The new Social Progress Index 2014 has just been
released with its plethora of talking points for
policy junkies and pedestrian pundits alike. We’re
feeling a little macabre, so rather than talk about
the state of world health or freedom or clean water,
we’ve decided to make our first order of business:
Where in the world are you most likely to come to
harm in 2014?
Before you list off the many countries you can
think of that regularly came up in reports of violent
protests, suicide bombings, drone strikes, missile
attacks and other news-worthy events of the past 12
months, know that some of the most unsafe
countries this year are among the hottest
vacationing spots in the world. No, that has nothing
to do with bad seafood or shark attacks (which
rarely happen; leave the sharks alone). This is
about the frequency of murder, crime and fatal
traffic incidents, as well as more sweeping trends
like human rights abuses, political terror and
genocidal violence.
Many countries which ranked as ‘most dangerous’
either fall into the “beach paradise” category or the
“child gangs, drug cartels and car bombings”
category (or a little of both). Apparently tourism
can exist as close to violence as political instability,
inter-warring and institutionalized drug trafficking.
But before you rethink your summer vacation, use
some common sense here: Flying to your favourite
beach resort and checking into the Marriott doesn’t
carry the same kind of risk as strolling through the
favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Like anywhere else,
there’s always the paradise you see and the hell
you don’t. In the most unfortunate cases however,
it seems there’s very little of the former picture.
Here are the 10 countries which scored lowest for
personal safety in 2014, based on the SPI’s 100-
point personal safety index (where the safest
countries score nearer 100).



10. Sudan: 37.25
Sudan isn’t exactly one of those beach paradises. A
whole fifth of citizens here live on less than $1.25
US a day, and as one of the so-called “hungriest”
nations in the world enormous swaths of the
population live in abysmal conditions. Ethnic strife
and slavery have been a mainstay for most of
Sudan’s history, but the danger here comes equally
from above with a government that retains power
through flagrant human rights-abusing militias
partial to widespread killings, rape, systematic
torture, robbery and recruitment of child soldiers.
Since 1983, nearly 2 million Sudanese have died to
civil war and famine.



9. Mexico: 34.61
Mexico is in fact one of the most visited countries
in the world and makes more money from tourism
than any other Latin American country. But its
abundance of historical and ecological marvels
conceals a shoddy track record for human rights,
especially in southern parts of the country
populated by segregated indigenous peoples and
poor urbanites. Then there’s the drug cartels, who
are said to employ over 100,000 people in a never-
ending clash against narco authorities. Estimates
say the drug war here has claimed over 60,000
dead and 20,000 missing, with a homicide rate
nearly three times the world average. When 4% of
drug related violence claims innocent victims,
safety isn’t exactly guaranteed in many parts of the
country.



8. Honduras: 33.94
Official reports say Honduras had 81 murders for
every 100,000 people last year. The year before,
UNODC pinned this country’s murder rate as the
highest in the world. That mostly comes from the
Honduras you don’t see. If you’re planning to visit,
take a group tour to the Copan Mayan ruins and
you’ll be well guarded by a strong police presence.
Venture outside the tourism bubble, and it’s not
unheard of for police calls to go completely ignored
against rampant carjacking, kidnapping and
violence. With hugely impoverished populations
occupying this politically unstable transit point in
the Latin American drug trade, gang crime
abounds with impunity.




7. Dominican Republic: 32.90
As one of the world’s go-to places for beaches and
ecotourism, rest assured travel destinations are the
Dominican’s biggest export for a reason. If you’re
abiding by a travel brochure, you might just run
the risk of a purse-snatching at worst. But in the
hearts of cities like La Altagracia and Santo
Domingo Province, the drug trade paints a different
picture. When you stand on a Dominican beach,
you can either stare out to the sublime turquoise
waters and breathe the salty air, or turn around
and imagine the millions of dollars of illegal
cocaine and weapons exchanging hands
underground. As for the poor road conditions, with
no right-of-way for pedestrians and lack of traffic
controls you might want to rethink that car rental
and hop on a guided tour.


6. Chad: 31.97
Chances are you’re not planning to kick back in a
failed state anytime soon. When Save the Children
doesn’t even want to enter the country for fear of
having its aid workers killed, tourism is probably
out of the question. Chad has been called the most
corrupt country in the world thanks to an unstable
and abusive political landscape orbited by rampant
tribal warfare. Official security forces in Chad
practice arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings,
torture and rape with near-impunity, and virtually
no one recognizes the legitimacy of an
administration clinging to power by plundering the
nation’s oil reserves.



5. South Africa: 30.90
Luckily for South Africa the SPI didn’t count sexual
aggression among their safety measures this year
(estimates say 500,000 women are raped annually
here by one in every four men — the highest rate
of sexual violence the world). Regardless, with 50
murders happening daily, it’s no surprise violent
crime and thievery are two of the most cited
reasons for emigration out of South Africa’s
borders. In 2007, a major South African insurance
company discontinued policies on Volkswagen Citi
Golfs simply because they were stolen too often; so
while you might get away with ignoring the
occasional stop sign in your hometown, if you find
yourself at the stop sign in a South African city you
should probably keep driving.


4. Central African Republic: 29.41
It’s not often a government advises against
travelling to its own country. Bandits, armed rebel
groups and poachers have virtually destroyed
tourism in the echo of CAR’s civil war, and civilian
safety remains entirely unenforced in many parts of
the country. However, this lack of security might
spare you a torture, beating, rape, or imprisonment
under subhuman conditions by the country’s
security forces; you might just have to deal with a
heavily-armed youth gang instead.
Last November, the UN and France separately put
the Central African Republic on genocide watch.
Since then, human rights group Amnesty
International identified several massacres of
Muslim civilians by a Christian group; thousands of
Muslims are currently fleeing the country.


3. Venezuela: 27.55
President Hugo Chavez’s untimely death last year
left little optimism that the country would undergo
significant improvements in crime anytime soon.
All the institutional mechanisms for a dangerous
landscape are in place here, including standardized
corruption, politically-backed drug trafficking and a
highly overcrowded prison system. The data paints
a picture of Venezuela as one of the most
unequivocally violent places on earth: A homicide
every 21 minutes — more than 200,000 over the last
15 years alone. Its rate of violent death in
peacetime rivals Iraq in the midst of violent war.
The most telling fact here? The Venezuelan
government no longer publishes its crime statistics.


2. Nigeria: 23.57
Nigeria is a textbook example of what an “oil
cursed” country looks like. With the government
concentrating its efforts on protecting its oil exports
(and looting the treasury) the country remains
socially and politically underdeveloped. Official
security forces here practice arbitrary detention,
violence, rape and torture, especially in the oil-rich
Niger Delta region where conflict rarely subsides.
Underdevelopment has left Nigeria vulnerable to
capture by a vast network of organized crime
around the drug trade: As Nigerian gangs compete
to ship heroin from East to West, and cocaine from
West to East, violence breaks out in the street and
claims hundreds of civilian lives every year. Boko Haram in the northern part of the country killed more than 5,000 civilians between
July 2009 and June 2014, including at least 2,000 in
the first half of 2014, in attacks occurring mainly
in northeast, northcentral and central states of
Nigeria. Corruption in the security services
and human rights abuses committed by them have
hampered efforts to counter the unrest. Since
2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500
women and children, including the kidnapping of
276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014.
650,000 people fled the conflict zone by August
2014, an increase of 200,000 since May.

1. Iraq: 21.52
Iraq might be an obvious choice as the most
dangerous country in the world, but the full nature
of that danger tends to get overlooked. Despite the
Iraq War officially ending with US withdrawal in
2011, insurgency within its borders remains
virtually unchanged. A lack of stable government
has ushered in comprehensive networks of
organized crime in the vein of drug trafficking in
the Balkans, Mexico and Nigeria. Here however,
the rise of this criminal landscape becomes all the
more potent in a post-war scenario marked by
insurgent groups who build and in turn harness
power from the organized crime operations.
According to the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security,
2013 was the worst year for civilian deaths since
the height of War in 2008.

Borno ??

Poor line breaks


I no read am sha