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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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HDI...not to be mistaken for Human DevelopmentThis year again United Nations presented the world with their version of the list of countries, according to their level of "human development". Countries were moved up and down. People who didn't observe any change in their respective level of development suddenly appeared one or two places up or down in the list. Nations considered by many as the best place to live like Switzerland don't even find a place in the top 10. Others where the climate is far from hospitable most of the year are found on the very top. HDI, which usually is used as reference yardstick, is less about the human development than about the state's ability to present the picture according to its interests. To begin with our list of grievances against HDI, we must mention that by definition it takes 3 different criteria: longevity, school enrolment, and real incomes. Longevity isn't something that can be played easily by the governmental statistics, although given that small changes in life expectation lead to big changes in the place the county occupies, it won't be surprising to hear that some authoritarian regimes are ready to put 3-4 additional months to their citizens average lifespan. If the longevity is more or less easy to manipulate by the authoritarian regimes, the school enrolment is something even the democratic countries can manipulate at will. In fact, it isn't the same to go to school in a country where black board and chalk are the only instruments used in education or attend classes with power point presentations. HDI doesn't make any reference to the quality of education. It seems that Khmer Rouge, Mao and Vietcong reeducation of the "reactionary" elements in Cambodia, China and Vietnam could also qualify for school enrolment for the authors of the HDI. Real incomes of population are also something that can be used and misused at will by the governments. Four consecutive years at the very top for Norway in fact are due to the more expensive oil and gas exports of this country. Oil prices being at the half of their current level, Norway would occupy lower position in the general list but the country would be the same in terms of human development. Talking about Norway, the HDI leader during last 4 years, a senior diplomat in Oslo in a confidential letter to me complained about the lack of sunlight during the winter period. Second, two countries producing equal amount of goods with equal longevity and education levels will have equal HDI. But what if one of these countries spends much more on defense than the other? What if one of them spends much more on repaying loans than the other? This will reduce the disposable income and make the country less affluent than its pair but HDI doesn't take this into account. But by far the strongest critique against HDI is his reliance on government statistics. Struggle to see your country going up in the HDI list is in fact a struggle between the governments to make and remake the numbers. Even among the list leaders the issue is politically sensitive because all of them have democratically elected governments that don't want to be accused of "lowering" the human development standards in the country. For the nations the lag behind the issue is politically even more sensitive. Because we usually deal with corrupt regimes, which can't deliver their nations with conditions for high living standard, so the only thing they can do is to forge statistics. In any way, these practices have nothing to do with the real human development.
Human Development Index-2004 --------------------
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