'The Economist' is notorious for its leftie bias. Grain of salt caution required.
Re the personal security rankings, I feel safer in SGN, MNL, TPE, PEK and PVG than I do in MEL with the latter's gangs (try visiting some outer suburban shopping centres such as Fountain Gate in Narre Warren), an ineffective criminal justice system in Victoria and Islamic terrorism, yet the former five cities are ranked lower for personal security than the two Australian cities.
'The Economist's' researchers needed to ask the victims in Martin Place, Bourke or Flinders Street incidents their perceptions.
Melburnian, I do enjoy a good debate with you from time to time.
The whole point of these reports is to look at the statistics, not the stories. The victims of the Martin Place, Bourke & Flinder street tragedies will no doubt have a very dim view, and different perspective, and these are the stories that are personal to many of us, we can relate to and are very concerning because we live the lives of those affected. But these reports are not looking at individual cases, and there probably are many similar stories of those affected by crime in other countries. They do not live the same lives that we do, therefore we are not interested in their stories.
It's all very well as a tourist to say places like SGN, MNL are safe, but it's disingenuous to compare the parts of the city you would visit as a tourist in one city, with the crime hotspots in other cities. I felt totally safe in Manila, at least wandering around Makati or Intramuros or Bonifacio Global City. One day I was exploring Intramuros and then decided to explore a bit further, crossing the Pasig River. It felt very different, and a lot less safe. I've felt the same in HCM city too, in fact now that I think of it, SGN is the only place in the world, touch wood, either my partner or I have experienced a personal crime (theft of watch, but that was in 1999),
If you're bringing up Martin Place etc, it is remiss not to talk about violence in Manila, such as the 37 people who lost their lives at ResortsWorld Casino:
en.wikipedia.org
Or the 8 hostages on the bus that were killed:
Commandos stormed a tourist bus held hostage by a former police officer in Manila on Monday.
www.nytimes.com
or South Korean visitors.
The recent death of a Korean travel writer in the Philippines has reignited concerns over the safety of Koreans in the Southeast Asian country, for long-term stays or short-term tr...
www.koreatimes.co.kr
A South Korean tourist suffered a gunshot wound in the Philippines at the weekend, Seoul's foreign ministry said today. The man in his 40s came under attack by an unidentified assailant while ge...
www.thestandard.com.hk
You don't have to look hard to find similar crime stories in/around SGN:
Police have launched a manhunt for a Vietnamese suspect.
e.vnexpress.net
It's also interesting to compare homicide rates around the globe:
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia
Not so sure about PEK, and PVG. I bet there is a lot goes on within local communities that doesn't affect foreigners, therefore we most definitely don't hear about it, especially given the censorship of the Chinese government. Contrary to popular opinion in the west, Chinese can be just as violent as any other race.
safecities.economist.com
