It was George W Bush who first defined the Axis of Evil, hinting at some nebulous web of transnational perfidy that linked North Korea, Iran and Iraq. As a guide to international untrustworthiness, Bush’s axis has always been an inferior measure to its moral inverse, the list of countries who field teams for test cricket. (That said, this yardstick has also been diminished by Zimbabwe’s rise through the playing ranks of the ICC.)
For those wishing to sort some sort of ethical order from the morass of modern statehood, a new tool is at hand. Today, the Scouting movement celebrates the centenary of an organisation first established by Lord Baden Powell as a convenient alternative to colonial armed conflict. Scouting — as Boy Scouts became in this transgender age — now has members in almost every nation across the planet. In fact there are only six countries that are Scout-free. Never mind the Axis of Evil, this is the Axis of Woggle: Andorra, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, North Korea, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar.
You have been warned. Be prepared.
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