I witnessed a terrible fight in Arambol, Goa, India. It happened in the early afternoon on the beach. It was about 20 men fighting. I earlier that day I went for a swim and passed by a group of Indian men drinking. In while swimming two of them started a casual tourist conversation where Am I from ect... On my way out of the sea I was invited for a drink. Outside of India, even though I don't drink I would have possibly accepted, since it is always nice to know a different culture, BUT KNOWING THE TEMPER OF INDIANS, I politely sad no thank you and left to a restaurant. I wished I was wrong... The fight was with this group and another...

The fight that I was watching later was brutal, it escalated to bamboo sticks, palm branches and even bottles of beer. It was very violent, and lasted for good 29 min or more.

Nobody called police, even though the life guards were watching it.

Since this is DMT forum, coincidently that night I was planning pharma, and my husband said that I shouldn't do it, I. Rushed it off, but later I realised that I was much more affected by it than I thought... What made it worst the fact that I had minimal conversation with the group involved made it worst.

My question to you is following: I posted the event in FB Arambol page. Earlier I talked to a Spanish man and he told me that it happens in Ibiza and Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain. I was shocked, and he downplayed it saying that it was provoked by tourists not locals, since he saw my surprise reaction.

On face book I stated that in the USA I have never seen even one fight, nor heard of one, aether on the beach nor in bars, and I lived in Harlem, San Francisco lower Haight, East village, and spend all my summers in ex Yugoslavia on many different beaches... And heaved lived in past 13 years in Mexico's big tourist place of Puerto Vallarta. By no means I lived secluded life as a rich white boy pulled away from reality, but I just have never witnessed anything nor even heard: don't go there fights break out...

Well the Europeans on FB were very sarcastic and angry with me by implying that in the USA nor Mexico.

Since on this forum there are people of various countries I just wonder if fights are common in your area or where you spend your vacations? And what do you think is the cause?

Jox

I've lived in Spain, in Gran Canaria to be exact, and fights are pretty commonplace on the weekends in the party areas and they get extremely violent on occasions. I think it's got a lot to do with bad parenting and dysfunctional families plus tremendous amounts of alcohol plus the widespread use of cocaine and amphetamines.

Now I live in Finland and fights are definitely not rare but nowhere near the savagery of Spain, drunks will get in fights over someone skipping the line to get a cab or at the late night snack grill but it pretty often boils down to a shoving contest.

I suppose in the USA and Mexico fistfights are not as big of a deal because there's a big problem with gun violence and I'd imagine nobody wants to risk getting shot over stuff that might spark a fistfight in other circumstances.

Street fights happen all around the world I think. Think about it, often its groups of drunk young men that have no proper life guidance, full of hormones, trying to belong to the group and prove to themselves they are strong, without social support and good rites of passage that helps them deal with all of this.

Usually though, I´d think most fights get separated by others around or police arrives.. It might just have been an unrelated fact that no police arrived.

In USA I think this happens more often in those kind of frat parties, there are videos around the internet of such things. But it´s really all around.

At times innocent people may get inavertedly involved but for the most part, I think most fights happen with people who have a certain attitude and are looking for it. Its amazing how tone of voice and body language can diffuse a tense situation.

Funnily enough I think martial arts can do wonders for people in the right mindset, it can really help you be more confident and yet at the same time more calm and level headed when dealing with tense situations.

The cause of most violence, as in fist fights, is alcohol.

In the uk weekend drunken fights are the norm rather than the exception. Where i live now there is very little violence, in spite of the copious amounts of alcohol that people drink. I think that it being a smaller community helps. i also think that French people are more polite. If you go into a bar and you are a man and you see another man you, at the very least, shake hands. Or give eachother a kiss if you know each other. You give the women kisses aswell. I think all that kissing and hand shaking helps set the tone for the night and promotes bonhomie. The only altercation i have had in the last 5 years has been from trying to calm a drunken lunatic from Paris who was kicking a neighbour"s door in.

I have seen violence in Goa. My friend was offered a "bamboo massage" by the locals after he upset one of them in a dispute about a rented motorbike. An Israeli guy got his stomach sliced open in an argument with a local. The thing about Goa is that it is the place where a lot of Indians go to drink (or it was when i visited). We were in a hotel in Panaji and these 2 Indian guys were there rolling around outside their room. They were completely slaughtered on whisky and spent the whole night puking in the corridor, very very noisily. I didn"t get a wink of sleep that night. The hotel was like that scene in The Shining where the corridors get flooded with blood, only in this case is was vomit. My experience of Indians is that they seem to get very drunk, very quickly.

India sounds like a hilarious place to go on vacation. I'd much rather people use palm trees and beer bottles instead of bullets. There was a ton of gang violence over Easter weekend where I live. Innocent children were just lit up by gang members which I doubt the police will do much about.

India is a great place to go for a holiday and when put into context it is not a very violent place (as long as you use your noodle). You should definitely go Redguard. Especially if you like vomit.

Violence is pretty common where I am from in Scotland, always as mentioned fueled by alcohol and amphetamines and the like. Place is full of bullys really and if your out somewhere and dont stand up for yourself verbally people will try to take advantage and bully you for no good reason. Generally the violence never escalates to extreme levels, it happens yes but its not common.

I live in south east asia and in the 2 years ive been here Ive seen one gang fight and 2 locals fighting and both were brutal just a higher level of violence generally than back home, basically no mercy luckily people were there to break things up at the end. My friend seen a fight well an attack with drunken americans in the main tourist bit shouting their mouths off, they were just drunk my friend said the locals attacked them with machetes, guy lost a hand for something really trivial. I was talking to an american friend about this and he said where he was from violence was a regular occurance but it never got too bad, was mostly ego posturing just like the UK but here violence is very rare and aggressive attitudes are uncommon unlike the west but when it does happen its a level above what Im used to in the west, basically no mercy or holding back.

I think it may be down to things like no cameras and no justice/punishment expected, especially if people are in gangs and connected to paid off police etc. dont get bribery in the west.

Innocent children were just lit up and the police wont do anything?? thats horrific, curious redguard where are you roughly?

Jox, I'm sorry you had to witness such brutal violence . I'm glad you weren't involved or hurt in the altercation.


This is about what it is like in my area as well. I live in a small town in a semi-rural part of the USA. Our town is basically a big tourist attraction, so summers here are insanely busy.

I currently work at a bar/pizza place, and we break up fights almost every weekend. They are often started by non-locals. Those involved are almost always too drunk to even know what's going on. It usually doesn't get too serious, but it does happen. It often stems from something stupid, like "Hey ******, you bumped into me/my girlfriend and I now need to show you how tough I am!!!!".

In short: cowboys + whiskey = my coworkers and I having to jump in and break up little squabbles constantly.

I just don't understand the whole "I'm a man and I'm going to prove it to you 'cause I'm so tough!" mentality...

Chicago. Inner city racial gang violence is a low priority for the police. They are also stretched thin and police are dealing with increased violence towards them as well. It's a bad situation all around. I'll be moving out of here soon, it's gotten to the point that even if you live in a good area, the bad spots are only a few blocks away.... I'll be moving out of here soon, I love the city, but it's just not worth all the bs.

this.

fistfights are kid stuff, grade school. grown men will pull out guns.
you can't outpunch/outkick/outchoke a bullet.

I live in the US and have never seen a fight like the one your describing, but when visiting England recently, i saw a couple small skirmishes, no more than 4 or 5 people, that were brief with no weapons used. My friend who resides there told me that it is much more common for fights, hit and runs, etc.. to occur because the health care is so cheap there, if not free, that people just don't care nearly as much as in the US where health care can be quite costly.

I think i will stay away from Indian beaches now though

It seems that some cultures have more violence than others, and paradoxaly I conclude that USA, Mexico and ex Yugoslavia have little to none violence. Ex Yugoslavia is not very alcohol consuming at all, yet people smoke tobbaco and drink coffee in abnormal amounts.

But the violence as described in Scotland, Finland, England I never seen in my life nor even heard of.

Mexico is drinking culture, but I never saw anything.

Some mentioned gangs, this is not the topic, I am talking of nonsense fights, not turf fights for drug sale which is another topic.

I also lived in urban areas, it seems that it changes.

In places where the fights happen, is sex easily available? Would that be a reason?

I know I am running social theories, but can't get my head arround the fact that in my home country and in North America I just never encounter anything, and that Europe is so fight prone. I just wouldn't expect it.

Check out football hooliganism. Football hooligans are youngish men who spend their time beating the hell out of supporters of other football teams. I think it is an outlet (allbeit a misguided one as Endlessness said). Football hooliganism tapered off about 20-30 years ago in the uk. I think this was mainly to do with the emerging rave scene, where the more positive outlet of taking ecstacy, dancing all night and hugging people took over.

I think violence manifests itself in many different ways, you are just selecting one specific kind, generalized open fights that have coincidentally happened where you were. Hard to know the real statistics, maybe your personal experience isn´t representative of an average.

What´s the number of people killed with guns in USA? I´d bet very high.. And a ´fight´ probably wont last too long when guns are involved, so you might not get to see them but they are happening.

Or, as mentioned, there are loads of frat party fights in USA. I´ve had friends see it upclose, there are videos around too. I´d bet some kinds of concerts might also end up in fights.

Best we can do I think is offer example and guidance to the younger ones, and this will lead to more awareness, people that are less influenced by peer pressure and ego games, more peaceful, etc..

[quote=hug46]The cause of most violence, as in fist fights, is alcohol.

In the uk weekend drunken fights are the norm rather than the exception. Where i live now there is very little violence, in spite of the copious amounts of alcohol that people drink. I think that it being a smaller community helps. i also think that French people are more polite. If you go into a bar and you are a man and you see another man you, at the very least, shake hands. Or give eachother a kiss if you know each other. You give the women kisses aswell. I think all that kissing and hand shaking helps set the tone for the night and promotes bonhomie. The only altercation i have had in the last 5 years has been from trying to calm a drunken lunatic from Paris who was kicking a neighbour"s door in.

Yea ...With booze you loose..with dope theres hope!
An old saying from my teen days...

Ive been to England before.. and want to return and explore the past history of the country..especially the 12th century era..

I thought about nautingham as a place to live for 6 months..but recently discovered that the city was considered the highest crime city in the UK?

Is robinhoods old town all that bad???
Going through there once a number of years back for a day and night i spent the star filled night in a car i bought in england parked on a hillside just below the ruins of the castle ..

It was like a living dream to me that night..[probibly because of lack of sleep]
One thing i can say is they had great fish and chips resturants.. ..

I almost got into a fight at a funfair with a group of mostly muslim origin. Not being racist here but this ethnic group is a big problem in our country. I was constantly being provoked by some 13 year old handicapped kid who it looked like they used as bait to start fights at a funfair because this little guy constantly harassed me by giving me weak punches and trying to push me around as some other guy tried to sell me weed. They constantly kept yelling that I was starting a fight with this kid but it's no true because I didn't do anything. Another more intimidating fella approached me and expressed his hatred for me because as a white guy I am almost certainly inclined to do hard-drugs for which he had contempt etc. he commented on my lazy eye and tried to intimidate me. Some little kid of about 12 years old who was not handicapped starting giving me harder punches and pushed me around. It almost looked like some kind of pre-planned maneouver to provoke me into getting angry, because what I was not fully aware of in the heat of the moment was that two other guys of my own size where circling around me like Piranhas ready to strike me if they felt any sort of agression rise up. Luckily I am more peacefully inclined and at that moment I could relax my balled up fists because my friends joined the scene when they heared there was some kind of uprising. They simply shook hands with these guys because they all seemed to know each other and the situation leveled down. I noticed these other guys turned around back to their girlfriends which acted as if nothing happened and just kept on flirting. But had I expressed any sort of anger whatsoever with these guys circling around me with lighters in their hands for extra punching power I would have almost certainly ended up hospitalized that night. They would have gotten away with it too, because they certainly would have twisted the story to the police by saying that I got agressive with a fricking handicapped kid.

This is pretty much business as usual as far as I know. This whole encounter was almost certainly fueled by racial hate and women. We have nationalist racists and muslim groups here in Holland. Weapons are tightly watched in our country so that almost never happens in these racial wars. I think only real criminals or extremists use weapons Idealism like neo-nazism etc. these groups of people will kill you for being different. I know cus an old friend of mine got his jaw fractured for talking to a black person. He was an ex-nazi trying to better his life. It is sad because he had a psychotic breakdown only a few months later.

Ever since I picked up Krav Maga as a fighting sport I tend to avoid fights even more because I have learned what it can amount to and am inclined to show my teeth if I have to. But often times it is better to pussy out. But I know that if i'm not a victim these guys will find other victims to fight with. It's a good thing police are around but more often than not the police is afraid to walk into bad neighbourhoods because they simply don't have the force to fight them. That is because Police here do not often use guns or weapons and I think that is a good thing because that would almost certainly amount to more police-hatred and both sides will start arming themselves and when shit hits the fan like that the police will be hopelessly outnumbered.

The us city I live in adopted a measure that applies mandatory minimum sentences to violent crimes in the nineties. It has remained on the books because it's effective. I've personally witnessed violence NOT happen because someone was more afraid of the consequences than they were angry.

It is sad but true that humans are violent creatures. It is sad that we have to pass laws that speak to the lowest common denominator. We passed the measure 11 ordinance in response to the rising violence that was manifesting in our city 20 years ago. Its true that crime and violence has plummeted in the us since then, but the measure remains because it is perceived to have an effect.

Starway6 if you plan on staying in the Uk for 6 months, i highly recommend Cornwall. It is lovely there and has the best fish and chips that i have ever eaten. If you are into the old history go visit Tintagel castle.
(however i will add that i once got soundly beaten by 2 Cornish bully boys in an alcohol related incident).

Just had to break up a fight last night actually. USA dweller here. And just last week I had to pull some friends out of a fight/avoid being jumped. Some young men (scared, hurt boys, in my mind) who had been starting ignorant crap all night, started it with a couple friends of mine who I had to pull out of the scuffle. One of the assailants had a hatchet he was swingin around, though I don't think he wanted to really use it. They hit my friend with a car, luckily, no broken bones. Anyway.. I don't want to tell war stories, I'm an advocate of nonviolence and managed to successfully diffuse last night thankfully. Getting too old for this garbage, but I think it comes up inevitably. I also live at the beach/hot vacation spot. Its not like fights are rampant. But they do happen with young men and beer. I'd say where I live that the overall vibe is generally chilled out though, and usually only a couple people at a party/gathering will want a fight and will ruin for everyone else. People mentioned guns being more prevalent in the states, which is true I'm sure, but as far as my geographical data point goes, guns are very rarely pulled out around my neighborhood, and usually and luckily its generally fist fights.

All jokes aside, I've always wanted to visit india. All of the exotic spices, spices, and smells will be sure to make a sensous journey for the open minded!