Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon

OK... pretending to be smart alex by catching up with some reading of the magazines I bought lying pitifully on the table without being touched. Found an survey called Global Peace Ubdex gauged by t he Economists Intelligence Unit in US which ranks countries on its peacefulness using indicators such as number of soldiers killed overseas, level of violent domestic crimes (I'm sure we are doing pretty well in this, especially lately as seen on news headline everyday) and relations with neighboring countries (hm.... our kiasu neighbors???).

Among the ASEAN countries (which Brunei was missing suspiciously from the list. I am sure Brunei will rank higher among all if its in the list), Singapore rank highest at 29, Vietnam at 35 and WE, Malaysia at 37. NOTICE THAT VIETNAM IS EVEN MORE PEACEFUL THAN US!!! It's a wonder why our politicians didn't storm the newspaper in the country and condemn the index as they like to do at the other index such as corruption index, universities ratings etc. Thailand and Myanmar ranked among the lowest, 105 and 108 respectively.

The highest ranked is Norway followed by NZ and Denmark. The Scandinavian countries are the most peaceful region with the remaining Finland and Sweden at 6 and 7 respectively. Iraq, Sudan and Israel ranked the lowest; not surprise since Iraq is still war-torn, Sudan with its Darfur violence and Israel with its Gaza conflict. What about others? The new emerging power-to-be, China and India are at 60 and 109 respectively.

Personally I find the most interestingly ranked country would be Uncle Sam, sitting shamefully at 96. I guess the indicator used (number of soldiers killed overseas plummeted down its position) is not kind to him but being a world police, maybe Uncle Sam should settle his own problem first. Like the Malay saying goes, jangan jaga tepi kain orang.