The world has evolved tremendously over the last few decades. Think about it. Half a century ago, if a chicken caught a virus and died in a remote village in Asia, we probably wouldn’t fear of any global pandemic resulting from this mishap. Half a century ago, if a bank went bankrupt, it probably wouldn’t create a global economic crisis for nearly a decade.
This is globalization – a transformation through which countries become increasingly connected through developments in technology, trade and cultural exchange. Globalization definitely has done us the world of good, but it also can pose as a huge can of worms – climate change, income inequality, terrorism, pandemics, child labor, species loss and the list goes on.
The world’s problems are too huge and connected for any one country to fix them. There is a need for us to organize ourselves, co-operate and collaborate to resolve the issues together as one single species.
The Good Country Index – New Way of Looking at the World
Simon Anholt started ‘The Good Country’ with the vision to change how country leaders run the country and to spread the world that they are not just responsible for their own people but for every human and living thing that exist on Earth. They are answerable for the whole of Earth’s atmosphere and climate – not just their domains.
His ‘Good Country Index‘ measures how ‘good’ a country is in terms of how it contributes to not just its own population but the rest of humanity. It’s intriguing to see how the countries fare in the rankings. But before you even look at it, you should know what it really means to be a good country.
Simon Anholt: “First of all I want to tell you precisely what I mean when I say a good country. I do not mean morally good. When I say that Country X is the goodest country on Earth, and I mean goodest, I don’t mean best. Best is something different. When you’re talking about a good country, you can be good, gooder and goodest. It’s not the same thing as good, better and best. This is a country which simply gives more to humanity than any other country. I don’t talk about how they behave at home because that’s measured elsewhere.”
Which Country is the “Goodest”?
So without further ado, let’s look at which country outdo the rest of 162 others to come in overall top place – and it is Sweden (based on Jan 2017 poll data). Sweden also ranks first in terms of global contribution on prosperity & equality as well as Health & Wellbeing. You might also notice that the countries in the top 10 list are mostly Western European nations and they are all rich. There is also the United States at 20th; Singapore at 22th; India at 61st; China at 64th; Russia at 78th. Big nations like China and Russia who have spent the last few decades building their own economy and society are lower in the index.
Whether it comes to thinking about countries, evaluating companies, viewing the world that we live, electing a politician, it is time for all of us to start using the word “good” in this context. Do I want to live in a “good” country or just simply a rich country? Is the company behaving like how a “good” company would? Does the government make promises that will contribute to “goodness”? Let’s make a change to do good, in order to do well.
