Iceland - the most safest and peaceful place on the 'animal' planet

Chalamba Kshetri *

According to the 2018 Global Peace Index(GPI) report, produced by the Institute for Economic and Peace( IEP), Iceland ranks as the most peaceful nation in the world. The country has retained its position for the 10th consecutive years.

The Global Peace Index (GPI ) ranks 163 independent countries and territories according to three domains- society safety and security, the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarization.

The recent 2018 is the 12th year of measuring the level of peace in the world. The index had first began in 2007.

What made Iceland so peaceful? Here in the question arises?

Size factors- Compare to United States, Iceland is about the same size as New York. New York is approximately 122,283 sq km, while Iceland is approximately 103,000 sq km. Meanwhile the whole population of the country is less than 325,000 people. The small population acts as a catapulting force for maintaining peace. It will be very difficult for a large country to manage peaceful law.

No class system- There is no difference among upper, middle, and lower caste in Iceland. And with that, tension between economic classes is nearly nonexistent, a rare happening for any country.

Statistics shows that 97% of the people are proclaimed as upper middle caste, lower middle caste, or working class. While,1.5% claimed as lower class and the remaining 1.1% acts as upper class. Which means - class system is nearly no existence in the country.

Self sufficient energy- The glaciers and rivers of the country's are harnessed to generate 80% of the country's electricity needs through hydrogen, while the geothermal fields provide up to 20% of the country's electricity needs. That means energy generated with the resources available in the country is self sufficient to the country's requirement. Self sufficient energy means high hopes of peace and prosperity.

Another contributing factor for Iceland peacefulness is their progressive offerings. The government granted free health care, education to all the people, they are the first in the world to legalized same sex marriage and the latest development of the country is they ended the gender pay disparity which makes the first in the world.

As there is Gender Equality, the LGBT community is respected and celebrated in the country. The people in the Iceland are not actively very religious, so the tension of religious classes does not arises here.

On the other side, Iceland is a military free country and the only NATO member without a standing army. Border disputes are not prevalent as it is an island country. It is reported that Iceland has the lowest crime rate per capita and scores the lowest points for homicide and acts of terror.

Police in the country are unarmed too and the only officers permitted to carry firearms are on a special force called the Vikings squad and they are seldom called out. Ironically, the police in the cities had no work to do their duties as there were no cases of crimes, assault and incidents that were of cheap behaviour . Instead, they feed animals and birds like ducks near the lakes, so they don't have to be bored.

Their normal duties were of striking different poses for the cameras, taking selfie, cycling every nook and corner of the streets. However, Icelanders own plenty of guns, in a country with just 300,000 people there were approximately 90,000 guns in the country.

The country ranks 15th in the world in terms of legal per capita gun ownership. Meanwhile, acquiring a gun is not an easy process as the steps to own a gun include medical examination and a strict written test on gun safety, management and what animals are allowed to be hunted and when and so on. After all, owning a gun does not mean there will be violence and crimes.

We all felt that, the world is becoming ever more dangerous with terrorism, and wars are on the news. The crisis in Syria, the political instability in Pakistan, the ever increasing coldness between Korean Peninsula affected the global narrative of peace and progress.

But Iceland shows that violence does not affect all countries equally. After all, the world needs peace to live not war.