Cambodia Calling: Failed state No. 40 - Cambodia

Friday, June 25, 2010

Failed state No. 40 - Cambodia

Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace's 5th Annual Failed State Index ranks Cambodia at number 40. It shares the dubious distinction with Laos and Rwanda.

40. CAMBODIA
Score: 88.7
This young Cambodian mother is turning her infant over to the care of a safe house built for families of persons living with HIV/AIDS and run by a Canadian NGO. About 170,000 Cambodians are HIV positive. [See photo on Foreign Policy linked below]

Good news though - Cambodia moved up 9 spots from last year's index (Laos moved up 4 places and Rwanda, 5).

Number 1 is Somalia, which has topped the ranking for the last 3 years. "After two decades of chaos, the country is today largely under the control of Islamist militant groups, the most notorious and powerful of which is al-Shabab. A second faction, Hizbul Islam, rivals the former in brutality -- it recently executed two Somalis for the crime of watching the World Cup."

The Philippines is at #51 (up 2 spots from last year) and the last country on the list (hardly a failed state, but in the "sustainable category"), is Norway, at #177.

Read "Postcards from Hell" on Foreign Policy.com. Full list of countries by Failed States Index on Wikipedia.

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