that is true. but thinking that one can avoid being robbed or killed because they live in a good area gives a false sense of security...
- Thread starter Ringo
- Start date
Official: Figures prove Dominican Republic?s tourism is among safest
that is true. but thinking that one can avoid being robbed or killed because they live in a good area gives a false sense of security...
I've been living in this country going on 28 years. If I went around expecting to be killed I would have left long, long ago.
How many expats have been killed who lived a "normal" life. Didn't spend all their evenings in whore bars, didn't get mixed up in romantic triangles with a Dominican man and woman, didn't do drugs, paid people they owed promptly without hassling them, and treated everyone they met with respect?
No, I don't say they were asking to be killed, I am saying they are putting themselves in harms way to a much greater extent than those of us who live pretty much they same way we did in our home country. People who do the things I listed are also more at risk than their neighbors who in their own country.
I am not familiar with the woman in Cabrera. Was she expat or local?
People are going to be killed anywhere even though we obey all the rules and conduct ourselves in an honorable manner. The young man from Australia killed by 3 bored teenagers in the US is a good example, as it the 88 year-old WWII vet beaten to death by some young hoodlum.
But there is no crime wave in the DR directed at expats or foreigners in general. No serial killers preying on expats or tourists. Even though there are those on DR1 that would like to make it seem so.
The question still is, how many expats who were conducting themselves in a manner generally accepted in their own country have been murdered in the past few years, how many posters on DR1?
How many of the thousands and thousands and thousands of tourists who come here every year have been slaughtered?
If there is the crime spree directed at expats and tourists that some claim, then let's see the list. I am not saying there were none, since I know that bad things sometimes happen to good people, but lets see a list with enough names to prove we are all in imminent danger.
Absent such evidence, I have no intention of leaving and do not feel I am in danger.
PS: There has been a lot of talk in this thread about the recent murder of the German being a blow for tourism. What I think is damaging to tourism is the loose talk on DR1, making it sound as though a tourist is playing Russian roulette when he/she comes to the DR.
PPS: What is a danger for expats and tourists is riding scooters and motorcycles. It would be a lot easier to come up with a list of those who were killed or seriously injured in accidents than a list of murder victims.
no ken, we do not understnad each other. i was mocking specifically the statement "very low rate of assaults against locals and foreigners alike" from post one. crime against tourists is low because they are largely in AI's, in a controlled environment.
as far as the recent murders, just see few threads in recent years:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/124516-dutch-woman-murdered.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/99164-condolences-mr-karlsens-family.html#post818876
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/107749-another-expat-murdered.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/103699-us-expat-found-dead-sosua.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/101971-expat-woman-murdered-gasper-hernandez-area.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/116342-2-foreigners-killed-bavaro.html
these were not the people who put themselves at harms way. you may feel safe. i feel fairly safe. but that does not mean we cannot be victims of an attack. this is what i meant. that "oh, it must have been something shady, it will not happen to me" is a poor protection.
as far as the recent murders, just see few threads in recent years:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/124516-dutch-woman-murdered.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/99164-condolences-mr-karlsens-family.html#post818876
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/107749-another-expat-murdered.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/103699-us-expat-found-dead-sosua.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/north-coast/101971-expat-woman-murdered-gasper-hernandez-area.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/116342-2-foreigners-killed-bavaro.html
these were not the people who put themselves at harms way. you may feel safe. i feel fairly safe. but that does not mean we cannot be victims of an attack. this is what i meant. that "oh, it must have been something shady, it will not happen to me" is a poor protection.
Just wondering a bit about the OP article's figures... Where exactly can one see these numbers as stated in the article?
That was my question also Pichardo. To make such a bold statement and saying that they have the figures. But where are these figures?
"...World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)..."
I've Googled this and tried several other searches and found nothing that would back up the article in the OP. In fact, I found the opposite. I also noted that most of the articles are a couple or more years old.
If you have something, please let us know.
Thank you.
I have never said nobody gets killed. Innocent people do sometimes get killed, here, there and everywhere. You hear of it happening everyday in one country or another.
But this is not a crime wave that should deter tourists from coming to the DR as some posters seem to think. This is not evidence that expats and tourists are being targeted and exterminated. This is not evidence that posters on DR1 are in danger of being slaughtered.
Regarding feeling safe, i feel as safe here as I do anywhere. But I know that here, anywhere, there are no guarantees.
yes, i think there was a misunderstanding here. i was disagreeing with the article only. i get what both you and cobra are saying and you get my point too. this subject is very much multidimensional. crime cannot be avoided but you can do things to protect yourself to a certain degree.