Posted on 11/28/2007 1:25:35 PM PST by WesternCulture
The 2007 Human Development Report says Iceland now leads annual United Nations Index.
Iceland has narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today. Norway had held the number one ranking for the previous six years. This change in ranking is a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita figures, stress the Report authors.
Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, along with income, based on the most recent reliable data from UN partners and other official sources. Due to shifts in how countries report the statistics from which the rankings are calculated, the Index is subject to regular adjustment.
The Index analyses 2005 statistics from 175 UN member countries along with Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) and the occupied Palestinian territories. The HDI rankings this year do not include 17 UN member nations, among them Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, due to insufficient reliable data.
Twenty-two countries—all in sub-Saharan Africa—fall into the category of “low human development.” In ten of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40; in the case of Zambia that figure rises to one child in two. By contrast, amongst the top 20 countries, only in Denmark and the United States will fewer than 9 children in ten reach the age of 60.
In most countries, including Brazil, China and India, human development has risen over the last 30 years, but some countries have shifted into reverse gear. In all, 16 countries have a lower HDI today than in 1990. Three of these countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe—have lower rates of human development than they did in 1975.
HIGHER DEVELOPMENT, HIGHER EMISSIONS
This year’s HDR, entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, which focuses on the impact of climate change on the world’s poor and vulnerable, highlights that the role of energy in human development is reflected in the record of emissions of CO2.
According to the Report, the top 20 countries in the HDI emitted more CO2 in 2004 than all the medium and low human development countries combined, while China and India are the largest emitters of CO2 amongst developing countries, together they emitted less in 2004 than the top 32 countries in the HDI excluding the United States. By itself, the United States emitted almost as much as China and India combined in 2004.
####All these Western countries except Iceland have high immigration rates which indicate that immigrants are not a liablity at all.####
They haven’t reached critical mass yet. Check out this website:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/
Actually about 10% of the Norwegian population are recent immigrants. Minorities mean mostly Sami (Laplanders). Check out Wikipedia. Icelanders are descendants of scandanavians and their Irish slaves and they pretty much constitute 100% of the population.
I share your concern about Moslem immigration. Look at what is happening in Paris even recently.
Dude, would be great if you include ONG BAK, Audition, bird people of China and Ichi the killer to your fantastic list !
Maybe I could add a "special warning" section for films like Save the Green Planet and the ones you listed!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.