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[gaijinalways]

Let's see, my wife got mugged in Paris by a pair on a motorcycle when we were travelling. She also got her purse pickpocketed on High Street in Kensington (and this is someone who lived in London for ten years prior).

Me, I got some bikes stolen from a garage in the states, my apartment robbed in Taiwan (I lost maybe 20 bucks in change, my roommates who told me to leave nothing valuable there during Chinese New Year lost 2 gold watches and a month's salary), nothing lost in Hong Kong except for a plastic briefcase worth about $4, and in Japan someone took my toilet paper in the brief time it took me to return to the train at the terminus.

I have been threatened, only by a London cabbie who couldn't take a compliment (cultural difference), an irate Frenchman who thought I was English (in Paris again), and a few right wing gaijin in Japan. But usually after I blocked out the sun, they backed off pretty quick.

So, where is safe, well pretty much everywhere if you keep your eyes open and actively work to avoid dangerous spots.

[MELEE]

Since Guy is the only one who pipped up from Mexico and he's living in Mexico City, I feel it is my duty to say all of Mexico is not like Mexico City!
All those terrible things you hear about happening in Mexico happen in Mexico City or the northern (drug lord) cities. I live in small town Mexico and I feel as safe here as I did in Japan. Just like in Japan, I don't think twice about walking around with my entire months pay in my pocket. (But if I'm travelling in other parts of Mexico I would never do that!) Like in Japan, I don't bother locking my door at night, and never bother to put the dead bolt on when I leave the house. However, I do make a point of not flaunting wealth. (Not that I'm wealthy, but definately I'm make more money than most of my neighbors.) As a women, I have gotten cat calls, but nothing worse than that. (A tip for females in Latin America, cooly but cordially say Buenas Dias, Tardes, or Noches when approaching a group of men, they have no choice but to say it nicely back and you get by without any rude comments--I've done this in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Mexico with success.)
So do I feel safe living in Mexico, yes, definately. As safe as I've felt anywhere, as an adult.

[Guy Courchesne]

[MELEE]

[quote="Guy Courchesne]What terrible things? Here, we hear about the terrible things happening in the countryside (not your area mind you) and especially along the border region.[/quote]



Actually, Oaxaca is listed as one of the most dangerous states in Mexico, but because there are still "wars" going on between villages that came out of land reform post revolution. One pair of villages just recently signed a peace treaty and President Fox was on hand for the signing!

Outside of Mexico almost all the news about Mexico is bad. Kidnappings, lynchings, murder, fraud.

[Guy Courchesne]

One thing I find here is that news about Mexico is almost always made to seem worse than it is....from media within Mexico and from without.

It's interesting to see how Mexicans themselves perceive it. People in DF look at the rest of the country often as an uncivilized narco-jungle, while people from outside look at DF as an urban warzone.

I tend to see the countryside as a place where yes, there are problems with violence but a foreigner is unlikely to experience them if you keep your nose clean and out of the drug trade. Kidnappings often make headlines, but rarely do they involve foreigners.

Mexico City experiences economic crimes...even kidnappings of locals fall into this category since they are more often 8 hour affairs where you get a gunpoint tour of the cities ATM machines. The feds call it kidnapping to get a maximum 40 years in jail rather than the shorter sentence for armed robbery. The murder rate here is much lower than in US or Canadian cities. Stealing cars seems to be the big thing here.

I haven't heard mucb lately of Chiapas, Oaxaca, or Guerrero on indigenous uprisings, intervillage battles, or encounters with the army. Surprises me to hear that Oaxaca is considered as dangerous.

[danielita]

[Willy_In_Japan]

[merlin]

I remember watching a show on the discovery channel where a scientist explained how there are thousands of huge asteroids that just barely miss the earth every decade or so. We all know a big one destroyed the dinosaurs but not many people know that every 10,000 years give or take a century or two a big one slams into planet earth, producing a cataclysm that makes the recent asian tsunami relatively insignificant by comparison.

The last "big one" was just over 10,000 years ago, so we're overdue.

Another discovery program was about the Hawaiian islands and how all the islands except the big island have debris at on the ocean floor where huge portions of the islands just slid off to the ocean floor. Again, these massive underwater landslides produced huge tsunamis that washed up debris miles inland on the Australian coast. Just think - any day now half the Big Island could slide to the ocean floor and destroy every major city on the Pacific coast.

Planet Earth is a very dagerous place, folks! Statistically the human race is living on borrowed time.

As for violence or crime, nah. i'm more concerened with idiot drivers smashing into me and making me crippled for life.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I've had three friends beaten up here in Vladivostok (varying degrees of damage), but I still don't feel too threatened (famous last words). Now that the weather is improving, however, the chances of being jumped by a pack of college kids who have been drinking 2-liter plastic bottles of Amur for 15 hours has gone up considerably.
Luckily for me, and unluckily for the local Chinese immigrant population, the skinheads here generally ignore Americans.

[MELEE]

Merlin,

You forgot to mention the comming polar magnetic shift in 2012. We only have six years left folks, enjoy life while you can!

[thelmadatter]

Personally, I WAY more scared of the killer bee-dog

[Guy Courchesne]

He looks hungry....