Dark tunnels and crumbling passageways, all
carved out of solid volcanic rock.

It must have come as a surprise to European missionaries arriving on the Dark Continent, eager and ready to convert heathen savages, only to discover that Ethiopia was the second country to adopt Christianity as a state religion, as early as the 4th century.

An ancient kingdom, known as the Aksumites, was one of the largest, most civilized, and prosperous nations of its era, benefiting from its position as a vital trading post between Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

While Europeans were living in caves and hogshit, northern Ethiopia was awash in colourful art, incredible architecture, music and commerce.

The Aksumites faded with the rise of trading posts along the Red Sea, but a new kingdom arose in the 11th century, led by a King Lalibela, who decided to build a New Jerusalem in Africa, just in case the rising Islamic empire swept the real Jerusalem into the paper shredder of history.

And thus began the construction of the churches of Lalibela, hand-carved into red volcanic rock, a mind boggling accomplishment. Jordan’s Petra is similarly carved into a rock face, but the 11 churches of Lalibela stand on their own, like the finished masterpiece of a sculptor.

Built alongside its own River Jordan, Lalibela is rich with symbols, icons and religious images. And uniquely, they have survived and are still in use to this day.

Carved Out Of Rock

Lalibela attracts tourists – Italians, Spanish, Japanese – the resulting influx barely enough to support the town that surrounds the churches.

The Ethiopian word for foreigner is “ferengi”, and be it an accident of decades of foreign aid, or just irresponsible tourists who should know better, ferengis in Lalibela (and elsewhere, as we’ll soon discover) are good for only one thing, and that is, handouts.

Seconds after departing our van, my ass still vibrating from the stone road, I’m surrounded by children asking for birr (Ethiopian currency). I’m prodded and poked and stare into dozens of upturned hands.

An old toothless woman walks up from behind and gives me a sloppy wet kiss on my arm. So accustomed to my personal space, I try not to freak out. A guard walks up, raises a stick, and the children scatter.

I enter the main gate and buy $20 tickets and pricey $30 video camera permits, and are assigned a compulsory guide as well as someone to watch our shoes when we enter the churches.

UNESCO, in an attempt to preserve the main church of Bet Medhane Alem, have installed ugly scaffolding around it, designed, no doubt, to ruin all photographs. Still, the fact that this huge building was carved top-down from solid rock is staggering.

Raiders of the Found Ark?

We take off our shoes, and enter inside. It is dark and cold and still has much of the original carpeting on the ground (we were warned to wear long pants because of the fleas).

Light streams in from small windows, the ceiling blackened from centuries of candle smoke.

Side view of St George. Hard to believe it
was carved top down from the rock.

Voices echo, dark corners hide piles of carpet and wood, angles and demons. Forget the polished gloss of Europe’s superstar churches. Here, you can feel every one of Lalibela’s 800 plus years, breathe in the past (along with the thick dust).

A robed priest is happy to pose for pictures for a few birr, protecting the sacred inner chamber, housing a replica of Ethiopia’s holiest object, the legendary Ark of the Covenant.

Recall Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indiana Jones gets wind of a Nazi plot to find the ancient Ark of the Covenant, built by the Israelites to house the tablets of the Ten Commandments, given to Moses by God.

The Nazi’s believed the Ark to be nothing less than a powerful weapon, and they were right, the suckers, as Indiana cleverly looked away and the Ark unleashed its supernatural power, killing all the bad guys, and melting the creepy Nazi guy with the glasses (which gave me nightmares for months).

Classic movie, mixing myth and history – and the best part is, the truth is possibly not too far off.

Lost To History

I first became inspired to visit Ethiopia after reading The Sign and the Seal by Graham Hancock.

An English journalist formerly with the Economist, Hancock spent over a decade researching the real story, becoming a literary Indiana Jones, with the resulting book a fantastic mix of history, myth and adventure.

For what became of the Ark remains one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

Its disappearance has been linked to the Knights of Templar, King Solomon’s relationship with Queen Sheba (which resulted in the birth of the first great Ethiopian ruler, Menellek), and all manner of conspiracy theories.

Since Ethiopia’s holiest object is the Ark of the Covenant, and its language shares many Hebraic commonalities, and the country even held tribes of “lost” Jews, Hancock spent much of his time figuring out how this all came to be.

His logic and conclusions are controversial but sound, and having briefly met the guy many years ago, I can testify that he’s definitely no conspiracy theory nut.

Accordingly, the Ark (or an ancient replica) is believed to exist in Aksum up north from Lalibela, where it is zealously guarded by priests, and not even the President of Ethiopia is permitted to see it.

An Israeli traveller tells me her investigations lead her to believe the Ark was destroyed, or maybe it’s sitting in a big warehouse somewhere in Washington D.C, we’ll probably never know. But here in Lalibela, where the Ark passed through, you can still feel the magic of the mystery.

Return To The Beggars

I explore the rock churches, walking inside carved rock tunnels, peering inside doorways to find weathered priests reading leathered bibles. If only I could blink and take photos with my eyes – the images are unforgettable.

“Weathered priests read leathered bibles
behind ancient wooden doors…”

As I return to the surface, I see the open hands again, pleading and begging. I walk down the main street, and the harassment is thick.

I’m warned that children, speaking good English, will tell heartbreaking stories and ask for money for school books, only, it’s a scam, the books are actually exchanged for money, or never bought at all.

They surround us like a swarm, fighting amongst themselves for priority. It’s hard to keep things in perspective. I want to connect with locals, I always do, but I also want to connect with real people, and I want the communication to be pure. I don’t need to buy friends.

A boy named Jordan tells me, it’s OK, he doesn’t want money.

“Look, Jordan, I want people to visit this amazing place, but you guys make it very difficult and uncomfortable, and then nobody will come, and that hurts everyone.”

“We are not all like that,” he explains, somewhat annoyed. So we begin to chat. He tells me that his parents are farmers, and he looks after some crops, and is never hungry, and is going to school.

I begin to feel awful about my earlier sweeping generalizations – here I am, another white, rich, western asshole ready to dismiss the natives as beggars and thieves. Everyone’s not out here to use me, to get a buck. I feel much better.

Then Jordan tells me, after all this, that he needs some school books. Damn. I sweep, I generalize.

Goodnight Heartbreak

Africa can be like a beautiful girl you meet at a party. There’s an incredible connection, you laugh, you cry, you open your heart, you embrace. Then she puts out her hand, and tells you to pay up.

I told Jordan to stay in his fictional school, and decide then and there to find a real charity, and make a sizable donation.

I’m saved that night by a guy named Kassa, who I meet at a small hole-in-the-wall bar selling 40c beers (new record – the cheapest I’ve ever found).

Local reggae music, spiced with Bollywood, is blearing from the TV, and I’m perfecting my local dance moves, which consists of twitching my shoulders while keeping my legs still. I’ve got a nice buzz from the tejj, local fermented honey wine.

There are no girls in the bar, since no decent Ethiopian girl would ever go to a bar, unless they are willing to sleep with you for money, which I am told, is perfectly acceptable in this part of the world. Kassa and I talk about life in Ethiopia, in the west.

We sympathize, we laugh, and naturally there’s no financial arrangement at the end of the conversation. But if I thought I’d made peace with being a walking money bag, I was yet to experience the true ferengi Frenzy.

For that, I’d have to fly back to Addis, and drive five days into the south.

Next: Tribe Watching in the southern Omo Valley

Awaiting justice / Photo Nicolas Souyris

Imagine you are standing in line at customs, with innocent holiday thoughts of sun and sand in your head.

Suddenly, a customs agent latches onto your arm and shuttles you aside to a small room down a darkened hallway.

You don’t worry, because you have done nothing wrong. They grill you with questions for hours. No food, no water, just questions over and over.

Then you are told the shocking news: drugs were found in your baggage. You panic. This is not your home turf; your rights are not the same. Your demands for a phone call, lawyer or nourishment are ignored.

When thrown into an overcrowded and stinking jail, your nerves unravel; the nightmare has just begun. An alien legal system is hard to grasp and can treat people like animals, forced to live in unsanitary conditions for years.

You have to prove your innocence. In the end you are charged and placed into another dingy hole, faced with a sentence of several years to life – or even death.

The only comfort you ever receive is the two times a year your family can visit and bring you some necessities that are not provided – like toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, hair brush, writing material and some articles of clothing – basic materials you never thought you’d cherish so much.

Imprisoned Abroad

Across the world there are foreigners in jail for a variety of mistakes in judgment, and some are completely innocent.

Their families are suffering from the separation, worry and financial burdens imposed by their imprisonment. Many are impoverished and cannot visit or send the basic necessities that are needed.

Foreign Prisoner Support Service (FPSS) was established in 1995 as a volunteer prison service to families who have loved ones interned in other countries. They hope to promote understanding and human rights education for all people through the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

They are the ones to seek out to assist those in crisis and their families hoping to bring them home. They have campaigned for hundreds of cases, provided assistance for families who don’t understand the processes, and advocacy for those incarcerated.

The FPSS is a non-political body of volunteers that receives no government funding.

How you can help:

1. Become a “Save a life” member
2. Make contributions to FPSS or families of prisoners
3. Write to an inmate
4. Participate in campaigns, petitions and letters

Their FPSS webpage has information for each prisoner known to them.

Some of the pages are put together by family members, some by the prisoners themselves, and others just by news articles found. What can and cannot be done is listed, along with addresses to write letters, and where assistance for the families would be best suited.

Behind bars / Photo Liv Friis-larsen

Check the individual’s list or the prison details. Prisons have different standards as to being able to receive letters, items, visits or money.

Read the stories of the struggles that most have to endure. If you have no pity for the ones that have made mistakes, look at the ones who have to pick up the pieces and pay in emotional and financial burdens.

Other organizations working to help prisoners and promote basic human rights:

• Amnesty International — Working for human rights worldwide..
• Committee to Aid Human Rights Activits — Providing humanitarian aid in Cuba.
• Prisoners Abroard — Caring for Britons held overseas.
• Bryggan Abroad Sweden — For Swedes in foreign prisons.
• Fair Trials Abroad — Workng to ensure that EU citizens receive fair trials.
• International Relief Center, Inc. — Providing education and humanitarian opportunities in regions of Cambodia.
• Partners of Prisoners — A charity that helps relatives of prisoners.

Easing The Burden

Travelers who make mistakes are imprisoned for a variety of reasons in many different countries.

It is the innocent who get lost in the shuffle of the systems and politics whose cases are truly tragic. Their families are the biggest victims, having to find their way through massive and unfamiliar legal systems.

They are all too often left in the dark, trying to work out ways to help their loved ones no matter if they are guilty or innocent.

The non-profit organizations listed above are the ones that aid the real victim in most cases. See what you can do to help ease the pressures.

Even the smallest effort can mean all the difference in the world.

What are your thoughts on helping travelers imprisoned abroad? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Brook Silva-Braga, filmmaker

The story goes like this: Emmy winning producer Brook Silva-Braga left his cushy gig with the TV network HBO to travel the world with five pounds of clothes and 30 pounds of video equipment.

He left because he wanted to experience the “round-the-world” trip, before life caught up with him and the window of opportunity would be lost forever.

Brook documented the entire journey, and created the soulful film about the experience – titled A Map For Saturday.

I confess. I didn’t want to like the film before I watched it. On some level, I felt the world of backpacking was selfishly my own. To have a filmmaker delve into this world, on his own journey of discovery, felt like he was encroaching on my own experiences.

Turns out: the film is excellent. Beautifully shot. Artfully edited. And profiles what life is truly like on the road.

I felt compelled to contact Brook for an interview about his film. Here’s what we discussed.

BNT: What was the hardest part about deciding to leave your job and travel the world?

Brook: There weren’t negative judgments, really. Everyone was supportive, they just all had reasons why it wasn’t right for them. The only reason I could think of not to go was the damage it could do to the career I’d been working for.

So making the documentary was a way to not feel like I was totally throwing that career away. Overall the decision wasn’t that hard. I got it in my head that an around-the-world trip was something I had to do before I died and this was the best time to do it.

Were there certain pre-conceptions you had about long-term travel and life on the road, that turned out to be totally different than you expected?

I thought it would all be a lot harder than it was. One of the first revelations of my trip was how easy long-term travel can be. The flip side was the loneliness I sometimes felt and probably didn’t fully expect before I left.

Curious children and the camera / Photo Brook Silva-Braga

Which came first, the idea for the trip, or the idea for the documentary?

Like I said, the documentary was really just a way to convince myself the trip wasn’t such a professionally destructive enterprise.

It was a bit of a fools bargain though because these types of independent films have a lot of trouble finding an audience. My ignorance was probably really helpful and I just ended up getting really lucky that it did so well.

What were the biggest challenges of carrying all the gear with you on the road?

Well it meant I had to be pretty ruthless with my packing of “discretionary items.” I only had about five pounds of clothes and no tent or even sleeping bag. But I found there’s almost nothing you can’t get by without.

At one point in your film, you talk about how Americans are conditioned to “binge vacation” – that is, cramming their escape into 2 weeks per year, before coming back to the daily grind. Why do you think Americans trade their free time for money/job security?

It’s in our culture. I read awhile ago that the hourly productivity of American and European workers is equal but we’re richer largely because we work more hours.

I just came from Africa where there’s clearly a prioritizing of free time over work despite the poor economic conditions so many Africans face.

There’s no simple way to explain why one culture develops one way or another, just look at how much more common long-term travel is for Canadians than Americans despite all the connections between the U.S. and Canada.

But America’s hard work has given us a prosperity that allows us to enjoy more free time if we curtail our consumption. The lure of consumption must be great (or perhaps people are unaware of the joys of personal time) because there sure is a lot consuming going on.

Who benefits from pushing that type of mentality?

Well you seem to be leading me towards an economic/sociological judgment that I’m probably not qualified to make. On a macro scale, certainly our country’s economic strength has been created by the commitment to work (and consumption) of Americans. My personal experience though is that I’m happier when I work and consume a bit less.

What’s the most effective way to show other people that long-term travel isn’t so scary?

Well I suppose it depends on the type of fear. My sister is afraid of dirty hostel bathrooms. Some friends are afraid of not having a home to return to at night, or a job to go back to at the end of their trip.

To me the most powerful evidence in support of long-term travel is this: I’ve never met someone who gave it a try and didn’t like it. It’s only people who don’t go who can list all the problems with it.

You’ve just got back from a 5 month trip to Africa working on your next documentary. Any hint as to what’s it’s about?

Yeah, its going to be called “One Day in Africa” and follow five or six people from different parts of the continent on a single day in their life.

There’s a college student, a rural farmer, an expecting mother. My hope is to show a more nuanced version of life in Africa than the devastatingly dire or falsely hopeful stories we see so often.

It should hit film festivals in early ‘09 and a trailer should make it to cyberspace this fall. I need to go edit!

For more Brooke Silva-Braga, check out his personal site and the film A Map For Saturday.

The writing on the wall / Photo Daquella Manera

You’re walking down a city street. It’s late, and you just want to get to the subway station and get back to your hostel for the night.

Suddenly, a man bumps against you, reeking of beer. Seeing you’re a tourist, he asks where you’re from and enthusiastically offers a handshake.

He pulls you closer to him during the handshake and, being drunk, stumbles and leans against you in a momentary lapse of balance. He then apologizes and walks away.

Did you see when he reached into your pocket and took your wallet?

In my travels around Europe and Asia, I’ve almost been pick-pocketed, scammed, and was even once, in Beijing, held at knife point.

These incidents were what motivated me to get more familiar with the underground trade. If I was to continue my travels, I was bound to run into more of these people, and my luck would not hold out forever.

I decided to learn the skills of a pick-pocket. Through a friend, I managed to become the student of a magician specializing in prestidigitation (sleight of hand) and pick-pocketing techniques.

The following are my tips to help you better your odds on unfamiliar streets.

For the sake of this article, a “mark” indicates a victim and a “target” indicates an objective, be it a wallet, purse, jewelry or camera.

Your Attire

Avoid creepy alleys / Photo Sir Mildred Pierce

The first thing any pickpocket must master is the ability to determine the location of the target. For ladies, a handbag is the obvious choice, and for men, the inside jacket pocket or back pocket is most common, so try to avoid keeping important things in such places.

The inside jacket pocket, though more difficult to access, bulges easily and is a dead giveaway. Be careful when putting something in the jacket pocket because the weight makes it sway, giving away its location.

Baggy clothes are good for concealing lumps and bumps. Try to keep these in mind when picking your attire for a trip or a night out.

Use a Satchel

Many travelers use backpacks, especially when touring around Europe. But backpacks are super easy to access.

I recommend using a light satchel instead. A satchel is easier to be aware of, because you can position it to the side or in front of you.

Satchels are lightweight and packable; I usually pack one into my backpack and use it as a day-bag while I’m exploring, leaving my big pack in the hotel or in a locker.

Keep a thin card in your pockets

The most common pick is done by lifting the lining of the pocket to bring the target to the hand; this is called “reefing”.

Reefing keeps contact to a minimum and makes a much quicker retreat possible. Putting a semi-rigid card (a name card or a tag does nicely) in the pocket can obstruct the lift, giving you more time to notice the pick before they get away.

Walk with purpose

When traveling, it’s common to slow down and take in all the sights. You’ll want to linger in places and take your time.

While enjoyable, meandering makes you stand out to pickpockets. An easy way to solve this is by walking with purpose. Even if you don’t have a destination in mind, act like you know where you’re going – this makes you a less desirable target.

Be especially careful to walk purposefully when in a popular tourist location.

Shake Hands With Caution

Locals are often hospitable to travelers – sometimes overly so. If a stranger is quick to greet and anxious to get near you, try to keep a hand on your belongings. A theft often starts with a handshake that lasts too long, which allows the thief closer access to you.

Don’t judge by appearances

One of the most common tricks pickpockets use is to wear a uniform to gain trust. In Asian countries especially, pickpockets may dress up as police officers and become real friendly with tourists while an associate makes the lift.

Be mindful of these confrontations. Also scrutinize over-friendly children and seniors because they generate much more trust.

Confrontation

Please take this last piece of advice with a whole pile of salt because I do not want to encourage violence.

Remember that it’s very uncommon for a pickpocket to engage. The are usually unarmed. If you catch a thief in the act, you can choose to confront them directly, or just alert the police as soon as possible.

The example in the beginning of this article was not something I made up. It really happened to me.

I was in London and was heading back to my hostel at night when a man came from behind and greeted me. He acted as if he was drunk and quickly reached for a handshake which I mistakenly accepted.

Of course, he did not let go and immediately got up close and physical against my body, pressing his whole chest against mine to hide his arm that reached behind his back and into my pocket.

I was lucky enough to notice the lift with my peripheral vision. I confronted him, but he denied everything, and immediately another man came out of nowhere and walked behind the original thief, who made a pass.

I then confronted the second man, who eventually took my wallet from his back pocket, flung it down on the street and scurried off. They managed to get a few bills, but nothing large was taken.

My London experience was an extremely lucky stroke. I was defenseless. If the thieves had pulled weapons, I don’t know what I would have done.

Your life isn’t worth your wallet.

Have you been the victim of pickpockets on the road? Share your thoughts/stories in the comments!

istockphoto / Janne Ahvo

“We are all God playing hide-and-seek with himself,” says Alan Watts. It’s just one of the Top 10 Reasons You Should Like Alan Watts, as compiled by Spiritual Mind.

In a very cool interactive map, GOOD magazine portrays the most famous journey’s throughout history, from Marco Polo to Lewis and Clark.

Did you know LSD helped foster the discovery of DNA? Or that cocaine stimulated the study of psychoanalysis? Neither did I…until I read The 5 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High.

Forget finding that perfect beach. What about your own perfect island? Check out 5 Insanely Small And Inhabited Private Islands.

Train kids to police their parents on eco-crimes? While it seems like a good idea in practice, the new green initiative in Britain is forcing some uncomfortable references to Hitler Youth.

Speaking of green – now you can help the environment by using a green search engine. Check out Search Green Travel.

I have some friends that head out on the road with little more than a bag of hotdogs and a sleeping bag. Then there’s everybody else, who have access to the 25+ tools for a Roadtrip 2.0.

It’s a battle of epic proportions that has been going on since the dawn of time. Scientific American tackles Free Will vs. the Programmed Brain.

Little girl at Day of the Dead / Photo by Senor Codo

Upon hearing the word “death” one instantly thinks of war, grieving, burial or cremation, Heaven and Hell, and for more than a few, fear.

Many Westerners consider death a taboo subject and considered a social faux pas when broached in conversation, especially when it refers to someone who has recently died.

The irony is that everyone currently alive-everyone reading this-will eventually die despite the fact that so few people seem to actually consider his or her own mortality.

But the universality of death is not what makes it a fascinating topic, but rather the cultural, individual and epochal attitudes that have changed and continue to change.

In the West, the concept of death as it is known today is relatively recent.

It is generally held to have originated sometime around the Renaissance, or even slightly earlier, during the Black Death, when conservative estimates state that a third of Europe’s population perished.

Immediately prior, during the Middle Ages, people considered death to be far less menacing, as the plausibility of death was more a fact of life, and therefore less frightening.

Death In The Ages

Even earlier, the Greeks and then the Romans were no strangers to dealing with death on a regular basis.

In Greek mythology, Hypnos was the god of death. His image changed from a harsher god in the earliest of references into a kind, sympathetic and almost Cupid-like god. This softer appearance invited people to adore passing into the Heavens, symbolic of the fact that death comes to all and should not be feared.

Roman culture went a step farther with gladiatorial combat, which basks in the revelry of death for entertainment. Despite the numerous changes that have occurred since the fall of Rome, this idea stayed with many cultures in the West for a long time.

English peasants were known picnic at the execution grounds and in the Napoleonic Age. During the American Revolutionary War it was not uncommon for spectators to watch some of the major battles.

Thanks to modern advances in medicine, communication, and technology, seeing someone die for the amusement of others does not have the same effect on people today. A greater proximity to death will almost always desensitize one to it.

And it can still be argued that through film, collectively the West still enjoys watching people die.

Influence Of Theology

Religion is also a contributing factor towards a culture’s attitude towards death. One theme that consistently presents itself throughout religion is that of duality – the idea that the body is nothing more than a vessel for the soul.

Roses for a funeral / Photo by Katie@!

This evokes the eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism in which the soul is transferred from the body to a mysterious spirit world until it can once again reincarnate as an earthly creature such as man or animal.

In many ways this view is also paramount to modern Christianity, which believes the body contains a soul that then departs the body upon death.

Duncan MacDougall performed his now famous experiment in 1907 in which he weighed dying patients, postulating that at the moment of death the body loses twenty-one grams of mass.

Although there is little to no scientific merit for claim, in his eyes and the eyes of his followers this proves that the soul leaves the body at the moment of death.

The terror of executions such as beheading or burning lay not in the pain of dying and the taking of a life, but in forbidding the person being denied entrance into the afterlife. It was the eternality of death that made these types of executions so damning (literally).

A Continued Evolution

Death is now taboo in many cultures from the Inuit to Eastern African cultures.

In some of the most extreme cases the name of a deceased member of the community may not be spoken by those that still live. Australian aboriginals remove the pictures of the dead from public display, or have their faces covered; erasing their image as if they never existed.

But the death taboo is not universal. Many Hindus and Buddhists openly discuss death. In these cultures, death is strictly a period of time in which the soul searches for another body to inhabit. Death is less of an end and therefore less mourning is required.

Ultimately, the interpretation of an afterlife heavily influences attitudes towards death.

With ever-increasing access to customs and traditional practices through modern travel, the practices and rituals regarding death are rediscovered and examined anew.

It is an interesting to consider: what death practices with be in vogue as the world continues to shrink, blend, adapt and reinvent?

Feature image by Jay Russell

It was a Monday morning in May of 1969 and the then-14-year-old Levitan should have been getting ready to go to school.

Instead he grabbed his brother’s Super-8 camera and at 7am headed downtown to the King Edward Hotel where he had a sneaking suspicion John Lennon might be after hearing the Beatle had been spotted the night before at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Levitan entered the hotel, zoomed up to the top floor, and knocked on every door, hoping one would lead to the musical icon he’d always dreamed of meeting. A housekeeper saw him and asked if he was looking for ‘the Beatle.’

He said he was and she directed him to another room a few floors down. He saw Yoko Ono’s daughter Kyoko playing outside one of the rooms and knew he’d found “the centre of all things.”

Read the full article from CityNews.

If that wasn’t enough food for thought, consider this quote from Steven Yates in “The Boiling Frog Syndrome,” where he mirrors John in describing the problem with violent revolutions:

Large scale revolutions attempting to change all the institutions of society at once make it impossible for anyone – including the revolutionaries – to plan rationally. This is why, with very rare exceptions such as our own War for American Independence, they tend to leave everything worse off than it was before…

Thus revolutions tend to bring about bloody dictatorships rather than improved social systems by forcing abrupt change on entire, complex societies (political arrangements, economic relations, etc., at multiple levels) and they destabilize everything.

Relations that have formed over generations are suddenly broken apart. Human beings, like all systems, dislike instability intensely. In practice, they will turn to the first person who promises to restore stability to the system, and that person is usually a dictator who clamps down on the entire society from the center.

What do you think of Lennon’s thoughts on creating sustainable peace? Share in the comments!

Atop a sand dune along the Oregon Coast

A few readers may have noticed last week was a little sparse in Brave New Traveler updates.

This was not intentional. Basically I had future-posted new articles throughout the week, but some decided not to publish.

And I wasn’t around to check out the issue because I was road-tripping to San Francisco to meet much of the Matador Crew for the first time.

VIEW THE ROADTRIP PHOTO ALBUM

I’ve been working virtually with most of the team since BNT joined the network back in January, and since then I’ve known the other editors (and writers) entirely by their voices. What a trip to finally meet them in person, and open up a whole new dimension to our interaction.

It was my first time to San Francisco as well. The big event held Saturday night was the Matador Party, a fundraiser to send inner-city youth abroad for travel experiences of their own (via the Matador Travel Scholarship).

Now, after the roadtrip, I’m back home and gearing up for some big posts on BNT. Also, I’m always looking for feedback from the readers on what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like to see develop in the near future.

If you have any article ideas, check out our contributor guidelines, and send in your pitches!

Until next time…