in nairobi, the problem is quite the opposite. The papers have a field day reporting grisly crimes.... mostly decaptitations, shoot outs, serial killers and such. this in turn makes the average city resident and the police extremely paranoid.
in the city if a petty thief is caught by the public, he is generally lynched either by being thrashed to within an inch of his life....or being necklaced with a burning tyre. a kenyan friend of mine told me that once when he was pickpocketed, he made a mistake and shouted 'mwizi mwizi (thief thief!)' - and the thief retaliated by shouting the same thing - my friend had to run for dear life - because the crowd decided both of them were thieves... On 10/31/06, Ramakrishnan Sundaram wrote:
Living in the UAE, which includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai, I think the safety perceptions may be changing. Yes, this place is safer than most other places that I have lived in or visited, but the fact that newspapers need police clearance to report crime, and that crimes you
