Iceland no longer world’s most peaceful country
Looks like there’s more bad news for Iceland. Not only has the country’s economy taken a battering, but now it’s been knocked off the top of the Global Peace Index by New Zealand. In fact, Iceland has dropped to fourth in the rankings, behind Denmark and Norway.
The Index uses 23 criteria to grand the countries, from involvement in foreign wars to number of murders. And the Scandinavian countries have done well again in the list (Sweden is in the top ten). Makes you feel safe, doesn’t it?
(Our very own David Hoskin visited Iceland recently to speak at a Trade Council of Iceland symposuim and came back unharmed, so it’s not that dangerous.)
June 25th, 2009 at 8:49 am
I’m a little surprised that New Zealand comes in at no. 1 on this list. It seems to me that when you read the general press in New Zealand, there are many incidents of personal violence, such as robberies, muggings and murders. I suppose this is just one of the factors included in the peace index measurement, but they must weigh New Zealand down considerably. It could also mean that New Zealand must score very highly in the other factors!
Of course, it has to be said that in a country like New Zealand, which is small and rather isolated in its involvement with the rest of the world, it’s easy for local media to focus on news about domestic violence. So perhaps other countries are just as violent, but the media just doesn’t report on it so much.