I think we can all agree on which country has been cursed with the worst government in the world - it rhymes with ‘forth Maria’ and you’re probably sick of seeing threads about it. But which government is the runner up of the worst government in the world award - the place where if you had to live there you would say ‘things have to change, now.’ The stronger this feeling is, the higher it ranks.
I’m only interested in recognised governments of sovereign states. not some nutjob who thinks his backyard is is own republic.
First, I’d like to say that Mr. Kobayashi has been posting the best questions lately.
Sadly, the first two responses pretty much cover it for me. It’s a tie for second between a government that is actively trying to kill a great deal of its population (Syria), or a government that allows a most of its population to live in fear of death by its ineffectiveness (Somalia).
If a country’s wiki entry begins with “_______ is a landlocked country in ______”, I’m inclined to cut them a bit of slack. Being landlocked makes you entirely dependent on your neighbors for trade. Without fantastic natural resources, you’re almost certainly doomed to be a poor country. With them, you’re going to have to fend off your neighbors periodically. Neither of these actually excuse you for running a terrible government, but poor and militaristic countries tend toward poor governance.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Saudi Arabia yet. Probably not as bad as Sudan in terms of body count (although Saudi Arabia doesn’t have ethnic divides like Sudan), but then again its the country where the religious police shoved girls back into the burning school buildings for not being dressed “modestly”. Not to mention their mental virus of Wahhabism is being spread all over the Islamic world, driven by tons of oil money.
Too many good suggestions for me to add anything really, but if someone held a gun to my head and said “you’re going to either Syria or North Korea” I think I’d pretty readily pick North Korea. At least there I have a chance to get rescued some day by Bill Clinton or whatever. In Syria (or any number of the hell-hole African countries like Somalia), I’m pretty much a guaranteed goner.
Well, in Syria, you can shoot back, cooperate with the government or run. In NK, your options will be much more limited. Maybe I’m an optimist, but I’d choose Syria or Somalia.
ETA: ** Quin**, in Saudi Arabia, it’s pretty cushy until it sucks, comparatively.
Right at this moment, Syria is a good contender. But generally speaking, I would vote for Saudi Arabia. Probably less so if you’re of the male persuasion, though.
Is Saudi Arabia really all that much worse than many other patriarchal middle eastern countries, or do they just get a lot of flak because the US is an official ally of them and not many others?
Frankly I wouldn’t be afraid at all to go visit or work in Saudi Arabia and I believe many Americans actually do just that. They even have bars that serve liquor and such to outside Americans.
Does life suck there for the women? Oh absolutely. But life sucks for women everywhere in the middle east.
Life sucks for EVERYONE really really badly in countries with effectively no government (Somalia) or those going through a brutal civil/sectarian war (Syria).
North Korea is probably the worst country in the world by any objective measure but I think I’d still choose to be sent there against my will than some country where I’m pretty much likely to be shot on sight by some local warlord or in the middle of actual fighting and explosions.
I emphasize the “uh” more in Maria, ironically pronouncing the schwa in Korea more like an “a”. So it does rhyme for me but I didn’t catch it right away. (For I second I even I tried pronouncing it with its alternative pronunciation “Mariah” but nothing rhymed with that either. )
Frankly, I couldn’t tell if other countries in the Arabic peninsula (UAE, Bahrein…) are any better because I know almost nothing about them.
But than other countries in the middle-east? Definitely. Iran is a paradise of democracy, women rights, civil liberties and religious moderation by comparison, for instance.
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I’d rather pick the war torn country (Say, Syria, Congo…). At least you have a shot at fleeing and the likelihood of starving to death is lower. I’d take my chances at being randomly shelled in Syria for some more months rather than facing spending the rest of my life in North Korea. In fact, I’d probably kill myself rather than moving to NK.
