http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990712/3j.html
Monday July 12, 3:03 pm Eastern Time
Canada, Norway world's best places to live - U.N.
(adds Canada's reaction, para 5)
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, June 12 (Reuters) - Canada, for the sixth consecutive year,
ranks first among best
places to live, while Norway treats women better than any other country,
according to the 1999 U.N.
Human Development Report, released on Monday.
This year's survey, like its predecessors, ranks 174 nations according to
how people live, factoring in health care, life expectancy, education and
income.
In the overall index, Norway is in second place, followed by the United
States, Japan, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, the Netherlands, Iceland,
Britain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Austria,
Luxembourg, New Zealand, Italy and Ireland.
At the other end of the scale, the 10 least developed countries in human
terms are, from the bottom up, Sierra Leone, Niger, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Mali and the Central African
Republic.
Canada has used the report each year to broadcast its achievements. ``We, as
Canadians, should be very proud, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said.
Together, we have built a country which is the envy of the world -- a
country founded on tolerance, cooperation and inclusion.''
But another index showed a widespread discrepancy between the sexes, with
inequality existing in all countries.
Canada slips to fourth place on this list, and the United States is in
eighth place on the ``gender empowerment'' index. This measures how many
women are in parliament or government, how many have professional or
technical jobs, and how much they earn, based on per capita income.
The 20 top countries here are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Germany,
Finland, Iceland, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Austria, the Bahamas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Britain, Belgium,
Portugal, South Africa and Ireland.
The survey shows that high income is not always a necessary condition for
creating opportunities for women. South Africa and Costa Rica, for example,
outrank France, which is in 36th place. Israel in 37th place outperforms
Japan in 38th place.
The Bahamas, the Czech Republic and Slovenia also offer better conditions
for women than their income would suggest, illustrating that equality ``can
be achieved across a range of cultures,'' the report said.
Despite major improvements in life expectancy and literacy among men and
women over the past decade, poverty is pervasive in Benin, Nepal and Niger,
among others.
Pockets of deprivation also exist within rich nations. For example,
Denmark's average life expectancy is 76 years, but 13 percent of the
population does not reach the age of 60.
In Ireland, 23 percent of the people are functionally illiterate, and in the
United States, nearly 20 percent of the population has an income below the
national poverty line.
Britain, Ireland and the United States show higher poverty levels than other
industrialized countries.
The report said 16 countries suffered major reversals in health care,
largely because of the impact of AIDS in southern and eastern Africa and
economic stagnation in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
-----------
Following is a full list the Human Development Index based on income, life
expectancy and educational attainment:
1. Canada 2. Norway 3. United States 4. Japan 5. Belgium 6. Sweden 7.
Australia 8. Netherlands 9. Iceland 10. Britain 11. France 12. Switzerland
13. Finland 14. Germany 15. Denmark 16 Austria 17. Luxembourg 18. New
Zealand 19. Italy 20. Ireland 21. Spain 22. Singapore 23. Israel 24. Hong
Kong 25. Brunei 26. Cyprus 27. Greece 28. Portugal 29. Barbados 30. South
Korea 31. Bahamas 32. Malta 33. Slovenia 34. Chile 35. Kuwait 36. Czech
Republic 37. Bahrain 38. Antigua 39. Argentina 40. Uruguay 41. Qatar 42.
Slovakia 43. United Arab Emirates 44. Poland 45. Costa Rica 46. Trinidad and
Tobago 47. Hungary 48. Venezuela 49. Panama 50. Mexico 51. Saint Kitts and
Nevis 52. Grenada 53. Dominica 54. Estonia 55. Croatia 56. Malaysia 57.
Colombia 58. Cuba 59. Mauritius 60. Belarus 61. Fiji 62. Lithuania 63.
Bulgaria 64. Suriname 65. Libya 66. Seychelles 67. Thailand 68. Romania 69.
Lebanon 70. Western Samoa 71. Russia 72. Ecuador 73. Macedonia 74. Latvia
75. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 76. Kazakhstan 77. Philippines 78.
Saudi Arabia 79. Brazil 80. Peru 81. Saint Lucia 82. Jamaica 83. Belize 84.
Paraguay 85. Georgia 86. Turkey 87. Armenia 88. Dominican Republic 89. Oman
90. Sri Lanka 91. Ukraine 92. Uzbekistan 93. Maldives 94. Jordan 95. Iran
96. Turkmenistan 97. Kyrgyzstan Republic 98. China 99. Guyana 100. Albania
101. South Africa 102. Tunisia 103. Azerbaijan 104. Moldova 105. Indonesia
106. Cape Verde 107. El Salvador 108. Tajikistan 109. Algeria 110. Vietnam
111. Syria 112. Bolivia 113. Swaziland 114. Honduras 115. Namibia 116.
Vanuatu 117. Guatemala 118. Solomon Islands 119. Mongolia 120. Egypt 121.
Nicaragua 122. Botswana 123. Sao Tome and Principe 124. Gabon 125. Iraq 126.
Morocco 127. Lesotho 128. Myanmar 129. Papua New Guinea 130. Zimbabwe 131.
Equatorial Guinea 132. India 133. Ghana 134. Cameroon 135. Congo 136. Kenya
137. Cambodia 138. Pakistan 139. Comoros 140. Laos 141. Democratic Republic
of Congo 142. Sudan 143. Togo 144. Nepal 145. Bhutan 146. Nigeria 147.
Madagascar 148. Yemen 149. Mauritania 150. Bangladesh 151. Zambia 152. Haiti
153. Senegal 154. Ivory Coast 155. Benin 156. Tanzania 157. Djibouti 158.
Uganda 159. Malawi 160. Angola 161. Guinea 162. Chad 163. Gambia 164.
Rwanda 165. Central African Republic 166. Mali 167. Eritrea 168.
Guinea-Bissau 169. Mozambique 170. Burundi 171. Burkina Faso 172. Ethiopia
173. Niger 174. Sierra Leone.
--
.:|:..:|:.
--------------701C86FF1DBF156ECC4D3666
Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
name="ibell.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: Card for Ian Andrew Bell
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="ibell.vcf"
begin:vcard
n:Bell;Ian
tel;pager:(800) 365-4578
tel;cell:(408) 921-4873
tel;fax:(781) 685-5915
tel;home:(408) 564-2523
tel;work:(408) 525-8630
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
url:http://www.cisco.com
org:Cisco Systems - Service Provider LOB;Packet Telephony Division
version:2.1
email;internet:ibell@cisco.com
title:Solutions Manager
adr;quoted-printable:version:2.1;;Building SJ-6/4=0D=0A375 East Tasman Drive ;San Jose;CA;95134;USA
note;quoted-printable:AOL Instant Messenger ID: ibell SJ=0D=0A=0D=0A
x-mozilla-cpt:;-8400
fn:Ian Andrew Bell
end:vcard
--------------701C86FF1DBF156ECC4D3666--