"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Saturday, January 05, 2013
Catching up with Howie in the far southwest of India (And don't forget: Goo-gle SUCKS!)
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Some of the rioting in New Delhi in response to the gang rape of a young woman on a bus. It's from a clip you can view here. (I couldn't embed it because the demolished the rest of this post, thanks to the software our bloghost, Blogger (now owned by Google), forces us to use, the worst software of the last 1000 years. Let's say it all together: Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS! by Ken
As many readers will have noticed, Howie has been in India these last two or three weeks -- first in Delhi, where his friend Roland eventually joined him, then in Cochin in the state of Kerala (see the map above). I have been perhaps remiss in directing attention to the posts he's been putting up on his travel blog, "Around The World Blog." So I thought this would be a good time to catch up. There are more posts to come, including one on the, er, adventurous return journey (still in progress!). But here's what has already appeared.
The biggest story in Delhi for the week we've been here so far-- dominating the front page and next 4 pages of every newspaper-- is about a young woman who was gang-raped on a bus and how common it is for women to be sexually harassed. The whole city had practically been shut down by the protests over the episode and the woman was so brutally assaulted that she may die and has already had her intestines removed. [As we know, the woman was evacuated to Singapore, where she died. -- Ed.</>]
Kerala state along the western side of the southern tip of India -- Cochin (Kochi) is about midway along the coast, below Ernakulam.
Kerala has come a long way since [Howie's first visit, in 1970]. It's a relatively wealthy state now and has been successfully promoted the way Florida was in the U.S. in the 50s and 60s-- a beautiful, unspoiled tropic vacation paradise. The explosively expanding Indian middle class likes vacationing here. So do Europeans. . . . Our first choice in any case is to rent a house. So we did. This one is a brand new apartment overlooking the Arabian Sea, a little way (5-10 minute walk) from the hustle and bustle of the real touristy parts of the island. It's nothing too fancy. . . . Roland and I are only the second guests to have stayed here; it's that new. Two weeks ago Cochin had a big music festival-- it's in swing 'til March-- and M.I.A. (Maya), a U.K. pop star/rapper-- from Sri Lanka-- headlined and she and her family stayed in our house. They were the first guests. Her father was a well-known Tamil activist. She got into some kind of twitter argument with Anderson Cooper after she felt he implied she's a terrorist (which she isn't).
Traditional tourist guide books all say Cochin in central Kerala is a beautiful town but they them give it the bum rap of claiming it's the kind of place to stay for a day or two before moving on to see the rest of the state. That may be a good way to go-- but it surely isn't the only way to go. Cochin (Kochi) is a dreamy, mellow tropical paradise, an idillic place to just veg out and relax. . . . I found a serious ayurvedic clinic and the doctor understood how to treat hives. . . . She gave me a topical cream and some herbal manjishtadi kashayam tablets (which claims to be good for skin diseases, obsesity, gout, syphilis, eye diseases and the common cold). . . . The massage was inexpensive (around $18) and absolutely expertly done, good enough for me to make appointments for every day for the rest of our stay in Kerala. The thing I like about it are the long stroke-- like one powerful stroke from the neck to the ankle or one the entire length of the spine.
And don't forget: Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS! Tell your relatives, your friends, your enemies. Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS! Goo-gle SUCKS!
I just keep going to Morocco again and again. True, I once spent a month in Egypt, but when it comes to North Africa I fell in love with Morocco in 1969 and was just there again-- maybe the 15th time?-- for most of December. Roland is always bringing up Tunisia and Libya (not to mention Ethiopia and Mauritania, where as many as one-fifth of the population are still slaves) as places we should go. We drove down an endless rutted road to sleepy, art-deco Sidi Ifni once and we spent a month in Mali once, but that's about as close as I'm getting to Mauritania and I don't care how groovy the beach is near Nouakchott or how ancient Ouadane, Chinguetti, Oualata and Tichitt are.
I read Skeletons on the Zahara, about Americans who were captured and made into slaves there, and I'm staying away. Even if Algeria isn't, Tunisia has always been a lot more plausible and Europeans flock there, mostly for the shiny new beach resorts around Monastir, especially the cheap ones catering to pachae-tours-- although I have to admit I've always been captivated by the history of Carthage. Tunisia has been trying hard to develop tourism as a major economic sector and as many as 11.5% of the population depends on it for their livelihood. It's overrun with Libyan, French, German, Italian and British tourists; plenty of Eastern Europeans have also been coming, but Americans stay away. With the uncertainty of this week's events, Americans are likely to stay away for the immediate future even more resolutely. Russia just evacuated all its nationals today, and the uprising devastated the tourist industry... at least for now.
While most Tunisians celebrate the victory of the people in ousting Dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country's key tourism industry sees a large negative impact from the riots and revolution. Tourists are already being evacuated from Tunisia.
While President Ben Ali was a totalitarian leader, tourists from Europe and the Arab world kept streaming to the country at an ever-increasing rate. Only few of the arrivals did even know that Tunisia was a dictatorship, even if they came year after year. Superficially, Tunisia seemed a country in balance.
This widely held picture of Tunisia as a peaceful and safe Mediterranean destination has been completely tarnished during the last week. The Tunisian revolution has been followed closely by media in all of the country's main markets.
With the state of emergency declared in all of Tunisia, and with the unclear political situation after the fall of President Ben Ali, governments from Spain in the south, via Switzerland, Germany and the UK, to Norway in the north have issued travel warnings for Tunisia.
Typically, these travel warnings state that "unnecessary" travels to Tunisia should be avoided. "Unnecessary" travels of course include tourist trips.
In most countries that are Tunisia's main markets, this has great implications. It means travellers can, without extra costs, cancel their trips. Further, it often means charter companies must cancel their trips. In many occasions, it even means travel insurances lose their value, further limiting travellers' ability to visit the country.
In the case of Tunisia, the development has been even more dramatic for the travel industry. Borders, including the Tunisian air space, were closed this afternoon, preventing tourists from entering or leaving the popular destination.
Reports from Tunisia indicate most foreigners on holiday in the country are reacting with relative calm to the ongoing political turmoil. Although the death of a Swiss-Tunisian woman-- who was shot as she watched the protesters clashing with police from her second floor balcony-- has led to an unease among many travellers.
The unsafe situation has prompted several tour operators to consider an evacuation of charter tourists. British operator Thomas Cook has already started repatriating 1,800 holidaymakers, the company stated today. Six extraordinary flights have been ordered to organise the evacuation, although the closure of Tunisian air space may complicate the operation.
Also some German and Belgian tour operators have made arrangements to evacuate their holidaymakers. The move followed a call by the German Foreign Ministry saying tourists in Tunisia could demand an earlier return given the dangerous situation.
Meanwhile, one cancellation after the other is ticking in, with tour operators and ordinary airlines cancelling most planned trips to Tunisia for the weeks to come. Even cruise ships have started announcing cancellations of stop-overs in Tunis.
While the Tunisian economy is very diversified and the tourism sector only contributes with around 7 percent of the country's GDP, the sector is among the largest employers in the country and gathers for a large number of small and medium-sized companies. Tunisia's tourism sector is estimated to provide some 350,00o jobs, representing some 12 percent of the country's entire workforce.
A longer downturn in the tourism sector due to continued turmoil therefore would deepen the social problems related to a high unemployment rate in the country. These social problems were the direct cause of the protests starting in December, which led to the political riots that finally led to the fall of President Ben Ali today.
Tunisia, along with other North African countries, has experienced impressive growth rates in its tourism sector during the last decade, even during the financial crisis. The sector was among the most promising to further reduce unemployment in the country, with many new resorts being planned along the country's Mediterranean coast.
On the other hand, the weeklong successful-- and relatively peaceful-- referendum, which is resulting in independence for southern Sudan, offers intrepid travelers a new destination that few have seen. The oft-repeated thing about tourism in Sudan: it's hard to get in, but if you manage to, you can visit some awesome tourist attractions without ever seeing another tourist. All through Sudan the people are reputed to be among the friendliest and most hospitable on earth. Travelers are still a novelty for the people there, so they are really as excited to experience you as you are to experience them. On the other hand, you can't use American credit cards there and in the South there are malaria, deadly "drinking" water and poisonous spiders and snakes to worry about.
But you can fly into Juba, the capital of the world's newest country, directly from Nairobi, Cairo, Entebbe and Addis Ababa as well as Khartoum. Juba is small enough to walk all through in a day. Trip Advisor readers recommend 3 hotels and 3 restaurants, but Juba is going to be a boomtown really fast now, and things are going to get crazy for the next year. Remember, southern Sudan-- like Mauritania-- was predominantly a source of dark-skinned slaves for lighter-skinned Arabs. There's a lot of change that will be happening in the new nation now.
A tribal chief preferred not to ponder the meticulous nature of turning aspirations into a nation: "Look at those happy men over there," said Yout Manyual. "They have been here for three days and every night they dance with drums until morning. This is our right until all the votes are counted. We know then that development will come and children will be taken to school."
Beyond the roadside money-changers and the old army trucks half buried in the dirt, Dr. Hassan Awule made rounds at the unfinished Morobo Clinic he started during the war. He said life would improve in coming years but worried that corruption and tribalism-- the spoilers of many African nations-- might jeopardize a new country. As a lizard scurried up a wall, he opened the door to what he hopes one day will be an operating room.
"We began with just a pharmacy," he said. "Then we added one bed, then two, then three, and now we have 40 beds. They are not enough. We are treating malaria, typhoid, HIV, intestinal worms and infection. Many families can't afford care so we give them credit. You can't turn them away."
Children lay curled next to mothers, two women cut squares from a roll of gauze, and thin men slept on beds in tiny rooms and hallways. The dry season has left the clinic's well nearly empty and Awule pays money he barely has for water trucked in from the river. A genial man with a shaved head and a mercurial demeanor, the doctor said that one day he would open a pediatrics unit and a morgue.
"We had slavery," he said as a stray cow grazed outside his fence, "and now it's time for liberation."
The word "slavery" echoes in the south, seared into the public consciousness, an heirloom that makes independence sweet, if undefined. Southern Sudanese are more eloquent in explaining past persecutions and wars wrought by the Arab-controlled north than they are at rhapsodizing about the future. They know only that it's out there, and should soon belong to them.
Don't forget your Bradt Guide. Meanwhile, the situation in Tunisia today is tense and there have been gun battles in Tunis. Ben Ali's head of security, Ali Seriati has been accused of fomenting violence and taken into custody while a power vacuum ads to a sense of anarchy.
It's nearly 11 AM now, the middle of our second day in Marrakech. Fatima came at 9 and made breakfast, and we're just relaxing before going out for another arduous day of exploring the souks and hidden gardens of Marrakech.
The riad is superb. Officially there are 4 bedrooms, but actually there are 4 bedrooms plus 2 children's bedrooms. When you enter, you come to a central courtyard, which is covered by a retractable roof three stories up. The kitchen is there, and it's kind of a sitting room/dinner room. Off that is Lisa's suite, the only bedroom on the first floor. The riad has been lovingly restored to a really incredible degree, combining modern expectations with traditional North African fantasies. Beautiful tile work, beautiful iron work, incredible fixtures, doorways to die for... Every detail is just wonderful.
The neighborhood, Sidi Mimoun, is pretty cool too. Our next-door neighbor is Mohammed V (the king). We were warned by the property manager to refrain from pointing cameras at the palace from our rooftop terrace. On the other side of our riad is Yves St Laurent's riad. To get to our riad off the main street of the neighborhood, you have to go down a couple of alleys where there are no cars. So it's pretty quiet here, other than when the neighborhood children get going with a drum circle.
Anyway, upstairs are the rest of the bedrooms plus a large living room, which I'm using as an office as well. It has a beautiful Moroccan-style tiled-and-brick fireplace-- as well as a more traditional-- actual modern-- heater. It gets up into the 80s in the daytime but down to around 50 at night. The third flight up is the rooftop terrace, although halfway to the top is one of the children's' bedrooms, the same as any of the other bedrooms except without an en suite bathroom.
Yesterday I took Lisa around to get a feel for the Medina. She loved it and basked in the foreignness and exotic feel. I told her Fes is 10 times more foreign and exotic, but she probably thinks I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Marrakech may seem otherworldly, but it's very cosmopolitan, with thousands of Europeans living here... and tourists everywhere, and very much being catered to in terms of restaurants and shops. There's even a vegetarian restaurant, Earth Cafe, just off the Jemaa el F'na on Riad Zitoun el Kedim. We had a yummy-- albeit salty-- lunch there.
One thing we saw last night that really knocked me for a loop was a first. Morocco was formerly overrun with aggressive touts-- not just persistent pests insisting on being your guide; they still have some of that-- but threatening unemployed young men who made it more than unpleasant for tourists. Eventually, by the 80s, the bazaaris, who really run this country, "got rid" of them. The very aggressive ones ceased to exist in city after city. It's even safe to walk around Fes now. Roland says it reminds him of Disneyland. Now that's an exaggeration. But last night in the Jemaa el F'na, the main square, we weren't just accosted by the regular assortment of young male touts but, for the first time (for me), two separate female touts! They weren't shy, and it just isn't something you would ever expect to see in a Muslim country. You've come a long way, baby! A shopkeeper we met told us the government is even discouraging polygamy, probably more than the Morman cults do.
The temple in the water, coffee made from mongoose crap, and more from Bali -- all on Howie's "Around the World" blog
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Speaking of updates, don't forget to keep up to date on Howie's adventures on Bali via his Around the World blog. You don't want to miss his report -- second-hand, alas -- on the coffee made from mongoose crap, do you? -- Ken
"Nothing wrong with a little free market incentive to deny people health care in exchange for profit…"
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The Middleman
[Click to enlarge]
by Ken
Or as Howard Dean put it talking to Keith Olbermann on Countdown Monday night, "This is a battle between the insurance companies and the American people."
Note that the Lower Hudson Valley's Journal News has its London-born editorial cartoonist, Matt Davies, post his cartoons (which you'll note are somewhat unusual in having titles) on a blog on its website with a brief explanatory note about each! Obviously an editorial cartoon doesn't need explanation or amplification, or it's one suckitacious cartoon. Still, it's neat to have a tiny extra glimpse into the artist's thought process.
Yesterday I added this cartoon of Matt's --
Above And, Um, Beyond
[Click to enlarge]
to Howie's post about the political decline of America's Princess. Matt's blog note for this cartoon was:
Sheesh. Every so often, a situation arises wherein the cartoonist wonders how you draw a cartoon about something already so ludicrously cartoonish? Sarah Palin became famous for, among other things, shooting at stuff that didn’t stand a chance -- from helicopters, so here you go…
His note for the cartoon "The Middleman" above:
"Nothing wrong with a little free market incentive to deny people health care in exchange for profit…"
This one's for you, Dr. Dean! Note that I am standing by the position I announced last night:
From now on, no one should be allowed to participate in any way in the drafting of health care legislation without proving that they've read Dr. Dean's book, Howard Dean's Prescription for REAL Healthcare Reform. Proof that they've understood it would be nice too, but that may be beyond the reach of proof.
DWT SCHEDULE NOTE
We have a proper post coming up at the next regular posting time, 10am PT/1pm ET [oops, these are the correct times; it kind of defeated the purpose of giving them to give them wrong] -- yes, Howie has more to say about health care reform denier Sen. Blanche Lincoln!
Note that on the subject of health care reform I got some stuff off my chest last night (including the above quote from Howard Dean on Countdown), and later Howie added an 11pm PT post (well, remember, halfway around the world it was already today yesterday) on the Indonesian election.
By the way, now that you know Howie's traveling, don't forget to check for entries on his Around the World blog. [Note: The link should be good now. Just goes to show that a person really ought to be asleep in bed at the hour when the original version of this post was done.]
