Shouldn’t we spend more on reducing vehicle deaths? Less on hassling airline travellers?
According to this data, you are more likely to be killed by an American policeman than by a toothpaste-wielding foreign jihadist.
Flu, hernia, or police more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda – BoingBoing
Just heard the radical professor R.T. Naylor blast the “War on Terror”.
His research says that Osama does not have millions at his disposal. That money has long been shut off.
He states almost every claim made about the “Global War on Terrorism” is a ridiculous exaggeration.
A friend worked years ago in Muammar al-Gaddafi-land and had some wonderful experiences.
But do you really want to vacation there?
Tripoli: Once a Pariah, Now a Hot Spot – New York Times
To Tripoli from Rome or Milan, a round-trip ticket will cost about $250.
Until Libya establishes services in the United States, Americans must apply for visas through Libya’s offices in other countries. The nearest is in Canada, the Libyan People’s Bureau in Ottawa. Libya only grants visas to tourists who arrange their travel with travel agents registered in Libya. Even then, Libya has recently denied entry to visa holders without warning or explanation.
Tours go to well-preserved Roman and Greek ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha.
your tour guide
How does Sal, Siwa, Imlil, Agadez sound?
Or, Kas, Triglav National Park, Algamitas, Erice, Calvi or Lohéac?
Yep, they sure live up to the title. The first set is located in Africa, the second set in Europe and I haven’t heard of a single one.
Budget Travel asked professionals who tour the world on their company dime to come up with the very best, undiscovered locales …
source – Gadling.com – the traveller’s weblog
I have heard of Siwa. Friends in Egypt raved about this charming Berber oasis close to the Libyan border and I have always wanted to go there. Sounds like a desert paradise.
Siwa – Wikipedia
I just heard Robert Fisk interviewed. Sounds like the most intelligent reporter in the world to me.
His home of the past 25 years, Beirut, Lebanon, has been destroyed by what Fisk feels was unnecessary military action. The Israelis over-reacted. And they came out second best in the conflict.
Fisk speaks Arabic and is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden.
I will be checking out his books.
Dubai is a success story like Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s arisen as a super trading port. Increasingly, tourism is bringing in cash as well. I’d like to visit myself.
UPDATE: I have a friend working in Dubai between about Dec. 21st to Feb 18th, 2007.
While Lebanon is in ruins, Dubai on the Persian Gulf is booming.
Yet less than 10% of the income of the country is from oil.
The view from the world’s highest hotel, Burj al-Arab, must be amazing.
Perhaps I will pick up a place on the Palm Islands, astonishing new resort homes built on artificial islands.
Dubai is not without problems, but I am impressed.
Ski Dubai. Indoor ski hill in the desert.
By the way, I am looking to post positive news about the Islamic world. We need it.
A great tradition in my town is the “Stampede Breakfast”.
All sorts of organizations put on free grub as an annual open house for the city during the major rodeo — the Calgary Stampede.
This year, for the first time, we visited the local Mosque (Calgary Islamic Center). An excellent event! Seemed to me the highest priority was presenting a positive face to the local community.
The highlight was an Imam, a most intelligent and charismatic figure, who explained Islam to a fairly unknowledgable crowd. I learned that the Koran in Arabic is identical world wide and has never been revised.
In 2006 the more we can learn about the Muslims who do not make the news, the better.
Something I would never have predicted is about to happen.
I think countries like Australia, Netherlands, maybe Canada, are going to democratically decide to suspend some human rights in exchange for supposed security from Terrorists.
US citizens have no choice. Their rights have been limited already by the Bush regime, legal or not. Don’t count on freedom of speech in the USA.
First targeted will be Muslims. Next ???
I am strongly for all our current human rights legislation. We need protect and improve our freedoms. As for Muslims, I’ve never been better treated as a tourist than in Islamic countries. The friendliest countries I know are Syria and Jordan.
A glimpse of the future:
The Metropolitan police today bowed to demands for an apology from the family targeted in an east London terror raid, after the man shot by an officer spoke for the first time of fears for his life.
Dvorak Uncensored » Man shot by London police demands apology
Wild-eyed, spiky-haired Mongol nomad cowboys ride into town, filthy, big knifes dangling. They are unabashed gawkers, some having rarely seen a Westerner before … except on TV.
Backpackers love to go where there are no suitcase tourists, to locales not yet ruined by too many visitors. A sad, true paradox.
Especially in China, the famous tourists stops here you would find crowded, littered, expensive, and tacky.
So I went to Langmusi, the most Tibetan place outside of Tibet. This is a simple and remote little town visited only by Buddhist pilgrims and a few backpackers. The locals are excited that next year, when the hospital opens, the town will have running water.
Later the kids help me with my Mandarin. About 70% of Chinese speak Mandarin, and about 95% of backpackers. After a month in China I am the worst except for Julio from Spain, who doesn’t know a word. We often sit dumb and dumb.
The other major dialect is Cantonese, spoken in the South. The two can’t understand each other but they share the same written language. You need to know between 2000 – 3000 characters to read a newspaper. In 1954, in the interest of universal literacy, about 2000 characters were simplified. However, more and more Chinese want a return to the elegant full-form pictograms.
In 1958 the central government adopted Pinyin, a system of writing using our Roman alphabet. This was (somewhat) helpful for foreign devils but to most Chinese Pinyin looks like gobbledegook. They can’t read it.
Why do I mention all this? The bottom line is that the traveller in China must be able to speak conversational Mandarin or they are doomed.
I am doomed.
The thing to do here is to praise the colourful ethnic minorities and criticize the Han oppressors. But that hasn’t been my experience. The Chinese I have met are kind and tolerant of minorities, even weird backpackers. It is a pleasure to travel in a land with so few rowdy young males. The men are almost gentle.
The Muslim people in China are often strikingly handsome, photogenically pretty. They are hard-working and well educated, but keep a low profile. The call to prayer is not amplified. It’s been this way since the 1870s when the Chinese put down the last Muslim rebellion, killing millions and laying waste to entire cities.
The thing to do especially (to spite the ruthless Chinese police state, despite Brad Pitt) is to promote Tibet, Tibetans, and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tantric Buddhism here, as you know, is bizarre and mystical, heavily influenced by the pre-Buddhist Bon religion. It is characterized by mantras (sacred chanting), yantras (sacred art), and secret initiation rites. It is terrifically compelling.
Westerners decry the Chinese liberators of Tibet. We hate that the spiritual leader and 100,000 Tibetans were driven to exile. We mourn the 1.2 million Tibetan deaths and destruction of much of the Tibetan cultural heritage.
And backpackers particularly hate the extortionary cost of travel into Tibet. Like me, they are constantly seeking ways to enter Tibet illegally, to get one up on the Chinese authorities.
First I travelled to Little Tibet, Xiahe, in Gansu Province. It can be otherworldly. Outside of Lhasa, this is the leading monastery town. Once part of Tibet, at its peak it housed 4000 monks studying the hard sciences like Astrology and Esoteric Buddhism.
The Tibetans are striking. Especially when the Dalai Lama himself sits down beside you in the bus. (Well, it looked like him.) Tibetans often greet you by sticking out their tongue. Demons cannot disguise their forked tongues, you see.
I had always assumed that Tibetan cheeks were ruddy from wind and sun — but it appears to be genetic! I’d always assumed that the smudged faces and grimy clothing were due to a lack of water in Tibet — but it appears to be cultural. There is plenty of water in Xiahe, but most of the Tibetans are dirty.
The population here is 10% Muslim, 45% Chinese, 45% Tibetan. Many of the Tibetans have lice but none, I’m certain, of the Chinese or Muslims do. (I can’t vouch for all of the backpackers.) Many Tibetans live and sleep in their huge heavy robes and coats. They just don’t wash much. And the toilets are the filthiest I’ve suffered.
It is hilarious to watch Buddhist monks playing ping-pong, shooting baskets, or watching TV. For young students this is an exalted boarding school.
It is harvest here too. A beautiful time of the year. Most of the grains have been cut. Everything is done by hand. Cabbage, corn, and sunflowers are still up.
Yesterday, about 7 vehicles ahead of my bus, a potato truck overturned, falling over a cliff. The driver must have fallen asleep, I was told. Only about 5 sacks of potatoes roadside survived.
Motor vehicle accidents are by far the greatest risk in these countries.
I’m en route to Golmud to check-out the worst bus ride on Earth to Lhasa. (That claim is hotly disputed.) It’s 38 – 75 hours with 2 scheduled stops and a series of unscheduled flat tires, breakdowns, landslides, avalanches.
If I don’t like what I see in Golmud, I’ll consider my options.
PS
The Songpan fire resulted in 130 displaced families. I saw at least 2 people badly burned, & 1 soldier down from smoke inhalation. Locals told us that no one was killed. Others said that 1 child had died.
PPS
The numbing, spicy detergent taste in Sichuan food is “huajiao”, literally flower pepper. You can’t avoid it. Later I found I started to acquire a taste for it (in very small quantities).
Many locals offered us a chance to try the Sichuan Hot Pot, dipping skewers into hot spicy oil. Apparently I dodged a bullet. It is said that no non-Sichuanese can tolerate that dish.
PPPS
It turns out that Maotai (white alcohol) is a brand given out only as a special gift, costing between 300 – 500 Yuan. The locals drink a version costing 38 Yuan. Only backpackers buy the 6 Yuan rotgut.
I spent far too little time in the clean, organized Islamic nation of Malaysia.
To see annotated photos jump to the permanent webpage in Rick’s photo archive. 
Rick McCharles 