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Community
Good ways
to spend a holiday
Football – what's ahead for the 2005 - 6 season?
Care Homes: OFT says choosing one should be easier
Texts exhibition goes online
Go batty before summer is over
**
Good ways to spend a holiday
With the holiday season in full swing, it is good to see our favourite
TV globe-trotter, Michael Palin, backing the Responsible Tourism Awards
2005. These awards, supported by The Times newspaper and the Royal
Geographical Society, give recognition to tourism organisations, large
or small, that work to benefit local people and strive to be
environmentally friendly.
Last year (the first) there were more than 700 nominations. Justin
Francis, whose on-line travel agency responsibletravel.com organises the
awards, says: “We are looking for wonderful holidays run by passionate
tourism organisations who increase the 'trickle down' of money to local
people by thinking local when buying services and produce, and
supporting local environmental projects.”
Winners will be announced in November. Meanwhile, here are a few
thoughts for responsible travellers:
Think small when booking a holiday – for example, b&b's, village houses
and locally-owned accommodation benefit local families.
Ask to see your tour operator's responsible-travel policy.
Buy local produce rather than imported goods (but not ancient artefacts,
which have probably been stolen). If bargaining, bear in mind that an
amount that is small to you could be very important to the seller.
Use water sparingly – local people may not have enough clean water.
Pack small gifts from home as gifts for your hosts (ask your tour
operator what would be of most use)
Spend time reflecting on your daily experience (to deepen your
understanding).
We might not be responsible all the time, but we all have a
responsibility. But let's not be too worthy about it – being responsible
is about getting a bit more out of your travels and putting a little bit
back. Remember the saying that man travels the world in search of what
he needs and returns home to find it!
**
Football – what's ahead for the 2005 - 6 season?
The football season is upon us again – it hardly seems to have gone
away! Is it really three months since the Premiership ended? The 2005-6
season has great potential. Nothing is certain. Can Chelsea defend their
title and move from being a good team to a great one? Can Arsenal find
the consistency to match their brilliance? Will an American owner be a
help or a hindrance to Manchester United? And can Liverpool bring their
amazing performances in the Champions League into the Premiership?
The bottom of the table was as exciting as the top last season, with
that amazing finale of four teams battling for one survival place on the
last Sunday. Remember how in the last 90 minutes first Norwich, then
Southampton, then West Brom, then Crystal Palace and finally permanently
West Brom looked like the team to survive.
Wigan Athletic look forward to their first ever Premiership season. What
an experience it will be for them and their supporters. The odds on
their survival are realistically not good. These days the promoted teams
are always the favourites for relegation.
Yet for their players just to play in the Premiership is a dream come
true.
Shola Ameobi is another whose dream came true. When he was playing for
his school team a scout from Newcastle United came to watch. The scout
signed him to the Boys' Club of which he was part. Then after a couple
of years the scout recommended him to Newcastle United, who signed him.
The dream came true in 2000-01 season when Shola made his Premiership
debut against Chelsea. Since then he has had the thrill of playing
alongside the legendary Alan Shearer, playing for England Under 21 and
scoring against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the Champions' League.
Having grown up in a Christian family, Shola gave his life to Jesus when
he was a teenager. His faith is very much part of his football:
“Especially in sport there are times when you will get down, you can't
hide from the fact that you aren't always going to be on a high when you
play football. Sometimes you will have bad games or bad patches in your
career. To have Jesus in your life is great because you can go to him
and he comforts you. I find that when I am struggling or when I am
feeling down I can always look to him and to other Christians for the
assurance that everything will be all right”.
The Bible is at the heart of his faith. “I have some dog tags with a
Bible verse in them, Philippians 4:13: 'I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me' and I try to take that into work with me.
Whenever I am going through a bad patch, that verse encourages me”.
This will be a big season for Shola. Newcastle promised much last
season, but losing in the UEFA Cup quarter-final and the FA Cup
semi-final in the same week left them empty handed. With Alan Shearer
announcing that this will be his last season and Craig Bellamy and
Patrick Kliuvert having left the club, Shola will be keen to establish
himself as the number one striker. He has the talent and the attitude to
succeed.
By Stuart Weir of Christians in Sport. Visit
www.christiansinsport.org.uk
**
Care Homes: OFT says choosing one should be easier
Choosing a care home is a major life decision and can involve a large
financial commitment. Once in a home, few older people move to another,
even if they are dissatisfied, so it is important that they are able to
make a good decision first time. But there are significant gaps in the
information provided to people at almost every stage of the process.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently issued a report on care homes.
It recommends that there should be a 'one-stop shop' for information to
help older people choose the right home. This should be supported by
better access to complaints procedures, greater price transparency and
fairer contract terms for residents.
When older people move into a home, they are often in poor physical or
mental health, and are vulnerable and distressed. Around half of those
making the move do so shortly after coming out of hospital; often the
move has to be arranged quickly. Many of these difficulties are
inevitable, but some are not. Families may find it hard to know where to
go for relevant information, hence the OFT's call for a national
'gateway' to be set up.
To feed into this, local authorities should publish directories
including details of what a local authority is obliged to provide, and a
list of care homes in the area with the services they offer, their
prices and whether additional top-up payments (above authority funding)
are needed.
The OFT also found problems with the majority of contracts that
self-funded residents have with their care homes. Two-thirds of
contracts analysed had fee-related terms that were either unfair or
unclear, and in almost half it was unclear who should pay what amount.
Care home trade associations are being encouraged to draw up model
contracts with support from the OFT.
There has been concern at the closures of many homes in recent years,
but a recent market survey showed that the rate of closures is now
falling. However, in some areas homes have closed in such numbers that
people's choice is severely limited.
**
Texts exhibition goes online
The British Library has launched an online exhibition of sacred texts
from its collection. Expressions of Faith includes prayer books, scrolls
and illuminated manuscripts from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism
and other religions. Visitors to
www.collectbritain.co.uk/galleries/faith can view the zoomable images
and read notes on the exhibits.
**
Go batty before summer is over
One evening before autumn draws in – why not go for a walk and look for
bats?
Forget Count Dracula –the amazing airborne world of bats is not at all
sinister – but something to truly marvel at.
Did you know that there are only 4,500 species of mammals in the world,
and that 1,000 of them are bats? Even here in the UK, a third of our
native mammals are bats. Yet bats are the least familiar, most
misunderstood of all our wild creatures.
While elsewhere in the world there are bats that catch fish, that eat
fruit, and yes, in Central and South America that even suck blood, all
European bats feed exclusively on a diet of insects. Here in the UK, our
most common bat, the pipistrelle, can eat up to 3,000 midges in one
evening – which should make it everybody's favourite!
Britain has 16 species of native bat, and all of them are surprisingly
small. The largest is little bigger than a child's fist when its wings
are wrapped around it. The common pipistrelle has only a 20 cm wingspan
and weighs as much as two-pence piece.
But despite their small size, our bats live for up to 30 years. They
take three years to reach maturity, have only one offspring a year, and
need a good supply of insects to raise their young.
Sadly, bats in the UK are under serious threat: the widespread use of
agricultural and horticultural insecticides has impacted on their food
supply. There has also been a dramatic loss of the kinds of habitat that
offer happy hunting grounds for bats.
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