Monthly Archives: August 2010

Measuring Poverty (10): Multidimensional Poverty

Posted on August 15, 2010 by

Poverty can be many different things. It can be different things to different people in different countries or circumstances. It can mean one thing for people in Africa and another for people in the favelas in Rio, and still another … Continue reading →

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Human Rights Maps (95): Asylum Seekers

Posted on August 14, 2010 by

(source, source, source) These data are for 2008. Maps on refugees are here. All asylum seekers are refugees but not all refugees are asylum seekers. An asylum-seeker is an individual who has sought international protection from persecution and whose claim … Continue reading →

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The Causes of Wealth Inequality (8): Weak Unionization

Posted on August 13, 2010 by

Among the rich countries that are very unequal are also some which have very weak labor unions. It’s tempting to see a causal link in this correlation, since the purpose of a labor union is – among other things – … Continue reading →

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Political Jokes & Funny Quotes (94): China Number One Asshole

Posted on August 12, 2010 by

From The Onion: WASHINGTON–According to a new report released Monday by a panel of top economists and social scientists, the People’s Republic of China will overtake the United States as the world’s dominant asshole by the year 2020. The findings, … Continue reading →

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Why Do We Need Human Rights? (18): The Economic Case Against Human Rights

Posted on August 11, 2010 by

Some more comments following two previous posts on the topic (see here and here). Do human rights promote or depress economic growth and prosperity? (I’ll focus on non-political rights for the moment because political rights – i.e. democracy – have … Continue reading →

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The Most Absurd Human Rights Violations (58): The School Where Mentally Disturbed Students Are Jolted Into Good Behavior

Posted on August 10, 2010 by

The only thing that sets [the] students [of the Judge Rotenberg Center, a private boarding school for special-education students in Canton, Massachusetts] apart from kids at any other school in America – aside from their special-ed designation – is the electric … Continue reading →

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Human Rights Maps (94): Internet Censorship in China

Posted on August 9, 2010 by

(source, click the image to enlarge) There are more statistics on internet filtering in China here. And a more polemical post on the Great Firewall of China is here. And don’t forget that there is also non-internet censorship in China. … Continue reading →

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Political Graffiti (111): Give a Man a Fish …

Posted on August 8, 2010 by

(source, source) Another variation: Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world. The latter being a references to recent bank bailouts. More on development aid – the context that … Continue reading →

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (32): The Questioner Matters

Posted on August 7, 2010 by

I’ve discussed the role of framing before: the way in which you ask questions in surveys influences the answers you get and therefore modifies the survey results. (See here and here for instance). It happens quite often that polling organizations … Continue reading →

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The Most Absurd Human Rights Violations (57): Jailed for Being “Annoying”

Posted on August 6, 2010 by

While most Middle Eastern regimes make up all sorts of excuses for throwing activists who raise inconvenient issues in jail — “endangering security” and “undermining national unity” are favorites — the Saudis are admirably honest. Mekhlef bin Daham al-Shammary, a prominent Saudi human … Continue reading →

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