Rick Steves, the travel guru who is based in Edmonds, WA, has made a career of travel, with his unconventional travel guides PBS documentaries. His philosophy has always been to travel "close to the ground" and to get to know the real people and in so doing, to be a cultural ambassador. He has inspired me to travel and I have now been invited to go to Russia as a People to People Ambassador but need to decide whether to accept.
A peek at Tehran, and ourselves is the name of the recent article written by Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times:
Rick Steves likes to say that travel is more than a vacation. It's a political act. He means each journey abroad is micro-scale diplomacy, opening a mind at a time to our common humanity. Quiet politics. Quiet is not how anyone would describe the Edmonds travel guru's own latest junket.
Steves, known for enthusiastically sipping and sampling his way across Europe, has gone in-your-face gonzo. Last week, he set off on a 10-day TV foray into a country we won't even talk to, Iran.
The goal, he wrote, is to "give 'collateral damage' a face." To humanize an enemy so as to pre-empt a war before it starts.
"If I can help avert an extra war — even just a little bit — this will be a brilliant personal investment — and lots of people will owe me big-time," Steves wrote on his Web site, ricksteves.com.
That's about when the shootout started here at home.
"Sounds like a fun trip," one man wrote Steves. "See if you can interview the Iranians coming back from Iraq. Get a count of the American soldiers they have killed." "Perhaps they will take you on a tour of a terrorist training facility or show you the place they kept the hostages while Carter was president?" wrote another. "Good for you, Rick," said another. "In your discussions with Iranians, you might want to avoid your positions on legalized marijuana or prostitution (or for that matter, gay marriage). They don't tend to be as tolerant about differing opinions there."
Hundreds of his customers posted opinions, many lauding him for going beyond the "Axis of Evil" caricature of Iran. But others unloaded, calling him a propaganda tool. Jane Fonda, off to Hanoi. One mother of a U.S. soldier in Iraq said she's a huge Rick Steves fan. But his "condescension" toward America made her livid. "So long Rick," she wrote. "From now on, I'm traveling without you."
Steves is still in Iran and not available to comment. So far, his Web reports are not puff pieces. The shots of him grinning with soldiers or hijab-wearing women are interspersed with commentary on the "creepy" authoritarian feel or "Death to America" posters. Still, the reaction to his trip makes me wonder: Are we even ready for cross-cultural diplomacy in this country?
It has been clear for some time that the Bush doctrine — you're either with us or against us — is over. But what will we replace it with?
If a travel guide can't go to Iran without being branded a traitor, what'll it be like for a new president who wants to reach out? (more at Seattle Times link
Rick is blogging his trip to Iran. From Rick's Blog:
Sometimes you don’t see an excess in your own world until you find a different world without that excess. Traveling in Iran, it’s clear to me that in the US, our religion is freedom...and materialism. Just about everywhere we look, we are inundated by advertising encouraging us to consume. Airports are paid to drone ads on loud TVs. Magazines are beefy with slick ads. Sports stars wear corporate logos. Our media are driven by corporate marketing. In Iran the religion is Islam. And — at the expense of the economy — billboards, Muzak, TV programming, and young peoples’ education preaches the teaching of great Shiite holy men.
Still, I am impressed by how unreligious this famously religious place is. Unlike other Muslim cities I've visited, such as Istanbul and Cairo, there are almost no minarets breaking the skyline, and there's no noisy call to prayer. I've barely heard a call to prayer since we arrived.
In this theocracy, the women must stay covered. Trying to grasp this in Christian terms, I imagined living in a society where every woman is forced to be a nun. Seeing spunky young Muslim women chafing at their modesty requirements, I kept humming, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” Pondering the time Pat Robertson ran for president — and had millions of supporters — I wondered what our own country would look like if he had won and dominated Congress. Many people would have been ecstatic, and many would have been oppressed. It seems to me that’s the state of Iran today under Ahmadinejad.
I asked my guide if, in Iran, you must be religious. He said, “In Iran you can be whatever religion you like, as long as it is not offensive to Islam.” Christian? “Sure.” Jewish? “Sure.” Bahá'i? “No, we believe Mohammad — who came in the seventh century — was the last prophet, and the Bahá'i prophet (Bahá'u'lláh) came in the 19th century. The Bahá'i faith is offensive to Islam. Except for that, we have religious freedom.”
I asked, “But what if you want to get somewhere in the military or government?” My guide answered, “Then you better be a Muslim.” I added, “A practicing Shiite Muslim?” He said, “Yes.”
Thanks for passing on Steve's latest foray into quiet political diplomacy.
And go to russia... oh my, yes!
Posted by: zapata | May 26, 2008 at 11:40 AM
I used Steves' travel guides when I went on a 3 month trip to Europe (and Israel) in 2000. He never steered me wrong. I had the pleasure of seeing his stand-up routine, I mean lecture, in San Francisco around that same time. His timing is flawless. His capacity for understanding and helping us to understand, is enormous. One of his mantras is, if you're not willing to experience the world differently, stay home and go to a Hyatt (or whatever) in your home town. But if you're willing to learn and expose yourself to different ways of living, travel can't be beat. I've never found a better guide than Steves. Time to go to his website and give him some love to counter the nationalism that is being thrown at him. Thanks for this post.
Posted by: Phidippides | May 26, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Rick Steves is a treasure. I've been to two of his talks in Long Beach, California, and he is very clear on traveling more to understand the world better.
I don't stick to his bare-bones travel policy 100% when I travel, but I do keep his philosophy in mind and try to mingle with the locals whenever possible.
Of course, when his travel talk starts to venture onto the US and Israel being diplomatic islands, many people walk out in protest (after all, Long Beach is next to reactionary Orange County). But he has a point, and as long as Americans are locking themselves into their fortress, nothing will improve. And that fortress, thanks to gun violence, isn't all that safe either, despite what the gun rights advocates may say.
BTW, dehumanizing your enemy is a great propaganda tactic. The Republicans' fascist buddies in South Korea, for decades, outlawed any portraits of North Korean leaders (or pictures of even ordinary North Koreans); caricatures portraying them as wolves and vultures had to be used. The saddest thing is that the Korean-Americans miss those days.
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