March 2011

In the Domodedovo Airport near Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 24, a bomb in the arrivals terminal killed 36 people and wounded about 110. It has been declared the terrorist attack of a suicide bomber.

In Plateau State, Nigeria, waves of religious conflicts had left, at press time, more than 200 dead since the three Christmas Eve bombings in the city of Jos. Jos and the surrounding areas have suffered from bombings, violent protests and riots for years, and the situation remains highly unstable.

Floods in Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city, Jeddah, killed 10 and injured 114 while damaging more than 25,000 buildings and over 90% of the city’s roads. Power was cut off to most of the city and the water system was contaminated when sewage tanks overflowed.

From late December through mid January, the state of Queensland in Australia was hit with disastrous flooding. At least 19 people were killed, with many still missing. Homes, factories, bridges, roads and railroads were damaged or destroyed. At its peak, the flood covered two-thirds of the state, inundating an area the size of Germany and France combined.

Murphys Creek as well as Toowoomba and Grantham, in the Lockyer Valley region west of Brisbane, were devastated by flash floods. In Brisbane, a reported 20,000 homes were flooded.

In Sri Lanka, the levels of farmland destroyed and people displaced by devastating monsoon-rain floods in early January was being compared to those of the tsunami in 2004. In the Eastern and North Central provinces, about 40 people were killed and nearly 400,000 displaced.

In January, Brazil saw the largest rainfall measured there since 1967, with some areas receiving in just 10 days more than their average monthly rainfall.

In January, people in southern Sudan overwhelming voted to split from the north as a new country. The Republic of South Sudan is to take control of the southern regions this July.

In January, after massive protest marches by the people of Tunisia, President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who had controlled the country since 1987, fled. An interim government was formed, and elections were promised to be held within six months. The new cabinet, with some members of the previous regime, was not widely accepted, but mass protests did decline.

If you are going to mainland Europe and are concerned about the cost of extras, such as drinks and snacks during the day and wine with your meals, why not do as my wife, Vivien, and I did on our trips to Crete and Tenerife in late 2009, early 2010: choose the “all inclusive” option that is now offered by quite a few decent-quality holiday hotels.

Traveling on a professional grant, I joined a group of five other educators for a June-July 2010 trip to Japan, where I experienced the warmth and beauty of Japanese culture in Tokyo, Oita, Hiroshima and Kyoto. A highlight was a visit to the tuna auction at the Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market, also known as the Central Market, the world’s largest wholesale seafood market.

Tsukiji drives a thriving distribution system at the core of Japanese cuisine, delivering more than 2,000 tons of seafood daily to sushi counters and five-star restaurants.