Citizen Penn

by Erik Olsen on

I’m
about a week behind on my New Yorker reading and so was pleasantly surprised this week to find last week’s issue had a
rather informative and interesting profile by John Lahr on Sean Penn. Now, I’m no celebrity worshipper. I honestly,
deeply believe that our fascination with celebrity is both absurd and harmful. Absurd because we are placing such lofty
value in people’s whose compensation (in the form of money and status) is completely incommensurate with their
societal contribution. Harmful in the respect that we are largely distracted from more meaningful aspects of the human
experience by spending so much time and caloric output on worrying what Brad and Angelina are up to.

Now,
with that as a rather ridiculous, if contradictory, preface for this post, let me say that I did find the article on Sean Penn rather interesting. Penn, you might
remember has been traveling the world…or at least certain dangerous parts of it…to show us the other
side of these places, the happy faces of the Axis of Evil, and it certianly is nice for him to have himself
photographed walking among the people. He penned, if you’ll pardon the pun, a series of articles, some 12,000
words total, for the San Francisco Chronicle, some of which we discussed here.
Now, despite my cynicism, there is value here, because Penn holds himself out as a kind of citizen of the world, a
purveyor of higher truths, and he is one of a few celebrities who really tries of leverage his status to heighten
public awareness of issues that lie outside of Hollywood. Now whether that is a good or bad thing is another issue.
Whether we should in any way trust that Penn possesses the smarts or experience to be the one who alerts us to the
world’s ills is a fine question to ponder. So you just go ahead and do so. But I think you will find the article here
pretty fascinating, as Penn comes across as a rather complex character. I can’t positively say I like him, but he
intrigues me.

WorldMapper Maps

by Adrienne Wilson on

Anyone who enjoys looking at
maps as much as me and the geeky blogger over
at Geeky Traveller do, will have a field day checking out these maps found at WorldMapper. Don’t count on finding
your way around Durban, Montevideo, or Hollywood with this particular map. The map reflects international tourist trips
made in 2003 and territory size shows the proportion of world international tourist trips to that territory. WorldMapper
does the math by explaining it like so:

"In 2003 665 million international tourist trips were made.
Dividing this by the world population would mean 10.7% holidayed abroad. However some people make multiple trips, so
less than a tenth of the global population make tourist trips abroad…"

My math may not be that
hot, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on according to this map. The swelling above tiny
shriveled up Africa in red is mostly Western Europe which happens to be one of the world’s most popular destinations
for international tourists. Geeky Traveller makes a good point noting that the traveler
that likes to avoid tourists will find this map very useful.

There are several other maps like the one
above depicting Tourist Origins, Tourism Receipts, and Tourism Profit to name a few. See WorldMapper for the rest.

Cultures: Divorce While Sleeping

by Adrienne Wilson on

I
didn’t know things like this could happen, but what’s more interesting is the what was supposed to happen afterwards
and what actually happened. Pology, an amazing blog covering
cultures from all over brings our attention to an unusual case of
divorce in eastern India. Under Islamic law a husband only has to say "talaq," the Urdu word for
divorce three times to secure a permanent end to his marriage. Well, while Aftab Ansari was asleep and under the
influence of medicines to help him sleep better, the 30 year-old uttered "talaq" three times causing
his wife to worry and discuss with friends. The husband said he did not mean to divorce his wife of 11 years and that it
was an accident, however when word got around to the Village Elders their solution was this:

In order to
remarry the couple would have to be apart for at least 100 days and that the wife would have to spend a night with
another man and then be divorced by him. The couple not wishing to obey the rules have now been ostracized according to
the Yahoo
news piece.

Now is that crazy or what? It’s almost like the Wizard of Oz with a twist where Dorothy and Toto are at ends and
"talaq" three times gets them their wish to be free from one another and Toto speaks instead of
barks.

Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

by Adrienne Wilson on

You
would think bottled water would win without a question in a battle of being the healthier choice, but some
enviornmentalists say not so fast.

"Bottled water is no often
healthier than tap water, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive," says Emily Arnold, a researcher with the
Washington D.C. non-profit.

The battle over whether bottled water is more healthier than that running
from the faucets in our kitchen sinks isn’t so much about the humans drinking the liquid, but more so about the planet
and how the consumption of bottled water and the waste may be hurting Earth. Campaigners challenge the idea of drinking
bottled water in our developed nation by stating 25 percent of bottled water is just tap water in pretty packaging,
sometimes further treated and many times not at all. They also note the high mineral content in some bottled waters as
‘unsuitable’ for feeding babies and young kids. In developing countries where tap water is unsafe or unavailable
bottled water instantly wins the match. Believe me, I care about Momma Earth a great deal, but from L.A. (where the tap
water smells) to San Juan, CR, to Cluj-Napoca, Romania (where the water had a brown tint) bottled water wins. Hands
down.

But what to do with all that plastic?

Nat Geo News ran the piece
back in February this year and with Earth Day approaching it’s no wonder it jumped out at me. The picture with the
enormous load of plastic cash on the man above also caught my attention.

Other Spots in India

by Erik Olsen on

India, as you probably are aware, is one massive place. I was there two years ago and was blown away by how vast and variegated the country is. It is as true hodgepodge of cultures, languages, foods and peoples. Anyone who tells you they’ve seen India, well, unless they explain that they were there for a year or more, don’t believe them.

But with this in mind, there are lots of small, lesser-known places in India that are always worth checking out The Washington Post, in fact, runs a great little piece on exactly that, interesting out of the way spots that will help you come to know the country better. Definitely worth a read.