Travel As A Political Act (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Famous travel author, Rick Steves, has written a book that focuses on the cultural attitudes of both the traveller and the host nation rather than relating the pros and cons of this cathedral or that restaurant. He provides a number of examples where Americans and Europeans attitudes diverge sharply on attitudes toward drugs, nudity, sex and the common good of society.Besides the well-known attitudes if the Nederlands toward cannabis and their coffeehouses, I was impressed by the Swiss approach to heroin use. With heroin maintenance clinics where addicts can get their "fix" of clean, regulated doses of heroin; clean needle sales; and programs to get junkies back to work and maybe, off heroin; Switzerland has reduced its hard drug overdoses to 0. The US loses roughly 18,000 a year to hard drug overdoses."Nude parks" are relatively common throughout Germany and Scandinavia, yet the incidence of rape is nearly 50% less in Europe than in the US!I was especially impressed by his chapter on El Salvador.Raised on the stereotypical US attitude of the "banana republic" that the USA is trying to help with foreign aid and US corporate sponsored employment. The reality of his several travels and detailed living and talking with the "campesinos" (peasants) was a sharp tonic to this condescending and false viewpoint. The El Salvadoran peasants, most living on $1 US a day, love America's ideals of democracy, individual freedom and tolerance, but hate our government's support for uncontrolled globalization where rapacious US corporations exploit their natural resources and our military aiding their brutal military "death squads" in suppressing the rights of campesinos to form unions, speak freely for better living conditions and education for their children. Love his quote by Thomas Jefferson, "travel makes you wiser, but less happy. "In less extensive sections on Morocco, Turkey and Iran, the author examines a few of the conflicts that arise when the aims of mosque and state clash.Morocco and Turkey both have moderate Islamic governments, yet thereis pressures by more theocratic elements of these two nations to legislate stricter forms of Islam. A higher degree of secular education along with a pragmatic, tolerant approach to society have moderated and hindered the more rigid groups from establishing a theocracy.Turkey has even legislated that the military safeguard the secular state by mandating a military rule if there was a serious threat of a religious coup d'etat.In conclusion. this book is an entertaining and instructive guide to similtaneously traveling and learning about the diversityof cultures while acknowledging the common humanity that we all share on an ever-shrinking global neighborhood. I have used Rick's travel books a lot, and found a great deal of good information, and good advice in them. They are seriously worth checking out if you want to travel the way that he does - close to the ground, interested in interacting with the people and culture and history of the places you visit. And his writing style works very well for those books. But, somewhat unfortunately, this same sort of style doesn't work quite as well for a travel memoir, or for a book that attempts to look at how travel can shape your world-view, open your perspective on how the world works, and establish connections between the assumed "us" (relatively wealthy Americans) and "them" (everyone else).Nevertheless, it's a good try at it. I kept wanting him to go further, deeper, and look really closely at how travel can shape a person. And he approaches these topics, starts to address it, and then almost always backs off again. It's as if (and I really wonder if this is true) he had more to say, perhaps stronger opinions, but either edited himself, or was edited, in order to have the book conform with what he thought his audience wanted. On the other hand, from some of the reviews I've read of this book, it seems like that is a fool's errand anyway - some people criticizing his unrepentant Capitalist slant, others saying that he's far too liberal and hippy in his views. In all likelihood, from what I've come to know about the man, it's both. He's an odd bird: a Christian, but a liberal and compassionate one; a capitalist, but not a blind one; a businessman, but not a ruthless one; a advocate for the legalization of cannabis; a world traveler, but someone who will probably never live anywhere other than his small hometown of Edmonds, Washington. A man of contradictions. I would recommend this book to someone who is just starting off with the idea of travel. I'd actually recommend this to them pretty strongly. I've traveled quite a lot, and to some pretty different and challenging places, so much of what he says was well trodden ground to me. But I think it would be useful for someone who hasn't had that chance yet, and might even be very encouraging to them.
What do You think about Travel As A Political Act (2009)?
I enjoyed reading my favorite travel guide author recount more personal tales from his travels.
—xina
Had high expectations, doesn't really keep you interested... Didn't finish whole book.
—lexilovesloki
