Lamanites, Murder Rates, and BofM Prophecy

[Arcturus]

Interesting WSJ article on murder rates in latin America. Doctrinal question: is this consistent with BofM prophecy of how the Lamanites will blossom in the last days and overtake the gentiles of the USA? In my mind, I would expect a people blossoming from the fruits of Mormonism to portray a Zion society similar to that in 3 Nephi...


https://www.wsj.com/articles/400-murder ... _lead_pos5

Interesting quotes from the article:

"There is a murder crisis across much of Latin America and the Caribbean, which today is the world’s most violent region. Every day, more than 400 people are murdered there, a yearly tally of about 145,000 dead.

With just 8% of the world’s population, Latin America accounts for roughly a third of global murders. It is also the only region where lethal violence has grown steadily since 2000, according to United Nations figures.

Nearly one in every four murders around the world takes place in just four countries: Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia. Last year, a record 63,808 people were murdered in Brazil. Mexico also set a record at 31,174, with murders so far this year up another 20%.

The 2016 tally in China, according to the U.N.: 8,634. For the entire European Union: 5,351. The United States: 17,250."


Note: please do not take this post as racist or discriminatory against latin Americans in any way. This article is very sad and troubling and speaks to the socioeconomic and political issues in that region. My DW happens to be a Lamanite and has direct family members who are impacted by the chaos in latin America...

[Arcturus]

One more note - if this is the work of "secret combinations" shouldn't similar chaos be in process amongst the gentiles in the USA, according to the BofM?

[alas]

My son went on his mission to Brazil, and so he saw first hand the early stages of this in 1994. There were neighborhoods where the drug wars were open and deadly. Men stood on corners with machine guns, guarding their drug territory, and approved of everyone entering the neighborhood. If the drug guards didn’t approve of the person going into the neighborhood, the person was shot on the spot, and the body dumped somewhere and no one ever asked questions. The missionaries were known, didn’t infringe on the drug territory, so they were allowed in.

Mugging were so common the missionaries were actually trained every zone conference on how to deal with muggers. Carry 1 or 2 dollars with you so you have something to hand to the mugger, never more, never carry your camera, best not to have one. Now that the missionaries carry cell phones, I worry.

[MalcolmVillager]

Wow, China. That is crazy low as a per capita! Maybe we need more communism in the world.

This truly makes me sad as I love Latin america. I am going to travel there next July to witness another total solar eclipse in my mission area.

[moksha]

It is so sad that the Americas have the highest homicide rates, from an astounding 82.84 in Honduras to a safe rate of 1.68 in Canada. The homicide rate of 0.62 in China does sound phenomenal. Even better, Iceland had a rate of 0.30 (one murder). Japan had a rate of 0.28. Andorra came in the safest on the list because of its high alphabetical order and because like four other countries there were no homicides. From the Wikipedia.

BTW, the insane murder rates in the Americas have nothing to do with Lamanites.

[profit_seizer]

BTW, the insane murder rates in the Americas have nothing to do with Lamanites.

Ding ding ding! That'd be "American Foreign Policy, Especially The War On Drugs, On Top Of Previous Centuries Of Impoverishment By Spanish Colonialism" for the win.

(I mean beyond the fact that "Lamanites" aren't a thing and the first peoples to settle the Americas came over the Bering Land Bridge.)

Strong agree with the previous comment that we need more communism around here, though perhaps with less government censorship and uh suicide nets.

[Palerider]

Everyone should be able to make a recommendation if they want. It's part of living in a free country where freedom of speech is protected.

But I keep thinking that before we go changing our political system to communism, shouldn't we go live in one of these countries:

South Korea
Venezuela
Russia
China

For about 10 years in order to give it a good test before we go changing things here? You know....just to be sure we like it.

You go first and then let me know.

[Corsair]

Everyone should be able to make a recommendation if they want. It's part of living in a free country where freedom of speech is protected.

But I keep thinking that before we go changing our political system to communism, shouldn't we go live in one of these countries:

South Korea
Venezuela
Russia
China

For about 10 years in order to give it a good test before we go changing things here? You know....just to be sure we like it.

You go first and then let me know.

One of the cliched apologetics of Communism is that "real Communism has never been tried." Is there a good response to this kind of shallow excuse? I tend to want to say, "Poorly implemented capitalism has been around for a long time and I have running water, electricity, and an iPhone. What did Communism ever deliver other than autocracy, political purges, and bread lines?" This is more rhetoric than dielectic, but it might frame the question appropriately.

[moksha]

But I keep thinking that before we go changing our political system to communism, shouldn't we go live in one of these countries:

South Korea
Venezuela
Russia
China

For about 10 years in order to give it a good test before we go changing things here? You know....just to be sure we like it.

You go first and then let me know.

No way! You go first. However, I volunteer to check out my choice of Sweden, Denmark, or Shangri-La as sort of a middle ground.

BTW, South Korea is not a communist country, and why are there so many oligarchs in Russia and billionaires China?

[Not Buying It]

Forget communism, once we have the United Order...wait...how was that different from communism again?

[profit_seizer]

Not a fan of the so-called "Actually Existing Socialism" in e.g. DPRK, China, even Venezuela (which is collapsing just as much due to a capital strike as anything inherently bad about chavismo), as it's too authoritarian. I'm more a fan of this kind of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-communism—I don't want any nasty party bosses anymore than I want regular ol' bosses, church leaders, neoconservative or neoliberal fatcats, cryptofascists, or any of the rest. I know it seems pretty wild, but I'm angling for that good Free Agency they promised me in church so long ago and never delivered on. And I think we have enough production power to keep people fed, housed, and medically cared for.

[Palerider]

BTW, South Korea is not a communist country....?

CRAP!!! NORTH Korea!!!...

I knew I wrote that post too fast. Caught me in a senior moment...