Travels in the Riel World

Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower at sunset.

Virgin Media has an online feature about cultural faux pas to avoid in different countries and regions of the world. A sample:

*   The “a-ok” sign has positive meaning in Britain and in the USA. It’s also the internationally-recognised way that scuba divers say to each other “I’m just dandy, thanks for asking.” But in France, the very same hand shape refers to “zero” or “worthlessness”, and in Brazil it refers to a part of the body that the sun doesn’t often shine upon.

*   You’re in a restaurant in China. It’s heavy going. You’re pausing for a rest, so you stand up your chopsticks in a lump of rice and take a breather. Mistake! Vertical chopsticks in a bowl will remind your fellow diners of a funeral ritual, so would be a major faux pas.

*   In Islamic countries and parts of Asia there is a notion that bodily functions should be attended to with the left hand, which is therefore deemed “unclean”, however well you’ve washed it. Therefore it’s considered wrong to shake hands or present gifts with your left hand.

On Americans’ interest in the world…

The majority of the American people in the run-up to this election said they believe that the next president, one of his most important priorities should be restoring America’s position in the world. That to me says it all: That means that there is an openness, that there is a desire, a hunger to know about the world, and to know about where America is and fits into the world.

                                                          - Christiane Amanpour, quoted in a recent news story

What do you think? Are Americans more interested and engaged in the world?

Mexico seems to have caught the attention of the New York Times. In the past week, the newspaper has published two in-depth feature stories about the country. Luckily, this enables us to vicariously explore two distinct regions of that nation.

First, the travel section published a story on travel in Chiapas as part of its Frugal Traveler series.

In Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico, green is never simply green. From the air, green rolls over the unending mountains, intense and damp where there are forests and nubbly like rough felt when the trees end. In the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the hill town in the middle of Chiapas’s central plateau, it’s a shiny layer of Kelly spread thickly across the facade of a Spanish colonial home. In the church of San Juan de Chamula, it’s the toasted green of pine needles strewn across the floor, and it’s the thin threads woven almost invisibly into the white wool tunics of indigenous Chamulan men.

Chiapas green is the golden green of fair-trade coffee beans ready for roasting, and the translucent olive drab of banana leaves wrapped around steaming tamales, and a Day-Glo pear growing in a backyard orchard. Nowhere have I seen so many variations of Kermit the Frog’s uneasy color, and yet there was one place in Chiapas, which I visited over 10 days in October, where green served little to no purpose: my wallet.

Yes, Chiapas is cheap — as is much of Mexico, where the exchange rate has, since September, zoomed from 10 to 13 pesos to the dollar. But Chiapas’s affordability is compounded by its relative obscurity. Apart from the packs of post-collegiate backpackers experimenting with Maya mysticism and awkward hairstyles, few American tourists venture there. Perhaps it’s a fear of the Zapatista rebels, whose 1994 seizure of five Chiapas towns gained them worldwide headlines. Or maybe it’s simply the state’s inaccessibility — at least 12 hours by bus from Cancun, Oaxaca or Mexico City, and about the same by air from the New York area.

Either way, the lack of crowds means that, for not much more than $50 a day, mildly adventurous travelers have unfettered access to lovely colonial towns and indigenous cultures (Indians make up a fifth of the state’s 4.3 million people), to the ancient Maya ruins at Palenque, Bonampak and beyond, to lush, isolated rain forests, to good coffee, to quirky and affordable hotels and even to the shadowy Zapatistas themselves.

Then, the Escapes section of the Times published a story on the charming town of San Miguel de Allende, which happens to house a fair number of American expatriates.

It had been four years since I last saw San Miguel de Allende, the 16th-century colonial Mexican hill town that shelters a happy crowd of American retirees and part-time residents. I was curious about what time, trendiness and progress had done to this place beloved for its preserved Spanish colonial architecture and aura of timeless charm. Now, sitting in the jardín — the loud, leafy central plaza — I began to deduce a complex answer.

A few weeks before my recent visit, San Miguel had been named a Unesco World Heritage Site, and at a nearby table, a group of Americans were buzzing about that success. Yet from the park bench where I sat, I could see something else that was new: on the facade of one of the carefully preserved old downtown buildings was the unmistakable logo of Starbucks.

This, in a nutshell, is San Miguel these days: balancing in a moment of almost exquisite equilibrium between new and old…

While my wife and I were in San Miguel, an international short-film festival occupied half a dozen venues, the play “Shimmer” was in town on tour, a new bistro opened and there was a gala for a local charity. There was a time when Americans retired to San Miguel for its glacial pace and tranquillity. These days, it’s more like a high-end summer camp for aging boomers.

“It’s like Berkeley for retired people,” said Sally Osbon, 55, who, with her husband, Jim, 64, lives half the year in San Francisco and half in San Miguel. The Osbons, whose three-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house is at the edge of the centro, enjoy not only the climate and the golf, but also what Ms. Osbon called the town’s “bohemian feel.”

When I first heard about San Miguel in the mid-’90s, the knowledge was shared by a friend as a precious secret. Soon afterward, on our first morning there, my wife and I ambled through the most guileless and sweet-natured place we’d ever seen, authentic right down to the donkey-drawn carts carrying water and firewood. Its appearance of being unaffected by its own beauty gave it a quality that was irresistible.

Lots to explore in Mexico, as even the NY Times has apparently discovered.

I’m a fan of out of the box thinking. Too often, when we go off in search of a solution to some challenge, we find ourselves hamstrung by old presumptions and structures. We and the world would be better off if, instead, we were able to look at issues and problems with fresh eyes. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a refresh button for our mind? Easier said than done, of course, which is why we’re always in awe of those individuals who do manage to shatter assumptions and to reconstruct a product or an idea in an original manner.

I’d like to explore some out of the box ideas in this blog, and what better time to begin than when we are on the cusp of a new U.S. presidential administration that embodies new thinking? After all, were it not for the Obama campaign’s innovative use of social networking as a campaign tool there may not be an Obama administration, so there is at least the hope that this same team will utilize out of the box thinking when constructing policy in the years ahead.

So here is my first nominee for an out of the box idea in government: to reconsider the need for an agricultural department and instead focus on the more broad issue of food policy as it relates to any number of issues. Full details are in this blog entry by Ezra Klein. He first quotes Michael Pollan, the originator of this idea.

But as important as USDA is, we also need someone in the White House, a food policy advisor, to help coordinate policy across the Cabinet departments, so that health impacts are considered when write USDA rules, or food safety when writing trade rules, or climate change impacts when drawing the farm bill, etc etc. You need someone who can connect the dots between agriculture and health and energy and climate.

Klein then takes up the issue and argues it in more depth himself:

There’s an argument to be made that the Department of Agriculture is an anachronism. It was first established by Abraham Lincoln, in 1862…the domestic agricultural industry was rather different in the 1800s than it is in 2008. It was, for one thing, larger. In 1862, farm products made up 82 percent of American exports. And we had a lot more farms…

Meanwhile, back then, what people ate came out of the agricultural sector. Food essentially equaled agriculture. Today, what we eat is considerably more complicated than what we grow and what we raise. Which is all to say, the Department of Agriculture was built when agriculture was a major employment sector, our primary export, and synonymous with our diets. As an industry, it was integral to our economy and our lives. Today, it’s an interest group. It begs subsidies and mainly supports massive corporations…

Our country once needed an agricultural policy. Today, it needs a food policy. The agricultural industry no more deserves a cabinet-level agency than the automotive industry or computing industry. But food is a different issue. An array of federal programs deal with nutrition and food security. Given the federal share of health costs, there’s a compelling national interest in aligning public policy with public health. Supply chain safety is a relevant national security concern. Coordination among those competing priorities is important. Agriculture is a part of the equation. But in 2008, it’s not the whole of it.

Not a sexy idea, perhaps, but a compelling one. More importantly, it goes to the heart of what we need to do more of in this country. Connect the dots. We’ve become a nation of specialists, and of special interests. It’s time for policies that address the broad, interconnected realities of our world.

Egypt has a history that stretches back thousands of years. It’s a boon for the tourist industry, which draws millions of annual visitors to the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and other such sites, but the country’s long past also has an interesting cultural influence as it seems to induce a sense of fatalism in the people. That’s the topic of a recent essay on Egypt by Michael Slackman in the International Herald Tribune.

Cairo is a city of about 18 million people that is layered with history stretching back to the birth of civilization. The ubiquitous nature of antiquities - stick a shovel in the ground almost anywhere, and it is difficult not to find something - has helped mold a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian…

Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God’s will.

Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one’s place in time.

People come and go, pharaohs come and go, even President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 27 years, will go, too (though talk of that certainty is discouraged).

No need to worry.

Or as Egyptians like to say, “Maalesh,” which, depending on the circumstance, means “Never mind” or “Oh, well.”

“When other people talk about hoping to see something happen soon, they probably mean within the next few months,” said Aly Salem, an Egyptian playwright. “For an Egyptian, it could mean in the next 50 or 60 years. An Egyptian has a particular pace. His pace is different than an American’s. And a long history can do this.”

Not only are more American students participating in study abroad programs, but now China is the fifth most popular destination, after the more traditional destinations of Britain, Italy, Spain and France.

Record numbers of American students are studying abroad, with especially strong growth in educational exchanges with China, the annual report by the Institute on International Education found.

The number of Americans studying in China increased by 25 percent, and the number of Chinese students studying at American universities increased by 20 percent last year, according to the report, “Open Doors 2008.”

“Interest in China is growing dramatically, and I think we’ll see even sharper increases in next year’s report,” said Allan E. Goodman, president of the institute. “People used to go to China to study the history and language, and many still do, but with China looming so large in all our futures, there’s been a real shift, and more students go for an understanding of what’s happening economically and politically.”

A new travel niche, called “philanthropic travel,” is gaining in popularity. The goal of this movement is to enable travelers to have a worthwhile experience while simultaneously providing assistance to a people or country. The NY Times has a report:

Nadine Rubin wanted to give her daughter the trip of a lifetime for her 21st birthday. They were planning to visit Hong Kong because her daughter was interested in fashion. “But I wanted to do something else,” Ms. Rubin said. “I’d heard Vietnam was beautiful, but I had mixed feelings about it because I knew people involved with the war.”

But then Ms. Rubin, who lives in Westport, Conn., talked with Lydia Dean, president of GoPhilanthropic (www.gophilanthropic.com), a philanthropic travel company formed about a year ago. “I caught the bug,” Ms. Rubin said.

Ms. Rubin and her daughter, Bryce, decided to experience Vietnam through the lens of the Global Village Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by a humanitarian, Le Ly Hayslip, that distributes portable libraries — wooden boxes with shelving and room for 250 books — to Vietnamese communities. Ms. Rubin and her daughter bought and delivered a library to a village and met the students who would benefit from the books. “Going there and seeing those kids, to say I bawled my eyes out is an understatement,” Nadine Rubin said.

Philanthropic travel — which introduces tourists to local outfits working to better their communities — is on the rise…

“Travel philanthropy is now core to sustainability,” said David Krantz, program director for the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (www.ecotourismcesd.org). “In terms of responsible practices, originally companies were following more of a charity model. It was a lot of, ‘I give a check, take a picture and walk away.’ ”  …

“Philanthropic travel is about traveling with an intention, with an open heart,” said David Chamberlain, president of Exquisite Safaris. “We need people to visit, connect at the heart and go home and talk about it and try to raise money. That’s philanthropic travel.”

Students who take advantage of study abroad programs have a wide variety of experiences. In the best scenarios, they not only have a fun and enriching life experience, but also come away with nuggets of insight into the culture of a new country. That’s what happened for Laura Corser, who was recently profiled in the Boston Globe after spending a semester in Seoul, South Korea.

One of her key insights into Korean culture:

ACT YOUR AGE: “Korean etiquette is highly focused on age and rank. Often the first question out of someone’s mouth (after ‘what’s your name?’) is ‘how old are you?’ One habit I had to acquire (other than taking off your shoes when you enter a house and several restaurants or eating rice with a spoon) was the style of interacting with elders, like serving them with both hands, or with one’s free hand on the arm if only one hand is required.”

For most Westerners, any mention of Kenya as a tourist destination will spark images of safaris. But for those who know of Lamu, Kenya is a very different place. A small island off the Kenyan coast, Lamu contains a quaint old town and miles of deserted beaches that have enchanted many a traveler. In this article, Sophie Lam writes of her own captivating experience on Lamu.

Omar beckoned with a sweep of his arm: “Come, come!” And with that he disappeared around a corner and out of sight again. I trailed him as quickly as I could, but he had vanished. Left or right? The tangled alleyways of Lamu Town served only to confuse and disorient me. The town had looked as small as its transport inventory implies (one car, one donkey ambulance, no roads) when our boat pulled up at the docking jetty of the island’s main port that morning. Yet, like a hall of mirrors, once I ventured into the web of passages it seemed to expand with every corner I turned.

As I stopped to compose myself in an airless alley, my guide Omar’s beaming face reappeared and we continued on our way, deep into the heart of the town. Some passages were barely wide enough for overtaking people; add the town’s itinerant donkeys to the equation and you can imagine the tailbacks. On either side of us, thick-walled, lime-plastered houses soared towards a ribbon of blue sky above. These 600-year-old coral stone buildings form East Africa’s oldest and best preserved Swahili settlement, now part of the Unesco-recognised maze.

Like the shell of a pearl oyster, the rough but resilient exteriors conceal beautifully ornate interiors. A step beyond a wooden door might lead you through to a sun-drenched inner courtyard, hung with jasmine and frangipani, or splashed with tropical fronds.

Here is another small example of the value of educational exchange programs. Several teachers from Indonesia had the opportunity to spend some time at a school in the United States and, according to this story, they came away from the experience with a much different view of the U.S. than they had expected.

Three Indonesian educators entered a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Catholic school two weeks ago expecting what they’d seen in American movies: surly teens, self-indulgent adults and violence. They’ll return home on Sunday knowing a common U.S. expression: Don’t believe everything you see on TV.

“I will tell my students that what you see on TV and film is not reality,” said Veri Muhlis Arifuzzaman, 33, who teaches at a small boarding school in a rural village in West Java, Indonesia. “I feel safe here. The people are warm and have good hearts and can receive us as Muslims.” …

Arifuzzaman, Hanifah and Nuning Nur Laila, 29, of East Java, made their first trip to the United States through an exchange program by the East-West Center’s AsiaPacific Ed program. The goal is for Asian and American educators to learn from each other and abandon stereotypes.

What an election night! When was the last time that we saw spontaneous electoral celebrations breaking out in city streets, with horns honking and people dancing, hugging, and high-fiving strangers? Part of the celebration was due to the historic nature of yesterday’s election, but I also think part of it was a national release of pent up emotion. It was a catharsis.

A good many American voters are tired. Yes, tired of the constant sense of crisis of the past several years, from 9-11 to the Iraq war to the financial crisis. But tired, too, I think, of the decades-old cultural wars we’ve been fighting. Barack Obama, for many, represents an opportunity to put these cultural wars behind us, to put the 1960s and the Vietnam War in the rear view mirror, and most of all to bury the religious divide and the red state-blue state divide that have been at the center of our politics for too many elections.

So I think Obama won this year for a number of reasons. The low popularity of President Bush and our economic travails, for sure. But it was more than that. His sense of calmness and steadiness and his stated desire to get the country beyond its recent cultural divides were, to my mind, just as important. Americans are ready to turn the page. We are ready for the future, tired of the past, and tired of fighting, and that is why I think the hackneyed old negative attacks just didn’t stick this year. The pages of history are turning before our eyes and the country is thirsty for a fresh start, not only at home but in terms of our engagement with the rest of the world.

The fact that the president-elect is an African American with a name like Barack Hussein Obama just magnifies the symbolism of the moment. It is about the most dramatic symbol possible that the United States is reinventing itself. And don’t discount the power of symbolism. Can you imagine what it feels like today to be a young African American in Harlem or Atlanta or Birmingham, suddenly feeling that anything is indeed possible in this life? Or what it’s like for young Muslims in Cairo or Tehran or Islamabad, now re-evaluating their perceptions and beliefs about the United States? Or to be on the streets of Nairobi or Johannesburg or Jakarta, knowing that the new U.S. president cares about your corner of the world?

The euphoria can’t last and the reality of the challenges before us will soon settle in again. But for the moment, a wave of hope has swept across the planet.

For a sense of the historic nature of what we’ve witnessed, here is a small selection of newspaper front pages. From around the country…

Anniston, Alabama

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Miami, Florida

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Orange County, California

And, from around the world…

Vancouver, Canada

Lisbon, Portugal

Medellin, Colombia

Kingston, Jamaica

Johannesburg, South Africa

A few months ago, I was of the opinion that this presidential election would shape up like the one in 1980. That year, voters wanted change but weren’t sure they were comfortable with the change they were being offered - that is, Ronald Reagan. Consequently, Reagan and Jimmy Carter ran close in the polls until near the end, when a critical mass of people finally decided they were comfortable enough with Reagan and the vote broke in his direction and gave him a decisive victory.

This year looked to be very similar, with the country yearning for a change of direction but unsure of the change agent before them, Barack Obama. And, in the past few months, as with Reagan in 1980, Obama has made voters comfortable enough with him to prompt a decisive late break in the polls in his direction.

So, end of story, easy win for Obama? Very likely, yes. But is it possible that 1980 is not, in the end, going to be the best comparison? Well, if John McCain manages a grand upset today, the comparison will of course be to 1948 when Harry Truman pulled off what is generally considered the biggest upset in presidential history when he defeated Thomas Dewey.

But another possibility also comes to mind. That would be the election of 1932 when, in the face of an economic crisis and after a long period of Republican rule, Franklin Roosevelt won a crushing victory and ushered in an era of Democratic dominance of national politics. It was the quintessential realigning election, in which a new coalition of voters coalesces to replace the previously dominant coalition. This tends to happen every 30-36 years, with the most recent example being when the Deep South in 1968 moved away from the Democratic party.

In recent days, as we’ve tried to ascertain the direction of this year’s vote, there has been a tightening of the polls in states such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virgina, all of which are crucial to any McCain hopes of an upset. If McCain indeed wins, this tightening of the polls will have been our early indicator. At the same time, though, we’ve also seen strong Republican states such as Indiana, Montana, North Dakota and Georgia slide into the toss-up category. A late-breaking wave for Obama could put all of these states into his column and mark an electoral landslide. This, combined with a large number of expected Democratic pickups in the Senate and House of Representatives, would make this an historic election along the lines of 1932.

We’ll know for certain which way this election is heading later tonight. In the meantime, if you’re hungry for some polling data or predictions, there are two great sites to check out. Pollster.com has a wealth of polling information from around the country. They currently have Obama at 291 electoral votes to 142 for McCain and 105 in the toss-up column. Also check out fivethirtyeight.com, which has run 10,000 simulations of the election based on polling, historical and demographic data. They peg Obama as having a 98.9% chance of winning the election and predict that he will accumulate at least 349 electoral votes.

Whomever you favor today, though, if you’re a U.S. citizen please go out to vote and make your voice heard.