There are worse countries in which a person can be born. You have probably at least once thought that you could have done better at birth, that you were born in the United States of America, Germany or Sweden, and that only because of that you have far greater rights, opportunities and perspectives than when you were born in a country like Serbia. , which we can sometimes experience as the margin of the world. Is the most ordinary place, that is, the country in which the maternity hospital where you were born, is more important for your future than almost everything else you do during your later life? If so, being born in Serbia can hardly be considered a blessing, but not a curse either.
In fact, you could have been born in much worse countries. And three quarters of the world are like that. According to extensive research by the information unit of the Economist magazine (EIU), which was published at the beginning of this month, Serbia is currently in 56th place on the list of countries where it is good to be born this year. The list includes eighty countries from all continents, which is only a part of the world, since in the research itself numerous territories, unstable and poor states, were not even considered.
According to this research, the best place to be born in 2014 is Switzerland, followed by Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand. Then, the developed countries of Europe and traditionally rich societies follow in a varied arrangement. It is interesting that Germany and the United States of America, which are most often thought of when "choosing" the ideal country for birth, are only in 16th place. And yet, they share this place.
Japan ranks 25th, followed by France and Great Britain. China is better placed than Serbia and is in 49th place, while Russia is only in 72nd. Of the countries in the region, Croatia offers somewhat more luck at birth, which is in 46th place, while Slovenia is in an excellent 32nd. At the very bottom the tables have Ukraine at 78, then Kenya at 79 and Nigeria at 80. Being born in such countries, according to this research, will not bring you much luck, however unrelated to personal effort, chances and hopes. This question is one of the keys to the increasingly frequent debates about how the developed world should position itself against the tide of immigration.
RIGHTS FOR STATELESS PEOPLE: Is the question of being born in a country and thereby acquiring citizenship one of the most important questions of the coming era? Thanks to globalization and the explosion of communications, the planet has changed significantly in the last ten years. For example, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union, the number of mobile phone users in the world will reach seven billion by the end of this year and thus exceed the total number of inhabitants of the planet.
The flow of goods, ideas and people has never taken place on such a global market. No local economic model, one that is closed to one nation or its environment, can be sustained in a world where one tanker from Indochina brings enough sneakers to wear half the population of Europe.
In this general, global trade, developed communication, continuous migration of millions of people from one part of the world to another, the ruthless rules of survival are the same for everyone. However, individuals, fortunately born in certain countries, have a much better starting point, which will be an increasing source of tension in the decades to come.
Belonging to a particular nation offers a wealth of opportunities. But it also carries curses, with the number of the "cursed" many times exceeding those lucky with a "good" passport. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to their own nationality. And the right to change it. But no one has the right to do that has no nation.
The issue of choosing a place of birth has long been discussed and analyzed. The "Economist" research was actually based on a study commissioned by "World" magazine in 1988, where a list of 50 countries in which it is good to be born was made. At that time, the very top was occupied by the United States of America. The assessment turned out to be plausible, as an American born then lives better today than many in other parts of the world. A quarter of a century later, researchers from EIU tried to find out what the situation is with children born in 2014. The research is based on a thorough analysis of a whole range of parameters.
First of all, numerous studies were used on the mood of the population, on happiness and hope for the future, and then the projections of very specific economic parameters were analyzed. The EIU analyzed the possible movements of the gross domestic product for all the examined countries, up to the year 2030. In addition, other economic parameters were measured, as well as other social measures such as the safety of the population, mortality and health. Compared to the research from 1988, it was shown that a number of parameters change extremely slowly, while some oscillate strongly. Some trends, however, are common to all countries.
SUPRANATIONALITY: In the recently presented sociological model in the magazine "New Scientist", in the article "The End of Nations" ("End of the nations"), shows that some new, transnational solutions are a possible future for the world, politics and economy as we know it. States are a hindrance to numerous processes that are unstoppable in the economy, politics and culture. Is this situation sustainable in the long term? Economically, probably not. In fact, all those global companies that shape modern life, from Google and Microsoft to McDonald's and Ikea, would not survive today if they did not play on the planetary field. The only expected outcome for the future is that they will play more and more on that field.
At the same time, in addition to the economic ones, various transnational political projects are being developed - the European Union is one such attempt, although divided, the Arab world functions as a coherent whole, a kind of super-nation, which surfaced like an avalanche when similar protests occurred in just a few weeks during the Arab Spring. spread through ten countries on two continents. Are such transnational projects the future or not?
The past is the best testimony that, if nothing else, it is possible. For more than a millennium, after the fall of the Roman Empire, until the rise of the nation-state, Europe lived without nations as we know them today, confined to local communities and connected through global movements such as Christianity. However, does the "abolition of nations" return us to the feudal, "dark" ages? And is capitalism really possible without nations? It is really hard to imagine the world and its economy without states. "A considerable trade in every civilized society takes place among the inhabitants of a city or a country," wrote the Scottish economist Adam Smith in 1776 in The wealth of nations, a work that is still the Bible of capitalism.
Would it suit you if all those children born in Serbia in 2014 have the same chances as children born in Switzerland and Scandinavian countries? From an individual's point of view, a world where it didn't matter where you were born might be a fairer world. But not necessarily - and not because of equalization that reduces the chances for everyone, as communism did so that "in a world where there are rich and poor, everyone is poor." But imagine the following image, which is still unattainable, but is neither a scientific model nor a sci-fi story: that by entering Europe, our country loses its identity, that the national feeling of small states like Serbia melts into the European Babylon - how much would that affect a significant part of the population ?
Here's another picture. The scene in front of the cash register of a McDonald's restaurant, the floors, the taste of the food, the way they are assembled and served in Kenya, Syria, Serbia and Switzerland are not drastically different. In fact, in global chains you feel the same anywhere on the planet, regardless of whether there is a tropical forest or a fjord in front of McDonald's. Does that terrify you? Or maybe you are fascinated? Globalization, about which so much has been written in various ways, boils down to that image that combines cultures, meridians and traditions, poverty and well-being, despair and entrepreneurship into one, the same everywhere - the Big Mac. Be careful, however, where you are born.
