Fear Mongering!!!
Guess I am lucky to be alive!!! Well that would be the case if I believed fear mongering being spread by the likes of Lonely Planet & the illustrious Canadian government!
As a result of being scammed by Passport Canada, I have been perusing some Canadian government sites & some are absolutely incredible on how they err so far on the side of caution as to be ludicrous to the point where anyone believing 1/4 of what they say would never leave Canada.
But hold on, wait a minute haven’t there been people innocently walking down the street in Toronto been killed by stray gunfire? Darn right there have!!
Is it really safe to be in the drug dealing area of Wentworth & Glenn Sts or the Crack houses on Ritson Rd in Oshawa at night? Not in my books!
Better yet how about when the police chief of the Canadian capitol city, Ottawa, begs the Ontario premier “Mcsquinty” for money for more police as the drug scene is out of control & he is completely ignored & refused a meeting!!
I guess one has the choice of taking some minimal risks in life & travel or lock themselves in their closet.
Have always taken Lonely Planets advise with a grain of salt as they have a hard time getting their travel advise more than somewhat right but once they start in on political advise they get pretty far from reality.
So when they say “It’s not advised to cross the border here due to the violence and instability on this coast of southern Thailand.” Referring to the Rantau Panjang/Sungai Kolak crossing. Then go on to claim that there is a Bangkok train that crosses there, which there is NOT as it originates on the Thai side.
Then one does a bit of research & finding no particularly good reason not to, goes for it (crossing the border & catching the Bangkok bound train) with no problem.
Afterwards, when one reads the Canadian travel advisory (which I have taken with a cupful of salt since researching Bali & finding an advisory against travel there but a week later seeing that there was a world conference there being attended by Canadian officials! Hmmm—!!)
“AVOID ALL TRAVEL” outlined in a big red box & it goes on to tell of armed encounters, bombings, beheadings & all sorts of stuff, that makes the French Revolution look like a picnic in the park is happening (well a tad here & there over the past 4 years). Then goes on to mention that all this is taking place in Hat Yai.
Whoa hold the horses here, Reality check time!!! Like I have been in Hat Yai twice in as many weeks & the only problem I saw was way too many tourists as it was Chinese New Year & the restaurant in the hotel didn’t serve beer so had to go down the street to the 7-11 (be nice if you could pick up a cool one at the local 7-11 in Ont) heck even the soldiers guarding the train got off in Hat Yai & there was never any security on the buses heading south!
That warning is blatant overkill something usually done by people/organizations/countries fearing the person/country they are trying to denigrate!! Of course the Canadian Sheepole are supposed to be uninformed about the realities of the world beyond the propaganda approved to be disseminated by CNN & CTV & gullible enough to believe it!!
However there was one voice of reason to be found, Mark Smith who is the Man in www.seat61.com who summed the situation up as follows “—even as in London and New York there might be a risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time if you were to hang around any length of time.”
Too bad the Canadian government couldn’t use a bit of reason before crying “wolf” because, as in the fable, when one cries “wolf” too often no one heeds! Of course using the words “government” (read simple serpent) & “reason” in the same sentence is an oxymoron!!
Think I will continue to travel as I see fit & use the Canadian government advisories solely for amusement! Oh yeah there is no way in hell I am going to inform the Canadian government of my whereabouts!! Well until the day it becomes mandatory to have a GPS chip implanted but then again what are the capabilities of the new cc’s with the chip Hmmm???
Tags: Travel
busman7