5 ms·

Interactive visualization of self-immolations in Tibet

56 points by m0hit 14y ago

m0hit 14y ago
Source article on Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/03/2013391733355459.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/03/2013391...
enjalot 14y ago
nice use of d3!
chroma 14y ago
105 self-immolations in the past two years. Zero suicide bombings. This is an excellent example of how religions give their hosts different propensities for violence.
- mjmahone17 14y ago
  And yet, suicide bombings and guerilla warfare in general may be more effective in revolutions. Look at the recent revolutions and uprisings: how many of them succeeded without violence? Not Libya, not Syria, not Egypt. Israel requires constant violence to maintain its nation. The US required violence and guerilla warfare for its independence. And it needed martyrs. As did Ireland. And Bangladesh. And the Chinese Communist Party.
  - Volpe 14y ago
    New Zealand, Canada, Australia... All became relatively independent of the UK without warfare, suicide bombings or any kind of violence. You don't need violence to be effective.
    - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
      > Canada umm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellions_of_1837 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellions_of_1837
      - Volpe 14y ago
        > After the rebellions died down, more moderate reformers, such as the political partners Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, gained credibility as an alternative voice to the radicals. They proved to be influential when the British government sent Lord Durham, a prominent British reformer (from that article) It was not the violence that lead to change, but diplomacy... unless I'm missing something. Regardless, it doesn't counter my point, unless you want to point out the revolutionary wars Australia and New Zealand had...
        tinco 14y ago
        You could see it as developed through diplomacy, but the reality was that the british colonies were all given responsible government _after_ the american revolution. The unrests in Canada merely proved the point that the empire could not adequately control the colonies and they needed to become more self reliant. This might sound generalist, but I don't think it's fair to look at America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as separate reforms. They were all in the same empire that fell apart. Anyway, I don't think there's ever diplomacy without at least _threat_ of violence.
    - anonymousDan 14y ago
      Uhhh, New Zealand was never conquered by the British as far as I'm aware. They had to sign a treaty with the Maori no?
- est 14y ago
  > Zero suicide bombings In Lhasa 2008 riot Tibetans there was like hundreds of innocent Muslim Tibetans and Han Chinese cvilians killed or injuered
ptvan 14y ago
Glad you guys like the link.. it's a sad story. It was also an opportunity to learn TileMill (mapbox.com/tilemill) to generate that styled map.. I recommend checking it out if you like maps/geodata.
momop 14y ago
Sad sad story. Amazing viz that made an immediate impact on the story.
contingencies 14y ago
I had no idea there had been a self-immolation here in Yunnan (the far south-eastern point on the map). Thanks for sharing this informative visualisation, even if it is for such a sad state of affairs. Just to be fair it seems like a good venue to mention that there are plenty of people struggling to have a decent self-directed life around the world, not just in China. Even within China, a great many Han people also have it extremely tough, not to mention other groups subject to recent sinification style policies (such as the Uyghur of Xinjiang). Truly free, publicly practised religion perhaps exists nowhere within the country, but then again it doesn't exist in most places. The Chinese government has a hard job guiding this monster of a country given its significant divides and economic and technological trajectory, and the various peoples of China are all struggling to make sense of and get along in what is perhaps the single largest-scale transition of a society that has ever occurred in the history of humanity. This does not in any way detract from the tragedy of these events, however perhaps it may help to prevent people who have not had the opportunity to spend time here from taking a simplistic or single-faceted perspective or simply getting angry at the Chinese. Nothing is simple as it seems, particularly when you take a look at history. For those interested in exploring some of the complexities I would recommend http://www.amazon.com/The-Sichuan-Frontier-Tibet-Imperial/dp/0295989521 http://www.amazon.com/The-Sichuan-Frontier-Tibet-Imperial/dp...
jjcm 14y ago
A spreadsheet of the data as well: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Al2LIEgoNIx2dEtWZWxDRy1pTTVKVjlkUnBaYVROSFE&single=true&gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Al2LIEgoNIx2dEt... I think the most interesting thing is simply the ages of the people who died - a large percentage are in their teens or early 20s.
- magsun 14y ago
  That is the time the people can be easily cheated.
James_Duval 14y ago
This idea is too morbid for me, I'm afraid. Or perhaps the presentation feels too "light"? I can read Wiki articles on serial killers, but this seems somehow disrespectful. I'm also concerned because (although I respect Al Jazeera as much as any news source) I wonder if they have an agenda they're pursuing through this piece? If I'm out of line here let me know why!

56 points by m0hit 14y ago

m0hit 14y ago

Source article on Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/03/2013391733355459.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/03/2013391...

enjalot 14y ago

nice use of d3!

chroma 14y ago

105 self-immolations in the past two years. Zero suicide bombings. This is an excellent example of how religions give their hosts different propensities for violence.

mjmahone17 14y ago
And yet, suicide bombings and guerilla warfare in general may be more effective in revolutions. Look at the recent revolutions and uprisings: how many of them succeeded without violence? Not Libya, not Syria, not Egypt. Israel requires constant violence to maintain its nation. The US required violence and guerilla warfare for its independence. And it needed martyrs. As did Ireland. And Bangladesh. And the Chinese Communist Party.
- Volpe 14y ago
  New Zealand, Canada, Australia... All became relatively independent of the UK without warfare, suicide bombings or any kind of violence. You don't need violence to be effective.
  - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
    > Canada umm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellions_of_1837 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellions_of_1837
    - Volpe 14y ago
      > After the rebellions died down, more moderate reformers, such as the political partners Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, gained credibility as an alternative voice to the radicals. They proved to be influential when the British government sent Lord Durham, a prominent British reformer (from that article) It was not the violence that lead to change, but diplomacy... unless I'm missing something. Regardless, it doesn't counter my point, unless you want to point out the revolutionary wars Australia and New Zealand had...
      - tinco 14y ago
        You could see it as developed through diplomacy, but the reality was that the british colonies were all given responsible government _after_ the american revolution. The unrests in Canada merely proved the point that the empire could not adequately control the colonies and they needed to become more self reliant. This might sound generalist, but I don't think it's fair to look at America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as separate reforms. They were all in the same empire that fell apart. Anyway, I don't think there's ever diplomacy without at least _threat_ of violence.
  - anonymousDan 14y ago
    Uhhh, New Zealand was never conquered by the British as far as I'm aware. They had to sign a treaty with the Maori no?
est 14y ago
> Zero suicide bombings In Lhasa 2008 riot Tibetans there was like hundreds of innocent Muslim Tibetans and Han Chinese cvilians killed or injuered

ptvan 14y ago

Glad you guys like the link.. it's a sad story. It was also an opportunity to learn TileMill (mapbox.com/tilemill) to generate that styled map.. I recommend checking it out if you like maps/geodata.

momop 14y ago

Sad sad story. Amazing viz that made an immediate impact on the story.

contingencies 14y ago

I had no idea there had been a self-immolation here in Yunnan (the far south-eastern point on the map). Thanks for sharing this informative visualisation, even if it is for such a sad state of affairs. Just to be fair it seems like a good venue to mention that there are plenty of people struggling to have a decent self-directed life around the world, not just in China. Even within China, a great many Han people also have it extremely tough, not to mention other groups subject to recent sinification style policies (such as the Uyghur of Xinjiang). Truly free, publicly practised religion perhaps exists nowhere within the country, but then again it doesn't exist in most places. The Chinese government has a hard job guiding this monster of a country given its significant divides and economic and technological trajectory, and the various peoples of China are all struggling to make sense of and get along in what is perhaps the single largest-scale transition of a society that has ever occurred in the history of humanity. This does not in any way detract from the tragedy of these events, however perhaps it may help to prevent people who have not had the opportunity to spend time here from taking a simplistic or single-faceted perspective or simply getting angry at the Chinese. Nothing is simple as it seems, particularly when you take a look at history. For those interested in exploring some of the complexities I would recommend http://www.amazon.com/The-Sichuan-Frontier-Tibet-Imperial/dp/0295989521 http://www.amazon.com/The-Sichuan-Frontier-Tibet-Imperial/dp...

jjcm 14y ago

A spreadsheet of the data as well: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Al2LIEgoNIx2dEtWZWxDRy1pTTVKVjlkUnBaYVROSFE&single=true&gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Al2LIEgoNIx2dEt... I think the most interesting thing is simply the ages of the people who died - a large percentage are in their teens or early 20s.

magsun 14y ago
That is the time the people can be easily cheated.

James_Duval 14y ago

This idea is too morbid for me, I'm afraid. Or perhaps the presentation feels too "light"? I can read Wiki articles on serial killers, but this seems somehow disrespectful. I'm also concerned because (although I respect Al Jazeera as much as any news source) I wonder if they have an agenda they're pursuing through this piece? If I'm out of line here let me know why!