If there were a better place beyond desperation and corruption, where would it be? A place with clean orderly streets and people with honesty and a healthful appearance? A place with transparent and just government, and happy committed families of a man and woman with children? People with strength of character and strong moral values? Where is this place? Where are these people?

Answer: Nowhere.

That is to say, filth, envy, brawling, consumption, squandering, riots, wasting, adulteration, and deviants are the norm to which we mold ourselves and the places we inhabit and nothing greater. However, there must be pockets and snippets of places and people that are contrary to the foulness of mankind, that bind their hearts to pureness and purgative habits.

Yea, Canada and the Northern Reaches seem cool and clean and halfway orderly, as do the Scandinavian countries. The people of these places seem not to regularly dump their household and everyday fast food trash where they stand. Still, the Cigarette Butt Rule is the harshest grade of rating cleanliness, as it requires a place to be devoid of cigarette butts including the pack wrappers.

It can be said with scientific certainty that no place passes the Cigarette Butt Rule. When things such as littering are so commonplace it is best to liven them up a bit through comparisons, such as the following observation: When the static electricity is high in dry weather, cigarette pack plastic wrappers resist the tobacconist's attempt to discard them, and the fag smoker resorts to a sudden shaking and trembling of the fingers to be released of the wrapper that returns like magic; similar to the dog's rear at stool a tremble at evacuating the last of the mashed kibble but without the magic, the moist litter merely laying there in coils or distant links to horrify the next passerby.

Despite these kinds of hygienic setbacks, practicality and preparedness in these Northern Reaches, presumably due to the cold's requirement of self reliance, is amply evident but these same people carry on divorces, abortion, and witless conversation on morals with no heed. Is it not reasonable to give a second thought to the marriageability of a person or that the womb of a woman is not a vestige between which a man blubbers and wails? Apparently not, as every country of the world except Ireland and the Islamic countries places high value on fornication and excising the remainder.

One might find that to be the end of the search for better places and to commence packing a steamer trunk for either Ireland or Iran—and it would be for the meek among us.  Alas, most of us are powerfully disposed with ourselves and our progress with that, which we call our livelihood or keep that takes mainly two forms. The first form is seen in some European countries, and Japan especially, where there is a sense of pride and appreciation for the work that one does. The second form of keeping oneself is the miserable state of apathy and jealousy that is the American worker.

It is from that surrounding state of corrosion and segregation, the second form, that the innocent suffer quietly and the nimble flee. That pyramid of capitalistic greed and malcontent that powers most countries makes the person below you, of which there are many, despicable and the person above you a Donald Trump with lopsided hair and a beautiful 3rd wife to be agog over.

One political structure inevitably falls to another, however, as do the habits of society, and Communism bested Capitalism by making everyone the same and classless. Russia has propagandized their citizens with the public good to the point that a doctor makes as much as a petrol attendant, but the politburo elite keep triple portions of house, car, and women rations for themselves. China, believed to be also Communist, marched their rice farmers to the cities to make plastic things for Wal-mart —and that in totality is China.

Now productivity for citizens should be paramount for any proper government, and there China has done well, but China loses out as a better place to live because of other reasons. China, India, Mexico City, and Ethiopia, to name but a few places, have too many people both in quantity and lowness of quality. A person cannot be found in a pile of humanity unless one is committed to a lifetime of digging and separating. There are assuredly places within these corpulent countries that a breath can be drawn without competition, but who wants their own roped off section in the corner of a chicken house?

Then the element of crime comes into the fray and this is why the Islamic countries are excluded from the inquiry, unless one enjoys the habit of beating their wife in accordance with law. But for the honest among us, government too must be exempt from crime, at least more so than the citizenry, but to that ideal all places fall woefully short. Indeed, it is the need to corrupt that rallies many politicians to government office, as it is the electorate that feels better about themselves by supporting those worse than themselves. Such is the keystone of free elections and majority rule, or what they call Democracy. Worse still is where a select few rule all, which they call a Dictatorship, but this method is not altogether unsalvageable if the rules are good and fair and not broken by majority whim.

So with all places and most people to be met with dissatisfaction, we may be comforted in thinking that no place is better than home, wherever that may be, despite the trash, population totals, and turbulence. It is believed by many that we are no better than ourselves, and to that is often heard the "Cast down your bucket where you stand" piece of advice. That quote may need some work. As many buckets are cast down in a thoroughly unnavigable pasture of pocked and tangled sod, the caster then stands stuck on his bucket in fearful immobility. Better to take your bucket with you knowing there are other places to stand, and to not cast it down prematurely but with forethought and consideration.