UN: Norway is the best place to live in the world

[ringmastery]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040715/wl_canada_nm/canada_unitednations_countries_col_1

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands ranked as the best five countries to live in but Africa's quality of life plummeted because of AIDS (news - web sites), said a U.N. report released on Thursday.



The United States was ranked in eighth place, a drop of one position from 2003 in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.


The Human Development Index, prepared by the U.N. Development Program, is issued annually and includes every country for which statistics are available.


Iraq (news - web sites), Afghanistan (news - web sites), North Korea (news - web sites), and Liberia (news - web sites) were among nations not included because of lack of data.


Norway has led the list for the past four years.

[foolmeonce]

1. come visit the middle eastern paradise.......israel!

"In the Middle East, Israel led the list in 22nd place"

only 22nd? looks like we had better try harder.

[Stephanie]

2. Do they have legacy admissions,like Yale?

I would definitely qualify. 75% of my ancestry is Norwegian. Maybe it's time to go back to the roots.

[Pachamama]

3. Unfortunately not, but have you seen the Norge Men and Women?

Don't know if your single Stephanie or which you prefer, but either way, you couldn't go wrong and it would be the greatest way to get your citizenship...

I'm 1/2 Danish, 1/2 German and my husband is 1/2 Norwegian....we figure we have a 50 % chance at any of those countries.... :)

[tommilator]

12. Choose Norway..

Denmark slipped from 11th to 17th. And its no wonder with our current government and their Danish Peoples Party lapdogs. Plus immigration rules here have become so strict that danes move to Sweden in order to marry people from outside the EU.

[Stephanie]

19. Sign me up!

Very single. Where do I apply?

[gauguin57]

4. This is helpful ...

... because I have to be ready with a list of countries to flee to if Bush is re-elected (horrors!).

I'm leaning toward New Zealand or Wales.

[BurtWorm]

5. I guess they don't include weather as one of the variables.

:scared:

[Djinn]

6. My thoughts exactly

Melbourne winters are bad enough for me - and I've been told that I'm a big wus on this board as our average winter temp is around 50 f - no way could I live in a Scandanavian country.

I guess I'm stuck with Aus - if we could get rid of the incumbent govt I'd just about agree with the UN on this one though.

[BurtWorm]

7. Actually, I've been to Bergen in late December

and it was the darkness more than the cold that I found oppressive. The sun is up no more than six full hours just after the solstice. But the temperature was surprisingly not too frigid. In fact it rained a bit. On the other hand, we climbed one of the mountains above the city and it got way, way cold up there. And windy.

Nevertheless, from what my friend, an American ex-pat I was visiting, tells me, Norway is incredibly enlightened. About everything but whales and baby seals.

[Djinn]

8. that to

my mum's from Shetland (just outside the artic circle) and I don't know how she handled it for 15 years - I spent a couple of weeks there in summer and it was only really dark for a few hours overnight - which was kinda cool, but I know I couldn't handle the winters and long periods of darkness - could explain the number of pubs and alcoholics in Lerwick though!

[tommilator]

13. Whales and baby seals..

thats a thousand years of cultcha. Might as well take away guns from 'Murika. To most Norwegians, the topic isn't open for debate.

[dumpster_baby]

9. This issue is starting to penetrate the American consciousness

This same news story comes up year after year. I think it is starting to penetrate the thick skulls of Americans. The "America is the Greatest nation on Earth" propaganda is taking a slow beating from this news story repeated year after year.

It was this very same issue that prompted me a couple of years ago to start researching into WHY this quality of life disparity existed, and that research changed me from a right winger to a left winger.

[Piperay]

10. I'm half Norwegian

and have relatives there who have visited here but I have never been over there. :-( I sure would love to go someday.

[Swamp Rat]

11. I spent a few wonderful months in Norway...

but I'll take New Orleans, even with all its problems.

[BonjourUSA]

14. In Summer I hope

because to be in the dark during almost six months a year should be very hard if you are not a native.

[Swamp Rat]

17. It was hard living there in the Summer

I could never get to sleep because it was always light outside, plus it is cold at night (for me since I am from a very warm place). By the time you go South to perhaps Achen, I feel more normal. Though the people were very nice, they were also somewhat "cold." I prefer Spain and France in general.

[Redhead488]

16. Agree

I've been to Norway, as well as Sweden and Denmark,and the cost of living is so high. Also, just to get an apartment in Stockholm, for exapmle, one has to put their name on a 30-year waiting list!

[Baclava]

15. My Gawd! Don't they watch movies?

I'll be warm down here in FL while the rest of y'all freeze...

[TrogL]

18. I take it they're ignoring the snowdrifts in July

I visited Trondheim in July in the 70's. There were snowdrifts downtown.

Of course I should talk, there was a snowdrift behind my apartment until the 24th of May weekend.

[Bread and Circus]

20. I believe it, I've been there. It's the most awesome place I've ever been.