Tips for Traveling Abroad

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Travel tips come from a number of sources. Here are some tips for travel abroad from the U.S. State Dept. The following info is in the public domain. Feel free to share it with others.

Sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program so the State Department can better assist you in an emergency: Let us know your travel plans through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, a free online service at https://travelregistration.state.gov. This will help us contact you if there is a family emergency in the U.S., or if there is a crisis where you are traveling. In accordance with the Privacy Act, information on your welfare and whereabouts will not be released to others without your express authorization.

Sign passport, and fill in the emergency information: Make sure you have a signed, valid passport, and a visa, if required, and fill in the emergency information page of your passport.

Leave copies of itinerary and passport data page: Leave copies of your itinerary, passport data page and visas with family or friends, so you can be contacted in case of an emergency.

Check your overseas medical insurance coverage: Ask your medical insurance company if your policy applies overseas, and if it covers emergency expenses such as medical evacuation. If it does not, consider supplemental insurance.

Familiarize yourself with local conditions and laws: While in a foreign country, you are subject to its laws. The State Department web site at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1765.html has useful safety and other information about the countries you will visit.

Take precautions to avoid being a target of crime: To avoid being a target of crime, do not wear conspicuous clothing or jewelry and do not carry excessive amounts of money. Also, do not leave unattended luggage in public areas and do not accept packages from strangers.

Contact the State Dept. in an emergency: Consular personnel at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad and in the U.S. are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens. Also note that the Office of Overseas Citizen Services in the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs may be reached for assistance with emergencies at 1-888-407-4747, if calling from the U.S. or Canada, or 202-501-4444, if calling from overseas.

Can Social Media Actually Hurt the Spread of Democracy?

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Found the following article over at America.gov. I think it has som salient points. It’s dated, but I think it’s true, there is a fear of having all political thought concentrated online in the hands of the few, i.e. Google, Twitter and facebook. Also, the politically active online may be the only ones to have power. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of democracy online.

Read on……

The use of social media has been hailed as an aid to democracy activists, as seen most recently in the use of Facebook and Twitter in Tunisia.

“Democracy depends on individuals’ ability to express ideas, access independent information, and communicate with others,” says Michael Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. “We saw how Twitter was used in Iran to organize rallies and get around a news blackout. Facebook was used to organize a multinational protest against the FARC, a Colombian narcoterrorist group.”

But if social media is playing an increasingly important role in spreading information about democracy, where does that leave the sizable population around the world that doesn’t have online access?

“The digital divide is a huge problem. So is the democracy divide,” says social media expert Steve Clift. “We don’t want the Internet to result in a greater concentration of power by leaving online democracy to just those most active in politics.” He urged helping nongovernmental organizations get a greater online voice, something the Obama administration has tried to do via an initiative to help grassroots organizations master digital technology.

What do you think? Is online access hurting the spread of democracy by creating greater concentrations of power among those who have it?

Civil Society and Social Media

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The term “civil society” can seem almost as amorphous as the term “social media.” Yet the two are becoming ever more powerfully linked to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the modern world.

Civil society can encompass any collection of nongovernmental activists, organizations, congregations, writers and/or reporters. They bring a broad range of opinions to the marketplace of ideas and are considered critical to a vibrant, well-functioning democracy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has described a free civil society as the third critical element to democracy – the other two being a representative government and a well-functioning market.

Social media consists of forms of electronic communication – typically using Internet- and mobile-based tools – which allow the creation of online communities to share information and ideas.

Civil society increasingly relies on social media because it is accessible, fast, efficient and easy to use. Seeing how social media can buttress civil society, the Obama administration launched an initiative back in 2009 to help grassroots organizations around the world master and effectively use digital technology. Unfortunately, using borrowed money from the Chinese government.

In some countries with repressive governments that control traditional print, radio and televised media, social media may be the only access people have to unfettered discussions of issues. Philip Howard, an associate professor and author of the soon-to-be released book called “The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy,” says that for civil society in the 21st century, social media creates “a digital ‘safe harbor’ in which conversations can incubate.”

“Information infrastructure is politics,” Howard says. “In many nations, it also is far more participatory than the prevailing traditional political culture. As a result, the new technology-based politics democratizes the old, elite-driven arrangements. Every time a citizen documents a human rights abuse with her mobile phone, uses a shared spreadsheet to track state expenditures, or pools information about official corruption, she strengthens civil society and strikes a blow for democracy.”

Social media, of course, is a double-edged sword: it can be used for good as well as for ill. The question is: Will the good uses outweigh the bad? What do you think?