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| World Focus Online |
| In this issue: Israel, Beyond the Headlines - A Nation Struggles for Peace A New Zealand Experience: Q&A with Tour Leaders Tom and Betty Mason Something About Italy... Golfing In Scotland: A Diary |
| Israel,
Beyond the Headlines - A Nation Struggles for Peace By George St. Angelo A couple of months ago, next to me on a Continental flight to Newark from Tel Aviv, sat a young Jewish volunteer teaching in Jerusalem at a school for young people who want to learn English. He had been at such a school for two years and was returning to New York to stay — work on a Ph.D. in English literature — and definitely planning not to return to Jerusalem. “Never?" I pressed. “Never, never," was his response. I persisted, “Why?" “I hate crisis, I hate tension." “But what about New York? I asked." “New York is different from Jerusalem. Tension yes, but tension intermittent. Israel, what is it? I'll tell you what it is. I have an Italian buddy back home whose mother is always nervous, always strained. My buddy says that Italians have a description for his mom that fits Israel too! Tensione permanente! That's Israel — night and day." Not very long ago, I ran into this tensione permanente during a visit to Israel: quadrupled sized military units heavily armed in the Old City; my hotel closing off three quarters of its rooms; Ramallah off limits to Americans (I didn't even try to go to the Gaza Strip); the glittery, brand-new casino at Jericho completely dark and locked-up; only the nuns who serve there on the Mount of Beatitudes; and first-rate multi-linguistic tour guides applying for unemployment insurance. Everywhere you turn, discouragement glares at you — almost, but not quite. The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer down in the Old City is increasing its peace efforts. The Lutheran Hospital is sending teams to Palestinian locations to provide care and medicines for people caught in Intifada II. As one of the Redeemer congregants told me, “we're here to stay and to serve. We are German/American Christians and this is where we are called to be." He's a physician whose abilities are critical right now, right where he is — and he and comparable Americans may have to come home later — but not yet and maybe not at all. They are needed. Then there are the Sisters of Zion just up the Via Dolorosa where they run a multi-activity institution, Ecce Homo, located in the area where Pilate presented Jesus to his tormentors, saying “This is the man." (Ecce Homo) The Sisters maintain a chapel commemorating this encounter, but beyond this, they manage a hostelry for pilgrims, a school for neighborhood kids, direct a children's choir, serve meals for street people, teach classes for Christian faith, and nurse the wounds and illnesses of their neighbors. “Will you be leaving this place if the crisis continues and grows?" The addressee of this question was a young sister (a young gal, I prefer to call her) from Alberta, Canada. Her answer, “We sisters read the Bible more than we read the Jerusalem Post (the English-Language daily in Israel) and we can't find anything in the scriptures that tells us to run away from danger. That just doesn't sound like Jesus — to run away, does it?" No, Sister, it sure doesn't. Up in Galilee, just outside Nazareth, there is a man who started a school for a handful of children (a kindergarten) about thirty years ago. Now the Mar Elias Educational Institutions have a student enrollment of nearly 4,000 students: kindergarten through sophomores in college level and graduate classes for public school teachers. Father Abuna Chacour, a Palestinian Melkite Priest has encountered opposition, financial strains, and political tensions — but has never lost his faith or hope. I phoned him the other day to ask how things were going. Elias answered, “like always, more work, more students, more need, more ideas, —but not more discouragement. Come on over, I've got a job for you." I responded, “Boy, Elias, Israel is still an inviting place. I can't wait to get back!" Hope shines dim, but hope still shines. SIDE BAR The following excerpt from Threats pushing travel off track in the Chicago Tribune's Business Section on October 26, 2000 is by John Schmeltzer and Lauren Comander, Tribune staff writers. Terrorist threats against U.S. citizens and facilities have prompted the State Department to warn against traveling to Israel, shuttered two embassies and chilled the outlook for business and holiday travel. Travel agents say bookings to the Middle East have collapsed since violence between Palestinians and Israelis erupted and the destroyer USS Cole was bombed while in Yemen. Many travelers are canceling scheduled trips, while others say they are still planning to proceed, but with misgivings. Seminars International, which takes special interest groups to the Middle East, postponed tours for two church groups scheduled to be in the region now. They are hoping to make the trip in May. “It was a joint decision," said travel agent Mike Huff. “We felt uncomfortable about them going, and they felt uncomfortable." College groups booked to visit Israel in January will not go on that leg of the trip, Huff said. “So far it hasn't hurt us because people have postponed or changed their itineraries," Huff said. “But if it continues for the long haul, it would hurt us. We send a lot of people to Israel." Back to top |
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New Zealand Experience: Q&A with Tom and Betty Mason By Jerri Torres  World Focus: Why do you like to travel and lead tours?
Tom & Betty Mason: I think we have travel in our blood. We find the world to be such a fascinating place historically, scenically and culturally. There is so much to see, to experience, and to absorb that we have always found travel to be an enriching experience, even when we got caught in a riot in Egypt. Travel brought us to the United States in 1971 from our homeland, Australia. Our intention was to stay four years. Now we're Americans, although we enjoy frequent trips back to Oz, as they say Down Under. We're rookies at leading tours, New Zealand in 2000 being our first. We have to thank Seminars International veteran, Jim Bidle, for prodding us in that direction. We had a ball! WF: Why did you choose to visit New Zealand? T & B: We did our own tour of the Land of the Long White Cloud in 1995, just the two of us, and we were captivated by its beauty, history, culture and the warmth of the Kiwis, as New Zealanders are called. The plan for the tour began to form when a couple in our church asked us to consider leading a tour to New Zealand. The rest is history. WF: How would you describe New Zealand to a first-time visitor? T & B: New Zealand is a land of such variety and contrast that you will never be bored: You will experience the Maori culture, Polynesian in origin and dating back 1000 years. At Waitangi the Maoris and the British made treaty in 1840. The relations between the two peoples are unique, we think, since the Maoris have always asserted, although not without difficulty, their equality with Europeans. You will enjoy the geo-thermal region around Rotorua. There are active volcanoes here, and to be able to watch the Pohutu geyser and hear the glop-glop of boiling mud pools from your hotel balcony is a real treat. On the west coast of the South Island you will have the unusual experience of driving through rain forest to reach the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. You may see a huge chunk of ice fall from the glacier's face indicating that this river of ice is moving. You will experience New Zealand as a tourist frontier inhabited by 3.3 million people and 50 million sheep. Most of the people are in the North Island, leaving most of the South Island to the sheep. You will marvel at the scenic grandeur of the South Island: the magnificent alps with their glaciers feeding lakes of blue water; beautiful Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu; rugged Milford Sound with its mile-high Mitre Peak; the fertile Canterbury Plains clothed with sheep. You may take a flight through valleys long ago carved by glaciers, or up onto the ice fields of Mount Cook, from which glaciers begin their journey. You can ride the Trans Alpine Express from Greymouth over Arthur's Pass to Christchurch, or cruise on the Bay of Islands or Milford Sound. You will enjoy the unique fauna and flora: the kiwi in a near-native habitat; the tuatara, a prehistoric throwback; whales in the southern ocean; or some of the finest fishing in the world. You will delight in a profusion of multi-colored wild flowers, acres of roses in Auckland and luxuriant botanical gardens in Christchurch. Imagine a rhododendron fifteen feet tall and covered with red blossoms! You will shop for fine woolen sweaters and carved artifacts of native wood or greenstone, all with the benefit of an excellent exchange rate. You will find New Zealand to be a land of warm and friendly people who have a fine sense of humor, of comfortable accommodations and delectable food. Expect to gain five pounds in New Zealand! WF: What did you gain by traveling to New Zealand with a group? T & B: There is great joy to be found in sharing a common experience such as our tour of New Zealand. Our group was a wonderful bunch of people. Most of them already knew one another as Muskegon is a fairly small community and many of them are members of our church. The few who began the tour as strangers were soon warmly embraced in new friendships. In fact, one of the couples has invited us all to dinner Saturday to reminisce about our experience together in New Zealand. WF: Share with our readers your most memorable experience while in New Zealand. T & B: This is an almost impossible choice since we had no disappointing experience in : New Zealand. The Maori hangi we attended at Rotorua was unique; one could almost call it a religious experience. It wasn't theater, but an exposure to genuine Maori culture. We tourists—pakeha or white folks—were strangers asking to enter a Maori village. We were solemnly challenged by fearsome Maori warriors before being welcomed in peace. After we observed demonstrations of their village life, they educated us with songs and dances, after which they served us a dinner that included many of their traditional dishes. WF: Are you planning a return trip to New Zealand in the future? If so, when? T & B: We certainly would consider leading another tour of New Zealand. It's a country people ought to experience. However, the next tour on our list may be to Australia, our own native land, perhaps in 2002. Back to top |
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| Something About Italy... By George St. Angelo My assignment is to write something about Italy. When I first received this commission, my thoughts in one shape or another said, "This will be easy." I am proud of my own Italian heritage; am always happy to enjoy pastas Italiana; am inspired by the grand edifices known as Rome's St. Peter's and Florence's Duomo; am tingled by the music of Verdi and Puccini; am made wide-eyed by the cut, the sculpture, the engineering of Michelangelo - and am sickened by the deadly buffoonery of Benito Mussolini. Almost every time I come to work by train, I see remarkable evidence of the crucial contributions of Italian Americans: I am grateful to Guglielmo Marconi for developing the "basics" of the radio my ears hear as I ride to work; am thrilled by the style and dignity of Joe DiMaggio, the Hall of Famer who helped to make the Yankees the "class" of major league baseball history; and am inspired to remember a "Little Flower" Fiorello LaGuardia who not only cleaned up the politics of the Big Apple, but who read the comics over the radio to the kids during a newspaper strike. And then I glance out the window and see that I am going through the city of Cicero, where Al Capone carried out a horrifying gangland killing, still called the Cicero Massacre. My hometown is a small city in Southern Indiana, which in my boyhood was almost 100% of Germanic heritage. My mother was of that background. It was quite a happening when she chose to marry an Italiano. We were well-regarded. My cousin, Evelina St. Angelo, a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, was greatly acclaimed when she gave a concert in our town auditorium. In our house we gave "spaghetti dinners" to which the kids, our friends, almost begged to be invited. Dad became a much-admired citizen of the community on the school board, president of the gymnasium building committee, member of the library board, and the holder of every laity office in our Methodist church. But once in a while we were jerked into isolation by being called demeaning names assigned to our Italian ethnic background. Such instances were rare, but, boy o boy, did they hurt! To anyone who has read this far, I offer an apology and an explanation. I am sorry that this bit of commentary to be on Italy turned out to be on America. The explanation for this turn-around is that this is being written on the Fourth of July weekend. And one of the most unique things about being American is that almost all of us have "old countries" with histories containing many good and some bad chapters. We are "comers from somewhere else" - and that "coming together" has worked. And, finally, let me say that that place called Italy is not only a good place to come from - it is also a good place to return to. It's not just a place of memories of golden days of yore; it is a place of wonderful days of now. Italy has the second strongest economy in Europe (gaining on Germany). Its unemployment is down. Its transportation system on land, air, and sea is booming. Its banks are firm, and its government democratic and solid. One of the places most meaningful to me is St. Peter's Piazza on Sunday at noon, when the Pope comes out on the balcony of his abode and blesses the hundreds of thousands below him in the great encompassing square. This old man, an all-star soccer player in his youth in Poland, now in the ebbing days of his papacy, blesses us all - Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Moslem, Atheist - in a way that embodies the Biblical affirmation: "The Earth is the Lord's and all they that dwell therein. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Thank God indeed for a place called Rome in a land called Italy. See - this is about Italy after all. Back to top |
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| Golfing In Scotland: A Diary By Ron Rolland Day 1: Our 1997 Scotland experience began with a direct flight from Chicago to Glasgow where a coach was waiting to transfe to the "World's Greatest Golf Resort," Gleneagles. Our afternoon was spent at the driving range or playing the "Wee Course," a pitch-and-putt course adjacent to the Hotel. That evening we enjoyed a four-course private dinner and our first taste of single malt whisky. Day 2: Our first full day in Scotland was spent playing two rounds of golf on the King's and Queen's courses. The Monarch course is the third possibility and is one of the few courses in Scotland that allow motorized carts. The soft mist that fell during one of the rounds was hardly noticed but the rainbows it produced were outstanding! Day 3: We awoke to dark clouds and rain this morning as we boarded the coach for Carnoustie, considered by many to be the most difficult championship course in Scotland. It was still raining when we arrived at the course, but by the time we teed off the sky was blue (never mind that the wind was blowing 40 miles per hour!). The scores were not great, but we can talk about our 150 yard drives into the wind and our 180 yard nine irons with the wind! On to Rufflets Hotel, a delightful Country House style Hotel where once again the food was outstanding! Day 4: Our names weren't drawn for the Old Course lottery, so we teed off today on the New Course (over 100 years old). Once again we had several seasons of weather during the round including sunshine, rain, and wind. You truly can experience all four seasons in a day in this country! Day 5: Part of the group took the day off today to tour Edinburgh Castle and Hollyrood Palace. The rest of us played golf at Crail, a sporty seaside course. The weather could not have been nicer and this continued for the rest of the tour. After golf and touring, we took the coach to the west coast of Scotland and checked in at the Piersland hotel in the city of Troon. Day 6: After a warm-up round on the Portland course at Troon and lunch in the Clubhouse, we were ready to tackle the Championship course. The postage stamp hole (par 3, number 8) lived up to its reputation and several of us were able to score 8's and 10's just like the pros. Day 7: Our final round was played at Western Gailes. This course is not as well-known as the others, but it is an excellent links course that reminded some of us of Spanish Bay. This evening we re-lived our golf rounds (scoring much better) over our farewell dinner and a final glass of single malt. Day 8: We were able to catch up on our sleep on the flight back to the states. Highlights: The hotels, the food, the relaxing dinners and discussion, the fellow golfers, the scenery, the caddies, the opportunity to play on some of the most famous golf courses in the world. I can't wait to go back! Back to top |
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