Politics

Desperation for good news?

By on Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Here’s some good news:

Bahrain safest country in the Arab world: survey

Bahrain is the safest country in the Arab and the Middle East regions and the sixth internationally, it has been revealed.

An international survey carried out by Numbeo, the biggest free database on cities and countries worldwide, stated in accordance with 2014 crime indicators that Bahrain achieved 79.48 points on safety indicators, trailing Malta, which is ranked first in the world with a total of 85.83, South Korea, Isle of Man, Japan and Georgia, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The UAE was ranked seventh safest country in the world ahead of Singapore, Taiwan, Qatar and Hong Kong. Oman came in 18th position, Saudi Arabia in 21st and Kuwait in 41st, indicating that Gulf countries are among the safest in the world.

Afghanistan, Venezuela, Guatemala, Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago came at the top of the crime indicators list. [ source ]

Interesting…

This report has been widely circulated in Bahrain with no time given to check sources, or maybe because of desperation for good news, they chose to just publish it and receive much needed approbation.
Fair enough. But knowing the reality on the ground, pushed me to investigate this phenomenon a bit more as I knew it can’t be farther from the truth in my logic. What I found out, unsurprisingly, is that the publishers get their “data” from user contributions exclusively. They probably then massage whatever they receive and apply statistical magic to the pot until a beautiful dish is served, and subscribers gained.
Numbeo is the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.
1279993 prices in 4380 cities entered by 147751 users (information updated 2014-06-04)
Are these stats enough to base a decision on though? Realistic business decisions? Not to people with two or more brain cells I should think. People might be happy enough to use Numbeo’s “findings” as generic info to start from, maybe, but nothing other than for entertainment value really.
So is this worth making such hoopla about? Well…
That’s probably part of what $28.5 million in PR money can buy.
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Comments

  1. Desert Island Boy

    I’m almost embarrassed at the cable tennis match currently going on between Bahrain’s esteemed leaders over…… an internet poll.

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