we're awfully low

I've been looking at some information online lately.  Its like I'm doing a research project or something, only I don't need to.  It's completely self-imposed and out of my own interest - yes, I guess I'm a bit of a bookish-nerd.  This started when I asked myself, "Where does Mali rank among the poorest countries in the world?" The answer I found is that Mali is certainly among the very poorest countries in the world, but there is more than one way to measure poverty.  Anyway, I've been especially fascinated with a couple of lists and I thought you might find this stuff interesting too.  Or maybe not.  But by giving this little report its like I'm finishing with my project and now I can start studying up on other intriguing topics.  Hey, it's what I do for fun.

The first list is the United Nations' HDI list.
"The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living, and quality of life for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare."
So this list rates each country's development and isn't a measurement of money per se, although there is of course a big connection between the monetary wealth of a country and the level of development.
Countries are measured and put into 1 of 4 lists of 46 or 47 countries each. The lists are:
1. Very High Human Development
2. High Human Development
3. Medium Human Development
4. Low Human Development. 
On the most recent bottom list (the least developed countries in the world,) of the 46 countries listed, 36 of them are in Africa.  And the 10 lowest (worst) countries on the list are all in Africa.

 The World's 10 Least Developed Countries
(#1 being the very least developed country in the world):
10. Burundi
9. Guinea
8. Central African Republic
7. Eritrea
6. Mali
5. Burkina Faso
4. Chad
3. Mozambique
2. Democratic Republic of the Congo
1. Niger

So from one perspective, we could say that Mali is the 6th poorest country in the world (or technically the 6th least developed country, but I see these as being kind of the same thing.)  I noticed that Chad (Jean-Patrick's home country) was very low on the list too.  If you want to see the whole thing for yourself you can check it out here:  LIST of countries
The other list I want to share is the World Bank's list of poorest countries in the world, this one can be seen here: 2nd LIST  On this list the countries are ranked according to GDP (gross domestic product) per capita.  The GDP is not a exactly a measure of personal income, but it is "often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living."  The GDP for America is about $50,000.  Obviously there are lots of people in America with an income less than that, and lots of people making more.  Somehow the big brainy folks average things out or whatever so that we can scientifically compare countries, and that is as much as I need to understand.  I have a degree in Sociology, but I hate math, so I don't want to think any deeper about all the calculations.  I'm happy just to look at the data once it has been calculated.
The World's Poorest countries
(based on GDP, #1 is the poorest)
1. Democratic Republic of Congo  ($422 GPD per capita)
2. Burundi
3. Eritrea
4. Liberia
5. Niger
6. Central African Republic
7. Malawi
8. Madagascar
9. Mozambique
10. Togo
11. Guinea
12. Ethiopia
13. Guinea Bissau
14. Mali  ($1214 GPD per capita)
----
22. Chad  ($1493 GPD per capita)

And FYI, USA has the 7th highest GPD in the world.  Did you think it was #1?

According to this 2nd list, Mali is the 14th poorest country in the world.  Whether it is 6th poorest or 14th poorest, it is still awfully low on the lists.  I guess that what makes both Mali and Chad look a bit better on the 2nd list is that there are natural resources that boost the economies a bit (gold in Mali and oil in Chad.)  The average citizen has not benefitted at all from the money these resources have brought in.  Mali and Chad both have some serious problems with corruption, but that is another list for another day.