To be fair to Glynch he is talking about countries like UK, Japan, France and Germany. Congo, Sierra Leone and NK aren't remotely near making the GDP cut of that list.
Yeah you're right. Just seeing a "US ain't so hot too" kind of post on a thread like this - where there are mentioned countries with serious problems - kind of got to me a little. No offense Glynch.
Botswana has to be up there. Almost 50% of their population has AIDS, which is absolutely staggering. It's a very destitute situation, and they really need help badly. Sierra Leone is coming off a bloody civil war, in which warlords would go around chopping off people's limbs (yes, even women and children) so that they couldn't vote. Now there are thousands of amputees trying to get their lives back in order to no avail. Rwanda had almost half a million people massacred back in the 90s while the US and the rest of the world sat and watched. Depressing as hell. And we all know about the struggles in the Sudan, where the massacres are going on as we speak.
I know that he is, but he's way off-base as well. In France and the UK (which I am familiar with), the poor have better welfare, but with more institutionalized racism, less social mobility, and a more restrictive economic system, it is much, much harder for them to get out of that poverty. I am extrapolating that to predict what it is like in the other European socialist republics. I'm not saying that everything is wonderful in the US, but to act like the poor have it better in Europe because they have a slightly higher standard of living (while ignoring the significant difference in opportunity) is either ignorance or willful misrepresentation.
You have a good point. The UK and France have societies more stratified than our own, in my opinion. And certainly the poor in all three countries are as rich as Croesus compared to those mentioned here already... a list that could easily be lengthened. I've seen the poor in Third World countries up close, as have some others here, but your average American (and probably European) hasn't a clue as to how bad it is, or how remarkable it is that there is a degree of happiness there, despite the poverty. D&D. Bees Gone Away.
Pops was from Cameroon, poor and corrupt (he mentioned having to tip everyone to get anything, mail people included), but moderate stability and oil wealth (they actually paid for his American undergrad education in late '60s early '70s), and he worked for the state oil company, Socame for five years (as a condition of the scholarship). I asked him once about why he never took us to visit and he offhandedly mentioned there were things we would have to get used to, like the lack of indoor plumbing (although he was probably talking more about where he grew up and some of his siblings still lived). But he never, ever really complained, even had himself buried there. However, my Mom's from Haiti and if there's one antidote to Third World sympathy it's the probably the prism of parental guilt: "You kids don't know what it's like to go to bed hungry, and I don't mean you're out of peanut butter." "You kids don't know what it's like to have a friend stop showing up at school and hear rumors that Duvalier got him." One time, we had a some old, curdled milk, like a month or so after the expiration date, and she said to us, "it's just cream." Then she drank it while I and my two brothers alternately wretched and laughed, closest thing to a "cool Mom" moment if I ever remember one. She also had an older sister who died of diabetes in her 20s before she had a chance to immigrate here, so tough life or childhood, at least. I guess living less than 200(?) miles from the US, and sharing an island with the Saudi Arabia of shortstops does a number on the old psyche.
Actually Botswana is among the best-off countries in sub-saharan Africa. The economy is growing at a good rate, democracy is stable, corruption is minimal. The AIDS rate is high but overall Botswana is one of the most stable countries in Africa. Darfur (Sudan) is bad but there are other parts of Sudan that are relatively stable and even wealthy. I'd say the worst country to be born in is Zimbabwe.
If there were a 'stealth' category for crappy countries that you wouldn't think of at first, Haiti would have to be near the top of the list, although really moreso back when there were nasty people like the Ton Ton Macoute running around. I've never been but some of the stories about them could be told around a campfire to scare children, but you would have to remove some of the graphic violence.
Did you actually make this post? I would suggest that editing it would be an excellent idea. Calling it extremely offensive would be an understatement. D&D. It's Dark in Here.
Would this be just as offensive if he said they acted inhumane? So much for people allowing to express their opinion, even though it was in humor.
He can express whatever opinion he likes. He can be as offensive as he wishes to be, and take whatever consequences might come his way. If the gentleman thinks comparing Africans to Neanderthals isn't offensive to African-Americans, fine. If you don't think it is offensive, either, that's fine as well. We are here to give our opinions. What astonishes me is that anyone would see any humor in the comment. Perhaps the fellow, and you, have watched too many TV commercials. Please, by all means, carry on. D&D. Living Color.
Good to see some clear thinking by Sishir. Many of my fellow Americans seem threatened to look at the USA objectively. They feel, I guess, it is somehow unpatriotic or something. I admit that the US is overall in the top 50 of the world's 200 plus countries. I guess my deviation is due to at least two main factors. 1) Being raised by two parents, who though very devout Christians, were liberals who taught me that all human life was equal to an American life. Last week I asked a young Coast Guard guy, stationed in Galveston and brought up in Kileen,TX, how he thought the Iraq WAr was going. He said: "Not too bad in almost 5 years only 3,000 plus have been killed. I said well hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. and 2) I lived from 15-18 iin a rather poor third world country..
I'm gonna say pretty much any country in Africa is at or close to the top of this list. I also wouldn't want to be your average Haitian, Burmese, or from any of those central asian former Soviet republics.
I'm not getting on your case and if I am reading you post incorrectly, I apologize. Every devout Christian I've ever met and known would never ever think anything but that all human life was equal to an American life. People who claim to be devout Christians simply because they goto Church but have no care about anyone else are just that, claimers. I admit, I have my moments of callousness, and I've posted them before on the board, however, at the end of the day, I could not fathom anyone's life being less valuable than mine.
Best place may be Monaco. Everyone there is rich!! Worse place has to be Antarctica. You'd be born alone.
Here are the countries with the lowest life expectancies according to the CIA World Factbook. Any of these would be pretty bad to be born in. South Africa 42.73 Malawi 41.70 Sierra Leone 40.22 Zambia 40.03 Mozambique 39.82 Liberia 39.65 Zimbabwe 39.29 Angola 38.62 Lesotho 34.40 Botswana 33.74 Swaziland 32.62
