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For some reason, Americas are very violent continents, minus Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, and maybe a few Caribbean islands. There are places like San Pedro Sula, Guatemala City, New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Philadelphia, Acapulco, Caracas, etc, that have crime rates that are hundreds of times higher than in Europe or Asia. What is it with these exorbitant violence on display in these places?
I'd say in Central America it is social inequality that causes all this violence. When ninety percent of the wealth is held by five percent of the population, and the five percent of the population has the support of fascist corporations, it makes the other ninety five percent feel powerless. They are powerless and with no chance to escape their poverty. So they start using violence to empower themselves.
In North America it's the macho culture. People living in the projects want to show everyone how "raw" they are and accomplish this goal through bloodshed and blind violence. The culture promotes that it's cool to be aggressive and alpha. Kids don't worship the guy who finds a cure for a disease or develops a space laser, they worship the guy who shoots a bunch of balls in a basket and abandons his home team to win a championship in Florida. The culture should start promoting that being a beta scientist is better than being a testosterone-filled alpha male jock who starts fights over little sh*t to show how raw he can be.
In South America the problem is corrupt goverments and poverty. The fascist/communist dictators like Pinochet, Chavez, Perot, etc, they oppress the population and in some cases give preference to the wealthy. This once again enforces a cycle where people are stuck in poverty, with no power to overturn their lifestyle, and they use violence to empower themselves.
I also think that while culture might be somewhat responsible it only plays a small part. There are many Colombian areas in New York that are not violent at all. Jamaican areas here are also not violent, nor are Ecuadorian or Mexican areas. The worst areas here are the ones devoid of unfortunate immigrants, but full of alpha natives who want to prove themselves to the world. Uuugh
Its mostly related to the drug trade and this illicit trade is fueled by excessive demand in Europe/North America. The issue is of a which one came first, the chicken or the egg scenario.
People like to blame the violence on poverty, inequality, corruption, etc; but the reality is that Latin America has for the most part always been a rather poor region (with few exceptions), it has always been highly unequal, it has always been very corruption; yet, only in the last 2 or 3 decades have violence began to rise.
It all seems to coincide with the drug trade and the rising demand for this stuff in the so called "civilized developed world."
Its mostly related to the drug trade and this illicit trade is fueled by excessive demand in Europe/North America. The issue is of a which one came first, the chicken or the egg scenario.
People like to blame the violence on poverty, inequality, corruption, etc; but the reality is that Latin America has for the most part always been a rather poor region (with few exceptions), it has always been highly unequal, it has always been very corruption; yet, only in the last 2 or 3 decades have violence began to rise.
It all seems to coincide with the drug trade and the rising demand for this stuff in the so called "civilized developed world."
Everything else, I think, are mere excuses.
Actually Latin America was wealthier than Anglo America for the first few years (decades?) of the growth of the New World. It all stopped when the world started moving to a less mercantilist economy to a capitalist one, which suited more anglo tastes.
The Americas is a very violent place because of two very important reasons: Race and Class.
Pretty much any problem that we have on this side has its roots in it. In highly diverse places (USA, Brazil, Central America, Peru, Bolivia), the smoking gun is race/ethnicity. Somewhere like Argentina, which has less diversity, is stratified by race.
There is also the belief, that I wouldn't disbelieve, that we received all the dregs of the Old World's Societies. All the illiterate Irishmen, the corrupt Portuguese men, the Spanish Sailors, and poor Italians found their way over here, to find a land with "illiterate," sometimes nude Indians whose land and children were stolen and angry, beaten, raped, black slaves that were kidnapped for the sole purpose of serving and reproducing in a land they do not know.
50% is black on black violence. there is not much afoot to slow it down mostly attempts to prove that beatings involving non colored victims should not be resisted.
please note american violence is not caused by firearms. 40% of homicides dont involve guns.
what lowered homicides 50 years ago was the right of self defense and a reasonable assumption that if you shot a mugger rapist or robber u would not go to jail. civil rights law was created to defend victims not assailants.
Christianity. Christian nations have the highest rates of violent crime in the world. Latin America and the parts of Africa that have been heavily proselytized by Christian missionaries.
There is no reliable data. Using standard available tables of crime rates, Colombia has a lower crime rate than Switzerland, and Panama lower than any country on the European continent except Albania. But the metrics are riddled with statistical defects.
You can't use ALL crime because that includes things like auto theft, which exaggerates crime rates in countries that have lots of cars sitting around. And it includes date rape, which exaggerates crime rates in countries where women date. And you can't really count any crime reporting, because that exaggerates crime rates in countries where the police are not considered to be the enemy, and people actually let the police know about crime that the police do not commit themselves.
Last edited by jtur88; 07-22-2013 at 09:14 PM..
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