“We are Pleased to Present”

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The cynical Harry puts up a quite partial list of “failed states.” A more complete look shows us some quite interesting contrasts. (For one thing, some on this blog might weight the UN as “Intervention of Other States or External Actors”, but it is doubtful that the Scandinavian countries, which rank at the top, do.) This reader, however, pauses at The Fund for Peace’s introduction: “We are pleased to present the second annual Failed States Index.”

6 thoughts on ““We are Pleased to Present””

  2. That report from the “Whatever for Peace” orginization didn’t really grade the USA fairly. I guess they figured people would just look at the total score and not bother to actually look at the individual grades.

    For “I 1 – Mounting Demographic Pressures” the USA gets a 5. For comparison, Japan and France get a 4 and Italy gets a 3.5. We have a native birthrate (which I would assume is what demographic pressures refer to) well higher than any of those countries and we have fewer social entitlements, but we get a lower grade?

    Now for “I 2 – Massive Movement of Refugees and IDPs” We get a 6!! You have to go up to croatia (who gets a 6.5) to get a higher score. Who are these refugees? The illegals? I thought they were hard working contributors to our society! They must not be talking about the illegals though, cuz Mexico only scored a 4.3.

    Another mark for the US is “I 5 – Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines.” Chile gets a 4 and Uruguay gets a 5. Even Argentina gets a 5.2. The US? We score a 6. Uruguay has a per capita income of $14.5K. Argentina’s is $12K, Chile’s is $10.5K. (The USA’s is 40k) They have large indigenous populations that are barely assimilated, but for “Uneven Economic Development” they all score higher than the US. I can’t see how that would be remotely true for any latin america country, but the “Fund for Peace” thinks it’s so.

  3. Hmm. . . Iraq rates much worse than North Korea and Israel is worse than Honduras. Nope, no agenda there.

  4. According to my calculation, four of the top twenty were French colonies: Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic and Guinea. What did I leave out?

    How is Israel more of a failed state than Mali, Macedonia and, yes, Honduras?

  6. Thanks Jonathan, Haiti, of course. That ended so long ago, I forgot. That makes it five former French colonies, i.e. 25 per cent. I am as ready to knock the French as the next person, but I don’t think this will get us anywhere.

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