Travel at Your Own Risk

Why would any citizen from western countries visit certain Middle East or African countries that are plagued by extreme violence that causes  people's lives to be constantly at risk? Their visits are generally not on behalf of their governments or any well-established media related organizations. So what would cause these "thrill seekers" to feel that they can easily roam these countries freely as tourists? Obviously, these people's personal desires or stupidity overshadow the fact that they may be caught up in a violent situation, and this will impact their family tremendously. Many of these westerners come to mind; however, the most recent are Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan since their story was aired tonight on Dateline NBC. What were they thinking by not only visiting dangerous countries in the Middle East but Somalia in Africa that has a well known reputation of kidnapping and even murdering western citizens. Was Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan, who seems to be on their own journalistic mission, unaware of this public information? Of course, they were kidnapped and while they lived to tell the tale, experienced great suffering. Words cannot express the sadness to hear of Ms. Lindhout's experiences under her captive's control. However, hopefully, her revelations of such experiences will make others westerners think twice before they decided to go on a "vacation" to these dangerous countries.