Kazakhstan gets the last laugh on Borat

The Kazakhstan tourism industry is having the last laugh on Borat as Kazakhstan tourism  announces the development of one of the world’s longest ski resorts and its aim to convert Kazakhstan into the "Land of Tourism Resorts."

The government has approved a plan for the creation of an international resort with total ski runs running 100 km in length, along with the construction of passenger cableways, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and golf courses; and the establishment of infrastructure - roads, parking, electricity, gas, and water supply. This ski resort will be a new addition in the neighborhood of Almaty where there are ten existing ski resorts.

The main attraction of Kazakhstan for European tourists today is still undeveloped nature but The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has already sent a request for allocation of strategic funds from the national budget.

There has been steady growth of tourism in the country with value of services provided by tourism industry standing at 74 billion tenge (or USD500).  The new programme program includes the development of key tourist projects on an international level, the creation of a favorable tourist brand, and the necessary infrastructure. Additionally, the State will also establish a framework for training personnel.

Local NGOs however believe that the construction of a new resort in the national park contradicts not only with the national legislation on protected areas, environmental protection, water, forest and land resources, but with international law as well - in particular, with the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Venezia in un Giorno

I am a sucker for these time-lapse films.  Here's a beautiful film of Venice shot by Joerg Niggli.  The technical specifications are his, not mine!


Technical Specs: 


A day in Venice (Venezia) in Italy, from daybreak to sunset in timelapse. It's really a great place and I hope I can share some of its magic with this short video.

Some technical specs: Shot mainly with my trusty Canon G10 (and not a G12, like I wrote here first). Post in Motion, After Effects and Final Cut Pro X. 

Music: Heart of Champions, Chris Haigh, premiumbeat.com 

Replica of the Titanic to be built in China

We all know that the Chinese are good at building good copies of things, but here's one that will take some beating.

Clive Palmer, who is reportedly Australia’s fifth-richest person, is going to build a replica of the Titanic – named Titanic II - in China.  The ship is hoped to make its maiden voyage in 2016, sailing from Britain to New York.

Palmer tell us that “The Titanic II will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems,” and goes on to describe the project as “a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original Titanic.”

This year’s 100th anniversary has seen many events to remember those who perished, More than 1,500 people died when the original Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. 

Palmer has said to have commissioned the state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the replica, working with a team of historical researchers to ensure the ship’s design is as close as possible to the original.

The diesel-powered ship will have four funnels like the original, although they will be purely decorative. There will be 840 cabins, nine decks and it will measure 270 metres long and 53 metres high.

“Titanic II will be the ultimate in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries, high-class restaurants and luxury cabins,” added Mr Palmer.

Form an orderly queue here.

Blogging The Way to Nepal

Many years ago, I left my job and went off to India and Nepal to find myself and experience a little the world has offer.  I recorded many of my experiences in a moleskin diary, much the same as classic writers such as Hemmingway used to do.

Nowadays, of course, one sets up a blog.  One such blog is by Jim and his companion Rachel who quit their 9-5 jobs, gave up their homes, sold their belongings and took to the World. They can now be found living a life on the road, exploring new places and cultures, working in and giving back to local communities, and sharing their experiences with others.

They are currently volunteering with i-to-i Volunteering, teaching English at Karma Samten Ling Buddhist Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. In addition to the teaching itself, they’ve been recording all the unique sights, sounds and experiences that they get to share in on their 45-minute commute each day and have put together a short video.

http://www.the-globe-less-traveled.com/daily-commute-to-karma-samten-ling-buddhist-monastery-kathmandu-nepal/

The blog is hosted on the http://www.the-globe-less-traveled.com website which is an excellent platform providing a resource for budding writers to share their experiences with us all.

I'll have a tadpole please!

We do a lot of cross-cultural work and the use of language is always a critical element when formulating international campaigns and so we were particularly interested in this story of Coca Cola...and how Coca-Cola when translated into Chinese means “bite the wax tadpole!"

When Coca-Cola was first sold in China in 1927, it was obvious to the Coke employees in China that the Coca-Cola trademark must be transliterated into Chinese characters. To find the nearest phonetic equivalent to “Coca-Cola" required a separate Chinese character for each of the four syllables. Out of the 40,000 or so characters, there were only about 200 that were pronounced with the sounds the Company needed, and many of these had to be avoided because of their meaning.

While doing the research for four suitable characters, the employees found that a number of shopkeepers had also been looking for Chinese equivalents for Coca-Cola, but with strange results. Some had made signs that were absurd, adopting any group of characters that sounded remotely like "Coca-Cola" - one of these homemade signs sounded like “Coca-Cola” when pronounced, but the meaning of the characters came out as “female horse fastened with wax” and another meant “bite the wax tadpole.”

Although the Company was primarily concerned with the phonetic equivalent of Coca-Cola, the employees could not ignore the meaning of the characters, individually and collectively – even if the shopkeepers had done so. They chose Mandarin because this dialect was spoken by the great majority of Chinese. The closest Mandarin equivalent to Coca-Cola was “K'o K'ou K'o Lê.”

All Chinese characters have more than one meaning, but K'o K'ou K'o Lê (depending on context) commonly meant “to permit mouth to be able to rejoice” - catchy!

Baarle - bordering on madness

In Spike Milligan's excellent absudist book, Puckoon - the border separating two local Irish constituencies runs straight through the middle of the local pub. At one end of the pub the Guinness is cheaper than at the other end of the bar, which falls under another jurisdiction. Everyone naturally crowds down one end of the pub!

Amazingly, this wonderfully Milligan-esque scenario is not that far from fact - take the little town of Baarle, for instance, which straddles the Dutch-Belgian border. The Belgian portion of town, known as Baarle Hertog, is no more than as a smattering of tiny exclaves inside of the Netherlands town of Baarle-Nassau.

The official border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs through living rooms, yards and cafés, so it’s possible – indeed, it happens more often than you’d think – to sit across a table having a cup of coffee with someone who is actually in a different country.

For a while, a Dutch law requiring dining establishments to close earlier than they did in Belgium laid the foundation for an absurd, nightly charade in some Baarle restaurants. At closing time in the Netherlands, patrons would have to get up and move tables, over to the Belgian side. Baarle’s complex borderline has to do with how regional lords and dukes divided up their land hundreds of years ago.

RIP Spike.

Keynesian Pub Economics

Here's some Keynesian economics combined with some sociology for you.

It seems David Cameron is looking to lend his support to a campaign to charge a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. While the economics of this are still open to discussion. Here's another way of approaching the problem of 'binge-drinking' which has been getting the Tories hot under the collar.

Lets introduce a minimum price for alcohol sold in the supermarkets. Let's raise the costs of crates of lager promoted as loss-leaders by the big chains - but let's reduce the price of alcohol sold in pubs!

This has four effects

1) it encourages people to drink in safe environments (ie pubs) and discourages people form sitting at home drinking. In a pub, the measures are controlled so you know exactly where you are and what you are drinking. (at home you do not - and it is quite easy to get through a whole bottle of wine in two or three glasses)

2) It encourages social drinking rather than anti-social drinking - younger people can mix with older people and vice verse

3) It generates income for the pubs which in term provides jobs and employment through the Keynesian multiplier effect. According to the British Beer and Pub Association 2,377 premises have closed in the last year with the loss of 24,000 jobs.

4) If the price of alcohol in supermarkets goes up and the price of alcohol in the pubs comes down - there will be a net positive taxation effect.

More employment, less binge drinking and a more balanced society - what's not to like?