Circumnavigating the globe! Something I’ve wanted to do since I was very young and finally got to do. It’s not like being on the far side of the world and then returning although in air miles it looks like the same thing. Traveling west until you meet the east is an existential experience. Seeing various, disparate cultures unfold in a geographic progression is not like flying to a destination and then returning. It places the world in a different context as you see one culture meld into another. At each border you can see similarities to the land you just left behind, but subtle changes like an international game of telephone, where the original message is totally different by the end of the journey.
I’ve seen much of the common humanity that binds all people together, moral codes, ideas of human and civil rights. And those places where those things have broken down. Being in Cambodia, co-incidentally when the instigators of the killing fields were on trial for human rights abuses was eye opening. There you have a country trying to regroup after losing virtually its entire educated class, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, artists, musicians, the people who hold a society together. There is still a palpable sadness there even as people try to prepare optimistically for the future. And it is a reminder that not all the horrific, evil happened during the mid-twentieth century. There’s still plenty going on to try to guard against and be vigilant about.
Traveling through Vietnam and feeling the sense of reconciliation there with America after all the horrific things that happened was heartening and gave me confidence that other intractable enmities can be resolved someday.
American is not the center of the world. I was somewhat surprised at how little attention was paid to the US. Twenty years ago if you traveled local press would usually have a front page story about some American activity. We found very little mention on the cable news or newspapers, to the extent that we could follow them if they were not in English. Also virtually no mention of Israel or the Palestinians anywhere, even on Al-Jazeera which we watched a lot as they have an English language channel that was carried many places.
This does not mean that American culture isn’t prevalent. It’s everywhere. GAP stores and McDonald’s are everywhere. American television shows are everywhere. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Desperate Housewives in Hindi or the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Martha Stewart in Turkish. In Asia we saw a lot of the Fox Crime Channel which does 24/7 CSI and Law and Order and other American crime shows in English. I wonder what picture of America people in those countries really have of us.
Just some random thoughts sitting in the Istanbul airport waiting for the plane to JFK.
