Most of the middle east, aside from Iraq, is as violent as Europe. Africa also has a few countries that rank near the top of the murder rate, which puts Africa's murder rate fairly high overall, but it also has several countries which rank in the 10 least homicidal nations. Here's another website which confirms this:
Hi Jesse,
Thanks for sharing that. It is interesting to note the diversity of murder rates spread throughout the world. I guess it really is a universal problem, eh? :)
Thankfully, though, we also have a universal solution to murder (as well as hatred and greed - the root causes behind most murders), which can be found in the teachings of Jesus. That solution is none other than love, and turning the other cheek. Thank God for that!
I think that turning the other cheek could also lead to an INCREASE in the murder rate!
But through following Jesus' teachings about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek, we won't murder other people. :)
I thought it was very cool to see that MOST of Africa has a very low murder rate (except for a few notable exceptions such as Somalia and Sierra Leone). I was surprised to see that the South American continent had pretty high rates all over though.
"Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom. No longer lend yourself to that which you wish to be free from. Live your lives with love and bravery and you shall lead a life uncommon" Jewel
kimono wrote: I think that turning the other cheek could also lead to an INCREASE in the murder rate!
But through following Jesus' teachings about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek, we won't murder other people. :)
I thought it was very cool to see that MOST of Africa has a very low murder rate (except for a few notable exceptions such as Somalia and Sierra Leone). I was surprised to see that the South American continent had pretty high rates all over though.
I think Latin America has the highest murder rate in the world. From my experience, Latin America is pretty lawless, sort of how Kenya is, but they have enough resources to acquire more guns, not so easily done in many African nations. That, coupled with a lot of civil unrest makes for a lot of violence. This is yet another area where the wealthy make more profits from poorer nations, as the U.S. and I think Switzerland produce most of the guns used in Latin America and enthusiastically provided many guns for several civil wars in Latin America.
Guns are also fairly common in the Middle East, but it's good to see that the murder rate there is much lower, aside from currently war torn Iraq.
Thanks for a very thoughtful post Jesse! I know that here in Mexico, there are newspapers that make their business by putting a front page picture every day of someone who has been murdered in a very gruesome way, and they are never short of sources for their images, almost all of the murders are related to the 'drug war' currently overtaking the country.
No idea about what causes certain countries to have higher murder rates than others, but that is certainly what drives it here in Mexico.
Hi Ash, you must be talking about "Alarma". I am seriously shocked that they allow that magazine to be publicly displayed. That "war on drugs" is a serious farse, much like the "war on terrorism". We're working on a documentary about the justice system, and the more we learn about it, the clearer it seems that the U.S. actually SUPPORTS the drug problems in much of the States. The "war and drugs" is really just a joke. If they really wanted to stop it, they'd take the 80% of the prison population who are in there on drug offences and put them all in rehab (which costs 4 times less than housing them in prison for a year). It wouldn't solve all the problems, but probably would make drugs unprofitable enough that the industry would stop making such a "killing" off it! I am just continually shocked at the blood shed and increasing cruelty with which the drug cartels operate.
Money is the roots of all evil(1 Timothy 6 ). I think that the more richer the countries gets, the more murder cases you will hear. Because people are busy fighting over power, and wealth. They have forgotten that the greatest reason to live, is to love one another. Those that live by the sword, will die by the sword.
Woooah! Karlos, you have just committed the unpardonable sin. The verse does not say "money". It says "the love of money". I know, I know, it's virtually the same (like are drugs a problem or is it the USE of drugs that is the problem!) but you will have every churchy within reach of the internet jumping on you for making this common observation based on that passage of scripture. Because we really do believe that the love of money is the root of all evil (and money or the love of it is pretty much interchangeable) we have to be very careful never to say just "money" because it becomes the gnat to derail the whole conversation if they can possibly catch us saying that.
I do tend to think the problem is associated with how easy it is to get hold of a gun. Kenyan and Uganda, for example, are quite similar in culture, but Uganda has more guns. (I don't know the statistics but you just see them everywhere). The murder rate in Uganda is higher than in Kenya. I imagine you'd find a similar thing in other African countries - the ones with more guns have more murders.
