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| The Star 8th November 2011 |
But wait! Even small Costa Rica is ranked way above us at 34th. And what about the tiny Singapore nation (some don't even call Singapore a nation, just a city state) which has zilch natural resources except maybe their port and of course their people?
Yet Singapore is ranked 16th! And Malaysia is rich in natural resources, including petroleum and gas.
And before the usual smart alecks claim that tiny is easy to manage and to prosper, how about America which has how many times the population of Malaysia?
What about Canada or Australia whose population are not so way off from that of ours? Yet Australia is the 3rd most prosperous nation and Canada is the 6th!
And in some sub-index rankings we are not even here or there. In education and health, we are 46th and in safety and security we are 53rd.
In social capital we are 75th and in personal freedom we are way down the pile at 96th! And remember the rankings also take into assessment a number of obviously 3rd world countries!
That's saying quite a lot about BolehLand.
But in the final analysis, perhaps I am a little too harsh and unappreciative. Being a little above the middle ranking in the prosperity index is not bad, at least we have not slid down for the past three years.
So, I think I will go out for that pint of beer or, since I am hardly a beer or liquor man, I will opt to go to my favourite mamak stall or kopitiam for that cuppa of teh tarik or kopi kao after all.
Well I'm stunned to see that Ireland ranks 11th in the Prosperity Index. I don't think any Irish people I know feel that they are living in a prosperous country right now. I must go off and learn more about how this index was calculated. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. By the way: I'm surprised that Malaysia didn't rank higher!
ReplyDeleteI am also not too sure what factors went into the assessment. Some results do look quite surprising. As far as I am concerned, Malaysia should have ranked higher with all the natural resources we have and a relatively small population. But I guess mismanagement, crony capitalism, corruption and illicit outflow of funds have something to do with our ranking. I am not sure about Ireland, but 11th ranking is something to talk about. But I do agree that with the current situation, the Irish people may not actually feel that they are prosperous. And we Malaysians certainly don't, with the constant rising cost of living and largely stagnant incomes. Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteIrish Nomad, it seems that the prosperity index took into consideration 8 sub indices including economy, governance, entrepreneurship and opportunity, education and health among some others and their impact in influencing well being and prosperity. What a mishmash way to measure a country's prosperity! No wonder we are all confused. Anyway, as far as Malaysians are concerned, our ranking very much reflects the way we feel about ourselves -- neither here nor there and shouldn't we have done better and of course we should have had!
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