The Foreign Policy Issues That Really Matter

Cities around the world scrambling to be included on a new global Monopoly board.

Comments

SCOTUS will declare Crawford, TX as one city commanding inclusion.

Posted by steve duncan | January 24, 2008 8:53 AM

I'm pretty sure Paris and London being above New York as the blues is a violation of the NATO treaty and casus belli for World War and total destruction of Europe.

How do you like being Boardwalk NOW, Paris?!

Posted by Jason | January 24, 2008 9:08 AM

"Monopoly is the world's most popular board game..."

Really? More popular than chess?

Posted by Alvaro | January 24, 2008 10:57 AM

Is better to be the equivilent of Baltic Avenue, or out of the game?

I really hope NY isnt relegated to the greens. The blues can really only come from NY, London, Paris and Tokyo, and my guess is that the two from the countries where the game will sell best will get the nod.

Posted by Doug | January 24, 2008 11:04 AM

No San Francisco.

The vote is rigged. Rational people will abstain.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | January 24, 2008 11:58 AM

OK, here's my board:
Dark purple properties: Somalia and North Korea
Light blue properties: Bolivia, Bangladesh, and Haiti
Light purple properties: Dominican Republic, Eritrea, and Nicaragua
Orange properties: Peru, Nigeria, and Albania
Red properties: South Africa, Mexico, and Argentina
Yellow properties: Spain, Czech Republic, and Chile
Green properties: United States, UK, and Germany
Blue properties: Monaco and Dubai

Railroads (replaced by airports): Narita, Heathrow, O'Hare, and Frankfurt

Utilities (replaced by oil companies): BP, ExxonMobil

Posted by Dilan Esper | January 24, 2008 2:36 PM

Dilan,

Bolivia is in no way comparable to Haiti, and you should be ashamed of suggesting that. Did you Google their per capita incomes and come up with your absurd ranking?

Haiti is an overpopulated country with few to no natural resources, which has been severely impoverished by depopulation and erosion, and suffering from a history of bad government and U.S. dependency. Bolivia is an _underpopulated_ country (the government is actually trying to raise the birthrate right now) with abundant natural resources and with lots of good agricultural land and native agricultural resources. The Bolivian peasant class would be doing quite well if most of the land wasn't in the hands of a parasitic oligarchy.

What Bolivia needs is an essential social revolution. What Haiti needs- I don't know, but often I doubt that anything significant can be done to ameliorate Haiti's situation short of allowing mass emigration. Haiti is a _much_ more miserable country than Bolivia, and its problems are _much_ more intractable.

Again, Peru is in no way comparable to Nigeria- Peru has abundant natural resources (mineral, timber, fisheries), a productive agriculture, none of Nigeria's overpopulation problems and a history that includes many more bright spots than Nigeria's.

Monaco is not a real country in anything but name, South Africa's social inequalities far outstrip even those of Latin AMerica, while Dubai is a creepy little state with a minority of lazy and decadent native Emiratis sitting on their oil while the Africans, Indians, Palestinians, and Filipinos do all the work.

Per capita income doesn't tell you much about a country's health, Dilan; you should know that.

Posted by Hector | January 25, 2008 11:43 AM