@Monkey:
No we don't actually lol.
It's like a family thing. You can complain about family members all you want, but once someone else badmouths them, then that's a whole other story lol
@Monkey:
No we don't actually lol.
It's like a family thing. You can complain about family members all you want, but once someone else badmouths them, then that's a whole other story lol
The thing is if you complain about America some people here think that you hate the country and its freedom with a burning passion and are a terrorist.
There was a lot of that during the early parts of the Iraq war.
It's like a family thing. You can complain about family members all you want, but once someone else badmouths them, then that's a whole other story lol
Mmm, nope, doesn't sound like the US.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Mr.:
The thing is if you complain about America some people here think that you hate the country and its freedom with a burning passion and are a terrorist.
There was a lot of that during the early parts of the Iraq war.
Yeah this, it's still fairly common.
@Monkey:
Mmm, nope, doesn't sound like the US.
No, I'm saying that's what I'm like.
I can see a lot of the world improving, or making some kind of attempt to improve. But what of the US, China and Russia?
Anyone care to throw in some thoughts?
I can see a lot of the world improving, or making some kind of attempt to improve. But what of the US, China and Russia?
Anyone care to throw in some thoughts?
I don't get what you mean.
Virtually every country save a few are all gradually improving their HDI score. About the only thing that seems capable of downing it is war or economic meltdown (Libya, Zimbabwe).
@Monkey:
I don't get what you mean.
Virtually every country save a few are all gradually improving their HDI score. About the only thing that seems capable of downing it is war or economic meltdown (Libya, Zimbabwe).
Maybe at the moment, but it feels like one gigantic bubble of borrowing that will burst! resulting in everything from economy, healthcare, education and just about every other aspect of the HDI being effected dramatically. I'm not saying it will go down rapidly, but it certainly won't be positive.
I guess it will take just one more nudge to kick-start this doom. For example what happens if the Euro fails, or the financial side of the world gets spooked by it causing another crash? Think of the knock on effect that will have to a large portion of the world, including the US.
But that aside we can look at current events crippling the various nations. Obviously i'll start off by mentioning the recession, the vast amount of debts all over the world, the banks loaning too much, governments rapidly trying to fix the money issues by skimming off of everything from pensions to bonuses etc. Several revolutions that although are great have contributed to more instability, resulting in more money being pumped into the armed forces around the world.
Its just take take take with nothing being returned outside of borrowing.
As for China and Russia….i haven't a clue. China relies on the import/export side of things, while Russia is plying Europe with energy. I can't really tell, or haven't heard much mention of their names in relation to improvement. It just seems like business as usual, though i have a feeling this isn't the case, and that both places have in fact felt the impact of the worlds current issues. Be it or better or worse i can't tell.
My Latin teacher will be very pleased to see Macedonia kicking Turkey's ass.
Somehow I feel this is kinda untimely and even off-topic, but…
What do you think about Earth's environment, Zeph? Where do you think it is heading to? World politics and economy have shown many progresses, especially in this year with dictators going down one after another, and wars have decreased, however, these are not the only problems of the world, surely?
I have been thinking about this many times. About the future of our species, not only in my generation, but centuries later, milleniums later. Do you picture a Nausicaa-like apocalyptic scenario, Zeph? Maybe I am over-thinking, but I often worry about whether we will vacate the Earth one day or get doomed with it.
Hey I finally did a calculation (unfortunately only using the old method, I couldn't work the new one) for what Botswana would get if it wasn't crippled by AIDs induced short life expectancy.
I trashed it's actual LE and switched it out with a number similar to what countries who ranked similarly in the education and income indexes had for life expectancy, which was around 75 years (as opposed to the old 53).
The result was that Botswana scored a 0.812. Which among the old ranks puts it on the same level as Bosnia & Herzegovina. Meaning it scored better than Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Peru, Ecuador etc. And was very nearly on the level of Russia and Brazil.
Here's the old method's list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index/Former_reports/2009