| Hunting debate splits Kenya wildife community
A controversial proposal to help save Kenya's wildlife by scrapping a 30-year ban on sport hunting split delegates at a conference in the east African nation on Thursday. Tens of thousands of tourists flock to Kenya each year to see lions, leopards, elephants, wildebeest and other wildlife roaming the parks and reserves. But animal numbers have fallen by at least two-thirds over the last three decades, and experts blame poaching plus human destruction of their habitats. Those backing sport hunting say it would preserve wildlife by encouraging better management and earning big money that could be ploughed back into conservation. It would also bring Kenya into line with neighbours Uganda and Tanzania, and with South Africa, which all profit from restricted hunting.
South Africa's national parks poised for surge in "pink' tourism
South Africa's national parks are poised for a surge in "pink" tourism now that a tourist operator has launched a series of tours designed to initiate gay visitors to the delights of the savannah.
While Cape Town is consistently voted one of the top five gay holiday destinations worldwide, Strider Expeditions says it aims to lure gay tourists out of the Mother City for a fuller African experience. "In South Africa the gay community is not very well served," says Ian Pollard, a former guide in Kruger National Park and co-founder of Strider along with British woman Charlotte Currie.
Gays "feel more accepted in some places than others," he says. Identifying accommodation in the countryside that welcomes gay clients was a first step to launching the service.
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.
Retro games in "barcade" renaissance Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles
IN BROOKLYN'S warehouse-turned-artist district of Williamsburg, young hipsters flock to Barcade to sample its roster of microbrews and mingle with the likes of Pac-Man, the Mario brothers and Frogger.
Walls of the bar, which runs on wind power and has its own MySpace profile, are lined with dozens of bulky, old-school arcade games that decades ago lured coin-clutching teens to crowded, dark rooms with deceptively addicting game play. Barcade's popularity among Williamsburg's 20- and 30-somethings reflects a wider trend in the video game industry - "retro" games are back as parents introduce their offspring to the beloved games of their youth. Few segments of the $US30 billion ($36 billion) global video game market needed it more than the US arcade business, which has shrunk to about a quarter of its peak size.
NATURE GIRL: Mobile teen wins a safari to South Africa after ...
"We skipped dolls totally," said the 13-year-old Mobile girl's mother, Dr. Carole Boudreaux. "She was obsessed with bugs at around the age of 3 or so. "She loved all types of creatures, and wasn't intimidated by any of them." That fascination with nature has landed Madeleine a safari to South Africa this summer, the prize for being selected as a winner in the National Geographic Kids magazine's Hands-On Explorer Challenge essay contest. The UMS-Wright Preparatory School student is one of 15 students, ages 10-13, from the United States who will make the trip in August. They were chosen from more than 4,000 entries nationwide. "It's sunk in a little bit, but not a lot," said Madeleine, sitting on the porch of her home on Dog River.
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