1. Switzerland  Zurich over Geneva. I don’t feel I have to explain why I chose this country. Everything is fresh, clean, delicious, and runs on time. It is also a really pretty country.

2. Canada  Quite polite and equitable society.

3. USA   I still think the US system works better than the Canadian but Canada is smaller and more easily upgradeable; the US is large and has much creaky infrastructure.

4. Bermuda  Small island paradise on the US standard but not perfect by a long shot.

5. Hong Kong  Quite advanced civilization that puts many American cities to shame. Remember I haven’t been to Singapore yet. But also great poverty just beneath the glitter.

6. Austria  Just a touch below Switzerland in appearance but something lurks beneath the surface that is quite temperamental and bothersome.

7. Netherlands  Smaller and more manageable than Germany; slightly more efficient.

8. Belgium  Smaller and more manageable than Germany. 

9. Germany  Clean, fairly efficient and English speaking. Not as efficient as they think though. Still too bureaucratic in this 4 country region.

10. Spain   Orderly, clean, modern, with-it and moving forward. 

11. Argentina  Often underrated country with good infrastructure and advanced people but doesn’t reach its potential.

12. Chile   Just a step down from Argentina, but moving forward in its own quiet way.

13. UK   A bit quirky with old infrastructure. Not necessarily polite. Lots of internet cafes. New airport train from Heathrow. High in the ratings because they speak English.

14. France   More quirky, not enough signage and not as clean. In some respects, better than UK and worse in others. Could go either way.

15. Emirates (UAE) Crisp and clean for tourists but it is far away from other places in a dangerous region and do you really want to be in Dubai if something goes wrong (ie: you get sick)?

16. Italy   Civilized but mad. Needs more English signage, order and consistent infrastructure.

17. Japan   Electronics doth not a civilized place make. Still backward in many ways. I will revisit this next month when I followup in Tokyo.

18. Greece  A small step down from northern Europe but still quite neat.

19. Cyprus  Not quite EEC standard but small, neat and safe. Very good tourist facilities. Better airport lounges in Greece and Cyprus than Italy but that wasn’t enough to sway me.

20. Israel   Not as clean but an oasis compared to its poorer neighbors with fairly consistent infrastructure and Western standards in many important areas.  Too much army. People living beyond means. GDP figures for the country inflated. More hype than reality. Not truly Western mentality.

21. Jordan   Improving. Tourist facilities up to par but country is still poor. Airport needs work; infrastructure not consistent.

22. Saudi Arabia  Richer but less clean except nicer shopping areas. Saudi water barely potable. Below this line, can’t drink the water. Below this line, no real English speakers outside a 5 star hotel.

23. Turkey  Ain’t Europe. Shabby, dirty and disorienting. Certain pockets of first class facilities and roads and airport are improving. Just a bit better than Moscow. Exotic sites.

24. Moscow  Still scary; things don’t work and infrastructure is still not improving and no sense that it will.

25. Beirut   Except for some cosmetics, still bombed out city with various fiefdoms around the country and not really free. Entrepreneurial Lebanese rearing to go when given the chance. Close call with Moscow but the civil wars of the past few decades decided this one.

26. Syria   70's Havana. No bank, credit cards, internet, e-mail. Very poor with third world infrastructure. At least here, everyone is equally poor but it is not obvious and it will be easier to upgrade Syria than Egypt when the time comes.

27. Egypt   Utterly chaotic and congested; open poverty and no sense of any real idea how to move a hindered socialist-oriented country forward.