8612: The 10 worst countries in the world (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley Lucas <slucas@iri.org>

The 10 worst countries in the world
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL 
 
July 9 issue * Benighted nations that plumb the depths of state oppression, poverty and all-round misery. 
 


 

         1. NORTH KOREA
       A vast gulag where citizens are forced to worship their 'Great Leader,' who lets them die like flies
      
        2. AFGHANISTAN
       As if an endless civil war and psychotic regime were not enough, a punishing drought is starving millions
        3. SIERRA LEONE
       Africa's most brutal war has taken life and limb, literally, from thousands of children
        4. SUDAN    
   
       Ethnic and religious enmities have so riven the country that it hardly qualifies as a nation at all
        5. ANGOLA
       A quarter century of civil war*and the rich, feeding off oil profits, are still getting richer
        6. TAJIKISTAN
       The poorest of the former Soviet republics is torn between a two-bit dictator and disgruntled warlords
        7. DEM. REP. OF CONGO
       Plagued by every ill of our times: greed, ethnic tension, civil war, foreign aggression, AIDS, poverty
        8. ALBANIA
       Smuggling is the biggest foreign-exchange earner, and criminal gangs hold more sway than the state
        9. HAITI
       Misrule and international donor fatigue continue to make a potential Caribbean paradise a hell on earth
        10. IRAQ
       The worst of both worlds*sanctions have ravaged the economy and Saddam's boot is as heavy as ever