tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-206602642024-03-17T19:59:04.524-07:00Around the World Blog"I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts"
-Herman MelvilleDownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.comBlogger441125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-24688847410393331262022-06-16T14:07:00.002-07:002022-06-16T14:08:01.528-07:00A Cuban Carol<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpSvpa1EInz7xSY8pAZVFz1FB7t5F6G-n8gtVT-pPwtTbG_Juvz2Bx9Pjn0YzlBN9y5fnjIEE_RLyue0Yce_tZGejxY7pfeir6VTvE0gVVMgBi62pHZaCAKvkiaG9R3y-VMjK4UmrqlKfyHbOIbMTkVYbyMzPWWDMLmx_cVi24pb5Y403inQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="960" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpSvpa1EInz7xSY8pAZVFz1FB7t5F6G-n8gtVT-pPwtTbG_Juvz2Bx9Pjn0YzlBN9y5fnjIEE_RLyue0Yce_tZGejxY7pfeir6VTvE0gVVMgBi62pHZaCAKvkiaG9R3y-VMjK4UmrqlKfyHbOIbMTkVYbyMzPWWDMLmx_cVi24pb5Y403inQ=w441-h235" width="441" /></a></p><br /><br /><p></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><b>by Nigel Best</b></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">(This is a cautionary fable. Some minor editing has taken place since the original story appeared many years ago.)</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">July 22</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Well, after the drunken debacle of falling off my moped (forgot to put down the stand) and </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">knocking over, like dominos, the 12 mopeds that were next to me, I've decided to continue exploring Cuba in a rental car.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">July 23</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Raced around with two bottles of rum in the car last night and woke up in a strange bed with three people I don't recall meeting. That's all I know.However, deep sea fishing today. No Old Man and the Sea comments, thank you.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This old man beat the sea today! Two, count them, two marlin!! Now to eat. Then to enjoy some down time, which, for me, means what exactly? </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My friends from last night arrived with rum and are waiting in the lobby. Ah nightime!!</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">July 24</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I'd never seen so many hermit crabs. Hundreds of them in hundreds of different size shells scuttling past my eyeballs where I'd come to a face-down stop in the sand at some point on my journey back to my hotel. The largest crab was in front of my right eye as it took up new residence in the remains of a coconut shell. Behind him, a line of crabs all moving into the larger abode left by the crab in front.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijN-AMXtz4pbuHQZ-tPeHeOgBVsxSKMM-QiMf_x4MCi3Z2itPxCcLgkvK-oL2PiBmYazRqyyEDTfFIXvYjsYrnHEtaoGemEcW-POalKPW9hqgjinRXAd_6JaE-uKNR3EnMzmcx-9miaYbAp5Ixta1QhDchCqJ6kFKgiw20JifcLbhqA0w83w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="959" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijN-AMXtz4pbuHQZ-tPeHeOgBVsxSKMM-QiMf_x4MCi3Z2itPxCcLgkvK-oL2PiBmYazRqyyEDTfFIXvYjsYrnHEtaoGemEcW-POalKPW9hqgjinRXAd_6JaE-uKNR3EnMzmcx-9miaYbAp5Ixta1QhDchCqJ6kFKgiw20JifcLbhqA0w83w=w376-h375" width="376" /></a></div><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I needed a shell too.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I have no idea where the rental car is. I vaguely remember stumbling down a shallow river just before dawn, my body already starting to scream from hauling in those two marlin yesterday on a day-long fishing </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">excursion.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I must have finally collapsed in the sand at the </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">river's mouth. The last place I recall being last night was somewhere south of here where the </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">government has evicted the fishing community to make room for a new mega-hotel. I do remember the fire we'd built using wood from the remains of someone's once-proud seaside family home. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">There was music, stars, rum being passed around, conversation - some for, some against replacing existing currencies with international notes.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I heard about American embargos. I heard about the inability to import milk; Rice ration books in homes; engineers working as bellhops.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">At some point I must have fallen asleep, only waking to dying embers, a severe </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">lack of people, and no car. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I did recall that the river wound down to the sea and that I may be able to get to the beach, then the hotel.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I recall tripping over mangrove tree roots in the water. With each stumble I sensed there could be eyes of despicable creatures watching me. Cuban crocodiles, perhaps ? <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jeezeus, if I’d tripped and fallen in that swamp?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Instead, I woke eyeball-to-eyeball with crustaceans seeking out new homes. My body aching from fatigue, I've arrived </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">home and now my partner wants breakfast and sunbathing. No questions, just that look on the face that says, "No pity here!" </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It's going to be a hot day, and I need to find the shell that's my car.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">July 25</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It was 8:10 a.m. when I got a phone call in my </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">room. Tired hardly describes my manner. As it was, I hadn't been able to sleep last night.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">How to explain that damn missing car?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-9UiEzcziWPoXGXJgBk0I1S6f3UXdyFr8Vpi8SK7OO0wMrUIrpuAKMSToBLDxFZXNM1lXOtGQ0N4fjkhUhY9oBiBngA8TMmBaNyJJfkIGA_FLmg1QCmYiWerVQ1_9fdEgJ9Cr5LC04GJM_JiG-mfAU_yJouP9im6o_741bSLMmHZCo1Djkw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-9UiEzcziWPoXGXJgBk0I1S6f3UXdyFr8Vpi8SK7OO0wMrUIrpuAKMSToBLDxFZXNM1lXOtGQ0N4fjkhUhY9oBiBngA8TMmBaNyJJfkIGA_FLmg1QCmYiWerVQ1_9fdEgJ9Cr5LC04GJM_JiG-mfAU_yJouP9im6o_741bSLMmHZCo1Djkw" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The mind raced all night with scenarios.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I had not contemplated this one.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I have to go into town for noon to speak with the local constabulary.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">That's all I know.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Steadying my resolve with a couple of rums as I wait out the time.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">When I was younger, someone told me, "Never </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">give the game away. I wrote that today on the wall of the holding cell of the police station in Guadalavaca as I waited for my interview about the rental car I lost in Cuba.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Two hours I had to sit, sweating in that cell. Plenty of time to be arrogant, I thought.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then came a walk to an interview room, where a white-haired elderly policewoman proceeded to ask me questions about my past.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">What the hell does this have to do with a rental car, I thought as she asked me about England, Canada, Bermuda, Chile, USA, South Africa, Egypt.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then the questioning about my parents, my </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">schooling?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Opening an envelope, she pulled out a photo of the car I'd rented.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Si. Si," I nodded., relief flooding through me that the car looked fine. “That's it. Did you find it?"</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">She gave me a look I didn't like, and I started to sweat some more as she picked up the photo, then stood to leave without saying anything else.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Forty-five minutes I sat alone. Then, in came another cop, who proceeded to show me a series of photos of what could possibly have been the car.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Jeezeus, no vehicle should look like that, but hell if I knew how it came to look like a missile had hit it.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He mentioned some blood and a couple of spent shell casings, then asked me to stay where I was.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I was really sweating now, and the idea of staying in that holding cell had me wishing I'd had more rum before I'd left the hotel. What the hell happened two nights ago?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Two hours is a long time to wait for anything.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Finally, in came someone who said he was a </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">representative from the Canadian Consulate. My eyebrows slightly raised as he said "I'm Seymour Cawks."</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I daren't laugh out loud. I couldn't invent this if I tried, I thought.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Seymour asked what I'd been doing and who I'd been talking to. I told him I was out for a drive, drank too much, needed to stop, fell down an embankment, couldn't locate the car.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I told him about the being lost in a river, the hermit crabs, and passing out on a beach.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Seymour explained that the police at the station were concerned that I and the car may have had something to do with the disappearance of a local U.B.A. official.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Goddamnit! What the hell do I know about </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">bananas?" I shouted across the table at him.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He got up and left. Another sweaty fifty minutes. My head was beginning to hurt.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">When he came back he told me to stay out of </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">trouble, as though I'm a fifth-grade school boy, and that because it's a national holiday to celebrate Castro's revolution, all the government officials, including the judges, weren't working, </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“This could have been more serious. The police are letting you go,” he said.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He talked to me about what could have happened. He explained that the bullet casings were of major concern as Cuban nationals are not allowed guns. The police would investigate. I had no gun, so I wasn’t a suspect, he explained to me before asking me to sign some papers and agree to not rent vehicles in Cuba for two years.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then he waved me out.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I got back to the hotel and found a note from my Cuban friends inviting me out tonight and </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">tomorrow for rum, a pig-roast and celebrations.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">How can I resist?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Viva La Revolucion!</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p2" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">August 5</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">There's nothing like opening the front door and </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">being greeted by the sharp, gnashing teeth of </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">irony.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I'd just made coffee a little more than an hour ago, Cuban coffee with a serious amount of Cuban rum to set the day's mood. At that moment, the doorbell rang.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdbTSsbPlh5Vy9O_1CwuBuO3PK4uzY0_nXToQy3DTgYcrgpeTVIximyI0vSsA4_z7PgUgIaWOp8tjKNjz1lx96Lt2jJq0T3FNKve7RNzW4stQV06yGw_rRvMXI6D2vvbCtdWa9qoXsjoqsxlDXBC1skQwSSemvNRFfojkbZnyKiugIjaLKCw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdbTSsbPlh5Vy9O_1CwuBuO3PK4uzY0_nXToQy3DTgYcrgpeTVIximyI0vSsA4_z7PgUgIaWOp8tjKNjz1lx96Lt2jJq0T3FNKve7RNzW4stQV06yGw_rRvMXI6D2vvbCtdWa9qoXsjoqsxlDXBC1skQwSSemvNRFfojkbZnyKiugIjaLKCw" width="180" /></a></div><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Through the doorshades I could make out two men in suits, and at first I thought I was going to be met with a beautiful religious message as I stood sipping my hot rum with coffee. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Not to be! </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“We’re from the Foreign Government office," one announced. "We need to talk about the recent situation in which you were involved in Cuba. May we come in?" </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I took a good long drink, then showed them to the kitchen table.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A quick visit to tell me that there seems to be a bit more to the demolition of the rental car I lost in Cuba.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The basic outline is that there is a serious investigation surrounding the car, and a possible connection to someone important who has been missing for almost two weeks. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Have you checked the trunk?" I asked, only to be met by four raised eyebrows.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Would you like some coffee?" I then asked, and sauntered over to the kitchen counter and proceeded to pour more rum into my cup. They politely declined.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So, I now have to return to Cuba, with an m accompanying member of our fine government, on August 18th to answer some more questions.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The g-men left, for now, and I'm supposed to await telephone instructions. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Arriba! Salud!"</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">August 8</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So, Cuba it’s to be in just over a week. I’m to fly in and fly out; No beaches and no duty free. What is the world coming to?</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My lawyer called and assured me not to worry, but, laughing, suggested no rum for at least 24 hours before I leave.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“Just in case,” she cautioned.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Was it worth asking in case of what? </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’ve been assured it's all a simple procedural item based on a mix-up at the police station from two weeks ago. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’m not implicated in anything. I’ll be home by 11 p.m.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The escort is a fellow from the Foreign Countries Offices who will ensure that I’m taken care of.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Odd situation indeed, but life’s a dog that doesn’t always like to do as it’s told.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">August 18</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I'm sitting in a toilet stall at the airport and I have mere minutes to write. All indications are the next few hours could be very rough.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I stayed up last night and had a few token drinks so I could look and feel my best at 6:30 a.m. when I was picked up for this day-long excursion.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Richard had greeted me with a bemused look that quickly changed to one of concern, perhaps because of the slight smell of rum. <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>Once in his car, I'm not sure he knew what to do when a silver travel flask emerged from my jacket pocket, other than for him to try and crack another awful joke.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I offered him some rum, but these young government types seem to have an aversion to anything that possibly hints at fun.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I'm still trying to figure out why the Foreign Office has sent a pimply-faced 20- something to escort me to Cuba for the day to answer some questions about a missing rental car lost when I was in Cuba three weeks ago.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I wouldn't have trusted me at that age to transport me at this age to a county fair, let alone across an ocean.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My mood quickly turned sour though here at the airport once we'd been shown into a side room. </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Richard laid out some protocol ballyhoo, then told me that once on the plane I've to hand over my phone for the duration. Once in Cuba the passport is to also be handed over.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So here I am in this bathroom stall frantically trying to delete my web browser history, text messages, telephone numbers, and photos.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Out of curiosity last night, I shook some bones and pepper in a brown bag, tipped them out and did a reading the way I'd been shown in New Orleans many years ago at a voodoo ceremony at a house I'd been taken to by a taxi driver. That's a story for another time. The bones told me:</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“You could learn a tough lesson today. More than likely, it was for you to hear. It's important that you accept failure gracefully. It could be that the one who kicks you when you're down will also be the one who helps you get up. There are strange twists to this day that you may not expect. Take things in stride."</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br />August 21</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Jeezeus! The powers that be, sitting around in offices and courtrooms deciding destinies.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The verdict was quick and three days in a Cuban jail beckoned, as well as paying the cost of the destroyed car. It could have been 10 years. No-one thought jail time would be in the cards.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Stranded, and no help from my pimple-faced representative. He just seemed angry and had <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>little interest in how this unfolded. After signing some papers, he just upped and left.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The jail was 40 minutes from Havana, and an 8-hour drive from the court in Holguin where this all took place.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of all the prisons that have had my company over the years, this ranks as a four-star. Everything was open-air and the food was excellent, the only downside being the mosquitos, tree rats at night (once caught and cooked they taste good), and the two resident scorpions in my cell.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Most of the other inmates were inside for nothing more than petty crimes like robbing houses of food or clothing.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">One man was inside for a ten-year stretch for having slaughtered two cows, a heinous crime in Cuba.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">There were a couple of dissidents who had been inside for a while. For me, though, it would take Katie flying in the funds for my release and I would be free.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Two men of note though from the jail. <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>Juan, a 70-something, who held sway each day emerging from his cell to sit on a rock and tell stories to groups of us of the glorious days of Che.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"One day," he proclaimed, "the current tides will turn, ok? A warmer wind will blow, and the peoples' revolution will claim the world. We are all one family, ok? </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“Remember, he said, “you need to know where you are before you can get to where you're going"</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He also asked me if I'd ever walked backwards in Cuba. Apparently this, he said, was the cause of my bad luck as only crabs walk backwards.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He assured me that crabs are the oracles of doom.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then there was Luis Marcos, a man, so it was told, with only one testicle; A man who had killed men, sliced off their arms and legs, and eaten the bodies. He stayed in his cell and good luck to anyone who entered that place.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Sitting around, there were <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>questions about my imprisonment, and questions about home. There <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>was much laughter about the car stories, and lots of questioning about why I'd returned to Cuba.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Honesty?" I winked.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">*****</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It was sad in a way to leave today, but the three days of captivity have expired. Katie had paid, I later discovered, only $2000 for the wrecked vehicle.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Upon release it has been quite the journey back, and a little must be recounted here for this ending to be plausible.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The car that drove me back got a flat tyre three hours into the trip. After sitting around waiting for it to be fixed and eating fresh mango with a family who stopped their horse and buggy - the peoples’ limousines - to sit with us, the next stop was a small village to get lunch where five lovely chantreuses charmed us with exotic Cuban songs as we ate. Swaying side-to-side as they sang, the enchantment was complete as I ate my black beans and rice and chicken.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I could have stayed and listened all day, but Jenni Tutti, the policeman driving me back, needed us to move on.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Back in Holguin and there's Katie. After hugging me and whispering in my ear that if anything like this happens again, she will let me sit in jail, she sucker-punched me really hard.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">When I got up off my arse, she gave me a lovely travel-mug full of rum and coconut juice She knows this engine runs on alcohol.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">"Surprise!," announced Katie. "We are here in Cuba until Monday."</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">By the police station, I sat down again and wept. There I drank my libations to a great journey, <span class="yiv3423721498Apple-converted-space"> </span>journeys to come, and the goddess that is Katie.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Hasta la victoria siempre.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">August 26</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It ran out of the suitcase. Stowaway! A Cuban cockroach the size of a child's foot. Antennae the length of a shoestring.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Straight under the door to the basement, and damn if the beast can now not be located.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It will probably grow to a hideous size with the warmth of a basement.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="yiv3423721498s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Perhaps it will be best to keep visitors from going downstairs until it's coaxed out and dealt with.</span></p><p class="yiv3423721498p1" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p>DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-42282006804837559472020-09-28T18:33:00.000-07:002020-09-28T18:33:26.332-07:00Where Will We Be Able To Travel Abroad Again?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghh9CPdlr00ov4REVV4hs05o-7q5nA1BRDYsjEVpRSzs4njKHL4PN1mupgbASiMV_nJuNYtl67KOxPeQGOW1-eOS0PVz5ikkj5HzyA-jqcmc9BIOfGHgA8gcLpNA3BLpZF6YcD/s2656/NS-tourism-trauma-and-covid-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1077" data-original-width="2656" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghh9CPdlr00ov4REVV4hs05o-7q5nA1BRDYsjEVpRSzs4njKHL4PN1mupgbASiMV_nJuNYtl67KOxPeQGOW1-eOS0PVz5ikkj5HzyA-jqcmc9BIOfGHgA8gcLpNA3BLpZF6YcD/w400-h163/NS-tourism-trauma-and-covid-19.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
Roland fantasizes about when we can get on the road again. The other day he asked me where I want to go most. He's all in on either Thailand and Indonesia or Sri Lanka and India. I'm thinking of France or Italy or Spain and Morocco. These are all places we've been to before and numerous times. The next day another friend of mine asked me the same question, but when I started answering, he said "no, those countries are closed to Americans." THat's when I figured out he meant NOW, not in a few years, <i>after</i> the pandemic when it's safe again. He wants to fly to someplace exotic and exciting now. He's cracking up.<br /><br />
A day or two later the <i>Washington Post</i> published a story that was so popular that they re--published it a few days later, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/americans-europe-covid-travel/">When Will Americans Be Able To Travel To Europe Again?</a>. Author Natalie Comptom asked 4 travel insiders. We'll get to it in a second, but I just want to point out that Americans aren't just barred from all but 6 European countries-- North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Belarus and Turkey-- but that Europe is going through a big second wave and it is completely unsafe to travel there. These were the new cases reported Sunday and ---> Monday in a dozen European countries [Basketcase Sweden has basically stopped reporting]:
</span><blockquote>
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> France- +11,123 ---> +4,070<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Russia- +7,867 ---> +8,135<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> U.K.- +5,693 ---> +4,044<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Spain- +5,321 ---> +2,425<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Ukraine- +3,130 ---> +2,671<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Netherlands- +2,995 ---> +2,914<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Belgium- +1,827 ---> +1,376<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Italy- +1,766 ---> +1,494<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Romania- +1,438 ---> +1,271<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Poland- +1,350 ---> +1,306<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Germany- +1,313 ---> +2,279<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Czechia- +1,303 ---> +716
</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">
None of them are doing as badly as the U.S., but none of those numbers look remotely inviting to me. I have a feeling we'll be postponing until either Christmas 2021 or summer 2022. Now, back to Natalie Comptom. She wrote that "The closure of European borders to American tourists in March, with no clear off-ramp, has been one painful blow of the pandemic. Six months later, Americans are starting to travel again, but international destinations are still limited." She agrees with my assessment that "there doesn’t seem to be a clear end in sight to the travel ban." She spoke with her 4 experts
</span><blockquote>
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Rick Steves</b>, America’s Godfather of European travel, sounds sullen on a phone call to discuss the pandemic and its impact on travel.<br /><br />
“It’s whack-a-mole until we get a grip on the virus,” Steves says, explaining that when one pocket of the United States starts to reduce its cases of the coronavirus, others lighten restrictions and see new surges of cases. “I’m really disappointed that people are so impatient and they don’t realize that you can’t just jump back to normalcy when things start to look good.”<br /><br />
Earlier this year, Steves’s company was scheduled to take tens of thousands of Americans to Europe on guided tours; those trips were of course canceled and refunded, and now he’s started a waitlist-- already 10,000 families deep-- for potential 2021 tours.<br /><br />
...Steves says he’s hopeful for Americans to be able to return to Europe in 2021, although he’s more concerned that the businesses that make European travel so special won’t survive the economic fallout from tourism remaining on hold, not to mention the economic crisis would-be American travelers are facing at home.<br /><br />
“We have more immediate needs right now, and that’s dealing with the reality of the economic division in our own society here,” Steves says. “When the easy money from the government runs out and this pandemic stretches on because of our inability to get a grip on it, I think are our concerns are not going to be, ‘Can I get a flight to London?’”<br /><br />
<b>Eduardo Santander</b>, executive director of the European Travel Commission, an association that represents the European Union’s national tourism organizations, says he had been hopeful for a summer tourism bounce-back.<br /><br />
“Obviously that didn’t crystallize in the end, because of the beginning of the second wave of outbreaks in different countries and regions,” Santander says from his home in Brussels. “For the first half of 2020, [European tourism was] down 66 percent, but now we are down in some places even by 90, 93 percent. So things are not looking very good at the moment.”<br /><br />
Santander says he understands why Americans feel confusion and frustration about not being able to travel to Europe, or know when it may be possible. In the beginning of the summer, the ETC tried to convince E.U. member states and members of the Schengen zone to agree on a consistent protocol for resuming tourism. With every country carrying out different covid-19 strategies, Santander says the consequence has been an even more fragmented map of Europe.<br /><br />
While domestic tourism in Europe has resumed, Santander says American travelers have been absolutely missed. However, they will likely not be allowed back to Europe before Christmas due to the status of the pandemic.<br /><br />
“We are actually advocating that governments, the U.S. administration and also the European Union, work together,” Santander says. “Because if we come [up] with standardized protocols for testing and tracing, not only in Europe but also worldwide-- or if you want it just between the U.S. and the European Union if that makes it easier-- I think traveling is not at risk at all.”<br /><br />
Santander says he doesn’t discourage Americans to plan or book trips to Europe for 2021, as long as the reservations are adjustable or refundable: “People should not stop dreaming about traveling.”<br /><br />
Access Italy is a luxury travel company that primarily guides American customers, including former president Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, on private tours. With the company’s main season running from March to November, its CEO (and son of its founder), <b>Simone Amorico</b>, says they knew early on that 2020 would be a wash.<br /><br />
The company has been taking this time for research and development. Amorico says his team has been exploring Italy and developing ways for clients to have safer experiences, like finding private villas and yachts to book.<br /><br />
Amorico doesn’t expect Americans to be able to return in 2020. “I just hope it will be before spring of 2021, which I believe most certain it will happen,” he says, adding that he thinks by March or April there will be tools (like faster coronavirus testing) in place to facilitate safer travel between the United States and Italy.<br /><br />
Meanwhile, Amorico says requests for 2021 bookings are already trickling in despite the unpredictable situation.<br /><br />
“Our suggestion is not to confirm anything yet, but once the border opens, to try and book as fast as possible, because there’s going to be a huge demand for next year,” he says. “Americans just can’t wait to come back to Europe, especially Italy, especially after they’ve been told that they cannot come next year.”<br /><br />
In the years leading up to the pandemic, American tourism in Finland was on the rise. <b>Sanna Kyyrä</b>, chief specialist of tourism policy for Finland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, says Americans were among Finland’s biggest spenders, making the United States a significant part of Finland’s tourism income.<br /><br />
As far as when Americans will be able to get back to the land of happiness, saunas, karaoke and Northern Lights, “unfortunately, it looks very difficult at the moment,” Kyyrä says.<br /><br />
Kyyrä says Finland has been following and taking part in E.U. discussions regarding which countries will be included on the “green list” for travel, and hoping it will be possible to make a long-term plan by spring to help American travelers and Finnish tourism businesses prepare for a reopening.
</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">
So what about Asia? Well... Turkey again. And a few countries admit Americans with certain restrictions-- like Cambodia. That's a cool place but not only do you have to get tested, you also have to leave a $2,000 COVID-deposit. Dubai requires a test as well and proof of valid international health insurance. And South Korea will let you in-- after a 2 week quarantine (same as England, by the way). Armenia is also open to Americans, but requires a test at the airport or a two week quarantine-- same for Bangladesh.<br /><br />
So I was surprised over the weekend when I read about <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1992079/koh-chang-resort-defends-suit-against-unhappy-expat-guest">an American being arrested in Thailand</a>. Turns out he was at an island resort on Koh Chang, complained about the hotel on several online travel sites and was arrested and thrown in jail for two days after the resort complained to the local police. He wasn't a tourist though; he's an American teacher living there. He had to post a $3,200 bail. And he faces a 2 year prison term if found guilty of defamation.<br /><br />
</span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">
“The Sea View Resort owner filed a complaint that the defendant had posted unfair reviews on his hotel on the TripAdvisor website,” Pol Col Thanapon Taemsara of the Koh Chang police told AFP.<br /><br />
He said Mr Barnes was accused of causing “damage to the reputation of the hotel”, and of quarrelling with staff over not paying a corkage fee for alcohol he had brought to the hotel.<br /><br />
According to the TripAdvisor review that Mr Barnes posted in July, he encountered “unfriendly staff” who “act like they don’t want anyone here.”<br /><br />
Tom Storup, the rooms division manager at the resort, replied to Mr Barnes in a post dated July 20. He said that guests bringing their own liquor “goes against our rules, as it does in any hotel or resort I have worked or visited around the globe.” He said Mr Barnes used “abusive language” toward a staff member who explained the 500-baht corkage charge to him.<br /><br />
The resort’s food and beverage manager intervened “for the safety and comfort of our staff and guests who were having a peaceful dinner”, Mr Storup wrote. “It was then when another guest at your table took over the conversation with our F&B manager and he apologised profusely and shook hands after a short chat.<br /><br />
“The F&B manager then decided that, in order to avoid further disturbance, to allow you to have that liquor without charging you for the corkage fee.”<br /><br />
The Sea View Resort told AFP on Saturday that legal action was only taken because Mr Barnes had written multiple reviews on different sites over the past few weeks.<br /><br />
At least one was posted in June on TripAdvisor accusing the hotel of “modern day slavery”-- which the site removed after a week for violating its guidelines.<br /><br />
“We chose to file a complaint to serve as a deterrent, as we understood he may continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future,” the hotel said, adding that staff had made “multiple attempts” to contact Mr Barnes but they were ignored, leading the business to resort to a legal complaint.<br /><br />
Mr Barnes did not immediately respond to requests from AFP for comment.<br /><br />
“We agree that the defamation law may be viewed as excessive for this situation,” the resort said in its statement, but it said the guest had included “fabricated stories” in reviews posted on both TripAdvisor and Google.<br /><br />
“The guest refused to respond to our attempts at communication and instead continued to persistently post negative and untrue reviews of our business. We simply want to ensure that these untrue reviews are stopped, and we had no way of negotiating the matter with the guest until after our filing the complaint with the authorities.”<br /><br />
...Sea View, a 156-room resort on Kai Bae Beach was founded in 1989 and is ranked 10th out of 85 properties on Koh Chang that have been reviewed on TripAdvisor. It has received 1,922 reviews, with 1,090 of them rating the resort excellent, 580 very good, 170 average, 48 poor and 32 terrible.<br /><br />
Defamation laws in Thailand have long been seen as problematic, as they are frequently used by businesses and influential figures to intimidate critics.<br /><br />
The maximum sentence under the law is two years in prison, along with a 200,000-baht fine.
</span></blockquote>DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-29188552789983313152020-07-05T19:52:00.003-07:002020-07-05T19:52:58.274-07:00Safe Places To Visit... In Mexico<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the weekend, citing the gargantuan COVID pandemic in Arizona, Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich closed the state's border with Arizona, cutting Arizona holiday-makers off from Mexican beach towns like Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point), Kino Bay, Los Algodones Beach and San Carlos (and Nacapule Canyon). The U.S. had already done the same thing fir northbound traveller in March.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are over 9,000 confirmed COVID cases in Sonora and hospitals in Nogales and Guaymas are at full capacity. Arizona is due to pass the 100,000 Covid cases mark on Monday. 3,536 new cases were reported on Sunday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile Puerto Vallarta reopened to visitors last week and visitors began arriving over the weekend. The city's tourism bureau boasts of "health and safety protocols to meet the realities of a world of Covid-19.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Local officials put the entire city of Puerto Vallarta under quarantine starting in early March. It has since undergone a multi-phase reopening process led by local officials following state, federal and international protocols. The process ultimately contributed to the State of Jalisco obtaining the “Safe Travels” stamp from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) last week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The measures implemented in Puerto Vallarta began at Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport-- the destination’s main “filter”-- which, thanks to its own internal protocols to prevent Covid-19, received the WTTC “Safe Travels” stamp. Social distancing is being practiced by airport workers, and thermal video cameras are being used as people enter the immigration zone, where electronic documentation is currently taking place. Disinfectant mats are used at all airport entrances and exits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The health and safety of locals and visitors are of the utmost importance across Puerto Vallarta. In addition to the preventive and precautionary measures at the airport, the city is requiring extensive and continuous sanitization in hotels, public transportation, and public spaces. Restaurants must maintain physical distance between tables and patrons, and establishments must place disinfectant mats at entrances. Local officials are also distributing antibacterial gel and conducting temperature checks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More than 45 hotels have reopened to visitors, with a maximum 30% occupancy, and are offering modified access to on-site restaurants, pools and beaches. A second group of hotels will open before, or during July, for the summer, and the remainder will open in the last trimester of the year, facing the winter high season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Puerto Vallarta’s iconic Malecon waterfront promenade is not yet fully open to the public, only access points to restaurants and shops. Bars remain closed until the destination exits its current phase of the reopening process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Connectivity has improved in a notable way since last week. Mexican airlines are offering continuous flights to main domestic destinations, including Mexico City (CDMX), Guadalajara, Tijuana, Aguascalientes, and Monterrey. Internationally, four airlines are connecting U.S. cities with Puerto Vallarta. Alaska Airlines has daily flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco. American Airlines offers a daily connection to Dallas and Los Angeles. United Airlines maintains a daily flight to Houston. Delta Air Lines will restart daily services to Los Angeles from July 2nd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other U.S. airlines are waiting for growth in demand, while Canadian carriers await Canadian government approvals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Given the dynamic nature of the situation, new measures are expected from Mexico’s federal and state governments, aimed at continuing to advance the reopening of activities in a gradual and safe manner.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Puerto Vallarta isn't my kind of destination-- too glitzy. <a href="https://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/search/label/San%20Miguel%20de%20Allende">San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato is</a> though and they also obtained the WTTC "Safe Travels" stamp last week. I haven't been there in 2 decades but I hope I get to visit again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The whole state of Guanajuato was given the World Travel & Tourism Council's stamp of approval recognizing the implementation of COVID-era global standardized health and hygiene protocols.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The international stamp augments San Miguel de Allende’s own municipal “Health First” certification. The city launched “Health First,” which is granted after local health and safety officials evaluate each location and certify compliance with sanitary protocols for reopening, on May 25. Restaurants, hotels, golf courses, activity centers and cultural spaces, among others, must apply for the certificate <a href="https://www.sanmigueldeallende.gob.mx/">online</a>. In addition to the onsite inspection, businesses must complete paperwork providing detailed information on sanitation practices and undergo staff training sessions. Certification is "free but mandatory," according to San Miguel de Allende Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal García.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “San Miguel de Allende’s infrastructure has been working proactively to ensure the wellness of our residents and future visitors and making many sacrifices to contain this pandemic and working with health officials to ensure that all international requirements are met,” said Mayor Villarreal García. “Obtaining the WTTC’s ‘Safe Travels’ stamp endorses this work and reaffirms that San Miguel de Allende is properly ready in terms of sanitation.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">San Miguel de Allende entered its Phase 0 of its Covid-19 Reactivation plan-- activation of the local economy for the residents-- starting June 1. During the initial phase of the plan, the city saw most of the business infrastructure that affects residents reopen, including restaurants, markets, public transportation, offices and more. At this point, hotels, bars, cantinas, clubs, public or hotel pools will not yet reopen. All residents are asked to wear masks, practice social distancing and apply extensive hygiene practices. Businesses will be required to implement international-grade sanitation protocols, including shoe-cleaning, a decrease in interior foot traffic, set-up of dispensers of antibacterial sanitizer containing 70% alcohol, provision of face masks for people without them and hourly disinfecting of public spaces. At no point can any groups gather inside or outside public spaces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Access to San Miguel de Allende has been closed since March to non-residents, with city police monitoring all entry points (Querétaro, Celaya-Comonfort, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and Dr. Mora). Those permitted to enter must not show symptoms of Covid-19 and must be essential to the needs of the recovery phase the city is currently in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mayor Villarreal García announced that hotels may start accepting bookings for July 15 arrivals as of this week, in the hope that the city may start reopening in the upcoming month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We take our place in the world seriously, as you do when you are with us,” said Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal García. “With these efforts we confirm San Miguel de Allende as a leading destination.
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-11418263304860924122020-06-26T16:59:00.001-07:002020-06-26T16:59:26.605-07:00Travel Is Going To Change So Much Because Of This Pandemic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I got some bullshit e-mail bordering on the criminal from American Airlines this morning. "Caring for you is our priority-- that's why we’re introducing new steps to give you even more peace of mind when you fly." They only have one priority: profit and they could care less if you die, as long as it isn't on one of their over-stuffed planes. Their message wants suckers willing to fly to know that they have "cleaning procedures on the ground and on board [and] "innovation opportunities for the future," but decidedly <i>not</i> than they plan to end social distancing onboard and stuff their passengers in like sardines agin, which will absolutely make people sick, some of whom will die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"In a first for any airline," they boasted as though it were meaningful, "we’re seeking GBAC STARTM Accreditation from the Global Biorisk Advisory Council for all of our aircraft and lounges. This accreditation demonstrates we have the proper cleaning and disinfection practices, procedures and systems in place to respond to biological threats like COVID-19. Beginning June 30, we’ll ask all travelers during the check-in process to certify they have been free of COVID-19 symptoms for the past 14 days. This is in addition to requiring all travelers on board to wear a face covering." Certify? Pinky-swear?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yesterday, writing for the <i>Washington Post</i>, Hannah Sampson reported that "After capping the number of people on flights since April, American Airlines announced Friday that its planes will likely be full in a few days." No wonder <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/world/europe/europe-us-travel-ban.html">the E.U. has decided to ban Americans</a> from coming back to Europe! That <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/business/eu-us-travel-ban-coronavirus.html">should hurt the airlines</a> which-- let's face it-- <i>deserve</i> to be hurt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">American sent customers the bullshit above. But in their press release to the media, they admitted exactly what they're up to: "As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July 1. American will continue to notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights when available, all without incurring any cost." I was glad read that other customers were as angry as I was (even though I have no plans to fly until it's safe to-- which it is not at this point, unless you don't find getting sick.)
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I find it absolutely appalling you chose to sell the middle row seats as Covid numbers continue to spike,” one Twitter user wrote in a message directed to the airline. “I am loyal to AA but clearly you are not concerned with the safety of the public. Looks like I will fly delta since they removed the middle row. EXPECTED BETTER!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Earlier this week, the union that represents American’s pilots pushed a plan that would have the government buy enough seats on each flights so no one would have to sit next to a stranger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Passengers would be encouraged to fly more thanks to uniform social distancing, airlines would be encouraged to operate more flights, and the government would ensure preservation of critical transportation infrastructure and related jobs,” the Allied Pilots Association proposed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">United said in mid-May that it would “avoid where possible seating customers next to each other” but could make no guarantees. Instead, the airline said at the time that it would “do our best” to contact travelers on flights that were expected to be close to full in case they wanted to rebook on another flight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">United spokesman Charles Hobart said in an email that the policy would stay in place through July 31, but he confirmed that the carrier does not block middle or adjacent seats.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Delta is still blocking middle seats and has committed to capping seating at 50 or 60 percent, depending on the part of the plane-- at least through Sept. 30. Southwest Airlines is blocking about a third of the seats on its planes from being booked, which it says allows for middle seats to stay open. That cap is also in place until at least Sept. 30.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">JetBlue said it would continue blocking all middle seats on larger planes and aisle seats on smaller aircraft through at least July 31.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You’re going to definitely have to sit next to a stranger again, I’m afraid, on a plane,” JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes said during a Washington Post Live discussion in late May. “Because [of] the economics of our industry, most airlines have a break-even load factor of 75 to 80 percent, so clearly capping flights at 55 to 60 percent, which is what we’re doing right now … is not sustainable.”
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Government mandates the percentage of restaurant seats that can be filled; why not airplanes?
Last week, Sampson did another <i>Post</i> piece, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/06/15/11-ways-pandemic-will-change-travel/">11 Ways The Pandemic Will Change Travel</a>. Some of it doesn't sound so bad-- at least not to me:
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Expect fewer crowds and experiences at tourist magnets</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Theme parks, museums and iconic landmarks are known for drawing a crowd. But as they reopen and look to the future, those crowds are expected to be much smaller-- and more controlled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In revealing plans to welcome visitors back this month and next, operators of some of the world’s largest theme parks painted a picture of what they expect a coronavirus-era “normal” to look like inside their gates. The scene: mandatory temperature checks; visitors and crew in masks; rides, lines and seats spaced to allow for social distancing; and characters that interact from afar, if at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“In preparing to reopen during this unusual time, we have to manage our theme parks in a very different way from what we’ve known before,” the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement announcing plans for a phased reopening of its Florida parks starting July 11.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At its Disney Springs shopping complex in central Florida, which started to reopen in May, Star Wars Stormtroopers keep watch from a balcony and issue warnings to visitors about wearing masks and staying distanced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">SeaWorld Orlando said it would modify some animal interactions, one of the park’s signature offerings. Universal Orlando Resort announced it would move to virtual lines for some attractions. Disney is doing away with fireworks shows and parades for now. And Six Flags said all parks would move to an online reservation system to manage how many people could attend and assign guests staggered arrival times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Museums, too, are trying to envision a future where visitors will feel safe. The Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington, which drew more than 22 million visits last year, have not announced reopening dates, but plans call for only a few to open at first.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Capacity will be limited, and there may be more staff on hand to keep people appropriately distanced from each other. Face masks for everyone and cleaning throughout the day are also expected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Paris, the Louvre-- which has long struggled with overcrowding-- will require all visitors to book a time slot once the museum opens on July 6...</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airlines will have to balance safety and profits</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unlike many travel companies, airlines have continued to operate throughout the pandemic, although at drastically reduced numbers. Practices they have adopted over the past few months are likely to shape the future of flying, though some are certainly short-term fixes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Blocking off some seats on planes or limiting the number of tickets sold, for example, is unlikely to be the status quo as more people start to fly. Such measures aren’t even guaranteed today across the board.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You’re going to definitely have to sit next to a stranger again, I’m afraid, on a plane,” JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes said during a <i>Washington Post</i> Live discussion last month. “Because [of] the economics of our industry, most airlines have a break-even load factor of 75 to 80 percent, so clearly capping flights at 55 to 60 percent, which is what we’re doing right now through July 6, is not sustainable.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He said he believes airlines will need to make it easier in the future for travelers to change their flights-- a decision that, before the pandemic, came with hefty fees at most carriers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Because it’s not ever really going to be acceptable, I don’t think, for someone who is unwell to feel that they’re being made to fly,” he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airlines are already requiring passengers and employees to wear masks, cutting food and beverage service during flights, and increasing how often they clean. Some have started asking travelers to fill out health questionnaires and checking passengers’ temperatures, but there is a broader push to have federal authorities take over those checks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...Airports are also making changes, and the pandemic could force an overhaul of the way passengers move through the facilities, said Ty Osbaugh, the aviation leader at architecture firm Gensler.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He said he would not be surprised to see significantly more biometric screening and touchless elements within the next six to eight months. He envisioned a system that could scan his face, direct him to a TSA lane and use biometrics to let him buy anything in the airport without taking his wallet out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“If I could go from curb to gate without physically touching anything, it kind of solves some of the pandemic issues,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of people who would prefer to do that.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wary travelers will stay closer to home</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before Americans start hopping on long flights or jetting around the world, experts believe they will first start venturing out closer to home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth said that based on travel insurance policies purchased through its site between April 1 and May 10 for travel this summer, domestic trips account for 48 percent of planned summer travel, an increase from 15 percent last year. And booking site Travelocity noted that most hotel bookings are within 100 miles of where travelers live.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Our research actually says that leisure travel is going to be among the first to come back,” said Roger Dow, the chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association, in a media call last month. “It’ll be drive and shorter flights regionally.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To create consistency across travel companies in the United States, the association released a set of guidelines last month that called for revamping public spaces to allow for physical distancing, installing barriers, moving toward touchless technology and stepping up sanitation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But travelers within the United States should not expect consistency in the near term when trying to visit other states. Some places, including Hawaii and Maine, are either requiring most visitors to quarantine for two weeks after arriving or to show proof of a negative covid-19 test. And local rules about what can and can’t be open, and how many people can gather, could vary from city to city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Part of re-opening and recovery means that destinations, attractions, hotels, airlines, etc. will need to demonstrate to potential visitors that they are doing everything they can to minimize the risk as they travel to and once they are in the destination by following best practices,” Amir Eylon, the chief executive of tourism-focused consultancy Longwoods International, said in an email. “They will also need to demonstrate to the local residents, who may be wary, that they are asking visitors to ‘play by the rules.’”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fewer travelers could mean more expensive travel abroad</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While it can feel like airlines charge passengers for everything from choosing a seat to checking a bag, in reality, deregulation lowered the cost per mile for flying, making international travel more accessible than ever before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But some worry that the impact of the pandemic on airlines may translate to less travelers flying abroad, and, as a result, will make other parts of international travel more expensive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“If the airlines can only put half as many people on the plane, it’s going to cost a whole double,” says Rick Steves, the Washington-state-based European travel expert known for his guidebook series, public television and radio shows, and travel company that takes more than 30,000 people to Europe in a typical year. “I can afford it, but many travelers cannot. Then travel becomes an activity just for wealthy people.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The issue is not only limited to airlines. Steves fears that by not being able to “pack the house,” establishments that make travel special such as mom-and-pop restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues will have to raise their prices to make up for the limited headcount.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many cities around the world depend on international tourism and have felt the hit during the pandemic. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the decline in international tourism for the rest of 2020 could translate to $910 billion to $1.2 trillion in lost revenue for the industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...The not-so-socially distant elements of international travel that we love so much seem impossible to fully embrace while covid-19 remains without a vaccine. Will we get over virus fears and return to travel joys, such as eating street food in Bangkok, dancing in crowded Tel Aviv nightclubs or staying in a South African hostel with bunk beds?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Steves is confident those beloved aspects of going abroad will make a return after the pandemic subsides.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You go to an Irish pub to sit next to a stranger and drink beer. You go to France to have your cheeks kissed,” he said. “I think that’s going to come back, but it’s gonna be a while.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Buffets out, temperature checks in when ships return to sea</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two big questions have been swirling around the cruise industry since operators halted sailings in mid-March: When will ships take passengers back to sea? And what will cruising look like in the future?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While the world’s largest companies have not shared comprehensive details yet on what cruisers should expect, some things are clear: Cruise ships will not return to the sea all at once. When they do, they probably will not be as packed as they were in pre-coronavirus days. Temperature screenings, while incapable of catching asymptomatic travelers, will probably become the norm. The old-fashioned, dish-it-yourself buffet is expected to become a relic. Construction of new ships will almost certainly be delayed, and itineraries could be tweaked for a while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said cruise line plans must include temperature checks, medical screenings, testing for the coronavirus and social distancing protocols.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...Still unclear: How many people will be eager to set sail again, given the global toll of the virus and the high-profile outbreaks on ships. But cruise executives say they are optimistic based on bookings for 2021.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I think in the early going, we have plenty of people who love cruising who will be able to fill the ships that will be available at the time,” Carnival Corp. chief executive Arnold Donald said in April.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Relocation will increase demand for home rentals</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During the pandemic, many companies and their workforces learned productivity was possible outside of the office. Now that working remotely has entered the mainstream, we may see a new trend of people taking longer trips that combine work and pleasure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"A lot of people have gotten comfortable that they don’t have to squeeze a nine-day vacation into six. They can take the extra days and maybe work a couple half-days remotely,” said vacation-rental company Vrbo president Jeff Hurst. "I do think we’re going to start to see people be more creative on how they think about working from any house, as opposed to just their own house, or any destination as opposed [to] from just their office.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s a trend Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky believes was already in motion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I had assumed over the course of 20 years that a generation of people would not be tethered to their city ... that people will realize over the course of working more remote, they could kind of live anywhere,” Chesky said. “I never thought that decades would happen in two months.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In April, Airbnb added a new feature on its homepage advertising “monthly stays” to accommodate the growing interest of long-term travel. At the peak of the pandemic shutdowns, about 40 percent of Airbnb’s bookings were long-term.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That number has dropped since; however, Chesky predicts travelers’ interest in long-term stays will continue to grow with time. “I couldn’t overstate this enough; I think this is a very big, profound shift," he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The long-term travel trend will be more beneficial for home rentals than hotels, as they offer travelers a more comfortable stay at a more affordable price. An Airbnb with a kitchen and a garage is more approachable for day-to-day living than a 400-room hotel where a traveler is bound to room service and outside restaurants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another major change in the vacation rental market since the pandemic began has been an overhaul of cleaning protocols. Once upon a time, the cleanliness star rating on an Airbnb review was just another detail travelers checked before booking a vacation rental. Then coronavirus redefined the importance of cleanliness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Companies such as Airbnb and Vrbo created new cleaning procedures for hosts to follow in the pandemic. These enhanced sanitation steps were designed to not only keep travelers safe, but also to reassure them that it’s okay to travel again. And unlike emergency cancellation policies put into place during the pandemic, some experts believe this new emphasis on sanitation will extend into the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“COVID-19 has heightened consumer awareness around cleanliness, which is why we released our cleanliness guidelines to educate vacation homeowners, property managers and travelers about how vacation rentals should be cleaned and disinfected,” Hurst said. “As long as travelers are finding the information provided by our partners helpful, there’s no reason for it to go away.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Interest in private travel is here to stay</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The pandemic has created a greater demand for experiences away from crowds. Until a coronavirus vaccine is found, that preference for private travel will probably continue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to a U.S. Travel Association survey conducted in May, people feel more comfortable traveling in personal vehicles and staying in vacation rentals than they do taking flights, taking cruises and staying in hotels. Interest in RVs has skyrocketed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dow, of the U.S. Travel Association, predicts the pandemic will renew interest in the Great American Road Trip, with a particular focus on the outdoors, where travelers are less likely to face crowds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I think you’re going to see that Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota, the more rural places, get a huge spike in travel,” Dow said.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Small restaurants and bars may be decimated for good</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...Many independently owned restaurants and bars, hallmarks of having a local experience while traveling, will not be able to restart at all. Investment bank UBS predicted in April that up to one in five restaurants in the United States may close permanently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These small businesses are fighting herculean battles to stay in business during the pandemic. When owners aren’t scrambling to keep up with new government requirements or pivoting business models (like turning into grocery stores or coming up with new takeout concepts), they’re figuring out how to pay employees and mounting bills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I think the really fine dining restaurants will remain as is, the sort of middle ground of restaurants will shrink, and the fast-casual places like Shake Shack will stay afloat,” said Kat Odell, a food and travel writer and author who eats at about 400 to 500 restaurants per year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...How tourism rebounds will also play a role in restaurants’ recovery, particularly in cities such as New York and Los Angeles that rely on patronage from travelers as well as locals. Will the independent restaurant landscape remain vibrant, or become dominated by the chains that could afford to weather this storm?...</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cleaning and contact-free technology will be top priorities</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hotels are elevating a couple of key amenities these days: cleanliness and health-consciousness. That means the things that might have mattered before-- restaurants, pools, gyms, bars, make-your-own-waffle stations-- are taking a back seat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the same time, experts say hotels have a difficult balancing act to pull off: While prioritizing health and safety, they still need to make visitors feel comfortable and at home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“The challenge will be how do we make sure we’re not conveying reminders of the virus,” said Kate Walsh, the dean of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.”We want to convey that this is a sanitized and healthy place, but we don’t want it to feel so clinical like you’re entering a hospital.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Guests should expect to see more frequent cleaning, transparent shields, abundant hand sanitizers, reminders about distancing and lobbies reconfigured to create more space. They should also expect to interact with fewer workers as hotels encourage people to check in online and use their phones as room keys.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“The use of technology to reduce direct contact with guests, lobby population and front desk queue is encouraged, where feasible,” guidelines from the American Hotel & Lodging Association state. “In addition, contactless payment processes are encouraged, and when not available, employees should minimize contact as much as possible.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The association also recommends that housekeepers should not enter rooms during a stay unless they are asked to do so or get approval from guests. All that separation could make it difficult for hotels to deliver the welcoming atmosphere they promise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We’re distancing the staff from the guest, and the heart of hospitality is conveying warmth and being taken care of,” Walsh said. “How do you do that in a distanced way?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She said she expects to see hotels adapt to the times by using outdoor space more creatively, removing loose items such as menus, minibar goods and pens from rooms, and either making workout equipment available in guest rooms or letting guests reserve private gym time. Room service will be of the knock-and-drop variety, while restaurants-- which will need to abide by local and state capacity guidelines-- are expected to offer more grab-and-go options.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Frank Lavey, the senior vice president of global operations for Hyatt, said in an email that the company is listening to guests and loyalty members to get a sense of what matters most to them when they return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Health and safety is a top priority, but there is also the need for connection, culture and new experiences,” he said. “As the world begins to reopen, we are readying ourselves to help people do what they’re longing to do-- get back on the road to explore new places, feel the excitement of reconnecting with those they miss, destress and re-energize-- once again experience the joy of travel, and do so safely.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Programs will introduce new, temporary perks</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When the pandemic struck, frequent travelers wondered what would happen to their loyalty program standings. The complicated system of miles, rewards programs, points and statuses relies on people traveling and spending money using travel credit cards. But with most people not traveling, does the system crumble?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to loyalty program experts, that answer is no.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Loyalty programs are huge cost centers for airlines and hotels,” said Brian Kelly, the founder and chief executive of the Points Guy, a site that offers advice on those types of perks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airlines and hotels generate billions of dollars in revenue from selling miles and points to credit card companies. Some worry that because the status of travel is in limbo, travel perks won’t be as powerful of an incentive for consumers to join and use branded travel credit cards. But that shouldn’t be a major issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“They’re trying to figure out ways to still get people to care about the miles, especially if they’re not flying,” said René de Lambert, founder of the travel blog, RenesPoints.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Kelly and Lambert say travel brands are sustaining consumer interest by offering new incentives, like having everyday spending count toward lifetime elite statuses, allowing travel loyalty points be redeemed for non-travel purchases and increasing the number of award seats on flights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to American Express data reported by Wirecutter, 134 percent more American Express Membership Rewards were redeemed for non-travel purposes from mid-March to mid-April compared to that time frame in 2019.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These changes may not hold over after the pandemic, Kelly said, so they are going to benefit people who make the most of them in the near future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“You better believe there will be people buying cheap flights to get a status that they never would have been able to achieve otherwise,” he said. “There will be people making out like bandits.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Large gatherings will creep back with caution-- if at all</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Traveling for the express purpose of interacting with other people-- dozens, hundreds or even thousands-- is especially fraught now. It’s still not clear what conferences, trade shows, political and fan conventions, concerts and festivals will look like in the coming months and years, if they happen at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">High-profile events such as SXSW, the Cannes Film Festival and the 2020 Summer Olympics have all been canceled or postponed. Most Republican National Convention festivities were moved from Charlotte to Jacksonville, Fla., after North Carolina officials called for a downsized event with safety precautions. The Democratic National Convention appears to be moving toward a scaled-back or virtual event.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Julius Solaris, the editor of EventMB, which focuses on business meetings and events, said the first of such gatherings will probably be geared toward local audiences in large cities, rather than events that draw national and international crowds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Those early meetings, he said, should be shorter-- a single day rather than several, with sessions that last no longer than 30 minutes. Solaris said attendance will need to be slashed so there’s enough room to keep people distanced in meeting rooms. All of those conditions could make traditional events too costly to put on at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“It’s just not going to be profitable for some events,” he said. “They’re not going to break even.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Solaris said he anticipates seeing some hybrids, which may include some people together in person while others participate virtually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Festivals and outdoor events still face huge challenges as many states have limits on how many people can gather, as well as rules about social distancing. Events such as city art festivals, parades and community runs would be too difficult or pointless to operate under such rules.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We aren’t a model that you can change up,” said Steve Schmader, the president and chief executive of the International Festivals & Events Association. “The model of getting people together in your community is the model.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He wondered how it would be possible to do temperature checks along a parade route, or make sure that everyone watching stayed six feet apart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We don’t have the answers to that,” Schmader said. “We’re all going through a master’s class we didn’t ask to sign up for.”
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-53947152427665940662020-06-16T12:31:00.002-07:002020-06-16T12:33:13.098-07:00Is Air Travel Back? Not For Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've only been to the Bahamas once; I didn't like it. The trip was to visit the legendary, now shuttered, Compass Point Studios in Nassau, where one of our bands, the Ocean Blue, was recording <a href="https://youtu.be/eeMbx2LzwFc"><i>Beneath the Rhythm and Sound</i></a> late in the summer of 1993. It was a difficult time for the band, who came from a very conservative religious fundamentalist background and had been coming to grips with the fact that one of its key members had decided to eschew the closet and embrace his homosexuality. He had written the band's only real hit and was the member most liked by the media. But the other band members-- who had once all given each other copies of the newly released Rush Limbaugh book as Christmas presents-- couldn't come to terms with one of them being gay. They told him he had to stop talking with the media and representing the band. And then they told him that <i>Beneath the Rhythm and Sound</i> would be the last time they would be working together, after having been friends since childhood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was unaware of that when I got to Nassau for the album playback. Afterwards the studio managers had a barbeque at the pool as a kind of celebration. Suddenly their 5 year old son was nowhere to be seen. Then he was seen-- at the bottom of the pool. Steve, the Ocean Blue member being thrown out of the band, had been a lifeguard. He dove in, rescued the kid and resuscitated him... tears of joy everywhere. One of the other band members came over to me. He seemed confused. "How," he asked me, seriously, referring to Steve, "could he be doing Satan's work and God's work at the same time?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The was both the Ocean Blue's last album for Sire Records and my last visit to the Bahamas, forever tainted in my mind by the whole drama. And I'm not a big fan of beach resort places. There have been 103 COVID cases and 11 deaths, just 262 cases per million people, extremely low. The least impacted U.S. states have far more cases per million:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Alaska- 904 per million</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Montana- 570 per million</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Hawaii- 514 per million
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In fact, the Bahamas are doing so well that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2020/06/15/coronavirus-bahamas-reopens-two-phases-june-15-and-july-1/3190150001/">they're reopening for business</a> July1. The government will allow commercial airlines, hotels and vacation rentals as well as taxis and buses. But... <i>pre</i>-travel requirements include:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> COVID-19 RT-PCR negative test result no older than 10 days, ready to be handed to Customs & Immigration officials upon arrival.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Customs & Immigration forms that must be filled out and printed prior to arrival.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> A <a href="https://travel.gov.bs/">Travel Health Card</a> that must be filled out prior to travel.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are lots of safety requirements for tourists-- temperature screenings at places such as airports; beach chairs spaced 6 feet apart; and no more buffets at resorts. Incoming travelers are will be advised to adhere to social distancing guidelines and to routinely bring face masks just as they would bring their swimsuits and sunscreen."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According the <i>USA Today</i>, "Bahamians derive the bulk of their income from tourism. Fishing, diving and soaking up the sun reportedly generates $5.7 billion for the economy. In 2018, over 590,000 boaters visited the Bahamas. About 3.2 million tourists were from the U.S., contributing an estimated $1.3 billion to the economy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Prime Minister announced the opening will be reversed if cases spike: "It will be adjusted if we see a deterioration of the COVID-19 infection trends or if we’ve determined that the protocols and procedures are not in place sufficiently to warrant this opening."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Badge of Honor</i> by Nancy Ohanian</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The airlines were so desperate for customers that they refused to ban traveller who wouldn't wear masks, endangering the other passengers and the staff. This afternoon, the <i>Washington Post</i> reported <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/06/16/us-airlines-could-ban-travelers-that-refuse-wear-masks-planes/">this <i>might</i> change</a>. "Airlines for America, a trade organization, said a group of major American airlines will begin 'vigorously' enforcing face-covering policies after reports of travelers not being held to the safety standard. Last month, several airlines acknowledged that they had told crew members to avoid escalating any confrontations in the air over mask violations and described various levels of enforcement. Delta, Southwest, United Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue and others will 'clearly articulate' their face-covering policy to passengers and may require customers to acknowledge the policy at check-in, the association announced Monday on behalf of the member companies. If passengers don’t comply, carriers can implement their own consequences, which could include suspension of flying privileges. 'U.S. airlines are very serious about requiring face coverings on their flights,' Nicholas E. Calio, the group’s president and chief executive, wrote in the statement. That's completely and demonstrably untrue and anyone who catches COVID on a plane would have to be crazy not to sue the airline. Also noteworthy: "The use of face masks at airports has been sporadic, according to reports from across the country."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyone thinking about boarding a plane for Tulsa this week to attend the COVID-spreading Trump rally there? I'd advise against it; just drink the bleach. Alan Grayson watches air travel carefully and has been telling me there are just 20% of flights taking off these days compared to last year. Last week he sent me this e-mail: "Down 81% yesterday from a year ago."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He started on March 22 but I couldn't figure out how to take a photo of his chart that was that long. The low point was on my sister's birthday, April 16: 95,085 flights vs. 2,616,158 flights the year before (approximately 3.6%). It's been slowly ticking up since.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yesterday, Josh Barro, writing for <i>New York</i> Magazine, noted that <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/are-americans-flying-again-yes-but-the-recovery-is-limited.html">Air Travel Is Rebounding Strongly-- But Likely To Remain Well Below Pre-COVID Levels</a>. "Air travel," he wrote, "is coming back." Really? I don't recall a summer I haven't been abroad since... 1968. I'm a frequent flyer and I can't imagine getting on a plane, as much as I might want to be in Bali or the <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2020/03/if-you-want-to-take-trip-during.html">Dordogne region of France</a>, where we were planning to spend June.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Barro wrote that last Thursday the TSA "screened 502,000 passengers, the first time travelers throughout have exceeded half a million since March 21. By ordinary measures, this is dismal volume-- on a typical spring day last year, between 2 million and 2.5 million passengers passed through TSA checkpoints-- but it’s way up from the depths of April, when there were several days with fewer than 100,000 travelers, volumes not typically seen since the 1950s.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airlines have been responding to this trend by beefing up their schedules, especially for domestic travel. American Airlines announced earlier this month that its domestic schedule for July will offer 45 percent less capacity than last July’s-- for comparison, May’s domestic schedule entailed an 80 percent year-over-year reduction. Rising passenger volumes also mean airlines have been losing less money every day than they expected to lose as of April, one of the factors recently pushing up airline stock prices (though they are down Monday morning).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As with so much of the economy, a key question for the airline industry is how long this better-than-expected trend will continue. A fraction of customers are demonstrating their eagerness to resume travel as soon as it is feasible. Forty-four percent of respondents to an ABC–Ipsos poll conducted this week said they were willing to fly at this time-- up from 29 percent in May, but still seriously depressed. And travel volumes are not just a question of willingness, but also of interest. Certain activities that motivate air travel-- conventions, weddings, festivals, nightlife, sporting events, even business meetings-- are unlikely to return in force until there is a widely distributed vaccine or a highly effective therapeutic treatment. And while consumers have been surprisingly eager to spend in certain areas, consumers whose own jobs and businesses are slow to return to normal may be disinclined to spend on leisure travel. Businesses dealing with lost revenues have found cessation of business travel to be one important area of cost reduction and may themselves be slow to resume it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For this reason, airlines have been signaling to their workers that some fraction of the current service reductions are likely to be persistent-- and will require a permanent shrinking of aircraft fleets and of staffing. CARES Act financial subsidies generally require airlines to maintain staffing levels through September 30, but airlines have been warning of potential layoffs after that and have been offering voluntary buyouts and early retirement packages to workers. One common feature of these offers has been letting workers retain free-flying benefits for extended periods after leaving their jobs-- a benefit that may be more valuable in upcoming years if planes have more unsold seats available for nonrevenue travel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airlines are doing their part to lure customers back. American says this will be the “summer of deals,” and there are a lot of low airfares out there. But I can’t stop thinking about something the economist Jason Furman pointed out to me last month about airfares in the time of the coronavirus and “hedonic adjustments.” Hedonic adjustment is the process of accounting for changes in product and service quality when calculating inflation. If the new iPhone has a better battery life than the old iPhone, then part of the phone-price increase should be attributed to improved quality, not inflation. So how should we think about the changing quality of air travel-- if there are no restaurants open in New York, no Broadway shows, nobody willing to take an in-person business meeting with you, doesn’t that all reduce the product quality of a plane ticket to New York? Add the increased difficulty of getting a decent cocktail at the airport and the risk of contracting a deadly disease, and it’s easy to see why it’s so hard to sell airline tickets right now. Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s a deal. And some of those factors reducing the quality of air travel are likely to persist for a year or longer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The CARES Act was designed to prevent the airlines from shrinking in an undesirable way-- from running out of money this spring or summer, laying off staff and shedding planes for which demand would return by this fall. And as we see, some of that demand is returning pretty robustly. But part of what we are seeing is a longer-run drop in demand that will require a materially smaller airline sector for a period of several years as the economy recovers. Over the rest of the year we will get a better sense of how large a part that is that won’t return soon.
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-37388547101509367392020-04-12T17:33:00.000-07:002020-04-12T17:33:03.734-07:00A Cross-Country Car Road Trip During The Coronavirus Calamity-- A Guest Post By Jeff Rasley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one was standing on the corner in Winslow, AZ except statues</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been almost a decade since the last time noted travel author Jeff Rasley did <a href="https://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/search?q=rasley">a couple of guest posts</a> for us on Nepal, where he organizes Himalayan treks. No more travel to Nepal during the pandemic, but Jeff just took a very different kind of trip-- a road trip through the American pandemic. I think you'll find this as fascinating as I did. Be sure to visit <a href="http://www.jeffreyrasley.com/">Jeff's web site</a>. He took all the pictures... but one. You can probably guess which one I inserted. Here's the guest post:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When my wife Alicia and I began our annual road trip from Indianapolis to Los Angeles on March 12, the coronavirus pandemic was still considered a “China problem.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There were cases in Washington State, but it seemed likely the virus would be contained within the Seattle area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few days before packing the car to head west, I hiked the Starkey Park Trail along Eagle Creek in Zionsville, Indiana, with my hiking group. No one wore masks or washed their hands before we set out. “Social distancing” was not yet in the national vocabulary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">China began reporting deaths in January due to an epidemic in Wuhan. But news of a new virus on the other side of the Pacific Ocean seemed no more relevant than routine reports of epidemics, pestilence, and wars in other parts of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We would drive nowhere near to Washington State on our planned route and Seattle is over 1,100 miles from L.A.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surely Not Here!</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surely the virus would be contained by quarantining anyone coming to the States from China. Nevertheless, added two surgical masks, a large container of disinfectant wipes, and bottles of hand-sanitizer to our baggage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our first destination was Kansas City. News reports on the radio about the spread of the coronavirus were a little worrisome as we drove across Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. But traffic on I-70 was normal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No one seemed to be particularly concerned about the coronavirus at the gas and food stops we made along I-70. There was an outdoor concert in the Power and Light District that night we planned to attend. When we arrived, we discovered it was canceled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the restaurants in downtown KC were open and no particular precautions were being taken by servers or patrons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We stopped in Manhattan, Kansas, the next day for a walking tour of Kansas State University. The University opened in 1863. The 19th Century castle-like limestone buildings in the center of the campus gave Alicia and me an eerie feeling. Not because of the architecture, but because we were the only people walking around the campus. All the buildings were locked up. It was spring break, but campuses don’t become ghost towns during a normal break in the academic calendar.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Heading West</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we drove west, the scenery changed from the flat and rolling farmlands of the Midwest to the Flint Hills of Kansas and then the high plains of eastern Colorado. When the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado came into view it looked like we were driving into another world. We were disappointed to find the 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway closed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Santa’s North Pole near the entrance to the highway was also closed, so we couldn’t ride the highest (elevation 7,500 feet) Ferris Wheel in the world. No signs explained the closures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But in Colorado Springs, Downtown and Old Town were happening places. Lots of people were walking the streets, shopping, hanging out in coffee houses, and dining out. The University of Colorado campus at Colorado Springs overlooks the Garden of the Gods Park. Its architecture is uniform, modern, and attractive.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Temporarily Closed</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Notices around the campus stated that classes were temporarily canceled to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, but many students were walking around and hanging out on campus. The dining center, Café 65, was open to the public and serving food cafeteria-style. A poster at the entrance urged diners to wash their hands to reduce the risk of infection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That warning prompted Alicia and I to begin washing our hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer every time we touched anything outside of our car. And we repeatedly washed every surface of the car that we touched with disinfectant wipes.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cottonwood Hot Springs</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We spent the night at Cottonwood Hot Springs and Spa outside of Buena Vista, Colorado. The Spa had several overnight guests and even more visitors with day-passes to soak in the hot springs. Fear of the virus floated away while I gazed up at a starlit sky suspended in a 110-degree spring-fed pool. Yet, for the first time on the trip, I felt reluctant to be physically close to a stranger. I remained on the other side of the pool while sharing tales of trekking and climbing in Nepal with a shaggy-bearded old hippie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a morning soak in the hot springs, we drove by Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado at 14,439 feet. It is one of a cluster of fourteeners around Leadville, the highest city in Colorado at 10,142 feet. Leadville is historically important to the labor movement, because of the violent miners’ strike in 1896-97.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gun battles killed strikers and strike-breakers. The strike ended when the National Guard was called out and union leaders were arrested. It’s now a funky tourist-town. Radio news reported an outbreak of the virus in Colorado, but stores and restaurants were open for business in Leadville.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alarming Reports on the Radio</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">News channels on our car’s radio broadcast increasingly alarming reports about the virus spreading to New York and other states outside of the Northwest. Still, Alicia and I felt safe from exposure driving through White River National Forest and Glenwood Springs in our Nissan Altima.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We pulled off the road for several scenic views of pristine trout streams with white-capped peaks in the distance. We made a picnic lunch on the bank of the Colorado River. Late in the afternoon, we hiked the Serpent’s Trail in Colorado National Monument.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drove toward a pastel sky of orange, then red and violet as the sun sank behind distant hills on the way to Moab, Utah.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social Distancing at the Diner</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cars and pedestrians were out on Main Street when we arrived that evening. We walked around town for a while and settled on the Moab Diner for a late dinner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the first time on the trip, we experienced something truly out of the ordinary at a restaurant. A handwritten poster requested patrons not to sit next to a table occupied by other diners. We complied.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other than that slight inconvenience, in four days of travel we encountered no problems booking motels, fueling the car, purchasing any needed items, and dining in restaurants. That changed on March 16.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arches National Park in Utah</span></b></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Utah’s Arches</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We spent the morning driving and hiking around the other-worldly Arches National Park. The Park was crowded with vehicles, hikers, and bike riders. There were no warnings at the park entrance about maintaining a distance from other hikers. But, after listening to hourly reports about the spread of the virus, we instinctively stepped away from other people on the trails.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I climbed a few boulders on one of the trails and then wondered whether other hands could leave the virus on rocks I touched. I carefully washed my hands before returning to the car and then cleaned the door handles, steering wheel, and controls with a disinfectant wipe. I also began to be very careful not to touch my face, wipe my eyes or nose, unless I first washed my hands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drove back into Moab for a late lunch. That’s when the relative normalcy of our journey ended. Every restaurant in Moab had closed to inside dining while we were exploring the wonderland of Arches. For the first time, we were forced to order takeout. Customers were still allowed to enter and order inside restaurants, but you were not allowed to eat inside.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On to LA or Back to Indy?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alicia and I debated whether we should proceed on to LA or return to Indiana. We were asymptomatic and there were no reported cases in Indy when we left home. So, we felt confident we were not infected. We could not just end the journey, because we were 1,500 miles from home. We decided to drive on, but to be even more vigilant in taking precautions to protect ourselves and others as best we could.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We spent that night in a cabin at the Whispering Springs Motel in Hanksville, Utah (population 219). Stan’s Burger Shack was open and serving food without any restrictions. Alicia and I chose a table distant from the hand full of other diners. Before we tucked into our order of burgers, fries, and shakes, we wiped the bag, wrapping, and paper cups with disinfectant.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Butch Cassidy’s Hideout</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We learned that Hanksville’s claim to fame is that Butch Cassidy used it as one of his hideouts. Driving along US-89 later that day, we serendipitously noticed a historical marker for Butch Cassidy’s Childhood Home. It is a very modest one-room log cabin just off the highway near Circleville, Utah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Visitor Center at Capitol Reef National Park was closed, but a petite ranger with ruddy cheeks and blond hair greeted visitors and handed out brochures about the park.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She cheerfully opined that being outdoors in a national park was one of the best places to be during a pandemic. “Visitors to the park can avoid groups of people and it’s good for your mental health!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the most interesting areas in Capitol Reef National Park is the ghost town of Fruita. It was a Mormon settlement established in 1880. The settlers planted and tended orchards of cherry, peach, and pear trees, which are still tended by rangers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The settlers hung a box on a huge cottonwood tree on the trail near the entrance to the settlement. The 200-year-old Mail Tree, which served as Fruita’s post office, still stands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alicia and I are not gamblers (maybe with life, but not money), so we are not really “Vegas people.” But we thought it would be interesting to see what was happening in Las Vegas in that early stage of the pandemic. The Strip and Downtown were lit up as if nothing had changed. But on March 17, the day before we arrived, all of the casinos closed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still, cruisers on The Strip backed up traffic for a mile the night of March 18. Some strip clubs refused to close but adapted their illuminated signs to advertising “hand-sanitizer nude wrestling” and “coronavirus-free stripping and table dances.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrived in Los Angeles on March 19 to spend a few days with son Andrew, daughter-in-law Halima, and puppy Link in their new apartment in Brentwood before we moved into our rental condo for a week in Venice Beach. Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an order that night closing most businesses.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No Fatalities Yet in LA</span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only a couple of other people were out on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It felt like the cascading effect of the virus was chasing us across the country. There were no reported fatalities yet in L.A., but around 100 people had been infected. Plans to make side-trips to visit friends Brooks and Maggie at their vineyard in Santa Barbara and Jeff and Pam in Lake Tahoe were canceled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dinners and a beach party with cousins David and Melissa and friends Glen and Jay were canceled. Enjoying L.A. would require more creativity than dining out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each of the eleven days we were in L.A., Andrew, Halima, Alicia, and I took long walks. We walked around the campuses of UCLA, USC, and Santa Monica College and the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We walked the beach in Venice and Santa Monica, and Andrew and I rode bikes on the 8.5-mile trail from Venice to Manhattan Beach. We hiked the trails and marveled at the 40-foot Paradise Waterfall in Wildwood Park, Ventura County.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Venice Beach is ordinarily a weird and wonderful place to hang out. Homeless dumpster divers mix with TV and movie stars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Commercials, music videos, and scenes for cinema productions are routinely shot along the boardwalk or on the beach. Gorgeous Instagram models, surfer dudes, and famous athletes pose or amble along the boardwalk from Muscle Beach to Santa Monica Pier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has a carnival ambiance with buskers playing guitars, artisans hawking their wares, and hustlers selling CDs. Boomboxes blare and strangers give each other high and low fives as skateboarders and roller-bladers whiz by. But not the week of March 22, 2020.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surfers and Bikers</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few surfers were in the water every day. A fair number of people walked, biked, or skated on the boardwalk and beach path, but numbers were well down from what I’d experienced in previous visits. The paddle tennis and basketball courts and skatepark were open and in use until March 27, when crime tape was put up to prohibit play.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open marijuana dispensary on the Venice Beach boardwalk; other shops are closed</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The shops along the boardwalk were closed, except for restaurant take-out, a marijuana dispensary, and a vaping store. Some of the street artists, who live in tents on the boardwalk, had no place to go, so they remained, but were not allowed to sell their works. There is a famously significant homeless population in the Venice area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many people live in tents or under make-shift shelters in alleys and some sleep wherever. The numbers were down from what I’d seen in the past, but there were still quite a few people living rough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Muscular joggers, drag queens, and raggedy bums still roamed Venice Beach, but everyone carefully stepped aside rather than acknowledge a fellow human being with a smile, wave, or handout. Fear of infection drove the fun-loving spirit off the boardwalk and beach path.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Drive Home to Indiana</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What we experienced on the 2,200-mile drive back to Indy was similar to the last two days before arriving in LA. Motels and gas stations were open as were restaurants for takeout. We spent a night in Tusayan, the village just outside Grand Canyon National Park, and spent a day hiking the Rim Trail and driving through the park. Alicia and I had one of the most awesome sights on the planet almost to ourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We tried to visit Petrified Forest National Park, but the gate was closed. We stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and made stops in other towns along Rte. 66, like Holbrook, Arizona, and Tucumcari, New Mexico, that look like movie sets from the 1950s. The gate to Cadillac Ranch, just west of Amarillo, Texas was chained, but we could see the line of upended Cadillacs from the highway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Visiting the Alfred P. Murrah Building Memorial in Oklahoma City is an emotionally-charged experience. On a previous visit, Alicia and I shared the experience with a crowd of people praying, crying, or placing mementos. This time, we shared the space with a security guard and a solitary duck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last scenic stop we planned was Garden of the Gods Recreational Area in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. Its rock and sandstone formations were created 300 million years ago. It looks more like Utah than the Midwest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The gate at the park entrance was closed. But a backpacker walked around it, so, while Alicia guarded the car, I jogged the 1.5-mile hilly road to the scenic Observation Trail. Three miles of speed-walking and running felt good after so many hours in the car. The views were well worth the calorie burn.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indy a Hot Spot</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before we arrived home on April 4th, Indianapolis was designated a “hot spot” for COVID-19 infections. By then, the virus had already killed 125 Hoosiers, and 4,400 had tested positive. Fatalities and cases were increasing, not leveling off. On the road, Alicia and I were rarely in close contact with other people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After restaurants closed to inside dining, the only time we were in an enclosed space with a bunch of people was during a grocery run to Whole Foods in L.A.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because we developed strict protocols, we felt safer from infection driving across the country than we did doing “essential” grocery shopping at that Whole Foods store in a “closed city.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We washed our hands before and after touching anything handled by another person, including takeout orders, motel keys, and gas-pump handles. We wiped with disinfectant every surface we thought another person might have touched, including restaurant and motel door handles, counter-tops, and faucets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On hikes, we avoided close contact with other hikers. We carried synthetic gloves, scarves, and sterile masks for use as needed. When we were traveling, much of our time was spent sheltered-in-place within our 4-door Altima.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Carriers Everywhere</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back in Indy, we are “hunkered down” by order of the Governor. Yet, potential carriers of the virus shop in grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, liquor stores, cigarette shops, deliver mail and packages and other “essential” businesses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A contractor and his worker are in our house to replace our kitchen. Construction work is exempt. If we thought there was any chance either of us had been exposed to the virus before we began our journey, we would not have risked exposing others by taking the road trip. That would have been immoral. But back home in Indiana, we feel less safe than on the road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sanitation protocols we followed gave us confidence that we could risk completing the great American road trip, despite the cascading effects of the pandemic.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Out the Car Windows</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Driving by picturesque farms, winding rivers, and rolling hills, crossing the mighty Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, feeling the desolation of the Flint Hills and the Mojave Desert, passing by sparkling trout streams and through the majestic Rockies, and gazing across the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon-- just looking out of car windows on an American road trip is a fantastic experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a wonderful antidote to the depressing statistics and personal losses caused by the pandemic.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-12662885459924850302020-04-06T18:23:00.002-07:002020-04-06T20:07:09.396-07:00When Did You Decide There Is No Way On Earth You Would Take A Cruise?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When did you first get the idea the coronavirus pandemic was really dangerous and not just some vague thing happening in some part of China you never heard of? By late January Japan, South Korea and Thailand were reporting confirmed cases and a man in his 30s returning to Seattle from a trip to Wuhan was the first U.S. case. On January 23 people who pay attention realized that China had shut down Wuhan and then all of Hubei Province. And then on January 5th we all heard about the Diamond Princess. After a two-week trip to Southeast Asia, more than 3,600 passengers were quarantined on the cruise ship in Yokohama harbor. There were 218 confirmed infections. By the time they started letting passengers off the ship-- February 19-- 621 people on board were infected. Then on February 21 and 23 we started hearing about outbreaks in Iran and Italy-- big ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this point, careful people started wearing masks and started cancelling trips. On March 13 Trump started backing down from his pervious stance that it was no big deal-- by declaring a national emergency. Even then, Trump supporters were still not taking it seriously. Passengers were still taking cruises. In fact, my sister could not be talked about her cruise (although eventually the company cancelled it, luckily for her). The week before Trump declared the national emergency, the Coral Princess, left San Antonio, Chile for a two week tour of South America. After the first week, people were getting sick and testing positive and the cruise turned into a desperate look for a harbor to let them dock. No country would.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today the <i>Washington Post</i> published a report by Hannah Sampson about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/04/06/passengers-started-leaving-coral-princess-then-cdc-changed-its-stance-coronavirus-stricken-cruises/">what happened once Port Miami let them anchor</a>-- anchor, but not disembark. Obviously, there were sick and dying passengers and already dead passengers aboard. Everyone wanted off. But today "they remained on the ship at PortMiami-- running out of medication, without the luggage they handed over two days earlier and with no idea when they would be allowed to head home. Passengers worry their risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus grows the longer they stay on board."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Princess Cruises said Sunday new guidance issued overnight by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended passengers not travel on commercial flights or share transportation with non-cruise guests, which, the company said, would require an adjustment to its plan to let people off the ship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“This will unfortunately result in further delays in disembarkation and onward travel for many guests as we work through this complex, challenging and unfortunate situation,” Princess said in a statement. “We express continued gratitude to our guests for their patience and understanding as we work to adapt to these new requirements.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The ship arrived in Miami on Saturday with 1,020 guests on board after receiving approval for a plan to transport the five sickest passengers to hospitals, keep 65 with symptoms on board to recover and get the rest home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some passengers were able to leave Saturday and Sunday, including those with charter flights to California, Australia and the United Kingdom. Late Monday afternoon, the cruise line said 545 guests left Sunday and another 139 disembarked Monday morning, leaving 274 on board. More domestic charter flights were scheduled to depart Tuesday, Princess said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two people died on the ship as it approached Florida and 12 tested positive for the virus. A third passenger, San Francisco resident Wilson Maa died Saturday night at a hospital after waiting for hours to be taken off the ship as his family pleaded with authorities to help him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to the cruise ship’s original plan, “a portion” of travelers declared fit to travel would take commercial flights, based on their final destination. All of those passengers were going to be taken to Miami International Airport by private bus. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a news conference a “minority” of the passengers on the ship would be flying commercial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The CDC had allowed passengers from other ships with confirmed coronavirus cases to take commercial flights home. Last month, passengers from the Costa Luminosa-- including some who got positive test results midflight-- took a charter flight from Europe to Atlanta. Some passengers from that flight then took commercial flights to get the rest of the way home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Sunday, a passenger who had transferred from Holland America Line’s Zaandam ship to the Rotterdam, both of which arrived last week in Port Everglades, Fla., after coronavirus spread on the Zaandam, told Fox News he took a commercial flight to New York after his charter flight to Atlanta.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We went from people surrounding us with hazmat suits to mixing with the general population,” the passenger, New Jersey resident Rick De Pinho, told Fox.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The new guidance from the CDC says travelers who are well should “only travel with other well travelers by chartered or private transportation. Do not board a commercial flight or other public transportation.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As rules for allowing well passengers to leave the ship evolved, the situation on Coral Princess became more harrowing for sick passengers over the weekend. After family members of Maa, the passenger who died in a hospital, pleaded for his rescue from the ship, they had to turn their attention to his wife, Toyling Maa, who was taken to a hospital after waiting for six hours, her daughter said on Twitter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Sunday, local medical workers boarded the ship to help the medical staffers on board. That day, 12 more patients were taken off the ship to hospitals, according to the county mayor’s office. During the evacuation, workers discovered “the ship’s oxygen supply was critically low,” according to a statement from the county, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue replaced empty oxygen cylinders with full ones.
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-63788644729333607542020-03-19T11:28:00.002-07:002020-03-19T13:40:53.494-07:00If You Want To Take A Trip During The Pandemic, Try Acid Or Peyote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In early February-- recently back from Thailand and having just canceled a summer trip to the Dordogne region of France-- I wrote <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/in-regard-to-coronavirus-how-unsafe-is.html">a coronavirus travel post</a>, much of it a warning about air travel. Hard to believe only month and a half has passed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now we find ourselves in a situation with airlines cancelling flights and governments closing borders and enforcing quarantines. Thousands of Americans are stranded overseas-- Senate Intel chair Richard Burr (R-NC) <a href="https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEKgbLFojOlTtmiC5D0bw9K8qFggEKg4IACoGCAow9vBNMK3UCDCvpUk?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen">warned campaign donors but not the public</a> of what was coming-- and the State Department has ruled out rescue flights. Basically, they have no option but to wait, probably for months before they can get home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Thursday, the <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel.html">State Department</a> a global Level 4 travel advisory. That's as dire as it gets; there is no Level 5. The State Department is basically telling all Americans not to travel abroad at all and telling Americans who are abroad to either come home immediately-- mostly impossible-- or to "shelter in place." No new passports are being issued other than to people with "life or death emergencies." These are the <a href="https://twitter.com/TravelGov">latest dozen tweets</a> from the Department's travel section-- all from this morning:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Due to #COVID19 related public health measures, effective March 20, passport agencies will only accept applications from customers with life-or-death emergencies who plan to travel within 72 hours. Some passport acceptance facilities may also suspend services. Due to #COVID19 related operational changes, we will not offer expedited passport service on or after March 20 and routine processing (normally 6-8 weeks) may be delayed. <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports.html">More information</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Mauritius: Mauritius has barred admission to all travelers, including nationals, as of Mar. 19, GMT. U.S. citizens considering returning to the US are urged to work with their airlines to make travel arrangements while flights are still available. <a href="http://ow.ly/LiXg50yQc2i">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #SouthAfrica: On March 18, South Africa barred admission to travelers who have recently visited the United States, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and China. All US citizen visitors must have visas prior to arrival to enter. <a href="http://ow.ly/mP0250yQ5kn">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Croatia: All travelers barred from admission except Croatian citizens returning home, foreign citizens departing to their home countries, diplomats, law enforcement, medical workers, controlled shipments of goods, and others on a case by case basis. <a href="http://ow.ly/8uf550yQ4Wf">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Angola: The Government of Angola announced that all international flights will be cancelled effective March 20. US citizens who are considering returning to the US are urged to work with airlines to make arrangements while flights are still available. <a href="http://ow.ly/dR0x50yQ2k7">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Bulgaria: The Bulgarian government has banned the entry of third-country (non-EU) nationals, including U.S. citizens, into the country from March 20 to April 17. This includes all border crossing points and aviation, maritime, rail, and road. <a href="http://ow.ly/IroO50yQ1SI">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Laos: The Government of Laos announced the suspension of the issuance of visas on arrival, visas at Lao Diplomatic Missions, and eVisas, as well as visa exemption programs. These restrictions are scheduled to be in place for 30 days starting March 20. <a href="http://ow.ly/YEu650yQ1eh">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Bermuda: Effective March 20, at 11:59pm, L.F. Wade Airport will close for incoming passenger flights for 2 weeks. Only returning residents will be allowed on flights arriving March 19 & 20. If departing, work with airlines while flights still available. <a href="http://ow.ly/8HHe50yPXI8">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #PapuaNewGuinea: Any traveler who has been to or transited through the United States, or any other restricted place, in the 14 days prior to their intended arrival will not be permitted to enter the country. Other restricted places listed here: <a href="http://ow.ly/EpLD50yPPo2">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Bermuda: Several airlines have reduced or suspended flight services between Bermuda and the US. US citizens who are considering returning to the United States are urged to work with their airlines to make travel arrangements while flights are available. <a href="http://ow.ly/3qrm50yPPcX">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Colombia: The Mayor of Bogota announced a drill from March 20-23 during which all people are ordered to stay off the streets or else face possible fines. Additionally, airlines have begun curtailing or ceasing operations in Colombia. <a href="http://ow.ly/ty6350yPOBu">more</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> #Madagascar: All international flights will be cancelled effective March 20, 2020. The Government of Madagascar has also announced cruise ships may not stop in Madagascar. <a href="http://ow.ly/wQwm50yPOsI">more</a>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was from Wednesday-- one day ago:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">#Ethiopia: Rise in anti-foreigner sentiment revolving around the announcement of COVID-19 in Ethiopia. Reports indicate that foreigners have been attacked with stones, denied transportation services, spat on, chased on foot, and accused of being infected. <a href="http://ow.ly/OCWa50yOTdB">more</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">As I mentioned Wednesday, </span><a href="https://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2020/03/around-world-with-covid-19.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Thailand is a heavily tourism-dependent country</a><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">. Yesterday, the Associated Press </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/19/business/ap-as-virus-outbreak-thailand.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">reported</a><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> that "Thailand's government is imposing stricter rules on international travel that require people arriving from all countries to have health certificates stating they do not have the coronavirus, along with medical insurance covering the disease. The measures fall short of the total bans on international flights many countries have enacted, but are expected to sharply cut the number of visitors. Thailand has been reluctant to endanger its large tourism industry, which accounts for about 12% of its economy, according to official figures."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The decision comes just two days after the government announced that medical certificates and insurance would be required only for people arriving from “disease infected zones”-- South Korea, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Italy and Iran-- or who had visited "ongoing local transmission areas"-- the United States, parts of Japan, Britain and eight other European countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The health certificates now required for all arrivals must be issued within 72 hours of departure, and the insurance must cover $100,000 in medical costs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thai citizens also need to have health certificates but not insurance policies. In addition they will have to self-quarantine for 14 days. Quarantine rules for arriving foreigners remain unclear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Today we are trying to block those who bring the disease into Thailand, so that's why I tell you that everyone who is about to enter Thailand should have a health certificate," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said. "That is an extension from four countries and two territories, but today we need it from every country as we attempt to control the outbreak in the country and lower the number of infected people as much as we can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"
Thailand on Thursday reported 60 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing its total to 272. It has registered one death and discharged 42 recovered patients.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday the government announced a raft of measures to combat the virus, including postponing a major holiday and shutting down schools nationwide. Provincial governors have been empowered to close venues where people gather, including massage parlors, entertainment places, gyms and sports venues. The popular tourist destination of Phuket on Thursday joined Bangkok and other provinces in applying such restrictions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Postponing the annual public holiday of Songkran is meant to discourage the gathering and movement of large numbers of people. Millions of Thais normally travel from the big cities where they work to their hometowns during the three-day holiday to celebrate the traditional New Year. It will be rescheduled later this year.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Egypt is also heavily dependent on tourism (3rd biggest source of income)-- or at least they were until the industry <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/egypt-tourism-sector-impact-coronavirus-outbreak.html">evaporated entirely</a>. The airports are shut down and the tourism minister announced he expects to lose a billion dollars a month for as long as there is an emergency situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Wednesday, <i>Forbes</i>' travel write Christopher Elliott <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2020/03/18/what-will-travel-be-like-after-the-coronavirus/#1b62b7273329">tried to look into the future of travel</a> post-coronavirus but starts off with the absurd assumption that things may be headed back to normal in May. And he isn't the only one living in a fantasy world of everything getting back to normal.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bill Patton wants to know what travel will be like after coronavirus. He and his family of 10 are headed to Antibes, France, in late May to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They've tried to cancel because of the coronavirus, but so far neither their airline or their vacation rental company will offer a refund.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Our doctor advises we do not travel under the coronavirus conditions," says Patton, who is 76 and has a history of diabetes, allergies and asthma.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So what will France be like in May? What will travel be like after the coronavirus peaks? Will anyone be traveling at all?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A new survey suggests travel is alive and well. More than half of Americans (58%) are planning to travel between May and September 2020, as long as their destinations aren't in quarantine. But they're being careful. A quarter of participants will try to avoid big cities and public transportation, and 21% will choose domestic travel, according to the survey conducted by LuggageHero.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Demand will come back stronger than ever once the situation is over," says Jannik Lawaetz, LuggageHero's CEO.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here's how people will travel after the coronavirus:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1- They'll stay in the country.</b> International travel will fall out of favor as people stay closer to the safety of home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>2- They won't travel far from home.</b> "Staycations" and road trips will be favored over flying or cruising.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>3-</b> <b>They'll make it quick.</b> A softer economy will mean the traditional two-week summer vacation could turn into a long weekend.
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What will my destination be like this spring?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I know what Southern France is like now because I'm there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I detoured to Nice, France, on my way to Italy and found an apartment on Vrbo to wait out the virus. It was a little scary at first. All the cafés and restaurants closed. There are police checkpoints in the streets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But there's also a sense of normalcy and perspective that seems to be lacking in the United States. After all, France has survived its fair share of pandemics and world wars. People here are taking this crisis in stride and are confident it will be over soon-- certainly by the time Patton and his family arrive here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The borders to Europe are closed for the next 30 days in an effort to contain the coronavirus. After that, things will probably return to normal quickly. By May, Patton and his family might really need that vacation in southern France.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For anyone else with spring travel plans, experts say the outlook is pretty decent. If the borders open up, your destination will happily welcome you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But that's a big "if."</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Will the travel industry come back from coronavirus?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ask experts and they'll tell you that travel will come back quickly. Probably faster than anyone expects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Despite the challenges, it won’t be this way forever," says John Lovell, president of leisure travel and supplier relations and networks at Travel Leaders Group. "Travel and tourism is a highly resilient industry that has come back again and again from diseases and natural disasters."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Industry watchers like Lovell predict a quick bounce back for tourism, despite the current doom-and-gloom headlines. They point out that travel rebounded quickly after other pandemics and disasters, including 9/11.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"You have to assess your own risk tolerance, take reasonable and prudent precautions, and make smart decisions about your travel," he adds. "Right now, there are amazing travel deals to destinations all over the world."</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What will travel be like after coronavirus?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chances are, your destination will immediately begin an aggressive coronavirus recovery program the moment the "all clear" signal is given. That's the prediction of Wayne Smith, chairman of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the College of Charleston.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Most destinations will institute a recovery strategy in which discounts may be a part of the overall enticement to return to travel," he says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But don't look for deep discounts. Smith says the best strategies may not necessarily have cheaper prices but to offer more value.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Examples I have seen in the past would be a hotel offering free meals with room purchase and maybe even packaging in attraction tickets," he says. "Instead of looking for the cheapest price, I would be looking for the best value. There are going to be plenty of high-value travel packages available."</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some parts of the travel industry might not survive</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But it'll be a difficult, and maybe impossible, recovery for parts of the travel industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"It's going to be a long recovery," says Sophie Anderson, a marketing manager at Cruise Agency Australia, an Australian travel agency that specializes in cruises. "There are going to be collapses and bankruptcies when it's all over. At least one or two cruise lines might finally sink."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anderson says for consumers there will be a silver lining-- cruises will be a bargain for the foreseeable future. Of course, if airlines, hotels and cruise lines start to go under, the lower prices will be irrelevant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's the most long-lasting-- and potentially disruptive-- effect on travel. Coronavirus will almost certainly claim several well-known travel brands, according to experts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes, even with government bailouts. It's inevitable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"History tells us that there will be fewer players in the wake of this event," says Paul Metselaar, chairman of Ovation Travel Group. "In the United Kingdom, we have already seen the demise of Flybe, and other carriers are at risk. It is entirely plausible that there will be other casualties in other segments as well.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are a few tips for traveling after the coronavirus outbreak</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No question about it, people will travel after the coronavirus. But how?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Look for deals but focus on value. Assuming the coronavirus crisis is over, don't hesitate to book if you find a bargain for late spring or summer. But don't focus exclusively on price. Instead, look at the overall value of the deal. Are they throwing in attraction tickets or including meals?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Focus on longevity. Stay away from too-good-to-be-true offers from unknown operators. Chances are, these are fire sales from desperate companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Focus on well-known brands that are financially stable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Consider travel insurance. A reputable insurance policy will protect you if an operator goes out of business. If you can't find a good policy, use a credit card to make your purchase. It can also offer protections from financial insolvency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bottom line: Travel will continue after the coronavirus outbreak. The industry will return sooner than you think, and with some great deals.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That swell bottom line ending to the piece indicates that Mr. Elliott, in all likelihood, takes free trips and free hotel stays from the travel industry-- and very much would like that to continue.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-30491561723004895482020-02-27T12:01:00.000-08:002020-02-27T12:01:00.138-08:00How Seriously Will Coronavirus Thin The Herd? What Can You Do About Not Being One Of The Ones Being Thinned?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two or three weeks ago I explained why coronavirus fear had caused me to cancel <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/in-regard-to-coronavirus-how-unsafe-is.html">a trip to the Dordogne region of France</a>. Yesterday Scott McCartney was on the case for the <i>Wall Street Journal</i>: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/coronavirus">Smart Travel Planning In The Time Of Coronavirus</a>. He began by asking, "Should you postpone or cancel travel because of coronavirus?" and replied "Yes, no and maybe." For him it's about geography-- a mistake. "For some destinations, the answer is a clear yes; others, a clear no. An increasing number are becoming a maybe, where it’s really a question of how much worry and hassle you want to pack into your trip." The disease is too rapid and virulent for there to be any negative answers, or even maybes. He's downplaying it and that's dangerous.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One threat: If you get the flu while traveling, you could end up quarantined somewhere because the symptoms in early stages are very similar to those of Covid-19.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I think it’s a good time to assess personal risk tolerance,” says Henry Wu, director of Emory University’s TravelWell Center and assistant professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. “There’s a lot of potential for complications for travelers that may happen even if not high-risk for getting the disease.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With the virus spreading beyond China to new countries, events and conferences are being canceled, airlines are expanding waivers to change reservations without penalty and more travelers are looking to postpone or cancel trips. The spread of the virus to Italy and South Korea changes travel considerations for many.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Travel does present greater risk because you typically encounter more people when traveling, public health experts say. They add that proper precautions-- frequently washing hands, avoiding touching unwashed hands to the face and liberal use of hand sanitizer-- reduce risk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to decide whether to go or not? Here’s a guide to help you make informed decisions:</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some Absolutes</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First, if you’re sick, don’t travel. This rule applies all the time, but people routinely ignore it. Don’t do that in this climate unless you want to end up quarantined.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some countries are or will be scanning passengers for increased body temperature. If you have a fever, you may be detained. Further, airline crews-- not to mention passengers-- are on heightened alert for anyone sneezing or coughing. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended flight crews isolate ill passengers. And it’s not negotiable: On an airplane, failure to comply with crew orders is a federal crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Second, no matter where you travel internationally, there is increased risk that travel may be disrupted. An outbreak can mean a city is sealed off, flights are canceled and travelers are quarantined. So best to plan ahead for serious disruption, just in case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Take extra supplies of your medications with you. Take a supply of cold medicine and a thermometer. You might want to take work materials with you that you need after your return in case you end up stuck somewhere. Make sure you have health insurance documentation in case you end up sick. And have someone back home at the ready to help with emergency travel plans if you need to find a way home quickly. A travel agent may be a very good idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“As we learn more about the virus, governments can change overnight how they are responding,” says epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Third, consider whether you have a higher risk of getting sick while traveling. Older people or those with underlying medical conditions may want to ground themselves, experts say.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dr. Wu advises getting a flu shot before traveling if you haven’t already. It can take a week to become effective, but it’s not too late in the flu season to protect yourself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fourth, if you want to consider travel insurance, consider only “cancel for any reason” plans. These policies typically cost about 40% more than standard policies and typically reimburse about 75% of nonrefundable trip costs if you do cancel, says Megan Moncrief, chief marketing officer for Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison service. That’s a lower payout than other plans, but it’s the only type of travel insurance that will help at this point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you have insurance you bought before the outbreak began, it likely will only cover you if you contract the virus. It might cover you if you get sick and your doctor certifies you shouldn’t travel during your planned itinerary. But travel insurance doesn’t cover fear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“People are just nervous. They aren’t sure what’s going to happen. They simply don’t want to go anymore, don’t feel comfortable going, don’t feel safe going. But those aren’t covered reasons under a standard policy,” Ms. Moncrief says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that the coronavirus outbreak is well known, policies you buy won’t cover it-- it’s a known hazard. It’s the same reason you can’t buy fire insurance as wildfires approach your house.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some Options</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are some logical ways to make an informed choice about where to go. Use the CDC’s <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html">three-level warning system</a>, which is frequently updated and considered reliable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Level 3 is a high-level warning of serious outbreak and it’s a no-go. The CDC recommends avoiding all nonessential travel. If your destination is Level 3-- mainland China and South Korea, which was added to Level 3 on Tuesday-- the decision is simple.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Level 2 calls for practicing enhanced precautions. You can still go, but a good rule for any travelers nervous about the virus would be to postpone or cancel trips to Level 2 counties-- Italy, Iran and Japan as of Tuesday. Wait for things to resolve.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Level 1 is when a place has been put on watch. Right now, only Hong Kong is listed as Level 1 for coronavirus. But other countries are listed with “apparent community spread”: Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam. The CDC says virus spread isn’t sustained or widespread enough to warrant a travel health notice. But that may be notice enough for you. (Here’s a <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices">link to all CDC travel warnings</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even without notice, you may find public events canceled and venues closed. And closings to prevent congregating crowds may happen anywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public health experts say the biggest health risk for domestic travel now is the flu. No part of the U.S. is considered higher risk for coronavirus than any other. But Dr. Nuzzo of Johns Hopkins says she doesn’t believe authorities have a good handle on where the virus is and where it isn’t, including in the U.S., because many countries aren’t testing aggressively.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I think this virus will turn up everywhere,” she says, because that’s how respiratory viruses tend to spread. She also notes that trying to stop the spread by restricting travel hasn’t worked so far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Still, Dr. Nuzzo booked a family summer vacation recently to Mexico and plans to go, even though she expects the virus to show up in Mexico. “My risk tolerance is that life needs to go on,” she says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Flights by themselves aren’t considered higher risk, except that they are crowded situations. Dr. Wu notes there have been no documented or confirmed cases of coronavirus transmission aboard an airplane. The World Health Organization says an airplane cabin by itself isn’t more conducive to spreading infection. But the proximity of passengers does matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The WHO says the virus is transmitted by droplets, and only lives on surfaces for short periods, perhaps 30 minutes. Other health groups have questioned that, suggesting it can live much longer on surfaces. If you are concerned, wipe down surfaces you are going to touch on airplanes or other public spaces, such as hotel rooms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Paper surgical masks are effective at keeping you from spreading disease if you are sick, but not effective at blocking you from ingesting virus. For that, health experts recommend an N95 respirator—a heavy-duty mask.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Americans are not taking this seriously enough, in part because Trump just looks at it through the prism of his own reelection chances and has been foolishly and selfishly playing it down. Tuesday, Australian virologists Ian Mackay and Katherine Arden <a href="https://virologydownunder.com/so-you-think-youve-about-to-be-in-a-pandemic/">noted</a> that coronavirus is now showing up in 30 countries outside China and that the rapid spread indicates that "the virus is ahead of our efforts to contain it." They wrote that their post "is based on the <i>assumption</i> that a pandemic will occur at some point and that Wave 1 will impact us, wherever we live, in the coming weeks and months... Planning now and doing something means we can control how well we cope with some of what may be coming."
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If we enter into a pandemic, large numbers of people will be sick. Even if that’s just staying home with a fever and bad cough for a week. If COVID-19 is more severe, that will have a greater impact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And when one family member is sick, one or more others may be involved in their care, removing more people from the workplace. The same effect may result if children being excluded from school. In a worst-case scenario, widespread illness may mean too few workers to drive trucks and trains, buses and taxis, run water treatment, electricity or other government services, teach at schools or staff hospitals. This didn’t happen in Australia during the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic. But supply chains may be impacted in a number of ways.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Authorities will try to slow the speed of COVID-19 to prevent hospitals-- which are essential to care for the sickest people-- from being overloaded. Public gatherings-- sports events and concerts-- as well as schools and childcare centres, could be postponed or closed. All of which aims will be to keep people apart, making it harder for the virus to spread quickly. Again, these decisions will differ between places, and may not even have to be made.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...As long as the virus circulates, and as long as you have never been infected, you are susceptible to infection resulting in COVID-19. This will be the case for the rest of your life until you have been infected which should protect you from severe disease. COVID-19 is mostly a mild illness but can cause severe pneumonia in approximately 20% of cases, leading to hospitalization for weeks and in a portion of these cases, to death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Stay at least 2m away from obviously sick people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> We’re trying to avoid receiving a cough/sneeze in the face, shaking hands, or being in the range of droplet splatter and the “drop zone”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Wash your hands for 20 seconds & more frequently than you do now</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Soap and water and then dry, or an alcohol-based hand rub, and air dry</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Try not to touch your face.</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a chance your unwashed fingers will have a virus on them and if you touch/rub your mouth, nose or eyes, you may introduce the virus and accidentally infect yourself. Practice this; get others to call you out when you forget. Make it a game.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While a mask <i>seems</i> like a good idea, and when used by professionals it does protect from infection, it can actually give inexperienced users a false sense of security. There isn’t a lot of good evidence (still!) that shows a mask to reliably prevent infection when worn by the public at large. They <i>are</i> useful to put on a sick person to reduce their spreading of the virus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you or a loved one becomes sick, follow the practices of the day. Call ahead before going to a Doctor, fever clinic or hospital and get advice on what to do. Hopefully, this message is already out there and we’ll see it more once transmission of the virus is widespread.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Reducing our risk of running short of food and important goods-- the 2-week list</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What we’re looking at here is trying to minimize the impact of any shortages of goods we rely on having at the grocery store or at the end of an online ordering system.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...Below we list things we’ll need to have in case of a more major interruption to supply; a stock that will last 2 weeks. Some of these things will last much longer and include items that may not be a top priority for authorities to keep stocked:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Extra prescription medications, asthma relief inhalers
Some of these may be a problem, so talk to your doctor soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Over-the-counter anti-fever and pain medications
paracetamol and ibuprofen can go a long way to making us feel less sick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Feminine hygiene products</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Family pack of toilet paper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Vitamins</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In case food shortages limit the variety in your diet</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Alcohol-containing hand rub</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Soap</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Household cleaning agents</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bleach, floor cleaner, toilet cleaner, surface cleaning spray, laundry detergent</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Tissues, paper towel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Cereals, grains, beans, lentils, pasta</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Tinned food – fish, vegetables, fruit</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Oil, spices and flavours</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Dried fruit and nuts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Ultra-heat treated or powdered milk</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ian is not drinking black coffee, no matter what</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Batteries for anything that need batteries</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Think about elderly relative’s needs</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Their medications, pets, pandemic stash, plans for care</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Pet food and care</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dry and tinned food, litter tray liners, medicines, anti-flea drops</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Soft drink or candy/chocolate for treats
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In a more severe pandemic, supply chain issues may mean fresh food becomes harder to get. So this list is an add-on to the one above, and its items should be the last things to buy if you have a hint of when supplies might slow or stop for a (hopefully short) time.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Bread, wraps</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Meat for freezing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Milk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Eggs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Yogurt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Vegetables, fruit</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Fuel for your car
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To date, looking at data from China (below), most (94%) deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in those aged over 50 years of age, with more than half (51%) in those aged over 70 years. The age group most at risk for death are those aged over 80 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Older people with comorbidities have experienced higher proportions of death than those with no comorbidities. Most cases identified in mainland China-- 80.9% of them-- even with the more severe case catching that China has favoured-- have been classified as mild. This is good news although 20% is still a lot of “severe” disease. Mild cases recover in about 2 weeks from the time they showed symptoms, while severe cases can take 3 to 6 weeks to recover.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because of this, we may see a big impact on our elderly population, both in terms of hospitalisation and death. Residential aged care is likely to suffer and visits to loved ones may be restricted to keep them safe. If you have loved ones in an aged care facility, ask the facility about its plans for keeping their residents safe from flu (a similar situation) and whether they have thought about what they will do if SARS-CoV-2 is spreading widely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It will be important to check that your parents and grandparents have prepared a Will and have considered an Enduring Power of Attorney in case they are unable to make care-based decisions for themselves. These aren’t fun to organise or think about, but they’re important whether we see a COVID-19 pandemic or not, so just use this as a reminder to get it done.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And when does it become too dangerous to go out to eat in restaurants? Yesterday? Much the way Trevor Noah did last night, but writing for Bloomberg News this morning, Jonathan Bernstein explained that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-27/trump-coronavirus-press-conference-adds-to-political-risks">Trump's coronavirus press conference wasn't exactly reassuring</a> to anyone with half a brain. "Yes, he used his usual juvenile nicknames and petty insults for the Democrats he’s going to have to work with. Yes, he blamed the stock market drop on Monday and Tuesday on-- wait for it-- the Democratic debate Tuesday night. Yes, he repeatedly praised himself for solving the problem (setting up a potential 'Mission Accomplished' moment in the likely event the pandemic spreads in the U.S.) and had administration officials praise him as well. All entirely inappropriate and counterproductive. But it was worse than that. He was at times barely coherent even for someone who knew what he was trying to say. I can’t imagine what it was like for the bulk of the nation, folks who only sometimes pay attention to politics but might have tuned in because they want to be reassured that the government is on top of the problem. He must have been almost completely incomprehensible to them, rambling on about how he had recently discovered that the flu can kill lots of people and referring in a totally oblique way to the budget requests he had made to Congress and their reaction. He occasionally said something that sort of made sense, but mostly? Not. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s reaction was what I thought: 'I found most of what he said incoherent.' At no time over the course of the news conference did Trump supply evidence that he had any idea what he was talking about." Yeah... we're all going to die-- although Trump supporters will probably die first; at least there's that.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-53905001896561402032020-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:002020-02-09T20:48:26.295-08:00In Regard To The Coronavirus, How Unsafe Is Airplane Travel? Will Governments Level With Us?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm a fairly intrepid international traveller and I've never thought twice about pandemics when making my travel plans. Until this morning. This morning is when I called my friend Helen, who was putting out summer vacation together in the Dordogne region of France. First off, how cool does this look?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I told Helen to hold up on reserving the house Sarlat we were planning on. I just got this awful feeling that this coronavirus is way more serious than the public is lead to believe and that by summer, air travel is going to be... well too risky, even just to Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today the <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coronavirus-china-updates/2020/02/09/eb9e683c-4aa4-11ea-8a1f-de1597be6cbc_story.html">reported</a> that both the number of infected people and the number of people dying keeps growing, primarily in Wuhan in central China.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>●</b></span> The global death toll from the novel coronavirus reached more than 810 on Sunday, surpassing the 774 fatalities attributed to the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus in 2002 and 2003. Among the dead was the first American, a 60-year-old woman who died Thursday in Wuhan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>●</b></span> Although Wuhan and Hubei province remain ravaged by the disease, Chinese officials say the number of new cases outside Hubei is declining, in a reflection of strict quarantine measures taking effect nationwide.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>●</b></span> A World Health Organization-led international team is planning to leave for China on Monday or Tuesday to conduct an investigation of the coronavirus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>●</b></span> Chinese authorities have labeled masks a “strategic resource,” and experts call for most protective masks to be reserved for medical workers amid global shortages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>●</b></span> Hong Kong expanded its quarantine orders to more than 160 people who arrived from the Chinese mainland. People who violate the quarantine face up to six months in jail.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As far as I can tell, infected people in China are being put into what amounts to storage facilities. Oh-- and the Chinese government aren't being very forthcoming about the disease. We don't really know much about anything and I don't trust <i>any</i> of the information China is releasing. <i>The Post</i> reported that "Even as infections overwhelm the afflicted province, the rest of China may be seeing the effects of strict quarantine measures, Chinese health officials said Sunday. In all parts of China excluding Hubei, the daily number of new infections dropped from nearly 900 on Feb. 3 to 509 on Saturday, the officials said." Is it true? I wouldn't count on it.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An international team of experts led by WHO will depart for China on Monday or Tuesday to investigate the outbreak, said the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Medical experts say available data show the disease-- officially named “novel coronavirus pneumonia,” or NCP, by Chinese health officials on Saturday-- is much more contagious than SARS, but the probability of death for those infected is much lower.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Around the world, cases continue to tick up. The number of confirmed infections rose on Sunday to 70 onboard the cruise liner Diamond Princess, which has been anchored and quarantined off the coast of Japan. Only the sick are able to disembark.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the evacuees was Rebecca Frasure, her husband Kent Frasure, 42, told The Post by phone on Sunday from the quarantined ship in Yokohama. The couple from Forest Grove, Ore., had traveled to Disneyland in Hong Kong, Vietnam and other destinations before Japanese medical staff boarded the ship with thermometers. Rebecca Frasure, 35, tested positive for the virus on Thursday, her husband said, and was taken by ambulance to a hospital north of Tokyo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“She is doing pretty good, no fever or cough,” he said, although symptoms can take as many as 14 days after exposure to appear. Frasure said his wife is being evaluated in a stripped-down contagious disease ward with just a bed, TV and calendar on the wall. Doctors step through a sealed antechamber to see her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is an alien experience for her, said Frasure, a technician at Intel. She does not speak Japanese and the physicians use electronic devices to translate confusing medical jargon. But Rebecca, who works for a health-care company, has WiFi and keeps in contact with him and family on FaceTime, he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The quarantine on the ship, meanwhile, has become claustrophobic. Frasure had a fever earlier, so he has been restricted to his suite. His Nintendo Switch and reporters calling him for comment help pass the time, he said. The ship captain periodically issues updates over a loudspeaker, but media reports often clue in the passengers before then.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Usually we know what’s happening before it’s announced,” he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, urged calm as the city-state reported a spike in the number of cases to a total of 40 and raised its alert level. New cases were also reported in Germany and South Korea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Hong Kong, where grocery stores have been emptied as worried residents stock up on supplies, the number of cases rose by three to a total of 29 on Sunday. The city’s health authorities said tests for all 3,600 crew and passengers quarantined for the past four days on a cruise ship, the World Dream, came back negative and everyone aboard was released Sunday afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">China faces a crucial test beginning Monday as laborers from across the country trickle back to work in major cities that have been effectively emptied and shut down since the Lunar New Year in late January.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Officials, concerned about another spike in infections, have tried to delay the return to work. Shanghai is asking companies to dissuade nonlocal employees from returning for several more weeks. In Shenzhen, the iPhone assembler Foxconn has told employees that work is suspended until further notice. Officials in cities ranging from Xian in the north to Tianjin on the east coast have warned travelers from other parts of China that they would be immediately quarantined upon their return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In a sign that governments are still seeking to prolong closures, state media reported Sunday that the populous Hebei province surrounding Beijing would join a number of other major jurisdictions keeping schools closed until March 1 at the earliest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the heart of the epidemic in Wuhan, the situation remains dire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Officials are rushing to transfer patients into three quarantine facilities with 4,000 beds to alleviate a severe shortage of space inside the city’s overwhelmed hospitals. Hotels and university dorms are being requisitioned and converted into spaces for “centralized quarantine” for patients showing symptoms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leishenshan, a second makeshift hospital with 1,600 beds, began accepting patients with severe symptoms beginning Saturday night, state media reported.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wuhan officials had initially asked all but the most ill patients to stay home in recent weeks due to a shortage of hospital beds, but on Saturday Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, the leader of a central government response group, ordered local officials to “take in everyone that should be taken in” to newly established facilities to quarantine confirmed cases.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But risks remain inside medical facilities. Doctors from Wuhan’s Zhongnan Hospital reported that 41 percent of coronavirus patients at their hospital became infected while inside the hospital by other patients and medical staff. The doctors announced their findings in a paper published by the <i>Journal of the American Medical Association</i> on Friday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At another hospital, the Wuhan Mental and Health Center, 50 patients and 30 medical staff were infected due to a lack of caution and protective gear, a doctor, Zhao Ping, told China <i>Newsweek</i> magazine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hubei deputy governor Cao Guangjing said Saturday that hospitals in the province had only 80 percent of the masks they required.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two prominent incidents have become symbols for China’s tight grip on information and simmering tensions among its citizens unhappy with Beijing’s response to the virus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chen Qiushi, an attorney and citizen journalist, slipped into the Wuhan hot zone on Jan. 24 to interview citizens about the outbreak, <i>The Post</i> reported, garnering worldwide attention for the city of 11 million where little, if any, information has slipped through government censors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chen’s family and friends said this weekend he was forcibly detained in an undisclosed location.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Details of his disappearance emerged days after Li Wenliang, the “whistleblower doctor” considered the first to sound the alarm about the disease, died after contracting the virus in Wuhan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Millions of Chinese tried to surge past censors by amplifying the social media hashtag #WeWantFreedomOfSpeech, and photos of him flooded the Internet as a digital rallying cry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One month after patients began flooding into area hospitals, many increasingly sick and desperate households say they still cannot secure care and fear time is running out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Li Lina, a resident in the Hanyang district, beat a gong and shrieked from her high-rise balcony this weekend to beg for help for her and her stricken mother holed up at home. A neighbor filmed her cries and uploaded it to the Internet, where it went viral.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Reached by telephone on Sunday, Li explained that her mother’s condition was steadily worsening but she has not been able to secure a hospital bed since Jan. 29, because city regulations allow only confirmed coronavirus patients to get spots.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Li was finally able to administer a nucleic acid test on Friday; the result returned positive for coronavirus but ambiguous. Doctors gave her mother a second exam and Li is waiting for the result to arrive Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I don’t even know if she’ll hold out that long,” Li said as she tended to her mother, who is too feeble to speak and communicates by ringing a bell. “I feel helpless. I can’t watch my mother die.”
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A friend of mine who lives in Hong Kong told me that the city is better equipped than most places, because of previous hibernations in response to SARS and bird flu potential pandemics, to react by being careful without panicking. BUT the government has virtually no credibility. The consequence of that is the <a href="https://www.hongkongfp.com/2020/02/04/coronavirus-hong-kong-medics-escalate-strike-demand-full-shutdown-chinese-border/">city's medics are on strike demanding a total shutdown of the Chinese border</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were 7,000 medics on strike last week</span></b></td></tr>
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-91309004472437380222019-11-28T17:29:00.000-08:002019-11-28T17:29:05.341-08:00Flying In Misery... More Seats Per Cabin Means Less Room Per Passenger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I used to look forward to airplane flights. Now I dread them and avoid airplane travel when I can. The airline companies have skimped on everything and managed to make it an ordeal rather than a pleasure. Every single aspect of airplane travel is a relative bummer-- from booking flights (not to mention trying to use their scammy frequent flier miles) to the airport experience to the security bullies to the plane configurations to the hostile service from overworked, underpaid employees. On Thanksgiving Day, with thousands of travelers stranded at airports around the country, the <i>Washington Post</i> published <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/first-of-their-kind-tests-are-aimed-at-setting-new-standards-for-airplane-seats/2019/11/28/55bcdd3a-0ae4-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html">a story by Lori Aratani</a> about uncomfortable seats and how Congress has mandated the companies to do something about it. "At a special center in Oklahoma City," she wrote, "researchers from the Federal Aviation Administration are running a series of drills that could affect the comfort and safety of millions of airplane passengers. More than 700 residents have been recruited to help determine whether the space between airplane seats or the size of the seats affects their ability to evacuate an aircraft. The drills mark the first time the FAA is examining whether the trend toward smaller seats and less personal space on today’s planes poses safety risks to those aboard in the event of an emergency."
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But consumer advocates and lawmakers are worried that the results of the tests are flawed, because the people the agency recruited don’t reflect the demographics of today’s flying public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The FAA said the pool of volunteers includes adults between 18 and 60. Lawmakers and consumer advocates note there are no children or travelers with disabilities. The pool also does not include animals, which are a growing presence in today’s cabins, said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“You’ve got to have a representative sample,” Cohen said. “This is supposed to be a scientific study, but it’s flawed from the get-go.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An FAA spokesman declined to address concerns about the demographics of the test pool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The issue is of keen interest for Cohen, a frequent traveler. He, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), co-wrote the provision in the 2018 FAA reauthorization bill that required the agency conduct these exercises as part of the push to set minimum standards for seat size and pitch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are no federal rules regarding seat size. Manufacturers, however, must demonstrate that there is enough space to allow passengers to evacuate the aircraft in 90 seconds or less.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The testing is a research project, following standard scientific methods and principles, which requires that we minimize the number of variables to allow proper interpretation of the results,” FAA spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said. “Inclusion of variables other than the ones critical to the topic of investigation could obscure the effect of study parameters.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As part of the study, 60 volunteers will be seated in mock airplane cabins that simulate the layout of a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320, two common single-aisle aircraft. They’ll be instructed by flight attendants to evacuate. The seats will then be reconfigured and the tests will be run again. Each group of 60 will do the test four times. The study is being conducted by the FAA’s Cabin Safety Research Team over 12 days this month. The goal is to release the results of the study by next summer, Breitenfeldt said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, said the FAA can’t ignore the fact that space on airplanes is shrinking at the same time the average American is getting bigger. The shift doesn’t just affect comfort, he argues-- it also could affect safety.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Seat width on many of the major airlines has shrunk from about 18.5 inches to 17 inches. And seat pitch-- the distance from one point in a seat to the same point in a seat in front or behind it-- has decreased from an average of 35 inches to 31 inches. On some airlines, the distance is now 28 inches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the same time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American man is about 30 pounds heavier-- 198 pounds-- than he was in the 1960s. The average American woman, who now weighs 170, is nearly 30 pounds heavier than she was in the 1960s. Nearly 93 million Americans, roughly 40 percent of the population, are obese, and that number is projected to reach 50 percent by 2030.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breyault said limiting the test groups to just 60 people also doesn’t reflect the reality of air travel today. Statistics show that planes are carrying more passengers than a decade ago. Add to that other variables: Because of baggage fees, people are bringing more bags on board. More animals-- whether service dogs or comfort animals-- are also flying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The bottom line from our point of view is that the FAA seems determined to find any way around meaningful rulemakings that would improve evacuation safety,” Breyault said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The National Consumers League was one of 10 consumer groups that wrote to FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, raising concerns about the drills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The FAA has long resisted calls to set minimum standards for seat size and pitch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 2016, the Flyers Rights Education Fund petitioned a federal appeals court to impose a moratorium that would stop airlines from reducing the size of seats. Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the request, but instructed the FAA to explain why smaller seats were not a safety hazard. The FAA responded saying it is up to the airlines to determine the appropriate seat size, noting the issue is one of comfort, not safety.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lawmakers, however, refused to take no for an answer, which is why FAA researchers are conducting tests in Oklahoma City.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the request of Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-OR), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), chairman of the aviation subcommittee, the Department of Transportation’s inspector general launched an audit into the FAA’s evacuation procedures, which will include an examination of whether changes in seating configuration might impact passengers’ ability to evacuate a plane in an emergency. The inspector general’s report is expected next year.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last year <i>AirFareWatchDog</i> published a piece, <a href="https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/44252939/wild-pitch-us-airlines-with-the-most-legroom-in-economy-and-the-least/">US Airlines With the Most Legroom in Economy... and the Least</a> Your worst imaginings are true: "To increase profits, airlines are reconfiguring their cabins to cram in as many seats as possible, and that comes at the cost of your comfort (and knees). That space needs to come from somewhere, and the most common way to find it is by reducing the seat pitch throughout the airplane. For those who aren't familiar with the term, 'seat pitch' is the distance from the back of your plane seat to the seat in front of you. While reducing seat pitch has been going on for years, the recent trend of airlines moving towards Basic Economy and the low-cost carrier model has undoubtedly put a squeeze on customers."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's start with the 3 best:
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> JetBlue- 33-32 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Southwest- 32-31 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Alaska- 32-31 inches
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the 3 worst:
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Sun Country- 29-30 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Frontier- 28-31 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Spirit- 28 inches
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the big three carriers:
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> American- 31 inches (average)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> United- 30-31 inches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Delta- 30-32 inches
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh-- and seats are about 3 inches narrower on the major airlines. I wonder which airlines of these re-regulated airlines skimp on safety and routine servicing.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-10780275413541602682019-06-14T08:00:00.000-07:002019-06-14T08:00:06.205-07:00Waiting to Exhale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-by Skip Kaltenheuser</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I find myself in the center of a massive pit, surrounded by thousands of rigid warriors tall enough to look down on me. Posture perfect despite their years-- twenty-two centuries-- they stand in defiant battle formation. Overwhelmed, I back up to photograph a wiseacre standing behind a warrior who is missing his head. I accidentally bump against the warrior behind me. Down he goes. Then down go a hundred, like dominos. Thousands of warriors turn to face me, their expressions uniform in anger. Calvary horses paw the earth and tug at chariots. Crossbows lock and load. I leap from the pit and only quit running when I’m in Kazakhstan, refrains from Traffic’s <a href="https://youtu.be/pc1Hz8S2qhs">Forty Thousand Headmen</a> playing in my head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They may have feet of clay, but these mystery men still intimidate my dreams. Fierce terracotta warriors have transformed an impoverished Chinese countryside-- some people still dwell in caves-- into a tourist Mecca. Beijing may have the Olympics spotlight, but it is the ancient capital, Xi’an, in central China, one of the great ancient cities, where Chinese history really built its foundations. Peasant farmers digging a well discovered the first terracotta warriors in 1974. The more archaeologists dug, the more stunned they were. Here the world awakened anew to the former splendor and mystery of China. Now encased by a world class museum, the warriors are part of a vanguard supporting the prediction that by 2020, China will be the world’s number one tourist destination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hard to believe the museum, still a work in progress, began in 1976, the last year of Mao’s life. Some communist somewhere was thinking tourism. Perhaps Mao-- China’s last emperor, loosely defined, and ruthless-- felt some kinship to Qin. So how did eight thousand warriors with armor and weapons, with cavalry and horses, congregate here, six thousand in the largest pit, now shielded by a protective hanger structure large enough to house an aircraft factory?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the most ruthless of emperors, Qin, had his successes, including launching the endless project of the Great Wall. Qin created the first feudal and centralized empire in China, the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC), by subjugating the various states. But it was a bloody business and many tried to assassinate Qin. He must have anticipated the need for an army to protect him in the afterlife from angry spirits lining up from the scholars he murdered, opposing armies he slaughtered, and his forced labor pool, many of the latter buried alive to maintain tomb secrets. Never mind the 3,000 barren wives and concubines – some revered, some tortured for pleasure – many entombed to keep Qin company. One could assume that he had earned his nightmares. And Qin began earning them young. Becoming king while still twelve, he started building his own tomb in a mausoleum complex spreading over two square kilometers, constructed by 720,000 workers and craftsmen who eventually labored nearly four decades at what was for most of them, the ultimate thankless task.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Embarking on such an endeavor instead of honoring Confucian customs of respecting his late father with a grand memorial brought him the disapproval of 460 Confucian scholars. And because Qin was not keen on critics, he executed them, burning many of them alive. About this time, critics began to see the brilliance in the young emperor’s plan. Qin’s as yet unopened tomb is said to have pearls in the ceiling for stars, and small rivers and lakes filled with mercury.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One distant dig, labeled pit “number five”, surrounded by an orchard, is filled with fragments of armor, like an upended Scrabble game. It is the tip of a huge pit, mostly unexcavated, and thought to contain only armor suits, perhaps tens of thousands of them. As thousands of chariot warriors, infantrymen, cavalrymen and horses were created-- as well as dancers, musicians and acrobats-- Qin’s theory was rather simple: the armor honors those fallen in battle and not properly buried, so the spirits of the dead and dismembered would be less likely to track him down for vengeance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, the museum is visited by over two million people every year, nearly a quarter of them foreigners. Commerce related to the warriors already generates nearly a fifth of the province’s income, not counting what the surviving peasants who discovered them, local heroes, make autographing museum books. Warrior knockoffs of every size are available for sale everywhere, including gas stations and roadside attractions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s an interesting contrast to the technical industries that have gained a presence not very far away-- China’s first satellite and first integrated chip were created in Xi’an, and there are scores of state run laboratories digesting and applying technologies absorbed from around the world. The city itself has contrasts of modernity and the old walled city within it, all of which struggles against the dust and sand blowing in from the advancing Gobi desert. Indeed, the Xi’an sky is as much a signpost of global warming as the world’s defeated glaciers or blanched coral that more often catches the public eye. The sky can be a brilliant blue, but in the morning it can be hard to tell if the dim globe is the sun rising, or the moon. The warriors’ stoic gaze that seems to underpin China’s permanence is mitigated by China firing up a new dirty coal-burning power plant each week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sky has the feel of an empire reaching its limits, as empires inevitably do, just as the coal polluted air assaults the terracotta flesh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeological Research, fragments are assembled in restoration laboratories by German and Chinese scientists who exchange preservation expertise. Fragile artifacts, such as a bronze goose neck and head or sword, are X-rayed and studied to determine weaknesses and original designs. Some are tenderly and meticulously labored over within a sealed glass chamber, the scientists’ arms in long rubber gloves, as if herding renegade microbes. The warriors’ fragility is underscored by the nine or so different moulds that attack the terracotta, said to originate from shifting humidity and tourist breath. Despite the economic boom the warriors generated, funding remains a tough quest. The entire process of putting a single warrior back together can take up to a year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Qin Dynasty didn’t last long. Five years after Qin’s burial in 210 BC, a vengeful general Xiang Yu raided the tomb, stealing the real weapons the warriors held, and set a fire in the necropolis that burned for months. Many of the warriors are as shattered as egg shells. They now inspire craftsmanship of a different sort. Today, selected tour operators provide special access for travelers, who photograph themselves with the six and a half foot figures as if they were old chums. Up close and personal, visitors study faces that convey personality, faces that, millenniums ago, would have studied theirs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s the faces that most linger in this writer’s mind, knowing that each, though a notch larger than life, represents a person who walked the earth, fighting in battles that seem otherworldly. We have often seen the idealized faces of emperors across different cultures. We seldom see the faces of Everyman. Their faces speak volumes about the warrior vanities of the day-- the moustaches and goatees, the hair buns. Facial features reveal that many hailed from minority populations to the northwest, likely conscripted from conquered populations. The drama behind their searching faces is enhanced by pondering the armies of craftsmen who gave birth to the clay warriors, and the hardships endured. Perhaps it is respect for these toiling workers, not for the emperor, that the warriors most convey, as thousands of them patiently await their chance to shock and awe.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-10435794005382263272019-05-22T15:10:00.001-07:002019-05-22T15:10:23.805-07:00Exploring The Surreal Skeleton Coast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of Edward Bohen</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-by Skip Kaltenheuser</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Skeleton Coast is one of the most appropriately named stretches of land in the world, a place where many hapless sailors of centuries past have mingled their bones with whale ribs and shipwrecks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was at one time no margin for error for sailors rounding the Horn of Africa and heading north through rough seas past this vast expanse, which stretches along the northern third of <a href="http://travelingboy.com/archive-travel-fyllis-namibia1.html">Namibia’s</a> coast. The region borders more vast expanses, among them the world’s oldest desert, the Namib. One wonders whether whalers and sailors who somehow made it ashore after reefs had thrashed their ships found a moment to appreciate landscapes that would have challenged even the surreal imagination of Salvador Dali.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSadCu9GFVhwrBDX4-kY7vCDcC9e0g7sRYJROcezLZMu5xvb_u6RTCmOEaGpdlAw_LecAEoKBNSitoDr-px84ao4qaD1fnDZLDbTZnDr-Y3G3fAXxDfD4_QiinhlwNFL-bR8zfQ/s1600/Namibia-Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="850" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSadCu9GFVhwrBDX4-kY7vCDcC9e0g7sRYJROcezLZMu5xvb_u6RTCmOEaGpdlAw_LecAEoKBNSitoDr-px84ao4qaD1fnDZLDbTZnDr-Y3G3fAXxDfD4_QiinhlwNFL-bR8zfQ/s400/Namibia-Map.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Along the coastline are immense flat plains, broken in places by lines of small cones denoting abandoned diamond mines. The plains yield to giant, orange-yellow sand dunes. The wind etches geometric patterns on their long curves and slopes.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Skip Kaltenheuser</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Walking across a flat plain from our vehicle-- a Land Rover with old airplane chairs strapped to the roof-- my companions and I step in each other’s footprints to minimize the impact on the tiny blades of vegetation that suck moisture from the ocean fog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After hiking up a dune’s long backside, we slide down its steep interior slope. Suddenly, the sound of the wind is drowned out by the eerie monotone crescendo of a double bass. But there are no double bass players in sight.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Skip Kaltenheuser</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The musicians, in fact, are us. The dunes’ uniquely shaped sand grains emit a deep roar as they grind together. Delighted, some of us take long leaps down the slope, adding staccato notes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Struggling back up the huge half-bowl slope, the solitude of the coast hits home. Despite a huge concession set aside for the Skeleton Coast Camp-- which is where we are staying-- it is limited to 12 visitors at a time.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Ship Kaltenheuser</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv4lqCz6oRCm2QstwaKiErb05fjCaIP7lZJyxvJACRSn_wndO859yxT3rTLUzfR5XN4OTenX5D8cq2olxabakdC0_i3cCJgRs6k6TQMXbh7TE41bEQnblyPxwSHRAtUqYzcFqlg/s1600/Traveling-the-Skeleton-Coast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I keep imagining the challenges shipwrecked sailors would have faced. If I were in their shoes, would I have been able to overcome fear and march up the coast, giving my skeleton a run for its money?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Skip Kaltenheuser</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6gFd0J6W7b_HA35s_jivEMa9z_RTWXhRuGxpX8p4HeHoE8rOJi8ZuhSMwbJCpxsbeyAMfSl8p-vTLkLtxR1AlcxhEB8-9CiGWNbTVPvRvYofWAMEiVoIawyKNI-gLPRMz5NINw/s1600/Wildlife-Skeleton-Coast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet there are those that survive in this environment. The wildlife is fascinating in how it has adapted to the desert conditions. Up on a ridge facing the ocean breeze are several gemsbok, or oryx, weighing nearly 230 kilograms each. A type of antelope, they hyperventilate in the ocean air in order to cool their body temperatures. Their horns are like scimitars, forcing the region’s desert-adapted lions to think twice. Fresh lion tracks in a river bed make me think twice when, separated from the only other vehicle, I collect flat rocks to jam under tires bogged down in dry sand. A bit inland, amid arid canyons and valleys, are ostriches, jackals, mountain zebras, baboons and foxes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even the bugs are amazing. I saw a beetle that satiates its thirst by using grooves in its back to build up a drop of water from condensed fog.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of Namibia Ministry of Environment</span></b></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Desert elephants sometimes venture to the coast and surf the dunes, creating their own symphonies. We track the elephants on foot-- they’re always just around the bend, judging by the fresh elephant dung-- but the sun reflecting off the walls of a clay canyon beat us back. Our vehicles cause us to throw in the towel as well, as an unexplored river bed that might leave a vehicle stuck becomes too forbidding near sunset. There are no tow trucks here.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of face2faceafrika.com</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the greatest survivors are the members of the Himba tribe, some of whom reside just outside the park. Scattered across northern Namibia, they make up less than 1 per cent of the population. They haven’t changed their nomadic lifestyle in centuries, raising cattle and living in huts of dung and sand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The women are particularly striking, wearing only goat skin aprons and jewellery that glows red from a mixture of ochre and rancid butter, rubbed daily over every square inch.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Only Tribal</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With their braided hair coated with mud and hardened like a helmet, these women work hard while the men count their cattle. The women’s true beauty is rooted in their physical strength and a meticulously tended traditional appearance that, according to anthropologists, maintains their cultural identity and protects them against the vagaries of modern life. Their refined beauty is framed by the harsher beauty around them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Horrors such as the diamond wars farther north in Angola, the heartbreak of AIDS orphans, tribal conflicts and deprivation magnified by an envy of wealth have missed the Himba in this neck of Namibia. The elements of their neighbourhood are so tough no one hungers for their land-- it’s safety in lack of numbers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A couple of decades ago, a drought – the term is relative here-- killed enough cattle to drive some Himba into the towns. They didn’t fare well-- alcoholism and prostitution were often the byproducts of poverty and culture shock. Much farther east, a proposed dam threatens the Himba way of life. But on the Skeleton Coast, it’s likely that in 50 years, the headman’s progeny will still be tending the holy fire, a smoldering log that is said to help departed paternal ancestors bring good fortune to the tribe.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos courtesy of Skip Kaltenheuser</span></b></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At night, I stand watching the sky, stealing glances at the silhouette of a jackal slipping around my tent, which by Himba standards is as luxurious as the Taj Mahal. Before the morning fog, the night is moonless but bright. The stars are the brightest and most numerous I’ve seen, and shooting stars abound.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">None of the hemisphere’s constellations are familiar. It’s an alien world, beautiful as long as I know a prop-driven aircraft will eventually alight on our desert runway with ample provisions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>GETTING THERE:</b> Tour operators such as <a href="http://www.namibweb.com/scc.htm">Wilderness Safaris</a>, which operates the Skeleton Coast Camp, offer flights into the park in small bush planes from various points in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, and <a href="https://wilderness-safaris.com/">Skeleton Coast Camp</a> for a four-day, three-night safari package.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For more visitor information, visit the <a href="http://www.met.gov.na/">Namibia Ministry of Environment</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: Skip wrote this piece some time ago, so be sure to check up before making your travel plans.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-59705806841226254852019-05-16T11:49:00.002-07:002019-05-17T14:27:41.991-07:00Trepangs In China-- Yummy, Yummy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-by Reese Erlich</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[Reese Erlich is on assignment in Moscow. He offers this humorous memory about a long ago visit to that famed city. His current reporting from Russia will appear in two weeks.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was only 19 when I visited the USSR with my parents and sister in 1966. It was quite exotic for Americans to visit Moscow in those days and nothing was more exotic than eating at the Peking Restaurant at the Peking Hotel. It was an enormous dining hall with high ceilings, representing the best of Stalinesque architecture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We perused the menu, which was written in four languages. One item stumped us: trepangs. My father suggested I consult the French version as I was the resident expert, having recently completed two years of high school French. The French menu had the same item, trepangs, although it sounded better pronounced with a French accent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We asked our waiter, who consulted the Russian menu, and declared that the dish was called trepanskis, or some such Russian transliteration of the mysterious dish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We never did order trepangs, but the word took on an almost mythic character in our family lore. For years it was synonymous with any profoundly unknowable concept. For example, Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman created gripping dramas full of deep trepang.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1980 I made my first of many reporting trips to the People's Republic of China. In those days, workers road to work every day on bicycles, wearing unisex Mao jackets. Bicycles outnumbered cars on the streets by about 100-1. And government officials held elaborate, 15-course meals for special guests. And I was one such special guest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Mr. Erlich," intoned our host, who was dressed in a Mao jacket just a bit too tight around the middle. "We have a specialty dish for tonight's dinner, trepangs."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My throat went dry. My hands began to shake. Could it be that after all these years, I was about to learn the secret of the trepang?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I calmed myself and with a steady voice I replied, "Ah yes, trepangs, a dish often discussed by my family."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"I would like one or two of them," I said cautiously.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our host brimmed with great delight. "Most westerners aren't fond of trepangs," he said. But since they are your family's favorite, you cannot order one or two. We'll have an extra plate."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I nodded reluctantly, not knowing what I was getting into. I knew enough about Chinese customs not to refuse a host's offer and feared an international incident if the food was inedible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This far into the story, you might be expecting some culturally inappropriate description of a disgusting food eaten by the Chinese, something like the apocryphal stories about monkey brains served from live monkeys in Hong Kong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The trepangs arrived. They are sea slugs, marine animals with a slippery, gelatinous texture. Trepangs are also translated as sea cucumbers, a name that gives them a certain panache. Wikileaks notes, "In some cultural contexts the sea cucumber is thought to have medicinal value. Most cultures in East and Southeast Asia regard sea cucumbers as a delicacy."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And to tell you the truth, after 14 years of mystery, they weren't so bad. The best that can be said is that trepangs have no flavor of their own. They absorb the sauce in which they are immersed. And my Beijing hosts ordered hot, spicy trepangs. I actually enjoyed them, although I had some trouble eating the second plate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So what did I learn from all these foreign adventures? If you want to know the name of a particular Chinese dish, ask someone who speaks Chinese.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-78135292434594365692019-04-14T13:52:00.002-07:002019-04-14T13:52:29.457-07:00Are The Airlines Spying On Us Yet?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At one point, a couple decades ago, some of the high-end airlines introduced a privacy feature for first class travelers: enclosed cabins. A flight attendant could stand oh his or her toes and took over the wall, but otherwise you could do whatever you wanted in privacy. Apparently, too many people did and they seem to have abolished them. Now it looks like they're introducing the opposite: tiny cameras that can watch you during the flight. Do you think that's a little intrusive? You're watching a move and "someone" is watching you-- an airline employee? a government entity?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last month, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airplane-seat-camera-intl/index.html">reported</a> that Singapore admits they have embedded cameras in their newer inflight entertainment systems but claim they're deactivated. "Deactivated?" Why are they there then-- in order to be activated next week or the week after?
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fact that some aircraft seats have built-in cameras is not new knowledge.
Singapore Airlines' inflight entertainment system is manufactured by Panasonic Avionics, a US-based company that supplies IFE for many of the major airlines and French company Thales. Panasonic announced a while back that it's added cameras onto seat backs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And in 2017, Panasonic Avionics announced a partnership with Tascent-- a biometrics and identity innovation company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The companies will combine Tascent's biometric identity devices, software and services with Panasonic Avionic Corporation's in-flight entertainment and communications systems to provide streamlined, easy-to-use identity recognition before departure, during flight and upon arrival," read the corresponding press release.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The idea was seat-back cameras could facilitate onboard immigration, skipping lines when you land. It was also suggested that a seat-back camera could aid payment processing for onboard shopping.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the 2017 Dubai Airshow, Panasonic Avionics announced the latest incarnation of Emirates' IFE in First Class and Economy-- specifying it featured a camera, plus a microphone and speaker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the age of the smartphone, everyone holds a tiny cinema in their hand, so there's certainly an expectation that airlines will have exciting entertainment options-- a screen simply showing movies won't cut it anymore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But has Emirates ever done anything with its on-board cameras?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Some of our 777 aircraft have cameras that came pre-installed with the inflight entertainment hardware that we had purchased from the manufacturer (Panasonic)," a spokeperson for the Dubai-based airline told CNN Travel. "It was originally meant for seat-to-seat video calls, however Emirates has never activated it."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This echoes Singapore Airlines' comment on the issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"These cameras have been intended by the manufacturers for future developments," the airline says. "These cameras are permanently disabled on our aircraft and cannot be activated on board. We have no plans to enable or develop any features using the cameras."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, American Airlines told CNN Travel that cameras are "a standard feature," but are not activated and the carrier has no plans to use them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A spokesperson for Aussie carrier Qantas also told CNN Travel that IFE manufacturers include inbuilt cameras as standard-- and said the airline couldn't activate the cameras, even if they wanted to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The feature would require software in order to be activated, which Qantas doesn't have and doesn't plan to install."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Air New Zealand and British Airways told CNN Travel there were no cameras on board any of their aircraft.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two images obtained by CNN Travel of an IFE system on a British Airways airplane depict what looks like a lens of some kind. BA describes it as an infrared environmental sensor rather than a camera.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But are airplane seat cameras a bad idea? Some aviation experts think they could improve the onboard, inflight experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joe Leader, CEO of aviation trade body Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) think there's several handy usages for these cameras.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As well as facilitating video chat between passengers, the cameras could look out for passengers becoming unwell or monitor cabins for suspicious behavior.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cameras could also be used to spot human trafficking or assault-- acting as an extension of the air steward's eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As for the privacy concern, APEX points out the ubiquity of cameras in 21st century society.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Today, airline passengers are typically tracked outside the aircraft dozens of times on a typical journey through stores, security, roadways, and airports by cameras without any permission," APEX says in a statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"In contrast, airlines only want to use cameras in the future with permission when technology has advanced to offer personalized service improvements that passengers desire."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hacking fears, suggests APEX, are "misplaced."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The greatest risk to airline passenger privacy breaches come from their own smartphones, tablets, cameras, computers, and smart devices used in private settings, " says APEX.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The concern for some fliers is that even if the existence of these seat-back cameras aren't a secret-- and even if they could facilitate some cool features-- it feels disingenuous that their presence isn't advertised.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When contacted by CNN Travel, Panasonic Avionics stressed that it was committed to the privacy of passengers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Panasonic Avionics will never activate any feature or functionality within an IFE system without explicit direction from an airline customer," the company said in a statement to CNN.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Prior to the use of any camera on a Panasonic Avionics' system that would affect passenger privacy, Panasonic Avionics would work closely with its airline customer to educate passengers about how the system works and to certify compliance with all appropriate privacy laws and regulations, such as [The EU's data privacy regulation] GDPR."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But although Panasonic Avionics and the airlines say the cameras are currently deactivated-- they're not physically covered up and passengers remain worried about hacking.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These systems are expensive and they're not just there so they could be not used. The airlines should stop bullshitting their customers for a change. One consumer advocacy group pointed out that "Air travel is already fraught with ineffective and invasive breaches of our personal privacy. But now the airlines themselves have gone even further with cameras and microphones pointed at passengers as they watch movies, eat snacks, or just sleep. And the implications of in-flight cameras are even bigger than the discomfort of the airline watching you sleep on a red-eye. It’s still unknown to what extent the federal government could be able to acquire that data, without a warrant or probable cause, or process the camera footage through faulty facial recognition programs that misidentify women and people of color."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm old enough to remember when flying was a treat. That was a long, long, long time ago. Are you thinking I'm being too alarmist here? If so, <a href="https://www.thetrumpet.com/18877-germany-expands-state-spying-powers">take a look at this</a>. "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has introduced a bill that would allow German spy agencies to hack into nearly any computer and conduct espionage on a wide swath of citizens and foreigners. Drawn up by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the bill greatly expands the espionage powers of Germany’s intelligence service, the bnd. Although Seehofer has been notorious for opposing the chancellor on many occasions, he seems to have persuaded her to support this latest bill. This time, opposition is coming from Merkel’s coalition ally, the Social Democratic Party (spd). The spd justice minister has expressed outrage at one clause in particular, which would allow spies to collect information on children under 14 years old. The justification for this clause rests on the 2016 case of a 12-year-old who was involved in a plot to bomb a Christmas market.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many Germans are critical of the bill. “This amounts to a massive extension of intrusive surveillance,” said Sven Herpig, a researcher from the New Responsibility Foundation. Germany’s Left Party also condemned the bill, calling it a “catalogue of Orwellian fantasies.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the recent past, however, many similar “fantasies” have become reality.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 2017, Germany proposed an “unprecedented spate of new surveillance and security laws.” Most of these were passed and are in force today, yet they are rarely discussed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The biggest concern is currently the government’s State Trojan spyware law. This allows government spyware to be covertly installed on a target’s mobile phone. The spyware can lie dormant for a set period of time, remaining undetected for years, before being activated to collect data on the user’s calls, chats and Internet activity. And this isn’t limited to phones; the spyware can also be used to spy on people through smart devices, like speakers or fridges that can connect to the Internet, greatly infringing upon privacy rights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before the State Trojan law was passed, only the federal Criminal Office had the power to employ this method of espionage. Now this power is in the hands of the state itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The new law also grants permission for the bnd to use this spyware against foreigners. Both the Criminal Office and bnd have expressed a desire to “cooperate more effectively against ‘transnational’ threats, such as terrorism and organized crime.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Airlines in Germany are bound to collect and retain the contact details of their passengers, means of booking, payment, and even seat choice, for up to five years. Although presented as an EU requirement, critics have said that this law goes well beyond what is required by Brussels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other laws passed in 2017 regulate increased video surveillance of public areas and more detailed research into the background of migrants, both of which came in the aftermath of the 2016 Christmas market terrorist attacks.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last month, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and John Kennedy (R-LA) sent a joint letter to Delta, Southwest, Frontier, United, Spirit, American, JetBlue, and Alaska, noting their concern about a possible "serious breach of privacy."
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Americans have an expectation that they are monitored in airports as a necessary security measure, the notion that in-flight cameras may monitor passengers while they sleep, eat, or have private conversations is troubling. Further, in light of data breaches that have impacted many major airlines, we have misgivings that cameras or sensors may not employ the necessary security measures to prevent them from being targeted by cybercriminals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For these reasons, we respectfully request that the following information be provided regarding the cameras on in-flight entertainment systems:
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1- Does your airline currently use, or has ever used, cameras or sensors to monitor passengers;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2- If yes, what purpose do the cameras serve and in what circumstances may the cameras be activated;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3- If you have or currently do utilize cameras or sensors to monitor passengers, please provide details on how passengers are informed of this practice;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4- Please provide comprehensive data on the number of cameras and sensors used by your fleet, and the type of information that is collected or recorded, how it is stored, and who within your airline is responsible for the review and safekeeping of this information;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5- Further to the above, please confirm what security measures you have in place to prevent data breaches of this information, or hacking of the cameras themselves; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6- Are the cameras used in any biometric identity capacity, and if so, under what authority?
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We look forward to learning more about these practices and request a response within 30 days.
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-58486899511508993782018-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:002018-08-06T13:29:12.020-07:00Trump And The American Tourist Industry-- A Match Made In Hell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tourism is up all over the world-- up 8% to quantify it. But not in Trumpland. My pal Roland and I travel a lot and he wants to go to exciting, adventurous places, and that often happens to mean places with unstable and even fascist governments. He's always trying to drag me back to Israel, Egypt and Turkey, places we've enjoyed but that I don't want to go to until their political situations are in better shape. He just went to Hungary and Poland without me because I want to avoid countries with fascist governments. Looking at the growth rates of tourism this year, it appears that I'm not alone. Whilethe setoff the world's tourism has been growing-- Britain's by 17.9% for example, and Canada's by 21.2%, both the U.S. under Trump and Turkey under Erdoğan, have seen tourism drop off, Turkey by 6.7% and the U.S. by 6%. Writing yesterday for the Daily Beast, Elizabeth Drew noted that once Trump was inserted into the White House <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-trump-slump-hits-us-tourism">tourism to the United States from foreign countries has steadily dropped</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The U.S. Travel Association has just provided her with figures "projecting a further drop in 2018 from a share of worldwide tourism of 12.0 percent in 2017 to 11.7 percent this year. And this is after a drop in Trump’s first year in office from 12.9 percent. Though the numbers and differentials look small in percentages, they are large in terms of dollars not spent here by foreign tourists and they have serious negative implications for jobs not created... Trump’s rhetoric and new policies and rules and regulations regarding travel have combined to blot America’s long-standing image as a welcoming nation."
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[Trump's] travel ban, a barely disguised version of the total ban on Muslims being allowed into this country he announced during his presidential campaign, inflamed worldwide opinion and in practical terms it barred visits by citizens of seven entire countries in the name of preventing terrorist attacks (though none have come from the countries the ban singled out).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The administration’s treatment of people attempting to flee here from violence-wracked Central American countries and Trump’s rhetoric about Mexico from the moment he entered the presidential race hasn’t encouraged Hispanics to come see our wondrous sights and enjoy our beautiful beaches. Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord hasn’t helped, nor have his rows with the leaders of friendly nations, which began almost from when he took office. Neither has Trump’s launching of a trade war. New visa-vetting policies have also caused delays and denials that didn’t used to occur. The invasive new tightening of airport security has put off numerous travelers to this country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Maybe all these changes have prevented would-be terrorists from entering the U.S., but they for sure have also discouraged or denied many visitors with benign intentions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The drop in tourism in 2017 was precipitous, and its velocity can be mainly attributed to one factor, what’s come to be called in the tourism industry the Trump slump. Earlier this year, Reuters quoted the head of a German company that specializes in trips to the United States as saying, “Politics is not helping us.” He added that since the price of the dollar was falling at that time, “we should have seen a much bigger increase in demand.” The Pew Research Center Reserve <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/13/key-public-opinion-findings-on-trump-putin-and-the-countries-they-lead/">found</a> earlier this year that a survey of ten nations showed that a favorable opinion of the US occurred in only one country: Russia. The inescapable fact is that Trump’s presidency has coincided with an unprecedented drop in travel to the United States. The US’s share in worldwide travel increased steadily until 2015. While some attribute the recent drop in tourism to the U.S. to a strong dollar, in fact, the dollar was strong in 2015, when our tourism growth was at its apex, and it was strong in 2016. Yet when it declined in 2017, which should have helped tourism, foreign tourism to the U.S. dropped steeply that year. (After starting off weak earlier this year, the dollar’s been gaining in strength robustly, and the recent tightening of credit by the Federal Reserve will likely send the dollar even higher-- which isn’t good for U.S. exports, which includes tourism.)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These are the growth rates she got from the U.S. Travel Association:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Spain +32.7%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Australia +22%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Canada +21.2%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Saudi Arabia +20.3%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> U.K. +17.9%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> UAE +16.5%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Thailand +13.9%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> China +9.3%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Germany +8%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> France +4%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Italy +2.2%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> U.S. -6%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Turkey -6.7%</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wish they had included Egypt and Israel. I bet the tourism rates in Syria are way down. I wonder if it's picking up in Iraq and Afghanistan. I doubt it. The most popular U.S. travel destinations-- so the ones being hurt the most by Trump's policies in this area are New York City, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, California (San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Napa), Key West, New Orleans, Washington, DC, Arizona (Sedona and the Grand Canyon), Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, Branson, MO, Nashville, Jackson, WY, Moab, UT, Asheville, NC, Maine, Boston, and Aspen.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our pathetic drop in tourism at the same time that it’s growing almost everywhere else in the developed world has had a striking negative impact on our economy. The USTA (which is more careful about tourism statistics than the Commerce Department) estimates that if this country had merely maintained its share of the travel market it had in 2015 it would have received 7.4 million more visitors from abroad and $32.2 billion more in spending by tourists, which would have created 100,000 more jobs. After all, since tourism is counted as an export, for a president who rants about imbalance of trade numbers and has promised to bring more jobs to the United States, his record in attracting foreign tourists—if he’s aware of it; and if he is, if he cares about it—isn’t impressive. (Just about no respectable economist expects the excellent 4.1 percent economic growth in the second quarter, often the best quarter of a year, to last very long.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To add to this inauspicious picture of our standing in the world, fewer foreign students have been applying for graduate degrees in what have long been considered our world-class universities. As has long been well understood, the education here of foreign students helps us as well as the countries of origin, by leading to scientific discoveries that might otherwise not have been made, by spreading the idea of America and of democracy, and by raising the education level of countries we hope won’t succumb to malign forces. We can help groom future foreign leaders.) In the academic year 2017-2018, there occurred the first drop in enrollment by foreign students in the U.S. in ten years, by 4 percent, or roughly 32,000 fewer of them. The Trump administration has taken some actions that make it more difficult for foreign students to remain here if they drop some classes, transfer schools, or accidentally overstay their visas; and it’s considering such proposals as forcing students to have to reapply for a visa each year rather than just once, at the time of their enrollment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What does all this say about the United States? Among other things it says that a great many others do not separate our country from our president, however unpopular he may be. The cartoonish balloon of Trump in a diaper that floated over the Parliament building in London during his visit to Great Britain in July was an insult not just to Trump but to the United States. It turns out that our having elected someone whose campaign and presidential rhetoric has at the least been unfriendly to other countries-- that is, other than Russia and North Korea—turns out to have been quite expensive financially and culturally. Trump’s “America first” talk has in more ways than we may have realized limited our potential as an influential nation, not to mention as a world leader. It’s to be remembered that the abysmal drops in both foreign tourists and students all occurred before the president further isolated us by his tariffs and his increased belligerence toward countries that have been our traditional allies, not to mention his groveling to Vladimir Putin before the entire world. It doesn’t require leaps of imagination to understand why visits to the U.S. from the Middle East and Mexico dropped last year. Some Canadian columnists have urged citizens of their country to stop vacationing in the United States—in retaliation for Trump’s new tariffs and his rudeness to their leader Justin Trudeau and as a moral position against his thinly cloaked Muslim ban. As it happens, the number of people seeking asylum in Canada from below its southern border, has increased dramatically of late.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, at the rate our president is going, his policies and his becoming increasingly lathered up as some of his past political and personal activities are catching up with him, we probably have nowhere to go but down in important and potentially lucrative international travel. The boom in international tourism is continuing, but we’re not benefiting from it-- and it’s not to be expected that in the foreseeable future we’ll see a great many tourists from the president’s best foreign friends, North Koreans or Russians, shopping along Fifth Avenue or hiking in the Grand Tetons. Like it or not, Trump’s face to the world is our face and his voice is ours. The costly-- in several ways-- drop in tourism and the decrease in curious foreign minds at our universities are not to be taken lightly, though they’re being ignored by the Trump administration.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you have traveled to Europe-- or almost anywhere in the world these days-- tourist sights are overrun with busloads of tourists from China. And they spend a lot. In recent years I've been to old haunts where Chinese tourists were rare and where Chinese tourists are now dominant: Paris, London, Rome, Florence, Kathmandu, Delhi... And, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, in 2016 there were nearly 3 million Chinese tourists to the U.S., generating-- wait for it-- $33 billion in tourist spending. That's a lot of money, not just for hotels, airlines, tourist attractions... but also for retail businesses. Just go to Fifth Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and see who's walking out of shops with lots of bags from high end stores.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And the Chinese government, furious at Trump's foolish trade war, is starting to look at tourism as a way to strike at Trump. The Chinese government is starting gently-- warning potential Chinese tourists that the U.S. is dangerous to visit because of shootings, violence and criminal activities. The government owned <i>Global Times</i> warned potential tourists "If you are Chinese, take your embassy’s travel warnings very seriously before planning your next holiday or deciding where to send your kids to college, because by coming to America you risk being shot, robbed, raped, or beaten." They have specifically urged Chinese travelers to avoid Trump hotels and resorts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps Hollywood will become an ever more popular tourist attraction when the City Council removes the Trumpanzee star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/weho-city-council-vote-removing-trumps-walk-fame-star-1132369">vote is tonight</a>. There is always feces and urine on it and it gets vandalized all the time and has been completely destroyed twice. Their <a href="http://weho.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=&event_id=1064&meta_id=153340">resolution</a> (in part):</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-51851378261409992642018-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:002018-05-21T06:00:06.131-07:00New Report Finds Risks Associated With Maintaining Airlines Outside The U.S.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Roland and I travel a lot overseas, and sometimes we wind up on funky internal airlines in places like Mali, India, Vietnam, Morocco, Hungary, Argentina, Thailand... We pray to the maintenance gods that everything was done competently and tell ourselves that it was all done under U.S. or U.K. supervision, knowing full well that it wasn't and wondering about how many corners were cut. Today I got a memo from the Transport Workers Union of America (AFL-CIO) in DC. The title is above, The subtitle is no less assuring: Ridge Global Report Says Safety and Security Concerns of Commercial Aviation Better Addressed When Repair and Maintenance is Performed in the U.S. The report itself is called <a href="http://files.constantcontact.com/c0e373dd001/e56dd7f8-876a-4c8b-9e78-dc8d4555883d.pdf">Risks Associated With Foreign Repair Stations</a>.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Airline passengers may be less safe when the plane they are flying on has been repaired or maintained in a foreign country. That is among the conclusions of a risk-based report by Ridge Global, a firm founded by former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on risks associated with the use of foreign repair stations by the U.S. airline industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Transport Workers of America contracted with Gov. Ridge’s firm, Ridge Global, LLC, to assess the safety and security risks associated with foreign-based repair and overhaul facilities. The Transport Workers Union represents more than 140,000 workers in the airline, rail, subway, bus, utility and service industries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nearly 50-percent of maintenance work done by air carriers registered in the United States, including the major airlines, is conducted outside the United States. The facilities in foreign countries where commercial aircraft are repaired and maintained, however, are not as secure as those in the United States, the report states. Protections against unauthorized access are not as strong, and employee background checks are not as thorough, as those in the United States.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Both conditions increase risks related to situations that could be more easily exploited by terrorists or individuals with harmful intent,” the Ridge Global report states.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Ridge Global Report exposes significant flaws in the mechanical maintenance practices of the United States airline industry,” TWU International President John Samuelsen, said. “Major air carriers’ lust for profits has driven them to fix planes on foreign soil, which has compromised the safety and security of America’s air travelers. It’s the dangerous dirty secret of America’s airlines, and the U.S. government must act to end this danger.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“There are obvious disparities between domestic and foreign oversight and repair of commercial airlines,” said Gov. Ridge. “While there have thankfully been few U.S. aviation incidents in recent years, even one is too many, and so it is important travelers are aware how airplanes they fly on each day are maintained. Given the absence of direct oversight by the FAA and the differences described in our report, the qualifications of those responsible for oversight and those maintaining and repairing the aircraft in foreign countries cannot be viewed as meeting the same rigorous standards of inspection and repair as required in the U.S.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The mechanics that do this critically important work at facilities located overseas, are not subject to the same intense scrutiny by government regulators, or held to the same high standards as mechanics in America, the report states.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the most significant disparities in terms of regulatory oversight deals with drug and alcohol testing requirements. Testing is mandated in the U.S. Employment and privacy laws in many foreign countries prevent such testing. Another contrast involves the inspection process itself. FAA domestic inspections can be random and without notice. That approach is prohibited in foreign countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Foreign repair stations present risks that domestic ones do not,” the report further states. “These risks are due in part, to how laws and regulations are applied. We concluded that the safety and security concerns of commercial aviation are better addressed when the repair and maintenance is done in the United States.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Republican outsourcing in the Age of Trump" would have been another possible title, I guess. A tad too provocative, maybe?</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-35987531189774395362018-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:002018-01-24T10:00:10.257-08:00The Trump Slump Is Costing The U.S. Thousands Of Jobs And Billions Of Dollars In The Tourism Industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I started traveling out of the U.S. while I was still a kid. I was just a teenager when my girlfriend and I decided to hitchhike from Long Island to the North Pole. We only got as far as Montreal... but we loved it. The following summer my pal Bob and I hitchhiked to Mexico City. Fantastic. And when I graduated from college, it was only $100 to fly to Luxembourg if you stopped for at least a night in Iceland. My girlfriend and I met a couple of teachers on the plane who were planning a week-long excursion, driving around the island and we joined them. Then we went to Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and England. The travel bug was not sated. When Margin went back to the U.S. to finish school, I set off in my VW van across Europe, adding Austria, Hungary what was then Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal to the list of countries I had been through-- before settling down in Holland for a few years-- and taking vacations in Sweden, Finland, Greece, France and Morocco. Since then I'vebeen to over 100 countries. I still love travel. Roland and I just got back from Thailand and we brought our friend David-- his first trip there-- who got attacked by a monkey who broke his shoulder and fractured a bunch of toes. Here's the culprit:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Thai monkey that got David</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Thais are <i>way</i> too polite to bring up Trump. Even the ones we revery friendly with never mentioned Señor Trumpanzee. <i>But</i>, Thailand is crawling with Europeans who aren't polite in that way at all. Everywhere we went Europeans asked us, "How could you?" We explained to a Danish woman on a Chao Phraya water "bus" that California's results were 8,753,788 (61.73%) to 4,483,810 (31.62%) and she couldn't stop talking about how almost 4 and a half million Californians could vote for Trump. (David, who hadn't been attacked by the monkey yet, wanted to throw her into the Chao Phraya. But, generally speaking, everyone we met who wasn't a Thai, had something negative to say about Trump. It wasn't unlike-- just more intense-- than it was when Nixon and Bush were presidents. I just read that the the negative feelings in Haiti were so intense that the U.S. was <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anti-trump-protest-haiti-temporarily-shuts-us-embassy-52532557">U.S. had to shut down the embassy</a> in Port-au-Prince. Trump is in Davos-- and Swiss people are protesting and letting him know <a href="https://www.thelocal.ch/20180124/hundreds-protest-in-zurich-over-trumps-visit-to-davos">he isn't welcome</a>. "[D]emonstrators marched through the Swiss city chanting 'Trump not welcome,' with some carrying banners and placards reading 'dump the Trump' and 'Switzerland is hosting Nazis,' an AFP reporter said, putting the turnout at over 1,000." Thousand more people marched in Zurich and Lausanne... 'Trump is the incarnation of sexism, racism, exploitation and corruption,'" said one demonstrator. So what? Trump doesn't care.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But the U.S. tourism does. <i>Travel + Leisure</i> reported that "The United Nations World Tourism Organization announced last week that Spain overtook the United States as the second-most visited destination in the world (France remains number one) in 2017. The U.S. welcomed 72.9 million foreign visitors last year-- down about four percent from the previous year’s 75.9 million." Katherine Lugar, CEO of American Hotel & Lodging Association, pointed out that "Fewer visitors means fewer hotel stays, fewer meals eaten in our restaurants, fewer goods purchased in our retail stores, and fewer visits to our national attractions. It also means fewer American jobs and a loss to our economy."
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/">Pew Research Center found</a> that unfavorable views of the U.S. in 37 countries increased 13 percent in the six months that Trump was in office. In response to a <i>New York Times</i> post, Europeans “overwhelmingly cited the Trump administration and its policies as reasons for avoiding or canceling trips to the United States,” according to the paper.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Trump Slump in American tourism has cost our country 40,000 jobs and $4.6 billion. The <i>U.S. News and World Review</i> reported on Tuesday that on their list of best countries the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/us-news-unveils-best-countries-rankings">U.S. has slipped to the #8 spot</a> and they attribute it to Trump. His first year in the White House rattled the world confidence. Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group explained recently that the most prominent causes for global insecurity stem from Trumpanzee's move away from global leadership, and China's eagerness to fill the perceived vacuum.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The United States slips in this year's U.S. News Best Countries ranking, dropping to the No. 8 spot after falling one position from its 2017 ranking. Switzerland, an island of stable prosperity in a world of turmoil, remains the Best Country, according to a global survey of more than 21,000 persons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reasons for America's drop-- the second straight year its ranking dipped-- are fueled by the world's perceptions of the country becoming less progressive and trustworthy, more politically unstable and a president who after just a year in office is far more unpopular than any other head of state or company CEO.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As in 2017, Canada remains the No. 2 in the survey. Germany, as it was in 2016, is perceived as the most powerful country in Europe-- surpassing the U.K. to place at No. 3 overall, while the U.K. drops to No. 4. Japan rounds out the top five, the highest finish for a nation in Asia, a region which survey respondents increasingly believe holds many of the keys to the world's future. At No. 6 is Sweden and Australia moves up to the No. 7 position, surpassing the U.S.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...The Best Countries rankings come just days after Trump celebrates his first year as U.S. president. The U.S. is still seen as the most powerful nation. In many ways, however, the results reflect 12 months of ongoing signs of the decline of America's standing in the world. In this sense, a noticeable "Trump Effect" is taking hold of the U.S.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here's the 2018 ranked list of 20 best countries:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1- Switzerland</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2- Canada</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3- Germany</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4- U.K.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5- Japan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">6- Sweden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">7- Australia</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">8- Trumpland<br />
9- France</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">10- Netherlands</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">11- Denmark</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">12- Norway</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">13- New Zealand</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">14- Finland</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">15- Italy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">16- Singapore</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">17- Austria</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">18- Luxembourg</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">19- Spain</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">20- China</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Trump's favorite country, Russia, is #26 and at the very bottom of the list, at #80, is Algeria. By the way, I've been to every country on the list and I don't agree with the evaluation at all. I hate Switzerland and the U.S., <i>despite </i>Trump is still the best.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-55390211537630041802018-01-12T07:15:00.000-08:002018-01-12T07:15:12.528-08:00Finally Found It... The Huts Of Mali<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After Trumpanzee's comments about "shithole countries" and "African huts," I searched and searched through my Mali and Senegal pictures looking for huts. I finally found one (above, in remote Dogon country where not many people have ever heard of the U.S.) but most of these photos-- of Roland, primarily in Timbuktu and Djenne-- had no huts. There were fishing huts on an island near Mopti in the Delta that the Bozos used, but I can't find any photos. And there are no huts in Dakar in Senegal or in Bamako in Mali. Sorry, Señor Trumpanzee.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-83406604402587737732017-04-16T16:05:00.000-07:002017-04-16T16:07:46.495-07:00United Airlines' Woes Predate Oscar Munoz-- And You Can, At Least In Part, Blames Jimmy Carter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By the end of the week United was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/us/united-passengers-removal.html">begging passengers not to abandon the much-hated airline</a>. They promised, for example that they will no longer allow staff to take seats of boarded passengers and that they will no longer call law enforcement officials to remove passengers who do not pose immediate security threats. Still, I get the impression that Americans have had it with the Not So Friendly Skies and would like to see United go down hard. The company's stocked plummeted 2.5% last week and the damage to the brand is probably far greater than that. The <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-united-should-have-done-in-response-to-that-video-of-a-man-being-violently-pulled-off-a-flight-2017-04-10">tone-deaf company</a> just announced that CEO Oscar Munoz’s annual bonus is around $13 million.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz woke up Monday morning to a massive leadership test.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And he flunked-- big time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Munoz had to respond to the shocking video footage of a passenger being violently ejected from one of his flights Sunday night. The video, shot by two passengers on their cellphones and shared on Twitter, went viral. The passenger was thrown off the plane simply because United had overbooked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Munoz’s public response was a piece of pusillanimous lawyer-crafted claptrap that was pitiful, inadequate and insulting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The incident was “upsetting to all of us here at United,” he said. He apologized “for having to re-accommodate these customers.” His “team” was conducting a “detailed review” to “further address and resolve this situation.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Memo to Munoz: Are you kidding me?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nobody cares if this was upsetting to the people at United. How about the upset to the paying customer-- apparently a middle-aged doctor-- who was dragged from your plane like this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nobody buys your insulting euphemism “re-accomodate.” You were throwing this guy off the plane, not for anything he did, but because you had deliberately sold more tickets than you had seats to make some extra bucks.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite the jaw-dropping p.r. blunder from United's team, the problem goes beyond that one company. Several years ago the <i>Washington Monthly</i> ran a story, <a href="http://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/marchapril-2012/terminal-sickness/">Terminal Illiness</a> about how deregulation was destroying the airline industry. Things have gotten much worse since then.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1978, however, a group of liberals including Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, Kennedy’s then Senate aide Stephen Breyer, and an economist named Alfred Kahn, whom President Jimmy Carter chose to run the CAB, conjured up a plan to drive down the cost of airline fares by fostering more price competition among airlines. Though they called it “deregulation,” the practical effect of eliminating the CAB [the Civil Aeronautics Board], especially after subsequent administrations abandoned antitrust enforcement as well, was to shift control of the airline industry from experts answerable to the public to corporate boardrooms and Wall Street.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the years, most Americans have adopted a pretty standard line about the results. On the one hand, complaining about the indignities of flying—overbooked, late, or canceled flights; surly flight attendants; and, more recently, terrible in-flight food service and high fees for checked baggage— has become a staple of American life, much like complaining about Internet providers or health insurance companies. On the other hand, we’ve told ourselves, at least the increased competition has made air travel cheaper. And at least most of us can still get where we need to go by air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But now we find ourselves at a moment when nearly all the promises of the airline deregulators have clearly proved false. If you’re a member of the creative class who rarely does business in the nation’s industrial heartland or visits relatives there, you might not notice the magnitude of economic disruption being caused by lost airline service and skyrocketing fares. But if you are in the business of making and trading stuff beyond derivatives and concepts, you probably have to go to places like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Memphis, St. Louis, or Minneapolis, and you know firsthand how hard it has become to do business these days in such major heartland cities, which are increasingly cut off from each other and from the global economy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it’s about to get worse. Despite a wave of mergers that is fast concentrating control in the hands of three giant carriers, the industry remains essentially insolvent. Absent any coherent outcry, the directors of these private corporations remain free to respond to the crisis in the manner of an electrical utility company that, when it runs short of money, simply cuts off power to the neighborhoods of its own choosing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...All these trends in the airline industry are bound to get much worse, and soon. Despite massive consolidation, steep cuts in wages and benefits, sharply rising fares, huge direct and indirect subsidies, and a slowly recovering economy, the industry remains unable to service its debt, and its executives—now serving at the whim of Wall Street-- see no way out except to continue to merge and to cut capacity. U.S. airlines lost money in all but three years between 2001 and 2010, according to the industry’s trade group, for a cumulative net loss of $62.9 billion. Even before the recent bankruptcy of American Airlines, the value of all publicly traded U.S. airline stocks amounted to only $32.3 billion, less than that of Starbucks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That number would be even lower were it not for the major subsidies the industry has extracted from Congress. These include not just the billions spent by state and local governments to construct and maintain airports, and the $15 billion in loan guarantees the industry received in the aftermath of 9/11. They also include tens of billions in unfunded pension liabilities that major airlines have shoved onto taxpayers by declaring bankruptcy, as United and US Airways did in the last decade and American Airlines is trying to do now. If American succeeds in its plan to shed its pension debts onto the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, that alone would amount to a bailout of more than $10 billion. Other U.S. airlines continue to benefit from special provisions passed by Congress in 2007 that allow them to underfund their pension plans, so in the future taxpayers are likely to be paying even more of the cost of flying yesterday’s planes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yet even though these and other public subsidies dwarf those provided to Amtrak or General Motors, only one U.S. airline, Southwest, still has an investment-grade credit rating. Since 1978, almost all new start-ups have either failed or been absorbed (remember People Express, ValuJet, and Air Florida?) and only one, JetBlue, remains as a national competitor. Meanwhile, all six of the major “legacy” carriers that were still flying in 2011 have gone through bankruptcy. When the final numbers come in for last year, the U.S. industry as a whole will probably show some net income, but as of the third quarter of 2011 the margin was razor thin, and was mostly the result of rising fares and canceled service. Adjusted for growth of the economy, airline capacity is now at its lowest level since 1979, according to the trade group Airlines for America, and the industry has announced plans to cut another 1.5 percent of available seat miles in the first half of this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">High fuel prices, to be sure, are a factor in this tale of woe. In 1999, fuel comprised 10 percent of an airline’s budget; now it ranges from 30 to 40 percent. But while high fuel costs make the price of providing short-haul service to sparsely populated areas higher than it has been in the past, they are not sufficient to explain the continuing deterioration of the airline industry. Nor can we blame the problem on the effects of the Great Recession. After decades in which the price of energy has risen and fallen and the economy has boomed and busted, the long-term trend is clear. The industry has been in turmoil and decline for more than thirty years, barely able to earn its cost of capital in the best of times and only then by cutting service and quality. It’s now evident that the industry’s problems are structural and deepening, as is the crisis faced by cities and industries that depend now more than ever on frequent, affordable air service to remain competitive in the global economy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No doubt a few Wall Street tycoons and consulting firms have made billions merging and stripping down the airline industry over the last generation. But the fundamental problem is that the business model that airlines are left with doesn’t work for common shareholders, airline employees, or the American business community, much less the public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One reason this business model doesn’t work is that it’s at odds with the basic physics of flying. It requires a tremendous amount of energy just to get a plane in the air. If the plane lands just a short time later, it’s hard to earn the fares necessary to cover the cost. This means the per-mile cost to the airlines of short-haul service is always going to be much higher than that of long-haul service, regardless of how the industry is organized. Yet the value of airline service to the public and the economy depends on providing connectivity to as many places as possible. Thus, without some form of cross-subsidization between short hauls and long hauls, the economic benefits of the network will be compromised. Fewer people will be flying to fewer places, which by itself hinders economic activity, while the high fixed cost of the remaining service has to be spread among a diminished number of passengers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This highlights another problem that inevitably leads to declining service. It costs virtually the same to maintain an air traffic control tower, a runway, and ticketing and baggage-handling facilities whether an airport serves five or fifty flights a day, or whether each plane carries five or fifty passengers. So the per-passenger cost on low-volume routes is necessarily more than on high-volume routes, which again requires some form of cross-subsidization if robust connectivity is to be maintained.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dealing with high fixed costs is a challenge common to virtually all networked industries, and in one way or another, America has grappled with the problem throughout the country’s history. The Founders understood that private enterprise could not by itself provide broadly distributed postal service because of the high cost of delivering mail to smaller towns and far-flung cities, and so they wrote into the Constitution that a government monopoly would take on the challenge, providing the necessary cross-subsidization.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Throughout most of the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth, generations of Americans similarly struggled with how to maintain an equitable and efficient railroad network, and for much the same reason. During various railroad bubbles, exuberant investors would build lines to the farthest corners of continent, much like start-up airlines in the 1980s. But over time, the high fixed cost of railroading and the basic economics of any networked industry left all but the core of the emerging system unprofitable before it received the benefits of government regulation. In the 1870s, railroads accounting for more than 30 percent of domestic mileage failed or fell into court-ordered receivership.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was true even though most railroads maintained a near or total monopoly in most of the intermediate towns through which they ran. As Charles Francis Adams wrote in his 1878 book, <i>Railroads: Their Origin and Problems</i>:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Every local settlement and every secluded farmer saw other settlements and other farmers more fortunately placed, whose consequent prosperity seemed to make their own ruin a question of time. Place to place, or man to man, they might compete; but where the weight of the railroad was flung into one scale, it was strange indeed if the other did not kick the beam.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was bad enough, but matters soon got worse. High fixed costs combined with ruinous competition in the early railroad industry created an overwhelming business incentive to consolidate and downsize, again much like what’s happening in the airline industry today. And consolidation in turn led to even more monopoly power-- not just over small and midsize communities but over large cities as well. By the 1880s, the fortunes of such major cities as Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Cincinnati rose and fell according to how various railroad financiers or “robber barons” combined and conspired to fix rates. Just as Americans scream today about the high cost of flying to a city like Cincinnati, where service is dominated by a single carrier, Americans of yesteryear faced impossible price discrimination when traveling or shipping to places dominated by a single railroad “trust” or “pool.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This, more than any other factor, is what led previous generations of Americans to let go of the idea that government should have no role in regulating railroads and other emerging networked industries that were essential to the working of the economy as whole. “While the result of other ordinary competition was to reduce and equalize prices,” Adams noted, “that of railroad competition was to produce local inequalities and to arbitrarily raise and depress prices. The teachings of political economy were at fault.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And indeed they were. The response was the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887-- a move that most Americans viewed as essential to preserving free enterprise and their way of life. The ICC took on the task of moderating the price discrimination that railroads practiced, evening out the burden among different regions and classes of passengers and shippers in a way that allowed railroads to earn enough money to cover their fixed costs, improve their infrastructure, and give their investors a fair reward. In effect, the profits railroads earned on some highly trafficked long-haul routes came to be rechanneled by government policy to cover the cost of providing balanced and affordable service throughout the country. Railroads were regulated much as telephones and power companies came to be-- as natural monopolies that would be allowed to remain in private hands and earn a profit, but not at the cost of skewing the overall efficiency, balance, and fairness of American economy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The process was messy and far from flawless. Striking the right balance required that Americans hash out what would today be called an “industrial policy,” and to do so in sometimes minute detail, such as setting the relative prices of shipping hogs verses hams from Dubuque to Chicago. But overall, government regulation of railroad pricing and routes worked better than letting a few financiers rule the system for their own private benefit. The country, after all, emerged as an industrial powerhouse during this period. Managing the structure and pricing of railroads was particularly essential to maintaining the competitiveness of small-scale entrepreneurs and of midsize manufacturing cities like Cincinnati or St. Louis. It wasn’t that the government picked winners or losers; rather, it prevented the machinations of railroad financiers from doing so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Starting in 1938, the U.S. adopted much the same approach to the newly forming airline industry. Through the creation of the Civil Aeronautics Board, the government allowed the industry to become highly concentrated. Underpinning the legislation was a belief in a “public right of transit,” the idea that citizens were entitled to a reliable aviation system designed to meet their business and safety needs-- and the knowledge that unregulated competition would be unable to provide it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As intended, the CAB nurtured the healthy maturation of a fledgling industry, forestalling ruinous competition and protecting airlines against bankruptcy. At the same time, airline fares fell dramatically, thanks largely to high levels of technological innovation, such as the introduction of the DC-8 and other mass-market jets. By the 1970s, the long-distance passenger train was dead, and jet travel had already helped to create a mass market for tourist destinations such as Disney World and the Caribbean. By 1977, 63 percent of Americans over eighteen had taken a trip on an airplane, up from 33 percent in 1962.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So why did Ted Kennedy and the Carter administration decide, over the strong objections of the airline unions and incumbent management at the time, that it was time to blow up government’s regulation of airlines? One reason was that the old regulatory regime had become highly litigious and rule bound. Kahn used to complain that his desk at the CAB was piled with papers demanding answers to trivial questions, such as “How many travel agents may a tour operator give free passage to inspect an all-inclusive tour? And must those agents then visit and inspect every one of the accommodations in the package?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the same time, many pointed to the example of Southwest Airlines, which got its start in 1971 by flying only within Texas, thereby escaping regulation by the CAB. Southwest’s success with discount fares particularly resonated with liberals at a time when inflation was liberalism’s greatest liability, and when the ascendant consumer movement made low prices a liberal imperative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There were also ideological currents at work on the left that are little remembered today. Ralph Nader, for example, was popularizing the 1960s’ “New Left” notion that the New Deal regulatory state had been captured by incumbent industries, leading to what he called “corporate socialism.” Under the CAB, no new major airlines had emerged since the 1930s. Protected from competition, both airline management and unions had become overpaid and sclerotic at the expense of “the consumer,” Nader argued-- and never mind if workers in those industries and their unions were stalwart members of the Democratic coalition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Carter administration accepted this analysis and used it to justify deregulating not just airlines, but soon the railroad, trucking, and natural gas industries, while also taking the first steps toward rolling back banking regulation as well. That most managements in these industries resisted deregulation at the time only confirmed many liberals in their belief that deregulation was needed, and they told themselves that any trend toward monopoly would be checked by rigorous antitrust enforcement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At first, the program-- which was, naturally, embraced by many free market economists and the incoming Reagan administration-- seemed to pay off. To be sure, many communities instantly lost air service, and the industry rapidly restructured into the hub-and-spoke system that still exists today, leading to the elimination of many direct flights. But the early years of the new regime also saw a burst of competition and price cutting in the airline industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What both policymakers and the public generally missed, however, was that any positive effects that occurred would be temporary, and that many of them would have occurred without deregulation. The price of energy, for example, cratered in the mid-1980s, making it possible to cut fares and even expand service on many short hauls. But that wasn’t an effect of deregulation; it was the result of a temporary world oil glut. Indeed, after adjusting for changes in energy prices, a 1990 study by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that airline fares fell more rapidly in the ten years <i>before</i> 1978 than they did during the subsequent decade.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A study published in the <i>Journal of the Transportation Research Forum</i> in 2007 confirms that the pattern continued. Except for a period after 9/11, when airlines deeply discounted fares to attract panicked customers, real air prices have fallen more slowly since the elimination of the CAB than before. This contrast becomes even starker if one considers the continuous decline in service quality, with more overbooked planes flying to fewer places, long waits in hub airports, the lost ability to make last-minute changes in itineraries without paying exorbitant fares, and the slow strangulation of heartland cities that don’t happen to be hubs. Moreover, most if not all of the post-deregulation price declines have been due to factors that cannot be repeated, such as the busting of airline unions, the termination of pension plans, the delayed replacement of aging aircraft, the elimination of complimentary meals and checked baggage, and, finally, the diminution of seat sizes and legroom to a point approaching the limits of human endurance. (Eliminating seats altogether, however, remains an option.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Going forward, all industry forecasts call for further consolidation and continually rising fares and fees, accompanied by declining service on all but the most heavily trafficked routes. From time to time, short-term fare wars may break out on particular routes, particularly if foolish investors bring a start-up airline to town. Periodic dips in energy prices may bring a temporary reprieve. But over time, experience has shown that nearly all start-ups are eventually crushed by incumbent carriers, which in turn, despite their increasing consolidation, heavy public subsidies, and reductions in vital service to major cities, remain unable to earn even their cost of capital over time. Nobody wins except a few fast-trading financiers flying in private jets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This result would hardly surprise Charles Francis Adams, Louis Brandeis, and many other great Americans who struggled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with how to harness the emergence of railroads, telephones, electrical power, and other networked industries to public purposes. They’d recognize the familiar boom-and-bust cycle of new entrants that occurred in the early period of airline deregulation and the subsequent trend toward consolidation, deteriorating service, and increasing price discrimination. What else would anyone who knows economic history expect of a natural monopoly that lacks the benefits of government regulation?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...That was the lesson previous generations learned from railroads; the current generation has to learn it all over again, from our experience with deregulated airlines. Why have we become so passive and reluctant to face up to the hard task of governing ourselves and our markets? We don’t need to recite “The Serenity Prayer.” We need to get out from under the thrall of the false prophets of deregulation, conservative and liberal alike, and make the benefits of true capitalism work for us once again.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2014 United's PAC paid out $189,500 in direct bribes to members of Congress-- mostly to Republicans, but plenty to Democrats will to play ball with them as well. The biggest pay-offs went to 3 especially transactional crooks, all notorious in Washington for taking money and selling their influence:
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Bill Shuster (R-PA)- $10,000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)- $10,000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">•</span></b> Cory Booker (D-NJ)- $10,000</span></blockquote>
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-24843693042262050342017-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:002017-03-04T09:00:14.743-08:00Greedy Airlines Found A Partner In Crime-- The Trump Regime Wants To Encourage More Rip-offs Of Passengers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A week or so ago, we took a quick look at <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/how-many-billions-of-dollars-will-trump.html">how Trump's policies are hurting the American travel industry</a>-- and how pissed off the travel industry is at him and his regime. It looks like it will be getting worse too. Thursday the EU Parliament passed a non-binding resolution <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/world/europe/eu-visas-parliament-united-states.html">calling for the reintroduction of visa requirements for American citizens</a>, a little tit-for-tat over Washington refusing to give visa-free travel access to 5 EU nations (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania).
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the vote on Thursday, the Parliament gave the European Commission two months to take legal measures to impose visas for American travelers to the European Union unless the Americans offered reciprocity to all citizens from the bloc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">European officials in Brussels have balked at making travel to Europe more difficult for Americans, saying doing so would have an economic cost and would most likely not even resolve the hurdles facing citizens of the five affected countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Parliament’s measure was approved in a show of hands and was not expected to worsen the standoff with the United States. But in the event that the court in Luxembourg were to rule in favor of Parliament, the commission might be forced to impose visa requirements on Americans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Trump administration, finding itself in a tit-for-tat battle over access, would then almost certainly do the same for travelers from the European Union.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(It would probably be prudent for Trump to add Cyprus-- a shady Russian Mafia den of iniquity-- to his travel ban altogether. But that's <a href="http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2017/02/wilbur-ross-and-russian-roots-of-trumps.html">not going to happen</a> while the Trump kakistocracy is in power.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway-- back to the travel industry-- it looks like one segment of that industry-- the airlines-- are happy with Trump again. Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell's <strike>beard</strike> wife) is the Secretary of Transportation and she's already <a href="http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Government/Trump-DOT-suspends-comment-periods-for-two-Obama-measures">starting to roll back regulations</a> that protected the public from the runaway avarice and greed of the U.S. airlines. <i>Travel Weekly</i> posted about it Thursday. The Trumpists came down firmly on the side of the airlines when it comes to ripping off passengers with hidden fees for baggage, etc.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Department of Transportation (DOT) on Thursday indefinitely suspended public comment on two proposed consumer-protection measures that the Obama administration put forward during its last months in office.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The DOT took the steps to "allow the president's appointees to review and consider this action," it said in Federal Register filings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last October, the DOT issued a request for information from consumer groups, airlines and other industry stakeholders to determine whether it should regulate the common airline practice of displaying only some content offerings through indirect channels, such as OTAs and GDSs, while displaying their full offerings on their own websites. In late December, the DOT extended that comment period to March 31 from its initial end date of Dec. 31. That comment period has now been suspended while the DOT reviews its merits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The DOT has also suspended the final airline-related rulemaking process that was begun during the Obama administration. On Jan. 19, just three days before Obama left office, the DOT proposed a requirement that airlines and ticket agents (including travel agents) disclose fees for carry-on and checked bags from the beginning of a fare inquiry.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If enacted, the rule would mean that carriers couldn't show a ticket price on a web interface, then only later in the sales process show fees for baggage.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Public comment on that proposal had been scheduled to close on March 20.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...The trade group Travel Tech, which represents OTAs, travel search sites and GDSs, said Thursday that it is disappointed with both suspensions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Consumers deserve transparency in fare and schedule information and ancillary fees," Travel Tech president Steve Shur said in prepared remarks. "DOT must live up to its mandate on consumer protection and ensure consumers have access to all the information they need to make a purchasing decision."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">President Trump has said reducing regulations will be a key policy goal of his administration.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Needless to say, the airline lobbyists were giddy with joy. Airlines for America President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio: "We applaud Secretary Chao’s leadership today and look forward to an era of smarter regulation that protects consumers from unfair practices, but does not step in when action is not warranted. Today’s action is a common sense measure reinforcing that the airline industry is capable of making the decisions that best serve our customers, our employees and the communities we serve."</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-52115386651707832492017-02-28T13:00:00.000-08:002017-02-28T13:00:18.438-08:00TNT Packs a Rum Punch!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the mask competitors at Trinidad’s carnival. Mask traditions go back to Africa, representing ancestral spirits offering protection during slavery and servitude. Fevered competitions abound in a variety of music styles, like steel pan.</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Seeking a travel break from the intrigues of a perforated ship of state? Perhaps from the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/02/25/keith-ellison-loses-dnc-race-after-heated-campaign-targeting-him-for-his-views-on-palestine/">curious undertows dragging the DNC out to sea</a>? Here's a vicarious escape you might consider giving a real embrace next year. I don't think the need for an escape that shakes up the scenery will lessen.</span></i><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Melting Pot on a Carnival March Across Musical, Culinary and Cultural Battlefields</span><br />
Text and photos by Skip Kaltenheuser</span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>At Trinidad’s Dattatreya Yoga Center and Mandir, this giant statue of Hanuman Murti, the Monkey God, is the largest outside of India</b></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Heads of state sometimes gather in Port of Spain to jockey for position, with some reaching out and some more antagonistic. Often overlooked is a lesson in personal diplomacy that the entire world might take from the host country, Trinidad and Tobago. The two islands, quite different from each other, form a single country, and have the Caribbean’s most intriguing culture. People who are often at loggerheads elsewhere in the world get along just fine here, thank you very much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The historical layers that built Trinidad and Tobago have created one of the most splendid melting pots in the world, with a remarkable degree of affability between the diverse groups that built the nation. Understanding those historical layers is key to appreciating the country’s many grand offerings to visitors.
Like many other Caribbean islands, the original population was Arawak and Carib Indians, after the latter came to the islands and conquered the former. Columbus landed on Trinidad in 1498 during his third voyage, during which he again missed India but discovered South America, thinking it part of Asia. In keeping with their usual pattern, the Spanish wiped out most of the Indian population, and assimilated the survivors. Trinidad was a magnet for French, free blacks and other non-Spanish, but Spain ruled it until the British captured it in 1797.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tobago was much more in play. French, Dutch and British forces perpetually contested possession. During colonial times, the island changed hands twenty-two times, setting the record for West Indies turn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">African slaves formed a majority of the population, but after slaves were emancipated in 1838, the melting pot became much more interesting. The Europeans needed to fill a labor shortage, so in 1845 they begin bringing in both Muslims and Hindus from India as indentured servants in order to work the large sugar and cocoa plantations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Chinese started finding their way to the islands. A couple hundred came in 1806, on the ship Fortitude, part of an experiment in setting up a settlement of farmers and laborers, in anticipation of the eventual ending of slavery. It was a disaster, and the couple dozen who remained started shops or did carpentry or gardeners. A second wave came in the mid-1800’s after slavery ended, mostly from Macao, Hong Kong and Canton, as indentured laborers. A third wave came after 1911 and the Chinese revolution of that year. The pace picked up between the 1920’s and 1940’s, most of them families and friends of immigrants who’d arrived earlier. Instead of working on estates, they adapted to roles as peddlers, traders, shopkeepers and merchants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Additionally, many Chinese from elsewhere in the Caribbean came to Trinidad after they’d finished their indenture obligation on other islands. When China started opening up to the outside world in the late 1970’s, a fourth wave of migration began. In 1960, Sir Solomon Hochoy was knighted by the Queen of England and became the only nonwhite British governor of Trinidad and Tobago, becoming Governor-General when the country became independent in 1962.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A parade group prepares to rush the reviewing stand for its do-or-die dance moment, perhaps to a song by Super Blue, aiming for Carnival glory</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People from these divergent backgrounds have blended their heritages, and often their families. Although the number of unmixed Chinese Trinidadians, or Sino-Trinidadians, probably peaked in 1960 at eight and a half thousand, many more islanders have some Chinese in their ancestry. Among the much larger Indian population, it isn’t unusual for Muslims to marry Hindus, with a marriage in each religion to please the families. The families then just double down on the religious holidays. The racial and religious tensions found in much of the world’s regions are hard to find here. It’s a very refreshing experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you ask a cab driver his family’s ancestry, be prepared to hear a long story about a well-branched family tree, likely to include Europeans, Amerindians, Africans, Indians, Chinese and others such as Portuguese, many of whose ancestors were also indentured laborers, and Arabs. They all bring something to the cultural mix, not always in proportion to the size of the population. For example, Buddhists may only be a percent of the population, but the country was recently fascinated by introduction of the Shaolin Martial Arts of Ch’an Buddhism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the pleasurable spill-overs of this melting pot is the cooking pot, and its been simmering for centuries. Consider the dish of curry chicken and roti, inherited from indentured laborers from India, along with curry versions of crab, shrimp, duck and potato. The roti is of various ingredients, including cowpeas. Sometimes its served on a skewer with eggplant relish and tomato chutney vinaigrette. A sample from Africa is callaloo, a spicy dish made from dasheen leaves, okra, crab, coconut milk and cilantro. Many dishes are stewed, barbecued or curried with coconut milk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spice is king. Hot peppers concoctions, including a hot sauce called “mother-in-law” that makes some people’s faces sweat just from thinking the name, often figure in. Mango chutney and curry mango are among the treats resulting form fusing the broad array of delicious fruit with spice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breakfasts include fried corned beef with onions and tomatoes. Fried figs with saltfish-- cod in a packet-- is common. Homemade coconut bread with black pudding-- a blood sausage including onions, pork fat, oatmeal and spices-- is a hit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bake and shark is popular at breakfast and at any time of day. The moment the shark shacks open up at Trinidad’s stunning Maracas Beach, long lines appear in anticipation. The local shark is deep-fried and and stuffed in pocket of deep-fried batter that is similar to the fry bread of American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico.
Maracas Beach, one of the beautiful beaches on the north side of Trinidad, is protected by a deep bay. The broad beach is dotted with tall palm trees and hardwoods, with soccer games making the sand fly about. The hour or so drive to the beach from the capital, Port of Spain, goes through mountains covered with rainforest and along cliffs overlooking the coast. One overlook area has roadside stands selling dried sour prunes, red mango and other preserved fruits with hot spice that locals can’t resist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rich soups and stews are known as “blue food.” The seafood offerings are superb, particularly curried crab and dumplings, and king fish. A small fresh water fish, the cascadura, is used in a rare specialty dish, with the legend that those who eat it will return to Trinidad to spend their days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most popular drink is a rum punch made from sugar water, dark rum, lime juice and Angostura bitters.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The hardest working man in show business, a small cog in a giant steel pan machine in an orchestra competition, utilizing perhaps the only major musical instrument created in the prior century. This T&T original is one of wide variety of musical styles celebrated in the country.</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The historical melting pot has also brought forth unique recipes for music. Among them is the steel drum. It’s a brilliant innovation that began in the 1930’s as orchestras of dustbin lids, prying pans and oil drums. The tops of 55 gallon drum tops are hammered into a pitched percussion instrument called a steelpan, with pitched notes based on the size of the ovals in the pan. One might have thirty soprano-range notes, another only three bass notes, necessitating a player to have six pans. There’s a large range of instruments between them, and pan orchestras might have a hundred or more players. High tech techniques are continually developed to better tune the pans, and some are designed at the outset to be musical instruments, including by one manufacturer in Switzerland. The music a good orchestra puts out is a marvel to hear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The pan evolved from traditions of African drums and sticks used by slaves to communicate, which were suppressed on the islands. Percussion bamboo sticks were banned in 1883 after they were used as weapons in conflicts between groups who lost control during the Mardis Gras carnival celebrations inherited from the French. Drumming traditions were also strong in India. After the initial bans, bottles and spoons were used until the pans were created.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another of Trinidad and Tobago’s musical gifts, Calypso, has its roots in attempts at communication between slaves. Strongly harmonic and rhythmic, the songs are often in the language of a French creole that was created to allow the melting pot to better communicate, as the slaves from different tribes and the other inhabitants originally came with very different languages. Songs are led by a griot, a poet and wandering musician who is both witty and very knowledgeable on local history and events. The griot style has been traced to West Africa and the old Mali Empire of seven hundred years ago. After slavery was abolished on the islands, carnival festivals began to develop in the 1830’s, with large tents for Calypso concerts and competitions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soca music is a more recent local creation, from 1963. It originally included instruments from India, though they were used less when the form later adopted elements of American soul and funk. Good times are at the core of the songs. Soca is also the venue for lively carnival competitions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other variations on these musical forms include Extempo, a type of freestyle calypso war for which the lyrics are improvised on the spot. Singers don’t just compete for the carnival title of Extempo Monarch. Some wander the streets with a guitar or walk onto a bus and make up songs on the spot about the people they see. Rapso is another musical style, with more political and spiritual themes, and Chutney, which grew from the Indian populations. These and other styles are woven into the carnival competitions but are prevalent throughout the year.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtEs_6oabDF1NvIp8q-AK2XRgcvYCVnyCWM-fSKE6be7_ul1M2KLX03o4JRHn-FBrJeTOQvBUmlvcFQpl3Obw2HlqOTLZflSfv0t5KLPfwLSpfxOMmsENta1UlW7QlIozSia2rQ/s1600/IMG_1762.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtEs_6oabDF1NvIp8q-AK2XRgcvYCVnyCWM-fSKE6be7_ul1M2KLX03o4JRHn-FBrJeTOQvBUmlvcFQpl3Obw2HlqOTLZflSfv0t5KLPfwLSpfxOMmsENta1UlW7QlIozSia2rQ/s400/IMG_1762.jpeg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A Dame Lorraine, sporting one of carnival’s long-lived traditional costumes. It began as a way to make fun of the wives of French plantation owners</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rapso is well-suited to the carnival street party J’ouvert, which uses any materials that are handy to beat out rhythms. The celebration starts around three or four in the morning and lasts until a few hours after sunrise. The calypso and soca bands that lead their followers are now often on large sound trucks, with beverage trucks close by. Celebrants, known as Jab Jabs, throw colored powders and water, and smear paint, mud or oil on each other. The customs come from a disturbance long ago that became a riot, with people disguising themselves, and from a festival held by the Indian population, Holi. There are often fire breathers, using a high alcohol rum, who punctuate the darkness with blasts of flame.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Blue Devil in a mountain village. Leave the wallet at home, keep a few singles handy because non-contributors are often embraced, so don't wear the irresistible color white or anything you're fond of</b></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout J’ouvert and the daylight carnival parades, there is a great deal of “wining.” Celebrants, in mud or in risqué costumes, often complete strangers, suddenly do a comical bump and grind with each other to the music, or with onlookers who get too close, for a brief moment, and then move on. Somethings a dozen people might line up for some periodic wining as they dance along. It’s a lively reminder of ancient carnival traditions in Europe that centered on fertility, and on the chance for slaves and the lower class to cut loose. After Christianity gained control of carnival, the wildness and chaos led up to the sober period of Lent that leads up to Easter. But carnival, with its satirical traditions, always retains its resistance to authority, and its embrace of sex.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While the focal point of carnival is in Trinidad’s capital, Port of Prince, it has smaller celebrations throughout the island, including one in a village up in the hills where “blue devils” dance through the street and demand tribute from onlookers. If a dollar isn’t given-- keep the rest of your money well-hidden, the devils will grab what they can-- the devils will smear them with blue paint, (it doesn’t wash out of clothes, this writer attests).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the evening, as with the steel pan competition, Panorama, with its huge orchestras, and the Soca and Calypso competitions, which include singers, bands and dancers, there is also a “Mas” competition for King and Queen costumes that can only be believed if seen. It’s often accompanied by elaborate music, dancers and impressive stagecraft. One person, aided by no more than two or three small roller wheels, wears a huge costume weighing hundreds of pounds, and its not unusual to see someone collapse after getting his or her costume across the stage. The technical expertise that goes into making these huge costumes wearable is part of the art form, and it’s impressive, though everyone prays there is no strong wind that might sail a contestant off the stage. Themes are often drawn from China, India, Africa and American Indians.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No less impressive are the costumes worn by children at their carnival. It’s also a pleasure to see how inclusive it is, with a good number of children with disabilities, mental or physical, putting on elaborate costumes and joining the parade with everyone else. A large number of kids are up on stilts, often very high stilts, in tribute to the Moko Jumbies. Legends had them walking across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa, to eventually walk the streets of Trinidad in freedom. They also acquired a ghost persona from the Indian population, and powers to protect people by driving off evil spirits. Adults also have Moko Jumbie bands, and the very tall, costumed figures are remarkable dancers.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A bit of incognito “wine and jam” at J’ouert, the 4 am parade beginning carnival’s celebrations, with music and beverage trucks keeping moving before sunrise. Again, don’t wear a tux or anything you're fond of, waterproof cameras recommended. A lot of paint and grease is tossed about, as here with the parade group Caesar’s Army</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While many of the costumes are known for their brevity, one of the most fun is a satirical costume tradition that pokes fun at the wives of the French plantation owners of long ago, who liked to dress up as aristocracy. The carnival version adds wildly exaggerated rumps and busts, and sports parasols. There are many other traditional costume characters, including Navy sailors, Fancy Indians from North America, dragons, Minstrels with faces painted white, and Bats with big wing spans.
While Tobago, better known for a huge jazz festival in April, also celebrates carnival, it’s much less grandiose. For many Trinidadians, it is a post-carnival retreat where people can calm down. They hop a plane or ferry to get to the country’s alter ego island. While Trinidad’s modern economy leaned heavily on oil and now is focused on being a major producer of natural gas, Tobago’s riches are mostly in its unspoiled natural environment.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Trinidad and Tobago’s long and varied melting-pot history includes Chinese ancestors, their spirits honored here. Senior king and queen contender costumes can weigh up to 200 pounds, and an assist of up to three wheels is allowed. Beware of the wind.</b></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Among its natural offerings is the Main Ridge Reserve, created to ensure that sugar planters wouldn’t fell all the trees for timber. There was a remarkable realization by a mid-18th century scientist, Stephen Hales, that taking down the trees would eventually end the moisture cycles that brought rain, turning islands like Tobago into a desert and ending all agriculture there. It was a tough sell in the British Parliament, where many members also owned plantations in Tobago. But after eleven years of effort, one member, Soame Jenyns, convinced his colleagues that Hales was correct. Protected by law in 1776 not to preserve royal hunting and pleasures, but to protect the watershed, this is the world’s oldest legally protected forest reserve of its kind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The act creating the reserve is a marvel of environmental foresight that much of the world could still greatly benefit from emulating:
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Did also in pursuance of your said Instructions remove to Your Majesty a tract of Wood Land lying in the interior and most hilly parts of this island for the purpose of attracting frequent Showers of Rain upon which the Fertility of Lands in these Climates doth entirely depend."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-William Young</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assented to by his Honour the Commander in Chief this Thirteenth day of April One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Six.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The reserve now covers over two-thirds of the island. Most of the forest is very similar to the type of forest that dominates in the Amazon. Unlike Trinidad, there are no poisonous snakes in the forests of Tobago, making them a worry-free pleasure to hike. Waterfalls abound, including Argyle Waterfall, which has 54 meters of stepped cascades and cold, deep pools one can swim in. Along the walk to the falls from a visitors center, one can see caymans in a river, and some of the 469 species of birds on the two islands, including many humming birds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beyond the local birds, from August to October the islands are visited by many migratory species form North America. There are also interlopers from South America, such as the nation’s national bird, the Scarlet Ibis. It breeds in Venezuela, which is so close it can be seen from Trinidad, but spends most of its time feeding in mangrove swamps on the islands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many visitors to Tobago spend their time at the western tip, Crown Point, with its restaurants and bars, and the beautiful beaches of the peninsula Pigeon Point. But this writer found a great retreat at the far eastern tip. One can meander on the drive there, visiting sites like old colonialist forts and the ruins of sugar mills being reclaimed by jungle. Be very cautious on the winding roads, it’s easy to be absorbed by the views of many stunning bays, cliffs and beaches, when you really need to have your eyes on the road. Better to stop at safe places to take in the sites, or to take a cab.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The North End of Tobago is the island’s most mountainous, and the beautiful bays on the Caribbean side are great for swimming, with extensive protective reefs for snorkeling. One might recognize locations like Pirates Bay that were used in the 1952 film, “Swiss Family Robinson.” You might have to hike a ways from small villages on the Caribbean side, but it’s not unusual to find coves and beaches that you can have entirely to yourself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just off the southeast side of the far end of Tobago is a small island, Little Tobago, across from Starwood Bay and the resort, the Blue Water Inn. There is good snorkeling and diving, with the world’s largest known brain coral and many leatherback turtles, but the Atlantic currents are powerful and one needs a good guide and experienced boatman who can keep you from harm’s way. The area attracts many sport fishermen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Little Tobago is a bird sanctuary with boobies, terns and the red-billed tropic bird, and offers some challenging hiking up steep slopes covered in parts by cactus and dry forest, but with much denser forest toward the top, and huge ferns. Whether or not you make it all the way to Little Tobago, Tobago is well worth exploring if you seek an experience that truly gets you away from crowds for the chance to experience environments that have mostly disappeared from the Caribbean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trinidad and Tobago offer a tale of two islands. Between them the diversity of people and offerings is one of the most satisfying in the Caribbean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <a href="https://trinidad.regency.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html">Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain</a> is an excellent carnival headquarters that also organizes carnival involvement. The hotel is also favored by heads of state, as at a Summit of the Americas, and by business travelers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bluewatersinn.com/">Blue Water Inn on Tobago</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://gotrinidadandtobago.com/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trinidad and Tobago Tourism</span></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: bold; text-align: start;">The eyes have it, revelers jubilant even sheltering from a passing rain.<br /></span></td></tr>
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-5487139613233351242017-02-27T08:00:00.000-08:002017-02-27T08:00:17.138-08:00One Way To See China For Free-- Or Even Make Some Money In The Process<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that she's moved away to New Orleans, I don't see Ricky Lee Jones much any longer. But she was in town last week and we got together for dinner to catch up. She had just been in China. I didn't recall her having much of a following there from when we were both at Reprise, so I was very curious about how the economics of that trip worked. As best I can understand, a wealthy guy in suburban Shanghai put up a very large amount of money for her to play a kind of prestigious show for a small number of people. nice way to see China-- or at least suburban Shanghai-- and walk away with a tidy sum to boot!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The story reminded me of an HBO <i>Vice</i> episode from last year, "Rent A White Guy," about how it's possible for westerners, specifically white westerners, to make a bundle in China by... being white. I knew that China-- among other Asian countries-- will pay a lot for white models. But this story goes way beyond that. I mean how about being the westerner who gets hired to go out on the town with a group of rich Chinese kids who just want to make an impression-- of looking "cool and worldly?"</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"White Makes You A Winner"</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was in Bangkok for much of December and January. Everywhere I looked there were billboards and signs advertising skin whiteners (or lighteners); it was overwhelming and it's creating a neurosis among Thai kids-- of both genders-- that darker skin is unattractive. I didn't like it and couldn't escape from it. Apparently it's even worse in China. The episode makes the point that "there's a grey market for whites in China. A white face isn't just a marketing ploy, but a substitute for actual professional credentials." Even doctors-- like the fake "vice chairman of clinical urology at the University of Virginia," lecturing actual Chinese doctors about chronic prostatitis, about which he knew exactly nothing at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rent-a-laowai business is for real in China. And ruminative enough for an enterprising American to go over there, sign up with an agency and make enough money to live... and then some. As long as you're ok with being a prop, or even a fake celebrity. This is especially lucrative in third and fourth tier cities, not in cosmopolitan places like Beijing and Shanghai. And very often there's something shady about those hiring the foreigners to pretend to be something they're not, a <i>white</i> something they're not.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-58915717680818780812017-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:002017-02-24T15:33:31.649-08:00How Many Billions Of Dollars Will Trump Cost The U.S. Tourism And Travel Industry?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Roland and I go away twice a year-- once in the summer and once around Christmas. Last June we went to <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/im-back-from-russia-with-couple-of.html">Moscow and St Petersburg</a> in Russia and <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-trump-name-is-too-toxic-for.html">Baku</a> in Azerbaijan. We're thinking about a Paris trip and a <a href="http://aroundtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/why-tierra-del-fuego.html">Tierra del Fuego</a> trip for our next two. But Roland's worried that Trump is going to make it tougher for Americans to travel safely and comfortable abroad. How friendly are Mexicans going to be, for example, towards Americans if things keep getting worse. And <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/24/paris-mayor-donald-trump-comments/98360536/">Parisians may be able to laugh at Trump's ignorant fear mongering about their city</a> now but sooner or later someone, somehwhere is going to think he's not funny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In fact, <i>Frommer's</i> took a look at Trump's impact on tourism and travel from the opposite perspective-- <a href="http://www.frommers.com/tips/miscellaneous/the-travel-press-is-reporting-the-trump-slump-a-devastating-drop-in-tourism-to-the-united-states">how his idiocy is killing the multibillion dollar U.S. tourist industry</a>. Arthur Former himself wrote about a Trump Slump that is already causing a "devastating drop in tourism to the U.S. and that "the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating."
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thus, the prestigious <i>Travel Weekly</i> magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States-- and thus lost-- would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While, earlier in the year, the Administration had boasted of saving 800 jobs in the Carrier Corporation, the drop-off in employment resulting from the travel ban would eclipse that figure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to the Global Business Travel Association, in only a single week following announcement of the ban against certain foreign tourists, the activity of business travel declined by nearly $185 million.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other observers, including local tourist offices, have reached similar conclusions. In referring to New York City’s $60 billion tourist industry alone, the head of the city’s tourist effort complained that his agency’s effort to portray the United States as a welcoming destination to foreign citizens “was all in jeopardy.” Several other tourist officials have made like statements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As you can see, there is plenty of evidence for a negative conclusion.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The World Travel & Tourism Council has been highly critical of Trumpy-the-Clown's attempt to ban travel to the U.S. by nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries. The council's CEO, David Scowsil,l challenged the fascist regime directly, warning that Trump's idiotic approach could bring about a long-term slump in tourism to the U.S. He told <i>Travel Weekly</i> that "The more people travel, the more people spread understanding, the better off we'll be around the world." He spoke of "the reverberation that America is closing down, is not open for any business and that people are looking at whether they want to travel here or not, for both business or leisure. So there is a risk if this is not turned around that we will see a drop-off of international passengers coming to the U.S."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When confronted with Trump's rationale for the ban-- safeguarding Americans-- he simply pointed out that Trump's scaremongering is bullshit. "There is no incident in the last 30 years of a national from one of those seven countries coming to the United States to commit any type of terrorist killing. If you compare that with the domestic shootings that happen in the United States, for the last 10 years there has been an average of 11,700 Americans killed in domestic shootings. The message is: focus on what is going on domestically and don't assume that any of these gun incidents are going to be committed by people flying in to do that type of activity."</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20660264.post-72903564360893576162017-02-08T15:40:00.000-08:002017-02-09T05:48:47.124-08:00Unplug From The Rat Race And Switch On To Nature<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last fall Jenny Holt and her husband, having been inspired by Bill Bryson’s book, <i>A Walk in the Woods</i>, hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail. "While we were well prepared," she told me, "our progress was slower than expected and we got into some difficulty and ran out of food. It was ok, we were not too far from civilization and completed our trek safely, if a few days later than expected. However, it did make us wonder how well prepared we are for a situation where we were much further from help/shops etc..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jenny is a health and travel writer, and she has come up with a delightful hiking advice sit, <a href="http://backpackerverse.com/outdoor-survival-skills/">Backpackerverse</a>, to develop a guide on outdoor survival skills covering the basics anyone should know before hiking in the wilds; especially if travelling in a foreign country or remove landscape. Perhaps knowing the connection between this blog and <a href="http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/">DownWithTyranny</a>, she wrote this post especially for us.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYT8rjnO5PPME-OuPoO_eavLyQpLF4kq14eSj3getJLMAqTH5sNfsTkhd2saJJV_9smJnn6-9ED1hyzK-8DHeD8xIWNj9FrfBa5G1X6OvWJa-iPmhh-T_4nDD3kTwYLeG9ahcWtg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-02-08+at+3.12.20+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYT8rjnO5PPME-OuPoO_eavLyQpLF4kq14eSj3getJLMAqTH5sNfsTkhd2saJJV_9smJnn6-9ED1hyzK-8DHeD8xIWNj9FrfBa5G1X6OvWJa-iPmhh-T_4nDD3kTwYLeG9ahcWtg/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-02-08+at+3.12.20+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-by Jenny Holt</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You’d have to be living on the moon to have avoided all the political headlines at the moment. Everyone seems to be talking and worrying about the recent state of global affairs. But you don’t actually have to go and live on the moon to escape from it. There is a more practical, cheaper, and achievable solution. Just switch off, unplug and get outside. And we don’t mean to go and sit in a coffee shop. We mean out out. In the great outdoors.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Disconnect and Reconnect</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we are at home or work, we are always so busy and surrounded by distractions. But when you are in the outdoors, you'll likely find yourself outside of cellphone coverage or email reach. So, it's just you and the world.</span><br />
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It doesn't have to be expensive either. Depending on whether you just want to hike a trail for the day or escape for a few days, you don't have to spend a fortune on kit. And once you are out in the great outdoors, everything is free.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Staying Safe</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you have got a taste for escaping to the great outdoors, you will need to do a little preparation before you head out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In case you get lost or just fancy venturing off the beaten track, you should make sure you <a href="http://backpackerverse.com/outdoor-survival-skills/">know some basic survival skills</a> to keep you going until you make it back or are found. While it's encouraged to disconnect, there are gadgets that can help you when you are out in the wilderness. But they can break or stop working, so you still need to know what to do if you are unable to rely on them. Last year a Dutch <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-13/survival-expert-praises-lost-dutch-womans-bushcraft-skills/7087108">woman survived five days in bushland</a> without the help of any gadgets. Bushcraft experts have said she would have died if it wasn't for her quick-thinking survival skills.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Good for the Mind, Body and Soul</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Apart from the obvious benefits of getting some fresh air and exercise, being outside in nature has some huge mental health benefits too. Experiencing nature regularly can actually help to <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/30/hiking-mental-health-063015/">improve complex memory tasks</a> and has been said to help people suffering with dementia. Just being exposed to the natural environment can lower stress levels, aids with symptoms of anxiety and depression and helps improve cognition in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18725656/">children with attention deficit disorder</a>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Escaping the Hamster Wheel</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Getting outdoors offers a brief escape and refuge from the pressures of the world. It may not be for everybody of course. Some people prefer lazing on sandy beaches and enjoying hot showers and clean sheets. But for some, exploring the outdoors is the perfect remedy to some of the absurdity going on in modern life.
So, switch off and get outdoors, you won’t regret it.</span><br />
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DownWithTyrannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10867460571053802886noreply@blogger.com0