A Good Country
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 20
A Good Country
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is episode #20 title A Good Country.
I want to start this episode by asking a simple question. If you were told you had to live in a different country from now until the rest of your life, where would it be? Where would you go? That said, how would you go about choosing a new country? What criteria would you use? How would you go about giving each country a “report card” so to speak? How would you rate each country? And furthermore, what are the factors and characteristics of the country of your choice that would be the tipping point of your decision?
I do want to bring up some basic concepts here because I want to challenge the way you think about your own country. And not only that, I want to show you that how a country behaves in the international community is in may ways closely tied to that country’s attitude and approach to sustainability and the environment.
What I want to talk about in this episode is a concept that may seem rather simple and childish. While this term is mostly used to speak of a person that is immature and bratty so to speak, what I am referring to is a concept that is so simple that a child could even understand it. Yet, this is a concept that is consistently ignored on the international stage. And it is a concept that is directly tied to a nation’s sustainability practices.
Friends and family that know my personality traits, desires, and habits also know that I have a love of adventure and travel. I am fortunate enough to have lived and worked in several different countries and spent months at a time outside the United States. I do this because I love the cultural stimulation. I love meeting new people, seeing new places, learning about new foods, and of course making new friends. But, I also travel because I have often considered living outside the United States for a long period of time just simply for the experience of doing something different.
Because of this desire, whenever I travel I make an effort to meet expats. Although I will have to say that for the most part I actually avoid Americans as a general rule. This is only because I am there to learn about a different culture and meet people outside of my own culture. But what I am saying is that I make the effort to meet expats from all different countries.
And I ask them all sorts of questions of course. For example: Where are you from? How did you end up here? Why did you choose to leave your own country? Why did you pick this country? Are you truly happy living here?
And of course, I get all sorts of interesting answers. But after years of doing this, I will have to say that I do see certain trends in the expats that I meet. Those that I meet that are the least happy seemed to have abandoned their own country out of frustration. They were angry over the national politics, angry due to financial challenges, personal issues, and inability to enter retirement comfortably in their own country. But, the happiest expats that I’ve met were in the country of their choosing simply because they wanted to experience something different.
What I have learned from first hand experience while traveling and living in different countries is that no country is perfect. No government, culture, climate, financial institution is ever going to be perfect. To some extent, there is always going to be crime, corruption, manipulation of funds, various rules and laws that make not sense whatsoever, people in power that seem to think they do not have to follow the very rules and laws that are supposed to govern everyone, as well as various other things that makes life more difficult that it truly has to be. But these things exist no matter where you go.
The simple fact is that no place is perfect. Each place has it’s own unique challenges. So you have to live there because you choose to do something different. And then of course you have to figure out a way to produce a lifestyle that is suitable for you and one that makes you happy.
So, if you had to live in a different country where would it be.
First out of the gate I have to give complete credit for this information to a man name Simon Anholt. Mr Anholt is the founder of the Good Country Index and his website is called goodcountry.org. I came across Mr Anholt during some of my research for blog posts and podcast episodes. I think it was when I was researching information for my episode title The Most Sustainable Countries. What I truly enjoyed about the concepts he presents is that they are deeply connected in so many ways to the concepts of sustainability.
Mr Anholt has written several books. One of the most recent is called The Good Country Equation: How We Can Repair the World in One Generation. It is a book that I highly recommend. As I said, the concepts he presents are so basic that people, and nations for that matter, seem to over look the obvious.
Now when reading this book, I thought about something that I’ve heard over and over again. Every time some atrocity is committed that gets national attention, the response of many folks is always the same. “ Well, what is the world coming to”, of “I can’t believe what the world is coming to. “ or something similar to that.
In part of his book he talks about the four basic appetites of humanity being a cultural appetite (for art, heritage, and social meaning); an intellectual appetite (meaning exercising the mind); a spiritual appetite (meaning seeking a deeper meaning of life and death and exercising the soul; and finally an animal appetite (meaning food, drink, sex, shelter, and the acquisition of possessions) Then he speaks of how few cultures in the world seem to satisfy all of these appetites and when things go unsatisfied people and nations go to great extent to satisfy those appetites.
But, he also speaks of the natural cycle of human civilizations. And that cycle is that they rise and flourish, then they become strained and decadent, then they decline and fall. And in our modern world all that is new is the fact that we have the power to take most of nature down with us.
So, the simple fact, in my opinion, is that the world is now doing what it has always done. What is new is the fact that because of modern communication and the internet, someone on the other side of the planet can commit a crime that society views as an atrocity and we hear about it 10 minutes later.
One other interesting thing that I found in this book is that he states that only a culture that worships money could make the mistake of thinking that money plays such an extensive role in the way the world works. And furthermore he talks a bit about the notion that rich countries have an obligation to help poor countries, especially since the rich countries are, in many case, are responsible for creating and even maintaining the wealth gap between them. But what this system does is simply reinforce a world order that is based on economic competitiveness and thus further entrenches the inequality.
So, what about the good country? How would you choose your new country to live in if you were told you had to do so?
But here is something else for you to think about. There was a book by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson that was published in 2009 that supported the theory that inequality is the reason for much of what is right or wrong in any given society, and that it can literally drive people to crime. Wealth and poverty has far less to do with it. That is why the United States has similar problems to some developing countries simply because of the inequality.
But you see that the inequality that leads to social problems is played out globally on a daily basis simply because the sight of prosperity in the rich world drives social problems in the poor world. And yet Mr Anholt holds that the amount a society has to offer the world can have remarkably little to do with its economic prosperity.
So, I would encourage you to visit Mr Anholt’s website, goodcountry.org. and view what he has there.
The underlying concept of the Good Country Index, and thus the topic of this episode, is simple: to measure what each country on earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away, relative to its size. But, as you will see, his Good Country Index is truly a unique way to evaluate exactly what country you would live in if you had to leave your home country.
And yet if you do your own research you will easily find there are numerous indexes and companies out there that rank places to live. There are too many to discuss. But, one of the better ones, other than the Good Country Index, is the Legatum prosperity Index. And I will have a link to this in the transcript of this episode. But again, go to the Good Country Index and the Legatum Prosperity Index page and look at the top countries: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Iceland
But you see, when you think of a good country, do you think about great educational opportunities for your children, a secure and stable government or do you really think about a world class golf course. What you should be thinking about is things such as personal freedom, cost of living, health care, education, work and business, happiness, quality of life, safety and security, as well as environment and climate of course.
Do you think of the everyday amenities that are so easily available to us in the United States or do you have the desire to live in a socially, economically, and politically stable country. Because it is these things that would make your new life abroad much easier and more enjoyable.
So what is my point in all of this discussion about a good country. Well, My Anholt’s Good Country Index does not measure what a country does at home. There are many other means that do just that. He really looks at each country’s external impact on the world. What does that country do for others? After all, in our global community, what we do at home does in fact affect the world in many ways. So, is there really a true separation in domestic policy and foreign policy.
By now you are likely curious as to what the Good Country Index has to do with sustainability. Well, if you listened to my episode about the most sustainable countries, you know that the countries I talked about were Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Finland.
But in the process of researching material for this episode, and even asking myself which country I would choose, I noticed something very interesting. There is almost a direct correlation between the high ranking countries in Mr Anholt’s Good Country Index and the most sustainable countries.
So that makes me wonder about something else. If a country ranks high in the Good Country Index this means that country is concerned about their impact on the world around them. But, does that also mean they focus more on their environmental impact?
This also begs the question that if a country exists only to serve their own needs, does this also mean that they have less regard for the environment because as a general rule they could care less because their needs come first.
It would seem to me, over anything else, if I had to choose to live in another country, I would not only want to live in a good country but I would also want to live in a country that was concerned with the environment and sustainability. After all , those things do directly impact your quality of life.
But the only way to produce such a country is that if we strive to produce such a culture. There are few things that people have said to me that I have always remembered and tried to apply to my own life. At one point I was hired to completely reorganize a hospital because it was not making a profit. Needless to say, I have some significant challenges to over come. One afternoon I sat in the office of the president and CEO of this organization discussing my challenges. She said to me, “It seems to me the underlying problem is that you need to establish the right culture in the work place.” And you know, she was right.
I think the same applies to our present culture. I do feel as if we now live in some exceptional times. Who would have ever thought there would be a pandemic? Who would have ever thought that world travel would be restricted as it is now? Who would have ever thought that we commonly see civil unrest like we do now? Who would have ever thought you could walk into your neighborhood supermarket and see empty shelves?
But you know, the natural cycle of human civilizations is that they rise and flourish, then they become strained and decadent, then they decline and fall. But the exception this time around is that we now have the power to take all of nature down with us.
There is something that I think about regularly. It is the fact that no one seems to pay attention to what is going on in the world as long as there is not direct impact on them. It seems to me that we are constantly distracted by one crisis after another and the media doesn’t help matters because they dramatize everything for their own purposes. And this takes our focus off of what is really important. It does not help that the media exaggerates the dangers around us. But the underlying problem is that we must first establish the right culture and it must start with the individual.
My younger sister and I were having a conversation about this sort of thing the other day. She said something that I think I will remember for a long time. She said, it is as if the world just passed a road sign that says ‘Danger, cliff 50 feet ahead.’ and we all just sit looking at each other and say “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.”
I find it interesting that in the Good Country Index, the United States ranks #38. But should we not at least be in the top ten? Should we not be at the point where the world falls asleep at night being thankful that we even exist. The only way that is going to happen is if we are just as concerned about our impact on the rest of the world as we are about our own domestic problems. And that includes focusing our attention on sustainable living and how we set an example in the international community.
So back to my original question.
If you were told you had to live in a different country from now until the rest of your life, where would it be? Where would you go? Would you have to make a life changing decision or would you be so proud of your own country and culture to to simply say, “No thanks. I already live in a good country.”
I truly hope at this point that I’ve given you something to think about. Do we live in a good country or do we live in a place where the average person is more concerned about their own needs. If this is true, how can we improve.
You know the only thing worse than going in the wrong direction is going in the wrong direction enthusiastically. And I truly believe that many of us are simply running in the wrong direction because so are so influenced by the things around us. But the best way to work against that is to simply educated your self on what you can do to change the way you live and how you conduct yourself everyday.
So think about that this week. Despite all the things going on in the world that you have absolutely no control over, there is something that you can do. My challenge for you this week is to simply adopt the attitude of continuous personal improvement through education. This way you can leverage the one thing you always control: how you use your mind to develop yourself.
And that is my final thought for this week folks. Again if you have enjoyed this episode, then please subscribe to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast as well as Off Grid Living News.
Have a fantastic week folks and stayed tuned for next week. And remember, always live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.
Patrick
