I nearly fell off my chair when I read this ...

Its about the Failed States Index.

This looks at ....

Social Indicators
I-1. Mounting Demographic Pressures
I-2. Massive Movement of Refugees or Internally Displaced persons creating Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
I-3. Legacy of Vengeance-Seeking Group Grievance or Group Paranoia
I-4. Chronic and Sustained Human Flight

Economic Indicators
I-5. Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines
I-6. Sharp and/or Severe Economic Decline

Political Indicators
I-7. Criminalization and/or Delegitimization of the State
I-8. Progressive Deterioration of Public Services
I-9. Suspension or Arbitrary Application of the Rule of Law and Widespread Violation of Human Rights
I-10. Security Apparatus Operates as a "State Within a State"
I-11. Rise of Factionalized Elites
I-12. Intervention of Other States or External Political Actors

With this in mind, the top 10 of failed places are ....

1. Sudan
2. Iraq
3. Somalia
4. Zimbabwe
5. Chad
6. Ivory Coast
7. D.R. Congo
8. Afghanistan
9. Guinea
10. Central African Republic

157. UK
160. US
163. Netherlands
168. Canada
... and the most successful country is ....

177. Norway!

Its also one of the most expensive!


The reason that the UK & the US are not more successful is because of section I-5 which is graded on

Group-based inequality, or perceived inequality, in education, jobs, and economic status

Group-based impoverishment as measured by poverty levels, infant mortality rates, education levels

Rise of communal nationalism based on real or perceived group inequalities


Interesting survey

Sounds like a bunch of red tape Beuracratical BS to me..

Damn I wanna move to Amsterdam....

My apologies for the mis-spells...


Gettin my buzz on

Amsterdam is excellent ...

I want to move here myself!!!

But then I do have ulterior motives

out of 140 counties my county with the youngins school came in this year at 135. THATS REALLY BAD. The city counsel spent up ALOT of the education money on beeeeutifyin the town square, parks, roads....like on the commishs private ROAD to his home? My childs special ed teacher is out on maternity leave with the first baby. OHHHHKAY...so WHO is going to be in special ed this year for him since the autism is a disability? NO ONE. Now barbie here aint no DUMMY. my boys entitled to a free appropriate edumeeecashun just like the illegal youngins. trying to register him in KINDERGARTEN that principle bodily threw me off the school property. I lawyered up in five minutes and my boy was in school the next morning. So i was NOT amused at that big IEP meeting in may for this upcoming year. His grades have PLUMETED from straight A's to F's. He can handle about TWO hours in a normal class setting. NOT ALL DAY. So after nasty remarks from the teacher AND this principle i finally got my panties in a bunch last week and threatened a federal greeting via a lawsuit as my boy IS SPECIAL ED and its NOT his fault these schiesters have spent up the funds for a TEACHER for his classroom. ITS THAT BAD here and i am hearing in every state its bad or getting worse. WHERE are the FEDERAL FUNDS FOR EDUCATION GOING?? NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND? YEAH? what is this trainwreck i just got thrown in the last FOUR WEEKS of school. the iep meeting was of course handled over the phone one HOUR prior to the meet and i WAS cheerfully informed my son WILL be back in his normal special ed class monday morning. Society and even the schools treat special children like "just go away...your disposable so lets throw you in a home and FORGET YOU"...yeah? WHEN PIGS FLY!

two words... home school. ( or a good private school)

First of all, Barbie I symphatize, but looking at the twelve indicators we rate pretty good in the I-8 column over-all, Progressive Deterioration of Public Services.

I'm not sure on a State by State basis where Tenn ranks but over-all we are pretty good in that category. I do know where my state rates and we do pretty good in providing services for special needs children!

Of course you can never get good enough, and no state should rest on their laurels in regards to children!

The worst rating we have is in the I-2 column, Massive Movement of Refugees or Internally Displaced persons creating Complex Humanitarian Emergencies.

This rating is what places us as high as we are. If it were improved we would rate around the 177 mark or better, being that a high rating is better!

We, Americans, have been debating this problem with intensity and emotion for years! The reason for our poor score is illegal immigration, plain and simple.

It also affects another score in the chart, column I-1, Mounting Demographic Pressures. If you removed both of these two ratings from the whole we would easily rank as the furthest from a failed state of all 177 countries!

Like anything you must look at the individual pieces to get an accurate view of the whole, and if you look at column I-6, Sharp and/or Severe Economic Decline, you will see that we have a good rating.

This surprised me, what with all the talk of our Federal budget crises and all. I will not compare our rankings with those of others countries, esp those of Europe. I will leave this to anyone who cares!

I really could give a ****!!!

Its good to see that we are getting something right

Go Canucks....

GO "2's" !!