Kidnapped Mexican police commander found beheaded in Cancun

[grantwiscour]

Too many locales that I'll visit before Mexico. Crime, poverty, racism...I'll pass.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Yeah, I was thinking more of countries that are not at war, but still allow that level of internal violence. And then there's the appalling fact that it is literally on our border. As far as other places, Central America has improved immensely since the 1980s. China is better than under Mao, although its leadership certainly remains evil and is a near existential threat to the US. At any rate, being good Americans it is incumbent on us to be most appalled by the violence of others that might touch us somehow, than to worry about the violence we can conveniently ignore. (Yes, that last sentence was sarcasm.)

AND, in response to Marie's question about why anyone would want to live in Mexico, here is Mexico in the winter, and Chicago in the winter:
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Nice toenail polish color there pauldw. What color are yiu wearing on your toes in the second photo?

 

[jgttrey]

If you want to play that game...you can’t drink the water in MX. IMO, why the hell would I want to visit a place that is so bad, I couldn’t drink the water? Yeah, I know about Flint, but Flint’s a sh*thole anyway. I will not be giving any money to MX. I deal with MX a boatload for work (international shipping). There’s good reason I’ve always considered MX to be the red-headed stepchild of NAFTA. Dealing with Canada is a piece of cake. MX? I’d rather stick a fork in my eye. Backwards doesn’t begin to describe them.

EDIT: and I’ll not go into AquaLung deciding to save money by moving Fusion production from Canada to MX. Bit them in the arse big time. Apparently a number of suits - including mine and those a number of others I know of - needed the inner core replaced because the seams were done so badly our suits leaked like sieves. Production is now back in Canada, I’m told. Eff MX.

Wow. "Backwards"? That commentary pretty much speaks for itself & is pretty offensive. Given that, I doubt any objective information will change your mind. Sorry to challenge your worldview with actual data.

Might as well go ahead and rule out most of the Pacific destinations (other than California) if you can't figure out the water situation. In fact, most of the world.

Unfortunately, that's lots of beautiful diving - and great people - including in Mexico. Most people that crap on Mexico these days haven't been there lately, or ever. It has huge problems, for sure, and many challenges as a country. Personal safety for tourists is really not one of them. If it is, then you can forget a lot of other places.

FWIW, if you live in Flint: it has a higher murder rate than Mexico too.

 

[Protondecay123]

Actually the US is not the biggest consumer of illicit drugs. It may seem that way living there but according to UNODC, more than half of the estimated number of annual opiate users reside in Asia (58 per cent), almost one fifth in Europe (17 per cent), and one seventh in the Americas (15 per cent).

More than half of all cocaine users residein the Americas, mostly North America (34 per centof the global total), and almost one quarter reside in Europe, mostly in Western and Central Europe (about one fifth of the global total). Africa and, to a lesser extent, Asia and Oceania together may account for the remaining quarter of all cocaineusers, but there are significant error margins for theseestimates due to the lack of data in many countries in Africa and Asia.


So yes, the US is the largest market for cocaine consumption with Oceania a close second but far from the largest market of ALL illicit drugs

Do you have a reference for this? Because Asia is a continent made up of 48 countries, Europe has 44 and North America has 3. According to a World Health Organization Survey 2008, the USA had the highest reported rates of illegal drug use with twice the rate of cocaine use than the nearest country, New Zealand. But this is 11 year old data and seeing something more up to date would be nice. Thanks. U.S. Leads the World in Illegal Drug Use

 

[pauldw]

Nice toenail polish color there pauldw. What color are yiu wearing on your toes in the second photo?

The second photo is just some internet photo, but the first one is ours. Before a couple of years ago, my wife and I hadn't been away together for more than overnight, without our kids. Then in the spring she called up one day and wondered if I could get off work the rest of the week to go to Yellowstone, so we did, and that was really nice. In the early winter she'd been saving up for a couch, but decided the winter weather in Utah was too oppressive that year and she'd rather go to a nice beach than get a couch, so the next thing I knew we were on our way to Tulum. And there she is, happy as can be! Funny, in Yellowstone we were watching grizzlies, and we inadvertently got really close to a black bear and her cubs (they walked up on us), but that was all good with me. Going to Mexico, though, seemed like an adventure. Plus, I'd never heard of Tulum, although I was certainly willing to go look at the ruins and lay on the beach. But especially the cenotes won be over to the idea that I probably could be an expat. It was so very freeing there. Despite the police patrolling everywhere; I hadn't seen that kind of police presence since going to Cairo and then Jerusalem in the eighties, where there were automatic weapons everywhere. Yet here we are today, back at home and back at work.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Do you have a reference for this? Because Asia is a continent made up of 48 countries, Europe has 44 and North America has 3. According to a World Health Organization Survey 2008, the USA had the highest reported rates of illegal drug use with twice the rate of cocaine use than the nearest country, New Zealand. But this is 11 year old data and seeing something more up to date would be nice. Thanks. U.S. Leads the World in Illegal Drug Use

UNODC puts out a report every year, it is a lot to read but quite interesting.

UNDOC Drug Report

 

[Protondecay123]

UNODC puts out a report every year, it is a lot to read but quite interesting.

UNDOC Drug Report

Which is not country specific but generalized by geography.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Which is not country specific but generalized by geography.

Yes, exactly which is why the information in my previous post is not country specific. That information came directly from the report and the acoompaning booklets.