I happened upon this list this morning: World's Most Dangerous Places. I always find these lists interesting, so I flipped through the slideshow and wrote down the list of countries:
Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Pakistan, Burundi, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Chad, Lebanon, Liberia, Sudan
T. and I got in a long instant message conversation about how these lists are made and what they consider and how the places chosen for this list are probably chosen because they are most dangerous for foreigners (read: rich business men), not necessarily for people living in those countries. Although, for Africa at least, I think they are mostly on for least safe countries in which to be from that country.
For a brief moment, I was a little proud to have been to four of the top 13 most dangerous countries in the world, even though I've only been to one of them (Sudan) in 2007, the year for which this list was made. (The last time I was in Liberia was 2006, Cote d'Ivoire 2000, and DRC 2003.) And Burundi was my second choice for the big post-bar trip.
And then I realized that THIS SUCKS. Here is Liberia, war over, working to rebuild, and they still have to be on a list of the world's most dangerous places? How many of the last 20 years have they been on that list? Now I'm just annoyed.
So, fine. The Forbes and whoever people can go on about danger. I will go on traveling. I bet they have never built sand houses over their feet on the beach in the dark in front of a restaurant in Liberia, or sat drinking sweet mango soda and watching the daylight disappear on the bench outside a little grocery shop in Sudan, or scraped up their shoes climbing a lava rock in Congo. They are missing so much of the world.
For a brief moment, I was a little proud to have been to four of the top 13 most dangerous countries in the world, even though I've only been to one of them (Sudan) in 2007, the year for which this list was made. (The last time I was in Liberia was 2006, Cote d'Ivoire 2000, and DRC 2003.) And Burundi was my second choice for the big post-bar trip.
And then I realized that THIS SUCKS. Here is Liberia, war over, working to rebuild, and they still have to be on a list of the world's most dangerous places? How many of the last 20 years have they been on that list? Now I'm just annoyed.
So, fine. The Forbes and whoever people can go on about danger. I will go on traveling. I bet they have never built sand houses over their feet on the beach in the dark in front of a restaurant in Liberia, or sat drinking sweet mango soda and watching the daylight disappear on the bench outside a little grocery shop in Sudan, or scraped up their shoes climbing a lava rock in Congo. They are missing so much of the world.
1 comment:
oh Lord... what does it say about me that my first reaction was jealousy that I had only been to one on that list... There is something seriously wrong with me!
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