Zeynep Gülin De Vincentiis …Plans On Burning Her Passport To Protest Birthplace Racism
At the request of Gulin, this podcast is no longer available.
This is Gulin’s comment on Facebook when the podcast was published.
Zeynep Gülin De Vincentiis is someone who is GOING TO EVERY COUNTRY ONLY TO BURN HER PASSPORTS IN THE END, she seeks to start a movement to END GLOBAL APARTHEID, to end BIRTHPLACE RACISM. Apart from her family, that is her daughter and husband, she breathes for this day in day out.
She is a private person, does not like talking about her personal life if it is not to use as an example or for the sake of the story. The only reason she accepted to give this interview was to open a discussion about the unfairness of breaking the world into countries with lines drawn by bloody wars or bloody politics, defining people according to which line they are born in and defining their radius of movement in the world we are born again by that line. She loathes statehood/citizenship the way they are defined today, she loathes imbecilic security searches, she loathes the economic system based on profit which leads to Economic Apartheid and so many evils in this world, she loathes that she is made to support this crooked system by her tax monies.
I am very VERY UPSET and disillusioned that I am reduced to this, leaving my husbands to travel or being outspoken about fellow travelers. This is also disrespectful and a big insult to me that there is NO MENTION at all about my burning passports not even an allusion to my core belief of visas and passports being symbols of a global discrimination in the introduction. I take it as disrespect and insult because it is something so important to me that I wish to devote my life to it.
Anybody interested may read more in my website: http://www.gulin.world/the-mission.html
But I know nobody really reads. This is what we are reduced to: Sensational headlines which grab short attention. Put a like and move on. I’d be curious to know if anybody even listened to the podcast before putting a like. We are too lazy to put comments, we are too lazy to think about deep stuff.
Okay, that’s it. I feel I have been used to get some sensational response and I obviously am contributing to it some more with writing these, so finished. I won’t be a pawn anymore! Go on playing your egoistic game and enjoy.
Gulin has traveled to 145 countries
On today’s episode, I welcome Zeynep Gülin De Vincentiis to Counting Countries. I took note of Gulin, who is considered a controversial member of the travel community. Her goal is to burn her passport after visiting every country in the world to protest what she terms “birthplace racism”. I realized she would make a great guest on Counting Countries with her independent thinking and very compelling life story.
Gulin grew up in a conservative family as well as society which was encouraging her to follow a traditional path: school, career, marriage and family. She bristled against society’s norms. The siren call of travel was too strong. In fact, she left her first two husbands to pursue her dreams of travel.
Gulin took three around the world trips. The first by land, second by ship, and the third by air. She met her third husband after getting kicked off a boat in Egypt, serendipitously meeting the man of her future dreams. Gulin talks about her excitement when seeing the Nile for the first time. She shares her love of Buenos Aires. She explains her frustration of getting a Canadian visa, and talks about flipping a truck while driving on a road trip.
Gulin has many strong opinions on the current state of our fellow travelers which she shares on her blog. She touches on Jessica Nabongo, Lexie Alford, Graham Hughes, Janice Lintz and Jakob Oster. She does not mince words and levels some criticism for our fellow travelers (well, except for Jakob).
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But for now, here’s my conversation with Gulin who was in her home outside of Rome, the Throne of St. Peter, while was in Chicago, home of deep dish pizza. Check out Giordano’s next time you are in Chicago for my favorite deep dish. Please listen in and enjoy.
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More about Zeynep Gülin De Vincentiis:
Born in: Istanbul
Passports from: Italy and Turkey
Favorite travel book: “Warriors- Life and Death Among the Somalis” by Gerald Hanley and “Endurance- Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing
Favorite travel film: Box of Moonlight and Away We Go
Favorite travel app: I don’t use apps or guidebooks, but started checking wikitravel.org with the mission to every country
Must carry: Passport, money and credit card are the obligatories. Apart from those… Bottle of water, paper, a couple of wet-wipes, small bottle of cologne and hand sanitizer. I also have a tiny kit with small items like band aid, salt and pepper, elastic band, needle and thread, cotton etc I used to carry a small pocket knife but had to give it up as we are not allowed them on the plane anymore. Turns out I don’t really miss it but it still is not nice to be restricted for -what I perceive to be- no reason. I don’t want to give anybody ideas but buy any drink in a glass bottle at the airport or get it on the airplane, go to the toilet, break the glass, there, you’ve got as dangerous a weapon if not more dangerous than a tiny pocket knife!
Favorite food: I don’t live to eat but eat to live, so no favourite food
Favorite drink: Water
Favorite Airline: I would have said Turkish Airlines if they did not have such horrible customer service. Also their website, online booking and check-in is crap. They could learn so much from the low-cost airline of Turkey, Pegasus, who is way ahead of the flag-carrier. Still, THY is unrivaled for me with its above standard on-flight services and competitive prices to many destinations, especially to Africa.
Favorite Hotel: A no name place in Koh Mak where I had the most idyllic days of my life with Carlo, one of the five handsome Italian men I met in Port Fuad when I was stranded.
Websites: Gulin World
Linkedin: Gulin
Twitter: Gulin World
Facebook: Gulin
Travel Map: Gulin’s Map
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About Counting Countries
Counting Countries is the only podcast to bring you the stories from the dedicated few who’ve spent their lives on the singular quest of traveling to every country in the world. Less people have traveled to every country in the world than have been to outer space.
Theme music for this podcast is Demeter’s Dance, written, performed, and provided by Mundi.
About GlobalGaz
Ric Gazarian is the host of Counting Countries. He is the author of three books: Hit The Road: India, 7000 KM To Go, and Photos From Chernobyl. He is the producer of two travel documentaries: Hit The Road: India and Hit The Road: Cambodia.
Ric is also on his own quest to visit every country in the world. You can see where he has traveled so far and keep up with his journey at GlobalGaz.com
How Many Countries Are There?
Well… that depends on who you ask!
The United Nations states that there are 193 member states.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth office states that there are 226 countries and territories.
The Century Club states that there are 327 sovereign nations, territories, enclaves, and islands.
The Most Traveled Person states that there are 875 unique parts of the world.
The Nomad Mania states that there are 1281 unique places in the world.
SISO says there are 3,978 places in the world.
Me? My goal is the 193 countries that are recognized by the UN, but I am sure I will visit some other places along the way.
An analysis of these lists and who is the best traveled by Kolja Spori.
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Zeynep Gülin De Vincentiis
what happened to this podcast Rick
listened to the first 30min want to hear the rest.
please check again 🙂
Ric… I don’t know if it is possible that you repeatedly misunderstand me so horribly or if you misrepresent me continuously on purpose for the sake of controversy. My request was that you take down the podcast right away BEFORE anybody had a chance to listen to it or download it so that we could discuss the situation between us, solve the problem so that you could repost it properly. NOT AFTER you post it as is on every platform on all your groups, even announcing that it would be taken down in less than 24 hours to get people to download it or to create commotion. Not after all the damage is done. It’s really frustrating that you post my comments from another medium taking it out of context, especially when it is rendered totally meaningless after you have changed and taken out things that sparked my comments in the first place. I’d appreciate if you do not talk about me or post my writings anywhere anymore. Thanks.
Ric… As I wrote before, my request was never to take down the podcast for good. It was to edit it and put it back up properly. As you have not done it yourself, I asked my husband to do it. So my request would be for you to pick it up from here and put it back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I74b0HLQxvU
I also want to remind you that you still haven’t apologized neither in person nor in public for making a declaration that I was kicked out from the group for several violations. Which is certainly not true, I was the one who wanted OUT of the group. I’m still waiting for you to clear my name on that. It would be nice if you make a post in your groups saying “Gülin was upset because I said she was kicked out and that wasn’t true. Gülin was upset because I did not mention her burning passports anywhere in the introduction. She was upset because while someone’s spreading his uncle’s ashes in every country is something so outstandingly important to put in the title, a traveller’s going to every country to burn her passports was not significant enough for me. And it is something so important to her to devote her life to.”
True, I have many strong opinions on the current state of our fellow travelers, but even truer is the fact that I have many strong opinions on the current state of our world, security and visas which are an unavoidable part of travel. And those are much more important to me than the state of travelers. What’s more, I might have named names, because it was necessary to give examples, but my criticism is never personal, always to the essence. Travel has become a race towards self-conceit/narcissism and stupidity.
http://www.gulin.world/blog-eng/traveling-the-world-looking-at-yourself
Lexie is not the only one, most 193’ers are not traveling the world, they are just going around the world holding a magnifying mirror in hand and looking at themselves. Is it the selfie culture? Is it our sensation-seeking media priming behaviors? Or is it the social media turning people into solipsistic egomaniacs after clicks and likes? Take your pick.
The one thing I regretted in my interview was mentioning Gunnar’s name. I actually wanted to take it off. I mean I didn’t say he was my idol or anything of course but that he was sort of okay among all the record runners. And I’ve changed my opinion on that after his sponsoring Lexie and this stupid second round.
“Gunnar has been to every country twice?!! Wtf!” was my reaction.
So are we going to go for third and fourth rounds now? And then the fifth? Is he raising the bar? What kind of a madness is this? Do these people think they are achieving nirvana or getting rockstar status by crossing some arbitrary borders? When are they going to shed their society-imposed blindness, when will they see the pointlessness of borders and boasting about crossing them? I suppose it’s too much to expect much out of this crowd who are so full of themselves; such monumental egos! I thought there was something wrong with me; I was asking “What kind of a psychological problem does doing three round-the-world tours point to?” But no, I realize I’m just so fine when I see these people.
Obviously they believe they are doing something special and/or becoming something special doing these “travels”. Otherwise they wouldn’t have done it or wouldn’t be bragging about it like this. They think they are the greatest.
They are in a race to be the most stupidest (I know that’s wrong English, I should either say “the most stupid” or “the stupidest” but stupidity of this size requires more superlatives, for emphasis 😉 and they are not aware. The most stupidest to spend one’s money and time on flights, visas and the logistics of it all for such short visits, what’s more, to do it twice!
Gunnar says “Will I do it a third time? I’m not that innocent.”
What has innocence got to do with it? I suppose he meant to say “I’m not that naive” and used that naive in the sense of “stupid.”
To Gunnar’s credit, he does not say “I am and will always be the first person in history to have been to every country twice.”
I said it, I mean wrote it to Thor too. He keeps iterating how it’s never been done and he’ll be the first in history. It’s no secret he is fed up and finding it very difficult, and I suppose we are among the few who can conceive how trying it is what he’s doing. On the other hand…
“Just think of this… How would people who live in a borderless world and see this current state of the world like the way we see Apartheid or slavery today look at you and your project? How would those future generations look at you?
Someone in that distant future would be just travelling to all the “countries” without the need to get any visas or cross any borders in no significant amount of time; s/he might even trace your exact steps, only without the visa and border hassles. How long would it take? Definitely less than a year.
What do you think they’d think of you? I’d say they’d think you a fool. So I’d beware if I were you, lest you go down history as a laughing stock while intending to be written as the biggest hero in history ;)”
Thing is… The people I look up to do not have their names all over the media, so many people do not even know about them, that’s the trouble…
I wish, rather than the racers, Anthony Asael was known by everybody in the community. Of course I also wish that my project to go to every country to burn passports was more respected, popular and followed.
I am so disillusioned that in a crowd of people going to every country I’ve found only one person who understands and sees the discrimination of visas and nationhood, that there was only one person in all your what, 70 podcasts until now, who mentioned “when open borders will be possible.” No wonder those two do not hold the prestigious passports that majority of the rest holds. And the podcast with Thai Pongtharin Tantyhasindhu is a testimony of how people are so indoctrinated, that they are so blind even when they are the ones being discriminated against.
If interested, listen here
https://globalgaz.com/pongtharin-tanthasindhu-113-countries-and-travelling-on-a-thai-passport/
and read my comment beneath.