Nothing too much going on down here. We are in a span of week after week of school, no breaks, no early dismissals, no in services, just straight grinding. It is what it is as they say. It'll happen.
I played some soccer tonight with some staff/parents/teachers/alumni vs the varsity team. They are good, wow. We old guys had to use guile and strength to over power them but we lost by a score. I missed two gimmes, so we could have won. If Jon would have had cleats he would have had at least three more, the next game is ours! Oh well, the team got a good look and I burned 980 calories (I wore the heart rate monitor), so that was cool.
Page two (Paul Harvey, remember him?)
The real purpose of this blog is to shed some light on the crime rate in Venezuela. After repeated questioning about how safe it is, am I scared, is it getting worse, I will shed some light on it. Not much writing, but lots of data and visuals (left brained people rejoice!)Let's being.
Preface
I have never felt unsafe here outside of the time Morris and I got robbed by the police, but even then I figured it would just take money to get out.I have heard of colleagues who either themselves have been robbed or people very close to them.
I have had students tell me they were victims of robberies, kidnapping, and muggings.
Data
To give you a better idea of what we are looking at I created a table (information located by Ryan) to have a side by side (we in teaching call it comparing apples to apples [many people in our business like to compare apples to oranges]). The "rate" on the left is the number of murders per 100,000 citizensLet's start with numbers 26-50:
As you can see Venezuela has two cities in this second half of the comparison. Notice that Maracibo went down in the ranking (no data change) as has Valencia (data improvement). The US has three in both (under country we are Esados).
Now onto the top 25 (drum roll please):
Now this is a little more depressing. Two of the three Venezuela cities within the top ten moved up in murders, with Caracas (the capital) having 502 more murders this past year. One point to note, in many impoverished countries murders may not always be reported (especially in ghettos/barrios/favelas). Some countries, like Venezuela, do not publish there homicide records so agencies like the one used in generating this data have to use public morgue records to get their numbers. This causes a concerning discrepancy between official documents and actual rates.
Here is more specific look at Venezuela from the World Justice Report:
This chart provides a little more detail to the concept of crime in Venezuela. Let's look at two more to get an even deeper perspective.
As you can see from the graphs there are certain areas that are not terrible and other areas that are in definite need for improvement.
Now these data sets and graphs aren't perfect:
From seguridadjusticiaypaz.org: However, the biggest obstacle as a research effort that represents the ranking faces is the lack of transparency of the governments of several countries. Worse still is the practice of falsifying figures made rulers of some nations, specifically Mexico and Venezuela.
Regarding the government of Venezuela for his actions has shown that is not interested in transparency and accountability but concealment or propaganda, often based on lies. This policy of the Venezuelan government propaganda instead of solving the problem of violence, confirms fears that Venezuela is led into the abyss.
Who is to Blame?
You're probably wondering who is to blame for this. While I am no expert, the is no shortage of ideas. They include, but are not limited to:
Street gangs
Professionals*
One story I was told by a source said that his kidnappers referred to this as their job and that they worked specific hours. They taunted him over the ease of his capture and offered to by him dinner with his money.
What is Being Done?
Since the murder of a telenovela actress and other violence following the government has stepped up their effort against crime. How you may ask? Here are a few ways:
Telling criminals to giving up their guns or else (says one governor).
Again, I assume there is more being done to help curb the violence, but I have only read and been provided the previous articles.
What Does it All Mean?
I guess it means that this country is in a state of need (in a variety of ways). While crimes and homicides raise in certain cities, others have stalled or lowered. The increase in criminal activity (especially the recent high profile cases) dramatically affects the perception of day to day life, the psychology of the country, and the paranoia that follows these types of trends. Statistically speaking, it has also lowered the life expectancy.
What's my take on it?
I view it as living in any major city in the world. Don't be in shady places (especially late), don't take unneeded chances, travel with others, keep a lower profile (hard being super white), and stay informed. I think just being diligent in your surroundings and knowing the potential dangers can help keep you on your toes.
I hope this answers some questions you may have about the crime side of Venezuela and gives you some insight to what people have been dealing with for years. My goal is to not only inform my friends back home, but to start conversation with friends here to learn more about this aspect of the country.
I apologize for the heavier post, but I figured this would be an easy way to answer lots of questions that people ask me. I'll try to come up with an amended, lighter post before the week is up.
I heard there is a football game this weekend in the States. The Super Bowl? Jon has dubbed it the Smoke-A-Bowl as it is being played by two teams that have legalized marijuana. I cracked up when he said that.
That's all she wrote for this old boy. Take care, stay warm, and be cool.
Until next time,
KRS
No comments:
Post a Comment