ＧＲＥＧ日記 ｉｎ ニッポン

The BBC Reports

The BBC released a list the other of the countries with the best and worst images.
Canada, not surprisingly, was number one.
I say not surprisingly because almost all the people I have met from around the world have very positive
feelings about Canada.
Whether they are right or wrong, I don't know, but their image is positive.
What surprised me about the list was that Japan was number two.
I obviously like Japan or I wouldn't be here, but I didn't think so many others from around the world had such positive feelings about Japan.
Most of the world knows that Japan is a relatively safe and peaceful country, but more and more Japanese
tourists are becoming infamous for their rude behaviour.
I thought this would hamper Japan in the eyes of the world, but it didn't.
I expected New Zealand or Australia to be number two.
The United States, not surprisingly, was at the bottom of the list.

The Worst - Britain and the U.S.

According to UNICEF, Britain is the worst rich country for a child to grow up in.
The United States is also ranked near the bottom.
I'm not sure where Japan's ranked, and Canada is only mentioned about education (number one!!).
Anyway, here is the article:

Britain is the worst country in the industrialized world in which to be a child, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
The charity looked at 40 indicators to gauge the lives of children in 21 economically advanced nations -- the first study of its kind -- and found Britain's children were among the poorest and most neglected.
Children's charities and opposition politicians described the findings as "shameful" and accused Prime
Minister Tony Blair's government of failing a generation of children.
Britain lagged behind on key measures of poverty and deprivation, happiness, relationships, and risky or bad behavior, the study showed.
It scored a little better for education but languished in the bottom third for all other measures, giving it the
lowest overall placing, along with the United States.
Children's happiness was rated highest in northern Europe, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark
leading the list.
"All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no country features in the top third of the
rankings for all six dimensions," said David Bull, UNICEF UK's executive director.
The study found there was no consistent relationship between a country's wealth, as measured in gross
domestic product per capita, and a child's quality of life.
The Czech Republic, for example, achieved a higher overall ranking than economically wealthier France.

'SHAMEFUL'

Colette Marshall, UK director of charity Save the Children, said the report was a "shameful" verdict on
Britain.
"Despite the UK's wealth, we are failing to give children the best possible start in life," she said in a
statement.
She said "drastic action," including an injection of 4.5 billion pounds, was needed to meet a government target of halving the number of children in poverty by 2010.
A government spokeswoman said the data in the report -- mainly taken from 2000 to 2003 -- was not up to date and that reforms introduced through the "Every Child Matters" initiative had improved child welfare.
There were 700,000 fewer children living in relative poverty than in 1998/99, and the overall number living in absolute poverty had been halved, she said.
But the Child Poverty Action Group said the report was "an important reminder that we need to go further,
faster" and the chief executive of the Children's Society, Bob Reitemeier, described it as "very worrying" for
Britain.
George Osborne, Treasury spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, said the report was a damning
indictment of the policies of Blair and his finance minister and likely successor Gordon Brown.
"After ten years of his welfare and education policies, our children today have the lowest well-being in the
developed world," he said. Brown had "failed this generation of children and will fail the next if he's given a
chance," Osborne said.