To be banned: Drinking of alcohol on London’s transport

by Iva Skoch on

Now there is a progressive plan coming out of London.

London’s brand new mayor, Boris “the Eccentric” Johnson, unveiled the timeline for bringing in the new alcohol ban. The ban, starting on June 1, on the Tube (subway), buses, trams and Docklands Light Railway is one of his election pledges. According to the BBC, the ban is part of Mr Johnson’s wider strategy to tackle “anti-social behavior” and he also believes driving out so-called minor crime will be the first step before getting a “firm grip on more serious crime”.

But the Rail Maritime and Transport Union said the policy appeared “not to have been thought through very well” and could make matters worse.

Worse? As in people will drink more just for the excitement of doing something illegal?

Have food allergies, will travel

by Iva Skoch on

Traveling with food allergies must be hard.

Even in many countries in Europe, menus simply don’t list all the ingredients used in meals. My Canadian friend went into an allergic shock in Prague because of his nuts allergy. He figured eating a sandwich would be safe. Of course, they didn’t mention the sandwich had pesto in it. And pesto contains pine nuts…

And that’s Prague, which is now fairly Westernized. Imagine what it must be like to travel in Asia, where not only do they use peanuts a lot more but it is much harder to read the menus and find people who speak English well enough.

This ABC article talks about traveling with allergies. It is about the challenges of a traveler with serious food allergies, who presents a card to the waiter noting his allergies to peanuts and peas, written in the native tongue. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. Some waiters even say that they have “never heard of such allergies.”

I found it really interesting to read, although I don’t have any allergies. How do you deal with food allergies when traveling?

Top hell-holes on earth

by Jamie Rhein on

April Fool’s Day, 2007, I wrote a post on Linfen, China. Although it was written as a joke, the premise is true. Linfen is a royal mess. Its mighty pollution problem has earned it the number 2 spot on the recent “Hells on Earth” list. The air quality in Linfen is so horrific that there is a perpetual feeling of dusk in this coal dust laden city.

Here’s the rest of the ten places that have a hellish quality. Perhaps you know of others that should have made the cut.

10. Baghdad, Iraq–No surprise here. What, with the war and all, it doesn’t matter if the place has one of the coolest names. According to the article, the city is so dangerous, it’s hard to find people out and about on the streets.

9. Dhaka, Bangladesh–And to think I almost moved here. I had a job interview that I canceled because getting to this place was a hassle. The pollution is problematic. That’s why it’s on the list. Too bad because, everyone I’ve ever met from Bangladesh has been a real gem of a person.

8. Yakutsk, Russia–When I read that this city is the coldest place on earth, that stopped me cold. We’re talking major frostbite. Temperatures can go down to -58 degrees, according to the article. If you’re a kid, it’s a day off from school, so for the younger crowd, this might be heaven.

7. Mogadishu, East Africa (Somalia)–Another one of my favorite city names. I’ve have many students from Somalia–lovely people, and they shake their heads in sorrow over what once was. No one is minding the store in this country that has been wrecked to shambles. The rebels keep running amok. This truly does not sound like a relaxing place to get away. Get away from, sure.

6. Chernobyl, Ukraine–If you want a radiation boost that could do you in, come here. Most of the city was deserted after the nuclear explosion in 1986 and it has not recovered since. There aren’t any prospects for a brighter future either.

5. Oklahoma City, The United States–But the state has such a catchy song, you might be protesting. What’s wrong with Oklahoma City? Weather, that’s what. A Kansas tornado has nothing on Oklahoma City’s. The Ask.Men folks cite 320 mph winds as the fastest. That seems like enough to turn eyelids inside out. Besides that, blizzards are also fierce. I’ve driven through here a couple times on a calm day–always in the summer, and not a gust in sight. Who knew?

4. Pyongyang, North Korea–Gadling blogger, Neil went here and found that hell must have things to like. Sure there’s some hellish, oddball qualities to Pyongyang, but he found it worth the visit. If you can handle the oppression and a tour guide who never lets you wander off on your own, this might feel more like limbo than hell.

3. Bujumbura, Republic of Burundi–If the accounts of people in Burundi feeling the least satisfied than all other people in the world is true, I’d say this is hell indeed. Look at this list for starters. They feel worse than people who live in Linfen? The reason for Burundi’s problems is the corruption.

1. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea–This place does sound like a hell hole. The murder rate, according to Ask.Men is 23 times that of London and gangs and disease–like HIV, run rampant. Swell.

My good friend over at BloggingStocks and WalletPop, Tom Barlow gave me a heads up on this one. Thanks, Tom.

Champions League final in Moscow: The British are coming! The British are coming!

by Jeffrey White on

It’s an all England battle for the Champions League title this year. Know what that means?

English soccer hooligans, arguably the world’s worst sports fans, will be descending en masse on Moscow on May 21. Some estimates put the total number of English fans at 40,000. While it’s not fair to say all English fans are hooligans, that’s still a big enough number to have me on the first train to Vladivostok.

But will they really make it?

For European soccer fans, the Champions League playoffs — which annually pit the best teams across Europe against one another — is bested only by the European Championship and World Cup in terms of importance. This year, perennial powerhouses Chelsea and Manchester United are facing off in the Cup final.

This year could pose a unique challenge for British fans. Brits in general will travel just about anywhere to support their teams, but they often like to do so on the cheap, renting huge raucous buses or forming decked out caravans kilometers long that take European highways by storm, rather like Parrotheads on their way to a Jimmy Buffett concert on the Cape. But with the final being held this year at essentially the eastern edge of Europe, in the world’s most expensive city, the budget options are few, if any. Flights are going for close to $2,000 round-trip, the train ride from London is 40+ hours, and good hotel rooms are running around $200-$300 a night. This is to say nothing of the fact that visas are harder to come by since there is some lingering bad blood between the British and the Russians over the whole Alexander Litvinenko affair (he’s the ex-KGB spy whacked in London in November 2006).

Right now, it looks like a daunting trip for the budget conscious, some kind of combination of low-cost flight and overland bus or train, hopping Ryan Air or easyJet to Riga or Villnius and then going on from there.

To be sure, hooliganism is a serious subject. During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, organizers took the extraordinary measure of flying in British police to patrol airports and cities in which the British National Team was scheduled to play. Some 3,500 “known hooligans” were barred from entering Germany. And in one day in Stuttgart, police arrested 200 British fans (and took another 400 into custody), largely for “preventative” purposes. Local authorities estimated that the average fan either drank or threw 4 gallons of beer.

How do you stop a British hooligan? Andy Nicholls, a former hooligan from Everton, tells the BBC, “How to stop hooligans? Take every man aged from 14 to 40, cut their arms and legs off. That’ll stop it.”

Russians, take note.

Italians now know how much other Italians make. Mamma mia!

by Iva Skoch on

Can you imagine knowing how much all your friends, neighbors and coworkers make?

Italy’s IRS created a grand snooping opportunity Wednesday when it posted on its Web site the taxable income of just about every Italian citizen – for a few hours. There was a huge outcry, and the tax collector had to take the information down, NPR reports. Listen to the piece here.

According to BBC, the release of the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing center-left government and has shocked many tax-shy Italians. But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.

According to an Italian government report from 2007, the amount of unpaid tax in the country is equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product. The finance ministry described the move as a “bid to improve transparency”.

I don’t think this kind of “transparency” generally goes over well.