Hey Canadians! You have the 4th best place to live.

[Flip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091005/ts ... 1005115324

PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.

China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.

Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France -- which was not part of the top 10 last year -- returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.

The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.

A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.

This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.

"Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic," said the UN development report's author Jeni Klugman.

"And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt."

Afghanistan, which returns to the list for the first time since 1996, is the only Asian country among the bottom ten which also include Sierra Leone in the 180th spot, just below the Central African Republic.

The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.

The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.

[Julius Seeker]

We were #1 during the Chretien years.

[bovine]

Yeah that's right FUCK YOU IRELAND!

[SineSwiper]

I don't consider Afghanistan an "Asian country".

[bovine]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

[Zeus]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

You mean other than Mexico? :-)

[bovine]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

You mean other than Mexico? :-)

Yeah yeah, that's sort of my point. There are all these "Central American" countries that ARE part of North America. Americans (and Canadians too) are world geography retards. Asia is big, just because it isn't part of the Asia Pacific region, doesn't mean it's not a part of it. Turkey's in there, all of the "Middle East" countries, etc.

[SineSwiper]

Sorry, the Middle East is still the Middle East. Sure, it's not a continent, but when you have the biggest continent on the planet, it's worth splitting up into a few different regions.

Also, we are talking about cultural differences causing differing economic conditions, so it is better to refer to cultural boundaries, like the "Middle East". "Asian countries", as a cultural boundary, to me anyway, is any country that writes little scribby pictures as words. Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, etc. I would also including India in that one.

[bovine]

The three big regions in Asia are "Asia Pacific (what you deem as simply asia), the "Middle East", and the old Soviet Bloc (but not including the old Soviet Bloc countries that are in Europe, obviously). It's a continent, there are regions. The thing you think of as "Asia" is called "Asia Pacific".

In terms of like-mindedness of political and religious affiliation, the regions follow absolutely no big trends. Specific countries may vary wildly, but in terms of the regions themselves, there is no real differentiation for any of them based on religion and politics.

The big differentiator is how these countries work together. Asia Pacific has a very tightly bonded economic community (the Asian Tigers, as they are called), but this is obviously with the exception of N. Korea. The Indochina region is growing, as well as the countries around it that suffered during the 1950s-1990s under a weird combination of colonialism, communism, war, war again, and then economic segregation from the West.

The "Middle East" suffers from the odd man out syndrome where Isreal is being Isreal and everyone else is either very angry, complacent, or acting complacent and then financing Hamas and shooting rockets every once in a while. Soviet Bloc is boring unless they get out of line and then Russia pretends that it is the US in the 70s dealing with "Central America" and South America.

The media's eye is on Asia right now, so these regions are much more apparent than usual. If their eye was on South America or Africa, then we would be arguing this point as well. We are just enjoying the capitalist, sansationalist mediaducation that gives us enough of the story to keep us interested without teaching us anything.

[Julius Seeker]

The Middle East is a part of Asia. The word Asia arose to specifically describe the area of the Middle East during the Greek era to describe the area of the Persian Empire and surrounding Kingdoms. The term Asia for most of history onward was used to describe the Middle East. It was expanded in common use only in more recent time to include the whole continent. The term "Asia Minor" was very recently used to describe the Middle East and can be seen in all Atlases of some amount of decades old.

The word "Asian" to describe Eastasians is just a recent English concept of the past few decades because all other words and terms became seen as offensive. Before the region and the people were commonly called The Orient and Orientals respectively.

Asia has 4 main regions with very unique cultural differences and origins: East Asia, South Asia, The Middle East, and the Steppes. They are all part of Asia.

[Zeus]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

You mean other than Mexico? :-)

Yeah yeah, that's sort of my point. There are all these "Central American" countries that ARE part of North America. Americans (and Canadians too) are world geography retards. Asia is big, just because it isn't part of the Asia Pacific region, doesn't mean it's not a part of it. Turkey's in there, all of the "Middle East" countries, etc.

Your wording is a little bit misleading, then. You should have said the "continent of North America" not "North America" then. Problem is, the term "North America" refers to both a region and a continent, you have to specify which you're referring to since they're geographically different

[Lox]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

The United States and that's it.

[Shrinweck]

pop quiz!

Which countries are in North America?

The United States and that's it.

Is it bad that I wanted to post this, too?