I have had a few family and friends who have recently returned from trips overseas….and after talking to them about their experiences, it makes me realise just how good we have it here.

With all the bad news saturating our social media feeds…and all the current noise from politicians about how bad this is, and how they will fix that…. it is easy to forget that there are still some great things happening in this country we call home.

Melbourne-Yarra-River-Autumn

Yes, we have the usual urban issues in Melbourne and the other Aussie cities with crime, gangs on rampages, unemployment, homelessness and so on, but compared to other cities in the world, things aren’t quite as dire…yet.

When complaining about things…and yes, I don’t deny some of us have every right to complain…just make sure you keep it in perspective.

We don’t have to worry about suicide bombers and car bombs going off regularly…in some cases, every day.

We don’t have to worry about sharing land borders with a country that is determined to self destruct.

We can walk in many places without fear.

Others don’t have this freedom.

Let me give you an example for comparison…

One particular person I spoke to has just spent a week in Istanbul, and reports that the once thriving city is relatively deserted.

Internal conflict is resulting in violence and bombings…daily occurrences have become the norm.

The terrorism threat is high, which means travellers are warned not to go…the cruise ships are avoiding the city…which is all dramatically affecting tourism industry.

Yet on the other hand, the crisis in Syria is pushing many over into Turkey, leading to many homeless and desperate refugees.

And on top of that, Russia has an embargo on all Turkish products, which is causing major issues for companies who once relied on exporting products.

Although I have never been there myself, I know many who have visited Istanbul and surrounds and loved it.

Now it’s just not that safe for visitors, and is turning into hell for those who live there.

Turning back to our own city…and country…in comparison, we are very lucky in so many aspects.

And I hope we never lose that…together, we must make sure of it for our own sakes, and the future generations.

Where do you live in the world? Do you feel safe?

Share in the comments below as I would love to know…