danger

When I started talking to people back home about first visiting and then moving to Argentina, anyone who had heard anything in the news was very worried. Twenty-some people had just been killed in demonstrations there, and somehow the news had filtered back to the US. I also worked with an Argentine doctor who had stories of kidnappings for ransom and increasing crime rates. The US State Department advised tourists to stay away from large gatherings of people (i.e. protests). None of this made it very easy to convince my friends and family I would be safe here in beautiful Buenos Aires.

After visiting and talking to native Argentines, I was convinced that crime, even if it were growing, would not be a problem. I checked the crime statistics and found that in 1999, the city of Buenos Aires had 6,300 crimes per 100,000 residents; Philadelphia had 7,291. Besides, I had worked in the most notoriously dangerous neighborhood (cops called it the "Badlands") in Philadelphia; here in Buenos Aires I find myself in the nicest neighborhoods. A World Bank report shows (see this graph) that murder rates in Argentina are far below US standards. What I needed to be careful about, given that I still look a bit like a tourist, was purse-snatchers, not kidnappers.

But last week I opened the paper and found an article that confirmed my worst fears: chances were, if I were to meet my end in Buenos Aires, it would not be in a dramatic ransom attempt or at the hands of riot police. I was far more likely to die in a car accident.

The article (in Pagina 12) showed that in the past year (since the economic crisis), while traffic had decreased 14%, fatal accidents had increased 27.5%, to 138. The statistics had actually improved since 1999, when 247 were killed, but compared to Rome and Madrid's averages of 60 per year, walking around Buenos Aires was an accident waiting to happen.

The most damning part of the statistics is that a full 65% of the fatal accidents were with pedestrians — compared to 20% in the US or Europe, and 40% in Southeast Asia. The city's Director of Transit Security, Leticia Piris, noted,

"The roads have been a perfect reflection of the 2002 crisis; roads are where people can act with fewer inhibitions than in their work, if they have it, or their home. The relations among actors in the public rights-of-way are characterized by the absence of solidarity, of respect of social norms."

I told my parents I would stay away from dangerous protests (and I have, I think), and I stay vigilant for possible crimes on the street. But it's clear that above all, I can't forget what my parents taught me as a child: to look both ways before I cross the street.

previously there was Say ya to da UP eh?
afterwards you have The Great Bowman

comments

• navigate
• « previous item
• next item »
• present
• past
• weblog
• chronicles
• images
• content
• herald timeline
• subway bg
• etcetera
• about
• colophon
• cambiar idioma