Indian national is 38th shooting casualty

I know but shhh!

You are welcome to it. There are 7106 other Philippine Islands to visit first.

"Avoid Manila" is often a good rule, but can be hard to apply in practice. All roads lead there - and end in traffic jams!

Always worth reflecting that the reason people live in ghastly slums in Manila is because that is better than living in the countryside,

This is not so shoddy:

http://www.wanderfuldavao.com/2013/08/davao-central-911-mass-casualty-ambulance.html

I think John was referring to Mindanao and specifically Davao!

That vehicle has arrived in Davao and is stationed at the Central Command in Matina which is just up the road from us; my wife saw it yesterday as she rode past in a taxi from her Ob/Gynae appointment.

Although there are only 12 ambulances, there are also 8 motorcycle-riding "first responders" and they are nurses additionally trained in emergency and trauma care.

Another great reason to live in Davao!

Great for mopping up after a shooting or two.

Perhaps they (the FCO) should.

According to Numbeo, which collects and collates data from around the world and updates its rankings on a weekly basis, Davao is the fourth safest city in the world with a Safety Index of 86.73%. Topping the chart is Abu Dhabi (90.47%), Lugano in Switzerland is second (90.16%) followed by Marbella (88.78%). Makati lies in 20th place with a Safety Index of 81.25%, Cebu's is 53.12% but Manila's just 35.46%. By comparison London's Safety Index is given as 50.85% but is beaten by Liverpool's 63.64%. Karachi is deemed to be the least safe city, its index is just 8.01%.

More here

I looked at that website. Whilst it "rings true" for two cities I have lived in - Hong Kong (extremely safe) and Port Moresby (extremely dangerous) I thought that it must be using subjective data because I cannot think for one moment that Rotterdam is objectively "more dangerous" than Nairobi.

And indeed this is the case - it's an index of "worried-ness"

http://www.numbeo.com/crime/indices_explained.jsp

These surveys are always tricky - the crime statistics for anywhere are skewed by levels of unreported crime, and the UK has in recent years tried to adjust for this by applying corrections - this has the side effect of making some English towns "more violent" than some American cities.

Some mind-bending stuff on the UK crime rates here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/crime-statistics

The whole subject is a minefield!

veering back to the original topic Kay commented on the number of Indians in Dumaguete, Negros - mainly, she thinks, occupied in "five and six".