Columbia safety

Hi,

are there many other sc like me, considering (most likley) not to go to Columbia because of safety concerns ?

Is there a different risk then some time ago?
when the dissision was made to play the games in Colombia.

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When you are good, then you are not bad..

No. Cash conserns are the only one we have...

berserker, Does the sc = scared citizen? It really depends on what level of safety you become concerned. In some regards it will be safer than South Africa. In murders it will be safer than our Nation's Capital, Washington DC, which happens to be where (or at least very near) we are holding our first men's team tryout. And it will be our biggest turnout for a tryout I have ever seen.

You should really read up on what is happening there before you bail out due to bad information. When stats are dumped into a large pot it really doesn't tell the story properly. In general the US is safe, but there are places within it I wouldn't go due to safety concerns. I'm sure that is true with most countries as is the case with Colombia. So don't go to those parts and all will be fine. But if you choose not to due to your insecurity, then it's your loss.

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And the countdown begins... Ay, ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay.. Colombia!

sorry for my really bad english.
i don't want to talk a lot about the life in medellin, ofcourse i'll say good things about my city. i think you can read what the lonely planet guide wrote about medellin MedellÃ*n Travel Information and Travel Guide - Colombia - Lonely Planet
also you can take a look to this web site: Discover Medellin, Antioquia - Colombia
i'll let the people who knows english speak for my city.
i don't know if you read something about the BID 2009, take a look to the BID web site and remember medellin was the host city this year ( BID CII 2009 MedellÃ*n ). a quote, i designed the "Medellin Transformation" pavillion ( MedellÃ*n en transformación on Flickr - Photo Sharing! )
another interesting link in you tube YouTube - MedellÃ*n, the on going transformation
i hope this info will help you and change your mind. we'll be waiting for you.

The Aus government rates Medellin as a high degree of caution - Travel Advice for Colombia - Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (And yes, there are some places near where I live that I would not go due to safety concerns too.). I know of other Ausies who may not go due to safetey concerns, while I am still trying to decide. And yes, while it is a loss for us, as individuals, it is also a loss for the worlds. Any country/team, that can't field its strongest team, wether for personal, safety, or financial reasons is a loss to the tournament for me, as I go the play the highest level of hockey I can, against the highest level of hockey other countries can produce. And its always disappointing to hear a country has not fielded its strongest team.

I dont know what the risk was when the decision was made, or what discussion where had, or who safety concerns have been adressed - this post is part of my 'research' into weather i should start trainng or not. It may be, as you point out, that my concenrs are unfouned.

But if its just me, and possily a few others from Aus, who may make this decision not to go, then I guess the tournament will not be effected too much at all by the location then.

Of the 6 worlds I have attended, SA is not one of them.

As a developing country, safety aside, I would love to travel and support the Columbian uwh as they have beem great ambassoders for the sport, imo, at all the worlds I have attended that they have played in - and it has been great seeing them lift from beginers to contenders at the next worlds.


We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Colombia because of the high threat of terrorism and criminal activity. Terrorist, insurgent and paramilitary groups are active throughout Colombia and there is a high risk of kidnapping, including of foreigners.
Government buildings, public transport, and commercial and entertainment centres are potential targets for terrorist attacks. Places frequented by foreigners could also be targeted.
Colombia has one of the highest rates of kidnapping in the world. Foreigners, including children, have been kidnapped and murdered.
Pay close attention to your personal security at all times and monitor the media for information about possible new safety or security risks.

i think that's a compilation of bad news. the BID was a very important meeting with embassadors from all the world, very rich and important people came here and nobody get kidnapped. as you can see in the youtube video medellin is a very safety place now, a huge political project based on education, culture and social equality running since 2004 with major fajardo began to show efects in security and good behavior in general population.
the next year, before the WAA 2010 we'll be hosting the ODESUR 2010 ( take a look to the web site ODESUR - Organización Deportiva Suramericana also you can see the INDER's web site http://www.medellin2010.org/ INDER MEDELLIN. Instituto de Recreación y Deporte) and we're goin' to host athletes from all the south americans countries, the athletes dorms will be build in "la aurora" a neightborhood in the suburs, some years ago it was a very dangerous place, even for us, now it's one of the most safe zones in constant development due to the political plans i mentioned.
in the youtube video you can see "santo domingo savio" another neightborhood with the same history.
the worlds will be conducted in the "atanasio girardot" sport unit, in the new aquatic complex we are building for ODESUR and WAA 2010 (take a look to the new pool, it's underconstruction Piscinas ODESUR on Flickr - Photo Sharing! ) it's a very central zone, it's easy to go there, surrounded with verysafe neightborhoods, a lot of sport facilies and some small comercial buildings.
i'm waiting for some interesting web sites about the medellin changes in the last 20 years, i'll post those soon as possible.

Er, I dont mean to bash Columbians, but only to say few words about safty of CMAS Worlds in Kranj ... Slovenia is a very very safe country, I even say its boring. Just the other day, we noticed our prime minister strolling by our pool, enjoying a walk in the park and catching some sunshine. He had only one security guy with him, that was mostly doing the same as he was.

Crime is always present, ofcourse. Some romanians for say, can always be in need of quick cash, so sometimes the ATM machine gets knocked out, and some armed alcoholics (thats term used for animal hunters) mistake the hunt for some of their buddies, but thats about it. In Slovenia, there is no such thing as "dangerus parts" of any city or any part of the country.

We will have three guys in civilian clothes present at the pool (one at the time) watching out for possible thieves, and looking for general security like about cameras left out on tribunes and such stuff, and Police will be doing their usual strolls arround the pool, visiting mostly to see what the hell is this underwater hockey all about.

So if anyone is conserned about safty, our tournament still excepts team entries for another month, so everyone is still welcome to join. It is going to be very populated tournament for sure - and not only by european teams!

Hi everyone,

My opinion is that all countries in the world can be either safe or dangerous. Is how you look at it and your attitud while you are there. I´ve the luck to have traveled a lot in countries such and indonesia,Phillipines Mexico and others, and all those countries have milicias and everything and it could be dangerous of course. But as our atitud was to be friendly with the locals I have never had 1 little problem, I can actually say that I got a really big motorbike accident in the phillipines and the firts thing that the locals did was to help me with everything they had.

If you come and travel to europe maybe you think its safe, but here also you have danger, the attack at the train station at madrid, the eta guys there, a few months ago in Holland someone tried to kill the Queen, in Portugal you have carjackings and thiefs, in Italy you have the Mafia as in the East Countries of europe

If you tell me that you are concern about the new virus that is appearing all around the world, ok you have a point there. But the true is that for a while now I didnt ear about anything really dangerous in Colombia. Of course as a major competition local autorities will be warned.

So for me the most important and maybe the concern we all should have is how are you going to go there and what attitud will have your teammates and you, because we all know sometime turists can be really stupid and arrogant to locals.

COLOMBIA 2010 let´s go!!

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well jase we all have decisions to make, and yeah it's a concern.

as long as its merely players making their own decisions, it won't affect the tournament too much.

however, if federations get the same idea and refuse to send teams thats a different story.

up till now perhaps the comp has seemed so far away that it didnt really need to be considered in terms of safety, but as it gets nearer and federations are forced to rule on whether its an issue we might hear things floating about regarding who thinks this and who thinks that.

people have to make an effort to educate themselves and our federations need to do the same. we dont need people scaring themselves away from the event for nothing.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench