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Not Only In China Or New Zealand

That woke up our interest. After China we have been travelling in Europe in France, Spain, and Italy, and met travellers from all over the world. We have been asking about how recycled materials are handled in different countries. Most of them did not know, but those who did told, that after recycled waste is collected, it is put together and burned for energy.

Europe is not an exception in burning trash. The same happens in green New Zealand. When we lived there we noticed, that recycling is a matter of honour for locals. Our neighbours were keenly washing their trashed, packing them to green plastic bags, and a recycling car collected the bags to recycling centres where the trash was put on display for a few months so that anyone could go there and pick it up if they needed them. Finally all leftovers, which usually totalled all the collected recyclables, were shipped over to Australia for burning them. “The system has it weaknesses, but it's better than doing nothing”, commented the local official who was responsible for the recycling scheme.

Cleaner Conscience Instead Of Nature

In Italy mafia is in lucrative recycling business. They make money disposing super poisons. The stuff is loaded into old tankers which are sunk to the sea. Less dangerous poisons are buried into mountains like nuclear waste in Finland. Near Naples they are also disposed to ditches carrying them to sea. The results are similar to burning trash: all poisons end up to nature and return to the circle of nature, because it is cheaper that way.

Do you know how that works where you live? How big amount of the trash you sort ends up re-used, where is it processed and used, and what is made out of it? Or is it just burned together with all other trash? A phone call to your city hall will help clarify this matter. Please share the information by for example leaving a comment to this story.

If the trash simply is burned, recycling is actually harming nature more than helping by tricking people to consume more, driving consumerism. In that case the only sustainable solution is polluting less by reducing consumption.

It is less harmful to cool down the overheated reactor with sea water and return the radiating water back to the sea than letting the reactor melt.

It is less harmful to tell to the public that the radiation leak was as nominal as normal background radiation and not harmful at all than driving people to hoard radiation meters and iodine.

It is less harmful to tell that the reactor exploded but the casing will hold than cause an uncontrolled mass migration because of the lethal fallout.

After the reactor has melted, it is less harmful to convince everyone that the reactor will soon be sealed and further radiation leaks blocked.

It is less harmful to tell people that the reactor seal is holding and they are safe than unveil that they are going to die soon because of radiation. There is no reason to burden their last days on earth with technical details.

Could it be less harmful to downshift and reduce consumption to better match the capacity and resources of earth instead of using nuclear power?

Why Not Every Day?

If the English language speakers would like to increase equality, the whole language should be fixed. Words that separate genders—like pronouns he and she—should be replaced with gender neutral words and in some other languages masculine and feminine forms should be removed. Finnish language has very few gender dependent words and those remaining are currently being rooted out and replaced with gender neutral terms.

If you want to celebrate women, why don't you do it every day? We have proposed the same approach for Valentine's day, which we have replaced with True Friend's Day. We celebrate it every single day of the year except on Valentine's day.

After two months' touring we understood that travelling, working and living in Africa is motivated by three things: it is a way to relieve guilt, an opportunity to gaze at wild animals or to get kudos as a seasoned traveller.

The possible dangers of travelling in Africa were discussed every time when we saw other travellers and locals. Here and there you will be mugged, might get malaria, or meet natives practising cannibalism. When returning from Africa, these same fearsome travellers become heroes in the eyes of others.

You Have Everything—We Have Nothing

One of most vexing things for us in the East and South Africa was the relationship between white and black people, or the rich and the poor. A common presumption is that all whites are wealthy and they come to Africa just to share their money with locals. This mentality applies to all interaction including begging, selling, renting, transportation, and robbing. According to African logic, the rich should have a bad conscience for having materially so much more than the poor. Besides, white people belong to the bad Colonialist race and must pay for their heritage. If you resist, things get complicated, and even if you give something to locals, you mustn't expect any gratitude. You are just doing what you are supposed to do, fulfilling your part of the deal.

We encountered racism towards white people and tourists for the first time in Brazil in the beginning of our trip. Beggars approached us demanding a cigarette or some money on the grounds of our race and status as travellers. We didn't give them anything nor did we do any spontaneous charity or volunteering in Africa. We are not compassionate enough to be thankful for being hassled.

The mentality was ever present and annoying. When getting approached by a gang of bad-smelling and dirty hawkers trying to touch us and staring at us angrily, someone less courageous might have interpreted their marketing effort to be a threatening situation or even a robbery, and given up his or her valuables to avoid further inconvenience. This was a very common situation in the areas where we travelled. People were more aggressive in the touristy places which always attract fortune-seekers. South Africa and the capital of Botswana were a bit different because they are more developed, but on the other hand the price level was even higher than in the neighbouring countries and value lower. In a world-wide scale, Africa is the low-value-leader while Asia is its high-value opposite.

If you don't have riches or a guilty conscience, you might feel sick and tired after travelling a while in Africa. The greed and open exploitation was far more prominent in East Africa than in any other country we have visited. But for the sake of fairness, it is important to realize that it is—to some extent—part of the tourist scene everywhere in the world.

Volunteers, Charities And Missionaries

Many people travel to Africa to show off how great and caring they are. They become volunteers or start a charity to help and spread the Western gospel of consumerism to ignorant natives just like missionaries did in the old days. Having a nice car and a mobile phone seem to be strict necessities for Africans even if they live in a house build from cow dung and without running water. Polluting is in today's world a privilege and it defines your value as a human being. The more you buy, the better person you become.

Donating to the poor relieves guilt. It works the same way as giving money to a church. If you sin, you pay, and after the remission you are free to sin again. However, it is far cheaper and less polluting to get rid of your sins by going to a local church or to get an appointment with a psychologist than travelling to Africa.

Volunteering and charities continue the traditions of colonialism and slavery. Westerners think that as we come from the civilised world, we know everything better and must educate ignorant locals. It is also called patronising. In its worst form it makes locals objects and positions them as children who must listen quietly and obey. A curious detail is that the majority of travellers we saw were white women. Is the reason nurturing instinct?

Pestering Animals in Safari

Animal watching is another popular reason for a trip to Africa. Having photos with wild beasts on the background proves that you are not afraid. Travellers are naturally happy to pay safari organizers a lot to make sure that they are not in real danger because in fact they are afraid. Isn't this a strange way to demonstrate courage? We managed to see many wild animals just walking around and travelling by bus. We spotted monkeys, crocodiles, camels, zebras, rhinos, a giraffe and many other animals without chasing them.

If you really want to pester animals, you can do it easier in a local zoo. There the pitiful means of money-making are stuffed into small cells so that tourists can easily take photos. In Africa, you need to hire a driver to pursue the poor animals and corner them for photo shooting. For us, game parks, national parks and reserves are nothing but zoos, and Africans proved to be passionate animal-lovers only when they were making money. We saw many times locals throwing stones at stray dogs just for fun.

No Thanks To The Guilt And Zoo

Our original thought was to stop on the way and rent a flat for finishing our newest manuscript. We tried and failed. After that, we didn't find any suitable place with necessary facilities and at affordable price. For us mzungus, Africa is surprisingly dear, even more expensive than Europe except that we don't get any value for our money. What good is air-conditioning, hot water, fridge and TV if you don't have electricity?

After two months' touring, we were relieved of the puzzle of the fascination of Africa and also the compulsion to stay around any longer. We took a turn to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to ponder our experiences, finish writing the manuscript and enjoy life. We might return to Africa later to explore the West and the North about which we have heard—once again—so many good things.

Public transportation, trains and buses, and budget flights are the cheapest way to move around. The more south you travel, the cheaper they become. Hitch hiking can take some time, but it is an excellent way to meet people.

Being a member of hospitality exchange communities makes travelling even cheaper. Hospitality exchange works well in Europe except in Spain where many hosts are males looking for female company. If you ask your host, s/he is probably eager to help you to find a room or a flat for rent for a longer stay.

Drugs Are Dear

Alcohol is relatively cheap in the south, especially wine in wine producing countries. White and red wine can cost less than US $2 / bottle. However, stronger liquors are more expensive as taxes are usually tied to the alcohol percentage. The more north in Europe you move, the higher price you pay for alcohol. Nordic countries and Finland are the extreme.

Addictions are expensive in Europe, while they are less expensive in, say Asia. Cigarettes have high taxes, the higher the more north you travel. Also coffee costs a lot, especially in coffee shops. The easiest way to cut costs is by stopping to poison yourself. If a cup of coffee in a coffee shop cost the same as two pounds of carrots, you can easily figure out which one keeps you in better going.

Eating And Sleeping

Eating in restaurants and staying in hotels or hostels are the most expensive ways to travel in Europe. A full tourist meal costs easily over US $30 dollars / per person. With the same price you can buy vegetables and fruits for one week. They cost in a local supermarket, e.g. Lidl, under $US 0.5 / pound everywhere in Europe. The same applies to accommodation. One night in a 3-4 star hotel costs almost the same as renting a room for a month. In two years we have only stayed three nights in a hotel, renting flats or rooms most of the time instead.

Basically the same rules applies to all other countries as well. If you want to show off, visit tourist attractions, and be scammed, travelling will be expensive no matter where you go. On the other hand, living in a modest and ecological, sustainable way reduces costs and enables travelling anywhere.

Visas And Winter

We have enjoyed hassle-free life as we don't need visas or living permits in Europe. These meaningless pieces of papers can cost quite a lot of money when travelling, some US $300-500 per year. They also cause a lot of unnecessary and unnecessary travelling, offer unpleasant experiences and cause uncertainty because of the despotism of local officials. This applies to all countries. Our Chinese and Serbian friends have been rudely mistreated by EU countries when applying for visas.

Winter in Europe is far from pleasant and one of the biggest reasons to stay away. In the north, houses are properly heated, but temperature differences inside and outside can be over 70 degrees F. On top of that, the more north you go, the darker it gets. The south is the opposite: there is no heating and houses are built to be cold as hot summer weathers are form a bigger problem for locals than cold winters. Sometimes it can be 32 degrees F inside at night. For outdoor people who like walking, temperature differences are not pleasant not to mention the physical changes winter makes to the body. And think about the amount of polluting energy wasted for heating. On the other hand potable tap water helps to reduce the amount of plastic bottle trash.

All in all, Europe doesn't differ from other travel destinations. By consuming moderately and choosing for less expensive options, you can travel well anywhere in the world. Hope to see you around!

What made the house special?

Thomas was motivated by the idea of building something outside the mainstream. He wanted to prove that it is possible to build a house without harming nature. The house is passive which means that it will consume only a minimal amount of external energy. It will use for example sun for heating and rain water for showering and drinking. However, we are still convinced that a tent is more ecological than any house can ever be.

For us it was interesting that Thomas used wood in building like people do in Finland. In France, stone is usually the choice and the art of wood building is still considered high technology although more and more people are becoming aware of its advantages. Still some people are afraid that a wooden house is harder to sell than a stone house.

Some past eco-experiences

Thomas' project was perhaps the first sound effort we have encountered so far. Although financial interests had blurred and inflated a bit the original goal of eco-friendliness, it was not driven by sales and marketing efforts like most bio, green, eco, and organic things appear to be. Growth can never be sustainable, the whole idea is absurd, unless there is an unlimited amount of resources available in the world.

We have felt most of the time that people are just showing off with eco-products. They want to indicate their support to small businesses claiming to produce eco-friendly products and make sure to buy healthy products for their own good. These people have been young, environmentally conscious, and not too wealthy. This is a bit sad in a way that businesses use blatantly their customers' naivety to make more money without really caring for the nature.

One good example of eco-marketing are energy-saving lamps. They save a little bit of energy and might even last longer, but have you ever thought how much more damaging their production is than that of regular bulbs, and what kind of materials are used for them? In addition, if you throw away the good old bulbs to exchange them to new ones, you certainly cause more ecological damage than do any good. The same applies to new eco-cars. Getting rid of an old, still functional car will pollute much more than driving with a new eco-car could ever reduce pollution even if we forget completely the impact of the manufacturing process itself.

If you consider ecological issues a bit deeper, you end up playing the social game of yes-but. Cars are not ecological at all, but walking is. Yes, that is correct, you might say, but you need a car to be able to go to work. Another example. We can claim that having lights at home is not ecological. You could sleep during the dark time and stay awake when there is sunlight like people do in Cambodia. However, the answer of the modern man is yes, but you need to be productive also when there is no light. You can play this game forever and eventually realize that making money and thinking in an ecological way are opposites to each other. No business can ever be ecological. The only way to be truly eco-friendly is to live without money or otherwise you will be just falling into various marketing traps and cause more damage with your actions.

Green perspectives world wide

In New Zealand we saw how a well-designed recycling scheme can turn to an environmental problem. Everyone was washing all their tin cans, glass jars, and bottles with washing liquid and warm water. They put them to green bags in front our their houses and then a car came to pick up all the green bags. The waste was taken to local recycling centres and put into shelves for a few months so that anyone who was interested in the stuff could have the ones he wanted. After that, the recycling waste was transported with big trucks to harbour and shipped to Australia for processing as New Zealand doesn't have any facilities of their own. Just think how much energy the whole process consumed and how much additional pollution it caused.

Similar things happen everywhere. It is simply not enough to appear to be eco-friendly and go halfway, but ask what is the total ecological impact. In France yoghurt is sold in small plastic cans and there is no ecological packing (i.e. bigger packages made of carton) available. French eco-freaks still buy the products because they feel there is no choice. However, the choice is not to buy such products because buying them will encourage companies to continue doing so. It shows that buyers are silently accepting the idiocy.

Our conclusion is similar to the one Arto made in his article about eco-travel: if you purchase the cheapest products and try to minimize the amount of money you use, you end up living more ecologically. Even the choice of your living place matters. For example living in Finland is consuming much more energy and spoiling the environment than anywhere closer to the equator with a milder climate. And, on the other hand, if you want comfort, to own things and to think highly of yourself, you will end up living non-ecologically. But in both cases that is your choice and yours alone.

Back to the track

And now back from ecological issues to Franche-Comté. Thomas and Li are building their house in Héricourt, which is a small town located between Belfort and Montbéliard and serves as their suburb. From there we continued to Besançon, a little-known city but certainly worth a visit if you want to dig a bit deeper in French culture than just visiting Paris. The city is attractive with old buildings and a river crossing the city centre, and the people of Besançon are delightfully modest. They are proud of their simple life style compared for example to wealthier, more touristy and more expensive Dijon.

Have A Warm Midsummer Or A Mild Midwinter!

In our previous article we discussed tourism related issues.

Action!

Travelling is often used to describe a change that the protagonist goes through in his life. This so called bildungsroman is a novelistic form which concentrates on the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the protagonist usually from childhood to maturity. Some of the most well-known examples of the genre are Paulo Coelho's Alchemist, Hermann Hesse's Siddartha, and John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, To That Which Is to Come.

The power of action-driven description is best revealed not only in bildungsroman, but also in plays. Instead of talking, the characters are depicted by their gestures, movements, and actions rather than their thoughts and sayings. There are also examples of the same kind of style in novelistic fiction, for example in Finnish literature in Raija Siekkinen's books. Her short stories are often puzzle-like when only concentrating on the outside and almost relieving to read in this era of analysing and explaining everything away.

I travel, therefore I am

Travelling offers, therefore, exciting plots for a writer: adventures, exotic milieus and fascinating characters. If the Athenians were attracted by Odysseus' trips to the land of Cyclops, the audience of today is fascinated by reality TV in which protagonists carry out weird chores in strange and sometimes even dangerous milieus.

The plots of reality TV-shows follow the classic formula of folk tales: the protagonist meets people who either help him or try to hinder his mission; sometimes he wins, sometimes he looses, and usually there is also some romantic adventures included. The growth of the protagonists is being followed by interviewing them of their relationships. Quarrels are often mere social porn, but it seems to satisfy the audience's ever-growing hunger for scandals. The protagonists are chosen among common people and they are competing for a handsome prize which makes the show more tempting.

Who would like to watch a TV series of a man, who works from nine to five, goes home to watch
TV and drink some beer? Except if the story is ironic as the British series The Royle family. The protagonists spent most of the time on their couch watching TV and making remarks about the programmes and recent happenings in the neighbourhood. Their greatest travels were done from the couch to the fridge.

The first part of the series "Armchair Travelling" dealt with non-fiction travel books.

Pirate books, such as this one, are readily available in Cambodia. In fact, most of the books are copies sold at reasonable prices. You can buy books from any tourist restaurant where young booksellers cruise with their baskets. Bookshops offer a wider selection, but it is useful to keep in mind that not all of the books with English titles are in English. For Cambodians, it seems to be trendy to have a foreign title together with Khmer content. Western, imported books cost dearly, often over ten times more than pirate books.

Lonely Planet

As said, we discovered recently an enhanced Cambodia Lonely Planet travel guide. In general, Lonely Planet guides are at their best when you check out the most recommended hotels, restaurants, and services, and then avoid them like the plague. All the recommended places and sites we have checked have had huge price hikes recently not to mention the service that suffers from serious attitude problems. There is overcharging, short-changing and arrogance. The LP recommendation seems to work everywhere in the world like a kiss of death. The following story is a pleasant and refreshing exception. We now let the book speak for itself. The first text below is about interacting with Cambodian people, "Hug 'em like Angelina", and the second about a newly discovered village of Krang, "a trophy desired by every adventure traveller in Cambodia" as the book describes it. It´s almost as crazy as Molvania. Enjoy!

Hug 'em like Angelina

"There's nothing like hugging poor people. Let's face it – Khmer Rouge, poverty, and all, Cambodians are quite a miserable lot. You can
make up for the injustices of history by walking up to them and hugging them, allowing yourself to be penetrated by the unmistakable
warmth of the satisfied vanity. Angelina does it and we all know Angelina is wonderful.

Upon arriving in Cambodia you must buy a fashionable Mao hat and a red khroma which you can wrap around your neck like a local. You
can then roam about the country with a grave face, blending in and lamenting the sufferings caused by the Khmer Rouge 30 years ago.
There's a hope though – in spite of all the sufferings Cambodian children do smile. (Lonely Planet 2007, Updated Edition, p. 43.)"

Krang and Phnum Chi

"Discovered by a group of New Zealand hikers in 2004, the wild village of Krang and the fascinating surroundings have already become
the trophy desired by every adventure traveller to Cambodia. Krang and Phnum Chi are only for the very adventurous and indeed no place
of comfort. But for those seeking adventure and the chance to feel like real explorers in a profoundly exotic world it's the place to go. (--)
Untouched by modern religions, the people around Phnom Chi have fused Angkorean theocracy with mysterious totemic beliefs and anthropomorphic deities. In the local pantheon the most powerful of spirits is the Tiger-God and legend has it that in every generation one man in the village must walk up Phnom Chi mountain in the company of a tiger to secure the well-being of this generation. In bad years, a woman is chose to kiss a King Cobra at he end of the rainy season secure protection for the village. Although locals may invite you to try, don't do it – please see highlighted box.

It's in your mask Krang Maiden carve beautiful masks to describe the features of the man they want to marry. The spirits then bring this man to them. This is a serious affair and these masks are objects of cult. As much as you would like one a souvenir please do not help yourself from the wall of the caves on the mountain.

A short walk around the village is a very rewarding experience with locals inviting you for tea or sharing with you a glass of kahiap – a
fearsome concoction made out of elephant milk and palm oil. Drink up without blinking as Krang people take offences seriously. Children
will follow you smiling and running around – as elsewhere in Cambodia, children are smiling and they love a good trick. Watch the sun
setting over the Phnum Chi mountain before indulging in a unique feast with the fun loving Krang people.

Hiking

Hiking around Phnom Chi is not for softies. Try to make arrangements beforehand and secure a guide from the village. Some of the
children are excellent guides and given their reduced needs make also for a bargain. Approach the mountain from the west and stay on
the path at all times. Hiking p the mountain is a whole day affair and visitors have been known for also spending the night at the top,
camping. Prepare well and carry provisions. Just before you reach the top look to your left and you will notice the entrance to the cave.
This is the cave where totems made out of precious stones have been buried for centuries and where maidens from the village still come
and hang the masks of their beloved. If you do enter the cave, keep respectful as this is a holy place for the Krang.

Sleeping

If sleeping in a hammock is not your thing, The Dreamtiger is the only place resembling a guesthouse in Krang. The very basic facilities
are however not the main reason to stay there – the main reason is Prak, the owner, Bigger than life and a gifted story teller, Prak has
learned his English working with the UNTAC in the early 90's. A defeated Khmer Rouge soldier who took refuge in Krang sometime in the
80's, Prak is a local activist and played a key role in demining the area around the village. On the wall behind him is a decoration
received personally by the king and he'll gladly tell you how he married a Krang woman who recognized him from her mask by the fierce
scar on his left cheek and the ritual battle tattoos on his neck and chest. If the Dreamtiger is full, you have to go local: put your hammock under any house in the village and Krank people will be honoured to host you. Alternatively you can bargain with the locals for a place in their chamkas.

Eating

Getting there and away

You'll need to organize a cross country motorbike or a jeep in Kompong Thom. Carry a compass and a mind for adventure. Like elsewhere in Cambodia, the road is nothing for inexperienced riders. Stay on the beaten path and do not venture off-road as there are still landmines in the area. From Kompong Thom drive north on road 64 you have two options of turning right heading east for the mountains. The first option is road 220 heading west in the village of Chey. This road will also bring you past a beautiful Temple – Samboour Prey Kuk. After Sampoy you need to watch out for a small dirt road turning right. Keep this road for about 66 km until the village of Svay Pak. From there you'll have 20 km of rough road through jungle heading due west to Krang. You'll know you're on the right road when you'll see the majestic Phnom Chi mountain in front of you. An alternative road heads west from road 64 in Sala Visa."(Ibid, p. 240-241.)

We want to thank Bayon Pearnik 1/2007 for unveiling this rare treasure.

During the last three years, we have plunged into this genre and seen that it does have some merit. Many travel writers live, at least during their travels, outside the boring Western, middle-class lifestyle. As it is very rare to stumble upon these lifestyle travelers on the road, books offer a way to reflect one's own experiences. Still, most of travel literature is far from interesting. The books are dead serious and the genre seems to offer the writers a stage for ego-tripping and pathos with strictly predefined patterns and plots.

Ego-tripping

A typical and an indeed tedious travel book tells about preparations, the travel itself, and after-travel experiences. To be interesting, or to sell in today's saturated book market, the destination has to be hyper-exotic. It is more than challenging to find any of the kind, as Discovery Channel and National Geographic have most probably been there already. A weird vehicle is a good way to stick out, but it has to be at least a Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki, a space craft, or even better if the traveler succeeds in shooting himself to the moon on a cannonball like Baron Von Münchhausen. The writer has to be, naturally, a world-famous celebrity or a cult figure like Che Guevara. Although I must say that it is almost comical that Guevara's book is called Motorcycle Diariesas this immortal hero crashed his motorbike right in the beginning of the trip and continued by hitchhiking and walking, By the way, did you know, that Che means "Hey you" in Argentinian Spanish? Ernesto "Che" Guevara got his nickname when he was repeating the word over and over to everybody.

Travel books tend to praise their objects so that pathos is one of the typical features of the genre. This is all the more so in books about third world countries, where writers try to understand their objects, those unfortunates, whose living standards are so low when observing them from the high and noble Western point of view. Writers boost their ego by telling about their charity work and donating their crumbs to crumbs. They leave extravagant tips or donate some, according to their standards, vitally important products to locals, like paper and pens, or their own books. Or then again, writers admire, with a guilty conscience, how locals are always so happy and smile even though they live in a house roofed with the sky. In these cases the travel literature functions according to its eternal ideals: the objects form a background against which writer can brighten up Western ideals. Locals are the indispensable Other, without which the superiority and benevolence of the Westerners would not show.

The third common feature of the genre is ego-tripping which seems to be hard to avoid, The writer is, after all, doing something that millions of people dream about, but only a few if any dare to realize. The narrator who is all the time boasting about how clever and bold he is, appears sympathetic only when the praise is taken to extremes. Travel books usually follow the golden mean and do not offer such examples, but if we broaden the scope, Friedrich Nietzsche's title "Why I'm so intelligent?" is truly brilliant. A self-ironic narrator also offers an ever-tempting reading experience, but it is as rare to find. A great and refreshing exception is Will Ferguson's book about his hitchhiking trip through Japan, where he takes the fun out of interpreting the role of a clown, which tourists are always playing in the eyes of local people.

Travel literature effects greatly on how travelers communicate with each other. The same ultra-positive mantras and Western arrogance disguised in benevolence are reflected in the way destinations and locals are perceived. We'll return to the subject later. Next a taste of the travel literature that we like: Travel Guide to Molvanîa and Will Ferguson's Hokkaido Highway Blues.

The book of Will Ferguson is more traditional, a so called real travel book. Ferguson hitchhikes through Japan following the blossoming of cherry trees. Ferguson's self-irony is tempting. For Japanese he represents yet another Gaijin-San, alien, who are amused by his incredible stupidity and clumsiness. One of the questions Japanese drivers most like to ask from Ferguson is: "Can you eat Japanese food?" Everybody also claims that the Japanese do not give lifts to hitchhikers. However, Ferguson's travels go on smoothly both on the road through the whole Japan. From time to time there are obviously copied reviews about some sights and Japan's history that made me jump over and look for the next ego-deflating part scenes.

When you enter the airport, your head will be shaved because you might carry explosives, poison gas agents or biological weapons in your hair. You will also be required to show a medical certificate proving that you are in an acceptable physical and mental condition for flying. This includes testing against all possible mental disorders, and making sure that your physical condition does not endanger the safety of other passengers. Your IQ has to be less than 110, and more than 90 to make sure that you are not too stupid and not too bright to do anything unpredictable.

When checking in your luggage, you can either choose to ship your luggage by sea freight, or have it burnt by airport services. The best way is to leave all your luggage at home as nothing will be allowed on board. Before entering the aeroplane you will be put to sleep and connected to a live support system for minimizing all possible risks. Your clothes will be removed and burnt for the same reason as your hair, and the contents of your ass and stomach will be emptied. During the flight nothing should happen as all the passengers will be tightly asleep. If anything should happen, the captain has a panic button at his disposal in the cockpit. If he pushes the button, all passengers will be terminated and their bodies disposed. This has to be done for the sake of flight crew security, and to protect people on the ground.

When you will wake up in your destination, you'll be wearing hospital clothes. The next half a year you'll have to stay in quarantine before you can return to the outside world. This is necessary, for the officials want to make sure that you are not contaminated by any known or unknown disease.

Bye-bye weekend trips, business visits and one-month holidays. The quarantine actually makes any air travel impossible because of the time consumed. Nobody will fly any more, so that is perhaps the best security procedure ever invented. And if, no matter what, you really have to travel and invest a half a year of your time, there will always remain the risk of being terminated during the flight or in quarantine. Your life has no value compared to the risk you pose to other people.

Tourists relate via marketing communities

Critique is, in common knowledge, interpreted as something negative and unpleasant. It is all the more so in travel-related genres, in travel literature and Internet discussion forums like the Thorn Tree of Lonely Planet or Travelpod, where the dominating tone is ultra-positive. Members refrain from presenting any critique but market countries and destinations. It is not considered nice nor open-minded to speak about downsides when you could participate in the mutual praise of all countries. Tourists almost become marketing managers or honorary guests of their favourite travel destinations. Positivity has an important social function here: it connects like-minded people and feeds their daydreams. It creates a community where you can share the positive side of your world view and count on the acceptance and support of other community members.

As comforting as the communities of the like-minded are, the flip side is that they are inward-looking. The community does not develop as there is no new, challenging, or contradictory information. Instead the same mantras are being recited again and again: "What is the best country you have ever visited? Oh, mine as well, isn't it splendid? Listen, you might also want to consider countries x and y. I just loved them!" If someone dares to present any critique or tell about the troubles he had in this particular country, he will be driven away for the sake of unity. He is an outsider who does not belong to the community because he does not share its values nor follow the silently agreed rules of discussion.

According to a widespread misconception critique and the person presenting it are one and the same thing. Critique is, in this sense, personified and explained away: it is seen as a symptom of the individual's underlying problems. In discussion forums this means that the critical person is either seen as a sad individual who is unable to see anything positive around him, or as a troublemaker. These kind of views arise partly from the fact that critique is, in this era of yes-men, some kind of a dirty job which requires swimming against the current. It is carried out mainly by scholars and politicians who then have to harden themselves to take in all the shit coming along with it. So called normal people are rarely critical, as it is not "normal" to question anything. The world around us just is, better accept it, warts and all as you anyway cannot change it.

From this point of view the claim that one should concentrate on the sunny side of life and steer clear of things that might want fixing, looks almost logical. There is, however, a danger lurking. The introvert tendency of the communities leads to a phenomena called groupthink. It was studied by psychologist Irving Janis. Group thinking causes strategical miscalculations. In business this could mean, for example, that a self-assured product team who is not listening to customers' wishes ends up developing a perfect product according to what they see important. They underestimate customers thinking that they know better. When the product is ready to be launched, there might not be any demand for it or nobody wants to buy it, no matter how beautifully designed and technologically innovative it is. If you think about some of the recent innovations in mobile phone business, you will see what this means in practice.

The same happens in discussion forums. The communities of the like-minded end up creating their own 'truths' as well as the rules according to which the subject can be examined. Moreover, community members rule over other people who do not share their views. As a result, the information presented is biased and one-sided, and only appropriate for the purposes of creating communities and feeding daydreams. When a tourist planning his vacation wants to find out information, pros and cons of the desired holiday destination, he has to look elsewhere. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. When problems and challenges are silenced, next traveller going to the suggested destination will have to face the same problems as the person recommending it. This will happen over and over again, and quite often every time a little bit worse than earlier.

We believe that one of the most important aspects of responsible consumer behaviour and sustainable tourism is telling frankly and honestly all sides of the story without fear of critique. Ultra-positive marketing is misleading and will only create overly high expectations. When the fulfillment then inevitably falls short, customers will feel both disappointed and cheated. We all know that a customer once cheated is not likely to return. This is a nightmare scenario for any entrepreneur working in tourism industry. Anyone wishing to contribute to sustainable tourism, should seek the opposite result.

Critique is falsely perceived as negative

Critique looks an extremely difficult and delicate subject considering the above mentioned arguments, but let us consider a bit more deeply what 'criticism' actually is.

The word 'critic' comes from the Latin word 'criticus' meaning 'able to make judgments'. Originally, the word does not have any value judgments, but unfortunately the English word has also the overtones of 'censurer' and 'faultfinder'.

In universities critique is encouraged because it is the only way to create new knowledge. Also in business critique is valued as it is a strong signal of caring and devotion. A complaining customer is a real treasure for any company. He shows that he is interested in the product or service, and, moreover, he is willing to invest his time in improving it. How many customers are willing to do the time-consuming process of filing a complaint, let alone participating in the process of product development? Extremely few. Most just vote with their feet and switch to a competitor if problems occur. As a result, the company will never know what went wrong, and why their sales are plunging. The same happens with governments wondering why tourists prefer other countries for holiday destinations, and what makes expats to move into neighbouring countries.

By filing a complaint the customer shows his respect and loyalty to the company by giving it another chance. The company can make the necessary improvements if it chooses to do so. Customer contributes thus significantly to the company by sharing his views on what needs to be done. Critique is, in this sense, positive (if one has to load it with an arbitrary value judgment): it helps to right wrongs and make improvements. It is the key to success as it enables people and businesses to learn from their mistakes. Without critique, we would keep making the same mistakes time and again, without even realizing that.

Presenting or receiving critique is not easy. A disappointed customer hesitates to file a complaint, or even admit to himself that there was something wrong, because he is defending his buying decision. This is common behaviour among all customers regardless of the business field. Silencing the problem or concentrating on the positive side (e.g. "I learned and won't do the same mistake twice") works as a defense mechanism. Nobody wants to admit that he bought some crap because he would at the same time admit that he made a bad choice. This would probably make him look stupid in the eyes of other people. Would it not be a shame to make an eagerly anticipated, Thorn Tree-marketed, and terribly expensive vacation look like a bad joke, when one could instead make colleagues, the travel discussion forum readers, and friends green with envy?

Towards sustainable, critical tourism

Critique requires good self-esteem from both the presenter and the receiver. As long as both of these groups hang on to their defense mechanisms, and long for the acceptance of other people, and avoid efforts, there is simply no space for critique. 'Critique', as a word, conveys the meaning of activity. It requires that something has to be done instead of just shutting one's eyes and mouth. Many tourists have good intentions of making a positive contribution to the countries they visit, but they end up causing harm for the same reason. Why not start today and begin expressing your opinions and ideas on how to make this world a bit more ready? As a side effect, the whole genre around travelling would little by little develop to better support sustainable tourism, and responsible consumer behaviour. Just think about it: without critique our world would still be flat and we could only travel the upper half of it. In the same way discovering travel critique could reveal us brand new perspectives on tourism and travelling.

Let us consider a bit more deeply the concept of 'guest'. Traditionally it refers to a person who is invited to a country or a home by a host. How many people have actually been invited to visit a country? Certainly diplomats, visiting governers of other nations, some sportsmen and other celebrities. But what about regular tourists on their one-month holiday?

Licensed tourism

In some countries like Russia tourists need an official invitation. It is usually acquired through a travel agency, and does not require the tourist to know anybody in the hosting country. In most other countries travellers don't even need this. However, there is one group of people in every country who always welcomes tourists above all others: people working in tourism industry. Tourism is a big business as every tourist brings a considerable sum of money into the country.

In general, to deal with a business you do not need any invitation or license. You pay for the services you use or for the products you buy. We do not see how tourism should be different from other businesses. A tourist is a paying customer who should get the best possible service in return of the money spent. If this is not the case, why should the customers just shut up?

Tourism is a big business

Some people deny the commercial side of tourism. According to us, one reason for this lies in nationalism. People attach sentimental meanings to countries, transferring the feelings they have for their own home country to the countries they visit. They feel that in every country there is a nation who owns that country and somehow regulates the tourist influx. Therefore travellers and tourists should be grateful that they have been allowed to enter. Another reason for denying the commercialism is that some people try to cover the fact that they are travelling as tourists. They would like to be something else, to mingle with local people, and be appreciated also otherwise than as mere targets and sources of income for tourism industry.

Nationalists think they show the utmost respect for other nations but in reality they build barriers between themselves and hosts. Hosts are seen as others which leads to an ambiguous attitude. Tourists either belittle themselves assuming the role of a guest who is all the time on his toes and tries to please his host, praising him and the country to the skies and ignoring all the downsides. The other side of the coin is patronizing the host. Us Westerners, when travelling in third world countries, may feel that we are privileged compared to our hosts. We demonstrate that by paying too much, leaving extravagant tips, and trying to live up to the wealthy reputation. We pretend that we can help the poor buggers, but the poor buggers quite often feel that we promote ourselves and disrespect them. Does condescending behaviour imply respect to you?

Let us speculate a little. If we assume the first view of tourists as guests, how should tourism work? First of all, it would be a strictly regulated business, just like it is in North Korea or Bhutan today. Only a limited amount of tourists is allowed to enter with a proper invitation. Everyone should travel on a package tour as a group, where the hosts show their guests all the correct sights for an overly positive picture of the country and its people. Independent travelling cannot be allowed because of the risks of seeing some negatives. What would this mean for tourism-driven countries such as Thailand?

We are not at all sure if Thailand or any other tourist paradise would appreciate the speculated development because the amount of tourists entering the country would undoubtedly sink dramatically and, as a consequence, businesses would perish. The national economy of Thailand or of any other tourism-driven country depends too much on tourism that they would surrender their money-making machinery to play hosts for a small amount of guests. For them, every tourist is an invaluable source of income, and the more tourists come every year, the better. Also everything that brings tourists into the country is an asset to cherish. The basic idea of the tourism industry is to maximize the tourist influx and income, like in any other business. Whatever reduces annual influx is negative whether it is a military coup and takeover, a bombing or a natural catastrophe. In almost every country there is a tourism authority paving the road for tourism-related businesses and trying to take action on such critical moments.

What about the second view of tourists as vagabond philanthropists then - what would tourism look like in that case? Some recent pieces of news give perfect examples. We are talking about the news of Madonna, Angelie Jolie and other celebrities acquiring adopted children from poverty-stricken African countries, or Oprah Winnfrey donating a school to South African girls. This kind of charity tourism requires grateful hosts so that the benign guest is noticed. Without the poor and helpless 'other', the privileged position of the philanthropist would not be visible. But is this kind of tourism, whether it is done by celebrities or in smaller scale by regular mass tourists, showing respect towards the host or exploiting him for personal aims?

Earth belongs to all living beings

We are not nationalists, but believe that the earth belongs to every living being. We feel that we are nowhere on foreign soil. Every place on earth where we happen to be, is our home as long as we stay there. We call this the nomadic approach on travelling.

Aftermath comparison between Argentina and Finland

Santeri has been busy composing some music.

We wrote farewell letter to our Greentower neighbours in Spanish.

We enjoyed our stay thoroughly although Argentina did not prove to be 100%
optimal for us. Still, many things are so much better here than in Europe. The first and foremost are living costs. We made a chart (see below) comparing some prices in Argentina and in Finland. We also counted how many hours one must work to buy those goods and services. The column "price difference" shows the absolute price difference between Helsinki and Buenos Aires. For example, fillet Mignon costs in Helsinki 25 Euro and in Buenos Aires less than 4 Euro per kilo. *

(*) These numbers are based on our own experience in both cities except for the escort service.

In a nutshell, people have to sell less time in Buenos Aires to buy the same amount of goods and services than in Helsinki. This means they have more free time, and they get better value for their time - in case one assumes it is possible to value time with money.

The gap between the countries is huge. In Argentina you get more value for your money than in Finland. For example, in Argentina renting a flat requires 64 hours of work per month, while in Finland one has to work 72 hours. The gap is far greater in services. No wonder, because Finland is actually a self-service society because of sky high labour costs and extremely expensive social security.

Still, what is more important here than just comparing the prices and purchasing power, is to realize that all buying is in fact selling of one's precious time. One has to work, in other words sell one's time. Then one buys food and shelter for satisfying various needs. Satisfying those needs is buying time. One could naturally grow or hunt his food and build his own shelter, but these are bought to save time.

In modern welfare societies time-selling seems sometimes even silly. People buy all kinds of time-saving things, for example home machinery that make cooking faster. Or they drive to a fast-food restaurant to swallow quickly something. 24 hours is definitely not enough in this trade between goods and time. Just like in all business, also in time business people end up loosing all their time. They receive less time for the time they sell.

Time itself is not money, it is the one and only real asset we have in life, and it can be used only once.

After spending almost a year in total idleness, we have discovered how enjoyable basic things in life are. We do not need any extra experiences that can be bought with money, like sipping a glass of wine in some fancy restaurant that was recommended in a glossy trend magazine. We do not consume tourism either, where busy people are taken to places that some people have defined to be worth seeing, given a quick and compact tour and then ripped off. Instead, we have tried to concentrate on living in the countries we have stayed in.

Since we do not need additional attractions, we have started to question why to live in big and dusty cities. In Indonesia we will live in a small fishing village, and if we ever come back to Argentina, we will be likely to settle down in the countryside rather than in Buenos Aires. All the disadvantages of the rat race seem to culminate in urban life style: business, fuzz and nonsense.

The Political Statement Of The Month


IMF (International Monetary Fund) should force Argentina to pay back all the loans with interests as soon as possible to make this country raise again. Currently many Argentinians are feeling themselves clever when they have managed to avoid their responsibilities. In Argentina everyone who succeeds in cheating or stealing without getting caught is considered to be a hero.

Last weekend we celebrated our 70th birthday (Päivi 18 + Santeri 35) by having a costume party and disco. We rented a smoke machine and disco lights for Santeri to play with. The hall was full of smoke almost all the time. Some neighbours thought that the house is on fire and asked the guard to check the situation. The guard laughed when he saw the cause of anxiousness. Bill and Betty got the first prize of the costume competition.
They were dressed as Ceasar and Nun. Santeri was dressed as Päivi's slave which was a nice birthday present for Päivi.

In the past three weeks our relation to Argentina has turned into a love and hate relationship. We felt frustrated many times a day and started to evaluate seriously what was wrong. The reason we discovered was that companies and people broke constantly their promises and manifested that way their total disrespect to us. First, naturally, we blamed ourselves as being too punctual and serious ex-Finns. However, it did not seem to be the root of the problem. We found out that many Argentinians feel the same way about the culture of disrespect. Still nobody seems to do anything about that. They think that why should they keep their promises when nobody else does.

Keeping promises depends quite often on other people and this causes a chain reaction. It is simply impossible to keep your promise if it depends on other people´s promises. This seems to petrify the situation into an evil status quo.

One natural cause of disrespect is the lack of honour. Argentinians are not proud of themselves and their doings. Still, giving false promises or being always late of appointments is considered acceptable because it is more "relaxed". When you first get to know people, they appear to be punctual and mostly keep their promises, but quite soon they show their true colours. There is actually a good saying of this in Castellano: "Escoba nueva, barre bien".
Inside the family the respect seems to exist to certain extent as Argentinians are heavily dependent on their family relations.

Disrespect exists also in a wider context. There is no respect to laws and regulations (another good Argentinian saying: "Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa"). The government itself has made some secret laws that nobody knows about, and of course, only to raise their own salaries. In an environment of total disrespect to others it must be very hard to make business with companies and countries, who have a different kind of mentality. If one is not willing to respect commitments, agreements, and the other party, business with Europe, Asia, and the US is doomed to fail. Argentinians state that in business they are punctual and reliable, but we simply do not buy that. It is not possible to be sometimes respectful, and sometimes not. In the same way, one cannot decide that one keeps exactly every second promise one makes and breaks all others. Respect is a way of life. One either respects or not.

Argentina is advertising itself as being a country to be taken seriously, with slogan "Un pais en serio". According to us, this can never happen before people start to respect each other and discover the sense of honour. A better slogan would be "Respeto y honor" (respect and honour), but first someone should teach what those words mean and why they are so important. If some foreigner tries to do that, the common Argentinian reaction is that the person should go back to his home country if he is not happy with the way how things are here. Most people think that criticizing the country is an attack on personal level. If you say the country sucks, people feel that they suck. The same problem exists in Brazil.

Argentinians themselves are very cautious about what they speak in public and how they behave. Usually they recite normal and commonly accepted opinions because they are afraid of each other and want to look as "normal" as possible to be socially accepted. There is a lot of back stabbing, ill rumours and manipulation going on behind the scenes, which also originates from the same root than other problems: lack of respect to other people on personal level. Social pressure is enormous since Argentinians depend on other people´s opinions. They need to see the signs of acceptance constantly.

All kinds of social relations require following strictly unwritten rules, and playing games. And there is plenty of them. They are most clearly seen in dating culture. Women are supposed to play hard to get and men are making an enormous effort just to get a date with them. All the time both parties are wondering what kind of an impression they are giving to outsiders, what they should say, and what they should not. Dating from outsider perspective seems to be close to impossible. Santeri has been wondering why Argentinian women have not converted themselves to lesbians because of that. Men have solved this problem by living with their mothers, like the famous writer Jorge Louis Borges. He left his mother and moved away from home when he was over 60 years old.

All in all, we do feel ourselves quite disrespected and this makes us behave in the way we would not want to behave. If somebody does not respect us, we can not respect him/her either. To solve the problem we are considering to leave Argentina at least for a while. This would be taking a kind of holiday from disrespect and putting things back into perspective.

Santeri's quiz of the month: try to connect the pairs: