NEW YORK - Djibouti (pronounced ji-boo-tee), also known officially as the Republic of Djibouti, was chosen by the United Nations as the top country in which to live in 2007.
The result, which was announced at the UN's headquarters in New York, came as a shock to some, as Djibouti is not commonly known as a world leader by any of the standards previously used to determine each country's ranking.
When asked to justify the selection of Djibouti as this year's top placement, UN spokesperson Robert Daly, had the following to say: "We decided to abandon the HDI this year and instead make the selection based solely on how cool the name of each country sounds. Djibouti was clearly the coolest."
The Human Development Index or HDI, a measure of factors such as life expectancy, standard of living, and education was formerly used by the UN in determining the rankings.
Skeptics of the decision were immediately appeased after repeating the name of this year's top selection.
"Djibouti! Wow that is awesome," said Gary Bettner, a sociologist at the University of Maine. "I'm very pleased that the UN has finally abandoned arbitrary decision-making and returned to reaching informed, conscious conclusions."
The UN representative to Djibouti, who will be referred to as Bob, as his name it too hard to spell, was ecstatic. "This truly is a great day for all of Djibouti. I am truly pleased that our country has been selected by the UN as the best country in which to reside. Sure, our government is a puppet-democracy, we are struggling to end a decades old civil war, and we are facing rampant unemployment, but hey, Djibouti is damn wicked to say."
'Djibouti' has quickly gone on to become more than solely the name of a country. New York teenagers swiftly picked up 'djibouti' as a new catch-all buzz word, with many teens heard exclaiming "that's so djibouti!" or "I totally want to djibouti that chick." Thanks to the internet, the new vogue word has spread to even the furthest reaches of the globe and should soon replace old stand-bys such as 'radical' and 'tubular'.
This year's lowest ranked country was Ethiopia, which is so undjibouti to say that even its own residents refuse to acknowledge its existence
