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Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!
Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:
For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.
Marcin, from Poland, but alliteratively travelling in Panama sent the Beetle this message: Hola Hombres, after only 3 hours in Panama, my host Johnny from Haiti and I went to the demonstration against the war in Iraq. It’s good that Panama also want to show that something is wrong in our world. There weren’t too many people but the atmosphere was great and the first time I saw nuns, priests and old ladies with rosary beads on the demonstrations walking along with young communists with Che Guevara flags, Indians, feminists everybody in the same spirit and I hope that our effort can make a change.
The Beetle attended the London march: who knows how many people plodded along the London streets – the organisers say 2 million, the police much less than that. It took three hours to walk from Blackfriars Bridge to Hyde Park at a slow shuffle. The atmosphere was marvellous, people of all age, race, shape, colour attended. Despite the cold and the bad sound system, it felt like attending a historic moment.
Another global warning on terrorism has been given to Americans travelling abroad by the US State Department. This one is dated 7th February.
The worldwide caution replaces a similar warning made in November and reminds people to be aware of the dangers of a terrorist attack.
It asks travellers to remain vigilant due to a heightened threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians, including the possibility of attacks by non-conventional weapons. It also reminds American citizens travelling or living overseas to avoid demonstrations.
US citizens and interests are vulnerable to attacks, including those by groups with links to Al-Qaeda, says the government. Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations, assassinations or kidnappings.
The State Department goes on to say that while conventional weapons such as explosive devices pose a more immediate threat in many areas overseas, terrorist use of non-conventional weapons, including chemical or biological agents must be considered a growing threat.
These individuals and groups have proved that they do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. Because security and security awareness have been elevated within the United States, terrorists may target US interests overseas. Private Americans should remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and exercise caution.
Attacks on places of worship and schools, and the murders of private American citizens and other westerners, demonstrate that as security is increased at official US facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers will seek softer targets.
These may include facilities where Americans or possibly other foreigners are generally known to congregate or visit, such as residential areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, hotels, outdoor recreation events or resorts and beaches. Americans should increase their security awareness when they are at such locations, avoid them, or switch to other locations where Americans in large numbers generally do not congregate. There is a possibility that American citizens may be targeted for kidnapping or assassination.
Demonstrations in many parts of the world may have an anti-American character. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn into confrontational situations and possibly escalate into violence. US citizens travelling or residing abroad should avoid demonstrations and take commonsense precautions.
The warning is due to expire on May 4.
The London Meetings co-ordinator sent notice of this wonderful exhibition to the Beetle: a major exhibition of internationally acclaimed Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado, chronicles the human cost behind major political events. Featuring 350 haunting black and white photographs taken from Salgado’s renowned Migrations and Children series, it is a moving account of those displaced by conflict.
Venue: Barbican Gallery Location: Gallery floor, level 3 Open: 13 February – 1 June 2003 Mon, Tue, Thu-Sat 10am – 6pm; Wed 10am – 9pm; Sun & Bank holidays 12 noon – 6pm Tickets £7/ £5Please support Amnesty International’s work. Purchase a special ticket and £1 will be donated directly to Amnesty International. Tickets £8/£6 Full price tickets can be booked online, To purchase discounted tickets, please contact the Box Office on 020 7638 8891.
USA: New Orleans Mardi Gras 4 MarchThousands take to the streets of The Big Easy in a virtuoso display of fabulously colourful costumes and magical floats.
Winter Party March 1st to 10th March, Miami
1-10 March 2003 (every year) is the gay mecca that is South Beach, Miami; this famed party benefits the Dade Human Rights Foundation.
Source: What’s On When
Our organization, Save the Earth Network, an entirely self funded organization (generating its income from the participation fees of our volunteers, visitors and eco-tourists) makes donations to humanitarian projects. Our partner organizations are orphanages, foster homes and a construction/ renovation organizations in Ghana. Churches, other organizations and individuals make donations to our partner organizations.
We have many volunteer opportunities and also eco-tourism opportunities to travel around Ghana. Also, in March this year we plan to start our own HIV/AIDS prevention education projects/programs in Ghana and are looking for volunteers to help in this too
People who would like to participate in any of our programs should please contact: Edgar Asare or Eben Mensah at Save the Earth Network, P.O. Box CT 3635, Cantonments, Accra, Ghana. West Africa. Tel: 233-21-667791, Fax: 233-21-669625 or e-mail Eben on: ebensten@yahoo.com.
If you would like to get in touch with some of our former volunteers from all over the world, they are happy to provide testimonials. Please contact WonHye Chung from the USA on wchung@wellesley.edu , Jane from England at dodgytie@hotmail.com, Kim from New Zealand at kimbaker73@hotmail.com or Waahida from the USA at waahida@hotmail.com
Globetrotter Mac shares with us his thoughts and experiences on his travels around the world. If you want to contact Mac, please e-mail him on:
1. In England pubs labelled “Free Houses” mean that the keepers have no tie up with a particular brewery and serve various brands (you still have to pay for the beer.)
2. Guide in India trying to get tour group to move faster: “don’t look, it will take time” Another time he said “Don’t look in a scholarly manner.”
3. Malaysia: I got diarrhoea travelling on a boat in Malaysia. I have gotten diarrhoea all over the world. Advice the Malaysian guide gave me: “for your diarrhoea eat burnt toast soaked in water”. If you get chilli (hot sauce I guess) in your eye pour water on your toe. If you burn your finger put it in your ear, who needs Walter Reed Army Hospital? Pepto Bismol sometimes helps me. I also Blackberry wine. (I drink a lot of this just to be on safe side!)
4. On Indian trains they have a hook on floor under berth where you can chain your luggage, so I carry lightweight padlock and small chain. If you check luggage at the baggage room in India train station they required the bag to be locked. Can use same padlock.
5. Bucharest. 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7. Our guide counts the empty bus seats and if she has 7 empty seats she knows we are all on the bus. I went into a pastry shop here in Bucharest and pointed to the pastry I wanted. A local came up to me and said they are very cold. Later when I ate it I realized he probably said “they are very old”. Ha!
Would you like to tell us about your travels? Contact the Beetle.
Meeting news from our branches around the world.
Iris, a British lady of considerable character and pluck, is on a 23 week overland truck expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.
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27th November 2002
Arrived in Quito at 1730 local time. Met 4 people from Madrid, 4 more from the UK and 4 others at the hotel and today 7 of them plus me went to the Equator. It was really hot, sun beating down and some had no hats and were getting burnt up! On the way back, we had taxi race but my taxi lost! All told good flight and meeting some great people. Hotel okay – no spiders or cockroaches in sight! Everything very clean.
Pre-expedition meeting tonight – there are only 41 of us instead of 44 – I am on a truck with 20 others – does that mean I’m on my own in a tent? Will have to see! (Beetle: we’ll hear a lot more about this particular aspect of Iris’ trip!)
Left Quito at 1100 hrs after a frenetic time trying to get everything packed into that locker! 77cm x 40cm x 30cm seems a large space until you find it is made of hard wood! Everyone had similar problems to me, but I got mine in with little problems compared to others and some still haven’t managed to transfer their stuff to their lockers!! It’s 5 hours down to Baños, out first stop (still in Ecuador and we’ll be here in Baños for 4 nights.
Am sharing with an Australian lady, Judith – 3 yrs older than me but a kindred spirit. We did our exercises together this morning! Everyone on the trip is so friendly and we really enjoyed the trip down here together. The hotel is fine. It appears we will be staying in hotels most of the time at the moment. We’ve been given a programme for the next 8 weeks (54 nights) and are staying in hotels for 37 of those. Apparently we start camping after we’ve dropped people off in Santiago in Chile. We are all longing for the camping to start.
Weather here is changeable at the moment however as it is the rainy season and today we had our first real rain, which lasted all morning, but now the sun is out. However, Baños is nestled below an active volcano, which as I write is spewing forth steam! We saw it from all sorts of aspects as we approached Baños – I wrote in my journal that it looks so “innocently menacing”! Black and brooding above this small town. In the church there are countless paintings depicting disasters in the past, and when one looked at the earth in the banks on the way down to the town, it was black earth, obviously from previous laval deposits. We are chilling out here – all of us, recovering from the journey to South America and some of us had really fraught times getting here – Judith, my room-mate came from Australia via London and took four days of constant travel to get here hours before we were due to leave Quito! She is really jet-lagged and needs this time to recover.
Activities here are walking (I’ll participate); canyoning (abseiling, sliding down ropes and swimming) planned for tomorrow (definitely not for me – as Judith said, if it was the last week of the trip we might risk it, but this early in? No way!); mountain bike riding (ditto for canyoning!); rafting (ditto again). Most people, I think, just want to chill out and renew energy for the remaining 22½ weeks!
If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk
Anyone got Cabin Fever?
You know the feeling, stuck inside with only electric lights to shine upon you, thinking about far off exotic places. Help is at hand in the form of our monthly meet ups, where you can:
Where: Upstairs at The Globe pub, 37 Bow St,
Covent Garden W2
When: Tuesday 4th Feb from 6:30pm
Price: NOTHING
There is a map at ifworldwide.com