Comment by fy20 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fy20 | Hacker News Reader

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I just got back from a trip to India (I'm European), and it's a lot safer than you would expect. I'd say in general there is less crime and people are more honest than if you go to some tourist areas in Europe - say the center of Milan. Even taxi drivers gave us local prices (we stayed with locals so asked them).

The only thing to me that's a bit crazy is the roads. My friend offered me a newspaper to read and the headlines were about a bus crash that killed a bunch of people (we were getting a bus that night). From what I understand, if there is an accident where someone gets injured, it's quite common for the other party to just drive off and leave them - which as a European is basically unheard of, unless someone is DUI and doesn't realise.

I don’t want to discount your experience but I don’t think you can really judge safety by going somewhere. If I went to the US, what’s the probability of witnessing a shooting? What does that tell me about the safety there (specifically regarding gun deaths), relative to where I come from (Germany)? Just because I don’t personally witness anything doesn’t mean I would classify it as safe, because even unsafe countries probably aren’t that dangerous that most visitors are personally affected (unless you’re going somewhere really crazy like active warzones).

As someone who grew up in India but lives in the US, the situation is pretty comparable. US has a gun violence problem but only if you are at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or you are part of a gang. Otherwise you can spend years in the US without even hearing a gunshot or seeing a gun in real life.

Murders, Rapes, kidnappings are the same in India. Unless you are at the wrong place at the wrong time or part of a targeted group (not necessarily gangs), you may not even know these happen. Traffic accidents are more common (and lack of a good emergency response system - like EMTs in the US, make it worse). Perry crimes of opportunity are everywhere. Like pickpockets or scamming people with higher prices/fake goods. But this is relatively easy to look for and avoid.

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