Traveling With Danger

National Review Online: A How-To For Avoiding Danger

(National Review Online) 
"Dangerous Places" includes country chapters that rate the locale's risk to life and limb and quickly make one feel inferior for not having been to Bougainville. Also outlined are dangers ranging from dengue fever to land mines and paramilitary groups. "DP Professional Strength" will be geared toward hotspots Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rest of the country profiles will still be available on the Come Back Alive website, where Pelton also hosts an online forum.

Pelton, who is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, notes that "before 9-11 you could count on one hand the people who'd been to Afghanistan," but now the war zones are swimming with business people and government officials who far outnumber the journalists. This is his main target audience for DP Pro, and the catalog copy promises "a discussion on the new dangers of working and traveling overseas on business, as well as hard earned tips on safety, training, equipment, resources, and services — everything you need to circumvent violence, greedy custom inspectors, kidnappers, insurgents, and a whole host of hostile elements."

And though Iraq and Afghanistan have become the hotspot destinations du jour, Pelton tells me that other countries still stack up on the danger scale — Chechnya, Liberia ("nobody goes there"), and Haiti, to name just a few. "Anytime you have groups that are targeting Western tourists," you have a recipe for trouble, he says. Pelton notes that overseas travelers can get kidnapping insurance — about $7.50 a day in Iraq — that covers negotiations, bribes, and medical expenses. Talk about peace of mind — "kidnappers won't saw your fingers off if they know they’re gonna get their money."

Pelton was on the Afghan-Pakistan border a couple of years back looking for Osama bin Laden. So it's no surprise that his new title coming out August 1, and available for pre-order now on Amazon, is about the war on terror — "Licensed to Kill: Privatizing the War on Terror." The book stems from two years Pelton spent with contractors around the globe.

“The most dangerous thing in the world is ignorance,” Pelton has said. So it will be no surprise if the ignorant who read Pelton’s book fancy themselves Indiana Jones and head off to Burundi in search of good times (but not before I do). The book has a disclaimer designed for those people who need the "do not try this at home" reminder on commercials where a car flies off a cliff. "The authors and publishers assume no liability nor do they encourage you to do, see, visit or try any of the activities or actions discussed in this book," reads the disclaimer on the Come Back Alive site. So if anyone marches into Algeria’s Kasbah and comes out riddled like Swiss cheese, it isn’t Pelton’s fault.

"They've yet to find a dead person clutching a copy of the book with a surprised look on their face," says Pelton.



Bridget Johnson is a columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. She blogs at GOP Vixen.