Australian Outback - 85% Of Country - Fits Criteria For "Failed State" Status - AFP

[hatrack]

Remote Australia, which covers 85 percent of the vast continent, has become a failed state due to a "perfect storm" of social and economic neglect, experts said in data published Saturday. Vast swathes of the outback urgently need assistance to stem the crises that could pose a threat to national security and the economy if large parts of the harsh landmass become effectively abandoned, they warned.

Remote Australia already fits the criteria of failed states -- endemic poverty, a lack of services, financial mismanagement and high rates of homicide and violence -- according to excerpts of the report published in The Age and The Australian newspapers. The group of prominent Australians, including academics, politicians, public servants and mining executives, has called for a radical rethink for the region that holds 65 percent of the nation's huge resources wealth.

"If we let communities die, that has implications for our mining industry, for our security and for the type of nation we are," said one of the experts, Peter Shergold, head of the Centre for Social Impact. A succession of Australian governments were guilty of a "failure of vision and policy", Shergold, the Australian government's top bureaucrat until last year, told The Age ahead of the report's publication Monday.

The result is that declining populations and crumbling infrastructure are turning remote areas of Australia -- where 80 percent of the population lives on the east coast -- into a largely unsettled wilderness, the report said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Australias_remote_outback_a_failed_state_experts_999.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. How much of US fits the same criteria?

A good of Alaska probably fits this criteria, as probably do parts of the rural South.

[hatrack]

2. And chunks of the northern Plains and New England states, as well

Interesting study proposal, though!

[XemaSab]

3. Half the counties in California fit that description too

And as far as I can tell, almost all of Nevada, a lot of Arizona, parts of Oregon...

[phantom power]

4. .

[XemaSab]

5. Pardon?

:shrug:

[phantom power]

6. Failed state, or "epic failed state?"

[XemaSab]

7. Gotcha

Imperial County, California: If it was a state, it would be THE BENCHMARK for failed states. Somewhere in between Somalia and Myanmar.

Well, okay, maybe not that bad, but it's freaky down there. :o

[depakid]

8. Dought in marginal lands plus the boom bust cycle

will knock out communities anywhere in the world.

Add to that stinking heat, swarms of flies and expensive goods and services (when they're available) and you won't find many takers away, especially inland, away from the coast...

[XemaSab]

9. I'd also guess part of it is about having the entire economy of an area

based on blue collar and service jobs sets up a system where the educated people leave, so you've got a town of people of two classes: poor and hella poor.

Yeah, there are going to be some people making a good wage, but not enough to change the character of the town.

It's sort of like that in Redding, and definitely like that in the smaller towns here: kids go to college and don't come back, so it's a town of, by, and for hicks. :P

Our only $50 a plate restaurant is closing. Following the French bakery, the tea shoppe, and the yuppie market. :(

(Yeah, like I have $50 for dinner. :crazy: )

[hunter]

10. Mad Max is out there somewhere...

"My life fades. The vision deepens. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, broken dreams, this wasted land. But most of all I remember the road warrior, the man we call Max. To understand who he was you have to go back to another time, when the world was powered by the black fuel and the deserts sprouted great cities of pipe and steel..."