Startup Cities Index: best cities for startup employees
nestpick.com
nestpick.com
Yes, a city that is under threat from terrorist rocket barrages and who's national army is currently occupying a foreign state is safer than a city that barely sees homicides.
If you look at the raw numbers, Terrorism is just minor nuisance, even rocket barrages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_...
Tel Aviv seems great honestly. Really my only complaint against Israel is the expansion of settlements and the alliance with South Africa during apartheid.
If you look at the raw numbers, only 3 people died in the boston bombings. But if you look at the economic costs,
- The entire boston transit system was shut down for security reasons, disrupting the entire city
- Large numbers of people did not go to work the next day, costing hundreds of millions in lost productivity
- An enormous manhunt ensued, at the cost of over 300 million
- Entire parts of the city were shut down, preventing them from going to work
- 10s of millions in costs to the victims
- Tens of thousands of hours of additional work for public employees
- Billions in lost productivity nationwide as people focused on the media saga
All this cost the terrorists only $200 in explosives. In your words, billions of dollars in economic damage "is just minor nuisance".
What you're identifying as cost here is actually a service that a business can provide. The close military connections (also supported by the conscription) are actually an asset for the country in terms of technological progress. Think of it like a messy version of the cold war.
How badly did startup scene in Boston suffer?
Economic damage was the result of was fear and overreaction. Tel Aviv would not scare so easily.
America is probably the most jumpy country to live on and vulnerable to terrorism as a result. London, Paris and other big cities can suck in the damage with smaller cost.
Maybe the residents of Tel Aviv do not perceive their city as unsafe. I guess that people become accustomed to terrorism happening rather regularly. A city with less homicides but more reported ones in the media is maybe perceived less safe by the residents?
Compare:
"Tel Aviv is dangerous, the threat of war is everpresent and I often hear mortar fire, but the border to Gaza just 45 minutes away is substantially more dangerous"
vs.
"Toronto is dangerous, there's Jane and Finch and many homeless people, the suburbs of Newmarket just 45 minutes away are substantially safer"
It is interesting, too, that safety is typically a feeling you get when there's not much competition for survival. In an age and time of such abundance, it really baffles me how it is taking so long (in some regards) but, as the great Matthew Wilder say, ain't nothin' gonna break my stride. Ain't nothin' gonna slow me down.
Just some thoughts.
Let's not confuse perceived threats from real ones, backed by data.
I know, I know. You think of those as nowhere places. But that's because, again, you're vastly underestimating the economic power of the United States and its cities.
Language is a different story though...
But, I don't think this holds up if you discount the novelty factor. In purely economic terms, you'd want to be in Pittsburgh.
The methodology seems pretty good, except maybe in the quality of life group.
If you're black, I can guarantee you that while your colleagues will treat you with respect, you will endure frequent incidents of racism outside of work in Helsinki.
While Singapore is safe, it's not without its problems. The Government there limits freedom of expression and assembly quite heavily.
It would be cool, if would be able to weigh the different categories according to your value system and what you see as a priority for yourself, and see how that affects the rankings. It seems as if the categories are currently equally weighted.
I've never been, but I've always heard that Scandinavian countries are usually far better about such things. Gotta say, I'm a little disappointing to learn that I've heard wrong.
Would you be willing to share some details?
About a year ago a Finnish mother of an 11-year-old son, who was adopted from South Africa when he was 6 months old, wrote about the experiences of her son. The son speaks perfect Finnish since he's been raised in Finland. He takes a school bus, but for some reason the school bus frequently doesn't stop for him, if he's at the stop by himself. He was in a national morning TV show telling about his experiences with children AND adults calling him names, exclude him socially and a woman living in the same building told him to leave his own playground. I'm not really surprised by what kids call each other, but adults calling an 11-year-old names is over the line.
The second story is about quite a few stories about people of color using public transportation in Helsinki. That's apparently an environment where racists feel especially emboldened to "express" their viewpoints to minorities. One of the most egregious examples was of an middle-aged woman yelling at full volume at a teenage girl (half white, half black) to leave the bus accompanied by liberal use of the n-word. Finally the woman also threatened to send her dog at the girl. The girl asked the woman to be removed from the bus. The driver refused, so the girl left instead in fear of her well being. Again, an adult threatening a child just because the child was black.
The third incident is the roughly three-month "demonstration" by neo nazis in front of the central train station in Helsinki. These Heroes of the Fatherland (bah!) decided that they'd demonstrate the current immigration practices by having an around-the-clock demonstration. That would've been probably ok, and the police really didn't intervene UNTIL several complaints about the neo nazis instigating fights or straight up assaulting passers by. Quite enlightening of the general attitude of some people in Finland is that the "camp", as it was called in the media, was visited by the Minister of the Interior of the Finnish Government. She is in charge of the police force in Finland. She was photographed giving the neo nazis a thumbs up.
Somewhat related is an incident where a member of another neo nazi organization killed someone in the same area. During another demonstration and counter-demonstration, a 28-year-old Finnish man walked by the neo nazis and spat on the ground in front of them. While he was walking away, one of the neo nazis chased after him and kicked him in the chest causing the man to fall down and hit his head. He died a few days later.
There's a very vocal and increasingly violent portion of the population in Finland who are racist and actively violent against people of color.
Overall, you paint a very troubling picture. Are these recent developments? By that I mean is this a situation that has gotten worse recently, or has it always been like this?
The neo nazis have certainly become more visible, and more active for various reasons. It's the usual stuff...downtrodden people trying to find things to blame for their situation ("them" is always a good scapegoat), unemployment is high, there are more refugees coming to Finland like every other European country.
And then there's the one political party that is pretty brazenly taking advantage of the situation and advancing more or less pure racism as a policy. They scored big in the last parliamentary election cycle and actually manage to finagle themselves into the coalition that formed the Government. Their popularity has sunk lately to very low numbers, so they won't be anywhere near as vocal or influential after the next parliamentary elections.
There's also a definitely new development where "entrepreneurial" racists have figured out how to organize and profit from the situation. There are a few "for-profit" agitators that mask themselves as "Voices for the Silent Majority" and "Free Speech Advocates of the Highest Order" while spewing hate speech, encouraging violence against everyone disagreeing with them (incl. journalists and critics, or people appearing in viral videos on the "opposing" side) on their own blogs, online magazines or Facebook. These are the people who in the past would've been stapling their manifestos on light poles and other "billboards", but with the Internet they suddenly have a national/global audience. The most visible of them was operating from Spain and was arrested in Andorra for inciting violence against muslim immigrants last week. His trial will be a circus.
That being said, this is obviously not how the majority of people feel or act. It's just that it takes just one person in a bus full of people to ruin it...
I think you're understating the problem. It also takes a bus full of people, driver included, to do nothing about it while it's going on.
Berlin - 2? Beijing - 26?
I'd like to be constructive but it appears to just be randomized.
But London at 43? Seattle all the way down at 21? I find those results surprising. Is South Korean truly better in terms of gender equality than the USA? Many asian cultures are very male oriented.
Also a lot of people who work in SF don't actually live in SF.
Another big thing missing from this chart that you can't put into numbers are local 'attractions'. For example, if you live in the Bay Area you have relatively close access to Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, and other really nice spots. With a place like Singapore, you pretty much seen everything over one weekend (Malaysia imo is boring).