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Which European Country Works the Hardest?

by Josh Lew on

I have always been under the impression that Europeans worked fewer hours than Americans. However, a new survey shows that more than one country’s population averages over 40 hours per week on the job.

Romania and Bulgaria are home to the hardest workers on the continent. According to research conducted by The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), the citizens of these new EU members average 41.7 hours per week at the office. The UK ranks next, at 41.4 hours.

Overall, the 12 newest EU states worked more than the original members (40.6 hours compared to 39.5). At the other end of the spectrum sit the French. They work a leisurely 37.7 hours each week. That might sound like a healthy workload, but France’s Minister of Finance recently criticized her country-people for not working hard enough. Italians also boast an under 40 hour work week (38.4 hours). Eurofound put the mean number of days off per year at 25. In the US, the average number of paid vacation days is 14.

Source

Behind the Olympics: Where are all of India’s medals?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

So far this Olympics, Indian athletes have garnered a grand total of one medal– a gold in the 10-meter men’s air rifle event (whatever that is). This matches the total number of medals India earned during the entire 2004 Games– one silver in men’s double trap shooting.

For a warm-weather country of 1.1 billion, you’d think India might fare better than this. So where are all India’s medals? Here are a couple possible explanations:

1. Cricket is not an Olympic sport. In many ways, cricket is to India what baseball is to the United States. It is the country’s most popular sport, and India’s national team is consistently one of the best in the world. But cricket games can last for days, and this does not lend itself to Olympic competition. There may be hope, though: Some are suggesting that a shorter version of cricket called Twenty20 should be added to the 2020 Olympics.

2. Many Indians eat strictly vegetarian diets. In many ways, vegetarianism is just as healthy– if not more so– than a diet that includes meat. But vegetarian diets can also be lower in protein, which is important in muscle development. About a third of India’s population are vegetarians.

3. Much of India is still poor. Though India’s economy is developing rapidly, much of its population remains poor. In general, people are only free to pursue athletics once they’ve achieved a certain standard of living. But this does not explain why countries like China, Romania, and North Korea are still able to do well in the medal count.

4. India’s government has nothing to prove. Tyler Cowen writes in his post on the same topic that the dearth of medals can largely be explained by a “lack of government subsidies, combined with the possibility that non-democratic, authoritarian governments feel greater need to prove themselves on the international stage and to their people at home.” This would explain why places like China and North Korea do well– they subsidize Olympic training, and they view the Olympics as a place to prove their worth. India’s government feels no such pressure.

5. Indian parents encourage academics over sports. Much of the reason India is developing so rapidly is because of the emphasis its government, and its people, have placed on education. Many Indian parents realize that the best way to help their children is to make sure they get an education, and yes, sometimes time studying must come at the expense of sports.

Be sure to check out Tyler Cowen’s post for a few more explanations.

Talking travel with Patricia Schultz, author of “1000 Places to See” (part 3, plus book giveaway)

by Jerry Guo on

Patricia Schultz is a well-traveled woman. She single-handedly launched the mini-industry of travel list books with her 2003 #1 New York Times bestseller, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List (Workman), which has sold more than 2.8 million copies and translated into 28 languages. Since then, she’s written a sequel, 1,000 Places to see in the USA and Canada Before You Die, produced a Travel Channel show based on the concept, and was named (as of this week) by Forbes as one of the 25 most influential women in travel.

She was recently a panel member for ABC’s Good Morning America, a judge in selecting the 7 New Wonders of America, and a seasoned writer for Frommer’s, BusinessWeek, “O”prah, Islands and Real Simple. Her next book of the series is in the works.

Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

BONUS

Her publisher, Workman, has kindly offered to give away five book copies and two calendars of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die to Gadling readers (shipping included). See the end of the part 1 interview for details on how you can win.

What projects are on your plate right now? Can we expect more in this series?

I am doing lots of magazine writing and book-touring and I speak at a lot of events. I also just had my apartment painted – the paint has been dry for 4 months now and I still haven’t found the time to move back in and unpack. I think it’s time.

A third book? Maybe! Stay tuned!
What are three over-rated destinations?

Travel is a very personal thing and what might be a great destination for one, can be a trip from hell for the next person. My friend would rather stay home and watch Seinfield reruns than go toLas Vegas, where she’s never been. What?! I think Vegas is a wild only-in-America oasis of incredible talent (Bette Midler! Cirque de Soleil! Barry Manilow!), neon palaces of gaming 24/7 and a roster of restaurants for all palates and budgets. Throw in a sidetrip to the Grand Canyon and you can go home a happy camper. Would I go regularly? No, but a first-time jolt is great fun.

I think the classic beach vacation is overrated – one gorgeous Caribbean beach is not terribly different from one in Mauritius. What sets them apart as memorable experiences is renting a motor scooter to zip around the island and visit the fish markets, eat at a roadside shack and hang with the islanders over a local beer. So it surprises me that a good number of folks never leave their hotel compounds (which can be very gorgeous but have become very homogenized over the years) to venture beyond the rarified world they pay so handsomely to visit. Not discover some of the local color just beyond those gates? You may as well sit and bake in your own backyard, and save yourself the air fare.

Another kind of vacation that has me scratching my head are the regular and routine returns to the same destinations year after year….after year. I understand the importance of family traditions and being lucky enough to find some place (St. Croix, Cape Cod, the family cabin) you know will always be welcoming and unchanged from one visit to the next. But, hey, what about the other 98% of the world? Do you really want to die an authority on St. Croix?

What’s your stance on visiting despotic countries like Burma or Iran or North Korea? Go for it?

I try never to politicize travel and think it is paramount to understand that the people of a country are not their government (the US might be a good place for foreigners to put that to the test). I was in Burma (Myanmar) in April, just weeks before the cyclone did such devastating damage to a country whose people have so little to begin with. Our guide was a lovely young (and very up-beat) lady who was surprisingly worldly considering she had never left her country. She had taught herself to speak extremely good English, Spanish and Japanese so she could communicate with the people who come to visit Burma. In her lifetime she is afraid she will never have the chance to experience the world outside her borders: she hopes to know the world through those who visit her country. “Burma is its people, not its junta” she told me. “Please tell your friends to come and visit us.” How could you not?

Do you believe there are any “undiscovered” sites out there, places that are off the radar of even the seasoned traveler? Spill the beans on a few for us?

I think there are millions of them, most of them underrated because they are under our nose – the lesser visited islands in the Caribbean, for example, like Culebra, Dominica, Los Roques or Saba. For those who think Europe is so “done,” ask the hotel staff behind the desk to suggest a town worth an afternoon visit – it may not be an “undiscovered” place to them, but it will be to you. Or consider the peripheral countries of Europe that are new on our radar – Romania, Slovenia, or the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania among others.
I recently visited Zagreb and Split in Croatia (and all the tiny towns in between) – they are not on the average American’s Short List, but the Europeans have been onto them for centuries.

On a more exotic, far-flung note, I visited the northern reaches of Namibia (a country “undiscovered” by Americans until Brad and Angelina put it on the map) near the border with Angola, where we visited the Nimba tribe. We may not have been the first white non-Africans they’d seen, but we were close. We brought soccer balls and a massive bag of rice as a gift to the community. I try to wear my respect on my forehead and hope to never wear out my welcome.

What was your last trip?

I just finished a brief Book Tour to promote 1000 Places To See in the USA & Canada Before You Die – a series of short but great stays in some of my favorite American cities such as Nashville (I caught George Jones at the Ryman Auditorium and spent an evening at the Grand Ole Opry), Memphis (glad to see Graceland has not changed, nor have the ribs at the Rendezvous), and Vegas where we rented a car and drove to Sedona Az and saw The Grand Canyon during a May m
ini-blizzard of 18 inches! I was also reminded that stargazing in the American desert is second to none.

I know people always like to hear that I have just returned from Ghana, or Buenos Aires, but in fact I travel a lot in the US as well, and find it can be every bit as rewarding, and surprising.

What’s your next trip?

My next “big” trips are in the fall – Greece in September, the Baltic states in October and the Arabian Gulf nations in November. I was in Oman in 1978 – I’m curious to see what has changed!

What is the one place you haven’t yet made it to (and why?) that’s tops on your list?

My Short List is very long, but one might be the Torres del Paine national park in the southernmost reaches of Chile – wild, pristine, dramatic. And from there, I’d take an extension to Antarctica. It’s a big and costly trip, and those are the ones where you need to allot a big chunk of time and money. I think most travel is about time and money – there’s no doubt it takes lots of planning and saving.

But there is no guarantee we’ll be around next year – or tomorrow! So Carpe Diem! Life is short – get off the couch.

United Nations report: Balkans the safest region in Europe

by Jeffrey White on


When I arrived in Montenegro three months ago, one of the things that struck me first was how safe things felt.

What was I expecting?

Well, not a lot of armed thugs or anything. But I’d traveled enough in the former communist corners of Europe — including past trips into the Balkans — to notice a slightly different atmosphere than you feel in more staid places like the Netherlands or Germany. There isn’t the sense of order you find in those places, and that absence piques your alertness. It’s not that you are in danger at all, but you are certainly a little more aware of your surroundings.

Before coming to Montenegro, I’d last been in the Balkans — specifically Croatia and Bosnia — four years before. These recent months of traveling in the region has had a decidedly different feel — Albania being a noteworthy exception.

Turns out that the United Nations is feeling pretty bullish on the Balkans as well.

The UN released a surprising report yesterday that called the Balkans perhaps Europe’s safest region, saying countries like Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia boast lower numbers of murders, rapes and petty crime than western Europe.

“The Balkans is departing from an era when demagogues, secret police and thugs profited from sanctions-busting and the smuggling of people, arms, cigarettes and drugs,” the report said.

The report surveyed nine countries: Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania.

The report still notes the pervasiveness of corruption and organized crime activities, however.

Of course, a fair question to ask about this report in general is: Compared to what?

After all, the UN notes — in a major nod to the obvious, it seems to me — that regular crimes, including homicides and rapes, “across the region are by far lower than they used to be, particularly in the beginning of the 1990s.” Well duh. At the beginning of the 1990s, didn’t you have widespread instability and lawlessness in places like Romania, Bulgaria and Albania as they emerged out of communism? Didn’t you have a regional war that engulfed Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro in an orgy of killing and destruction that lasted nearly five years?

To compare crime rates in some of these countries now to a time when crime was the only thing that counted doesn’t seem to say much. It would have been more useful for the UN to note how things have changed in, say, the last five years.

Absolutely unforgiving insults from around the world

by Abha Malpani on

Learn a new language and you’ll see that the first few things you remember are the insults. It’s fun to insult in a foreign language and there is normally a whole lesson dedicated to them at language schools (well, there was at mine, anyway!)

Today I received in my inbox a link to this piece: “The 9 Most Devastating Insults From Around The World” — they are really rude, no — they are obscene and you will wonder what kind of people talk like this. Unfortunatley, such phrases are an essential part of the culture of these places. Here they are:

*Warning: The rest of this post is full of bad language. If you are easily offended, don’t continue reading*

  • The Spanish: “Suck butter from my ass” (Chupe mantequilla de mi culo): Yup, I’ve heard this one many times — I didn’t know it came from another most commonly used insult here “I shit in the milk” (me cago en la leche), which is insulting because milk comes from your mother and you drink it, so obviously taking a crap in it is just an outright offence.
  • The Arabs: “A thousand dicks in your religion” (Elif air ab dinikh): Ouch.
  • The Irish: “He’s as thick as a bull’s walt” (that is, as dumb as an erect bull penis).
  • The Bulgarians: “Let a hungry Carpathian long-haired she-wolf blow your dick, fuck” (Gladna Karpatska valchitza s dalag kosam minet da ti prai deeba): I’m not quite sure how good that translation is, but yikes…
  • The Chinese: “Fuck the 18 generations of your ancestors” (Cao ni zu zong shi ba dai): Wow, that’s a curse that insults everything you stand for!
  • The Icelanders: “Grandfatherfucker” (Afatottari): I’m surprised that hasn’t carried over to the English language.
  • The Armenians: “I’ll make sarma with your penis’ skin” (Glirit mortin hed sarma shinem).
  • The Serbians: “May God give you to search for your children with a Geiger counter” (Da bog da trazio detzoo Gaygerovim broyachem): I totally don’t understand this one.
  • The Romanians: “Stick your hand in my ass and jerk off with my shit” (Sa-mi bagi mana-n cur si sa-mi faci laba la cacat): BY FAR THE WORST I HAVE EVER HEARD.

Here is a list of common Hindi insults, none of which compete with the above!

What are the worst insults in your country?