Where am I wearing? The ultimate slideshow

I raided my photo archive from the WAIW? trip and set it to Gary Jules’ Mad World and U2’s Yahweh. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get either one of them to play for me so I had to do it myself. Don’t worry, I don’t sing. This is more of a beginner guitar player’s shot at spoken word.

This will permanently live in the “About Where am I wearing?” section to the right.

Happy Halloween from Castle Dracula

In 2003 I spent the night alone in Castle Dracula and it has kind of become a blogging tradition that each Halloween I share the experience. You can READ THE STORY YOURSELF or…I’LL READ IT TO YOU. (Warning: I perform my own music and sound effects!)

Geoff Hassing also did a cartoon to accompany the story:

Disney would like to Welcome you to these United States

Welcome to the USA, where, according to this bit of propaganda commissioned by the State Department and produced by Disney, everybody smiles. But really, what’s wrong with that?

I’ve heard more negative comments about this video than good ones.

The main issue tends to be that Horseshoe Falls of Niagara Falls, which appears for about a second, is pictured and it belongs to Canada. The shot is from the Canadian side overlooking the falls with the USA in the background. The only thing more ridiculous than owning a waterfall is owning half a waterfall.

Yes, the particular half pictured is owned by Canada, but seeing how this is Tourist propaganda and Niagara Falls is a popular destination for tourists in the USA, what’s the big deal? Somewhere in the falls is an imaginary political line. Don’t you see it? What if the film showed a fella jet-skiing on Lake Erie and the shot just happened to be taken as he crossed the imaginary political divide between Canada’s Lake Erie and the USA’s Lake Erie? The only difference there would be that nobody would be pitchin’ a fit.

Like a commercial or advertorial, this is propaganda. “Show the real America!” say the opponents of the video. I suppose they want pictures of our homeless, dead beat dads and abusive moms, of our military invading and bombing places, of politicians stripping civil liberties, of race riots, of slavery, Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, etc.

Again, this is a tourist video. Settle down. What’s wrong with showing smiling Americans? What’s wrong with being proud of what’s great about our country? Life in the USA is not perfect, but we’ve got it pretty darn good compared to a lot of places. We’ve got a lot to smile about. And, if you are sitting in your apartment/home/dorm, viewing this YouTube video and you aren’t worrying about where your next meal is going to come from or if the water you just drank will give you a lethal case of diarrhea, you probably should just shut up.

I was ready to view this video with cynicism, but it won me over. The diversity of our people, landscape, and culture is almost untouched. Our politics, people, and history aren’t perfect, but it sure looks like a nice place to visit.

I hear Canada is lovely, too.

The BBC, pirates, and climate change

The BBC is working on an extensive feature in Bangladesh. They will be traveling the country’s waterways to observe and debate climate change. Low-lying Bangladesh is seriously threatened by sea level rise.

Been there. Done that. Posted it on YouTube.

I took a similar trip aboard the “Ostrich,” a paddle boat when I was in Bangladesh. I’ve yet to write much about it, which is a reminder that I’ve got loads of material that deserves my attention. Anyhow, what most surprised me in the introduction of the feature was this passage:

The risk of attack from pirates is slight, but it is real.

I had no idea there were pirate attacks. I’m not questioning the BBC reports on this (although, I do question their account of a couple along the river kissing under a tree – that just doesn’t happen in Bangladesh), but I do have to question my own ignorance. There I was touching my inner Twain when I should have been touching my inner Peter Pan.

I’ll follow the series with interest. And though I don’t wish a pirate attack on anyone, it would add some flavor to story: global warming…blah…blah…sea level rise…blah…blah…erosion…blah…blah…PIRATES!!!!!

What I’m Watching: See the World

Here’s a great video for all of you travel junkies.

Website of the Week: Geoff Toons

Everybody needs cartoons in their life. Geoff Hassing the cartoonist who drew my Where am I wearing? shirt has joined the blogosphere and I’m pretty excited about it. Geoff’s work is hilarious. He’s always exploring new characters and ideas and I expect he’ll feature quite a few of them on his new blog.

For a good Geoff sampler check out his Film @ Eleven series.

A thousand words

How exciting is this…?

I described my individual items of clothing to Geoff Hassing and he brought them to life. He came up with the idea of doing the the circles that zoomed in on the tags.

Thanks Geoff. You rock!

Tourons! Win a year of National Geographic Traveler

Apparently it’s time for me to renew by subscription of National Geographic Traveler. I received an offer in the mail that if I renew I can give a free subscription to someone else.

You could be that someone else!

HOW TO WIN A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO NGT

Give me your best you might be a “You might be a Touron if…” Go here for examples. Whoever makes me think or giggle the most gets the subscription.

Off the top of my head, here’s a few that I could use from my time in Bangladesh:

If you aren’t allowed to stay in Dhaka’s “Hotel Tourist” because you are a tourist, you might be a touron

If you’ve ever paid $1,200 for a plane ticket to visit the factory that made your underwear, you might be a touron.

About NG Traveler:

I don’t wait by the mailbox each month for the latest NGT issue, but I feel obligated to renew in order to keep the pulse of the travel world. I would like to see more meat in each issue. Sometimes I have trouble telling if I’m reading a story or an advertorial (an advertisement written in the form of an objective opinion editorial, and presented in a printed publication). Advertorials piss me off, they take up the space that a genuine objective story that isn’t trying to sell me something might fill. I like content written by writers not advertisers. Also, like all other travel mags, NGT feels the need to always tell me about the 10, 27, or 123, places I have to _____. Apparently, research shows that consumers love such lists. I hate them. I suppose if someone paid me enough I would write them one (I can be bought), but I wouldn’t be happy about it on the inside.

With all that being said, I would love to contribute something to the magazine. They are one of the industry’s heavy hitters. Plus, as with all National Geographic pubs, the photos are awesome, and sometimes it’s nice to read an entire magazine without having to read actual words.

So, I’m renewing for the reasonable price of $17.95.

Will Run for Orphans

Don’t know about you, but I would pay NOT to run a marathon. I got an email the other day from a fella that’s running the NYC marathon while collecting money for one of my favorite charities, Casa Guatemala. (Note: If donating to orphans doesn’t do it for you, support this guy for his name alone – Egbert. How cool is that? It’s as if he finally escaped Dilbert’s strip and Dogbert’s rule. Keep on running Egbert. Keep on running.)

Dear friends,

What do the New York City Marathon and Casa Guatemala have in common? Well, they’re both sponsored by ING (my employer). About 4 years ago ING granted me a sabbatical to volunteer in Casa Guatemala, an orphanage located on the banks of the Río Dulce near the Caribbean coast. Casa Guatemala was founded about 25 years ago by Angie Galdamez who has grown the organization to what it is today. It started out as a small orphanage for babies in Guatemala City and now entails the orphanage in Río Dulce that cares for the health, nutrition and education of 250 children. Please visit www.casa-guatemala.org for much more on the activities of the Casa and to get a visual impression of what the Casa looks like.

I worked as an ‘Orientador’ , or caretaker, and together with two other volunteers I was responsible for a group of up to 25 boys between the age of 5-10 years old. We would wake the children up in the morning (5am !), get them ready for breakfast and then school, be there for them during the school breaks and after school. Help them out with any homework and read them bed time stories before going to sleep at around 8pm. One of us would always spend the night in the dorm with the boys in case one of them would have to go the toilet or have the occasional nightmare (no electricity after 8.30pm, so pitch dark!). Not always easy to divide your attention over so many kids at the same time. At times it has been challenging, but ultimately a very rewarding and unforgettable experience. See https://picasaweb.google.com/egbert.voerman/CasaGuatemala for some pics of my time in the Casa.

On November 4th I will be participating in the New York Marathon for the third time and of course I will try to beat my time of last year. However my main goal this year is to raise money for Casa Guatemala. Together with 10 colleagues (from 6 different countries) who are also running in the NYC Marathon we are aiming to raise enough money to cover one year of school supplies, textbooks and other educational materials. Your tax deductible donation*, be it $10 or $1,000, will go a long way against that goal. And the fact that ING will match the first $2,000 raised be each runner** will make your donation all the more effective.

Making a donation is easy. Just visit https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=21070 . The donation form is pretty self explanatory, it even allows you to allocate your donation to more than one runner. You can also donate on behalf of somebody else (for example your company) Please note that we have partnered with Groundspring.org, a non-profit organization facilitating on-line donations with any of the major credit cards using a secured connection, so your online donation will be save ! The campaign runs until Monday November 12th,

Do you want to know how I am doing during the marathon or if and in what time I make it to the finish line? Athlete Alert will send email or sms alerts to the first 5 persons donating $50 or more !

Thanks very much in advance for considering making a donation towards the education of the Children of Casa Guatemala.

Best, Egbert

*for tax residents in the US, Canada, UK and Spain
**matching policy differs per location

All Hail the Blue Jeans

I’ve talked before about how James Sullivan’s book Jeans is a little too much into the Americaness of jeans, but really it’s hard to argue with him too much. Here’s a passage:

All blue jeans, whether they are rough as sidewalk or burnished to a hand as fine as cashmere, share an “Americana” feel. They may be cut and sewn in Japan, Vietnam, or Hong Kong, using denim from mills in Mexico, India, Italy, or Turkey and synthetic indigo dye from Germany or Brazil. Yet wherever its origins, a pair of blue jeans embodies two centuries’ worth of the myths and ideals of American culture. Jeans are the surviving relic of the western frontier. The epitomize our present-day pre-occupations – celebrity and consumer culture – and we’ll likely be wearing them long after the business suit, say, has bee relegated to the dustbin of fashion.

One question: What the heck do Canadians think of such talk? Are blue jeans more American than Canadian?