Poll of the Day > Rate the nation: Day 1: Afghanistan!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yup. Gonna try this sort of thing out.

Every day I'll try to get a new poll up in which we rate all the nations of the world on a scale of 1-10. I'll have the results posted below as well. It will be tackled in alphabetical order from A-Z. A 10 is 'I love and adore this nation' and a 1 is basically 'horrific hellhole of a nation'. Some basic facts below.

Name (official): Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Population: 34,656,000
Capitol: Kabul
Official Language: Pashto, Dari
Government: Unitary presidential Islamic republic
Current Leader: Ashraf Ghani
Motto: "There is no God but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
GDP: $21,000,000,000
GDP per capita: $572
Currency: Afghani
National Sport: Buzkashi (Goat-Pulling)

Fun Fact: The worlds first oil-paintings come from Afghanistan in the caves of Bamiyan and date back to about 650 B.C.
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they have rocks I think
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I like their boy bands.
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2/10. At least it's not Somalia.
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any country with an official religion is instantly 1
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VeeVees posted...

any country with an official religion is instantly 1

Technically all countries have an 'official religion' or some variation on it. Many of the western worlds simply opt for 'free religion'.
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if you need to use technically and quotes then they don't.
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VeeVees posted...

if you need to use technically and quotes then they don't.

No. They do. All nations have a national religion, just like they have a national bird or tree (Oak for the U.S. if you're wondering). However, 'free religion' is a perfectly viable option for said national religion option. As opposed to christian, atheist, jewish, islam, and so-forth. I think it's technically possible to have two or three even though most obviously opt for one.

And yes, for the purposes of a national religion, atheism is considered to be one. Especially since some governments *coughchinaandnorthkoreacough* will rigidly oppose the influence of any other religion in the functions of their government.

Edit: Also, I should point out that the majority of nations do NOT have a specific national religion; though some of the ones that do are England, Norway, and Greenland. Some nations do not have a national religion but will have a populace that worships one religion in mass quantities while some have a national religion but do not enforce it. There is a big difference.
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Unbridled9 posted...

All nations have a national religion, just like they have a national bird or tree

This is not true at all
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ya...no.
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I think I'll like this series, keep it up tc.

Afghanistan sucks. This could be fun, hope you keep going with this.

I think the saying graveyard of empires sums up what Afghanistan is.
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5/10. Indifferent. It's got a lot of war going off over there but despite that I do like some of the buildings like Mosques and Citadels.
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better infrastructure than alot of the USA. 4/10 third world country.
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So 1/10 is a horrific hellhole.
Let's see:

99% is muslim.
20% of children die before reaching the age of 5.
10% of girls can go to school. (these girl schools tend to blow up a lot)
40% of girls marry before reaching the age of 18. 33% of them have children by then.
2%-6% of females die during childbirth.
Opium producing country number 1.
Millions of drug addicts (a high percentage)
36% of people can read.
<15% of females can read.

I'll give this poor landlocked country a 3/10. One extra point is for fighting off the russians that tries to take their country. Another point is because it's better nowadays then when it was ruled by taliban not too long ago. At least children can go to school now.

one of my boys is afghan

he cool doe
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Anything above 1 is wrong

Everything in that entire region, save for Dubai, can be safely rated as 1.
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VeeVees posted...

if you need to use technically and quotes then they don't.

England has a state religion, so either you instantly give England a 1 or more likely you mean something like "theocracy" rather than just "official religion".
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Great weed. 10/10
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Sahuagin posted...

VeeVees posted...

if you need to use technically and quotes then they don't.

England has a state religion, so either you instantly give England a 1 or more likely you mean something like "theocracy" rather than just "official religion".

Why would you think I wouldn't give it a 1?
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I like it so much that I've been there five times.
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Sahuagin posted...

VeeVees posted...

if you need to use technically and quotes then they don't.

England has a state religion, so either you instantly give England a 1 or more likely you mean something like "theocracy" rather than just "official religion".

Don't worry, England will become a theocracy once enough Muslims have moved in and sharia law has been enacted.
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VeeVees posted...

Why would you think I wouldn't give it a 1?

I was assuming you were reasonable. my mistake.

honestly, england having a state religion seems to have actually made religion *less* problematic there, not more. the US does not have a state religion, and yet has tons of problems with fundamentalism. england has a state religion, yet there religion has become a farce.
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Sahuagin posted...

VeeVees posted...

Why would you think I wouldn't give it a 1?

I was assuming you were reasonable. my mistake.

honestly, england having a state religion seems to have actually made religion *less* problematic there, not more. the US does not have a state religion, and yet has tons of problems with fundamentalism. england has a state religion, yet there religion has become a farce.

LOL, and you assume US wouldn't also be 1.
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VeeVees posted...

LOL, and you assume US wouldn't also be 1.

Sahuagin posted...

I was assuming you were reasonable. my mistake.

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VeeVees posted...

any country with an official religion is instantly 1

So England, Norway, Finland, etc, are a 1 in your book? That's some serious religious bigotry.
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Zeus posted...

VeeVees posted...

any country with an official religion is instantly 1

So England, Norway, Finland, etc, are a 1 in your book? That's some serious religious bigotry.

Oh, no, religion is only one of the many things that's 1. Plenty of countries will get 1 for plenty of other reasons.
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VeeVees posted...

Zeus posted...

VeeVees posted...

any country with an official religion is instantly 1

So England, Norway, Finland, etc, are a 1 in your book? That's some serious religious bigotry.

Oh, no, religion is only one of the many things that's 1. Plenty of countries will get 1 for plenty of other reasons.

If you have a lot of 1s and 10s, 1s and 10s become utterly meaningless. You might as well just do a simple up/down vote at that point. More importantly, your criteria is flat-out stupid since an otherwise great nation shouldn't be disqualified over something so -- and pun intended -- goddamn trivial.
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4
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1 / 10. Impossible to conquer. Impossible to develop. Every government fails. People who live there are in constant danger of dying or being maimed. It's pretty much a top contender for Shittiest Place On Earth, though there are other countries that would give it a run for its money.
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3/10. War-torn. Drug-addicted.

But I think North Korea is my floor for 1, and it's not quite that.
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No bacon allowed. 0/10
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