Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Take your broader outlook to work. Until we have “cost accounting” that
honestly considers all costs, there is no real i nancial incentive for corpora-
tions to consider the environment, the fabric of our communities, the poor
at home or abroad, or our future in their decisions. Executives are legally
required to maximize proi ts, but with leadership and encouragement com-
ing from their workforce, they are more likely to be good citizens as well as
good businessmen. I encourage my employees to guard my travel company's
ethics and stand up to me if I stray. And they do.
Remember that many would love to travel and gain a broader perspective,
but cannot. Find creative ways to bring home the value of travel by giving pre-
sentations to groups of curious people not likely to have passports. I did this
back in my twenties by hosting a monthly “World Travelers' Slide Club,” and
do essentially the same thing on a bigger scale today by producing a radio show
that I of er free each week to our nation's network of public radio stations.
Consider an educational tour for your next trip (see, for example, Augs-
burg College's Center for Global Education, www.augsburg.edu/global).
Even if you normally wouldn't take a tour, visiting trouble zones with a well-
connected organization is safe, makes you an insider, and greatly increases
your opportunities for learning. I've taken three such tours, and each has
been powerfully educa-
tional and inspirational.
Educational tourism is
a small yet thriving part
of the tourism industry
and offers a world of
options.
Seek out balanced
journalism. Assume com-
mercial news is enter-
tainment—it thrives on
making storms (whether
political, military, terrorist-related, or actual bad weather) as exciting as they
can get away with in order to increase their audience so they can charge more
for advertising. Money propels virtually all media. Realize any information
that comes to you has an agenda. If you're already consuming lots of TV
news, read a progressive alternative source that's not so corporation-friendly
(such as
h e Nation
magazine, www.thenation.com).
Educational tours build in time to share and refl ect.
