Sans-Souci in the Caribbean: Haiti wants tourists back - Feature

Franz Smets

Cap Haitien, Haiti - The site is symbolically charged: The Cap Haitien citadel is visible from far away, with hundreds of cannons aimed at the sea.

In the mid-20th century, Haiti was a popular tourist destination. The country that shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic had beautiful beaches, a vibrant culture and delectable food.

At the time, Haiti also offered something unique, a sort of "Africa in the Caribbean."

Today, as the country seeks to rebuild after the devastating January 12 earthquake, tourism is likely to take on a key role. Cap Haitien, in the north, and Jacmel, in the south, are to be billed as major attractions.

And yet the necessary infrastructure is currently missing.

In 1804, Haiti became the first independent country in the Americas.

Cannons at the Cap Haitien citadel, with its meter-thick walls atop the 910-metre-high Bonnet-a-L'Eveque hill, were intended to prevent French forces from returning to take back their former colony in the 19th century. The French never returned, and not one of these decorated pieces of artillery was ever fired.

Over weekends, hundreds of descendants of slaves brought in from Africa visit the site, and the ruins of the Sans-Souci palace on their way up the mountain. Over a picnic, many enjoy the great views, and particularly a green scenery of mango fields and banana and sugarcane plantations that is rare in Haiti.

The large fort and the impressive palace were both built under the self-proclaimed King Henri Christophe I (1811-20). Since 1982 they have been a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

Former US president Bill Clinton - now a UN special envoy to Haiti - visited the area in December last year, with a view to promoting tourism there with US businesses.

"Tourism must provide the initial spark for northern Haiti's development," said Broder Schuett, a businessman who is also the sixth-generation German general consul in Cap Haitien.

There, far from the earthquake-ravaged capital Port-au-Prince, an increasing number of business people show up with an interest in developing the area's potential for tourism.

But almost everything is missing. The road to Cap Haitien from Port-au-Prince is in a sorry state along most stretches. In several places it has been washed away by flooding. Travelers have to take detours over the hills or across pools of water.

In Cap Haitien there are a few small hotels, which date back to better days. And there is a boardwalk with restaurants. To talk of port facilities would be an exaggeration, in the light of the slums and the crumbling buildings they hold.

Nearby, cruise ships regularly stop in the walled beach resort of Labadee.

"We want to do more to bring passengers up to the fort," said Schuett, the local representative of the cruise company Royal Caribbean.

There is an easier way to reach northern Haiti, other than from the Haitian capital. The Dominican border is only 40 minutes away, because the European Union built a modern road to Cap Haitien. It is one of only a few roads in Haiti that have road signs that alert drivers when the road is about to get narrower and tell them to respect certain speed limits.

Jacmel, in Haiti's southern coast, can be reached from Port-au- Prince on a paved road. Currently, however, mudslides caused by the January earthquake and its many aftershocks are an obstacle to the trip.

Jacmel, with its French colonial-style houses overlooking the sea, was seriously affected by the earthquake. But it too wants to become a success story.

"Jacmel can become a picturesque, small French town in the Caribbean," said Haitian Central Bank governor Charles Castel. "We will promote tourism's return here."

In Jacmel, people are busy trying to free themselves from a history of disaster. School lessons have started again, sometimes in makeshift wooden buildings in the outskirts of the town. And small hotels and seafood restaurants are opening on the beautiful beaches east and west of the center.

Thomas Oriental's mask shop on the heavily damaged beach walk was also devastated by the earthquake, as a side wall and portions of the roof collapsed. Now, young artists are painting more pictures and fixing the damaged masks.

This Haitian store owner, for one, is not very hopeful that tourists from around the world will soon start pouring into Haiti. The task at hand is massive.

"I need a loan in order to be able to survive with my shop," Oriental noted.

And he expects no help from the authorities: "They were themselves victims of the earthquake."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320325,sans-souci-in-the-caribbeanhaiti-wants-tourists-back--feature.html.

Happy birthday Hubble: Space telescope turns 20 with new image

Washington - The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 20th anniversary Saturday and NASA has released a new photograph from the orbiting observatory of a cosmic pillar of gas and dust piled high in the Carina Nebula galaxy.

Three light-year-tall towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula, the US space agency said, in a scene that is reminiscent of Hubble's classic "Pillars of Creation" photograph from 1995.

Hubble, named after the astronomer Edwin P Hubble (1889-1953), was launched into low-Earth orbit on April 24, 1990.

Since then, it has been sending back some of the most spectacular images of galaxies - helping scientists to place the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years, learn that black holes are at the center of most galaxies, monitor planetary formation and discover that the universe is expanding at an ever-faster pace.

To date, Hubble has looked at over 30,000 celestial objects and amassed over a half million pictures in its archive.

In May, a revamped Hubble provided colorful images and crisper pictures of distant stars and galaxies after a servicing mission that installed new instruments and repaired broken ones that had hampered the world's most famous telescope.

Despite its storied past, Hubble had looked set for the junk heap until the space shuttle Atlantis' repair mission that sought to extend the telescope's life until at least 2014, and possibly beyond.

NASA had originally decided against the maintenance mission because of the risks involved and pressures to complete International Space Station construction by the end of 2010, when the shuttle is to be retired.

But US politicians and world astronomers fought to keep alive the instrument that has expanded knowledge of space.

"Most of us humans ... will never travel physically to some of the exotic places that we see in Hubble," said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator, earlier this year. "What Hubble has done is enabled our hearts, our minds, our spirits to travel throughout the solar system even billions of light years to the very beginning of time."

Hubble fans worldwide are being invited to share the ways the telescope has affected them - they can visit the "Messages to Hubble" page on http://hubblesite.org. The messages will be stored in the Hubble data archive along with the telescope's many terabytes of science data.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320328,happy-birthday-hubble-space-telescope-turns-20-with-new-image.html.

South Korea raises remaining half of sunken warship

Seoul - South Korea on Saturday raised the bow of a warship which sunk last month, hoping to gain more information on the cause of the disaster amid growing suspicion of North Korean involvement.

Navy salvage workers were preparing to search the bow of the 1,200-ton Cheonan for the remains of seven still missing sailors, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The rear of the ship had been salvaged last week. Investigators concluded after an initial examination that an exterior explosion caused the sinking, strengthening suspicions that a North Korean sea mine or torpedo may have been responsible.

South Korea's military suspected immediately after the Cheonan sunk last month that a North Korean torpedo had been responsible, the Yonhap said Thursday, quoting military sources.

The assessment was bolstered by intelligence information that the Stalinist state's armed forces have intensified "guerrilla warfare" training since February 2009. The training was aimed at provoking opponents rather than a direct confrontation, according to the intelligence information.

The 1,200-ton Cheonan went down March 26 in 45 meters of water near the disputed border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea after witnesses heard an explosion and the ship broke apart.

North Korea rejected any responsibility for the sinking.

Of the 104 crew members aboard, 58 were rescued when the vessel sank, two bodies were found before the salvage operation and 37 bodies were recovered from the wreckage.

The incident occurred in an area where the North and South Korean navies clashed in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320329,south-korea-raises-remaining-half-of-sunken-warship.html.

Voting begins in Bangladesh parliamentary by-elections

Dhaka - Voting began Saturday in Bangladesh in a parliamentary by-election amid tight security measures following earlier clashes between supporters of the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The Election Commission has deployed as many as 3,500 security personnel to the southern district, where a parliamentary seat fell vacant after the commission declared the incumbent's candidacy in the December 2008 general elections invalid. Polls opened at 8 am (0200 GMT) and are to close at 4 pm.

Voters have started queuing outside the polling stations from early morning, said Al Imran Garjon, an election observer posted in the southern Lalmohon sub-district.

"There have been no reports of violence so far," he added.

Election officials said they have taken all necessary preparations to hold a free and fair election.

The opposition BNP alleged that Awami-League supporters were trying to rig the election and threatened protests.

Media reports said at least 30 people were injured in pre-election violence between supporters of the Awami League and BNP Friday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320330,voting-begins-in-bangladesh-parliamentary-by-elections.html.

China replaces party boss in restive Xinjiang region

Beijing - China's Communist Party on Saturday replaced the unpopular political leader in the troubled western region of Xinjiang, the scene of deadly ethnic riots last July.

Wang Lequan, who held the post for 15 years, was replaced by Zhang Chunxian, 57, former party boss of the southern province of Hunan, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang was appointed to a new post as deputy secretary of a political affairs committee in the party's central committee, the report said.

No reason for the change was given, and it is not clear whether Wang will retain his position in the party's powerful politburo.

After ethnic riots in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in July left at least 197 people dead, many had called for Wang to step down.

Wang's restrictive policies and frequent strike-hard campaigns against Xinjiang's ethnic Uighurs had already built up resentment within the Uighur community.

After the unrest, some in the region's Han Chinese community felt that Wang had failed in his duty to provide security and stability.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320340,china-replaces-party-boss-in-restive-xinjiang-region.html.

6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Indonesia

Jakarta - An earthquake measuring 6.4 struck islands in north-eastern Indonesia Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries and damage, officials said.

The quake occurred at 4:41 pm (0741 GMT), the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said. Its epicenter was 155 kilometers south-east of the city Labuha in North Maluku province, or about 2,400 kilometers north-east of Jakarta at a depth of 30 kilometers.

The BMG said the quake did not trigger a tsunami.

It was the latest of a series of earthquakes to jolt Indonesia in recent months.

A powerful 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the western coast of Sumatra in September, killing thousands and injuring hundreds of others.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320342,64-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-eastern-indonesia.html.

Indian state to raise special force to protect tigers

M G Srinath

New Delhi – The north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh plans to enact a law to constitute a special tiger protection force with powers to its officials to prosecute and seize contraband body parts and act against those smuggling animal parts.

The force will be set up at the Dudwa National Park in Lakhimour Kheri district. It will follow the guidelines issued by the federal environment and forest ministry.

The federal government plans to create 11 Special Forces to be stationed in states like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Uttarakhand.

The move by the Uttar Pradesh government has come as a big boon to the local forest officials as the state shares a 960-km long border with Nepal.

According to the 2007 census, the state's tiger population was 109. The state witnessed death of four tigers in 2007, five in 2008 and three in 2009. In 2010, one tiger died in Kishanpur sanctuary.

Meanwhile, Indian Forests and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament this week that government has advised various states to regulate tourist visits in tiger reserves since unchecked inflow had become a source of threat to the wildlife.

“Advisories have been issued to tiger range States for regulating tourist visitation in tiger reserves.” Guidelines have also been issued to phase out tourism activities from the core or critical tiger habitats, while creating buffer in its peripheral areas.

In an innovative move to save tigers and also provide employment to villagers around the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan state, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has started a scheme giving out cloth bags instead of plastic ones to pilgrims who come to visit the centuries-old Hindu Ganesha temple that is located inside the protected zone.

The WWF is training local women to produce cloth and paper bags, ropes etc which will replace plastic bags used by devotees for carrying offerings to the temple. These women were basically tree cutters working in the reserve area, and thus adding to the menace of dwindling tiger habitat, the Pioneer newspaper reported.

According to the data furnished by the WWF- India, while there were 159,000 visitors to the park in 2007-08. The figure in 2008-09 was 178,000.

“The offerings made in the temple are often carried in plastic bags, which were thrown in the habitat area after use. We began by collecting tons and tons of plastic bags from the area,” the newspaper quoted Rima Rosalind, Senior Consultant, WWF, leading the project in Rajasthan.

The plastic bags, she said, prevented the growth of vegetation beneath them, besides choking the herbivores such as deer, cheetah etc in the area.

As the villagers, particularly women, began to get involved in the process, they became more aware of the need for tiger conservation. “Today, we have nearly 15 self-help groups involving both men and women, who are stitching cloth bags, ropes and sustaining themselves. Even the local banks are willing to finance them today”, Lima has been quoted as saying by the newspaper.

According to the WWF official, each bag costs Indian Rupees 10. Some groups had made as much as Rupees 18,000 (USD $ 450) annually. This income has helped families even purchase ploughs and other household requirements.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320348,indian-state-to-raise-special-force-to-protect-tigers.html.