Top Ten Livable Countries

You're right, margo, the thread is growing expotentially. Bulging at the seams, if you want. Nobody has moved because of any lists, either. We have some entrenched homebodies here.

The screen is stretched due to this post:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=26886#26886

When you have links that long you should use a "click here" type of text to avoid the horizontal scroll.

Craven means to click on the URL option at the top of the post box and follow the instructions (make sure you delete the http: that is already there if you are copying and pasting a link).

Is there some country where this doesn't happen?

BTW, I should say that Craven will be doing some traveling so if he wants to do some more tooting of the horn for Brazil...

Yeah, the Land of Nod . . .

Thanks GW for drawing my attention to this thread.....

Been reading it with some interest, and having lived in India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Czech, South Africa and Germany, I think I can put my two bits here with some conviction !!

Just some rambling thoughts....

I agree with Steve when he says that anywhere is good when you are loaded. Take for eg India. We all keep hearing stories as to how bad the system is, so much poverty, government apathy etc etc, but it is a whole different world when you have money. There is no place like a 3rd world country if you have the money - you can live like a king !!!

I have lived in UK for abt 8 yrs now (off and on, I keep getting posted to various countries I listed for short periods of time) - and frankly speaking, even though I love London, my biggest reason to stay here is my career and my friends.

The average brit (and pls, I don't mean to offend anyone and my apologies if I do), still thinks that an Indian is the ubiquitous corner shop owner, whos thinking is limited to "only two school children at a time in the shop". We are also bundled along with all the south asian community here, and we have a generic name "Paki". I remember that when I lived in my previous house, in one of the nicest area in London (blackheath) someone had spray painted my driveway with "Go home Paki". Deep down in heart - we are still to be accepted in the British society. Guess part of the problem lies with us as well, as older generations never made an effort to integrate with the British society, preferring their own group of people and settling down in what I call "Asian ghettos". There are some parts in London, which are more Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi than what you would find in those countries !! Even in the bus/train, I have noticed over the years that the seat next to an asian is the last one to fill up - and I never have been accepted in the gay english community - except by the people who want to sleep with someone "exotic". But I am not complaining. I have a great set of friends (sadly Brits represent a very tiny minority in my group) and am pretty happy with the way my life is in London.

As far as religion is concerned, I myself am not a very religious person, but I have seen that the awareness of "Hindu" religion is slowly increasing, specially in schools. However, we are automatically labelled as "Islamic" on the street - I don't blame anyone for that - no one can tell what religion I am by looking at me, and recently bias against muslims is on the rise. But all in all, it is a fairly tolerant society - London being so cosmopolitan, specially the circles I move in - never had a major problem...

Gautam

Sorry to hear of your problems getting along with Brits. I might sound like a snob but I do think working class people here have never been more intolerant and ignorant. Maybe something to do with nearly 2 decades of "greed is good" under Thatcher and the constant vitriolic bile dripping out of our tabloid press. There is a huge unspoken resentment towards anything that does not conform to some vague idea of "British" among far too many people. With the collapse of the Tory party, I think the field is wide open for some charismatic demagogue make headway with a party of the extreme right.

Very cheerful thought, that . . .

Guatam, next time I come to London in a year or so, if you're still posted there, will you have coffee or tea with me??? And maybe then you can tell me about Sri Lanka.

Exactly right, I think. Even if you are middle-class but have an income, you can live like a king or a queen in a 3rd world country, but you must be willing to "not see" a vast number of people. That is why PFK doesn't like Mexico, but did like Spain. Mexico has way more poverty. It is so sad.

Gautam -

Just thought a brief description of the patiobitch's grandmother might amuse/bemuse/aggrieve you. She had G.I. from a wealthy family billeted on her in the war, married him, moved to the U.S. when the war ended, and I think was a bit miffed when the rest of his family didn't find her stubborn Yorkshire ways as charming as hubby did. More miffed, I think, when he decided to move out of the family manse and become a social worker. More miffed, still, when he dropped dead of cancer in his 50s.

Anyway, she's been back to England twice since the war, but is regularly (at least daily, when I'm around, I'd guess) on about how the "Pakis" are taking over and building mosques in every open field.

(Entrenched in Orange County for decades, she's also none too fond of Mexicans, Vietnamese, Irish, Germans -- though she did inexplicably launch into a tirade about how badly the "cowboys" treated the "Indians" when she found out my great-great-grandmother was Cherokee, as if that had anything to do with anything. That I'm a quarter German has thus far escaped comment.)

Anyway, just rambling. You reminded me of dear old Madge, and I thought I'd share.

(By the way, she never became a U.S. citizen and never did a day of work in this country, but she goes on and on about immigrants, as well.)

yeah, i know what ya mean, Boss . . . i like samiches, too . . .

Guatam

A tip of my hat to you sir, your resiliency and civility are reflected in many of the folks who share your heritage with whom I deal here.

Steve

When Dennis Potter gave his interview with Melvin Bragg shortly before dying of cancer, he offered up the conceit of given that one is about to pass on, who might one, as a strategy to make the world a better place, shoot? His choice, unfortunately not carried through with, was Rupert Murdoch, who Potter felt was the individual most responsible for the decline of political discourse in Britain.

Whom to shoot? Ahhh, the list begins.

To cross-link threads -- how about Andy Rooney?

(God, now if somebody shoots Andy Rooney, I could be implicated. Any lawyers out there? I've got some pennies in my desk for a retainer...)

Andy Rooney?? LOL

There isn't really anyone I would want to shoot to kill, but dreaming about eliminating them from the picture as though they never were... hmmm.

Hi, Gautam and welcome to the discussion. It's about how some who consider themselves human still have a bubble around themselves they don't always recognize because of denial. To break through is a noble thing but these people have really only let some of the light in -- enough, it seems, to satisfy them that they are good and know all the answers. Putting down the rest of the world is a daily activity for them -- it starts with the viewpoint that the place one lives is the greatest place in the world. What you're saying is being satisfied for the time with the place you live in despite the drawbacks. Of course, you know one of my friends is from India and has a great perfume/sunglass store on the marina at Newport Beach and also in Dana Point (just some history -- my first house in Orange Country was there.) He has plenty of money and I don't believe he feels that he doesn't belong in the community (at least he's never expressed anything like that). There are others in the same prestigious shopping area and they've gained respect by their wealth even if someone knows they are from a foreign country (not born in the U.S.A.) Of course, living in the South Orange Coast area, they'll tell you it's virtually paradise and would never admit that for the most part, their wealth shields them from most of the prejudice in that layer of society.

I'm curious as to your view on the level of crime in London. Please note the status of the city and the country on the two surveys if you haven't already and what is the number one factor besides your job and friends being there that make it a livable city? It doesn't seem like religious tolerance is one of them but I don't want to put words in your mouth!

OK, i'll play this legit, although there would be no particular order here:

Canadia, Norway, Sweden, Finland--nice cool climate

Otaheiti (Tahiti)--hot, but i could probably get away with walkin' aroun' nekkid

New Zealand--could head fer the glaciers if i felt too hot

Well, that's six anyway . . .

Chile might be on my list. It has a climate like ours. Good boating. Nice ranches, mountains.

Patagonia -- a landscape from another planet! This was my favorite of the Living Edens[/ on PBS -- well, last week's [I]Big Sur epidsodes brought me back down to earth with one my other choices in the U.S. -- Carmel/Monterey and the Big Sur. That's not a city because I really am not much of a city person. I think Melbourne would be high on my list as far as a city.

Since that's where it's at now, I actually found the Galicia region of Spain very nice when I was there. I'm not sure why; it's not particularly attractive or balmy or loaded with culture and the food is downright awful, but I met some very good people in Santiago and Salamanca.

I doubt Spain in general ranks very highly among European countries in the "livability" index, though...