Where to go next? Ethical Traveler might be able to help.
It’s all a big search for updates, I guess.
My computer wanted Windows 8.1, so that’s what I gave it. Now it can barely find the internet. What use is a computer without the internet? Even freecell needs it nowadays.
I tried to connect to my old hub. I had some suggestions, thought I’d troubleshot some shit, but I’m still dealing with the old version I guess, software out of date, the new stuff unknowable and incompatible. I’m behind the times.
But I have an event tonight, and the borrowed snazzy jacket to prove it. (Apparently people don’t say “sportscoat” anymore?) I’m hoping the agenda includes my future; think that’s too much to ask? But there is comfort in the tangible and external. This island will last me until tomorrow. Maybe I should stop renting rooms in Atlantis.
So there’s an update. It’ll do for today.
Or Ais Kacang, the Malaysian dessert with beans, corn, and gummy candies.
Do you daydream about your next trip? Wonder where you should go? Postcard images from all over the world pass through your mind like a screensaver. You can see Victoria Falls, or Windhoek, or lie on the beach in _____! You can almost hear the samba, gnawa, or gamelan. You drool over the enjera, ceviche, and monkey brain options. Well, maybe not the monkey brain.
How do you choose?
I have a suggestion. Someone’s troubleshot this one for you.
Every year EthicalTraveler.org publishes a list of The World’s Ten Best Ethical Destinations. These are the ten developing countries who are making the best gains in criteria you agree with, like human rights, environmental preservation, and not being total ass*****.
Is that a welcoming smile or fear?
Last summer I went to Myanmar. I never would have gone a couple years ago, in the days of “Don’t let your tourist dollars pay for SPDC’s bullets” fliers. Aun San Suu Kyi made that one easy, but how can you tell if Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Palau, and Namibia are making similar gains or not? (Yes, no, yes, no.) All that depressing research?
Maybe I’ll just go back to Cancun…
This is the answer you’re looking for. Instead of randomly picking a place or going with the easy option, you can go somewhere and feel good about supporting it. You can contribute to an international awareness, on the part of both governments and individuals, that there is a cost and reward basis for behavior. Accountability on an international scale, and you still get to lie on the beach.
The link above takes you to the 2013 rankings. The new ones come out at an event tonight. An event like that merits a snazzy jacket.
LOVE the concept! Wonder where South Africa is on that list…
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Some day. I know a couple folks down there who are working to get it there… 😉
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I needed to stoke my wanderlust today. Thank you.
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Depending on how much you want it stoked, you can read the report…but then you’ll be buying tickets to Cape Verde and/or Palau… 😉
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I like these unusual places! 😀
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Really great that you blogged about this, thank you! The new winners and full report (which makes for scintillating reading) are already live on our website, at http://www.ethicaltraveler.org
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I’m on the other side of this idea of avoiding places because of government abuses. If people are suppressed by their government, I should witness their reality. I don’t think it’s right to wait to go until it’s a better place, but I tend to fall into the alternative tourism heap.
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So you needing to “witness their reality” by funding abusive regimes is now “alternative tourism”? Ah…
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Bani Amor, I tried to convey my meaning in short because this isn’t my forum. I’m not a journalist, but I believe that witnessing and sharing is important. I’m sure that my perspective is naive.
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The good news is both impulses and views have their hearts in the right place, the bad news is it’s hard to know for sure what’s right.
I see your point PCV, and think it’s a good one, that we shouldn’t turn our backs on people living in abusive countries, because many such governments don’t seem to feel much pressure to change, and in the meantime, the people suffer. But the report (and you, Bani, I’m assuming) support the idea/hope that a government’s self-interest may be the fastest mechanism to affect change. It’s the technique of the boycott, but in the case of the Top Ten List, reversed to the positive alternate, actively supporting positivity instead of condemning negativity.
Maybe we should all meet and discuss this further…say…in Myanmar?
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🙂 Hecho.
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So glad to see that Latvia and Lithuania are on the list. We rented apartments in both this past year and it was a joy. Riga has the most amazing architecture and people who are positive with a great sense of humor. Vilnius is fascinating and gave us a true taste of what life must have been like under communist rule. Thanks for making me aware of this list – great idea fodder for future trips. All the best, Terri
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Those are indeed both amazing countries, two of my favorites even though I had no idea how much wilderness they’ve protected (especially Latvia). Both of them are on the verge of following Estonia off the three lists of “Developing” countries that ET uses, and I welcome their inclusion into the far-from-perfect list of developed countries.
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Interesting. I’d never heard of this before. So pleased to see Uruguay on the list.
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Do you have particular fond memories from Uruguay?
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