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Smegma
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From the editorial section of The Nation, Published on May 29, 2003
The first Thailand Human Development Report, jointly prepared by the United Nations Development Programme and the National Economic and Social Development Board, makes for good reading for policy makers, development practitioners and anyone interested in human development from national and local perspectives. The report, released yesterday, also includes an attention-grabbing Human Achievement Index, which ranks the country's 76 provinces by their performance in terms of health, income, education, employment, family and community life, living conditions and public participation.
The findings of the report suggest there are great disparities in the quality of life of people in more developed provinces - highly-urbanised, industrial and commercial centres - and the least-developed ones, mostly-rural, lacking in modern infrastructure and trailing behind in education attainment and access to healthcare.
Unsurprisingly, Bangkok tops the country's list of provinces with high income levels as well as good transportation and communication systems.
But Phuket is ranked first in overall quality of life index, followed by Nonthaburi, Chon Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Songkhla and Bangkok. At the bottom of the heap are Nakhon Phanom, Si Sa Ket, Buri Ram, Nong Bua Lamphu, Amnat Charoen, Sakhon Nakhon and Udon Thani, all of which are in the northeastern region.
The Thailand Human Development Report also paints a grim picture of what can only be described as grotesquely troubling disparities. To illustrate its point, the report says Bangkok has four times the number of medical doctors than the national provincial average, with one doctor per 793 people. This compares with Si Sa Ket which has just one doctor per 19,006 people.
About 28 per cent of Bangkok residents have a college education, while in Amnat Charoen less than 5 per cent have completed tertiary education. Sixty-two per cent of the capital city's residents are covered by social security compared to only 1.4 per cent in Amnat Charoen.
The report also provides well-researched titbits of information on a wide range of social and economic issues, including divorce rates, access to the Internet, the incidence of violent crimes, for example, that offer a glimpse into the social and economic life of Thai people in different provinces.
Apparently, the report is designed to make human development issues digestible as reading material for the wider public. The Human Achievement Index and its ranking of provinces should not be taken as an absolute arbiter of how well, or how poorly, they are performing in improving people's lives.
The idea is to get people interested in the relative standing of their respective provinces compared to other provinces and perhaps even to engage each other in lively public discourse on what local and national development policymakers can do to achieve more equitable development outcomes.
Ultimately, the report, with its distinct perspective on development focuses on human well-being and happiness as an end in itself, rather than the traditional development yardsticks of economic growth and a rise in incomes. It can also come in handy for policymakers as a tool for prioritising the allocation of public resources and better targeting of development projects to enable the least-developed provinces to catch up socially and economically with the rest of the country.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:09 am on May 29, 2003
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Neo
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Did they include prostitution and environmental degradation in their weighting for phuket? 
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 8:34 am on May 29, 2003
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Vegas
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Neo.......those two cancel each other ou.t Environmental degradation is very bad, but the TGs even things out....hahaha
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:44 pm on May 29, 2003
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