THE SAFETY OF JORDAN VS CRIME IN THE US

One thing I love about living in Jordan is the absence of theft. Don't get me wrong, people do steal here: from their companies, from entities like US AID, but rarely if ever do people steal directly from each other. I think part of it is the culture, but also a large part comes from a profound fear of the consequences. If the guy pictured above was caught in Jordan, he might just disappear for a few months before being officially convicted and sent away for even more time. No three strike policy here; hell, even a ball could get you beaten. And I have to say, I'm all for it. I'm sick of getting my car broken into in the States (three times in two years). In the rare case that someone is caught, they get a slap on the wrist. I'm really not kidding when I say I'm in favor of taking the wrist, not for stealing a candy bar, but certaintly for a home robbery. I remember a time I was walking in downtown Portland when a man ran out of the Columbia Sportswear store with five Gore-tex jackets under his arm. A crowd of people stood around watching him run away. I decided to chase him, and when I caught him in a nearby parking garage, I demaded the jackets. He threw them on the ground and ran off. Had this happened in Jordan a mob of men would have beaten this guy and held him until the police arrived. As a side note, when I returned the jackets (worth over a thousand dollars) to Columbia, no one said thank you. They took down my number, but no one ever had the decency to call me. Shame on Columbia. In the time that Julie and I have lived in Jordan we had no bank account. We kept thousands of dollars in a drawer in my office and never thought twice about it. I can't think of a city in the US that I would feel comfortable doing that. And people are afraid of the Middle East. Be afraid of Baltimore!