Happy Fourth of July

World Hum’s Most Read: June 28-July 3

What We Loved This Week: Def Leppard in Greece, Austrian Competence and Freedom in Colombia

The LAX Theme Building, Then and Now

As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Inside Slum Tourism

With mixed feelings, Rob Verger recently signed on for a tour of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. He looks back on the experience—and the photos he was allowed to take.

Break Bread and Brie in France

Great cheese abounds in the land of Gaul, but dig in and you risk committing any number of faux pas. Terry Ward explains how to partake of the nation’s famed fromage with savoir faire.

10 Wanderlust-Inducing Summer Concerts

Call it world music or global pop or the sound of the world hum. Ben Keene reveals 10 acts on tour that are sure to transport you. Plus videos.

Bryan Mealer: ‘War and Deliverance in Congo’

The former AP correspondent traveled up the Congo River. Frank Bures asks the author of “All Things Must Fight to Live” about following in the wake of Joseph Conrad. 

A Journey Into ‘The Second World’

Some bureaucrats joke that they would never claim expertise about countries they had not at least flown over. In an excerpt from his new book, Parag Khanna argues that real global understanding can only come from serious travel.

‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

The State of the Burma Travel Debate

On more than one occasion, I have heard NGO types argue against travel to Burma, yet they themselves have no problem traveling there. So to those who say we shouldn’t travel to Burma I say this: If you don’t want us to go, then you have no business going, either.

Can we please stop agonizing over travel to Burma? Yes, it’s an ugly regime. But China, many African regimes, Iran, et al. are just as bad or WORSE. Read anything lately about what the Putin regime is doing in Russia? Anything about the gulag-style prisons? Read about what Cuba does to its dissidents and journalists? No? You should. And yet, no one has a problem traveling to those countries. In fact, travel to Cuba is considered cool. I challenge anyone to describe the difference between these “good” and “bad” totalitarianism regimes.

Hell, Lonely Planet says if you can only make it to North Korea, good on you! You decide whether it’s a Communist nightmare or a “workers’ paradise” (as they say in one of the guidebooks. And Burma is NOT worse than North Korea.

I think that selecting Burma for a boycott is a way for left-wing individuals and organizations (including the UN) to feel better about themselves and the fact they turn a blind eye on so many despicable governments and tyrants worldwide.

I have been to Burma – and I can tell you the Burmese people need us, travelers. No one in Burma thought the boycott was a good idea. They need us for the money we leave there. For the ideas we can leave there. We need to make them feel that their plight has not been forgotten. That we give a damn.