A Tale of Two Cities

Ciudad Juarez: 
Approx population: 1.4m
Number of murders in 2010: 3000 (as recorded December 15th)

El Paso:
Approx population: 620,000
Number of murders in 2010: 5 (yes, that says five)

Don't mess with Texas.

FIFA World football ranking: The Americas

The final world ranking numbers for 2010 have just been published by world governing body FIFA and because we only love LatAm round here and know for a fact that the top three teams, Spain (1), The Netherlands (2) and Germany (3) were just plain lucky in 2010 and show very little footballing skill*, let's check on how The Americas stand in the world pile. In this list, we're cutting off at the first 100 teams in the world, so countries like Belize, Guyana or Barbados don't show.

World Ranking	In The Americas	Country	FIFA points total
4	1	Brazil	1446
5	2	Argentina	1338
7	3	Uruguay	1152
15	4	Chile	950
18	5	USA	867
24	6	Paraguay	832
27	7	Mexico	795
48	8	Colombia	558
53	9	Ecuador	535
58	10	Jamaica	522
59	11	Honduras	516
60	12	Venezuela	515
62	13	Cuba	512
64	14	Panama	501
68	15	Peru	486
69	16	Costa Rica	467
84	17	Canada	411
89	18	Trin&Tob	373
90	19	Haiti	367
94	20	Granada	349
97	21	Bolivia	344

Top is Brazil with Argentina on their heels and nobody's really going to argue with that. Then comes the World Cup's biggest and best surprise package, Uruguay, fully deserving its place then excellent team that Mercelo Bielsa put together for Chile who have played attractive stuff all year, not just in the South Africa main event. Also worthy of applause is the USA team that's developing very well. Perhaps not the flair and style of others, but great team ethic, an emphasis on fair play and a team taken serious by all world opponents these days.

As for the underachievers, Mexico in 7th is the first one that catches the eye. There's plenty of money and skill in the Mexican league these days but the national team continues to disappoint its population. Next, you have to wonder how Peru feels, stuck beneath the likes of Cuba and Panama. Finally, Bolivia in 21st place and 97th in the world should feel the shame of being the worst ranked team in the South American qualifying league, the continent most nuts about football (ok, soccer if you like) there is.

*yes it's a joke, no need to send stuffy comments

The UN Human Development Index, LatAm's rankings

The United Nations has its five-yearly Human Development Index out this week, so if you want the nitty gritty on it all click through to the UN page right here. Meanwhile, IKN charts how LatAm countries are faring amongst the 169 countries in the survey.

Best ranked is Chile at number 45, with Argentina close behind. But what we really need is context, so digging a little deeper this chart shows how LatAm states have developed in the five year period since the last report, dated 2005. The green bars show the positive ranking moves made, the red ones mean that the country has slipped down the rankings by the number indicated. No bar by the country name means no change.

We now see the best progress has been made (according to the UN at least) by Argentina, Panama and Peru, with Venezuela, Chile and Colombia all doing good too. The biggest drop is registered by Bolivia, with Mexico, Ecuador and Nica all moving down by two spots as well.

Mario Vargas Llosa: 2010 Nobel literature prize, Announcement - Video and News

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Click the figure below to see the video and news.

Zoom

Life's easiest jobs, part 15: A bookmaker in Argentina

With just 50 days to go to the beginning of the greatest sporting contest on the planet (hint: USA isn't very good at this sport) we check in on the Mision Mundial dedicated page at Argentina's biggest circulating newspaper, Clarín, to check on a reader's poll. The question asked is:

"Who will be the next World Cup Champion?"

Here's are the results so far:

1. Argentina 51.1% (33107 votes)
2. Spain 19.3% (12506 votes)
3. Brazil 11.9% (7720 votes)
4. Germany 3.1% (2008 votes)
5. Uruguay 2.7% (1757 votes)
6. Chile 2.6% (1712 votes)
7. England 2.6% (1697 votes)
8. Holland 1.5% (943 votes)
9. Italy 1.4% (881 votes)
10. South Africa 1% (673 votes)
11. Portugal 0.6% (394 votes)
12. France 0.4% (251 votes)
13. Other 1.8%(1134 votes)

Just more proof that Argentina lives in its own little world, hermetically sealed off from reality.

Leguis served, the end.

UPDATE: I pie with my little eye....

Peru's 2011 Presidential Race

Peru pollsters CPI came out with a new voter intention survey for the country's 2011 presidential race this morning. Here's how the scene is looking:

Mayor of Lima Luis Castañeda is still frontrunning, with daughter-of-a-convict Keiko in second place (and losing touch slightly). Then comes Nationalist/Lefty Ollanta Humala (though more popular in the rural areas than the urban places where this survey was taken) and in fourth place ex-Prez Toledo (who hasn't even said if he's a candidate yet).

With 5th placed Lourdes Flores now decided upon running for the Lima Mayor job instead of the big chair and then the other candidates not to be taken seriously, it looks like the next President of Peru will come from those first four names on the list. The last point is that it's notable just how many people there are disillusioned enough with the whole political scene to have already decided on "will spoil ballot", even at this early stage. In Peru the vote is obligatory, but there's nothing stopping you from writing silly stuff on your ballot sheet when in the darkened room and annulling your voice.

For what it's worth, if I had to bet (and you gave me decent enough odds) I'd put $5 on Toledo.

The World's Most Innovative Companies 2010, Interactive Mind Map

Most Innovative Companies for 2010 ranked by Fast Company magazine.

Graphic organizers are visual representations of knowledge, concepts or ideas.
Click the figure below to see the Interactive Mind Map.


See also:
The World's Most Innovative Companies 2010

Naming the year

There seems to be a bit of debate about what this year just started should be called.

• Some people are saying "twenty ten"

• Others are saying "two thousand and ten"

• This humble correspondent likes the name "ten past eight"

• But maybe the best I've seen is the phrase Gary BiiWii is using to describe this year, "Full Hubris '10". Just about sums it up, I think.