Machete in hand, farmer Nando Santosbaros rests as rain patters on the majestic shade trees sheltering his organic coffee cherries in East Timor. Though he hasn’t heard of them, and their jazz-infused stores are a world away, global coffee chain Starbucks is one of his biggest fans as hip caffeine addicts seek out smooth, chemical-free brews. For better sales, he is grateful.
Eleven-year-old Nuno de Oliveira intently watches a late afternoon football match on a muddy, barely marked field in East Timor’s capital. One day, he hopes to don the red and yellow shirt of his fledgling nation. ”I like to watch them pass the ball around. The way they pass it, it’s cool,” says de Oliveira, who started playing when he was six and names England’s David Beckham as his idol.
A huge banner points the way to Indonesia’s latest tourist attraction: the shattered remains of the house where Azahari Husin, one of Asia’s most-wanted terrorists, spent his last hours. "From the first day until today, it’s been non-stop. And it’s been 42 days," 35-year-old Danny says as he does a brisk trade hawking T-shirts.
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/ 31 January 2005
Global tourism arrivals enjoyed a huge rebound of 10% in 2004 after prolonged stagnation, the World Tourism Organisation said in its winter barometer report released on Monday. The WTO’s chief of market intelligence, Augusto Huescar, unveiled the report at talks on the Thai island of Phuket about reviving tourism following the December 26 tsunami.