Over christmas I was having a pointless conversation with someone very boring
but during it they posed a genuinely interesting question:
what is the most depressing country in the world?
it's hard to answer because there are different ways to look at it
you could link misery to poverty, and simply say the poorest country is the most depressing
or you could link it to a lack of physical beauty
and simply pick Luxembourg
it seems to me the question can only be answered by looking at a combination of factors
and with that in mind, the place I immediately think of is North Korea
because despite my love of everything North Korean
most agree the country is basically a big prison
but a place as interesting as North Korea cannot be called the most depressing
it's the law
as it happens there is an indicator called the misery index
created by an American economist
it's goal is to determine how miserable the average citizen of each country is
based on economic factors
and consistently ranked the most miserable country on earth is Zimbabwe
it may surprise you to hear that I've never been to Zimbabwe
but I can see why people there are so miserable
the country has never been a democracy
being plagued by corruption and poverty since it's creation in 1980
first was Robert Mugabe, a once beloved campaigner for independence
but on becoming Zimbabwe's leader he proved to be just another brutal dictator
but even among dictators he was seen as crazy
introducing economic policies that made no sense to anyone
I wont bore you with the details because economics is for losers
but by the early 2000s the country was on it's knees
the daily inflation rate was 98 percent
meaning the price of goods rose multiple times a day
to keep up the government just kept printing more money
in 2008, inflation rose by 79 billion percent a month
at one point they printed a 100 trillion dollar bill
then in 2009 they abolished their own currency
since then Mugabe was forced out of power
but in his place another dictator emerged
and the situation has gotten little better
the cost of living is far higher than the average wage
and even doctors and lawyers can't afford the journey to work
so that's not good
there's also crime, disease, and a general lack of hope
but there are several other candidates for the most depressing country
the answer could have nothing to do with the economy
perhaps it is the world's most boring country
in which case I think we can all agree it's Belgium
I've said it before and I'll say it again
Belgium is just a big cabbage field
but to me that would be a cop out
another cop out would be to say India, which is the world's most depressed country
but only in the sense it has the most cases of clinical depression
not far from India is the little known country of Tajikistan
largely dry and mountainous
the land of this nation is harsh
90 percent of the land is covered by mountains
and only some of the remaining 10 percent can be farmed on
little food grows here
but as agriculture remains the major industry
mass unemployment is permanent
as the quality of soil is so poor, even the livestock farmed here are weak
29 percent of Tajikistan's economy comes from immigrant remittances
that is, money sent home by Tajik's working abroad
no other country is so reliant on remittances
without it their economy would collapse
for most there are 2 options:
remain poor in Tajikistan
or go to Russia, often to work illegally
and be slightly less poor
the countryside, towns and cities are all bleak
there is no where in the country a person would want to live
luckily the country is ruled by an insane dictator
having been in power since 1994,
Emmomali Rahmon has basically spent the last 20 years banning things he hates
like facial hair or Russian surnames
it's almost like he has a problem with bearded Russians
but even a funny dictator cannot save Tajikistan
it's a grim place
to be honest you could say the same about any country in central Asia
and there might be more miserable countries I've missed out
it's hard to keep up
I feel like there are too many countries
there's no reason to have 2 places called the Congo
it's confusing and I disapprove of it