Burma Film Festival Reaches Out
Ethical Traveler
by Karen Blansfield
2y ago
In response to the humanitarian and civil rights crisis in Burma (Myanmar) sparked by the military coup in February, activists and artists in the San Francisco Bay Area have banded together to organize the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival, streaming online from June 3rd through 20th, in a curated selection of films and live talks. Profits will support grassroots humanitarian organizations working in Myanmar in support of the non-violent democracy movement. (Note: Donations are welcome but not required.) Featuring over thirty films from or about Myanmar, plus daily talks with prominent activi ..read more
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How Rural Tourism Businesses Can Survive
Ethical Traveler
by Rashaad Jorden
2y ago
Just about all facets of the tourism industry have suffered due to COVID-19. A look at many a website of tour operators will reveal businesses that didn’t take anyone anywhere for several months in 2020—and possibly won’t during the first few months of 2021. However, the end of this year hasn’t represented a closed shop for several tour companies. After all, the great outdoors provides plenty of opportunities to feel at ease in socially distanced settings, as visiting remote communities does not trigger the concerns that being in crowded places may. So rural areas seemed to have fared better d ..read more
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Travel, Race, and the Road Ahead – A Letter from Jeff Greenwald
Ethical Traveler
by Ethical Traveler
2y ago
Dear Fellow Travelers, Ibn Battuta was a 14th century Moroccan traveler. During his lifetime he covered nearly 73,000 miles—far surpassing Marco Polo’s 7,500. “Travel leaves you speechless,” he wrote, “then turns you into a storyteller.” Let me first acknowledge that all of us in the global travel universe—an industry that, only months ago, supported about one in 11 of the world’s citizens, from Alaska to Zimbabwe—are already facing a sense of loss, and disorientation, from the impacts of COVID-19. We are seeing our livelihoods threatened, or terminated. And we miss our explorations of this be ..read more
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Nepal: A Second Look
Ethical Traveler
by Ethical Traveler
2y ago
Ethical Traveler’s list of “The World’s Ten Best Ethical Destinations for 2019” included Nepal for the first time, primarily for the progress the country has shown in areas such as LBGQT rights and animal welfare. And while the country was included to encourage even greater strides in ethical areas, Nepal still faces many serious concerns that were not fully addressed in our original report. One troubling area is the government’s attempts to control and suppress social media. Nepal’s government recently drafted legislation that would impose harsh penalties for anyone posting content deemed “im ..read more
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The Growth of Marijuana Tourism
Ethical Traveler
by Rashaad Jorden
2y ago
Matt Kurth and Humboldt Cannabis Tours Several years ago, Matt Kurth reached a crossroads in his life. After working as a whitewater river guide for ten years, he got “tired” of it and realized he was ready to tackle another challenge. It just happened to incorporate his experiences as a tour guide, a longtime passion of his, and a budding industry. “Guiding and showing people [places] are things I’ve been good at,” Kurth says. After becoming disillusioned with being a whitewater river guide, he recognized a major cultural shift was on the horizon. “I saw cannabis legalization coming in the fu ..read more
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Naked Tourism
Ethical Traveler
by Rashaad Jorden
2y ago
When Shirley Mason was a young girl, she participated in an activity one summer that ended up being a life-altering experience. “They would do special things during this two-week long summer camp and they kept talking about this one special thing we were gonna do,” she says. It was something she has ended up doing relatively often: skinny dipping. But as enjoyable as that experience was, Mason quickly realized such episodes would be few and far between. At the time, she was living way up in the northern U.S. – Minnesota, to be exact. “Every summer, there were only a few days of the year where ..read more
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Podcast Episode 12 with Christina Brobby and Mary Ann Thomas
Ethical Traveler
by Ethical Traveler
2y ago
Jeff speaks with Mary Ann Thomas and Christina Brobby, two travel writers of color from VONA (Voices of Our Nation’s Arts); we hear some great music by Oisima and The Polyversal Souls. (Note: Because of the longer than usual interview, no News this podcast.) Have a Listen!   Resources for the books, organizations & music in Episode 12: Opening Nicaragua story by Jamilah Malika: (Jamilah’s website is under construction) 2018 Himalayan Writers Workshop, with Jeff Greenwald & Laurie Wagner: himalayanwritersworkshop.com/contact Interviews: Mary Ann Thomas and Christina Brobby, tw ..read more
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Greening Up Summer Music Festivals
Ethical Traveler
by Rashaad Jorden
2y ago
Greening up summer festivals (Copyright: Woodford Festival) Synonymous with summer, music festivals welcome large numbers of live music aficionados making long treks to hear their favorite bands perform – as well as pour lots of money into the coffers of organizers. Between 1999 and 2009, the North American concert industry saw profits jump by 40% as annual live music revenues increased from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion. In 2017, Coachella became the first reoccurring music festival to gross more than $100 million. Communities that host such massive shindigs often get a large piece of the ..read more
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This Land Is Your Land. US National Parks Under Threat
Ethical Traveler
by Karen Blansfield
2y ago
“National parks are the best idea we ever had,” wrote author and environmentalist Wallace Stegner in 1983. “Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Stegner echoes the view of President Franklin D. Roosevelt nearly fifty years earlier when he pronounced, “There is nothing so American as our national parks. The fundamental idea behind the parks is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.” But today, these places of national pride and cultural heritage that belong ..read more
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Sexual Harassment and Assault of Travelers Goes Beyond White Women in Developing Nations
Ethical Traveler
by Allison Yates
2y ago
It’s hard to find a woman who hasn’t felt the graze of a male hand across her backside on a train or had racing thoughts as she’s confronted with a threatening man. Travel, despite being an industry touted as endless fun and adventure, is no exception to the worldwide epidemic of sexual harassment and assault that movements like #MeToo aim to eradicate. A 2012 study argued that female undergraduate students were at higher risk for rape and harassment while studying abroad. Lauren Wolfe’s 2014 New York Times article gave startling statistics about the possibility of assault while traveling, and ..read more
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