I wonder if Greenpeace share that same opinion, considering that Norway is into heavy oilproduction and whaling.

Top 20:

01 Norway
02 New Zealand
03 Denmark
04 Ireland
05 Japan
06 Finland
07 Sweden
08 Canada
09 Portugal
10 Austria
11 Belgium
12 Germany
13 Czech Republic
14 Switzerland
15 Slovenia
16 Chile
17 Slovakia
18 Hungary
19 Bhutan
20 Netherlands

A few from the mid pack:
25 Australia
34 France
49 United Kingdom
59 Cuba
79 Mexico
96 United States
97 Iran

Bottom 10:
112 Angola
113 Cote d'Ivoire
114 Lebanon
115 Pakistan
116 Colombia
117 Nigeria
118 Russia
119 Israel
120 Sudan
121 Iraq

Ireland came in 4th!! Woohoo, go us :)

They didn't mention Oakland, Ca. That's like a third world country. They're goat killers.

Scandinavian countries were always among the best, including stable economic growth, low level of inflation and clean environment. I wanna visit Norway, Finland and Sweden!!!

That's it. I'm calling my cousins and announcing my plans to move in with them in Norway.
/&*^&%#@!
I don't have international dialing on my cell

I'm pleased to see Canada in the blue section, but I wonder how long we can keep that up? I'm sure our nightly news programs are just as depressing as the orange and lighter blue spots.

I don't really get how military spending correlates to peace. A country can spend its entire budget on tanks and still be perfectly peaceful.

And a high prison population? Does this mean there are more criminals in the country, or the country does an exceptional job enforcing the law?

I realize the America isn't nearly the most peaceful country, but "studies" like this are so purposefully stacked against the US it isn't even funny.

I think it's stereotypically arrogant for an American to assume that a study like this is conducted with the intention to have US rank low. Really, the rest of the world doesn't care about your country that much.

A country that rather spends it's money on tanks and missiles than proper health care isn't exactly peaceful. US has more prisoners per capita than the Nordic countries - do you believe it's because law enforcement sucks up there? I don't think so.

I'm not sure I understand you fully here makri. I think the map shows "Global Peace." The map shows the U.S. as having a low score with regard to "global peace," i.e. not much peace. A low rank on this map is a poorer thing to have I think, unless I've got it all wrong. That's why I commented earlier about Canada, where I live, being blue and beginning to slip into orange like the U.S.

I don't quite see your point here? Matoogs implied that studies like this are conducted to make US look bad, and I don't think the world evolves around US. It's not the survey's fault if US sucks in certain areas.

I don't really understand what you disagree with there.

Not necessarily. Maybe there's less stringent laws, or punishments which require less jail time. I'm just guessing here, but the US probably jails way more people on drug related charges than the Nordic countries. But do drug related arrests have anything to do with peace? No.

And it's nonsensical to say higher military spending equals less peace. That's what really stuck me odd about this study. It seems like an easy way to get the US to rank really low. The Earth revolves around me.

I just don't see how the US ranks on par with Iran. I feel safe and secure in my day to day life, and for the foreseeable future. I know if I ever need help, I can get it no matter where I am in the country, or who I am. I've never personally witnessed a violent crime or extreme poverty. Yet the US ranks in with war-torn third world countries?

US has troops deployed in other countries and they face combat each day. US military is not just for parades, they do actual killing of human beings too.

As far as I know, Iran doesn't have troops outside it's borders - I think US should rank below Iran.


It's also not just about safety of the average individual in a said country. Otherwise it'd be called Global Safety Index or something. That being said, I'd be willing to guess that an American is more likely to be a victim of a violent crime than a Norwegian is.

There's probably people in Iraq who have never witnessed a violent crime too. That doesn't indicate it doesn't happen there.


Whatever the reasons for the US "war on terrorism" are, it cannot be described as "peaceful". How many countries there are in the world who have a military that sees combat every day? Not many.

The article says some of the main reasons the US ranked so low were "violent crime at home and a high prison population". So what is this study measuring? It seems like a bunch of arbitrary statistics thrown together and given a number.

Also, there's no way to measure violence caused by inaction, or violence prevented by action. For that reason alone these numbers mean almost nothing.

--

Hey mak, it seems like a lot of threads end up in a one-on-one discussion between me and you. We make a pretty good team. Just letting you know your still my homie, man. I hope there's no leftover hard feelings from me setting your house on fire.

It was a great entry. As I stated here, I sold the house for a good profit last fall, so no hard feelings :)

I misread what you were quoting on makri and was talking directly out of my sphincter. ;)