God this is depressing. My younger brother works in the City of London as an investment fund manager, and, as everything is going to hell in a hand-basket because all the governments haven't learnt a thing and have gone even further into debt, he's decided to go and travel the world, mostly alone, for a couple of years, before returning to the City when the economy has sorted itself out(if ever). Where is he travelling? Well, first he's going to Algeria(a hotbed of islamic Fundamentalism), then he's going to Egypt(also known for attacks on Western tourists) then Jordan, Syria , the Kurdish area of Iraq and then Iran, followed by Pakistan, India, Nepal, Indonesia and 6 months in the Pacific on a yacht with others.
I(and the rest of the family) have tried and tried to tell him that it's bloody dangerous to go to the Kurdish area of Iraq as a tourist, let alone the issue of Algeria. There are a lot of Sunni Arabs which were shoved in by Saddam Hussein into that area in order to displace the Kurds, and who are now doing suicide-bombings of Kurdish areas, kidnapping people(sometimes Westerners) etc. Going alone is just so stupid. I mean I could understand it, I suppose, if he was accompanied by 2-3 hardcore Western ex-military mercenaries through that area. But he's decided to ignore the British Embassy's warnings against travelling there, and may, for all I know, be stupid enough to visit the lawless tribal areas in Pakistan as well. I tried explaining to him that there is an extremely high chance of him being kidnapped, being a Westerner(and kidnappings are notorious for ending up with the victim killed regardless of whether the money has been paid or not), but he won't listen.
The only wise thing he's doing is to leave his British passport behind and travel on his other European one. Since that other country is neutral vis-avis the whole "War on Terror" horsesh*t, he's less likely to be singled out, but still. Oh, and, when asked, he did at least have the sense to state that he will visit neither Israel,Gaza, the West Bank nor Afghanistan. I suppose that's something.
