Category Archives: Pakistan

Things Each Country Leads the World In

Each country leads the world in different things, from good to bad things to awkward ones.

According to the map above, France leads the world in tourism, India in making movies, Saudi Arabia in oil reserves, the United States in producing Nobel laureates, Greece in olive oil consumption, Switzerland in the rate of employment, Norway in democracy, Brazil in FIFA world cup titles, and Costa Rica in happiness, to name a few.

Other countries lead in not so positive things. For example, Russia leads in the number of nuclear warheads, China in carbon emissions, Afghanistan in opium production, North Korea in censorship, and Yemen in gender inequality.

Among the awkward we find Venezuela leading in the number of miss universe titles, Argentina in exporting soccer players, Netherlands in the tallest people, Iran in the highest brain drain, Sweden in atheism, and Mexico in lightning strikes.

Source: Policy Mic: This Map Shows the Weird Things Each Country Leads the World In

The Global Slavery Index 2013

Slavery still exists in many parts of the world, whether it be in the form of forced labor, forced domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, debt bondage, bonded labor, or child marriage.

The Global Slavery Index provides insight into the number of people enslaved in 162 countries. The index takes into account three indicators: the prevalence of slavery per population, child marriage, and human trafficking.

India is a the top of the list with the largest absolute number of enslaved people, an estimated 14 million. China comes in second place with an estimated 2 million people enslaved. Pakistan is in third place with an estimated 2.1 million people in slavery. These countries are followed by Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Put together, these countries account for 76% of the total enslaved people, or 29.8 million people, in the 162 countries that make up this ranking.

Source: Walk Free Foundation: The Global Slavery Index 2013

Freedom on the Net 2013

Freedom House has conducted a study on internet freedom in 60 countries across the globe.

What the authors of the study found is that global internet freedom has deteriorated in the last three years as a consequence of the increase of laws and regulations that try to limit free speech on the web.

An estimated 34 countries have seen a decline in internet freedom since 2012 including Vietnam, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Venezuela. On the other hand, 16 countries have seen an improvement in internet freedom, among them Morocco, Burma, and Tunisia. Despite those improvements, limits on internet freedom are still rampant in many countries that make the list, where censorship, threats, and murder of bloggers and users who post information governments see as a threat continues.

Source: Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2013

Deaths from Organized Internal Conflict

The number of deaths as a result of internal armed conflicts has increased dramatically from 37,300 back in 2007 to 178,300 in 2012. Internal conflict is defined as armed conflict between two parties, one of which is the government of that country.

For 2012, the largest number of deaths have occurred in Syria (40.9%), Libya (17.3%), Mexico (14.2%), and Pakistan (5.2%). The areas of major conflict have switched from Iraq and Afghanistan back in 2007 to Syria and Libya in 2012.

Source: The Economist: Syria v Libya v Iraq – A numerical evaluation of recent conflict

The Quality of Democracy by Country

Global Democracy Ranking released the Democracy Ranking for the year 2012, which shows the quality of democracy around the world.

Several indicators were used to calculate the Global Democracy Ranking. Those indicators were selected from a vast variety of dimensions such as politics, economy, environment, gender equality, education, health, and knowledge.

As seen in the map above, countries ranked at the top (dark green), those with the highest quality of democracy include Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, and Austria. In contrast, we find countries where democracy is at serious risk or where it is no longer a viable system (brown). Among these countries we have Yemen, Syria, Libya, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and Haiti.

Source: Global Democracy Ranking: Democracy Ranking 2012

The Failed States Index 2013

Fund For Peace just released the Failed State Index (FSI) 2013. The FSI measures the level of risk in each country using a series of risk indicators such as mounting demographic pressures, massive movement of refugees, uneven economic development, poverty, legitimacy of the state, progressive deterioration of human services, violation of human rights, violation of the rule of law, security apparatus, intervention of external actors, etc. The FSI is calculated for a total of 178 countries.

Nations ranking at the top for failed states (red) include Somalia, Congo, Sudan, and South Sudan. Unfortunately, most of the world’s nations seem to be under a warning (orange) for failed states, from Africa to Asia to Latin America.

For the complete list of countries, rankings and scores, please visit: Fund For Peace: Failed State Index (FSI) 2013

Violence Against Women by World Region

In this chart published by The Economist we look at two sets of data about violence against women.

The first one shows that more than a third (39%) of homicides of women around the world are committed by a previous or current partner. The numbers are specially shocking for South East Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar [Burma], Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore). The numbers are also high for Latin American and African countries.

The second set of data shows that 30% of women around the world have experienced physical or sexual violence during their lifetime by a former or current partner. The numbers are the highest for Central African countries (Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda), followed by countries in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, etc.), South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), the Andean region of South America (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), the Middle East, and North Africa.

Extradition Treaties of the U.S. with Other Countries

An estimated 100 countries have signed bilateral extradition treaties with the United States, including all Latin American countries, Western European countries, Egypt, India, Australia, and New Zealand to name a few. Some 60 nations including China, Russia, several Middle Eastern and African countries have not. However, even if some countries signed extradition treaties they can still refuse to hand an individual over to the U.S. if that person is seeking asylum or if he/she would face the death penalty.

Source: The Economist: Daily Chart: Where can he go?

Government Restrictions on Religion

The Pew Research Center released today the results of its assessment of global restrictions on religion. A team of researchers combed through multiple sources of information to record concrete reports about government policies and actions, as well as specific incidents of religious violence or intolerance by social groups. One of the outcomes of the study is the thematic map shown above, which displays the level of government restrictions on religion as of December of 2011. The level is represented by the darkness of the color. The darker the color, the higher the level of government restrictions. The map shows that the Middle East and North Africa have many countries where governments restrict religion. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran top the list of countries with very high government restrictions. China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Russia also stand out due to the policies and actions of their governments.

Child Labor Index 2012

Child labor is a serious problem that affects children all around the world. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines child labor as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” According to ILO, an approximate 215 million children around the world are working. Out of this number, 115 million are thought to be doing dangerous work in hazardous conditions. An estimated 150 million children between ages 5 and 14 are subjected to child labor globally.

According to the Child Labor Index for 2012 published by risk analysis company Maplecroft, countries with the highest risk of child labor violations include Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, India, and China among a group of 76 countries.

Read full report at: Maplecroft: Conflict and economic downturn cause global increase in reported child labour violations – 40% of countries now rated ‘extreme risk’

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