I have begun the first leg of my trip to Paris, and write now from the airport in Columbus. Thanks and deep love to all the friends and family who have called or hung out with me in the days before this trip to wish me bon voyage. You rock.
I am going to fly to Toronto where I have an 8 hr layover. Initially, I had booked a flight that left at 1:30 from OH, but the airline cancelled it. They have put me instead on this morning flight, which leaves me with the ridiculous lag time in Toronto. It’s going to be a long, close to 20 hrs of travel time (or something).
Which brings me to one of the themes of this post: global capitalism is really only global for capitalists. Cases in point. The airlines can make virtually any changes they want, but individuals cannot. Ok, that’s not really about globalism. I’m just warming up by venting about the one-sided nature of the notion of “contract.” To resume my actual topic: I tried for several solid days to get Euros in Athens, OH. My credit union doesn’t handle foreign currency. Even Chase bank said they had to order them, and it could take several days to get them. Same with AAA. Even getting a bank draft in Euros meant I had to have an acct. at Chase with a minimum balance of $500. I also tried to go through my broker at Merrill Lynch (now owned by Bank of America). Still not luck. Had to go back to plain old traveler’s checks, issued in dollars with a plan of cashing them in Paris to pay Euros to several individuals who need to be paid virtually as soon as I land. In future, wire transfer or paypal (both of which charge extra fees) are the ways to go, and I’ll just have to pay the fees.
Second case is that I tried to make a small change in my return flight on Air Canada. I had booked through Orbitz. When I clicked “change this ticket,” Orbitz said that, in fact, I had to make the change at airport in Columbus with the airline. But once in Columbus, it turned out that there really is not Air Canada here. It is run by United. But United will not do ticketing for Air Canada. I have to wait until I get to Toronto. We’ll see.
Seriously. How is this possible? Banking and air travel are global, but not to benefit individuals, only to benefit the businesses. I know, duh. But it is still striking when you experience it in these kinds of specific ways. Even my guy at Merrill Lynch was taken aback that they could not get me foreign currency.
A final note about globalism. The guy who drove the shuttle from the hotel to the airport was Algerian. When he found out I was going to Paris, he immediately started speaking French to me, and telling me about the French occupation of Algeria. He told me a remarkable amount in French and in English on the 10-minute ride. And an American engineer also on the bus started chiming in about the Persian Empire. I’m not sure what the connection was there. I think he was just free-associating about Islamic societies or something. But it was one of life’s synergies to be driven to the airport on my trip to Paris by an Algerian, when part of what I will be teaching about is French colonialism, European modernity and its relation to Islam and North Africa.
Ps, I wish animals could speak so I could call home and say hello to my dog, horse and cats. Luckily, Parisians bring their dogs everywhere. Not that any of them will substitute for my Moxie!
