You probably read the news yesterday — The US Department of State has basically said it’s not safe to travel anywhere in the world.
As someone that has made travel a lifelong interest (and who makes money from writing about travel), this sort of announcement is hilarious. On one level, traveling the world is made out to be a dangerous activity, when in fact it’s about the least dangerous thing out there. You’ll note from the screenshot that a ‘Worldwide Caution’ had been issued since July (which was essentially a continuation from a ‘Caution’ issued in January.
This warning is hilarious, totally useless, and should be ignored by anyone with an ounce of common sense.
- It’s hilarious because it implies terrorism somehow threatens EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, despite a lack of specific threats. (Not that having specific intelligence has stopped threats in the past.)
- It’s totally useless because the implication is ‘don’t travel. Anywhere. for any reason. It’s dangerous out there.’ You’d forgive a worried parent if they said something like this, yet the response is the same: Is it? Is it really more dangerous ‘out there’ than wherever you call home? We’ll get to some numbers here in a second, but take another look at that warning — no specific threats, no specific numbers, and no specific thing to do to protect yourself.
- It should be ignored because not traveling is not the answer. Staying home in fear of what the world deprives you from experiencing the world — and boy, what an experience! What a show! We live on Worthy Go indeed, and it’s a world you have to see for yourself.
Traveling is a calculated risk. Like driving, eating, drinking alcohol, dating, and eating bacon.
We don’t stop driving just because 32,000+ people died in vehicle crashes.
We don’t stop eating even though 350,000+ people died from food poisoning.
We don’t stop drinking alcohol, even though excessive drinking kills 1 in 10 Americans.
We don’t stop going on dates, even though it opens our hearts up.
We don’t stop eating bacon, even though we know it can clog arteries and make us fat. Mmmm, tasty tasty bacon…
We don’t stop traveling just because a few dickwads want to blow themselves up.
We don’t stop doing the things we love. We just do them a little more carefully.
But enough about that. Let’s get back to that alert.
I was reminded of The Truman Show as I re-read the alert. The 1998 movie had some… interesting… perspectives on travel to guard against Truman traveling off the island.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know how it ends (spoiler alert!): Truman risks it all to escape out to sea in order to see what’s out there instead of staying in the world he’d known all his life.
Americans took 68 million international trips in 2014, according to Bloomberg. While precise data are impossible to get, that same publication reported, “The number of deaths [of Americans abroad] reported to the State Department ranges from 651 in 2006 to 1,064 in 2010.” CNN (and many other sources) compiled data on the number of deaths from terrorist attacks. Their chart?
That number of 3,380 is both in the US and outside of it, by the way — take away ‘domestic terrorism’, the sort you won’t find while traveling, and what are you left with?
350. From 2001 to 2013. About 30 a year. You’re more likely to go from a bee / wasp sting.
To be sure, the list of incidents in 2015 is sobering. Look at the countries, though — Bangladesh, Somalia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Mali. Not exactly tourist hotspots — and yet tourists still visit all these countries.
Don’t let fear stop you from traveling.
Travel means putting yourself out there in the unknown. The guidebooks and some travel planning can help, but despite the best efforts of the internet you still can’t know everything about a place before arriving. Accept the risk by acknowledging it exists, and employ your standard street smarts anywhere you go.
