New Zealand 4th in peace index
May 21st, 2008 at 8:53 am by David FarrarVision of Humanity has NZ in 4th place in their 2008 Global Peace Index.
Ahead of us are Iceland, Denmark and Norway. Now this gives us a real opportunity as they are all naval neighbours.
If we can arrange for a great big naval battle between Iceland, Denmark and Norway then we’ll rise into 1st place. My thinking is to get Norway to sink an anti whaling boat full of protesting Danes. Denmark will respond.
Then Iceland, with links to both Norway and Denmark will try and intervene to stop the conflict, but they get hit accidentally, and then enter the conflict themselves.
Hence in 2009 we should top the index.
Related posts:
- NZ still tops Global Peace Index
- Global Peace Index 2011
- NZ most peaceful nation on Earth
- The Democracy Index
May 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am
My Dad has a great theory on why we have low incidence of racial based violence in NZ. He reakons Kiwis are just too lazy to hate anyone. It take a lot of effort to hold a grudge against someone because of their religious views or the colour of their skin, the average kiwi just finds that all a bit too hard. I do kind of like his whole concept of “peace through laziness”.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:05 am
Iceland isnt getting involved in anything as they are almost bankrupt. Sunk ( pun intended) by just the sort of borrow up large for so called economic transformation along the lines suggested by John Key. Even his former company Merrill Lynch would have been next after Bear Stearns to go belly up
[DPF: 10 demerits for off topic]
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:11 am
Oh the shame… we’ve slipped from 2nd place in 2007.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:14 am
GWW – you really are a tosser par excellence. Take your spite and envy somewhere else. Iceland perhaps?
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Shut down the comments section on half a dozen blogs and we’d be at number 3
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:28 am
Spector
Your Dad might be on to something there, although given the poisonous contributions to this and other blogs by the likes of GWW and his pals I think you might see a lot of people become more energetic and a lot less lazy.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:37 am
Thats funny I don’t recall Iceland, Denmark and Norway having put mutliple combat deployments into the GWOT and winning 13 valour decorations and a PUC.
Must have missed the news that day.
No doubt choastwhoispaidbylabour will clear it up for us.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am
Jeez, I’d hate to get on the wrong end of a Danish Aquavit bomb. Those things melt icecaps.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:57 am
GWW could twist a post about a trip to the beach into an excuse to espouse his hatred of Key. Get over yourself GWW. You might be surprised to know that threadjacking is not actually doing anything to dent John Key – indeed it is little more than a reminder of the desperation of the left.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:57 am
So we’re in good company with three socialist European countries who refuse to do anything to combat islamofascism… oh awesome
Perhaps we should set up a Courage Index for countries. That would take the blinders of people’s eyes and see just how New Zealand is regarded in the rest of the world
Something like this:
COURAGE INDEX
Vote:1. USA
2. UK
3. Australia
….
187. New Zealand
188. Iran
189. North Korea
May 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am
pushme, I fail to see what courageous actions the USA (govt) has taken in recent years.
Invading Iraq on a false premise?
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am
So we’re in good company with three socialist European countries who refuse to do anything to combat islamofascism… oh awesome
Once it was the communist’s, and now its the so-called islamofacist’s! Next week it’ll be something else masquerading as the bogey man. Boo hoo hoo
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
Strange index. The only truly neutral country, Switzerland is ranked 12th? I see they don’t list the Vatican either, I would guess they would be first, but with some of the rhetoric coming out maybe down near Iraq.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 10:47 am
Vision of Humanity is a very important and relevant body – we should be very pleased with this ranking !
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 11:06 am
>>So we’re in good company with three socialist European countries who refuse to do anything to combat islamofascism… oh awesome
Not true of Denmark – remember the cartoons
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Ooooh communists Boo hoo hoo
Vote:100 million dead Boo hoo hoo
Yeah harden up you bloody capitalist swine
May 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Thats strange considering Denmark were one of the original members of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’
Wonder what criteria was used? Where we just the forth country pulled out of their arse?
[DPF: I think Iceland was also]
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am
“My Dad has a great theory on why we have low incidence of racial based violence in NZ”
There may not be the violence, but there is still the intrenched racism. My brother is Maori – adopted, try going through Central Otago with him and just watch the faces, it’s there and it’s ugly.
islamofascism”
is that the same as Bushfascism, how’s the freedom and peace going in Iraq?
Courage index, is that another word or for bullie boy hard on chest beating oppressors. A big man holds a couple of hundred hostages in a foreign country with no attempt at natural justice. Imagine if England had a prison on say Ibiza and those people had no access to the crimes for which they are accused. Imagine if that English military base started to trial these people on made up laws.
Please a little reality wouldn’t hurt would it
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am
What are you masquerading as “he-man”?
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I see Japan is at #5. It is probably something to do with Japan’s constitution.
Apparently the US is trying to get Japan to commit troops to Afghanistan or some such but Japan has stated that their constitution (written by a US General after WW2) forbids them from using armed forces except in defence of their country, too funny
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Just have a look. It’s all right there. No mention or pulling things out of arses.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Apparently the US is trying to get Japan to commit troops to Afghanistan or some such but Japan has stated that their constitution (written by a US General after WW2) forbids them from using armed forces except in defence of their country, too funny
Japan deployed troops to Iraq 2004 to 2006.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Paul..
You manage to consistently and without let up turn every thread into a chance to denigrate John Key/ Nats/ USA/ Bush etc.
What a friggin jaundiced view you inflict on everyone.. get a life!
See if you can (I know it’s hard) say something on topic or even a decent debating point.
Sonic could join you on this…
As for my views on the topic at hand… it’s kinda scary to think that if NZ is at 4th (or arguable the top) of the peaceful list and we have 61 year olds randomly bashed for giggles, gangs randomly terrorizing areas and such, then the world is a seriously fucked up place.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
gangs randomly terrorizing areas and such
We should set the anti-terror squad on those thugs!
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
>>Japan deployed troops to Iraq 2004 to 2006.
unaha-closp: As far as I know that was a humanitarian effort (water purification, reconstruction, etc).
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution says: “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Drilling down in these figures provides some interesting perceptions of NZ. Out of 10 we score:
9.4 on the “Political Democracy Index”.
10 on Civil Liberties (presumably this was taken pre-EFA)
9.4 on political participation (and this doesn’t just count voter turnout, it also claims to measure ‘engagement’!!)
4.2 on “freedom of the press”!!
Meanwhile on a scale of 1 – 5 we score ’0′ for “hostility to foreigners/private property”. Huh?
Some of those rankings seem a little screwy to me. I don’t find the average NZer particularly “engaged” by politics. Vexed, yes – but engagement implies some sort of active response, even if only commenting on a blog. Similarly that seems a low score for freedom of the press (if it was “quality of the press” it might be more believeable
)
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Oh, and another fascinating figure when you drill down even further and follow the “prisoners per 100,000 population” figure to the source…
NZ imprisons more of it’s population than does Burma. Or Liberia. Or Colombia. Or Rwanda. Or the UK, Australia or Saudi Arabia. In fact we’re so keen to see our fellow citizens behind bars we’re 61st out of 217, or well within the top third.
And yet the “Sensible (sic) Sentencing Trust” and many who comment here want to see more people locked away for longer. Perhaps we should just sling some barbed wire round the coastline and be done with it?
Source: International Centre for Prison Studies
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Peace Index?
I’d like to see a bit more peace on the streets of NZ.
And I don’t mean just road rage.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Lance,
please tell me where Bush has bought economic and political stability anywhere in the world and I’ll eat my hat. He’s done one hell of a job on the US economy, peace is a foreign concept in Iraq and security is a dirty word in New Orleans.
Kiwitoffee, there is relative peace on the streets of NZ, those who wish to believe that our streets are unsafe are buying onto a concept that just isn’t true.
Back to Lance, this post is about peace and how well we have done to get here, the peacefulness of other nations could also be called into question. Considering there was a swipe at Islamic Fundamentalism (which i abhor) it was also relevant to call into question Bush’s role in bringing peace to the world (which I equally abhor). Sorry if the truth hurts, but state sanctioned hostage detaining is an evil which will not bring peace to the US for a very long time.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Rex
your comments re incarceration rates in NZ compared to the rest of the world…
“And yet the “Sensible (sic) Sentencing Trust” and many who comment here want to see more people locked away for longer. Perhaps we should just sling some barbed wire round the coastline and be done with it?”
need to be applauded, this is a well thought out comment and devoid of the emotive clap trap that usually accompanies this topic. Well done. One of the best here ever!!!
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Relative peace on the streets compared to what? Joburg maybe.
A grandfather murdered at a bus stop in the weekend, couple in court for murdering their baby.
Yes Paul NZ is just a socialist paradise, close your eyes and you can have a wet dream about anything you want.
At least under Muldoon as kids we could live the door of the house open as you went to the shops for the day.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
“NZ imprisons more of it’s population than does Burma.”
Blah blah blah.. so what? That’s because NZers commit more crimes. If you’re not going to jail criminals Rex, what’s your solution for keeping law abiding citizens free from crime?
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 10:02 pm
“At least under Muldoon as kids we could live the door of the house open as you went to the shops for the day.”
It’s true- people did used to do that. That’s cos no one had jackshit worth nicking.
Vote:May 21st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Paul
NZ’s streets might safer than streets in, say, Lima or London but consider the trend, the way things are going. Yobbos in Royal Oak apparently killing a passing elderly man is just the latest tragic incident.
I have had a little exposure to the violent side of NZ life – my neighbour in Wellington, a young woman, was murdered by another neighbour (a boy barely in his teens), and within weeks of returning to Auckland after a spell overseas my house was broken into and my young son was traumatised to find a crowbar in his bed. The Police told me that people just walk past your house and decide, hey, let’s break in. Many people have had similar experiences to mine and worse.
The fact is, for all our apparent wealth, space, natural resources, and just 4m. people the rate of street crime in NZ is appalling. It’s a national disgrace. It really is.
Of course, I don’t have any easy solutions. But we could start by recognising the seriousness of the problem and put this one ahead of, say, where the tax thresholds should be or how much we paid to get our railway back.
Vote:May 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 am
If I am reading your post correctly kiwitoffee then I would have to say I agree quite strongly. Although I do dislike the fact that people are so quick to compare us to other countries. Regardless of whether other countries happen to have more or less violent crimes, the fact that we have it is justification to address the problem. Simply punishing criminals is not going to work, understanding as to what is causing them to commit the crimes in the first place is whats needed.
Vote:May 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 am
reddeath26
My point is that in NZ’s own terms – not in comparison with any other country – our streets are 1) not safe and 2) getting less safe by the day.
‘Simply punishing criminals’, as you put it, might not be the complete answer but it must be part of it.
Vote:May 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 am
I’ll sleep better at night knowing our three dingies and four Hercules are being used to protect Alaskan baby seals.
Vote:May 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 am
NZ 4th?
It’s easy to be high on a ‘peace index’ when you don’t make a stand for anything. Tibet, anyone?
Does this peace index take into account countries defending themselves against an aggressor?
Peaceniks might disagree but sometimes there is a need for war; to stand up against injustice.
I wonder how high the US, Britain and the other allies (including our ANZACS) would have been on a peace index during WWII?
I just heard on the radio, one of the reasons for Iceland being number one is that it has no standing army.
Vote:O..K…..
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
“Simply punishing criminals is not going to work, understanding as to what is causing them to commit the crimes in the first place is whats needed.”
Geezuzz this kind of wet weak pseudo liberal bullshit pisses me off. While pseudo panty waisted liberals ponce about asking this question to themselves, over and over and over again, wimmen are getting raped and old ladies are getting bashed and property is getting stolen. The vacillating navel gazing dipshits who speak this language have the blood of thousands of innocent victims of violence and murder on their hands.
I’ll tell you why they do it you dumbfuck. Because they have no morality. They’re pathological narcissistic scum.
..and the reason they’re that way is because dipshits like you keep allowing them to be so with your pseudo liberal pandering bullshit like “we need to understand why they killed the pizza delivery boy”. The pizza boy lost his life dammit.. doesn’t that matter to you??
You want to save the lives of good citizens, hard working honest and moral citizens of NZ, you jail and execute the scum that are putting their lives in danger. There’s no message like the death penalty, and in terms of keeping NZers safe, it brings results far in excess of any wet weak self indulgent ineffective wittering about “why do they do these things.” Once executed, they’ll never kill any innocent NZer ever again.
Vote: