demokritos
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- Apr 18, 2011
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Eclair said:I think what really forms expat's opinions is how it rates compared to back home. People's habits are different for a reason. Simple things like wearing expensive jewelry, carrying your camera in sight of others, or listening to an ipod is almost seen as an invitation to get robbed. That is jarring if you come from a place where you don't have to worry about those things... and it speaks strongly about crime compared to other world cities. Most expats live in upper middle class or high class neighborhoods and safety is still an issue in those areas.
This is, in my opinion, the key to the feeling of insecurity in Buenos Aires. Street crime, home robbings, etc. must have been far less frequent 15-20 years ago; they've increased to a level where most everyone knows someone who has been robbed, so relative to what they were used to, things seem extremely unsafe. That doesn't mean they are, on a world scale.
I remember one time I took a bus from Philly to visit a friend in Manhattan, around 2008. I had a backpack on; as I got off the bus, my friend offered to help me with the backpack. As he lifted it he said "this is heavy, you got your laptop in here?" I was shocked and pretty angry that he said this, as in Philly I would never make mention of something like that, and I'd consider it more or less an invitation to get robbed. But in most of Manhattan, people were walking around waving their iphones in the air. I saw a guy walking down the street with cash in his hand, at least $100. Manhattan seemed absurdly safe to me, like Disney World. Compared to northern Europe or Japan, it's a crime-ridden cesspool.