The Statue of Liberty. Liberty Island.  New York City, New York, USA.

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Playing with the kids in Kamume Village, where I lived to learn to farm maize.  Kamume Village, Zambia. Photographed January 21, 2008.

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Welcome readers of The Daily Iowan and The World-Herald to Noboundaries.org. If this is your first time here, I’d like to welcome you and point you in a couple of directions.

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We present the next in, a crowd favorite, our video series ‘What It’s Like’ (Raw, un-cut, unscripted videos showing you what it’s like). This video comes from my adventures on the streets of Varanasi, India, the holiest Hindu city in the world, a pilgrimage destination that houses one of the most eclectic collections of people in the world…including real snake charmers and poisonous cobras.
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A local Xhosa woman smiles for the camera under the blazing summer sun, with her face covered in locally made sunscreen. Nquileni Village, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Photograph taken March 23, 2008.

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Eating pretzels in Mozart’s hometown, overlooking Salzberg, Austria with Pavel and Monika (of The Czech Republic).

Read about the cow’s trip around-the-world at www.noboundaries.org.

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These sculptures face north, sitting atop a hill above the DMZ, which separates North and South Korea. The park was constructed to console those North Koreans who are unable to return to their hometowns because of the division of Korea since 1950.   Imjin Peace Park. Near Paju, South Korea.  Photograph taken February 7, 2009. [Click the photo thru to Posterous to see a larger version.]

One of the more interesting things I came across while traveling the streets of India, was a marketing campaign centered around social change taken up by the country’s largest English-speaking newspaper: The Times of India (also the world’s largest circulating English-language newspaper).  Throughout my visits to India the newspaper has been running an ongoing ‘Lead India’ campaign that  seeks to inspire change in India from within.

Though India is a beautiful and amazing country, it is still very much a developing one.  It faces an entire slate of challenges, among others: overpopulation, ethnic conflicts, poverty, inadequate infrastructure, corruption, lawlessness and crime.  A quick trip around the country and you’ll see it all first hand and it seems much of the population seems complacent to do nothing to change it.

Touting itself as the “world’s largest democracy,” India seems to struggle between its traditional past and the modernity of its uncertain future, and it seems a lot of people don’t trust government, business or even the social sector to lead the country to change.

This is where The Times of India seems to be stepping in.

The newspaper’s multiyear ‘Lead India’ campaign (which often dominates the highly valued front page of the daily newspaper) involves a series of print, web and television advertisements and a reality television series, that are all part of an integrated campaign to identify and promote the best up-and-coming leaders in the country, while constantly peppering the Indian people with a populist message that hope to stifle corruption, promote democracy and inspire action in the common person.

What does it say about a country when its biggest promoter of change is not government leaders or social advocates, but a for-profit newspaper?

I think they’re on the right track, if only by representing the voices of much of the population.  Within the words of this campaign, you can hear the personal desires of many of the Indian people I came across as I traveled through the country’s bulging metropolises and small villages.

Does it sell more newspapers?  I’m not sure.

Does it affect change? Only time will tell.

Have you been to India? Do you live in India?  What do you think?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Text [this ad ran in the run-up to the national elections in the Spring of 2009]: “I swear. I swear that this time I will stand up.  Not for what I believe in, but for what I don’t. This time I will vote. Not for, but against. Against my own helplessness. Against my own laziness. Against two words called Chalta hai [an acceptance of mediocrity]. Against short cuts in queues. Against cheating in exams. Against Kharcha Paani [a bribe] in offices. Against powerless inquiry commissions. And powerful vote banks.  Against religion in politics. And against illegal constructions. And legal loopholes.  Against every cynic.  Every non-believer.  Against the belief that nothing will change. Against the feeling that my vote cannot make a difference. Against every excuse for not voting. And I will do this without fear or shame.  Because only by voting against all that is destroying our today, will I give my children something to vote for tomorrow.  Lead India ‘09. Let’s make this vote count.

Text at the bottom: The most important General Elections in our history are here.  And today. Lead India ‘09 takes a quite oath of its own.  To stir a nation’s conscience into overhauling the calibre of leaders we elect.  So if you are a straight-thinking citizen and believe you can make your voice count, join in and vote like everything depends on it, Because it does, log onto www.lead.timesofindia.com.

Text: “Imagine /  Bollywood is not called Bollywood / off-beat cinema becomes mainstream / A Hollywood movie copies a Bollywood storyline / We stop caring about The Oscars / The west adopts the Indian song and dance routine / Our family drama makes the Americans cry / Our movies make a hero out of a common man / The Indian Cinema that can be / The India that can be.

Television Commercial #1: Little Kid

Can’t see the video.  Click here to watch on YouTube.

Television Commercial #2: Shah Rukh Khan

India’s biggest contemporary movie star tells us to DO. Can’t see the video? Then click here to watch it on YouTube.

Campaign Overview From The Times of India

Can’t see the video. Click here to watch it on YouTube.

What you can do now:

• Do you think this can work? Is it effective? Leave a comment below.
• See more Lead India videos on YouTube.
• Visit the comprehensive Lead India website hosted by The Times of India.
• Read more about the Indian Dream and a generous helping of “F*ck Off’s” in the story My Name is Abhi…er, Brad.…
• See Indian Light: In our Photo Galleries.

• Sorry tweeps, been Net-less for a few weeks, back now. Enjoying the tropical sun of Taveuni, Fiji. Best pineapples in the world. Period. #
• Lending a hand with a cataract surgery project, giving sight in remote Fijian villages to villagers who otherwise would be without. #
• Had dinner w/ Fiji’s deputy prime minister, the head of Fijis Council of Chiefs, son of Fijis 1st prez, son-in-law of Fijis founding father, frmr head of Fijis military. All one guy. #
• Fiji – Cloudy Eyes http://post.ly/EXwI #
• Just spent 2 internet-less weeks living in a rural village on the Samoan island of Upolu. Can you find it on a map? http://tinyurl.com/86ywc #
• In Hawaii, at the Eddie Akiau Big Wave Surfing Tourney (The Superbowl of Surfing). Biggest waves I’ve ever seen. http://tinyurl.com/ycbjkdm #
• Back in the USA after 3.5 years traveling around-the-world. Just walked into Costco & my head is spinning….wow, unlimited choice… #
• Landed in Seattle, mainland USA. Had the best clam chowder in the city for lunch. Hawaii: 78F degrees; Seattle: 31F, damn. Brrrrr…. #
• Dinner in Santa Monica, California, lunch in Hollywood, dinner on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco. Enjoying a week in California… #
• San Francisco>Sacramento>Reno>Salt Lake City>Grand Junction>Denver>Hasting>Lincoln—-and 47 hours later the trans-North American train pulls into the station in Omaha. And 3.5 years later, Andy is home for Christmas…

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Cataracts cloud both of this woman’s eyes, leaving her effectively blind. Taveuni, Island Fiji. Photographed November 19, 2009.

I was working as part of a volunteer team doing cataract surgeries to help restore vision to people on the remote outlying islands of Fiji were these services would otherwise be unavailable (and unaffordable).

Read, listen, watch and come along on my trip around-the-world on my travelogue at www.noboundaries.org

Big apologies my loyal reader for my extended absence from the web (and lack of posts), but I’ve had little to no internet access in much of The South Pacific, since I left New Zealand in October. But we’re back on the net, and there’s a lot more adventures and stories to come!

• Leave a comment on this photo below.
• See more of my photo-a-week, random snaps from random moments (in no particular order).
• Check out my photo galleries from Japan, Hong Kong, India, China, Vietnam, San Francisco, Cambodia, Chicago and more on Flickr.