With Saddam Hussein’s hanging yesterday, I thought it might be useful to review the state of capital punishment in the world. Here are a few countries (courtesy Wikipedia). Click world map for large version.

NOT ALLOWED
The Netherlands, 1878 ⁵ (last in 1952)
Iceland, 1928 (last in 1830)
Switzerland, 1942 ⁴ (last in 1945)
New Zealand, 1961 ¹ (last in 1957)
United Kingdom, 1965 ² (last in 1964)
Malta, 1971 ⁶ (last in 1943)
Sweden, 1972 (last in 1910)
Finland, 1972 (last in 1941)
Canada, 1976 (last in 1962)
France, 1981 (last in 1977)
Cyprus, 1983 ³ (last in 1962)
Australia, 1985 (last in 1967)
Germany, 1987 (last in 1982)
Czech Republic, 1990 (last in 1989)
Denmark, 1994 (last in 1950)
Philippines, 2006 (last in 2005)

NOTES
¹ Full abolishment 1989.
² Full abolishment 2003.
³ Full abolishment 2002.
⁴ Full abolishment 1992.
⁵ Full abolishment 1983.
⁶ Full abolishment 2000.

ALLOWED
Belarus
China
Greece
India
Iraq
Japan
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
United States (see map below)

As part of my work in submitting a proposal to the Ontario Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, I recently compiled a list of the percentage visible minority population in every Ontario riding. So I figured I would publish this as today’s Useful Fact^TM. Here are the regional breakdowns, followed by a riding-by-riding breakdown (Note: these numbers are based on the 2001 Census, which is the latest available data; I also used the Ontario’s new 107 provincial ridings). Feel free to download the proposal to see the regional maps. As you can see there is considerable variation from region to region (Toronto and the GTA are highest, the North, Central and East are lowest). How diverse is your riding? (recognizing that here I’m using “diverse” as a catchphrase for highest visible minority population — obviously, diversity is more than just visible minorities)

Not surprisingly, there is a virtual 1-to-1 correlation between % visible minorities and population size. The most diverse? Scarborough-Rouge River at 84.4% visible minorities. The least diverse? Parry Sound-Muskoka at 0.7%. The provincial median is 10.8%. Remarkably 30% of Ontario’s ridings at 97% or more white. Nearly 40% of Ontario’s ridings (41 of 107) have fewer than 5% visible minorities (i.e. 40% of Ontario’s ridings are 95% or more white). And exactly half have fewer than 10% visible minorities (i.e. half of Ontario’s ridings are more than 90% white). I’ve also included the party that won the seat in the 2003 provincial election — based on the transposition of votes in the new ridings — as you can see there is a strong correlation between ridings that are white and ridings that elected Progressive Conservative MPPs. PC ridings have a median of 5.6% visible minorities (and an average of 8.2%). Liberal ridings have a median of 15.0% visible minorities (and an average of 22.0%) and NDP ridings have a median of 3.2% visible minorities (but an average of 14.9% reflecting the polarity of their seats — either downtown Toronto or rural labour ridings).

REGIONS
1. TORONTO — 42.3%
2. PEEL-HALTON — 32.2%
3. YORK-DURHAM — 22.9%
4. OTTAWA — 17.7%
5. SOUTHWESTERN — 7.5%
6. NIAGARA PENINSULA – 6.8%
7. SOUTHCENTRAL — 6.0%
8. CENTRAL — 2.2%
9. EASTERN — 2.2%
10. NORTHEAST — 1.4%
11. NORTHWEST — 1.4%

click below to see riding-by-riding list
(more…)

L.A. crime has fallen for the 5th straight year — down 4% over last year. In some gentrifying areas, such as Hollywood and Rampart Divisions, crime was down twice as much. In 2006, there was 464 homicides. By my calculations, in a city of 4,097,340 that’s a rate of 11.3 homicides per 100,000 population. By comparison, in 2005, Toronto had 78 homicides in a city of 2,481,494 for a rate of 3.1 per 100,000 population — 3.6 times less than L.A.

Here are some 2003 numbers for some U.S. cities (homicides per 100,000 population):
New Orleans — 57.7
Washington — 44.0
Baltimore — 41.9
Detroit — 39.4
Hartford — 35.9
Atlanta — 34.3
Oakland — 26.8
Philadelphia — 23.3
Buffalo — 21.9
Chicago — 20.6
Miami — 19.4
Milwaukee — 18.5
Dallas — 18.4
Kansas City — 18.4
Phoenix — 17.2
Houston — 13.6
Los Angeles — 13.4
Nashville — 13.0
Minneapolis — 12.1
Las Vegas — 11.9
Denver — 11.1
San Francisco — 8.9
New York — 7.4
Boston — 6.6
Seattle — 5.6
San Jose — 3.2
Honolulu — 1.7
Source here and here.

Ezra Klein wrote an interesting piece in the L.A. Times (“Going Universal”) on the U.S. Healthcare System.

The American health system, put simply, is a mess. An expensive one. Indeed, in 2002, we spent $5,267 per capita on healthcare — $1,821 more than Switzerland, the nearest runner-up. And yet we had higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy, more price inflation and an actual uninsured population, a phenomenon virtually unknown in the rest of the developed world, where universal healthcare is, well, universal.

Indeed, with 47 million people uninsured and an 81% increase in premiums since 2000, the U.S. system is quite simply unsustainable. As Klein concludes:

“The realization that our illogical, mistaken healthcare system can’t go on forever has dawned, and so it will end.”

London

Oxford

Oxford

Bristol

Milton Keynes

To those who celebrate it, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or as the British say, “Happy Christmas”). I’d also like to wish my Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah (or Chanukah if you prefer), which began on the 15th. Apologies for the slow-down in posts over the last fews days. I’ve been bouncing around England and have had pretty spotty access to the web. I randomly ran into a friend from MIT in all the madness at Gatwick yesterday, before flying back to the U.S. and stopping in Minneapolis (we arrived late last night in Seattle, where we are spending Christmas with family). Minneapolis has a dandy new light rail system, which allowed us to even pop over to the Mall of America during the stop-over, which I believe still holds the title of largest mall (close to the West Edmonton Mall). I’ll try and get some pics uploaded later today — of Milton Keynes (last of the British New Towns), Oxford and Bristol. The thick fog that blanketed much of southern England over the past few days was both good and bad for pics (good in that some places looked more charming than without the fog, but bad in that visibility was rather limited).

I surely have strong opinions about reforms to the Canadian Senate. But I’d like to hear what you think before I opine on the subject — so convince me of your position.

The government has introduced Bill C-43 (An act to provide for consultations with electors on their preferences for appointments to the Senate). What do you think? Should we keep the Senate as is (recognizing that the government has already introduced term limits)? Should Canada institute an elected Senate? (called “consultations” so as to avoid opening the Constitution on the issue)? Should the distribution of seats be re-considered (perhaps having equal numbers between different regions i.e. the West, Ontario, Quebec, the East, or some such thing)? Should the Senate be abolished (possibly replaced with a parliamentary research body)? Let me know what you think. Here are some recent opinions that discuss Bill C-43.

LINKS
Jason Cherniak (Liberal)
Devon Rowcliffe (Green)
Prairie Wrangler (Conservative)
Scott Tribe (Liberal)
Red Tory (Liberal)
Werner Patels (Liberal)
A View From the Left (Liberal)
UW Habs (Liberal)
Big City Lib (Liberal)
Smok Wawelski’s Cave (Non-Partisan)
Robin Sears (Fireweed Democracy Project)
Rick Anderson (Fireweed Democracy Project)
Rootleweb (Conservative)
The Blonde Conservative (Conservative)
Wudrick Blog (Conservative)
Crawl Across the Ocean (Non-Partisan)
My Blahg (NDP)

Had some meetings here in London yesterday and caught up with some friends. But most of the day was spent doing touristy stuff — Tate Modern (Architect: Herzog + de Meuron), City Hall (Norman Foster), British Museum (roof: Foster). Here are some pics.

Note to self: avoid Northwest Airlines in the future. Our flight our of L.A. was delayed, which would have caused us to miss our connection in Minneapolis. So, after being told there were no other flights available, I called up American Airlines on my cell and found a direct flight to London (and got the incompetent agent to book us on that flight at the same rate as our Northwest flight). No worries, it just meant spending a few hours drinking at Encounters — that extraterrestrial-looking thing at LAX.

So, after a long delay, we finally arrived in Londres. And had a dandy dinner in Kensington. Ah, London.

This is a real travesty — Ben’s Deli in Montreal is closing.

I remember when I was an undergrad at McGill going with some frequency to Ben’s for late night eats (architects work laaaaate!). Their smoked meat rivaled Schwartz’s as far as I was concerned. And I loved their smoked meat poutine (takes a couple years of your life, though!). The Kravitz’s are closing shop because workers there — who were veterans, very professional — wanted to unionize for better pay and better working conditions. They didn’t think they could be profitable, as business has fallen off in recent years. I feel that Montreal has lost a piece of itself today. Very sad.