4 ms·

After traveling for over 2.5 years through 30 countries in Africa (still going)[1], I've learned travel advisories are extremely Political. Senegal wants to ge

by grecy 8y ago

After traveling for over 2.5 years through 30 countries in Africa (still going)[1], I've learned travel advisories are extremely Political. Senegal wants to get a fair price for it's resources and asks for that? France issues a travel warning and decimates their tourist industry for a few years. It's common place for Western countries to issue travel warnings when they just don't like what a certain country is doing politically. It's often got nothing to do with traveler safety. [1]http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/ http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/

Latteland 8y ago
Sounds believable that countries do these alerts for sometimes political reasons, but China is actually keeping people from leaving the country for unspecified reasons and is seizing people, even their own citizens.
- grecy 8y ago
  Plenty of countries do bad things to their own citizens that have absolutely no impact on foreign tourists who visit. I'm not saying it's OK, but it's hardly a reason to warn people not to go there.
  - kyrra 8y ago
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/china-canada-huawei.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/china-canada-... China has been holding 3 Canadian's, likely in retaliation to the CFO of Huawei being held. So it may seem warranted here?
- acct1771 8y ago
  The reason why those seizures are happening is why this "escalatory" bulletin is newsworthy. This is another bullet point in an escalation trend we've been seeing between the West and China, mostly surrounding infrastructure and political pressure/flurries of arrests and high profile detainments, in both regions.
- echevil 8y ago
  China is issuing the same warning to Chinese citizens traveling to US
  - EpicEng 8y ago
    And which Chinese citizens are we holding hostage in retaliation for an exec being jailed?
    - taobility 8y ago
      China's warning is related with US randomly violence, gun shooting, robbery etc (if you understand Chinese: http://www.china-embassy.org/chn/lszj/zytz/t1597786.htm http://www.china-embassy.org/chn/lszj/zytz/t1597786.htm). US and China are very different countries, like in China, the downtown of metropolis is very safe at night, but in US is totally different. And also, gun shooting in US is really normal, but extremely rare in China.
      - fspeech 8y ago
        This reads like an faq for people coming to US. First item reminds people to buy travel/health insurance. Second item warns against going out alone in late night. Etc. I didn't see anything political in it.
        taobility 8y ago
        But VOA think that's not normal, and it's a political signal. Do you believe? https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-us-china-travel-20180703/4464757.html https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-us-china-travel-20180703/4...
SilasX 8y ago
What about looking at the price of traveler's insurance?
- grecy 8y ago
  Something most people don't know. Your travel insurance policy is not valid if you travel to a country that has a travel warning issued by the country that the policy is issued by. So essentially, if you go anywhere even slightly "not first world" your travel insurance is useless.
  - SilasX 8y ago
    Yeah, but I'm talking about if you got quoted for a policy on a specific journey, not just some blanket "travel insurance" policy. I'm pretty sure they can't quote you for a trip to Elbonia and then say "lol j/k we don't have to cover anything because there was a warning against Elbonia at the time". (I could maybe believe they could exclude events happening after a warning after the policy was issued.)
    - grecy 8y ago
      > I'm pretty sure they can't quote you for a trip to Elbonia and then say "lol j/k we don't have to cover anything because there was a warning against Elbonia at the time". That's exactly what they do. It's in the fine print. Read it.
      - SilasX 8y ago
        As above, I can believe that they would drop coverage if a warning were issued after the Elbonia warning, or if the coverage is void if e.g. you engage in political activism. I don't know any insurance commission that would be okay with the fine print saying "the coverage on the specific trip to the country you asked for was void from the moment it was issued because warning and therefore you were paying for nothing". Can you cite a case where a travel insurer issued a policy that covered nothing from the moment it was written for a specific trip to a specific warned country?

by grecy 8y ago

Latteland 8y ago

Sounds believable that countries do these alerts for sometimes political reasons, but China is actually keeping people from leaving the country for unspecified reasons and is seizing people, even their own citizens.

grecy 8y ago
Plenty of countries do bad things to their own citizens that have absolutely no impact on foreign tourists who visit. I'm not saying it's OK, but it's hardly a reason to warn people not to go there.
- kyrra 8y ago
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/china-canada-huawei.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/china-canada-... China has been holding 3 Canadian's, likely in retaliation to the CFO of Huawei being held. So it may seem warranted here?
acct1771 8y ago
The reason why those seizures are happening is why this "escalatory" bulletin is newsworthy. This is another bullet point in an escalation trend we've been seeing between the West and China, mostly surrounding infrastructure and political pressure/flurries of arrests and high profile detainments, in both regions.
echevil 8y ago
China is issuing the same warning to Chinese citizens traveling to US
- EpicEng 8y ago
  And which Chinese citizens are we holding hostage in retaliation for an exec being jailed?
  - taobility 8y ago
    China's warning is related with US randomly violence, gun shooting, robbery etc (if you understand Chinese: http://www.china-embassy.org/chn/lszj/zytz/t1597786.htm http://www.china-embassy.org/chn/lszj/zytz/t1597786.htm). US and China are very different countries, like in China, the downtown of metropolis is very safe at night, but in US is totally different. And also, gun shooting in US is really normal, but extremely rare in China.
    - fspeech 8y ago
      This reads like an faq for people coming to US. First item reminds people to buy travel/health insurance. Second item warns against going out alone in late night. Etc. I didn't see anything political in it.
      - taobility 8y ago
        But VOA think that's not normal, and it's a political signal. Do you believe? https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-us-china-travel-20180703/4464757.html https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-us-china-travel-20180703/4...

SilasX 8y ago

What about looking at the price of traveler's insurance?

grecy 8y ago
Something most people don't know. Your travel insurance policy is not valid if you travel to a country that has a travel warning issued by the country that the policy is issued by. So essentially, if you go anywhere even slightly "not first world" your travel insurance is useless.
- SilasX 8y ago
  Yeah, but I'm talking about if you got quoted for a policy on a specific journey, not just some blanket "travel insurance" policy. I'm pretty sure they can't quote you for a trip to Elbonia and then say "lol j/k we don't have to cover anything because there was a warning against Elbonia at the time". (I could maybe believe they could exclude events happening after a warning after the policy was issued.)
  - grecy 8y ago
    > I'm pretty sure they can't quote you for a trip to Elbonia and then say "lol j/k we don't have to cover anything because there was a warning against Elbonia at the time". That's exactly what they do. It's in the fine print. Read it.
    - SilasX 8y ago
      As above, I can believe that they would drop coverage if a warning were issued after the Elbonia warning, or if the coverage is void if e.g. you engage in political activism. I don't know any insurance commission that would be okay with the fine print saying "the coverage on the specific trip to the country you asked for was void from the moment it was issued because warning and therefore you were paying for nothing". Can you cite a case where a travel insurer issued a policy that covered nothing from the moment it was written for a specific trip to a specific warned country?