So We Won the High School Student Council Presidency?

A BBC report has stated that in a study of world attitudes towards 12 major nations, Canada tops the list. So I guess that in the High School hallways of the international community, Canada is the most popular. Yay. But I guess if that were so we'd be able to make fun of the less popular countries, maybe rough 'em up and throw them in a locker. Lets see North Korea continue to test nukes from inside a locker, eh?

"The survey polled more than 28,000 people for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service, asking them to rate 12 countries as having a positive or negative influence on the world. The countries on the list included: Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States, and Venezuela."

54% of participants said that they viewed Canada positively, while 14% viewed Canada negatively. Honestly, if there is any better argument for Canada getting a seat on the UN Security Council, this is it. We'd organize the best parties and make sure all the countries leave their keys with us at the door so as to not drive home drunk. Erm.. metaphorically, I suppose.

The bad news is that some of the world biggest democracies are being seen so negatively, and some of the biggest non-democratic regimes are viewed in such a relatively positive light. For example, Iran ranked higher than Israel, and North Korea ranked higher than the United States. Forget winning the minds of the Iraqis or the Afghanis alone - democracy and democratic states have a huge PR problem across the world. The cause of democracy cannot be furthered in places where the desire for freedom is not realized in the citizens of non-democratic nations because of bad PR from democratic countries. Obviously, this is a far-ranging problem that extends through several realms of public policy and includes war policy, foreign aid, and atttitudes towards international organizations and acting unilaterally.

Since I can't address all of this comprehensively, I won't address this at all except to say that the PR of democratic nations needs to improve if we are to further the cause of democracy and encourage societies of freedom in the world.

... Actually, you know how this PR situation could be improved? Well, we could have an international open bar (I bet Iran can be convinced to dismantle its nuclear program after a couple of spiked 'virgin' margaritas) ...and you know what? Canada could host.