Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
True. But you need to be more concrete. "Most of these places". You mean Kabul? Mumbai? Yemen? What "places" do you find so safe? By the way, anyone can ignore the warnings. But if your in a Mumbai hotel when crazies break in looking to machine gun tourists, don't say you weren't warned.
Hmm, well, every time I leave Qatar (pretty much no matter where I am headed), I have to re-train myself to do things like lock my door when I go out, or not to leave valuables in an unlocked car.
No place is totally safe. But the issue is more that perceptions of safety are typically not related to actual safety. Perception is often related to what is known and familiar vs. the unknown, which can create irrational feelings of unease and danger. In reality, I suspect that Yemen -- one of most amazing places I have ever been -- is probably safer than most places in Los Angeles. Mumbai almost certainly is.
I remember during Gulf War I, when I was living in Washington D.C., which had a population of around 600 000 at the time. After the end of the war, the Pentagon released statistics showing that about 600 000 soldiers had participated. Of these, there were something like 300 fatalities. During the same period, around 450 people were murdered in Washington D.C., so you were actually safer on the front lines of Gulf War I than you were living in Washington.