The Displaced Nation

A home for international creatives

Bye for now, world!

7 Comments Posted by The Displaced Nation Team on March 17, 2011

AND A WARM HELLO to all international travelers, be they backpackers, globetrotters, expats, rexpats, repats, or armchair dreamers. We have created a country for those of you who have traveled for so long and crossed so many cultures that you don’t seem to belong anywhere else.

The best way to gain entry is to subscribe to our posts!

Perhaps you are a little anxious as we aren’t in the guidebooks. Let us reassure you. While not a storybook paradise, the Displaced Nation is beguilingly otherwordly and exotic, full of twisting vines, golden cobwebs, and silky-haired monkeys. It is the kind of place that entices you to stay because of all the wonders and sources of inspiration you find within.

But before we get carried away with the pleasantness of it all, a few ground rules. While we haven’t got a constitution or a bill of rights, we expect our citizens to behave with the sort of decorum that has earned them a place in other people’s cultures for so long.

Also, please don’t be affronted if you find some of our instincts counterintuitive. For instance, we are great believers in navigating the new world with old maps. Our generation may have big dreams, but let’s face it, many of our forbears were great adventurers, too. Are we any less clueless than they were? A dose of humility is in order.

Cheers,

The Displaced Nation Team

image: Detail of map made around 1450 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro, courtesy Wikimedia

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7 responses to “Bye for now, world!”

Anastasia Ashman April 2, 2011 at 3:38 am
Great to be here (this limbo place so many of us have been for quite sometime, yet it’s rarely addressed as such)…and congratulations for the launch. I’m also a fan of navigating the new through the old, which has a way of stripping the modern markers of our global lives which *should* make us feel in at home and yet are simply a veneer on the unfamiliar. Going back to the old school maps is a way to get down to basics. Excited!

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ML Awanohara April 4, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Thanks, Anastasia. This endorsement means a lot, coming from you, the brains behind Expat+HAREM. So many of the posts you have sponsored — about what it means to be a global nomad — have inspired me over the past year.

As author and entrepreneur Jo Parfitt wrote in a recent blog post of hers: “Anastasia likes to publish gritty, important posts.” Jo was referring to how much she enjoyed writing a piece for Expat+HAREM on her ambitions to create a separate genre for expat books.

I’m super excited about exploring the potential for collaboration between our team and yours!

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Gaby April 4, 2011 at 6:18 pm
What a great introduction to the displaced nation! I look forward to reading more! I love the site’s look and your writing style. I reminds me of older times and they have a bit of a Neo-Victorian feel. I can’t wait to learn more about the displaced nation!

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ML Awanohara April 5, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Thanks, Gaby. As a great fan of the Victorians, including and especially their travel writings, I consider your remark about our site having a “neo-Victorian feel” the highest of compliments! Meanwhile, I’ve taken a peak at Wanderinglusting Life, which I gather is a place to share travel stories on behalf of ending world hunger. Using social media to benefit social causes is still an under-explored area. But who better to take it on than a real-world explorer like you! We wish you all the best and hope you will return to TDN often.

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Anna Maria Moore April 11, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I don’t know what this place is, but I’m glad I’m here. I’ve never felt so at home on a website; one that promotes a rootlessness brought upon by travel. You had me at the first paragraph, or perhaps even at the banner. I am curious and looking forward to what this place will reveal. I just wish it allowed me to subscribe to the email! It seems none of my addresses are good enough. Alas!

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- The Displaced Nation Team April 13, 2011 at 9:14 am
  Anna, I’m so sorry your email addresses don’t work. It seems the WordPress RSS widget isn’t as cross-cultural as we all are! Perhaps, until we overcome this glitch, you could follow us on Facebook and get your updates that way?
  Thank you so much for your wonderful comment — it indicates that our website is going in the direction we envisaged when we first conceived the idea.
  
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