Oh how the world has changed. In the 2013 Corruption PerceptionsIndex that was released recently 177 counties were graded on their level of corruption. And according to the report more than two thirds of nations on the list scored below 50 where 0 classifies the country's public sector as vastly corrupt while 100 means the country is ethically pristine. The Transparency International's Index released is based upon perceptions of the extent of corruption in a country by select analysts and business people.
Denmark and New Zealand tied for first place with a score of 91 while Finland and Sweden went neck and neck for third, notching a score of 89 and Norway and Singapore took 5th place together with an 86 rating. Notice a pattern?
I do and as such I am truly fascinated by Scandinavian countries. The world isn't without a sense of irony as I always like to say. Here's a region that had an entire age name after them because of their exploits. Yes the "Viking Age" a time when Scandinavian Norsmen traveled Europe on those cool looking ships and traded but more importantly pillaged and raped. Now more than a thousand years later this region is now flourishing and is commonly known as the most peaceful and happiest places to live in the world.
Now, Scandinavian countries have somehow separated themselves from the world. They consider themselves as brothers and sisters with similar languages and culture. And unlike other similar territories they don't continuously pit against each other fighting for supremacy. If Denmark makes it to the World Cup the entire Scandinavia cheers them on.
I believe other countries of the world can maybe study the make-up of Scandinavian countries, however just as a footnote, Canada tied with Australia for the ninth spot on the list. Canada isn't so bad either, frankly, look at Rob Ford, I guess that is proof that transparency is alive and well in "The True North." Funny enough the U.S. is 19th, which for me comes as no surprise, but that's a conversation piece for another day.
But back to matter hand, perfection is perfected or so it seems in Scandinavia as there are many things that make these countries the closest thing to a Utopian society. The back bone of Scandinavian culture is trust and even the 2010 Prosperity Index, 74 per cent of Norwegians believed other people can be trusted which is the highest rate in the world. In second place was Denmark with 64 per cent while Finland came in third with almost 60 per cent and Sweden sixth, with 56 per cent.
Andreas Bergh, an economist with Lund University and the Research Institute for Industrial Economics explainedthe Scandinavian concept of trust in an interview with Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. A European news website that reports news in counties where people are unable to get such information locally due to government laws. He spoke of the advantages that trust gives these societies, both on economic and psychological level.
"By that, I mean the widespread belief in the population that most people can be trusted," Bergh said.
"And the fact that most people can be trusted refers to things like obeying agreements, trading as they say they are trading, behaving in an honest way and, of course, behaving in a trustworthy way, so that you trust people and they are trustworthy in return."
The article explained that countries like Sweden which is famous as a welfare state even extend their trust to the welfare system. "The high level of trust even means people are willing to pay high taxes to support government social services because they believe their fellow citizens will not abuse the system," the article detailed.
So where does this ethical virtue come from, who knows? But I believe the world's corruption has something to do with the unfair nature of people in some parts of the world and poverty of course. In the 2013 Corruption PerceptionsIndex the countries in last place were Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia, this I believe sums up my point exactly. These countries have almost no middle class and suffer from unfair governmental rule. I'm not really sure how Thor and the Norse people arrived at this great societal achievement but I'm sure to put in some work and let you know my anthropological findings soon enough.
