Maybe more an index of how 'right on' (pliable) a country is. In other words, it's a political creation
Look at the break down:
http://www.goodcountry.org/country/IRLScience and technology includes 'Nobel Prizes'. Ireland does well in this -in literature...
Also number of international students is not a good indicator as most of them visit for English and the number of patents, a lot of them might be via multinationals
Culture:
'Creative Goods Exports' might mean digital product sales. The leaders in this category are Belgium and Holland and they have low rates; 'UNESCO dues in arrears' -nearly all countries have the same score; 'Freedom of movement' -all western EU countries look the same, and the same for 'Press Freedom'
International Peace and Security:
This is a right aul laugh, this is
Read it! :
http://www.goodcountry.org/category/int ... e-securityWho is no 1, you might ask? None other than...Egypt! And where is dear old Ireland? 33rd, and the best metric has to be 'International violent conflict' where we are 100% negative, sharing that honour with such hotspots as Iceland, New Zealand and Luxembourg! That the Congo and Rwanda share the same space is not considered a contradiction in this study!
World Order:
Mixed bag of how much 'Charity' (read 'politically angled aid') given and treaties signed; basically stuff the IMF, World Bank and the UN want you to do that aligns with their agenda. It also includes 'Refugees Generated' (emigration?). Something to be proud of! My heart beats in my chest for all to hear!
Planet and Climate:
More vaguery as Ireland is not responsible for the planet, nor either its own or anyone else's climate. Plus most of the climate change stuff is politically motivated and fabricated. On the things Ireland can control (like Biodiversity and waste, its very low)
Prosperity and Equality
This part is pure Newspeak -it bears as much to prosperity as a penguin does to an aeroplane and as much to equality as, I dunno, a horse to a bar of Cadbury's.
In the 'FDI outflow' part, if you look at the World Bank data:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BM. ... t&sort=asc Ireland is up there with Hong Kong and Mauritius (as is Switzerland and Luxembourg) which says that this is multinationals using Ireland as a sort of off shore platform without the negative connotations of the Caymans et all. If you look at the 'Fairtrade market size' most countries are not even scored
Health and Wellbeing:
'Food aid', 'Voluntary excess donations to the WHO' -this is for the UN and the people behind them, not Ireland nor the recipient countries. 'Humanitarian aid donations' has little effect in Ireland either. The most interesting one here for me is 'Drug Seizures'. Ireland score negative while Spain, Portugal and Turkey are high and positive. Countries that score high are variously producers, connection countries, religiously or culturally opposed to narcotics, involved in or near major conflict or entre points into user markets. Ireland and Cyprus are the ONLY TWO COUNTRIES on the list with skin in the game not stopping drugs in large quantities which says something as they are entre points into Europe. Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece and Albania do so
So basically, reading behind the lines, a 'good country' is a place that facilitates the parking and moving of capital without much oversight, engages fully with transnational quasi-governmental entities like the UN, provides a base for multi-national operations, is open to outside investment and does what it is told. Apart from the last part, the rest sound innocuous, positive even, but that as we know now is only for those in control or befitting from such a set up.
Still, the Oirish/Little Irelanders that buy the Irish Daily Mail along with the smug middle class will lap it right up
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
