Chaos at airports

Living in the UK I got used to speaking weather to people. As a rule, everybody is of the same opinion: they keep complaining about it. 20 minutes at the platform waiting for a train under never-ending drizzle, and strangers become friends.

Yesterday, passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick and other airports had even more reasons to be unhappy about the weather. Unexpectedly large amount of snow had caused delays and cancellations of flights. Because of the unpredictability of the weather passengers were informed about cancellation of their flights at an extremely short notice, often after they had already completed the registration process, sometimes even after they had boarded their planes.

During an hour that we spent queuing at the registration (yes, I was lucky enough to spend only one hour in the queue!), an Italian lady standing next to me shared with me her sad story. "This is my fifth attempt to fly to Milan", she said with a sigh. "I've been trying since Sunday. On one of the flights we had even boarded the plane and had waited there for four hours when they announced that we're not flying anywhere". A young guy standing ahead of us turned and nodded sympathetically. "I undestand you so well! I've only spent 20 hours at the airport trying to leave this country. I hate planes, airports, snow. Hell, I hate everything by now!" he exclaims. A German girl joined in the heated discussion on such a (seemingly!) neutral subject as weather. "My flight wasn't cancelled but I still wasn't able to board the plane", she said in a resigned way. Quizzical expressions on our faces prompt her to elaborate. "Well, the registration queue took so long that I actually was late for my own plane although I was on time - precisely two hours before the flight. Just as they recommend us", she explained.

After hearing all this, I experienced a slight panic attack. I looked around. The queue ahead of me seemed endless, passengers from all the cancelled flights accumulated, and it took a long time to deal with each passenger's query since most of them had already rebooked at least once. People were understandably nervous and angry, the airport staff did their best to help but there was little they could do. I felt that the British weather that we so often complain of had decided to take its cruel revenge on us, and, just as the BA strikers, had chosen the least appropriate moment for its display of character. Right before Christmas when so many people can't wait to join their loved ones - what could be worse?

I was really fortunate to be able to make it on time: with lots of running and rushing, and sweating, and being dangerously close to a nervous break-down. But I finally got on my plane and arrived in the cold snowy Moscow. And for the first time I thought just how lucky we Russians are to have our snowstorms and snowdrifts as an everyday phenomenon in winter. Being used to this kind of weather, Moscow airports worked in their usual regime, and I even didn't mind gloomy faces of the airport staff and was almost happy to see too insistent cabbies outside the Domodedovo airport.

Teaching

I have always felt that teaching is more of a vocation than a job. It may sound funny but I believe it is an in-born quality, a gift.

Yet so many people who are not in the profession and unfortunately some who are in it stick to the view that teaching is all about forcing into the heads of lazy, dumb individuals things they do not care about, using stick-and-carrot method. Good marks are carrots and a possible failure in the exams can be used as sticks. It's amazing how some people don't accept the very idea that their pupils may actually be intelligent, have their own way of learning and may think in the patterns slightly different from the teachers'.

I love this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on teaching: "Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee". For what indeed is a teacher who does not open doors for his pupils? I would like to add not only open the doors but hold them open long enough for them to enter.

For there will always be some who will walk in smoothly and confidently, whereas for others every step takes an effort, still others may stop hesitantly at the porch and get pushed away by a hurrying crowd of their more decisive peers. And a good teacher is the one who manages this crowd, the one who is able to listen through the cacophony of voices, discern each and every one of them and tune in to it.

Street racing a la russe

Russia has been long known to foreigners as a land of cold and communism.
However, at the moment a new stereotype is forming in the minds of Western observers.




https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuW94lNoPnAC37t9KkMmHXLEML7wouTwgqMVpoHhuQkAM_ZXKBkPKk8Kf9ru-uWqV8Tzbi-NbQawbaw9hj70kNd8CFeu72P22TAyOvXcr9IhhoFyYhY3pJ00p_iGdRoQPPz3jV4QTmeI3y/s1600-h/800px-Lamborghini_Murci%C3%A9lago_Roadster_2005%5B1%5D.jpg

Money, money, money

"Russians are so rich!", exclaims my English friend emphatically. My raised eyebrows vividly witness my disagreement. With one-fifth of the population according to the official statistics (and one-third as per independent sources) living below the poverty line, my friend's point of view is nothing short of ludicrous. Although he probably has his reasons to think so.

Oligarchs make their generous contribution to the image of a Russian person in the eyes of a foreigner. There are quite a few things they are notorious for to the Western public - buying famous football clubs, enjoying luxurious villas on the Cote d'Azure, having fun in Courchevel

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/europe/article1292023.ece

Oddly enough, no charity activities or environment protection concerns are on top of their list of priorities.

But tycoons apparently feel it's important to give a good education to their children. "Golden" kids are often sent to study to obscure but posh sounding places where they appear when they are free from buying posh cars or breaking 1,000 dollar champagne bottles (believed to be a good omen in Russia although one would normally break just a couple of glasses at a marriage or a similar event). Obviously, such intense studies take their toll and kids have to unwind, no doubt about that. Street racing along the banks of Lake Geneva seems to have been one of those activities.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20091123/156951219.html

Once in Geneva

Quiet Swiss roads apparently are not used to youngsters speeding by in their Lamborghinis.

So it must have come as a bit of a surprise for a German senior citizen carefully driving his Volkswagen at 60 mph when his car was hit by a luxurious vehicle going at 124 mph according to the official version.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4uMF305FSNRmUpuGQMCsLI3Ueyv7_kZA4c10lkEssxFriv9FoHEwlONECp1JXBRpanhLnJpPNSbGG-TA2OvNkOmS20XUNyCMWWgFnGoLSZnnqi9bodT4OoNEBdQVWes3ky4BpYeIwWXk/s1600-h/770px-Lago_di_Lugano3%5B1%5D.jpg

The funny thing was that after a bit of contemplating the court ruled that the 22-year-old student who had violated the speed limitations (there were repair works on this part of the road) and who had alcohol detected in his blood was not guilty. The German was obviously in the wrong because he had followed the traffic regulations. It happens.

To be continued...

If this story is not nauseating enough there is a development to it. Journalists who covered the situation were faced with the strict censorship. The interviewees became edgy and nervous and insisted on taking away their most expressive quotes, most likely after the conversation with the protective Dads of the naughty kids. Editors pressured by "the omnipotent" of the Russian society had their writers soften the tone of their articles to avoid the risk of hurting feelings of the sensitive tycoons.

I had a chance to read the draft versions of some articles and to compare them with what readers saw in the papers soon afterwards, and didn't know how to react. Using Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov's quote, "all of this would have been funny had it not been so sad".

We're all in the same train

More than a week has passed since the Nevsky Express wreckage claiming thirty

people dead and over a hundred injured. Not to mention an immeasurable number
losing the scarce remains of their trust in the government's ability to provide safety

for its people.

What exactly has happened? Who is to blame for it? And most importantly, how to ensure that

nothing of the kind will ever happen again?

Media coverage

Journalists presented completely different versions of the crash. If one compares an angle, tone

and even wording of various articles and news bulletins on the subject, one probably wouldn't

believe that they all cover the same event. The government TV channel "Vesti" for instance

hailed the accident as terrorist attack based on the evidence by the train driver who claimed to

have heard the sound of explosion exactly before the accident. The opposition radio station

"Svoboda" sticks to the version of an accident caused by the lamentable condition of the Russian

railway.

Opinions of experts

The evidence found at the place of the crash is contradictory. On the one hand, seven

kilogrammes of trotyl and a two-metre-deep funnel make a terrorist attack a likely version.

Vladimir Yakunin, the head of the Russian Railways Company (RZD), compared this Nevsky

Express accident to the one that had taken place in August 2007 and immediately declared it a

terrorist attack. However, Evgeny Kulikov, the leader of the Trade Union of Russian Railway

workers, doesn't agree. According to him, the wreckage of the 60-tonne-train would inevitably

cause a deep funnel in the ground near the railway. He is also wondering why it should be three

rear carriages that derailed if according to the driver explosion occurred at the front of the train.

People's reactions

But the most heated discussions take place in the Russian blogosphere. Relatively free from the

government control or censorship, users express a multitude of opinions. You can come across

any point of view here. From a passionate attack on restless Islamist terrorists to a bitter critique

of the Russian Railways management to heart-felt condolences to the families of the victims to

hateful comments about the government's involvement in organising the explosion to scare

people and to force them into supporting the "stable and secure" current regime.

Whatever happened to the Nevsky Express, we can only guess and pray. Accidents as well as

terrorist attacks occur in many countries, it is no longer a flat-earth news. But what is sad and

frightening is the fact that in a similar situation citizens of other states would pounce upon

Al-Qaeda or another terrorist organisation and Russians wouldn't even know who to blame. An

increasing number of people would turn an accusing finger to their own government.

But hush! They would do it very-very cautiously. Who knows how many fast trains will never

reach their destination...

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.