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Austin South Asian | August 2021
Here’s How Your Phone Can Help You Travel Smarter After over a year of pandemicrelated restrictions, we’ve entered a new era of travel, with 67% of Americans planning to get out of town this summer.
Tonight help you find last-minute hotel deals on a place to get some rest after an epic day of exploration. Cut costs even further if you’re a T-
can help you score a last-minute table in the United States and The Fork can help you get seated in Europe.
From scoring accommodations to keeping track of local restrictions, your digital device can help you navigate the “next normal” of travel. Here’s how.
Hotels and Cars So much of travel is about searching for your next adventure. It’s that game-time call to push on to a new city or pull into a charming little unknown town. Apps like Hotel
everything you need to discover and book campsites. Visiting a U.S. national park?
Attractions
Find interactive maps, accessibility information and more with the NPS app. And with T-Mobile, get 5G at no extra cost to help when you’re out on the road with nothing but nature around.
A pass that lets you bundle attractions can save time and money and ensure you catch every can’t-miss sight. For example, The New York Sightseeing Pass offers ticket-free entry to more than 150 attractions. And if you have T-Mobile, you can get up to 30% off theme park admission with EBG via the T-Mobile Tuesdays app.
Health and Safety With COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines varying widely, you’ll want up-to-date information relevant to your destination. For domestic trips, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a good resource. And for global travel, the COVID Controls app offers information on your destination’s current protocols based on your country of origin.
Wi-Fi on Gogo-enabled flights so you can do last-minute research on your destination en route.
Translation Help
Mobile customer by accessing the new T-Mobile TRAVEL to save up to 40% on select accommodations and car rentals. Restaurants Although restaurants nationwide have opened their doors, many are still running at a lower capacity. Apps like Open Table and Resy
Stay Connected It’s hard to know where to go or what to do when visiting a new city. Make sure to travel with a reliable wireless provider like T-Mobile. The company’s Magenta and Magenta MAX plans offer unlimited texting and data while roaming in over 200 countries. The plans also offer in-flight text messaging plus
Have you been trying to master a foreign language during lockdown in preparation for your international trip? No worries if you’re a little behind on your conjugations. The iTranslate app offers instant translations. Getting Outside Find the best hiking and biking trails with the AllTrails and Trailforks apps. If you’re planning to camp, the Recreation.gov app has
Customs The Mobile Passport app, available at most major points of entry for international flights, can help you avoid an hours-long line after a transatlantic flight. Be sure to download ahead of landing, and enter your passport and trip information before heading to the customs area. With some smart digital tricks up your sleeve, your device can be your greatest travel resource before and during your trip. And even better if you’re a T-Mobile customer – take advantage of the deals and offers this summer to make it a vacation on a budget to remember. (StatePoint)
Selective Freedom Can Enhance Tools Of Repression
By Sadhu Utprerakam
to those dictatorship governments?
As citizens of the oldest democracy in the world , and as individuals enjoying freedoms that are unthinkable in many parts of the planet even today, we are prone to some assumptions and good intentions.
There is one important question that comes in the way. Are these actions driven by good intentions? Few decades ago, China was a poor nation ruled by an autocratic communist regime.
This has led us to encourage and bless even selective and incremental measures of freedom adopted by foreign autocratic governments to permit as a step in the right direction. This is not without merit as great civilizations made tremendous progress by taking small incremental measures towards development. Many successful corporations and individuals attribute their success to small and incremental steps that one day became giant leaps. So why not give the benefit of doubt
The people were impoverished and lacked the power to self govern due to absolute control of the nation by the communist party. However, the citizens of Taiwan and Hong Kong enjoyed more freedoms and better lives. Then the Chinese regime decided to signal to the rest of the world that they are open to business. Western think tanks assumed that economic liberalization will eventually lead to political liberalization. Today the assumptions look silly. Although China achieved tremendous GDP growth, many peo-
ple still lack food security, medical care, housing and employment.
The Chinese people continue to be imperiled by surveillance, censorship or worse. An economically and militarily stronger Chinese regime is preparing to spread its control beyond its borders. Taiwan and the special administrative region of Hong Kong are now under threat. The Belt and Road Initiatives that the Chinese government is spearheading are already being compared to new forms of colonialism through debt traps. A slightly different kind of story but with potentially similar consequences is unfolding in the middle east. The State of Qatar is a country in the Persian Gulf region which is richest in the world in terms of GDP per capita. An autocratic dictatorship gov-
erned by repressive religious laws which range from criminalizing LGBT people, denying the very basic freedoms to women, equal opportunity, suppression of free speech and appalling treatment of foreign workers. Interestingly, such a country funds one of the leading media outlets in the world today – The Aljazeera network. The news channel has won a lot of accolades for highlighting the injustices that occur in various parts of the world. The network claims that it operates independently and is free of any government intervention though funded by the Qatari government. Such autonomy given to a media network in a country like Qatar should allow Al Jazeera to keep reporting about the dire conditions to which the residents of that country
are subjected to.
This would bring attention to the human rights abuses in that country and help bring positive changes to that society. Such welcome changes in Qatar might help bring that country to be on par with the only other free society in the middle east namely Israel. Instead, what we see is that the media network spends most of its resources in negative coverage of events happening in countries that are politically not aligned with the Qatari government like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It even goes all the way out to far off nations like the US, Europe and other parts of Asia to highlight local issues over there. (Continued On Page 21)
