No, this is not a rallying cry for fundamentalists or a push for evolutionary biology: I’m talking about Darwin, Australia.
After three tourists from Korea were assaulted and robbed, the Northeast Territory Opposition Leader, Terry Mills, called Darwin unsafe for travel. The visitors were relieved of their cigarettes, cell phone and a pair of sunglasses while walking to a bus stop in Parap. Three boys and a girl approached. The girl asked for cigarettes, and the boys attacked the target.
There have been other attacks in the area, as well, including one on a 75-year-old man who was beaten for pocket change en route to a bus stop in Palmerston. The week before that, 20 youths surrounded and allegedly bashed a man near a bus station.
Mills’ message has more to do with perception, it seems, than genuine travel advisory. Tourists, he worries, will get the impression that Darwin isn’t safe.