Recently, someone I followed on Wordpress, a gentleman called Peter, wrote about postcards (does anyone remember what they are?) and how they are losing their appeal over posting on social media instantly. I've never been a big postcarder myself, the only one that I can remember sending - back to myself actually - was when I went to the United Nations in New York in 1997!!!
VISITING THE UNITED NATIONS
Although the UN is physically located on United States soil they are regarded as being on international territory. The UN issue their own stamps through the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA). All mail sent from UN will use UNPA stamps and not those from the United States Postal Services. They also have they own UN frank. To mark my trip to UN, I bought a postcard of the Golden Rule mosaic and sent it back to myself from the UN post office. If you're a philatelist, this would be an interesting one to add to your collection.
The half-ton mosaic depicts people of different nationalities standing together with the words “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” inscribed on the surface (Source : United Nations website )
I wrote on the left hand side to remind myself that all mail sent from the UN has its own stamp and frank. Unfortunately the UN frank didn't come through on the postcard at all so I don't know what it looks like.
When I was looking for my UN postcard today, I found it in my photo album as I used to use that a travel journal. Surprisingly, I only have two hideous photos of myself from my UN visit. I thought I'd better not embarrass myself by including it in my post. The other interesting thing that I did find was the "Welcome to the United Nations" leaflet which is still in mint condition after all these years.
I haven't been back to New York since and that is something on my radar so I can experience the big apple again. And if you have an eagle eye for the date of my visit, you'll be glad to know that I did take photos in front to the Twin Towers. Again, I'm not going to embarrass myself by posting those photos ^_^
SOCIAL EXPERIMENT
Anyway back to my fellow Wordpress blogger, Peter. In his post, he invited his followers to send him a postcard. I thought it would be great to engage a bit more on Wordpress (I'm doing less of that since I started on Steemit) and a good opportunity for me to shill Taiwan. This is the postcard I got, and today and I went down to the post office to send it off to Peter in UK.
And this brings me onto my social experiment, which I am in two minds on whether I should do or not. I can't share my address to the mass due to various personal reasons, so I was thinking to do something different. I thought I could send a postcard to anyone who would like one. It would be a personal gift from me, and I imagine nice for you to receive something through the post that doesn't ask you for money, like utility bills.
The reason I said I'm in two minds to do this is because you have to give me your address to send you the postcard. Some people will be concerned about releasing personal information, and what I may do with it. I'm not going to release or sell your information or use it in any malicious or illegal way. My intention is pure and simple, and that's part of the social experiment, placing trust in me, a person you don't know. I will not send you anything that is offensive, satire, NSFW, politics related or may cause you offence, and I will erase all traces of your address after I have sent the postcard.
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This is will not cost you anything, as postage is cheap as chips here. You could argue that I could just give some Steem to anyone who responds to this, but's that's not the point. The other parts of the social experiment is to build engagement, develop relationships, and more importantly revive a practice (sending postcards) that is gradually dying out.
If you're interested in taking part in this social experiment by placing trust in me, please do drop me a message on livinguktaiwan#6787. Don't drop your address here !! You can find me lurking around on various Discord channels such as TravelFeed, OCD, and PAL amongst others. I hope to hear from you.
Pauline
aka @LivingUKTaiwan or LUT
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