Violently Stupid

As thousands marched to pressure The Fools into making progress on the unicamerality non-issue (a donkey was involved in the march, apparently as a translator), another interesting smidgen of violence-related information percolated through the news.

Seems a local demographer ranked Puerto Rico as the 9th most violent country in the world. Here's her list:

1) South Africa
2) Colombia
3) Jamaica, mon
4) Venezuela
5) El Salvador
6) Guatemala
7) Brazil
8) Russia
9) PUERTO RICO
10) Ecuador

Okay, things are harsh here on Our Island, but let's look a little deeper into this list:

The demographer is a sociology professor whose name I left out of this earlier post because her remarks were so idiotic she didn't deserve to have My fingers invest the energy typing it out. But this time it's worth it. The spouter of idiocies is Judith Rodríguez and this list is also another example of her intellectual deficiencies.

Apparently the doubtful demographer has a very limited (non-existent) grasp of geopolitics and world events, for of her Top (or Bottom) 10 list, 8 countries are in the Central and South American regions, with the Caribbean serving as bridge between those two. Only one African nation appears, rightfully so, but where's Sudan, specifically because of Darfur, where massacres are happening so openly that half of the vapid-headed celebrities in the U.S. are trying to raise awareness of this? (And the rest of Sudan is rapidly becoming just as bad.) Nor is Iraq included, where a sectarian war is raging on the nightly news. Nor are any of the African nations currently embroiled in what can only be called genocidal tribal warfare, places like Rwanda and Nigeria, where the death tolls are unknown, but the deaths rise almost exponentially.

And the violence in these countries is not limited to killing. Rape, equally heinous, is rampant, as are beatings, theft and even slavery. Can Dumb Demographer really mean that Ecuador or El Salvador or--damn it, Puerto Rico--are actually more violent than that? Of course not, because she doesn't need evidence: She has her two brain cells to back each other up.

Moving to Asia, Afghanistan serves as a war laboratory under a thick veneer of chaos. The country is so ravaged by violence the U.N. believes it could take 50 years to raise a viable country from its ruins...if the war can ever be brought to an end. A country so badly destroyed by violence that has yet to end is a less violent country than Puerto Rico?

I'm not here to say We are Paradise Found, or even Paradise Lost. What I am saying is that when a dumb person sets out to justify their own insecurities, weaknesses and prejudices, it doesn't take more than a dab of brains to utter an inane judgement or write a stupid list. Are We violent? Yes, We are and We have to deal with that. Are We a Top 10 violence-infested country? Hell, no. But to a newshound who wants to be a part of the headlines to bolster her feebleness, any stupid claim that makes the news is a good claim.

Eighteen pages later, in an article on travel abroad during Holy Week, a text box lists the preferred destinations of Our travelers. The top six are:

1) United States
2) Peru
3) Argentina
4) Guatemala
5) Colombia
6) Peru

Yeah, El Nuevo Dia seems to lack eagle-eyed editors... But one call to the paper confirmed that #6 on the list was Venezuela.

Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala... Numbers 2, 4 and 6 on the Dumb Demographer's so-called Violence List. Either We are far dumber than the demographer (an intellectual impossibility, except for The Fools) or the demographer is pulling opinions and judgements from...south of the border...if you know what I mean...


The Jenius Has Spoken.