Current Meaning
Porters are still employed to shift burdens in many third-world countries, especially where animals like camels, oxen, horses and dogs, or vehicles like carts, trucks, ships, trains and aircraft, have not taken over human bearers' traditional functions or where such alternatives are not practicable. Child soldiers are also typically compelled to serve as porters.
The Sherpa people of Nepal have established a reputation as mountaineering porters, and are considered indispensable for the highest Himalayan expeditions.
Porters who work at railway stations in India are called coolies, a term for unskilled Asian labourers. The term "coolie" was also used in China for porters in general.
The term "porter" is also used in general for hotel, railway, hospital and airport employees who shift luggage.
In many public places such as airports, border crossings, sea ports and railway stations, porters are often a nuisance to tourists, shifting their luggage without permission and demanding excessive fees.
Read more about this topic: Porter (carrier)
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or meaning:
“But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“From man’s blood-sodden heart are sprung
Those branches of the night and day
Where the gaudy moon is hung.
What’s the meaning of all song?
“Let all things pass away.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)