>hmmm, I think you could expect a reply from me :)
>
>>Human Development
>>- pioneers in women's equality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_suffrage
>
>Hmmm, what are you pointing to? I don't see what you're aming at.
>
>>- pioneers in civil or minority rights
>
>Hmmm, can you back this up. Discrimination of blacks was very common on the last century and european countries did not have those issues.
>
>>- pinoneers in indivual rights
>
>I can't back this up.

As for both issues above, it must be pointed out that the majority of authors at Wikipedia may be American, and that the others may not bother to correct their perception. As the whole West is notorious for compiling world lists of anything by looking at its own yard only, with token representatives of the rest of the world, I'm not surprised.

As for minority rights, we once had (and are on the way of having them again) in my home province of Vojvodina:

- all the governmental acts, plus parliamentary discourse translated into four languages
- public schools in those languages up to 12th grade
- official documents stamped with saucer-size pentalingual stamps
- state-sponsored radio and TV programming in those languages
- all these languages valid in court, including the Roma language

As for individual rights, we had the citizens' right to decide on the profit of their labor. OK, it didn't really work that way completely (as I stated elsewhere - by the end of the system, they had about 2% to decide on). But, it was in the Constitution 1974-1992.

>>The only things I can think of that they aren't the best at:
>
>- Stabelizing their debts

You're wrong. The debt is quite stable. Try to move it.

>- Providing governmental services for their citizens (e.g 40 million people excluded from healthcare)

Actually, 40,000,005 - if you count my family.

>- Environmental devlopment.

Goes against the major religions here - namely, $ and corporate citizen's rights.

>- The level of education in general

That'll be fixed as soon as China and India make more progress in space. Currently, no competition makes this unattractive. Once upon a time there was the incentive to beat USSR in that area, but since it was beat in the other area (armament spending to the tune "what's Cupid's nationality?" - "he's a Soviet - armed, but bare butted"), the education system here has gone down.

>- Knowing about the world outside of their own country

No, I saw a Brazilian movie run here.

Just kidding.

>- Multimedia hardware (Asia is better at electronics)
>- Development of infrastructure

Except roads - which are great, wide and easy to drive on. And ample parking space almost everywhere (well, I'm not driving a personal tank, so I can almost park sideways).

Electrical net - on poles, rarely dug in. Phone network - great, both mobile and land lines. Internet, great, my folks back home just envy my speed here. Railway - sparse, and dying off (my impression). No French- or Japanese-style fast trains. Airports - great, and a couple of small ones even show some attempts at architecture and looking nice. Local transportation - sparse. Here, a city of 400,000 people has buses running each hour. City of Novi Sad, back home, had buses in 3 to 15 minute intervals (depending on statistically expected number of passengers) in the 70s when it had just 200,000 people. And it wasn't that cars were hard to get - actually, the city was quite congested already.

>- Achieving a pure secular government
>- Design of consumer goods (Italian is the best)

Shoes! And actually the design of simple things, like door knobs, light switches, lights... it's so hard to find something that'd look at least half decent.

>- Wine / Beer / Cheese

No comment.

>- Culinair (I don't know if a thing like an american kitchen does exist)

There are great things, one has to get used to it. Also, there's great diversity... well, seemingly. Even the Chinese cuisine here is americanized - that's not what they eat in China. That's how Chinese cooks here view their customers, and what they invented here based on their heritage. Accidentally, I once was in a Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam (Tong Ah, I believe), and what I ate there had very little or nearly no connection to what you find in a Chinese restaurants here.

One thing I can't get used to, after so many years - bread. Not a single one, out of 40 types one can find in a regular grocery, that isn't too wet, limp, spongy, half-baked, crustless... not the way I imagine bread. Must have something to do with the price of teeth here.