Tag Archives: Egypt

Countries With Chemical Weapons

chemical weapons

The 1925 Geneva Protocol banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare. By 1993 the Chemical Weapons Convention asked signatory nations to destroy their existing chemical weapons stockpiles and stop producing new ones.

Of the signatories, the United States and Russia are the two countries with the largest chemical weapon stockpiles. Currently, they are in the process of destroying them. Among the signatory states that have not yet ratified the Convention we find Israel and Myanmar. States that have not signed the Convention include Angola, Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan, and Syria.

Source: International Business Times: Not Just Syria: Which Other Countries Have Chemical Weapons? [Interactive Map]

 

Syrian Refugees in 2013

syrian-refugees

Since the armed conflict began in Syria, an estimated 100,000 people have been killed, and as many as 2 million people had fled the nation seeking refuge in neighboring countries. The majority of the refugees had fled to neighboring Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Egypt and Iraq have seen an influx of Syrian refugees as well.

Additionally, another 4 million people had been internally displaced, roughly 1 of every 4 inhabitants, including an estimated 2 million children.

Source: PBS: Syrian Refugees

 

Refugees: Where Do They Come From?

refugees from where to where

As a consequence of armed conflicts happening in different parts of the world, inhabitants in those regions had been forced to flee and seek refuge in other countries.

As of 2011, the largest number of refugees was coming from Afghanistan (2.6 million people), followed by Iraq (1.4 million), and Somalia (1 million), as seen in the map above in color red. Countries where these refugees were seeking asylum included Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Kenya, Germany, and Jordan.

Up to the point when this data was collected, there was not an armed conflict going on in Syria. In fact, Syria was listed as an asylum destination for refugees coming from Iraq. That has changed now, and Syria has joined other countries torn by conflict whose inhabitants are seeking asylum in other parts of the world.

Source: Global Refugee Tracker: where are refugees from? And where do they go (2011)

 

Every Protest in the World Since 1979

every protest since 1978According to the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) website, an estimated 250 million incidents have occurred since 1979, ranging from protests and violence, to change in military or police attitudes.

The dots spread across North Africa in 2011, for example, hint to the Arab Spring protests taking place at the time in that region. In a similar manner the cluster of dots concentrated in the Middle East, more precisely in Syria, point to the ongoing conflict in that country.

For the interactive map, please visit: Foreign Policy: Mapped: Every Protest on the Planet Since 1979

 

Deaths by Hepatitis vs. Deaths by HIV by Country

hepatitis and hiv world HIV killed 1.47 million people in 2010. Viral hepatitis killed as many as 1.44 million people in the same year. Even though the number of deaths caused by viral hepatitis follows close that of HIV, its impact goes largely ignored worldwide.

According to The Economist, viral hepatitis killed more people in 117 out of 187 countries, including China, India, Japan, and the UK. In the map above, countries in dark red show a higher ratio of deaths by viral hepatitis to deaths caused by HIV. Those countries include Egypt, Mongolia, UK, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, South and North Korea, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Germany.

Source: The Economist: The other killer – Hepatitis kills more people than HIV in most countries

 

 

The Quality of Democracy by Country

democracy ranking worldmap 2012Global 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 Most and Least Racially Tolerant Countries

racial-tolerance-mapA survey conducted by two Swedish economists asked respondents in 80 countries what kind of people they would not like as neighbors, to which many replied “people of a different race”.

The results from that survey are displayed in this map published by the Washington Post. According to the survey, people in English-speaking, Scandinavian, and Latin American countries are the most racially tolerant, with the exception of Venezuela. South Africa shows to be a tolerant country, while the attitudes in Europe show a lot of variation. People in countries such as France, Turkey, India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, South Korea, and Indonesia are the least racially tolerant.

 

Elimination of Chemical Weapons Worldwide

elimination of chemical weapons worldThe Organization for the Proliferation of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was created to oversee the elimination of existing chemical weapons and monitor the chemical industry to prevent the production of additional chemical weapons. The OPCW was created in 1997 in The Hague, Netherlands, with support from the United Nations (UN).

The OPCW has 188 members states, signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Nations that did not sign the CWC include Syria, Egypt, South Sudan, Somalia, Angola, and North Korea. Myanmar signed it, but it has not ratified it to date.

As of 2012, 71% of global stockpiles of chemical weapons have been destroyed, 46% of the total amount of chemical munitions have been eliminated, and 100% of the chemical plants producing chemical weapons have been decommissioned.

Source: Ria Novosti News Agency: Infographics – Elimination of Chemical Weapons in the World

 

U.S. Military Personnel Around the World

According to this map by Bloomberg, in 2012 approximately 12.5% of active-duty military personnel were stationed outside the United States, in places like Afghanistan, Turkey, Australia Canada, Greenland, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Egypt, Myanmar, South Korea, Greece and Western Europe.

The pie chart above shows the top 14 places where the U.S. has active duty soldiers stationed.

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Rape Statistics by Country

click to enlarge

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime compiles rape statistics from countries around the world. We used their most recent numbers to create the map displayed above, which shows the number of rapes reported to police per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the UN data, the country with the highest rate of reported rapes is Botswana (92.9), while the country with the lowest rate is Egypt (0.1). Note though that comparison of crime rates across countries needs to be be taken with a grain of salt, since in some countries the population may be reluctant to report certain types of crimes to the police. You can read more about how the UN compiles crime statistics at its website.