From Worldometer (new COVID-19 deaths yesterday):
DAY USA WORLD Brazil India South Africa
June 9 1093 4732 1185 246 82
July 22 1205 7128 1293 1120 572
Aug 12 1504 6556 1242 835 130
Sept 9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82
Oct 21 1225 6849 571 703 85
Nov 25 2304 12025 620 518 118
Dec 30 3880 14748 1224 299 465
Jan 14 4142 15512 1151 189 712
Feb 3 4005 14265 1209 107 398
Mar 2 1989 9490 1726 110 194
April 6 906 11787 4211 631 37
May 4 853 13667 3025 3786 59
June 1 287 10637 2346 3205 95
July 7 251 8440 1595 817 411
Aug 4 656 10120 1118 532 423
Sept 1 1480 10470 703 505 235
8 1700 9836 250 339 253
14 1934 9001 709 281 300
22 2228 9326 839 279 124
29 2190 8859 643 309 108
Oct 5 1811 7495 686 285 103
6 2102 8255 543 315 59
11 1480 6784 176 229 83
Summary: looking better.
I've long admired the success and humanity of Norway. In one of my more remarkable trips:
I embarked on an $18,000 (just expenses) trip in October and November of 2005 to Reunion Island, located in the Indian Ocean, then going on to Paris, Oslo, Bergen and London. The expense was high because there were some paid upgraded segments. This was certainly in the top 10 of worst and best trips, showing enormous promise for future interaction (see The Free Hydrogen Age and the Blue Revolution in Book 1). Mauritius was a late add-on, and a pleasant one. They are my hope for the Blue Revolution.
The first stop was Le Reunion, which was the most difficult part of the journey. The French do a terrible job of colonization, while the British do it right. Next to Le Reunion is Mauritius, which was wonderful. Take Southeast Asia, where the French Vietnam led to a war, while the British Singapore became a model of success. Here is where Lee Kuan Yew came, and copied their social system to develop Singapore.
After Mauritius, I was supposed to spend some time with the United Nations in Paris, but on flying in I saw the city burning, so I immediately caught the next plane for Oslo. To further quote:
Why, then, is Norway so terrific? There is no homeless, nor insects, true peace of mind (you can actually walk the parks at night), and everything works. The bathrooms and airports (when you want to leave Bergen, there is no check--in desk--you must use those scary looking machines, but someone is there to help you) are well engineered, elevators arrive within 10 seconds (if not already there—in London, the average wait is more than a minute), cities and public lavatories that are really clean, with soft paper towels, and a transportation system that is frequent and dependable. The people are attractive and nice, with no obvious obesity problem.
Then, on to Bergen, another fine city. In a special summit with Chile, Norway and the USA, we created the Bergen Declaration for Next Generation Fisheries. A century from now, some historian will discover this document and trace the relative abundance of seafood to this international agreement.
In Reunion, if in the evening you thought a leaf was rustling...no, it was probably a large cockroach. In Norway, that leaf was always a leaf.
Norway prospered with their oil and gas reserves, but they are being depleted. Now they are only #21 in petroleum still in the ground. The leaders are (billions of barrels, years of production left in parentheses):
- #1 Venezuela .303 (363)
- #2 Saudi Arabia .267 (70)
- #3 Canada .168 (126)
- #8 Russia .080 (21)
- #10 United States .033 (15)
- #13 China .026 (18)
- #19 Mexico .007 (9)
- #21 Norway .007 (11)
You think, maybe, some nations, like the USA and China, are doing something about helping Venezuela out of its current political crisis? If President Maduro somehow becomes inconsequential, you can believe that the USA was involved. Watch for the rise of Juan Guaido (to the right).
Norway is also #21 in natural gas reserves (cubic kilometers, with years of production left in parentheses):
- #1 Russia 47,798 (77)
- #2 Iran 33,980 (142)
- #3 Qatar 23,871 (143)
- #4 U.S. 13,167 (14)
- #5 Saudi Arabia 9,430 (83)
- #6 China 6,654 (37)
- #21 Norway 1,557 (14)
Solar insolation is poor and winds modest in Norway. How did they ever succeed in leaping into the future? One example:
- 60% of new cars sold in Norway are battery-powered. U.S.? 2%.
- Pollution tax of 25% VAT.
- Carbon tax of 20%.
- Average driving distance is shorter.
- Hydropower is 96% of all the electricity produced, and therefore the cost of electricity is among the lowest in the world.
- While European Union average is 25.8 cents/kilowatt-hour, Norway's is 16.4.
- However, the U.S.average is only 13 cents/kWh, with Texas at 11.
- Has the largest offshore wind project, led by Equinor, an offshore oil company, which is also doing some work in the USA.
- The latitude of North Dakota is 47.55.
- Norway? 60.45.
- Anchorage? 61.2.
- Forget sunlight as a major source.
- Biomass grows too slowly.
In other areas, Norway is only the #14 country in the Global Peace Index. Iceland is #1, New Zealand #2 and Denmark #3. Want to guess where the USA is? #122!!! Well, we do spend as much money on war than the next 11 countries, combined. Russia? #154. China? #100. Worst at #163? Afghanistan. Gotta show this latest graphic:
Maybe this comparison is more meaningful to many, the World's safest countries, based on war and peace, personal security and natural disaster risk:
- #1 Iceland
- #2 UAE
- #3 Qatar
- #4 Singapore
- #5 Finland
- #6 Mongolia (yes, Mongolia)
- #7 Norway
- #15 Australia
- #17 South Korea
- #20 Germany
- #22 Japan
- #26 China
- #36 Botswana
- #41 Spain
- #57 France
- #70 Thailand
- #71 USA
- #84 Italy
- #91 India
- #104 Russia
- #116 Pakistan
- #129 South Africa
- #122 Venezuela (remember, it has the largest oil reserve in the world)
- #128 Mexico
- #134 Philippines
That list above will help decide the stops in my next global journey. Need to be careful about the United States. What has happened to the USA?
Okay, one more, the best quality of life:
- #1 Finland
- #2 Denmark
- #3 Norway
- #4 Belgium
- #5 Sweden
- #6 Switzerland
- #10 Japan
- #14 USA
- #43 Russia
- #62 Vietnam
- #84 Iraq
- #120 Jamaica
- #165 Syria
#14 is not so bad. Who would want to live in all those cold countries, anyway.
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