When I have free-time besides reading, YouTube is where I spend a good deal of my online time. Travel vlogger channels are some of my favorite spots. I prefer video bloggers who do not go to the standard, prescribed places that tourists are advised to go to, but they travel to some of the most beautiful, ancient, and war affected nations in the world. Americans are taught to be afraid of such places, resulting in us being left in a cultural, historical, and social vacuum which results in our missing out on so much about the outside world and other cultures.
About two years previous to the Syrian War which began in 2011, a friend of mine toured there. He had been a trainer in a program that my then boss sent me to in Istanbul. The language school where I had been hired at that time used a special teaching method, so everyday for one week another teacher and I were driven to Istanbul, and that is where I came to be in the class where my future friend was the instructor. He was Iranian and something of a nomad. I am not a very outgoing person, so it was a great surprise when he reached out to me and showed that he was a calm, compassionate, and highly intelligent man.
Eventually we lost touch, but prior to the friendship going
silent, he traveled to Syria two years or so before the war broke out. He emailed me a couple of photos of the ancient city of Palmyra. Since I love history, he wanted to send me a photo of himself in Palmyra. Just a few years later, ISIS captured the area, damaged, looted, and destroyed portions of that ancient metropolis. When I learned what happened I felt a mixture of sadness and nostalgia. Wherever my friend was I wondered what feelings he might be experiencing since he had visited that site just a few years before. He had encouraged me to visit Syria because he believed I would love it there. My hope had been that whenever I taught in Turkey again, I could take a bus and travel to Syria. My friend told me that I would really enjoy the country because of the similarities in culture and kindness of the Syrian people. He wrote that the Turks are nice, but the Syrians are even nicer. I wondered if it was possible to be kinder than Turkish people I've met. The wonderful experiences I've had in Turkey teaching and being a foreigner could fill a book which someday I would love to write.
More so than Damascus or anywhere else in the country, my dream was to someday travel to Maaloula, an ancient Syrian town which is a holdover from ancient times. It is one of the few places on earth where the locals still speak Aramaic which was Jesus Christs' native tongue. Aramaic is a Semitic ancestral language to ancient Hebrew and to Arabic. There are only a few thousand people left who speak Aramaic, and Maaloula is like a time capsule, an ancient relic where even the children speak the language.
I still would love to visit Syria someday.
I sometimes joke that I am the educated poor, but I love my job and wouldn't drop it and change over to anything else. My only regret is that I didn't find my calling earlier in life. When I was a young person, teaching English as a foreign language was not so common as it is now. After I finished graduate school the main road to get on for education graduates was just to the public and private schools and colleges and universities here in the states. Changing over to EFL (English as a foreign language) slowly brought me to a new way of life and a new way of thinking. Over time living and teaching abroad changed me into a less anxious, more confident, and thankful person. The silly little meaningless things that some Americans clutter their brains with aren't important to me. Living and teaching abroad gradually changed me into more of a minimalist. I learned to accept life as it is, and I try to do my best and be a good example for other people if anyone cares to notice. I don't worry like I was prone to for years, and I don't allow myself to be submerged in the madness of competition and envy.
Because it is so expensive for me to travel outside the US unless I get a teaching position in say a place like the Emirates or Saudi Arabia where employers would likely pay for my plane ticket, I just can't travel at this time. Also my father is old, has multiple ailments and is disabled. Fortunately, my mother who is also old has good health. I must stick around in the states to be here for them since I am now basically the head of the house, making decisions and helping my parents with important information which they need and can't access because they lack any knowledge of tech.
Since I am stuck here, I use YouTube as my means of travel to such places as Lotofen Island in Norway, Senegal, Baghdad, Vietnam, and other places I am so interested in. I also travel by reading in translation the works of authors from around the world. I'm close to a decade of being TV free, since I haven't watched television since 2011. With books the topics are endless. Reading requires that you exercise your brain in a small degree even if what you read is low level New York Times Bestseller material. On average I'm always reading four or more books at once.
I am always happy to see when people decide to leave ignorance behind and explore this world during this one life we have. I don't mean superficial travel to garner attention and envy from others, but serious travel for learning, growth, and to start scrubbing away all the incorrect thinking our society and the people around us have imposed on us. Yes, there are dangers in some places but there is also the reward of rolling out of and away from the false security blanket. It is wonderful that some vloggers are going to countries with immensely rich and complex histories and cultures and mingling with the regular people who have the same basic needs as us.
As an adherent of the Christian faith who has studied and enjoys church history, I see Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia all as Bible lands. The apostles, prophets and the saints walked in some of these places. These are lands where the religion took root and flourished, so these places are the spiritual homelands here on earth of all Christians.The Bible lands should not be limited to and recognized as only Israel (Palestine). All of these nations are highly important countries in the history of humanity.
Eva Zu Beck is a world traveler who was over here in the states a few weeks ago traveling by train. Afterwards she went to Syria and visited Damascus, Maaloula, and Aleppo. Both Maaloula and East Aleppo were occupied by various terrorist groups but were later freed by the Syrian Arab Army and their allies. I don't want my blog to be political, but I must say that it is highly curious that the terrorist groups such as ISIS occupied, looted and damaged or destroyed the oldest parts of cities like Aleppo and Mosul in Iraq.There are certain countries and groups who would love for history to be erased so those countries they don't like cannot have revenue for tourism, and also so overtime people lose their true identities since we live in a time when people are being lured into false and toxic identities particularly here in the Western nations. Click here to go to Eva's tour of Aleppo.
Kento is a Japanese vlogger who loves Middle Eastern culture. He has been to Syria as well, and he went to Iraq two years ago. Click here for his impassioned anti-war plea that he made in his hotel room in Iraq. It starts at 4:21 and also click CC for English subtitles.
Iran is another country I would be very excited to visit. I could be wrong, but I sense there may not be a war between the United States and Iran even though the leadership of this country wants a war that they planned years ago. It's ridiculous that the US has continued its' ongoing drama and feud with The Islamic Republic of Iran since I was 18. I am now 57. Conflict resolution and negotiation are signs of civilized governance. This country is overextended already, being that it's in seven wars at the moment, most of which are undeclared and unknown to the average American. The guy here is American and a little silly and childish, but his content as a food travel blogger is very good. I have to praise him for his courage to get out of the box and check out Iran for himself.
This young woman who is far more classy and who journeyed to Iran also has a wonderful message starting at 20:20.
There are many other YouTube vloggers who are traveling around the world on roads less traveled by Americans.
Check out the video here not by a traveler but by a native of Senegal to show the beauty of his country. Senegal is a country in West Africa.
In their own way with an audience no where as large as they would have in mainstream media, these young people are doing humanity a service in a small but important way. Being against warfare, I applaud them, and I am pleased to see a few more people are not accepting the same tired and vicious narratives about our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.
Since I am stuck here, I use YouTube as my means of travel to such places as Lotofen Island in Norway, Senegal, Baghdad, Vietnam, and other places I am so interested in. I also travel by reading in translation the works of authors from around the world. I'm close to a decade of being TV free, since I haven't watched television since 2011. With books the topics are endless. Reading requires that you exercise your brain in a small degree even if what you read is low level New York Times Bestseller material. On average I'm always reading four or more books at once.
I am always happy to see when people decide to leave ignorance behind and explore this world during this one life we have. I don't mean superficial travel to garner attention and envy from others, but serious travel for learning, growth, and to start scrubbing away all the incorrect thinking our society and the people around us have imposed on us. Yes, there are dangers in some places but there is also the reward of rolling out of and away from the false security blanket. It is wonderful that some vloggers are going to countries with immensely rich and complex histories and cultures and mingling with the regular people who have the same basic needs as us.
As an adherent of the Christian faith who has studied and enjoys church history, I see Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia all as Bible lands. The apostles, prophets and the saints walked in some of these places. These are lands where the religion took root and flourished, so these places are the spiritual homelands here on earth of all Christians.The Bible lands should not be limited to and recognized as only Israel (Palestine). All of these nations are highly important countries in the history of humanity.
Eva Zu Beck is a world traveler who was over here in the states a few weeks ago traveling by train. Afterwards she went to Syria and visited Damascus, Maaloula, and Aleppo. Both Maaloula and East Aleppo were occupied by various terrorist groups but were later freed by the Syrian Arab Army and their allies. I don't want my blog to be political, but I must say that it is highly curious that the terrorist groups such as ISIS occupied, looted and damaged or destroyed the oldest parts of cities like Aleppo and Mosul in Iraq.There are certain countries and groups who would love for history to be erased so those countries they don't like cannot have revenue for tourism, and also so overtime people lose their true identities since we live in a time when people are being lured into false and toxic identities particularly here in the Western nations. Click here to go to Eva's tour of Aleppo.
Kento is a Japanese vlogger who loves Middle Eastern culture. He has been to Syria as well, and he went to Iraq two years ago. Click here for his impassioned anti-war plea that he made in his hotel room in Iraq. It starts at 4:21 and also click CC for English subtitles.
Iran is another country I would be very excited to visit. I could be wrong, but I sense there may not be a war between the United States and Iran even though the leadership of this country wants a war that they planned years ago. It's ridiculous that the US has continued its' ongoing drama and feud with The Islamic Republic of Iran since I was 18. I am now 57. Conflict resolution and negotiation are signs of civilized governance. This country is overextended already, being that it's in seven wars at the moment, most of which are undeclared and unknown to the average American. The guy here is American and a little silly and childish, but his content as a food travel blogger is very good. I have to praise him for his courage to get out of the box and check out Iran for himself.
This young woman who is far more classy and who journeyed to Iran also has a wonderful message starting at 20:20.
There are many other YouTube vloggers who are traveling around the world on roads less traveled by Americans.
Check out the video here not by a traveler but by a native of Senegal to show the beauty of his country. Senegal is a country in West Africa.
In their own way with an audience no where as large as they would have in mainstream media, these young people are doing humanity a service in a small but important way. Being against warfare, I applaud them, and I am pleased to see a few more people are not accepting the same tired and vicious narratives about our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment