Name: David
City, Country: Sopron, Hungary
Sent: 6.46 PM - 7/17 2001
i there,
I have just caught up on Ramon's journeys after missing a couple of weeks and I must admit to being very surprised at the emotions displayed after the night out on 30 June.
Not to rehash to bad bits, but just to give a few person observations of some cultural differences that may have contributed to the situation:
In anglo-saxon countries (and I guess Ireland technically isn't one but culturally it's close enough to count), there're are some really tremendous social forces that (thankfully) don't exist in such potent forms in continental European countries (or probably anywhere outside the anglo-saxon world). Among these is a definite tendency to not show or admit any weakness around drinking, or else your behaviour will be "corrected" by negative feedback from your peers, etc.
While I'm from the states I must say that these social forces around drinking are (IMHO) a bit stronger in the UK and Ireland compared to the USA, whereas in the states we have other social forces stronger (worse) with other things. Anyway it's pretty similar all around in the anglo-Saxon world once you strip off the superficial differences.
Anyway, taken in this context, it is fairly normal to see a strong reaction from Ramon's hosts after he complained about an uncomfortable situation. That together with the fact that the situation was linked/based on alcohol and together with whatever else might have happened to indicate [temporary] social "weakness" in Ramon to his hosts makes it all to easy to imagine the negative reaction.
We would hope that most people in cultures based on/heavily influenced by anglo-saxon culture have risen above this sort of conditioned reaction, but for anyone from the UK/Ireland/Canada/Oz/NZ/USA etc I would think that the reaction from Ramon's hosts was sadly very predictable. However for continental Europeans, the reaction would (justifiably) seem overpowered and show very bad manners from the hosts.
I would even - at the expense of being inflammatory on an issue that should be closed - suggest that even though we (as conditioned anglo-saxons :->) have been conditioned to "punish" social weakness in much the same way Ramon's hosts have attacked him for complaining after their night out together, that we can still admit that this behaviour is destructive and indicates an internal weakness in the person doing the attacking.
While anglo-saxon cultures are generally well-organized and disciplined, the idea to attack social weakness is inbred from day one. Our societies are very competitive, which gives us a lot of shared advantages, but also provides some unwanted weaknesses. In the states it can be particularly pronounced, especially when combined with the frontier culture that didn't disappear with the frontier.
I write this as an American (una "persona dagli stati uniti" - per gli attivisti italiani che leggono e se la prendono :-) ) but having lived extensively abroad has shown me a bit some of the relative strengths and weakness of my own vs. other cultures.
Anyway, Ramon, I hope this helps, maybe it's something you already knew, maybe you just want to move on and forget it!
anyway I hope to be able to invite you to Sopron, Hungary, which is a beautiful city and has lots of nice people, and there are some good pubs in the center of town as well!!!! I just hope you train well for the night out well in advance!!! Or you will regret it!!! :-) Just kidding!!!
(Now I just have to convince my wife... :-) )
cheers,
David
Name:_Nina_City,_Country'>Name:_Sally_City,_Country'>Name: Sally
City, Country: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Sent: 5.06 PM - 7/17 2001
excuse me for butting in... :-) but actually the proper title is: The United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth the united kingdom bit includes england, wales and scotland, northern ireland is northern ireland (6 counties) and the commonwealth (can anybody remember which countries are included these days?)used to be/is all the pink bits on the world map!!!
As far as I know ireland (the south) is not included in the uk (thats what all the trouble is about over here in the north!!)and is not part of the commonwealth.
As someone who lives in Northern Ireland I have to remind some people in mainland UK that northern ireland is still part of the the uk albeit as a seperate idenitity. I hope that the above explaination helps
to anyone thinking of coming to any part of the uk or ireland (north or south) you will not be disappointed
regards to all
sally
PS we are all supposed to be european these days anyway :-P
Name: Nina
City, Country: Panama
Sent: 4.28 PM - 7/17 2001
Thank you Sandra, I think I understand it all now. If I were to go only to England, I would then say "I'm going to England" not "I'm going to Great Britain" Right?
I had to read it over and over to understand. The summary really helped. Thanks. Nina
Name: alan shields
City, Country: Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Sent: 4.16 PM - 7/17 2001
Hi nena,
to answer your question
the uk is made up of four contries
scotland
england
Ireland
and wales
each counrty is part of the british isles and most are governd by england may i suggest you look at www.mapit.co.uk
Name: alan shields
City, Country: Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Sent: 4.08 PM - 7/17 2001
Hi Ramon,
Good report on Glasgow the weather is still good thanks to you
hope you are well, and we hope that every one in this global village will offer you there hand in frendship and support with your mission
regards my friend
love from alan & laraine
Name: judith de groot
City, Country: The Netherlands
Sent: 12.48 PM - 7/17 2001
Hey Ramon! Still doing great! And I love your photo's, the UK (including England, Ireland and Scotland) seems to be a beautiful country. And about Bob telling you you should visit Cornwall before leaving the UK; one of my custumers of "Kroeg van Klaas" (a pub in Groningen, The Neth. for the non-dutch-speaking-ones) is about to leave to go and live in Cornwall for a year or two.. So... I will tell him about you and hope that'll work out...
Wish you all the best and lots of love!
Juut
Name:_Bob_City,_Country'>Name: Carol Fitzpatrick
City, Country: Dundrum, N. Ireland
Sent: 12.31 PM - 7/17 2001
Mark Southgate,
Ramon stayed with us when he was in N. Ireland last week and I was very keen to hear what he had to say about Edinburgh as we'll be going there for a weekend in a couple of weeks and have never been there before. Obviously his stay there was too short for him to go into too much detail which was disappointing.
We enjoy good food, good craic (irish term for fun, don't panic anybody) and good pubs. This is a very rare break from the kids so we don't want to waste time trying to find the good places to go. Any recommendations? I appreciate you haven't been in Edinburgh for long so if anyone else has any suggestions feel free to sell your city.
Carol.
Name: Sandra
City, Country: Arizona, USA
Sent: 6.42 AM - 7/17 2001
To summarize:
I. United Kingdom
A. Great Britain
1. England
2. Scotland
3. Wales
4. Isle of Man
5. Channel Islands
B. Northern Island
II. Ireland (Southern portion of island)
Did I get this correct?
Sent: 6.20 AM - 7/17 2001
Nina,
Good questions. I can visualize it all, since my Mom is English (from England, GB, UK) and I have visited the areas, but following is the formal definitions:
United Kingdom = Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Great Britain = principal island of the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland and Wales, and administratively, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands
Northern Ireland = division of the United Kingdom, in the NE part of the island of Ireland (capital Belfast)
Ireland = island of the British Isles, west of Great Britain, comprising the Southern provinces of the island
Hope this helps. I agree it can be confusing.
Sandra
England = division of the United Kingdom and North Ireland occupying most of the southern half of island of Great Britain
Name: Nina
City, Country: Panama
Sent: 2.30 AM - 7/17 2001
I have a question or two.I Hope someone can explain this to me. Since I live way over here, and Europe is way over there. There are some things that are confusing to me. On Ramon’s reports, I see that after each country he puts down UK. Examples: Ireland UK, England UK, etc.
Now, if the UK stands for United Kingdom? Are all these country a part of the United Kingdom? I thought only England was the United Kingdom.
Also, why do some people call it England, and others Great Britain? Why do some call it Holland and others, the Netherlands? Heck! Why do all these countries have 2 names? Are there any more countries with 2 names?
Maybe I should have paid better attention to my High School History and Geography classes when I was a teenager, instead of just wanting to have fun all the time :-) And please, no “Duh’s”, a polite answer will do.
LSOM, you got me thinking of what to say.
Name: mm_in_md
City, Country: USA
Sent: 12.08 AM - 7/17 2001
Ramon,
Seems the reporting is becoming a hardship for you.
Those of us following your travels would hate to see your delightful descriptions curtailed.
Have you considered modifying the scope of your invitations to "let me stay for a day"... (and two nights)?
I think most people who have invited you (myself included) would not be concerned about an extra night, and that would give you time to get some sleep as well as update the web site.
You have already extended your stays several times successfully--why not just always ask your future hosts if they would mind an extra night, if necessary?
One other thing--love your photos! Especially those of the details of how the people you are visiting live--the food, their homes, cars, stores, etc. Keep it up! You're making the world a smaller place.
Name: Sylvia and Peter
City, Country: North Berwick
Sent: 11.29 PM - 7/16 2001
Hi Ramon
You were featured in the Edinburgh Evening News tonight so your travel news has finally reached Scotland! I have e-mailed you a copy. By the way, how did you get to Aberdeen? Or do we have to wait until tomorrow's report to find out?
Bye for now
Take care!
Name: Mariana Corrêa
City, Country: Guarulhos, Brazil
Sent: 10.44 PM - 7/16 2001
Dear Ramon
Me and my granpa loved your site!
My dreams is to travel all around the word too...
I adimered your courage to do that, and I´m glad to know that everything is doing so well!
I wish I could host you but I´m just 17 and live with my parents!
Big Hug from Brazil
Mariana
Name: Ramon Stoppelenburg
City, Country: Forbes, Scotland (UK)
Sent: 10.38 PM - 7/16 2001
Just uploaded the last reports until yesterday. Pictures will follow later as I currently work on a Netscape 4+ browser, which just refuses to do certain things...
Regards,
Ramon.
Name: Fleur
City, Country: eindhoven, the netherlands
Sent: 8.45 PM - 7/16 2001
Ramon: in one word: great! in zwolle we let you stay for a bbq on our roof (do you remember?), but when you are in Eindhoven (maybe to fly), you are welcome!
Name: Bob
City, Country: London, UK
Sent: 5.52 PM - 7/16 2001
Ramon, before you leave the UK, you MUST see the two most beautiful parts of England - I know you have not seen them yet.
They are: The Lake District and Cornwall.
I think you will surely love both of these places.
Go well.
Bob.
Name: Melanie
City, Country: Portsmouth, UK
Sent: 5.02 PM - 7/16 2001
Hey Ramon! You haven't visited Portsmouth, we've got Nelson's ship 'The Victory', the first iron clad ship 'The Warrior' and a peice of wood they think is 'The Mary Rose!'
Name: Karen
City, Country: Germany
Sent: 1.47 PM - 7/16 2001
To LSOM: "To delete postings (visits) is to disagree with the visitor/quest's presence"? No it is definitely not if some postings are just common rude or insulting without further intelligence... I have seen some of them and it's good Ramon removes them...
Name: J.J. Lee
City, Country: Seoul, Korea
Sent: 8.36 AM - 7/16 2001
Hi, Ramon!
Today morning, I came to know your travelling at www.ddanzi.com --- one of the most popular site in Korea(I'm poor at English). That site describes you as 'Present Tom Sawyer'.
I think you had very good idea. Take care on you trip and give Bergkamp my best regards later. :)
Name: LSOM
City, Country: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Sent: 8.14 AM - 7/16 2001
RAMON,
To delete postings (visits) is to disagree with the visitor/quest's presence on this website (host). Your home (dwelling) is LMSFAD where you go back each day.
You have chosen the best site for your home. There is no reason to rush as a good pace is necessary to attain the right momentum of this project.
History (yesterday) should be properly preserved / recorded / stored, no tampering, alteration or be deleted for future reference.
The future (tomorrow) should not be a mystery as we can plan, organise and coordinate event or activity ahead of time.
The gift (the present) should be NOW. 'Life is so precious to waste, it should be filled with the best of the moment'.
********************************
To Nina,
Thank you. I believed you have agreed to play / execute that '20 years from now' game. Lets Ramon be our host. To begin with: Nina's 11 days old posting having mentioned that 'Sometimes life is toO short'.
COMMON SENSE will steer us back to the right SPACE (path). A SPACE at a TIME, step by step, day by day, place by place, time by time towards that SPACE (eternity). It is a privilege to be very much alived (healthy) and to discover having these PrincipLEs namely PATIENCE, SELF CONTROL, LOVE, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, being JOYFUL and at PEACE as well as GOODNESS with one's time (lifespan) and space (oneself). There is no law above / against those principLEs. If we know the truth, the truth will set us free. Therefore, lets us all make the best use of the resources (TIME and SPACE) available for the betterment and survival of mankind.
"Love Soon Overtakes Misery"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Norma
City, Country: Seoul, Republic of Korea(South Korea)
Sent: 7.38 AM - 7/16 2001
HI,Ramon,
I had never thought about travelling just like you.
On suffing the web, I found your home page casually.
Wishing you luck, and visit Korea someday when I will prepare to invite you.
Bye~!
Name: Sylvia Beaumont
City, Country: North Berwick
Sent: 10.26 PM - 7/15 2001
To Mark Southgate and Alan Shields
We too had the pleasure of having Ramon for a day here in North Berwick and felt that it wasn't long enough. It is a pity that he has to spend time on the computer with writing up reports, uploading pictures and answering e-mails. When he logged on to the internet on Friday night he had about 200 e-mails! I was hoping that he might need a secretary to accompany him on his travels! I think he could do with a laptop so that he could be typing in reports whilst on the move and then download them at his host's house, but obviously it would be another thing to carry in that already heavy rucksack.
He really is a very friendly and trustworthy person to have in your house and if anyone reads this, please go ahead and invite him to stay for a day so that he can see as much of Scotland as possible before he takes off to the other 64 countries to which he has been invited. It really is a huge thing which will snowball as time goes on and more people get to hear about his exploits. When he finishes his tour round the world we will all have to have a get together in the Netherlands at the launch of his book!
If his family read this, they should be very proud of Ramon, he is a great guy with a very original idea and deserves to go far!
Name: Sandra
City, Country: Arizona, USA
Sent: 5.34 PM - 7/15 2001
Bret,
You are correct, thanks for the insight. True it would be better for Ramon to travel in the areas closest, step by step, versus rushing to America. And your point about waiting to come to America until more people know about the project is excellent. In order to see much of America he will need many places to stay. And he still needs to get further into Europe as well. It is a big world for sure.
I really love this project, and reading about all the adventures, seeing the scenery and all the other great photographs of the local sights and the people, and also in a sense meeting Ramon's hosts. Everyone has been so wonderful.
Take your time Ramon, we want to follow the project for years, and want you to enjoy it at your pace. :-)
Regards,
Sandra
Name: Mark Southgate
City, Country: Edinburgh, Scotland
Sent: 4.16 PM - 7/15 2001
Hi Ramon!
Hope you are well on your way north now and enjoying the sunshine which has made an appearance today! It was great to have you in Edinburgh for the night, just a pity you did not have much chance to see the city. With all the time spent typing reports, uploading and captioning photos, it seems like a full time job! I just hope you get enough time off to see as much of the places you are visiting as you want to!
Speaking of the media, I hope some of the Scottish newspapers, radio and TV get to find you and give your visit to Scotland some publicity. It would be a great pity if you did not get to see the amazing scenery of the Scottish Highlands and Islands due to not enough people in Scotland knowing you were here and hence a lack of invitations. Scottish people are very, warm, friendly and welcoming generally and I am sure there must be many people out there willing to share a day or two with you - if only they knew about your project.
If anybody in Scotland (especially the North and West and the islands) is reading this - invite Ramon into your home and show him what a beautiful country we live in!
Finally, Ramon - if you need somewhere to stay on your way back 'down south', you are more than welcome to stay with me again. This will also give you some time to see the parts of Edinburgh you did not get to see last time (the Old Town; Holyrood; the view from Arthurs Seat or Calton Hill; Botanical Gardens; Water of Leith; etc).
And to Sally, Simon, Sammy and Oliver...
Just to say many thanks for the wonderful gifts from Belfast - the handmade paperweights (a work of art) and the games from the kids, as well as the red lolly!
Sorry about such a long message!
Best wishes,
Mark.
http://www.TheGoodShopGuide.com
Edinburgh, Scotland. UK.
Name: alan shields
City, Country: Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Sent: 3.32 PM - 7/15 2001
Ramon left glasgow at14.15hrs today on his way to aberdeen i hope he had a good time with use and enjoyed some of the pubs we went to.
regards and best wishes from alan & laraine shields
ps if you ever get back to glasgow you will always have a place to stay.
Name: Sylvia
City, Country: North Berwick, Scotland
Sent: 11.33 AM - 7/15 2001
A silly poem - RAMON FOR A DAY . COM
You came to stay at our house
On the thirteenth of July
And what a big surprise you had
When you saw my Cottage Pie
I saw you get your camera out
Before you took a bite
And then you said to me that it
Will be on your website
You climbed six hundred and thirteen feet
Right up North Berwick Law
And when at last you reached the top
A whale's jaw bone you saw
On your internet travels around the world
Luck is wished for you Ramon
With your website www dot
Let me stay for a day dot com
All the best
Sylvia Beaumont
Name: Sylvia and Peter Beaumont
City, Country: North Berwick, Scotland
Sent: 11.19 AM - 7/15 2001
Ramon
Out of all the thousands of invitations you received, you picked on North Berwick, a small town you had never heard of before to 'Come and stay for a day'. Thank you for a very interesting 24 hours spent with us, even though you had never seen a Cottage Pie before, at least you ate it, after photographing it! Pity you could not have stayed another day. We wish you the best of luck with your internet travels and great success with your book at the end of it all. Hope to see North Berwick in it!
Kind regards
Sylvia, Peter & Richard Beaumont
Name: Sally
City, Country: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Sent: 10.38 AM - 7/15 2001
Hi Ramon
Glad to hear that you made it to your next stop, very pleased that you got train tickets from Seacat I told you the Scots were very generous didn't I? My thanks to carol and terry for the candle. I think the host gift idea is brilliant. For all of you still thinking about inviting Ramon just do it, this project is multi layered and there are many benefits to both Ramon and the hosts that are not immediately obvious, the whole project puts the internet back where it firmly belongs... with the ordinary user and ordinary people.. for all future hosts... Ramon is very tall and likes to drink coffee and pepsi.. Good luck on your travels Ramon
regards
Sally, Simon, Sammy and Oliver
PS for Ramon's mum... he is looking healthy and well and you have every right to be very proud of him, you have done a good job in raising him.
Share with your friends: |