Travel Tips for the Social Activist

Is the daily work grind or the continual schoolwork bringing you down? Is your wanderlust inner voice telling you you’re ready for a travel vacation? Yet this year you want a different travel objective, not the typical vacation, designed around personal pleasure and leisure. This year you also feel a desire to get involved with some worthy cause, to challenge the power elite status quo and make the world a better place to live. Well, if travel AND social activism are your interests, I have the 2011 travel tip solutions that will please both your traveling and social activist desires.

1. My first recommended travel destination for 2011 is beautiful St. Moritz, Switzerland, host to this year’s annual Bilderberg meeting June 9th-12th. (For information on the Bilderberg Group, please click this link to my expose article on the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group: www.pecoskid.com/my-writings/ This link is also located on right side of this web site called Pecoskid Essays – CFR ).

St. Moritz is a beautiful remote Swiss village, nestled between the majestic Swiss Alp mountains, situated along a crystalline alpine lake. Fortunately for you, the world’s most influential bankers, industrialists, and politicians enjoy arranging their conferences in beautiful, luxurious surroundings, far from the global commoners they so clearly abhor, allowing themselves unobstructed time in which to plot more world domination schemes, while sipping brandy and smoking cigars.

Fortunately too, for the budget traveler, St. Moritz has a youth hostel on the outskirts of the Swiss village. Why not book your reservations now, and enjoy this beautiful remote Swiss village’s outdoor activities while also vocalizing your displeasure to a passing banker, politician, or corporate CEO? Who knows, your opinions and discussions may plant inside a power broker’s mind the inception seed that activate a pang of conscience that leads to less harmful world policies. While in St. Moritz, if you discover overt sidewalk protests are less successful, may I suggest an alternative, stealth approach by positioning yourself as a well-dressed hotel patron inside a hotel lobby where the Bilderberg members are staying, acting as an unassuming gadfly, listening for telling conversations from Bilderberg meeting attendees.

Granted, such intimate access may prove to be difficult; however, for the determined spirited social activist, the challenge enhances the adventure and the success sweetens the reward.

Are you ready for summer outdoor fun, a freelance journalist’s dream, and a proud sense of moral accomplishment? That’s what I experienced when I planned my fall 2000 vacation in Europe to coincide with the scheduled IMF / World Bank meeting in Prague. A well organized anti-globalization protest was waiting for the banking attendees, similar to the successful anti-WTO protest in Seattle, November ’99, which I attended, and I wanted to continue being a part of this proud movement. (For more details on my experience, please read my articles at these page links:
www.pecoskid.com/my-writings/anti-globalization-movement-essays-battle-in-seattle/
www.pecoskid.com/my-writings/prague-imfworld-bank-2000-protest/
These pages are also located on the right side of the web site under the heading Pecoskid Essays – CFR)

I’m certain at the St. Moritz youth hostel, and around town, you will meet fellow kindred spirits who are also knowledgeable of this Bilderberg meeting event (global citizen individuals and various NGO members) and, as I experienced during the Seattle ’99 and Prague 2000 protests, form friends for life bonds with these fellow travelers / activists.

2. To start your fall season, I recommend plannign a visit to washington DC for the annual IMF / World Bank meeting, Sept. 23-25th. The United States’ nation capitol offers a unique historical, cultural experience as well as a great place to voice dissent!

3. As 2011 comes to an end, in November, why not visit the French Riviera, at Cannes, France where the year’s G-20 meeting takes place.

4. Finally, in December, I recommend a return to Switzerland for the WTO meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, December 15 – 17th. A good central location for fine nearby skiing, and a piping hot cappuccino next to a roaring fireplace as you listen in to some powerful banker’s insidious plan.

For budget accommodations, Washington DC, Cannes, and Geneva, all have several hostels in the city and nearby vicinities.

Last, for those planning on traveling through California, I recommend an outdoor excursion to Northern California, where, besides marvelous vineyards, inspiring redwoods and dramatic coastline, there’s also an elite power broker retreat called Bohemian grove, nestled in the redwoods, near the town of Guerneville and the Russian River.

The retreat of course has security ( as I discovered many years ago) so an undercover role as a naive hiker is a good start. Who knows, peering through the redwoods you may find some influencial politician or CEO performing some decadent, hedonistic ritual in a yellow chifon dress! Don’t forget to bring your camera!

I hope you find these travel tips useful for your future 2011 travel plans. You may even come across yours truly, the author. Happy travels!

While pondering your travel plans, here’s some thoughts for the day to also ponder:

Question Me An Answer – Answer Me A Question

Philosophical appetizers from Mike’s soul food kitchen

Which direction does a person set their compass when planning his journey through life?

Which deeds merit the most satisfaction, the most joy: the creation of a family, the invention of something new, the construction of something lasting, or the ability to tell stories that speak of something meaningful and true?

Do raw adventure memories and rauscous pleasure treasuries leavea more lasting sense of accomplishment than pleasant comforts and accumulation?

Sexual triumphs or finding one great love, which do you prefer? Can multiple orgasms by one or by many keep your sexual appetite secure?

Where do you set your twilight sights, alone atop a mountain once revered yet soon forgotten or immersed in a sea of friendly faces, remembered fondly after you have gone?

Does integrity pursued at evey turn yield greater wealth than a compromised wealthy return?

Do pleasing one’s parents, peers or populace bring sustainable nourishment for your soul or does nourishing the individual within provide the parts for the whole?

Is home where the roots run deep or can home be where the heart steadily beats?

Can a person at twenty know which course to set and can a man at fifty tack into the wind and alter his course before the sun sets?

Is it better to try and fail than to play safe and never have tried, to always tell the truth or the occasioanl lie, to pursue fame and fortune and potential poverty or live a modest life under the radar in total anonymity?

Should one live life to the fullest or a life fulfilled, devout to the holy or a justifiable cause, a life without restrictions, no need to pause, or a life in moderation, a happy Hotai Santa Claus?

Do we hope to be rewarded, respected, or remembered at the end of the day?