Be Careful Out There

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

South America is not comparable to Europe. Developed world vs Developing and all that comes with it. Previously I would have assumed that people make choices on where to live armed with some sort of knowledge and perspective, but having seen some of the naivety on display in these forums I am not so sure anymore, not directing that at anyone on this thread btw.

BA is a safe city in a Latin American regional context. It's not really a debate statistical speaking. Anecdotal experience can distort that picture and nice holidays might have you questioning your choices but your still less likely to get plugged by a bullet here than in almost all of the other comparably sized cities in the region.

An aside, if 8 people including 6 kids were shot dead in BA this week there would be a wave of palpitations and a run on tickets to Miami.

In the last few years we are talking single figures for "tourist" murders across the country and if I am not mistaken only 1 poor guy in Buenos Aires. At the risk of seeming insenstitive, that isnt particularly bad. Even last week in Thailand a couple were chopped up and left for dead on a beach.

I feel like a broken record, but perspective is a powerful tool. Understand where you are and the context in which you live, there is a lot of poverty in Argentina. A lot. Take a drive along the camina de buen ayre, spend a few hours passing by villa lugano, have a look at villa 31. These are your neighbours and they haven't a pot to p1ss in nor much of a fcking chance of gaining said pot legally.

So while we all want security (I want security!!...cameras everywhere, efficient and independent courts, non-corrupt cops etc, a dream!) it might be worth understanding the causes of crime. It doesn't indeed have to be like this, but it will take a root and branch restructuring of this country to resolve it and we may be glad that it isn't as bad as it could be. That might stick in your craw, but that annoying feeling is a lot better than waking up wondering how the hell you are going to feed your family with inflation at 35%

 

[Matiasba]

BsAs is not safer than Europe, of course not, but we are not that far.
BsAs is the safer of big cities in Latin America, by big cities I mean Mexico, Sao Paulo, etc

The kind of robbery more common here is pcikpocketing, not violent robberies.
If you re going to use the US government as a source we re lost.

 

[khairyexpat]

Posts like these are needed here, ... to put up with everyday lunacy, the madness, the chaos and turmoil .

I've been here 8 years. It took me a good 2 years to get over the exact feelings you are having now. The things that got me to the point of really liking it here are:

1. Learn Spanish. Get serious about this. You could be highly conversant in 6 months (even with a full-time job). This allows you to ...
2. Navigate your way through life here. You'll discover things that YOU like and will enrich your life. You'll ...
3. Make new friends, weed out the ones who think you are rich just because you're from (fill in your country here) ... and that allows you to ...
4. Expand your life and discover the things that this city/country can provide you (job, food, shelter, friends, culture) and ...
5. Expand yourself and grow as a human being. That allows you ...
6. Give back to your community and be a fully-functioning person within the society.

If you get stuck anywhere along the way it helps to have expat friends to whom you can b*tch to over beers, get it out of your system, and then get on with yourself. Don't overlook the fact that as much as you might be "hating" life here in Argentina this country opened it's arms to you.

And now I'm going for a run - because the freaking internet keeps shutting off and if I don't I'll be at the Cablevision office bashing someone in the forehead with my laptop.

South America is not comparable to Europe. Developed world vs Developing and all that comes with it. Previously I would have assumed that people make choices on where to live armed with some sort of knowledge and perspective, but having seen some of the naivety on display in these forums I am not so sure anymore, not directing that at anyone on this thread btw.

BA is a safe city in a Latin American regional context. It's not really a debate statistical speaking. Anecdotal experience can distort that picture and nice holidays might have you questioning your choices but your still less likely to get plugged by a bullet here than in almost all of the other comparably sized cities in the region.

An aside, if 8 people including 6 kids were shot dead in BA this week there would be a wave of palpitations and a run on tickets to Miami.

In the last few years we are talking single figures for "tourist" murders across the country and if I am not mistaken only 1 poor guy in Buenos Aires. At the risk of seeming insenstitive, that isnt particularly bad. Even last week in Thailand a couple were chopped up and left for dead on a beach.

I feel like a broken record, but perspective is a powerful tool. Understand where you are and the context in which you live, there is a lot of poverty in Argentina. A lot. Take a drive along the camina de buen ayre, spend a few hours passing by villa lugano, have a look at villa 31. These are your neighbours and they haven't a pot to p1ss in nor much of a fcking chance of gaining said pot legally.

So while we all want security (I want security!!...cameras everywhere, efficient and independent courts, non-corrupt cops etc, a dream!) it might be worth understanding the causes of crime. It doesn't indeed have to be like this, but it will take a root and branch restructuring of this country to resolve it and we may be glad that it isn't as bad as it could be. That might stick in your craw, but that annoying feeling is a lot better than waking up wondering how the hell you are going to feed your family with inflation at 35%

 

[garryl]

I beg to disagree. All the people I know who live or lived in Barcelona had their bike stolen, and this is funny, by AMBULANCES. Thats right, ambulances steal bikes, they stop, pick the bike and go. Theres no much more robbery in BsAs than in Barcelona, be sure of that. What BsAs has more is probably this "gunpoint" robberies, practically non existant in Barna, but armed robberies arent that common in BsAs either, so...

Barcelona feels a lot safer than BsAs, the police are more efficient, relatively speaking, they all chat by the street corner, but they do something if a robbery happened, good luck in BsAs. These 2 countries are not in the same category.

 

[fred mertz]

I lived in Barcelona for 5 years, at the turn of the century. I had at least 4 bicycles stolen. One night, while I was at an English dinner at a hotel, near Sants Station, my bike was stolen. After the dinner I went to get my bike that was locked to a pole with a moto lock. The bike was gone and the pole was lying on the ground. The situation may have changed, but, years ago in Barcelona, bicycles were stolen to be shipped to other countries.
I think that many more tourists are robbed in Barcelona, than in BA. Only makes sense, because Barcelona has probably 20 times the amount of tourists than BA. Best place to be robbed is around the Picasso Museum and on any narrow pedestrian street in the Borne.

 

[nikad]

Barcelona feels a lot safer than BsAs, the police are more efficient, relatively speaking, they all chat by the street corner, but they do something if a robbery happened, good luck in BsAs. These 2 countries are not in the same category.

Are you sure that Spanish police is efficient???

 

[khairyexpat]

Peron/CarlosPelligrine intersection around 14:00hrs. 2 motochorros, one jumps off the bike, grabs a tourist´s arm, turns around, bumps into the front of my car before he manged to jump back on the waiting bike, then both fled the scene. When I asked him, the tourist uttered only 2 words: MY WATCH, then he just calmly continued his nonchalant stroll. Did not scream, was not looking for police, did not look back. Then I remember that he even extended his arm (to make it easy for the chorro). No reflexes, no resistance, nothing!

Is this how it´s done nowadays?

 

[Ries]

my fifteen dollar watch tells me what time it is. so far, no motochorros have been interested in it, but if they take it, I have already had it for over a year, I got my fifteen bucks out of it.

the guy in the video had his fancy camera on the outside of his mochillo, in addition to his goofy go pro on his bike helmet.

 

[khairyexpat]

Same here !
Mine is 7 years old.
Grubby jeans, ... etc etc

What surprised me, was the nonchalant, non-event event attitude.
Cool, calm and collected.

 

[garryl]

Are you sure that Spanish police is efficient???

I am not sure.