The World is not a Violent Place After All
People love making lists like “World’s Most Dangerous Cities” and “Most Difficult Places to Live.” Often times, these lists exaggerate more than anything else. When we see the number of homicides in a town, we tend to think that those murders are happening all in one area. We imagine ourselves being the victims. But think about it for a second, in most places, the murders are not random killings, they are targeted and they are happening in specific areas.
That’s not to say that random acts of violence never happen or that travelers and tourists are always spared. No, it’s true that these things happen every now and then, but for the most part they are extremely rare, even in so-called violent cities.
My Travel Safety is a great site for bringing you back down to earth. While the site does have a lot of practical advice for keeping you safe when you take a trip, they also do a good job of helping people realize that the world is safer than we think. For example, they wrote about the violence and Mexico, but then remind us that the violence has been targeted and it has only occurred in certain areas. It’s not as if the whole country is erupting in violence.
Always take precautions and do your research ahead of time, but don’t be paranoid and don’t avoid travel because you are afraid of so-called dangerous places. There are certainly places that are off-limits. Places with conflicts going on or places with oppressive governments should be avoided. But most places don’t fit that description. Take that vacation and enjoy it. Plan and be careful, but enjoy it.
