Apr 2007

Global Voices is a site I've been meaning to mention for a while. Global Voices offers a window into what is happening in parts of the world we don't often hear about in mainstream media.

From Global Voices:

At a time when the international English-language media ignores many things that are important to large numbers of the world’s citizens, Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media. We’re using a wide variety of technologies - weblogs, podcasts, photos, video, wikis, tags, aggregators and online chats - to call attention to conversations and points of view that we hope will help shed new light on the nature of our interconnected world.

Where else can you log on and find out what bloggers are saying about the arrest of Syrian blogger and human rights activist Ibrahim Zoro and then cruise over to the latest news from Panama to read about cooking plantains in true Panamanian style? It's an addictive formula because it offers a window into worlds we might never experience first-hand. In a world that's becoming increasingly smaller due to the globalising effect of the internet, Global Voices strives to turn minds away from insular thinking, towards open minds that seek to hear and understand different points of view.

Most airport baggage carousels aren't quite as exhilarating as Venice's casino-themed luggage-turner. And even if they were, my guess is that most of us would rather get out of there as quickly as possible than waste idle minutes appreciating the local casino's creative advertising campaign.

Roulette wheels or baggage carousel? Picture from Disruption.

When it comes to waiting for luggage, most humans are particularly impatient, horded together around the carousel - as if rubbing up against the carousel will bring one's luggage around quicker. It's pretty pointless and probably does more harm than good, which is why they've introduced Air Law 8 over at Bill Geist's Zeitgeist.

AIR LAW 8: From this day forward there will be established a mandatory "No-Touching Zone" that starts 7 feet back from the carousel. All travelers will stand back, take it easy and wait. When you see your luggage, walk easily, efficiently and directly to your bag, pick it up and proceed.

Good idea, but it's not totally new. A few weeks ago we got an email from Christopher Maland, who has dedicated an entire website to what he calls the Maland Line (I wonder how he came up with the name).

The Maland Line is to be either 2 meters or 6.6 feet around the luggage carousel. Not following the Maland Line is not a criminal act but please politely tell the "offenders" to recognize the Maland Line. If there is no Maland Line present, then have people take 3-5 steps backward away from the carousel.

Now I'm all for the Maland Line or Air Law 8 (or whatever else you want to dub it), but the big question is how it's going to catch on. Creating a website or posting a blog entry isn't going to create airport etiquette... But never fear, I think the following idea for implementation suggested in Bill Geist's post should get the ball rolling pretty soon in airports all over the world.

Even better, when our bag appears, let’s give everyone a little post-flight entertainment by doing some dance step up to the carousel, twirl once, casually lean down and pick up your bag, set it down on the floor with a little flourish, pull the handle out of the bag, and skip away. I’ll bet we could get people to applaud. Gee, they might even throw some money at you. You’ve got to be giving them a better show than some schlep on a bridge blowing his saxophone

The whole concept of paying to volunteer inspires me with cynicism. After all, when you pay someone, it usually means that they will give you something in return, but that doesn't really seem to add up when it comes to paid volunteer experiences. If I have to pay to volunteer, then I assume that the organisation I'm paying actually considers me more hassle than help. Which begs the question: how effective and/or useful is voluntary work?

A TravelMole report about the surge in popularity of "humanitarian travel" does little to defeat my cynicism. Humanitarian travel is big business.

Luckily enough though, my job with Travellerspoint gives me plenty of opportunity to read about travellers who are out there volunteering. A few blogs I've read recently have highlighted the merits of being a volunteer.

Nat and Evan are volunteering in Kazakhstan for Crossroads, "an aid organization that seeks to meet needs with resources." As Evan describes it, "it’s kind of like a huge Vinnies on a wholesale level, but rather than selling goods, CR gives them away to welfare organisations that reach out to those most in need across the globe."

Without a substantial knowledge of Russian, how helpful are Nat and Evan able to be? While they have been limited by the language problem, they've still got their hands dirty - Evan helps out with a building renovation while Nat works in the office and cooks:

Her biggest challenge has been coming up with recipes with a very limited range of ingredients and big cost constraints (aim $1 per person per day). Needless to say she has come up with some delightful variations on the standard fare of carrots, cabbage and potatoes.

I have already mentioned Brian Chu's blog. In his latest entry, entitled Who's helping who?, he writes about his volunteer experience with an orphanage in Peru, where he spends his afternoons helping adolescent boys with their homework and playing ping pong and other games with them. Part of the experience of volunteering is coming to understand that the people we thought we were there to help might actually be able to teach us a thing or two about life.

I can go in and out of Inabif as I please, to and from Huancayo whenever, and back and forth across borders with relative ease. Those boys don't even leave the orphanage's perimeters very often. And yet they live like they're on top of the world.

While I'm still cynical about paying exorbitant amounts of money to volunteer for an organisation that may or may not find my work beneficial, Brian and Nat and Evan's blogs do assuage my cynicism somewhat. Even if you're not going to change the world with your volunteer work, your time and effort could really help an organisation; and you may find the contact with people less "fortunate" than yourself a humbling experience.

If Travellerspoint used a fictional character to promote itself across the internet like some other travel companies have done, who should it use?

My vote is with this guy