The United Nations just released its Human Development Index (and I would link to it, but I don't feel like linking anything today). Apparently, this ranks countries on how desirable it is to live there. The major criteria seem to be real estate values and the percent of the population with mad cow disease. Just like everything else the UN does, I don't understand it.
I'm going to avoid the majority of the innumerable absurdities of this list (People prefer Canada over Ireland? Has the whole world gone insane?) and jump straight to Africa. As if the continent didn't have it bad enough already, now it's statistically documented that it's the worst place to live in the world. Heck, if they rated the sun as a place to live, Africa would still lose. There's no AIDS epidemic on the sun.
What's weirdest, though, is the bizarre nationalism that every country takes up in response to this. Nigeria's newspaper has a headline declaring that Nigeria ranks 158th (out of something like 175), which is one step up from last year. The Malta Independent touts Malta's 34 ranking, and the article's a lot more self-important about it than Nigeria's (understandably, I guess). Nepal's headline announced it's 142 spot, but it saves face by justifying it's 6-place drop as a "statistical adjustment."
I just wasted everybody's time, didn't I?
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