Something to be proud of

According to this story in the Herald, New Zealand has been ranked fourth in the world in the Center for Global Development's "commitment to development" index. While we rate poorly in direct financial aid (a mere 0.25% of GDP, compared to the UN guideline of 0.7%), we more than make up for it on trade, migration and peacekeeping policies. The index describes us as:

"An exemplar in many ways: ties for first on migration, gives essentially no subsidies to its farmers, and contributes generously to peacekeeping. But low overall aid budget keeps it out of the top three."

Doesn't that give you a warm feeling inside?

By comparison, the Netherlands was ranked highest (who'd have thunk it?), and the United States, whose citizens wank endlessly about their generosity to the world, ranked twentieth out of twenty-one.

The full Index can be found here, and there is an article on it in Foreign Policy Magazine.