NZ most peaceful nation on Earth
The 2009 Global Peace Index is out, and NZ leads the world!
The top ten is:
- New Zealand
- Denmark
- Norway
- Iceland
- Austria
- Sweden
- Japan
- Canada
- Finland
- Slovenia
Interesting how many of these top ten have violent pasts – Austria and Japan, and Slovenia more recently.
The bottom 10 are:
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Somalia
- Israel
- Sudan
- Congo
- Chad
- Pakistan
- Russia
- Zimbabwe
In 2008 NZ was 4th, so an improvement. The authors say:
New Zealand is ranked the nation most at peace of the 144 ranked in the 2009 Global Peace Index. Its rise from 3rd position in 2008 is partly explained by an increase in the score for political stability, following the election of a new coalition government in November 2008. The centre-right National Party has a strong popular mandate and a robust parliamentary majority by New Zealand’s standards, putting the new prime minister, John Key, in a good position to push through his agenda. The rise to first position is also related to the fall of Iceland from the top spot last year, which reflects the deterioration in its indicators of political stability, the likelihood of violent demonstrations and perceived criminality in the wake of the banking collapse that engulfed the economy in September.
They also cite our good relations with Australia. I wonder if another under-arm incident would lower our ranking 
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:34 am
Where are those great bringers of democracy and liberty, the USA, on that list I wonder?
[DPF: Umm have you ever tried clicking on the supplied link?]
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Israel are worse than the Russians!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 am
I would really like to believe this. However, we should wonder who are these “Vision for Peace” people?
Wikipedia says: “The study is the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur Steve Killelea and is endorsed by individuals such as the Dalai Lama, archbishop Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, economist Jeffrey Sachs, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and former US president Jimmy Carter. Factors examined by the authors include internal factors such as levels of violence and crime within the country and factors in a country’s external relations such as military expenditure and wars.” Hmmm I wonder what form those celebrity endorsements take.
So an undoubtedly well meaning guy in St Leonards, NSW creates a mysteriously anonymous website based on some unidentified stats from the Economist Intelligence Unit (not necessarily a bad source) … should we get excited?
A bit of web searching shows that a few people have bought into it, but I am really a bit sceptical about the real value of an endorsement from this source.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:45 am
So what have Niue, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vatican City, Monaco, Andorra, Switzerland, Liectenstein, Luxembourg, or any number of other real or imaginary countries done not to make it in the list.
I note lack of defence spending (i.e. bludging off your neighbours) was one of our “good” traits.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:47 am
@ He Man if you bothered to go and check the list instead of making a typically wank statement you would see they are at 84th.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
I think it largely demonstrates that the advantages of having not having any common border or proximate neighbours, that most of the world thinks that NZ is actually a movie-lot created for Lord of the Rings. Hence the lack of terrorist activity. They’re afraid of the orcs.
The ranks also are scored on defence spending, hence spending peanuts on defence helps soar up the rankings.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 am
These are the type of clowns who would have claimed that the Berlin Wall has brought peace and stability to Europe.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
You seem to have bleeped out our own violent past David. Our civil war lasted three times longer than the Americans and then we just jumped right in to every other war going. We were the most mobalised western nation in WWII for one thing. (The US was the least mobilised btw)
We were also invlved in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other combat missions around the world but that seems to contribute to their “violence” not ours.
Hmmm, outsourcing violence, good for tourism eh.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
We’re doing awfully well, considering their report suggests we have 79.9% unemployment.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
No wonder, given our life expectancy is 4.1 years.
Hmm.
I wonder if they got those two numbers a little mixed up.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
Ryan, I see Ireland does slightly better with unemployment raging at 79.4%. But that’s probably because we Micks live to about 6.1 years old…
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
Ryan Sproull’s identification of errors tends to reinforce my belief that this is a low budget operation that is in danger of being given more credence than it deserves.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
Haha mistakes like those don’t bode well for validity
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:17 am
At least we don’t have to worry about North Korea.
Sure, they’ve only got 67% unemployment, but their life expectancy is 1 year.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
“Interesting how many of these top ten have violent pasts – Austria and Japan, and Slovenia more recently.”
The extent of the recent violent past of Slovenia was a 10 day war in 1991 to become independent after the break up of Yogoslavia. In the contexts of war I would say that it was on the lesser scale. Slovenia is of course predominantly Slovene by ethnicity and Catholic by religion.
Austria and Japan recent conflicts were WW2 as was everyone else on the list – some were invaded resulting in quite violent struggles. Because we were on the winning side does that make us an exclusion from your list?
But it is nice to know we live in a relatively safe country.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 am
Japan has their pacifist constitution and a police officer on every city block.
That’ll help.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Whoever researched this absurd report obviously hasn’t been harassed and intimidated by very loud drunk boy racers on one of Christchurch’s four avenues. I doubt posting a cop on every block would achieve anything to keep the peace in our city.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
@ He Man if you bothered to go and check the list instead of making a typically wank statement you would see they are at 84th.
I’m sure that murdering thousands of civilians and the worldwide network of torture chambers had something to do with the low rank for the USA!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Depends how well hes armed Ted.
Another brain tumor inspired rant from the hater of the west. When are you moving to Iran she boy?
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
It is interesting that having a leader who has “a robust parliamentary majority” and is “in a good position to push through his agenda” automatically qualifies as peace points!
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Read this commie claptrap-
———————————–
It is impossible to accurately portray the devastating effects that global challenges such as climate change, lack of fresh water, ever decreasing bio-diversity and overpopulation, will have on all nations unless global unified action is taken. These global challenges call for global solutions and these solutions will require co-operation on a global scale unparalleled in history.
Peace is the essential prerequisite because without peace we will be unable to achieve the levels of co-operation, inclusiveness and social equity necessary to solve these challenges, let alone empower the international institutions needed to regulate them.
———————————-
Hey wankers- fuck off with your lame commie propaganda. You obviously think most people came down in the last shower.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:55 pm
USA right next to Kazakhstan- who’d have thought, eh Borat?
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
NZ most peaceful nation on Earth- yeah right. Many other kiwis feel a lot safer overseas.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Don’t they realize the last Government was on the verge of declaring war against Fiji but didn’t think they could win, and maybe this one would if there had been any money left in the kitty to deck out the troops.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
So the study demonstrates that there is no link between poverty and war.
June 4th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Well I certainly feel more at peace now that Clark has gone.