Where to be Born in 2013

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AdamFencepost

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I was reading about a new study on a blog for The Economist, a British newspaper, about corruption - least and most corrupt countries in the world. I got there thinking about Rockin'Robin's "Woman's generosity to trooper triggers New York police search" thread from yesterday. The government officials many of the common folks interact with most often are the police. Here is a link on the corruption report.

The blog mentioned another recent study done on the "Where to be Born in 2013." Here's the link (click).

I'm sure that each of us would have our own, personal ideas of where it would be best for us to be. Family would have to rate highly, of course. (Can't be born anywhere without Mom :).) I thought that the US and Germany are tied for #16 was interesting especially after what the writer says in the story.

I'm not a well traveled person and the only country where I have close family other than the US is Canada (which rates higher than the US, by the way). The Economist looks like it may be fairly objective in this. I mean - they didn't rate Great Britain very high . . .
 
Nice to see Australia in at no.2 :)
We've been relatively sheltered from the rest of the worlds financial woes, and the economy is going ok (despite our current governments best efforts :) ),the sun shines, and people are generally happy, and as long as you don't get eaten by a kangaroo you should be ok :)
 
My cousin went to school at the University of Western Australia in Perth :). He was the only one in the family who has been a world traveler, goes to Europe often and spent several years in Japan. He is also, by far, the best educated of the lot of us ;).

He said our family would like it in Perth and there abouts. But, crossing the Pacific other than as GI's on Uncle Sam's dime, is beyond most of us.

It is interesting how so many northern European countries have made it on to the list. Probably, deservedly so. I guess that the social psychologists have found that the population of Denmark is very happy and well-adjusted, for the most part.

To toss a little controversy into one of those articles, the authors noted that Switzerland is at the top as the best place to be born and 6th in the corruption index. Then, drawing a comparison to sunny southern Europe, they quote from a great Orson Welles’s movie "that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock."

Those British writers - those American movie people - trouble-makers!

:giggle:
 
Actually, I would put Australia at the top and move Switzerland quite a bit further down the list. Even though Switzerland has all this in its favor, have you looked at a map of Europe lately? See the fact that Switzerland is in the MIDDLE of Europe?

Is it possible that in the collapse of the Euroland (looks to have started in Greece, may be starting up in Spain), Switzerland may not be able to stay neutral like it did in WWII? If it gets caught in missile crossfires and general warfare between the Catholic countries of the south and the non-Catholic countries in the north, and then you have the middle easterners from the east and south pushing in to take advantage of a distracted anglo region, then WHAT? China and Russia might get involved, too. Remember what happened in WWII when Russia pushed back.

Instead, I chose not have to have children on this planet, not at this time. 200-300 years ago is one thing, but today? No way! My line ends RIGHT HERE. When I leave, I'm going somewhere else, or I'll just stay in my exmortal state (don't know why I ended up here in the first place...).

Nonetheless, it is interesting times... Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it.
 
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I can go back 200-300 years ago in my own family but I know a little more about my grandmother's family and their life. My grandmother's mother was born the same week that South Carolina seceded from the union in 1860. If we look at her family, we can see how terrible our child mortality rate was 150 years ago.

She was one of 14 children. There are records of only 10 of them, altho' one was simply called "Son." Of those 10, 3 died before they were 1 year old. Two more died before they were 20. So, half of her brothers and sisters didn't live beyond childhood.

Of my great grandmother's own 7 children, 3 died before they were 7 years old. That was about 120 years ago.

I was just reading about research on the burials in a colonial cemetery in New Jersey. (Now, we are back in your time frame.) They report that nearly half of the children buried there died before their 5th birthday.

:tears:
 
I would love to move to Australia but then again, I am not sure how much of rights do deaf people have there like they do here in America. A dilemna for me, thats for sure.
 
switzerland.jpg


:) Oh, Baby! Switzerland. :wave:
 
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