davidsmeaton.com

some media outlets have nothing better to do than scare people. the telegraph recently published a list of the top 20 dangerous countries. amongst them were predictable results including iraq and afghanistan. somalia also made the list, which is reasonable enough. however, the list also had thailand, india (thanks to mumbai), haiti, jamaica, pakistan, and mexico.

the reason most of these countries made the list is not because they’re genuinely dangerous, but because there’s no british embassy or because of a few isolated events. mostly, rather than focusing on serious dangers, the article is quoting possible hurricanes (haiti) and street crime (mexico) as a reason not to go there.

and surprisingly, somalia is not on the list … personally, i’d rate somalia much higher than most countries … including nigeria, burundi and zimbabwe (which were all on the list).

anyway, rather than doing any serious research, media outlets just throw together a list of places they think are dangerous … based on generalised information. instead, let’s focus on the violence in our own countries … looking at the number of people who are mugged or pickpocketed in soho every year (that counts as street crime) or the fact that in detroit there are over 400 murders a year … possibly more violent than south africa, which made the list due to the number of murders and rapes.

seriously … most journalists these days are retards … and what the hell is with this ‘top 10′ and ‘top 20′ list rubbish???? no newspaper that takes itself seriously should ever publish lists of the ‘top anything’.

i haven’t done a travel update in a while, however i have been thinking about the travels … constantly.

i was actually reading an interesting article about how some of the ’stan’ countries are very interesting and very safe. particularly, uzbekistan’s capital tashkent. so i got to looking at my map (again) and discovered that i could change one part of my route to workin at least 3 more countries. from delhi i planned to go to lahore and on to karachi. i can cross pakistan’s border there into southern iran and follow the trade route all the way to tehran.

however, if i go from delhi into lahore, i could head north to islamabad. then i can probably get a train north into tajikistan. i may have to pass through far western afghanistan, but i don’t think it would be too problematic. after reaching dushanbe, i could keep going west to tashkent, then south into turkmenistan all the way to ashgabat. that’s very close to the iran border and not too far at all from tehran. whilst in iran, i might venture south to a few areas of interest, then circle back to the north east and exit to turkey.

although it might be more complex, i think it could be a lot more fun. from my understanding, none of those countries are dangerous and i should have no trouble moving around and getting trains from place to place. it’s a much more interesting route than skirting the bottom of pakistan into iran.

a small online movement called free-burma.org got my attention this week. and they’re proclaiming october 4th as ‘international bloggers’ day for burma’. so, why am i posting a photograph of an amnesty international ad against china? well, i see this as an issue with many points. all of the atrocities in burma are being ignored by the global community just as much as they were 19 years ago when students rose up against the burmese government. the junta has been in control of burma for too long and nobody’s doing anything about it.

america has claimed more sanctions, but american companies like chevron are still making millions. france deplores the violence, but refuse to move their own petrolium companies from burma. the uk has also been vocal and are the second largest investor in burma. japan? asked for a mere apology, which they got, after a japanese citizen was killed. thailand? singapore? nothing …

burma still holds seats in asean and the un. neither of these seats have been taken away or threatened.

what about india? the home of ghandi and the refuge of the dalai lama … well, india is an embarrassing representation of a ‘democratic’ nation. and they’ve even been supplying burma’s military with weapons and training.

so, that leaves china. a country which i’m growing increasingly hateful towards. the chinese are brazen about their attitudes in international politics. their annexation of tibet barely registered in the global community. china also harbours north korea and burma’s military governments, defending them against criticism or retribution by america or the united nations.

china is a horribly hypocritical nation. they’re claiming to do so many wonderful things … and they’re claiming to clean up their country ahead of the olympics. while on the other hand, china continues to oppress freedoms and support the bullshit in nations like burma.

if the icc stepped in tomorrow and threatened to cancel the beijing olympics … or if a dozen powerful nations (america, england, france, germany, australia, canada and a few others) threatened to boycott the olympics, china would toss north korea and burma out into the cold. china only has china’s own interests at heart … and they continue to support despotic regimes while it suits them to do so.

if china was as civilised as they’re pretending to be, burma would be a free and democratic nation today.

support a free burma by visiting free-burma.org …