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In 1221, the city of Herat, Afghanistan, population at least 1.6 million (some estimate 2.4 million), had a homicide rate of 100%, with virtually ever resident of the city murdered.
In 1221, the city of Herat, Afghanistan, population at least 1.6 million (some estimate 2.4 million), had a homicide rate of 100%, with virtually ever resident of the city murdered.
Well lets not count wars in the picture, shall we?
Well lets not count wars in the picture, shall we?
If we're looking at places with an atypical, high level violence between groups, usually in the context of a weak state, which is what's often going to have the highest homicide rate being an outlier, the lines between crime and war related violence often are quite blurred. Much of the violence in inner city USA and Sao Paulo involves war between rival non-state actors. In some of the highest incident rates of homicide (I'm thinking Alexandria in the 4th century AD), the cultural reasons for the violence had religious, ethnic, and political dimensions as well as the motivations of accumulating more wealth. There is rarely a clean distinction here, but I guess I'll take war in the context of people not from the city coming and killing the people from the city. So the murders from the sack of Rome shouldn't count, but the killings imposed by the Spanish Inquisition should. In that paradigm, I think the highest homicide rate for one city in recent times must have been Kigali in 1994.
And as you can see, Sao Paolo, Brazil had a staggering 11,321 homicides in year 2000 alone...and 11,214 the year after!
That is an insane amounts of murders. That's about 31 murders a day, for a whole year!
Is there any city that can beat that? In history?
As usual, my city is all of the time under the spotlight only, uniquely, when the subject is negative. In all of the bad rankings, there is São Paulo always amongst the top ten cities. I'm seriously becoming convinced that I live in the worst place of the world. Ugliest city of the world, most unequal, worst traffic jam, highest rate of people with mental diseases, dirtiest rivers, worst level of green area per inhabitant, now the most violent... what's the next?
The reality: there was really a peak at that time, out of control - when the situation of the city budget was near the bankruptcy after twelve years under disastrous mayors, and later the police worked and is working hard for mitigating this. Currently São Paulo is one of the less violent large cities of Brazil and is not even in the top ten of the world.
Last edited by Fabio SBA; 10-19-2013 at 06:59 PM..
Note: I'm live in São Paulo since my birth in 1982 and I'm still alive. No, I don't have fear of walking outside my home. And I never suffered any sort of urban violence.
Well lets not count wars in the picture, shall we?
It wasn't a war. Herat was an undefended city of unarmed citizens. Each person was killed individually, in the streets and in their homes, with no weapons of mass destruction.
It wasn't a war. Herat was an undefended city of unarmed citizens. Each person was killed individually, in the streets and in their homes, with no weapons of mass destruction.
Looks to me like it was a war:
"The Old City of Herat in Western Afghanistan has a long history of rebuilding and restoration. The city was destroyed twice by the Mongols, in 1221 A.D. and 1383 A.D., and was reconstructed as the capital of the Central Asia’s Timurid Empire in the 15th century."
Didn't mean to bash your town Fabio, I'm sure Sao Paolo is a great city (at least in some areas). I'm just presenting the facts here.
I'm aware of this, and I'm not feeling personally offended; don't worry. It's sad to read only bad things about the place where we are born and live - and also because we don't perceive the place as so bad as it's generally depicted. But be sure, it's not your fault, it only shows me the sad reality.
But there is a fact, since about 1980 the city suffers with bad administration. One of the former mayors of the city - few years before the explosion of violence - is wanted by Interpol. Nowadays we have a mayor of the Workers' Party - the same of Dilma Rousseff. They refuse to do the improvements in the urban infrastructure with the excuse of investing on the social issues - but they don't invest. Believe or not, many politicians and other personalities linked to the Workers' Party prevent any initiative of giving a decent home to street dwellers or to the people living in slums, because 'they have the right of living in these miserable places'. Thus, the 'social' for them is granting the right for people to live precariously.
Last edited by Fabio SBA; 10-20-2013 at 04:13 PM..
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