On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:09:28 +0530, Deepa Mohan wrote: > adage about a civilized > > nation being one where a beautiful woman bedecked with jewels can walk > > alone confidently in the middle of the night? > > Is there anywhere in today's world where this can happen? I don't really > think so...
In addition to the list of places suggested by previous posters (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Japan, maybe Korea, large parts of Scandinavia, most of Singapore, Gibraltar, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda) none of which I have any experience with, I can add most of San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, where I have myself lived. Even some parts of Albuquerque, which has one of the worst crime problems in the US, are that safe. Which brings us to Shiv: On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:17:21 +0530, sastry wrote: > That happens only in a dictatorship - or when the jewels are > obviously fake. > . . . > That in itself [women wearing jewels] sets the scene for the "easy > way" to wealth - i.e robbery. If jewels=wealth + beauty + > happiness. The easiest way to get all is to steal. So civilization > cannot exist with women wearing jewels at midnight unless there are > powerful forces protecting the woman (usually in a dictatorship). > or the woman is wearing fake jewels that all can easily afford. It's true that in most of these places, there aren't very many women who actually wear large quantities of jewels. But your speculations about human nature, and about safety happening only as a result of powerful threats of violence (as in a dictatorship), are clearly unfounded --- many of the rest of us on this list live in places that your post confidently asserted couldn't exist! So maybe your point of view on the role of violence in human affairs, in particular in deterring random violence, should be taken with a grain of salt --- by yourself as much as the rest of us. I think this carries over to the terrorism discussion as well.
