It is summer in Sydney, Australia - at least it is supposed to be. This year’s weather is the coolest summer in 50 years and has brought a significant amount of rain and hail. The result of which is a significant decline in tourism and as reported by Bloomberg, a general sense of gloom in the city:

While the La Nina weather pattern is delivering rain to farmers after the worst drought in a century, it’s cutting profits for cafe owners, travel agents and insurers. Insurance Australia Group Ltd., the nation’s largest home insurer, last week posted a sixth straight profit decline after hail storms cost it A$105 million ($97 million). The yearly `Symphony in the Park,’ which usually attracts 80,000 people, had 700 this year as the orchestra played behind a tarpaulin during a downpour.

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disbelieves that there are homosexuals in Iran, it may surprise you to know that country’s religious mullahs are not only tolerant of transsexuals, but the government pays health care costs to provide the operations.

In Iran, where men and women are segregated, and homosexuality is punishable by death, the government plans to spend 6 billion rials ($647,000) this year to help pay for sex- change operations. The policies aren’t as contradictory as they seem, because in traditional societies there is more pressure to conform to standard gender roles, says Mahdis Kamkar, a Tehran psychologist who works with transsexuals.

Iran authorized such operations in 1984 under a decree issued by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The government considers transsexuals to be people who are “trapped” in a body of the wrong sex, says Mohammad Mehdi Kariminia, a cleric who wrote a thesis on the rights and duties of transsexuals.

“It’s extremely enlightened thinking, and it’s most welcome,” says Bernard Reed, who founded the Gender Identity Research and Education Society in Surrey, England, which promotes transgender issues in the U.K. “Would you see President Bush or Tony Blair making such a statement?”

via Bloomberg

The AP write about a new restaurant located in/on the Eiffel Tower. The restaurant, called Jules Verne, operates under different circumstances than a typical eatery given its location.

Though only 410 feet up, there’s no gas cooking because of safety concerns. All the decor had to be light so as not to weigh on the 118-year-old iron structure. And because space is tight, food is washed and prepared in an underground kitchen

c|Net reports that Vietnam is bracing for a social and economic change, with IT at the heart of it all.

Like much of the developing world, Vietnam is caught between one era of pushcarts and foot-pedals, and a generation growing accustomed to SUVs and mobile phones. As the one-party, communist state embraces capitalism and foreign trade, Vietnam’s gross domestic product growth is poised to hit 8.5 percent this year–the fastest in Asia, next to China. Although progress since the doi moi free-market reforms in 1986 came in fits and starts, growth has exceeded 7 percent annually for the past decade.

Vietnam has come a long way since the “American War” more than three decades ago, when it was among the poorest nations in the world. Most Vietnamese were born after the former North and South Vietnam merged, with more than two-thirds of the population younger than 30, and half under 25.

Vietnam’s 17 million Internet users make up 20 percent of its population, and surveys show more young people using the Internet than even tech-savvy India. Literacy is a strong 94 percent.

Read the full piece to get a phenomological sense of how IT and the internet are pervading into this once (and in many ways still is) damaged country.

The World’s first Jewish hockey tournament recently took place in Israel and Canoe has the scoop:

The tournament began with fireworks and ended with former (Toronto Maple) Leaf John Anderson’s American team, led by Chicago draft pick Nathan Davis, beating Israel for the gold medal. Canada defeated France for the bronze. And in a country where the national pastimes are politics, survival, religion and conflict, sport was somehow the victor.

This is a warm article that speaks of contrasts: contrasts in culture, surroundings and even the eye of the media towards Israel. It is well worth your attention.

From Chow.com:

A few months back, the BBC reported that Delhi was going to get tough on street food, setting and enforcing sanitation standards apparently to spruce up for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

But when I recently strolled Delhi’s famous Chandni Chowk neighborhood—where humans, dogs, and cows dodge cars, rickshaws, and mule carts—street food was as plentiful as ever. One gol gappa seller offered a small mountain of puri (crunchy little oval-shaped fried breads) piled high on a large metal plate, with pani (a watery mint chutney) in a dented metal vessel underneath. He placed the puri in a small banana-leaf bowl, deftly poked a hole in one, filled it with mashed potatoes and chickpeas, and ladled pani over it along with some tamarind chutney.

But in Chandni Chowk, most of the cooking is not street cooking; it takes place in storefronts and is brought to street stands to sell. Walking in the congested streets and narrow alleys is difficult enough; setting up a kitchen with cooking oil and gas tanks would be virtually impossible.

Read on…

Rocky Swift, in an exclusive for Bloomberg, reports that North Korea has reopened its doors to American tourism, with state sanctioned tours now up and running. Read on to get a review of such a tour.

After a perfunctory presentation of flowers to the giant, bronze statue of Kim Il-sung in central Pyongyang, we checked into the Sosan Hotel, a 30-story faux-brick building surrounded by sports fields on the city’s edge. The hotel, with its immense chandeliers and dark hallways, is a microcosm of the nation.

After I complained about the absence of hot water, one of our North Korean handlers shot back that I was experiencing a result of the crippling energy shortage caused by U.S. sanctions. Heady stuff, considering I just wanted a hot shower.

The tour itself followed a well-worn path of tourist destinations, in a comfortable, Japanese-made bus. First was the heavily guarded border with South Korea at Panmunjom, where soldiers on both sides stare at each other across an unfenced concrete strip. The North Korean tale is rather similar to the South’s, which I’d heard on a tour from the other side a few years ago: The other side started it, and they’ll invade again given half a chance.

Good Magazine, in their May/June issue has a handy little guide to some nuggets of information regarding the day-to-day in North Korea. For example:

Despite having only about 300,000 cars, North Korea takes traffic control seriously. It is unique in having four-color traffic lights (the fourth-—for turning right—is blue) and in Pyongyang, a corps of female traffic directors—reportedly hand-picked by Kim Jong Il for their beauty—step in during the power outages.

And

At times, Pyongyang operates an “alternate suspension of electricity supply” system, meaning that buildings are blacked out only on one side of each street. Children plan their TV-watching accordingly, rushing across the street to catch the end of a show when the power switches. It’s less fun for the elderly, who rarely leave their apartments for fear of being trapped in an elevator with no power. Officially these power (and gas) shortages don’t exist; people in Pyongyang walk to work because it’s healthy. That’s why Sunday is officially a “walking day” with curtailed public transportation, and a “walking campaign” urges students and citizens to pursue bipedal locomotion for “health reasons.”

Kisho Kurokawa is the architect behind the new National Art Center in Roppongi, a suburb of Tokyo. The NAC opened less than two months ago, in early January and is now Japan’s biggest art museum.

The building is a large glittering of organic walls. What is interesting about this center as a national art gallery is that it will not have a permanent collection, or even stockpile art. Instead, the NAC will have a rotating program of temporary and visiting exhibitions.

For more information on the design of the NAC checkout Arcspace’s overview, which has loads of great pictures, and Kisho Kurokawa and Associates’ website.

Jordan McKay has a thing or two to say about New Zealand Pinot Noirs and does so over at Chow.com. According to McKay, some of the most exciting Pinots are coming out of NZ.

There are two reasons why Pinot from New Zealand can be especially wonderful. One is the marginality of the climate—the best wine tends to be made from grapes that are grown in places where they only just get ripe. Of course, this leaves little margin for error; a slightly-cooler-than-average year can be devastating. A couple of New Zealand’s top Pinot areas will have very small harvests this year because of frost problems.

The other reason for the upswing in Kiwi Pinot is the maturing of its winemakers. For years, New Zealand produced textbook wines; they were technically pure and clinically accurate, but never really interesting. That’s changed now—the winemakers have grown more worldly, more confident, and they’re employing techniques that make the wines more complex and interesting, such as using stems and indigenous yeast fermentations.

For my taste, some of the best Pinot Noirs come from British Columbia’s Okanagen Valley winery Nk’Mip.

Le Monde Diplomatique has a fascinating, and sadly disturbing, article about how Nicaragua’s poor are migrating to Costa Rica to work for better wages as a means to survive.

Many Nicaraguans have abandoned their original trades to work as peons on Costa Rica’s banana, coffee, pineapple, sugar and orange plantations: Costa Rica has been successful in diversifying its labour-intensive agricultural industry. “Starting in January I pick coffee, then I move on to other crops,” explained Niño who, exhausted by the difficulty of working the land at Santa Rosa, crosses the border illegally every year. “Then, like other people around here, I come back to sow frijol (beans). I make at least twice what I could hope to earn in Nicaragua.”

The rising tide of such workers, of course, has lead to problems in Costa Rica.

From this perspective, Nicaragua, with its wars and chronic instability, seems an immature country condemned to poverty. In Costa Rica, the dark-skinned immigrants are often described as violent, ignorant and untrustworthy, as thieves and alcoholics. “No seas Nica” (“don’t be an idiot”) is a common insult. This latent xenophobia, and correspondingly strong anti-Costa Rican feelings in Nicaragua, rises to the surface each time the perennial conflict over navigation rights on the San Juan river turns nasty. But the countries manage to get along, or at least they used to.

Read the full article to learn more about the socio-economic realities of the two countries.

In the early 1990s, local officials encouraged peasants to supplement their meagre incomes by selling blood plasma. Many Chinese are loath to give blood, believing it might weaken them. But the peasants were told they would get the blood back once the plasma had been removed. They were not told of the enormous risks. There would be no tests for HIV. The blood would be re-infused after being pooled with other donors’. So any virus would spread.

The Economist reports on a conspiracy of silence in China regarding tens of thousands of individuals (55, 000 in 2005 alone) who have contracted HIV-AIDS through tainted blood donations.

Victims complain of continuing pressure to stay quiet. Li Xige, an activist who says she contracted HIV from a transfusion during a caesarean operation, was placed under house arrest last month in her hometown of Ningling, a few kilometres from Shuangmiao. She had angered the authorities by protesting outside the health ministry in Beijing in July, calling for redress for dozens of local women similarly infected. The health ministry invited her to discuss the issue, but when she turned up for the meeting she was detained in the ministry compound by Ningling officials and escorted back to Henan.

Thus far no officials have been held accountable. Read the full article here.

DasParkHotel is the latest concept in adventurous lodging.  The hotel is located in a public park in Linz, Austria and consists of three converted drainpipes that now stand as a mini hostel/hotel. Each tube/room includes a double bed, a side table and lamp. Restroom facilities are shared with the public in the park space. Given this arrangement, the hotel has a pay what you want/can policy for the room rates. The hotel is currently on hiatus, but starts up again in May, 2007.

To me it is like roughing it, but not.

via swissmiss

Did you know that the Columbus, Georgia is home to the Lunchbox Museum? It is located in the Rivermarket Antique Mall.

Everything is now official - Wallpaper magazine has held its awards party and announced the winners of the 2007 Design Awards. They winners are:

- Best new hotel: Home, Buenos Aires
- Best new public building: Morgan Library & Museum extension, by Renzo Piano
- Best new fashion collection: Prada
- Best new grooming product: Serge Lutens cosmetics
- Best new private house: Baron House by John Pawson
- Best domestic appliance: Ceramic speakers, by Broberg Ridderstråle
- Best furniture designer of the year: Hella Jongerius
- Best city: Istanbul
- Best new restaurant: Müzede Changa, Istanbul
- Most life-enhancing item: Google earth

Pop over here to read the full rationale for each winner.

You may have seen Borat and thought that you have learned all that you needed to know about Kazakhstan and its people. Reality begs to differ. Photographer Christopher Herwig has turned his lens on Kazakhstan and captured a remarkable array of pictures.

(c) copyright Christopher Herwig, 2006

The smooth transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his successors is exposing the willful ignorance and wishful thinking of U.S. policy toward Cuba. The post-Fidel transition is already well under way, and change in Cuba will come only gradually from here on out. With or without Fidel, renewed U.S. efforts to topple the revolutionary regime in Havana can do no good — and have the potential to do considerable harm.

Julia E. Sweig, writing in Foreign Affairs, considers that with the eventual death of Fidel Castro Cuba will likely not see a radical change in governance. In the end Castro’s system of government will live on and thus perhaps leaving a lasting legacy in the Americas.

In the last decade China has emerged as a powerful, resurgent economic force with the muscle to challenge America as the global superpower. But, in his controversial new book, Will Hutton argues that China’s explosive economic reforms will create seismic tensions within the one-party authoritarian state and asks: can the centre hold? 

The Guardian has an edited excerpt from Hutton’s book that is as informative as it is inquisitive.

China is the new factor in global politics and economics, and its rulers and people know it. It now has more than $1 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest. It is the single most important financier of the United States’ enormous trade deficit. It is the world’s second largest importer of oil. Before 2010, it will be the world’s largest exporter of goods. It is, comfortably, the world’s second largest military power. Last year, the Pentagon’s four-yearly defence review stated that China is the power most likely to ‘field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional US military advantages’. A new great power is in the making, but one whose pursuit of its self-interest takes the amorality of power to a new plane. It is not just the Chinese who should be concerned about its institutional and moral failings; all of us should be.

The Economist provides an update on the continuing debate on how nations and the UN can best put pressure on the Sudan in order to allow effective African Union peace-keeping and for humanitarian aid to return.

Some non-military options may otherwise be proposed. Travel bans may be imposed on military and civilian leaders, while assets held by Sudanese leaders overseas may be frozen. Most effective might be measures to target Sudan’s oil revenues, which provide the government with most of its cash. Sales of equipment to maintain the country’s oil infrastructure could be limited, for instance. And in extremis Port Sudan could be blockaded, thus choking off all of Sudan’s oil exports at one stroke.

But most of would depend on getting an international consensus. China, Malaysia, India and Russia are all deeply involved in Sudan’s booming oil industry. These are unlikely to support any sanctions that would hurt their own considerable interests. China, which imports about 5% of its oil from Sudan, has been a staunch supporter of Khartoum. Western countries might try unilateral action, but this is rarely effective. America has maintained comprehensive economic sanctions against Sudan since the mid-1990s, yet the economy is booming.

As written up in Wallpaper:

As the only town close to the stunning Patagonian Perito Moreno Glacier, Calafate has become one of the hottest destinations in Argentina, but, until recently, few hotels catered to the design-conscious visitor. However, the new five-star Design Suites Calafate, designed by Uruguayan-born architect Carlos Ott, does. The décor uses local Patagonian woods and stone for both interiors and exteriors, but the look is strictly contemporary. Furniture, courtesy of young industrial design collective Disegno Patagonia, also marries classic pieces with a local touch — think Le Corbusier sofas covered with fur — and all 60 suites have floor-to-ceiling windows that make the most of the amazing views of Lake Argentino. Amenities that include an indoor/outdoor heated pool, a sauna, a spa and an art gallery add up to make this an impressive destination hotel with some of the most amazing scenery in the world right on its doorstep.