The Amazing Race 7, Episode 6

Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana) - Maun (Botswana) - Sankuyo (Botswana) - Khwai (Botswana)

This week's leg of The Amazing Race took place entirely in and around the Okavango Delta, an area of marshes without outlet, surrounded by desert. As the racers saw along the roads, that causes a rare density of large animals, especially in the dry season, and the area is the main tourist destination in Botswana. Maun is a small town, but it has ultra-luxury guest "lodges" nearby and international flights to and from Capetown, Johannesburg, Windhoek, and Victoria Falls; you can also get there overland from Vic Falls, which is only about 350 km (200 miles) away.

I'm (tentatively) planning my own trip to southern Africa, possibly including Botswana, for this austral winter (northern hemisphere summer). So for a first-hand account of current travel conditions in Botswana, here -- with her permission, but with names removed at her request -- is a letter one of my readers just received from her "60-something globetrotting parents from Nova Scotia", who are currently visiting another of their daughters who is working at an orphanage (perhaps one similar to the orphanage "The Amazing Race" visited last week?) in Palapye, Botswana:

Friday, April 1, 2005

Dumela Mma and Rra:

Those of you who have had the pleasure of reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series will know that the above is the typical Setswana greeting -- good day ma'm or sir. This is the limit of my Setswana to date, and with my inability to grasp languages, will probably be the extent of my Setswana when I leave. However, knowing this greeting is essential -- the Batswana greet one another very formally -- even everyday in the workplace. [Note: Many African languages use prefixes where many European languages use suffixes. The Batswana (people) speak Setswana (language) and live in Botswana (country). - EH] They also have a very unique handshake that I will show you when I get home.

I've been in Botswana for over a week now, and it's been a week of sensory delight. The sights, smells and sounds of this country are totally different from anything I've experienced to date in my travels. It's also a country of contrasts -- the huge mall in Gaborone that rivals Micmac Mall [in Nova Scotia, Canada - EH] in ambience and selection of goods compared to the entrepreneurs who set up a table and sell a few goods on the side of the road; the beautiful highways which are better than many in Nova Scotia, with dirt roads on either side for donkey carts; women dressed in very traditional African clothing -- brightly coloured dresses with matching head scarves -- but teenaged girls in their Calvin Klein skimpy tops and low rise jeans; very modern office buildings on the same street as traditional mud huts with thatched roofs, and Gaborone has a large, modern, and recently built university campus which was paid for by ordinary citizens donating cattle to raise the funds to build it.

[Your sister] lives in dear little house -- one of three in a walled compound. It's constructed of cement blocks finished inside and outside with some kind of stucco or plaster, and has a tin roof. It has two good-sized bedrooms, a bath room, kitchen and living room. There is a veranda out front, and this is where we spend all our time. The kitchen has a counter about two feet by three feet and a two burner gas hot plate -- no oven -- but [she] still manages to turn out her marvelous meals. When we open the gate to leave the compound, we are apt to be met by any number of animals -- donkeys, goats, chickens and cows live in the surrounding fields -- and they wander at will, even over the roads.

We've been in two parks/sanctuaries and have seen a variety of animals including rhinos, ostriches, giraffes, baboons, wart hogs [this was the animal the racers had trouble identifying - EH], wildebeests, kudus, impalas, water buck, springboks, and an incredible variety of birds of all sizes and colours. We spent two nights at a beautiful chalet in a sanctuary -- overlooking a water hole where animals come to drink. It was amazing to sit on the deck and observe the comings and goings. A large family of baboons spent their nights at the chalet nearest ours -- they didn't actually take over the bedrooms, but rather hunkered down under the thatched roof. In the morning, they would climb all over the outside of the thatched roof, and seemed to take great delight in being the one to sit on the peak.

This country has two major problems. The overriding concern is the AIDS crisis. The statistics are beyond belief -- one in three has HIV, and by 2020, it's estimated that 80% of the current population will die if things continue as they are now. The other concern is water. Water is a problem at the best of times, but the country is currently suffering through the worst drought in ten years. The so-called rainy season has just ended, with next to no precipitation. The water reservoir/lake for Gaborone is entering the dry season only 23% full. This means that we take a bath and wash our hair with 1 inch of water in the tub, do our laundry in the same water, then use the water for plants. Farmers are trying to decide if it is worthwhile to plant their crops this season -- if they do, the crops may die from lack of rain. But, if they don't have their crops, then they have nothing to feed their cattle. How we take water for granted in Canada! Most of us probably waste more water brushing our teeth than some families here would use for all their daily needs.

In spite of disease and drought, the people here are wonderful. They're kind, gentle, polite, formal, and honest. Society is very family centered -- not just mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, but the entire clan -- uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. Your sister has been welcomed as "family" by many of her co-workers, and they have extended that welcome to [your father] and me as well.

Next week she is putting us to work. I will be spending time with the teachers at the orphanage -- I brought all kinds of helpful books and material to share with them. [Your father] will be setting up computers, printers, networks, etc. and doing some handyman work around the day care.

[Your sister] is taking us camping this weekend to the salt pans [the Makgadikgadi Pans, where "The Amazing Race" camped - EH]. I have no idea what she has in store for us, but no doubt it will be another wonderful adventure.

Bye for now,

[Your mother]

p.s. -- to those of you who read The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency , Gaborone actually has a bus tour of all the places mentioned in the books. The author is going to be in Gaborone in May to give a reading and attend a reception. The books paint a 100% accurate picture of the gentle life in this country. Those of you who haven't read these delightful books, treat yourself and read one or more of them. They're quite addictive.

Comments on USA rules for RFID passports

Yesterday was the deadline for comments on the USA Department of State's proposed rules for RFID passports:

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Comments and background documents
  
  
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), PrivacyActivism, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, World Privacy Forum, and Bill Scannell: Comments (including extremely deatiled technical analysis and appendices) and background documents
  
  
• Business Travel Coalition: Comments
  
  
• Privacilla.org: Comments and press release
  
  
• Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE): member poll and earlier press releases

Also, there have been a flurry of news stories on RFID passports in the last week, including addditional reports on the USA government's claim that the so-called "contactless integrated circuits (IC's)" or "smart cards" in passports aren't really RFID chips (even though they are), as an attempt at spin control to dissociate the passport scheme from the reputation of RFID as a surveillance, not security, technology.

[Addendum, 20 August 2005: The format doesn't make them easy to navigate or browse, but the State Department has posted more than 2000 of the comments they received on their Web site. I didn't read them all, but all those of the comments I sampled were opposed to the RFID passport proposal.]

Questions for ICANN about ".travel"

Yesterday ICANN's Web site announced that, "A teleconference press conference is scheduled for 12:00-13:00 (local time [in Mar del Plata, Argentina]) on Tuesday, 5 April. Participation details are available upon request."

I immediately responded to "press@icann.org", "Please send information on how I can participate in the telephone press conference on Tuesday, as mentioned on the ICANN Web site."

I have received no response to this request, nothing further has appeared on the ICANN Web site about the press conference, and -- being 10,000 kilometers away -- I can't tell if the press conference was held, much less who was allowed to participate or what was said.

This is a serious violation of ICANN's Bylaws , and a serious infringement of my rights as a journalist (as well as a stakeholder in ".travel") and the rights of my readers who have been following the ongoing ".travel" scandal through my reporting over the last four years.

I have requested that I and any others who were not given an opportunity to participate be given another opportunity, at the earliest possible time, for a telephone conference to question those who participated in the original press conference.

Here are the questions I would have asked, if I had gotten a chance, about the ".travel" scandal:

1. When did ICANN learn of the 25 February 2003 purchase option agreement between Tralliance Corp. and TheGlobe.com/Voicego (details still secret), the 24 February 2004 agreement between Tralliance and the Travel Partnership Corp., TTPC ("Appendix A" to the proposed ICANN-Tralliance ".travel" agreement), and the 22 October 2002 memorandum of understanding between TTPC and IATA (details still secret) mentioned in that "Appendix A" ? Specifically, were these 3 agreements reviewed by the ICANN Board of Directors before or during their 18 October 2004 conference call?
   
   
2. In light of the fact that the latest TTPC financial statement shows that as of 31 December 2004 TTPC was insolvent , and that revenues from TTPC's proposed share of Tralliance/TheGlobe.com/Voiceglo's proposed share of ".travel" registration fees will not commence until after the start of ".travel" registration, does ICANN know who will actually absorb TTPC's start-up costs of formulating ".travel" policies? What, if any, mechanisms are proposed to ensure that TTPC would not be a financial captive of those financial backers, subject to having funding cut off and being forced to shut down for lack of money if TTPC were to adopt policies counter to their interests?
   
   
3. The proposed ICANN-Tralliance agreement provides that, "Registry [i.e. Tralliance] may assign this Agreement as part of the transfer of its registry business if such transfer and assignment are approved in advance by ICANN in accordance with its procedures." Has such a request been made to ICANN in relation to the contemplated sale of Tralliance to TheGlobe.com/Voiceglo ? Has ICANN begun the process of developing a consensus on the criteria and procedures that should be used to evaluate such a request?

[Addendum, 6 April 2005: Bret Fausett links to this article from Computer Business Review, which doesn't mention ".travel" (not surprising since I wasn't allowed to be at the press conference to ask about it) but does confirm that the press conference took place: "ICANN chairman Vint Cerf said here at the organization's meeting in Argentina ... at a press conference yesterday."]