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the World's Longest Beach

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

 

Bangladesh's fledgling but troubled tourism industry is slowly luring foreign and domestic travellers, industry officials say. One of the most popular destinations this winter was this beach resort town of Cox's Bazar on the Bay of Bengal, which drew sun-worshippers from as far away as Europe and Southeast Asia.

"Foreigners come here, but we cannot offer everything they need. But still they enjoy the beach and of course the warmth of the people here," said Mahbubul Alam Akash, who hires out colourful beach chairs and sun umbrellas. "A large number of Bangladeshis crowd the town now and their number has been increasing over the past years... we will find time to breathe once the official tourism season is over."

There are no official figures on the numbers of visitors to Cox's Bazar this winter, but hotel owners said the 10,000 rooms available were full almost seven days a week in December and a second rush is expected for the Eid-al Adha festival February 13. "The winter season helps us to go through rest of the year, when the number of travellers drop dramatically along with revenue," said an official at a major hotel.

Cox's Bazar got its first five-star accomodation in December, a hotel overlooking the world's largest natural white sand beach and basking in its spectacular sunsets.

The maximum temperature here in the winter is only about 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but tourists on the seashore enjoy cups of tea, snacks or the very popular green coconut water.

A spokesman for the state-owned Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), told AFP tourism was growing every year, with the government doing its best to lure travellers to the South Asian nation.

BPC statistics show just 11,179 people visited the country in 1992, but the figure jumped massively in 2000 to 207,199 visitors, who brought in about 2.65 billion taka (about 46 million USD) in foreign exchange. No figures are available for 2001 and 2002. Of total travellers in 2000, nearly 18.56 percent came to Bangladesh for pleasure visits, 16.47 percent were on business and the remainder - nearly 70 percent - had multiple reasons for arriving. Britons, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Nepalese and Pakistanis topped the list of foreign travellers.

The Bangladesh Monitor, a fortnightly tabloid focusing on the tourism industry, said Bangladesh was a promising destination for foreign tourists, but infrastructure problems, including hotel accommodation, were a major impediment to growth.

"Infrastructure development is the key to expansion of the tourism sector," said Hasan Mansur, managing director of travel company, The Guide Tours Ltd. "People did not think of going to the Banderban hill district, but now that we built some facilities there is no dearth of travellers to the area."

Private hotels have recently been built in the picturesque southeastern Banderban district, where a tribal insurgency ended in 1997 with a peace treaty. The government recently handed over some of BPC's motels and restaurants in Cox's Bazar and elsewhere to private management to increase revenue as well as ensure better facilities for tourists.

Locals, too, are saving their taka to travel, choosing destinations like Cox's Bazar and islands in the Bay of Bengal, as well as the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forests, the tea-growing Sylhet district, the southeastern hill tracts region and historical sites.

"The growth of Bangladeshis travelling within the country is significant and they also include those who would normally prefer holidaying in Bangkok or Singapore," Mansur said. "The change of attitude is positive, but we have to ensure we can hold on to them."

Such efforts have not gone unnoticed by visitors, including one Westerner who spent time in the southwestern Chandpur district where the Padma and Meghna rivers join. "Your whole country is beautiful and all it needs is proper protection as well as some facilities to draw tourists," he said. "I loved the villages, its people, their kindness and some specially-made foods they said were only available during winter."

Surfing Cox's Bazar

COX'S BAZAR, September 16, 2008 - With his fluorescent board shorts and muscular body, Jafar Alam does not look like a typical Bangladeshi.While most men his age in this conservative Muslim country are obsessed with cricket, the 25-year-old is more likely to be found surfing the waves on one of the world's longest beaches.
Alam, who says he is Bangladesh's first surfer, is working to not only popularise the sport, but also to build international recognition for the largely untouched beach where he surfs.
This month he will hold his fourth annual surfing competition, when a group of 15 American surfers will descend on the beach to compete against locals.
Until Alam started the Cox's Bazar Surf Club in 2002 -- based out of the two-room house he shares with five family members -- he said the sport did not exist in his country. He now has 48 students, including 12 girls.
Although home to a 125-kilometre (78-mile) stretch of unbroken coast, it was only the occasional intrepid international tourist who would test the waves, he said.
A decade ago Alam bought a surfboard from a visiting Australian tourist for 20 US dollars, and for five years tried to teach himself.
He found it difficult to stand up and would often lose his board as he had no leash.
Finally he was spotted through a pair of binoculars by Tom Bauer, founder of the Honolulu-based non-profit organisation Surfing the Nations, which promotes surfing in impoverished countries.
"He gave me a proper leash and polished my board with wax. It was the first time I'd heard the words leash and wax," Alam says. "He asked me how many surfers were in my country. He'd found none except me."
Bauer, who will return to Cox's Bazar for this month's competition, likens the surfing conditions in southern Bangladesh to those at the famous Huntington Beach in California.
He says the sport has enormous potential to boost tourism in Bangladesh, where nearly 40 percent of the 144 million population survive on less than a dollar a day.
"It's one of the hottest things for tourism in the whole nation," Bauer says, adding that Alam has even used his surfboard to save people from drowning.
"Like all Islamic nations, people don't go into the ocean. They go fishing, but so many kids drown. They don't know about water safety."
Bauer says that while the world's surfers go out of their way to find waves off the beaten track, Bangladesh is still very much under the radar.
"When I first went there, people would say ‘Are you crazy?'. But I always knew there were waves. We are showing the world," he said.
International tourism is a tiny sector in Bangladesh. Just 0.1 percent of visitors to the Asia Pacific region will stop off in Bangladesh, according to the World Tourism Organisation.
Cox's Bazar local politician Mohammed Shahiduzzaman believes surfing could help bring foreign visitors to the region.
"It could create a lot of interest. The potential is endless," he said.
Both Alam and Bauer say that trying to make the sport mainstream in Bangladesh is not always easy.
"The girls wear a T-shirt and cotton trousers while they surf. They can't wear the saris that they normally wear out of the water because you can't surf in a sari," Alam says.
"Five of my female students have dropped out because some families say surfing attacks social and religious values. Some girls wear shorts and T-shirts."
Running the surf club is now Alam's full-time job and Surfing the Nations has sponsored him to visit Indonesia and Sri Lanka to take part in surfing contests.
Bauer says despite the challenges, he believes Alam's legacy as the country's first surfer will have a place in the history books.
"Surfing will revolutionise how people in Bangladesh think about the water in the same way surfing has revolutionised the beaches in Australia."

 

 

Stop Blood Diamonds

 

Zimbabwe's armed forces, under the control of President Robert Mugabe, are engaging in forced labor of children and adults and are torturing and beating local villagers on the diamond fields of Marange district. The military seized control of these diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe after killing more than 200 people in Chiadzwa, a previously peaceful but impoverished area, in late October 2008. Marange has become a zone of lawlessness and impunity, a microcosm of the chaos and desperation that currently pervade Zimbabwe.

In late June 2009, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting the serious human rights abuses in the Marange diamond fields by the Zimbabwean military, including forced labor, child labor, the killing of more than 200 people, and other grave abuses.

In its recent plenary meeting in Namibia, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, an international body that oversees the trade of diamonds, decided not to suspend Zimbabwe from participation, nor bar the export of its diamonds, despite finding serious human rights abuses and rampant smuggling during its own investigation of the Marange diamond field. Its weak excuse was a technicality in its mandate that defines blood diamonds as those mined by abusive rebel groups, not by abusive governments.

Tell Kimberley Process member states that they need to take action to end the smuggling of blood diamonds and stop the human rights abuses at the Marange diamond fields.
Zimbabwe's armed forces, under the control of President Robert Mugabe, are engaging in forced labor of children and adults and are torturing and beating local villagers on the diamond fields of Marange district. The military seized control of these diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe after killing more than 200 people in Chiadzwa, a previously peaceful but impoverished area, in late October 2008. Marange has become a zone of lawlessness and impunity, a microcosm of the chaos and desperation that currently pervade Zimbabwe.

In late June 2009, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting the serious human rights abuses in the Marange diamond fields by the Zimbabwean military, including forced labor, child labor, the killing of more than 200 people, and other grave abuses.

In its recent plenary meeting in Namibia, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, an international body that oversees the trade of diamonds, decided not to suspend Zimbabwe from participation, nor bar the export of its diamonds, despite finding serious human rights abuses and rampant smuggling during its own investigation of the Marange diamond field. Its weak excuse was a technicality in its mandate that defines blood diamonds as those mined by abusive rebel groups, not by abusive governments.

Tell Kimberley Process member states that they need to take action to end the smuggling of blood diamonds and stop the human rights abuses at the Marange diamond fields.

http://www.kintera.org/c.nlIWIgN2JwE/b.5657811/k.FB1A/Stop_Blood_Diamonds/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspxhttp://www.kintera.org/c.nlIWIgN2JwE/b.5657811/k.FB1A/Stop_Blood_Diamonds/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx

"sundarban" the beauty quin of nature

The Help

Eco-tourism destinations and access 

Sundarban is a nature's school for the Eco-tourists. Though Bengal Tiger is the flag ship species of this unique mangrove Forest , it also offers many other wonders of the nature to the visitors. Seeing a Bengal tiger in this 4200 sq km of dense mangroves, where visitors have only access to water ways, has a chance of one in thousands. Thanks to the shyness and cautious attitude of this magnificent animal, it has survived the bullets and trap nets of poachers in this most difficult terrain, over the ages. However, the more curious spotted deer out on the mud flat for grazing during low tide, the lazy estuarine crocodiles basking in the winter sun, the water monitor lizards moving like the fabled dragons and the avifauna like kingfisher, adjutant stork or white-bellied eagles are common sights for the nature lovers. The nature's magic of high tide-low tide, the Mangrove species like Rhizophores having stilt roots, or Pneumatophores having breathing roots, or Phoenix (Golpata) providing perfect camouflage for the tigers, teach the tourists about Nature's determination to survive and sustain. The pre-historic Mud-skipper or many species of crabs, fish and oysters/mollusks can make the visitors enthralled. And a nature's trail at Burir dabri camp, glorious Sunrise at Kalash, or enchanting Sunset in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve can be a "Joy for ever".

The entry point to Sunderban Tiger Reserve is either Sonakhali via Canning, or Bagna via Dhamakhali. For visiting South 24 Parganas Forest Division, on the western part of river Matla, the entry points are Namkhana, Raidighi or Jharkhali via Canning/Basanti.. Entry Permits are available at Canning, Sonakhali and Bagna for STR and at Canning, Namkhana and Raidighi for Western part of Sunderban Forest . The Eco-tourism Centres are located at Sajnekhali, Dobanki, Netidhopani and Burir Dabri in STR, and at Bonie camp(Sundarikati), Bhagabatpore Crocodile Project, Lothian Island sanctuary and Kalash beach. There are two Nature Interpretation Centres located at Sajnekhali and Bhagabatpore, and one Eco museum at Sudarikati. The Canopy walk at Dobanki, the mangrove trail at Burirdabri and the tallest Watch Tower at Bonie camp are added attractions for the Eco-tourists.

And there is Sundarban Biosphere Resource Information Centre (SBRIC) located in Aranya Bhawan, Salt Lake at Kolkata which all the visitors must visit before visiting Sundarban.

http://www.sundarbanbiosphere.org/html_files/eco_tourism.htm

the largest bird

Golden eagle

This powerful eagle is North America's largest bird of prey and the national bird of Mexico. These birds are dark brown, with lighter golden-brown plumage on their heads and necks. They are extremely swift, and can dive upon their quarry at speeds of more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour.
Golden eagles use their speed and sharp talons to snatch up rabbits, marmots, and ground squirrels. They also eat carrion, reptiles, birds, fish, and smaller fare such as large insects. They have even been known to attack full grown deer. Ranchers once killed many of these birds for fear that they would prey on their livestock, but studies showed that the animal's impact was minimal. Today, golden eagles are protected by law.
Golden eagle pairs maintain territories that may be as large as 60 square miles (155 square kilometers). They are monogamous and may remain with their mate for several years or possibly for life. Golden eagles nest in high places including cliffs, trees, or human structures such as telephone poles. They build huge nests to which they may return for several breeding years. Females lay from one to four eggs, and both parents incubate them for 40 to 45 days. Typically, one or two young survive to fledge in about three months.
These majestic birds range from Mexico through much of western North America as far north as Alaska; they also appear in the east but are uncommon. Golden eagles are also found in Asia, northern Africa, and Europe.
Some golden eagles migrate, but others do not—depending on the conditions of their geographic location. Alaskan and Canadian eagles typically fly south in the fall, for example, while birds that live in the western continental U.S. tend to remain in their ranges year-round.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/golden-eagle

The Penguin

Adélie penguins

Adélie penguins live on the Antarctic continent and on many small, surrounding coastal islands. They spend the winter offshore in the seas surrounding the Antarctic pack ice.
Adélies feed on tiny aquatic creatures, such as shrimp-like krill, but also eat fish and squid. They have been known to dive as deep as 575 feet (175 meters) in search of such quarry, though they usually hunt in far shallower waters less than half that depth.
Like other penguins, Adélies are sleek and efficient swimmers. They may travel 185 miles round-trip (about 300 kilometers) to procure a meal.
During the spring breeding season (in October), they take to the rocky Antarctic coastline where they live in large communities called colonies. These groups can include thousands of birds.
Once on land, Adélies build nests and line them with small stones. Though they move with the famed "penguin waddle" they are capable walkers who can cover long overland distances. In early spring, before the vast sheets of ice break up, they may have to walk 31 miles (50 kilometers) from their onshore nests to reach open water.
Male Adélie penguins help their mates rear the young and, without close inspection, the two sexes are nearly indistinguishable. They take turns sitting on a pair of eggs to keep them warm and safe from predators. When food is short, only one of the two chicks may survive. After about three weeks, parents are able to leave the chicks alone, though the offspring gather in groups for safety. Young penguins begin to swim on their own in about nine weeks.

Emperors

Emperors are the largest of all penguins—an average bird stands some 45 inches (115 centimeters) tall. These flightless animals live on the Antarctic ice and in the frigid surrounding waters.
Penguins employ physiological adaptations and cooperative behaviors in order to deal with an incredibly harsh environment, where wind chills can reach -76°F (-60°C).
They huddle together to escape wind and conserve warmth. Individuals take turns moving to the group's protected and relatively toasty interior. Once a penguin has warmed a bit it will move to the perimeter of the group so that others can enjoy protection from the icy elements.
Emperor penguins spend the long winter on the open ice—and even breed during this harsh season. Females lay a single egg and then promptly leave it behind. They undertake an extended hunting trip that lasts some two months! Depending on the extent of the ice pack, females may need to travel some 50 miles (80 kilometers) just to reach the open ocean, where they will feed on fish, squid, and krill. At sea, emperor penguins can dive to 1,850 feet (565 meters)—deeper than any other bird—and stay under for more than 20 minutes.
Male emperors keep the newly laid eggs warm, but they do not sit on them, as many other birds do. Males stand and protect their eggs from the elements by balancing them on their feet and covering them with feathered skin known as a brood pouch. During this two-month bout of babysitting the males eat nothing and are at the mercy of the Antarctic elements.
When female penguins return to the breeding site, they bring a belly full of food that they regurgitate for the newly hatched chicks. Meanwhile, their duty done, male emperors take to the sea in search of food for themselves.
Mothers care for their young chicks and protect them with the warmth of their own brood pouches. Outside of this warm cocoon, a chick could die in just a few minutes. In December, Antarctic summer, the pack ice begins to break up and open water appears near the breeding site, just as young emperor penguins are ready to swim and fish on their own.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/emperor-penguin

must protect victims of sexual violence

reports of rape increase and Cambodia's government

Survivors of rape in Cambodia  face limited access to justice, medical services and counselling, Amnesty International said in a report issued on Monday, as rapes of women and girls appear to be increasing,

Breaking the silence: Sexual violence in Cambodia, issued to mark International Women's Day, exposes how corruption and discrimination within the police and courts prevent survivors of rape from receiving justice and required assistance, while most perpetrators go unpunished.

"Dozens of survivors told us that they face extortion, ignorance and disbelief from officials whose job it should be to assist them and protect their rights," said Donna Guest, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Deputy Director. "For too many survivors of rape, the pursuit of justice and medical support adds further distress to the initial abuse."

Amnesty International researchers found sex workers and women living in poverty faced serious obstacles in seeking justice and medical services. They were unable to pay bribes which were often required of them from the police and others, and could not afford legal or medical services.

The report includes 30 interviews with women and girls aged between 10 and 40. The family of a 19 year-old girl with a learning disability explained how police officers ignored their complaint when Mony was raped in late 2009.

"The police only work if you have money, if you can pay. With around 100,000 riels [approx US$25] perhaps we could have secured an arrest, but we don't have that," said her father.

He said that Mony lived in constant fear of the perpetrator, who remained at large. The family also struggled to afford the medicine she needed, and described transportation costs to court and police as very difficult.

Cambodian society, like many around the world, exhibits deeply engrained gender discrimination that stigmatizes survivors of sexual assaults, while perpetrators, who mostly remain at large, face limited, if any, sanction.

"With the lack of social support towards victims, it is crucial that the government breaks the silence and publicly condemns sexual violence, to show that it will not tolerate such serious crimes and to acknowledge the pain of the survivors," said Donna Guest.

With a new Penal Code entering into force in late 2010, Amnesty International has called on the Cambodian government to firmly address inadequate law enforcement, extra-judicial settlements, weak prosecution and widespread corruption in cases of suspected sexual violence.

Amnesty International has also urged the government to train and equip the police, utilise female police officers, and allocate necessary budgets so that they can investigate allegations of crimes promptly, professionally and sensitively.

Data provided by police and NGOs indicates that incidents of rape are increasing in Cambodia, but the extent of the increase is hidden by a lack of monitoring and limited reporting and coordination of statistics.

Authorities should accurately obtain such information and use it to inform policy and plans of action.
 
"Cambodia has made important inroads into tackling gender-discrimination, with a focus on domestic violence and human trafficking," Donna Guest said. "It is time the government incorporated sexual violence against women into these categories to address its failure to meet the human rights obligations under the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women."

The 60-page report presents extensive research and recommendations to reverse increasing sexual violence against women. The analysis was released as part of Amnesty International's global campaign to Stop Violence against Women.

Africa's Last Frontier

Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is still a place ruled by ritual and revenge. But change is coming, from upriver.

 

 Dunga Nakuwa cups his face in his hands and remembers his mother's voice. She has been dead nearly two years, but for Dunga's tribe the dead are never very far away. In the villages they are buried just below the huts of the living, separated from hearths and sleeping skins by only a few feet of dry, depleted soil. They remain near in the mind too. This is why Dunga still hears his mother: When will you take revenge on your brother's killer?

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/03/omo-river/shea-tex

Fatal Attraction

A hungry fly darts through the pines in North Carolina. Drawn by what seems like the scent of nectar from a flower like patch of scarlet on the ground, the fly lands on the fleshy pad of a ruddy leaf. It takes a sip of the sweet liquid oozing from the leaf, brushing a leg against one tiny hair on its surface, then another. Suddenly the fly's world has walls around it. The two sides of the leaf are closing against each other, spines along its edges interlocking like the teeth of a jaw trap. As the fly struggles to escape, the trap squeezes shut. Now, instead of offering sweet nectar, the leaf unleashes enzymes that eat away at the fly's innards, gradually turning them into goo. The fly has suffered the ultimate indignity for an animal: It has been killed by a plant.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/03/carnivorous-plants/zimmer-text

THE PURPOSE AND POWER OF LOVE & MARRIAGE

Dedication :


To my beautiful, fantastic, awesome, wonderful, sensitive wife,
Ruth—your support, respect, commitment, dedication, patience, and
prayers for me make me look like a good husband and father. Thank you
for making the principles in this book a practical reality. Thank you for
making our marriage all I expected this adventure in human relations to
be. I love you.
To my precious daughter, Charisa, and my beloved son, Chairo. May
your marriages be built on the principles and precepts inherent in the
distilled wisdom of the time-tested truths of the Word of God. May this
book become my greatest wedding gift to you and your children as you
embrace its precepts.
To my father and late mother, Matthias and Louise Munroe. Your
marriage of over 50 years became the living model and standard for me
as I observed the beauty and benefit of a marriage built on the foundation
of the Word of God. Thank you for teaching me how to love my
wife and children.
To all the unmarried singles who desire to have the successful marriage
the Creator originally intended. May the wisdom of this book contribute
to this desire.
To all married couples whose desire it is to improve and enhance
their relationship. May you apply the principles of this book to assist in
fulfilling your vows and to experience the marriage the Creator originally
intended for mankind.
To the source of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding, the Creator
of the institute of marriage, my Lord and Redeemer, Jehovah
Shalom, Yeshua.