Dangerous World

I, kosoral, did not write that. Someone called "Chapatigirl" did not me. Check first page of posts.

Fieldgate said: My last trip was to Luisiana, four years ago. I was sitting in a bar, talking to a few locals. When I said I was going to take a walk to my motel, just 300 m away, they thought I was crazy. The guy next to me gave me a lift in his truck. I didn't know what was safer, as I saw him having at least six bottles of bud.

Yeah, Louisiana is quite dangerous. Keeping in mind that New Orleans probably has the highest murder/violent crime rate of any area that a tourist would visit, I don't think you should be afraid when visiting say, New York, which has a relatively low crime rate. And even in New Orleans, just use common sense and don't use drugs or hang out with people who use drugs and your chance of being hurt will go way down. My worst experience was a drive-by shooting at my house, caused by my friend who filed a complaint against drug dealers who then decided to take him out and followed him to my house because he realized he was being followed and was afraid to go home because he had a small child. A tourist would never be involved in anything like that. I'm sorry you had a bad experience in Houma, I wouldn't necessarily expect that.

I personally feel safer in Brazil and many big american cities now than 20 or 15 years ago. Come on, the US in general is safe.

Africa… esp. the tourist-destination Kenia and South Africa are going down the drain… even Namibia which suppossed to be safe has now crime problems in towns. And here in Europe friends got robbed at gun-point in Andalucia/Spain. I've also heard that Columbia is now safer than 5 years ago. I guess it depends.

Sorry you are so annoyed Living..... but things have deteriorated much in the last 8 months or
so on Baja (a google on 'Danger Baja' brings up much, 'Baja War Zone' rather sums it up)

Having family in Southern Calif who hear far more of the goings on on Baja than I up here in Oregon,
A brother who is a surfer and says the dangers are well known in the surfing community
And the real credible source to me, the words from a man who lives there...... it's gone bad.

i'd been away from the states & heard all about the problems in baja....so when i returned i checked it out

...observation is that there is no problem for gringos who are not looking for problems...drugs, hookers & back alleys....safer than ever in tijuana with a million federal cops on the beat with a ready smile

...further down the peninsula to punta la bufadora...no problems...fewer gringo turists

...the only problem i encountered that was worse was the wait at the border getting back to the states...que pena

with tourism way down, there is real financial incentive for the feds to get control of the problem.
Hopefully that is happening.

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The slums of big cities in the U.S., e.g., NY or LA and those of Phnom Penh and Bangkok aren't even in the same universe as far as danger and degradation are concerned. Going on about how the U.S. is "going down" and the pestilence, hopelessness, political insanity, degradation, violence, blah, blah, blah - take it easy.

My advice is to lay off the "progressive" blogs, decrease news intake in general, and (if you haven't already) start volunteering 4 or more hours/week at a church, clinic, animal shelter, day care center, immigrant rights center (you can help the millions of people risking everything to get to this cesspool), school, Sierra Club - the list is endless. You need to get refocused.

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Thank you for your advice. Perhaps you would care to address any and all these assertions - - I would be glad to explain them to you if you do not understand:

1)aggressive people
2)social unrest
3)crime
4)guns
5)high rate of mental disorder
6)high levels of drug/alcohol abuse
7)class antagonism
8)gang warfare
9)criminal government (legislative branch)
10)corrupt courts
11)psychopathic administration (executive branch)
12)racial antagonism
13)corruption
14)media deception
15)threat to citizens and foreign citizens
16)spying
17)torture
18)denial of civil and constitutional rights
19)social/cultural debasement

You're welcome. I hope it helps.

What a list! One could almost say it's a little hysterical. I'm not interested in debating you. I just wanted to say that I think you need to calm down - it's not as bad as you think. I think if you would get involved in doing something about one or several of those things that are so troubling to you that things would begin to look up. I'm not talking about a drum circle at a "peace center" or whatever, but helping out in an AIDS hospice or tutoring juvenile offenders or a Sierra Club service outing (like restoring a trail in the Sierras) or something actually concretely constructive. You may be contributing, I don't know, but if you are and on a regular basis, it seems weird that you would have so much angst.

Uncle John's Band

I have no angst about this. Perhaps you do. It is there. I can run away from it - - I usually do but it is still there. "Love It or Leave It!" is what we used to say. The world is a sad dangerous place and the USA is one of the worst. Maybe it is not the absolute worst. I think you may be more upset because you want things to be better, you think they are better but there it is. Of course it is more-or-less the same everywhere.