Where is the world's most dangerous area?

[minor7flat5]

@tdn

It’s the favelas that I was talking about, of course.

And I claim ignorance on the subject. My suggestions of both Rio and Soweto are based on movies, which as we know are generally accurate descriptions of real life.

I’m glad that though Rio came out pretty strong in this competition, it is losing out to other candidates rapidly.

I’m going there in a month

I was beginning to get worried that I had flirted with death each and every time I set foot in that city in the past. Of course, I stay clear of the favelas.

[Measure_for_Measure]

I’m surprised Congo hasn’t been mentioned – though I suspect that parts of Darfur might be similar.

Nicholas Kristof (NYT, Sub Req) writes about one part of that sad country today:

If you think you face tough choices, imagine you were living here in eastern Congo.

“If women go to the fields, they’re raped,” said Shabain Katuija, a local man. “If they don’t go to the fields, they starve.”

So why don’t men go to the fields instead? Olivier Sbasoro, a villager here, explained: “They rape the women, but it’s worse for the men, because they kill them or kidnap them to make them slaves.”
…

The tension is thick around Jomba, where a priest was executed recently for showing compassion and leadership. When we drove into Jomba, local people crowded around us to describe kidnappings, rape and murder by soldiers of various loyalties.

Peasants in some villages are now sleeping out in the bush every night, for fear that soldiers will raid their houses. At a local elementary school, I asked the children in one class how many had lost their fathers. Too many hands went up for me to count.

“Soldiers of various loyalties”: it’s tough when there are too many enemies to make a deal with.

[DrDeth]

@Measure for Measure

I’m surprised Congo hasn’t been mentioned – though I suspect that parts of Darfur might be similar.

Pretty much most civilized dudes have thrown their hands up over the entire area South of the Sahara and North of South Africa.

[Measure_for_Measure]

I understand the sentiment DrD, (though I’m reluctant to call ourselves civilized in such a context ).

But sub-saharan Africa isn’t uniformly awful. Uganda’s GDP advanced at 6.7% per annum from 1994-2004; Chad grew at 7%, Botswana 5.8%. It’s just that none of these countries make the news unless they’re struck with famine, despotism or massive civil society failure.

(As a comparison, China grew at 9.1%, India 6.1%, Bangladesh 5.2%, South Korea at 4.9%.)

[Blake]

According to the Guinness Book of Records the most violent place on Earth outside an active warzone is Palm Island Aboriginal Community, Australia. That would seem to be the definitve winner. IIRC it reciedved the title because >80% of the population had been the victim of serious violent crime in the past 12 months.

That would seem to make it far worse than Baghdad (which is not officially an active warzone) the favelas of Rio or anything in DC.

[DrDeth]

@Measure for Measure

But sub-saharan Africa isn’t uniformly awful. Uganda’s GDP advanced at 6.7% per annum from 1994-2004; Chad grew at 7%, Botswana 5.8%. It’s just that none of these countries make the news unless they’re struck with famine, despotism or massive civil society failure.

()

*This *year. Next year- or the year after- *famine, despotism or massive civil society failure. *

[NinjaChick]

This thread has me making some additions to my list of ‘places not to go, ever’.

On-topic: I sincerely doubt that anyplace within the fully-industrialized world would truly be one of the most dangerous places. I grew up not far from Camden, NJ, and while I certainly wasn’t comfortable the few times I was at a bus or train station there, I at least knew that if anything happened, there was some degree of infrastructure to deal with it (ie, police, legal courts, hospitals).

I doubt that even cities in less-industrialized countries can lay the same claim. If I had to choose between getting stabbed and raped in an alley in Camden or an alley in Nairobi (or Baghdad, or Rio, etc), I’d pick Camden without a second thought.