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By Bill Van Kesteren BMW, OEMs, Scooter Adventures, Scooter Reviews, Scooter Touring, The Joy of Scooters, Touring, Vespa August 5, 2019
Our Spanish tour over it was time to prepare for out next scootering adventure. Our hosts/guides for this part of our tour would be Edelweiss Motorcycle tours, that have 39 years of experience and at the time of booking offer three scooter tours.
Alps by Scooter – 8 Days – which looks fantastic, but will have to wait for another time
Tuscany by Scooter – 7 Days – which we have already experienced with Edelweiss
Croatia by Scooter – our next destination.
Edelweiss offer two brands of scooter, one being the 300 cc/20 HP Vespa GTS which most of the group had booked and the BMW C400X which I had intentionally booked to test ride it. What better way to assess something than ride about 160km (100 miles) a day in all weather, over all terrain and roads and road conditions to assess if it is something you are interested in purchasing.
We departed Almeria and as we flew toward our new destination we looked to the forecast and in contrast to a just a few hours away, the weather in our ongoing destinations was not as sunny and clear as we had probably taken for granted in Spain. You can pick your destinations, time of travel, method of travel and all associated accommodations, but you cannot pick the weather and so we arrived to grey skies over Venice.
Once checked in, we headed off to explore the city a little. When you are looking at the tourist information, they dwell on the lack of roads and the canals that replace them, and gondolas with guys in stripped shirts punting them along, what they do not spend enough time on is that a city that has so many water ways also has a bucket load of bridges, so a evening stroll around Venice was beginning to feel like a Les Mills Body step session, so many stairs… Our visit coincided with a high tide, so we got see some of the boardwalks go under water in the lower lying areas.
The following day we took the hotels "free" water taxi transfer to Murano island, which is best known for it's glass blowing. There was a brief display of blowing glass and a prancing horse before being led into the showrooms of finished product for sale, so we found the door and went off to explore. Once outside, we found that the place we had been taken to was one of the many making and selling glass ornaments, ornate chandeliers and glassware.
We had purchased a multi-day pass for the Venice equivalent of public bus service, so after wondering around and having a coffee stop we boarded a ferry to the other popular island, Burano. There are several islands along the way in different states of despair, but as you look to our destination it is hard to miss Burano's Leaning Bell Tower. The 53 meter tall tower leans 1.83 meters with respect to its axis, due to land subsidence.
The island is also known for it's lace makers and brightly painted houses. We enjoyed our time wondering around, finding the tower at the back of the Church of St. Martin Bishop, and admiring the brightly painted houses.
We enjoyed the relative quiet of the island, which maybe the weather had contributed to , but time had come to reboard the ferry and return to Venice.
We were surprised to see the cruise ships so close to the main attractions; they really do tower over everything with their associated tug and manoeuvring vessels. We got off near St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco), St Mark's basilica, and the bell tower of St Mark's (St Mark's Campanile).
A bit of sightseeing and wandering till we found the Hard Rock Café, a great find. We were seated on a mezzanine next to the windows that overlooks a gondola boarding area and it seems a tour operator had just dropped off a load of customers, so one after the other they were loaded and off to experience the "real Venice".
On the way home after dinner we saw some of the people who had been all smiles getting their ice bucket with champagne passed to them at the time of boarding, were now, rather shakily, getting themselves out of the gondolas along the canal on their own. Any thoughts of going in a gondola disappeared. We had a look at some of the locations that were under water and now were dry and probably a little cleaner.
We booked a tour with "Like a Venetian" tours and this was probably the best money we spent in Venice, the boat is a motorised fiberglass boat, and it took us all over the town out into the harbour and back again, we departed and went into the Venetian Ghetto, which was area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live by the government of the Venetian Republic. In the 19th century, the ghetto was renamed the Contrada dell'unione. From here we took shelter under one of the cities many umbrellas (bridge) from the rain before motoring by Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Cannaregio district and Camel House.
Legend has it that a wealthy Middle Eastern merchant, who was forced to leave his homeland to move to Venice, decided to have a camel carved on the facade of his new house in order to make it recognizable to the woman he loved, who had not agreed to marry him and follow him as his bride, it is not known if she ever saw the camel. There was the things you just don't think about that is part of life, the water entry to the hospital, the cemetery island, the method of getting to your boat when the spot you have been able to get is not next to a boardwalk, etc.
We then returned to the canals winding our way through before we were back in open water crossing near the church of San Giorgio Maggiore. I am glad I did not have to find my way as a GPS would have trouble working out our winding path, past Belmond Hotel Cipriani, the police vessel workshops and then on to the boatyard that manufactures the gondolas of Venice. Following the tour (recommended) we purchased tickets to enter the basilica and wind our way back to the hotel to pack and prepare for the new day and transfer to Trieste.
Trieste is a coastal city that is well worth adding to your travel itinerary. We chose road transfer, but you could take a train or ferry to get to it from Venice. As we approached, we saw the signage for Miramare Castle (Castello di Miramare) then followed a coastal with Vittoria Lighthouse in sight for most of before the coast turned to former rail yards and coastal warehousing that is in the process of being renovated and revitalised. A bit of a walk around town before hunting down the pizza restaurant we had been recommended. Pizzeria Di Napoli exceeded all expectations, I am no stranger to pizza, but this was something else, the base was not like the cake or flatbread we sometimes get in Australia (price is more often than not linked to quality), this was more like pizza crepe… soft pliable and tasty, I think the only way you could eat it without cutlery would be to roil it into a sort of pizza kebab… do not read that as criticism it tasted fantastic. "you better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.-Yogi Berra" This was followed by deconstructed vanilla slice and berry… fantastic.
We went up the hill toward Parco della Rimembranza to the Castle of Saint Giusto, once at the top there was a large statue honouring soldiers who fell in WWI. Monumento ai caduti di Trieste is a large white stone base with five male statues depicting a battle scene constructed out of cast iron. Not far from this is Forense Roman Basilica, Cattedrale di San Giusto Martire and the more obvious Castello di San Giusto.
Having been travelling for a while information panels, plagues and banners to help you know or understand what you are viewing are almost taken for granted, as well as the expectation that history is written by the winners and there is usually the gilded view of the past, so it was refreshing to see a sign panel stating that the castle would not have been up to the task if they had been attacked.
We had a nice lunch in the courtyard within the castle's walls before walking back into Trieste via the old town. The exhibition hall had a "I Love Lego" exhibition, so we went over and had a look, and find some of the characters hidden in the scenes under display cases in the room. Then over to the next hall for "Eataly" – all sorts of products food and produce under one roof.
Trieste is also the home of Illy coffee. We tried a different location for dinner, but having been spoilt planned to return to Di Napoli on the walk back to the hotel. As we walked around the city there was a wide variety of scooters, types and brands parked along most of the roads.
New day new adventure, time to get some handgrips in our hands, and today it would be e-bikes. Having explored the castle and old town the day before the decision was to go to Castle Miramare. The helmet I was given was a design I have not seen before, as it is collapsible… Being a DEVO fan I was thinking it would look like a power dome, but actually once pushed out looked as good as a bicycle helmet can, but it came into it's own once we reached our destination and wanting to fit more than one helmet in a small backpack.
Our route though in somewhat familiar was quite different, as on bicycles we rode through and past the warehouse and former rail line, then next to the water along the boardwalks (read beaches) almost all the way to the castle.
It is a quite impressive building in it's own right, but the thing that it is trumped by are the grounds, which are all free
Beautiful gardens, forest, and lawns, a bit rushed to be frank, but the guide was on a time frame, so we returned to the bicycles for the return ride. When not guiding, she coaches mountain bike riding, so this was a snap for her with or without engaging the battery (we did find out the switch on top is for the light and the one under the battery is the power switch to the hub motor).
Once back at the marina, she wished as well and went off to her commitment and we continued along the marina around to the lighthouse and a bit more exploring before returning to the shop to return the bikes. Another visit to Di Napoli and back to pack for the new day and transfer to Opitija and some serious scooter riding.
We booked a private car transfer to our end destination, but this would not be the quick run around the coast, we would be back tracking past Castle Miramare once again and onto the expressway until we reached the turn off to start our journey to the Soca valley. Soon after leaving the highway on our way to Bovec, we heard and saw the first of many motorcycles as it seems Slovenia is a rider's paradise. Two flashed by changing up with the crackle of rapid shifters as they disappeared in distance. Most of the roadside cafes have "Bikers Welcome".
We stopped to take a closer look at the Emerald River.
We stopped in Kobarid which appears to be a base for every kind of activity. Mountain bikes, rafting, kayaking, even scooter rental all available.
After a coffee, we went up to the war memorial, which also provides a 360 view of the valley and alpine region.
Soca is known for it's Emerald River, but Lake Bled is blue with a castle overlooking the lake and a small island which has several buildings, the main one being the pilgrimage church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. There were tour boats and rowboats making their way over to the island when we stopped to take a few pictures.
We continued on to Bled Castle, which overlooks the blue water lake (like Lake Victoria in Canada), and equally picturesque and popular with tour coaches. However our arrival was late enough for most of these to have departed so we were able to have a good look around and enjoy the views and sun. Bled Castle is the oldest castle in Slovenia over 1000 years old. It is built on a cliff 130 meters above Lake Bled, with the Julian Alps in the background. Some parts of the castle are in Gothic, Renaissance and Romanesque styles. Time had got away, so from the castle there was no more stops till we reached our destination.
We arrived in Opatija, our home for the week. The following morning six Red Vespas appeared outside the hotel alongside the BMW C400x.
Meet and greet time was confirmed for 5pm, which left the rest of the day to do so many things. But a lounge chair overlooking the water won. The rest of our group arrived from Trieste after lunch. It was good to see them again and catch up on what they had been doing since Spain.
Day 2 Our first ride out was to the caves, we were uncertain of what the weather would be like so packed our rain gear just in case and made our way toward the Slovenian border. There are still border checks along the Croatian border but it does not take long and in these days of e-tag passports nice to get a few stamps to make the new passport look used. We had good weather on the ride out, so could take in the scenery along the way.
The caves are a massive network of caverns and galleries stretching over the border to Italy, so big that there is a passenger train to take you from the opening deep into the cave where the walking guided tours start. We had a bit of a wait till our 12:00 train departure to take in the carnival of trinkets and souvenirs. I saw all the usual things, but was not aware the region is known for its honey and mead. The restaurant had a "Cave Burger" featuring a black bun.
While occupied by the Germans during WW2 they used the caves as a fuel store, which must have seemed like a good idea till some Italians snuck through the network of caves and lit it up. Apparently it burnt for over a week and the black soot near the entrance is from this, though the caves are starting to heal as water continues to seep through the limestone and create new formations. The train ride is surprisingly fast and close to the limestone formations and outcrops. Whizzing through is just a taster of what you see during the walking tour.
Then it is back on the train past the river that runs under the chambers we visited and out into the open. I did not personally see it, but Dominico's face apparently dropped when we exited into rain.
This was just the beginning of wet days in Croatia. Chel had twisted her own arm into buying a spray jacket at the caves as coming over with only carry on luggage did not allow for proper motorcycle gear. We ate lunch and Dominico checked if we would be ok with taking the highway back in the rain as the alternative twisty road we would otherwise take would not be as much fun. We rode back and stopped near the Slovenian/ Croatian border for coffee at a biker cafe that had a great view over the valley which included a huge bridge towering above us further down the valley.
What we did not understand when agreeing was that highway, was actually a toll way, which created some anxious moments at the toll Booths, but they are fine with one person paying multiple tolls (as long as you go through the gates one at a time). Cutting through the mountain was a great time saver and given the weather was the correct decision.
After buffet dinner in the hotel on arrival day we all appreciated going to one of the many fine restaurants in town. We went to Ruzmarin, just up the hill from our hotel. On offer was a diverse menu with pizza, scampi, ribs, beef steak and assorted pastas including some with truffles. We all easily found something we fancied. The waiter wagered his choice of grappa would be better than the one Drew had picked, before I knew it the table was covered with grappa glasses. The first one Drew picked, then the waiters pick was given to the whole group, though there was a different one for males or females brought to the table. We were all ready to call it a night after walking back and rearrange our gear in the hope it would be drier before being put back on in the morning.
Day 3 I think the guide book for the tour suggested this would be the day we visited the islands, but with the unseasonal weather, there was definitely going to be rain and possibly thunderstorms, so not the best for that, so instead Dominico had planned to go to Pula which one is to the West of Opitija. We rode our along the coast road and it was not long till our new companion rain joined us. However he also had invited his mate cold along, who was not terribly welcome as rain and cold with little or no rain gear made for some pretty miserable riding for some of our group.
By the time we made it to the Roman amphitheatre being warm and dry outweighed touristing outside. It is the second largest and looks quite spectacular with the harbour behind it. The cafe we stopped in had a room above street level, which was perfect to warm a little and get some blood back into fingers and other extremities.
Eventually Dominico encouraged riders out to their scooters by offering to do a lap of the amphitheatre before going on to our lunch destination of Rovinj. This is has Venetian influences and large marina behind which is where we stopped for lunch. Some of our group prioritised finding rain jackets to where while riding before joining us for lunch.
The time arrived to meet back at the scooters for the trip back to Opitija which was necessary but not enjoyed by some, which for the most part was backtracking the same roads we had ridden in the morning. The place Dominico had anticipated stopping at was closed, so we rode on to Plomin. However once we were there, while Dominico was checking if this coffer shop was open, there was enough wet and cold people to overrule the guide and carpark vote to continue without the stop to get off the road and out of wet gear. The rain had gone through everything, even if you had rain gear. Most riders had the experience similar to wadding out from the sand at the beach, where you have the choice of sticking to the shallows, or taking that extra step into deeper water. Riding scooters in no/poor rain gear had forced most to involuntarily take that last step as they felt the cold and wet slowly approach the areas would rather have kept dry.
The choice for dinner tonight was Rozo, a Nepolise style Italian restaurant — "When i eat with my friends, it is a moment of real pleasure, when i really enjoy my life"- Monica Bellucci "
Day 4 The next day probably had the worst weather predictions, regardless of which forecast you looked at online, which split the group.
Three rode and three stayed in Opitija. Drew, Diane and myself accompanied Dominico for the ride to Porec. A bit more spirited riding as we went along the now becoming more familiar coast road. It was drizzling when we left, which later turned to rain, but as we continued we rode into cloud. Cloud is good as it is damp but not rainy, you just have the trade off of reduced visibility. We stopped in Plomin, and at the time we arrived you could barely see the red ring in the chimney in the valley.
The place we visited was a total surprise with nice area inside where we could watch the changing conditions. Drinks were done, but we stayed on as a couple of heavy rain fronts swept through. As we the day before at some point you have to decide to go on regardless. Our tenacity/stupidity was soon to be rewarded as the further we rode the better and clearer the weather became till it cleared and we were riding on dry roads before reaching our destination of Porec.
We parked and walked toward the Basilica. Diane and Dominico were interested in going in to the church, Drew and I not so much, so we parted with the intention of regrouping for lunch. It was surprising or maybe not how much of the town was associated with the church.
We did a bit of a lap through the streets and past the restaurant tours before stopping for lunch in a courtyard in the sun with Gothic influences in buildings around us, which looked to be a better option than our initial pick of one in the main square near the other church. As we were finishing a parade of young ladies in fashion contest sashes glided through.
We took what appeared to be a short cut as the girls were back again near the scoots. Dominico and Diane appeared at the same time, so we got ready to ride on. Diane's Harley riding days had her chasing Dominico most of the day. Our next stop was the Limsky Channel a Fjord-like channel between forested slopes. It is 5.6 miles long, though without knowing that, it looks like any number of rivers. It is neat that the North and South banks have different vegetation appearance.
Still enjoying good weather it would have been a coffee stop, but a decision was made to ride on as it could be reasonably assumed that cloud and his mate cold would be waiting for us further up the road. Not only had they stuck around the clouds were now thicker, resulting in riding near and following the right side solid line to track the road. The centre line is more of a suggestion than a lane limit for most of the local drivers and I did not really want a car or truck to appear from the pea soup conditions with me in its path. We had slowed and riding much closer together, do a relief to see Dominico's indicator come on at Hotel Flanona on the corner near Plomin – that in better weather overlooks the water. For us it was a coffee stop and sanctuary from the cloud.
The restaurant had a semi circle of tables along the windows with balconies outside. On two of their glass panels near the car park was a motorcycle sticker wall I added Scooters and Hooters Ipswich to, as did Drew add Seven Hills Scooter club before we departed into the now lighter cloud which later turned back to drizzle then rain as we approached Opitija.
Day 5 According to the Edelweiss itinerary all we had left was s choice of either the islands or to visit the Risnjak National Park. Dominico advised that the Risnjak National Park is very beautiful in better weather, but that there is not much in or around it with or current weather limiting visibility from Veliki and that maybe we should consider something else as an alternative (there was many suggestions to leave the scooters parked). When Google searching the area, Motovun came up in several searches as a recommendation. Drew and Chel have been referencing Rick Steve's guides for a number of years and agreed it and adding a stop at Na Burj restaurant in Kozina, would be a suitable alternative. They had visited the restaurant with friends while staying in Trieste and said it was the place to go to eat meat.
Our new riding companions, rain and cold waiting for us outside, but seeing we knew where they like to hang around, we had agreed to pay to use the toll road to give rain and cold the slip. We were out the other side in no time having enjoyed the apparent warmth of the toll tunnels, we returned to the outside air and probably the coldest day to date. The weather was good with no sign of rain, and low cloud to impact visibility at Motovun of the surrounding countryside.
The name of village is also of Celtic origin, derived from word Montona, meaning "a town in the hills". The whole area reminded us of hillsides around Radda in Chianti in Tuscany region from previous vacations in Italy. It is situated on a hill 270 metres (886 feet) above sea level with houses scattered all over the hill, and the Parish Church of St. Stephen facing the Andrea Antico Square.
We arrived before most of the tour operators do were able to have a good look around before continuing on over the border into Slovenia to Kovina.
We rode past our stop on the way back from the caves and arrived soon after. Na Burj is a large restaurant that is being renovated to make it even bigger with a large kitchen area full of men preparing meat with grills in the background. Dominico offered to substitute this meal for the evening meal on the Edelweiss account. The waiter suggested a shared platter for six that would have more than enough for seven. He was not wrong when a huge platter of meat and fries arrived, the bacon wrapped chicken was delicious, but then so was the rissoles with cheese, the slightly sausage-looking mince logs that tasted a bit like kebab meat, all of it was great but even after seconds I did not really need, there was still a mountain of fries and meat on the platter when we were all done.
The waiter offered takeaways foil trays to put the left overs that lead to a conversation around the stickers fitted the underseat bucket on Vespas sold in the USA that prompts the term "we will stick it in the kitty cooker". It is a warning sticker in case people could think sticking pets under the seat is a good idea.
We started to head home but unknown to us Dominico had lead a motorcycle tour here in the past and knew of a little village that you would never know was there without this kind of knowledge. The road to it looked more like a sealed driveway than road. There was a cluster of stone buildings in a variety of states of repair/disrepair around the cafe which were good photos.
Once inside it had a bit of a hunting lodge feel, but some of the mounted items were quite different to what we saw in Bacares in Spain.
The cafe owner had quite good English and talked about the basketball teams and other sport before we headed off. The roads were in surprisingly good condition considering how apparently remote we were with hardly any cars passing us from either direction. Soon the signs for the border crossing appeared. It was manned by two police officers who collected our passports for processing. As we had eaten so much at lunch it was an easy decision to skip dinner and go straight to dessert after a few ales in the cafe next to the hotel. We had passed this place the two nights we went to Roko, so the girls had already decided what they wanted from the display case. Once we had finished the girls headed back to the hotel and Drew and I went off to have a better look around town before a few more beers before bed.
Day 6 It seems cloud and cold had worked out we had been giving them the slip, and were off sulking somewhere, as they were nowhere to be seen on our last riding day.
We headed off toward Plomin once again, though dropped down to the ferry loading area before reaching Hotel Flanona. After buying our tickets we went to the front of the line where a few vintage Harley's were parked with the group of riders clustered around one of them that seemed to be doing a vintage Lambretta owner impersonation with various tools and spark plugs spilling from a tool wrap and people taking turns to crank it over with the kick start.
The one they had been working on ended up being walked onboard the ferry to Cres island.
We had assumed we might be first on last off on arrival, but it was a bit of a free for all with all lanes of loaded vehicles attempting to leave at once we quickly seized the opportunity and lead the pack up the hill through the roadworks till we reached the 45th parallel parking area for a photo stop and sticker.
Cres is the largest Croatian island and most of it is undeveloped. We had a nice ride in the sun with the outside temperature around 19 deg C, more like we should have had at this time of year. The township of Cres is a little harbour village with narrow lane ways running back amongst the houses.
We had plenty of time to have a look around and still make the next ferry to the island of Kirk.
This is connected to the mainland by bridge so was a bigger town with a larger port and retail area. I had a look along the bikes and spotted a familiar flag on the top box of a KTM
We wondered around had a laugh at the name of the bikini shop which probably means something else in the local language before some gelato in the courtyard. When I returned to my scooter I found it surrounded by Suzuki Katanas that most have been a press ride. Some of the number plates were consecutive, later confirmed when someone came out dictating to his phone on a selfie stick as he walked around describing the bikes and their features. We regrouped and rode off to the distinct sound of a Katana being given a few revs in the car park.
The crosswind off the water was quite strong when we reached the first bridge, so we were ready for the longer second bridge before returning to the mainland. This road weaves along the coast, and we passed a hilltop old village, shipyard and other industrial sites, marvelling at the network of bridges and flyovers above us for the highway. As it became more residential and my wife asked through the intercom way they do not base the tours in the bigger city we could see across the harbour from Opatija. This was soon answered when the traffic stopped. Dominico looked back and asked if the group agreed to lane filter through the traffic. We agreed and started what turned out to be about a half hour of weaving the seven scooters through the traffic till it cleared enough to return to riding in a single lane the balance of the distance to Opatija for the last refill before returning the keys.
For our final dinner we returned to the first restaurant the beef ribs were so good the first time I ordered them again. The conversations changed to packing and leaving and transfers, and reminders to return the surveys. The following morning we were the first to leave for our transfer to Zagreb, the driver who would help load the scooters before driving them and the van back to Austria had arrived as Dominico would be off on a bus to Split to pick up and guide a motorcycle tour around there and back to Opatija. Drew, Chel, Delia and Diane were sharing a rental car they would pick up from a nearby hotel to visit the Soca valley and overnight in Bled.
The improved weather continued to allow us to comfortably explore Zagreb to take in most of the top ten features. We were out most of the day and when we returned to our room we were reminded of all the wet or damp clothes we are dragging home over the unseasonal weather and hotel that refused to run it's air conditioning in Opatija. Weather is unpredictable and though not our first choice it did not stop us from seeing or riding any of the days we or Edelweiss had planned, actually it facilitated the change of ride from the Risnjak National Park to Motovun and Kovina.
Though it probably would have looked nice if we had all been riding Vespas. When looking/booking the BMW C400x I had considered the heated seat or handgrips as something that comes standard, but, I thought I would never use. Well let me share with you that when riding with wet sodden gloves the handgrip warmers can pump out enough heat to need turning down and still keep blood in your fingers. I am sure I do not have any tips or tears in my rain pants but still ended up being wet and cold below the waist resulting in my manhood retracting away from the cold till the seat warmer was turned on. This combination is invaluable when arriving at a rest room, and not having to try and work through layers of rain gear and zips and retracted manhood with a couple of mallets substituted for hands on the end of your arms. My Vespa riding friends were most jealous, but you can retrofit Oxford or other brand grips, I am not of sure of any aftermarket seat heaters. Another feature that I enjoyed on the BMW was the fold down section of the under seat compartment that allows you to store your helmet when stationary. There is an interlock to prevent you riding away with it down, which works I found out one day when I did not lock it back up properly. The top case was not huge but given you can get your helmet gloves and other things under the seat was a great place to put things you wanted faster access to, and is lockable when parking. The two convenience compartments in the leg shield were invaluable when going through border passport check stations and tolls to have things ready to present and them quickly stow before riding on. These are not lockable but easily checked and content transferred to rider or top box. Something I had not considered but was fitted to the scooter was the GS style sidebars which in my opinion added to the appeal of the scooter.
It is a 400cc single cylinder engine but had s nice sound with the stock pipe. It is possible to have a minimum of three foot positions, my preferred feet forward, then flat feet forward or flat to the back of the running boards. The seat was comfortable enough to not need to shift weight around to manage any emerging pressure point discomfort.
My wife and Chel found the Scomadi more comfortable than the Vespa, as the saddle style seat was not as comfortable as you would assume versus a flat seat which allows you to adjust your riding position more. I think they equated the Vespa GTS seat to the feeling/after effects of going on a long trail ride on a horse.
Would I consider a BMW C400x? Yes, though I think that the weather may have influenced my assessment of the scooter. The assessments of the Vespas were mixed, those who love them continue to feel strongly about them, those who don't did not find compelling reasons to change.
The Edelweiss tour is a great way to see some of Croatia and Slovenia, two countries I unreservedly recommend visiting whether it is in a coach or car motorcycle or scooter. The Edelweiss scooter tours are generally run as day tours from one hotel as base for the duration, and ride up to 160km a day. This leaves plenty of time to walk around and see, experience, and taste where you are before and after riding and at the break and lunch stops. The tour was not without issues, which have been fed back to the operator via the post ride questionnaire and subsequent follow up.
I did see some rental companies, offering basic rental with no guide, or maybe a guided day/half day tour of one of the locations we visited and surrounds.
You would need to spend a lot of time joining the dots and making separate reservations to get close to the same experience. Not impossible, but not for everyone. Final observation being what I started this story with, weather is unpredictable and with the tour we were able to adjust it and the destinations to the weather, or in the case of our day five do something completely different.
Bill Van Kesteren
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January 17, 2021 | Improving LIDAR and GPS: Breaking Through the Resolution Barrier With Quantum-Limited Precision
January 17, 2021 | Climate Crisis Calls for Direct Air Capture: Wartime-Level Funding for a Fleet of CO2 Scrubbers
January 17, 2021 | Researchers Hot Stock Tip: Avoid This Type of Investment Fund
January 17, 2021 | "Like Multiple Wildfires" – Why COVID-19 Lasts Longer, Causes More Damage Than Typical Pneumonia
January 17, 2021 | Awakening After a Sleeping Pill: Man With Serious Brain Injury Temporarily Recovered After 8 Years
Home Health News
Model Quickly Generates Brain Scan Templates for Medical-Image Analysis
TOPICS:BrainCSAILMedical ImagingMIT
By Rob Matheson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology November 27, 2019
With their model, researchers were able to generate on-demand brain scan templates of various ages (pictured) that can be used in medical-image analysis to guide disease diagnosis. Credit: Image courtesy of the researchers
Producing better guides for medical-image analysis: Model quickly generates brain scan templates that represent a given patient population.
MIT researchers have devised a method that accelerates the process for creating and customizing templates used in medical-image analysis, to guide disease diagnosis.
One use of medical image analysis is to crunch datasets of patients' medical images and capture structural relationships that may indicate the progression of diseases. In many cases, analysis requires use of a common image template, called an "atlas," that's an average representation of a given patient population. Atlases serve as a reference for comparison, for example to identify clinically significant changes in brain structures over time.
Building a template is a time-consuming, laborious process, often taking days or weeks to generate, especially when using 3D brain scans. To save time, researchers often download publicly available atlases previously generated by research groups. But those don't fully capture the diversity of individual datasets or specific subpopulations, such as those with new diseases or from young children. Ultimately, the atlas can't be smoothly mapped onto outlier images, producing poor results.
In a paper being presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in December, the researchers describe an automated machine-learning model that generates "conditional" atlases based on specific patient attributes, such as age, sex, and disease. By leveraging shared information from across an entire dataset, the model can also synthesize atlases from patient subpopulations that may be completely missing in the dataset.
"The world needs more atlases," says first author Adrian Dalca, a former postdoc in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and now a faculty member in radiology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. "Atlases are central to many medical image analyses. This method can build a lot more of them and build conditional ones as well."
Joining Dalca on the paper are Marianne Rakic, a visiting researcher in CSAIL; John Guttag, the Dugald C. Jackson Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and head of CSAIL's Data Driven Inference Group; and Mert R. Sabuncu of Cornell University.
Simultaneous alignment and atlases
Traditional atlas-building methods run lengthy, iterative optimization processes on all images in a dataset. They align, say, all 3D brain scans to an initial (often blurry) atlas, and compute a new average image from the aligned scans. They repeat this iterative process for all images. This computes a final atlas that minimizes the extent to which all scans in the dataset must deform to match the atlas. Doing this process for patient subpopulations can be complex and imprecise if there isn't enough data available.
Mapping an atlas to a new scan generates a "deformation field," which characterizes the differences between the two images. This captures structural variations, which can then be further analyzed. In brain scans, for instance, structural variations can be due to tissue degeneration at different stages of a disease.
In previous work, Dalca and other researchers developed a neural network to rapidly align these images. In part, that helped speed up the traditional atlas-building process. "We said, 'Why can't we build conditional atlases while learning to align images at the same time?'" Dalca says.
To do so, the researchers combined two neural networks: One network automatically learns an atlas at each iteration, and another — adapted from the previous research — simultaneously aligns that atlas to images in a dataset.
In training, the joint network is fed a random image from a dataset encoded with desired patient attributes. From that, it estimates an attribute-conditional atlas. The second network aligns the estimated atlas with the input image, and generates a deformation field.
The deformation field generated for each image pair is used to train a "loss function," a component of machine-learning models that helps minimize deviations from a given value. In this case, the function specifically learns to minimize distances between the learned atlas and each image. The network continuously refines the atlas to smoothly align to any given image across the dataset.
On-demand atlases
The end result is a function that's learned how specific attributes, such as age, correlate to structural variations across all images in a dataset. By plugging new patient attributes into the function, it leverages all learned information across the dataset to synthesize an on-demand atlas — even if that attribute data is missing or scarce in the dataset.
Say someone wants a brain scan atlas for a 45-year-old female patient from a dataset with information from patients aged 30 to 90, but with little data for women aged 40 to 50. The function will analyze patterns of how the brain changes between the ages of 30 to 90 and incorporate what little data exists for that age and sex. Then, it will produce the most representative atlas for females of the desired age. In their paper, the researchers verified the function by generating conditional templates for various age groups from 15 to 90.
The researchers hope clinicians can use the model to build their own atlases quickly from their own, potentially small datasets. Dalca is now collaborating with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, for instance, to harness a dataset of pediatric brain scans to generate conditional atlases for younger children, which are hard to come by.
A big dream is to build one function that can generate conditional atlases for any subpopulation, spanning birth to 90 years old. Researchers could log into a webpage, input an age, sex, diseases, and other parameters, and get an on-demand conditional atlas. "That would be wonderful, because everyone can refer to this one function as a single universal atlas reference," Dalca says.
Another potential application beyond medical imaging is athletic training. Someone could train the function to generate an atlas for, say, a tennis player's serve motion. The player could then compare new serves against the atlas to see exactly where they kept proper form or where things went wrong.
"If you watch sports, it's usually commenters saying they noticed if someone's form was off from one time compared to another," Dalca says. "But you can imagine that it could be much more quantitative than that."
Reference: "Learning Conditional Deformable Templates with Convolutional Networks" by Adrian Dalca, Marianne Rakic, John Guttag and Mert Sabuncu, Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS).
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Deep Creek 2014: The U.S. hosts its second ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship
Updated Sep 11, 2014 ; Posted Sep 11, 2014
By Jacqueline Kantor | jkantor@pennlive.com
McHenry, Md., a small town on the northern shore of Deep Creek Lake, has six days left. Six days until the athletes from 46 different countries descend on the small community. Six days until the town, and the country, welcome more than 400 athletes and staff – many of them Olympians and international competitors – for four days of top-level competition.
"It's certainly a lot of pressure, but we have a great community here," said Todd Copley, who has been on site in McHenry since December 2012. "I'm looking out my window and can see it coming together."
Copley is the executive director of Deep Creek 2014, or the 36th edition of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. The championships begin Sept. 17 with an opening ceremony and close Sept. 21 with the team finals in K1 women (single kayak) and C2 men (canoe double).
Athletes have to make their way down a 300m whitewater rapid and through a series of 25 gates in either K1 (single kayak), C1 (single canoe) or C2 (double canoe).
The first ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship was held in 1949. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the only other championship held in the U.S.—the 1989 World Championships.
The U.S. was set to host the 2001 competition near McHenry, but the championships were canceled after the events of 9/11.
The Deep Creek bid beat out Vienna and Krakow to host the 2014 competition.
"We'll be celebrating that anniversary, which is very important, but we're also going to be on the world stage," Copley said. "We did a lot of preparation to make sure this is going to be a world class event and these folks will go back and say 'Hey, that was a great world championship.'"
Team USA canoers and kayakers may have to balance side jobs to support themselves in a country that won't always recognize their faces. European athletes are often more well-known in their home countries and benefit from the crowds and support at world championships.
"This is a good opportunity for us to show the world that we've got our stuff together, that we have the best in the world," said kayaker Rick Powell.
"We're usually racing in Europe, away from our home country and people we know. The home country gets a lot of cheering, and I hope it gets pretty loud.
Powell is one of two Pennsylvania natives on Team USA's 16-athlete roster. He is from Parkersburg, Pa., and attended Octara and Chester County High Schools.
Powell made the move to Charlotte, N.C., and the U.S. National Whitewater Center after high school with his friend and teammate, Casey Eichfeld, a canoer from Drums, Pa. The pair also competed in C2 together at the 2008 Olympics and Eichfield came in 14th in C1 at the 2012 Olympics.
"It's nice for us U.S. athletes cause we are constantly the ones traveling to Europe for World Cup championships," Eichfeld said. "Hopefully we'll be getting some exposure for the sport."
NBC Sports will filming the events and outlets from England, Slovenia and others will travel to Maryland this week to set up for four days of slalom coverage.


Singapore, 30 October 2008 - Shoppers can look forward to a host of rewards when they shop at Paragon this Christmas season. From 14 November to 26 December, the mall has lined up an exciting series of events and promotions for all.
Be serenaded by Christmas carols every Friday to Sunday at 3pm and 5pm at the Atrium 2 and Front Foyer starting 5 December. Christmas is also a time for remembering the less fortunate among us. For shoppers who are in the spirit of giving, they can proceed to the Charity Gift House at Atrium 2 to make a donation of $15. In return, they get to pick a gift of their choice from the Gift House. All nett proceeds go to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.
Children can look forward to full-filled weekends at Paragon. From 15 November to 21 December, Level 5 will be transformed into a kids´ world hub with various activities such as glitter tattoo, hair braiding, nail art and caricature drawing at 2pm and 4pm. Parents can also sign up their children for Paragon´s specially organised kid´s craft workshop, allowing their child to unleash their inner creativity. Simply present any Paragon Junior receipt and pay only $18 (U.P $25) to register. The workshop runs from 12pm to 7pm.
Receive $30 Paragon shopping vouchers when you charge a minimum of $400 in a single receipt to your Citibank Paragon Platinum MasterCard or World MasterCard Card. Other MasterCard Cardmembers will receive $20.
Limited to one redemption per cardmember per day, while stocks last. Bill payments are not eligible.
Exclusively for World MasterCard Cardmembers, redeem a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Vintage 2002 Champagne with a minimum of $1,200 charged in a single receipt.
Limited to the first 400 World MasterCard Cardmembers and one redemption per cardmember per day on a first-come-first-served basis, while stocks last. World MasterCard Cardmembers who redeem the champagne will not be entitled to redeem the $30 Paragon shopping vouchers and vice versa. Champagne voucher is redeemable at Paragon Customer Service Counter Level 1 and to be exchanged for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Vintage 2002 at Bacchus (Paragon #B1-13). Not valid for bill payments.
Stand to win one of your choice prizes worth over $20,000 when you spend a minimum of $150 at Paragon. Citibank Paragon Platinum MasterCard and World MasterCard Cardmembers will receive double chances of winning.
Limited to a maximum of 10 chances per shopper and maximum of 20 chances for Citibank Paragon Platinum MasterCard and World MasterCard Cardmembers.
Bring home a beautiful and elegant T-Lite holder at $15 with a minimum purchase of $150, while stocks last.
Get complimentary Christmas wrapping paper with every purchase of $150.
Limited to a maximum of 3 wrappers per shopper per day, while stocks last.
Receive a gorgeous Furla keyring when you spend a minimum of $600 in a single receipt. Present your same-day receipt and passport at Paragon Customer Service Counter for redemption (designs may vary). Limited to the first 300 tourists only, while stocks last.


Send us an order from our catalogue and you'll get a superb free gift. See each catalogue for details. Does not apply to online orders. With every order placed either online or from a catalogue, you get a free entry into our Prize Draw. Win up to $1,000,000! If you're not completely satisfied with your product choice, you can return it within 5 years for a full refund - no questions asked! Established in 1989, Windsor Mail is an Australian family-owned and operated business, headquartered in Malaga, WA.
Over the last 26 years Windsor Mail has delivered over 15 million products to over 450,000 customers throughout Australia and New Zealand. Windsor Mail has a long history with Australia Post and has secured excellent postage rates, which we can pass on to you. We have a large team of experienced and friendly Customer Service Consultants to handle your queries. We use Comodo's Digital Security Certificates and SSL encryption to safeguard your information, and process your transactions using PayPal.


Ratings: Official Hotel Guide Classification - Superior Three Star.
Hotel is located in Valby, business district of Copenhagen, only 3,5 km from the Copenhagen city center. Hotel is newly renovated with 47 modern rooms. The hotel restaurant serves breakfast from 7 to 10 hrs a.m. And a la carte dinner until 21 hrs in the evenings. Hotel offers secure parking facilities free of charge.
Hotel is located in the business center called Valby which is 3.5 km from Copenhagen city center away. There is a regular train connection between city center and valby. The train station is only 50 m from the hotel. There are bus and also to all other parts of sealand.
Areas Served: The next bigger cities from the TOP Hotel Leda are Copenhagen, Gladsaxe and Herlev.


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Комуна Дальс-Ед () — адміністративно-територіальна одиниця місцевого самоврядування, що розташована в лені Вестра-Йоталанд у південно-західній Швеції.

Дальс-Ед 136-а за величиною території комуна Швеції. Адміністративний центр комуни — місто Ед.

Населення
Населення становить 4 665 чоловік (станом на вересень 2012 року).

Населені пункти
Комуні підпорядковано 1 міське поселення (tätort) та 1 сільське:

 Ед (Ed)
 Гобуль (Håbol)

Галерея

Виноски

Посилання
Сайт комуни

Див. також
 Комуна (Швеція)
 Список комун Швеції

Комуни лену Вестра-Йоталанд
Комуни Швеції

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Crooked Estate - Puppets & cobwebs & stairs, oh my!
A non-traditional piece intended as a metaphorical, locality-based fictionalization based on the values of a pessimistic worldview. Inspired by the writings of Thomas Ligotti.
Intended to be played with Generator code visible.


Kirklands is a superb, terraced townhouse in Keswick sleeping up to nine people in four bedrooms. There's also a bathroom, a shower room and two cloakrooms, along with a kitchen, a utility room, a dining room, a first floor sitting room with open fire and a ground floor snug with woodburning stove. Outside, there is a small terraced garden area to the front of the property, whilst to the rear is a larger terraced area with furniture. Roadside parking is also available nearby, on a first come, first served basis, whilst a nearby car park for additional parking is also available. Kirklands is a lovely, spacious holiday home, perfect for touring this pretty part of the North Lake District.
Over three floors. Four bedrooms: 2 x second floor double, 1 x first floor twin (zip/link, can be king-size double on request), 1 x second floor single. Bathroom with freestanding bath, hand-held shower, basin and WC. Shower room with shower, basin and WC. Ground floor basin and WC. Kitchen. Utility. Dining room. First floor sitting room with open fire. Snug with sofa bed and woodburning stove.
Gas central heating with open fire and woodburning stove. Electric oven, gas hob, microwave, fridge, freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, 2 x TVs with Sky, DVD, WiFi. Fuel, power and starter packs for fire and stove inc. in rent. Bed linen and towels inc. in rent. Travel cot and highchair on request. Roadside parking available on first come, first served basis. Additional parking available in nearby car park at cost. Small front garden, plus rear terraced area. Property accepts a maximum of 3 children. Two well-behaved pets welcome. Sorry, no smoking. Shop and pub 3 mins walk.


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Northwest Arkansas On Map as Art Hub
The museum is a stunning building with sculpture, pathways, streams and bridges surrounding it.
Bentonville's Crystal Bridges lures art enthusiasts from around the world Story and photos by Cynthia Calvert Many know that Walmart's headquarters are in Bentonville, Ark., but most aren't aware of the area's art culture. On a recent tour of Northwest Arkansas, I was amazed at the concentration of art found far from the beaten path to the art world. Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, opened a museum of American art a couple of years ago, which has gained international attention from the art community.
Upon arrival in Bentonville, I checked into the lovely 21c (21cmuseumhotels.com), a museum-hotel, where art comes first and lodging second. 21c began in 2006 with its first museum-hotel in Louisville, Ky., adding another in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2012 and the most recent location in Bentonville in February of this year. All locations are combinations of museums, boutique hotels and restaurants. The first floor is museum and restaurant, with the hotel above. Their focus is "anchored by world-class contemporary art by today's emerging and internationally acclaimed artists," hence the name 21c, for 21st century. Each aspect was thoughtfully planned and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.
Sam Walton had a couple of stores in Newport. Ark., before his Bentonville location, but that location proved his most successful to that point since he didn't have lease worries there (he was forced out of his first Newport store by a landlord who saw his success and wanted the store back for his son, thus refused to renew the lease). Walton persevered and opened his new store in Bentonville on May 9, 1950. That store – now the Walmart Visitors Center – is the second most visited museum in Bentonville, after Crystal Bridges. It's a charming and informative visit, complete with a soda shop. Walmart's first distribution center and home office opened in Bentonville in 1971. Walton died in 1992 and left his fortune to his children. His daughter, Alice, led the Walton Family Foundation's development of the museum, which opened Nov. 11, 2011, with more than 600,000 visitors in its first year. The museum was built on land owned by the Walton family in
Just one of the many pieces is a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.
the heart of the Ozarks. It sits on 120 acres with 3.5 miles of trails and a bridge over Crystal Spring, for which the museum is named. There's a beautiful garden along the banks of the spring and several art sculptures are scattered along the trail. Crystal Bridges Trail is part of the Bentonville Trail System and connects the museum's south entrance with downtown Bentonville via the Art Trail. It will also take you to Compton Gardens, set around the family home of Neil Compton, a Bentonville physician who is noted as the savior of the Buffalo River, with his successful efforts to stop the river's damming. The gardens showcase 6.5 acres of native woodland plants, walking trails and prairie.Be on the lookout for the dozens of penguin sculptures that roam throughout. Hotel staff keeps them on the move and you might even find one in your room – Bentonville's are green, Louisville's red and Cincinnati's yellow. The museums' displays change frequently. Currently on display in Bentonville is Jose Toirac's series, "A Brief History of Cuba As Told By Other Things," which features "provocative juxtapositions of historical or media images with logos for Western consumer brands." While all of the towns in Northwest Arkansas have their own unique offerings of art, shopping, natural beauty and much more, Bentonville, the home of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, is the one place you just cannot miss. The history of how it came to be begins with Walmart's start 50 years ago.
Inside the museum. designed by Moshe Safdie, are masterworks from artists, all Americans, such as Norman Rockwell, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, William Merritt Chase and many more. From Native American art to contemporary works in a variety of mediums, it's an impressive collection by virtually all standards. The museum is a
An interior space of the museum brings visitors and nature together.
tribute to American art and artists, chronologically arranged. Visitors can wander unguided or tour under the leadership of one of the expert docents (pre arrangements necessary). Walton wants visitors to appreciate the influential juxtaposition of history and geography upon the artist and subsequently, to feel bathed in the American experience. The collection of pieces is stunning and includes such luminous paintings as "Kindred Spirits" by Asher Brown Durand, "Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand" by Thomas Eakins, "George Washington-The Constable-Hamilton Portrait" by Gilbert Stuart, "Winter Scene in Brooklyn" by Francis Guy, "Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife" by John Singer Sargent, "The Reader" by Mary Cassatt, "Dolly Parton" by Andy Warhol and "Rosie the Riveter" by Norman Rockwall. Hopper, Lichtenstein, O'Keeffe, Homer and more - it is a comprehensive and must-see collection. There are also significant sculptures in the museum. Alice encountered some push back at times, with some feeling Northwest Arkansas unworthy of such fine art, but she persevered as her father had in the past.
The green penguins keep the 21C Hotel lively.
Delicious shrimp and grits are featured at Eleven.
In April 2012, TIME Magazine named Alice Walton to the "TIME 100" list of the 100 most influential people in the world, noting "With Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, [Alice Walton] has placed a daring bet that a small town can become a big art-world destination. We're betting she's right." And the best part could just be that it is all free. That's
The Walmart Visitor's Center.
right, entry to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is free. While at Crystal Bridges, be sure to eat at their restaurant, Eleven, named for the date the museum opened (11-11-11). The menu is planned around the artworks, natural surroundings and fresh ingredients from the Bentonville Farmers Market … delicious and gorgeous.
To plan your trip to Bentonville, visit Bentonville.org. Cutlines: The museum is a stunning building with sculpture, pathways, streams and bridges surrounding it. The Walmart Visitor's Center Delicious shrimp and grits are featured at Eleven.


Popular developer Tapbots, most well-known for the great Twitter client Tweetbot, has just released its first iMessage sticker pack – Stickershift.
If you couldn't tell by the name, Stickershift is made for car fans. All of the stickers are organized into different categories including parts and gear, tools, signs and symbols, flags, engine and drivertrain along with others.
According to the release notes, the sticker pack will be an ongoing project with more added soon.
Stickershift is designed for the iPhone and all iPad models. It can be downloaded now on the iMessage App Store for free. You can unlock even more stickers with an in-app purchase of $1.99 called the Enthusiast package.
The video features a wide variety of different options and ends with the tagline "say it with stickers on iPhone 7." Apple even created a specific App Store page where fans of the ad can find and purchase the sticker packs showcased.
And in that same spirt of sticker madness, our own Jeff Byrnes recently showed you how to find exactly where a cool sticker you received came from.
Where Did That Awesome iMessage Sticker Pack Come From?


Posted by GayPatriotWest at 3:18 pm - February 29, 2008.
When we read some pieces by some Democrats and Democrat-wannabes extolling the virtues of their man Obama, they delight in defining him as some new kind of politician who transcends traditional politics. Yet, the more I watch him, the more he seems like your average everyday run-of-the-mill politician with a stronger presence and greater rhetorical gifts.
And lead the people on!
Senator Obama could have answered the question directly, starting with the simple word, "No," making clear he refused the support of an anti-Semitic demagogue like Farrakhan, but instead, even after repeated followup questions, he never said he rejected that hatemonger's support. Guess he feared such forthrightness might cost him a vote or two.
Common technique for a politician? And Obama's supporters have been trying to convince me that he's something different!
As the Texas primary approaches, Senator Barack Obama has been perfecting an old political trick parodied in a song by the Texas Governor in a hit musical. Claiming he's got great ideas, without being specific about important issues — or even answering tough questions. He's just dancing a little sidestep and leading the people on.
It's amazing that some very intelligent people have seen his clever repackaging of old political tricks as some new kind of politics.
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 5:01 pm - February 28, 2008.
Ever since I announced that I had voted for John McCain the California Republican primary, a good number of our readers have expressed shock (and dismay) that I would choose the less conservative of the two serious candidates then left in the race for the Republican nomination for president. Given my conservatism, they expected me to reject McCain and choose the supposedly more conservative Mitt Romney.
I believe this was the first time that I have differed significantly with my co-blogger on a key issue of the day with Bruce expressing significant skepticism (and outright opposition) to the apparent Republican nominee.
Not only that, in the month leading up to the primary, I had posted some critical pieces on John McCain (here and here) and one highly praiseworthy of Mitt Romney.
Back in 2000, when I wavered between McCain and then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, I put a lot of thought into my decision, even ordering the Arizona Senator's book, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir from Amazon, reading it in the weeks before the California primary. That year (unlike this) I could identify the moment when I made my choice. It was when, as I noted here, McCain refused to address talk show Michael Reagan's concern that he might appoint Supreme Court justices like David Souter.
The night before I voted this year I e-mailed a reader leaning toward Romney indicating that I was likely to "go with my gut" and vote for McCain. I think the main thing which swung me to a man whom I once compared to a bitter old man and whom I faulted for being "too eager" to please the media was that desipte his flaws and his many departures from conservative "orthodoxy," on the most important issue of the day, the War on Terror, he has never wavered, remaining committed to victory in Iraq.
Why does Left see Global Warming as Most Important Issue when Threat of Islamofascism Persists?
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 1:58 pm - February 28, 2008.
While reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, I thought yet again about the question which serves as the title to this post.
Transforming the US into the world's "chief evildoer" at a time when Islamofascism threatens our very civilization. Many on the left seems to dismiss that threat in order to make global warming as the most pressing issue facing the world.
Then, as now, I wondered if Gore (and others on the left) found it easier to blame our own nation rather than see evils in the world as something not engendered by the West or capitalism, but instead by ideologies at odds with our civilization and values.
The very nature of the global warming hysteria does seem a piece with the longstanding liberal criticism of Western society while the Islamofascist threat proves false the notion that the West in general and America in particular is responsible for all the world's ill.
Perhaps, I'll flesh this out in a future post, but for now, will put the idea out there and invite y'all to weigh in with your own thoughts.
Posted by Average Gay Joe at 5:43 am - February 28, 2008.
Ok, I can't figure out how to embed the video here like I normally do on my blog, so here's a link to Obama's campaign commercial that this post comments on.
My gawd, is he serious?!? Obama certainly is more telegenic and is a far better speaker, but this makes me shiver remembering the miserable failure of Jimmy Carter's presidency. We saw how this kind of attitude turned out the first time, what possible reason do we have as a nation to go through that kind of mess again? I'm grateful to Obama for torpedoing the Hildabeast yet now I'm unhappy that he is essentially forcing me to vote for that jerk the "Maverick". Thanks for nothing, Barack.
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 7:42 pm - February 27, 2008.
Today is one of the most significant days in the history of American conservatism.
As I'm sure most of you have learned, National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr. died earlier today at his home in Stamford, Connecticut.
Those of us who with access to the Internet have at our fingertips a plethora of sources for conservative opinion. But, back in 1955, before Buckley, a few months shy of his thirtieth birthday, founded National Review, there was no such source.
There, he brought together numerous conservative thinkers, representing a broad range of viewpoints, demonstrating the intellectual diversity of the conservative movement. He was one of the first to champion Ronald Reagan. The two were close friends and the Gipper regularly read Buckley's biweekly magazine.
I have subscribed to National Review on and off since my freshman year in college. I met Buckley only once, at a fundraiser for the magazine held in Los Angels in 2005. He was cordial, but due to the press of the crowd — and the presence of some of his California friends — I did not have much time to engage this intellectual.
When I was friendly with Marvin Liebman in the mid-1990s, he remembered his friend fondly, noting how their friendship did not change when Liebman came out as gay to Buckley.
What is the Gay Conservative Agenda?
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 3:18 pm - February 27, 2008.
Given the particular niche we have found in the blogosophere, Bruce's post two weeks ago inquiring into the conservative homosexual agenda may well rank as one of the most important pieces we have published. Or maybe I'm just saying that because it's something I've thought about for as long as I've accepted my sexual orientation.
Indeed, the one thing which has most troubled me about Log Cabin is that on nearly every gay issue, they seem to take the exact same position as the other gay organizations, almost all of whom have allied themselves with various left-wing and liberal groups in the political arena. The leadership of that ostensibly Republican organization rarely seems to ask if those policies are consistent with conservative principles.
To be sure, there have been exceptions when Log Cabin took a stand on issues at odds with that of the gay groups, notably in 2005 when it joined in an alliance with conservative groups supporting the president's plan to reform Social Security. They made the argument that the proposed reforms would give gay people greater freedom to allocate their own benefits, thus bypassing federal laws preventing an individual from designating a beneficiary, allowing only a spouse to receive those benefits.
Yesterday, as I was working on my post on how gun control harms gay people, I recalled Log Cabin's support of Social Security reform and realized the common feature of these ideas was that they represented policy proposals which, while not specifically targeted to gay people, offered reforms which did indeed help gay people.
So, after repealing discriminatory laws (e.g., the ban on gays serving openly in the military) and achieving some kind of state recognition of our relationships, the gay conservative agenda would be a particularly conservative one, supporting (as Log Cabin did with Social Security reforms) policies which do not specifically benefit gays, but which expand freedom thus making it easier for us to address problems peculiar to us as individuals.
Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 9:35 am - February 27, 2008.
The first gained 5% since 2000, while the second and third each lost 2% during that time. See also part VII which tends to cloud these results IMO.
That's a significant change since the question was asked in 1977 when both sides were evenly split at 43% each.
Is Gun Control Bad for Gay People?
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 2:18 pm - February 26, 2008.
Until recently, among the issues which formed the core of modern American conservatism, as articulated by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and their ideoligical heirs, I found myself most at odds with my philosophical confrères on the issue of guns. Here, it didn't seem that freedom would work. I used to believe that the proliferation of guns fostered increased violence in our society.
But, then, I started listening to the various arguments for gun control. I found that those with whom I once agreed refrained from argument and indulged in innuendo, while writing off the argument that guns could be used for self-defense. Opponents of gun control made better arguments, noting increased crime rates in jurisdictions with the toughest gun control laws and demonstrating how law-abiding citizens used firearms for self-defense.
And while I do favor more limitations on gun ownership than do most of my fellow conservatives, I am no longer an advocate of gun control as I once was. In a recent piece on District of Columbia v. Heller, a case challenging the District's strict gun control now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Dale Carpenter addresses some of the issues which caused me to reconsider my position. He makes the cases why gun control laws could make it more difficult for gay people to protect ourselves against hate violence.
. . . for many other gay people, especially the ones living on the margins of life in crime-prone or anti-gay areas, owning a gun is one important part of a comprehensive plan for protecting life and property.
Gun ownership might at the very least give [gay people] peace of mind. And widespread knowledge that many gays are packing might give their would-be attackers second thoughts Gun rights are gay rights.
Given the lower crime rates in states with concealed weapons laws and the persistence of hate crimes even in states with Hate Crime statutes on the books, I wonder if opposition to gun control may be a more effective means of stopping hate crimes that such statutes.
A topic for serious discussion. If Log Cabin had some guts, at their convention in April, it might offer a panel considering this very issue.
Whatever the case, Dale Carpenter makes a strong argument on why gun control is bad for gay people, so I suggest you read the whole thing.
Posted by Average Gay Joe at 10:35 am - February 26, 2008.
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 6:27 pm - February 25, 2008.
A few of you have written, observing that I haven't written much lately. It's just that, well, I haven't been in much of a mood to write lately. As is my wont, I have been scribbling down ideas for posts, but for some reason, just haven't felt like writing. Maybe it was the full moon had an unusual effect on me last week.
Or maybe I was discouraged by my difficulty accommodating to our new provider. Or maybe I just got out of practice of blogging when the blog was down.
In the past two weeks, since I got back from Vegas, I had endured a cold, had to plan an event (on the fly) for my college alumni association (which I will advertise on the blog later today) and begun serious work on my dissertation, while attempting to clean my apartment and looking for a condo to buy. And I wanted to see as many of the Oscar-nominated films as I could stomach while socializing with my friends.
Today, for some reason, I have been thinking a lot about the apparent Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. As I've noted several times on this blog, I find him a compelling figure, an attractive candidate and a good speaker, yet I find his campaign based more on his personality than any great ideas for leading and improving our great nation.
While some may call him a new kind of politician, in many ways, he's no different from many other charismatic figures who have sought positions of political leadership. He obscures his absence of plan for change in noble-sounding rhetoric about the need for change.
It seems he's running for president entirely on his personality. To be sure, other candidates for president ran on their presence. But, many of them had already accomplished things in other endeavors, for example, Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 or even H. Ross Perot, forty years later.
Given the power of the Illinios's Senator's presence and his gift with words, some have compared this Democratic politician to a Republican with similar gifts–Ronald Wilson Reagan. But, unlike Obama, Reagan had actually accomplished something before he ran for the White House, having served, among other things, two terms as governor of the nation's largest state.
It's not just that. As James Pethokoukis wrote earlier this month in U.S. News and World Report, "People knew what they were getting when they voted for Reagan. Obama? I'm not so sure" (Via Instapundit).
The Gipper never denied his conservatism and ran on a set of principles he'd been championing for at least sixteen years before his successful 1980 bid for the White House. Obama, by contrast, seems to be running from his record in elected office, never highlighting in his campaign that he was ranked the most liberal member of the United States Senate.
To be sure, Senator Obama is charismatic figure and good speaker. (Even Victor Davis Hanson calls him "perhaps the best natural orator and politician we've seen since Ronald Reagan and JFK." But, we really don't know where he stands. So, Senator, you may have the Gipper's gift for words, but Ronald Reagan was also a man of ideas. In your campaign so far, you're no Ronald Reagan.
And I wonder if he will be able to sustain a campaign on soaring rhetoric through November or if he'll have to offer more substantive speeches in the coming days to hold his own against his more accomplished rival from Arizona and convince the American people he has a plan for change and an ability to lead.
Barack Obama's biggest draw is not his eloquence. When you watch an Obama speech, you lean forward and listen and think, That's good. He's compelling, I like the way he speaks. And afterward all the commentators call him "impossibly eloquent" and say "he gave me thrills and chills." But, in fact, when you go on the Internet and get a transcript of the speech and print it out and read it–that is, when you remove Mr. Obama from the words and take them on their own–you see the speech wasn't all that interesting, and was in fact high-class boilerplate.
As with anything by Peggy, just read the whole thing!
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 9:59 am - February 25, 2008.
Hullo!  PatriotPartner (John) and I are in Germany this week.  He is here for work, me for some R&R (and catching-up on work emails!).
In any case, I arrived in Frankfurt Saturday morning and then we made a bee-line for Strousburg, France where we spent the night. Dinner was great on Saturday night… until I inadvertently took an Ambien after the French Onion Soup.  Luckily for all of you, there is video of my state of being that I'm not ashamed to post when I get it organized.
Speaking of which, one of my Christmas gifts from John was a nifty gadget called "Flip Video". It is basically an uber-small camcorder that operates completely on digital and is easy to edit and upload.  I'm hoping to get to my first video dispatch tomorrow (Tuesday).
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 5:02 pm - February 24, 2008.
While I tried to appear indifferent to the Oscars in my last post, there are certain flicks, actors and writers I will be rooting for when I watch the telecast with some friends later today.
As to flicks, I'll be pulling for Juno for Best Picture. While I don't think it was the best movie of the year, I did think it was a sweet story and shows that the abortion is more complicated that pro-choice zealots would have. Here, a teenager gets pregnant and decides to carry the child to term.
And I'll be rooting for Ratatouille for Best Animated Feature. A truly well done flick, with a great "conceit" as a premise, a rat who aspires to be a gourmet chef. This story resonates with anyone who has ever had to struggle to find his path in life, finding his life goals at odds with those around him and having trouble convincing others (in his chosen profession) of the seriouness of his endeavors.
In this post, I made clear why Nancy Oliver's Lars and the Real Girl is the hands down choice for Best Screenplay.
Among the nominees for best actor in a leading role, I have to give it to Daniel Day-Lewis even if I didn't much care for the film. He was, as always, brilliant.
For Best Actress, all five nominees clearly merit the honor. But, despite my love of Laura Linney (I thought she should have run for You Can Count on Me back in 2001), I'll be rooting for Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. While watching this flick, you don't think you're watching an actress portraying Edith Piaf, you believe you're seeing the celebrated chanteuse herself.
While there are a number of talented actors up in the supporting categories, I believe two screen veterans should take home the statuettes this year, Hal Holbrooke for Into the Wild and Ruby Dee for American Gangster. Both inhabit their roles and steal the few scenes in which they appear. Honor them for their brilliant work in these flicks — and for their long careers.
Posted by GayPatriotWest at 2:44 pm - February 24, 2008.
For the past week, I have had a post in mind on the Oscars and yet I keep putting it off. Â It seems that this year, I, who love movies and who for the past decade has looked forward to watching the live telecast of the celebrated ceremony, have become indifferent to the event.
And the box office returns for these films shows it. Â Even with the added publicity boost of their Oscar nomination, Juno is the only best picture nominee to have a box office exceeding (or even approaching) $100 million. Â The films this year seem to be distinguished by their absence of audience.
That's not to say there are not some notable performances this year and some amazing film-making.  While I found No Country for Old Men more of a character study than  a story, I found the movie compelling and beautifully made.  That is partially true for There Will be Blood, but that latter reeked of pretension and was disturbing to watch.
One might contend that there was the Coen Brothers flick had a story, but could not say the same for Paul Thomas Anderson's movie. Â And in that movie, most of the characters were more caricature than anything else.
And yet while those filmmakers were nominated for Oscars, the Academy left out the man who accomplished the most impressive achievement in directing this year, Ridley Scott whose American Gangster captured the feel of a 1970s movie while creating believable characters and situations.
I'm disappointed that Lars and the Real Girl, my favorite movie of the year only secured one (much deserved) nomination — for best screenplay.
And I haven't even gotten to the political aspects of this year's Oscars. Â See the nominees for best documentary.
Then there's the host, someone whose fame comes from a political show. Why can't they pick someone with a background in movies and non-political entertainment? Or is that they see their industry as a political one.
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 7:43 pm - February 21, 2008.
Helicopters carrying three senior U.S. senators made emergency landings Thursday in the mountains of Afghanistan because of a snowstorm.
Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the aircraft. No one was injured, according a statement from Kerry's office. The senators and their delegation returned to Bagram Air Base in a motor convoy, and have left for Turkey.
There's no immediate word from Kerry if he plans to ask Defense Secretary Gates for another Purple Heart for himself.
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 8:40 am - February 21, 2008.
From a new Gallup Poll. The headline, of course, is: MAJORITY STILL FAVORS TIMETABLE FOR TROOP WITHDRAWAL.
According to the poll, 43% of Americans say the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq is making the situation there better, a slight increase from 40% in late November, but up more substantially from 34% in early November. This is the most positive review of the surge Gallup has measured since it began. Thirty-five percent now say the surge is not making much difference, and just 21% say it is making things worse.
Those who favor a timetable are more than twice as likely to favor a schedule of gradual troop withdrawal (67%) as they are to prefer a more immediate removal of troops (32%). All told, [only] 18% of Americans favor removing troops from Iraq as rapidly as possible.
Americans who do not assess the surge positively overwhelmingly advocate a timetable, including 76% of those who see the surge as not making much difference, and 86% of those who think it is making things worse. Meanwhile, Americans who believe the surge is working are solidly against (70%) a timetable.
Nancy, Harry, Barack, Hillary & Hang 'Em High Murtha need to get out and talk to ordinary Americans… Oh yeah, and maybe actually GO TO Baghdad before they continue spouting off their 2006-era talking points of retreat and surrender.
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 12:30 pm - February 20, 2008.
If you're looking for one measure of the impact of last year's troop surge in Iraq, look at Gen. David Petraeus as he walks through a Baghdad neighborhood, with no body armor, and no helmet.
It's been one year since the beginning of what's known here as Operation Fardh Al Qadnoon. According to the U.S. military, violence is down 60 percent. One key to the success is reconciliation.
In the last year, U.S. and Iraqi troops moved into the neighborhood, set up joint security stations, earned the trust of local people, and found those men willing to put down their guns and work with them.
The results of the last year can be seen on the streets. A soccer team practices on the local pitch. The stalls in the market buzz with customers. I stop to talk to local residents, and ask if they feel a difference. Overwhelmingly, the answer is a resounding yes.
Within the last week the Iraqi parliament passed key laws having to do with provincial elections (the law devolves power to the local level in a decentralization system that is groundbreaking for the region), the distribution of resources, and amnesty. And those laws follow ones passed in recent months having to do with pensions, investment, and de-Ba'athification.
American Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard that "the whole motivating factor" beyond the legislation was "reconciliation, not retribution." This is "remarkably different" from six months ago, according to the widely respected, straight-talking Crocker.
Progress in Iraq means life is getting progressively more difficult for Democrats and their two presidential front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Having strongly opposed the surge, Obama and Clinton have been forced by events to concede that security progress has been made. But until now they have insisted that the surge is a failure because we're not seeing political progress. That claim is now being shattered.
Shattered, indeed.  What is a cut-and-run Democrat to do?  Nancy? Harry? Murtha? Are you out there?
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 6:59 am - February 20, 2008.
Larry Kudlow has shut the book on the long national nightmare known as The Clintons.
Please allow me a dose of hardened market realism concerning Obama's landslide victory in Wisconsin. The race is over. Hillary is finished. The Clinton Restoration is over. President Bill Clinton's political invincibility is over. Hillary's electability is over.
Obama got to the far Left faster than she did. He out organized her in the precincts. He out fundraised her. He out speechified her. He out-hustled her. He out-dressed her. He out-presidentialed her. He outdid her and he outbid her for votes, one promised government check at a time.
A 15-point margin in Wisconsin is incredible. Wisconsin is a lot like Ohio except for the wacko ultra-Left Madison college population, which is even worse that Columbus's Ohio State. But there are so many campuses in Ohio that will go for Obama that it is no matter. Think faculty voters, grimly determined for a left-wing takeover of America " from the bottom up" to use the former Saul Alinsky community organizer's phrase. As goes Wisconsin, so goes Ohio.
The Intrade pay-to-play prediction market shows Obama with a 7.5-point gain tonight, giving him a 78 to 20 lead. That's right, 78 to 20. Hillary has suddenly become an incredibly steep inverted yield curve, with a rapidly declining credit rating and a complete drying up of liquidity. She won't be able to raise two wooden nickels, and not even Bill can raise enough money in Dubai to keep her out of bankruptcy.
As of tonight, the market has officially pulled the plug, terminating her campaign. The only thing left for her is to muster some grace, humility and character to begin the process of pulling out. To do otherwise will destroy the Democratic party and what's left of the Clintons' badly tarred and tattered reputation.
Stick a fork in Billary…. they are done.  And with it goes the last chance the Baby Boomers have of screwing up America from the Oval Office! Obama or McCain might still screw up royally, but we have successfully gotten past the "power years" of the Boomers.
Let us all sing Hallelujah and raise our arms to the Heavens. God has answered our prayers.
McCain vs. Obama — The Wives Go At It!
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 6:10 pm - February 19, 2008.
Now this is a political diva match-up that would make any gay man drool: Michelle Obama vs. Cindy McCain.
UPDATE (from Dan): Remember, Bruce, a vote for John McCain is a vote to make Cindy First Lady and to keep Michelle (& Bill) as a Senate wife.
Posted by Average Gay Joe at 8:40 am - February 19, 2008.
Posted by Bruce Carroll at 7:37 pm - February 18, 2008.
I'm sure many of you recall these words from the United States President when it was clear Saddam Hussein was a threat…..
Saddam Hussein's Iraq reminds us of what we learned in the 20th century and warns us of what we must know about the 21st. In this century, we learned through harsh experience that the only answer to aggression and illegal behavior is firmness, determination, and when necessary action.
Sorry about that folks, those words highlighted above were spoken by President William Jefferson Clinton on February 17, 1998 — 10 years ago.  Clinton now claims he never supported the war of liberation in Iraq.  Just a qualifier — Clinton never supported liberation when it wasn't HIS idea.
Just a history lesson for y'all today.


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import java.io.File;

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text:
CommunityEconomic Development
"Keep Walking"…Zimbabwe
Editor — March 6, 2012
From : Zimpapers.co.zw
By : Augustine Moyo
PLANS by Pan African Trade to set up a multi-million-dollar distillery in the country are on course.
Pan African Trade is a locally owned Zimbabwe company that has exclusive rights to distribute Radico Khaitan products in Zimbabwe and six other Southern African countries.
If completed, the distillery will be a direct competitor to locally listed African Distillers (Afdis).
Mr Sanil Pandey, director of Pan African Trade, said plans to set up a distillery in Zimbabwe at a cost of US$50 million are on course and will commence in 2012. He added that this development follows the granting of exclusive rights by Indian distillery giant Radico Khaitan to his organisation.
Radico Khaitan is an Indian company that is quoted on both the Mumbai and the National Stock Exchanges.
"The distributorship is our first step to introducing the premium brands, not only to the Zimbabwe market but Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and Mozambique.
"We want to add value to the Zimbabwean economy by setting up a distillery for the manufacture of the same brands we are exclusively distributing," he said.
Radico Khaitan is considered one of the largest liquor manufacturers in the world and has a 50-50 joint venture with London Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange-listed Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks company with iconic brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Guinness in its portfolio.
"We are successfully distributing Radico's flagship brand 8PM Whiskey, Contessa Superior Whiskey, Crown Whiskey, Whytehall Whiskey, Old Admiral Brandy and Magic Moments vodkas now in Zimbabwe and beyond.
"Zimbabwe is the distribution hub for other Southern African markets namely — Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and Mozambique. We are going beyond just distribution and once we set up a distillery for these products, Zimbabwe will transform into, not only a distribution hub, but also both manufacturing and distribution hub and in the process creating employment.
"Radico Khaitan has three millionaire brands in its portfolio and has more than 75 years in the liquor business. In Zimbabwe, as distributors we have a deal with some Spar retail outlets to retail them locally as part of our distribution channel," explained Mr Pandey.
Experts opine that the spirits market is in a transitional phase, with many emerging trends that are reshaping the global spirits market landscape and forcing producers to constantly change and tailor their strategies on various geographic, demographic and cultural lines.
They contend that the growing strength of supermarkets is helping retailers to establish themselves as the major channel of distribution for alcoholic beverages as well as spirits.
Research reveals that Africa remains the smallest market for spirits and is dominated by South Africa since consumption in some countries on the continent suffers from low levels of income and poor distribution systems.
Mr Pandey added that they have put on the market a 50-millilitre sachet of Radico Khaitan's premium 8PM Whisky to enable those with low levels of income to afford it.
Launched in 1999, the 8PM Whisky created a record among Indian and foreign brands by selling one million cases in the first year it went on that market.
He added that Zimbabwe has a huge untapped market for the giant Indian liquor manufacturer's products, and is confident that with the positive developments in the economy, their investment in the multi-million-dollar distillery plant will yield the desired results.
India has been consolidating its position as the world's number one whiskey market since 2003.
Meanwhile, New Ziana reports that Indian Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Mr Anand Sharma will this month visit Zimbabwe as the two countries continue to deepen trade relations. The visit by Sharma comes barely a month after another senior Minister from Delhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, was in the country on a mission to explore new investment opportunities between the two countries.
The trip also coincides with the decision by the Zimbabwean Parliament to approve ratification of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed with India in 1999.
Indian Embassy first secretary Mr Mukesh Kumar said the visit by Mr Sharma demonstrated the interest that the Asian economic powerhouse had to invest in Zimbabwe.
"Our Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Mr Anand Sharma, will be coming to Harare on October 19. This comes after the successful visit by an Indian delegation that came to Zimbabwe in September led by Minister Scindia," he said.
Mr Kumar said the decision by Zimbabwe to ratify the outstanding BIPPA with India would pave way for jolting trade volumes between the two partners.
Currently, annual trade volume between the two countries is estimated at US$40 million. Mr Kumar said Sharma, who would be leading a delegation of industrialists, would be in Harare to scout for new investment opportunities.
He said economic relations between New Delhi and Harare were of mutual benefit to both countries.
"The visit demonstrates growing confidence among Indian business people to invest in Zimbabwe. These investors are willing to complement efforts by the Government of Zimbabwe to revitalise the economy," said Mr Kumar.
Once Zimbabwe ratifies the BIPPA with India, the Southern African country would be eligible to access a US$5 billion loan facility that Delhi has extended to the continent.
As Indian investors continue to show great interest in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular, Essar group from Delhi will invest over US$4 billion to restore defunct Ziscosteel, now New Zimbabwe Steel.
The BRICS member state has also invested over US$5 million to set up small to medium enterprises (SMEs) training centres countrywide.-The Sunday Mail
Tags: Johnny WalkerPan African TradeRadico Khaitanzimbabwe
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