Moving up in the world :: by mama

My dad just sent me this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which excitedly announces the news that Pittsburgh has been ranked the most liveable city in the US by The Economist magazine. This happens pretty regularly: Pittsburgh has made itself into a really nice little city, and journalists occasionally notice that and write articles about it. It's good publicity, but not really surprising anymore, at least for those of us who spend time there on a regular basis.

What was of more interest to us was the rest of the list, which was actually a list of the 140 most -- and least -- liveable cities in the world, on which Pittsburgh ranked 29th. At the bottom, tied with Algiers, Algeria for next-to-last place out of 140, was Dhaka. The only city to rank lower was Harare, Zimbabwe. (The magazine did note that cities in Iraq and Afghanistan were excluded from consideration, if that's any consolation.)

So is it really that bad? Living in Dhaka certainly has its frustrations -- the pollution, the traffic, the dirt and the unavailability of tater tots come to mind -- but it's not intolerable by any means. Of course, as expats we have a much better standard of living than the vast majority of the population. Maybe if we were ordinary Bangladeshis then, yes, it would be that bad. Ultimately, I think nearly any place is what you make it, barring war or natural disaster, and for us, Dhaka is liveable, at least for a while.

More generally, I've noticed that just as Pittsburgh gets good press pretty regularly, Bangladesh gets some pretty terrible press. Foreign Policy magazine ranked Bangladesh 12th on its Failed States Index for 2008. Somalia was no.1, Iraq was no.5, Pakistan was no.9, and Haiti was no.14, to give you an idea of the kind of company we keep. Granted, Bangladesh had a military government at the time and has since held elections, but it's not a good sign. Aside from Lonely Planet's completely random inclusion of Bangladesh in its top 10 countries to visit for 2009 (after Algeria... anyone else notice a theme?), there is not much positive being said about Bangladesh out there.

So, what is the take-home message from this? Maybe we should move back to Pittsburgh. Then again, if the best city in the US is only ranked 29th overall, that would suggest that there are a whole bunch of other countries that are more liveable than the US. Our Australian friends were quick to point out that they have three cities in the top 10: Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. They had four in the top 10 last year, when Adelaide was ranked no.7. Surely there is an American School in Australia...?