Violence and Safety

I have been getting feedback where people ask me, "Why do you travel? It is so dangerous, I could never do that." or "Don't you feel afraid in all those foreign countries because they are so dangerous?" I talked about street safety in my Mexico posts already but people seem to need to hear some of it again.

Well the truth is that the neighborhood in the United States that I lived in just before I left on my trip to Central America had 36 murders in it the year I left. There were also hundreds of assaults, robberies, armed robberies, car thefts, hijacks, auto and home break ins and all the other typical violent crimes found throughout the world in larger cities. So the fact of the matter is that I was actually safer in most of the places I traveled than I would have been back home in the States. People have a strong tendency to feel that crime only happens to others. Crime happens to everybody on a pretty much equal footing no matter who you are or where you are. I could step outside right now and get murdered here in the U.S. just as easily as in Mexico or some other Central American country. So could anybody else. Crime happens.

One trick to remaining as safe as possible is to learn and use street smarts. Avoid stumbling around drunk in dark areas for instance. That is true no matter where you are. Criminals are always looking for the easy mark and a drunk is an easy mark. Drugs or alcohol that get you loaded are equally dangerous. Travel in larger groups for safety also. Five people are harder to rob than one lone person is. Know the are you are in. Now that is not always possible when you are traveling in a new to you area. In a new area ask about safety for the area you want to go to. The locals are usually very knowledgeable about safety issues and are willing to share their experiences. Listen to them. Now I have traveled through a few war zones like in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Spanish Sahara, Somalia, Malaysia, and Zaire. I don't think the average traveler should travel in war zones. I may have been a little stupid doing that and I admit it. Sometimes wars spontaneously start while you are already there like it did to me in Uganda.

In a War zone combatants sometimes shoot first and don't bother with asking questions later. In Nigeria where I was convicted of being a spy and sentenced to be executed, the war was officially over but the lingering resentments and war mentality were still strong and it almost cost me my life. I Central African Republic and In Uganda the wars started while I was there so I had no warnings. Life happens like that sometimes. But Once I found out about the problems I did my best to stay safe. In the Central African Republic I just high tailed it out of the country as fast as I could. In Uganda I remained in hiding for a week and then left the country fully prepared to run for my life with soldiers shooting real bullets at me if they did not accept the bribe they were offered. Luckily for me they accepted the bribe and we drove quietly into Kenya.

In Cambodia the war came down on us quickly and we fled as soon as we heard and saw what was happening with the killing fields. I felt bad for the other fleeing refugees that we passed that we were unable to help. I hope they made it. I know not all of them did. In Laos I was intentionally in a known war zone even though officially speaking it was a neutral zone. I knew there was war activity going on. I was only able to talk my way out of that situation because I was lucky that my captor was a reasonable person. I appealed to his sense of goodness and lucky for me he had a good heart or I would have been tied to a tree, skinned alive and left for the fire ants eat me in a slow agonizing death.

I have been robbed several times in the States. I got beat up once out in the deserts of Southern California. In each case of the robberies I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I knew it. I paid a price for my overlooking of commonsense. I got a few bruises out in the desert because there were three of them and only one of me but I didn't just take a beating. I fought back and they didn't want to get hurt so after they overwhelmed me they quickly gave up and left the scene. They could easily have killed me but they did not. Again I was just lucky there.

I try to be careful every single place I go even if it is just up the block where I live to go to the store. I immediately look around for threats and any unknown people. I decide how much caution each situation needs and I go with my instincts. I am perfectly at ease turning around and going back into my house if the situation looks threatening to me. I try to avoid any confrontation. I will cross the street to avoid a confrontation or I will run away if I feel that is the best choice. There is no cowardice in fleeing the scene of your potential death before it occurs. I have no pride in a dangerous situation. I will do anything to improve my odds. There are no rules of engagement for when somebody attacks me. I will use any method available to me to defend myself. Screaming is not above my pride either and sometimes shocks an assailant so much to see a grown man scream that they turn and run away saving me the trouble. I will kick in the crotch or face. I will throw dirt or sand in eyes. I will grab the nearest weapon. I will throw rocks or set off alarms in a business by breaking windows to get attention. Whatever it takes.

Guatemala City might be one of the few places I went that was more dangerous than my home neighborhood in the States. Somalia is probably the only other place I was that I would consider more dangerous than my own neighborhood. Both of those places are run by independent entities. In Guatemala it is the drug lords that rule and in Somalia it is war lords that control fiefdoms of various sizes. Guatemala city has one of the highest crime and murder rates in the world. The last day I was there the morning newspaper had twelve pages of murders listed just from the day before. Women disappear at an alarming rate in Guatemala also. Gangs of men pick them up off the streets or right out of their homes to rape and murder them. The world ignores this violence for some reason. Zaire too near Goma is a very dangerous place to be a female of any age because the rape rate is so high and the females are being mutilated also not just raped. This violence against females is being used as a weapon of terror in the war going on there. It works.

So in answer to all the feedback about my safety, I try to be as safe as I can possibly be but I do put myself out there and experience the world first hand. I live my life to its fullest. The option of hiding out in a fortified house in the United States and watching the world through the eyes of television scares me more than getting killed on the streets of Santiago Chile or Kampala Uganda. We all have our pigeon holed places in this world and mine seems to be to wander aimlessly around the world. I relish it and hope that my luck holds out.