Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Where Are You Vacationing This Year?
It's that time of year again. Time to plan your vacation. Some place fun, some place safe, right?
The following figures were quoted by Rep. Steve King of Iowa on C-Span last week. He was quoting figures on violent deaths per 100,000 for several different countries, and US cities. He didn't say what kind of time frame this covered: annual, monthly or whatever.
Columbia is the big winner in the competition here, with 61.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The next country on the hit parade is South Africa with 49.6. Jamaica is in third with 32.4, and next is Venezuela at 31.6.
In comparison, this is how several major US cities fared: pre-Katrina beat all the countries cited, except Columbia, with 53.1 Washington D.C. is giving all of South Africa some competition with 45.9. Baltimore, with 37.7, and Atlanta, with 34.9, out strip Jamaica and Venezuela.
The point of Rep. King's recitation of all of these stats is that the rate for Iraq, including the war, is 25.71.
That's right. It is more than twice as likely that anyone will die a violent death in Columbia, and slightly less than twice as likely in Washington D.C. than in Iraq ... a war zone.
Here is a chart that I found laying all of this out:
The following figures were quoted by Rep. Steve King of Iowa on C-Span last week. He was quoting figures on violent deaths per 100,000 for several different countries, and US cities. He didn't say what kind of time frame this covered: annual, monthly or whatever.
Columbia is the big winner in the competition here, with 61.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The next country on the hit parade is South Africa with 49.6. Jamaica is in third with 32.4, and next is Venezuela at 31.6.
In comparison, this is how several major US cities fared: pre-Katrina beat all the countries cited, except Columbia, with 53.1 Washington D.C. is giving all of South Africa some competition with 45.9. Baltimore, with 37.7, and Atlanta, with 34.9, out strip Jamaica and Venezuela.
The point of Rep. King's recitation of all of these stats is that the rate for Iraq, including the war, is 25.71.
That's right. It is more than twice as likely that anyone will die a violent death in Columbia, and slightly less than twice as likely in Washington D.C. than in Iraq ... a war zone.
Here is a chart that I found laying all of this out:
