How Ethical is Your Travel Destination?
The best ethical travel destinations chosen by Ethical Traveler for 2010 are: Argentina, Belize, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, Namibia, Poland, Seychelles, South Africa and Suriname. Countries were graded across three main categories: support for ecotourism, environmental protection, and social development. Of course, as Ethical Traveler staffers point out, none of the countries named in the report are ethically "perfect."
"In drafting our report, we use scores of information sources including publicly available data — to rate each country's genuine commitment to environmental protection, social welfare and human rights." says Christy Hoover, co-author of the report. "Data sources include the United Nations Development Program, Human Rights Watch, Columbia University, Reporters Without Borders, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and many others. Private interviews with NGO leaders are part of the process, as well." The full report can be viewed at www.ethicaltraveler.org/destinations. In Pictures: Ethical Destinations 2010
The twelve green rules that Ethical Traveler recommends:
1) Be Aware of Where Your Money Is Going, and patronize locally-owned inns, restaurants, and shops. Try to keep your cash within the local economy, so the people you are visiting can benefit directly from your visit.
2) Never Give Gifts to Children, only to their parents or teachers. When giving gifts to local communities — from schoolbooks to balloons, from pens to pharmaceuticals — first find out what's really needed, and who can best distribute these items.
3) Before visiting any foreign land, Take the Time to Learn Basic Courtesy Phrases: greetings, "please" & "thank you," and as many numbers as you can handle (those endless hours in airport waiting lounges, or aboard trains and boats, are all opportunities for this). It's astonishing how far a little language goes toward creating a feeling of goodwill.
Read More...Sweeping the Conflicts Away
Roberta McReynolds writes: Some days pass without that beckoning call, but I stare off into space waiting for it anyway while still recovering from the latest traumatic event. Will I ever find pleasure in a project that has somehow become tangled in the emotions of a separate, turbulent situation?
Read More...Joanna Grossman at Writ, Annulments Based on Fraud: What is the "Essence" of Marriage?
The following is edited from Johanna Grossman's two parts at FindLaw's Writ (see below). Ms. Grossman is a professor and the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar at Hofstra Law School.
"Larry and Joy Farr were married for thirty years — the first time around. Then, in 2007, three years after getting a divorce, they remarried. But this time, their marriage only lasted three years, at which point he filed for divorce and she cross-filed for an annulment — a declaration that their second marriage was invalid from the get-go."
"According to Joy, she only agreed to remarry Larry based on his representation that he had a terminal illness; she didn't want him to die alone. But he survived, and she cried foul. The second marriage, she alleged, had been based on fraud — a false representation that he would soon be dead."
"Is this type of misrepresentation, if proven, grounds for annulment? A Colorado appellate court said yes, in Farr v. Farr. In the first part of this two-part series, I will discuss the traditional doctrine of annulments based on fraud and the ways in which courts kept a tight leash on such claims. In Part Two, I will discuss the shift towards a more lenient definition of fraud that is exemplified by the ruling in Farr, an opinion I will analyze in detail."
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Annulments Based on Fraud: The Traditional Approach
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