Comments on: Borders we forget: Saudi Arabia & Yemen

By: Daily Data Dump – October 27th, 2010 | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:08:27 +0000

[...] Border With Yemen Is Still Inviting for Al Qaeda. Interesting coincidence that I posted on this issue last week. I think my libertarian friends such as Will Wilkinson and Bryan Caplan will get their wish for [...]

By: frozin

frozin — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:24:47 +0000

Both Saudi and Yemen depend on oil exports to drive their economies
Saudi Arabia produces 12,000,000 br of oil per day
Yemen produces 200,000 br per day

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:37:28 +0000

It is worth pointing out that most of that border is nigh impenetrable dune fields that might as well be ocean. The countries don’t even have a formal demarcation for most of it.

And Brunei / Indonesia is worse, as is Zimbabwe/ South Africa.

By: Katharine

Katharine — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:31:24 +0000

Ceuta and Melilla are both under question, I think. Crazy Spaniards trying to bring another continent into the EU.

Speaking of Saudi Arabia (brilliant underhanded insult there), one of the Saudi Royal Family got a life sentence in Britain for strangling a servant at a hotel to death. I am quite happy about the fact that they now realize they have to treat non-royals as people (as if they thought royals were somehow greater than ordinary people – they aren’t different at all from ordinary people!)

By: Joshua Zelinsky

Joshua Zelinsky — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:33:05 +0000

Is there any easy way to modify those graphs so that each graph has the same colors for each country rather than different colors in each graph? The current form is much more confusing to read than it would probably be if the colors were consistent.

By: Randy McDonald

Randy McDonald — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:28:05 +0000

Last month at Demography Matters I linked to an essay

http://demographymatters.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-do-mexico-and-morocco-have-in.html

comparing the Mexico-US and Morocco-Europe experiences regarding migration.

By: Tweets that mention Borders we forget: Saudi Arabia & Yemen | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine -- Topsy.com

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:13:33 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Razib Khan and World Amazing Things, Al Poe. Al Poe said: Borders we forget: Saudi Arabia & Yemen | Gene Expression: There’s a lot of stuff you stumble upon via Google Publ… http://bit.ly/9DacPs [...]

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:13:29 +0000

hm. but their land border is just a technicality with ceuta. right? but i guess the straits are so narrow that that’s a valid point.

By: Ezequiel

Ezequiel — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:04:20 +0000

Another very interesting land border (historically, politically, genetically) with a large GDP per capita difference is Spain/Morocco:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita
6 United States 45,934
26 Spain 29,625
39 Saudi Arabia 23,272
59 Mexico 13,609
116 Morocco 4,587
136 Yemen 2,454

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita
8 United States 45,934
23 Spain 32,030
42 Saudi Arabia 14,745
61 Mexico 8,134
108 Morocco 2,882
140 Yemen 1,061

USA/Mexico (PPP, nominal)
45934/13609 = 3.37
45934/8134 = 5.64

Spain/Morocco (PPP, nominal)
29625/4587 = 6.45
32030/2882 = 11.11

Saudi/Yemen (PPP, nominal)
23272/2454 = 9.48
14745/1061 = 13.89