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February 15, 2005

Timely Subject

I wrote my post yesterday before I found out about the assination of the Lebanese Prime Minister. But the whole incident just shows how random these things are. Beruit is called "The Paris of the Middle East" and the area that the bombing occured is the richest part of town. There are only very limited ways to protect yourself against these attacks and obviously even a highly priority individual can be targeted and killed.

The comment by Becca is interesting because my experience is actually quite the opposite. I can take cabs by myself at all hours of the day and feel relatively safe or at least as safe as I would feel in America. AMIDEAST has an unofficial driver, so if I call him up I have no worries at all: he even knows exactly where I live. I am not going to be pickpocketed or robbed because crime here is extremely low. And even as a woman, I am more likely to be left alone because if anyone were to touch me all I would have to do is cry out and a mob of angry, religious men would come to defend my honor. There is such a taboo against it that men here are even wary about offending a western woman. Of course, I still get stared at, but all women here get stared at.

Instead, I am expected to worry about random acts of terror. These acts are extremely rare in Jordan but they are the biggest threat at Americans (besides traffic). The only thing I can do is be aware of my surroundings and remember that there has only been one American killed by terror here in almost 50 years.

Posted by rcollins at February 15, 2005 5:25 AM

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