non-conventional development indicators

A friend here has been keeping a list of non-conventional development indicators. Looking past GDP per capita -- how can we see if the country is really improving? Here are some of my own:

Hats. I love seeing men in the countryside wearing hats. A hat is a non-necessity, a vanity item. In the wealthier areas of Rwanda you see lots of them; fewer in the areas with less-fertile land. I like it when a man thinks his head is worth putting a hat on.

Sidewalks. Sidewalks say, "I care about pedestrians. I want them to live." For the most part, human life isn't considered very valuable here, but Kigali is putting in sidewalks on a few of the busiest roads. They make me smile.

Crossing Guards. You wouldn't believe it, but there's a school near a busy road where a cop actually stops traffic when school lets out. (Okay, maybe you would believe it, if you haven't lived here.) It's my favorite thing in Rwanda.

Scout Uniforms. I saw kids in a village wearing scout uniforms the other day. And I knew right away that they had something to do after school.

Smile-to-Stare Ratio. Rwandans love to stare at me. If they smile instead, I figure they're probably better off. I have not yet performed a formal study to quantify the relationship between the S2S ratio and GDP.