Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sir Humphrey Appleby 
And why's that?
You mean military personnel illegally entering a sovereign nation's waters get arrested? Besides, they were treated very well according to the sailors.
You've been there before then, or do you just know of a civil war that nobody else does?
Is Iran dangerous? I know they want to build a nuclear power station but we have those so they can't be that bad.
I once had a class with an Iranian woman, she said it would be perfectly safe for me to go there (but she wouldn't feel safe there) and that I should go if I could. I already knew the bit in bold - probably my favourite story from history is when the Romans tried to invade Persia and the Persian King offered the general his weight in gold if he left them alone, then when he agreed melted it and poured it down his throat.
BTW the British Foreign Office say not to go within 10km of Iraq and 100km of Afghanistan, neither of which I have any intention of going anywhere near until they've calmed down a bit.
No, i wasn't talking about those sailors. There were some recreational sailors that got picked up in what they claim were international waters. They were released a week or two later.
Anyway, i would be interested in visiting it myself at some point, but with the extremism in that country, I'm not sure how safe i'd feel.
I would caution others about making statements about the safety of a place based on extrapolations from their own experiences. It's meaningless in a statistical sense. Having said that, if there is a strong tourism industry and you stay on the guided path, maybe others' fears are unjustified.
Before i came to colombia i read a lot of similar stories from people proclaiming how safe it was. The reality is different. A lot of people put on rose-colored glasses when they visit a place on vacation. Their good fortune, despite their ignorance, is often just that, and not any indication of overall security. A visit can still be justified, but consider whether the risks are worth it and understand that your outsider's view of risk may be faulty.
To give an example, i didn't know before i got here how hugely under-reported petty crimes and rapes were. Nobody here trusts the police (especially women), however, and most of the time police don't do anything even when crimes are reported, so people don't bother. And yes, someone pointing a gun at your and taking your stuff here would count as a petty crime. The chances are that there would be no investigation and nobody would get arrested. That's a bit scary when some of these guys will just outright shoot you and then rob you. It mostly happens to locals and for that reason doesn't make the BBC. Crime statistics are wrong at best and fraudulent at worst. It didn't take me long to run in to someone whose uncle had been murdered in a cab for his wallet.
Edited by GQgeek - 9/2/11 at 11:45am
