The country’s two main cities have been ranked the top in the Middle East and Africa in an annual quality of life survey, while another Middle Eastern city, Baghdad, has been slated as the worst of all 221 ranked globally.
The 2012 Mercer quality of life survey, which crowns Austria’s Vienna the winner, followed by Switzerland’s Zurich and New Zealand’s Auckland, pitted Dubai at number 73 globally, and Abu Dhabi five places behind. Of the bottom 20 places, 15 were claimed by countries in this region.One with a first-hand knowledge of life in the hard lane is Iraqi national Ammar Althuwaini, who has been living in the UAE for 13 years. The 45-year-old said while he loved life in his adopted home Abu Dhabi, he was not surprised Baghdad took the wooden spoon.
“Every year I visit I don’t see any progress in the city unfortunately, and sadly. It might be the non-existence of urban planning and real initiative and…there is no security so development can’t take place. And there’s lots of corruption…you can have great projects but either they are very slow or they are just on paper.”Baghdad had been a flourishing city decades ago, but that former glory was years away from being restored due to the war-ravaged country’s politics and economics.
“What did we benefit from the (American) occupation? Nothing at all…it (just got) worse.”The country’s two main cities have been ranked the top in the Middle East and Africa in an annual quality of life survey, while another Middle Eastern city, Baghdad, has been slated as the worst of all 221 ranked globally.
The 2012 Mercer quality of life survey, which crowns Austria’s Vienna the winner, followed by Switzerland’s Zurich and New Zealand’s Auckland, pitted Dubai at number 73 globally, and Abu Dhabi five places behind. Of the bottom 20 places, 15 were claimed by countries in this region.One with a first-hand knowledge of life in the hard lane is Iraqi national Ammar Althuwaini, who has been living in the UAE for 13 years. The 45-year-old said while he loved life in his adopted home Abu Dhabi, he was not surprised Baghdad took the wooden spoon.
“Every year I visit I don’t see any progress in the city unfortunately, and sadly. It might be the non-existence of urban planning and real initiative and…there is no security so development can’t take place. And there’s lots of corruption…you can have great projects but either they are very slow or they are just on paper.”Baghdad had been a flourishing city decades ago, but that former glory was years away from being restored due to the war-ravaged country’s politics and economics.“What did we benefit from the (American) occupation? Nothing at all…it (just got) worse.” – Khaleejnews
