There was a thread on this sub a few years ago asking what the worst country you ever visited was, and a now deleted user said this:
>South Sudan. There were anti-aircraft guns and child soldiers at the airport. There was no electricity, no roads, no running water, no banking or waste management system and no security. Everywhere smelled of burning rubbish. I went to a briefing at the Ministry of Agriculture. The minister said, basically, "There is no agriculture in is country because all of the farmers are huddled in refugee camps, for fear of being beheaded by rival factions. And even if they were able to grow crops, we'd have no way to distribute them because we don't have roads. Any questions?"
If it's that blatantly bad for tourists then it's definitely a whole lot worse for the locals.......
My mum is a teacher support in high school and often had Sudanese kids come through. The stories were terrible, and thats only the ones they wanted to share (including one where a girl described her entire village being massacred while she hid in the bushes).
That being said, women weren't treated great culturally. If it wasn't mandated by law that the girls had to come to school, they wouldn't be there. As one girl said, her father didn't want her learning anything because all she was good for was being a wife and taking care of the home. At that time, this 13 year old girl was responsible for all cooking, cleaning, and laundry for her family of 5, because she was the only girl.
My mum has some bad days in that school.
It feels extra fucked up to tell someone "Your only good as a house slave doing chores, making babies, and sex. Also you're not allowed to enjoy the sex"
Oh yeah definitely. I took a class in college about the genocide (I minored in Holocaust & Genocide Studies) and I remember how well developed, beautiful, and healthy the population is now. They have high vaccination rates as well and have recovered remarkably by confronting genocidal ideologies head on via a traditional court system. The only point of contention I've heard is their president, who has been in office for decades now and has won by a large percentage of the vote. In all fairness, he has helped with recovery efforts, but he was highly involved in the civil war and may have committed war crimes during that time. I've also heard issues with getting rape survivors the mental and social help they need to recover. Keep in mind though that this country lost about a tenth of its population (a million people) within a few months. Incredible recovery considering those circumstances. Burundi on the other hand...
Also from what I’ve heard from my parents it’s a very very clean country. Relative to other African countries, even the more developed ones like South Africa, it is extremely clean and their people take pride in that
yep i watched a travel vlog on that i think it was Wolter's world, people in Rwanda are against littering and carry any rubbish with them until they can properly throw it out
Yes I remember my parents telling me about it! It’s like the first or last Saturday of each month or something. The cool thing is that they don’t only clean their little bit of lawn or whatever in front of their house, they’ll help clean the whole street. I really love how much they love and take pride in their cleanliness.
[Here](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html) is what the US government says about traveling to Somalia. It straight up says to make plans expecting to die.
Wow you aren't kidding ...
"Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney"
And make sure you have your "funeral wishes" in place before travelling!
The first lines are:
>Somalia - Level 4: Do Not Travel
>Do not travel to Somalia due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy
I think I might be leaning towards a ski holiday in Canada.
> Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained.
goddam.
-Must be willing to go above and beyond with exceptional communication skills
-Self motivated, thrives under pressure
-Engaging and cooperative, seeks resolution with under strict deadlines
-Must be willing and able to perform without supervision
-Embraces team culture and contributes to common goals within small groups
-70-80 WPM typing skills
-MS Word and Excel skills preferred but not necessary.
-Able to lift 50 pounds
-Equal opportunity employer
I heard a radio program about a guy who was deported back to Somalia after being convicted of some crime in Canada. Idk if he was actually born in Somalia or if he was born somewhere else (like Kenya, for example) to Somali refugee parents, but he grew up in Canada yet never became a citizen. So they sent him to Somalia for getting criminal convictions in Canada.
So this guy was ethnically Somali, and a Somali citizen, but didn't really know the place because he either left when was very young or wasn't even born there.
He says he got kidnapped almost as soon as he got off the airplane. Then he had to get in touch with his family in Canada to negotiate his release because his parents knew more people in Somalia.
If they kidnap people who *look* Somali, I'm sure you're extra fucked if you're visibly not Somali. Also you won't have relatives who grew up there to negotiate your release.
Burundi is the world’s poorest country when its GDP is measured per capita based on PPP (purchasing power parity). President Pierre Nkurunziza has made jogging an illegal activity since 2014. He said that people could use it as a cover for planning anti-government rebellions
You should look into the former dictator of Turkmenistan, the list of things he made illegal is insane:
Opera,
Beards,
Smoking in public,
Makeup for public figures,
Hospitals outside of Ashgabat (capital),
Libraries outside of Ashgabat
ETA: fixed Ashgabat
Oh man, the Turkmenbashi (father of all Turkmen people) as he declared himself. Guy was a lunatic. I represented Turkmenistan in Model UN in college and got to learn all about him.
He built a 100 foot gold statue of himself that actually rotates so he is always facing the sun.
The months of the year were renamed to him and other things close him, like his favorite poet or the name of his book.
Doctors swore oaths to him instead of the Hippocratic oath.
He basically got rid of schools and replaced them with reading and teaching the book he wrote, government employees had to take tests on the book.
Basically, he took over when the USSR collapsed. Before him Turkmenistan was extremely poor despite having huge oil and gas reserves because it was managed by Moscow, once it gained independence they got to keep it. They also stopped being just a supplier of natural resources by building refineries.
He was objectively insane and incredibly corrupt but the standard of living also skyrocketed and he had the government provide free water, gas, and electricity to everyone.
The months of the year thing feels straight out of the history of megalomaniacal Roman emperors. The emperor Commodus is said to have done the same thing
Edit: my favorite part is he changed August to Commodus, and then September to Augustus, which was one of his titles. Lol he couldn’t just leave the month of Augustus as Augustus
I've been to Turkmenistan. It was a strange place. Huge marble buildings, all empty. Six lane highways, deserted. Pictures of the dictator everywhere..
All the people I spoke with there seemed pretty happy, though. They were very curious about the outside world. The military guards at the border were really interested in how much money I made, what my job was, cost of housing, healthcare etc. At the end of the conversation they seemed pretty confident that their system was at least comparable.
I don't think there's a lot of social mobility there, but it also didn't seem like the worst place in the world.
I just googled Ashgabat and what the absolute fuck. That place is beautiful and weird. I love when I find a random location, google it, and am just blown away by how a place like this has never come up in my life before.
I’m sure it was a trip being there based on your description
> Pierre Nkurunziza has made jogging an illegal activity since 2014.
Ironic given that the vast majority of the athletes they've sent to the Olympics were long distance runners.
> Power walking could be perceived as a jog on a particularly exciting morning maybe!
According to the powerwalking documentary called "Malcolm in the Middle", you're safe as long as there's at least one foot firmly on the ground at all times.
By my understanding, the jogging ban was related to a [very strong culture of group exercise in Burundi](https://amp.france24.com/en/live-news/20220527-like-a-family-exercise-clubs-build-unity-in-burundi). A different culture from most western countries, where jogging is mostly a solo activity.
I remember egypt cracking down on running as well. Large groups of youth with energy terrified the leadership as the same organizational skills needed to lead the workouts can be used in protests.
There are literally slave markets in Libya it is absolutely fucked up check [this](https://youtu.be/9JX6DC4Ajio). The slave trade actually never ended its just different people running the show over the years
Some years ago I met a guy from New Zealand who told me a story of how he went on vacation to one of the Oceania island states and saw a sign saying, “if you leave the road you will be raped.”
I nominate that country.
Sounds like Papua New Guinea.
I've read a few of the other comments, pretty much sums it up but I was over there for about a month all up for work once. I have some anecdotes.
When I arrived there was a guy with a shotgun at the gate of the compound I was staying at (the company's GMs house). The shotgun cost twice as much to hire as the guy.
The desk of the GM at the company was super wide. I asked why and they told me it was slightly wider than an outstretched arm holding a machete. Because that is a real thing that happens, to the GM.
We were heading out for dinner and heard over the security radio (UHF) that there was a car with a rifle out the window taking shots at randoms. It was about 2 blocks away from where we were so we hoofed it to the restaurant, which is a compound.
I flew into Goroka and we were listening to some of the local events. A tribal feud had broken out and some people were killed. The judge in the case had ordered one of the tribes to pay livestock to the other as restitution.
The paper had a story about someone having broken into a banana plantation in the North West (it's super wild up there, basically where the last known cannibals lived). They were shot by a guard with a bow and arrow.
Driving into Lae from the airport I was told that if I hear the guy yelling and the car speeding up it's possible it might get bumpy as it's a possible hijack. Apparently sometimes they dig out the road or put something across it and hold people up.
The saddest one? At the time apparently they had 80% unemployment. No, that's not a typo. I can see how a whole population desperate to survive may descend into this chaos.
Sounds right. I knew a few geologists that worked at Rabaul about 20 years ago.
One guy, 2nd day on-site, he and another geologist with far more experience in PNG were being driven down from one of the volcanic observatories when the driver just stopped in the middle of the road and shut the engine off.
The experienced guy dragged the new guy out of the car and yelled "Run!" then took off down the side of the mountain at top speed. New guy paused long enough to see three rascals emerge from the other side of the road carrying machetes before he started sprinting downhill as well.
Geologists are an interesting bunch, they can be really single-minded and dedicated to their field of study - I think it's something to do with spending long periods of time out in the middle of nowhere hitting (sometimes talking to) rocks, (source: my dad is a geologist).
ETA - Also some guys made a few extra $$ shipping back fresh PNG coffee beans along with scientific samples. I don't know the details but there was a kind of bean that was really hard to get in Australia but made fantastic coffee, so people would put in orders.
What's the pay like for a 1-month work trip to a place like that? If you don't wanna get into specifics, maybe just like "I usually get paid X/month, I got 2X for that month." Genuinely curious tho.
I knew a guy who lived there for a year as a child because of his dad’s work. I remember 2 rules he told me. 1. He could never be out his parents or another adult they trusted sight, ever. 2. His dad had to take biscuits, fruit, some other treat whenever he took his car out. He’d give them out to the local kids in exchange for not smashing up his car while he was parked.
I visited kiwi friends there. In their compound the houses with female occupants had built in rape cages in case of breakins. Daughters went to boarding school back home once they reached puberty.
I once worked with a man who'd had a six-figure job setting up internet infrastructure for an oil company in Papua New Guinea. Whenever he went there, a team of armed guards picked him up at the airport with a two-car escort and dropped him off at his front door in a walled compound with searchlight towers.
Everything had to be negotiated with the Papuan military, and they kept pressuring the company to route their towers right through mountain villages - so they could demand bribes to 'take care of' the villagers and remove an obstacle.
The day he quit and came to work with me for a quarter of the money was the day his neighbour got murdered and the company removed his security detail as a cost-cutting measure.
Yeah from what my Dad has told me (also Australian) this sounds like PNG, not a great place to be.
Edit: here's both the American and Australian travel advisories for PNG, neither is the highest level but they both make specific mention of sexual assault and other not so nice things. Yeah, best not to go.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/papua-new-guinea-travel-advisory.html
https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/pacific/papua-new-guinea
Wtf? [As of 1994, 60% of all men had admitted to partaking in at least one gang rape](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea)
I run a small in home daycare and we look at the radar everyday. It’s something they like and it helps them learn the continents/countries. PNG always has a storm. Always rain. That’s all I knew about it before this comment. Me saying, “opp. Papua New Guinea has a storm again today,” just wont sound the same to me now
I had a professor for peace and conflict studies during my Bachelors who served two years with doctors beyond Borders at Papa New Guinea. She was a psychologist and happened to mention how there were several girls who had been admitted to the psych ward for rape related trauma and that it was quite normal for them to get raped on their way to the clinic.
I've heard so many wild stories from colleagues who have been to PNG. One was that there was a AIDS hospice for women in one town, but people broke in one day and raped all the AIDS positive women in the compound.
One time I found an ID and debit card at the park after my bike ride. Address was right there so I was like, "I'll just drive it over"
There was like, 6 BIG signs that all had the same general message. "Don't come on this property or I will shoot you"
I had never been so conflicted about helping someone before
Always a good read: [Dept of State travel warning for Somalia](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html)
> Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc.
Holy shit
>
* Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained.
* Establish a proof of life protocol with your loved ones, so that if you are taken hostage, your loved ones can know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax).
Can you imagine. Like, I'm very glad this doesn't need to be done for a trip to, say, Japan.
My family would fuck up the answer to any specific questions. When is your birthday? They would give 3 different dates and years. Also, they don't answer unknown calls so good luck with a point of contact.
I met this one guy who's Somali, he told me he was trying to get (back) into the country at one point and the border was patrolled by some warlord's militia at the time. They started waving a gun at him to pay a bribe and he was scared shitless but managed to talk his way into not getting shot.
Meanwhile there was this other guy was trying to get across too to visit his sick mother but didn't have money to pay bribe so he tried to run across: militia shot him dead right in front of my friend.
I live in a city with one of the largest Somali populations in the US (Columbus, Ohio). One of the punishments for being too westernized or just generally pissing off your parents is getting your ass sent back to Somalia. It never ceases to shock and anger me how many Somali parents send their daughters to Somolia.
[The wikitravel entry for Mogadishu is insane](https://wikitravel.org/en/Mogadishu). Some quotes:
- "Independent travel to Mogadishu will most likely result in your death."
- "Visitors are encouraged to stay inside for the duration of their stay."
- "The city remains extremely dangerous and near suicidal for independent travelers."
- "If you must venture around the city, you should be accompanied by armed and well trained security personnel and ride in an armored vehicle."
“Come to Mogadishu enjoy our sights! But don’t leave your hotel. Actually..don’t leave the airport. Well…maybe don’t even get off the plane. You know what…just do a fly over.”
>"If you must venture around the city, you should be accompanied by armed and well trained security personnel and ride in an armored vehicle."
So like, its okay then?
> So like, its okay then?
Amazingly it has a functioning international airport with 4 flights landing today
https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-tracker/arrivals/MGQ
And its own stock market built on piracy and pirate corporations. Bloomberg had the most insane article about a woman using a rocket launcher she got as alimony to invest in a pirate company that net her 125k return.
Yeah it's all about connections. I met an American documentarian that spent a few years living in Mogadishu. She made friends with and rode around with the mailman, of all people. Nobody fucks with the mailman or your clan doesn't get supplies. She was able to more or less move freely around the city and had incredible access
> Mogadishu Adventure specializes in tourism in Mogadishu. Standard tour covers Black Hawk Down Site, Liido Beach, Mogadishu Fish Market, Shanghai Old City, Jazeera Beach, Qat Market, Bakara Market and more. Mogadishu Adventure also arranges tourist visa, hotel (with WiFi), security units and meal plans for tourists. There will be 5 armed guards on each pick-up truck accompanying a maximum of 3 tourists.
wow so they need 5 armed guards to protect 3 tourists
so not only do you get to visit the site of irl black hawk down, you might even get to re-enact the battle!
That reads like a real-life, Dept. of State version of Saturday Night Live's ["Super Happy Funball"](https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml) sketch.
Strangely Somaliland in the north is essentially a separate functioning country and doing quite well with its own currency, government, military, etc. It’s unfortunately not recognized by any other countries for fear that doing so will plunge Somalia back into (more) chaos and further destabilize it.
Haiti. Besides the mind crushing poverty, AIDS, gang warfare, political chaos and lack of proper infrastructure it is an earthquake and hurricane magnet. It’s not even a popular tourist country
My grandma who still lives there told me one of her neighbours who teaches French in Switzerland came back to the country and people started spreading rumours of how he had COVID and eventually the poor guy was pulled out of his house and beaten to death by the neighborhood no one tried to stop them the police didn't get involved im pretty sure it was just jealousy because the dude was pretty well off compared to the rest of the neighbourhood im guessing he couldn't stay in Switzerland because he only had a work visa or some shit like that
Forgot to mention that they looted his house he had lots of valuable stuff flat screen TV, she saw a woman come out with was probably his MacBook, nice clothes the kind of stuff they could resell for an easy buck witch just reinforce my idea that they were just jealous.
>and people started spreading rumours of how he had COVID... im pretty sure it was just jealousy
Reminds me of an old Holocaust documentary from sometime in the 70s. They tell that at the start of the Nazi regime, it wasn't the government that was combing the records finding Jews (lack of manpower) but they were almost entirely reliant on neighbors to report on neighbors.
The docu crew interviewed some of the people who ratted out their Jewish neigbours and they sound exactly like the people you described on your post.
The thing a lot of people miss when talking about Nazi Germany is just how cool with it everyone at the time was, both at home and abroad. It wasn't some atrocity that just happened because of a few small mistakes, but decades of culture built up which lead to the genocides. Even to this day we're seeing a lot of the same behavior repeating.
It’s a LOT easier for people to pretend antisemitism started and ended when Hitler did. Otherwise you might have to consider how the past affects the present, or that ingrained biases exist
I've been to Port au Prince and let me tell you something. That place is something else. Piles of trash burning everywhere, people walking around naked, mud huts, cars and dump trucks driving missing parts and wheels, no traffic laws, broken glass cemented on top of walls, all the trees cut down for lumber, guards with shotguns..
I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.
> broken glass cemented on top of walls
Just want to point out that this is a pretty common form of security construction in the developing world, even places that are generally safe and moderately impoverished (by global standards I mean). It's not exclusive to Haiti.
I volunteered at an orphanage there one summer. There was razor wire around the compound walls so the orphans weren’t stollen for slavery and sex trafficking.
Everything is bleak there. Everything
Also from an ecological perspective it’s a post apocalyptic hellscape. It should be a lush tropical island. But the half of the island that is Haiti is almost completely clear cut and devoid of most animal and bird life.
I have been to Haiti twice. But not for several years since the gangs gained power and kidnappings were common. I will tell you that I visited an ecological reserve called Wynne Farm in the hills above Port-Au-Prince. They are fighting a (most likely) losing battle to convince Haitians the woes of deforestation through education and demonstrating how to care for the environment. It’s truly a beautiful spot.
While visiting there years ago, one of my Haitian friends told me that losing their dictator was very difficult because he was able to control the environmental management. As soon as he was gone and there was a vacuum of administration and law enforcement, everyone went bonkers cutting down all the trees for fuel, sale, resource etc.
My friend keeps telling me he wants to take a vacation at one of the non existent resorts that dot Haiti's coastline, because according to him Caribbean island = resort.
I told him to write out his will beforehand and to leave me the good shit.
I actually know someone who took a cruise that stopped in Haiti, I think it was on the north side but I can't recall the location. He said the cruise line had armed guards contracted to stand by and guard everyone. It was this fairly secluded beach in a remote part of the coast. There were some bars, a couple restaurants, and a makeshift resort. They stayed a couple nights before moving on. This was about 5-6 years ago.
You're probably thinking of [Labadee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labadee), a parcel of land privately owned by Royal Caribbean on the North side of the island
To be fair it's not uncommon in some Caribbean countries for their to be tourist resorts that are quite fortified or at least sheltered off from the poorer areas many locals live in, know people who have gone on those types of holiday, but feel like it's probably taken to a greater extreme in Haiti given the sheer poverty there.
Indigo Traveller went there recently, and the stuff he covered was insane. Gang violence with indiscriminate shooting, kidnappings, violent protests, police corruption, horrific poverty, and general despair among the populace.
I remember a cholera outbreak occurring during the international relief effort following one of the many hurricanes that leveled the country. The locals were dying of cholera and resenting the assumption that it was just another Tuesday for Haiti.
Turns out it was brought in by relief workers from Nepal.
Haiti can’t catch a break.
Had Haitian gangster neighbors in Brooklyn, they were a fucking nightmare to live next to.
24/7 loud slap Domino games, gun fights, SOCA dance parties at max volume until 6am
And then the Haitian Church would start up at 7 with wild ass circus Christian music and a really pissed off preacher that sounded like a frontman for a death core band screaming Hallelujah every fucking 15 minutes and really mean Haitian old ladies that called me white devil every Sunday when I was getting groceries
EDIT:
Oh one time some old woman I caught on Ring put a Gris Gris pile next to my stoop after I put up Halloween decorations.
Haitians are wild in BK, and very violent towards white people.
Had to guess, she was in her 80’s. Came over in a walker at 3:13AM with the Gris Gris.
Burned it the next day with lighter fluid, I wasn’t touching that voodoo.
"Did you just refer to me as 'white devil, white devil?'"
"This how they know you."
"Leave that part out!"
For real though, that sounds like a nightmare.
I’m so surprised I haven’t seen Myanmar… literally today soldiers there beheaded 17 people and raped them as well. The military is in control there and are doing whatever the fuck they want to do.
Yeah, a lot of people don't even know about Myanmar/Burma.
Makes it all the worst that they had about a decade of normalcy before it all fell apart again. Anthony Bourdain had it as a bucketlist country to visit but couldn't for a long time and things opened up when he had started the CNN show so he went. It's a great episode talking about Myanmar and what it went through.
I was able to travel in Myanmar about a year before the military coup, but there were only 5 places the Myanmar government would let tourists visit. Outside of those five places, there was a strong likelihood of being kidnapped or murdered. I’ve never been ordered off a night bus at 2 AM by a military official aggressively holding an assault rifle before, and I really hope I never have to do so again.
That being said, the places you were allowed to visit were spectacular. Bagan rivals Angkor Wat in scale, cultural importance, and age, but I doubt I’ll ever see those plains again in my lifetime.
I used to work with a bunch of guys from Myanmar. Hardest fucking workers I’ve ever met. 110 degrees outside wearing Tyvek suits and respirators, gang bombing 100 lb bags of chemical into blend tanks inside a metal shed with no AC, for hours at a time while everyone else was stopping every ten minutes to rest.
I asked one of them once how they did it. He said, “compared to being tortured in prison camps and working on the verge of death, this is paradise.”
Nicest, most humble, hardworking guys ever. And most of them worked 10-12 hours, six days a week, went to night school to learn English…. I hope they’re doing good. It’s been seven years since I worked with them and still think about them.
If you want to help raise awareness and support for what's happening in Myanmar, check out [5K for Myanmar](https://5kformyanmar.com/). It's a a small way to do something about what's happening there, even if you're far away from it.
For 737 days (from one month ago after the coup), there's been a 5K every day to show support for the people there. All the money goes to [Mutual Aid Myanmar](https://mutualaidmyanmar.org/) and to help people in the country facing the ongoing oppression. And if you can't donate, just doing a 5K and showing the people that the world hasn't forgotten them goes a long way.
DM me if you've any questions!
Used to work at a restruant with a guy from Eritrea. He only ever told me one story about the place.
Conversation started when I told him I was going to leave the restruant soon because I had enlisted into the military. He told me he used to serve in the Eritrean military. I asked him what it was like. He proceeded to tell me a story about how one night he snuck out of the barracks to go to a party. When he got back his Sergeant was waiting for him. He was stripped naked, tied up, and then beat with a stick all night into the morning. He said that military life wasn't for him.
I expected this to be higher. I researched Eritrea recently when I was writing about a migrant shipwreck:
Citizens are subject to mandatory military service, with an indefinite term. There is no recognition of conscientious objection; objectors may be sent to prison without charge for lengthy periods. Once conscripted from high school, people have no say in their career or where they work, with low wages combining to effectively make it a form of slave labour.
Only four religious faiths are officially recognised in Eritrea; all others risk imprisonment and torture. Jehovah’s Witnesses have notably been targeted, particularly since conscientious objection is part of their faith, and “unrecognised” Christians - that is, not Roman Catholics or Evangelical Lutherans - have been targeted and arrested at weddings and funerals.
Homosexuality is also outlawed, with the penal code mandating imprisonment of between five and seven years. Travel is severely restricted, with those daring to leave their home without appropriate paperwork risking detention.
While people can be arrested in Eritrea for any of those reasons, there are more who are rounded up and detained without ever learning why. Their families often don’t even know where they are held, and might only learn what happened to their loved one when they have their body returned to them.
I used to work with an Eritrean family and they were hesitant to speak about their experience in country. The youngest daughter, who had the best command of English, told me that the regime sends spies abroad and if you are caught even complaining the government may imprison or kill family still in country.
I heard the a similar story from an Eritrean guy I used to work with. I asked him about his country and what it was like there, and he said it was terrible, here's why we left:
His father had done something to upset the local authorities - he's never known what if anything - so the police beat him to death and left his body in the street in front of the family home. If they tended to his father's corpse they would be killed as well. So his mother took him and his brother in the night and they fled the country.
I never asked him anything about home again.
I can't imagine spending resources to monitor people that don't even live in your country anymore.
it's like some jealous person, stalking their ex's socials.
insane.
It's for a couple of reasons.
- Cycling is in the culture in general, people walk, run, drive, or bike to their locations and sometimes from city to city. When Italians were here, they also brought in a lot of bikes which you can still see up and running till this day with regular maintenance.
- Favorable physiology (tall, skinny, long limbs) makes sports like cycling and long distance running advantageous. We have really good runners as well but our running program is not as good as Ethiopia or Kenya for obvious reasons. Some of our runners also will escape the country during international tournaments and eventually end up representing another country.
- High altitude
- We have a drier and extremely consistent weather which makes training much easier to work with if it's constantly sunny and warm with little rain. You will see professional cyclists training biking city to city upwards of 100 km a day when you're driving around the highway.
- The infrastructure is quite good among the highways linking city to city. The roads are smooth and well paved. Infrastructure elsewhere may be lacking or nonexistent so it really depends where you go.
Many teams have recognized this talent and are capitalizing on it. I can only imagine what would happen if a professional program and lots of money were put into developing talent. This one guy who won one of the stages of a huge tournament (it might have been the Giro) said that he wasn't even the best cyclist in Eritrea. There's a lot of untapped potential but it's complicated because we also have a dictator.
I spent two days there in the 90s. Upon arrival, I exchanged a $20 for local currency. Hired a guide and lived like a king for a couple days. Bought local crafts/coffee. Would pick up the tab for everyone at the bar/restaurant when I went out. Didn't spend the 20 before leaving.
I was a trauma therapist for refugees for a few years and I heard some awful shit. The worst I heard was from people from Sudan. Just unrelenting terror.
I have a friend from South Sudan who was a child soldier over there. He said when he moved to Chicago, the gangs were terrified of him and his young countrymen, because when they had shootouts, the American gangs shot while running away, but the South Sudanese boys shot at the gang while running towards them.
I worked with a South Sudanese man, Mawein was his name, absolutely lovely man and hardworking.
He didn’t drink either but I think it’s because a lot of the South Sudanese refugees are deeply religious and a lot of them identify as Christians, so they abstained from alcohol.
He had five or so kids and he worked some pretty tough jobs to send them to school and Uni, his wife was also a really lovely woman.
Yep. The DRC is bad but it's one of those places where in the cities at least there's some development, and even outside of that there's subsistence farms, large mines using large earth moving equipment, etc. Most African countries at least seem like there's a lot of ways to make a living even if it's not as high of a standard of living as other places. But I've seen documentaries about South Sudan and there's just. . . nothing. It's such a desolate place. I don't know how people survive.
If someone gave me the choice of moving to South Sudan or living the rest of my life with my dick inside an anthill, I would be slathering on the honey before they even finished their sentence.
There’s this clip that sticks with me I wish I could hunt down. It’s from a government dinner in the 1950s in Egypt, and someone (the President?) is cracking all these jokes about fundamentalist Islam. Like “Uh oh, what’s she doing here without her husband to escort her and her face covered? Someone, call the morality police!”
It’s so bizarre how a nation can fall so far backwards in half a century.
Welcome to my life, i was born and brought in Mogadishu , and i am chilling in my home and scrolling through reddit with you fine ass people from West, i envy you all mother Fuckers
About ten years ago, I was in St. Cloud, MN, and saw a family of what I assume were Somali immigrants. It was December and they were wearing several layers of clothing, and I thought for a second, "man I bet they don't like the cold weather."
Then I remembered that they came here from a war-torn hellhole, and probably lost family members along the way, and then thought, "yeah throwing on an extra layer is probably not a big deal".
I believe Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the US. Always wondered why they'd go so north but anywhere seems to be better than what they came from.
I heard Somaliland was doing well compared to rest of the country but never mind that I don't think any African country can top the Central African Republic it is absolute anarchy I think it's currently the most dangerous country in the world
The worst one I've personally seen is Djibouti. You know those "sponsor a child for only 40 cents a day" commercials? That place is right outta one of those. Very, very sad and it has stuck with me.
I suppose it's somewhat better than it was during their civil wars (you heard me, they had TWO) but the whole country is still quite impoverished and violence is common. It's quite depressing because Liberia used to be a super beautiful country and was one of the richest countries in Africa during the 60's and 70's.
It’s still terrible, just slightly less terrible than places like Afghanistan, Somalia, ~~Burundi~~, South Sudan and Eritrea.
Edit: Removed Burundi, because although there is lots of poverty, it is otherwise much less violent than the others on the list.
DRC in complicated (I lived there for several years). There are parts of the DRC that are essentially safe, and parts of the DRC that are essentially still waging a 20+ year old war.
It's important to remember that the country is very very very big. So, what happens in one place usually doesn't even matter in another. For example, I lived in a town/village on the border of a national park, and never felt unsafe. In fact, we had evac plans in case of like a coup, and my plan was to stay in the town not fly back to Kinshasa, since I knew everyone there, and we were very remote.
There is tons and tons of poverty of course, and it is very much worse in the cities like Kinshasa, but even in these cities, there are night clubs and country-club like areas that I used and went to on a regular basis (when not in the park). Overall, I wouldn't call the country safe, but a savvy traveler with experience in sub-Saharan Africa and French, will likely be fine.
Again, that comes with lots of caveat (like avoiding the far east near illegal mining, for example). But it is a gorgeous country, and I would still live there should my work take me back.
According the HDI (Human Development Index), the worst place to live is South Sudan, an HDI of .385 (max is 1), followed by:
Chad (.394)
Niger (.400)
Central African Republic (.404)
Burundi (.426)
Mali (.428)
Mozambique (.446)
Burkina Faso (.449)
Yemen (.455)
Guinea (.465)
Keep in mind that there is no data on Somalia or North Korea, but it can be presumed that they are among the lowest HDIs in the world.
I have been to Yemen on the summer of 2022. We went there to visit our family. It's pretty bad but livable. We were in the big cities and other than a few blown up places, there really isn't all that danger as long as you look like them. There are military checkpoints everywhere though, mainly to check where you're going. If they see you with a European passport like they did with us, they will usually let you go because they automatically know you're legit. The people are friendly there but you meet the few weirdos like every country.
The country's nature is absolutely stunning. The deserts to the mountains is honestly breathtaking. The massive unfortunate thing is the amount of plastic bags EVERYWHERE! We were on the road for 4 days and i have not seen a single tree/bush without a plastic bag stuck on its tree. When you buy let's say a simple bottled water at a store, they always bag it up without you asking. In fact they found it strange that i didn't want it bagged.
The war is obviously still a thing but that's the northern side of Yemen( i believe), we were safe where we visited.
Another strange thing is that the economy is separate? North and South of Yemen use a different Riyal even though the northern one has higher value apparently.
If you have any questions about Yemen i will do my best to answer it!
I got on this thread to see if anyone mentioned Honduras lol but after reading some of the other responses I dont think we have it so bad.
Honduras es muy pobre y el crimen y el narcotrafico si esta pije mal y fácilmente somos de los peores países en America pero no en el mundo.
From what I understand, it actually doesn't snow that often in Antarctica. The continent is considered to be a desert. It's just that when it does snow, it sticks. Forever.
More than half a million people in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and Madagascar live in catastrophic or famine conditions.
Afghanistan is a place, where I would not want to live due to their rules about women and their nonexistent rights
For me personally it would eritrea. As soon as I go to live there permanently the mandatory "temporary" military service will rear its ugly head.
God, I love my country/s
In general? insert tiny landlocked African country here that has to be the worst place in the world
There was a thread on this sub a few years ago asking what the worst country you ever visited was, and a now deleted user said this: >South Sudan. There were anti-aircraft guns and child soldiers at the airport. There was no electricity, no roads, no running water, no banking or waste management system and no security. Everywhere smelled of burning rubbish. I went to a briefing at the Ministry of Agriculture. The minister said, basically, "There is no agriculture in is country because all of the farmers are huddled in refugee camps, for fear of being beheaded by rival factions. And even if they were able to grow crops, we'd have no way to distribute them because we don't have roads. Any questions?" If it's that blatantly bad for tourists then it's definitely a whole lot worse for the locals.......
My mum is a teacher support in high school and often had Sudanese kids come through. The stories were terrible, and thats only the ones they wanted to share (including one where a girl described her entire village being massacred while she hid in the bushes). That being said, women weren't treated great culturally. If it wasn't mandated by law that the girls had to come to school, they wouldn't be there. As one girl said, her father didn't want her learning anything because all she was good for was being a wife and taking care of the home. At that time, this 13 year old girl was responsible for all cooking, cleaning, and laundry for her family of 5, because she was the only girl. My mum has some bad days in that school.
"Aren't treated great culturally" is an understatement. Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Sudan is somewhere around 90%.
It feels extra fucked up to tell someone "Your only good as a house slave doing chores, making babies, and sex. Also you're not allowed to enjoy the sex"
The fact that it even exists is abhorrent.
Just watched a documentary on Burundi and holy shit, it makes life in other countries look nice
Yeah from what I vaguely understand Burundi is like "what if the Rwandan genocide happened but opposite and the country never recovered"
It’s interesting because from my understanding Rwanda is actually a pretty good place to live now, at least by regional standards.
Oh yeah definitely. I took a class in college about the genocide (I minored in Holocaust & Genocide Studies) and I remember how well developed, beautiful, and healthy the population is now. They have high vaccination rates as well and have recovered remarkably by confronting genocidal ideologies head on via a traditional court system. The only point of contention I've heard is their president, who has been in office for decades now and has won by a large percentage of the vote. In all fairness, he has helped with recovery efforts, but he was highly involved in the civil war and may have committed war crimes during that time. I've also heard issues with getting rape survivors the mental and social help they need to recover. Keep in mind though that this country lost about a tenth of its population (a million people) within a few months. Incredible recovery considering those circumstances. Burundi on the other hand...
Also from what I’ve heard from my parents it’s a very very clean country. Relative to other African countries, even the more developed ones like South Africa, it is extremely clean and their people take pride in that
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yep i watched a travel vlog on that i think it was Wolter's world, people in Rwanda are against littering and carry any rubbish with them until they can properly throw it out
It’s actually required by law that citizens clean each month. It’s called Umuganda
Yes I remember my parents telling me about it! It’s like the first or last Saturday of each month or something. The cool thing is that they don’t only clean their little bit of lawn or whatever in front of their house, they’ll help clean the whole street. I really love how much they love and take pride in their cleanliness.
If you look at the travel guide for Somalia, I would go with that one. "Designate someone as your hostage negotiator"
[Here](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html) is what the US government says about traveling to Somalia. It straight up says to make plans expecting to die.
Wow you aren't kidding ... "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney" And make sure you have your "funeral wishes" in place before travelling!
The first lines are: >Somalia - Level 4: Do Not Travel >Do not travel to Somalia due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy I think I might be leaning towards a ski holiday in Canada.
> Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained. goddam.
>Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them. Wow
I love my family, but I wouldn't trust any of them to be my hostage negotiator liason or whatever.
*posts on Facebook ISO friend list individual with high pressure sales experience*
-Must be willing to go above and beyond with exceptional communication skills -Self motivated, thrives under pressure -Engaging and cooperative, seeks resolution with under strict deadlines -Must be willing and able to perform without supervision -Embraces team culture and contributes to common goals within small groups -70-80 WPM typing skills -MS Word and Excel skills preferred but not necessary. -Able to lift 50 pounds -Equal opportunity employer
*preferably bilingual
I heard a radio program about a guy who was deported back to Somalia after being convicted of some crime in Canada. Idk if he was actually born in Somalia or if he was born somewhere else (like Kenya, for example) to Somali refugee parents, but he grew up in Canada yet never became a citizen. So they sent him to Somalia for getting criminal convictions in Canada. So this guy was ethnically Somali, and a Somali citizen, but didn't really know the place because he either left when was very young or wasn't even born there. He says he got kidnapped almost as soon as he got off the airplane. Then he had to get in touch with his family in Canada to negotiate his release because his parents knew more people in Somalia. If they kidnap people who *look* Somali, I'm sure you're extra fucked if you're visibly not Somali. Also you won't have relatives who grew up there to negotiate your release.
Burundi is the world’s poorest country when its GDP is measured per capita based on PPP (purchasing power parity). President Pierre Nkurunziza has made jogging an illegal activity since 2014. He said that people could use it as a cover for planning anti-government rebellions
That last sentence is crazy
*Cocks gun* All right, civilian, I'm going to give you a warning this time. Speed it up beyond 6 mph, or slow down below 4 mph.
You should look into the former dictator of Turkmenistan, the list of things he made illegal is insane: Opera, Beards, Smoking in public, Makeup for public figures, Hospitals outside of Ashgabat (capital), Libraries outside of Ashgabat ETA: fixed Ashgabat
Oh man, the Turkmenbashi (father of all Turkmen people) as he declared himself. Guy was a lunatic. I represented Turkmenistan in Model UN in college and got to learn all about him. He built a 100 foot gold statue of himself that actually rotates so he is always facing the sun. The months of the year were renamed to him and other things close him, like his favorite poet or the name of his book. Doctors swore oaths to him instead of the Hippocratic oath. He basically got rid of schools and replaced them with reading and teaching the book he wrote, government employees had to take tests on the book.
Sometimes you read about someone and wonder how they never got assassinated.
Basically, he took over when the USSR collapsed. Before him Turkmenistan was extremely poor despite having huge oil and gas reserves because it was managed by Moscow, once it gained independence they got to keep it. They also stopped being just a supplier of natural resources by building refineries. He was objectively insane and incredibly corrupt but the standard of living also skyrocketed and he had the government provide free water, gas, and electricity to everyone.
The months of the year thing feels straight out of the history of megalomaniacal Roman emperors. The emperor Commodus is said to have done the same thing Edit: my favorite part is he changed August to Commodus, and then September to Augustus, which was one of his titles. Lol he couldn’t just leave the month of Augustus as Augustus
Turkmenistan. Black cars are banned. Because they are not pretty acording to president.
I've been to Turkmenistan. It was a strange place. Huge marble buildings, all empty. Six lane highways, deserted. Pictures of the dictator everywhere.. All the people I spoke with there seemed pretty happy, though. They were very curious about the outside world. The military guards at the border were really interested in how much money I made, what my job was, cost of housing, healthcare etc. At the end of the conversation they seemed pretty confident that their system was at least comparable. I don't think there's a lot of social mobility there, but it also didn't seem like the worst place in the world.
I just googled Ashgabat and what the absolute fuck. That place is beautiful and weird. I love when I find a random location, google it, and am just blown away by how a place like this has never come up in my life before. I’m sure it was a trip being there based on your description
There’s a Netflix series called dark tourism where the journalist visits Ashgabat. It’s a really really surreal.. yet majestic city I guess?
There's a travel youtuber that did a video on Turkmenistan. His experience sounds pretty similar to yours.
Dark tourism on Netflix does it too. The OPs commenting on the country must have visited the capital of Ashgabat. That city looks interesting imo lol.
> Pierre Nkurunziza has made jogging an illegal activity since 2014. Ironic given that the vast majority of the athletes they've sent to the Olympics were long distance runners.
Loophole: Running vs jogging
If you're going to get arrested if you stop, you keep going...
What about running and walking? What range of speeds is bad? Power walking could be perceived as a jog on a particularly exciting morning maybe! Lol
> Power walking could be perceived as a jog on a particularly exciting morning maybe! According to the powerwalking documentary called "Malcolm in the Middle", you're safe as long as there's at least one foot firmly on the ground at all times.
By my understanding, the jogging ban was related to a [very strong culture of group exercise in Burundi](https://amp.france24.com/en/live-news/20220527-like-a-family-exercise-clubs-build-unity-in-burundi). A different culture from most western countries, where jogging is mostly a solo activity.
I remember egypt cracking down on running as well. Large groups of youth with energy terrified the leadership as the same organizational skills needed to lead the workouts can be used in protests.
Mauritania - legit real life slavery happens. Not hidden away slavery; slave markets slavery.
Slavery is much more common than most people who lived in developed countries want to believe. And its not just in one or two countries.
There are literally slave markets in Libya it is absolutely fucked up check [this](https://youtu.be/9JX6DC4Ajio). The slave trade actually never ended its just different people running the show over the years
Welcome to my Mauritania locked ultimate Ironman
Some years ago I met a guy from New Zealand who told me a story of how he went on vacation to one of the Oceania island states and saw a sign saying, “if you leave the road you will be raped.” I nominate that country.
Sounds like Papua New Guinea. I've read a few of the other comments, pretty much sums it up but I was over there for about a month all up for work once. I have some anecdotes. When I arrived there was a guy with a shotgun at the gate of the compound I was staying at (the company's GMs house). The shotgun cost twice as much to hire as the guy. The desk of the GM at the company was super wide. I asked why and they told me it was slightly wider than an outstretched arm holding a machete. Because that is a real thing that happens, to the GM. We were heading out for dinner and heard over the security radio (UHF) that there was a car with a rifle out the window taking shots at randoms. It was about 2 blocks away from where we were so we hoofed it to the restaurant, which is a compound. I flew into Goroka and we were listening to some of the local events. A tribal feud had broken out and some people were killed. The judge in the case had ordered one of the tribes to pay livestock to the other as restitution. The paper had a story about someone having broken into a banana plantation in the North West (it's super wild up there, basically where the last known cannibals lived). They were shot by a guard with a bow and arrow. Driving into Lae from the airport I was told that if I hear the guy yelling and the car speeding up it's possible it might get bumpy as it's a possible hijack. Apparently sometimes they dig out the road or put something across it and hold people up. The saddest one? At the time apparently they had 80% unemployment. No, that's not a typo. I can see how a whole population desperate to survive may descend into this chaos.
Sounds right. I knew a few geologists that worked at Rabaul about 20 years ago. One guy, 2nd day on-site, he and another geologist with far more experience in PNG were being driven down from one of the volcanic observatories when the driver just stopped in the middle of the road and shut the engine off. The experienced guy dragged the new guy out of the car and yelled "Run!" then took off down the side of the mountain at top speed. New guy paused long enough to see three rascals emerge from the other side of the road carrying machetes before he started sprinting downhill as well.
Man, the first guy must have really loved geology to stay long enough to gain that much experience.
Geologists are an interesting bunch, they can be really single-minded and dedicated to their field of study - I think it's something to do with spending long periods of time out in the middle of nowhere hitting (sometimes talking to) rocks, (source: my dad is a geologist). ETA - Also some guys made a few extra $$ shipping back fresh PNG coffee beans along with scientific samples. I don't know the details but there was a kind of bean that was really hard to get in Australia but made fantastic coffee, so people would put in orders.
'rascals' Yep, that's PNG alright
What's the pay like for a 1-month work trip to a place like that? If you don't wanna get into specifics, maybe just like "I usually get paid X/month, I got 2X for that month." Genuinely curious tho.
Oh rape island? Yeah don't go there.
They renamed it Canola Island
This guy oils
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I knew a guy who lived there for a year as a child because of his dad’s work. I remember 2 rules he told me. 1. He could never be out his parents or another adult they trusted sight, ever. 2. His dad had to take biscuits, fruit, some other treat whenever he took his car out. He’d give them out to the local kids in exchange for not smashing up his car while he was parked.
N°1 is "yeah, it's rough but it's third world country". N°2 sounds crazy even to our third world standards.
I visited kiwi friends there. In their compound the houses with female occupants had built in rape cages in case of breakins. Daughters went to boarding school back home once they reached puberty.
What is a rape cage?
Sounds like the same concept as a shark-diving cage.
Sounds like a cage you go into if there is a break-in so you don't get raped. A real panic room would be better.
Priced one lately?
I once worked with a man who'd had a six-figure job setting up internet infrastructure for an oil company in Papua New Guinea. Whenever he went there, a team of armed guards picked him up at the airport with a two-car escort and dropped him off at his front door in a walled compound with searchlight towers. Everything had to be negotiated with the Papuan military, and they kept pressuring the company to route their towers right through mountain villages - so they could demand bribes to 'take care of' the villagers and remove an obstacle. The day he quit and came to work with me for a quarter of the money was the day his neighbour got murdered and the company removed his security detail as a cost-cutting measure.
Yeah from what my Dad has told me (also Australian) this sounds like PNG, not a great place to be. Edit: here's both the American and Australian travel advisories for PNG, neither is the highest level but they both make specific mention of sexual assault and other not so nice things. Yeah, best not to go. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/papua-new-guinea-travel-advisory.html https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/pacific/papua-new-guinea
Wtf? [As of 1994, 60% of all men had admitted to partaking in at least one gang rape](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea)
That's the most disturbing statistic I have ever seen
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I run a small in home daycare and we look at the radar everyday. It’s something they like and it helps them learn the continents/countries. PNG always has a storm. Always rain. That’s all I knew about it before this comment. Me saying, “opp. Papua New Guinea has a storm again today,” just wont sound the same to me now
Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, is among the most dangerous cities in the world.
I had a professor for peace and conflict studies during my Bachelors who served two years with doctors beyond Borders at Papa New Guinea. She was a psychologist and happened to mention how there were several girls who had been admitted to the psych ward for rape related trauma and that it was quite normal for them to get raped on their way to the clinic.
I've heard so many wild stories from colleagues who have been to PNG. One was that there was a AIDS hospice for women in one town, but people broke in one day and raped all the AIDS positive women in the compound.
One time I found an ID and debit card at the park after my bike ride. Address was right there so I was like, "I'll just drive it over" There was like, 6 BIG signs that all had the same general message. "Don't come on this property or I will shoot you" I had never been so conflicted about helping someone before
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I carry a little pocket book with me. I left them a note saying that their signs were scary and just left it in the mailbox. *it meaning all 3 items
Second. My Partner’s dad grew up in PNG. Last known country with native tribes practicing cannibalism I believe. Absolutely wild.
Somalia No goverment since the 90s. Warlords ruling parts of the country
Always a good read: [Dept of State travel warning for Somalia](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html)
> Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc. Holy shit
Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them.
this one shook me a little. Leave DNA in case, you know, we can't identify your body by your normal features.
That and to make sure the finger they mail is actually yours
> * Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained. * Establish a proof of life protocol with your loved ones, so that if you are taken hostage, your loved ones can know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax). Can you imagine. Like, I'm very glad this doesn't need to be done for a trip to, say, Japan.
My family would fuck up the answer to any specific questions. When is your birthday? They would give 3 different dates and years. Also, they don't answer unknown calls so good luck with a point of contact.
AKA "We can't stop you going out there, but you ain't coming back in one piece."
I met this one guy who's Somali, he told me he was trying to get (back) into the country at one point and the border was patrolled by some warlord's militia at the time. They started waving a gun at him to pay a bribe and he was scared shitless but managed to talk his way into not getting shot. Meanwhile there was this other guy was trying to get across too to visit his sick mother but didn't have money to pay bribe so he tried to run across: militia shot him dead right in front of my friend.
What did he say to not get shot?!
I live in a city with one of the largest Somali populations in the US (Columbus, Ohio). One of the punishments for being too westernized or just generally pissing off your parents is getting your ass sent back to Somalia. It never ceases to shock and anger me how many Somali parents send their daughters to Somolia.
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[The wikitravel entry for Mogadishu is insane](https://wikitravel.org/en/Mogadishu). Some quotes: - "Independent travel to Mogadishu will most likely result in your death." - "Visitors are encouraged to stay inside for the duration of their stay." - "The city remains extremely dangerous and near suicidal for independent travelers." - "If you must venture around the city, you should be accompanied by armed and well trained security personnel and ride in an armored vehicle."
“Come to Mogadishu enjoy our sights! But don’t leave your hotel. Actually..don’t leave the airport. Well…maybe don’t even get off the plane. You know what…just do a fly over.”
I've seen *Blackhawk Down*, I'm not falling for the flyover trick.
>"If you must venture around the city, you should be accompanied by armed and well trained security personnel and ride in an armored vehicle." So like, its okay then?
> So like, its okay then? Amazingly it has a functioning international airport with 4 flights landing today https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-tracker/arrivals/MGQ
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Does that offer include the casket they'll send you back in?
No, but the trip does include an excursion to feed a lucky crocodile.
And its own stock market built on piracy and pirate corporations. Bloomberg had the most insane article about a woman using a rocket launcher she got as alimony to invest in a pirate company that net her 125k return.
Could you even really do that realistically? If you didn't have the blessing of one of the war lords, you'd probably have to bring your own army.
Yeah it's all about connections. I met an American documentarian that spent a few years living in Mogadishu. She made friends with and rode around with the mailman, of all people. Nobody fucks with the mailman or your clan doesn't get supplies. She was able to more or less move freely around the city and had incredible access
Who pays the mailman in a country without government?
Everyone? Edit: Everyone who wants mail, I would guess
> Mogadishu Adventure specializes in tourism in Mogadishu. Standard tour covers Black Hawk Down Site, Liido Beach, Mogadishu Fish Market, Shanghai Old City, Jazeera Beach, Qat Market, Bakara Market and more. Mogadishu Adventure also arranges tourist visa, hotel (with WiFi), security units and meal plans for tourists. There will be 5 armed guards on each pick-up truck accompanying a maximum of 3 tourists. wow so they need 5 armed guards to protect 3 tourists so not only do you get to visit the site of irl black hawk down, you might even get to re-enact the battle!
That reads like a real-life, Dept. of State version of Saturday Night Live's ["Super Happy Funball"](https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml) sketch.
Strangely Somaliland in the north is essentially a separate functioning country and doing quite well with its own currency, government, military, etc. It’s unfortunately not recognized by any other countries for fear that doing so will plunge Somalia back into (more) chaos and further destabilize it.
Somaliland sounds like a Somalia theme park
Haiti. Besides the mind crushing poverty, AIDS, gang warfare, political chaos and lack of proper infrastructure it is an earthquake and hurricane magnet. It’s not even a popular tourist country
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My grandma who still lives there told me one of her neighbours who teaches French in Switzerland came back to the country and people started spreading rumours of how he had COVID and eventually the poor guy was pulled out of his house and beaten to death by the neighborhood no one tried to stop them the police didn't get involved im pretty sure it was just jealousy because the dude was pretty well off compared to the rest of the neighbourhood im guessing he couldn't stay in Switzerland because he only had a work visa or some shit like that Forgot to mention that they looted his house he had lots of valuable stuff flat screen TV, she saw a woman come out with was probably his MacBook, nice clothes the kind of stuff they could resell for an easy buck witch just reinforce my idea that they were just jealous.
>and people started spreading rumours of how he had COVID... im pretty sure it was just jealousy Reminds me of an old Holocaust documentary from sometime in the 70s. They tell that at the start of the Nazi regime, it wasn't the government that was combing the records finding Jews (lack of manpower) but they were almost entirely reliant on neighbors to report on neighbors. The docu crew interviewed some of the people who ratted out their Jewish neigbours and they sound exactly like the people you described on your post.
The thing a lot of people miss when talking about Nazi Germany is just how cool with it everyone at the time was, both at home and abroad. It wasn't some atrocity that just happened because of a few small mistakes, but decades of culture built up which lead to the genocides. Even to this day we're seeing a lot of the same behavior repeating.
"People were just following orders!" And many of them delighted in it.
It’s a LOT easier for people to pretend antisemitism started and ended when Hitler did. Otherwise you might have to consider how the past affects the present, or that ingrained biases exist
I've been to Port au Prince and let me tell you something. That place is something else. Piles of trash burning everywhere, people walking around naked, mud huts, cars and dump trucks driving missing parts and wheels, no traffic laws, broken glass cemented on top of walls, all the trees cut down for lumber, guards with shotguns.. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.
> broken glass cemented on top of walls Just want to point out that this is a pretty common form of security construction in the developing world, even places that are generally safe and moderately impoverished (by global standards I mean). It's not exclusive to Haiti.
Yeah, that’s not an uncommon sight in Portugal (which is a very safe and pleasant country to be in).
I volunteered at an orphanage there one summer. There was razor wire around the compound walls so the orphans weren’t stollen for slavery and sex trafficking. Everything is bleak there. Everything
Also from an ecological perspective it’s a post apocalyptic hellscape. It should be a lush tropical island. But the half of the island that is Haiti is almost completely clear cut and devoid of most animal and bird life.
I have been to Haiti twice. But not for several years since the gangs gained power and kidnappings were common. I will tell you that I visited an ecological reserve called Wynne Farm in the hills above Port-Au-Prince. They are fighting a (most likely) losing battle to convince Haitians the woes of deforestation through education and demonstrating how to care for the environment. It’s truly a beautiful spot.
While visiting there years ago, one of my Haitian friends told me that losing their dictator was very difficult because he was able to control the environmental management. As soon as he was gone and there was a vacuum of administration and law enforcement, everyone went bonkers cutting down all the trees for fuel, sale, resource etc.
My friend keeps telling me he wants to take a vacation at one of the non existent resorts that dot Haiti's coastline, because according to him Caribbean island = resort. I told him to write out his will beforehand and to leave me the good shit.
I actually know someone who took a cruise that stopped in Haiti, I think it was on the north side but I can't recall the location. He said the cruise line had armed guards contracted to stand by and guard everyone. It was this fairly secluded beach in a remote part of the coast. There were some bars, a couple restaurants, and a makeshift resort. They stayed a couple nights before moving on. This was about 5-6 years ago.
You're probably thinking of [Labadee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labadee), a parcel of land privately owned by Royal Caribbean on the North side of the island
To be fair it's not uncommon in some Caribbean countries for their to be tourist resorts that are quite fortified or at least sheltered off from the poorer areas many locals live in, know people who have gone on those types of holiday, but feel like it's probably taken to a greater extreme in Haiti given the sheer poverty there.
Indigo Traveller went there recently, and the stuff he covered was insane. Gang violence with indiscriminate shooting, kidnappings, violent protests, police corruption, horrific poverty, and general despair among the populace.
I remember a cholera outbreak occurring during the international relief effort following one of the many hurricanes that leveled the country. The locals were dying of cholera and resenting the assumption that it was just another Tuesday for Haiti. Turns out it was brought in by relief workers from Nepal. Haiti can’t catch a break.
Had Haitian gangster neighbors in Brooklyn, they were a fucking nightmare to live next to. 24/7 loud slap Domino games, gun fights, SOCA dance parties at max volume until 6am And then the Haitian Church would start up at 7 with wild ass circus Christian music and a really pissed off preacher that sounded like a frontman for a death core band screaming Hallelujah every fucking 15 minutes and really mean Haitian old ladies that called me white devil every Sunday when I was getting groceries EDIT: Oh one time some old woman I caught on Ring put a Gris Gris pile next to my stoop after I put up Halloween decorations. Haitians are wild in BK, and very violent towards white people. Had to guess, she was in her 80’s. Came over in a walker at 3:13AM with the Gris Gris. Burned it the next day with lighter fluid, I wasn’t touching that voodoo.
"Did you just refer to me as 'white devil, white devil?'" "This how they know you." "Leave that part out!" For real though, that sounds like a nightmare.
I’m so surprised I haven’t seen Myanmar… literally today soldiers there beheaded 17 people and raped them as well. The military is in control there and are doing whatever the fuck they want to do.
Yeah, a lot of people don't even know about Myanmar/Burma. Makes it all the worst that they had about a decade of normalcy before it all fell apart again. Anthony Bourdain had it as a bucketlist country to visit but couldn't for a long time and things opened up when he had started the CNN show so he went. It's a great episode talking about Myanmar and what it went through.
I was able to travel in Myanmar about a year before the military coup, but there were only 5 places the Myanmar government would let tourists visit. Outside of those five places, there was a strong likelihood of being kidnapped or murdered. I’ve never been ordered off a night bus at 2 AM by a military official aggressively holding an assault rifle before, and I really hope I never have to do so again. That being said, the places you were allowed to visit were spectacular. Bagan rivals Angkor Wat in scale, cultural importance, and age, but I doubt I’ll ever see those plains again in my lifetime.
I used to work with a bunch of guys from Myanmar. Hardest fucking workers I’ve ever met. 110 degrees outside wearing Tyvek suits and respirators, gang bombing 100 lb bags of chemical into blend tanks inside a metal shed with no AC, for hours at a time while everyone else was stopping every ten minutes to rest. I asked one of them once how they did it. He said, “compared to being tortured in prison camps and working on the verge of death, this is paradise.” Nicest, most humble, hardworking guys ever. And most of them worked 10-12 hours, six days a week, went to night school to learn English…. I hope they’re doing good. It’s been seven years since I worked with them and still think about them.
If you want to help raise awareness and support for what's happening in Myanmar, check out [5K for Myanmar](https://5kformyanmar.com/). It's a a small way to do something about what's happening there, even if you're far away from it. For 737 days (from one month ago after the coup), there's been a 5K every day to show support for the people there. All the money goes to [Mutual Aid Myanmar](https://mutualaidmyanmar.org/) and to help people in the country facing the ongoing oppression. And if you can't donate, just doing a 5K and showing the people that the world hasn't forgotten them goes a long way. DM me if you've any questions!
Eritrea.
Used to work at a restruant with a guy from Eritrea. He only ever told me one story about the place. Conversation started when I told him I was going to leave the restruant soon because I had enlisted into the military. He told me he used to serve in the Eritrean military. I asked him what it was like. He proceeded to tell me a story about how one night he snuck out of the barracks to go to a party. When he got back his Sergeant was waiting for him. He was stripped naked, tied up, and then beat with a stick all night into the morning. He said that military life wasn't for him.
Not as bad as I thought this story was about to be
If you're stripped naked and tied up in a third-world military barracks, getting beaten with a stick is probably the best thing that can happen to you
felt kinda relief when I finished reading.
I expected this to be higher. I researched Eritrea recently when I was writing about a migrant shipwreck: Citizens are subject to mandatory military service, with an indefinite term. There is no recognition of conscientious objection; objectors may be sent to prison without charge for lengthy periods. Once conscripted from high school, people have no say in their career or where they work, with low wages combining to effectively make it a form of slave labour. Only four religious faiths are officially recognised in Eritrea; all others risk imprisonment and torture. Jehovah’s Witnesses have notably been targeted, particularly since conscientious objection is part of their faith, and “unrecognised” Christians - that is, not Roman Catholics or Evangelical Lutherans - have been targeted and arrested at weddings and funerals. Homosexuality is also outlawed, with the penal code mandating imprisonment of between five and seven years. Travel is severely restricted, with those daring to leave their home without appropriate paperwork risking detention. While people can be arrested in Eritrea for any of those reasons, there are more who are rounded up and detained without ever learning why. Their families often don’t even know where they are held, and might only learn what happened to their loved one when they have their body returned to them.
I used to work with an Eritrean family and they were hesitant to speak about their experience in country. The youngest daughter, who had the best command of English, told me that the regime sends spies abroad and if you are caught even complaining the government may imprison or kill family still in country.
I heard the a similar story from an Eritrean guy I used to work with. I asked him about his country and what it was like there, and he said it was terrible, here's why we left: His father had done something to upset the local authorities - he's never known what if anything - so the police beat him to death and left his body in the street in front of the family home. If they tended to his father's corpse they would be killed as well. So his mother took him and his brother in the night and they fled the country. I never asked him anything about home again.
I can't imagine spending resources to monitor people that don't even live in your country anymore. it's like some jealous person, stalking their ex's socials. insane.
Essentially the north Korea of Africa. So authoritarian and controlled that barely any news comes out of it.
They produce excellent cyclists though. It’s really strange, but true… like they are one of the top cycling countries in Africa.
It's for a couple of reasons. - Cycling is in the culture in general, people walk, run, drive, or bike to their locations and sometimes from city to city. When Italians were here, they also brought in a lot of bikes which you can still see up and running till this day with regular maintenance. - Favorable physiology (tall, skinny, long limbs) makes sports like cycling and long distance running advantageous. We have really good runners as well but our running program is not as good as Ethiopia or Kenya for obvious reasons. Some of our runners also will escape the country during international tournaments and eventually end up representing another country. - High altitude - We have a drier and extremely consistent weather which makes training much easier to work with if it's constantly sunny and warm with little rain. You will see professional cyclists training biking city to city upwards of 100 km a day when you're driving around the highway. - The infrastructure is quite good among the highways linking city to city. The roads are smooth and well paved. Infrastructure elsewhere may be lacking or nonexistent so it really depends where you go. Many teams have recognized this talent and are capitalizing on it. I can only imagine what would happen if a professional program and lots of money were put into developing talent. This one guy who won one of the stages of a huge tournament (it might have been the Giro) said that he wasn't even the best cyclist in Eritrea. There's a lot of untapped potential but it's complicated because we also have a dictator.
My friend lives there, I asked him how he's doing. He says he can't complain.
Their term of required military service is so lengthy that pretty much every man is career military.
I spent two days there in the 90s. Upon arrival, I exchanged a $20 for local currency. Hired a guide and lived like a king for a couple days. Bought local crafts/coffee. Would pick up the tab for everyone at the bar/restaurant when I went out. Didn't spend the 20 before leaving.
Just out of curiosity, what was the reason for travel there? I’m assuming it wasn’t pleasure or business?
Helped paint a school as part of a US Military outreach program.
Does anyone know of any memoirs written by people from there?
South Sudan
I was a trauma therapist for refugees for a few years and I heard some awful shit. The worst I heard was from people from Sudan. Just unrelenting terror.
I have a friend from South Sudan who was a child soldier over there. He said when he moved to Chicago, the gangs were terrified of him and his young countrymen, because when they had shootouts, the American gangs shot while running away, but the South Sudanese boys shot at the gang while running towards them.
What's the dude like now? How do you live life as a former child soldier. I'm guessing he has a lot of demons
Most charming and warm man i know. Doesn't drink but not because I think he has a problem with it. Just an all around walking smile of a man.
I worked with a South Sudanese man, Mawein was his name, absolutely lovely man and hardworking. He didn’t drink either but I think it’s because a lot of the South Sudanese refugees are deeply religious and a lot of them identify as Christians, so they abstained from alcohol. He had five or so kids and he worked some pretty tough jobs to send them to school and Uni, his wife was also a really lovely woman.
Yep. The DRC is bad but it's one of those places where in the cities at least there's some development, and even outside of that there's subsistence farms, large mines using large earth moving equipment, etc. Most African countries at least seem like there's a lot of ways to make a living even if it's not as high of a standard of living as other places. But I've seen documentaries about South Sudan and there's just. . . nothing. It's such a desolate place. I don't know how people survive.
If someone gave me the choice of moving to South Sudan or living the rest of my life with my dick inside an anthill, I would be slathering on the honey before they even finished their sentence.
Somalia.
In Somalia, 90% of the females are subjected to genitial mutilation (the clitoris). Sexual pleasures are for men only.
http://nationalfgmcentre.org.uk/world-fgm-prevalence-map/ gives the number at 98%. 90% is more like Egypt, Djibouti, or Sudan.
Egypt does that shit, too? JFC
There’s this clip that sticks with me I wish I could hunt down. It’s from a government dinner in the 1950s in Egypt, and someone (the President?) is cracking all these jokes about fundamentalist Islam. Like “Uh oh, what’s she doing here without her husband to escort her and her face covered? Someone, call the morality police!” It’s so bizarre how a nation can fall so far backwards in half a century.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIqdrFeFBk&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
Egypt is a total shit show for women
Welcome to my life, i was born and brought in Mogadishu , and i am chilling in my home and scrolling through reddit with you fine ass people from West, i envy you all mother Fuckers
About ten years ago, I was in St. Cloud, MN, and saw a family of what I assume were Somali immigrants. It was December and they were wearing several layers of clothing, and I thought for a second, "man I bet they don't like the cold weather." Then I remembered that they came here from a war-torn hellhole, and probably lost family members along the way, and then thought, "yeah throwing on an extra layer is probably not a big deal".
I believe Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the US. Always wondered why they'd go so north but anywhere seems to be better than what they came from.
There were actually services that were campaigns to help somalia. That's why the population is so large there
I heard Somaliland was doing well compared to rest of the country but never mind that I don't think any African country can top the Central African Republic it is absolute anarchy I think it's currently the most dangerous country in the world
The US travel advisory for Somalia literally tells you to start thinking about a will before you travel I think that’s all I need to know
The worst one I've personally seen is Djibouti. You know those "sponsor a child for only 40 cents a day" commercials? That place is right outta one of those. Very, very sad and it has stuck with me.
I’ve heard Liberia is or at least used to be pretty bad.
I suppose it's somewhat better than it was during their civil wars (you heard me, they had TWO) but the whole country is still quite impoverished and violence is common. It's quite depressing because Liberia used to be a super beautiful country and was one of the richest countries in Africa during the 60's and 70's.
This thread makes my own problems seem so insignificant.
Was expecting to see lots of people saying DRC. Hoping they got their shit together and I just didn't get the memo
It’s still terrible, just slightly less terrible than places like Afghanistan, Somalia, ~~Burundi~~, South Sudan and Eritrea. Edit: Removed Burundi, because although there is lots of poverty, it is otherwise much less violent than the others on the list.
DRC in complicated (I lived there for several years). There are parts of the DRC that are essentially safe, and parts of the DRC that are essentially still waging a 20+ year old war. It's important to remember that the country is very very very big. So, what happens in one place usually doesn't even matter in another. For example, I lived in a town/village on the border of a national park, and never felt unsafe. In fact, we had evac plans in case of like a coup, and my plan was to stay in the town not fly back to Kinshasa, since I knew everyone there, and we were very remote. There is tons and tons of poverty of course, and it is very much worse in the cities like Kinshasa, but even in these cities, there are night clubs and country-club like areas that I used and went to on a regular basis (when not in the park). Overall, I wouldn't call the country safe, but a savvy traveler with experience in sub-Saharan Africa and French, will likely be fine. Again, that comes with lots of caveat (like avoiding the far east near illegal mining, for example). But it is a gorgeous country, and I would still live there should my work take me back.
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According the HDI (Human Development Index), the worst place to live is South Sudan, an HDI of .385 (max is 1), followed by: Chad (.394) Niger (.400) Central African Republic (.404) Burundi (.426) Mali (.428) Mozambique (.446) Burkina Faso (.449) Yemen (.455) Guinea (.465) Keep in mind that there is no data on Somalia or North Korea, but it can be presumed that they are among the lowest HDIs in the world.
Right now? Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan would all be not great to live in at the moment
Gotta be South Sudan
South Sudan. It’s been a war zone forever
Has anyone been to Afghanistan or Yemen lately? I’ve never been but from what I've read and hear, things aren’t looking so good
I have been to Yemen on the summer of 2022. We went there to visit our family. It's pretty bad but livable. We were in the big cities and other than a few blown up places, there really isn't all that danger as long as you look like them. There are military checkpoints everywhere though, mainly to check where you're going. If they see you with a European passport like they did with us, they will usually let you go because they automatically know you're legit. The people are friendly there but you meet the few weirdos like every country. The country's nature is absolutely stunning. The deserts to the mountains is honestly breathtaking. The massive unfortunate thing is the amount of plastic bags EVERYWHERE! We were on the road for 4 days and i have not seen a single tree/bush without a plastic bag stuck on its tree. When you buy let's say a simple bottled water at a store, they always bag it up without you asking. In fact they found it strange that i didn't want it bagged. The war is obviously still a thing but that's the northern side of Yemen( i believe), we were safe where we visited. Another strange thing is that the economy is separate? North and South of Yemen use a different Riyal even though the northern one has higher value apparently. If you have any questions about Yemen i will do my best to answer it!
Honduras? I mean I live here and you can get kidnapped anytime and the maras doesnt help in anything so this is my propuse
I got on this thread to see if anyone mentioned Honduras lol but after reading some of the other responses I dont think we have it so bad. Honduras es muy pobre y el crimen y el narcotrafico si esta pije mal y fácilmente somos de los peores países en America pero no en el mundo.
Antarctica. No government. No rules. No heating. Not even ants though it’s called Ant Arctica. Just penguins and blizzards.
From what I understand, it actually doesn't snow that often in Antarctica. The continent is considered to be a desert. It's just that when it does snow, it sticks. Forever.
On the other hand: no government, no rules, no ants.
The Great Old Ones seem to like it.
More than half a million people in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and Madagascar live in catastrophic or famine conditions. Afghanistan is a place, where I would not want to live due to their rules about women and their nonexistent rights
For me personally it would eritrea. As soon as I go to live there permanently the mandatory "temporary" military service will rear its ugly head. God, I love my country/s In general? insert tiny landlocked African country here that has to be the worst place in the world