Best country in the world: Norway!
Posted on November 22nd, 2007 in canada, health, politics, rants, youtube |
Check out this deleted scene from Michael Moore’s Sicko. In the mid to late 90’s, Canada was #1 on the Human Development Index - aka. we were the best country in the world. Yes, we’re still doing pretty good, with a rating of 0.950 at #6. It’s only 0.025 points difference to Norway. In comparison:
- 3. Australia: 0.957
- 8. U.S.: 0.948
- 18. U.K.: 0.940
- 21. Germany: 0.932
As you can see just from the clip, Norway is obviously doing a number of things right. Heck, as most would agree, almost all of Western Europe as some of the best countries around. So, why don’t we learn from them and adopt some of their policies. As the country sways more conservative, isn’t it intriguing we continue to drop on the HDI? We seem to be going backwards. Doesn’t anyone else have a problem with this?
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8 Responses
Oh, we are going backwards… at a faster and faster rate every day. And yes, there are lots of people that have a problem with this. But it’s the will of the people, the majority, as we live in a democracy - albeit, one without proportional representation.
Ah life moving backwards, ain’t it grand?
You raise a very good question: to what extent can Canada, a country 6 times larger in population, and vastly different in ethnic composition, adopt policies successful in Norway? Recall that Norway is a country whose population is less than 9% first or second generation immigrants, roughly 1/4 of that of Canada. Is there a link between cultural homogeneity and the success of social welfare programs? And another important factor: does the age of a country correlate to its success in implementing such programs? Norway, after all, has had self-rule for over 1300 years. Canadians are babbling infants by comparison. However much we may envy the Norwegians- and believe me, I do- to what extent is this an apples and oranges comparison? Hmmm….Is there a sociologist in the house?
I wouldn’t call myself a sociologist, but I’m doing social science research sometimes so you can take my opinion for what it is. :)
To me, it feels like there’s a deeply-rooted sense of belonging in being Norwegian, that manifests as a desire to take care of their own. But if a country such as Canada which, as Tim says, is a “babbling infant” in establishing a Canadian character in part due to the high level of diversity in ethnic composition, there may be undercurrents where we feel like the people who have come here aren’t “us,” and thus are not worthy of the welcome that we once ourselves (or our families) received.
From another perspective (namely that as the child of immigrants), I think it’s pretty damn hard to reciprocate if you fled your home country in fear and are working your ass off just to get by. Maybe it has to do with collective narratives of how we come to those states of being, why, and how we begin to express those desires for a better country in politics. As I blogged the other day, democracy requires a learning that, I would wager, a lot of people never get in a meaningful fashion.
I read about this prison probably last year. An important note they subtly bring up is that the prison is so enjoyable that prisoners don’t attempt or even want to leave. They know a prison that isn’t paradise would be a pretty ugly consequence.
I don’t think this is a question of immigrants and their fitting in. I know some immigrants who are incredibly proud to be Canadian — *be* as in *are* — and also hold strong patriotic and cultural ties to their homeland, or parents’ homeland(s) as my case is as the child of immigrants. The fact that they’re working their butts off to get by is an indication of how poorly this country and its people serve them, and meanwhile people with buying power are cheering about another percentage point drop in GST. Government surpluses happen from funding cuts to social services, the same ones that are helping people in every “class” but especially the poorest. My Norwegian classmate told us minimum wage over there is $20/hr! Meanwhile even Canadian-born citizens struggle every day with $8/hr. I’ve done it; it sucks. Finnish citizens, meanwhile, get free education and basically spend most of their lives in school because they have it so good.
Norwegians make up the majority of Scandinavians in BC.
I think we could make a big difference by adopting European standards for food and cosmetics regulation — NOT the Americans’ as they’d like to do — which would reduce our incidence of disease and therefore reduce the impacts on health care which in turn would help rates of crime, homelessness and addiction as we would have greater ability to prevent these and treat people better.
I think this conversation is bringing up one thing in particular: we need more cultural anthropologists and sociologists! There are certainly many correlations between the history and policies of a country, and the health, wealth, knowledge, and “morals” of it’s citizens. I think, if I live long enough, it’s one of the areas I’d like to enter, just to research more about. Certainly, either enough research is not being done, or the research is not properly being shared.
[...] the Liberal party for the sponsorship scandal. They have no real objectives, no real plan, to move Canada forward in the 21st century. Once the people realize, maybe we can start being part of the solution once [...]
I certainly don’t think having a conservative government effects our world rating in any signifigant amount. Keep in mind the Liberals were in power until only recently, where as we had already been knocked off the number one spot before, from what I gather 2001, 2002. I believe a country needs a diverse government and having a Liberal or Conservative government from now until forever is not a good thing for the country. Both parties have priorities in different areas as such they tend to favour funding and progression in their preferred areas. Social programs can’t be ignored and cut to nothing by always having a Conservative government and the military and economy can’t always be ignored by the Liberals if we hope to be successful. I do realize that is a broad generalization of party policy, but I believe it gets my point across. Keep in mind the slim margin of diference between all the top countries, were talking thousandth of a fraction for the top countries, I have no idea how the UN can suggest they can measure how “good” a country is to that degree of accuracy. I would in fact suggest that amoung the top contenders for top country its more luck then anything that picks a number one as the .001 that tends to make the diference seems like an awful finiky and suspicious number to come up with on a global scale.
Tim wrote: …Norway, after all, has had self-rule for over 1300 years…
That’s wrong! Norway gained independence from Sweden in 1905. With other words, Norway has had self-rule shorter than the US, Canada and any of the countries brought up in ‘Sicko’.
A note on what Karen wrote: I believe Norwegians can thank both the Americans, Brits and fellow Scandinavians for their success in the early years after WWII. However, after the success in their oil search back in 69, Norway became one of the richest countries in the world. Combined with their traditional ’social democracy’ and united government, the Norwegians have not only managed to create such a successful healthcare, but also been able to sustain this welfare to the citizens’ fortune!