I found today at the nytimes website an obscure article that was buried in the
business section. While I didn't care for the article itself, as it was too oriented toward the opinion of business leaders, the poll itself fascinated me. I googled for links and found these from the
World Economic Forum and from
Yale Global Online along with several others. I haven't found or seen the PDF file for results, but perhaps someone else found these and will enlighten us where they might be available.
The poll was conducted by Gallup international and had a sample size of 50,000 world wide. It's called the Voice of the People Survey and it had some interesting results.
I'll list just a few of them as a teaser below the fold.
First about current attitudes:
Regionally, Western Europe is the most pessimistic region in the world about future prospects for safety - two-thirds (67%) in this region feel the next generation will live in a less safe world (either a lot less safe or a little less safe) while only just over one in ten (11%) feel the world will be a lot or a little safer for the next generation.
The Americas are the next most pessimistic region with over half (54%) also supporting the view that the world will be a less safe place for future generations, while less than one in five (19%) felt that the world would be a safer place. It is also worth noting that half of the Americans interviewed (51%) also held the view that the world would be a less safe place for future generations with one in five (20%) maintaining the opposite view that the world would be either a lot or a little safer.
Within the Middle East region, interviews were conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both these countries, respondents were even more optimistic about future prospects. In Afghanistan, three-quarters (77%) think the next generation will live in a safer world, while in Iraq this view is held by six in every ten (61%) interviewed.
I guess that means a different view from the top of the heap as opposed to the bottom of the barrel. If you are looking at the world from a place where you're threatened every day, it's hard to see where you can fall any further or be less safe. You've got to be amazed and inspired by these people to have such an optimistic view. And few of them thank bush for it.
Another quickie about prioritization:
However, the top priority is different in almost every region. In Western Europe, 18% want leaders to focus on eliminating extreme poverty and hunger in the world, in Eastern and central Europe the priority is seen as the war on terrorism (20%), as it is also in the Middle East (22%). The Americas see the priority as eliminating extreme poverty and hunger (20%), although in the United States itself, the priority is given to the war on terrorism (16%). In Asia, leaders are asked to focus on encouraging economic growth and improving the world economy (21%), while in Africa equal proportions want leaders to concentrate on closing the gap between rich and poor countries (21%) and on encouraging economic growth and improving the global economy (22%).
To me this shows that the continual US government and media concentration on fear as a political tactic has worked amazingly well. In the middle east one could expect terror to be the number one priority, as well as in Eastern Europe where the past is still a big part of the present. In the United States, though, one might expect to find a different priority, because we have so much. Perhaps I'm reading this wrong. I urge people to read it and give their thoughts as well.
To me this is both an optimistic poll and a pessimistic poll. Optimistic because the priorities and results of the places like Africa , Asia and the Americas seem to be on the correct basis and those of the Middle East aren't totally screwed up by our adventurism in that area. Pessimistic because my own country seems to be more screwed up than most. I thank Mr. Bush for that.
disclaimer, this is my first diary, so criticism is welcome. I looked and couldn't find this diaried.