It's Mary Poppins on weed compared to South Africa, enjoy it while it lasts, it won't be forever.

Theres crime going off every minute of the day all over the world,
i think its just advertised more on these forums than it is in the media in say like the UK, but with social media now so popular and video and news can get shared around a lot easier

Jamie_Lambo wrote:Theres crime going off every minute of the day all over the world,
i think its just advertised more on these forums than it is in the media in say like the UK, but with social media now so popular and video and news can get shared around a lot easier

This was my point. I think the forum gather and deseminate in such an effective way, that it is easy to think that there are higher levels of crime and unusual deaths as a result

I think there's a lot less crime in Cambodia than there could be. I for one feel quite safe when I travel there and when I lived there, much safer than a lot of other places, Vietnam included.

I think you're touching on something that's true of all media. In almost all cases media will make the semi-regular occurrence of a thing more "noticed" and thus more "real" to the viewer.

Imagine if you lived without internet or tech in Cambodia. Disconnected as it were. You'd hear about things via word of mouth and such and overall the country would seem mostly safe. Your zone of awareness would be quite limited though. With a wider zone, provided by technology and news, suddenly there's daily death and mayhem and things seem considerably less safe. Not that they are... your safety level hasn't actually changed. In general a person's un-augmented zone of awareness is about the only thing that relates to their personal safety. A murder on Koh Rong island is about as relevant to your personal safety in Siam Reap as a murder in Iraq would be. Even in showing crime trends you generally get rapidly diminishing returns on accuracy over even short distances. Someone can talk about "crime rate in Phnom Penh" and what they're really talking about is "crime rate in a few select districts of Phnom Penh" that reflects poorly on the rest of the city. Steung Meanchay crime rates have very little to do with Toul Tompong crime rates, and even less to do with Toul Kork crime rates. Crime just doesn't "travel" that much. (With the notable exception of actual organized crime.)

So the average person looking at "crime in Cambodia" (or anywhere) is pretty much pointless unless you're selling a headline, because that general idea is also what people will tend to home in on thanks to our brain's tendency to be a bit lazy and generalizing. At the end of the day trying to look up and be informed about crime rates in thousands (or more) of districts across any country is just an absurd mental exercise, and trying to average them all into a blanket statement is just an absurd application of information.

Beoung Tranh Commune seems to have less crime than Wigan, and we don't have to put up with football, and rugby league hooligans.

Very valid OD

Takeoman I am not having a dig at the Kingdom but just trying to make a point about how forums can magnify some issue and create the perception of, for example greater levels of death and crime.

Rugby League hooligan, ever heard of one of those, see what I mean

People actually look to forums like this to make judgements about the level of crime?

LTO wrote:People actually look to forums like this to make judgements about the level of crime?

likely. they search for crime in cambodia and the forums likely come up pretty close to the top. they see daily entries in it and get nervous... even though those are all pretty far from one another across the country their brain says "wow, lots of crime in cambodia".

I think it's more a cultural difference than anything else. Nobody in the West would photograph their neighbour after being murdered. Here, the kids are all over it competing over who can get the most "shares" and "likes" and thus make them feel famous, or whatever other reasons. We all see our Asian friends sharing graphic gore on social media, how many of our friends back home do the same? Zero.

Of course, that doesn't mean that there's no gore in those countries. People act differently when they see it. They walk away. It's too real. It challenges the protective nanny status quo. It questions the state propaganda which otherwise claims that as long as you fit in you'll be OK. The western societies can't handle such a slap in the nanny's face. It's a form of betrayal that best goes unreported. Meanwhile, in Asia, well, shit happens.

My point being that I believe that the safety nets of society, or lack thereof, contribute a lot to this behavior.