This piece is cross-posted at Flight Blogger.

The question was raised on a travel blog earlier this week about the necessity for small countries to operate airlines of their own. The question of justification came to the fore when looking at Surinam Airways, an unlikely country to have an airline, and whether or not a country with a gross domestic product of $2.4b should have (or needs) an airline of its own.

For nations large and small, rich and poor, civil aviation has been a vital tool to connect citizens with the world on its own terms.

“International aviation is thus not just another problem in a changing economic system, though it is that; international civil aviation is a serious problem in international relations, affecting the way governments view one another, the way individual citizens view their own foreign countries, and in a variety of direct and indirect connections and the security arrangements by which we live.” – Andreas Lowenfeld

That quote, from a 1975 article in Foreign Affairs Magazine, inspired my senior thesis in College. The title was Aviation as Ambassador, not coincidentally the same name of the first post on FlightBlogger in 2007.

The historical Western global leadership in civil aviation in the first half of the last century has served as an example to all nations as a symbol of modernization and progress.

Civil aircraft (in both their development and operation) are symbols of power and prestige for nations. We need only look to the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 to see the impact these aircraft have had on the identity of the nations that operate them.

For the United States, the same year Charles Lindbergh flew non-stop from New York to Paris in 1927 (contrary to popular belief he was not the first to cross the Atlantic) Pan American Airways came into being as an airmail service between the Florida Keys and Havana, Cuba. With the relative protection of the US Government, which saw Pan Am as the “chosen instrument” for US travel abroad, the airline quickly became America’s flag carrier. Later on in the century, Pan Am would become Boeing’s launch customer for the 747.

The idea of a flag carrier in the US is somewhat outmoded though. Pan Am folded in 1991 and TWA in 2001 (merging with American Airlines). Today, we have Delta/Northwest, United, Continental, American and US Airways – so the idea of one airline representing the US abroad is foreign to Americans.

In the case of the US today, international air travel is a representation of the free market forces that enable such competition, multiple airlines competing with one another vying for the attention of the consumer. In the absence of one flag carrier, we find the identity of the United States. Though protectionist tendencies still abound with restrictions on foreign ownership and cabotage.

These same political motivations created (and protected) the airlines of the world’s largest economies; Pan Am (defunct), Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France and others are also found in smaller countries like Surinam.

For airlines like Surinam Airways, which operates a fleet of two aircraft, connecting its citizens to the world is an important representation of self-determination and modernization; profitability and operational effectiveness often falls by the wayside.

There are two sides to this coin. A national airline can carry both a positive and negative message about a country. As an extension of national identity, airlines can become a liability in the event of an accident. Accident prone airlines like Garuda and other Indonesian carriers have found themselves blacklisted by the EU, unable to serve Europe causing significant damage to the economic health of the nation.

Surinam Airways was founded in 1955 and became the national carrier when Surinam gained independence from the Netherlands in 1975. Today, the airline operates one Boeing 747-300 and McDonnell Douglas MD-82, both built in 1986 for long haul and regional routes respectively serving seven destinations in Europe, North America, the Carribean and South America.

The airline is as much a tool of economic development and tourism as much as it is a diplomatic symbol of Surinam touching down in countries around the world.

For the nations that don’t hold significant economic sway, aviation is ambassador.

- Jon Ostrower

Photo credit: Pascalg_1991/Creative Commons License

I ran into this piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the tiny Swahili island off the Kenyan coast, Lamu. Now, I had the opportunity to visit Lamu twice during my stay in Kenya, and it is hands down one of my favorite places I have ever had the privilege of visiting. Lamu is easily the most unique place I have ever been to. While the Swahili island Zanzibar gets the name recognition and the tourists, Lamu and its culture has luckily been more preserved. No vehicles are allowed on the island, fishing is still the dominant way of life, and the locals are incredibly friendly.

Taking such pseudonyms as “California,” “Captain Smiles,” and even “Satan,” the locals immediately offer to let you into their world. Late night bonfires on the beach, sketchily bought illegal palm wine, drumming five gallon buckets late into the Indian Ocean night–Lamu was one of a kind.

Photo: Me in one of the Lamu dhows

And this is why I suppose that reading the piece in the Philly Inquirer brought mixed emotions. For me, it always feels strange to read about another’s travel experience that is similar to one of my own. Rarely do I think the narrator’s account is spot-on; rather, I tend to view it in an over-critical eye. These feelings were just magnified when the account was about Lamu: “Oh, he is probably just stayed in an expensive hotel,” or “I’m sure that he was just another one of those wazungu tourists who didn’t even realize he was getting ripped off in the market every day.”

I’m not sure exactly what causes this backwards negativity upon reading others’ stories similar to my own–jealousy of the uniqueness of my own memories, unjustified pride in the quality of my own travelling experiences, nostalgia turned against itself–but it really isn’t fair.

So here’s to Mr. Steve Goldstein’s fun times in Lamu. And may everyone else get the chance to enjoy that beautiful little island as well. I highly recommend it.

In Amsterdam, I couldn’t help thinking about how the city – and the rest of the Netherlands – is going to be royally screwed by rising sea levels. To get a sense of just how screwed, check out the nifty visualizer that NASA and Cal Tech put together.

Of course that got me thinking about prioritizing traveling to the places that are going to underwater or otherwise devastated thanks to climate change. I’m pretty bummed that I didn’t get to New Orleans before it was flattened by Katrina, and I would hate to have the same feeling about other great destinations. It seems I’m not the only person fretting about this, as in the midst of my musing I stumbled upon a new Frommer’s book about the top 500 disappearing destinations. Might be worth checking it out if you’re worried that some great cultural legends by the time you get there.

In the end though, there isn’t too much use to simply worrying about it. I just need to get my butt to Venice.

This doesn’t fit very well with my recent revelation that I should be taking a laptop if I want to blog on the go, but I have to agree with Chris Pirillo on his final tip for keeping your laptop safe while traveling:

Just Leave The Laptop At Home: When it comes to all of the hassles and all of the issues that can arise from traveling with your laptop, you should also consider whether you really need to take it. You can carry your data or files on portable storage such as a CD, DVD or USB drive, or you can just email or FTP the data ahead of you. Then, you can borrow a desktop or laptop system once you are safely on the ground and at the office site you are visiting.

I would even expand this tip to include most gadgets. Outside of the obligatory camera, you can largely do without the standard set of toys you have at home. For example, I sit at my desk at work with earphones on, but while on the road I leave my music behind, opting for the sounds of where I am, and skipping the hassle of carry an expensive mp3 player.

H/t Lifehacker.

NY Times had an interesting article this weekend about travelling to Iraq. Sounds like heading to the Kurdish region is actually fairly safe as the article explains:

As recently as last March, a bomb went off in Sulaimaniya, the second-biggest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing a security guard. A truck bomb in May 2007 outside a government office in Erbil left over a dozen dead and several more wounded. And earlier this month, the long-simmering tensions between Turkey and Kurdish separatist rebels erupted again when Turkish warplanes entered northern Iraq and bombed remote rebel bases, killing at least 15 Kurds.

Wait. Did I say safe? What I meant was that there are truck bombs and air raids. Still, it’s safe enough that tour operators are taking regular trips there, and it’s hard to imagine they would be able to afford the insurance if there was a high likelihood that people would come to harm. And the article also highlights the joys of traveling to an emerging region:

On a cool Monday night last fall, at a traffic-clogged border crossing into Turkey, a dozen Kurdish men stepped out of their cars and began passing around pita and tulip-shaped cups of tea to a pair of young, bleach-blond Swedes who were road-tripping across the Middle East in a beat-up sedan.

Flights on Austrian airlines come out to about £900 round trip just about any time of the year, so a bit pricey to get there, but an interesting option to consider.