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Multipolar World Order – Part 3

Multipolar World Order – Part 3

Authored by Iain Davis via Off-Guardian.org,

In Part 1, we considered the forces shaping the world order…

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Multipolar World Order – Part 3

Authored by Iain Davis via Off-Guardian.org,

In Part 1, we considered the forces shaping the world order and the attempts to impose various models of global governance upon it. In Part 2, we discussed the progress of the global power shift from West to East and asked why so many stalwarts of the so-called “unipolar world order” have not only accepted the inevitability of that power shift but have apparently assisted it.

Ostensibly, the multipolar version of the world order is a departure from the unipolar model in the sense that it will—supposedly—genuinely observe international law and share power among a broader coalition of nation-states. As a result, it will introduce—supposedly—functioning multilateralism into global governance, arguably for the first time. To some, this multipolar model sounds preferable to the current, international rules-based unipolar model.

Yet, when we look at the statements of the touted leaders of the new multipolar world order, their objectives seem indistinguishable from those of their unipolar counterparts…

  • They express an unwavering commitment to sustainable development and Agenda 2030.

  • They support the United Nation’s Security Council remaining the political centre of global governance—though, notably, loss of the veto isn’t countenanced.

  • They wholeheartedly endorse the World Economic Forum’s AI-driven 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).

  • They also regard censorship and information control as necessary to fight the “infodemic” and to protect the world against “disinformation.”

  • Their global initiatives—and the public-private partnerships that will implement them—are practically identical to the initiatives of their unipolar counterparts, though they offer an important variation, which we’ll discuss in Part 4.

  • Finally, to supporters of multipolarity, a new global “financial system” is, as ever, the key to the supposed “transformation.”

Thus far, the globalist oligarchs, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the unipolar model, have not only advocated the polarity shift from West to East but have also played a part in facilitating it. Indeed, they have created the monetary, financial, economic and thus geopolitical conditions that appear to guarantee it.

We learned in Parts 1 and 2 that the unipolar world order established a system of global governance that is founded upon global public-private partnership and that this empowered oligarchs to engineer policy agendas around the world, unconstrained by national borders.

If the multipolar world order is something new, then surely this trajectory towards centralised global governance should change, right? But when the multipolar model seems to be accelerating the transition to centralised power, then we have to wonder if there is anything new and different about it at all.

Xi Jinping addresses The Davos Agenda.
Image: REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

THE MULTIPOLAR GREAT RESET

As mentioned previously, the World Economic Forum (WEF) declares itself to be the leading organisation for global public-private partnerships (G3P). In 2019, the WEF attempted to stake its claim by entering into a strategic partnership with the UN. The broad objective of the partnership was…

to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The WEF has conspicuously inserted itself into the global narrative over the last few years, most notably with its alleged Great Reset (the GR). The book of that name, written by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret, purportedly “in response” to the claimed global pandemic, is just another in a long line of attempts to exploit public fear and anxiety to sell a set of policy agendas.

Thierry Malleret

The tenor of the book and the Great Reset project is to offer “analysis” and “suggest” possible solutions in the spirit of solidarity with and compassion for humanity and nature. The dazzling minds behind it have tried to help us “understand what’s coming in a multitude of domains.” It is not a plan but rather friendly advice. At least, that is what the WEF claims.

The WEF represents the most powerful global corporations on Earth. As we have seen in the last couple of years, the pharmaceutical corporations alone can and do shape, and often drive, global policy decisions. One would need to be extremely naive to imagine that the WEF and its stakeholders (members) cannot effect that which they claim merely to advise. This is context within which we will analyse their words.

According to the pair, “the essence” of the GR is a plan to replace “failed ideas, institutions, processes and rules with new ones better suited to current and future needs.” As with nearly every other Western think tank and “international organisation,” they concede that the shift to the multipolar world is simply inescapable:

The 21st century will most likely be an era devoid of an absolute hegemon during which no one power gains absolute dominance. [. . .] In this messy new world defined by a shift towards multipolarity and intense competition for influence, the conflicts or tensions will no longer be driven by ideology.– [The Great Reset (TGR), p. 76]

In the GR, gone are the old distinctions between right and left, liberalism, conservatism, socialism and even the extremes of fascism and communism. For the WEF, all that remains is global environmentalism, which, the book’s co-authors claim, is not an ideology:

In global risk terms, it is with climate change and ecosystem collapse (the two key environmental risks) that the pandemic most easily equates. The three represent, by nature and to varying degrees, existential threats to humankind, and we could argue that COVID-19 has already given us a glimpse, or foretaste, of what a full-fledged climate crisis and ecosystem collapse could entail from an economic perspective.– [TGR, p. 95]

Fortunately, for the WEF and its partners, this imminent annihilation is actually an “opportunity,” or so they say:

The broader point is this: the possibilities for change and the resulting new order are now unlimited and only bound by our imagination, [. . .] economies, when they recover, could take the path of more inclusivity and be more attuned to the needs of our global commons.– [TGR, p. 17]

Enthusiastically adopting accelerationism, Schwab and Malleret claim:

[W]ithout delay we need to set in motion the Great Reset. This is not a “nice-to-have” but an absolute necessity. [. . .] The pandemic gives us this chance: it “represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world”. [quote attributed to Klaus Schwab.] – [TGR, p. 172]

And:

As economies restart, there is an opportunity to embed greater societal equality and sustainability into the recovery, accelerating rather than delaying progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals[.] – [TGR, p. 175]

The only problem this duo foresee with the “shift towards multipolarity” is that the associated “retreat from globalization” might happen too quickly. Of course, according to them, a premature retreat would cause “havoc” -so we should be properly terrified of the possibility. Consequently, in their eyes, the new “form of globalization” will only be “viable” if the right overarching system is firmly in place: global governance. As they put it:

A hasty retreat from globalization would entail trade and currency wars, damaging every country’s economy, provoking social havoc and triggering ethno- or clan nationalism. The establishment of a much more inclusive and equitable form of globalization that makes it sustainable, both socially and environmentally, is the only viable way to manage retreat. This requires policy solutions [. . .] and some form of effective global governance.– [TGR, p. 81]

Schwab and Malleret allege that the pseudopandemic-initiated breakdowns raise what they see as the deplorable prospect of a “global order deficit.” Therefore, in the absence of an “absolute hegemon”—the unipolar world order—nation-states must find a way to “collaborate at the global level.” They said:

If no one power can enforce order, our world will suffer from a “global order deficit”. Unless individual nations and international organizations succeed in finding solutions to better collaborate at the global level, we risk entering an “age of entropy” in which retrenchment, fragmentation, anger and parochialism will increasingly define our global landscape, making it less intelligible and more disorderly. The pandemic crisis has both exposed and exacerbated this sad state of affairs.– [TGR, p. 76]

The so-called Great Reset has been designed to manage and exploit the orchestrated collapse of the unipolar world order. The path toward multipolarity, redesigned globalisation and a new order is set. It is the “deglobalisation” inherent to the multipolar world order that provides the suggested “opportunity” for the global public-private partnership. No one, especially the WEF, suggests retaining the “hyper-globalization” of the “absolute hegemony.” They explained:

There is no point in trying to restore the status quo [. . . ], but it is important to limit the downside of a possible free fall that would precipitate major economic damage and social suffering. [. . .] This will only come about through improved global governance – the most “natural” and effective mitigating factor against protectionist tendencies. [. . .] There is no time to waste. If we do not improve the functioning and legitimacy of our global institutions, the world will soon become unmanageable and very dangerous. There cannot be a lasting recovery without a global strategic framework of governance.– [TGR, p. 81]

That “strategic framework” is the global governance of a multipolar world and the WEF claim that this is simply the most “natural” response to global crises, given that, in the WEF’s view, individual nation-states are unable to address the world’s problems. Consequently, for the WEF, only multilateral institutions of global governance, such as its strategic partner, the United Nations, can avert catastrophe. This is “the essence” of the Great Reset, as the book makes clear:

[W]ithout appropriate global governance, we will become paralysed in our attempts to address and respond to global challenges, particularly when there is such a strong dissonance between short-term, domestic imperatives and long-term, global challenges. This is a major worry[.]– [TGR, p. 83]

And:

[T]he bottom line is this: in the face of such a vacuum in global governance, only nation states are cohesive enough to be capable of taking collective decisions, but this model doesn’t work in the case of world risks that require concerted global decisions. The world will be a very dangerous place if we do not fix multilateral institutions.– [TGR, p. 85]

The WEF’s “bottom line” is that, real or imagined, the Westphalian model is simply unequipped to deal with “global challenges.” Only “multilateral” global governance can avert descent into a “very dangerous” world. Hence, a shift towards multipolarity is required.

These are precisely the arguments that the supposed leaders of the new multipolar world order have been making.

To claim, as some do, that the “Great Reset” represents a defence of the unipolar order and that the shift towards a multipolar model is some sort of antidote to the GR appears to be based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of what the GR is.

MULTIPOLAR HISTORY

To illustrate this point further: Schwab and Malleret suggest that the “global challenges” they have identified will continue the trend of “regionalization.” They say that instead of the US-led unipolar hegemony, the world will increasingly be divided into semi-autonomous continental-scale regions:

The most likely outcome along the globalization–no globalization continuum lies in an in-between solution: regionalization. The success of the European Union as a free trade area or the new Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in Asia (a proposed free trade agreement among the 10 countries that compose ASEAN) are important illustrative cases of how regionalization may well become a new watered-down version of globalization. [. . .] In short, deglobalization in the form of greater regionalization was already happening. COVID-19 will just accelerate this global divergence as North America, Europe and Asia focus increasingly on regional self-sufficiency rather than on the distant and intricate global supply chains that formerly epitomized the essence of globalization.– [TGR, p. 79]

This “regionalised” world bears an uncanny resemblance to the model exposed by Professor Carroll Quigley. In his 1974 interview with Washington Post journalist Rudy Maxa, Quigley spoke about the “three-power world.” He had already meticulously catalogued the activities of an Anglo-American network, whose members had taken great strides toward constructing a system of global governance that they hoped to control:

They were working to federate the English-speaking world [. . .]. They were closely linked to international bankers. [. . .] [T]hey were working to establish a world, what I call a three-power world. And that three-power world was: The Atlantic Bloc (of England and the Commonwealth and the United States), Germany (Hitler’s Germany), Soviet Russia. [. . .] [T]his is all described in my book, and this was their idea. Now notice, it’s a balance of power system.

Prof. Carrol Quigley

The idea of power blocs that were sometimes antagonistic to one another but that each played their part in maintaining a centrally controlled global system of managed international relations sounds very similar to the model outlined by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Special Studies Project.

To wit: In 1955, the Rockefellers, fresh from their pivotal role in creating the United Nations, spotted the talents of Henry Kissinger while he was a study director of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), a US foreign policy think tank. The next year, they commissioned him to oversee a five-year project that would…

…define the major problems and opportunities facing the U.S. and clarify national purposes and objectives, and to develop principles which could serve as the basis of future national policy.

Kissinger led that project and has remained the Rockefellers’ envoy ever since.

The subsequent collection of “Rockefeller Panel Reports” was published in Prospect for America (PfA) in 1961. In those reports, the Rockefeller-chosen panelists noted that 19th century imperialism had been a means of maintaining world order but that the two world wars had conveniently put paid to government’s ability to control it, hence the claimed necessity for the UN. The Rockefellers and their man Kissinger identified what the WEF would later call the “global order deficit”:

One system of organizing international order has been destroyed without replacement by another. – [Prospect for America, p. 164]

The problem was that the UN wasn’t working as the Rockefellers or their partners intended. Annoyingly, representatives of the national governments belonging to that international body kept insisting upon their own ideas.

This meant that the Rockefellers’ “high hopes” for the “institutional expression” of true global governance were stymied. Where did the blame lie? Here:

High hopes were not fully realized because the formal institutions of world organizations were designed to achieve more than the consensus of existing shared aspirations was prepared to support. – [PfA, p. 164]

What this lack of consensus came down to was that nation-states, comfortable in their pursuit of the Westphalian mythology, were acting in their sovereign self-interest and were forming bilateral trade agreements and defence treaties. Thus they were somewhat resistant to absolute global governance by their private partners. The Rockefellers’ solution to the nation-states’ intransigence was to balkanise the planet into more manageable chunks, or blocs, or “poles.” This would then allow global governance, under the auspices of the Rockefellers and their partners, to flourish:

The hoped-for result is peace in a world divided into smaller units, but organised and acting in common effort to permit and assist progress in economic, political, cultural and spiritual life. [. . .] It would presumably consist of regional institutions under an international body of growing authority — combined so as to be able to deal with those problems that increasingly the separate nations will not be able to resolve alone.– [PfA, p. 26]

Subsequently, a Rockefeller-funded global policy think tank known as the Club of Rome came up with some farcical predictive computer models in its 1972 publication, The Limits to Growth.

Then, nearly twenty years later, in 1991, the Club of Rome published more farcical prognoses in its First Global Revolution (FGR). Building upon its silly computer models, it made up some predictions about natural disasters, none of which have transpired as prescribed, for obvious reasons.

Nonetheless, despite this being nonsense, the FGR really did define the alleged “problems” that nation-states cannot supposedly “resolve alone.” Today, the whole world accepts all of this as if it were factual. We are collectively following a global agenda based upon the calculated, unevidenced musings of a Rockefeller funded, elitest club:

In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. In their totality and their actions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.– [FGR, p. 75]

For the oligarchs who manipulate the global economy and world events, humans are the real problem. The oligarchs’ warnings of climate disaster are used to legitimise their mechanisms for managing us, not the environment. According to their warped logic, human behaviour must be controlled and human beliefs reordered. Their ideas are all very much in keeping with the pathetic quackery of eugenics that many oligarchs, such as Bill Gates, appear to accept.

The Rockefellers and their partners—a “network,” if you like—designed the UN in order to exert real global governance over the “smaller units”—regional blocs:

The United Nations [is] the international organisation that today holds out the reasonable hope of being able to take over more and more functions and to assume increasingly large responsibilities. [. . .] The spirit and the letter of the Charter [. . .] gives more than lip service to the indispensable world order[.]-[PfA, p. 33]

And:

The UN stands, finally, as a symbol of the world order that will one day be built. –– [PfA, p. 35]

The Rockefellers and their partners have explained how this world order will emerge. The key to global governance, they insisted, was to be multilateral “regionalization” (a claim the WEF and other advocates of the multipolar world order would later repeat).

Note that Kissinger’s Rockefeller-funded researchers used the “United States” and “we”/”us” interchangeably in their reports. In this instance, it seems pretty clear who the “we” referred to is:

The most natural multination arrangements are frequently regional. [. . .] Fully developed, they imply a joint accord on monetary and exchange arrangements, a common discipline on fiscal matters, and a free movement of capital and labor. [. . . ] We believe that this regional approach has world-wide validity. [. . .] What is needed immediately is a determination to move in the direction they imply. Regional arrangements are no longer a matter of choice. They are imposed by the requirements of technology, science, and economics. Our course is to contribute to this process by constructive action.– [PfA, pp. 188–190]

THE MULTIPOLAR COINCIDENCE

The multipolar world order is not new. Nor does it stand in opposition to the so-called Great Reset. Both are just two more stepping stones along the path toward the age-old goal of global governance.

In the Great Reset book, Schwab, speaking for the WEF, declared that global governance in a multilateral, regionalized world with more localised supply chains was “the most natural” response to global crises.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that sixty years earlier the Rockefellers published what appears to be precisely the same plan and claimed that the “most natural multination arrangements are frequently regional.”

Perhaps it is also just a coincidence that, prior to the Rockefellers’ Special Studies Project, the “network” exposed by Prof. Carroll Quigley also suggested essentially the same global governance system based upon a multipolar “balance of power.”

These coincidences lead one to observe that the formulation of the multipolar plan predates the WEF’s similar plan by more than a century.

One could also observe that the Rockefeller brothers commissioned their own think tank, the Club of Rome, to dream up scary stories about climate disaster, food and water shortages and the like—and then the WEF used the same fables as alleged justification for its global reset. Mere coincidence, surely.

That the nominal leaders of the new multipolar world order constantly cite the same tales—none of which mirror reality—as a reason for their proposed reset of global governance might likewise be mere coincidence.

From central bankers to prominent members of various think tanks to political leaders, it seems that the vanguard of the Western unipolar model accept the inevitability of that system’s replacement. Curiously, many of the same people, in responding to the war in Ukraine, have made decisions and advocated polices that are hastening the transition from unipolarity to multipolarity. Again, probably mere coincidence.

A central tenet of the suggested multipolar world order is to strengthen adherence to the Charter of the UN, thereby establishing genuine global governance. Globalist oligarchs have long advocated exactly the same approach and so do the claimed leaders of the multipolar world order. Another instance of mere coincidence?

The ambition of the crowd that Quigley called “the network,” like the ambition of the Rockefellers’ Special Studies Project and the ambition of the WEF’s Great Reset and the ambition of the Club of Rome and the ambition of the Council on Foreign Relations and the ambition of the BRICS, is, and always has been, global governance. Mere coincidence, yes?

There is a wealth of evidence revealing how these various groups—and more clubs and secret societies than we have room to name here—have manipulated events and shaped policy globally. Recently the shift toward the multipolar order has accelerated sharply due to a major global event (war) and the policy response to it. Certainly, more mere coincidence.

In both China and Russia, governance is based upon the absolute fusion of the public and private sector. And we know the UN was established as a public-private partnership. Interestingly, Russia and China just happen to be the two permanent members of the UN Security Council who are taking the lead on the development of the multipolar world order. This must be a coincidence.

The political theory of multipolarity incorporates elements of political philosophies and cultural ideologies, such as Eurasionism and tianxia, which also lend themselves perfectly to global governance.

We shall discuss these latter points, and more, in Part 4. But the fusion of the public and the private sectors and the overlapping philosophies and ideologies common to both Russia and China are probably just another in a long and remarkably consistent timeline of coincidences.

If you believe in that sort of thing.

Tyler Durden Thu, 10/20/2022 - 02:00

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The next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife

Bird flu is decimating species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss.

I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours.

I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years.

This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered the virus when it killed a mammal, an endangered Owston’s palm civet, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005.

How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region.

This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose.

This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.

H5N1 originated on a Chinese poultry farm in 1997. ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

The first signs

Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species.

We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks.

Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats.

Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity.

Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.

A roving sickness

Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from the high Arctic to mainland Antarctica.

In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. A recent paper found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started.

Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears.

The UK alone has lost over 75% of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also largely driven by the virus.

Scientists haven’t managed to completely sequence the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans – one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.

At the crossroads

Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which 461 (52%) were fatal.

Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again.

It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia.

Recent research found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 died in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5.

Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been confirmed in skuas, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been killed by the virus in Chile.

A colony of king penguins.
Remote penguin colonies are already threatened by climate change. AndreAnita/Shutterstock

How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks.

To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.

Diana Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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This is the biggest money mistake you’re making during travel

A retail expert talks of some common money mistakes travelers make on their trips.

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Travel is expensive. Despite the explosion of travel demand in the two years since the world opened up from the pandemic, survey after survey shows that financial reasons are the biggest factor keeping some from taking their desired trips.

Airfare, accommodation as well as food and entertainment during the trip have all outpaced inflation over the last four years.

Related: This is why we're still spending an insane amount of money on travel

But while there are multiple tricks and “travel hacks” for finding cheaper plane tickets and accommodation, the biggest financial mistake that leads to blown travel budgets is much smaller and more insidious.

A traveler watches a plane takeoff at an airport gate.

Jeshoots on Unsplash

This is what you should (and shouldn’t) spend your money on while abroad

“When it comes to traveling, it's hard to resist buying items so you can have a piece of that memory at home,” Kristen Gall, a retail expert who heads the financial planning section at points-back platform Rakuten, told Travel + Leisure in an interview. “However, it's important to remember that you don't need every souvenir that catches your eye.”

More Travel:

According to Gall, souvenirs not only have a tendency to add up in price but also weight which can in turn require one to pay for extra weight or even another suitcase at the airport — over the last two months, airlines like Delta  (DAL) , American Airlines  (AAL)  and JetBlue Airways  (JBLU)  have all followed each other in increasing baggage prices to in some cases as much as $60 for a first bag and $100 for a second one.

While such extras may not seem like a lot compared to the thousands one might have spent on the hotel and ticket, they all have what is sometimes known as a “coffee” or “takeout effect” in which small expenses can lead one to overspend by a large amount.

‘Save up for one special thing rather than a bunch of trinkets…’

“When traveling abroad, I recommend only purchasing items that you can't get back at home, or that are small enough to not impact your luggage weight,” Gall said. “If you’re set on bringing home a souvenir, save up for one special thing, rather than wasting your money on a bunch of trinkets you may not think twice about once you return home.”

Along with the immediate costs, there is also the risk of purchasing things that go to waste when returning home from an international vacation. Alcohol is subject to airlines’ liquid rules while certain types of foods, particularly meat and other animal products, can be confiscated by customs. 

While one incident of losing an expensive bottle of liquor or cheese brought back from a country like France will often make travelers forever careful, those who travel internationally less frequently will often be unaware of specific rules and be forced to part with something they spent money on at the airport.

“It's important to keep in mind that you're going to have to travel back with everything you purchased,” Gall continued. “[…] Be careful when buying food or wine, as it may not make it through customs. Foods like chocolate are typically fine, but items like meat and produce are likely prohibited to come back into the country.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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As the pandemic turns four, here’s what we need to do for a healthier future

On the fourth anniversary of the pandemic, a public health researcher offers four principles for a healthier future.

John Gomez/Shutterstock

Anniversaries are usually festive occasions, marked by celebration and joy. But there’ll be no popping of corks for this one.

March 11 2024 marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Although no longer officially a public health emergency of international concern, the pandemic is still with us, and the virus is still causing serious harm.

Here are three priorities – three Cs – for a healthier future.

Clear guidance

Over the past four years, one of the biggest challenges people faced when trying to follow COVID rules was understanding them.

From a behavioural science perspective, one of the major themes of the last four years has been whether guidance was clear enough or whether people were receiving too many different and confusing messages – something colleagues and I called “alert fatigue”.

With colleagues, I conducted an evidence review of communication during COVID and found that the lack of clarity, as well as a lack of trust in those setting rules, were key barriers to adherence to measures like social distancing.

In future, whether it’s another COVID wave, or another virus or public health emergency, clear communication by trustworthy messengers is going to be key.

Combat complacency

As Maria van Kerkove, COVID technical lead for WHO, puts it there is no acceptable level of death from COVID. COVID complacency is setting in as we have moved out of the emergency phase of the pandemic. But is still much work to be done.

First, we still need to understand this virus better. Four years is not a long time to understand the longer-term effects of COVID. For example, evidence on how the virus affects the brain and cognitive functioning is in its infancy.

The extent, severity and possible treatment of long COVID is another priority that must not be forgotten – not least because it is still causing a lot of long-term sickness and absence.

Culture change

During the pandemic’s first few years, there was a question over how many of our new habits, from elbow bumping (remember that?) to remote working, were here to stay.

Turns out old habits die hard – and in most cases that’s not a bad thing – after all handshaking and hugging can be good for our health.

But there is some pandemic behaviour we could have kept, under certain conditions. I’m pretty sure most people don’t wear masks when they have respiratory symptoms, even though some health authorities, such as the NHS, recommend it.

Masks could still be thought of like umbrellas: we keep one handy for when we need it, for example, when visiting vulnerable people, especially during times when there’s a spike in COVID.

If masks hadn’t been so politicised as a symbol of conformity and oppression so early in the pandemic, then we might arguably have seen people in more countries adopting the behaviour in parts of east Asia, where people continue to wear masks or face coverings when they are sick to avoid spreading it to others.

Although the pandemic led to the growth of remote or hybrid working, presenteeism – going to work when sick – is still a major issue.

Encouraging parents to send children to school when they are unwell is unlikely to help public health, or attendance for that matter. For instance, although one child might recover quickly from a given virus, other children who might catch it from them might be ill for days.

Similarly, a culture of presenteeism that pressures workers to come in when ill is likely to backfire later on, helping infectious disease spread in workplaces.

At the most fundamental level, we need to do more to create a culture of equality. Some groups, especially the most economically deprived, fared much worse than others during the pandemic. Health inequalities have widened as a result. With ongoing pandemic impacts, for example, long COVID rates, also disproportionately affecting those from disadvantaged groups, health inequalities are likely to persist without significant action to address them.

Vaccine inequity is still a problem globally. At a national level, in some wealthier countries like the UK, those from more deprived backgrounds are going to be less able to afford private vaccines.

We may be out of the emergency phase of COVID, but the pandemic is not yet over. As we reflect on the past four years, working to provide clearer public health communication, avoiding COVID complacency and reducing health inequalities are all things that can help prepare for any future waves or, indeed, pandemics.

Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.

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