Fearless Travel

To break with the general tone of this blog for a moment in order to make an appeal to my readers.

Many of you may have been aware of the recent wild fires in California. In fact one of those fires, the “Tea Fire,” hit near the last city I lived in and harmed some people I knew. Here’s the story. Lance and Carla were recently married. She works as a manager at the comic book store and he works as a security guard at a mall down the street. They were renting a bungalo in a town called Montecito. They had received the evacuation notice and were gathering some small belongings when they noticed the fire was moving very quickly towards them. They ran for the car, but were overtaken in a flash fire and burned horribly. Somehow they managed to drive themselves to the nearest fire station where some paramedics were present (luckily) who then transported them to the nearest hospital. Their burns were so severe they were transferred to UC Irvine’s hospital and put into a medically-induced coma while their burns heal. Lance’s burns are so severe, the doctors fear he may have burns on the insides of his lungs from inhaling super-heated air. They have lost everything and because they work for small companies, they have no health insurance to cover their medical expenses. They are currently being put through the medicaid system to pay for the expenses of their medical treatment and recovery. In the mean time, some other friends started a Yahoo user group to coordinate donations of clothes, furniture, gift cards and other things they will need once they get out - they are trying to avoid taking cash donations in order to prevent Lance and Carla’s disqualification for medicaid since those monies would be considered an asset under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (this provision allows the state to confiscate savings, trusts, and other liquid assets to offset the cost of medicaid). Please check out the user group and see if you can help in any way.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/lanceandcarla/

Hopefully, we’ll all figure out a way to help Lance and Carla soon. Thank you for your patience and assistance while reading this.

From Monterey bay and it’s cute otters, I take you to Egypt, a place I lived for a time. I hope you will enjoy the journey as much as I did. First, I will tell you up front I was studying there at the American university in Cairo. At the time, AUC’s campus was located downtown, on a plaza called Midan al Tahrir. It is perhaps one of the busiest places in Cairo, and that’s saying something. Egypt has about 40 million citizens (legally) and 25 million of those live in and around Cairo. The city is huge and it is packed with a crush of humanity that is both intimidating and exhilarating. Egypt’s main income is from tourism, though Egyptian cotton is also a huge revenue booster to the economy. Egypt is well-supported militarily, receiving lots of support from the United States both in the form of hardware and intelligence. Egypt is also technically a Republic with a President and a Council of Advisors (the majlis al Shoura), but in reality it is an olighrachy and sometimes an authoritarian regime. Police are everywhere and belong at least to the Middle Class, if not the lower upper class. They can be brutal and arbitrary to the people, but leave Westerners alone for the most part (unless the Westerners are stupid enough to do something illegal like purchase drugs or steal something).

The people of Egypt oscillate between being resigned and indignant about the political system. Though anti-American sentiment has been growing the the Middle East, particularly anti-American sentiment, for the most part, Egyptian people separate the American culture from the American people; they sometimes joked with me that Egyptians and Americans are brother - neither of them can change their government. This is in reference to the Defeat of John Kerry in 2004. 2008’s election, however, electrified the Egyptian people (I have a few friends living there still) who said there was widespread joy at the election of Barack Obama because he looked more like an Egyptian than any President before and they hoped that meant he would govern more fairly and force foreign policy that took into account the needs and dreams of the Palestinians (there is a large population of Egypt that considers itself Palestinian, having fled there in 1948, 1957, 1967, and 1973).

Egyptians are unfailingly nice to guests and tourists. A shop keeper will offer you tea or coffee (or if he’s rich, a soda or bottled water) and will talk about politics and life while they sell you something. if you try to speak Arabic to them, you are greeted enthusiastically and they will patiently correct your Arabic. Egyptian people are generally well-educated (except for the lower class whoa re only compelled to go to school until third grade, after which they usually find a job). and speak a multitude of languages; standing in line at McDonald’s I heard Arabic, English, and Russian spoken by the order taker and instead of getting your food at the counter, someone delivers it to you and cleans up your trash. Egyptians will never, ever tell you “no” if they can help it. Usually, if a shop keeper doesn’t have something he’ll say “Bukhara” which means “Tomorrow” but in reality, means “I don’t have it.” They will give you directions even if they don’t know where you need to go. They will always ask you to sit down first, even if you are the host. THey offer drinks when you come to their door, even if you are only delivering a letter or asking them to turn down the radio. They are angry at the high unemployment rate but don’t take it out of foreigners (who bring in what little money there is to earn).

I hope that you will enjoy the journey I took in 2006 as much as I did. Until then, Salaam Aleykum (Peace be upon you).

Okay, this is the last post about otters - in case you had not guessed, they are my favorite animals in the world. So, here we have Rosa the otter of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Her and her colleagues spend most of the day in this tank or in a tank behind the scenes. Rosa and her girls are important for one good reason; they foster other Sea Otters and teach them how to be Sea Otters. That whole “instinct” thing they tell you of in biology class? All wrong; as it turns out, picking the right food, choosing rocks, and even winding one’s self in a tendril of sea weed for a good nap are all learned skills. When an orphan Sea Otter is found, they are usually paired with Rosa or a friend of hers and they take on the mothering aspect; providing milk if necessary, teaching the other otter how to do all the things that allow Sea Otters to survive in the wild. After the other otter gets large enough, they are allowed to find their way back to the sea through a series of tanks and waterfalls that lead directly to Monterey Bay; in fact, one adoptive mother otter was so taken with her charge, that she left with the baby. Now there are five female Sea Otters at the Moneterey Bay aquarium (though the sixth one also hangs around near the aquarium and can be seen occasionally). I hope you enjoy Rosa’s antics in the video below.

Right next door to the Asian Small Clawed Otters is an exhibit featuring African Spotted Necked Otters. These guys come from the Congo river and are similar to otters everywhere; they love to romp and play and make baby otters. They are very energetic and anyone who goes to see them had better bring a fast-acting digital camera; these guys came out as blurs to my camera (that’s why I video taped them instead). Additionally, these spotted neck otters are endangered; civil wars in the Congo and elsewhere as well as diamond mining with little regard to their environments impact. These otters, however, are happy and romp like there’s no tomorrow. Enjoy!

^^African Spotted Neck Otters^^

Also while at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we were able to see these Asian Small Clawed Otters in an enclosure. I have video below, but a little about otters first. Otters are members of the weasel family. Most of the otters in the world are solitary creatures or live in small family pods. They have sharp teeth with which they capture prey and are uniformly amazingly intelligent. They are as intelligent, in fact, as most dogs and can figure out things like tactics to tackle larger prey or predators, how to disguise their home, and how to mislead enemies away from pups. Otters also spend most of their time at the most important task of all: playing. Eat, sleep, mate, play and occasionally fight….what a life!

Asian small clawed otters are from south east asia; Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. They are jungle-dwelling creatures who congregate in and around rivers. They (and all otters) do a “latrine dance” where they stamp their back legs before doing #2.

Enjoy!

For those who have never been there, Monterey Bay Aquarium is perhaps one of the best aquariums in the wolrd, hands down. The interesting thing is that it is build in and near old canneries that used to process fish during the early part of the 20th century. This is the famous Cannery Row written about by John Steinbeck; there are placards and signs everywhere reminding you of the prolific and iconic author. The canneries closed up shop when the sardines were fished to near extinction and left nasty, rusty, hulking frames all along Cannery Row. Monterey, however, decided to take these lemons and make some awesome lemonade; the canneries now house shops, restaurants, and the Aquarium. I have some video I wanted to share with you, shot with my own camera as I wondered at the awesomeness of the aquarium; I hope you like. First up, Fish, lots of them (including sharks, tuna, mahi mahi and a few other surprises):

Sorry its a little dark