Best Countries & Best Cities

[Pauli]

why is that??? anyway, i think its just human nature to always believe that "the grass is greener" on the other side so we always think we can do better than where we currently are...the truth is, nowhere is just milk and honey. since you're sitting at #2, how much better can you get?? what are you looking for?? i would move to where you are but unfortunately, language is a problem...it wouldn't do me any good if all i was able to tell people is that i'm a "degen fechter"..

I think I'm passed the believe that the grass is greener on the other side. By far, I believe I've had enough job changes to learn that that sure is not true. And I'm convinced, it's not just with the various jobs like that, same counts for where you live.
I think, some people fit in certain environments, some don't. If you - as that particular person - think, you don't fit into somewhere, you have the choice to either adapt or look for something else. Before you take a final decision, you should still check on the advantages and disadvantages, as moving to a foreign country or different city can cause an euphoria.
I have come to believe that there are other countries which better fit to my personality and my expectations from life. Including disadvantages that other country may have. It's all a matter of where you put your priorities. I'm not too complicated, all I need is a fencing club!

As to what I'm looking for. I sure look for a less narrowed horizon (in people), a less patriarchal society, a less unsatisfied environment.......But this is a perception matter. Others who live in this country may shake their heads....

[glowstix]

I think I'm passed the believe that the grass is greener on the other side. By far, I believe I've had enough job changes to learn that that sure is not true. And I'm convinced, it's not just with the various jobs like that, same counts for where you live.
I think, some people fit in certain environments, some don't. If you - as that particular person - think, you don't fit into somewhere, you have the choice to either adapt or look for something else. Before you take a final decision, you should still check on the advantages and disadvantages, as moving to a foreign country or different city can cause an euphoria.
I have come to believe that there are other countries which better fit to my personality and my expectations from life. Including disadvantages that other country may have. It's all a matter of where you put your priorities. I'm not too complicated, all I need is a fencing club!

As to what I'm looking for. I sure look for a less narrowed horizon (in people), a less patriarchal society, a less unsatisfied environment.......But this is a perception matter. Others who live in this country may shake their heads....

interesting..but i agree, some places suit some people better and others don't but sometimes you don't have a choice. immigration is not easy and once you get there, there is an adjustment period too and life is generally not as easy as you'd think when you're a foriegner.

i'm not too convinced though. there are fencing clubs in suisse my friend seems to be happy but she lives in bern. when she was in FL she couldn't wait to get back up there. i'll have to ask her again about suisse. i'd live there if i had the chance. i'd also live in canada too, but only certain cities in the US..i don't like where i am right now, no fencing

[epeefencer74]

Hey you don't diss my country. We have less crime, less proverty, less drugs than those countires. Our people are united and harmonious.

Where do you get that bit about the lack of political freedom? If this was true, there wouldn't be any opposition parties. Our Govt would have persecuted the whole lot. It's just that the opposition can't put together a credible team. And if you are citing the example of our prime minister suing the opposition for libel as a punitive measure look to the Americans, they do that also. Libel cannot and should not go unchallanged.

So unless you know what you are talking about, I suggest you take that back. Singapore is a great country, it is not without it's flaws, but then again no country is, but I would not leave here for anywhere else.

Hi!

Excerpts from the country ranking:

11. Singapore
13. USA
14. Canada
15. New Zealand
17. Japan
20. Austria
25. France
26. Germany
29. Britain

Singapore before those countries???

I read the .pdf file explaining the methodology behind the ranking. In short, they asked people in various countries how satisfied they were with their life. Then, the country average of that value was correlated against a selection of measurable variables which could be assumed to be predictive of personal happiness. It was found that 9 of those had a meaningful correlation. Then, the measured values of those 9 variables were weighted together so that one achieved a good overall match for the polled countries. Then, the thusly obtained variable weight coefficients were used to obtain a quality of life index value for many unpolled countries. Multivariate regression analysis, essentially.

The list shows a flaw with the method (there are others, look at the pdf and apply your statistics knowledge) - even if people seem to like to live in a country, it may not be a good place anyway.

Singapore seems to be a case in point. Good place for meek sheep who accept to be ruled, and the despots who rule them.

I would personally reweight the coefficients so that political freedom was more important. For other people, other variables may be of another importance than they are assigned in this index. I would assume that there are many people for which the money factor should be almighty. For the factor "gender equality" (defined as ratio between female and male average wages, laws are not considered) I would guess that the factor weight would be very small for most males, while females would value it considerably higher.

Also, the countries are evaluated on their country averages of the values, the intra-country spread was not taken into account for any variable.

A+ for effort, but the methodological problems are huge.

It would be good if the listing would come with an applet, where the individual reader could input the relative weighting coefficients of the variables according to his choice.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Zelda]

I personally think Singapore should be ABOVE Australia on the list...simply because things WORK in Singapore. And they are generally really nice people.
;-)
As for Cities...eh well it depends on your opinion!

[Fencergrl]

When I saw where Singapore was listed, I thought "Makes sense, you don't hear a lot of things about Singapore. You never hear of Singapore refugees…. hmm I should add it to my list of places to consider traveling to"

[asdfasfd]

singapore should not be in the list. it just killed a person by hanging recently. singapore should be ashame and a no-go place to be. singapore has no respect for other countires, so it deserves no respect too.

[Fencergrl]

So, based on that should I avoid the US as well? Isn't the capital punishment in some states? Some could say that the US isn’t always respectful of other countries as well.

Many countries have practices I may not either understand, am aware of, or agree with. Part of the fun of traveling is experiencing different cultures.

[veeco]

Me, I think I am going to go up the list, starting from #130 all the way up. I am in #4 right now, and I have been in one of the number 1s, so I have nowhere else to go. I might as well enjoy the rougher places.

[Nusy]

My sweet, beautiful town, Budapest is only 54th... And Hungary 37th. Maybe people dpn't know us enough to vote more for Budapest.

[needle]

My sweet, beautiful town, Budapest is only 54th... And Hungary 37th. Maybe people dpn't know us enough to vote more for Budapest.

Unfortunately I first visited Budapest after Prague. That was wrong - if I went to Budapest first, I would have liked it a lot more. As it was, though the architecture is beautiful, it felt like a BIG city, with all the downsides of the BIG city - way too similar to my home Kiev.
It still is one of my favourite cities (just not the most favorite) and I had lots of fun there - there's at least one strip club from which I'm banned for life

[Nusy]

Unfortunately I first visited Budapest after Prague. That was wrong - if I went to Budapest first, I would have liked it a lot more. As it was, though the architecture is beautiful, it felt like a BIG city, with all the downsides of the BIG city - way too similar to my home Kiev.
It still is one of my favourite cities (just not the most favorite) and I had lots of fun there - there's at least one strip club from which I'm banned for life

I love my city.... But yes, it has all the downsides. Fortunately I live in the nice parts, and also my school is in the downtown. I have some pictures in my gfoto (see in my sig) of Budapest - check them, and take some nostalgy

[epeefencer74]

How do you figure that MATE!? We have our laws, Ngyun broke our laws, Ngyun pays for his crimes.

Singaoprean politicians and people have never appealed or cajoled or demanded that other countries disregard their own laws and go easy on our citizens who break their laws. This is true international respect, you should do the same.

Don't come here if you are going to smuggle drugs, don't even transit here or anywhere in Southeast Asia, because you will be caught, and you will be punished.

His capture has prevented 26000 doses of heroin from reaching Australian shores and harming Australians. They should be sending us flowers and a thank you card for hanging him.

I am proud of our govt for sticking to their decision and upholding our laws. Only by the rule of law is civil society able to flourish.

So you can go shove your bigoted, hipocritical opinion up where the sun don't shine!!!

singapore should not be in the list. it just killed a person by hanging recently. singapore should be ashame and a no-go place to be. singapore has no respect for other countires, so it deserves no respect too.

[InfernoXV]

épéefencer74 - HEAR HEAR!