Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

Britons in Spain are 11 times more likely to get arrested in Spain ....


Do you know C I would myself have guessed at an even higher probability ?..snicker snicker  

Glancing at that press release tells me that Greece has the highest number of rapes and not Turkey. Does Mr Eugenides know this? I think we should be told.

Otherwise sensible advice, especially for inexperienced travellers, especially the bits about insurance and having all the necessary jabs for the place(s) being visited. There is only so much consular officers can do to assist you if you come unstuck, epecially through your own stupidity.  

Nomad - I was making calculations based on incidents relative to total visits.

I had thought of entitling the piece 'Idiots Abroad', which would have been apposite for lost passports and the like, but not at all for deaths and rapes.  

Mr C: Quite - and believe me there are idiots aplenty who travel these days.

A few days ago you posted an item on Malaysia entitles Setting the Bar Too High (or similar). The ensuing discussion covered aspects of punishment in Malaysia and Singapore, including the use of the cane.

You and other regulars here may therefore be interested to note that the Ghost of the Hitch has just posted a you tube video of such an event. This should serve as a warning to would-be troublemakers who head this way! The "victim" will not be sitting down for a week or two that's for sure! Parental discretion advised!!  

I saw a Czech lost passport case on a recent visit to the embassy. She was also (sort of) claiming that she had been assaulted. I might have mentioned that what she was wearing (i.e. almost nothing) was likely to attract the wrong kind of attention at night in Prague, but it seemed a bit rude in front of her school age daughter.  

The cops in the USA will nick you for sneezing!!

It seems like you can’t even have a good domestic argument without the Police turning up, evidence was a neighborhood husband and wife dispute, the wife was waving a shotgun around, so just as a precaution they had to be called!!

Thus far thankfully I’ve not had my collar felt, still time I guess!  

Personally, I have always loathed Bangkok. I absolutely hate all those smiling Thais. They give me the creeps.

Nomad, that video was made by the Malaysian government especially for showing to Malays and foreigners and is already circulating on the internet via the government.

Now the Malaysian judiciary, which appears to have a lot in common with the British judiciary, especially in relation to the small volume of brain cells and lack of life skills, wants caning outlawed as barbaric.

Not as barbaric as horrendous child abuse, murder of elderly people, routine muggings and drive-by shootings and general brutality, which happen in Malaysian very, very rarely. Hmmm ... I dunno ... Does anyone see a connection here between certain detection and excruciating punishment and a well-behaved, civil society?  

Considering the eccentricities of dress and behaviour the English put up with all year round in their own country, they are notably well-mannered and well-dressed elsewhere or, at least, else here.

Clean, ironed shorts, t-shirt and sandals can go anywhere for people on their hols.  

The number of reported rapes is horrendously high in Turkey. As for the number of unreported ones...I once met a British woman who had been raped while on holiday here. The Police were staggeringly indifferent according to what she said. Even though the woman in question was able to identify the culprit.  

The number of rapes in Turkey was the most surprising figure. I wander whether women where similarly surprised.  

Britons in Spain are 11 times more likely to get arrested in Spain than France.

I would imagine so; it's pretty hard to get arrested in Spain while in France.  

verity, I think you've confused the Malaysian judiciary with another country's. Small brain power, yes, but the gall to contradict government policy?

Besides, your comparison between crime and punishment seems a little daft. If I murder and raped a dozen small girls, the highest punishment I would get in Malaysia is a hanging. Not something worse than being killed and raped a dozen times.

Then again, I subscribe to rehabilitation instead of retribution.

P.S. I saw a similar (or same) video while on an excursion to the Pudu Jail in central Kuala Lumpur. I've then appreciated the small, thin rattan rod my parents used.  

"And how can it be that losing one's passport is 286 times more likely in Oz than the Irish Republic? OK, it is a big country, but...."

Most British backpackers seem to spend their entire time drinking and shagging in OZ and then never want to go home which may go some way to explaining "lost" passports.  

Rajan - I cannot follow your post. No, I'm not confusing Malaysia with somewhere else. I lived in KL - Bangsar. The Malaysia government made that video as a warning to foreigners not to traffic in drugs in Malaysia. The Malaysian government put it on the internet.

I don't know where the issue of confusion comes in.  

We have recently returned from magaluf and my nephew was arrested on the 1st night for fighting. The guardia civil beat him for 2 days and broke his arm. He is still in Palma prison awaiting his fate, i would never go there again except to visit him. Young brits beware!!!