3 ms·

It's little things like not having all my stuff taken from me by armed thugs and not getting murdered that are important to me. In my country (the U.S.) neithe

by shpxnvz 15y ago

It's little things like not having all my stuff taken from me by armed thugs and not getting murdered that are important to me. In my country (the U.S.) neither the federal nor state governments have any obligation to protect me from criminals (1). In fact, if the statistics are accurate, my country has a higher murder rate (5 per 100K) than the "libertarian paradise" of Somalia (3.2 per 100K) (2) who have no central government (3). 1) See DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona... 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia

arst 15y ago
In fact, if the statistics are accurate, my country has a higher murder rate (5 per 100K) than the "libertarian paradise" of Somalia (3.2 per 100K) (2) who have no central government (3). There have been over 4,200 civilians killed in the fighting in Mogadishu in just the last 2 years (1). Even if that were the extent of violent crime in Somalia it would amount to an annual rate of ~23 per 100k. By all accounts, however, violent crime remains extraordinarily high throughout the entire country, we just can't put numbers to it because there are no authorities to report to. Here's some more context: over 1.5 million Somalis have been internally displaced by the violence, and over 600,000 have fled to other countries (2). That number on Wikipedia is so low because it came from a 2004 WHO report which was compiled using data from national authorities - the vast majority of violent crime in Somalia never gets reported to any authority. 1) http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article782458.ece/4200-Somalis-killed-in-2-years http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article782458.ece/4200-Som... 2) http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483ad6.html http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483ad6.html
- shpxnvz 15y ago
  Fair enough, thanks for the correction to the data. I think the Wikipedia article could use an edit to note the discrepancy.

by shpxnvz 15y ago

arst 15y ago

In fact, if the statistics are accurate, my country has a higher murder rate (5 per 100K) than the "libertarian paradise" of Somalia (3.2 per 100K) (2) who have no central government (3). There have been over 4,200 civilians killed in the fighting in Mogadishu in just the last 2 years (1). Even if that were the extent of violent crime in Somalia it would amount to an annual rate of ~23 per 100k. By all accounts, however, violent crime remains extraordinarily high throughout the entire country, we just can't put numbers to it because there are no authorities to report to. Here's some more context: over 1.5 million Somalis have been internally displaced by the violence, and over 600,000 have fled to other countries (2). That number on Wikipedia is so low because it came from a 2004 WHO report which was compiled using data from national authorities - the vast majority of violent crime in Somalia never gets reported to any authority. 1) http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article782458.ece/4200-Somalis-killed-in-2-years http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article782458.ece/4200-Som... 2) http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483ad6.html http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483ad6.html

shpxnvz 15y ago
Fair enough, thanks for the correction to the data. I think the Wikipedia article could use an edit to note the discrepancy.