Sunday, November 25, 2007

Grim stuff

So I'm waiting with mild anticipation to find out the preliminary draw results for the 2010 World Cup.

I ran across this to remind me that while the tournament should feature good soccer, it's one that I'm definitely watching from afar.

2 comments:

Zathras said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Zathras said...

Ridiculous reactionary xenophobia.

I would expect better from a 'proper' journalist. South Africa is ranked #2 in murders per capita, Jamaica is #3, are you going to make similar comments about Jamaica? Say you're not going to go to Jamaica if we have a hexagonal qualifier there?

Mexico's rate is a mere 1/4 of South Africa's but nearly *five* times that of the US; would you advise people not to attend matches at the Azteca?

Venezuela's murder rate is also in the top 5, did you make any such comments about people going to the Copa America?

Statistically speaking, if there is half a murder per 1000 people per year in South Africa, we can expect
250 murders to take place in the entire country over the course of the World Cup. How many of those do you really think are going to occur in the cities where the competition is being held? Where security is at its highest?

Don't go if you're scared, but don't try to suggest that anyone who is going to go has a better than 1/25,000 chance of getting killed. (Comparatively speaking, using the same statistical data someone living in L.A. has a 1/17,000 chance of being murdered.)