Think of this. The data may be a little old but the numbers have only gotten higher. According to the census, in March 2003 11.7% of the population were foreign born citizens. Have you ever wondered why everyone is itching to get here? I know I have. After receiving my March 26/April 2 issue of U.S. News & World Report I lost all understanding in why we are so special.

Everyone always tells me that we have luxuries here that others aren’t fortunate enough to have. And I don’t doubt that but how come everyone always acts as if America isn’t a country but the country. Let’s take a look at how life is in a few other countries. You be the judge of who comes out on top.

Can you imagine driving on a road with no stop signs or no clearly drawn lanes? No traffic lights? What about no speed limit? Ipswich, England is putting a new theory to the test. Traffic signs give people a false sense of security and by taking them away people are forced to be more aware and have better reasoning. Holland is now beginning to take down traffic signs. Why? Because there’s less accidents. Finland took a different approach to reducing accidents by targeting speeding. Unlike the U.S., speeding fines are based on one’s annual income. Here everyone pays a standard amount. Is that a good thing? No. The wealthier you are, the easier it is to break a law.

Gas taxes have been raised all over Europe in order to promote cycling and walking. According to the magazine “Every 10th trip in Berlin is made by bike.” Most Americans (including myself) would have a difficult time with such a task. How many of us actually ride a bike or walk to school or work voluntarily? Which brings me into a new topic. Our laziness and lack of health has taken a high toll. Compare the adult obesity rate for America and Japan. 32% vs. 3.6%. Still proud to be an American?

In my opinion teachers shape our society. They should be highly respected and looked up to. In Finland the status of a teacher is similar to that of a doctor or lawyer. Our overall education ranked low. The U.S. was 18th in reading literacy, 22nd in science and 28th in math. Sex education is very vague in the states. It is argued that by teaching children about such things we would be promoting it. But Sweden is the perfect example of the success of such education. At age 6 children begin learning anatomy and from age 12 and on they begin learning about disease and contraceptives. So let’s compare, Sweden has the least cases teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. The teenage birth rate is 7 per 1,000 births. In the United States it is 49 per every thousand. My point here is our education is weak. Are you sleep deprived? Well it’s no shock that all Americans are. In Taiwan all workers take lunch breaks from noon to 1:30 (compared to the typical 15 minute break in America.) During those breaks it is typical to see workers taking naps. Sara Mednick, a sleep expert at the University of California says, “Even a nap as short as 5 minutes can increase alertness and memory skills” It’s been shown that sleep deprivation is the cause of minor accidents and some not so minor. Just that caused the famous Chernobyl accident. I can see why the United States is a nation of “the walking tired.”

Norway allows for 53 weeks of maternity leave 80% pay with a job to return to. 5 weeks of paternity leave is also given along with the standard 5 week vacation (typical vacation here is 2 weeks.) The U.S. placed close to last in child well being while Norway placed 7th. The divorce rate has dropped in Norway by 6% in the past decade. We are a dirty nation. That is something no one can deny. I can’t walk down the street without seeing gum stuck to the cement or a wrapper on the ground. I constantly see liquor bottles just lying around. Maybe we should pick up a few pointers from Singapore. If you drop a piece of trash on the ground you get a fine of about $1,000. We are number 28 on the Global Index of Environmental Protection. And we rank number 40 in life expectancy. We did not make it into the list of top 22 countries with the least infant mortality. Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. America has more people in prison than any other country (2,135,900). We also have the highest rate of gun-related homicides of all industrialized nations.

So my point is, what is everyone raving about? Why do people dream about living here. We didn’t even make it in the top 20 countries with a higher quality of life. We’re simply an over worked, uneducated and tired country. We need fixing and a lot of it. Sure we are a good country. And yes, we are better than some but why settle for ok? I am in no way implying any type of competition between American and the rest of the world. I just think that politicians aren’t focusing enough on the people. Incase they haven’t noticed, the people makeup the workforce and the country. It’s not America without the Americans and we deserve better.

I’m not only pointing fingers at the politicians. The people are partially to blame. We have to stop being lazy. That’s that. There are many things that we can control but don’t care enough to do so. Big changes start small. We have to stop saying “oh, I’ll start next week” and “well, no one else cares so why should I?” and the most famous “what difference can one person possibly make?” A change is a change no matter how small or big.

Ilona.2007 Writtin by Ilona on 3-31-2007 For Vast HTML™