Word: activists
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Churches, academic institutions, unions and nonprofits have jumped into reality tourism in part to raise money and in part to spread an activist message. The tours are proving attractive to ordinary Americans seeking to put a human face on the headlines. Two years ago, Howard Lipoff, 37, a New Jersey teacher, went to the Palestinian territories with Global Exchange and met with both Israeli settlers and a spokesman from Hamas, the radical Islamic group. This year he signed up to meet the Zapatistas. "We find out how they live their lives," he says. "It's history in the making...
...What happened to Bruno Manser? The body of the Swiss adventurer-turned-activist, who would now be 46, has never been found, despite numerous searches by his Penan and European friends. Nor has any trace been found of his 30-kg rucksack. When he vanished, some suspected foul play: Manser had fallen on the wrong side of the logging interests in Borneo?who can be ruthless. There was talk of a bounty on his head and suspiciously heavy movements of police and loggers in the area at the time of his disappearance. Malaysia's politicians were fed up with...
...More optimistic friends hoped that Manser was performing one more stunt?that somewhere, somehow, the short, wiry activist, hardened by years of living in extreme conditions, was alive and reveling in the swirl of mystery surrounding his disappearance. Manser was, after all, a man who would do almost anything to get publicity for his cause. In 1996, he slid almost 3 km down a half-frozen funicular railway cable in Switzerland; three years later, he buzzed the capital of Malaysia's Sarawak province in a motorized hang glider. According to Roger Graf, who joined Manser in the mid-1980s...
...fact, Along probably doesn't hold any rights to the land of his ancestors. In Malaysia, says lawyer and activist Harrison Ngau, control of land rights lies almost entirely with the state governments. In Along's case, a large swath of the land surrounding Batu Lawi was gazetted in 1997 as "protected forest," a misnomer for land that can be assigned for logging whenever the government so decides. Logging generated almost $1 billion in revenue last year in a state with only 2 million inhabitants. With such huge sums at stake, bitter disputes?and occasional bloodshed?are inevitable...
...Castro does attend, Elian's presence would also expand his ability to embarrass President Bush, who owes a substantial political debt to Florida's anti-Castro activist community. The President will have a hard enough time dodging a potentially uncomfortable encounter with the Cuban leader, who managed to buttonhole President Clinton at a U.N. event last Fall. But Elian's presence would intensify the media focus on the event, making attendance more even more uncomfortable for President Bush with some of his core constituencies. On the other hand, allowing a Cuban propaganda stunt to keep him away from a conference...