http://ca.dailynews.yahoo.com/ca/headlines/ts/story.html?s=v/ca/20000629/ts/health_canada_col_2.html
> Thursday June 29 7:06 PM ET
> Canada Best Place to Live--UN Report
> By Evelyn Leopold
>
> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Canada, for the seventh consecutive
> year, ranks as the best place to live in the world. But if you
> are a woman, you are better off in Scandinavia, says the UN Human
> Development Report 2000, released on Thursday.
>
> Norway is in second place in overall rankings, followed by the
> United States, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, the
> Netherlands, Japan and Britain. Finland is in 11th place,
> followed by France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Austria,
> Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand.
>
> At the other end of the scale, the 10 least-developed countries
> that provide the fewest services to their people, from the bottom
> up are: war-devastated Sierra Leone, Niger, Burkina Faso,
> Ethiopia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Chad, Central
> African Republic and Mali. This year's survey by the UN
> Development Program, like its 10 predecessors, ranks 174 nations
> according to income, health care, life expectancy and educational
> levels.
>
> In addition to the ratings, the report this year looks at the
> relationship between human rights and development and proposes
> policies to promote and respect democracy.
>
> The statistical rankings have gained such exposure in the past
> decade that the Canadian province of Ontario is using them in its
> television commercials to attract business, advertising itself as
> the best place to live in the world.
>
> But the report cautioned Ontario, Canada's richest and most
> populous province, against complacency. It noted that the
> provincial government was also using the report to justify its
> full funding for Roman Catholic schools but not for those of any
> other religious group. ``Canada's high scores in adult literacy
> and school and college enrollment do not disprove religious
> discrimination in access to public education--and in no way waive
> the need for Ontario to remedy the situation,'' the report said.
>
> But income alone, the report says, did not automatically mean
> better educational or health services. Guinea, Pakistan and
> Vietnam, for example, have similar levels of per capita income,
> but their placing in the index shows otherwise. Guinea ranks
> 162nd, Pakistan 135th and Vietnam 108th, an indication Hanoi
> spends more on primary health care to bring down infant mortality
> rates.
>
> When progress for women is measured, Canada slips into eighth
> place and the United States ranks 13th in the so-called ''gender
> empowerment index'' that measures the number of women in
> parliament, government, professional or technical jobs and their
> average earnings compared to men.
>
> The 20 top countries in this category are Norway, Iceland,
> Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, New
> Zealand, Belgium, Australia, Austria, United States, Switzerland,
> Britain, Bahamas, Barbados, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela. No
> statistics were available for France.
>
> Japan, whose high standard of living and widespread education put
> it in 9th place in the overall rankings, was 41st on the gender
> equality index, below that of Costa Rica, in 24th place.
> Likewise, South Korea, which ranked 31st in the overall index,
> fell to 63rd in the women's equality standings. Greece showed a
> similar discrepancy from 25th place overall to 49th place when
> advancement for women was measured. In Latin America, Chile with
> an overall ranking of 38th, fell to 51st on the women's equality
> measurement.
>
> Among the richest nations, the report shows relative prosperity
> is also accompanied by pockets of poverty. While the United
> States has the world's highest gross national product, it ranks
> first in poverty rates among the 18 richest countries. Ireland is
> in second place and Britain in third. The main reason was the
> prevalence of functional illiteracy--about one person in
> five--the report said.
>
> The report said 22 countries in Africa and Eastern Europe
> experienced major reversals in health care and other social
> services, largely because of the impact of AIDS in southern and
> eastern Africa and economic stagnation in the former Soviet Union
> and Eastern Europe.
>
> Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, a coordinator of the report, said governments
> should study the index for progress achieved year to year,
> especially for the most deprived, rather than the absolute
> rankings. ``Look at the Human Development Index to see where your
> country stands--and then look again, and again,'' she said.
--
Gerald Oskoboiny <
[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/