Travel - A place you probably have not seen, but you should - Spice Island, Africa

Yes, there is a Zanzibar. I am sure that many of you may have thought that Zanzibar is the fictitious invention of some fantasy writer such as Rudyard Kipling. Others may know it exists but could not tell you the continent where it is located.

Zanzibar in real life is just as exotic as we may conjure up in our imagination. It is one of the Spice Islands off the coast of Tanzania, which is, of course, located in East Africa. Many of us may dream of taking an African Safari, which is one of the great experiences on this planet. If you choose to visit some of the popular places such as Mount Kilimanjaro or the Serengeti, consider reserving about three nights and two days at this unique place.

Zanzibar was a slave trading mecca in the past. Hapless Africans would be captured on the continent and their new masters would carry them off to Zanzibar where the slaves would be auctioned off to be transported to destinations all over the world. Today the Slave Market includes the old auction block and holding quarters, which make a sobering statement on the cruelty of slavery.

But do not think of Zanzibar as a downer. Far from it. Zanzibar has been ruled by many peoples over the centuries including, Arabs, Asians and Europeans. As a result, the inhabitants are the product of a confluence of many cultures. The Old Stone Town appeared to me to be extremely authentic. The streets are so narrow that I felt that I could touch the walls on each side at the same time.

One night we took a meal on the open air roof of one of the local hotels. Although our own hotel was only about a quarter of a mile or less away from the restaurant, the concierge insisted that a bell boy accompany us to and from the restaurant for fear that we would be hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of alley ways that passed for streets. Needless to say that walk itself deserved four stars.

The meal was just as exciting. The starry sky was clearly visible as the guests sat on the floor surrounded by pillows to make us comfortable. The eerie music, the food which was delicious but largely mysterious, made that night one of the highlights of all of our travels.

Zanzibar produces many spices, including clove, vanilla, cinnamon, turmeric, nutmeg. and black pepper. Spice farms dot the landscape and make for a wonderful day of meandering through the countryside.

Finally, when you return home and someone at a cocktail party asks you where you have been, you can say “Zanzibar.” Most likely they will be speechless.

My Take on the Tuesday Elections

Democrats and some of their friends in the media tried to spin the Scott Brown victory over Martha Coakley as a local race with minimal effect on the November elections. That tactic may have been persuasive in Virginia and even sounded reasonable when consistently Democratic New Jersey elected a Republican governor. In Massachusetts, however, Brown campaigned on platform dominated by national issues boasting that he would be the forty first senator who could derail the Obama juggernaut. Now that the Democrats have shown that they cannot hold power in the East, what is going to happen when seats are contested in the Midwest, South and beyond? It may not be pretty.

The fact is that the Democrats now have no safe seats in the November elections. Their efforts to raise money will be impaired, and they will have many more places to spend it. The health care bill has become an albatross and will only pass by use of brute force and awkwardness.

The White House is bound to be in disarray too. Obama chose to invest virtually all of his political capital on a health care plan which now enjoys support of less than a majority of Americans who view the economy as their number one priority. Health care is Nero’s fiddle while the economy is the fire burning in Rome. Moreover, Obama has not seemed to be any more effective in dealing with the mess in the Middle East than Bush.

There was another election. William Bell has finally become Birmingham’s mayor, a position that he thought would come to him many years ago. There are many needs for the city of Birmingham. At the top of my list would be the curbing of wholesale corruption, bringing sanity and some measure of competence to the education system, and attracting new businesses. Is Bell the man for the job? The answer is patently obvious.

Bell’s victory is no surprise. The election result last night was politics as usual in Birmingham. The most stunning event in my mind was a political ad Bell ran close to election day. Many years ago Art Hanes Sr., a hard nosed segregationist, was running for president of the old City Commission against Tom King, Sr., who was more moderate. (Both men had sons who ended up as distinguished judges in the Jefferson County Circuit Court. I always wondered what they discussed during coffee breaks.) The Hanes campaign hired a black man to approach King and shake his hand and a photographer to snap King’s picture. The picture was reproduced in Hanes ads to show that King was an “integrationist.” The ploy worked and Hanes was elected. That tactic has been widely regarded as one of the low points in the politics of the segregation era.

Now after many decades, the same tactic was used again in reverse. Bell ran an ad showing him and his wife accompanied by pictures of Patrick Cooper and Julia Boaz Cooper, Patrick’s ex-wife. Nothing was said in the ad, but the message was clear, Julia is white and Patrick is black. Bell was conveying the message that Patrick Cooper was not black enough to be mayor. Who said that racism is dead?

Oh well, Birmingham once called itself the “Pittsburgh of the South.” Today it would be more appropriate to be described as the “Newark of the South.”

Travel - A place you probably have not seen, but you should - The Land of the Rising Sun..

When Monty and I decided to go to Japan we were met with skepticism and downright opposition from our friends. “Why do you want to go to Japan?” You would think we were going to Siberia; but then, I would not mind going there either.

Japanese travelers usually appear to be aloof, iconoclastic and humorless, but, in their own country, they are the friendliest to tourists that we have seen. You are surprised aren’t you?

Before leaving we purchased a two week train pass. It was a necessity, because trains are the only feasible means of travel. After selecting our itinerary, we made a list of every train and departure time that we anticipated using for the entire trip. Shortly after reaching Tokyo we made all of our reservations with the precise dates and times for each trip. Only in Japan is such precision so easy.

I can recall at least five sites which were breathtakingly exciting and unique to Japan. They are:

1. Ryokans, the traditional hostel. It is hard to believe that sleeping in a spare room on palettes and eating meals while sitting on the floor can be one the most luxurious experiences imaginable, but it is true.

2. The Kabuki and Noh theaters. This traditional drama has a pace and eeriness unmatched in our experience.

3. The Kyoto National Museum. There are only a handful of museums in its class in the world, but it stands number one as a reflection of the nation it serves. I was particularly taken to see the early Buddhist art which was much finer than what was being produced in the West at the time.

4. Kyoto again - the vaunted tea ceremony. It is a thing of beauty and good taste and is unforgettable.

5. And of course there the trains. The Japanese idea of a late train is one that arrives two minutes after the scheduled time. All passengers line up in the premarked spots where their car will stop and it takes less than five minutes to load and unload the cars. The ride is exquisite. The most famous trains are the Shinkansen. We took one from Hiroshima to Tokyo. There were five stops and covered 850 miles in five hours.

There is not much downside to a trip to Japan. My only warning is to travel light. There are no red caps in the train stations although most of them are equipped with escolators making the walk easy

I am sorry I wrote this blog. As I think of it, I wish I were in Japan again.

Alabama’s Secret Weapon

Much has been said about Alabama’s national championship, but the pundits are strangely silent about Bama’s secret weapon without whom this team would never have reached its dream. That weapon is Lady Luck.

Consider the Tennessee game. The image of Terence Cody running off the field without his helmet before the play was even over will define him as a hero for the ages, much like Van Tiffin and his kick. But really, Alabama won the Tennessee game because a kicker was twice unable to elevate field goal attempts to their normal trajectory. That is real luck. Otherwise, Cody would have been weeping on the bench and Kevin Scarbinsky would not be boasting that this team was the best ever.

Mack Brown claims that he had the superior team and that he lost simply because Marcell Demarius pinched Colt McCoy’s nerve. Mack should be a better sport than that, but it is true that Texas was unlucky and Alabama was lucky when that injury occurred. The game would have been different with a healthy McCoy, but we will never know how different it would be.

The biggest stroke of luck for Alabama is what did not happen, namely it never suffered a crippling injury throughout the year.. The only significant loss was Dante Hightower, but Alabama was lucky because he was one of many talented linebackers who ably filled the void created by his absence.

I can remember when Auburn lost all of its centers and had to move a guard to the center positiion to deliver the ball to the quarterback. Nothing like that happened to this team. Terry Grant, a fourth string running back, was injured this year, Wasn’t Alabama lucky that they did not lose Mark Ingram for the year instead?

But the scariest prospect was at quarterback. The top three quarterbacks in the nation, Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy, all suffered signifcant injuries. Isn’t Alabama lucky that the same fate did not happen to Greg McElroy? He may not be in the class of those three, but do you really believe that Alabama would have won the national championship with Starr Jackson at the helm? I don’t.

Texas cannot complain. They lost the shot at the national championship last year because of a play that took place with one second left of the clock in the Texas Tech game. This year they would not have been able to show up on January 6, if the clock had ticked one second longer on the next to last play in the Nebraska game. They were lucky this year and last year they were not.

It is not my point to belittle Alabama’s accomplishment. I believe the most championships are accompanied by a generous dose of good luck. If Alabama, is to win another championship, they need the players, the coaches, the discipline, training and dedication to do the job. But if they really expect to succeed they must pay attention to the mysterious and powerful thirteenth woman of the gridiron - Lady Luck.

Travel: Setting the Objectives of Your Trip

The best trips are both entertaining and educational. But if you are looking for entertainment alone, there is no reason to go abroad. If you want to go to the beach, try Destin, not Thailand. Visiting a foreign country can be fun. The foods, accommodations, people, geographic wonders and public events all exciting. But travel exposes us to new people, attitudes, historical sites, and culture that is truly enlightening. Nothing made for good traveling experience than simple curiosity.

Study where you are going before you make your plans. I am privileged to be married to an incredibly talented traveler. When we zero in on our next trip, Monty will get out her travel books to discover what there is to see. We have a strong preference for Fodor’s series, because it discusses both the places to see and the accommodations available. It is also helpful to look at the itineraries in tour brochures to see where they go. She would also read novels written by or about people of the country being visited and leave the histories to me. The simple fact is that the more you know about the country, the better your experience will be.

To me a trip is most rewarding when connected with a special interest. Monty and I are most attracted to art. Travel is an indispensable means of enriching both pursuits. I cannot make an fair estimate as to how many art museums we have visited. It must be in the hundreds. Art reflects the history and character of a country.

We have also preferred to limit each trip destinations to one or two countries. When we took a tour to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Chile, and Lima, it seemed that we spent about as much time on the air plane as in our destination and left too much unseen in each of those very interesting places. On the other hand, we spent over a week in Portugal, and it was one of our favorite trips.

Obama's Folly

In an earlier posting, I shared my concern that President Obama might give in to the tendency of Democrats towards protectionism. (December 25, 2008) That fear is growing. Last week, the Chinese government took the first step towards impressing tariffs of American exports of automotive products and chicken meat. This move was an apparent and immediate retaliation for Obama’s decision to levy tariffs on tires imported from China.

This may should like dull stuff, but it can set in motion a trade war with far reaching effects. Consider what the combined actions of two governments can cause. China exports $1.3 Billion worth of tires into this country. The announced U.S. tariffs can reach as much as 35% of the price, which means that if China could maintain its level of exports with the tariff, American consumers would be required to pay almost $2 Billion for the same tires as before. The $40 tire would become a $60 tire. Arguably American union shop plants would get the business without being required to be competitive. You and I will thus be paying a higher price for tires in order to subsidize a plant in Akron in an attempt to preserve jobs for some loyal Democratic voters and their employers.

Actually the above scenario is not how the real world works. China would lose its edge as a low cost competitor. Other tire makers - some domestic and some foreign - could raise their prices at least to the level of the newly crowned low cost competitor, but the higher prices would apply to all tires, allowing for a smaller increase but covering a much greater volume of tire sales.

Nevertheless, the principal is the same. All of us are called upon to pay a higher price for the product in order to subsidize an inefficient industry. China is now retaliating by increasing the tariff on $899 billion worth of automotive products and $378 billion in chicken products. (This type of measured response is typical in tariff trade wars.) These tariffs will result in increasing prices for them in China, allowing other suppliers to take our market share. The resulting reduction in exports of the automotive and chicken products will penalize American firms and jeopardize jobs in the affected industries.

I wonder if workers in the automotive industry understand that they are facing further job loss because of tariffs set up for the benefit of rubber workers. When tire prices go up, will they understand that their loss of purchasing power is not the product of greedy wall street bankers but of the stroke of the pen of a politician who seems to be more concerned about the next Ohio primary than the general good?

Nice move Barack!

Travel - Choosing a Destination

We were concluding an eleven day horse trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, under the leadership of Jack Hooker. Monty was telling Karen, Jacks wife, that she hoped we would come back again. Karen said that people like us do not come back, but move on to see other things. She understood us well. We have moved on to other places.

The patterns of our travel have been to go in ever widening circles. It is just as well to visit the closer destinations before wandering off too far. We recently discovered that we had overlooked one of the most interesting places in Alabama - Tuskegee. I bet that most of you have not been there either. It is one of the most interesting campuses in America. The campus is dominated by structures made by the students themselves, which produces and impressive but simple landscape. Its chapel designed by Paul Rudolph, John A. Welch and Louis Frey is probably the finest contemporary building in Alabama and contains the only nationally regarded stain glass window in the state. Booker T. Washington’s home, the Museum with fascinating movies of the lives of Washington and George Washington Carver, and the airport where the Tuskegee airman were trained could all deserve at least a star or two by Michelin Guide standards. Why go to a village in Italy, if you have not seen Tuskegee?

There is as much to see in this country as any where in the world. Some of my favorites are New York, Williamsburg, Glacier National Park, and Chicago, and anywhere you can find Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

The same principal of ever widening circles applies to foreign travel. There is no reason to seek out the exotic until after you have seen the well traveled spots abroad including, Alaska and a Hawaii, which are considered foreign lands by The Traveler’s Century Club.

There is no reason to go to remote corners of the unusual places until you have visited the obvious ones. I still believe that the best destinations are the great cities of Europe - London, Paris, Rome (by way of Venice and Florence), Madrid, Athens, Berlin. Moreover all of those cities surround a treasure trove of other great destinations. These cities are popular spots for a reason. They are unusually rich in culture and our own heritage. Once you have been exposed to our own country and Europe, it is time to venture further and explore the many places throughout the world that are worthy of your time and treasure.

The following is a list of some of my favorites. In Africa the Serengeti, Lake Victoria, Capetown, and many other superb Safari locations dominate the south while Egypt and Morocco are most prominent in the North. Asia includes China, India, Japan, and all of Southeast Asia. My favorites in South America are Peru, Iguazu Falls, Chile and Argentina. In Eastern Europe there are Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Travel in the Middle East has been inhibited by the conflagrations there, but Israel is a must. Leaders among the remaining parts of the world are Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and Spitsbergen, Norway.

There are many places we have not visited that probably should be on the list, including the Philippines, Mongolia, Bhutan, Korea, Nepal and the Galapagos Islands. Maybe we can make a dent in that list before it gets even longer.

Meanwhile, let me suggest a very special trip for you. In next year between May and September, the tiny town of Oberammergau, Germany will perform its marvelous Passion Play, for the forty first time. This is a world class event that comes along once a decade and should be seen during a lifetime. The play fills out one day leaving time to Switzerland or Austria nearby, to Italy in the south, Berlin in the east or maybe Paris in the west. You will not regret it.