Travels in the Riel World

The most recent Washington Post travel section carried a fun story by Ben Brazil about a journey he and his wife took through southern Mexico, entirely on their own and via public transportation.

For nearly a week, my new wife, Laura, and I had been traveling Mexico’s Carretera Fronteriza del Sur — the Southern Border Highway — a 262-mile route that hugs the border between Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state. We had climbed the Maya pyramids at Palenque, studied the ancient frescoes at Bonampak and taken a sunrise boat to the riverside ruins of Yaxchilan, where howler monkeys roared from the treetops.

Between ruins, we visited a shaman, forded a jungle river and hitched a ride with a cool 43-year-old Mexican hippie and his hot 24-year-old Swedish girlfriend. …

If you just want to see the highlights, scads of tour operators in Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas — Chiapas’s main tourist hubs — sell reasonably priced package tours. But we wanted to see the whole highway on an unscripted journey open to chance encounters and random weirdness. As such, we opted to travel on public transportation and eschew reservations, following an itinerary so vague that it verged on impressionist art. … 

I loved the do-it-yourself approach, but it’s not fast, efficient or even marginally luxurious. Almost no full-size buses serve the remote border area, so travelers rely on combis — vans and microbuses that comfortably accommodate about 15 passengers. In practice, this means that “full” combis carry up to 25 passengers, and often their poultry. It can get tight.

It’s not recommended travel for everyone, but it’s a fun read.

Pope Benedict XVI has embarked a trip to Turkey, where he began by supporting Turkey’s membership in the European Union and calling for more dialogue between Christians and Muslims.  The Pope’s travels have spurred a flurry of media coverage, focusing not only on religion but also on Turkey and it’s role as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East.  Here is a sampling of the coverage:

The Christian Science Monitor discusses the need for the Pope to mend spiritual fences.

… the original purpose of the trip - an opportunity to heal the 1,000-year-old schism between the Vatican and the Orthodox Church, whose spiritual leader resides in Istanbul - has changed.

Since offending Muslims in a September speech that linked Islam with violence, Pope Benedict’s visit - his first to a Muslim country - is now being billed as a chance for him to heal another East-West divide, that between Christianity and Islam.

The BBC News talks about how the world has changed since Pope John Paul II visited Istanbul in 1979.

The legacy of the defunct Ottoman Empire has receded even further into history; Turkey is knocking at the door of the European Union; Europe is becoming ever more secular; the Christian presence is haemorrhaging away in the war-torn Middle East; and the Roman Catholic Church is now competing vigorously with Islam for converts in sub-Saharan Africa.

And the New York Times writes about the modern balancing act in Turkey between a secular democracy and the pull of the Islamic faith.

Turkey — a democratic Muslim country with a rigidly secular state — is at a pivot point. It is trying to navigate between the forces that want to pull it closer to Islam and the institutions that safeguard its secularism. …

The extremes jostle on Istanbul’s streets, where miniskirts mix with tightly tied head scarves and lingerie boutiques stand unapologetically next to mosques.

“There are two Turkeys within Turkey right now,” said Binnaz Toprak, a professor of political science at Bogazici University.

Turkey is certainly a unique country, with its feet dipped in multiple worlds and cultures, and this week’s visit by the Pope is a great opportunity to take advantage of the increased media coverage and to learn about this ancient and interesting land.

It is always a challenge for immigrants to assimilate into a new culture.  The children of immigrants, moreover, often feel torn between two cultures.  The Associated Press recently had an interesting article about some of the choices being made by the children of immigrants in Europe.

As Europe goes through a wrenching debate over integrating immigrant populations — and at a deeper level about what it means to be European in a globalized age — the children of those immigrants also find themselves grappling with issues of identity in an environment where tensions are complicated by jobs scarcity and distorted by the fear of terrorism.

The article includes some enlightening interviews with young people who bounce between two different cultural worlds.  Here, for example, is a quote from a 21-year-old South Asian woman who touches on some of the cultural differences that center around family:

“I come from quite a large family,” said Bhatt, who grew up in Manchester, England, and studies in London. “My aunt and uncle are seen like my mum and dad, and my cousins are brothers and sisters. I remember at school, friends who were not Asian found that type of relationship weird. In high school, I remember my friend turned 16 and said she was going to start paying her mum and dad rent. I found that really weird.”

Or, this 23-year-old Moroccan man who struggles to balance the freedoms of the West with the moral strictures of Islam:

“I don’t want the freedom of Europe — to drink, tell my sister to go out and have free sex before marriage. I want to have rules,” he said. “I accept the rules of democracy, but I’m living the rules of Islam.”

The article provides a good perspective on the challenges of trying to live in a new culture while maintaining at least some of the beliefs and traditions of one’s homeland.

Interested in knowing how a Buddhist monk lives?  Some Buddhist temples in South Korea are now allowing visitors to sample the lifestyle of an ordained monk through a program called Templestay Korea.  Catherine Price recently spent two days living the life of a monk and wrote about her experience for the NY Times.

Meditation and prostration, both essential parts of monks’ lives, are included in every overnight temple stay program, as are meal or tea ceremonies, lectures on Buddhism and exceptionally early wakeup calls. Beyond that, though, programs differ. … temple stays can range anywhere from a few hours to a few months, depending on your budget and enthusiasm.

They also offer different activities. Lotus Lantern’s program included walking meditations through the temple grounds, calligraphy practice, a traditional Buddhist meal ceremony and a discussion about Buddhism led by the temple’s head monk.

The experience, however, was not necessarily a relaxing one, as she notes:

But be forewarned — the point of the temple stay is not, as the pictures on its Web site might make it seem, to lounge next to a brook nibbling crackers as you consider what it means to reach nirvana. The point is to live like a monk. And monks, it turns out, keep strict schedules, are vegetarian and spend a lot of time silently meditating in positions that can become, quickly and without much warning, incredibly uncomfortable for those unused to them.

The number of American students who are studying abroad continues to rise.  According to a recent report issued by the Institute of International Education, last year saw an 8% increase in college students who opted for an international study program.

While the largest number of students still go to countries in Western Europe, there has been a marked increase in interest in other parts of the globe.  China is now the 8th most popular country of choice for study abroad programs after a 35% increase in one year, while Argentina, Brazil and India all broke into the list of top 20 countries for the first time.

Andres Oppenheimer, a columnist for the Miami Herald, believes that more Americans should study in Latin America:

…countries in the region could benefit from drawing a larger slice of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. students who will spend time abroad during their college years. … With its benign climates, relatively cheap prices and great lifestyle, Latin America could become a much larger destination for U.S. students. And that would not only be an economic plus for the region, but would help both sides understand each other better.

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, when families across the country traditionally come together for a day that is centered around a special meal.  There are many time-honored recipes and ways of celebrating the day, although it’s worth noting that among the diversity of ethnic and racial groups in the U.S., many of the different cultures have their own unique traditions.  This story, for example, notes some of the culinary traditions among Alaska’s native peoples, which includes serving whale meat.

In Alaska’s native villages, many Thanksgiving tables this year will be set with store-bought turkey and all the trimmings. But alongside will be delicacies such as reindeer stew, moose roast, stuffed moose heart and whale-blubber salad. For dessert, there might be akutaq, which is whipped animal or vegetable fat that is mixed with sugar, berries and sometimes fish. …

A bowhead whale can measure 50 feet or more and weigh up to 100 tons. Edible parts include the meat, tongue and muktuk, which is the blubber and skin. In Nuiqsut, each bowhead caught is traditionally divided into thirds, to be distributed at Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and at a blanket toss in June.

However you spend the day, if you’re an American who is celebrating the holiday, then I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

There is an interesting battle brewing in next April’s race for president of France.  The Christian Science Monitor recently profiled the two main candidates, both of whom represent a departure from the traditional image of a French president (think Chirac, Mitterand, de Gaulle).  The candidate of the left is a woman, Segolene Royal (whom I previously wrote about), while the likely conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, is the son of a Hungarian immigrant.

The Monitor has this to say about Ms. Royal:

Ms. Royal, who trounced two male opponents in the Socialist primary last Thursday to become the first woman to represent a major party in a national campaign, embodies just about every iconic virtue that French culture holds dear.

She is a mother - of four. She is a graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration, the exclusive academy that has forged France’s government elite for the past half-century. She is the daughter and granddaughter of career military men. She was raised in a strict Catholic home.

She is also ladylike, attractive, and - to top it all off - fond of dressing all in white.

“The image is of purity, almost religious, like Joan of Arc,” says Marc Abélès, a social anthropologist in Paris who has studied the rituals of French politics for years. “This is a formidable image to present to voters, especially to those in the center-right.”

The story contrasts her with Sarkozy, who is currently the country’s Interior Minister:

In terms of background, Sarkozy could not present a more different profile. His father was an immigrant from Hungary, his grandfather on his mother’s side was Jewish, and his marriage - his second - has undergone highly public turmoil over the past two years. He attended a prestigious university but didn’t graduate, rose through the party ranks as a contentious outsider, and has been accused by the French left and right of being pro-American.

According to the article, the two candidates are currently “running neck and neck” in opinion polls.

For years now, those on the front lines of the fight against AIDS in Africa have focused on the most traditional means of transmitting the disease.  Now, though, there is evidence that AIDS may also be spread through some cultural traditions, such as local healing methods, tribal body markings and even child care practices.  The NY Times has a story on the topic in this morning’s paper.

As researchers spend more time studying Africa’s overwhelming pediatric AIDS problem, they are finding that the routes of transmission may be different than in the industrialized countries, and that strategies for preventing the disease’s spread must be adapted to local realities.

In some instances, the culprit is repeated use of one blade or medical instrument …

A 2004 study in the journal Tropical Doctor by Dr. Etete J. Peters at the University of Calabar in southeastern Nigeria concluded that there was “a serious risk inherent in the practices of Nigerian traditional healers” because of “the continuous usage of unsterilized instruments and cross contamination of patients’ blood and body fluid in their practices.” …

In much of rural Cameroon, tiny scars are made to identify members of different ethnic groups, with large numbers of children scarred simultaneously. … If just one child in a village had H.I.V., a common blade could spread the virus to dozens who come after him. The same is true for group circumcisions.

And, in other cases, the problem is simply a local child-rearing tradition…

Another traditional practice that government officials acknowledge could be spreading H.I.V. is communal breast-feeding, the norm in many rural villages.

Polygamy is legal in Cameroon, and a chieftain might have 30 or 40 wives, Mr. Biatcha said, because wealthy men routinely marry the wives of male relatives who have died. It is common for the wives — or even friends — to help out by nursing each other’s infants. In fact, it is an essential service if a mother has to go to work or take a trip into the city.

Ushuaia, Argentina, bills itself as the southernmost city in the world.  It is virtually an island within an island, as it sits at the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego, trapped between the Andes Mountains and the sea.  The Pan-American highway ends (or begins) here, at the edge of the South American continent, just 600-700 miles from Antarctica.  And if one were to set sail east or west in a boat from Ushuaia, you could travel all the way around the globe and not hit another piece of land until you returned to your starting point.

Lisa and I arrived in Argentina when it was late springtime in the southern hemisphere.  In Buenos Aires, the temperature was in the 80’s, flowers were blooming, and people walked the streets in shirtsleeves.  In Ushuaia, it was a good 30 degrees cooler, with a chilly wind blowing down from newly fallen snow in the Andes.

The writer Bruce Chatwin, whom I also quoted a few days ago, was here in the mid-1970’s, before tourism changed the local economy and before cruise ships began to leave regularly from here for Antarctica.  This is how he described Ushuaia in his book, In Patagonia:

Mornings in Ushuaia began in flat calm.  Across the Beagle Channel you saw the jagged outline of Hoste Island opposite and the Murray Narrows, leading down to the Horn archipelago.  By mid-day the water was boiling and slavering and the far shore blocked by a wall of vapor.

On another day he wrote:

It was drizzling.  Snow smears came down close to the shore.  It was high summer.  Behind the settlement the trees disappeared in the clouds. 

While in Ushuaia, we visited Tierra del Fuego National Park and cruised the Beagle Channel, named for the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyage.  The HMS Beagle came through here in the early 1800’s and the crew interacted with the local Yamana Indians before continuing on up the west coast of South America.  Hence, this lonely settlement so far from the rest of the world played a bit part in Darwin’s observations that led to his theory of evolution.

If you’re reading this blog, then you evidently have an interest in the world. There are countless websites out there which track and discuss global issues and it’s always interesting to wander around the internet for a while and discover new sites.  Here are a few you might want to check out:

FP Passport - Foreign Policy magazine (which is not written for academics, but for the average person with an interest in the world), maintains a daily blog about world issues.

PostGlobal - The Washington Post online has an ongoing discussion about topics of global interest.  It is moderated by Fareed Zakaria and David Ignatius.

Managing Globalization - The International Herald Tribune also has a blog that focuses on globalization and related issues.

Those sites could keep you reading for a while.  Do you have any other favorite sites that cover global topics?

I’ve been doing a bit of my own traveling the past couple of weeks.  Lisa and I have been meaning to explore more of South America and so we decided to take a bit of time to see part of Argentina.  It’s too big of a country to explore in one trip and so our focus, in addition to Buenos Aires, has been to experience Patagonia.  We’ve spent time in El Calafate and in nearby Glacier National Park, as well as at the “end of the world” in Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego.

The Patagonian landscape is something to behold.  Spectacular and stark, dramatic and barren, all at the same time.  While traveling here, I’ve been reading Bruce Chatwin’s famous travel narrative, In Patagonia, which is a worthwhile companion for any trip to this part of the world.  Here is one example of how Chatwin describes the region:

The Patagonian desert is not a desert of sand or gravel, but a low thicket of grey-leaved thorns which give off a bitter smell when crushed.  Unlike the deserts of Arabia it has not produced any dramatic excess of the spirit, but it does have a place in the record of human experience.  Charles Darwin found its negative qualities irresistible.  In summing up The Voyage of the Beagle, he tried, unsuccessfully, to explain why, more than any of the wonders he had seen, these arid wastes had taken such firm possession of his mind.

While in El Calafate, we experienced some of what Chatwin wrote about.  On the Patagonian steppe, the land stretches vacantly for miles and the wind howls.  The solitary homes of the local farms are all protected from the wind by rows of planted trees.  Otherwise, there is little vegetation aside from grass.  It’s an apt landscape for the southernmost region of the world.

Turkey is the place to go if you want to experience a bit of the Middle East and a bit of Europe in the same country.  And Istanbul is one of the most interesting and beautiful cities in the world.  You can sip apple tea by the shimmering waters of the Golden Horn while gazing at the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, relive the history of the Ottoman sultans while wandering the courtyards of the Topkapi Palace, or bargain for a Turkish carpet in the Grand Bazaar.

Matt Gross recently had his own Istanbul experience, which he wrote about for the NY Times travel section.  The story reflects on the city’s unique blend of East and West, and tradition and modernity.

… Turkey and, especially, Istanbul are places that casually, if not always effortlessly, blend the old and new, the East and West, the secular and the spiritual. That jumble of identities may be a cliche, but over the course of a late-June weekend in Istanbul, it was a cliche the city never let me forget, not even for a minute.

The online version of the story also includes a slide show.

A recent story in Time Magazine noted that the divorce rate in China has risen significantly in recent years, upending a long history of Confucian tradition in this Asian nation.

Until last year, Chen Hong considered divorce an exotic American concept, as far removed from her life in Shanghai as gastric-bypass surgery or an addiction to reality-TV shows. Then she checked out her husband’s cell-phone records. Hundreds of calls had been made to a mysterious number, sometimes just minutes after Chen left for work or took her daughter out to play.

Like most Chinese women, Chen had abided by Confucian tradition, which advises that a virtuous wife should serve her husband like God, no matter what. But Confucius lived centuries ago, and Chen, 42, is a telecommunications executive with a good salary. “I want to get divorced,” she says. “That’s the only way my life will have hope again.”

It wasn’t so long ago that acting on such an impulse in China was rare or even illegal. Ending a marriage in China has long been considered shameful, and for years the ruling communist cadres forbade almost all couples to divorce, viewing it as a symptom of capitalism’s fickleness. … But as economic reforms have loosened the party’s grip on people’s lives and ushered in Western attitudes, divorce rates have soared, particularly in urban areas.

The rising divorce rate is unique for other reasons, as well.

What’s most striking about the divorce boom is that it’s overwhelmingly women who terminate their marriage. The biggest reason? Wandering husbands. China’s market economy has brought with it extra cash to support a mistress, an indulgence common enough during the concubine-laden imperial days but nearly impossible in the socialist era, when wages were minuscule and privacy was almost nonexistent. …

The difference is that fewer and fewer women feel compelled to put up with it. The ex-husband of Li Jie, 34, a sales manager for a Shanghai trading firm, kept a mistress for years, even introducing her to his co-workers. But after Li walked in on her husband and his girlfriend in the bedroom, she ended her six-year marriage.

“Women have more expectations from marriage now,” she says. “They won’t put up with the things their mothers or grandmothers might have, and they’re not ashamed about divorce, either.”

It can be risky to show too much skin in India, even for a model.  According to this recent story, Indian police have begun monitoring fashion shows to make sure that models are appropriately covered up.

Indian police have an unusual undercover surveillance job this week: scanning the ramps and observing models at a top fashion show to check that no one intentionally displays too much flesh.

Police in plain clothes mingled with India’s cigar-chomping, crystal-clinking class at the Lakme Fashion Week, after busting zippers and slipping bustiers at the show’s last edition sparked a morality debate in the conservative country. …

In March, a series of “wardrobe malfunctions” at the show saw models exposing their breasts and buttocks, sending newspapers and television channels into a frenzy of excitement.

Why is this public display of flesh causing such an outcry?  The article notes that:

Talk of sex in public is considered rude in India, while even holding hands or kissing in public is frowned upon and can draw jeers.

It’s commonly assumed among Westerners that residents of Islamic countries uniformly support the veiling of women.  However, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, some of the most vigorous debates on this issue occur not between the West and Islam, but between different factions inside Islamic countries.  Interestingly, the debate over the veil is as intense within Islam as it is outside the faith.

When former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted last month that female Muslim constituents show their faces when meeting with him, he set off a fiery debate about whether the face-covering niqab should be allowed in Britain’s multicultural society.

But often forgotten amid such controversies in Europe - which tend to center on allegations of “Islamophobia” or the desire of Western nations to control a minority community - is the fact that nowhere is the debate over the Islamic veil older or more heated than in Muslim societies themselves.

From Morocco and Tunisia, to Turkey and Iran, majority Muslim states have at various times restricted, and in some cases banned, women’s head coverings. To varying degrees, such restrictions stem from a view that public exhibitions of religious commitment are a political, not a personal, act - and hence a potential threat to the government.

What’s it like to ride the world’s highest railway?  John Flinn of the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on his experience aboard the Lhasa Express to Tibet.  He returned with some interesting stories.

Strange things are starting to happen as the Lhasa Express chuffs across the rooftop of the world. Outside the double-glazed, UV-blocking windows, I can see black-robed Tibetan nomads tending their enormous, shaggy yaks — a scene little changed from Marco Polo’s day.

But that seems perfectly normal compared to what’s happening inside the train. As the altimeter approaches 17,000 feet, a package of potato chips balloons outward until it ruptures a seam. Sunscreen and hand sanitizer erupt unbidden from bottles. In soft sleeper class, Chinese businessmen sprawl listlessly on their bunks, sucking oxygen from plastic hoses. The bathrooms smell of vomit.

Maybe trains were not meant to go this high.

That’s what Swiss engineers concluded when they were brought in to consult more than a decade ago, and the Chinese are taking conspicuous delight in proving them wrong. Building a railroad into Tibet has been the obsession of every Chinese leader since Chairman Mao, and this past July they finally succeeded.

It is, by any reckoning, one of the great engineering feats of our age. Over the last five years, hundreds of thousands of workers laid 700 miles of track over the Kunlun Mountains and across the Tibetan plateau, through some of the highest, coldest and most forbidding real estate on the planet.

The two largest countries in the world, China and India, are also two of the fastest growing economies.  Yet the nations, their people and their governments could not be more different.  Business Week recently looked at the two countries from the perspective of comparative economies and asked the question: “Will the future be an ‘arc of prosperity’ or a jobs battleground?”

One of the more interesting debates among global executives is which political model is best-suited to high-speed economic growth: India’s freewheeling democracy or the top-down, authoritarian approach of China? Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hong Kong-based Hang Lung Properties, thinks China’s embrace of market capitalism married to a focused, powerful and centralized government gives it an edge.

“The biggest problem for China during the last 26 years of development has been to cross an ideological barrier” from socialism to capitalism, albeit with unique Chinese characteristics, Chan argues. “The toughest part is over,” he says, adding that “A democracy changes its mind all the time.” Translation: Powerful vested interests in India could roll back economic reforms if they felt threatened enough. Hindustan’s Gulabchand sharply disagrees with that assessment. “When you look at market economies, which are the richest?” he asks. “They are democracies.”

Smaller economies in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore hope fervently that these two emerging giants remain on good diplomatic terms as their economic rivalry intensifies. Having two regional and powerful growth engines such as India and China in Asia will create an “arc of prosperity that will benefit all of us,” says Surin Pitsuwan, a former Thailand Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It’s an interesting topic, and one that will have numerous ramifications for a global economy.

When I was in Peru a few years ago, a common drink served at every restaurant and small hotel at high altitude was coca tea.  It has a mild stimulant affect, very much like the caffeine in coffee or black tea, and is said to be especially helpful for dealing with the physical effects of altitude.  Some indigenous people chew on the coca leaf.  Today, residents of Peru, Bolivia and Colombia are even using coca in a number of other products, ranging from bread to shampoo.

None of this is remarkable, except for the fact that harvesting the coca leaf is also the first step on the way to producing cocaine, and the United States has spent billions of dollars over the years in an effort to destroy coca production in South America.  Now some of the peoples of South America are fighting back, suggesting that it’s unfair for them to destroy a native crop that has so many other uses and benefits which have nothing at all to do with the drug trade.

It brings up some interesting questions, of course.  Would the U.S. be so determined to stop South Americans from growing coffee beans, for example, if the plant could be reduced to a similarly lethal drug?  And, if all of these years fighting the supply side of the drug trade has yielded so little success, might we be better off focusing our efforts on reducing the demand in our own country?  A recent article in Newsweek looked at the coca industry in Bolivia and Peru from the point of view of the native peoples there.

Armed with scientific studies, Bolivian officials are attacking the impression that coca itself is harmful to health. They argue that legal products could be a viable alternative to growing the plant for use in cocaine, and far more effective than trying to wipe out the hoja sagrada, or sacred leaf, that has been a staple of Andean daily life and religious rituals since ancient times.

Meantime, in the Andean countries of Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, dozens of businesses are developing new coca-based goods. In Bolivia, industrial production of coca tea began in the 1980s, and since 2000, small companies have put out some 30 different products—coca bread and pastas, toothpaste and shampoo, ointments, candies, liquors.