"Every Five Minutes a Christian is Killed Because of Their Faith"

The Twentieth Century is considered by many as the bloodiest century for Christianity.  The century started off with the Terrible Triangle of bloody persecutions in Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union and the killings then spread throughout the world with the advancements of Communism, National Socialism of various types, and eventually Islamism.  In 2002 author Antonio Socci estimated that 45.5 million Christians were killed because of their faith in the Twentieth Century.

Now the representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at a joint OSCE-EU-Catholic-Orthodox-Muslim dialogue conference has stated that 105,000 Christians die because of their faith every year.  That number works out to one every five minutes.  Over a hundred years this equals the deaths of 10.5 million Christians.

While these numbers are all statistics and should not be considered spot on they do paint a picture of mass murder.

On the good side, for lack of a better word, is that the killings may be slowing down.  For the Twenty-First Century to match the level of killings against Christianity of the 1900s there will need to be another wave of monsters such in the order of Mao, Stalin, and Hitler.

The killings however have reached critical levels in certain locations, however.  Especially in Iraq, native Christianity may not live out the next 100 years.  In other places like Egypt and the Palestinian territories the long tolerated and accepted Christian minority may be greatly reduced in size the rising Islamist culture.

What's new are the killing fields.  Instead of Latin America and Europe, much of the killings will be in Africa and the Indian Ocean-world described in Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power.  And instead of targeting entrenched, conservative Christianity, much of the violence will be directed against an activist, prosthelytizing, energetic Christianity which will threaten the zones of influence of Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, and atheistic powers.

See also
Lent Geography: Map of Catholic Missionaries Killed in 2009
Presentation for the 2010 AAG: Geography of Religious Wars

More College Educated Immigrants in America than Non-High School Educted Immigrants

According to the Brookings Institute, one in seven residents in America are immigrants and one in six people working in the United States are immigrants.  The new interesting trend with the amount of immigrants in America (which is nothing new) is that there are more immigrants with college degrees than those who never graduated high school.  The institute made a great map/chart combo which shows the temporal and spatial trends of immigrant settlement patterns and education.

The Brookings Institute provides an interactive version of this map

Spatially it is clear that the more educated immigrants are clustering along the eastern coast and eastern Great Lake states.  The interior south is more of a mixture of college and high school educated immigrants.  Meanwhile, many of the immigrants beyond the Mississippi River are uneducated.  This is primarily due to the ease of access many illegals have from immigrant lines leading out of Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

Other interesting trends from the report.

• San Francisco are and the Washington DC area are the leading locations for college educated immigrants to migrate to.  The presence of Silicon Valley and the presence of government and international institutions easily explain this.
• The fastest growing urban hubs for immigrants have on average less educated immigrant populations than other places where immigrants are settling.  I assess that this is primarily due to the need of uneducated immigrants, much less likely to have needed abilities like speaking English, need to cluster in high concentrations in order to function within society.
• Uneducated immigrants are "are much more likely to hail from Mexico, less likely to speak English proficiently, more likely to be male, and less likely to be naturalized U.S. citizens than high-skilled immigrants."  
• Uneducated immigrants actually have higher rates of employment and lower rates of household poverty compared to American-born people but their earnings are lower.  This makes sense as there is no point of being an illegal alien, in most places, if you cannot earn a paycheck to live off of and send money home.

The Economist's Arab Spring Map and Chart Collection

The Economist has made an embeddable widget which shows all their maps and charts that have went along with their Arab Spring (Arab protests, Arab revolutions) articles.  The maps and charts start off with the fall of Tunisia's Ben Ali in January and continue onto a late May map of Libyan Republic held towns in western Libya.  A few of the maps are dudes but overall I like the collection.  Of special interest is a chart showing the increase in social spending Arab leaders are doing in order to avoid unrest.  There is a link on the widget which allows on to read the related article.



For more maps see the following posts
BBC Map Guide to Middle East Unrest
Libyan War Maps:  The First Batch
Libyan War Maps:  The Second Batch 
Libyan War Maps:  The Third Batch 
Libyan War Maps:  The Fourth Batch  
Libyan War Maps: The Fifth Batch - The Geography of Oil
Libyan War Maps:  The Sixth Post - The Coalition's Size

Video of the June 7 Solar Flare

We too often think of the Earth as an island.  It is but not in the way we think it is.  Imagine we are an island in the Carribean well before Columbus' journey to the New World and that the Sun is Africa.  Africa is so far away that it does not effect us in any way we think of.  However, one hot wind coming off the African sands can make a hurricane which could bombard our island.  The June 7 solar flare is just such a wind off the African coast.  While the effects for the next two days will be minor (Weak power grid fluctuations that you probably won't notice, minor impaces on satellite operations, radio transmissions over the poles may be lost, auroras noticable further away from the poles) a stronger flare could have greater impact.

Watch this amazing video of the June 7 solar flare.  Remember that the Sun's diameter is 109 times bigger than Earth and 1,300,000 Earth's can fit inside the Sun as you watch this video.

The Geographic Analysis of How to Get Protesters to Tahrir Square

Click to Enlarge

iRevolution links to a recent Tufts GIS Poster Expo winner entitled Identifying Strtegic Protest Routes for Civil Resistance.  The poster is based off efforts by Egyptian protest leaders who thought out the spatial analysis of how to get scores of hundreds of individuals, mobile street protests to unite and travel to Tahrir Square in Cairo without being stopped by the numerous cops that work for the Arab Socialist Police State which is Egypt.  The geographer behind the project, Jessica, does a great job considering police stations, mosques used as rally points, street traffic density, and more.  I am actually worried about not doing Jessica's project justice with my summary so I encourage everyone to reader her poster.

City Photo Blogs

When one thinks of blogs dedicated to exotic (to the reader's point of view) cities one probably thinks of the famous buildings, monuments, and views.  However, every city is a living city where the great touristy spots coincide with the residential neighborhoods, normal restaurants, and road construction found everywhere else.  To see pictures of the normal "real" city gives one a greater insight into the metropolis.  A pothole-filled road may be the result of  city politics over budgets, a restaurant's new menu may reflect changes in seasons and fishing patterns, and construction may represent new investment.

It is with that thought in mind that I recommend these blogs for the images and commentary.  No one post is a groundbreaking view into the blog's city but the blog as a whole is a window into the city's soul.

Below are a list of some of the most recently updated city photo blogs I have been following.  The Daily Photo Map displays updated city photo blogs.  If you want to make a recommendation on a live, not defunct city photo blog feel free to comment!

Americas

Buenos Aires Daily

San Francisco Bay Daily Photo

One a Day - Mostly Seattle

Pasadena Daily Photo

Australasia
Sydney Daily Photo
Wellington Daily Photo

East Asia
Shoot Tokyo

Europe
Avignon in Photos
Moscow Daily Photo
Roma Everyday (Rome)
Visually Norway

Middle East & North Africa

Cairo/Giza Daily Photo

Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo (Done by a long time Geographic Travels reader)

Happy World Environment Day 2011

Happy World Environment Day 2011 (the United Nations day which has lost out to the now globalized American day of Earth Day).  All throughout this week various groups will host events to mark, celebrate, and protect forests, which is this year's theme.

The importance of forests is summed by up this press release:

Forests cover one third of the earth’s land mass, performing vital functions and services around the world which make our planet alive with possibilities. In fact, 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods. They play a key role in our battle against climate change, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere while storing carbon dioxide.

Forests feed our rivers and are essential to supplying the water for nearly 50% of our largest cities. They create and maintain soil fertility; they help to regulate the often devastating impact of storms, floods and fires.

Splendid and inspiring, forests are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on land, and are home to more than half of the terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.

Forests also provide shelter, jobs, security and cultural relevance for forest-dependent populations. They are the green lungs of the earth, vital to the survival of people everywhere -- all seven billion of us.

The United Nations Environment Programme's World Environment Day website has links to events which have self-registered themselves online.  One can also browse events geographically with an interactive map.