Travels in the Riel World

There is no doubt that Twitter has its fans and its detractors. There is also no doubt that this social networking phenomenon is affecting the way that millions of people interact online, as well as the means by which information is distributed. But can Twitter also be having an impact on a culture’s communication styles? Well, perhaps it’s not going that far, but it is certainly provoking a pretty strong conversation about communication styles in India, as reported in this recent news story.

Seems an Indian politician, Shashi Tharoor, used a Twitter post to disagree with a policy favored by his political superiors. And in the process set off a cultural firestorm over communication styles and respect for hierarchy.

That message, along with a few others mildly questioning the merits of India’s new, stricter tourist visa policies, landed him on the front page of most of India’s English-language newspapers, which accused him of a very big mistake in Indian politics: appearing to disagree publicly with his superiors on a delicate issue.

Politicians in democracies the world over have warmed to Twitter, the microblogging service, and other social media tools, like Facebook, to connect with voters…But in India, the world’s largest and most boisterous democracy, it has not caught on with elected officials. Indeed, many of India’s power elite, whether in politics, the news media or business, seem to look askance at Mr. Tharoor’s enthusiasm for a medium that collapses the distance between the governors and the governed and dismantles the layers of protocol and decorum that keep elected officials and senior bureaucrats here aloof from the everyday concerns of those they serve…

Twitter enthusiasts say the news media make a fuss about it because it usurps its traditional role as intermediary and interpreter between the powerful and the masses.

Twitter and culture. Fun stuff. And hey, if you’re interested in knowing what goes in Indian politics, then you too can follow Tharoor’s Twitter account.

Since the Christmas season is upon us, it’s an appropriate time to take a look at holiday and religious-themed topics from around the world. Today, it’s a view into the ancient Christian community of Syria. Although this Middle Eastern nation has had a Muslim majority for well over a millennium, the region plays a central role in the history of Christianity and Christians still account for about a tenth of the Syrian population. Steven Roberts recently wrote about a journey into the Christian culture of Syria, and specifically into the town of Maaloula, for the travel section of the Washington Post.

Syria is known in the West for its combustible politics…Many friends who heard that we were vacationing in Syria thought we were daft, but few realized that the country’s extensive Christian heritage — St. Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, after all — is still here to be seen and heard and felt…

Not far from Maaloula sits the Krak des Chevaliers, a mountain fortress built by Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the old city of Damascus, a chapel marks the spot where Paul was nursed and taught by a local Christian, St. Ananias, after his vision. Several of the country’s bewildering array of Christian sects — from Armenian Orthodox to Syrian Catholic — maintain headquarters in Damascus, and we were surprised to see crosses, outlined in vivid bluish-white neon, shimmering in the evening sky.

As soon as you enter Maaloula, its religious heritage is evident. A large statue of the Virgin Mary dominates one hillside; many houses are painted in a pale blue wash, a gesture of respect to the mother of Jesus. Hana pointed out the mountaintops where every year fires are lighted to celebrate the Festival of the Holy Cross…We went first to St. Sergius, the highest point in town, and though not every traveler gets to see a baptism in Aramaic, there are usually guides or schoolgirls present to recite the Lord’s Prayer in the language.

In August, I wrote about some of the best stargazing destinations worldwide, based on an article I’d written for Matador Travel. Now it’s time to look more specifically about stargazing destinations in the Southwestern United States. This time, I put together a road trip itinerary for Examiner.com that stretches from West Texas to Southern California and takes in some of the best views of the nighttime sky that can be found anywhere in North America. There are numerous observatories in that region that offer public viewing programs, as well as national parks that provide you with a dramatic view of the heavens far from any cities.

Here is an excerpt from my article:

It’s one of the most sublime sights in nature: a dark sky filled with thousands of glittering stars. Our ancestors were well acquainted with this spectacle, and they could even gaze up most nights to see a gallery of shooting stars and a visible Milky Way galaxy. Today, unfortunately, light and pollution in populated areas of the world obscure all but a few hundred stars in the nighttime sky.

There are still places on Earth, however, where you can be awed by a view of the heavens, and one of those destinations is the Southwestern United States. This region has some of the world’s clearest skies and Arizona boasts more observatories than any other single state or country, according to the International Dark-Sky Association.

And here is a Google map that traces the Southwestern stargazing destinations.

View Stargazing the Southwest in a larger map

Whirling dervishes. The term is a familiar one to many people, but what exactly is a whirling dervish? That is, beyond some exotic Middle Eastern man who twirls round and round while dressed in a white robe and tall hat? Not many people know that the dance of a whirling dervish is actually a spiritual activity, most often performed by Sufi Muslim mystics. The Intelligent Travel blog of National Geographic Traveler recently published a spectator’s view of the whirling dervishes, complete with a video. It’s worth a look.

I first heard the term “Whirling Dervishes” as a young child and, reasonably enough, surmised that they were dervishes who loved to whirl. What a dervish was, exactly, remained a mystery to me until last Friday, when I stepped into a 500-year-old Turkish bathhouse (repurposed as the Hodjapasha Culture Center) in the Sirkeci area of old Istanbul. Here, monks of a mystical Sufi order of Muslims–known traditionally for their spirituality, self denial, and tolerance–perform a centuries-old dance ritual…

I glanced at the notes I had taken as our guide, Etem Öztürk, explained the significance of the dervishes’ clothing: “They wear tall felt hats, white gowns with long skirts, and black capes that they remove,” he said. “The hats represent tombstones. The gowns are burial shrouds. The black capes are the dirt of the grave.” The point of the ritual, Öztürk continued, was to leave everything of the world behind and to become one with God, with Allah. “That only truly happens in death,” he said. “These monks are mimicking death. When they’re performing, it’s as though they are dead.”

Fair enough, though, as we watched, the dervishes seemed quite alive to me, the hems of their gowns lifting centrifugally from the floor as they spun, always counterclockwise, sending a gentle breeze out over us spectators. I watched for the movements Öztürk had described: the tilting of the head, the opening of the arms–the palm of the right hand facing up, the left palm facing down, in order to transmit the positive energy of heaven earthward, spreading peace and wisdom.

National culture changes very slowly, but there is no doubt that it is something that constantly evolves. Sometimes in small ways over centuries, and sometimes in bigger ways over shorter periods of time. One example of this is the role of women in the Middle East, and particularly in the conservative nation of Saudi Arabia. Saudi women have few rights when compared to their Western counterparts, as they still aren’t allowed to drive or to participate in many things outside the home without permission from a male family member. But there are glimmers of hope and pockets of openness, as shown in this recent story in Time magazine, which looked at the small steps toward freedom that have been achieved by some women in Saudi society.

Like those of its competitors in New York or London, the sleek glass and steel offices of media company Rotana are filled with preening attitude and fashion-conscious staffers: assistants teeter in shoes that might have absorbed much of their monthly paycheck; executives parade the halls in power suits and pencil skirts. But Rotana isn’t in New York or London; it’s in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, a country in which women normally adhere to a strict dress code in public — a black cloak called an abaya, a headscarf and a veil, the niqab, which covers everything but their eyes.

There’s another reason many Saudis would find Rotana shocking: men and women working side by side. The sight unnerves enough men who come looking for a job that human-resources manager Sultana al-Rowaili has developed a trick to see if a male applicant can handle working in a mixed-gender office. She arranges for a female colleague to interrupt the initial interview, and watches to see if the man loses concentration or stares too much. Sometimes even that isn’t necessary. Many men are undone by the very idea of being interviewed by a woman. “They are in a state of shock to see a woman in a position of authority and to have to ask her for a job,” al-Rowaili says.

Saudi men may have to start getting used to such situations. True, Rotana remains an anomaly protected by the position and progressive ideals of its owner  — global investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. And Saudi women still can’t drive and legally can’t even leave the house to shop, let alone get a job, without a male family member’s permission. Yet under the guidance of a few members of the Saudi royal family — in particular the current King, Abdullah — the kingdom is slowly changing. Mixed-gender workplaces are becoming more common, especially in banks and good hospitals, where female doctors are not unusual. “People used to say, ‘Why is she working? Why does she need the money?’ Now they say, ‘It takes a woman to solve a problem,’” says Norah al-Malhooq, an administrator at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh.

The government is expanding educational opportunities for women by building women’s universities (as opposed to segregated campuses at male-dominated universities); last month it even launched the kingdom’s first coeducational university. The state is trying to encourage women’s entry into the workforce, and is sponsoring initiatives to protect women and children from domestic abuse. And it is pushing Saudis to discuss the notion of empowerment, formerly such a taboo subject that even the word was off-limits in newspapers. “The message is that women are coming,” says Dr. Maha Almuneef, one of six women named earlier this year to the Shura council, a 156-person advisory body appointed by the King. “It’s a good first step. The King and the political system are saying that the time has come. There are small steps now. There are giant steps coming. But most Saudis have been taught the traditional ways. You can’t just change the social order all at once.”

Check out the entire article. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a relatively closed society, and an intriguing look at the cultural tensions that often arise between tradition and modernity.

It’s no secret that culture plays a role in health care, from our systems of medicine to our personal decisions. When a person receives health care in his or her home country, there are unlikely to be many clashes over culture because it’s a medical system that he or she knows and understand well. The United States is not a homogeneous culture, though, but rather one that attracts a regular influx of immigrants from around the world. Health care misunderstandings are more likely to occur when individuals or families from other cultures, particularly non-Western cultures, meet American medicine. So I read with interest this recent story about a California hospital that makes allowances for Hmong immigrants from Laos to receive treatment from a shaman as well as from a physician.

The patient in Room 328 had diabetes and hypertension. But when Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, began the healing process by looping a coiled thread around the patient’s wrist, Mr. Lee’s chief concern was summoning the ailing man’s runaway soul.

“Doctors are good at disease,” Mr. Lee said as he encircled the patient, Chang Teng Thao, a widower from Laos, in an invisible “protective shield” traced in the air with his finger. “The soul is the shaman’s responsibility.”

At Mercy Medical Center in Merced, where roughly four patients a day are Hmong from northern Laos, healing includes more than IV drips, syringes and blood glucose monitors. Because many Hmong rely on their spiritual beliefs to get them through illnesses, the hospital’s new Hmong shaman policy, the country’s first, formally recognizes the cultural role of traditional healers like Mr. Lee, inviting them to perform nine approved ceremonies in the hospital, including “soul calling” and chanting in a soft voice.

The policy and a novel training program to introduce shamans to the principles of Western medicine are part of a national movement to consider patients’ cultural beliefs and values when deciding their medical treatment. The approach is being adopted by dozens of medical institutions and clinics across the country that cater to immigrant, refugee and ethnic-minority populations…

A recent survey of 60 hospitals in the United States by the Joint Commission, the country’s largest hospital accrediting group, found that the hospitals were increasingly embracing cultural beliefs, driven sometimes by marketing, whether by adding calcium- and iron-rich Korean seaweed soup to the maternity ward menu at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, on the edge of Koreatown, or providing birthing doulas for Somali women in Minneapolis.

By the way, if the story of Hmong immigrants dealing with American doctors sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it was also the subject of an excellent book about 10 years ago, called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. If you’re at all interested in cross-cultural topics, especially as they involve health care, you should check out the book.

We’re currently in the midst of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month in which Muslims are expected to fast each day between dawn and sunset. This practice is supposed to increase spiritual self-discipline and help one to focus on non-worldly activities. Although people understandably get hungry during the day, the fast is practiced by most Muslims. There are exceptions for some individuals who may be harmed by a fast, but George Vecsey recently wrote an interesting article for the NY Times about some Muslims who face a difficult choice during Ramadan between their faith and their livelihood: athletes.

Indeed, an athlete who needs nourishment in order to perform at a high level during a sporting event would face a tough decision over fasting. Vecsey profiled a Muslim tennis player from Pakistan, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, who said that he fasts if he is at home and not competing, but that he doesn’t fast if he is involved in a tournament.

The public-address announcer was advising everybody to drink a lot of fluids (presumably those sold on the grounds) to avoid dehydration. On a warm, mostly sunny day, that seemed like a good idea. Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan had a few bottles of water arrayed below his chair on Court 10, although it is the holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims abstain from food or liquid from sunrise to sundown…

Qureshi, who is 29 years old and from the grass-court hub of Lahore, is one of a few Muslim players on the tour. He speaks with high respect of Ramadan, which this year lasts from Aug. 22 (a day earlier elsewhere in the world) through Sept. 19. There can be exemptions from fasting for pregnant women, soldiers, the mentally ill, children and people with a strenuous livelihood. Qureshi puts himself in that category.

Other Muslim athletes have worked out their response to their sport and to Ramadan, which ranges around the calendar from winter to summer. In these still long days of early September in the Northern Hemisphere, European soccer players and American football players are making their own decision as to how to observe the holy month.

I think the story is worth reading and is an interesting example of a clash not just between religion and sports, but between culture and a globalized world.

There are so many interesting cultures around the world, with their own traditions and ways of life, but never before have I come across an article on running cultures. Yes, a culture in which long distance running is a way of life, as much a part of the people’s heritage as their food and their music. But Turner Wright wrote an interesting feature for Vagabondish on just that topic, focusing on four truly unique cultures from around the world.

… with many nations (even third-world countries) becoming modernized as the world gets smaller, there are few remaining places on Earth where running is still a way of life, essential to survival, not thought of as fitness or a way to relieve stress after a day of TPS reports. Cultures in which running is life, deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of natives and impossible to imagine what it would be like otherwise. But where can we find such “running cultures”?

He profiles the marathon monks of Mt. Hiei, Japan; the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico; the Kenyans of East Africa, and the Kalahari Bushmen of southern Africa. Here is some of what he writes about the marathon monks of Japan:

The marathon monks, who live in the Enryaku Temple atop Mount Hiei, are quite possibly the greatest anomaly in Japanese society, if not the world. Few choose to live their lives according to such strict guidelines, especially when it comes to feats of physical prowess…

Wearing only straw sandals (replaced often), white robes, a staff, and hat, each marathon monk begins walking or running approximately 50 km around the mountain to return in time for meditation and the meal. This is done over 100, 700, or 1000 days, depending on how far along the initiated is in his monastic training…

In reality, meditation is nothing more than training oneself to focus entirely on the present: the breath going in and out of the lungs, the wind caressing your face, the birds chirping from a nearby tree … Running meditation is only natural, by focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and communing with nature one step at a time.

See the entire piece for more about these running cultures.

It’s one of the most sublime sights in nature: a dark sky filled with thousands of glittering stars. Our ancestors were well acquainted with this spectacle, and most nights they could even gaze up to see a gallery of shooting stars and a visible Milky Way galaxy. Today, unfortunately, light pollution in populated areas tends to obscure all but a few hundred stars in the nighttime sky. If you really want to do some first-rate stargazing, however, a few regions of the world do stand out for their clear skies. I recently published an article for Matador Trips about the world’s best stargazing destinations.Here is an excerpt:

Chile- Chile’s Atacama Desert mixes high altitude, dry air, and an absence of light pollution — a perfect recipe for some of the world’s best stargazing. The highest desert on Earth is not necessarily an easy place to get to, but if you go you’ll be rewarded with some of the clearest skies on the planet. The Observatorio Cerro Mamalluca offers public tours. Or, for a more personal experience, book a room at the Hotel Elqui Domos, where seven geodesic domes feature upstairs bedrooms with detachable roofs so guests can enjoy a stunning view of the heavens from the comfort of their bed.

Hawaii- Hawaii is also a highly regarded destination for viewing the stars. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it’s relatively untouched by light pollution. The best spot in the island chain is the volcano of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. It’s also the future site of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which will be the most advanced telescope ever built when finished in 2018. Hawaii beat out Chile for the honor of hosting this telescope after these two destinations were judged the best stargazing locations on the planet. Visitors should begin at the Onizuka Visitors Center, which runs free nightly stargazing programs.

The full article on the Matador site has a number of other stargazing recommendations.

Sure, you know about Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. But what do you know about Zoroastrianism or Yoruba? A number of readers may be familiar with the Baha’i faith, but have you actually heard of the African Mami Wata religion? Chris Wary published a unique and interesting article recently on Matador Travel, profiling six unique religions that he suggests are virtually unknown in the West. Following are his overviews of two of the six religions. The entire story is definitely worth a read.

Zoroastrianism- Zoroastrianism is based on the teachings of the first millennium BCE Iranian prophet Zoroaster. There are estimated to be between 150,000 and 210,000 Zoroastrians in the world today, mostly in India and the United States.

These small numbers mask the historical importance of this religion. Both Eastern and Western religions can trace ties back to Zoroastrianism, meaning the religion has most likely had more impact on the world than any other belief system.

Zoroastrians believe in one universal God, Ahura Mazda, who is in conflict with the forces of chaos, led by Angra Mainyu. Humans need to take an active role in the conflict by performing good deeds and having good thoughts and words. The conflict will ultimately be brought to an end when Soashyant, a savior, comes to Earth and reanimates the dead.

Yoruba- The Yoruba religion is the beliefs and practices of the people located in the areas that are now Benin and Nigeria before they encountered other outside religions. There are no specific numbers documenting the number of followers, but many believe that Yoruba is the largest African-born religion in the world. It has also heavily influenced several Afro-American religions such as Lucumi in Cuba.

The main belief of the Yoruba peoples is that all humans have a manifest destiny, referred to as ayanmo, to become one with the divine creator, known as Olodumare. Our destinies are determined through our thoughts and actions in the physical world. The Yoruba see life and death as cycles in the physical and spiritual realms while the spirit moves towards union with Olodumare.

If you’re looking for a getaway that will also satisfy your inner scientist, then Popular Science has just the solution. Proving that there are travel destinations out there for every taste and interest, the magazine recently came up with a list of eight “geek getaways” in the United States. Such as:

Vacation with Martian Experts - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Pasadena, Calif.

If you can’t go to Mars (and you probably can’t), JPL may be the next best thing. This historic lab is the hub for the nation’s latest Red Planet research. You’ll see the Space Flight Operations Facility, where scientists monitor current missions, a Space Simulator for virtual testing, and a Marscape, where prototype rovers practice maneuvers. JPL offers a free, two-day open house every May, but private tours (also free) can be arranged year-round if booked in advance.

Watch a Parking Garage Buckle - Earthquake Simulators - Buffalo, Reno and San Diego

Never seen a “shake table” shake? Visit these labs to witness the massive platforms, equipped with hydraulic actuators, simulate the force of the world’s most devastating earthquakes. Structural engineers test everything from bridges to million-pound parking garages, sometimes shaking structures for two months at a time.

Learn Real Crime-sleuthing Skills on a Corpse Farm - Body Farms - Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina

Ever wonder what happens to your body after you die? Forensic-anthropology labs at the University of Tennessee, Texas State University and Western Carolina University are the places to find out. These facilities feature “graveyards” ranging from a garage-size plot in North Carolina to an eventual 26-acre site in Texas, where scientists study donated bodies as they decay. You can’t tour the actual “de-comp” yards, but you can learn about the recovery of remains at crime scenes and disasters such as 9/11.

Check out the entire article for all eight recommendations.

Wow. Just last Friday, I had a post about the role that the Internet and social media were playing in the Iranian election. Little did anyone know how this would truly explode in the days after the apparently fraudulent results of Iran’s voting were announced. Tens of thousands of Iranians have been protesting in the streets daily and they’ve been using social media to both coordinate their efforts and to distribute information and photographs to the rest of the world.

Although the Iranian government did successfully shut down text messaging services, they’ve been far less successful in doing anything about Twitter, which people can post to from a variety of devices and computers. It’s become so important as a communications tool, in fact, that Twitter delayed a scheduled maintenance shutdown until it was the middle of the night in Iran. The NY Times, meanwhile, has published a story for two consecutive days about the post-election impact of social media in Iran.

Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s story:

As the embattled government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to limit Internet access and communications in Iran, new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions.

Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications.

On Twitter, reports and links to photos from a peaceful mass march through Tehran on Monday, along with accounts of street fighting and casualties around the country, have become the most popular topic on the service worldwide, according to Twitter’s published statistics…

Twitter users are posting messages, known as tweets, with the term #IranElection, which allows users to search for all tweets on the subject. On Monday evening, Twitter was registering about 30 new posts a minute with that tag.

And from this morning’s report:

…Monday afternoon, a 27-year-old State Department official, Jared Cohen, e-mailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.

The request, made to a Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, is yet another new-media milestone: the recognition by the United States government that an Internet blogging service that did not exist four years ago has the potential to change history in an ancient Islamic country.

If you’re interested in following along yourself on Twitter, one of the more popular posters from inside Iran is persiankiwi. Or, you can also follow the popular Atlantic writer and blogger, Andrew Sullivan, who tweets as dailydish and has been prolific in keeping up with events.

It’s not news anymore that use of the Internet and social media was a key factor in propelling the U.S. presidential campaign of Barack Obama. In fact, Obama was so successful with these tactics, and social media is now so ingrained in the lives of millions of Americans, that it would be inconceivable for a future campaign to not utilize these tools. Apparently, even other countries have taken notice, and not necessarily the nations you’d immediately think of in terms of politics and the Internet. Like Iran. But it’s true - the Iranian presidential election is taking place today and it has been significantly affected by the opposition party’s use of the Internet as an organizing tool.

The two main contenders in today’s election are the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a former prime minster, Mir Hossein Mousavi. A story in the Washington Post provides a look at how Mousavi’s camp has utilized social media during this election:

Over the weekend, a government organization refused permission for his campaign to use Tehran’s 120,000-seat Azadi Stadium for a rally originally planned for Sunday. But in less than 24 hours, using text messages and Facebook postings, thousands of Mousavi backers gathered along Vali-e Asr Avenue, Tehran’s 12-mile-long arterial road.

Many brought green ropes or strings, which they tied together to form a giant chain in Mousavi’s signature color. Groups wearing green head scarves or green T-shirts arrived from schools and universities. … “Thanks to Internet and text messages, we can rally big crowds in a very short time,” noted Ghadiri, who wore a green shirt emblazoned with Mousavi’s portrait.

A fascinating article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, meanwhile, took a broader look at how Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are changing the face of Iranian politics:

In Iran, where mosques once served as the primary campaign stump for political candidates, Facebook is changing the face of the presidential election. Nearly half of Iran’s 46 million eligible voters are under age 30, which means victory in Friday’s presidential election can be achieved only with significant support from young voters.

No candidate seems to understand this better than primary reformist challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who has become the country’s first politician to wield the power of the Internet as a major campaign tool. To reach out to Iran’s youth, he created a page on the popular networking site Facebook, which as of yesterday had garnered more than 30,000 supporters. Mr. Mousavi also uses Twitter and has even launched his own YouTube channel.

“Reformists are using Facebook to bypass official state media, which explicitly or implicitly favors the current administration,” said Mehdi Semati, associate professor of communication at Eastern Illinois University and editor of the book “Media, Culture and Society in Iran.” …

“In some ways, you can compare it to the campaign of Mr. [Barack] Obama. A lot of it is grass roots,” Mr. Semati said. “Many student groups are organizing it.”

Will the reformists succeed in ushering in a new political era in Iran by capitalizing on the Internet? Stay tuned. We’ll know later today.

Some of the most popular tourist destinations in the world are religious sites. But you don’t have to be a pilgrim or a spiritual seeker in order to appreciate a sacred place. I’ve recently come across several articles that approach religious tourism from a variety of angles. Take a look.

For starters, the world’s most visited religious destinations. Sure, you can guess that some of the entries would be the Vatican in Rome or the city of Jerusalem in Israel. But there also destinations on the list that are more obscure, at least to Westerners. For instance, among the nine sites are:

Tomb of Imam Reza in Mashad, Iran- The name of Iran’s holiest city translates as “place of martyrdom” — after the eighth Shiite Imam, Reza, a direct descendant of Mohammed. The Imam’s tomb is the most important Shia site in Iran, and estimates of pilgrim numbers range from 12 to 18 million.

Mount Tai in Tai’an, China- Regarded as the first of China’s five sacred mountains of Taoism, Mount Tai is located just north of Tai’an City, in China’s coastal Shandong Province. The mountain served as a sacred retreat for emperors during the ancient Zhou Dynasty, and was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1987. Taishan Temple lies at the foot of the mountain, and some 7,000 stone steps lead to the Azure Clouds Temple at the top. About 7 million visitors come to the mountain each year.

Then, an interesting story on the world’s most unique monasteries and cathedrals, complete with some stunning pictures. There are 11 destinations listed, including:

Church of St. George in Ethiopia- Located in Lalibela, Ethiopia, this rock-hewn church is fascinating in that, upon approach, it appears to be an enormous cross carved down into an enormous rock. At the base, however, one can see its true purpose. It is a church. Created in the early 13th century, it is considered by some to be the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Paro Taktsang in Bhutan- Finished in 1692, this monastery was built around the Taktsang Senge Samdup cave, the most well known of the thirteen “tiger lair caves in which Guru Padmasambhava is believed to have meditated in the 8th century. Legend says the Guru flew to each cave on the back of a tiger, hence the name. The monastery hangs on a cliff roughly 700 meters above the valley floor.

Finally, one person’s view of the ten most beautiful cathedrals of Europe. Yes, Notre Dame of Paris and St. Basil’s of Moscow are on the list. But the eight other selections also include:

Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, Turkey- Former patriarchal basilica, a mosque and now a museum, Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest structures ever built. Created between 532 and 537 as a church on the orders of Justinian, emperor of the Byzantine Empire and home to many holy relics, Hagia Sophia was the Patriarchal church of Constantinople and the religious ground zero of the eastern Orthodox World for almost 1000 years…The greatest example of Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world for 1000 years, until the completion of the Cathedral of Seville.

Sagrada Familia of Barcelona, Spain- Designed by now famous architect Antonio Gaudi, Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic cathedral still under construction in Barcelona. Work on the cathedral started in 1882 and Gaudi himself worked on it for 40 years, 15 of which he dedicated exclusively to it, until his death in 1926. When asked about the deadline of his project, now scheduled to 2026, Gaudi said “My client is not in a hurry.”

The most visited, most unique and most beautiful. A lot of ways to look at travel. What cathedrals or other sacred sites would be on your list?

Or, if not the Garden of Eden, then at least the origin of modern human beings? That’s the intriguing suggestion of a recent genetic survey, as reported in the NY Times.

Locations for the Garden of Eden have been offered many times before, but seldom in the somewhat inhospitable borderland where Angola and Namibia meet.

A new genetic survey of people in Africa, the largest of its kind, suggests, however, that the region in southwest Africa seems, on the present evidence, to be the origin of modern humans…The new data goes far toward equalizing the genetic picture of the world, given that most genetic information has come from European and Asian populations. But because it comes from Africa, the continent on which the human lineage evolved, it also sheds light on the origins of human life.

Just as interesting, I think, is this other result of the same research:

Dr. Tishkoff’s team has also calculated the exit point from which a small human group — maybe a single tribal band of 150 people — left Africa some 50,000 years ago and populated the rest of the world. The region is near the midpoint of the African coast of the Red Sea.

Gets you thinking about the origins of humanity.

People in various cultures perceive the world differently. This is one of the main causes of communication miscues between individuals from diverse regions of the world. If you want to see an excellent example of how the meaning of simple words can vary from one person to the next, check out this article in the Christian Science Monitor in which Chris Seiple dissects 10 words or phrases that may be meant one way by a Western speaker but understood differently by a Muslim. An excerpt:

- “Secular.” The Muslim ear tends to hear “godless” with the pronunciation of this word. And a godless society is simply inconceivable to the vast majority of Muslims worldwide. Pluralism – which encourages those with (and those without) a God-based worldview to have a welcomed and equal place in the public square – is a much better word.

- “Jihadi.” The jihad is an internal struggle first, a process of improving one’s spiritual self-discipline and getting closer to God. The lesser jihad is external, validating “just war” when necessary. By calling the groups we are fighting “jihadis,” we confirm their own – and the worldwide Muslim public’s – perception that they are religious. They are not. They are terrorists, hirabists, who consistently violate the most fundamental teachings of the Holy Koran and mainstream Islamic scholars and imams.

- “Religious Freedom.” Sadly, this term too often conveys the perception that American foreign policy is only worried about the freedom of Protestant evangelicals to proselytize and convert, disrupting the local culture and indigenous Christians. Although not true, I have found it better to define religious freedom as the promotion of respect and reconciliation with the other at the intersection of culture and the rule of law – sensitive to the former and consistent with the latter.

On the Great Disruption of 2008 …

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

We can’t do this anymore…

“Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we’re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets,” argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”

One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment — when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once — “The Great Disruption.” …

Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker — the year when ‘The Great Disruption’ began.

                                                                                    - From a Thomas Friedman op-ed column

On life and growth…

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

                                                 - Neale Donald Walsch

I just came across this quote, although it’s apparently been around for a while, and I was struck by it. So simple, but there is a lot of truth in it.