| Slum Tours Spark Debates Over Propriety, Ethics of "Reality Tourism"
Mumbai's latest attraction seems an unlikely match for India's most cosmopolitan city: guided walks through Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum and home to over 600,000 people. For an afternoon, visitors give up the glamour of Bollywood for the grime of the hutments, where great industry and extreme poverty lie side by side. The tour has triggered interest and controversy among Indian and international press, inviting renewed attention toward the question of commercial poverty tourism (also called "poorism" or "reality tourism"). Defenders say excursions to impoverished neighborhoods raise awareness and generate income for the community. Critics consider such "urban safaris" intrusive, voyeuristic, and degrading. The phenomenon started in 1992 in the druglord-controlled favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and has since spread to other cities in South America, the townships of South Africa, and Kibera, Nairobi's largest and most infamous slum.
Fairy tales of the cave
PIONEERING speleologist Frank Moon had a terrific sense of humour. A legend in the East Gippsland town of Buchan, Moon explored the area's underground cave systems and their intriguing limestone formations, and in 1907 discovered the illustrious Fairy Cave. So pleased was he that he named his first daughter Fairy. (Fairy would inherit her father's wit and name her first son Cave.) Years later, Fairy fell in love with a cave tour guide and they wanted to marry inside Fairy Cave. Frank Moon was overjoyed. They wrote to the government to ask permission, but the request was denied. But Moon had the keys to the cave so they went ahead and did it anyway. Buchan people know this story and our long-weekend stay in the area was peppered with similar delightful anecdotes.
Kenya Safari to be aided by Nakuru airstrip upgrade
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is to promote Lake Nakuru National Park's airstrip, to enable it manage heavier aircraft for Kenya Safari Tourists The Senior Warden in accusation of the park, Mr Charles Muthui, said that this will permit much charter flights from Nairobi, Mombasa and the Maasai Mara to bring in the Park. Africa 2007 The park receives much visitors than Tsavo East, Amboseli, Tsavo West and Nairobi. "We obtain much visitors than all the new sheltered domestic parks, but simply an average of two soft planes soil at the park regular," Mr Muthui said. The amount of visitors to the park increased from 316,902 in 2005 to 327,060 last year. Mr Muthui said that apart from tarmacking the 1. 5 kilometer runway, the KWS will too build a talent store at the park's principal gate.
African Horse Sickness - what is it?
African Horse Sickness is a variant of the Bluetongue virus of sheep which is principally carried and transmitted to horses by Culicoides species midges. It is endemic in the African continent and is characterised by clinical signs and lesions associated with respiratory and circulatory impairment. Up to 90% of infected horses die. There is no efficient treatment. Prophylactic vaccines are available in Africa but none is approved for use in the European Union. Insecticides, repellents and screens to repel the vector midges are a crucial element in preventative horse management. There are nine distinct types of the Reoviridae family which cause AHS. .
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