't take political stability into account...
                      Contraria sunt Complementa. -- Niels Bohr
                      Mods: SMAniaC (SMAC) & Planetfall (Civ4)

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                      • #12
                        Bah, we could be number 1 if we could get rid of those damn Walloons (=french-speaking commies). Flemish independence now!
                        In een hoerekotje aan den overkant emmekik mijn bloem verloren,
                        In een hoerekotje aan den overkant bennekik mijn bloemeke kwijt

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                        • #13
                          fell to #22 from #21, because of Spain climbing to #19 from #22. the rest of the neighbourhood have remained the same.

                          Well, that's cool. Hopefully, we can fix our education system, so we'd climb into the mid 10s.
                          urgh.NSFW

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: New HDI Rankings; Canada Apparently Sucks Now

                            [SIZE=1]
                            The report also gives a separate index for women's participation in political and economic fields, with surprising results. It says that women fare better in Botswana, Costa Rica and Namibia than they do in Greece, Italy and Japan.
                            I don't find that surprising. Japan, Italy, and Greece have always had very male-oriented societies and cultures.
                            Rethink Refuse Reduce Reuse

                            Do It Ourselves

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Azazel
                              fell to #22 from #21, because of Spain climbing to #19 from #22. the rest of the neighbourhood have remained the same.

                              Well, that's cool. Hopefully, we can fix our education system, so we'd climb into the mid 10s.
                              Isreal is 22? how could a county that's pretty much been in an endless state of war/unrest be so high?
                              Rethink Refuse Reduce Reuse

                              Do It Ourselves

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