Comparisons
Israel is 14th in the world for the frequency and intensity of terrorist incidents, according to a report released Monday by the risk assessment firm Maplecroft. The top countries on the list with "extreme risk" were not surprisingly Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. The US was placed 33 with "medium risk" and France and Britain were at 44 and 46 respectively. Greece saw the sharpest rise from 57 last year to 24 this year. At the level of 14 one might think that Israel is beset by terrorism on a daily basis, but although there are incidents, for the past few years they have been few and quite contained.
This ranking in the terrorism listing for Israel does not seem to affect its standing in terms of its people's satisfaction living here. According to a list put our by Nationmaster.com, under "lifestyle satisfaction" Israel ranks 25 out of 69 countries, i.e. somewhat over half way and above the median. It is close to countries like Argentina and Portugal and above France (28) and Spain (28). On this list the Scandinavian countries predominate while the US is at 11 and Britain 16.
Of course, there doesn't seem to be any correlation of these two lists. One might expect the countries with the highest terrorism risk to have a much lower satisfaction index. But, although that's true to some extent, it isn't true for Israel. The conclusion might be that despite the terrorism risk here, people are quite satisfied with their lifetyle. Is it a case of living under the volcano or ignoring the volcano?
Such aspects of lifestyle as the health system might play a large role in a person's satisfaction in living in the country. A coincidental poll published today by the Health Ministry shows that 69% of those polled were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' by the Israeli health system, which consists of various health funds subsidized by the Government. 90% of the public were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' by the specific health fund that they are registered with. All the satisfaction indices showed a rise since last year. Nevertheless there are problems, Heads of the Meuhedit Health Fund are being investigated for taking over-payments for salaries and expenses. I am quite sure that levels of satisfaction of citizens with their health systems would be a lot less in the UK and USA (whatever system it is now).
This ranking in the terrorism listing for Israel does not seem to affect its standing in terms of its people's satisfaction living here. According to a list put our by Nationmaster.com, under "lifestyle satisfaction" Israel ranks 25 out of 69 countries, i.e. somewhat over half way and above the median. It is close to countries like Argentina and Portugal and above France (28) and Spain (28). On this list the Scandinavian countries predominate while the US is at 11 and Britain 16.
Of course, there doesn't seem to be any correlation of these two lists. One might expect the countries with the highest terrorism risk to have a much lower satisfaction index. But, although that's true to some extent, it isn't true for Israel. The conclusion might be that despite the terrorism risk here, people are quite satisfied with their lifetyle. Is it a case of living under the volcano or ignoring the volcano?
Such aspects of lifestyle as the health system might play a large role in a person's satisfaction in living in the country. A coincidental poll published today by the Health Ministry shows that 69% of those polled were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' by the Israeli health system, which consists of various health funds subsidized by the Government. 90% of the public were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' by the specific health fund that they are registered with. All the satisfaction indices showed a rise since last year. Nevertheless there are problems, Heads of the Meuhedit Health Fund are being investigated for taking over-payments for salaries and expenses. I am quite sure that levels of satisfaction of citizens with their health systems would be a lot less in the UK and USA (whatever system it is now).
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:26 PM
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