Intercultural Conflict

Domestic Violence in Latino Culture SUCHTOTO, El Salvador- A heavy hand from a large man fell hard against the slender cheek of a thin woman. The hand rose again just to fall upon the same target, again and again. The woman screamed “Mierda!” as she tried to fight back. She was being beaten. Her husband [...]

Travel Boycott of Arizona, More Harm than Good? There is a movement in the USA to boycott the state of Arizona. People with a chrystiline notion of justice have made a call that tourists should not travel to Arizona in an attempt to pressure the local government into overturning its new batch of anti-illegal immigrant [...]

SUCHITOTO, El Salvador- I was privy to learn a new greeting in Latin America the hard way: “Where is the mother?” a man asked me as I was walking through the streets with my baby Petra in my arms. What!?! does this guy think that I am not capable of going for a walk alone [...]

SUCHITOTO, El Salvador- How much money should you tip in restaurants when traveling abroad? The short answer: Nothing. No tip is necessary in countries who do not have the custom, nor is it expected, nor should it be given. To do otherwise as a rule is to flaunt your money, it is to give a [...]

SUCHITOTO, El Salvador- Guatamala has its Antigua, Honduras has Copan Ruinas, and Nicaragua boasts of Granada. The capital cities of the upper stretches of Central America often have sister cities that act as their nicer, more comfortable, colonial antitheses. Where the capital cities of these countries can perhaps be called world disaster zones, their colonial [...]

SOSUA, Dominican Republic- “Where are you from?” a French Canadian expat in Sosua asked me when I first arrived in town. “America,” I answered. “Oh, you mean that really big continent to the north?” “That’s the one.” “So you are an American,” he continued, “that means that you are from the 32 countries of the [...]

I have a friend who journeyed to Cameroon recently. Good on her. When she returned to Maine I huddle around to hear what stories I could hear. I am always up for listening to a good travel yarn. . . . and her yarn was pretty good, but the peaks and valleys of it were [...]

Business men can be good guys, too “I really hate seeing animals treated like this,” a fat American spoke gruffly as a Bedouin quickly rode by on a beleaguered looking horse. The business man seemed to be trying to give himself a big self-congratulatory pat on the back in the presence of his business chums. [...]

Travel and Tolerance and the Simply Weird “Man knows so little about his fellows. In his eyes all men or women act upon what he believes would motivate him if he were mad enough to do what that other man or woman is doing.” -William Faulkner As you travel the world, it is my impression [...]