by Christine Jensen

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

According to a UN study, Norway is the best country in the world, followed by Iceland, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Japan and the U.S.A. Norway has held this position for six years with its wealth, high levels of education, low unemployment, and economic booms. They aren't going to leave the top of the mountain anytime soon, and still people ignore this fact and bicker about whose country is better in the childlike manner of call and response. "No, _ is better!" and in retort, "No, _ is way better!" back and forth, like a ping pong match. No real reasons are given, but rather opinions. Facts are rare and not for the faint of heart. This relentless competition has been going on since the first nomadic tribes. Today the tribes are larger and named "countries". Whole plots of land are divided into these regions, except each one has its own unique form of government. A citizen even on the very tip of the country is still part of the country and undeniably not like the bordering nation a few minutes away, which turns so freakishly weird in that distance that it makes all the inhabitants want to spew all over it. Once you cross the line, you are no longer in your country, but a place that is obviously not as fantastic as your homeland. To say something otherwise is unpatriotic and vitriolic, and you are a traitor. Nation A is the best place to live; Nation B is just arrogant and stuck up. Hate them we must. This cycle of constant hatred flows on, with the leaders of countries acting like overzealous parents rooting on their children at sports games, telling them to kick the other team's players in the face, to hate them, to do better than them - to succeed in the most extreme form possible while simultaneously making the other team look ridiculous. And what is their justification for this constant rivalry? They're a different country. But isn't a different country just decided by bold black lines on the map by the amazing leaders of the marvelous world? Aren't they just fences, walls, lines, gates, passports, stereotypes?

No comment.

These lines make no sense. Why should lines determine who we are? I thought humans were individuals, not collective members of a special club. Unity is important in the world, for if all men are equal, then why are they divided by bold black lines?

These first steps to unity and peace can be found within the European Union, which started out as the European Coal and Steel Community with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1951.

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