Sunday, June 06, 2010

Collective punishment - by the numbers

CIA World Factbook 2010 - Gaza
Population - 1½ million
Median age : 17.5 years. With half the population under 17½ years old, Gaza is slightly ahead of Chad, Niger, and Uganda.
44% of the population is under 14 years old.
2% is over 65.
Population below the poverty line - 70%
Unemployment rate - 40%
Literacy rate - 92%
Arable land - 29%

UNICEF - Gaza
Number of homes obliterated in last year's war - 3,500
Number of homes damaged - 50,000
"Throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) almost 12,000 children under five years old still die from preventable causes each year, as do more than 1,800 children under 12 months old."

So. Despite horrific child mortality rates, half the population of Gaza are children, children living in rubble below the poverty line with a 60/40 likelihood of future employment.

As the CIA Factbook notes cryptically : "The rapid growth of a young adult population unable to find employment can lead to unrest".

Bradley Burston, senior editor at Haaretz :

"We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege, which is itself becoming Israel's Vietnam.

We explain, time and again, that we are not at war with the people of Gaza. We say it time and again because we ourselves need to believe it, and because, deep down, we do not. "


h/t Big News Network : 800,000 kids bearing brunt of Gaza blockade , which sent me off to check out their sources.

3 comments:

Cameron said...

You haven't read anything on this blog ever have you?

harebell said...

Not a good thing to do.
Let them publish what they really truly think, and let them keep doing it in the face of new information that counters that meme.
Then folk will remember just what shallow, hateful people they are.
The overt bigot and liar is a reminder that a problem still exists.
When it all goes quiet, folk tend to think there is no problem and relax.
That's how the haters gain ground, here we can counter their proposterous rhetoric and acknowledge that the issue is still live.

thwap said...

Dawg,

In all seriousness, why do you tolerate these people?Israel attacked an unarmed aid-ship and they cheer and accuse their critics of anti-Semitism. They're insane.

When people lie, there's no point in debate. There is no debate. They're not debating, they're spewing propaganda.

Delete their comments.

And then let them go back to their own blogs where they can whine about "censorship" and how much leftist "useful idiots" of Islamo-fascism love violence, while they wallow in their racism and call for the physical extermination of their enemies.