Travel Warnings

Sometimes the coincidences that we experience in our lives are amazing and today is a great example. After leaving the gym this morning I caught the news about the mass shooting incident on the Virginia Tech University (VCU) campus early this morning. The last news report I saw on TV was reporting something like 31 people dead and another 29 wounded but hopefully I did not hear that correctly since these are huge numbers. Sadly we can probably expect more deaths stemming from the wounded.

Such deaths are very tragic especially since most of the victims were students apparently so they were struck down in the prime of their loves. Just think of the future engineers, doctors, and teachers who were slaughtered today -- truly sad. My heartfelt best wishes go to the friends, family, and wounded affected by this tragedy.

Everyone I saw interviewed today was shocked at this violence since the VCU campus was always considered a very safe community. The coincidence I mentioned at the beginning of this blog is the that my posting for today was going to focus on the US Department of State's list of countries that it recommends American AVOID traveling to due to the potential danger involved. This list includes:

Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), East Timor, Eritrea, Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Gaza Strip/West Bank, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zimbabwe

(SOURCE: www.travel.state.gov )

If we tally these countries according to what regions they are located in then the "winners" (those regions with the most dangerous countries on this "do not travel" list) include:

Africa -- 12
Eurasia/Asia -- 7
Mideast -- 6

Sadly the African continent is number one again this year (since I posted on this subject about the same time last year) so clearly we have work to do in the region if we want our fellow citizens to live in peace and prosperity.

Let's start by phasing out the global bureaucrats (UN, UNICEF, World Bank) who live well on their tax-free salaries in nice cities like Geneva and New York city while the common people live in abject poverty.

Both the USA and Africa need some healing this week.

Todd