It is quite realistic to expect upwards of 90 (maybe even 100) murders in the Bahamas by year's end, as there usually will be an increase towards the end of the year. However, even if there is no increase, the number to be expected based upon the first 8 1/2 months of 2009 would be 88. That translates into a per capita murder rate of 27 per 100,000 inhabitants of this tiny nation. At this point, none of my readers are surprised, because these sad numbers are all too well known.
If I were to offer you the trip of a lifetime, an opportunity to visit Iraq... right now... would you go? Most people I have actually asked - hypothetically, of course, as I have no intentions of sending anyone halfway around the world - declined the offer. "I don't want to get myself killed," was a standard line.
Yet, taking things like nationality, ethnicity or race out of the equation, your odds of being killed right here in the Bahamas are higher. Iraq's murder rate for 2008 (and this included war, civil unrest and terrorism) was "only" 21 per 100,000 inhabitants. As far as I can tell, the expected figure for 2009 is slightly lower still.
Things that make you go hmmm...
If I were to offer you the trip of a lifetime, an opportunity to visit Iraq... right now... would you go? Most people I have actually asked - hypothetically, of course, as I have no intentions of sending anyone halfway around the world - declined the offer. "I don't want to get myself killed," was a standard line.
Yet, taking things like nationality, ethnicity or race out of the equation, your odds of being killed right here in the Bahamas are higher. Iraq's murder rate for 2008 (and this included war, civil unrest and terrorism) was "only" 21 per 100,000 inhabitants. As far as I can tell, the expected figure for 2009 is slightly lower still.
Things that make you go hmmm...
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