The Good Country Index

A man named Simon Anholt has put together an index that shows how much good a country does outside of its own borders, a good country index.  I assume the question being asked is "how good a citizen is our country on a world stage?"

How do you see our country.  Do you think we do our share on the world stage? Would it surprise you that we do not do well?  Well, what about all those wars we fight.  Perhaps others do not consider that helping the world.  What about all the military equipment we send all over the world, surely that help is not being ignored by the rest of the world.

Well, it isn't too bad, the U.S. came out 21st in the world.  Obviously, much lower than our potential, but not bad considering much of our effort goes into our military industrial complex.  They rate countries on five different standards.  One of them is International Peace and Security.   Remember, this is not what we do for ourselves in this area, but what we do for others.  Also, it is not our opinion of ourselves, but the world's opinion of us.  We come in a 114th in the world on the International Peace and Security.   There are five subcategories under this:

• Peace Keeping Troops, where we are average.
• Dues in Arrears for Peace Keeping Efforts - where we are above average.
• International Violent Conflict - we get a very low grade on that one
• Arms Exporting - failing grade
• Internet Security - failing grade

Just because we are always in a war and sell and give weapons to everyone else, that doesn't mean we are interested in the peaceful resolution of problems.  I mean someone has to fight the wars and sell the wars, don't they.  As you can see, being a good country turns out to be hard for a country who spends more money on its Industrial Military Complex than most of the countries in the world put together and believes that it is its job to control the world.  I had a mother in law like that once.  That didn't have a happy ending either. 

It is funny that we think we are the greatest country in the world, it is hard to imagine that others don't see us the same way.  My friends in Peru used to tell me, we give you that America knows how to make money and war, but we do not think they know how to live life. My Australian friends when I would start bragging about America would tell me, we don't want to be America, we want to be a kinder America.  

Perhaps if we want to regain the idea of being the best country in the world, we need to start considering how our actions impact the world.  How does our drug and immigration policy impact Latin America?  How does our lack of leadership in global warming impact the world?  How will our lack luster response on the ebola virus impact the world?  How does Guantanamo Bay imprisonment without due representation impact justice in the world?  How does our treatment of the children immigrating from Honduras affect future generations in Honduras?

Or, we can pretend that we are just an island in the world, that we do not live in a globalized world, that we don't need or care about anyone else and that cooperation has no value or virtue. We can continue to look inward and not notice that our actions to others affects not only them but ourselves.  If I was a Jesus people, I would say we are our brother's keepers to all inhabitants of this world.  But, it is easier to keep thinking small.

What kind of country do you want to live in?