Consultants, even dafter than wonks?
How else could one publish a survey, which does not appear to be a joke, in which Jordan, yes Jordan, ranks as a more globalised economy than the United Kingdom and Australia. Apparently this is in part owed to it having "one of the highest levels of peacekeeping troop contributions of all U.N. member states".
Still more curiously, it has Jordan "finishing in the top 10 for the economic, social, and political components of the index". Now admittedly Jordan is not North Korea, Sudan or Zimbabwe, but fancy your chances of opening a shul in Amman, given that Jordanian land buying and nationality appears still to be barred to Jews?
For a further bucketful of cold water, over to Freedom House - Jordan rates as partly free, at five for political rights and 4 for civil liberties. We score 1/1. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom makes Jordan's "economy is 64 percent free, according to our 2007 assessment, which makes it the world's 53rd freest economy....Jordan is ranked 3rd out of 17 countries in the Middle East/North Africa region, and its overall score is higher than the regional average".
Meanwhile, Singapore, Honkers and the Netherlands make the top three, and bar the less than democratic rule of HK, that does not sound that wrong.
Still more curiously, it has Jordan "finishing in the top 10 for the economic, social, and political components of the index". Now admittedly Jordan is not North Korea, Sudan or Zimbabwe, but fancy your chances of opening a shul in Amman, given that Jordanian land buying and nationality appears still to be barred to Jews?
For a further bucketful of cold water, over to Freedom House - Jordan rates as partly free, at five for political rights and 4 for civil liberties. We score 1/1. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom makes Jordan's "economy is 64 percent free, according to our 2007 assessment, which makes it the world's 53rd freest economy....Jordan is ranked 3rd out of 17 countries in the Middle East/North Africa region, and its overall score is higher than the regional average".
Meanwhile, Singapore, Honkers and the Netherlands make the top three, and bar the less than democratic rule of HK, that does not sound that wrong.
Labels: Middle East, surveys
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What this basically means is that, if Jordan has 1,000 troops and 750 of them are based abroad, 75% of its troops are 'internationally based'.
Statistics can easily be twisted to get the message across that its authors would like.
Jordan gets swamped by refugees and has to take care of them.
The people are very, very smart but they are a tiny country with nothing to export - except witty, clever Jordanians - and they have to do what the big countries tell them to do.
Actually, Jordan is tiny enough to be a raging success along the lines of Hongkers, Singapor eand Holland.
It's jammed with clever, motivated people. It is their tragedy that they are stuck in the middle two major religions. Anyone who has ever been there will come back with tales of their cracking intelligence, charm, wit and energy. Deep down, they're actually very Jewish.
Can someone help me here - what is the name of that island off China that isn't Hongkers and is/was owned by Portugal that has all the gambling. It begins with an M and it is driving me crazy.
PS - I didn't mean to be offensive to either the Jews or the Jordanians when I compared them. They both have all the best qualities of their race, which is Semite. They have an identical sense of humour.
The place is Macau... My sister's husband reckons the finest meal he has ever eaten was there.
Thanks! It was driving me crazy. My mind kept saying Malacca, which is obviously several thousand miles away and I knew it was wrong.
After the first sentence I thought they were talking about Katie and Peter.
Verity: 1573 miles only. See here:
http://www.mapcrow.info/cgi-bin/cities_distance_airpt.cgi?city3=-1769638%2C00&city4=-3318154%2C04
Yes, I knew it was far but couldn't be bothered to look it up. But 1500 miles is a fair hike, especially as some of it is over water. (I counted double for water.)
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