davidsmeaton.com

i don’t often post these kinds of photos. i like korea and i prefer to focus on the colourful side of this country’s culture. but last night i was angry and wanted to illustrate that there are many sides to korean culture. one of the most shocking things to me, for a developed country, is the number of poor and beggars. all countries have poverty, but in korea much of the poverty is due to the fact that the government provides little support for the poor or disabled. so they beg on the subway.

the irony is that when i ask my korean friends, many believe that these people aren’t truly blind. in fact, my friends believe that many ‘disabled’ korean beggars aren’t disabled at all. they’re pan handlers who make money from begging. i’ve even heard theories that this is organised by mobsters who get a percentage of the take. regardless of the theories, there’s a lot of begging on the subway. i see it daily. whether they’re really disabled or not is irrelevant. what is relevant is that korea (as a nation) focuses heavily on economics and on providing for the gifted and talented. the poor are constantly overlooked.

i didn’t spend the whole weekend on an island, but yesterday i did go to nami island for a look around. actually, i’m surprised that i’d never heard of nami island before. it’s become quite famous amongst koreans, partly because of the drama that was filmed there called ‘winter sonata’. anyway, it’s a small island in the middle of the river near cheun cheon. there’s not very much to do, but i did enjoy walking around the island (took about an hour) and taking photos … however, i forgot to take my leica out of my bag, so i have no b&w shots!

after nami island, i headed to another near by area and stayed the night. the next morning i went to a place called ‘morning calm’. it was quite calm … but actually it was just a big flower and botanical garden. some of the features were nice and it was fun to walk around, but i didn’t really get many shots i liked. i headed back to seoul this afternoon.

nami island was pretty cool, and i’ve decided to go back there in winter. when there is some snow on the ground, i think the island would be quite beautiful. so i’m keen to have another crack at photographing it.

i’m looking forward to a much needed rest day tomorrow. my stomach has been playing up on me, and after eating spicy chicken yesterday, i’ve not been feeling the best.

i haven’t done a travel update in a while, however i have been thinking about the travels … constantly.

i was actually reading an interesting article about how some of the ’stan’ countries are very interesting and very safe. particularly, uzbekistan’s capital tashkent. so i got to looking at my map (again) and discovered that i could change one part of my route to workin at least 3 more countries. from delhi i planned to go to lahore and on to karachi. i can cross pakistan’s border there into southern iran and follow the trade route all the way to tehran.

however, if i go from delhi into lahore, i could head north to islamabad. then i can probably get a train north into tajikistan. i may have to pass through far western afghanistan, but i don’t think it would be too problematic. after reaching dushanbe, i could keep going west to tashkent, then south into turkmenistan all the way to ashgabat. that’s very close to the iran border and not too far at all from tehran. whilst in iran, i might venture south to a few areas of interest, then circle back to the north east and exit to turkey.

although it might be more complex, i think it could be a lot more fun. from my understanding, none of those countries are dangerous and i should have no trouble moving around and getting trains from place to place. it’s a much more interesting route than skirting the bottom of pakistan into iran.

some people are sanctimonious prats, desperate for column inches … an article by adele horin (which somehow got published by the sydney morning herald) suggests that aussies travel too much and that our carbon footprint is too big. she says that aussies are hypocrits because we claim to be environmentally concerned yet spend lots of time flying (which produces enormous co2 emissions). her diatribe was the result of some kind of ‘awakening’ after she listened to richard begbie on abc radio, denouncing air travel as the last environmental taboo.

wired magazine posted something of a rebuttal to her statements here.

my opinion on this is that it’s easy to denounce plane travel, especially after you’ve been doing it for a while and suddenly decide that it’s wrong. very convenient when you’re no longer a regular traveler. my other problem with her rant is that it’s also easy to be critical without being constructive.

as discussed, australia is an isolated country. so there are numerous arguments in support of our need for plane travel. the simple practicalities are that we have no other feasible way of getting places away from our big, far flung continent. it’s a different case for america, england and europe. most people in the northern hemisphere can travel by land or sea … or short plane trips, such as from new york to london. so i completely agree that plane travel is not a necessary form of transportation when other alternatives do exist.

the second problem is that australia has a very small population. 19 million ockers pales in comparison to america’s 300 million, the uk’s 70 million and a few hundred million spread across europe. such large populations makes it easier for mass transport to be profitable. travel anywhere within australia is expensive, because of the massive distances and lack of infrastructure to support it. i remember flying from london to amsterdam for 50 quid. that would never be possible in australia. it cost me nearly as much to catch a train from rockhamption to the gold coast.

that leads to my point, that air travel (despite its huge co2 emissions) isn’t the big problem. two hundred million cars driving around the world on a daily basis is one of the biggest co2 problems we have. the daily waste of oil and the daily pollution of the atmosphere is a more serious issue. currently, america is reluctant to increase emission standards and other companies are increasing standards only in the face of growing criticism. where air travel is necessary for australians, cars are not necessary for 50% of drivers around the world who live in cities with very good public transport systems; seoul, tokyo, new york and paris are good examples.

developing countries are also bigger problems. china is outpacing america and will continue to grow … further, as many chinese become richer, the lure of foreign travel is going to result in more planes in the sky. put 2% of china’s population in the air and that represents 25 million air travelers … more than my country’s population. africa and india are developing too, which adds another 2 billion to the number of people who are increasing their co2 usage … so while rich countries are decreasing their usage, 4 times more people are increasing their usage.

the polution that is created on a daily basis (vehicles, factories, etc) is a far more immediate problem. air travel too, while being a problem, is one that cannot be overcome so easily. all experts agree that there are no readily available alternatives … especially for countries like australia and new zealand which are so remote. air travel can definitely be reduced. people can travel by land and sea where possible. video lectures and conferencing is also a reasonable alternative for people who travel on business.

another alternative is for the australian government to support australians who want to travel, by helping aussies get abroad without using planes. it may sound ridiculous, but traveling to darwin by train, then a boat to singapore would put aussies in the heart of asia. from there it’s a train ride to bangkok or a flight to europe. the travel time would be over a week, but the emissions would be cut dramatically. for travelers and retirees, the extra travel time is not a problem. the costs are higher, sure, but the government can offset such costs by providing tax exemptions to companies who offer cross-continental travel options.

bali is also close to australia, and is one of our favourite travel destinations. i don’t see any reasons why it cannot be reached by train (to north queensland or darwin) and ship.

i never said that these solutions were practical … i said they were alternatives.

aussies do have a traveling spirit, so i don’t see why we should be punished when the rest of the world decides that air travel is wrong. sure, it is wrong for most, but for a few it’s very necessary. nobody needs to fly from london to paris, or from new york to miami. but to escape the great southern land, there aren’t many choices … short of spending a month on a boat.

next year i start my world travels and i plan on taking as few planes as possible … my estimate is 3 or 4 plane trips in 18 months and 50 countries … it can be done.

where there’s a will, there’s a way … so stop picking on a few fair dinkum travelers, when the other problems are far far greater.