@davidof, I was in Liberia 1989 and 1990 just as the civil war was breaking out. I think the first major similarity with Mississippi was the buildings made corrugated iron, followed by poverty. Of course they also used the dollar as their currency though did not print their own notes. In fact all money in general circulation were coins. They weighed a lot.
Things changed dramatically once you left the city - no paved roads, people wearing tribal costumes and following tribal believes, stories of witchcraft.
I was employed by the FAO on a land evaluation project and as part of my role I collected the full meteorological data set for the country. Eventually I was told to leave the country on the first available flight (6 hours notice) due to the rebels approaching Monrovia. Only later did I discover that the rebels blew up the Liberian Met office and destroyed all the records. I was able to pass them via the FAO to, I believe, the WMO.
It was certainly an interesting time. I suspect your time in the Cote d'Ivoire was equally interesting.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Toadman, Ah! I knew I'd forgotten something - obesity. How could I have forgotten something that large.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Quote:
Bad diets. Bad for profit, capitalist healthcare system. And we have a gov't, (Trump) that could care less about COVID infections and death. There's way too much stress in the USA. Not enough paid time off or holidays. Lots of heart attacks and strokes.
Yes, that'd be my verdict too - but I'm looking forward to Whitegold's. He'll probably ignore the question....
I've traded at events in 16 countries over the last 5 years. Our best city is always Milan. Don't believe all of Italy is poor. (That said, we always get a high Swiss spend in Milan....
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@johnE, very interesting. We were told not to go too close to the border with Liberia. My friend either stayed in the dock area where her office was or traveled to the Ivory Coast frontier with an armed escort. I was mainly on the island in Abidjan, you could walk around in daylight safely. The bridges off the island were dangerous but other areas were relatively ok. Nice people in general and the ghanians were pleasant as well.
I took this film in high summer in Stresa, Italy. Normally the promenade would be buzzing with people. Milan was pretty dead too. All the big hotels were closed and there has not been much compensation. Similar for large businesses in France. There really will be irreparable damage to their tourist industry.
@davidof,
I lecture in a university and we get a number of soldiers on courses as part of their professional education. These are normally at the captain rank, so fairly senior. I was talking about my experiences, particularly one night when we had to go past the presidential palace. We had been drinking in a bar, oddly called Potters Bar, during the evening. The landlady, who had originated, from guess where, told us of an American who had died on the floor of the bar the night before, having been shot while going past the palace. For some reason we had to drive past the palace later that night and were stopped by armed soldiers. I was recounting to my students about who was shaking the more from fright, us or the soldiers. I said to the students they must be familiar with guns being pointed at them, after all it was their job. I was really socked that this mild mannered academic had faced more guns than they had. Indeed they were more concerned about running the regimental ski team on graduation.
Anyway I think the tourist industry will bounce back with a vengence. I for one have lots of places I want to visit. There is a pent up demand that will just explode.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Toadman wrote:
You are lucky if you start a job and get 10 paid days off after working a few years in your first job out of college... Generally most private or publicly held larger companies will give you New Year's Day, Memorial Day (Last Monday in May), Independence Day (July 4th), Labor Day (First Monday in Sept.), Thanksgiving Day (Last Thursday of November), and Christmas Day. That's 6 days of holiday pay.
Wait, you mean those 10 days of holiday people get in the US is INCLUDING the public holidays?!
After all it is free
After all it is free
Hearing first rumblings that skiing has been pushed back till end of January in Italy...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Yes, holidays severely limited in the US - I spent Christmas in Colorado once, when I was a student, and was shocked when everyone was back to work as normal on Boxing Day!
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
pam w wrote:
Yes, holidays severely limited in the US - I spent Christmas in Colorado once, when I was a student, and was shocked when everyone was back to work as normal on Boxing Day!
Like me in France
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
But there are plenty of holidays in France!
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
To create a level playing field with France the UK needs to increase its number of public holidays...
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
pam w wrote:
To create a level playing field with France the UK needs to increase its number of public holidays...
Yep. Could I recommend 18th June & 21st October as UK Bank Holidays?
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
In 1971 Alfa Romeo launched the Alfa Sud – a great little car (if you ignored the rust!) which was built in a factory near Naples (hence “Sud”) The biggest staff problem they had was absenteeism. In a nutshell, the production line workers would put in enough hours each week to let them pay their grocery bills and the like and then they went to the allotment or whatever and “grew watermelons” or something.
My first lesson in Italian politics was in Pisa where a taxi driver (like taxi drivers everywhere) distilled his country into a few words: Italy should be divided in two, with the line somewhere just south of Pisa, Florence and Siena and the bottom half given to Ghaddafi. This would leave the North as a prosperous industrial nation to rival (frighten?) Germany, Holland and others.
In the north I have seen “Forza Etna, svegliati Vesuvio” (Carry on Etna, wake up Vesuvius) spray-painted on walls.
To say that Italy is one of the poorest countries in the developed world makes me wonder where places like Greece, Turkey and Eire are on Whitegold’s list. Would he publish it?
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Quote:
To say that Italy is one of the poorest countries in the developed world makes me wonder where places like Greece, Turkey and Eire are on Whitegold’s list. Would he publish it?
Or indeed Mississippi
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Eire? Poor? Have you seen the GDP per capita?
When we do business with Italy we just have to factor in the late and 'payment above contract' factor.
Every time we send a pallet there is never amybody there to receive it (even at a huge exhibition centre with 2000 people there) we then get phone call saying we have to pay another 100 Euros to get it delivered - a day late.....
Doing business across Europe has taught me a lot and the stereotypes are generally true.. we travel across the continent from event to event in a big group of businesses all from different EU countries.
We generally struggle to make money south of Geneva. Spain and Portugal are particulalrly tough.
The poorer the country, the warmer the people and the better time we have - if not financially.
Not suprisingly, London and Paris are the most unfriendly places to work
..
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@cameronphillips2000, what do you actually do. I'm building up a picture of a man with a van travelling all over Europe to exhibitions. Is that true? PM me if you don't want it public. I'm just curious.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
johnE wrote:
@cameronphillips2000, what do you actually do. I'm building up a picture of a man with a van travelling all over Europe to exhibitions. Is that true? PM me if you don't want it public. I'm just curious.
That's pretty much it. Though not exhibitions - they tend to be B2B - More shows and events - usually attended between 20000 and 400000 people -who we sell merch to. Gamsecom was our biggest. Which is the 2nd biggest event in Europe after Faure de Paris. It's probably the worlds premier tech event too, though the Americans would argue differently.
Usually a whole group of us from different countries, sharing stand space lorries etc. I Was mainly based in the UK until 2016 when the pound crashed and it meant more sense to bring Euros back. So pretty much all Major European capitals and large cities. Different events and and customer base but mainly gaming and Comicons as they are now the best attended events across Europe. They also have the nicest and most humble customer base which makes it all quite pleasant -We used to do music festivals which were pretty awful places to work.
It was crazy life, from country to country, city to city and I did OK - until Covid turned off the tap and that was that.
I was thinking about it last night - We've worked in probably 50 or more European cities, Some of them quite a few times a year. I engaged with so many people on many different levels - from the parking guys and security guys to contractors to show owners, huge corporations who sponsors the events. I think I 've had conversations with over 100000 different people as I always go on the stands selling as I enjoy that part most. Merkel was at Gamescom playing Farm Sim - ever the business woman. I sold Michael Gove some merch for his sons at the NEC -that was interesting as I'd left education 3 years previously because of him. I once met an ambassodor who told me the brexit deal was sorted in September but will be spun out until Christmas so the politicians won't look like they've folded too early . He said it would be announced on Christmas Eve as there's no print run on Christmas day on the Mail, Express etc.
We tried trading in Switzerland - out of the EU -really really hard for small company.
It's given me a huge insight into different European cultures and how they do business. The furthest we went was Stockholm which was a very long drive in a lorry.
What's funniest is working with a whole bunch of other European traders and hearing their views on the Brits and the rest of Europe. (They all dislike the French) I also saw first hand, the huge impact of immigration and asylum seekers from the awful conditions in the Calais camps to Syrian Ladies with a baby on each arm walking around the peripherique in the November rain. I've had my van turned over so many times by police looking for people, not just at the ports - we had to laugh when the we went north from Germany in to Scandinavia and they thought we were smuggling booze.
I really quite enjoyed it. Although we were only at an event for a maximum of 7 or 8 days we did a lot of work with them pre show and I learnt so much about European business and people in different areas. It was clear to see that leaving the single market would have been the dumbest economic decision ever made since Betamax was an option at Currys...
Friends and family often ask me where is the best place to go in Europe other than obvious major tourist hotpots. After several years on a jading circuit there were fewer fewer places that tempted us out of the hotels but for some reason we always loved, and made the effort to go out in, Cologne, Ghent, Mechelen, Utrecht, Lisbon, Glasgow and Munich and made the effort to enjoy those places and the people. If I was slightly cooler and not so much of a nerd, Berlin would be on that list. The coolest place in Europe at the mo.
Large European cities have become dirtier, grubbier and less friendly over the last 20 years, though fair play to Paris which has recognised this and the Parisians are starting to do something about it. London has lost it's soul, which is hardly surprising given it's main income is banking and finance. Salzburg and Vienna have remained pristine but but it's a bit like visiting friend's house who keep things pristine - you never stay too long.....
I met and worked with so many kind and interesting people. All over Europe, they were sad to see the British leaving as they generally like us. As one funny Dutch guy once said at the bar to much laughter - Why couldn't it be 'Frexit?' we'd all love that.
@cameronphillips2000, Thanks for that profile I really enjoyed it.
I get around to lots of the small places in Europe as a gymnastics judge and tend to like the smaller towns rather than the big cities. I spent some time in Mechelen and really liked the place, but then I love mussels. I suspect part of this inability to look around big cities is we tend to arrive in the town, go straight to the gym, then the hotel, then the gym, then the reception, back to the hotel and fly out next morning. There is never really time to look around unless it is a really big tournement such as the Universiade. I cannot recall Strasbourg or Berlin at all. As an academic and consulting engineer I also got around the developing world as well. One thing I have discovered is the world is basically full of good people.
Back to Italy. I have just heard from our hotelliers in Alleghe that quite a few people there contracted Covid-19. Of the family that run the hotel, the daughter and mother were self isolating in their rooms in the hotel and the father was cooking and bringing their meals to the door of each room. I think the hotel was closed at the time. They didn't suffer too badly and have now recovered. They will reopen the hotel at the start of January offering B&B only. All their clientel are the electricity workers still repairing the damage of the 2018 storms. As a non skiing aside, those storms bought down about 50% of the pine forests in the area. Even this summer they were still clearing up and harvesting the wood, which I beleive has been sold to China.
@cameronphillips2000, Thanks for that profile I really enjoyed it.
I get around to lots of the small places in Europe as a gymnastics judge and tend to like the smaller towns rather than the big cities. I spent some time in Mechelen and really liked the place, but then I love mussels. I suspect part of this inability to look around big cities is we tend to arrive in the town, go straight to the gym, then the hotel, then the gym, then the reception, back to the hotel and fly out next morning. There is never really time to look around unless it is a really big tournement such as the Universiade. I cannot recall Strasbourg or Berlin at all. As an academic and consulting engineer I also got around the developing world as well. One thing I have discovered is the world is basically full of good people.
Back to Italy. I have just heard from our hotelliers in Alleghe that quite a few people there contracted Covid-19. Of the family that run the hotel, the daughter and mother were self isolating in their rooms in the hotel and the father was cooking and bringing their meals to the door of each room. I think the hotel was closed at the time. They didn't suffer too badly and have now recovered. They will reopen the hotel at the start of January offering B&B only. All their clientel are the electricity workers still repairing the damage of the 2018 storms. As a non skiing aside, those storms bought down about 50% of the pine forests in the area. Even this summer they were still clearing up and harvesting the wood, which I beleive has been sold to China.
Is that the Hotel in Alleghe where the Bash is held? Francesca is a friend on of mine on FB and often posts on what's going on in the area throughout the winter and summer. They seem like a lovely family who've been an integral part of the community for years. I think The whole town, like all tourist towns have had a really tough time.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
under a new name wrote:
Lisbon.
Just lovely.
the San Fransisco of Europe - A golden suspension bridge, hills, cobbled streets and trams. Lovely warm people, cheap food and drink too. Awesome seafood and beaches to boot.
I have friends who've moved out there for the winter. 3 months in Portugal gives you EU citizenship...... If you can get decent broadband and you're employer let's you work from home then it's a great way to spend the winter. I'm no surfer but have heard it's paradise on that west coast.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Quote:
Is that the Hotel in Alleghe where the Bash is held? Francesca is a friend on of mine on FB and often posts on what's going on in the area throughout the winter and summer. They seem like a lovely family who've been an integral part of the community for years. I think The whole town, like all tourist towns have had a really tough time.
No the hotel we use is the Ciclimino down the valley a few km in Sala
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
cameronphillips2000 wrote:
I once met an ambassodor who told me the brexit deal was sorted in September but will be spun out until Christmas so the politicians won't look like they've folded too early . He said it would be announced on Christmas Eve as there's no print run on Christmas day on the Mail, Express etc.
So the midnight pizza deliveries to the Berlaymont were all a charade!?! Really??
Although I suppose giving the parliaments on both sides almost zero time to scrutinise the deal before ratification might have also been a ploy.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Yep , whole thing one big charade - including closing Dover - Give both sides of The Channel a taste of what No Deal Looks like then roll out the deal in a Covid smokescreen. Totally stage managed -as it was when May's deal was announced, which had a similar roll out towards the deadline.
A no deal was always going to be an economic heart attacked from which no Prime Minister would never be re-elected - and Macron needed fish to get tha vote of Northern France and get back in next time. The fact that the UK fishing industry is smaller than the turnover of Harrods makes it all quite hilarious really.
The level playing field is a much bigger issue and one which will run and run, although this will become more evident if we get a Labour government again who will want state support for certain industries....
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Poster: A snowHead
