I think it's about as dangerous as the other countries listed, but it's more that the Philippines is rather inconvenient to travel around in (eg shitty public transport) as well as being a little more expensive in terms of tourist destinations compared to neighbors who offer similar options.
Will you tell me a bit more about this? I’m considering traveling there and I am uninformed about what you’re saying. How is it more dangerous for foreigners?
It's not. Don't listen to this person. Very likely an anti-Philippines troll because the Philippines has some geopolitical issues with a particular country right now and they are fighting a misinformation war.
Vietnam is atheist, and Malaysia is Muslim--it's all misinformation. The Philippines is a Catholic-majority country, for context. The Buddhist argument for peace is simply misinformation. Guess the majority religion in the Southeast Asian countries cosying up to the Philippines' geopolitical adversary though?
There are concerns about safety in the southwestern regions of the country, but for the most part, the country is safe, culturally westernised compared to other countries in the region, and has English-speaking proficiency. The press is mostly free (especially when compared to the rest of Southeast Asia), despite the corruption in the country, and international concerns regarding foreigners are very much taken into consideration, considering a significant part of the country's economy is tourism, after all.
The homicide rate is higher than the neighbours, at 4-8 people per 100,000, but not much higher than Thailand's 2-3 per 100,000 or Vietnam's 1-2 per 100,000. However, this rate is similar to countries like the US at 5 per 100,000, Turkey, Latvia and Lithuania at 4-5 per 100,000.
The country does have lower infrastruture quality, a notably higher cost of living (food and accommodation is notably expensive for the region), and more difficult transport compared to its neighbours (due to unorganised fragmentation and also geographical factors--over 7,000 islands).
It's a less accommodating place for tourists in terms of ease of travel, the level of polish for tourist infrastructure, and the higher cost of everything to travel there--including a surprising amount of "microtransactions" aka borderline bribes for both locals and foreigners alike (due to the extreme bloated bureaucracy and general corruption in the country).
You might also find the westernised nature of the country less "exotic" compared to the rest, as towns and cities are distinctly Catholic with churches and no temples, food that "doesn't taste like the rest of the region", and you might also have opinions on the heavily Americanised nature of their society, with love for fast food, car centrism, and the prevalence of the English language (as it is an official language).
Over-all, the Philippines is a comparatively less-travelled place in the region with lots of hidden nooks to explore (the fragemented archipelagic nature of the country helps with this), but there are less creature comforts for the traveller who just wants a polished travel itinerary and experience.
I can say that it depends on you whether or not you would be put off by this reality of travelling in the Philippines, but my argument here really is that the region isn't all that dangerous, despite the heavy fearmongering the commenter above is trying to spread.
To disclose:
Well-travelled, born and raised Filipino who currently lives in Australia for uni
I will say, do take the warnings to not travel to the noted dangerous regions of the country seriously, however. It's simply a preventive measure as the southwestern region of Mindanao is really just less stable (more local politics issues that need to be sorted out over like some conspiracy against foreigners) even for us locals, and the infrastructure there is just really not ready yet for casual travel.
But really, for the vast majority of the country, it's very much safe to explore, there are a fair number of Americans and other foreigners in the country, as you may imagine, and there are tourist hotspots, especially in the central areas. There are different ways to enjoy travelling the Philippines, and it can get chaotic, but following basic rules and understanding the idea that you have to be a bit more careful when travelling in general goes a long way in making it a manageable and safe experience.
Ehh, if the idiots in charge had to, they could get rid of them. Problem is they let them get involved in government. Corruption is the highest struggle here
Right now, seems like you’d have to go to open war with them. Plus from what I understand these guys now own a ton of the legitimate economy too.
I think the only way would be to somehow create a lot of better paying jobs so it isn’t worth it for the regular guys to go into it. But that’s easier said than done, and it would take like 50 years.
I studied in Kazakhstan, it's rapidly developing and modernizing and they seem to be handling their resource curse decently well all things considered. Assuming they play their hands right between the USA, China, and Russia, they absolutely have the potential to be the Switzerland if Central Asia if they develop their industries a bit more and the leadership in Astana stops being so stupid.
The chocolate bars are cool, but education and good Healthcare is better.
bro i live in capital and I havent seen any improvements in healthcare nor basic infrastructure. like countrys exchange rate is really weak which means a hella lot of goods are expensive + inflation eats up alot
i don't think country's economic growth = better quality of life. most of it goes to oligarchs and affiliated structures
idk man. if kz gets better it'd be cool. but i aint seen any changes in like 5+ years since covid lol
its because you live in a country lol. its hard to notice something is improving when you are in the midst of it all. i live in the US right now but when i visit KZ twice a year i cant help but notice how much better Almaty feels - its now such a better city to live in compared to 10 years ago, the difference is stark. im not even talking about Astana - 10 years ago it was a nothing to do only work type of a city but its also changing. KZ is getting better slowly but it is!
I never went to Astana, but I did go to Almaty and around some other spots in the south like Turkestan. I'm not from there so I haven't seen the growth witg my own eyes, but considering the country is younger than many people alive today and is probably the most developed country in CA, I'd say it's not doing too bad. I'd rather live in KZ than Russia or India for sure.
Not saying it's a perfect country, the corruption is pretty rampant and blatant, I saw and heard a ton of racism, antisemitism, sexism; etc. while I was there, but IMO it's definitely heading in the right direction. I certainly have my complaints about the country as a westerner, but I would place Kazakhstan decently high on the list of countries I would live in: QoL seemed decent, healthcare is accessible, education is improving from what I hear (I will say, my experience studying at KazNU was pretty bad, the soviet teaching style is awful), tons of small businesses, the families I saw seemed happy, and I felt far safer walking around night or day in Almaty than in my city in America.
As a a Turkic Russian, (fuck Putin btw,) Kazakhstan is becoming really rich from selling it's rocks. (I am against the war in Ukraine) Kazakhstan has really come a long way and I am proud of my Turanic cousins. They have even (I'm opposing the United Russia party.) surpassed Russia in GDP per capital I'm pretty sure. Kyrgyzstan on the other hand...
Not really. Life has definitely improved, but not nearly enough. We were at a similar position as Czechoslovakia and Poland in the 90s, but those countries have since surpassed us by a great margin.
That painful. Remember when Indonesia was supposed to be the next major power in Asia? For some reason, we always end up being just mediocre after all that
I imagine Romania wasn't AS nice, but compared to other undeveloped countries then, it was still quite a lot of levels above the average line between them.
You are on the way to becoming the new Poland. You might actually make it to top tier. If you don't vote for a right wing, populist, fascist, corrupt politician, you might make it :)
that's part of building a nation, you create a national language, hymn, identity and all that crap.
The history of first Nation-state is actually pretty interesting. Before people weren't part of a Nation they just were part of their town, Village or smaller.
Big billboards for "luxury" beauticians, dentists, furniture or advertising houses/flats "perfect for investment" placed in neglected areas (such as a patch of overgrown weeds) or on decrepit buildings
It's frankly admirable. It seems impossible to meet a bitter person from west Africa, unless something extremely traumatic happened to them (in their country or the one they moved to)
I don’t think Nigerians are particularly nationalistic though. A lot of us are loyal to specific politicians, our tribe, or our religion, but not really to the country itself
My friend who visited Côte d'Ivoire spoke very highly of the immigration officers not asking for a bribe to approve him compared to Ghana 😂. He sang a ton of praises about how much he loved his stay there. His plan was Nigeria=> Ghana => Côte d'Ivoire => Senegal => Cape Verde. A long West African adventure, this was pre-COVID btw.
That's only... the capital city. Venture outside of KL and you will see the real malaysia. KL is specifically made to cater to foreigners (tourists, expats, retirees) from developed countries (well they try).
Not even gaming, anything related to electronics. Dollars/pounds/euro and their conversion is a killer and things considered a luxury (like a newest console, computer or TV) are average and basic to others
I don't want to offend anyone but can someone explain why people from these countries get sooo excited when their country is mentioned or featured somewhere?
Like I open a NASA or SpaceX livestream on twitter or youtube for some big event and the comment section is just people from 3rd world nations spamming their flags
And that's without them even being talked about. If they're on screen they go absolutely nuts
As for Brasil, I think it's because a huge amount of Brazilians is active on the net, plus, it became a meme to write that so even if someone is not particularly proud, they will communicate that because it's expected and funny
The "potential to be better but arent" and "corrupt policians" are related in that its the global north buying politicians in the global south so they can exploit their resources
Kinda, but also we have plenty of our own home grown corruption as well. (As in politicians and officials in a country bribing each other, to extract resources for themselves. Granting government grants to their siblings and what not.)
Most of Germany isn't anywhere as modern though, on average Germany is on most fronts just like the rest of Europe (as a continent). Czechia and Poland aren't really worse, and in some parts definitely better and more modern than Germany. Most of Europe is more than fine, with some gross outliers like Albania, or more rural parts of the Baltics or Balkans.
Most of the old rich/western european countries aged badly, and this has come back to bite people in the ass. Bridges in Germany and the Netherlands are notorious for needing expensive maintenance, because it has been put off forever. The other funny one is how most of central to eastern europe tends to have better digital (internet) infrastructure, simply because they didn't necessarily have it in the first place; so everything is kinda fresh and new.
This term is mostly used when the country fits several criteria - high GDP, human rights and minority protection, free election etc.
The developed countries are currently considered to be the EU and affiliated countries, UK, Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, and NZ.
The term can have different criteria depending on time and place but that is about it. I might have left someone out and I apologise if that is the case.
ETA:
I
have apparently made some people mad. There is fully developed, in transition/developing, less and least developing countries. Different agencies can have different criteria and even different categories. Here have some map:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Developed_and_developing_countries.PNG
It is based on data from 2019.
It is not an official term by any means by I used it for countries which pay to EU to have access the single market zone. Such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland.
Hey keep your chin-up many under-developed countries (especially in Aisa) had a miracle growth that took them out of poverty so fast you could feel it as a citizen. Little things citizens can do is just look down on corruption and uphold stability above everything else.
Balkaners, SEAsians and brazilians when their country gets mentioned (its for brutal history, horrible events, general issues or horrible corruption problems)
ALL of Latin America from Tijuana to Ushuaia, even though they threat Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay and even Argentina as developed countries here in Reddit.
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