Nothing says Friday like UN data tables, right? Yesterday the United Nations published its annual Human Development Index, sort of a country-by-country summary of quality of life, education and longevity of citizens (It's a 36-page PDF, knock yourselves out, nerds!)
So how'd everybody do? Well Venezuela is ranked at number 68 61 (out of 179 countries), landing on the "High Human Development" list above Brazil (70) and Ecuador (72). "Medium Human Development" countries include sad sack Bush pals Peru (79) and Colombia (80). Poor Bolivia is down the list at 111. Come on Evo! You can do eet!
Comments (6)
And note that numero uno is Iceland. Not for much longer, that you can guarantee. Ready for today's corny financialwonk joke?
rready?
rrrready?
ok then...
Q: What's the capital of Iceland?
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A: About 20 dollars
Posted by otto
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December 20, 2008 12:11 PM
Posted on December 20, 2008 12:11
Oh, and remember that HDI numbers are 2 years old ... Vzla's number is constantly increasing since 2003.
Posted by Utpal
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December 20, 2008 9:46 AM
Posted on December 20, 2008 09:46
Oops, I forgot Cuba, sorry. Yeah, except for GDP per capita they are comfortably first-world.UNESCO conducts tests with kids for things like basic math, cognitive skills, language etc. and the Cubans are, like, offscale (the worst Cuban students overlap in performance with the next best group, i.e., Chile and Costa Rica ...)
Posted by Utpal
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December 20, 2008 9:38 AM
Posted on December 20, 2008 09:38
Bolivia will follow as long as it stays Bolivarian. They've just declared full literacy. Yay!!!
Posted by QueenBina
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December 19, 2008 9:52 PM
Posted on December 19, 2008 21:52
Eric, the Bolivarian Republic is number 61, not 68 (actually making it quite comfortably above Brazil). In Lat Am, they follow Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico (I am a little surprised about the last one, but oh well).
Posted by Utpal
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December 19, 2008 8:10 PM
Posted on December 19, 2008 20:10
You forgot to mention Cuba's awesomeness in the HDI. Cuba ranks highly in all the indices, but also they have the highest rating in the column where they take the GDP ranking of the country from the HDI ranking. Cuba had a score of 40 in this column, way above any other country. Imagine what would have happened without the blockade.
I'll mention that next time somebody complains that Venezuela is (becoming) Cuba.
Posted by ct
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December 19, 2008 6:27 PM
Posted on December 19, 2008 18:27