#Travel Ethics

[thesecrethistori-an]

A bit of train study to catch up with my readings

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 22nd September ✨

I’ve been so unwell this week, it feels like I’ve barely listened to anything! I was very grateful for the pods that saw me through! 

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (168) oooOOOH my GoD. All my locked tomb readers MUST be shouting the same name I am shouting. They must be. 

🧳 Travelling Light @monstrousproductions (33) SO thrilled to have travelling light back in my ears, even despite the heartbreak of losing my fave. I loved Duytren’s tale of compulsory monogamy and the gentle reminder that platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones - are you listening, Traveller?

🧋 @hinaypod (19) I always forget that Mari can just … astrally project. It’s so useful, honestly. Cannibals in the hospital is such a nasty concept (compliment). I’m so pumped for this camping trip! I’m sure nothing at all is going to go wrong! 

🦋 @remnantspod (10) oh my heart!! It’s fascinating to see part of this story from a different perspective. I feel like there’s something going on with the way people are dying (a striking number of blows to the head, no? If you’ll excuse the pun) a lá More Than This by Patrick Ness. There’s just so many layers in this show! 

🎩  @ethicstownpod (Ship’s Theseus) oh, Ian… that’s just… it’s just not very good, is it? I’m actually a little surprised the surgery didn’t work… hopefully we’ll find out why sometime soon. 

Rest well and have a good week 🥰

[skyfullofpods]

Happy audio fiction Sunday, friends! This week I listened to the welcome return of @starfallpod, cried at @hellofromthehallowoods (again!), and had an existential crisis thanks to @ethicstownpod!

[gemsofgreece]

What is a more ethical way to visit Greece in terms of lodging? Like in terms of over development in the tourist sector? Hotels or air bnb or hostiles?

That’s a good question. With the assumption that there is the budget for any of these, my recommendation is definitely:

Hotels >> Hostels >>> Airbnbs

With an ethical perspective. (With a quality perspective I would probably switch hostels with airbnbs.)

Hostels are not particularly developed in Greece. It can be an okay choice though, especially if you do not care about many amenities, you are young and don’t have too particular needs / preferences or are tight on budget. But it is 90% the lowest quality option in Greece.

Greek airbnbs can vary from mediocre to awesome and you can find okay places for very good prices. However, it is the least ethical option. Yes, it’s usually people renting a property for some more income but a) many rich people with a LOT of properties turn all of them into airbnbs or buy more and more properties to use them exclusively as airbnbs and b) Greece is one of the countries that has started facing very serious problems due to the uncontrollable expansion of airbnbs. The government is trying now to set some limitations to them. Especially the most touristy areas have huge issues since all property owners - regardless of income - turn their apartments into airbnbs, making it impossible for local people and critically important professions such as teachers and doctors to find houses on normal rent to stay. As a result they are forced to quit on their jobs and touristy yet remote places such as islands and traditional towns are left without teachers and doctors and generally suffer from an imbalance of necessary services. There are now just tourists, restaurant owners and airbnb owners frenchkissing or something there and that’s it. Sometimes, when the need for them is too bad yet people still insist on turning their houses to airbnbs, teachers and doctors end up sleeping in rooms or yards or rooftops of the local owners. That shit has turned into a dystopia. Furthermore, the rise of airbnbs has been causing big problems in cities and non-touristy areas as the cost of rent has skyrocketed (as the incentive for house owners to not make their property an airbnb) which makes it impossible for students and young people to find apartments in reasonable and affordable prices! I don’t care if anyone reading this has airbnbs and is pissed, airbnb is unethical in touristy countries!!!

Because Greece is a touristy country there is a huge variety of hotels to choose from, all quality types, all types of businesses. Greece is a country with MANY family run hotel businesses that can have great quality and can provide a cozy environment even better than airbnbs do. There are obviously also many big shark hotel chains but they are not the standard. The standard are the family run hotels. You can usually tell by the websites whether a hotel is part of a chain. For example, the Hiltons are foreign sharks. The Domotels are Greek sharks. But even so, even the sharks, honestly they do not cause a lot of problems. Usually they are expensive large hotels with all sorts of amenities, big breakfasts, nice environments.

There are some concerns about hotels lately getting overbuilt in environmentally sensitive areas but that is also the case for private properties intended to be used as airbnbs. This is something you as a tourist can’t possibly guess. But hotels - big chains or not - definitely cause fewer problems in the society compared to airbnbs.

But if you want both an ethical choice and good services opt for a small or medium sized hotel that is not part of a chain. Usually most of them are of the 3 star and the 4 star range, but you can find lower and higher as well. Those are often called boutique hotels.

Last but not least, a whopping 80% of the services sector in Greece is tourism, therefore all these people need tourists to go to hotels to make an income and help economy run smoothly. We are not talking about the sharks here, but simple owners who have to sustain the hotels, receptionists, cleaners, waiters, cooks and all other professions involved in a hotel. Let alone that the sharks employ a gazillion of people that have to make a living - gardeners, physiotherapists, gymnasts, drivers and so on. Airbnbs are antagonising that 80% of the service economy trying to steal tourism’s profit and turn it into their personal side income.

I know I didn’t have to write all this but I am passionate about this topic.

[monstrousproductions]

Travelling Light featured in this week's The Full Lid!

Big thanks to Alasdair Stuart for writing lovely things about Travelling Light in his newsletter this week!

You probably know Alasdair as a voice actor in several fabulous pods, including the Magnus Archives, The Secret of St Kilda and Re: Dracula to name just a few.

He also writes a weekly newsletter called The Full Lid covering all things pop cultural. It's a lovely wee thing to have dropped into your inbox every Friday, and I really recommend checking it out. (I'm mildly biased not because he said nice things about TL, but because he has very similar Doctor Who opinions as me and I find it very validating to see them in print)

Here's a link to this week's issue featuring Travelling Light, @ethicstownpod and Observable Radio, and you can subcribe for more or read back issues from there too!

[nando161mando]

"The UAPA – under which the prosecution has been granted – is unconstitutional and undemocratic, say critics. UAPA, ostensibly a terrorism prevention law, has been routinely used by the Modi government to try to silence government critics, including lawyers, activists, journalists, priests, poets, academics, civil society members, and Kashmiri civilians."

[yellowocaballero]

Would you write anything with/about Spider-man 2099? 👀

This ask made me scroll back in my blog and go, "Wait did I actually write the entire manifesto on why Miguel is a communist icon because I thought I had refrained from that."

I'm 95% sure that I did, in fact, refrain from explaining why there are only two good superhero media (The Incredible Hulk 1977 and Spider-man 2099) because they are the only two truly socialist superhero media. I must have mentioned that I fucking loved Spider-man 2099 somewhere. Because I fucking do. Miguel is THE character of all time. I love Spider-Man, I love characters who are COMPLETE DICKS, I love guys who just kinda wanna go home and sleep.

I absolutely would write something for him, I fucking love that guy. I haven't had a really solid idea yet, one that would make a story that would get off the ground, but if the stars align then hell yeah. Miguel is the perfect superhero because he never once tries to stop anybody from robbing a bank, committing a crime, disturbing the peace, etc. He will only ever do anything helpful if it fucks over Cyberpunk Dystopia Evil Corp, because he hates them, or if his brother nags him to do something about systematic oppression. Over the course of all of Spider-Man 2099 he stops ONE mugging. Because a cop was mugging a woman. So he could beat up the cop. Character of ALL TIME.

....this isn't a story idea but I was absolutely joking about hypothetically:

imagining one of those tepid-ass mcu spider-man fanfic where there's a class field trip to stark industies or something and peter's outed as Tony Stark's Baby Son Boy, of which there are literally 500 and every one is exactly the same I don't read mcu peter fanfic anyway

tropey fic where peter's doing that tropey hijinky runs away from crowd of friends to hide in a broom closet and preserve his secret identity

except he just opens the door to an abandoned wet lab to see miguel electrocuting a rat or something

peter is fucking convinced dr ohara is a mad scientist stealing starktech genetic secrets. tony doesn't listen because he thinks peters feelings are just hurt after miguel called him the saltine cracker of nepotism. miguel is, of course, stealing starktech time travel technology. meanwhile a guy in a black spider suit is firebombing the NYPD

miguel assumes that the richer and more important you are, the more evil you are. faced with involuntary time travel, he is operating under his standard MO of finding the most evil corporation in the tristate area and looking them up on glassdoor. working under this assumption, miguel assumes itll be too much work to go ahead and kill tony stark in the name of the proletariat but he does slowly sabotage their entire genetics division.

MJ threatens to break up with Peter if he tries to stop the NYPD from being firebombed

[wow-its-me]

Something about

That scene at the end of Fires of Pompeii

The world is burning around them and Donna is yelling, crying, begging the doctor to save someone, anyone, they couldn’t just stand by and watch as all those people die

In comparison to the end of Waters on Mars

Where The Doctors having a bit of a breakdown, talking about himself like he’s some sort of god, how the rules of time and space are up to him, the can decide who lives, he can save people (like Donna wanted). But after realizing the future was changed by her survival the captain kill’s herself.

,,,,,,,,

I’m too tired and busy but I would LOVE to write(/read) an essay comparing and contrasting the themes of the episode and how Donna fundamentally changed who The Doctor is, but how he still needs someone to stop him, ect

[this-acuteneurosis]

With Trust

Leia graduates from Jedi babysitting and finds that things have been happening while she wasn't looking. Some good, some bad, some...unexpected.

[allthoseotherworlds]

(Note: I am going to apply real-world ethics to a fictional story! I am doing this on purpose because I'm curious about how to solve the ethical dilemma. I am aware it doesn't have to be this deep.)

I keep trying to figure out what I would do, hypothetically, if I was the Doctor, to keep from being unethical to my companions or at least to avoid the things people commonly call the Doctor out for when it comes to companions.

Suggestions welcome!

The rules I am considering are the following:

1. You have to assume that there will be danger, no matter how careful you are in selecting your trips. Something will inevitably happen sooner or later to turn it into a Doctor Who episode. Even if you try to settle down and stop travelling, the plot will find you

2. You can't isolate yourself forever. Think of every time you've had an anxiety- induced urge to never talk to other people again, and now imagine you can live for thousands of years. It's not happening

3. Anything that causes the Doctor to stop existing is off the table, so no eternal chameleon circuit allowed

4. Let's also assume travelling with other time lords is also not an option - whether because Gallifrey is gone or because you find each other insufferable is unknown

With that in mind, I'm curious to see people's potential solutions to the following problems:

1. How to travel with people, which inherently puts them in danger, without it being unethical to them or to their families

2. How to stop travelling with people without it leading to resentment and anger on their part when they run into you years later

3. Optional bonus problem: how to make up for treatment of past companions as depicted in what passes for canon

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 25th August ✨

I listened to so much good stuff this week. Highly recommend the lot! 🌈

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (164) Honestly, I think Nikignik just needs to meet *my* cat and he’d get over this silliness about felines. I listened to this episode on a night shift and just had to casually blink away tears a few times. I love my fave Yaretzi still having the goldest of hearts no matter what life has thrown at her and MY GOD Shelby Allen. What a woman!! I can’t believe how close they are to solving this case and I REALLY hope her brother isn’t hiding behind one of those masks! 

🧳 Travelling Light @monstrousproductions (32) MY HEART. OUGH. If only the Traveller could have heard the mental HOLLERING I was sending their way, they would never have let all that tension go unresolved. Oh, little Óli, I hope you look after yourself until your paths cross again. (Also there’s something quite romantic about thinking that their lives would entwine once again regardless of which ship the Traveller took… red string and all that 🧶❤️) 

🎙️WTNV (252) Deb!! What a fun episode! 

🖥️ The Magnus Protocol (27) What a fun way to be introduced to the big man himself. I actually think Alice needs to stay out of the Magnussing and keep herself safe!! 

🧋@hinaypod (16, 17) Ooh ep 16 actually had me a little spooked! Especially Laura and Murphy’s scenes (though maybe that’s because I know Mari can look after herself!). The bit with the handprint was such a classic horror vibe, I really enjoyed it. 

🦋 @remnantspod (6) Caught up with this show and there are just so many things I love about it. The stories’ backdrop of what I may be incorrectly assuming is WW2 is such an interesting time period for a show exploring mortality and mortality! And Sir . . . is . . . an angel?? Is that what’s going on here? The implication that this isn’t the first time that the Apprentice has seen Sir’s true form is very interesting indeed! 

🎩 @ethicstownpod Two new episodes this week and both intriguing! The actors did a great job and while I loved the tiny cast format of the first season, it’s also so fun to hear from other perspectives and get a glimpse of the wider Ethics community. 

🗺  @tales-from-the-low-city (10) Another fascinating instalment from the Low City. This episode about adjusting and thriving in a multi-cultural community hit a little hard after recent events in the UK. I think we could all do with a bit more of this quote: ‘if you understand your neighbour, if you know who they are on the inside and not just through your preconceived notions of their kind, you may well be less likely to raise a hand against them’.

Have a lovely week, everybody!!

[skyfullofpods]

Happy audio fiction Sunday! This week's post contains my thoughts about an emotional episode of @monstrousproductions' Travelling Light (have a good break, y'all!), and trailers for both @goodpointepodcasts Someone Just Like You and Good Story Guild's Leylines!

[bewitchingbaker]

[Chris and Louis's fling is much farther in the future when he's traveling the world]

[onedivinemisfit]

The barber-surgeon of Novigrad

AnS (c) Akizuki Sorata

Art: Me

[nando161mando]

It’s wild how fast I lost interest in space travel when it stopped being presented as a collective accomplishment and became a competition between a handful of morally bankrupt white men.

[fionarara]

-` ´- MY SHOES & DRESS FOR ANIME EXPO 2023 ARRIVED !

maybe i'll try it on and post it here latez ... ♡ i'm obsessed with the heart heels on these shoesss ♡

[pls no reblogs]