Happy Places and Sad Places
Here's more evidence of the total failure of Vladimir Putin's government, and Russia in general, this time from the United Nations.
La Russophobe has already documented Russia's disastrous recent prerformance when evaluted by such diverse authorities as Freedom House, Transparancy International, the World Bank, the Foreign Policy journal, the Center for Development, Human Rights Watch and the European Union (see the sidebar entry "Reviewing Russia" for links to all these reports and more). Every time, Russia's scores represent total failure. Now, the UN adds its voice to the ch0rus:
In the latest Human Development Index published by the United Nations, the U.S. rose two places to #8 in the world on the survey of most desirable places to live in the world (and remember, the US isn't exactly the flavor of the month in the UN). Norway was #1. Niger, whose scores on many international surveys for corruption and democracy are similar to that of Russia, was listed as the very least desirable place to live in the world.
How about Russia? It ranks in the top 20 nations in the world in terms of nominal GDP (although the individual American states of California, New York and Texas each have higher GDP's than Russia as a country) but when it comes to building a nation with that GDP it fails utterly, and ranks only #65 according to the study, outside the top third of all countries under review and only two places ahead of nighmarish Belarus. Bulgaria, Malaysia and Cuba are all ranked ahead of Russia. Russia fell three places from #62 in last year's study. Now think about this: Russia is one of the world's leading exporters of oil and gas. Can you imagine what the living conditions in Russia would be if it wasn't? Scary thought, isn't it?
Meanwhile, just as in Soviet times, Russia continues a massive military buildup (universal conscription, spending increases of 25% every year on the military, matching the US in share of GDP devoted to the military) while ignoring the daily needs of the population. How can Russians, then, expect this government to meet a fate any different than that of the USSR?
Top 20 countries to live in [2006]: 1. Norway (=) 2. Iceland (=) 3. Australia (=) 4. Ireland (↑ 4) 5. Sweden (↑ 1) 6. Canada (↓ 1) 7. Japan (↑ 4) 8. United States (↑ 2) 9. Switzerland (↓ 2) 10. Netherlands (↑ 2) 11. Finland (↑ 2) 12. Luxembourg (↓ 8) 13. Belgium (↓ 4) 14. Austria (↑ 3) 15. Denmark (↓ 1) 16. France (=) 17. Italy (↑ 1) 18. United Kingdom (↓ 3) 19. Spain (↑ 2) 20. New Zealand (↓ 1)
Labels:
economics,
neo-soviet failure,
rating russia,
russia,
social services
4 comments:
Russia is a rotten investment, bouyed by oil and gas money for now, but, it can't attract capital to keep that going into the future. Rotting in Siberia is one of the few intelligent entreprenuers that understood that, Khordorkovsky, whom Putin will probably kill in due time.
It will be interesting to see if the sheeple will hand this KGB lackey a third term. Ivan gets his daily bread, a civil society with a free press and fair courts can wait another 70 years. What fools.
UGLY: Did Solzhenitsyn also have an "inferiority complex"? And Akhmatova too? And Pushkin, was that why Russia killed him? And how about you? If you can't even manage to congratulate America on it's wonderful achievement, perhaps you are next on the hit list?
UGLY: The duel was rigged by the monarchy when Pushkin started making friends with the Decembrists and criticizing the government.
Well, if Solzhenitsyn had a complex when he was writing Gulag Archipelago, then I'm quite sure Penny and I are happy and proud to have one as well. Looks like the only ones withoout a complex are Russophile maniacs who are destroying Russia. Figures.
UGLY:
You are an illiterate moron. Lermontov wrote a poem about how the duel was rigged, and then Russia killed him too.
Cowardly Russians stood by and watched as Pushkin and Lermontov were killed and while Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn were sent to the camps. They didn't lift finger to help them, and nothing has changed since then. That is why Russia has come now to the last of its days.
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