United Nations names Australia as the second best place in the world to live
November 5, 2010 - 6:31AM
               
The United Nations has named oil-rich Norway as the country with the best quality of life, followed by Australia and NZ, while Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades.
The UN's annual A-to-Z of global wealth, poverty, health and education highlighted, however, that it is becoming ever more difficult to break into the rich club of nations.
Norway - with its 81 years of life expectancy and average annual income of $US59,000 ($59,000) - has topped the Human Development Index (HDI) for all but two years since 2001.
It doesn't come in first place in any individual category - average income in Liechtenstein, for example, is a wallet-busting $US81,011 and Japan's life expectancy is 83.6 years - but Norway's all-round performance gives it superiority in the 20th annual rankings on the UN Development Program (UNDP).
Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Ireland, in order, also made the top five.
Zimbabwe came in last among the 169 nations ranked, behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo.
In stark contrast to the leaders, in Zimbabwe life expectancy is just 47 years and per capita income $US176.
DR Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the only countries to see their HDI value fall below 1970 levels.
"These countries offer lessons on the devastating impact of conflict, the AIDS epidemic and economic and political mismanagement," UNDP chief Helen Clarke, the former New Zealand prime minister, said yesterday.
The study aims to give a broader assessment of quality of life than just income - by including, health, education, gender equality and political freedom - and its lead writer, Jeni Klugman, said most of the world has seen "dramatic progress" since 1970.
Average life expectancy rose from 59 to 70 years, primary school enrollment grew from 55 to 70 per cent, and per capita incomes doubled to more than $US10,000. Many of the poorest countries achieved some of the greatest gains, she said.
"Overall they are healthier, more educated and wealthier and more power to appoint and hold their leaders accountable than ever before," Klugman said.
"But some countries have suffered serious setbacks, particularly in health - sometimes erasing the gains of several decades."
The nations which have risen most up the rankings in recent decades include "growth miracles" such as China, which has risen eight places in the last five years to 89th, Indonesia and South Korea.
East Asia and the Pacific had by far the strongest overall performance of any region over the past 40 years - twice the average worldwide progress.
China, the second highest index achiever since 1970, has been successful mainly because of income rather than health or education, the report said.
China's per capita income increased 21-fold over four decades, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. Yet China was not among Asia's top performers in school enrollment and life expectancy.
Klugman highlighted that "economic growth alone does not automatically bring improvements in health and education".
Nepal surprisingly emerged as one of the most improved nations since 1970, despite its longstanding civil war.
A child born today in Nepal can expect to live 25 years longer than a child born in 1970.
In six sub-Saharan African countries and three in the former Soviet Union, life expectancy is now below 1970 levels - mainly because of the HIV epidemic and tougher conditions for adults in former communist nations.
And even though incomes have grown dramatically, poor nations are not making the same economic strides as they are in health and education.
"On average, rich countries have grown faster than poor ones over the past 40 years.
"The divide between developed and developing countries persists: a small subset of countries has remained at the top of the world income distribution and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that high income group," the report concluded.

Obviously the UN did not take the mongering aspect into account. If that was the case Thailand, China and HK would be ranked way up there.

I luff living in Oz.

I thought we lacked an underground scene as most people go to Thailand/Bali for fun.

But im slowly finding out that there is enough action in Sydney

Why spend $2000us on a plane ticket to get girls marginally cheaper :p

Although I would say that the girls are more than marginally cheaper. Once you take into account not only the cost of the plane ticket, but accommodation and all those unforeseen incidentals, then from a purely financial perspective it is cheaper to stay at home.

i live in ireland and find that flying back to hong kong and spend 10 days in sz in hotels going to ktvs and having massages work out cheaper than staying in ireland and punt for 10 days.. also the service over here would no be as good as over in china

Oh, please share some intel on punting in Ireland. I may be going there in the spring for a holiday.

Too true, so many people take Oz for granted. its a wonderful country. There is no real need to go on a holiday outside of oz unless you want a different experience.

well first there not many asians over here...and the ones are here charge 200 euros an hour which is about $1800 hong kong.

I say first up that I have not bothered much with mongering in Oz, but it is not just about the money...

Is the quality of service you guys are getting on a par with SE Asia? I have only had very mechanical, passionless sex in OZ with WG's. A bit like the Euros who show up in HK sometimes...

I agree that in general, the WGs in OZ seem to be a lot more mechanical, and they cost at least twice as much compared to HK prices! That's why I don't punt a lot in OZ, it's not really worthwhile.

Same is true for USA.  Expensive, inconvenient, quality is normally pretty low, and the girls are older and much less service oriented.  It's better to save some money and treat yourself by taking a vacation and mix in a few mongering experiences.

Oz WGs may be marginally more expensive, but what are we talking about here? 40-yr-old gals, like i see in some reports, or early-twenties hot things? If the former, how much does a 19-yr-old who is willing to BBBJ and DFK cost in Oz? Now that would be a fairer comparison. I have founds oz wgs of any quality to be expensive and inferior in terms of service.

I agree in that you need to compare oranges with oranges. There are young woman here in Sydney offering the services you describe, but they are without a doubt more expensive and harder to find than in HK.

If your looking to f**k one or two high class WG/HG's every day over a 2 week period then travelling to HK or Bangkok or some other WG hotspot is certainly worth the plane fare and hotel costs.

However if you just want to do the same once or twice a week then your probably better staying home, particularly in what I would regard a a 2nd tier city for WG's like Sydney, where brothels are legal and there is a large asian community from which to draw.

I am probably one the few, if not only aussie on the forum putting up pics of the WG's here at the moment and my tastes tend to run to the older girls simply because they offer, what I would regard as a superior service to the young girls, they are also cheaper and easier to access.

My point being that it would be unfair to judge aussie WG's based soley on the WG's I frequent.