Peaceful Norway and listmania

Norway is the most peaceful country in the world according to The Global Peace Index launched yesterday.

I certainly do have memories of outstanding natural beauty and tranquility from my trip to Norway a few years back, and I’m sure Norway is a relatively peaceful country. Nevertheless I find it hard to take lists like the Global Peace Index seriously. This is not to say that peace is a laughing matter or that a lot of serious work has not gone into putting the Global Peace Index together. It’s just that no matter how you measure these sort of things, the end result will always to some degree be subjective.

More importantly what do these lists really achieve other than boost a few national egos? I suppose in the case of the Global Peace Index, if there was a way to scientifically prove that the countries at the top of the list really were the most peaceful, it would be worth our while to have a look at the factors that made these countries peaceful. That is, if we truly all are seeking to be peaceful countries, I certainly have my doubts.

Call me a pessimist, but I really can’t see the countries at the bottom of the list rushing to copy what Norway did or didn’t do to end up at the top of the list. Nor do I think that Norway is going to see an influx of immigrants seeking a more peaceful way of life - if it did, the country would probably introduce stricter immigration laws, which in turn should bump Norway off the top spot of the Global Peace Index.

I find that any such grading of nations and nationals causes more hatred than peace. Take the New 7 Wonders of the World competition for example, which when I first wrote about it in October last year (Wonders never Cease - or do they?), I thought was a joke and a clever fund-raising excercise.

Yet over the past couple of months the competition has turned into a highly charged verbal war dominated by those who treat the competition as if it were a globally agreed, law-abiding competition and those who find that the fund-raising part has been a little too cleverly disguised.

I’m sure the fund-raiser is loving the attention, but I find it ludicrous that the competition has been given the importance, it has, from either of the two dominant sides of the debate. Even if the competition had been agreed by all nations in the world and every single person in the entire world was given the opportunity to go visit all the candidates and cast their vote (is your head spinning yet), then I still wouldn’t pay much attention to the outcome, because afterall I am fully capable of deciding for myself, which man-made monuments, I think, are wonders and which are not.

But the list of silly lists that are given far more importance than they deserve, doesn’t stop there. The travel industry has gone list-mad: Most Popular Tourists list, Top 10 destinations for spotting a celebrity - actually, go to any search engine and search for “top 10 travel” and you’ll see, what I mean.

Take them for what they are - the views of one person or at best a group of people often meant far less seriously than they are received. No more, no less! And if the placing of your country on one of these lists is stressing you out, here are a few more photos from the most peaceful country in the world (apparently) to calm you down:

Technorati Tags: travel, Norway, peaceful, listmania

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