What’s true and beholden in one culture may be disdained and cast aside in another. Take for instance the western world’s embrace of youth. In many Asian cultures, age and seniority are honored. Culture Matters Gary Arndt makes the point that our notion of “rescuing other countries all depend on them having similar incentives, values…
Tag Archive: Travel
Adventures Traveling Around the World – Traveling Doesn’t Have to be Expensive.
The economy is distressed. Unemployment is stuck near 10%. Congress is mired in inaction. There’s not an extra penny in your weekly budget. What a great time to travel overseas! “Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive.” If your tastes include five star hotels and you insist on staying in one then your travel will be…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – The Rest of the World isn’t Full of Germs
Going on an international travel journey? OK, let’s see… Vaccinations – check. Bottled water – check. Industrial supply of hand sanitizer – check. “The Rest of the World isn’t Full of Germs” Have we gone too far in our species quest to remain “germ free”? Washing, scrubbing, sanitizing, antibacterializing. Each night our kitchen is so…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – Americans Don’t Travel
Among the stereotypes of Americans out there this one may be true. Who’s the last person you know that visited Tunisia, Paraguay or for that matter Japan (OK, my niece Taylor did this past summer but she was the exception). Americans don’t travel overseas like the Germans, Japanese, Brits, Scandinavians or the Dutch. When we…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – Americans Aren’t as Ignorant as You Might Think
How often have you heard or read people allude to the notion that Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world? Jay Leno would do his “Jay walking” routine and ask questions that made the individual answering appear to have just landed their space ship from another planet. Leno: In what country would…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – People don’t hate Americans
They actually love us. As Gary Arndt says, “If anything, people are fascinated by Americans and want to know more about the US.” They may take exception to our government and policies but, they find Americans as individuals fascinating. Much of the crude anti-Americanism we hear of today takes the form of allegations about American…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – The World is Boring
If the country hasn’t been the scene of near economic meltdown (Greece), a natural disaster (Haiti) or an armed conflict (Afghanistan) more than likely it won’t have been mentioned in the news. This observation gives rise to Mr. Arndt’s third item: “The World is Boring” When is the last time you heard anything about…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – The Media Lies
A second postulate of Gary Arndt’s 3 years of travel around the world is something we have all suspected at one time or another: “The Media Lies“ If the nightly news were the only source of information about other countries one might be tempted to dig a whole, climb in and cover it to never…
Adventures Traveling Around the World – People Are Generally Good
More than three years ago in the spring of 2007, Gary Arndt handed over the keys to his house, put his possessions in storage and headed out to travel around the world with nothing but a backpack, his laptop and a camera. That takes real guts. In a series of articles we will attempt to…
