Comparing London to two cities, and to Bangkok in Thailand: In London: Fear of the person standing next to you, phone snatching, knife stabbing, you look over your shoulder while walking sometimes, complaining and screaming at, sometimes insulting, staff on buses, cafes and restaurants, shoplifting…. For five months in Pattaya and Chiang Mai, Thailand I have not seen all what I have seen in London. Why? London and Thai cities like Chiang Mai and Pattaya offer vastly different safety profiles, cultural norms, and public behaviours. Your experience highlights a well-documented contrast between major Western capitals and Southeast Asian hubs. While London is a high-energy global financial hub, it struggles with specific urban property crimes and visible street anti-social behavior. In contrast, Thai culture places a massive premium on public harmony, emotional restraint, and community policing, which fundamentally changes how safe and relaxed you feel on the street. [1]...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51