Is there much violence or crime in your area?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by Meridian, Dec 9, 2005.

  1. sab

    sab Junior Member

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    I've lived in Manila for 19 years and we're leaving for Hobart via Qld on Saturday. I'm really sad to go 'cause my two daughters are staying here (one is married to a local and they both just like it better here than Aus) as well as my new granddaughter, not to mention all our friends here. We had a going away party last Sunday and there were lots of tears.

    I know some people are freaked out at the thought of coming here. All you see on the news is coups and bombings. Yes, we get our bags checked and frisked down every time we walk into a mall or onto overhead train station and there are armed guards outside every bank and many malls but after awhile you don't notice. In 1987 there was a full scale battle within 1/2 mile of our house. That scared me 'cause I was new here but now whenever something happens we just stay home until is calms down.

    Crime happens. Even in Manila there are enclaves where we can feel safe. Where we are now is a small village (gated community) it's not flash and the average block is 200 square meters but this is the safest place I been in since coming here. Everyone knows my son and he can roam around. This is the first place where we've left anything of value outside (bike or skateboard) and not worried about it being stolen. In other places we've had shoes stolen from our porch, bikes, and clothing off our line - even our plastic trash can walked. In one place someone tried to saw through the bars of our house while we were inside. The main thing to watch for foreigners here is pickpockets and never let anyone you don't know buy you a drink. Our kids know there are places they just shouldn't go mainly because they're white and stand out a mile and because of crack heads. In 19 years you hear a lot of accounts of rape, both of women and children - boys and girls, stabbings, attacks, thefts. When our girls were teens we never let them go to a mall alone; only with a posse of friends - male and female. When they started dating it was a relief because their friends were as zealous to protect them from the bad guys as we were. I usually use public transport because I don't want to be in a taxi alone with just the driver. A Korean student I know was robbed at gunpoint by a taxi-driver. When I go out with a lot of cash I put it in different pockets and don't wear jewellry (I don't have much anyway - just an engagement ring - but I never wear it). If you go to the bank or moneychanger watch out forpickpockets when you come out.

    Meth (shabu) is a major problem here too. Jails are overflowing with people arrested on drug charges. By overflowing imagine 80+ men in a room about 80 sq m. Bunks usually have 2-3 people apiece and they line up like sardines underneath. Once you're in you can be sitting there for years while your case drags on.

    Am I going to miss this place - you bet. I'm actually more worried about my 13 y/o son's social life in Aus than I am about living here.
     
  2. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    There's lots of violence here :(

    It's not safe for cane toads to wander around during the night at all!
     
  3. frosty

    frosty Junior Member

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    Lancelin has a DTA which until recently was only used for army and naval live training ...........the ships come from Stirling

    the jets doing the loop the loops come from Pearce air base at Bullsbrook and have only been using this area since 2002 ...... In 2002 they tried to expand the trainng area and introduce live air to ground bombing by US jets ...... there was an enormous public outcry and the second largest number of submissions against it apart from Ningaloo ...... the EPA expressed concern and the need for more studies so the military backed down from expanding ........ but still intoduced the US bombing plus probably as a punishment to us pesky civilians started flying over here from Pearce :evil:

    I demand to know what these clowns are up to on a virtually continuous basis :evil: :evil: all my local pollies plus Hill and his current parliamentary secretary are well aquainted with me :evil: I even wonder if the jets spend so much time over our house because its location is marked on their maps as the home of that old bitch who askes so many questions :lol: :lol: :lol:

    I have to be careful with computer use and always run my air purifyer when I use it ....... I am lucky that my computer is fairly old and dont think I could use a new one because of the plastic offgas

    A good air purifyer is well worth the money the best available in Australia are the Austinair and it is the only one that actually has an activated carbon filter ........ some of the so called heppa filters only have a cloth impregnated with a bit of carbon etc are not much help with chemicals

    see https://www.austinair.com.au

    is your son EMF sensitive ? I am lucky that I am not too bad with EMF but that can cause a big problem with some chemically sensitive people using computers etc

    laptops are supposed to be safer but I havent tried one ........ some people even say palm type computers are even better

    another good idea is a glass box for computer/reading ....... will try and find a site about them for you

    frosty
     
  4. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Floot and Frosty,

    I have a Macintosh Powerbook that is encased in brushed aluminum. My older one, the beater we lend out to interns and volunteers so thay can check email, etc is an older Powerbook made of titanium. The cases don't offgas.

    My wife has an iBook that may off gas, but I hardly ever use it, so haven't smelled it offgassing if it does.

    Both of these are DC electric computers, running off of batteries (all of ours are at 24 volts DC), so EMF problems are reduced or eliminated. They also use flat screens and run on roughly 20-25 watts of power, which is important for us since we live on solar.

    Internal components of the powerbok may offgas when it gets hot (maybe?), but the case can't, so that might be an option for you. The one downside in paradise, which is a deciding factor for some: they are expensive.

    And, to forego any disucssion on compatibility, our funders and the various agencies and people we communicate with on a regular basis are mostly PC users (except for the universities, which seem to be about 3/4 on Macs). We use accounting software, MS Office suite, read and write exchangeable files. We exchange emails, word, excel, pdf, jpeg, etc files with PC users and never have any formatting problems.... (just our experience), and we have never had a crash or system freeze in over three years of using Mac OSX...

    Best,

    C
     

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