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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The most dangerous travel destinations

Your friendly Cote D'Ivoirian tour guide.

For all you thrill-seekers out there, looking for excitement and adventure, Forbes.com has come up with a list of the top, most dangerous destinations for both work and play. Forbes compiled the list by asking several risk consultancy firms to assess the dangers based on various factors ranging from crime to civil unrest. Though the list is by no means comprehensive, it does rate the top 13 highest risk destinations in the world. The U.S. State Department, however, lists 31 countries that they recommend you avoid completely, including the Philippines, Colombia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Most in Forbes' top 13 are engaged in some kind of violent conflict, but several are listed merely for their flagrant criminality and wild-west lawlessness. Some countries have the ignominious honor of being a combination of both.

In response to the ever-increasing dangers worldwide, risk consultancy companies and security contractors have been popping up all over the place, and they're making quite a hefty profit. Times they-are-a-changin' it seems, and so have the targets. According to the Forbes article, terrorists (and criminals) are now targeting what are classified as "soft targets--unprotected tourists, commuters and other civilians." With increased security at "embassies, government buildings and airlines" (formerly the prime targets) they have now turned their sights to these "soft" targets. More bang for their buck, apparently. So, if you do choose to head out for any of the following, do so at your own risk or hire a rent-a-security guy and/or pray!

TOP 13 SCARY PLACES TO VISIT OR WORK:
Somalia
Iraq
Afghanistan
Democratic Republic of Congo
C'ote D'Ivoire (also host to all all those 'Nigerian' scam artists, who have sent me 4 more emails since my post on that subject)
Pakistan
Burundi
Sri Lanka
Haiti
Chad
Lebanon
Liberia
Sudan

10 comments:

Blazingcatfur said...

Tragic list, sad to see so much misery. I hate to say it but how many limousines did this money buy?

Foreign Aid (from various sources) per CIA fact book:

Somalia -$60 million
Democratic Republic of Congo - $2.2 billion
C'ote D'Ivoire -$1 billion aid
Pakistan - $2.4 billion
Burundi - $105.5 million
Sri Lanka - $577 million
Haiti - $153 million
Chad - $246.9 million
Lebanon - $2.2 billion
Liberia - $94 million
Sudan - $172 million

Incognito said...

Wow. Thanks for the stats. BCF!

What a waste of money, in a sense, considering it never gets to the people. And the sad part is, that many of those countries are very natural resource rich and the peope are so incredibly poor in spite of all that wealth.

Twiggy said...

uh oh...my neighbour's moving over to Lebanon for work...

Papa J said...

My company is developing a mine in Southern DCR. Its actually really interesting to do the deep research on a country (anticipating possibly being asked to work there.) What I found about DCR is that most of the problems are becoming isolated. That said, for every one of the countries on the list, the problem has stemmed from a military dictatorship. DCR has finally had free elections and they are actually turning a corner. But after 40 years of a dictatorship they have a deep hole to climb out of.

Simeon said...

I like your Churchill quote in your banner. I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed it for mine as well. Thank you.

Incognito said...

I hope your friend is going to get hazard pay, Twiggy! And hope it's worth it. Perhaps you can give him my link to the U.S. State Dept's dos and donts re. travel in dangerous countries.

Papa J: That's good to know.. that things are better in DCR, but I'd still proceed with caution if I had to live/travel there. And yes, it will take a very long time to recuperate from 40 years under a repressive regime. Look at Russia, even after all these years they still cling to some of that KGB mentality and haven't totally embraced democracy.

Essien: Absolutely. But it wasn't Churchill. Not sure anyone knows who did.

Blazingcatfur said...

WTF??

Incognito said...

Thank you CrazyProf for your informative comment. I do believe the Bible is one of the greatest books written, with much to be garnered from its many words of wisdom, but I have always felt that there are many paths to GOD and that it is a very individual journey. I have written posts about the sadly divisive nature of organized religion and how most wars have been fought in the name of GOD. I think there's something intrinsically wrong with that.
I will check out some of your sites.

Canadian Economist said...

Hi there, I found your blog my mistake and was happy that I did. Keep writing. Cheers, Daniel

Incognito said...

Thank you Daniel! I will. It keeps me sane.
I will check your blog out, as well.