Murder

[Pēteris Cedriņš (Peteris Cedrins)]

As long as we are contemplating darkling statistics -- this is in the
news in Latvia today:

"Estonia, for example, has the highest murder rate in the EU with 10.4
per 100,000 residents followed by Lithuania and Latvia with 9.5."

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-12-13_2101016.html

What makes you so murderous, Vello?

Cheerily,
/P

[vello]

Don't know - desire of fresh blood and flesh? But if to be serious such
statistics reflect unstability in society - there are desperate folks
going on anything to obtain money.

[Estland]

The majority of the serious crimes are perpetrated by our Russian
fellow countrymen. At only 1/3 of the population they constitute about
half of all convicted inmates.

On the other hand, the statistics is several years old, today the
murder rate is 6,6 per same amount.

You may try using HIV data next in order to show Estonia's problems.
The picture isn't pretty.

[vello]

Estland wrote:
> The majority of the serious crimes are perpetrated by our Russian
> fellow countrymen. At only 1/3 of the population they constitute about
> half of all convicted inmates.
>
> On the other hand, the statistics is several years old, today the
> murder rate is 6,6 per same amount.

It seems really fat ducks have already done:-)

>
> You may try using HIV data next in order to show Estonia's problems.
> The picture isn't pretty.

Data is really bad. Weird also, that no pumps up rapidly after national
anti-HIV program was started. Or - as result of support programmes -
HIV-positives now really go out from hide and ask for help, allowing to
count them in statistics?

[vello]

I just look at EU statistics about HIV. Weird, up to 1999 HIV was
almost unknown in Estonia (6-7 times less then in Latvia, equal to
Lithuania. Just two years later Estonia is ahead of Latvia by 6-7 times
with Lithuania still staying on almost zero. I think we are just
discovering real data about HIV - rise of 20-30 times per year are
unrealistic

[Kalmenas]

Our yellow press like the yellow press everywhere tries to make
the most of these comparative statistics. e.g. murder, suicide,
road accident, AID rates. Curiuous that the 'good' AID statistics
for Lithuania still get to be used in an alarming way, a headline
warned recently that AIDs in Klaipeda is 'surging'. In general I find
that being in a small country has many advantages, there are
however some minuses. One is that the yellow press has less
scandals to deal with thus invents some and/or enormously exagerates.
But, the issue of murder and suicide rate seems to be real. I do
not know about Estonia, but as for the Balts, it does seem to
indicate that we are a relatively aggressive people. And, no, it is
not the russians. In Lithuania one can have an indication of that.
The cities that have the least number of russians (Kaunas, Panevezys)
have the highest per capita murder rate. Other crimes is another
matter. The prison population is heavy on the russian side.
But this seems to be the case with minorities in general, If one were
to look for 'bad' statistics, the number of AIDs cases in Kaliningrad
is exceptionally high, per capita the highest in Europe. Not
a cheering bit of news since they are our neighbor.

[Pēteris Cedriņš (Peteris Cedrins)]

Interesting, Kazys. I can add two bits of lore from the street here --
the leap in AIDS in Estonia was the "discovery" of Narva. The sense of
Kaliningrad is simple -- it is (was?) a wiped out place, and it has a
peculiar geographical position -- but another aspect is that its roots
were torn out and its people are (were) rootless. The position probably
matters most, though -- it has a huge military population, accompanied
by prostitution as it always is, and as a port it brings in drugs, as
they always do. I would add other senses to what I said in the other
thread anent alcoholism -- in _this_ case, the Soviet does not mean
"Russian." It is far less ethnic than it is societal -- the worst parts
of Detroit consist of demolished houses, dead factories, and proud
liquor stores declaring GOD IS LOVE on their marquees.

Viso gero,
/P

[Randy McDonald]

Not necessarily. In San Francisco over 1978-1984, HIV prevalence shot up
from 4.5% of a Hepatitis B vaccine test population to two-thirds, that
despite increased knowledge of safer sex techniques towards the end of
that period.
--
R.F. McDonald
r_f_mc...@yahoo.ca
http://www.livejournal.com/users/rfmcdpei/

"What! call a Turk, a Jew, and a Siamese, my brother? Yes, of course;
for are we all not children of the same father, and the creatures of
the same God?"

- Voltaire, from _Treatise on Tolerance,_ 1763