are u happy?? hhmmm.... eyes wide shut...

Hi there... this UN global demographic index (http://hdr.undp.org/) was out Sept 7. Most countries and governments eagarly wait for this UN report because it involves reputation and national pride... comparing status of countries and its human factors.

Human Development Index http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indicators.cfm?x=1&y=1&z=1
56 Panama 0.804
57 Trinidad and Tobago 0.801
58 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 0.799
59 Macedonia, TFYR 0.797
60 Antigua and Barbuda 0.797
61 Malaysia 0.796
62 Russian Federation 0.795
63 Brazil 0.792
64 Romania 0.792
65 Mauritius 0.791

Sometimes we Malaysians are so overwhelmed and blinded by our print and TV reports about how great our country is economically... or how good the standard of living... or how wonderful it is to live here. Looking at this index, we got a long way to go before catching up with developed countries. The truth is we need to improve the living standards in states other than KL, Selangor or Penang. It all boils down to good analysis of demographics and improving socio-economic conditions our people... we need to spend more effort, time and good research on improving all aspects of human development in Malaysia. This is where the power of GIS can be used to its max - urban and regional planning, economic planning, tourism, structure plans, agriculture planning, industrial planning, emergency services, education and much more.

1 Norway 0.963
2 Iceland 0.956
3 Australia 0.955
4 Luxembourg 0.949
5 Canada 0.949
6 Sweden 0.949
7 Switzerland 0.947
8 Ireland 0.946
9 Belgium 0.945
10 United States 0.944