Hi Mister Melody!

One of the things you’d first notice about Luis Dominguez Pecero is that he is inseparable from his head phones. One can argue that lots of young people enjoy listening to music but not for everybody music is a lifeline. “Music is my passion, the air I breathe. And without air we suffocate”, Luis says in this lilting melodic accent of his.

Luis is interested in working in musical journalism. According to him, there is a tune for every mood, a piece of music can often say more than a hundred words. For him the tune for happy days is “Counting down the days” by Sunfreakz and the sad days music is “Fountain” by Clint Mansell.

When asked if a person feeling depressed perhaps should listen to upbeat tunes to feel better, he just smiles and shakes his head: “If you catch the mood you should keep it”. From his point of view, sadness and other so called negative emotions can prove to be beneficial as they give food for thought and help to discover new things about oneself.

“Here in Great Britain I often listen to traditional Mexican music when I feel nostalgic”, Luis admits. He especially likes cumbia, it is energetic dance music, which uses timbales, guitars, trumpets and percussions, or bolero which is more of romantic music”.

In relationships with people Luis thinks that “everything starts with a smile”. The qualities that appeal to him in people are friendliness, positive approach and goals in life. He dislikes narrow-minded and materialistic people.

Even his handwriting gives away his optimism and creative streak as he writes the names of his favourite songs in his neat, well-rounded but slightly childlike manner, with letters barely connected to each other. Luis confirms this with a smile: “Yes, I am still in the process of creative development, still searching for things that will fulfil me and make me happy”.

Internet communication - field of battle or platform for discussion?

The Guardian article on Stephen Fry, "technofile and twillionaire", who has recently been considering "committing Twittercide", in other words leaving Twitter, gives food for thought. An avid twitter having quite a renommee for his sharp wit and smart retorts, Stephen Fry appears to be immune to Twitter challenges - comments of users which are quite often unpleasant or even gross. But even Mr. Fry admitted to feeling frustrated with the low level of culture of internet communication.


Lots of people seem to feel protected by a solid shield of cyberspace separating them from their interlocutors, and that makes them behave in a much bolder way on Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal and all kinds of other social networks and forums than they would do in a real life conversation. It looks as if hidden behind their usernames and avatars people have no longer to face "flesh and blood" opponents but rather some kind of a "virtual character" who has no name, no face and no voice. The whole personality is squeezed into an obscure username and avatar picture that may not reveal anything about the user at all.


Can it be so that thanks to the anonymity of internet communication some users perceive people they interact with in the web as "unidentified objects" having no feelings to take into consideration while posting another nasty comment? The topics of discussion can be different ranging from political issues to climate change to this autumn's fashion trends or favourite football clubs. But judging by what I've witnessed, there would always be a number of people humiliating their opponents' views or ridiculing them. They can argue that they are only expressing their opinions. But I firmly believe that "freedom of self-expression of one person shouldn't be an insult for another". I bet that most of those people, well, at least a certain percentage of them, wouldn't dream of phrasing their points of view in the same harsh and sometimes even obscene way in a face-to-face or even a phone chat. Why?


Can it be so that some people follow moral and ethical norms of behaviour in their everyday social life only fearing a severe verbal reaction (and maybe not only verbal) if they fail to do so? And once in internet they enjoy total impunity and permit themselves wicked lash-outs on those who dare to disagree with them or in some other way arouse their negative feelings? If this is the case we could probably consider this as one of the side-effects of web interaction. Which is sad if you come to think of it.


The internet offers so many opportunities to socialise shortening distances and ignoring time zones between people, and it would be a shame to turn it into a field of battle instead of using it as a platform for discussion. Probably enforcing more rigid restrictions on the acceptable ways of self-expression in the internet would be a good initiative and would be one more step towards tolerance and open-mindedness.

Kenyan Safari - ambitious tourism destination

World Travel Market is an annual event organised by the Reeds Exhibitions. WTM is a widely recognised event attended by a large number of tourism companies representatives, journalists but also open for students who are interested in travelling and environment protection. This year WTM took place 9-12 November.

World Travel Market not only presents to its visitors a wide variety of places to visit, it also organises a series of presentations, discussions and seminars preaching responsible tourism, with international tourism experts participating in the sessions http://www.wtmlondon.com/

But above all, World Travel Market is a festive occasion where travelling amateurs and connoisseurs would revel in the fabulous display of places to visit. Among the countries presented at WTM every inquisitive visitor's eye would find something to appreciate: Malaysia with its amazing rainforests, Uzbekistan with its famous historical Silk Road, Brazil with its colourful festivals.

One of the things that's hard to miss is Kenyan Safari http://www.go2africa.com/kenya

Kenyan treasures

It is a very important tourism attraction enjoying immense popularity among visitors from the USA, Germany, Scandinavian countries, France, Italy and other countries. However, the significance of the Kenyan Safari lies not only in its tourism value but also in its serving the purposes of environment protection. There are challenges facing wildlife and the conservation of biodiversity of Kenya such as climate change, deterioration of habitats and human wildlife conflict caused by the growth of population and irresponsible usage of land and resources. That's why it's essential to protect the wildlife of the country and provide appropriate conditions for life and reproduction of animals, especially rare species.

According to Race Musumba Tavasi, Head of Marketing and Business Development of Kenya Wildlife Service http://www.kws.org/ Kenyan Safari consists of 30 parks spread across the country that vary in species of animals they keep. There is the traditional "Big Five" of course: lions, elephants, buffalos, rhinos and leopards. But there are also rare species of animals such as Roan Antelope, Sable Antelope and Grevy's Zebra. Mrs Tavasi says that "people visiting the Safari have an authentic experience of seeing animals in their natural habitat which is much more exciting than going to the zoo". In her opinion, it is also important that the conditions in which animals are kept "do not interfere with environment" and therefore "the Safari is a means of conserving rare species".

Considering the fact that organisers of Safari Tours offer reasonable packages including tickets, accomodation and visiting the parks it proves to be a tempting opportunity for tourists to get acquainted with the wildlife of Africa without affecting the environmental balance of the country.