Those "poor" palestinians

I have few tears for those "poor" palestinians who are spending their aid money on televisions, cigarettes, and motorcycles in Egypt (note the tv and cigarettes in the lower picture), not to mention explosives. But all of that flashing of their gangsta rolls has gotten the Egyptians considering their own position. It turns out that the poor palestinians have a higher HDI (Human Development Index) than Egypt (and South Africa, India, and Syria) and about the same poverty level as Mexico.

But hey, lets focus on the humanitarian CRISIS in poor, poor Gaza.

From Yael at Aliyah!:

In light of the breach of the border between Gaza and Egypt– and probably sparked to some extent over some ruffled Egyptian feathers over the fact that Hamas tried to raise the Hamas flag on Egyptian soil and on top of a government building in Egypt in place of the Egyptian flag– along with reports of just how much the Gazans who came across the border spent, some Egyptians have begun to question their perception that those living in Gaza and the West Bank are living in the most dire, poverty-stricken conditions in the world. They’ve been kind of surprised to discover that actually the standard of living among Palestinians is significantly higher than among Egyptians –and than what is experienced in a lot of other countries such as Syria, India, Central American countries and so forth.

Memz had this to say in a post titled “How Poor are those Palestinians”

The HDI stands for Human Development Index. So what does that mean? Well it

….provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income)

With the definitions done, let us look at the data. Comparing the HDI of the Occupied Palestinian Territories to the HDI of Egypt was interesting:

“The HDI for Occupied Palestinian Territories is 0.731, which gives the country a rank of 106th out of 177 countries”

“The HDI for Egypt is 0.708, which gives the country a rank of 112th out of 177″

This means that the People on the Occupied Territories, that is not a nation are doing better off than the people of Egypt. Actually better than people in 71 countries. Some of these 71 states include Indonesia, Syria, South Africa, Morocco, India

So what the #$*@ really? According to the United Nations the Palis are doing better than the Egyptians. Yet it is the Egyptians that are expected to help the Palestenian cause. It is the Egyptians that keep being distracted from their own well being. I just don’t get it. Can any of the Islamists or Nasserists try and tell me, why should us Egyptians help the Palestinians?

The Sandmonkey points out that the Palestinians are basically on equal footing with Mexico as far as the poverty index goes (Mexico is ranked 99, Palestinians at 100) according to the United Nations Human Development Report:

Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

People without access to an improved water source (%) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

Children underweight for age (% ages 0-5) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia