Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.30
By Claude Salhani - Trend:
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, sometimes referred to as the pearl of the Caspian Sea is the capital of one of the five countries that share the shores of this sea.
Much like every modern city in the world, today Baku has its pluses and minuses. Like every large city, Baku also has good and not so good sides. However, what plays in Baku's favor is that there are far more pluses -- far more positive marks than negative ones.
Ask any foreigner who has spent any amount of time here, from a few days to a few years and almost unanimously the reply is that Baku is a safe city.
Indeed, when it comes to the question of safety you can hardly beat the statistics here. In that respect, Baku gets only pluses.
In all major cities around the world, be it in Europe, Asia, North or South America, they all have some major crime related issues, yet one does not see this in Baku, where you can still see young grade school aged children walking to school on their own, something which is unheard of in North America today.
Just what then constitutes a plus or a minus? That is really rhetorical question as the answer may differ according to the visitor. One visitor may find he or she likes one thing, while another may dislike it.
The results given here are purely based on this author's assumptions. They do not reflect an official report or statistical finding. Ten is the maximum positive number and zero is the minimum. The author made assessments based on his experience living in other cities, including Paris, London, Brussels and New York.
Thus, Baku gets 10 out of 10 for safety, cost of living and entertainment. The rest of the services such as transportation, housing, communication, health services, ecology and state of roads are also at a very high level.
This is the first of 10 articles and each one will be looking at one of the topics mentioned here and reflect on the positive and negative aspects.
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Claude Salhani is senior editor at Trend Agency and a political analyst. You can follow Claude on Twitter @ClaudeSalhani