Venezuelan Gerrymandering

So the results are in, and Hugo Chavez is scared.  The opposition won 52 percent of the vote, which allows them a whopping two thirds of the delegates.  Now, for those of you math inclined, you might realize that in a functional system, 52 percent of a vote should result in 52 percent of the seats.  But this is Venezuela, so the opposition should be thankful that they got 40 percent.  It's enough to stop rule by decree, at least in theory, as that would necessitate the Chavistas controlling 66% of the Asamblea Nacional.  But more importantly, it shows a real possibility that Chavez could be challenged in the presidential election two years from now.

The above math is a result of a crazy amount of gerrymandering, where the districts are not proportionally represented in the least.  But it should be noted that even proportional gerrymandering can seem ludicrous.  Here is a picture of the district representation from my home state of Maryland.  Look at the red district.  At least it's proportional?

I miss Augustus

I miss Augustus.  He was definitely the best guinea pig.  Ever.  Accept it.  But this one's pretty darn cute as well.

My apologies to those who favored the short-lived Lavender.

Will they be ready? Will it matter?

When I was in Delhi, the talk of the town . . . was indecipherable to me as all those who told me, "Everyone speaks English in India" clearly had no knowledge of the situation or just didn’t like me very much.  But when I could understand people, they often pointed to the construction going on at the city’s center.  “They still aren’t done!”  “I wonder if they will finish building the stadium in time.”  “Even if they do, I wouldn’t want to go in it!”  Things in Delhi are a mess.

So can it be any wonder that many are delaying their arrival?  It looks like the Queen of England wasn’t just being rude when she canceled over a month ago.  And now, New Zealand is postponing its arrival as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls a crisis meeting.  For me sitting on the sidelines, it’s kind of like watching a train wreck in very slow motion (was that a mixed metaphor?). 

The real question, of course, is will this act as any sort of wake-up call?  And for whom?  South African sure put India to shame.

One step closer to downloading consciousness!

Nothing to do with either of the promised topics, but this is a pet passion of mine.  So enjoy!

We may not be able to measure utils, but maybe we can measure consciousness...

My Friend Suffers at the Hands of Corruption

My good friend in Morocco wants to become a teacher, serving her fellow Moroccans.  Unfortunately, despite her studious nature, stellar academic performance, and passion for the profession, she lacks one necessary trait:  she is not comfortable paying a bribe to pass the teaching test.  Is this a prerequisite for all teachers in Morocco, or did she just run up against a bad egg?  I shutter to think what it means if the only teachers in Morocco are those who lacked the moral fortitude to stand up to a corrupt system.

This is going to sound silly, but stay with me.

What if all negotiations were done with a different sort of drink.  Instead of coffee in all of the mugs around the grand oak table, all cups would be filled in this way.

How could you try and screw over a country, a business, a group, or even your adversary at the other side of the table while looking down into these mugs?

At the very least, it would clearly reveal anyone lacking a soul.

Would you bank in Kabul?

Now the head of Nato is complaining that Hamid Karzai isn't doing enough to combat graft.  With all of the stuff that's going on there, it's almost surprising that corruption is SO BAD that it keeps dominating the discussion.  This article highlights an interesting aspect of the need to fight corruption.  Corruption doesn't just disrupt every single process within a country, it also eats away at international public support.  When corruption is rampant, we all throw up our hands and say, "What's the use?"  Unfortunately, it seems like many of the top officials might not know how to answer that question.

Maps of the world--Corruption vs. Democracy

I love maps.  More than simply allowing you to know where things are, they're an excellent way of visualizing data.  For example, here is Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. Now, let's look at the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. There is a strong correlation between the two.  Something that immediately popped out at me was India.  It's a democracy.  The EIU classifies it as the 35th most democratic regime in the world.  That being said, it is very corrupt.  It ties for 84th least corrupt on TI's rankings of country corruption.

The interested reader should read more about how TI measures corruption and how EIU defines democracy.

I am not drawing any conclusions.  Really I'm not.  Seriously.  This is far too complex an issue.  I just enjoy seeing Morocco ranked 89th in terms of corruption while seeing it classified as an autocracy--it's the 120th most democratic regime, according to EIU.  Singapore (2rd least corrupt) and Hong Kong (12th least corrupt) are perennially ranked as two of the least corrupt countries in the world.  Yet neither, particularly Singapore, boast a democracy.  EIU ranks them as the 82nd and 84th most democratic regimes in the world, giving them the designation of a hybrid regime.  Yet this is just a failing of terminology.  EIU looks at the following four attributes of a country to determine its status:

"Whether national elections are free and fair"

"The security of voters"

"The influence of foreign powers on government"

"The capability of the civil servants to implement policies"

The two city-states, while enjoying the power to elect local representatives, do not have the power to vote for their leaders.  Still, EIU ranks them as far more democratic than the "democracy" of Afghanistan, which ranks 136th.  In this regard, I couldn't agree with EIU more.  For we could easily ask, elections aside, did the people of Afghanistan elect Hamid Karzai?

Russian Police

The Russian Police are out of control.  This report is simply scary with the following statistic quite telling: 


"Out of the 5,000 crimes committed by police in 2009 (up 11 percent on 2008), more than 3,000 were linked to corruption and abuse of power, according to official statistics."


As I said in a previous post, "The fish rots from the head down."  Regardless of whether or not the top Russians themselves are actually corrupt (...), they sure seem to express little concern for their underlings' actions.  They are secure in their power and wealth, and this article implies a situation where top officials simply not concerning themselves with a system rife with corruption.  In this case, it looks like the only hope of tackling these problems are an extremely active and courageous media, as well as outside pressure:


"The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg regularly condemns Russia for police torture and draws attention to the slow investigations, the tardy opening of criminal cases and the mild sentences handed out to offenders, leading to a feeling of impunity among police officers."


We can hope.