Geopolitics

Yesterday, I found an Unknown related to the grave of an early record-holding baseball player. That would normally be worthy of an entry, but it’s not what’s on my mind at the moment.

Most people who think about geocaching probably never even consider the word “geopolitics” in conjunction. Normally I don’t either, but that doesn’t mean I never have. There was a point when I was worried that if I didn’t go to Türkiye in the next few years, I might not be able to safely in my lifetime. While I no longer feel quite so pessimistic about walking the Theodosian Walls or visiting the Hagia Sophia (Earthquakes in Istanbul, anyone?), I’m still not entirely enthused about my chances, thanks to the current political climate, either. But that was merely drifting in the back of my head. The idea of somewhere like Türkiye sliding into a dangerous no-man’s-land is pretty laughable, even on the worst of days.

Unfortunately, the subject has popped back into my head as of late. News that a coup is happening in Niger put geopolitics on the front of my geocaching brain. Those of you who have closely followed me for a long time know that my ultimate dream cache is L’Arbre du Tenere in Niger. I’ve always been a little worried about going for a few reasons, but Niger has always been an ally of the United States. Therefore, as a US citizen I’ve been less worried about going there than some other places such as Iran (which is a shame because I’d love to get, as it used to be called, Salt Domes of Iran, though I’m not going to learn mountaineering to do it) or Syria (Palmyra calls to me for several reasons, and I’ve been watching the cache there since it was disabled because of ISIS and reactivated once they were pushed out). My point here (and I do have one) is that some places with geocaches are not always the safest places to go geocaching because the political or social climates are not the best.

Even more unfortunately, I sometimes have to consider the political and social climates of places I travel inside the US. As I have long said, geocaching is a colorblind (and politically neutral) activity, but the world isn’t. I’ve had to consider my travel to and around a number of places. Kingman has a white supremacist history that had me on edge (though it’s getting better, so kudos for that). Jasper affected me physically the entire time I was there. Idaho and Oregon both have historical and current reasons to make me want to be especially frosty when I start on them in earnest. And the Deep South? I’ve been keeping an eye on the political climates in Tennessee and Florida, but Mississippi and Alabama? Honestly, I don’t really want to let the sun go down on me in either of those states unless I’m safely behind a hotel room door. You might think me a little oversensitive about these places. The thing is, if things go right, that’s fine, but if they go wrong? They go really, really wrong. Yes, I’m going to take the risk one day, but not today.

I hate having to think about where I should and shouldn’t go. As far as I’m concerned, there’s not a cache I shouldn’t be able to go after. But just as I’m not going for Deep Gold because the ocean is too dangerous for me, I’m not going after Addis Ababa Artisans or Red Square right now, either. And it makes me sad that I have to make the same considerations in my own country. But thus is life. Or some kind of crap like that.