Hawaii Prep hosts CPR training day

The Red Cross Youth Group at Hawaii Preparatory Academy is sponsoring "CPR Certification Day" from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the school's Castle Gymnasium on the upper campus in Waimea.

The cost is $5 per person with Hawaii Prep's Red Cross Youth Group subsidizing half of the $10 certification fee for all community members.

The 21/2 hour training sessions will begin on the half hour with each session limited to 25 people.

Registration is recommended. To register, call D. Petteys at 881-4082 or email dpetteys@hpa.edu. Walk-ins will be accommodated on a space available basis.

Bogs talks on 'Gardening for Greater Nutrition'

Jana Bogs, nutritionist and horticulturist, will discuss "Gardening for Greater Nutrition" at 3 p.m. Sunday at Artesia in Hawi. Bogs will give a PowerPoint presentation followed by a question and answer session. The event is free and open to the public.

Artesia is located at 55-3584 Kaauhuhu Road (the transfer station road) in Hawi.

Call Bogs at 938-9888 for more information.

Anna Ranch center seeks volunteers

The Anna Ranch Heritage Center, a nonprofit organization on the state and national register of historic places, needs volunteers to assist it in learning the history of the ranch and ranching in Waimea, guide tours, assist with children's educational programs, staff the gift shop and more.

The organization will provide training.

For more information, call Kay at 885-4426.

Kealakehe Project Grad fundraiser at Denny's

The public is invited to frequent Denny's Restaurant in Kailua-Kona from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday and help Kealakehe Project Grad raise needed funds for this year's event.

Kealakehe Project Grad is a nonprofit organization comprised of parent volunteers who plan a special event every year for the graduates of Kealakehe High School. It is a safe and fun way for the graduating seniors to enjoy an alcohol- and drug-free night with their friends.

The fundraiser is made possible through Project Compassion, a partnership between Denny's Restaurant, Rotary Club in Kona and local charities to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations working in the community.

Denny's will donate 20 percent of all food and drink sales, and 100 percent of all guest server tips to Kealakehe Project Grad. Guest servers will be County Council members Angel Pilago and Brenda Ford and Wally Lau, managing director for West Hawaii. Sponsors are Joan Greco, DDS; Railing Systems Hawaii; Aloha Petroleum; Kumu Kit; Atlas Recycling Centers LLC; HFS Credit Union; and Primerica.

Libraries offering special programs

National Library Week is April 10 to 16 and public libraries and librarians invite the public to "Create your own story @ your library," this year's theme chosen by the American Library Association.

"Every day, Hawaii's public libraries are helping people create their own unique stories," said state Librarian Richard Burns. "Whether it is by opening a book to explore distant lands, or learning how to use new technologies to find a job, people in our libraries are creating new stories for themselves."

Hawaii's public libraries will host free programs throughout the month to celebrate National Library Week.

John Keawe will present "A Tribute to Slack Key" at 1 p.m. April 16 at the Kailua-Kona Public Library. Keawe, a self-taught, slack-key guitarist, is a multiple Na Hoku Hanohano and Hawaii Music awards recipient and a contributing artist on Hawaii's first Grammy winner, "Slack Key Guitar Volume 2" (2005). Keawe will offer a tribute to the slack key style and various artists.

I. Made Widana and Anna Reynolds will present "The Music and Dance of Bali" at 5:30 p.m. April 14 at the Honokaa Public Library. Performers Widana and Reynolds will demonstrate traditional Balinese music and dance. Gamelan, the traditional musical ensemble found in Bali, includes gongs, bronze metallophone instruments of various sizes, double-headed drums and flutes.

Kealoha will present "Slam Poetry" at 4 p.m. April 25 at the North Kohala Public Library. Hawaii's "unofficial slam poet laureate," Kealoha is an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller. Slam poetry is a modern day form of performance poetry that is inspiring large audiences worldwide. Kealoha's performances will combine poetry, storytelling, movement, music, theater and interactive speaking.

"The Art of Cartooning" will be presented by Dave Thorne at 1:30 p.m. April 13 at Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library and 5:30 p.m. April 13 at Kealakekua Public Library. Thorne is a professional cartoonist who works with the publishers of educational and humorous books. His work has been featured in cartooning exhibitions in Hawaii and on the mainland. Thorne will present various cartoon forms and demonstrate how cartoonists develop characters .

Programs featuring storytellers and performing artists are recommended for all ages unless otherwise noted.

The Friends of the Library of Hawaii, Marriott Resorts Hawaii, Ko Olina Resort and Marina, Meadow Gold Dairies, HMS Host, Hansen Distribution Group, ING Foundation, Armstrong Produce Ltd., Bowman Connectivity Solutions Inc., Girard's Dressing, Roberts Hawaii Tours, Toshiba Business Solutions and DFS Hawaii are sponsoring National Library Week programs. Additional funding and support is being provided by the University of Hawaii at Manoa Outreach College, Statewide Cultural Extension Program, the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Program schedules are subject to change.

Contact the hosting library as soon as possible if a sign language interpreter or other special accommodation is needed.

Trusdell to discuss Mauna Loa's history

Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth, comprises more than half the surface area of Hawaii Island. Mapping and dating have shown that 98 percent of this active volcano is covered with lava flows less than 10,000 years old, and since 1843 it has erupted 33 times. When Mauna Loa erupts, fast-moving and voluminous lava flows can reach the sea in hours, cutting off roads and utilities, repaving the volcano's flanks, and building new land. The growth of Mauna Loa is far from complete, as this huge and lovely volcano will assuredly erupt again.

Volcanologist Frank Trusdell discusses Mauna Loa's eruptive history and current status from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Lyman Museum. Seating is limited to 65 people and is first-come, first-seated. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free for museum members and $3 for nonmembers.

Trusdell, a graduate of Kamehameha High School and the University of Hawaii, is a volcanologist who has worked on Mauna Loa for almost 20 years. As lead scientist for the "Eruptive History of Mauna Loa Volcano" project, he is compiling a detailed geologic map of the volcano, which includes studying the long-term eruptive behavior of Mauna Loa and assessing its volcanic and earthquake hazards. In addition to Mauna Loa, Trusdell has conducted geologic studies on Hualalai, Kilauea, and Haleakala volcanoes in Hawaii, as well as volcanoes in Alaska, Ecuador, the Cape Verde Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The nationally accredited and Smithsonian-affiliated Lyman Museum is located in Hilo. For more information, visit lymanmuseum.org.

Korean War Veterans meeting Saturday

The Korean War Veterans Association of West Hawaii Chapter 279 will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at Denny's Restaurant, 75-1027 Henry St. in Kailua-Kona.

Membership is open to any person who has seen honorable service in any of the armed forces of the United States -- Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard -- if said service was within Korea including territorial waters and airspace at any time Sept. 3, 1945, to the present, or said service was outside Korea from June 25, 1950, to Jan. 31, 1955. Associate members are also welcome.

For more information, call Joe Nimori at 329-3058 or Bob Welter at 929-7001.

Ka Hana Noeau plans event for Saturday

Ka Hana Noeau will hold its "Ka Ulu Ana: Securing Our Future" event from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Kohala Intergenerational Center in North Kohala. The event is a food resilience project featuring a chili cooking challenge and a best salad contest. Both contests will feature grass-fed ground beef and salad greens raised by Ka Hana Noeau students as part of their animal husbandry and sustainable gardening mentorship programs.

Other activities during the day will include the Kana Hana Noeau mentorships booths and demonstrations, including poi pounding and Hawaiian saddle making. Entertainment will be happening throughout the event, featuring Cyril Pahinui, a taiko drumming performance by Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko Kohala/Waimea and other local entertainers, such as Sons of Kohala.

A $5 individual donation covers admission to the event, participation in demonstrations and displays and taste testing privileges along with a bowl of rice for the chili samplings.

For more information, call Erika Cedillos at 884-5838.

The Ka Hana Noeau program has been made possible through a U.S. Dept. of Education-Native Hawaiian Education Act grant in partnership with Partners in Development Foundation an the Kohala Intergenerational Center.

Just as visits to art galleries and Roman ruins are required on any tour of Europe, shopping is a must-do as well. But don’t be mistaken, shopping in Europe is not like shopping at home. It isn’t about hitting the strip mall to pick up socks and underwear; and if you find yourself in an outlet store, it’s only because there’s a good chance you’ll find discounted Dolce and Gabbana.

In Europe, you can shop for all the fine products you’ve ever dreamed of, from Italian leather to Bohemian Crystal and French perfume, in the very spots they were made, which may also happen to be some of the most beautiful places in the world.

Here, in time for holidays, are the Top 10 European Shopping Experiences. And if you’re lucky enough to visit at Christmastime, you’ll get the added bonus of roasted chestnuts, sparkling lights, and elaborate holiday decorations to help you become the most popular Secret Santa around.

1.    OXFORD STREET – LONDON
It’s Christmastime, so there’s no need to be afraid; unless, of course,  you’re standing in the middle of Oxford Circus at rush hour! Shopping bags a’swinging, free newspapers flying, storefronts all be-dazzled, and The Body Shop on every block. The Christmas Shoppe at Harrod’s might be London’s most beautiful spot for souvenirs, but Oxford Street will really get you in the festive mood. Hundreds of lights are strung high across the street, the window displays of Debenhams and Selfridges are even more elaborate than usual, and street vendors call out “Merry Christmas!” in accents straight out of A Christmas Carol. No city celebrates Christmas quite like London (Dickens’ hometown, after all!) and nowhere does it sparkle more than Oxford Street.

2.    CHAMPS ELYSÉES – PARIS
The “Avenue of Diamonds and Rubies” (named for the steady stream of car headlights and taillights) is the ultimate shopping destination. From quaint patisseries to the world’s largest Adidas shop, anything and everything can be found along this stretch of the world’s most expensive real estate. It’s easy to see why retailers pay millions to set up shop; the history of this broad, tree-lined avenue, designed during the Renaissance by Marie de Medici, is that of the city itself. Parisians in 1940 cried on its sidewalks as Nazi troops celebrated the Surrender of Paris, only to rejoice in those very same spots four years later when Allied troops held their own victory parade. Today, the Bastile Day military parade – the largest in Europe – makes its way along the 2km avenue from the Napoleon-commissioned Arc de Triomphe to Place de La Concorde, as does the last leg of Tour de France. Cafés, croissants, cinemas and champagne – all of Paris is on display on the Champs Elysées, right alongside haute couture in its hometown.

3.    CHRISTMAS MARKETS -PRAGUE
There are Christmas markets all around Europe, but my favourites are the ones in Prague. You can feast on mulled wine, hot sausages and roasted chestnuts while you shop for traditional Bohemian crystal or blown-glass ornaments. The Christmas markets fill the two main town squares with brightly-decorated wooden huts, carollers, and the ever-wafting scent of sugary donuts. Start in the Old Town Square, where a giant Christmas tree, draped with 100,000 lights, soars into the skyline like one of the city’s hundred spires. Then grab another mulled wine and sing Good King Wenceslaus while you walk to Wenceslaus Square, named for that very King who once ruled this golden city.

4.    BELGIUM
Everyone gives the gift of chocolate at Christmas, but if you visit Belgium first, you can upgrade your offering this year. With 175,000 tonnes produced in the country annually, the Belgians are the true masters of chocolate; even the Swiss got their recipe from them. Just like a winery-tour in France, you can visit Belgian chocolatiers to learn the techniques, find the perfect gift, or simply treat yourself. They invented the praline, they perfected the cocoa bean, and among their many other gourmet brands, Belgians proudly offer the world’s most exquisite chocolate: Godiva. Terry’s Chocolate Orange be damned! A trip to Belgium will give you something really impressive to stuff in a stocking.

5.    STOCKHOLM
After you’ve tried to figure out the Swedish language, eaten fermented herring because it’s a local delicacy, and broken the bank doing it all, it’s refreshing to catch a (free!) shuttle bus out to a familiar big, blue store. That’s right, IKEA was born in Stockholm. You’ll get a kick out of seeing all the familiar trappings – meatballs and hot dogs, heart-shaped pillows and bright yellow shopping bags – but with Swedish price tags and Swedish names (like “badpuff” for bath puff) in a building thrice the size of your local. When you’ve had your fill, head back into town and visit H&M, another Stockholm native retailer. It’s okay to crave a little familiarity in a foreign country, and just knowing that these are the originals somehow reduces the guilt while experiencing the pure pleasure of visiting them.

6.    FES, MOROCCO
There is nothing in Europe quite like the old town of Fes el Bali, Morocco. The labyrinthine medina will transport you right back to the 9th century when it was built, so it’s worth the trip over to Northern Africa to experience it. Buy leather products at a tannery that were dyed right before you in giant barrels of colour. Visit a ceramics shop to watch the artists painting intricate vases and ashtrays, or let a carpet-weaver spread his creations before you. And be sure to visit an old apothecary, where you can buy Spanish flies for the more adventurous on your list. There are over 10,000 small shops, some only a few metres wide, nearly all of them family-run. And since Fes is the largest car-free area in the world, you can browse at your leisure, only keeping an eye out for donkeys or wheelbarrows. The best part? At the end of a long shopping day, you can duck into one of the traditional hammams to relax. Just go easy on the opium (yes, also for sale there).

7.    SARAJEVO – BOSNIA
If you don’t want to leave the continent, you can get a similar Medina experience in Sarajevo. Bašaršija, the Ottoman-built old town, is still the commercial and social heart of Sarajevo; the name itself means ‘main market’ in Turkish. It is a cobblestone maze of copper coffee sets, silk scarves, pottery and jewellery. Stop often for coffee breaks as you explore the streets, each dedicated to a particular craft. This 16th century old town is not quite as old as Fes, but, being so near to the rest of modern-day Europe, it feels just as otherworldly.

8.    GETREIDEGASSE – SALZBURG
You came to Salzburg, Austria to see Mozart’s birthplace; how convenient that he was born on one of Europe’s most interesting shopping streets! Getreidegasse is not as glittery as the Champs Elysées, nor as modern as Oxford Street, but its charm lies in its adherence to tradition: each of the shops, from booksellers to shoe stores, must hoist a wrought iron guild sign above its door with a picture of the goods offered inside. Getreidegasse is a throwback to the days when people could shop, but not necessarily read the shop sign. When family-run businesses were dedicated to one trade only, and when young Mozart lived in the house at number 9, composing his first symphonies amid the bustling businesses below.

9.    MILAN
No, you can’t afford to buy anything in Milan, Italy. But that doesn’t matter. Shopping is the whole point of Milan. You don’t need to be a millionaire to admire the posh shopping district where you’re surrounded by gorgeous Italians and their friends, Gucci, Valentino, and Prada. Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Sant’Andrea; all the beautiful people in the world pass through these streets, carrying big, bright bags past windows decorated with sparkling jewels and luxurious fabrics. If you’re expecting a gaudy Disneyland of shopping, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by Milan’s demure, elegant scene. You won’t know whether to stare at the clothes, the people or the architecture, and you’ll love every minute of it.

10.    ROVANIEMI
There’s no better gift to send home at Christmas than a personal letter from the real Santa, from his real home at the actual Arctic Circle. You can order knockoffs online, but the real deal can only come from Rovaniemi, way up North in Finnish Lapland where Christmas is celebrated year-round. Stock up on holiday gifts from the Santa Claus Village’s many shops; from ornaments to reindeer meat to hundreds of cards and postcards. My favourite gift? A package of envelopes, chosen from the 600,000 letters sent annually from kids around the world -addressed in crayons and stickers to Mr. Santa Claus, or Babba Natale, or Père Noel. The original Finnish Santa, Joulupukki, was a hairy beast who terrified kids; but don’t worry, he sure offers a nice collection of souvenirs.

Written by Andrea McDonald for EuropeUpClose.com

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meeting the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao at the Ceremonial Reception, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on December 16, 2010.

India and China today decided to enhance their strategic communication, advance functional cooperation, broaden cultural exchanges and deepen and enrich their Strategic and Coperative Partnership.

In a joint communique issued here after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the two countries said this would be done on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, mutual respect and sensitivity for each other's concerns and aspirations.

The two sides said they welcomed each other's peaceful development and regarded it as a mutually reinforcing process. They said they believed that their growing relationship offered increasing opportunities to advance their cooperation.

"There is enough space in the world for the development of both India and China and indeed, enough areas for India and China to cooperate," it said.

The communique said Mr Wen, who arrived here yesterday on a three-day state visit, and Dr Singh had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and regional and international issues of mutual interest in a sincere and friendly atmosphere and reached broad consensus.

It said the two sides agreed that, as the two largest developing countries in the world, India and China shouldered important and historical responsibilities of ensuring their comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development.

"They also make a vital contribution to advancing peace and development in Asia and in the world at large. India-China relations go beyond their bilateral scope and have acquired global and strategic significance," it said.

The two sides reviewed with satisfaction the comprehensive and rapid progress of India-China relations in the last ten years, and reaffirmed their commitment to abiding by the basic principles and consensus concerning the development of India-China relations set out in the Declaration of Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation between India and China in 2003, the Joint Statement of India and China in 2005, the India-China Joint Declaration of 2006 and A Shared Vision for the 21st Century of India and China of 2008.

Reflecting this partnership, the two sides decided to establish the mechanism of regular exchange of visits between Heads of State/Government.

They welcomed the opening of the telephone hotline between the Prime Minister of India and Chinese Premier and agreed on regular consultations between the two leaders on issues of importance to both countries. They also agreed to establish the mechanism of annual exchange of visits between the two Foreign Ministers.

The two countries set a new bilateral trade of $ 100 billion by 2015 and agreed to take measures to promote greater Indian exports to China to reduce India's trade deficit.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao inspecting the Guard of Honour, at the Ceremonial Reception, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on December 16, 2010.

This would include support for Indian participation in China's national and regional trade fairs, advancing of trade facilitation, enhancing exchange and cooperation of pharmaceutical supervision, stronger relationships between Chinese enterprises and Indian IT industry and speedier completion of phyto-sanitary negotiations on agro products.

They agreed to further broadbase and balance trade and economic cooperation and identify new opportunities to realize the vast potential for future growth.

They agreed to establish a Strategic Economic Dialogue to enhance macro-economic policy coordination, to promote exchanges and interactions and join hands to address issues and challenges appearing in the economic development and enhance economic cooperation.

The two sides agreed to expand cooperation in infrastructure, environmental protection, information technology, tele-communications, investment and finance on a priority basis to draw on each other's strengths and pursue mutual benefit and win-win results.

India welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest and participate in India's infrastructure development such as in roads, railways and in the manufacturing sector. The two sides agreed to encourage greater mutual investment and project contracting cooperation between businesses of the two countries, appropriately handle economic and trade frictions and differences and jointly oppose protectionism in all forms. They constituted an India-China CEOs' Forum to deliberate on business issues and make recommendations on expansion of trade and investment cooperation.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and China Banking Regulatory Commission to increase banking and financial cooperation.

India and China also agreed to grant permission to the banks of the other country to open branches and representative offices. Modalities will be worked out by the concerned authorities, the communique said.

The two sides reiterated their firm commitment to resolving outstanding differences, including the boundary question, at an early date through peaceful negotiations.

They reiterated that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries.

The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question agreed in 2005 and the process of negotiations being undertaken by the Special Representatives and resolved to actively seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution from the political and strategic perspective.

"Pending the resolution of the boundary question, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements," the communique said.

Both sides underlined their unequivocal opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed that there is no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere.

They committed themselves to countering terrorism through joint efforts that include disrupting the financing of terrorism. They also recognized the need to implement all relevant UN resolutions, in particular UNSC resolution 1267, 1373, 1540 and 1624.

Significantly, however, there was no reference to the November 26, 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai in the communique.

China said it attached great importance to India's status in international affairs as a large developing country, and understood and supported India's aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council.

This was with reference to India's ambitions of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a bid that has been supported by the other four permanent members of the Council - the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and France.

The communique also said that China welcomed India's election to non-permanent membership of the UNSC during 2011-12 and both countries agreed to deepen consultation within the Council.

Overall, the two sides recognised their common interests and similar concerns on major regional and international issues, and decided to enhance their coordination and cooperation in multilateral forums.

They said multilateral issues such as climate change, the Doha Development Round of WTO, energy and food security, international financial and economic reform are a particular focus for closer cooperation.

The two sides recognized that as the global economy stabilizes and recovers, China and India would strengthen communication and consultation within the G20 framework, jointly facilitate the improvement of global economic governance and advance economic globalization towards balanced development and shared benefits. They agreed to enhance cooperation within the BRIC framework.

Mr Wen's visit coincided with the closing ceremonies of events to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The two sides declared 2011 as the "Year of India-China Exchange". They decided to encourage greater exchanges between their civil society organizations, youth, media, scholars, think-tanks, artists and cultural personalities.

The two sides agreed to continue youth exchange activities in the next five years. China will invite 500 Indian youth from various fields to visit China within the year 2011. Memorandum of Understanding on Media Exchanges as well as the Programme of Cultural Exchanges between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of India for the year 2010-2012 were signed. Both sides agreed to discuss compiling an encyclopedia on India-China cultural contacts.

The Chinese side welcomed the decision by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) of India to introduce Chinese as a foreign language in the curriculum of schools in India from the next academic session (April 2011).

China said it would offer support for training Chinese language teachers and providing Chinese language training materials.

The two sides declared the establishment of the India-China Outstanding College Students Exchange Programme and would work out the modalities of the Programme through consultations. To facilitate and strengthen inter-collegiate and student exchanges, the two countries agreed to consider the finalization of an agreement on mutual recognition of degrees and diplomas.

The two sides noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers. The Indian side appreciated the flood-season hydrological data and the assistance in emergency management provided by the Chinese side. The two sides reiterated that they will promote and enhance cooperation in this field.

The two sides called for continued international adherence to the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol including that of "common but differentiated responsibilities".

They also appreciated their joint efforts in the international negotiations towards arriving at fair and balanced climate agreements with the aim of further enabling the full, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol according to the mandate of Bali Roadmap.

The communique said India and China, being each other’s neighbour, had a shared interest in the stability, prosperity and security of the wider region.

They agreed to intensify their dialogue on various aspects pertaining to this region and work together on realizing their common goals. The two sides believed that as members of the Asian family, stronger neighbourly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between India and China help foster a peaceful and stable regional environment that promotes equality, mutual trust and mutual respect.

The two countries expressed their commitment to assisting Afghanistan to become a peaceful, stable, prosperous nation. They emphasized the importance of a coherent and united international commitment to Afghan-led initiatives.

The two sides reaffirmed their support for the multilateral cooperation mechanisms in Asia and their positive view on each other’s participation in the cross-regional, regional and sub-regional cooperation processes in Asia. The two sides agreed to broaden cooperation within the framework of the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Europe Meeting, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Russia-India-China trilateral cooperation mechanism and the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Both sides agreed that EAS is making a meaningful contribution to building an open, inclusive and transparent architecture in the Asia-Pacific region. Both sides agreed to work together on projects which strengthen bonds between the peoples of East Asia. In this context, China welcomed India's efforts to revive the Nalanda University. Both sides appreciated the work of the Nalanda Mentor Group and the progress made so far. India welcomed China's contribution of $ 1 million for the Nalanda University.

The two sides expressed their commitment to promoting the multilateral arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation processes. They supported the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of all nuclear weapons, and called on the international community to move forward together to achieve the goal of global nuclear disarmament, The two sides reaffirmed their firm opposition to the weaponization of and an arms race in outer space.

The two sides reaffirmed the importance of maritime security, unhindered commerce and freedom of navigation in accordance with relevant universally agreed principles of international law. In this context, they agreed to work together in tackling piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

NNN

Following is the Joint Communique issued by India and China after talks between Prime Minister Mamohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao here today:

1. At the invitation of H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, H.E. Mr Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, is on a State visit to the Republic of India from 15 to 17 December 2010. Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and will call on Smt. Pratibha Patil, President of India. Leaders of the two countries had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and regional and international issues of mutual interest in a sincere and friendly atmosphere and reached broad consensus.

2. The two sides agreed that as the two largest developing countries in the world, India and China shoulder important and historical responsibilities of ensuring their comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development. They also make a vital contribution to advancing peace and development in Asia and in the world at large. India-China relations go beyond their bilateral scope and have acquired global and strategic significance.

3. The two sides welcome each other's peaceful development and regard it as a mutually reinforcing process. They believe that their growing relationship offers increasing opportunities to advance their cooperation. There is enough space in the world for the development of both India and China and indeed, enough areas for India and China to cooperate.

4. The two sides reviewed with satisfaction the comprehensive and rapid progress of India-China relations in the last ten years, and reaffirmed their commitment to abiding by the basic principles and consensus concerning the development of India-China relations set out in the Declaration of Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation between India and China in 2003, the Joint Statement of India and China in 2005, the India-China Joint Declaration of 2006 and A Shared Vision for the 21st Century of India and China of 2008. The two sides decided to enhance strategic communication, advance functional cooperation, broaden cultural exchanges, and deepen and enrich the India-China Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, mutual respect and sensitivity for each other's concerns and aspirations.

5. Reflecting this partnership, the two sides decided to establish the mechanism of regular exchange of visits between Heads of State/Government. They welcomed the opening of the telephone hotline between the Prime Minister of India and Chinese Premier and agreed on regular consultations between the two leaders on issues of importance to both countries. They also agreed to establish the mechanism of annual exchange of visits between the two Foreign Ministers.

6. While expressing satisfaction at the growing quantum of bilateral trade and investment ties, the two sides agreed to further broad base and balance trade and economic cooperation, and identify new opportunities to realize the vast potential for future growth. Towards this objective, the two sides:

a) Positively viewed the growing opportunities in the economic relationship and agreed to establish a Strategic Economic Dialogue to enhance macro-economic policy coordination, to promote exchanges and interactions and join hands to address issues and challenges appearing in the economic development and enhance economic cooperation.

b) Set a new bilateral trade target of USD 100 billion by 2015. The two sides agreed to take measures to promote greater Indian exports to China with a view to reduce India's trade deficit. This includes support for Indian participation in China's national and regional trade fairs, advancing of trade facilitation, enhancing exchange and cooperation of pharmaceutical supervision, stronger relationships between Chinese enterprises and Indian IT industry and speedier completion of phyto-sanitary negotiations on agro products.

c) Agreed to expand cooperation in infrastructure, environmental protection, information technology, tele-communications, investment and finance on a priority basis to draw on each other's strengths and pursue mutual benefit and win-win results. India welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest and participate in India's infrastructure development such as in roads, railways and in the manufacturing sector. The two sides agreed to encourage greater mutual investment and project contracting cooperation between businesses of the two countries, appropriately handle economic and trade frictions and differences and jointly oppose protectionism in all forms. They constituted an India-China CEO's Forum to deliberate on business issues and make recommendations on expansion of trade and investment cooperation.

d) Concluded a Memorandum of Understanding between the Reserve Bank of India and China Banking Regulatory Commission to increase banking and financial cooperation. India and China also agreed to grant permission to the banks of the other country to open branches and representative offices. Modalities will be worked out by the concerned authorities.

7. Both sides reviewed with satisfaction the celebration activities of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of India and the People's Republic of China in 2010. The two sides declared 2011 as the "Year of India-China Exchange". The two sides further decided to encourage greater exchanges between the civil society organizations, youth, media, scholars, think-tanks, artists and cultural personalities. The two sides agreed to continue youth exchange activities in the next five years. China will invite 500 Indian youth from various fields to visit China within the year 2011. Memorandum of Understanding on Media Exchanges as well as the Programme of Cultural Exchanges between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of India for the year 2010-2012 were signed. Both sides agreed to discuss compiling an encyclopedia on India-China cultural contacts.

8. Both sides recognized the importance of educational exchanges, including promoting wider knowledge of each other’s languages. In this context, the Chinese side welcomed the decision by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) of India to introduce Chinese as a foreign language in the curriculum of schools in India from the next academic session (April 2011). China will offer support for training Chinese language teachers and providing Chinese language training materials. The two sides declared the establishment of the India-China Outstanding College Students Exchange Programme and would work out the modalities of the Programme through consultations. To facilitate and strengthen intercollegiate and student exchanges, the two countries agreed to consider the finalization of an agreement on mutual recognition of degrees and diplomas.

9. The two sides noted the good cooperation between China and India in the field of trans-border rivers. The Indian side appreciated the flood-season hydrological data and the assistance in emergency management provided by the Chinese side. The two sides reiterated that they will promote and enhance cooperation in this field.

10. The two sides reiterated their firm commitment to resolving outstanding differences including the boundary question at an early date through peaceful negotiations. They reiterated that resolution of the boundary question is one of the ten-pronged strategies agreed by leaders of the two countries. The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question agreed in 2005 and the process of negotiations being undertaken by the Special Representatives and resolved to actively seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution from the political and strategic perspective. Pending the resolution of the boundary question, the two sides shall work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in line with the previous agreements.

11. Both countries called for continued international adherence to the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol including that of "common but differentiated responsibilities". Both sides also appreciated the joint efforts of India and China in the international negotiations towards arriving at fair and balanced climate agreements with the aim of further enabling the full, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol according to the mandate of Bali Roadmap. Both sides appreciated bilateral cooperation in the area of mitigating and adapting to climate change and agreed to strengthen such cooperation. They welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries on Cooperation in Green Technologies. China appreciated India's hosting the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Bio-diversity Convention in 2012.

12. Both sides underlined their unequivocal opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed that there is no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere. They committed themselves to countering terrorism through joint efforts that include disrupting the financing of terrorism. They also recognized the need to implement all relevant UN resolutions, in particular UNSC resolution 1267, 1373, 1540 and 1624.

13. India and China, being each other’s neighbour, have a shared interest in the stability, prosperity and security of the wider region. They agreed to intensify their dialogue on various aspects pertaining to this region and work together on realizing their common goals. The two sides believed that as members of the Asian family, stronger neighbourly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between India and China help foster a peaceful and stable regional environment that promotes equality, mutual trust and mutual respect. India and China expressed their commitment to assisting Afghanistan to become a peaceful, stable, prosperous nation. They emphasized the importance of a coherent and united international commitment to Afghan-led initiatives.

14. The two sides reaffirmed their support for the multilateral cooperation mechanisms in Asia and their positive view on each other’s participation in the cross-regional, regional and sub-regional cooperation processes in Asia. The two sides agreed to broaden cooperation within the framework of the East Asia Summit, the Asia-Europe Meeting, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Russia-India-China trilateral cooperation mechanism and the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Both sides agreed that EAS is making a meaningful contribution to building an open, inclusive and transparent architecture in the Asia-Pacific region. Both sides agreed to work together on projects which strengthen bonds between the peoples of East Asia. In this context, China welcomed India's efforts to revive the Nalanda University. Both sides appreciated the work of the Nalanda Mentor Group and the progress made so far. India welcomed China's contribution of US$ 1 million for the Nalanda University.

15. The two sides expressed their commitment to promoting the multilateral arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation processes. They supported the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of all nuclear weapons, and called on the international community to move forward together to achieve the goal of global nuclear disarmament, The two sides reaffirmed their firm opposition to the weaponization of and an arms race in outer space.

16. The two sides reaffirmed the importance of maritime security, unhindered commerce and freedom of navigation in accordance with relevant universally agreed principles of international law. In this context, they agreed to work together in tackling piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

17. Recognizing common interests and similar concerns on major regional and international issues, the two sides decided to enhance their coordination and cooperation in multilateral forums. China attaches great importance to India's status in international affairs as a large developing country, understands and supports India's aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council. China welcomed India's election to non-permanent membership of UN Security Council during 2011-2012 and both countries agreed to deepen consultation within the Council. Multilateral issues such as climate change, the Doha Development Round of WTO, energy and food security, international financial and economic reform are a particular focus for closer cooperation. The two sides recognized that as the global economy stabilizes and recovers, China and India would strengthen communication and consultation within the G20 framework, jointly facilitate the improvement of global economic governance and advance economic globalization towards balanced development and shared benefits. They agreed to enhance cooperation within the BRIC framework.

18. Premier Wen Jiabao invited Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to visit China during 2011 and Prime Minister Singh accepted the invitation with pleasure. The dates of the visit will be decided through diplomatic channels.

New Delhi
December 16, 2010

Brazilian Baile Funk Queen Zuzuka Poderosa came to town straight out of Brooklyn. Zuzuka started a 4 day west coast tour at Sol Collective in Sacramento. Natalia Linares set up an interview with Zuzuka before her performance.

The Sacramento Press: Your music is very catchy and is mostly in Portuguese. You do mix in a line or two in English; do you plan to do any recordings in English?

Zuzuka: I’m starting to sing in English because I’m trying to get past the fear of, you know, being self conscious about it. There have been a few songs where I’ve thrown in an English hook which I’m going to do tonight. I try to do the same thing in other languages like with Spanish. I’m looking forward to singing in Spanish, also English and Portuguese.

SP: I can understand that with Spanish and the big audience you have in New York with Spanish speakers. At the same time music is international and hopefully we can all pick up some of your lyrics.

Zuzuka: Definitely like with baile funk. What captures people with baile funk is the rhythm, the bass, the flow that’s in there. So once I apply English or Spanish lyrics then everything comes together.

SP: How would you describe the type of music you create?

Zuzuka: I’m a vocalist and I have a lot of influences. I started as a vocalist with baile funk music and it’s not necessarily all I would like to do. I want to go beyond, I want to mix cultures and influences and make something new and at the same time maybe something not so new. I’d just like to see where the music is going to take us. It’s about the many influences in my life. My influences include music like old funk and soul, I love Rock and roll, I love folk music, I like everything you name it. I have Indonesian background. I have an Indonesian father who had a huge collection of Indonesian music. I wish I spoke the language but unfortunately I don’t. If I did speak the language I would totally make baile funk Bali. Oh yeah Bali Funk that would be great, Indo(nesian) Funk, with music it becomes endless.

SP: How long have you been involved in this?

Zuzuka: As vocalists? As a vocalist I’ve been doing this about 5 years and before that I was a DJ, but I’ve always been interested in music. I took classes and I’ve always had teachers that were encouraging. I’ve always wanted to be perfect and then one day I decided, well maybe it wasn’t just me that decided but my friends recognized that. After a while I decided to do something, I decided I should sing. I gave singing a shot and the first song I did was a big hit and I didn’t stop there people were really into to so I pursued it.

SP: It sounds like you found a market and expanded your horizons. Listening to your music it sounds like you really want to expand yourself and you have a lot of culture in your sounds. It’s like you’re always looking for new things is that part of your goal?

Zuzuka: I do that exactly. I’m a culture connoisseur and I’ve always been very curious about different sounds.

SP: So you live in Brooklyn now?

Zuzuka: Yes, I live in Brooklyn now, I love living in Brooklyn. I lived in Queens before that, I loved Queens.

SP: Do you ever go back to Brazil?

Zuzuka: I do. I go back to Brazil once a year. I did not go back last year but I will. I’m also going to visit my brother in Costa Rica. I also have Costa Rican family.

SP: Do you still have family in Brazil?

Zuzuka: Most of my family is still in Brazil. It’s too cold for them to come to New York; it’s also too hot for them to come to New York. They need to have the beach nearby.

SP: Yeah, when we think about Brazil that’s what comes to mind; sunny weather and being near or on the beach.

Zuzuka: Last time I went to Brazil I was fortunate to work with and toured with hip hop artist Marcelo D2. Marcelo D2 is one of the biggest rappers in Brazil he used to be in a band and then went solo and he’s very amazing. He’s like the Jay-Z of Brazil. Basically, he saw my page on MySpace and he saw what I was doing and he was looking for a vocalist to do specifically this one song. I was invited and it was such a surprise, it was amazing to be part of the Brazilian hip hop culture.

SP: Is this the first time you’ve been out in the West Coast?

Zuzuka: Yeah, I’m so excited. I’ve always loved Cali. Actually when I was living in Queens I wanted to move here and I was making plans to move to San Diego but changed my mind and decided not to come and then I never made it here. With this tour I’m just happy to be here I love it, it’s so beautiful!

SP: So did you watch the World Cup this summer? (Looks at me unhappily) I laugh. I had to ask.

Zuzuka: Ok, can I tell you something? Ok this is the deal; Brazil sucked this year. I wanted Mexico to win the cup. Brazil does not need to win right now, first of all they sucked this year if they were really good, ok I would cheer for them but they were terrible. Listen why can’t somebody that’s never won before win? That’s Mexico so I was cheering for them, am I wrong? But next time Brazil is going to be much better. I will be there I’ll be supporting them and everything will be different. I will be there for the World Cup.

SP: So what American artists do you listen to?

Zuzuka: Wow that’s a hard question. There are so many friends who are artist who I listen to. I love Ben Harper for instance, Dave Nada from DC. I love the tropical movement, I love so many artists. Sonora from Texas, Tanlines from Brooklyn, there are so many, too many to name.

SP: Do you work alone or with a group of collaborators?

Zuzuka: I’m a solo artist and work with different producers that’s the way I like to mix music and cultures. Every producer I’ve worked with has brought in different influences. When they do different types of music I listen to them and implement my baile funk music and Portuguese lyrics into their work and make something different. Most often than not it results as a different type of music.

SP: Do you consider yourself a vocalist or DJ primarily?

Zuzuka: Well it’s changed I was a DJ now I’m a vocalist primarily. I’m still in the process of growing as a vocalist.

SP: Do you have any projects now or in the future that you can talk about?

Zuzuka: Sure. I am in the process of going to different places after this west coast tour. Hopefully I’ll be in Europe next year as well.

SP: Do you do any acting or commercials?

Zuzuka: In the bathroom, when I look into the mirror. Yes I do acting in the mirror.

SP: Just wondering if you did commercials because you can fit into many categories; exotic, Asian, Latin, you fit into a lot of categories.

Zuzuka: Like I said I do act in the bathroom, I practice in front of a mirror.

SP: Do you like to tour?

Zuzuka: Yes I like to tour. This is my first tour in the west coast; actually this is my first visit ever to the west coast. It’s like a moment I’ve been waiting for such a long time.

SP: Do you do like an annual tour or something on a regular basis?

Zuzuka: Most of the time I go to Brazil so I do tour in Brazil. I also tour in Europe but I have so many other projects that I work on those and I travel to many places. I have so many people that I work with, like I work for MTV, like I did a commercial for Coca Cola. There are little projects that I work with things get really busy and then I travel, travel, and travel! So that was my main focus for a while, now I’m ready to travel everywhere. I’m blending everything; I feel that people are more open to the whole movement. Now they’re open to the tropical movement.

SP: Is there anything that you feel deep inside that you’d like to pass on to your Sacramento fans?

Zuzuka: You know just being here and seeing everybody it’s really exciting. Everybody is so open minded and I feel great that everyone’s welcomed me in with an open heart. There’s people from everywhere here it’s just great. I feel like I’m at home too. I feel at home with different cultures, yeah I love it. Thanks for everything Sacramento, thanks for inviting me.

That was the end of the interview. Zuzuka was very lively during the interview. She was very eager to share her experiences and talk about anything. Her very beautiful exotic look gave way to her outgoing personality and show of emotions.

Her DJ, Colin Johnson, also known as DJ Righteous Trash helped Zuzuka put on an extraordinary performance. Zuzuka on stage, as well as off stage, provided an energetic mix with lively vocals and dancing. I believe that as this tour comes and goes her following will continue to grow. She’s well established in the East Coast and her West Coast tour will expose her to a wider audience. Sacramento welcomed her and enjoyed her performance. You can check out her videos on YouTube and follow her on her Facebook page as well.

Besides the birthday celebration for the Sol Collective family, Estella, and Anand the evening was a celebration of dance, cultures and music.

Other activities through the night included a photo booth by Amanda Lopez and a henna station with Nicole Limon serving as the henna artist. Along the back room of Sol Collective a couple of DJs played. One of them was DJ Admant and in the main room DJ Righteous Trash and others took turns mixing it up. Others scheduled to be on hand were Wonway, Crush Delight and Chorizo Funk among others.

Righteous Trash (Colin Johnson) was Zuzuka’s DJ while she performed and was going to be with her on this tour. Johnson is from L.A. and he indicated they will be ending the tour at the Bardot in Hollywood which will have a theme by the name of School Night. Righteous has been a promoter, music booking agent and DJ. “I’m a promoter no matter what official name I have“, Righteous said. He’s been involved in the music industry in Los Angeles and Seattle for quite a few years. He was responsible for welcoming many international artists to Seattle for the first time including Jamaican artists. As a promoter he's always been global minded. “Now I try to bring cultures together. I try to represent bands from Europe, Africa, and just about everywhere. I currently handle regionally the U.S. and Canada setting up tours. Music is my life and I’m fortunate to be involved with artists such as Zuzuka.” He credits mutual friends for getting them together for this project. He is very knowledgeable about the music business and can be a good promoter for Zuzuka. Righteous has been around for a while and he also indicated that he has family from Sacramento.

The show itself was very energetic and fun. Many audience members were on the dance floor from beginning to end. Zuzuka seemed to enjoy herself and got everybody involved. “I love you Sacramento!” she screamed as she continued to sing and dance. After the show she posed for pictures with her new Sacramento fans. Sol Collective provided a very enjoyable evening.

Photos by David Alvarez
 

It is increasingly likely that it will be a matter of when - not if - an Australian tourist joins the growing list of more than 100 people that have suffered a truly horrible death from rabies as a result of a bite from one of Bali’s barely-controlled dog population.

The World Health Organisation says that more than 55,000 people die from the disease across the globe every year, most of them from them the poor of Asia and Africa. Death is usually inevitable once symptoms emerge.

“The initial symptoms of rabies are fever and often pain or an unusual or unexplained tingling, prickling or burning sensation at the wound site. As the virus spreads through the central nervous system, progressive, fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord develops.”

This year a record 650,000 Australians - flying on the back of a strong Australian dollar and a revived Balinese tourism industry - are expected to holiday in Bali. Indonesian government statistics indicate that this represents an almost 50 per cent increase from previous years, a welcome lift to the local economy rocked by the 2008 global financial crisis and a series of earlier incidents, including the 2002 and 2005 terrorist bombings on Bali.

How many of this year’s Australian tourists will take the sensible precaution of getting the three-shot course of rabies vaccine is unknown. But, if you are planning a trip to Bali and get to your local GP or clinic now, you’ll have just enough time - the shots have to be taken over a five-week period - to get some protection from the more than 500,000 street dogs that roam the streets and laneways of Bali like a marauding army.

In the six months to early October 2010 more than 30,000 people were bitten by dogs on Bali - up from estimates of 28,000 for the whole of 2009. There have been reports of up to 10 Australians a month seeking post-bite treatment after returning from Bali, including several Australians that have been medi-vacced to Darwin for treatment.

Rabies first came to Bali sometime in 2008 – most likely from a single dog that entered Bali from Java by boat. The disease spread rapidly through all of the regencies of the island and is now found in dogs, monkeys, cattle and pigs throughout Bali.

Bali is now one of 24 Indonesian provinces where rabies is endemic. In mainly Muslim Indonesia Bali is religiously and culturally distinct in that most people there practice the Hindu faith, where dogs are tolerated in a manner not seen elsewhere in the archipelago.

On Bali dogs are worshipped because they are seen as messengers from the God of death and guardians to the doors of Heaven.

Bali attracts almost half of the total tourism income for the country - so that a rabies epidemic on Bali has a greater potential to dramatically affect local and national income.

So far that hasn’t happened - tourists from all parts of the world are returning to Bali in unprecedented numbers. But there are very real questions about the capacity of the Indonesian and Balinese governments and agencies to provide an adequate response to the rabies epidemic.

The first response of local officials was to initiate a merciless mass-cull of stray dogs using strychnine-loaded blow-darts. Estimates vary but there have been claims that more than 110,000 dogs were killed as a result of the culling program.

A concerted campaign of complaints from expatriate westerners and international supporters argued that not only was culling inhumane but that it was ineffective in controlling the spread of the disease. That campaign caused a rethink of the culling approach.

By mid-2009 a fledgling dog vaccination campaign had been rolled out with support from international government and non-government agencies.

On September 28 this year (World Rabies Day) the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) announced an alliance with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Bali Department of Animal Husbandry that would roll-out a dog vaccination program across the island.

A week earlier the Bali government had signed an agreement to work with BAWA and WSPA to inoculate nearly 400,000 Balinese dogs against rabies. It is generally accepted that vaccination has been proven to be the most effective way to control rabies.

And BAWA and their supporters have been very effective in a short time, providing mobile vaccination teams and running a rabies education program that spreads rabies awareness and dog bite prevention in local schools. BAWA also provides an emergency field-based response to emergency or suspected rabies cases in villages as well as providing information and advice to communities and local governments.

But BAWA and the vaccination program have had their critics - not least because of concerns that the mass vaccination campaign may not reach all - or enough - of the dogs on Bali to be effective. There are also questions about whether vaccination alone will be an effective approach and whether some limited culling, and more importantly, dog population control, should not also be part of the policy mix.

Over at the English language weekly The Bali Times the resident cynic and acerbic commentator Hector has consistently railed against local government incompetence and what he describes as the “ladies of the poor-little-doggies brigade or their attendant overseas conga line of softheads” with their emphasis on a vaccination-only solution.

Just last week Hector reported that:

“Common sense may at last be creeping into the Bali government’s shambolic response to the rabies outbreak, now of two years’ admitted duration. We don’t mean its commitment to a vaccination-only policy in regard to dealing with the unpleasant statistical fact that nearly 11.5 per cent of Bali’s dogs must be assumed to be carrying the virus. That’s just idiocy if it’s not combined with real action to control both dogs themselves and their incontinent breeding, and the lackadaisical ownership customs that [Bali] Governor Pastika has lately noted are social and religious questions of great magnitude.”

The Australian Government’s Smart Traveller website provides the following information on rabies in Bali:

“The Indonesian Government has declared that rabies is present in Bali and Nias (off the coast of Sumatra). It may well also be present in other parts of the archipelago. A number of people with rabies-like symptoms have died recently after being bitten by dogs. Visitors are strongly advised to avoid direct contact with dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals. If bitten or scratched, you should immediately use soap and water to wash the wound thoroughly and seek urgent medical attention. Availability of post-exposure rabies treatment in Indonesia may be limited, which may require bite victims to return to Australia or travel to a third country for immediate treatment. If you are planning to stay in Indonesia for a prolonged period or to work with animals, you should consult your doctor or travel clinic about obtaining a pre-exposure rabies vaccination...

“Medical facilities are generally below Western standards and in many regions hospitals provide only basic facilities. Hospitals often require confirmation of medical insurance cover or up-front payment prior to providing any services, including emergency care. In the event of a serious illness or accident, medical evacuation to Singapore or Australia is recommended and may cost between $15,000 to $90,000, depending on circumstances and location.”

Bob Gosford is a lawyer, writer and ethnoornithologist based in Alice Springs.

• Read all responses to this article

Lonely Planet's Tom Hall on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Madagascar, Berlin with the family, surf holidays and a laid-back Istanbul break

I'm 60 next year, and would like to mark this milestone with something a little out of the ordinary. We are both keen on natural history and Madagascar seems to offer a wealth of interest, much that would be difficult to experience elsewhere. We are interested in a couple of weeks or so, and would like to see as much of the varied wildlife and scenery as is reasonable within this timescale, with a couple of days at the end to chill out before returning to the rigours of the UK.

Do you have any suggestions that wouldn't mean being part of a large group? We don't mind being with a few like-minded people, or perhaps a bespoke escorted tour would be an option, maybe with some self-guided parts.

Our budget is about £3,000 each, with flights from Manchester. October 2011 seems to be the most appropriate time. Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
D Owen-Roberts

Madagascar is ideal for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. It's not cheap nor especially easy to get to, but it has an incredible diversity of wildlife and language as well as superb French-influenced food and fascinating culture. For a small group tour then specialist operator Rainbow Tours (rainbowtours.co.uk) is setting up a new group trip next September to the island with no more than 10 participants. The 12-day trip, including lemur spotting in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, whale-watching off Ile Ste Marie and exploring the tropical forests of the north of the country, costs from £3,625pp including flights or £3,090pp not including flights.

It's more than feasible to plan your own trip to Madagascar on the budget you're talking about, even if flights will make up a hefty chunk of your expenditure. Flights from Manchester, will be via Paris with some cheaper connections coming back via Mauritius. Budget £900 for the flight, then add another £200 or so each for internal flights with Air Madagascar. There are many highlights of Madagascar beyond those mentioned above, and I'd recommend having a look at the independent itineraries offered by US operator Cortez Expeditions (air-mad.com) to give you some ideas. Once you've been you'll understand why legends of man-eating trees flourished among early European explorers to the island.

My son gets married to his German partner in Berlin next August. His three sisters, their husbands and two small children and me (his Mum) would like a holiday there for a week beforehand. Are there self-catering apartments in town big enough for us all?
Annie Hall

A small guesthouse with a few rooms that is used to group bookings is going to be your best bet, such as Berlin Rooms (berlin-rooms.eu; around £55 per room per night), which is housed in a converted church. Another suggestion is Miniloftmitte (miniloft.com), a complex of funkily kitted-out loft apartments with prices from £85 to £114 per apartment per night. There are plenty more accommodation suggestions at http://tourist.visitberlin.de/en/plan. You'll have no problems filling a week or more in Berlin, though do bear in mind that August will be hot and busy. There are plenty of suggestions for things to do with children at http://bit.ly/9faUQO.

After seven years at university, I start work in August and I have three weeks off between the end of June and beginning of July. I've been lucky enough to go to many fantastic places including Ghana and India, and I'd like to spend my last long holiday wisely. It's a long-held dream of mine to learn to surf, and I was wondering what the best option would be incorporating surfing lessons and fantastic travel opportunities. I'd love to go to Cuba, but I've also never been to Indonesia, Thailand or East Africa, all of which sound fantastic. My budget is about £1,800 at the most, and I'd rather go far and spend less when I get there. Is there anywhere I shouldn't miss?
Jen Jardine

Three weeks exploring Bali, Lombok and a Gili island or two would be an excellent option, with some great surf schools dotted around Bali. Flights in June start at around £640 including taxes, flying with Qatar Airways and booking with Expedia. Cuba would be very different, and towards the end of June you're running into the rainy season with a risk of hurricanes. Usually at this time it'll just feel very sticky and rain for a couple of hours in the evening. Virgin Atlantic flies from London to Havana for £549. The surf scene, however, is not well developed and there's little in the way of board hire and tuition. Other suggestions for three weeks in June and July include a combination of Thailand and Cambodia, or Cambodia and Vietnam, and exploring Tanzania for a first taste of east Africa. I've covered the latter on several occasions recently so a look through the archives should give you some suggestions.

I'm visiting Istanbul in November and am staying in the old city area, Sultanahmet. It is my first visit and I am keen to see as much as possible. However, I am nervous about the level of attention I will receive, in particular people asking me to buy souvenirs and the like. In other cities, especially well-visited ones in the region this has been intolerable. Am I going to encounter anything similar and do you have any suggestions for dealing with it?
Nick Hughes, Bristol

On both of my visits to Istanbul I've been very pleasantly surprised by how laid-back the approach to both street-selling of souvenirs and shops offering carpets and other items is. This may be due to nationality: one Sultanahmet carpet merchant asked where I was from and then said "British don't buy, Australians buy". It certainly feels, generally, much more relaxed than, for example, Cairo. I was last there this summer and this was still the case despite there being six cruise ships in dock and it felt like everyone travelling on them was either in Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque or moving between them.

The obvious exception to this is the bazaar district which I would suggest that you avoid. The Grand Bazaar is tremendous fun if you're in the mood for some banter and bartering, but if not there's so much more of the city to explore. One place that was a memorable spot for even shopophobics was the tea garden next to the lovely, quiet mosque known as Little Hagia Sofia. Comparatively few tourists stroll down here, and those who do find not only a serene and quiet Byzantine building but an adjacent garden with a cafe and small artisan shops selling old pictures and hand-painted images of the city. Sellers there haggle but only very quietly. Istanbul is a safe city to visit generally. The biggest risk would be ordering up a portion of midye dolma (stuffed mussels) or raw meatballs hawked at various points around the city, which while looking very tasty may leave a less than pleasant aftereffect.

Career Over

“I had the privilege to compete at the highest level for 12 years,see places in the world I would have never been able to see without tennis, and meet people along the way that have become lifelong friends,” said the 29-year-old Dent.

“I am looking forward to spending more time with my family,especially with my wife Jenny and our son Declan. I want to continue to stay active in the tennis industry and I am excited to explore opportunities in the world of tennis that my full tournament schedule never allowed me to do.”

Guillaume Willecoq and Marijo Marugan of the French tennis website 15-LoveTennis are covering the Paris Masters tournament this week as media for Global Village Tennis News. Follow their French language coverage on http://www.15-lovetennis.com/ and their English coverage here on GVTN.

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Jakarta, Indonesia

3:32 P.M. WIT
 
MR. GIBBS: So we are going to hear in just a second from Ben Rhodes and Jeff Bader, who is our senior director for -- NSC senior director for East Asia. And you may have to move up a little bit because Jeff is normally a soft-spoken man.
 
Before we get into Ben going through the schedule, I want to bring us up to date on one scheduling thing, which, not surprisingly, is going to affect everybody, and that is the modeling for the volcanic ash is likely going to necessitate that we leave Indonesia several hours earlier than the schedule had it laid out tomorrow.
 
So we are working through a series of different scenarios on what the morning is going to look like. It’s likely going to dictate us beginning earlier, a little earlier in the day with some of the events. But as soon as we have all of that figured out, including logistics for the press charter, et cetera, which people are working on as we speak, we will be back to you. But we did want to put on your radar screen that leaving earlier and going to -- getting to Korea a touch earlier is almost certainly to happen.
 
Q Will he update or cancel or truncate any events?
 
MR. GIBBS: It’s unclear yet. We’re trying to work through that right now. My sense is that -- certainly our hope is that while we may have to truncate some of the morning, we can still get the speech in. So I know that’s -- I know Ben is relieved to hear that, since he spent a part of the flight working on that speech. You don’t know how good those speeches are nobody ever hears. They’re fabulous.
 
Q They’re like the questions we never get to ask. (Laughter.)
 
MR. GIBBS: So let me have Ben go through the schedule for the next sort of 24 hours, understanding that the back part of this will change. We’ll have Jeff walk through some stuff, and then take your questions.
 
MR. RHODES: Well, I’ll just say a couple things with the schedule and then some of the thematics, and then Jeff has been the point person on this relationship so he can speak to some of the details here.
 
But first of all, we get there, we go directly to the State Palace where there will be an arrival ceremony. And following that, the President will go right into his restricted bilateral meeting with President Yudhoyono. And then there will be an expanded bilateral meeting with President Yudhoyono, and then a press conference with President Yudhoyono as well. And that will be obviously open press, and I believe a couple questions each side.
 
Q Is that going to be two and two?
 
MR. RHODES: Yes, two and two. Then later that -- later tonight there will be a state dinner hosted by President Yudhoyono for the President and the First Lady. And then tomorrow, the current schedule, we’re planning to go to the Istiqlal Mosque in the morning, which is the national mosque of Indonesia. Then the President will give a speech at the University of Indonesia -- or is it Jakarta? Yes, Indonesia. And then he’ll lay a wreath at the Heroes Cemetery. Tomorrow is actually Heroes Day in Indonesia, a national holiday commemorating their independence and the heroes of their nation.
 
I'll just say a couple of quick things and turn it over to Jeff. It’s obviously an important visit for the President and a highly anticipated one in Indonesia, given the fact that the President spent several years in Indonesia as a child. As you know, we’ve had to reschedule a couple of visits because of unforeseen circumstances, but we very much wanted to get here this year. That was a commitment the President made to President Yudhoyono and the Indonesian people. And so we’re looking forward to this visit to do that.
 
This is a very strategically important country and relationship for the United States. Indonesia is a growing economy as a member of the G20. It’s an important security partner as we join with them on counterterrorism and other issues. It’s a leader in Southeast Asia, and will be taking on the leadership of ASEAN this coming year. And it’s both the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, but also in many respects a model of pluralism and religious tolerance in both the region and the world.
 
So there are many factors that guide our interest in deepening our partnership with Indonesia, and Jeff can speak to that.
 
In the context of the trip, I think it’s an interesting place to go after India. The three things that we’ve been focused on here, which are strengthening our leadership in Asia, strengthening our relationships with emerging powers that have come up in the late 20th and early 21st century, and deepening economic cooperation with emerging markets -- all of those themes converge in Indonesia as well, just as they did in India.
 
So I think that this is a very logical step as a democracy, an emerging economy and emerging power in the region for the President to visit. And with that, Jeff may want to speak to the status of the relationship.
 
MR. BADER: Sure. I'd emphasize two points, one of which Ben touched on, which is Indonesia’s role as a major regional and global actor. This is a country with whom historically relations have been somewhat tender, sometimes adversarial. But in the last decade, as Indonesia has become -- emerged as a democracy, and under President Yudhoyono, they are playing a larger and more constructive role in regional and world affairs.
 
Ben alluded to their membership in the G20, the only ASEAN country in the G20. They will assume the chairmanship of ASEAN on January 1st. At the same time, they’ll also assume the chairmanship of the East Asia Summit, which President Obama will be attending next year and which we are joining; an initiative that the President announced a few months back. They’re also a major player on climate change internationally, a major actor in the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organization of Islamic Countries.
 
So, like India, where we just visited, this is a country which is playing a larger and larger role in all of these venues, all these forums -- historically not necessarily supportive of the kinds of goals that we’ve had but now much more so. So I think that’s going to be one of the themes of this visit.
 
The second thing I'd emphasize is the comprehensive partnership that President Obama and President Yudhoyono will be announcing and inaugurating on this visit. This is a symbol and a manifestation of the new level to which we are taking the U.S.-Indonesia relationship. It has three broad components -- political security issues, economic issues and people-to-people issues. There are many subcomponents and many specific things we’re doing under each of these, which I can get into in questions and answers if you wish.
 
I would just highlight under the people-to-people -- education -- we’re looking to provide $165 million in assistance in education for Indonesia in higher-level education in the next five years. Something like 25 American universities will be partnering with Indonesian universities. We’re going to be increasing our teaching of English in Indonesia so that more Indonesian students can come to the U.S. to study. President Obama, in part because of his own personal experience in Indonesia, would like to see more Indonesians studying in the U.S.
 
Climate change, where Indonesia is a leader, President Yudhoyono has announced ambitious targets for Indonesia by 2020 to reduce by somewhere between 26 and 41 percent the level of emissions that Indonesia would normally be producing if certain conditions are met. We’re going to be establishing a climate change center in conjunction with the Norwegians, who are putting in a lot of money to prevent deforestation in Indonesia. I would highlight those areas at the outset.
 
The comprehensive partnership also includes trade, investment, clean energy, health issues, political security issues. I think that’s all I'd say by way of introducing.
 
Q Could you flesh out that second component a little bit, on economics, what this comprehensive partnership will have in terms of economic elements?
 
MR. BADER: Sure. One piece of it is that the U.S. Ex-Im Bank is making Indonesia one of its priority countries, one of its half-dozen top priority countries. U.S. trade with Indonesia is not as substantial as it should be, frankly. This is a function of the level of Indonesian development. Two-way trade is about $20 billion, but we think it can be much, much higher. In the last -- this year our exports to Indonesia have gone up quite sharply, gone up 47 percent, but that’s a fairly low base. We’ve signed an agreement by OPIC with its Indonesian counterpart to try to provide political risk insurance for investment in Indonesia. I think those are the main highlights.
 
One other thing I'd mention is that there are certain challenges that Indonesia needs to overcome if it’s to achieve its potential as a potential home for investment and trading partner.
 
I'd say near the top of the list would be a stronger fight -- a more effective fight against corruption, which has been endemic in Indonesia for decades. President Yudhoyono has started to take on that challenge. Indonesia is the chair of the G20 committee on corruption, but this is -- when one talks to companies and potential investors in Indonesia, this is the first issue one hears about and something I’m sure will be discussed.
 
Q So I just wanted to follow up on that. When you went to India there was a package of deals, deliverables --- $10 billion, 54,000 jobs. We’ve not heard anything like that for Indonesia. I'm guess that’s because you don’t have anything like that that you think is going to be a deliverable out of this trip.
 
MR. BADER: We’ve been discussing a number of potential substantial exports to Indonesia. I would not see this stop in the exact same light as the India trip, which was planned for months and which was -- and that was a big part of it.
 
In this case, I don’t think we’re looking at commercial deliverables, but we will be discussing some important deals which we think are on the right track.
 
Q And can you tell us what they are?
 
MR. BADER: No. Until they’re consummated, it would be presumptuous to say what --
 
Q What sector?
 
MR. BADER: I'd say in energy and infrastructure.
 
Q Jeff, I had a question on two topics. One is, can you talk about what President Obama would like to discuss with President Yudhoyono about Iran? What is he looking for?
 
MR. BADER: Well, Indonesia is, as I said, a major actor, a major player within the OIC. They have relations with Iran. They can talk to the Iranians.
 
So what we’re looking for is -- Indonesia has taken positive positions on proliferation issues. They have announced that they intend to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They’re not going to wait for Senate action in the U.S. They’re going to go ahead. They have announced that they -- they have been clear in their opposition to an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
 
So what we’re looking for is for the Indonesians to use their relationship with Iran to help explain to the Iranians the benefits that would come from abandoning their nuclear weapons program and the problems it would cause if they pursue it. Basically it’s one more important international voice, a voice that has some credibility with the Iranians.
 
Q And then the other question I had has to do with the issue of human rights in Indonesia. To what degree is that a concern to President Obama, and will he raise it in conversations?
 
MR. BADER: Well, on human rights generally, Indonesia is a good news story. If you look at where Indonesia was a dozen years ago and where they are now, I think very few people would have predicted at the time of Suharto’s overthrow that Indonesia would emerge as a dynamic democracy with high level protection of human rights. I think that would have been, let’s say, not the highest scenario that most forecasters would have put on the list.
 
And they do have an enormously impressive record. They have very dynamic civil society, enormous range of civil society institutions which are very active and very vocal, a parliament in which numerous parties are represented. Women’s achievements in Indonesia are quite impressive both within the region and in general within the Islamic world. There are many Islamic -- there are many women political figures and many women active in public life in Indonesia. And the record of tolerance in the religious field is also very impressive. So the general picture is positive and the President will make that clear.
 
Now, this is a developing country which is -- just has a dozen years of experience in democracy, so the picture is not perfect. There are problems. The President would be clear in talking about those with President Yudhoyono. You will all -- many of you will have heard about this video of some Popuan civilians who were tortured and/or mistreated, and it would appear that military in plainclothes were involved. The Indonesian government has announced and the Indonesian military has announced that it’s disturbed and it’s conducting an investigation into this. We welcome their announcement of an investigation but we’ll be looking to see that the investigation leads to accountability and justice.
 
MR. RHODES: I’d just add one thing to that too. In addition to discussing Indonesia’s internal progress in cases like this where we support their efforts to ensure that there’s accountability, Indonesia on human rights and democracy can play a role beyond its borders. It’s a similar message that we gave in India.
 
But Indonesia is actually -- this relates to the Iran question too -- Indonesia has -- in terms of being a country that is more confident and more assertive in their regional stage. Through the Bali Democracy Forum that they’ve set up and through its leadership within ASEAN, they’ve actually been more vocal and outward-looking in terms of their ability to try to galvanize support for human rights in the region. And we see Indonesia as, again, a positive influence in that respect. In the past they’ve made comments, for instance, around Burma and Burma’s human rights record that have been very constructive and very strong.
 
And frankly, what we’ve been trying to do is broaden the circle of voices, democratic voices, that are speaking out on these types of issues, whether it relates to human rights generally or a specific instance like Burma. And so we believe that part of what the role that Indonesia can play going forward is being a partner with us in Southeast Asia for these issues that are important to our values.
 
MR. BADER: I’d like to add one point that Ben has reminded me. In addition, supplementing what Ben said about the regional role, there is also an agreement on cooperation between the U.S. and Indonesian civil society organizations, which are going to play precisely the role Ben talked about in disseminating democratic values and serving as a model throughout the region. We’re going to be providing $15 million over the next five years to support this civil society umbrella in Indonesia, which focuses on issues such as elections, election monitoring, media and freedom of the press issues, conflict resolution.
 
Q Did you say $15 or --
 
MR. BADER: $15 million.
 
Q Is the President proficient enough in Javanese to conduct any of his talks in that language?
 
MR. RHODES: He’s proficient enough to speak the language in a way that would be immediately understood. However, I don’t think he has spoken it on a kind of regular basis in a long time, so I doubt he would conduct business in the language. But he could certainly speak in a way in which the Indonesian people would understand what he’s saying.
 
Q And also, as you’re working on that speech, are you adjusting at all to address in any way the new construction in East Jerusalem that was just announced?
 
MR. RHODES: We had not taken that into consideration for this speech. I think you’ll -- I mean, more generally, it’s at a -- it doesn’t really -- I would say the Middle East is not a focus on the speech so we had not taken that into consideration. I’d obviously just echo the comments that you got out of the State Department earlier today about the United States being deeply disappointed by that announcement.
 
Q Jeff, on the education, is it mostly about having students come to the U.S. or is it also about building up higher ed within --
 
MR. BADER: It’s two ways. The objective is to increase substantially, perhaps double, the number of Americans studying in Indonesia. There is -- we’re vastly increasing the size of the Fulbright program in Indonesia. It will be one of the largest Fulbright programs in the world with the new funding it’s going to obtain. There are plans to send -- to increase substantially the number of American high school and community college students studying in Indonesia within the next year. So it’s envisioned as two ways.
 
Q Of those 25 universities in the U.S. that will be having branches there, any names?
 
MR. BADER: I believe that so far four American universities have worked out partnerships. I can remember them in part, but I’d rather give you an accurate answer rather than my recollection. Do you happen to -- I remember some of them but I don’t want to offend someone by giving them out.
 
MR. RHODES: We can get you that, Hans.
 
Q Okay. Thanks.
 
Q I just want to check one thing. You mentioned $165 and $15 million. Is that $180 million, is that the dollar number on sort of the assistance that you’ll be announcing in the course of this visit to Indonesia?
 
MR. BADER: Well, we’ll be alluding to those. I’m not sure what the state of announcement on those has been in the past, but both of those will be mentioned as well as I think we have a figure of about $136 million for climate change-related programs and assistance over two years that also you may want to take note of.
 
Q It’s $136 million?
 
MR. BADER: $136 million, that’s right.
 
MR. RHODES: All right. Thank you very much.
 
Q Just one quick -- on G20, will you be seeking Indonesia’s support of G20? Are you going to be canvassing for their support in Indonesia for the meeting in Seoul, in the way you got it from the Indians?
 
MR. BADER: We anticipate that the President and President Yudhoyono will talk about the G20 since they’re a member. We’ll talk about our expectations and we’ll lay out what we hope to accomplish there, yes.
 
MR. RHODES: I’d just -- just one other area that I’d just highlight too, the counterterrorism area. Indonesia has been a bit of a success story in terms of their ability to take action against the al Qaeda affiliate in their country. You saw the leader of the al Qaeda in Indonesia group killed by Indonesian security forces last year; the bomb maker in the Bali bombings of 2002, this year; and a number of successful actions in terms of Indonesian security forces taking action against the al Qaeda affiliate.
 
So it’s just worth noting in the context of these other issues that they’ve been not just a good partner in counterterrorism but a nation that through their own capacity has really made significant progress against what has been a dangerous al Qaeda affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah.
 
Q I’m sorry, the bomb maker was killed or was captured or --
 
MR. RHODES: Killed, the bomb maker.
 
Q Hey, Jeff, can I ask is there any movement on the six-party talks that’s like might produce something in the near -- while you’re -- while the President is in the region?
 
MR. BADER: I mean, I wouldn’t say we have anything new to announce or report on that. I mean, of course when we get to Seoul, President Obama will be talking to President Lee Myung-bak about the future of both dialogue with the North and six-party talks. But there’s nothing new at this stage to announce, no.
 
Q Do you believe it’s true that they’ve dropped -- that South Korea is not insisting on an apology about the sinking of the Cheonan?
 
MR. BADER: Well, I think South -- I’d hesitate to speak for what the South Koreans are asking for or insisting upon. I mean, I think the South Koreans should -- if they’re going to alter their position, they should say it rather than I should.
 
MR. RHODES: Thanks, guys.
 
Q Thank you.
 
END
3:57 P.M. WIT

2010 Attendees 

Eric Berlow

Jessica Green

Kate Nichols

Nassim Assefi

David Gurman

Colleen Flanigan

Dominic Muren

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Filed under: Asia, Europe, Oceania, South America, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Greece, Netherlands, Guatemala, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Budget Travel, Central America

Ten hot backpacker destinations originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Millions of women have fallen for Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of self-discovery. Why, asks Rachel Cusk, as Eat, Pray, Love opens as a Julia Roberts blockbuster

There's a running gag in Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir of breakdown and recovery, concerning alternative titles she claims to have considered for her book. "A few times a week," runs one example, "Richard and I wander into town and share one small bottle of Thums Up – a radical experience after the purity of vegetarian ashram food – always being careful not to actually touch the bottle with our lips. Richard's rule about travelling in India is a sound one: 'Don't touch anything but yourself.' (And yes, that was also a tentative title for this book.)"

The book's actual title, Eat, Pray, Love, is sincere, almost reverential: the function of the joke is to fumigate that sincerity regularly to allay any suspicion that the author is taking herself too seriously in her use of it. Not to mention the reader – for the words eat, pray and love might in themselves be an invocation of the lost or prohibited pleasures of femininity: hedonism, devotion, sensuality. Without quite knowing why, 21st-century woman finds this a powerful trinity to behold on the cover of a book. These monosyllables govern one another by means of an order both consolatory and somewhat foreign to modern female experience: eating first, loving last, and praying – an activity unpoliticised by the female psyche and one she might vaguely associate with being cared for, separating the two like a referee a pair of boxers in the ring.

The three words correspond to the book's three sections. These in turn refer to a highly schematised year of Gilbert's life, in which she lived consecutively in three different countries – Italy, India and Indonesia – to fulfil that title more or less on demand. In Italy she eats, in India she lives in an ashram, in Indonesia she finds physical passion, and nowhere is it suggested that fate was anything other than malleable to this plan, that Eat, Pray, Love might for instance have turned out to be a book about Catholicism, the Kama Sutra, and Balinese cookery.

"It wasn't so much that I wanted to thoroughly explore the countries themselves," she writes. "This has been done. It was more that I wanted to thoroughly explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well. I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two. It was only later . . . that I noticed the happy coincidence that all these countries begin with the letter I. A fairly auspicious sign, it seemed, on a voyage of self-discovery."

This is the voice of 21st-century self-identity: subjective, autocratic, superstitious, knowing what it wants before it gets it, specifying even the unknown to which it purports to be abandoning itself. It is the voice moreover of the consumer, turning other realities into static and purchasable concepts ("tradition", "the art of pleasure") that can be incorporated into the sense of self. As though by a further extension of the author's all-powerful will, the book has been three different kinds of success: a critical success, a word-of-mouth bestseller, and the holy of holies, the basis of a film starring Julia Roberts. The new edition has a picture of Roberts on the front cover, a little plastic gelato spoon clamped between her lips. Whatever frisson remains, the sight of a "perfect" woman publicly displaying her greed was evidently judged sufficient at least to shift a few more copies.

The author's claim that she considered other titles is just one example of her expert use of the camouflage of humour. Gilbert's writing propounds a comic cult of female personality, a kind of literary incarnation of the "best friend". From the mouth of this witty warrior-woman the female reader is prepared to hear nearly anything, to have her gender secrets, her most private embarrassments, her deepest dissatisfactions disclosed. In "best friend" language, humour is a culturally approved manifestation of ambivalence, in which the love of life asserts itself over the admission of destructive desires.

Of course, this is a well-worn mode of female literary expression – Bridget Jones's Diary is a good example. The writer elects herself a girlish giant-slayer and strides forth into inadmissable regions of feminine experience: armed only with her personal charisma, her wit and her wisecracks, she sets about its taboos and its secret shames. Violent gender-specific emotions – hatred of one's own body, for instance – are recognised in the same moment as being neutralised by humour. Helen Fielding saw the link between herself and Jane Austen, who invented this genre in which the darkest aspects of female passivity and interiority give rise to an elaborated surface of verbal skirmishing. And at the end of it all the author curtsies – she was only joking, after all. It's a pretty performance, in whose echo chambers some readers are wont to discern the reverberation of emotional depths.

Eat, Pray, Love can be placed unequivocally in this tradition. Women like this literature because it alleviates feelings of pressure without the attendant risks of rebellion or change. Nothing is lost or destroyed or interrogated by comedy, or at least not literally. Yet a book is a placement of internal material in public space. The more representative it is of what people personally feel, the more satisfying and necessary its publication.

The difference here is that the feeling and the representation are not quite the same. The suspicion arises that the female reader is being bled of her private tensions, of her rage, of her politics, in order to give the writer the attention she craves. The reader herself becomes the echo chamber; she may return to these tensions depleted by laughing at them, for if she privately experiences repugnance at her own body – for example – as unacceptable, as a form of failure, she will in some sense have betrayed herself by experiencing it publicly as success.

But Eat, Pray, Love is more of a conundrum than it seems from this description, and to begin to understand it one has to examine what Gilbert would call the "backdrop". The book opens with her as a high-achieving, wealthy "career girl" in her early 30s, living au grand luxe with her husband in the suburbs of New York. "Wasn't I proud of all we'd accumulated – the prestigious home in the Hudson Valley, the apartment in Manhattan, the eight phone lines, the friends and the picnics and the parties, the weekends spent roaming the aisles of some box-shaped superstore of our choice, buying ever more appliances on credit? I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life – so why did I feel like none of it resembled me?" At night she often finds herself in the bathroom crying her eyes out. Why is she so unhappy? She is not sure she loves her husband; she feels obliged to have a baby but doesn't really want one. Her sister, a mother, has said to her (in a textbook example of the comic-ambivalent mode): "Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it's what you want before you commit."

Crying in the bathroom one night she finds herself praying. She has never been a religious person, she tells us, but her despair is such that she reaches out to this vaguely benign entity – God – and is surprised to discover she feels better. She unearths her own capacity for devotion, or at least finds in "God" an object that – unlike any of the real or possible objects in her actual life – will satisfy it. Over the next few months she goes about extricating herself from what she doesn't "want" – at enormous financial and emotional cost – and formulates her elaborate international pan-cultural plan for self-discovery.

What do Gilbert's large, mostly female readership recognise in this rather tortuous, idiosyncratic and frankly fantastical story? There are several possibilities. One is that they venerate her for reintroducing the idea of the pleasure principle into female experience. She writes as a woman of 35, an age by which many of her readers will be married, to husbands they may experience – in her compelling description – as "my lighthouse and my albatross in equal measure"; will be wearing that facial tattoo, motherhood; will be shackled to houses of greater or lesser grandeur; will spend their free time with friends or in superstores – and will find their capacity for devotion exploited to the full by their sense of loyalty to these undertakings, their belief that they ought to honour their responsibilities and make the best of the life they've chosen for themselves, even if they sometimes feel that none of it resembles them.

Such a woman is never far from the necessity to cook or abstain from food, to perform an unselfish act, to exercise tolerance and self-sacrifice in relationships that define the core of our cultural conception of love. And she may feel, in the performance of this role, the emotional extremity Gilbert attributes to herself. To have these ordinary aspects of her life repackaged as pleasurable gives her a kind of mental lift; and as Nigella Lawson has discovered, selling the pleasure concept to over-committed women is big business.

The problem lies in the egotism of these female goddesses and gurus, who require their (female) audience to stand still while they twirl about, who require us to watch and listen, to laugh at their jokes, to admire their beauty and their reality and their freedom, to witness their successes. Elizabeth Gilbert is a relentless cataloguer of such successes, social, gastronomic, spiritual and sexual: the pizza she eats in Naples, the lover she takes in Bali, the friends she makes, even the quality of her transcendence at the ashram, all are perfect, the very best.

This voyage of self-discovery, it turns out, was a competition, at whose heart is a need to win. Gilbert refers once or twice in her book to a childhood in which she was driven to do well and achieve, and her failure to reconcile the forced fruits of female ambition with the realities of woman's destiny merely embroiders further the space between the two. Her Damascene epiphany in her New York bathroom might have led her not to break the life she had but to accept it, to exercise her capacity for devotion right there; she might have gone to Italy not to eat pasta but to acquire knowledge; she might have chosen not to live entirely and orgiastically in the personal – in pleasure – but instead to have renounced those interests in pursuit of a genuine equality.

But to say that, of course, would be to take it all much too seriously.

Eat, Pray, Love opens in cinemas this weekend.

Erstwhile UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer explains how to overcome the obstacles preventing a global climate deal from being signed

The priority for the next big UN climate change meeting in Cancún, Mexico, is to set out exactly what a global climate deal would mean in practice, according to the man who was until July the head of the UN's climate body, the UNFCCC.

Yvo de Boer's prescription sounds rather a modest goal to me, but is perhaps a sign of how far ambition has fallen since the feverish days ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December 2009.

But it would, de Boer says, overcome the obstacle that is preventing a global deal being signed – the countries simply don't know what they are signing up for.

They don't know what to expect in terms of the "rules and tools" that will govern measures to cut carbon emissions, to adapt to global warming and to pay for it all.

De Boer, now looking far more relaxed in his new role with accounting giant KPMG than he was in the fraught days of Copenhagen and Bali, remains adamant that Copenhagen was a success, but does acknowledge that views on that differ very widely.

Indeed they do: Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure was our headline.

He also says that lots of the political momentum that was there in the runup to Copenhagen, attended by 130 or so world leaders, is still there. I think we can agree de Boer is an optimist, to say the very least.

He remains, as befits his new business-oriented job, certain that a global cap and trade scheme – a "market-based mechanism" – is the ultimate solution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming.

And it is here that a glimpse of anxiety can be seen: "I just hope they hurry up and define what exactly those market-based mechanisms will mean, as they will need to continue after 2012 [when the current Kyoto agreement ends] ... 2012 is getting frighteningly close."

The US has abandoned efforts to introduce a cap and trade scheme and even de Boer thinks it is unlikely that Barack Obama will be able to try again before the next presidential election.

He also used some colourful language when addressing the lobbying by certain fossil fuel interests. If I was a more ruthless kind of journalist, I could tell you de Boer said fossil fuel companies were living in the stone age. I'm not, but the full quote is still fun.

"I do not think oil, gas and coal companies are evil. They are selling products that we as consumers want. The question is how to balance that with the needs of the environment. There will always be winners and losers [during change]. When the massive economic transformation from the stone age to the bronze age took place, I am sure that stone spearhead makers were pretty upset."

Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey...if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.

In recent years, various experiments have shown that grammatical genders can shape the feelings and associations of speakers toward objects around them. In the 1990s, for example, psychologists compared associations between speakers of German and Spanish. There are many inanimate nouns whose genders in the two languages are reversed. A German bridge is feminine (die Brücke), for instance, but el puente is masculine in Spanish; and the same goes for clocks, apartments, forks, newspapers, pockets, shoulders, stamps, tickets, violins, the sun, the world and love...When speakers were asked to grade various objects on a range of characteristics, Spanish speakers deemed bridges, clocks and violins to have more “manly properties” like strength, but Germans tended to think of them as more slender or elegant.

Of course, all this does not mean that speakers of Spanish or French or German fail to understand that inanimate objects do not really have biological sex — a German woman rarely mistakes her husband for a hat, and Spanish men are not known to confuse a bed with what might be lying in it...Did the opposite genders of “bridge” in German and Spanish, for example, have an effect on the design of bridges in Spain and Germany? Do the emotional maps imposed by a gender system have higher-level behavioral consequences for our everyday life?

The area where the most striking evidence for the influence of language on thought has come to light is the language of space — how we describe the orientation of the world around us...egocentric coordinates...depend on our own bodies: a left-right axis and a front-back axis orthogonal to it. The second system uses fixed geographic directions, which do not rotate with us wherever we turn... a remote Australian aboriginal tongue, Guugu Yimithirr, doesn’t make any use of egocentric coordinates at all...Guugu Yimithirr does not use words like “left” or “right,” “in front of” or “behind,” to describe the position of objects. Whenever we would use the egocentric system, the Guugu Yimithirr rely on cardinal directions. If they want you to move over on the car seat to make room, they’ll say “move a bit to the east.” To tell you where exactly they left something in your house, they’ll say, “I left it on the southern edge of the western table.”...languages that rely primarily on geographical coordinates are scattered around the world, from Polynesia to Mexico, from Namibia to Bali.

How does this work? The convention of communicating with geographic coordinates compels speakers from the youngest age to pay attention to the clues from the physical environment (the position of the sun, wind and so on) every second of their lives..This habit of constant awareness to the geographic direction is inculcated almost from infancy...When Guugu Yimithirr speakers were asked how they knew where north is, they couldn’t explain it any more than you can explain how you know where “behind” is.

Recently, it has been demonstrated in a series of ingenious experiments that we even perceive colors through the lens of our mother tongue. There are radical variations in the way languages carve up the spectrum of visible light; for example, green and blue are distinct colors in English but are considered shades of the same color in many languages. And it turns out that the colors that our language routinely obliges us to treat as distinct can refine our purely visual sensitivity to certain color differences in reality, so that our brains are trained to exaggerate the distance between shades of color if these have different names in our language. As strange as it may sound, our experience of a Chagall painting actually depends to some extent on whether our language has a word for blue.

Guest post provided by the preeminent Dr. Laura E. Buffardi (my wife!).

In her memoirs, Elizabeth Gilbert, checks out of "real life" for a year of self-discovery in three different countries (Italy, India, and Indonesia). Those who have seen the movie Eat, Pray, Love or who have read the book (or both) might have wondered if Liz was destined to do something valuable for her well-being or if she was simply taking off on an extended vacation of a lifetime (and running away from a devastating divorce and failed rebound relationship in New York)? Can taking such a trip be beneficial or is it just an extravagant (and perhaps risky) distraction from real life? From the viewpoint of a social psychologist, Liz might have actually had the right idea. Why? She left the U.S. with the right type of goals. She didn't set out to drown her sorrows with shallow love affairs, excessive amounts of liquor, or illicit drugs. Rather, she set out to truly enjoy herself, master the art of clearing her mind, and learn to lead a "balanced" life.

In Italy, Liz pursued exactly what she wanted, not what she felt she should do, or what she was obligated to do, or what was the right or appropriate thing to do. She wanted to learn Italian simply because she found the language beautiful. She wanted to indulge herself in mounds of pasta, pizza, and gelato. In these pursuits, Liz was unconcerned with what native Italian speakers would think of her or whether learning Italian was practical. She also put aside societal conventions about gaining weight. Instead, she did exactly what she wanted to -- she learned Italian for fun and ate pizza to her heart's content, despite the "muffin top" that grew over the waist of her jeans. Social psychologists would say that, in Italy, Liz was intrinsically, as opposed to extrinsically, motivated. She made decisions based on what pleased her, not on what pleased others. Social psychologists have found that doing things that we are intrinsically motivated to do (be it learning Italian, or doing yoga, or maintaining a garden, or throwing pottery on a potter's wheel, or what have you), is beneficial psychologically. Those who pursue activities they are intrinsically motivated to do are likely to have more life satisfaction, feelings of meaning in life, and less poor physical health symptoms.

Liz's life in India, some would say, sharply contrasted with the one in Italy. Her months in India were spent in an ashram, a place dedicated to yoga, meditation, and spiritual growth. As opposed to drinking wine and relaxing in Tuscany, Liz soberly woke at 4:30 every morning to attend a prayer session and perform her assigned duty of washing floors. Her greatest challenge though was devoting herself to mediation -- the art of clearing one's mind. Sitting quietly may not seem arduous, but for Liz (and many amateurs), it was no easy task (just think of that voice in your own mind that won't stop blabbering when you are alone and it's quiet). It was "like crossing the moat to get to the castle," as her friend, Richard from Texas, liked to remind her. Again, psychologists would argue that Liz was on to something. Research has shown that there is, in fact, a "castle" at the end of the meditation "moat." Meditation is a highly successful method for managing stress, anxiety, and mild depression. Those who practice it enjoy physiological benefits (e.g. less pain, less artery clogging) and generally feel happier than those who don't have a mediation routine.

In Bali, during the final third of her year abroad, Liz's goal was to integrate balance between the indulgence of Italy and the austerity of India into her life permanently. She went to Indonesia expecting to learn balance from Katut Liyer, a local healer who spends his days reading palms and performing important rituals and rites of passage for the locals. Katut promises to teach Liz everything he knows in exchange for helping him improve his English. Liz was an eager student, but, during her time in Bali, Liz learned as much, if not more, about balance through her personal relationships. She developed a meaningful friendship with Wayan, a natural remedy expert and cafe owner. They confided in one another and acted selflessly to help each other. Most notably, Liz collected money from her family and friends around the world to buy a house for Wayan and her young daughter, Tutti. In Bali, Liz also found Philipe, an attractive, older Brazilian-born divorcé. In her relationship with Philipe, Liz's newfound inner peace and courage were tried, but she also discovered balance, strength, and a renewed belief in love. Psychologists would agree that for Liz forming these deep relationships were extremely important to the success of her journey. Having the support of close friends, family, and especially romantic partners has been found to be one of the surest routes to happiness.

Liz Gilbert reaped the rewards of her yearlong get-a-way. Does this mean the only way for us to preserve improve our well-being is to leave our homes, families, and jobs to visit exotic places for an extended time? Certainly not. We can take time to do things that we truly enjoy - things we are intrinsically motivated to do - without feeling guilty about it. We can try mediation. Some psychologists advocate putting aside just 10 minutes a day to meditate. And we can actively cultivate our relationships because, after all, they are perhaps the surest way to happiness. Of course, if you want to do these things while enjoying pizza in Italy, peacefulness in India, and tropical scenery in Bali, that will work just as well. ;)

Elizabeth Gilbert intentionally divided Eat, Pray, Love into 3 sections with 36 tales of her travels in each section, just like the japa mala, 108 beads that make up an Eastern devotional rosary. These three sections represent her stories about, Italy (Eat), India (Pray), and Indonesia (Love), and how many of us would wish for such a year of travel luxury (if you can call a spiritual quest a luxury)? Obviously she is a woman who believes in structure, especially exotic structure!

Coming from “loss upon loss” (a failed marriage followed by a painful love affair), Elizabeth decides to spend her year of travel being celibate. She is tempted by Giovanni, who wants an English conversational practice partner in Italy, and is a twin – but no, Elizabeth opts for “the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude.” Fleeing her receding lover David, who was “catnip and kryptonite” to her, Elizabeth starts studying Italian, which she has always wanted to do, and which starts her on her journey. “Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me.” She seeks out a spiritual healer with “tens of thousands of students who gather in New York weekly to chant and meditate,” involving the ancient Sanskrit mantra “I honor the divinity that resides inside me.” And from there Elizabeth, who has heretofore tended to lose herself in her male partners, begins to find herself, starting with a brief journalistic assignment in Bali where she also visits a Balinese medicine man(who tells her that she will have another marriage and, later in life, a child, and that she will return to Bali to teach him English).

A complex life? Whose isn’t? But Elizabeth Gilbert’s life is interesting, so interesting that, just like her, we never know what’s waiting around the corner for this world traveller who revels in writing about her experiences. Elizabeth learns that “both pleasure and devotion require a stress-free space in which to flourish and I’d been living in a giant trash compactor of non-stop anxiety.” She has always loved travelling (since using her baby-sitting money to visit Russia), and she can make friends with anyone. We learn about Elizabeth through her adventures: what it’s like to be in an Italian language school, her struggles with depression and her search for pleasure, gaining 25 pounds in Italy eating magnificently prepared food, her search for spirituality at an ashram in India where she meets a colorful assortment of characters from all over the world including Richard from Texas, and how she falls in love with Felipe from Brazil on the highly ritualized island of Bali (as this is not the lean and spare writing of Marguerite Duras or bare-bones existentialism!). Elizabeth informs us that “the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one’s humanity” and “In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted” and “Only in a human form and only with a human mind can God-realization ever occur.”

Whether battling to maintain silence or particularly disliking long Hindu rituals or her attempts to help an Indonesian healer (a woman, Wayan, formerly physically abused by her alcoholic husband) buy a house for her child and two other orphans, we constantly see Elizabeth seeking and seeking because she so much wants to understand “God dwells within you, as you.” At the end of her glorious year she writes: “I think about the woman I have become lately, about the life that I am now living and about how much I always wanted to live this life, liberated from the force of pretending to be anyone other than myself,” as now time has passed and her formerly unbearable relationship endings have become a part of the past for her. Very few writers are able to write in such great detail about their lives and how they try to understand them, and I highly recommend this book that will intrigue and entrance you with every page. Eat, Pray, Love has also been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts now playing in theaters across America.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, on sale in paperback June 20, 2010 by Penguin Books, 334 pages.

Reviewed by Christina Zawadiwsky

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writers Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of Where The Waters Meet, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry. She currently reviews movies for http://www.movieroomreviews.com, music for http://www.musicroomreviews.com, and books for http://www.bookroomreviews.com.

In Bali, they're seeking guidance from a spiritual healer. In Rome, they're lapping up gelato. And in India, they're visiting temples.

Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir "Eat, Pray, Love," have been following in her footsteps ever since it was first published in 2006. The book describes a year Gilbert spent living in Italy, India and Indonesia on the rebound from a divorce and failed romance.

But the travel industry is betting that the Aug. 13 release of a film version starring Julia Roberts will inspire even more globe-trotting. Hotels, tour companies and even guidebook publishers are offering everything from do-it-yourself itineraries to luxury trips.

The movie even has "official" travel partners: Lonely Planet, which created a website at with recommendations for sightseeing and lodging, and STA Travel, which is advertising a contest for a 21-day trip to the three countries. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/eatpraylove

Naturally, it is a trip for one.

For high-end travelers, there are invitations like this one: "Eat. Pray. Fall in love with Micato Safaris' Inspirational India Tour." Price tag: $19,795.

But plenty of fans have replicated parts of Gilbert's journey on their own. Australian tourist Zoe Moran was reading the book as she stopped by the San Crispino ice cream shop near the Trevi Fountain in Rome, where Gilbert ate gelato three times in one day.

"I just got to the part in Rome, so I'm trying to follow the footsteps of Gilbert," she said.

Gilbert writes of savoring good food and soaking up sights like the Villa Borghese and Piazza del Popolo. Canadian tourist Sarah Luong, another "Eat, Pray, Love" fan at San Crispino, said she was "trying to do the same, take my time and enjoy Rome at its best."

Some "Eat, Pray, Love" devotees have found their way to Ubud, the artsy town in Bali where Gilbert seeks guidance from Ketut Liyer, a spiritual healer, and makes friends with a cafe owner named Wayan.

Gilbert notes in the book that tourism to Indonesia plummeted after a series of terrorist bombings. Liyer even says to her, "If you have Western friends come to visit Bali, bring them to me for palm-reading. I am very empty in my bank since the bomb!"

Liyer's wish came true. Since the book was published, Liyer said in an interview in his home, "I have more foreign tourists visiting me." He estimated the number of visitors to be in the "hundreds."

As seekers dropped by – including a group from Japan who said they heard about him from the book – Liyer offered cheerful palm and face readings, predicting luck, wealth and long life. And just as Gilbert described, he asked his guests to help him practice speaking English.

Ngurah Wijaya, head of the Bali Tourism Board, said it's impossible to quantify how many tourists Indonesia is getting because of "Eat, Pray, Love." But he said it has had a "great impact" in making "people understand that Bali is safe."

Amy Graff, who lives in San Francisco and writes about family travel on her blog, "On the Go With Amy," took a trip to Indonesia in 2009 with her husband, kids and another family. Both she and the other mom loved the book.

"I really was compelled to go and try and find Wayan," Graff said. "We got the vitamin lunch," Gilbert described in the book, "which is absolutely delicious."

Kathryn Alice, who describes herself as a "love guru" based in Los Angeles, ("I help people find their soul mates"), took one of her followers to Liyer's home and also ate at Wayan's cafe.

"It's really fun to go and experience what she did," Alice said.

But Alice noted that many of the tours being offered by travel companies "have very little resemblance" to the actual places described in "Eat, Pray, Love." "People can go and do it a lot cheaper for themselves," she said. "It doesn't take a whole lot to look these people up."

A number of "Eat, Pray, Love" packages are geared to India, but do not include the ashram where Gilbert is believed to have spent several months, Gurudev Siddha Peeth at Ganeshpuri in Maharashtra, about 85 miles from Mumbai.

Abercrombie & Kent spokeswoman Kelly Brewer explained that the ashram has a "process of application and approval and they do not welcome casual visitors." That's why, she said, Abercrombie & Kent offers a "similarly enriching experience" on its "Treasures of Northern India: Journeys for Women" tour "without having to go through the rigorous screening process."

Abercrombie & Kent's options include a day-trip visit to the Hari Mandir temple, with lunch at an adjacent hotel. Roberts, while in India filming, visited Hari Mandir Ashram and shot scenes in a nearby village about 40 miles from New Delhi.

For "Eat, Pray, Love" fans who lack a passport, look no farther than Texas. The Lone Star State is not on Gilbert's itinerary, but that did not preclude the creation of a "Where to Eat, Pray, Love in San Antonio" promotion.

Hotels in locations unrelated to the book are jumping on the bandwagon, too: The Benjamin in Manhattan, Five Gables Inn & Spa in St. Michaels, Md., and the Red Mountain Resort in Utah all have packages themed on the book. After all, why go flying around the world when, as a pitch from Tucson put it, "at Miraval Arizona, you can find it all in one place."

Meanwhile, not every place mentioned in the book has seen an uptick. Pizzeria Da Michele in Naples, where Gilbert says she had the "best pizza in the world," and where Roberts filmed a scene in the movie, says the number of customers they've gotten has been about the same. The Leonardo da Vinci Academy of Language Studies, where Gilbert took Italian classes, also said they have not had an increase in applications.

While Gilbert fans are finding their way to Italy, India, Indonesia, and maybe San Antonio, the author has moved on. At the end of "Eat, Pray, Love," she falls in love with a Brazilian-born Australian, whom she later marries. And in the August issue of Travel + Leisure magazine, under a headline of "My Favorite Place," Gilbert reveals that her "idea of a perfect city" is nowhere near the places touted in "Eat, Pray, Love."

Instead, she recommends Melbourne.

___

Associated Press Writers Amilia Rosa in Bali, Daniele De Bernardin in Rome, and Nirmala George in Delhi contributed to this story.

Filed under: Cruises

Adrift At Sea, On Purpose. Gadling's New Man At The Ship's Helm originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Arctic Monkeys @ Explanda del Estadio Azteca. Photo: monophonic.grrrl / Mariel A. M., flickr

“Ask the indie professor” is the name of a new series in the Guardian. The indie professor in question is Wendy Fonarow. At a music festival she was recently introduced as “the world’s only professor of indie music”.

“I’m not sure if I’m the only indie professor, but I’ve spent the last 18 years recording, examining and writing about the culture of indie and the international music industry”, Wendy Fonorow writes in her opening post. Her book “Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music” tackles questions such as “Why are drummers the most ridiculed band members?”, she adds.

The readers of this new series are invited to ask questions. “So if you are curious about why cassettes are the new vinyl, or whatever else takes your fancy, here is your chance to ask”, she writes. “And please someone ask me about why Americans think they invented indie.”

After one day, there are already more than 250 comments.

The Guardian presented her book two years ago.

Here is what she according to the Guardian writes about indie culture and religion:

“Religious narratives show up in all expressive forms, from politics to music. I see a lot of the religious narrative of Puritanism in the indie music scene; the idea that, to have the pure divine experience, it has to be direct and unmediated. So the smaller and more intimate a show is, the ‘truer’ fans believe their experience was, compared to someone who saw them later on in a bigger venue. That’s why so many people claim to have seen the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club. You can also find the aesthetic of Puritanism in the way indie people present themselves, such as childlike clothing, this idea of returning to the golden age of childhood or the musical past.”

Or here about music as ethnicity:

One of my ex-students once said ‘music is my ethnicity’. People want to find other people who are like-minded so instead of finding their ethnic identity through birth they find it through aesthetic preferences and that becomes their identity. For each one of those music movements, there are modes of display. Desmond Morris talked about how different earrings can signify where you are in the age grade of certain tribes in central Africa. To outsiders these displays are subtle or hard to notice at all.”

Interesting! But it seems the anthropologist is extremely fond of theory and might tend to over-analyse her informants. Here is how the Guardian begins the presentation:

Remember that time you were crowd surfing at an Arctic Monkeys gig and thought you were just having a drunken laugh? Rubbish! You were, in fact, being “collaborative in a unique social space, expressing super-intimacy with strangers and rejecting the self-aggrandising that comes with stage-diving”. Oh yes you were. And that time you were standing at the bar and thought you were just, well, thirsty? Not at all: you were probably just “proving your credentials as an industry professional” or “communicating to others a disinterest in the act”.

These are the theories of professor Wendy Fonarow, anthropologist at UCLA in California and the author of Empire Of Dirt: The Aesthetics And Rituals Of British Indie Music.

Her book has received a lot of positive reviews, while Pichfork reviewer William Bower is less convined by the book and its language. Check also Wendy Fonarow’s website at http://www.indiegoddess.com/

SEE ALSO:

”Eurovision produces a new form of unity”

Hindi Film Songs and the Barriers between Ethnomusicology and Anthropology

Reggae, Punk and Death Metal: An Ethnography from the unknown Bali

Multimedia Music Ethnography of Yodelling and Alphorn Blowing

“Pop culture is a powerful tool to promote national integration”

The Fort Hood shooter, the Christmas Day bomber, the Times Square attacker. On May 13, the following exchange occurred at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee:

Rep. Lamar Smith (R.,Texas): Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?

Attorney General Eric Holder: There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions.#...#
-
Smith: Okay, but radical Islam could have been one of the reasons?

Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people--

Smith: But was radical Islam one of them?

Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are potentially religious-based.

Potentially, mind you. This went on until the questioner gave up in exasperation.

A similar question arose last week in U.S. District Court when Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attacker, pleaded guilty. Explained Shahzad: “One has to understand where I’m coming from.#...#I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier.”

Well, that is clarifying. As was the self-printed business card of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, identifying himself as “SoA”: Soldier of Allah.

Holder’s avoidance of the obvious continues the absurd and embarrassing refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge who out there is trying to kill Americans and why. In fact, it has banned from its official vocabulary the terms “jihadist,” “Islamist,” and “Islamic terrorism.”

Instead, President Obama’s National Security Strategy insists on calling the enemy -- how else do you define those seeking your destruction? -- “a loose network of violent extremists.” But this is utterly meaningless. This is not an anger-management therapy group gone rogue. These are people professing a powerful ideology rooted in a radical interpretation of Islam, in whose name they propagandize, proselytize, terrorize, and kill.

Why is this important? Because the first rule of war is to know your enemy. If you don’t, you wander into intellectual cul-de-sacs and ignore the real causes that might allow you to prevent recurrences.

The Pentagon report on the Fort Hood shooter runs 86 pages with not a single mention of Hasan’s Islamism. It contains such politically correct inanities as “religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor.”

Of course it is. Indeed, Islamist fundamentalism is not only a risk factor. It is the risk factor, the common denominator linking all the great terror attacks of this century -- from 9/11 to Mumbai, from Fort Hood to Times Square, from London to Madrid to Bali. The attackers were of various national origin, occupation, age, social class, native tongue, and race. The one thing that united them was the jihadist vision in whose name they acted.

To deny this undeniable truth leads to further absurdities. Remember the wave of speculation about Hasan’s supposedly secondary post-traumatic stress disorder -- that he was so deeply affected by the heart-rending stories of his war-traumatized patients that he became radicalized? On the contrary. He was moved not by their suffering but by the suffering they (and the rest of the U.S. military) inflicted on Hasan’s fellow Muslims, in whose name he gunned down 12 American soldiers while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

With Shahzad, we find the equivalent ridiculous -- and exculpating -- speculation that perhaps he was driven over the edge by the foreclosure of his home. Good grief. Of course his home went into foreclosure -- so would yours if you voluntarily quit your job and stopped house payments to go to Pakistan for jihadist training. As the Washington Post’s Charles Lane pointed out, foreclosure was a result of Shahzad’s radicalism, not the cause.

There’s a final reason why the administration’s cowardice about identifying those trying to kill us cannot be allowed to pass. It is demoralizing. It trivializes the war between jihadi barbarism and Western decency, and diminishes the memory of those (including thousands of brave Muslims -- Iraqi, Pakistani, Afghan, and Western) who have died fighting it.

Churchill famously mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. But his greatness lay not just in eloquence but in his appeal to the moral core of a decent people to rise against an ideology the nature of which Churchill never hesitated to define and describe -- and to pronounce (“Nahhhhzzzzi”) in an accent dripping with loathing and contempt.

No one is asking Obama or Holder to match Churchill’s rhetoric -- just Shahzad’s candor.

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2010, the Washington Post Writers Group.

[NOTE:  As I slowly rebuild old pages from the old site, I will use this weekly feature for that purpose.  Per my Friday post on Wikistrat, I wanted to re-intro my rules for System Perturbations]

Deleted Scene #22

Chapter Five: The New Ordering Principle

The Missing Section Entitled: "New Rules for a New Crisis"

Commentary: This twenty-second "deleted scene" was the originally planned third section of the chapter (coming after "The Rise of System Perturbations" and before "The Greater Inclusive"), which Mark Warren cut simply to reduce the size of the chapter. My sense was that he felt the chapter already had more than enough theoretical material and did not need this long detour on rule sets. I include the section here because I really do like the material quite a bit, even as tough as it is to lay out before the reader without lapsing into theoreticalspeak. Plus, this section was my sole capture from the one workshop I ran for the Office of Force Transformation during my stint there, so I feel like the bits of wisdom I pulled from that effort (and all those big brains that attended) should find a home somewhere!

I should note who were the attendees at that workshop in March of 2002. Here's the list:

1) Arthur Cebrowski, Office of Force Transformation
2) John Garstka, Joint Chiefs of Staff C4 Directorate 
3) Stuart Umpleby, George Washington University 
4) Douglass Carmichael, Big Mind Media 
5) John Petersen, The Arlington Institute 
6) David Gordon, National Intelligence Council 
7) Stephen Schlaikjer, Political Advisor to Chief of Naval Operations 
8) Shane Deichman, JFCOM 
9) Ahmed Hashim, Naval War College 
10) Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum/N.Y. Post 
11) Jeff Cares, Alidade Consulting 
12) Richard Landes, Center for Millennial Studies 
13) Kori Schake, National Defense University 
14) Joshua Epstein, Brookings Institution 
15) Mitzi Wertheim, The CNA Corporation 
16) Tony Pryor, International Resources Group 
17) Hank Gaffney, Center for Strategic Studies 
18) Yaneer Bar-Yam, New England Complex Systems Institute 
19) Lee Buchanan, consultant 
20) Bill Halal, George Washington University 
21) Adam Siegel, Northrop Grumman 
22) Cdr. John Dickman, CNO Strategic Studies Group 
23) John Landry, National Intelligence Council 
24) Jerry Hultin, Stevens Institute of Technology

Here is the agenda of the workshop:

AGENDA FOR 19 MARCH SYSTEM PERTURBATIONS WORKSHOP

0730-0800
Check-in and continental breakfast

0800-0900
Barnett briefs the System Perturbation slide package

0900-0915
GroupSystems warm-up
INSTRUCTIONS: The scenario is this: you are asked by the Mayor of New York City to pen a paragraph on the significance of 9/11 for inclusion in a time capsule to be buried beneath the permanent memorial being erected at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. In the next 5 minutes please enter your thoughts on the laptop in front of you. At the end of five minutes, you will be encouraged to read the entries of others and enter additional comments on those texts.

0915-1000
SESSION I: Does 9/11 serve as existence proof for the concept of System Perturbations as a identifiable category of international crisis?
INSTRUCTIONS: After some introductory slides on this notion, you will be asked to participated in a GroupSystems brainstorming activity of approximately 5-7 minutes, answering the question, "Please give us examples of System Perturbations in history and explain what each example tells us about this concept." Following that activity, Dr. Barnett will lead a discussion on this question for approximately 30 minutes. At the end of that discussion, you will be asked another GroupSystems brainstorming question, "What are the lasting perturbations to the global system from 9/11?" You will be asked to enter your ideas into 6 separate "buckets": 

1.  Economics
2.  Politics
3.  Technology
4.  Environment
5.  Cultural/media
6.  Security.

 

1000-1015
Coffee break

1015-1100
SESSION II: Can/should System Perturbations serve as a new ordering principle for U.S. national security?
INSTRUCTIONS: After some introductory slides on potential outcome scenarios for the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), you will be asked to participated in a GroupSystems brainstorming activity of approximately 5-7 minutes, answering the question, "Give us your description of the defining global conflict paradigm for the next 10-to-20 years." You will be given four, admittedly overlapping "buckets" to choose from in terms of placing your entry:

1.  Division by competency/success
2.  Division by culture/civilization
3.  Division by great power-led camps
4.  Division by ideology.

 

Following that activity, Dr. Barnett will lead a discussion on this question for approximately 30 minutes. At the end of that discussion, you will be asked another GroupSystems brainstorming question, "What are the new rule sets that emerge as a result of 9/11 and the ongoing GWOT?"You will be asked to enter your ideas into 3 separate "buckets":

 

1.  Security within our borders
2.  Security at our borders
3.  Security beyond our borders.

 

1100-1200
SESSION III: Who are the dominant crisis trigger agents in the current global era?
INSTRUCTIONS: After some introductory slides on potential downstream institutional consequences for DoD as a result of 9/11 and the GWOT, you will be asked to participated in a GroupSystems brainstorming activity of approximately 5-7 minutes, answering the question, "What will future enemies of the U.S. learn from 9/11 and the GWOT?" You will be given three "buckets" to choose from in terms of placing your entry:

1.  Super-empowered individuals
2.  Transnational networks
3.  Nation-states.

Following that activity, Dr. Barnett will lead a discussion on this question for approximately 40 minutes. At the end of that discussion, you will be asked another GroupSystems brainstorming question, "What are the long-term institutional ramifications of the home game/away game dichotomy?" You will be asked to enter your ideas into 3 separate "buckets":

1.  A future Department of Homeland Security will someday rival DoD in importance
2.  DoD will remain the predominant national security player in all spheres
3.  DoD will bifurcate into a classic warfighting force and a constabulary force

 (Back to the pre-WWII future).

 

1200-1300 Lunch break (served in the conference room)

1300-1500
SESSIONS IV-IX: Building the System Perturbation model piece by piece
INSTRUCTIONS: After some review slides on the six proposed categories of the System Perturbation, you will be asked to participate in 6 sequential 20-minute sessions exploring each category. Each 20-minute session will begin with a 5-minute GroupSystems brainstorming activity where you will be asked to offer new or better definitions, examples, analogies, etc. for the category. Following that, you will participate in a facilitated discussion for 15 minutes before moving on to the next category. The six proposed categories are:

1.  Agents
2.  Triggers
3.  Medium
4.  Transmission
5.  Barriers
6.  Consequences.

 

1500-1515 Coffee break

1515-1645
SESSIONS X-XII: What is to be done by whom?
INSTRUCTIONS: After some introductory slides on the concept of burden-sharing and new linkages with regard to System Perturbations, you will be asked to participate in 3 sequential 30-minute sessions exploring three broad questions:

1.  In responding to future System Perturbations, how much responsibility falls to DoD versus the rest of the US Government?
2.  How much falls to the public sector versus the private sector?
3.  How much falls to the United States versus the rest of the world?

Each 30-minute session will begin with a quick GroupSystems vote, followed by approximately 20 minutes of facilitated discussion, and ending with another GroupSystems brainstorming activity where you will be asked to suggest useful steps the US Government could take in the coming years to meet the challenges associated with future System Perturbations such as 9/11.

 

1645-1700
SESSION XIII: The Elevator Drill
INSTRUCTIONS: You will be given an opportunity for one last comment, the scenario for which will be revealed at this time.

1700
ADJOURN

Here are the slides that resulted from the workshop:

Finally, here is the deleted scene itself ….

Deleted Scene: Barnett's Rules on System Perturbations

[TEXT BEGINS]

Since I am constantly going on about "rules," it only seems fitting that, along with this definition of a new crisis type, I offer some rule sets regarding how it unfolds and what are good strategies to deal with it. Truth be told, what I will offer here are more observations than rules, but in keeping with my rule that no audience likes a wishy-washy visionary ("Oh, I dunno, it could sort of be like that"), let me display the usual arrogance of the grand strategist and pretend what I am about to tell you are hard rules.

How did I come about these rules? I did the usual thing one does in my business: I held a workshop and invited all my friends, plus some newbies to shake things up. You invite your friends because you want a good conversation, and because you know what they are capable of in terms of big ideas. These are the people that will not fight your ideas and premises tooth and nail because you have a reputation with them. But you do not want a lovefest. Although I always say my workshops are all about making me smarter, you do not want to go overboard in that arena, like it is some communist party congress and your brilliant observations are constantly interrupted by [stormy applause]. No, you want some agitators in the group, or some people who will, by their very nature, anger plenty of others in the room.

The agitators need to be serious experts in the field you are stealing from. I say "stealing from," because I do not pretend to generate original thought, by and large. As my mentor Art Cebrowski likes to describe me, I am a true synthesist, which is a polite way of saying I never really come up with any ideas of my own. But Art is right: I basically weave ideas and concepts together from other sources, other fields, other cultures. I am a concept arbitrager, who learned this skill less from any one field of study than from simply learning a number of languages over the course of my life (French, Russian, German, and Romanian). Can I speak any of them today? Not really. But what I can do almost instinctively is learn new languages quickly -- I mean really plunge into a field and come back out with enough terminology and understanding to manage a dangerous version of its spoken language. I say "dangerous" because, inevitably, my use of that language angers the purists, which is my snotty way of saying people truly expert in the field. That gets me back to the agitators.

I invited a few people truly conversant in complexity and chaos theory to the workshop, knowing that my use of System Perturbation would offend their sensibilities. I mean, they already have loads of fairly firm rules about their ideas, and both these terms (system and perturbation) have specific meanings to them. I wanted to respect their expertise, but only up to a point, because I am engaging in conceptual arbitrage here -- moving concepts from one field to another. Since my field, political science, is essentially a bastard science with almost no good rule sets, it is hard to offend anyone in my neck of the woods. But when I start talking System Perturbations and using words like medium, transmission, etc., I invariably anger the complexity guys, because they believe that, by using their tools, you really can explain the world and how it works -- almost from A to Z. Of course, most of their computer models tend to zero out human emotions, reducing everything to rational choices by rational people, but since I have never really visited their world of rational people always acting rationally, I think I can only do so much damage with a few of their concepts.

Now, the rules I will present here really are not based on complexity or chaos theory, but based on observations I arrived at after listening to a bunch of social scientists discuss the concept of System Perturbation as a new definition of security crisis, with a smattering of complexity theory types in the room to goad and taunt them about their lack of true expertise in the subject-matter. Naturally, I conducted such a deviously designed workshop inside the Beltway, which such behavior is considered quite normal.

What I got from the workshop was a ton of disparate ideas about how vertical and horizontal scenarios play out among vertical and horizontal political systems. That was the weird thing about this workshop: I introduced the concept of vertical and horizontal scenarios and pretty soon everyone in the room was talking about vertical and horizontal societies or political systems. I like those phrases better than "authoritarian" and "democratic," because those phrases come with so much baggage and are so all-inclusive, whereas my workshop participants seemed to use the phrases vertical system and horizontal system with far greater freedom. For example, both China and Russia could be described as having far more horizontal economic systems than political systems, meaning their economies are increasingly built more around ties among firms and among individuals thanbetween the political leadership and firms, or the more vertically arranged patterns of authority and activity under past communist rule. Their political systems may still be quite vertically arrayed, from top to bottom, but their economic systems are far more horizontal.

You might ask, Why not just call them authoritarian market economies? Clearly I could do just that, but I prefer referring to vertical and horizontal systems because, that way, I can talk about how different aspects (i.e., economic versus political, or social versus security) of China might respond to a System Perturbation differently. I think China's economy and society are more horizontal in form than vertical, but I believe the Communist Party and People's Liberation Army remain extremely vertical in form, so a System Perturbation hitting China hits different sectors differently. Why is that important? Well, here I go back to the dinosaurs and mammals notion: a System Perturbation may disrupt or destroy different aspects of different systems across China. For example, SARS was more challenging for the political leadership than for the economy, which in the end proved awfully resilient whereas the Party looked awfully stiff. The mass media displayed a surprising amount of horizontal form, whereas the military assumed its usual stonewall stance. You get the idea. I just want more flexible concepts because I am still fumbling my way around this new strategic concept.

Before I give you the rules, let me spin out this description of vertical and horizontal systems a bit more by offering a series of examples. I will say horizontal systems tend to be replete with elites, meaning they possess multiple types of powerful people: political, business, military, technology, mass media, cultural icons and heroes, and so on. Vertical systems, on the other hand, really only have one elite -- the political leadership. You can tell you are in a vertical system when the political leader is also the military leader, is also the richer landowner, is also guiding hand of the economy, and so on. In vertical systems, you have to join the government to have power and wealth, but in horizontal systems, you typically have to leave the government to get wealth.

A second difference I have touched upon before: horizontal systems rotate leaderships with routine regularity, while vertical systems tend to have permanent leaderships. As such, horizontal systems tend to feature market-dominated economies, while vertical systems tend to feature state-dominated economies.

A third package of differences concerns the nature of communications and dialogue. In the horizontal system, you tend to see universal networks, where everyone can connect up to everyone else. This facilitates a question-based dialogue, where basically all subjects are on the table. The government in a horizontal system tends not to make any effort to steer that discourse, but only to deal with downstream behavior that may result. You want to yell "fire" in a crowded theater and people get hurt in the resulting stampede? Well then, you are going to be in trouble.

Vertical systems are just the opposite on communication. Their networks tend to be drill-down networks, or connectivity that runs from the leader to the led. Instead of letting any and all conversations occur, vertical systems typically feature upstream content control, because the dialogues that are permissible are severely restricted in terms of taboos. In short, it is a world of "don't go there, girlfriend!" I use the feminine here with purpose, since far more of the taboos involve women and restrict their behavior. What do young Iranian women do overwhelmingly when they get on the Internet? They race to Yahoo chat rooms to discuss sex, dating and marriage? Why do they have to go to such effort? These subjects are not discussable in public Iranian society under the mullahs. So what do you talk about in a country like Iran? You mostly talk about what you cannot talk about. That is what I did in the Soviet Union when I lived there briefly: I had lots of conversations with Russians where we talked about all the subjects you could not talk about. We did not actually discuss those subjects, we just talking about Russians' inability to talk about them. Vertical systems are a sort of strange, Seinfeldian universe in that way: all of your conversations really are about nothing.

Now that I have explained my terminology, let me lay out the five questions I seek to answer with these rules:

1) Who's really in charge during a System Perturbation? For example, is the agent which triggers the vertical shock really running the show?

2) What's really at risk during a System Perturbation? Are all systems equally at risk of disruption and crisis?

3) Where are the boundaries of a System Perturbation? Where do these horizontal waves tend to dissipate? What are the natural barriers to transmission?

4) When do we gain the upper hand in a System Perturbation? Which is another way of saying, How do you come out on top after one?

5) How do we deal with other states during a System Perturbation? Who naturally tend to be our friends and who are our natural enemies?

Let me assigns three rules to each of those five questions, starting with question 1 and working my way down.

Who's really in charge during a System Perturbation? 

Rule #1: Super-empowered individuals may rule vertical scenarios, but nation-states still rule horizontal scenarios. I got this one from a senior personal aide to the Secretary of Defense, who made the observation during a brief I gave him and a slew of his colleagues. His point was simple: a terrorist like Osama bin Laden can put together the people, money, and logistics to hijack three planes and fly them into buildings, but that vertical shock will trigger significant long-term responses from the threatened nation-states. The responses from these states are true horizontal scenarios that stretch on for years, like the global war on terrorism. A serious campaign like that takes an enormous amount of resources, which really only nation-states can muster. So, a super-empowered individual like Bin Laden can certainly pull off a "heist" here and there, but the "police" are able to spend years hunting him down. As my old boss Art Cebrowski likes to say, the terrorist has few resources, but lots of will, whereas the state tends to have lots of resources, but difficulty maintaining will, or vigilance. So it is a cat-and-mouse sort of game over the long run: he has to be shifty, we have to be relentless.

Rule #2: Vertical scenarios choose us, but we choose horizontal scenarios. This concept stems from an observation made by an historian of millenarian movements, or groups with apocalyptic agendas. Richard Landes of Boston University says, look back through any nation's history and you will find defining moments, or what he calls "chosen trauma." These events shape the ethos of the society because people there have chosen to mark them as key turning points in their collective history. In the United States, our chosen trauma include the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Gettysburg, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and now 9/11. Not every bad thing that happens triggers this response. America could have chosen to respond to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center to launch a global war on terrorism, but we did not. In general, a chosen trauma can be summarized by the phrase, "Remember the ______!" So Americans "Remember the Alamo!" and "Remember the Maine!" But we do not really chose to remember Columbine or Oklahoma City in the same way. The point of this rule is simply to remind us that we have the ability to say no to responding to a vertical scenario, and that when we do decide to respond, like with a global war on terrorism, that is not a choice forced upon us, but one we make freely -- thus signifying control. It is one of those things we all learned in kindergarten: anyone can hurl an insult or a rock, but you only have to fight when you want to.

Rule #3: Once the vertical scenario plays itself out, control reverts back to nation-states, so long as they stay on the offensive. You could say this one also comes from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, because that has been the basic philosophy they have advocated in America's global war on terrorism. In other words, once the dust cleared after 9/11, it was America's task to keep hounding Bin Laden and Al Qaeda until they are completely destroyed as a threat. Our enemy's goal is clear: they need to keep hitting us with vertical shocks that cumulatively depress our stock of rules, our collective sense of individual security, and our belief in the stability of our system. A vertical shock like 9/11 immediately creates a sense of rule-set void: people are thinking, "We are clearly short of the right rules because if we had had them, this disaster never would have happened in this way." If an Al Qaeda can maintain a certain frequency of shocks, America never really fills that void back in with new rules, because we would be constantly scrambling to understand -- yet again -- "how something like this could happen?" But if we maintain a constant pressure on the enemy, those vertical shocks are few and far between, allowing us to fill in any voids created by our original sense of shock and horror. This is the essential difference between America and Israel since 9/11: we have never been hit again, but Israel keeps suffering the vertical shocks of suicide bombings, thus Israeli society suffers systematic brutalization and thus responds more brutally with time. My point: you take the offensive, you limit the need for brutality in your response. You get the bad stuff over as quickly as possible.

What's really at risk in a System Perturbation?

Rule #4: In response to System Perturbations, horizontal systems tighten up vertically, but vertical systems tighten up horizontally? After 9/11, a horizontal system like the United States will tighten up its rule sets by forging more comprehensive cooperation between local, state and federal agencies, or along vertical lines of authority. Horizontal systems like the U.S. naturally fear that their distributedness is their weakness, when in reality, it is their strength. But tightening up along vertical lines only makes sense, sort of defense-in-depth philosophy that is more logical than, say, states coming together per se. In a vertical system you tend to see the opposite sort of response: when the Great Leader finds his rule under attack, he starts reining everyone in because he is never quite sure who to trust. So you see crackdowns on untrustworthy groups and more palace guards. That was basically Saddam Hussein's tack across the nineties after the U.S. booted Iraq out of Kuwait: he kept creating new, ever more trustworthy troops to surround him, and he put those troops under his most trusted relatives. More generally in response to 9/11, we saw plenty of vertical political systems around the world use the excuse of the global war on terrorism to target dissidents, separatists, and the like, reclassifying everyone as a terrorist and seeking the U.S.'s blessing for that designation. So what is at risk here is basically the civil rights of citizens the world over, because a vertical shock can easily send even the most horizontal systems over the top in their search for security.

Rule #5: Vertical scenarios scare horizontal systems more, while horizontal scenarios scare vertical systems more. People living in horizontal systems typically enjoy significantly larger amounts of freedom, and so it is easier to slap a vertical scenario like a terrorist attack on an open society than a closed one. Naturally, people living in more horizontal systems understand that vulnerability and fear vertical scenarios, or the bolt-from-the-blue, far more than horizontal scenarios, or some slow-developing problem against which you can mobilize your network of resources. 9/11 really shocked America, even though the death total was fairly small when you compare it, say, to deaths from car accidents each year (40 to 50 thousand), but those death unfold in small increments, spread out across the land, whereas 9/11's victims died all at once. Plus, Americans understand the risks of driving; we know those rule sets. But 9/11 triggered the response of "People just shouldn't have to die that way," meaning it offended our sense of rules regarding warfare. Bolts-from-the-blue like 9/11 tend to haunt U.S. strategic planners, because we know there is little we can do to prevent an enemy from getting that first sucker-punch in on America, whereas in a long, knockdown drag-out fight, we are very confident that we will prevail. Vertical systems tend to fear horizontal scenarios more, say, like the slow build-up of resistance to rule. Soviet Russia went nuts over individual dissidents like Andrei Sakharov, because they feared he would slowly "poison" the minds of an entire generation, making both rule and reform impossible. They were right to be afraid. Similarly, the political leadership in China runs scared when a Falun Gong movement develops secretly on its own, using the network connectivity of the Internet to spread its gospel. When several thousand Falun Gong disciples showed up one morning on Tianammen Square, what was frightening to the Chinese leadership was less their non-violent protest than the their obvious self-organizing capabilities. So if horizontal systems fear political assassinations, vertical systems live more in fear of grass roots movements. 

Rule #6: Vertical scenarios harm vertical systems more, while horizontal scenarios harm horizontal systems more. This rule simply says that Rule #5 is basically wrong, despite what people in both systems tend to believe. In reality, vertical strikes can do little damage to truly distributed systems. If someone wipes out the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court one afternoon, nothing would really change in our country in terms of our ability to maintain rule. Yes, it would be a huge shock, but it would not be hard to replace all those leaders rather quickly. I could find you 535 ex-senators and representatives living within a ten-mile radius of the Capitol itself who could easily step back into rule, tell me how hard it would be to find nine lawyers in Washington who think they are smart enough to sit on the Supreme Court! But even beyond those facile examples lies the reality that we have 50 "farm teams" around the country, each complete with their own set of executives, supreme courts, and legislative branches. You if you wipe out our national leadership you do not really kill our capacity for leadership, because we have got more political leaders than we can count! What really stresses out horizontal systems like the U.S. are the horizontal scenarios that never seem to end, like a Great Depression, which really only ended when the vertical shock of Pearl Harbor put the country on another pathway. In contrast, vertical systems like Saddam Hussein's regime can really be dismembered quite profoundly simply by taking out the leadership. Remember the "most wanted" deck of cards? That said we really needed to nail only about 50 bad actors in Iraq and we would have eliminated the bulk of the Baath party rule.

Where are the boundaries in System Perturbations?

Rule #7: Vertical scenarios are always preceded by horizontal scenarios that generated the preconditions for system shock. This one I definitely stole from the complexity guys. Their basic point is that no vertical shock occurs in a vacuum. With 9/11, there were a host of horizontal scenarios on our side that led to all that lax security and our government's downplaying the threat from Al Qaeda. So looking for that one "smoking gun" is always an illusion, despite the fact that we always pretend to ourselves that we have really found one, like the FBI "Phoenix Memo." To believe that one little memo should have turned the tides on all those long-term horizontal scenarios is just fantasy. You cannot turn conventional wisdom on its head without a serious shock. On Al Qaeda's side, 9/11 was the culmination of a slow build-up of capabilities and demonstrated strikes over the years. This group did not appear out of nowhere, nor did their grievances.

Rule #8: Vertical scenarios are invariable followed by horizontal scenarios that generate preconditions for future shocks. This one sort of says, "Be careful what you wish for." Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and hopes it will shock the U.S. into rapid defeatism. Instead, we respond with the Pacific Campaign, or a methodical dismantling of Japan's empire. Hitler thought Germany might conquer Russia with the same blitzkrieg that overwhelmed Poland and France, and he got the Battle of Stalingrad and the Siege of Leningrad instead. Al Qaeda thought America would be shocked into isolation after 9/11, and got a Bush Adminstration hell-bent on transforming the Middle East. Of course, as part of that transformation, we invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. That was the "big bang" America put on the Middle East as a whole. But that vertical shock invariably creates its own horizontal scenarios like leaving tens of thousands of U.S. troops trapped in Iraq for the long haul, pulling in jihadists from all over the world to try and kill the "infidels," and forcing the U.S. into an accommodation with the UN it had long sought to avoid regarding postwar Iraq. What new vertical shock comes out of that maelstrom of horizontal scenarios? Good question.

Rule #9: The potential for conflict is maximized when states with differing rule sets are forced into collaboration/collision/clashes. This rule basically defines America's dilemma in pursuing this global war on terrorism: we will constantly be getting into bed with countries whose rule sets do not go well with our own, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or even Syria. How does America cooperate with essentially non-democratic states to spread democracy? Then again, if you want converts, you better work among the sinners, yes? But even tougher questions abound in response to 9/11. You could say, for example, that in pursuing this war on terror, America is basically adopting the Israeli approach of an-eye-for-an-eye, which is problematic for most Americans. Israel may, for religious and cultural reasons, be comfortable with that Old Testament approach, but America is basically a New Testament-style democracy, where the "golden rule" of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" drives most of our rule sets. As I stated earlier, I think the Core-Gap division forces some genuine bifurcation in our security rule sets, and yet, there is no pasting over the reality that this war on terror will cause very profound rule set clashes within America itself.

When do we gain the upper hand in System Perturbations?

Rule #10: A strong offensive strategy can force a certain amount of structure on the most asymmetrical of enemies. Because I believe state-on-state wars are fundamentally a thing of the past, I have strong expectations that the enemies -- whatever form they take -- will be both fairly distributed in their organizational structure and seek to wage war on us in the most asymmetrical means. This enemy could be an Al Qaeda, or a SARS, or an anti-American intifada in Iraq. In these situations, defensive strategies inevitably fail, because all the initiative is left to your enemy. Some might say, "But if you cut off one head of the Hydra, then ten more with appear!" But to be perfectly blunt, I hate arguments that take you down the path of saying in effect: "Whatever we do, let's not piss off the terrorists." If you don't take the fight to the enemy, the enemy brings the fight to you, so we can do this in Manhattan or in Iraq -- and I prefer Iraq. You can counter with, "But what all those soldiers dying in Iraq?" Those lives are no more, nor any less precious than the almost 3,000 we lost on 9/11. But the big difference is that there are soldiers, not civilians. Taking the fight to the enemy forces that enemy to adapt himself to whatever offensive strategy you pursue. If you shoot on sight, then he will hide. If you track him across networks, then he will have to stay mostly off-grid. If you plant yourself in Iraq and Afghanistan, then you will fight him in Iraq and Afghanistan, not New York and Washington.

Rule #11: Our individual plays unfold with utmost speed, but in ignoring any "game clock," we remember that our strength is our inevitability. America's strategic tempo in this global war on terrorism must be deliberate, not rash. We need to line up allies before we strike, not be forced to bribe them afterwards. We want to make clear every time we act, what rule sets we are upholding or proposing. In sum, it is a "rash" U.S. military establishment the advanced world fears most: reckless, trigger-happy, and prone to unilateralism. An inevitable military Leviathan, on the other hand, is what the global system needs most: decisive in its power projection, precise in its targeted effects, and thorough in its multilateralism. So while we will strike with amazing speed, and coordinate our operations with eye toward rapidly dominating any enemy we take on, our strategic choices must be made with great care. Living in an interconnected world, America must understand that almost any time it intervenes militarily overseas, it sets off a series of horizontal scenarios both good and bad. The rest of the Core will invariably have to live with all those resulting scenarios, so they cannot just be forewarned, these countries must be consulted, enlisted, and convinced to the best of our abilities, and that takes effort up front. So tactical and operational speed are doubleplusgood because they save our soldier's lives¸ but strategic speed is fundamentally bad because of its negative effect on the global security rule sets we seek to enhance with every intervention we undertake.

Rule #12: Our efforts to dissipate horizontal scenarios will invariably trigger unintended consequences that take on a life of their own. In the Y2K scenarios, we called this the "Iatrogenic Zone." Iatrogenic refers to "unexpected side-effects that result from treatment by a physician." People who own computers know this one instinctively, whether they realize it or not. Iatrogenic is when you try to download this nice little program from the web to fix this itsy-bitsy problem on your computer, and three hours later you are looking at a complete wipe of your hard drive for your troubles. America's occupation of post-Saddam Iraq places the global war on terrorism in the Iatrogenic Zone. The USA Patriot Act, in many critics' minds, places the Justice Department squarely in the Iatrogenic Zone, where they fear the new powers to fight terrorism will represent a cure worse than the disease. But again, while I cite this rule I see no need to slavishly submit to its logic. All "slippery slope" arguments end up pushing you toward inaction versus action, defense versus offense, and disparate tactics instead of real strategy, so you do not want to go too far with this one.

How do we deal with other states during System Perturbations? 

Rule #13: There is no statute of limitations on cultural blowback, so avoid providing future foes with chosen trauma. Middle East experts will tell you 9/11 is twenty years of blowback from Afghanistan and the mujaheddin we supported there, half a century of blowback from the creation of the state of Israel, and even eight centuries of blowback from the Crusades. Like in your marriage, no "past sins" are ever forgotten, so it is crucial that in our responses to any System Perturbation, we do not simply plant a host of new historical grievances in the hearts of those we hope ultimately win over and integrate into the Core. This is, of course, the great danger of the Big Bang strategy of toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. My Muslim colleagues from that part of the world have told me repeatedly that, immediately following 9/11, America had the chance to win over not just a small percentage of the Muslim world, but a very large one -- depending on its response. These same friends tell me now that that share of potentially winnable Muslims is far smaller, and far more difficult to win, precisely because we have provided them with a newchosen trauma. What is our solution now? As Thomas Friedman likes to argue, America's best hope now is to do whatever it takes to make Iraq a beacon of freedom and progressive change in the Middle East. In effect, we need to turn that chosen trauma into a chosen triumph -- not ours, mind you, but the Iraqi people's.

Rule #14: In response to vertical scenarios, horizontal systems naturally come together, as do vertical systems. This one we saw in spades following 9/11, as the world's free states rushed to our support and joined our substantial multinational coalition that toppled the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. Horizontal systems naturally saw a common threat in the attacks, meaning something that could just as easily happen to them. But vertical systems, in general, saw something very different in 9/11. First, since many such states are not our friends, they saw America receiving her comeuppances for past sins. Second, since a few of these states have long been identified as state sponsors of terrorist groups, they knew they could soon be on receiving end of any general U.S. response. Of course, when President Bush identifies an "axis of evil" by name, then the U.S. simply drives this countries even closer together, furthering their collective disconnectedness from the rest of the world. I do not see anything wrong with that, because I believe in calling a spade a spade. It is just that once you generate such a list, expectations are immediately raised about what you intend to do about that list, so follow-through is crucial. In that way, you could say that the "axis of evil" is a self-declared "domino theory" for the global war on terrorism: America sets itself up for having to deal with the entire lot to demonstrate significant milestones in the war. Is this an aggressive approach to shrinking the Gap? You bet.

Rule #15: Transitional states are forced to choose during System Perturbations, and their choices reveal which direction they are truly heading. By this I mean that the world is full of states trapped somewhere between truly vertical and horizontal system status -- China, Russia, Iran, to name a few. For these states, a System Perturbation represents a real moment of truth: to which "side" do they move? This is what Thomas Friedman describes as the choice between the "Lexus world" and the "olive tree world," and it is what I call the choice between the Core and the Gap, or -- most fundamentally -- a choice between connectedness and disconnectedness. I think we learned plenty about Russia, China, India, and several other New Core members following 9/11. In the case of those three countries, despite the fact that the Pentagon had more than a few nasty things to say about each prior to 9/11, all came down firmly on the U.S. side following this huge loss in our security. They chose. How did Iran choose? Saudi Arabia? Here I fear we are talking about states moving in the wrong direction, although there are better signs from Riyadh following the fall of Saddam Hussein. With SARS, China clearly had a choice to make, and it did so clearly, again reinforcing the perception that the nation is moving deeper into the Core. With our Big Bang in Iraq, America has forced a lot of countries to choose all over again, and we will know the outcomes according to the uniforms that ultimately appear in any UN-sponsored peacekeeping force for Iraq.

* * *

One of the main reasons why I think we are far enough along in our understanding of System Perturbations to start identifying some of the rule sets is because 9/11 was not just an existence proof for the concept, it started a whole new discussion on -- even a whole new lexicon for describing -- the nature of system-level security crises. Look at how the phrase "9/11" has become a touchstone for shocks that remake rule sets. The Chinese have repeatedly referred to SARS as "our 9/11." Australia suffers a great loss of life due to terrorist strike against its citizens touring in Bali, the biggest number of Australians killed in one hostile act since World War II, and they refer to it as "our 9/11." India's Parliament is bombed by terrorists, and many Indiana refer to it as "our 9/11." Russia is confronted by terrorists holding a theater full of hostages in Moscow, and its tragic outcome is described by many Russians as "our 9/11." In each instance, people are talking about security suddenly revealed as inadequate, rule sets suddenly sent into flux, and political systems deeply perturbed.

Understanding how System Perturbations unfold is crucial, in my mind, for understanding war within the context of everything else. This understanding is not only good for helping us stabilize the Core progressively over time, but also in shrinking the Gap, a process that is likely to be regularly punctuated by significant System Perturbations perpetrated by the United States itself, the most revolutionary country the world has ever known. To that end, the Pentagon needs to rethink its ordering principle, as does the entirety of the U.S. national security establishment. The wars we wage and the peace we win across the 21st century will be shaped decisively by how America comes to define crisis in the age of globalization.

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June 13, 2010

PEAK SIGNS ON AS WTA TOUR’S OFFICIAL APPAREL SPONSOR IN ASIA-PACIFIC

Tour’s first major partnership with a Chinese company marks historic milestone in strategic effort to grow and promote women’s tennis in region

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA – The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the world’s leading global sport for women, today announced that Peak Sport Products Co., Limited (“PEAK” Stock code: 01968.HK), an innovative Chinese brand with more than 20 years of experience in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing professional and casual sports apparel, will become the Tour’s official shoe and apparel partner in Asia-Pacific beginning this summer.

Under terms of the five year deal, Peak will receive licensing and merchandising rights to develop a co-branded WTA-PEAK line of apparel; will become the official shoe and apparel partner of a series of Tour events in the Asia-Pacific region; will become a partner of the Tour’s successful China tennis festivals; and will develop a player apparel program.  The partnership is expected to significantly enhance the marketing and promotion of women’s tennis and the Tour brand throughout China and Asia-Pacific.

In 2008, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour embarked on a mission to develop women’s tennis in China by opening a corporate office in Beijing designed to serve as a hub for all Asia-Pacific marketing activity, elevating the status of the China Open to one of the four most important tournaments on Tour, developing a Chinese language website and supporting national grassroots tennis development programs.  The PEAK-WTA Tour partnership marks a historic milestone in the development of women’s tennis in China, validating the Tour’s investment in the region.  Through the new partnership, PEAK and the Tour will look to achieve a shared goal of continued growth among a young, active and fitness-conscious demographic in Asia-Pacific, one of the world’s fastest-growing and most dynamic markets. 

“The growth of women’s tennis in China and Asia-Pacific is of the highest priority for the Tour, and we are thrilled that a great brand like PEAK will be our partner in growing the WTA brand,” said David Shoemaker, President of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.  “The Tour has had a strong belief that the full potential of women’s tennis in China can only be reached by working together with committed and visionary partners, and today’s announcement represents a significant step in this regard.”

Peak's CEO Jim Xu added: “Signing the partnership with the WTA is a win-win for both parties. This is a very strategic agreement for WTA, the tournaments and the development of tennis in China and Asia-Pacific. PEAK usually focuses on specialized equipment for basketball, now we are taking the first important steps for us to promote and build our whole product line, especially the tennis apparel. We believe that this cooperation is only the beginning; there will be a much broader strategic alliance between us in the future.”

“I am very excited that PEAK is becoming a partner of women’s tennis and will be supporting players through a new apparel program,” said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour World No.8 Agnieszka Radwanska.  “China is an exciting growth market for the Tour and I am sure that PEAK will help us reach new heights.”

Established in China in 1989, PEAK stands for Passion, Evolution, Achievement and Knowledge. While making its name in basketball apparel, PEAK has grown into a major global apparel player with quality, reasonably-priced product available in more than 6,600 stores in China and 8 distributors abroad. An additional 1,000 stores will open by 2011.

Under terms of the long-term agreement, PEAK will become the official shoe and apparel partner of the Tour in Asia-Pacific and enjoy a significant on court presence at several Tour events in the Asia-Pacific region.  A major part of the PEAK-Tour partnership will include a player development program through which PEAK will make available to Tour players shoes and apparel.  PEAK will work with players on the development of a cutting-edge, innovative, high-quality tennis apparel and shoe line.  The opportunity to collaborate with the Tour and its players on the development of a tennis apparel line will help PEAK further elevate its brand in both Asia-Pacific and around the world. 

Additionally, PEAK will be the official shoe and apparel sponsor of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Chinese Tennis Festivals.  To be held in Beijing and Guangzhou in September 2010, Chinese Tennis Festivals are three-day events created to promote women’s tennis in China in the lead-up to the Guangzhou Open and the China Open and further spread the popularity of women’s tennis in the region.  A huge hit with fans and the media in its inaugural year, the Chinese Tennis Festivals reached approximately 200,000 people, 70% of whom were under the age of 35, and established tennis as the new favorite sport with thousands of young Chinese fans. 

PEAK focuses on brand building in domestic and international and is dedicated to build up a strong international and professional brand images and to provide a wide range of premium sports products that are both stylish and functional to professional athletes and consumers. Through marketing campaigns and sponsorships in various sport games and tournaments, PEAK has endorsed 12 NBA players, as of March 2010, and has been an exclusive official marketing partner of the NBA in China since October 2007.

Today’s announcement follows the recent news of WTA’s partnership with Oriflame along with renewals with Sony Ericsson and Travelex in March of this year.  

ABOUT THE SONY ERICSSON WTA TOUR

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is the world’s leading professional sport for women with more than 2,225 players representing 91 nations competing for more than $86 million in prize money at the Tour’s 53 events and four Grand Slams in 33 countries. More than 4.9 million people attended women’s tennis events in 2009 with millions more watching on television networks around the world. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season concludes with the Sony Ericsson Championships – Doha 2010 in Doha, Qatar, from October 26-31, and the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, Indonesia, from November 4-7. Further information on the Tour can be found on the Internet at www.sonyericssonwtatour.com.

ABOUT PEAK

The politics of national security is like the politics of health care — you can never have too much health nor too much security.

The problem for the national security complex now established in Canberra is that politicians will always throw a lot more cash at doctors and nurses than at terrorists or spies. In the voter equation, medicos can threaten governments more efficiently than crooks. As a former NSW Premier is apt to observe, the doctors run the strongest trade union in the country.

Without straining the health care-national security similarity too far, there is one other common element to the political calculations involved. No matter how much governments spend, they will always get the blame. Here the analogy ends.

After an extraordinary period of growth, the national security complex is due to enter a period of relative consolidation. The funding rush that began after September 11, 2001, turned into turbo-charged growth after the first Bali bombing in October, 2002. At the end of the decade, key agencies have more than doubled in size and the national security complex has achieved its distinct budget status. Time to take stock.

In his 2008 national security statement, Rudd promised a unified national security budget. It has taken a while, but mark that as a promise met in this budget. Having consolidated the complex, the Prime Minister now wishes to inspect it.

In Rudd's Cartesian universe — I review and report, ergo I am — the national security complex is due for a full medical. Hence the government's decision — foreshadowed by its funding in the budget — of a review of the effectiveness of Australia's intelligence and security agencies.

The Flood review of 2004 was the design document (such as there was) for the way the national security complex evolved over the rest of the decade. The $3 million Rudd review, due to report at the end of next year, will be the Prime Minister's design for the coming decade. See Tim Lester's take on where this could lead.

Going back to that 2008 national security statement is also a useful guide to where the review will be pointed. Back then, Rudd's language was notable for putting terrorism on par with a range of other scourges, from people smugglers and organised crime down to the need for E-security against cyber attacks. Recent musings by the Prime Minister suggest more emphasis on old fashioned state-on-state snooping. Call it the Westphalian default position for spooking.

A large country with a name that begins with 'C' springs to mind, for all sorts of reasons.

Photo by Flickr user kaytethinks, used under a Creative Commons license.

A couple of years ago I decided that it was high time I had a mid-life crisis. You usually don't have to work hard to find a crisis because they are always out there, lurking in the bushes and looking for opportunities to kick butt, but in my case it wasn't happening so I decided to be pro-active.

I was approaching my 50^th birthday when I realized that my comfort zone had become too stagnant. I decided to move to another city just to see what would happen. In late August of 2007, after quitting my job and selling off most of my possessions, I moved to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Why Jakarta? That's a long story but I can tell you I had been looking for an opportunity to teach English overseas for about a year. I saw an ad on the internet looking for teachers at a school in Jakarta and I thought I would give it a shot.

What I knew about Jakarta and Indonesia was 3^rd hand information from a friend in the Philippines. My friend told me that I would probably meet a beautiful Indonesian woman, get married and have a baby within a year. Yeah. Right. But I believed it anyway. Like I said, I was looking for a crisis. I was also intrigued by Elizabeth Gilbert's book, "Eat, Pray and Love." HOWEVER -- and this is a BIG however – Ms. Gilbert's experience in Indonesia was primarily on the island of Bali, a mostly Hindu outpost situated in the midst of the most populous Muslim country in the world. And Ms. Gilbert's time was spent mostly in the city of Ubud, a lovely city I found to be like a small San Francisco with an abundance of art galleries, restaurants and yoga studios.

The majority of MY time was spent in Jakarta on the island of Java. First of all, as anyone will tell you, Indonesians are a wonderful, welcoming people. They're very friendly and give the impression of being happy all the time. But despite the warm nature of the country, I found Jakarta to be a dirty ramshackle metropolis of about 10 to 15 million people. The traffic, referred to as "macet," was so horrendous I thought it should be re-classified as one of Dante's Rings of Hell. There has been very little urban planning because Indonesia still thinks in terms of being a village, where houses, businesses and even roads spring up almost at a whim. There's a great deal of poverty and a lot of begging on the street. When I asked someone about it I was told that begging was actually considered a job. What generally happens is that poor people and people with noticeable medical problems are bused in from the villages, assigned a street corner where they beg for money. At the end of the day, some shadowy "agency" takes them back to their village and takes a cut of whatever they earned.

I also found the things we take for granted in the US, such as zoning laws and health regulations either don't exist or are simply not enforced. A lot of food is sold on the street and it isn't unusual to buy food from a "warung" or food stand, that's set up next to an open sewer. I was told that it was relatively safe to eat the food, which I knew probably wasn't true. But I was hungry, so I ate it anyway.

A few hours later my face broke out with red blotches and my lower intestine began to do a parasitic slam dance. Aside from food poisoning, I was afraid I might have Dengue Fever, which is spread by mosquitoes and can lay you out for about three weeks. Fortunately, that wasn't the case and my face cleared up in a few days. However my bathroom habits left a lot to be desired. For several weeks I tried all kinds of over-the-counter medications -- and believe me, you can get practically anything you want over the counter in Indonesia! If you wanted to get chemotherapy over the counter it wouldn't be a problem – but nothing worked. I finally went to a doctor who spoke English and treated Westerners. He ran one test, came back, and said almost joyously, "You have dysentery!" and threw a packet of Cipro at me. In case you don't know, Cipro is the recommended antidote for Anthrax. Almost immediately, I got better.

But let's talk about this woman and the baby I was supposed to procreate. Don't let anyone kid you, Indonesian women are beautiful, dress modestly, typically wearing a Muslim hajibb, or veil, and if you ask them if they're married you often get the answer, "Not yet." Despite their beauty, the stress of living in a foreign country, the language barrier, my job and my day to day existence simply erased the desire for a girlfriend, lover, or a wife. But Indonesia has a great way of encouraging you to at least "try it."

I found this out when I went to buy some aspirin at a local pharmacy. Usually these places employ more people than they need and whenever you walk in three women descend on you trying to sell you to an expensive herbal remedy for whatever your problem might be. I always found that annoying but I was totally taken by surprise when one day, a woman asked me if I wanted anything for my "stamina." I was surprised that ANYONE would be interested in my stamina, so I asked her, "Why?" She was too embarrassed to answer.

The next day I read of the death of the legendary Mak Erot, who ran her own distinctive stamina business out of her hut in West Java. She was rumored to be anywhere from 101 to 130 years old and had become very famous for her "art," which consisted of enlarging a certain male "appendage" through the use of 145 secret herbs and Islamic prayer. She had apparently been in business for the better part of the 20^th century and when she died it was discovered that she had amassed a fortune of over 30 million US dollars. Her business was turned over to her great-grandsons who are presently keeping her legacy alive on the internet.

While I'm not sure if Mak Erot's death contributed to what I now consider to be phase-one of a full blown mid-life crisis, I'm sure it didn't help. To be honest, it really doesn't matter.

As many of you know, there is always opportunity lurking in the midst of crisis. Jakarta gave me the opportunity to say good-bye to my youth and pointed me in a direction I hadn't seen before. On my fiftieth birthday I taught my first class and was exhilarated when I found out I could do it. I taught English in Jakarta for a year and then spent the next eight months teaching Corporate English in Bangkok, Thailand. When I returned to the United States I had a much better idea of what I wanted to do with my life as well as a deeper conviction of my own mortality. I can't say that moving to the other side of the world for a couple of years is for everybody, but frankly, I think every young man should join the Marines. I'm grateful for a rich experience and the discoveries you always find when you decide to take a risk.

Even a committed hedonistic life requires plenty of self-discipline: you need it actually to book the flight to Bali or to arrange the circumstances for wild sexual encounters

Self-discipline, as human virtues go, is a pretty bloody annoying one. It has a pinched, goody-two-shoes, pleasure-denying air about it; it is the voice of the moralising teacher, or of the rightwing commentator who prescribes it as a remedy for every social ill but whose private life, one suspects, is a quagmire of neurosis and self-hate. Put it this way: you don't look forward to a big party at the weekend because you've been told all the self-disciplined people are going to be there. And yet – this is the annoying part – it's arguably by far the most important quality to cultivate. With enough of it, most desirable things (fulfilling relationships or work, happy moods, lots of money) are attainable; without it, none is. Even a committed hedonistic life requires plenty of self-discipline: you need it even to book the flight to Bali, to obtain those recreational drugs or to arrange the circumstances for wild sexual encounters. Otherwise inertia will out and you'll end up on the couch, half-dressed, watching reruns of Antiques Roadshow and eating baked beans. I speak, as ever, from experience.

It's with all this in mind that I've been testing the Pomodoro Technique, a productivity method that has recently achieved quasi-cult status online. Its originator, Francisco Cirillo, has been teaching it for 10 years, but it has now spawned several web-based fan groups and at least three iPhone apps. Adherents use words such as "godsend" to describe its effect on their ability to focus. In truth, it's unmiraculous, but then so are most genuinely useful things.

Here's what you do: you pick a task, then set a timer – a tool celebrated previously in this space – for 25 minutes, no exceptions. Cirillo uses a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato, and is Italian, hence "pomodoro". Work. When it rings, stop for five minutes. Repeat three more times, then take a longer break. That's just about it. Yet it works.

Half of all those reading that last paragraph will blink in confusion: "Why do you need a technique? Why can't you just do stuff?" But the rest of us know that such tricks can be hugely effective, slowly strengthening the self-discipline muscle. They are, literally, tricks: the ticking clock takes an internal desire to get something done and fools some part of the brain into thinking it's external, that the clock must be obeyed. (Stopping dead at 25 minutes also creates useful momentum for starting again five minutes later.) Even the hokey language – Cirillo calls each 25-minute period a pomodoro – helps, by making the time-blocks seem like "things", out in the world. Another geeky productivity scheme with an online following, Autofocus achieves something similar using cleverly structured to-do lists to "force" the user to confront the tasks they've resolutely been avoiding.

The illusion, voluntarily swallowed, is that choice has been removed – that there's something stopping you from choosing to abandon your focus and default to whatever inertia would have you do: daydream, websurf, beerdrink. Some people take this too far, establishing inner mental drill sergeants to yell at them all day, sapping the joy from life. Judiciously applied, though, this mental trickery is too useful a resource to ignore. Our brains are so easy to fool that it's borderline embarrassing; you might as well salvage some self-respect by exploiting that fact.

oliver.burkeman@guardian.co.uk

An increasingly confident Syria is playing hard to get in its relations with the EU

European Union diplomats in Syria work in a handsome stone house in the leafy Abu Rummaneh quarter of Damascus, guarded by machine gun-toting policemen at the gate. Their well-appointed offices are strewn with glossy brochures about the links between the EU and this Arab republic – testimony to valuable assistance programmes and ambitions for a mutually beneficial long-term relationship.

Yet there is unease about the way things are heading. Last October, after a decade of negotiations, the two sides were poised to sign an "association agreement" covering political and economic issues, trade and investment, modelled on those already concluded by the EU and its eight other "Mediterranean partners".

Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco have all put their relations with Brussels on a formal footing; maverick Libya is conspicuously absent from this "ring of friends". But Syria balked at the 11th hour, insisting it needed more time. The reasons tell an interesting story about President Bashar al-Assad and the view from Damascus.

The official line is that Syria has undergone significant changes since the text was initialled in 2003. A revised version took some of them into account: British and Dutch demands for special statements on human rights and weapons of mass destruction were defeated and the language used now is standard to all EU-Med association agreements.

Still, economic conditions have fuelled fears that the free trade requirements could endanger Syrian industries, though tariffs on EU goods are to be cut over long periods. Crushing competition from the Turkish textile market has served as a warning.

"We are reviewing the relevance of the text to the Syrian economy today," explains Abdullah Dardari, the deputy prime minister and architect of recent economic reforms. But there is much more to it than that. "Even a free trade agreement must be built on political understanding and trust," he says. "An EU foreign policy that respects Syrian and Arab rights creates more confidence – and makes the lives of technocrats and economists easier."

Beyond the crunchy detail of the agreement's 144 articles there is a litany of complaints that Syria deserves better. Europe's passivity in the face of the US-led war in Iraq – with British participation – is a big one. Others include the EU, led by France, blaming Syria for the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, support for Beirut's "cedar revolution" and Syria's ejection from Lebanon after nearly 30 years.

Yet another is Europe's failure to challenge US policies towards Israel and the Palestinians, especially its refusal to talk to the Islamists of Hamas, Syria's protege – which, like Lebanon's Hizbullah, is considered a terrorist organisation on both sides of the Atlantic but a "resistance movement" in Damascus.

"Nobody is in a position to lecture us on human rights," insists another official, echoing Assad at his most combative. "The Europeans should have an independent position vis-a-vis Syria."

The western media is considered hostile too. Journalists who ask about the prospects for political change in Syria get angry answers about the boycott of Hamas, the invasion of Iraq or Israel's war on Gaza. More thoughtful responses explain that the president's priorities are boosting the economy, creating wealth and raising educational standards so his country can take its place in a globalised world.

Syrians have also noticed, like others before them, that the EU is less than the sum of its parts. "We used to have a Europe file but we've split it into separate countries – France, Germany and the UK," said Samir al-Taqi, the influential head of the Orient Centre for International Studies. "Europe no longer behaves as a unit and you get policies of the lowest common denominator."

And the Qatari and other Gulf Arabs flocking to Syria's newly liberalised financial and investment sector – the Damascus stock exchange is just a year old – do not share European concerns about Assad's domestic or foreign policies.

Worse, for Brussels and its representatives in Abu Rummaneh, is the sense that Syria cares more about its slowly improving relations with the US. Not a week goes by without some senior administration official or congressman arriving from Washington, often invited for a flattering one-to-one at the presidential palace. The US ambassador was withdrawn after the Hariri killing, but a newly appointed one is eagerly awaited.

Americans and Europeans are both wooing Syria because of its strategic position in the Middle East – its role in any peace process, its co-operation in fighting jihadi terrorism and stabilising Iraq and its capacity, if excluded, for troublemaking, as Iran's main Arab ally and supporter of "resistance movements". "For Syria the carrots are just not tempting enough," argues Rosa Balfour of the European Policy Centre in Brussels. "It can ignore Europe because its political role is so important." The gloomy conclusion is that, despite reassuring noises, the agreement with the EU may not be signed any time soon.

The feeling in Damascus is that Syria has come through a tough period and survived to realise that it still holds cards that others badly want it to play. "Five years ago things looked really bad for this regime – with Lebanon, Iraq, Bush and the neocons," says a Syrian intellectual who is privately critical of Assad. "Now look. Are these guys very smart or is it just that the rest of the world really needs them?"

The local media can be extremely misleading as a source of information. They generally do not see their role as a check on government and business, with the result that government intentions are frequently reported as facts. A huge proportion of news stories, when you follow them up, turn out to be speculation, trial balloons, rumour and deliberate distortion.

President Lee Myung-bak pledged Wednesday to support North Jeolla Province's bid to become the ``food capital'' of Northeast Asia, saying the project was closely related to the government's plan to globalize hansik, Korea's traditional cuisine.

``The province's efforts to build a cluster of food firms and institutes deserve more attention as the importance of the food industry is growing fast,'' Lee said during a visit to Jeonju, a city in the province famous for bibimbap, a mix of rice, vegetables and meat.

``I believe its plan to become the food capital will not only help promote regional development but also help foreigners better understand Korea and its dietary culture.''

"This project is not about protecting the environment," said Park Hyoung Bae, an official with the Saemangeum development authority. "It is about economic development. And we will do that in an environmentally sound way."

[Developers] will replace natural wetlands with artificial ones and turn riverbeds into lakes. They will build a park along the road on the sea dyke and try to attract tourists with a theme park, convention center and even perhaps a casino.

Korea began work to transform part of the Saemangeum tidal flats on the country's southwest coast into a regional tourism hub, the government said Thursday, according to Yonhap News.

The park region is part of a much larger 10.2 trillion won project that aims to build a world-class tourism industry hub on Saemangeum by 2020. The hub will cover 24.4 square km and feature international schools, theaters, museums, healthcare facilities and a residential area deemed vital for attracting both local and foreign investors.

South Korean farmer Jeong Jong-tae, who lives in Suncheon Bay Area, is busy feeding hooded cranes at four o'clock every afternoon as it is now a season that the birds come from Siberia winter to the region's well-preserved wetlands.

The food for the endangered birds comes from Jeong's own harvest, which he grew by taking an eco-friendly, organic way of farming.

It has been only a year since Jeong took the job, which is part of the so-called "scenic farming" the Suncheon municipal government launched in a bid to provide first-class food and shelter for some 1,000 migratory birds that visit wetlands in South Korea's far-south city every winter.

A committee of 95 nearby farms, led by Jeong, joined the government-led project, agreeing to renovate their farms as a place where visiting birds could gather, while supported by the city government through tax benefits and subsidies.

adapted his pragmatism to the ``wise use of wetlands,'' the No.1 priority of the Ramsar Convention. ``What must be protected must be protected, but it would be even better if wetlands are utilized as eco-tourism sites because that could result in not only their protection but also the revitalization of the local economy,'' he said.

From Panos, part of the Guardian Environment Network

The race for the UN's top climate change post is heating up with calls for it to go to a candidate from a developing country. Costa Rica put its hat into the ring this week, nominating its lead climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres to succeed Yvo de Boer. Alongside South Africa, other frontrunners include India and Indonesia. Environmental journalists Pierre Fitter in Delhi and Harry Surjadi in Jakarta weigh up their chances.

Harry Surjadi in Jakarta

Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently returned from talks in Australia, where alongside topics such as people smuggling and terrorism was another pressing issue: climate change. A fortnight ago the two countries signed a US$27 million deal to tackle deforestation on the island of Sumatra - a key problem in Indonesia where 80 per cent of emissions come from deforestation, both by legal and illegal loggers.

But while climate change might make it onto a global political platform, back home it means almost nothing to the average Indonesian.

Indonesia has so far expressed interest in submitting a candidate but when the news broke it made little impression on the local media. So far only three national newspapers have covered the story, two of which are English language publications. In this case environment reporters had to push the story onto the agenda, calling up experts to ask their opinions on potential candidates. Meanwhile, the vernacular media rarely covers climate change issues at all.

Divided opinions

Opinion remains divided over who will be chosen. Emil Salim, a member of the Advisory Council to President Yudhyono and Indonesia's first environment minister, is considered a frontrunner as a result of his international track record and his role in developing the country's first environmental laws. He is also seen to be equally tough on developed and developing nations, expecting both sides to pull their weight when it comes to lowering emissions. Meanwhile, the Jakarta Post claims the three most likely candidates are former foreign minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda, Agus Purnomo, head of the National Council on Climate Change and a special staff member to the president on climate issues and Liana Bratasida, deputy environment minister.

Beyond a small number of environment journalists, climate change is not a priority for either the media or the public. The media is more interested in politics than climate change and a key issue for both the public and the media is corruption.There is agreement among Indonesia's few dedicated environment journalists that it is time to appoint a developing world candidate to the UNFCCC. Ideally it would be someone with a character strong enough to bridge the divide between the views of developed and developing countries.

Leading role for Indonesia?

Indonesia would be a good choice. It is a developing country that manages most of the time to strike a middle ground. An Indonesian at the helm of the UNFCCC, for instance, would find less resistance from both developing countries (such as the G77 and China) and from developed countries such as the US and Australia, one of its key allies.

Indonesia also showed strong leadership when it hosted UN talks in Bali in 2007. However, its delegations took more of a back seat in Poznan and Copenhagen. If Indonesia gets this opportunity, most environmental journalists believe Indonesian can play bigger role in bridging and finding a resolution for the current deadlock in climate change negotiations.

Climate change is important to the government in so far as it has pledged to cut emissions by 26 per cent by 2020. But in reality, the most important thing for Indonesia is how to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Pierre Fitter in Delhi

When the news broke that Yvo de Boer was standing down from his post at the head of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change, India was the first country to offer up a candidate for the role.

The candidate is Vijay Sharma, India's environment secretary. According to local media, Jairam Ramesh, the country's environment minister, has said India has China's support for the bid. Sharma would "provide a bridge between developing and developed worlds", he added.

A bridge is just what is needed right now as when it comes to climate change on a global stage there is a trust deficit in the negotiating room. Yvo de Boer, the outgoing UN climate chief, did a respectable job. His stewardship gave us the Bali road map and, to some extent, the Copenhagen Accord. But attempts by rich countries last year to kill the Kyoto Protocol - the only treaty that guarantees penalties if countries don't act to stop climate change -angered developing countries. Denmark's prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen didn't help matters when he tried to bulldoze through the so-called 'Danish draft' at the Copenhagen Summit last December.

Many Indians decry what they see as attempts by the rich Western world to keep us locked in a cycle of poverty: "Sorry, you can't use cheap coal like we did, but we're not going to give you the money or technology to clean up your act either." They fear that if the West forces India to cut emissions, the increased costs of things like clean energy would bury us in debt.

Energy, clean or otherwise, is a highly contentious issue in India. Even thinking of increasing energy costs, for example, is tantamount to political suicide. Just ask India's ruling United Progressive Alliance. The coalition government's proposed annual budget now stands on shaky ground after a proposal to raise fuel prices by just a few rupees. With Indian wallets already struggling under the strain of food price inflation, which has remained above 15 per cent for months, there was public outcry.

So when news broke that Yvo de Boer was stepping down, the Indian government saw it as a chance to get its voice heard. Jairam Ramesh has been reported in local media as saying Sharma's appointment would reflect "India's importance in climate change negotiations".

Interesting political choice

Sharma makes for an interesting political choice. Brazil, South Africa, India and China emerged as the single most powerful bloc in the Copenhagen climate change talks last December. South Africa has also nominated its own candidate Marthinus Van Schalkwyk. The hope is that by putting an Indian or South African candidate at the helm of the UN's climate negotiations process, the balance would shift in favour of developing countries. While that's not entirely true (the executive secretary answers directly to Ban ki-Moon, not his or her home government) at least developing countries will get a sense of security that they will be heard.

The Indian media has not given the race as much coverage as you might expect, considering climate change is now a hot topic. Perhaps it is because they have low expectations for Sharma winning the race. Ironically, China's support could end up being the major handicap. After all, both India and China are demanding the extension of the Kyoto protocol, which does not require them to cut any carbon emissions. US lawmakers believe this is an unfair deal, especially as China and India are now the largest and fourth-largest emitters of carbon, respectively. Having "their man" lead the negotiations and dictate terms to US diplomats would not sit well in Washington.

The US remains the 800-pound gorilla in the fight although its authority is now being challenged by the four 600-pound gorillas of the BASIC group. As secretary general of the UN and the man who will pick the successful candidate, Ban ki-Moon finds himself in the middle of the fight. In order to keep both sides happy he will probably be forced to pick a compromise candidate. As a result, not many people in the Indian media believe the post will go to an Indian.

Since a deadly bombing attack on hotels in Jakarta last year, Indonesian security forces have tracked down the militants responsible and prevented other attacks.   They also killed Noordin Top, the leader of the group that carried out the attack on the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. And they hunted down and killed a man known as Dulmantin, who had long been on Indonesia's most-wanted list, suspected of being involved in a 2002 attack on the island of Bali.

While the security forces have been praised for these actions, Andi Widjajanto, a military analyst from the University of Indonesia, is concerned that the increased police activity also indicates an increased level of militant activity.

"I think after the Marriott and (Ritz) Carlton 2009, after the raid of Aceh and Pamulang, there is a strong indication that the network is getting stronger and stronger," Widjajanto said. "It is not getting weaker."

Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said Top  had been the only leading militant leader in Indonesia who had still been campaigning for implementation of Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa on killing Westerners. "There isn't another radical leader in Indonesia who has given that same message so consistently," said Jones. She said Top's death was "a huge blow for the extremist organizations in Indonesia and the region."  "It's a major success for the police but it doesn't mean, unfortunately, that the problem of terrorism is over. It's still unclear how many people were in Noordin's group and there are a number of fugitives still at large.