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As someone who spent a lot of time in Congo -- you also don't get the full picture from the media or even State Department statuses. In the example of Congo, th
by jrcii 10y ago
As someone who spent a lot of time in Congo -- you also don't get the full picture from the media or even State Department statuses. In the example of Congo, the problem area is limited to a couple towns versus a country that's the size of Western Europe combined, and even there it's pretty infrequent. To go by what you read, the whole country is in constant chaos.
- overcast 10y agoI will agree the media like to blow a lot of things out of proportion. But you can not deny Africa has some serious problems that outsiders just aren't exposed to in any form daily. I'm glad you had a positive experience, but downplaying things has the opposite effect.
- point78 10y agoWith your methid of thinking the US should never be visited because of Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago.
- wil421 10y agoRight, because those cities have genocides and civil wars going on from time to time.
- CPLX 10y agoWell... I mean...
- ythl 10y agoThe USA is a police state where gun deaths exceed the rest of the civilized world combined.
- knodi123 10y agoThat's cartoonishly exaggerated. The gun homicide rate per 100,000 is 3.43 in the US, and 37.16 in swaziland. We have a big population in the US, of course we're going to have more of lots of things. But in terms of disease, violence, and vulnerability to official corruption, the US is way ahead of africa as a whole.
- AnAfrican 10y agoSwaziland is so much of an outlier that it's not even funny. It's like 4 times above South Africa which would be my guess for "highest gun homicide per capita" rate in Africa. There's simply no way this is even close to a continent wide average.
- knodi123 10y agoYeah, but it's also the only african country that was listed in the relevant wikipedia article. /shrug
- Redoubts 10y agoHow many gun deaths were there in Syria this year?
- point78 10y agoI know US media shoves propoganda down your throats, but you realize there are countries in Africa that are SAFER than the US right?
- overcast 10y agoTo quote Jules from Pulp Fiction. "ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport."
- shiggerino 10y agoThose are practically African colonies.
- sctb 10y agoWe've banned this account for continuing to violate the guidelines after we've asked you to stop. We'll unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and commit to commenting civilly and substantively in the future.
- pjc50 10y agoLast time I ran the numbers, 70s Detroit was more dangerous than 70s Belfast, despite the ongoing low intensity civil war and frequent bombings of Belfast.