lucy chatters where are you? hi lucy, i saw your post here about a lone woman traveling in djibouti. email me. i'd like more details about your adventures.
anon is the man anon, your reply is spot on, saved me a lot of typin' :]
i know bedreddin's pastoral views very much :] he is a dreamer
who has never experienced living in poverty _without_ a bank
account and/or working for one's own food 24/7 (as opposed to BUYing,
what he does all the time). his views are distorted by the pile of cash
he made in an unnamed high tech silicon valley company
(dying now for years) before he started travelling... he is suffering
from the standard post-cubible illusion of total and absolute freedom
(for years now). he will have to come back to society at one point
again and then blood will flow...
as i have discussed with him his review in mail/chat somewhat longer
than presented here (for the record, i enjoyed the dawkins book,
i was one of the first who told him to read it ;-) i want to clarify an
important point he failed to make: his dissing the book doesn't implicitly
mean that [Gg]od exists. i.e. he just thinks the book is really bad
and not a scientific proof at all.
now go all ye with peace :]
laptop? how did you know?? oh no, now i've been caught out! yes, i admit i travel with a laptop and digital camera and gps and pda and i only refuse to upload pictures out of a sense of false humility and perverseness...
It's an amazing thing that you're able to publish this electronic blog all of the way from the pages of your notebook.
Self-righteous.
You so badly want to be Thoreau. Perhaps some more education could help!
i'll bite Two comments.
First, "So: is this the "boring domestic life" many western women throw themselves into the stress and bondage of wage-earning capitalism in order to escape?"
Ha, ha, this is so funny! But you have an excuse :) you do not get enough nutrition. I see it more like ["a collection of tens of factors" + stay at home woman for lifetime -> unhappiness], where you think that ["stay at some exotic place for 3 weeks on your own" -> happiness] is equivalent to the above and you say, I am happy, so women must be wrong!!! If I list all the factors that will take a lot of time, so I will not bother. But please consider that conditions probably involve serving other people, serving sex to your husband, giving birth to kids, with bellow minimum wage allowances, where you probably do not have a chance to get an ipod, surf the web, travel or buy books. So yes, I prefer capitalizm: it pays better, you do not have to serve other people, you do not have to serve sex, you can chose whom to live with, and you can chose whether to have kids or not. [There is another issue too: many women in developing countries have not seen anything different, and the upbringing prepares them for such marriages and for a stay-at-home life. I can think that they may not be as unhappy as their western counterpart. The success bar is also different: I cannot imagine a western woman not haivng the same dreams as a western man, but I can see a non-western women's goal in life being mother of many, great wife, serving everybody well.]
The second: your book review. Trying to disprove God was my past time in highschool and early college years. I'd say I wisen up (it is hard to beat a belief with logic; belief is a belief: it was planted long time ago and even years of proofs/education may not displace it, it stays), but I do not view such attempts as useless. If people were at the comfort and intellectual level where they would think for themselves what religion and/or God is, and whether the whole thing about God made sense, they would probably abandon their belives in the first place. But, lets face it, most of the human population on earth is not, thus reading a book like this will not leave them in disgust. If 1 in 100 find it useful so be it. Maybe better books will be born out of this too. It is hard to compete with a 2000 year long status quo, you have to start somewhere.
Your travel stories are very interesting, enjoy and keep sharing!
But for the answers of the questions above you need not spend years in travelling. A couple of books, a couple of classes would be enough bringing you a good perspective on the issues.
Perhaps the lively debate will come after this comment... All I wanted to say was that I enjoyed another one of your well-written and thought-engaging blogs. My gran used to live in Malaysia, and remembers it just as you describe, without KL's skyscrapers and Westernisation. It's great to read about places like Terengganu.
J.
stupid. This is the worst thing i've ever seen. I've been to eritrea many times before and everyone of those pictures are the 'bad side' to eritrea. maybe next time you can focus on the MANY beautiful parts yeah ?
poor destination it seems Eritrea is a nation stuck in an empty pride, with nothing to show! Eritrea lacks not only wealth but character, unlike most African countries that are poor but rich in character. by the way do they have a national dish that is not of Italian or Ethiopian? just curious.
hilarious Checking out travel blogs, I came across yours. I'm Eritrean and I live in Eritrea...and I thought your blog was hilarious! You're an excellent writer. Can't wait to read about your other travels...
Not really enlightening. Your french friend behavior is nonething new" french are known to try to screw anything with toenails, and if doesnt have toenails,they will find a orifice"
lebanon is wonderful ive lived in lebanon most of my life and i still look at tourist maps periodically to check out more places i can get to, like remote temples, natural wonders and the like... i cant help but get used to all the racism, without it hey it just isnt home.. :P you just have to get used to the dialouge, and be as neutral as possible, every lebanease person will try to deny their religious intolerance by claiming that they have a sunni best friend or a christain relative, why cant that person be me. as for the our palestinian brothers, true they nasty duringi the civil war and before, but lets get one fact straight the goverment of lebanon didnt welcome them they were assigned to camps and had real cruel laws surrounding them. they still cant get work or building permits or enter public schools? hows that for a warm welcomeing. other than that i advise anywone to come viset this very interesting country!!!!
arabic amor¿4 ahhh, the arabic world is amazing, i worked in Oman for the first half of this year, and now am missing it immensely being stuck in miserable London. I recommend everyone learn some basic arabic and head to the middle east... even with a simple "salaam alaykum" the locals greet you with smiles, and fantastic hospitality...
trying to fit in. Selam Can,
I'm amused by your effort to categorize yourself as a non-tourist. I think that is exactly what has prevented me from traveling so much. I don't want to be the tourist. I want to live in one spot for a while. Speak the language. Get to know the local grocer and be around for the seasonal holidays. and then move on to somewhere else...The other obvious thing is...You know the further east you go the less you can blend in.
hadi bir gun gorusmek uzere,
Katrina
It's a small world. . . Hey Can, SO RANDOM, we're going to Bozcaada and saw this blog, and then BAMMM! It's CAN LEONARD!!! This is Lydia Persson (LP to you) from way back in the day. Saw Devrim a few months ago. . . so crazy to come across you like this online. Hope you're doing well. Kimberly Schrieber is here with me, too. Have many fond memories of Ankara camp ve sayre. . .
Beautiful Hey
These pics are so cool, old buildings have so much more depth and beauty than 'modern ones'. My favourite is the relgious graffiti picture it would be amazing to see it in the real. :))
Alright kid. I am seriously getting worried about you and your imaginary world. Is there anyone out there who knows where this punk is and can get him some help?
check out Burco nxt time!!!!!!!! hey, i don't knw how i came across your blog, but iam glad i did. cuz it was real intresting read. you should've visited a city in north somalia called Burco, cuz their ppl there r so friendly and welcoming.
can i jus mention that somaliland will never be recognised as a country this is becuz many ppl from north somalia (ie ppl from burco, las annod etc) refuse to acknowledge somaliland as a country, and want to continue living in somalia. and since one city (hagaysa) does not constitute a whole country, s-land supports need to get over it.
neway enough of the politics! good wrk dude! and stay safe (insha allah)
incredible photos & commentary sought pix of the desert.....stumbled upon magnificent Yemen pix.....began to read........deep appreciation for what you've experienced and share grew......signed up to learn of your travels. THANK YOU for the beauty, intelligence........all of it.
Take care (doubt YOU will heed same, ha ha).
Cissy
My trip began (July 19, 2004) as a 14-month leave of absence from my job, with the intention of "seeing the world", and a bunch of unrealistic ideas of what can be accomplished in a year. Turns out a year isn't as long as it seems, so I've recently quit my job (yeay!) to become a full-time traveler. Until, that is, I run out of money or decide I'm ready to rejoin the ratrace.
In the meantime, I'm trying to blog at least once a month from the countries I'm visiting. I'm not interested in Western Europe, so don't expect pictures of Venice here. My blogs are basically my impressions of pla... full info
michelle
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lucy chatters where are you?
hi lucy, i saw your post here about a lone woman traveling in djibouti. email me. i'd like more details about your adventures.