Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Statistics

On June the 20th, the Guardian published a story with a major headline which claimed that Ahmadinejad, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has a 70% approval rating. If this claim is accurate, it would have major implications on how we approach Iran with its nucleur program.
In order to make such a claim, clearly the Guardian carried out an extensive survey... no?
"He's more popular now than a year ago. He's on the rise," said Nasser Hadian-Jazy, a professor of political science at Tehran University. "I guess he has a 70% approval rating right now. He portrays himself as a simple man doing an honest job. He's comfortable communicating with ordinary people."
The statistics the Guardian uses in this story were the opinion from a single person. Excelent journalism!
Sandmonkey however states that regardless of the poor article from the Guardian, there is a basic truth behind it all.
"The moment he got in power, [Ahmadinejad] doubled all the salaries of the government employees. The reason why he could afford that? Well, the Iranian nuclear crisis- which he started- is causing the oil prices to go up, providing him with the cash necessary to cover those costs. It's the same technique that Chavez is using: by creating a crisis, he destabalizes the Oil prices and brings them up, thus increasing his cash inflows."

4 comments:

Sara's Varolo Village said...

Warning - non PC statement to follow.

We are constantly bombarded in the media with statements about how not all Muslims are extremist. Islam is the religion of peace. It's just a few bad apples who are giving the whole lot a bad name. Yet, here we have this Leader of Iran who has called the Holocaust a hoax and said that Israel should we wiped off the map. He calls one Jewish genocide a hoax and vigorously calls for another one. Yet, his approval rating is a whopping 70%. 70% of the people love this guy?! The peaceful Palestinian people popularly elect a terrorist group to lead them.

Something just doesn't click.

Sara
babyowls.blogspot.com
www.babyowls.com

Red Tulips said...

Sara,

Yup, agreed.

Thanks for posting this, Steven! I am busy with schoolwork at the moment, I am glad you are contributing!

Anonymous said...

I agree ChiefMommy Owl, its frightening but the votes Hamas got are more likely due to their firm stance against Israel than any corruption.

:)

Red Tulips said...

Steven,

I think it's a little of both. But then again, Fatah itself supports terrorism, so it's not like it's much better.

Fatah are like the Mussolini to Hamas's Hitler. (as an analogy) They're both bad, but it's only a question of degrees of badness.

Really, you have to feel sorry for the peaceful Palestinians, who are represented by these monsters. They are suffering most of all - it's tragic.