Quote Originally Posted by B_Ray
I'll admit something that I'm kind of afraid to say. Its likely due to our media's bias for negative news, but I never seem to hear positive things about other parts of the world and it seems to have impressed upon me that most other places are poor, corrupt, and chaotic. That's what I generally assume about countries I know little about. I realize that I'm most likely sadly mistaken, and hope that I am, but that's honestly the way I think and its obvious in others. I think that's even true of Americans' view of different American regions. Most media I'm exposed to portrays cities as scary, unfriendly, dangerous places, and not suprisingly do I not only have no desire to live in one, but I can't imagine why anybody would. Maybe most Americans aren't like me, but if they are, it would go a long way to explain our cultural introvertedness.
Well, I´ve been to South Africa.
Before a trip to Durban they told me it was dangerous there and we would only go to the somewhat safer part. Stories about taxi drivers shooting at each other over a passenger. Well, when we were there all that indicated that crime might be around were a lot of guards with submachineguns(who actually made me feel rather safe).
When travelling to Prague we were told about having to be careful because of higher crime rates, well, I walked home with only a friend at night, nothing happened on the whole trip.
Maybe I was just lucky, maybe my belief in god helps, but in my limited experience I witnessed more violence in primary school than in any "really" dangerous area I´ve been to, so my personal views are also somewhat spoiled. Then again, I´ve never been to a real warzone.