Numbeo - Perceptions vs Reality

Numbeo is all about people's feelings. Do you feel crime is down in your city. Do you feel safer. It's all perception, not reality. They had Davao listed as one of the safest cities in the world.....based of of people's feelings. But if you look at the actual crime statistics (that Duterte tried to hide), it is d*mn near the murder and rape capital of the Philippines.

 

Murdering (and raping) people who have been charged of no crime makes the city safer? Life in Davao (and much of the rest of the country now) is a crapshoot, especially if you are poor. If some anonymous person (that grew up where corruption and greed is ingrained in the culture) has a feeling that you are guilty of something they can be judge, jury and executioner. I'm sure there are absolutely no examples in history where that has gone wrong.

Feeling safe and feeling that only the bad people are being killed does not make it true. The fact that Duterte forced the police to retract the actual crime statistics shows that there is something that he feels needs to be hidden. I wonder what that might be.

 

The CIA WFB doesn't really go into crime statistics. Mainly just stuff about terrorism and rebel groups.

 

I know you said you didn't care about statistics but....statistically you are much less likely to be killed by a terrorist or rebel group than you are a criminal.

Of course it is good to know where the terrorist and rebels are operating from to lower those chances even more (basically just look for a large demographic of Muslims....then avoid that area). I do think the CIA WFB is a good source of reliable and updated information for travelers, the State Department being another.

Unlike Numbeo who, if you listened to their site, would have you roaming around some extremely dangerous places because the locals "feel" like they are safe. On top of feelings being completely worthless, you also have Filipino Pride to factor in. Filipinos will go and "upvote" their city to make it appear as though it isn't a complete crime infested sh*t-hole online just so they can feel a bit better about themselves, their city and who they voted into office.

Spoiler

lol I have no special clearance with the CIA...or really anything else that isn't insanely mundane make-your-eyes-bleed boring. Everything is compartmentalized these days. You need 3 things to gain access to classified information:
1. Proper clearance level.
2. A legitimate need-to-know.
3. I forgot the third one. (A lot of good that insider threat course was that I took last week.)

I found out in the army that, in many circumstances, it is best to avoid putting yourself in situations or positions where you have a need-to-know. A whole lot of d*mn work and mental anguish it can be to keep that stuff a secret.

It's a good thing to look at. The USG usually releases travel advisories and warnings for/to areas/businesses they have credible intel of an attack on. They did it before the Bohol attacks, for the kidnapping group operating in southern Cebu and Marawi to name a few (much to the displeasure of the Philippines government, who, on some occasions, even tried to come out and tell people it was BS and to not worry about it....and later had to eat crow).