Travels in the Riel World

If you enjoy travel writing, you might want to check out Rolf Potts’ collection of interviews with travel writers on his website.  He’s been publishing an interview with a different writer every month for six years now.  It’s an interesting site to wander through, reading interviews with your favorite travel writers and with others you may not have heard about.  Here is a sample from an interview with Sarah Erdman, author of Nine Hills to Nambonkaha:

How did you get started traveling?

Probably something happened in utero — my parents were living abroad until a few months before I was born, came back to Washington for my birth, and then shuttled me straight back to the Mediterranean, making me a global nomad before I hit six months. My parents are in the Foreign Service, so we moved every couple of years, and traveling was a natural state of being early on. I distinctly remember moving back to Washington DC at age three and wondering why we had no goats in the backyard.

Every place we lived, my parents were hell-bent on seeing and doing everything. My brother and I were sometimes whisked, sometimes dragged into all their adventures — from drinking gritty tea with a Berber family in a lightless stone hut in the Atlas mountains, to tramping through one picturesque little village after another, to riding camels across the Negev.

My own path, as soon as I was old enough to tread it, naturally led me overseas again. I studied in Paris during college, and moved to Israel after graduation because I was fascinated by its passion and its conflict. At that point, I had already spent eleven of my 23 years abroad, but I wanted to push my limits further. I wanted to work for everything I had, start from scratch, suck the marrow out of life, as Thoreau put it. I also wanted to be absorbed as much as possible into a different rhythm of life, and forced to look at my own life from a different perspective. And I felt that the only way I could be of real use to people was to understand them first, and work from there. So I joined Peace Corps.

What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?

The fact that somehow the story of my tiny, insignificant village in the African savanna has struck a chord with high society North Carolinians and ranchers in Montana. That suburban moms have said to me, “Tell us how we can help your village, because we really want to.” It’s a good antidote for cynicism to know that people are hungry for each other’s stories, and want to find similarities despite all our differences. I’m honored that I get to be one of the storytellers. And then there’s the magical rush of fusing writing and traveling, the two things I’m most passionate about, and calling it my career.

“Why can’t we be like normal people and go to an all-inclusive?” These moans from our teens–Tess, 17, and Lucy, 14–are predictable when we announce we’re going on a three-week trip to India.

My husband, Terry, and I heard the same chorus of complaints prior to our trips to Thailand and Malaysia (2000), and Vietnam and Bali (2004). These are only token protestations for two reasons: 1) We foot the bill; 2) They know from past trips that they will be stretched to the limit, but lovely surprises await around the corner.

Truth be told, Terry and I admit to each other we’re not quite as pumped as we’re making out to be, going on to the girls about how it will be tough but wonderful. We have our own fears about the culture shock being even more than we’re up to. In one travel book introduction, the author says for many travelers India stands for: “I’ll Never Do India Again.” Remind me here–whose idea was this?

That’s the introduction to an amusing story written by Leslie Gavel for the travel section of the Chicago Tribune - about visiting India with her husband and two teenage daughters.  You can read the story here.

The American road trip has long been a rite of passage for travelers, though for many people this journey may not strike the same romantic chord that it once did. World Hum, though, recently suggested that we may actually be in the midst of a new golden age of the cross-country road trip.

The 1940s and 1950s are generally considered the Golden Age of the American road trip, immortalized in Bobby Troup’s song and Jack Kerouac’s book and the actions and memories of adventurous souls like my dad, who roamed the country in his 1951 Ford and chronicled his trips by tracing his routes in blue felt pen on a U.S. map. …

Then came the rise of the interstate system and the chain-store, fast-food culture that sprung up around its edges. Conventional wisdom said these developments sucked a lot of the romance out of the road. And with the rise in cheap airfares and gas prices, the news just kept getting worse for the long-distance road trip. Sure, people still drove from the Pacific to the Atlantic, but they couldn’t help thinking that maybe they’d missed out on a special era.

At least that’s what I thought until not too long ago. Now I think we’re in the midst of the new Golden Age of the American cross-country road trip. …

What solidifies this era as a new Golden Age, though, is that the reemergence of the road has happily coincided with the ability to tell dynamic stories on the Web. Now instead of writing a book like Kerouac or marking those lines in felt-tip on a map, travelers can use video and flash and Google Maps and blogs and audio to interpret what they’ve seen on the road and bring it to life in unexpected ways. In the age of the Web, the road trip has arrived as an artistic statement.

They go on to list several websites dedicated to cross-country trips.  These include: Matt Frondorf’s drive, in which he recorded a time lapse video of 3,304 photos, or one per mile; Amanda Congdon’s adventure in a hybrid vehicle, in a trip sponsored by an environmental group; and Michael Hess’ unique blog, which plots Jack Kerouac’s journey in On the Road by using Google Maps.

For more insight into cross-country travel, you can also check out this interview that Rolf Potts did a few months ago with Jamie Jensen, author of Road Trip USA.

Granted, Iraq is not high on the list of places that most tourists are likely to consider when planning their next vacation.  Nevertheless, the Iraqi region of Kurdistan is making a push to attract tourists, according to this recent USA Today article.  Their argument is that the region of northern Iraq populated by the Kurds has long been more autonomous than the rest of the country and has little of the violence that is plaguing the Arab regions further south.

“It has always been a tourist destination for Iraq and other parts of the Middle East,” said Sal Russo, whose Sacramento, firm helped the Kurdistan Development Corp. create a new television ad campaign for the three-province region in Northern Iraq. “Westerners walk around freely and there is an active nightlife.”

Russo … acknowledges that it “might be close by in miles” to the Iraq war, “it’s a lot further from that in reality.”

That might be little comfort to a family considering a holiday there, but in three TV commercials airing nationally on cable news networks the pitch is clear: Kurdistan isn’t the Iraq of roadside bombs and beheadings. It’s safe, well-protected and home to a democratic government. Coalition troops are welcomed with smiles and flowers.

“You think of bombings and this is peaceful,” Russo said. “You think of desert and this is mountainous. You think of camels and you are more likely to see sheep.”

The tourism push is also controversial for reasons that go beyond the region’s proximity to the Iraqi violence.  Kurdistan is a recognized cultural region with an ethnic group that is distinct from the neighboring Arabs, Persians and Turks.  But the Kurds do not have their own country.  Hence, nations such as Turkey and Iran are not very enthusiastic about a rising Kurdistan, since it could encourage restive Kurdish minorities within their own borders to press for more autonomy.

Despite all this, though, for adventurous travelers on the lookout for a new destination, Kurdistan may soon beckon.

Is Latin America an integrated region, or a diverse group of peoples and cultures? 

There are those, such as Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, who have dreamed in the past of unifying all the peoples of Latin America.  That sentiment was given expression again in the 2004 movie The Motorcycle Diaries (a nice travel movie, by the way), when the character of a young Guevara states his growing belief that there is a single Latin American culture stretching from Mexico to Patagonia.

However, the dream never did become a reality.  That is why the following quote caught my eye this morning, buried in a larger story about Latin America:

Kenneth R. Maxwell, a senior fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, said he believed there was a “tectonic shift” that was dividing Latin America three ways — a northern sphere encompassing Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; a southern part based in the large countries of South America; and an Andean stretch where indigenous leaders were coming to power.

If history had been different, all of Latin America might well have become one country, and there is certainly a great deal of common cultural ground across the region.  Still, there are also differences among these nations - from the more Europeanized cultures of Argentina and Chile in the south to the indigenous peoples of Peru and Bolivia in the central Andes to the Mexicans in the north, who are most influenced by proximity to the United States.  It’s an interesting region, unified to a large degree by language, religion and culture, but still different enough to have remained separate nations.

There are many people who would have us believe that the challenges of Iraq are all about politics and terrorism.  And, of course, those obstacles are very real and are difficult enough to overcome.  But the hurdles involved in putting that country back together actually go much deeper, since a solution to the Iraqi quagmire isn’t really possible without taking into account the culture of that region of the world.

If you want some insight into the culture of Iraq and the challenges of building a functioning democracy there, John Tierney has written an enlightening column in today’s NY Times.

“Part of our problem is that we want this more than they do,” General Thurman told The Times’s Michael Gordon, alluding to American efforts to unify Iraqis. “We need to get people to stop worrying about self and start worrying about Iraq.” …

But what’s stopping them is not selfishness. When General Thurman talked about the conflict between serving oneself and serving one’s country, he was applying an American template to a different culture. Rampant individualism is not the problem in Iraq.

The problem is that they have so many social obligations more important to them than national unity. Iraqis bravely went to the polls and waved their purple fingers, but they voted along sectarian lines. Appeals to their religion trumped appeals to the national interest. And as the beleaguered police in Amara saw last week, religion gets trumped by the most important obligation of all: the clan.

The deadly battle in Amara wasn’t between Sunnis and Shiites, but between two Shiite clans that have feuded for generations. After one clan’s militia destroyed police stations and took over half the city, the Iraqi Army did not ride to the rescue. Authorities regained control only after the clan leaders negotiated a truce. …

Unlike General Thurman and other Westerners, members of these tightly knit Iraqi clans don’t look on society as a collection of individuals working for the common good of the nation.

“In a modern state a citizen’s allegiance is to the state, but theirs is to their clan and their tribe,” Ihsan M. al-Hassan, a sociologist at the University of Baghdad, warned three years ago.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that Iraqis live in a tribal culture that doesn’t mesh easily with the ideals of the more individualized culture of the West.  For a description of tribalism and its manifestation in the modern Middle East, you can also check out this short essay written for ABC News last month by historian Steven Pressfield.

What history seems to be telling us is that the quality that most defines our Eastern adversaries … is neither religion nor extremism nor “Islamo-fascism,” but something much older and more fundamental.

Extremist Islam is merely an overlay (and a recent one at that) atop the primal, unchanging mind-set of the East, which is tribalism.

In the spring, I had a post about the increasing numbers of Americans who were traveling abroad for surgeries that are often unaffordable at home.  That same topic is in the news again, in the wake of a recent report by the ABC News program Nightline.

Overseas medical travel has been popular for a long time for those patients seeking more minor procedures, like cosmetic surgery, but now everything from hip to heart to brain surgeries are available overseas at a fraction of the price.

Rick Wade, spokesman for the American Hospital Association, said the hospitals in his network aren’t concerned yet. But he admits that this is a sign of how broken some parts of the American medical system are.

Nightline spotlighted the firm PlanetHospital, which bills itself as a medical tourism company.  The ABC report prompted a spate of other coverage, such as this editorial in the Arizona Daily Star.

ABC’s “Nightline” program Thursday reported about PlanetHospital, an online medical-tourism firm that works like a concierge service. The California-based company connects U.S. patients who are unable to afford surgeries at home with doctors and hospitals in six countries.

Rudy Rupak Acharya, who runs the 1-year-old company with his wife, told us that the firm has helped more than 200 U.S. patients travel overseas for surgeries.

Rupak said business is good. His company contracts with about five Americans a week, charging a $295 fee. Patients pay for travel to those countries and for their medical care.  In almost all cases, it’s a bargain.

Is this trend symbolic of the weakness of the American health care system, or of the benefits of globalization?  Or both?

Well, here’s a rare and unorthodox way to fund a round-the-world trip…

In 2003, Matt Harding posted on his website a video of himself dancing in a dozen countries.  As the video made its way around the web, it found its way into the offices of Stride gum company. The company then offered to fund a six-month trip anywhere Matt wanted to travel if he would make a travel-dancing video that could be marketed in conjunction with their new gum.  So Matt went off on a journey to 39 countries on seven continents.  Underwritten by a gum company.  And all he had to do was get in front of a camera and dance somewhat badly.  Nice work if you can get it.

If you want to see him doing his little dance in front of the ruins of Macchu Picchu in Peru, atop the sand dunes of Namibia, with a turtle in the Galapagos Islands, with villagers in Rwanda, or at any one of several dozen other places around the world, you can check out his website. You can also read an interview with him in the Washington Post. An excerpt:

Which places were the most difficult to dance in?

The hardest dance was on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I spent nine hours climbing up to the peak, I vomited eight times on the way up and I just had nothing left by the time I got up there. The most complicated to shoot was underwater in Micronesia, diving in front of the propeller of a Japanese shipwreck that was sunk in World War II. That was complicated because I discovered that you can’t talk to the camera person when you are underwater. And the most terrifying was on the Kjeragbolten rock in Norway; it’s just a tiny rock wedged between two faces of a chasm 3,000 feet up and only a few feet across. Dancing on that rock, yeah, I came very close to killing myself.

Were people inspired to join in your dance?

The only time that happened was in Rwanda. I went out to this village and started dancing, without any explanation of what I was doing. As soon as I started dancing, kids started joining in, and within a couple minutes, all the kids in the village had circled around and we were all dancing together.

Would you encourage people to go tour the world and do a little dance?

Absolutely. It proves the point that I did want to show, which was that there’s really nowhere you can’t get to in a small amount of time. We’re all stuck here together on this small planet.

It’s common knowledge that only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is still in existence.  That being the Egyptian Pyramids at Giza.  No longer are we graced by such sights of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  But what of the wonders that do exist today?  What if there were a new list of seven wonders?

That list is on the way.  According to this news story, a nonprofit foundation is in the process of creating a new list of seven world wonders, with the help of online voting.

An original list of nearly 200 sites nominated by the public was narrowed to 21 by the organizers and experts, including the former director general of Unesco Professor Federico Mayor.

The vote is organized by a non-profit Swiss foundation called New7Wonders which specializes in the preservation, restoration and promotion of monuments, and the results will be announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon.

Will the Egyptian Pyramids make the list again?  What about the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, or the Inca site of Macchu Picchu?  The statues of Easter Island, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, or the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia?  Or modern sights such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty or Sydney Opera House?

If you’d like to see the full list of 21 candidates, and register to vote yourself, you can do so at the New7Wonders website.

Last month, I had a post about the rise of Chinese language classes in Latin America, which is being spurred by the increase in business between the cultures.  Apparently, there is also considerable interest among Americans in learning to speak Chinese, stretching all the way down to elementary school language programs.  The International Herald Tribune just ran a story about this trend.

Paris is enrolled in a “dual immersion” program at the Glenwood Elementary School here in which the pupils - half native Chinese, half English speakers - do their lessons in two languages. The program is indicative of one of the fastest-growing curriculum trends in U.S. schools: the study of Chinese.

“Americans are used to hearing about people in other countries learning English. Now we’re seeing the opposite trend,” said Michael Levine, executive director of the Asia Society, which promotes international content in U.S. schools. “Parents and students are deciding that, since more people speak Mandarin than any other language, it might be a useful skill to have.”

“We appreciate the importance of China in the global economy and the notion that our son’s knowing Chinese may give him a leg up later in life,” said Paris’s mother, Janet Walters. “Every morning while reading the newspapers we can point to articles about China, culturally, politically and economically. China is everywhere.” …

This autumn the College Board initiated a new advanced placement curriculum and exam in Chinese language and literature. Thomas Matts, who supervises the program, estimated that possibly as many as 300 secondary schools were already in a position to offer the program. “We haven’t seen such interest in a particular subject since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and people got interested in Russian and physics,” he said.

There have been several stories in the media recently about universities that are adjusting their curriculums to reflect a more global world.

At MIT, for example, proposed curriculum changes are designed to increase the international experiences of undergraduates.

…the committee also emphasized the importance of international experiences in the undergraduate education, as “being able to understand and to work with people from diverse nations and cultures are indispensable abilities that will characterize successful leaders in the coming century.”

The recommendations focus on bolstering current MIT study-abroad programs … and encouraging departments to cultivate relationships with other universities. “The task force felt strongly that MIT students should be thinking about going abroad,” Silbey said.

At Harvard, meanwhile, a new report is recommending curriculum changes that would focus on such areas as cultural traditions, American history and values, and religion.  The goal would be to better understand these topics in the context of a wider world.  The requirement to study American history and culture, for example, is to enable students to understand the country “in a comparative context with other countries,” according to a Boston Globe story.

The religion requirement has attracted press attention, but the desire is for students to understand the world they will live in, says a professor:

“As academics in a university we don’t have to confront religion if we’re not religious, but in the world, they will have to,” Alison Simmons, a philosophy professor who co-chaired the committee, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

What’s a traveling environmentalist to do?  Even individuals who are ultra conscious about conserving energy, fuel and water in their daily lives must still live with the fact that the airplanes in which they fly make a significant contribution to global pollution.  During a roundtrip flight of 2,200 miles, for example, an airliner will emit an average of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger.

The Practical Traveler column in the NY Times examined this issue on Sunday and reported on the rise of carbon offset programs.  These enable people to make a contribution towards preserving the environment that is roughly equivalent to the pollution they are causing by flying.  The donations may fund projects that range from planting trees to installing solar power in buildings.

Call it penance for eco-conscious travelers: a growing number of travel Web sites and nonprofit groups are selling so-called carbon offsets designed to compensate for travel-generated emissions by reducing levels of greenhouse gases in some unrelated way.

Here’s how it works: Travelers go to one of several carbon-offset Web sites and use an online “carbon calculator” to determine the approximate amount of carbon dioxide produced when they drive, fly or otherwise burn fossil fuels. Then they buy “offsets,” donating money for projects that promise to produce energy without burning fossil fuels or otherwise reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The reduction financed by the purchase is supposed to equal the amount of gas the trip created, per passenger. Typically the price is anywhere from $5 to $30, depending on the length of the trip and the form of transportation.

The article notes that it’s still unclear how much of a difference these programs make and that, at best, it’s just one tiny component of what is needed to combat global warming and other environmental issues.  Still, first steps are always necessary and most people who contribute to carbon offset programs seem to understand that they’re only making a small impact.

Passengers who contribute typically understand the limitations and give the money anyway. “Honestly, I can’t really believe this could result in significant carbon emission improvements at any corporation,” said Justine Johnson, a veterinarian from East Greenwich, R.I., who paid more than $200 at myclimate.org to offset the impact of her car and plane trips for the year.

“But it also was such a small investment that I figured I would do it anyway. Mainly I was casting a vote. I thought that if enough people demonstrate a willingness to put money toward solving this problem, then maybe the government will start listening.”

For more information about this topic, the article refers to Sustainable Travel International, which has a considerable resource area on carbon offsets. One of the programs mentioned in the story that is also recommended by Sustainable Travel is MyClimate.org.

A new Bollywood movie has apparently become all the rage in India these days and is making a pop icon of Mahatma Gandhi.  Not only that, but the film has coined a new word - Gandhigiri, which is supposed to be a means of fighting with moral force rather than with physical strength.

The movie will no doubt make it to the U.S. soon, but in the meantime here is an excerpt from a column about the movie in the Boston Globe…

A new hit movie in India has somehow managed to make Indians shift their focus from Brad Pitt, who is adored there, to the most important figure in modern Indian history — Gandhi. …

In the movie, titled “Lage Raho Munna Bhai,” gangster Munna Bhai meets Gandhi and instead of indulging in his usual “dadagiri,” meaning bullying, he endorses Gandhi’s teachings of non-violence and battles with his enemy by giving him flowers, rather than punches.

“Gandhigiri,” a term coined by the movie and a play on the word “dadagiri,” means to use moral force and kindness to make a point or fight injustice. College students in Lukhnow, who in the past held many violent protests, decided this year to practice “Gandhigiri” and pass out flowers instead of screaming angry words. …

Elsewhere in India, thieves who stole goods from a poor man decided to return them after watching this movie. The governments in many states have declared the movie tax-free, so moviegoers will not be charged tax when buying a ticket, and the leader of the Congress party, the ruling party in India, has urged members to watch the film.

The Washington Post also wrote about the movie recently and noted that …

“Gandhigiri” clubs are being set up in some cities to tame reckless drivers and corrupt officials by handing them flowers with a smile just as Munna and his followers do in “Lage Raho.”

For even more info, you can check out the movie’s official website or this wikipedia entry.

Business Week currently has two articles on technology startups, one with tips on investing in internet businesses in China and another about new technology companies in Scandinavia.  Within both articles are clues to the business cultures of the respective regions.

First, some cultural advice for investing in China …

One of the biggest challenges for a company in China is hiring the management team. … In China, the Internet, and even capitalism, is relatively young, so finding talented executives is more difficult.

For cultural reasons, replacing the CEO of a Chinese startup is often next to impossible, therefore that individual is a critical hire and will be a long-term partner. Investing in startups run by U.S.-educated native Chinese, or “sea turtles,” as they’re known colloquially, helps mitigate risk.

Also …

Model businesses to reflect cultural differences. Baidu, for example, travels door to door to sell ads to local businesses, not only because it’s cost-effective, but because the personal relationship is valued in China.

And, here is a view of some of the successes and challenges of technology startups in Scandinavia …

“Scandinavia has created world-class entrepreneurs who’ve gone on to build world-class services,” says Danny Rimer, general partner at Index Ventures, which backed Skype. …

It helps that there has been a sea change in attitude toward entrepreneurs since the dot-com bubble burst, says Rebtel’s Winbladh. “Failing is not seen as bad as before.”

Yet for all the inspiration and technical expertise, entrepreneurs say there are elements of Scandinavian society that still must change if entrepreneurialism is to flourish. One big sticking point: It’s tough to motivate employees by giving them stock options because options are taxed at high personal income tax rates when they’re exercised.  It’s thus “very difficult to employ people who can share the upside - which is what you need to grow,” says Winbladh.

In Latin cultures, both in southern Europe and in Latin America, there is a long tradition of machismo.  This can take many forms, from a strong sense of masculinity that manifests in a certain physical appearance or swagger to an acceptance of extramarital affairs to a more overt domination of women in the home or workplace.  In some counties, though, it seems that machismo may be on the decline.  That is the opinion of this Washington Post story on the cultural evolution of gender roles in Spain.

The situation is not exemplary, by any means… 

Despite advances in government opportunities for women, the Spanish private sector remains one of the most chauvinistic in Europe. Women sit on less than 5 percent of corporate boards and overall earn 30 percent less than their male counterparts. It remains common practice for companies to fire pregnant women, according to women’s organizations and victims.

“The culture and tradition of machista is very deeply ingrained in the mentality of everyone,” said Carmen Bravo, secretary for women’s issues for Spain’s largest labor union.

But at least the times are changing …

The push for gender equality in one of Europe’s most macho cultures comes as both internal and outside forces are creating seismic social shifts: Spanish women are taking greater control of their own lives by waiting longer to marry and having fewer children. The European Union is exerting more pressure on members to enforce equality. And the growth of high-tech businesses with a greater sensitivity to hiring women is expanding job opportunities.

Of course, sometimes even the best intentioned efforts to promote equality can seem a bit extreme, or at least humorous…

New divorce laws not only make it easier for couples to split but stipulate that marital obligations require men to share the housework equally with their wives.

It’s a good thought, but a law that stipulates equality in housework?  Not surprisingly, some Spanish males have strong feelings about the policy…

“Just because Zapatero says by law men have to do dishes, men are not going to do dishes,” said Alberto Fuertes, a stocky, square-faced 37-year-old owner of a small factory. “That’s ridiculous. It’s totally absurd.”

The story in the International Herald Tribune lays out the challenge.  Nicaragua wants a national drink in order to help boost the country’s identity…

Nicaraguan folk music fills the air at the House of the Mejías Godoy, a nightspot in Managua, Nicaragua’s sprawling capital. The plates of steaming food - beans and rice, plantains and chunks of tasty meat - are also 100 percent Nicaraguan.  But the Nicaraguan authenticity comes to an end when it comes to quenching one’s thirst.

Cuba’s mojito, with its crushed lime and mint leaves, is on the drinks menu. The margarita, Mexico’s way of showing off what tequila can do, is available. The bloody mary and Tom Collins are offered from the colossus to the north.

But Nicaragua has no cocktail to call its own.

The solution?  Hold a national contest and concoct a new national drink…

More and more visitors are arriving to climb the volcanoes and navigate the island-filled lakes. Soon those tourists may be able to sidle up to a bar on a sweltering evening and order a uniquely Nicaraguan trago, which translates as a drink or swallow or swig. …

After sipping numerous offerings, the judges have opted for a fruity concoction that they called el macuá, after a tropical bird found in this part of the world. The drink is one part white rum, one part guava juice, with a half-portion of lemon juice and some sugar and ice.

If all goes according to plan, el macuá will soon be known worldwide as Nicaragua’s national drink, as closely tied to this country as the caïpirinha is to Brazil and the pisco sour to Peru.

Time Magazine recently had an interesting article on the changing nature of the family in Europe.  The nuclear family is less central to life than it used to be, according to the story.  Although the traditional structure is still common, many other types of family have arisen, as Europeans choose to have children outside of marriage, to delay childbirth, to take on a gay or lesbian partner, or not to have children at all, among other examples.

There’s a revolution sweeping through Europe, one more radical than any baby boomer on hallucinogenics could have dreamt up. The ideal of family life … of the nuclear family, that is, a man and woman, plus the offspring that they alone produced — is being toppled. In its place, Europeans are developing their own, innovative models of family. For millions, that means delaying the decision to have children until later in life — or not having them at all.

For others, it means accepting a union between a gay or lesbian couple as a family, whether or not the Catholic Church agrees. Still other couples split up and re-form, in ever more complex constellations involving stepchildren and adopted children, as well as co-parents and friends who are co-opted as carers. For better or worse — and these changes all carry economic and emotional consequences — most European adults no longer live their lives in the bosom of a nuclear family. …

The nuclear family is not dead — some 29% of E.U. households still include dependent children — but the age gap between parents and children is widening. … But even as the age horizon of traditional parenthood expands, many other options are now available.

Some 13% of Europeans live alone, and every year the proportion of solo dwellers rises. So too do the ranks of heterosexual and single-sex couples living without children who now — at 49% of households — represent the most common form of family unit across Europe. Some have watched their kids leave the nest, others will never have children, but all are likely to spend the biggest chunk of their life in the company of their partner only.

Simply put, the definition of family is increasingly flexible, its constituent parts ever more diverse. While the family was once seen as a form of fate — it chose you — it’s now increasingly something that Europeans choose and define by and for themselves.

In global business, some companies do things strictly by the book and are scrupulous about ethics and transparency. Not surprisingly, these companies are most often found in countries where there is a cultural sense of abstract order and a strong legal foundation. In other nations, people are more accepting of companies who pay bribes or who utilize non-transparent means to attract business.  These cultures are likely to value relationships more than laws.

So, it’s interesting to check out the 2006 version of the Bribe Payers Index that was recently released by Transparency International.  Not surprisingly, the list of countries where bribery is least common is led by Switzerland, Sweden and Australia.  The United States ranks ninth.  On the other end of scale are India, China and Russia.  A pdf version of the report can be downloaded from this webpage.  There is also a story about the topic in today’s edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

Here is an excerpt focusing on the situation in India:

Surely the report was meant to shock, to agitate, and even to anger Indians. Yet, in the face of news that an international watchdog group has just labeled his country home to the world’s biggest bribers, Sonal Sinha struggles even to feign interest.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” says the Delhi lawyer as he walks to work.

This is the country where the last foreign minister was sacked for being implicated in the Iraqi Oil-For-Food scandal. Police raids of government officials’ homes routinely find mattresses full of rupees. One Madras (Chennai) businessman laments that he has to pay multiple bribes just to get his clothes to market.

From a British bureaucracy that excelled at self-enrichment and utter obfuscation, India has wrought a business culture that too often idolizes these qualities, say critics. As India collides with the comparatively higher standards of the Western world, it is beginning an effort to reform. But the resigned reactions of Mr. Sinha and others here to Wednesday’s report indicate how far reformers still have to go.