May 4th: This morning bemused tourists wishing to visit the Acropolis were met with a giant banner complete with hammer & sickle asking the Peoples of Europe to Rise Up. It was the first day of a two day strike called by the public sector unions in response to massive layoffs and a 15% paycut imposed by the IMF and EU in return for providing loans to Greece. Surely a novel way of making old monuments interesting for visitors. Acerbic, conservative readers of the global north will think that "old monuments" also refers to communism/socialism and that it is the latter that is revived through such activism. Perhaps, and something similar may also happen in their own sleepy cities (this week there was even a rare demonstration on Wall Street!), but the popular movement is very much alive in Athens, a city that by accident or tradition perenially finds itself in...

Marinaleda (pop. 2700) a town 100 km east of Seville, in southern Spain near Gibraltar, where:  - local people rent 3-bedroom-houses with garden from the municipality for Euros 15 per month - inhabitants successfully expropriated a 3,000 acre estate a Duke in 1991 enjoy near full employment in a region with over 20% unemployment, with 8 agricultural cooperatives, equal pay (Euros 47 per day) and 6 and a half hour working day! - Sánchez Gordillo, the keffiye-wearing, 54 year old mayor has been democratically elected every 4 years for the past 30 years! - there are no policemen - 'no need' according to the mayor - nor priests, as all have access to a modern health centre, schools, nursery sports centre, home services for the elderly, a pensioners’ centre, a large cultural centre, a swimming pool, a football stadium, a nature park and gardens, and workshops  from bricklaying to ecological agriculture....

You may be reading about the latest developments in the saga of whether IMF will 'rescue' Greece, the way they have 'rescued' so many countries in the past. The Euro is already under great strain from the weight of the Greek debt / deficit (real or imaginary), and theoretically at least, there is a chance for us to do some damage to the world financial system (the question is how :-)  Popular protests are a bit lukewarm by our standards at least (20,000 people marching in total yesterday, divided as always into many factions) and there is no short-term novel / alternative / constructive idea floating around apart from a 'NO' to the reactionary changes put forward from the 'Socialist' government to please the insatiable markets. In the mean time, real unemployment is estimated at about 18% and together with the steady rise of the far right and continuing mass immigration...

Following a call for reviews, I came across a recent publication, provocatively titled and promoted as follows: "Sex Tourism in Africa Kenya's Booming Industry" Illustrated by in-depth empirical research from Kenya – one of the most popular country destinations in Africa for sex tourism – this book gathers much-needed statistics and data, and then critically examines the features of tourism and the sex trade, contextualizing this in relation to tourism development. It addresses the conditions which generate this 'social problem' and, while not taking a potentially problematic moralistic stance it questions whether this trade is exploitative in nature, particularly in cases of child sex tourism. It then critically evaluates the current policies in place to regulate the sex tourism industry and provides suggestions for future direction. The title must contain interesting data and such research is much needed to fully understand and combat the practice, however I wonder if it takes...

Surely a milestone in the quest for environmentally-friendly travel, 107 years after the first successful flight, the first take off from a Swiss airport of Bertrand Piccard's "Solar Impulse" a one-seat solar glider is a reality. From afar it looks like a strange craft flown by the Wright brothers, but it is really huge, with a wingspan as wide as that of a 747  carrying 12,000 solar cells. It travels as quietely and - unfortunately for v.i.ps with no time to waste - as slowly as a bicycle...  Among other things, Piccard is a psychiatrist, a baloonist, and a UN Goodwill Ambassador. Air travel carbon offsetters & hot air speculators: take note, take cover, do something.

According to reports  Thanassis Lerounis has been freed! Lerounis had been working for over 15 years with the Kalash communities of Northern Pakistan, when he was abducted last September. (Background ) He is said to be in good health and back in Chitral.

leaked, shocking video captures the barbarity of war...Apocalypse Again. maximum respect to wikileaks.org and to those who leaked the video. otherwise, lost for words...unlike the trigger happy perpetrators.

Our Member in Laos, Sompawn Khantisouk, co-founder of award-winning Ecolodge "The Boat Landing Guesthouse" suddenly dissappeared on his way to the town in early 2007,  escorted by men in "green uniforms" according to some reports. I had dedicated my presentation at the World Ecotourism Conference to him in May 2007 and enquired for info through contacts, to no avail. Three years after his family is still waiting for him to return... One hypothesis at the time was that he would 'resurface' when things were quiet so that various "stakeholders" could "save face", as is supposedly the cultural norm in these parts. Another hypothesis was that he had stepped on the toes of powerful private interests. An alternative theory, published in an annual review of the region was that Sompawn was made 'an example' , a victim of geopolitics in a border region. Geopolitics is a polite word to describe all those,...

Thanassis Lerounis, a greek teacher and lone volunteer, selflessly and tirelessly working for over 15 years with the famous Kalash people in the Chitral area of Northern Pakistan (2,500 m. asl),  was abducted, allegedly by Afghan Taliban in September 2009, and is still being held captive in Nooristan. His captors are reported to demand an exchange with a number of captive leaders imprisoned by Pakistani authorities. The last report I have seen on Thanassis was in January 12 2010 in the local Chitral Times  website after a delegation from Chitral went to hold talks with his captors, and includes a photo where he sports a long beard and even smiles. As a teacher he had read about the Kalash tribe, of whom just 4,200 remain, and was fascinated by their traditional belief that they are descendants of soldiers of Alexander the Great, a belief supported by their unique language, customs, and...

  A cartoon by leading greek political cartoonist Yiannis Ioannou, alluding to the latest austerity package introduced by the newly-elected "socialist" government, who before the elections promised green development and social spending, at the request of the guardians of the Euro and to the joy of speculators. Green as in putting green? There is also fear that the government may use the current crisis as an excuse to rush through tourism mega-projects involving holiday homes and golf communities, vigorously opposed by social movements.