Tweet
GALLUP POLL: ARMENIA SUFFERS SECOND-MOST IN THE WORLD
EurasiaNet.org
Dec 4 2013
December 4, 2013 - 8:43am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
To many Armenians, worn out by everything from rampant corruption
to economic woes, it may come as no surprise that Armenia ranks as
the world's #2 suffering country (after Bulgaria) in Gallup's latest
global wellbeing poll. It is a ranking that leaves the rest of the
South Caucasus and Eurasia far behind.
To be precise, the poll (of 1,000 respondents) found that Armenia's
level of suffering stands at 37 percent. Georgia, a comparatively
sized neighbor with its own economic and security problems, suffers
by 16-percentage points less.
Azerbaijan, the richest yet least democratic of the South-Caucasus
trio, apparently suffers the least, at 15 percent of its respondents.
Overall, the survey, released on December 2, makes the Russian maxim
that "It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick" ring
truer than ever. The line of inquiry is broad -- linking "thriving"
to job-security and access to healthcare, for instance.
Nonetheless, some surprises did emerge: the UK and Uzbekistan allegedly
sharing the same level of suffering, for one.
Yet the Gallup pollsters, who did both face-to-face and over-the-phone
interviews, did not just call up randomly selected respondents to ask
how they're doing on a given day. Criteria under examination included
the amount of income, optimism, stress, physical pain, worry and anger.
The data, though, is based on how respondents rate their own lives.
How the survey compensated for cultural differences toward public
expressions of feelings is not clear.
As one video shows, even in the compact South Caucasus, those
differences can run strong.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67829
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
EurasiaNet.org
Dec 4 2013
December 4, 2013 - 8:43am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
To many Armenians, worn out by everything from rampant corruption
to economic woes, it may come as no surprise that Armenia ranks as
the world's #2 suffering country (after Bulgaria) in Gallup's latest
global wellbeing poll. It is a ranking that leaves the rest of the
South Caucasus and Eurasia far behind.
To be precise, the poll (of 1,000 respondents) found that Armenia's
level of suffering stands at 37 percent. Georgia, a comparatively
sized neighbor with its own economic and security problems, suffers
by 16-percentage points less.
Azerbaijan, the richest yet least democratic of the South-Caucasus
trio, apparently suffers the least, at 15 percent of its respondents.
Overall, the survey, released on December 2, makes the Russian maxim
that "It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick" ring
truer than ever. The line of inquiry is broad -- linking "thriving"
to job-security and access to healthcare, for instance.
Nonetheless, some surprises did emerge: the UK and Uzbekistan allegedly
sharing the same level of suffering, for one.
Yet the Gallup pollsters, who did both face-to-face and over-the-phone
interviews, did not just call up randomly selected respondents to ask
how they're doing on a given day. Criteria under examination included
the amount of income, optimism, stress, physical pain, worry and anger.
The data, though, is based on how respondents rate their own lives.
How the survey compensated for cultural differences toward public
expressions of feelings is not clear.
As one video shows, even in the compact South Caucasus, those
differences can run strong.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67829
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress