UN: Human Development Index
The UN Human Development Index is an indicator for how well a country is doing as far as Standard of Living and education. Most of what you need to know can be displayed here. The countries with the very lowest standard of living are obviously in central Africa. This is mostly due to colonialism, what we just looked over. The absolute worst Human Development Index is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During the era of imperialism, King Leopald of Belgium terrorized the region and made most of the people into slaves and free labor. Europe, Australia, and the US are all very well off as far as standard of living.
The HDI can all be linked into historical trends. The Dem. Rep. of Congo was terrorized by King Leopald, and to that end the country was abused and set back, their elephant populations wiped, and their people suffered horribly. The book "Heart of Darkness" was written as one of the only texts to document the horrors of the Belgian occupation there. This map hardly surprises me, but if you haven't noticed already, North Korea has no data. This is because they would not let the UN into their isolated country to measure their presumably horrible index.
Unfortunately, as shown by history, countries tend to prosper off of the resources and people of other countries. Luckily, I feel like the overall moral standards of the world are increasing, what with colonialism being abolished, and having an international peace keeping organization that the world powers are a major part of. Hopefully, after time and money is put into these poorer countries, the HDI will begin to level out as opposed to having some countries living lavishly and others living in dirt.
ReplyDeleteBasically, while the HDI can be linked to historical trends, I'm finding that these trends don't appear to be occurring anymore, so this will hopefully lead to an increased standard of living in the world.