All this talk of pushers/shakers, speed tapes etc is largely superfluous... more junk to look at, more distractions, bells and whistles. A/c today are a lot more forgiving in handling and in spite of more complex systems are actually a lot easier to fly ... all we need to do as pilots is fly the damn thing.
As for relative skills of pilots worldwide... since leaving the UK I've operated for 10 years on four continents with pilots from just about every corner of the globe and am currently keeping people from many nations up to speed in simulators... Withouit getting into the politics of the selection process in some of the less developed nations I can promise you that there is no obvious difference in skill levels between Europe and anywhere else... it's down to the individual... yes the ground exams for the JAA licence are way over the top in requirements.. yes the ground exams for the FAA licence are a joke... the ideal would be somewhere in between, but the result in skill levels in the cockpit doesn't reflect the differences... I see similar levels of competance and incompetance from most nationalities. This crew proved to be less than competant and paid the ultimate price... as have other crews from all nations... let's not get bogged down in technical difficutlies... the Q400 is a superb a/c... all they had to do was fly the damned thing... that's all any of us have to do when we climb into the cockpit.
70% of accidents/incidents involve some aspect of CRM... let's focus on THAT and resist the temptation to want the techtronics to do the job we are paid to do.