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Implementing disability-inclusive development in the Pacific and Asia:
Reviewing progress, planning the future

 

An international conference and action planning roundtable

15-17 September 2010

Darwin Convention Centre, Australia

 

FIRST NOTICE

 

Participate in reviews and discussion about practical actions being taken in the Pacific and Asia to ensure that local, national and international development includes people with disability. Review progress with the Australian Government's disability strategy "Development for All", and network with individuals, community groups, local, national and international organizations and government representatives involved in disability-inclusive development. You will be encouraged to contribute your experience and learn from that of others.

 

The two-day conference and one-day action-based roundtable seek practical ways for people with disabilities in the Asia Pacific region and Australian Aboriginal communities to best fulfil their human rights.

 

Join people with disability, disability practitioners, development workers, representatives of disabled people's organizations, community leaders, policy makers, politicians, aid donors, development contractors, academics, government and non government organisations from the Pacific, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Europe in an informed discussion of improving inclusion for persons with disability. The conference will be structured around presentation of papers, discussion, short case studies, workshop sessions on key themes and an opportunity to participate in a one-day roundtable.    

 

THE PROGRAM

The conference will explore: 

·         Progress in implementing disability-inclusive programs, with practical experience from the region   - capacity building, vocational training, community involvement, education, health, livelihoods, gender.

·         Best practice in implementing disability-inclusive development - how DPOs and people with disabilities are working to improve inclusion and equity.

·         Experience in addressing disability in Australian indigenous communities.

·         The economic impact of disability inclusive development.

·         Disability research needs.

·         The impact of policies, legislation and international conventions on action.

 

The roundtable will allow in-depth discussion on:

·         Key experiences in implementing disability-inclusive development.

·         Developing effective partnerships and networks.

·         Expanding partnerships for research, advocacy, service delivery and capacity building.

·         Measuring success and sharing information.

·         Planning for the future.

 

THE SPEAKERS

The conference, workshops and roundtable will include international, regional, national and community-based speakers and discussants.  They will provide a wide range of hands on experience in implementing disability-inclusive development.

 

 

 

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Discuss, network, build capacity, learn, contribute, meet old friends and make new ones in Darwin, September 15-17, 2010.

 

Please email your interest in attending and any special needs you may have.  We will notify you as soon as registration is available.

 

Christine Walton,  ADDC, 

cwalton@cbm.org.au

Dr Pamela Thomas, Australian National University, Pamela.thomas@anu.edu.au

 

REGISTRATION FEES

Registration fees are:

Two-day conference

Government/Institutions/Companies              $660 per person

Individuals and members of NGOs                $550 per person

People with disabilities and students               $330 per person

Roundtable (optional)

All participants                                                 $165 per person

Conference Dinner with Ted Egan

 (Darwin Sailing Club)                                     $  75 (optional)

 

Inclusions: Registration fees include morning and afternoon teas, lunch, welcome reception and drinks at Parliament House, Darwin (14^th), cocktails and tour of Crocosaurus Cove (15^th); farewell drinks (16^th); cocktails after Roundtable (17^th).

 

Accommodation: Special accommodation rates are currently being negotiated.  There are excellent hotels with fully disability-accessible rooms.

Collaboration: The conference is organized by the ADDC and ANU in close collaboration with ACFID, NDS and the Darwin-based organisations Integrated Disability Action and Sommerville Community Services Inc.

 

 

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The PBS NewsHour story will not be Whirlwind's first media coverage of wheelchairs for Haiti. Ralf made an apparence on the local CBS 5 news last week. To see the news segment click here. Marc, our Executive Director, also taped a short radio segment for KCBS. To listen click here.

 Language learning opportunity from iberlengua.com:

The project consists of Summer Spanish Courses in Madrid fully accessible in addition to classes organized with many interesting cultural activities so that students can learn more about Spanish culture.  We may consider it as Cultural Tourism learning Spanish with all the facilities. Our organization has extensive experience in students with disabilities. We are members of the ENAT and we collaborate with Mobility International USA.

The courses are taught in a University Residence fully accessible and in which students with disabilities live. Teachers are trained to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

We have organized programs of 15 days and of one month and we have designed them in a way in which the price includes lessons, all activities, residence and meals. In our opinion the prices are very attractive due to what they include.

You can find more information www.iberlengua.com or info@iberlengua.com.
General Manager

 

Whether or not people with disabilities or subgroups with specific disabilities constitute a culture or cultures is a controverted topic.

Assuming that they do the following announcement excerpted from Imtiaz Muqbil's newsletter Travel Impact Newswire has relevance to Inclusive Tourism as contributing to rapprochement of cultures.

A question then becomes, as the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) already asks, "How can Inclusive Tourism contribute to rapprochement of cultures?"

1. UNESCO To Launch 2010 Year For Rapprochement Of Cultures

Feb 4 2010 -- The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set up an expert group to find ways to increase tolerance around the world, as part of her commitment to promoting a "new humanism" to pursue a rapprochement of cultures. The world, said Director-General Irina Bokova, is marked by a growing interdependence, but mistrust has also arisen in recent years.

"I am convinced that UNESCO has all the strengths needed to provide a humanist response to globalization and crisis," she said. "In response to the sense of vulnerability which permeates all levels, there is indeed a need to invent new forms of action to safeguard social cohesion and preserve peace."

The new panel will meet for the first time on 18 February in Paris. The gathering will also mark the launch of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures 2010, which will kick off with a round-table discussion on the theme, "The Dialogue of Cultures: New Avenues for Peace."

"The objective of this International Year is to help dissipate any confusion stemming from ignorance, prejudice and exclusion that create tension, insecurity, violence and conflict," Ms. Bokova emphasized. The task, she said, will be to promote mutual knowledge and to generate respect for other cultures. "Exchange and dialogue between cultures are the best tools for building peace," the UNESCO chief said.

"Four main strategic lines of action for the Year have been devised. They involve:

• promoting reciprocal knowledge of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity
• strengthening quality education and intercultural competences
• fostering dialogue for sustainable development

The goal is to make the rapprochement of cultures the hallmark of all policy-making at local, national, regional and international levels, involving the greatest number of relevant stakeholders.

Entrusted with the mandate to contribute to build "the defences of peace in the minds of men" through education, sciences, culture and communication, UNESCO is designated to play a leading role for the celebration of the Year. In her message, Ms Bokova said, "We are living in a world that is increasingly marked by a growing interdependence in all areas of human activity. The resultant cross-fertilization of our societies offers new opportunities to strengthen the ties between peoples, nations and cultures at the global level. At the same time, with globalization, incomprehension and mistrust have increased in the last few years. The economic, environmental and ethical crisis has further increased this sense of insecurity and mistrust."

She added, "In the light of these developments, I have proposed a new universal vision, open to the entire human community, which I have called the "new humanism". I am convinced that UNESCO has all the strengths needed to provide a humanist response to globalization and crisis. In response to the sense of vulnerability which permeates all levels, there is indeed a need to invent new forms of action to safeguard social cohesion and preserve peace."

Ms Bokova said, "Cultures encompass not only art and literature, but also lifestyles, value systems, traditions and beliefs. In this globalizing world, marked by increasingly rapid exchanges and greater complexity, the protection and promotion of this rich diversity present numerous challenges. True, culture is not included among the Millennium Development Goals in its own right, which I regret. But the links between culture and development are so strong that development cannot dispense with culture. I firmly intend to show, through new initiatives, that these links cannot be separated."

"The task will be, in campaigning for dialogue and mutual knowledge, to foster respect for each other's culture and break down the barriers between different cultures. Exchange and dialogue between cultures are the best tools for building peace. Given the new challenges of an increasingly interconnected world, our shared task is to build solid bridges, based on solidarity between all cultures so as to create a new universal ethics of living together.

Ms Bokova called on all UNESCO's partners to mobilize with the purpose of reaching these objectives: the National Commissions for UNESCO, agencies of the UN system, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, Goodwill Ambassadors and Artists for Peace, UNESCO Chairs and Associated Schools, Clubs and Centres, parliamentarians, locally elected officials, the world of culture, the sciences, education and the media, opinion leaders, youth organizations, and civil society as a whole, including the private sector.

For more information:

** An open-ended List of activities to be carried out throughout the year

Full details including background, objectives of the International Year of Rapprochment.

In 2011 a conference on Inclusive Tourism is planned for Brazil. Public announcement will not be until after the March 1-3, 2010 GPDD regional seminar on Inclusive Tourism in southern Africa. In the meantime awareness of Brazil's leadership in adapted adventure sports continues to trickle through the Portuguese/English language barrier.

While Eduardo Camara's excellent multi-author blog :Mao na Roda (Hand on the Wheel) is in Portuguese his recent post of videos on adventure sports breaks the language barrier and continues to open the eyes of traveler and travel supplier alike.

See the post SBT Repórter - Turismo de aventura

 

INVTUR 2010 - Tourism Research: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

University of Aveiro | 10^th to 13^th March 2010    

 

The International Conference INVTUR 2010 - Tourism Research: State of the Art and Future Perspectives is fast approaching. This will be the largest tourism-related scientific conference ever held in Portugal. The conference offers you the possibility to choose from 170 communications, distributed in 35 thematic parallel sessions, and 27 posters, being involved more than 350 authors that come from 25 countries, which will bring us a great diversity of cultures and experiences. All the works will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Tourism and Development, divided in 3 volumes.

 

INVTUR 2010 will host keynote presentations of some of the most important figures of world tourism academy: Professors Chris Cooper, John Tribe, Dimitrios Buhalis, Geoffrey Wall, Alan Fyall, Jafar Jafari , Lionello Punzo e Alfonso Vargas-Sanchez.

 

You will also be able to visit BiT - Forum for Tourism Innovation. This event will set as a priviledged space for the presentation of public and private organisations that represent successful and innovative cases and best practices developed on tourism projects, business models, and planning and management.

 

Check conference full program in attachment (also available on INVTUR website on http://www.ua.pt/event/invtur2010/ReadObject.aspx?obj=13183).

 

Register for INVTUR 2010: http://www2.adm.ua.pt/sre/gesconf/registration.asp?lang=EN

 

 For further information see official website: http://www.ua.pt/event/invtur2010

 

Follow us on Facebook:

INVTUR 2010 Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=141559402208

INVTUR 2010 Conference: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97721381733

And on Twitter: http://twitter.com/INVTUR2010

From March 1-3, 2010 I will contribute to a regional seminar on development, disability, and tourism in Maputo, Mozambique. It takes as a starting point the vision of the Ministry of Tourism (MiTur) of Mozambique is:

To position Mozambique as one of the premier destinations in Africa through emphasis on quality coastal resort development linked to a diversity of flora and fauna, eco-tourism opportunities, adventure and culture experiences.

Its constituent concepts can be looked at sequentially from a disability perspective:

Quality

Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development take a fundamental stance regarding what constitutes quality. That stance is right in the name - Inclusion. These approaches to tourism are inseparable from the seven goals and seven principles of Universal Design. Universal Design is a human-centered design process that involves user-engagement at all stages. Quality of the tourist experience is safeguarded through that continuous feedback system embedded within Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development.

 Geography

Universal Design arose from within the Disability Rights Movement, has been nurtured by disability culture(s), and expresses a consensus political position on the goal of full social participation by all persons experiencing disability. However, Universal Design evolved in a land-based environment. Application to maritime and coastal environments provided an opportunity to further focus the approach by taking into account the unique characteristics these new settings. The result has been the Waypoint-Backtrom Principles of inclusive maritime environments.

Diversity

 Tourism embraces several complementary and converging concepts offering guidance toward responsible and ethical industry and consumer practices. Geotourism is one such concept. It has been shown to be fully compatible with Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development through projects such as the Ashoka Changemaker / National Geographic Geotourism Challenge.

Adventure

 Increasingly adventure tourism has become a popular incubator of innovation regarding inclusion of people with disabilities. The therapeutic effects of adventure sports have been demonstrated by Dada Moreira of Aventura Especial resulting in extensive MinTur support in Brazil. Private enterprise such a Parque dos Sonhos in Socorro, Brazil and active promotion by the Brazilian Adventure Society make adventure sports a hallmark of the Lusophone world. The vitality of the large number of recent disabled war veterans combined with new rehabilitation technologies are another contributor to the rapid rise of adventure sport and tourism for people with disabilities.

Culture

 The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities establishes the freedom to participate in travel and tourism as a human right. Governments increasingly recognize full participation in all aspects of a nation's culture as fundamental prerogatives of citizenship. To lesser extent recognition has been achieved on the contributions provided to society by individuals with disabilities and the various cultures of disability in which they participate. The full participation of persons with disabilities and their organizations is becoming recognized as necessary to the diversity of culture.

What follows is a July 2009 presentation that includes the above statement of Mozambique's tourism priorities. It was presented by Minister Fernando Sumbana Junior.



Minister Fernando Sumbana Junior's presentation can be supplemented by the following two articles elaborating the disability-prioritizing critique presented above:

  The International Association for Universal Design will organize a conference in Hamamatsu City, Japan.

  The theme of the third conference will be "For the People and the Earth of Tomorrow - Towards a Sustainable Co-existence". The conference organizers are inviting
  educators, product planning and developers, administrators, consultants  and civic activists and students to submit research papers, as well as
  reports and editorial articles.

  More information:
  http://www.ud2010.net/index.en.html.

Let's see if we can implant Universal Design thinking into the practice of those rebuilding the poorest country in the Americas. First the immediate response needs our support:


Visit Haiti Disability Disaster Response Community

INVTUR 2010 - Investigação em Turismo: O Estado da Arte e Perspectivas de Futuro

Universidade de Aveiro | 10 a 13 de Março de 2010    

 

A Conferência INVTUR 2010 - Investigação em Turismo: O Estado da Arte e Perspectivas de Futuro, aproxima-se muito rapidamente !!! Esta vai ser  a maior conferência científica alguma vez realizada em Portugal na área do turismo. A conferência oferece-lhe a possibilidade de poder escolher entre 170 apresentações, 27 posters, envolvendo mais de 350 autores. Decorrerão 35 sessões paralelas temáticas . Os autores são oriundos de 25 países,  o que acrescentará uma riqueza e diversidade de culturas e civilizações invejáveis! Tudo será publicado num número especial da Revista de Turismo e Desenvolvimento, repartido em 3 volumes.

 

O INVTUR 2010 contará com a participação de alguns dos vultos mais importantes da academia mundial do turismo: Professores Chris Cooper, John Tribe, Dimitrios Buhalis, Geoffrey Wall, Alan Fyall, Jafar Jafari , Lionello Punzo e Alfonso Vargas-Sanchez..

 

No âmbito do INVTUR 2010, poderá ainda visitar a  BiT - Bolsa de inovação em Turismo. Este evento vai afirmar-se como um espaço privilegiado de apresentação e divulgação de empresas e organizações públicas e privadas que representam casos de sucesso, inovadores, e que se revelam como boas práticas desenvolvidas ao nível de projectos, modelos de negócio, gestão e planeamento, aplicados ao sector do turismo.

 

Consulte o programa científico da conferência em anexo (também disponível no site em http://www.ua.pt/event/invtur2010/ReadObject.aspx?obj=13183).

 

Faça já o seu registo na conferência em: http://www2.adm.ua.pt/sre/gesconf/registration.asp.

 

 Todas as informações necessárias podem ser encontradas no site oficial da Conferência em http://www.ua.pt/event/invtur2010

 

Siga-nos também no Facebook:

Grupo INVTUR 2010: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=141559402208

Conferência INVTUR 2010: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97721381733

E no Twitter: http://twitter.com/INVTUR2010

The death of my father on January 3, 2010 has slowed the publication schedule at Rolling Rains. com. Today is his funeral. I offer the following eulogy in his honor. My gratitude to all those who have supported me (even when they were not aware they were doing so) in the past year as Francis C. Rains reached 90 years old and rapidly failed.


Anyone who came here expecting only a bunch of sad people moping around needs to check the address on their invitation. You came to the wrong place. This is a celebration of a life and the promise of what comes after!

keep in mind, this memorial service is for us. Dad is already out hiking - looking for a new hunting ground I'm sure. How do I know? Because we buried him along with his boots! (which he affectionately called his "dancing slippers.")

Five minutes before he died Dad's eyes became bright as a young man's. He fixed his gaze on the distance as if he saw someone he recognized. He smiled. He closed his eyes. He took a last breath. I imagine him not slipping but striding into the next life.

After all it was only three days earlier that he sat up in bed and said urgently, "I need to put my socks on. My brother is coming to for me."

There's an Irish blessing for this occasion - if there wasn't I would have to invent a fake one. It goes:
 

"May you reach the Pearly Gates a half hour before the devil knows you left!"

I have no doubt Dad was there in record time but here's the rub. Pearly gates, a city with streets paved of gold, folks in long white robes instead of lederhosen and hikin' boots.

Hmmm, I think he'd slip out of line and head down the first trail he found outside the walls. Then he'd strike out on a hike.

Dad didn't die with his boots on but he was buried with them - and with an elk antler from his hunting buddy Jerry Gillis.

Now those who do the math will figure out that Dad didn't meet Jerry until several years after Dad last went hunting. Doesn't matter. Dad had a charm, a wit, a passion, a way with stories, and an innocence that could make him hunting buddies with someone he never spent a night in the woods with.

To spend a night - or even an afternoon - in the woods with Dad was to be close to God.

People have noticed that "guys" seem to need to be doing something else in order to bond -- tinkering in the shop, watching a ball game, chopping wood. To step onto a trail with Dad was to meet a man who would you wanted to bond with. Handsome even from his younger days, strong, confident, knowledgeable of his surroundings, and skilled in surviving in them he made you feel safe; glad to be there. And that was just the surface.

To walk more than a few paces down a trail with Dad was to watch him turn inside out. All those outward-facing traits became the core; the skeleton. Over that emerged a skin with a vulnerable attentiveness - the kind that is difficult to risk in the presence of others. In that vulnerability even God overcame His/Her usual shyness and became more than usually present. Even God couldn't resist Frank's love of creation.

Dad would fiercely enforce silence on us as we hiked.

He said it was so that the animals would come out. We rarely saw the animals we hoped for but he taught us to see whatever did reveal itself - plant, animal, mineral, weather, vista, passing hikers - all with an immediacy that was life-changing. We always saw a man who came alive in the woods. It fed us. It was the sacramental moment of Frank's spirituality.

This attentiveness had a history though. It was nicked and scarred.

Dad served his country in the US Coast Guard from before World War II until afterward. He was there when Douglas MacArthur, as he would, "got his boots wet", at Leyte Bay going ashore after the Battle of the Philippines. Dad told the story of a man standing next to him being blown to little pieces that then clung to Dad's clothing He told the story of a car backfiring years after coming home where the next thing Dad was aware of was looking up from the ground. He had flung himself there on instinct trained by five years of war from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and finally to the Bering Sea sailing with the Russian Navy.

Mom once confided in me that she had watched the best and brightest men of her generation damaged for life by war. She cited her brother shot down over Borneo and picked up by headhunters but indirectly she was trying to tell me something about Dad. Dad explained to me when I was teenager that he carried a gun in the woods to overcome his fear of guns - and probably the guilt over the men's lives he had ended with them.

Dad was a hunter but his favorite story was about the "one that got away." Once he came up on a buck deer with a trophy set of antlers. Dad brought up his gun. Sited a perfect shot. (He was a first class marksman with Boeing's Gun Club even decades after the war.) Then he looked up from the scope right at the deer and said, "Bang!" The buck sprung away. Dad went home a little closer to healing.

Dad came home to the woods. There he was transformed. Wilderness made more sense than civilization to him yet, paradoxically, he drew the deepest lessons of society from wilderness. He took on a magnitude of personal responsibility and taught a code of ownership for one's actions that shaped not only his children but a generation of young men he raised in Boy Scout Troop 290. I tell my friends that my mother taught me religion and my father taught me to pray. Those who knew him in one of his families - with Gracie, with Lois, or with Dee - know how endearing he could be. Those who also knew him as a hiking, camping, or hunting buddy got to touch his greatness.

Dad had a knack for attracting "Number Two-and-a-half Sons" like Mark Milachek and Jerry Gillis but he was also father to my ski buddies like Vern Peterson and my first best friend Pat Weible.

I can still picture Pat hanging on the gate to our back steps the day we moved into our house in West Seattle in 1959. Dad seemed to be getting a little irritated. There was this 6 year-old limpet clamped to the gate. He swung with every moving box that passed by. Knowing Dad's feeling that family means everybody pitching in he probably was wondering why Pat didn't get with the program and sign himself up for some chore like hefting boxes.

Even then I knew I had found a friend for life. As Pat pelted us with questions he erased the boundaries between his family and mine.

Last weekend I sequestered myself out at Kalaloch to gather my thoughts in a rustic environment where the excellent staff accommodated my disability with five-star quality. As I prepared for that trip I knew I could invite Pat along as the kind of friend to be both together with and alone with at the same time. Years of our families camping together, sharing holidays, fighting, and dreaming make me very grateful that Pat, Terri, and Paul Weibel were able to make it today. It feels like family.

Dad had a special fondness for my spouse Patricia. Sometimes it was embarrassing but I think he was trying to teach me from his own experience how not to let my love for her grow cold.

He never tired of telling the story about how we "fell for each other" in the front yard but I think I'd steal Patricia's thunder if I retold it now. Dad liked to tell the story about hearing us laugh together just like mom liked to tell the story about seeing Patricia take charge once when we visited before we were married. Mom knew that a son who inherited the full genetic complement of Frank's stubbornness - supplemented by a lifetime tutorial from him in how to use it to full advantage - needed a friend who was stronger than the average person. Patricia has been more supportive and forgiving of me than anyone ought to be asked to be. Thank you.

Over more than a decade Dad has loved and been loved by Dee McClellan, her children and her grandchildren. You were as close to his heart as his biological children. He kept us constantly updated on your lives. His pride in you was real. His wonder at being welcomed into your love as family was the surest sign I had that he had won his inner struggle and made a decision to continue living after mom passed away so young. Thank you for being here today and thank you for surrounding him with love all those years. It extended his life.

In his last months Dad found a new home. I knew it was a fit when Dad asked the two adult day home staff fluttering around him, "What language are you ladies speaking?"

"Russian," they said.

As quick as he could call up that deadpan look that he kept ready for such occasions he said, "Ni ponimayu!" That's Russian for, "I don't understand."

Even quicker one of the ladies quipped, "Oh, ponimayu, ponimayu. You don't fool me. You know exactly what we're saying!"

Mariya, Marika, and Chuka lost a good friend in Dad.

Dad started a new friendship just days before he died. I guess you could literally say it was a friendship made on the doorstep of heaven.

Newborn Lila Grace met Francis Clarence Rains when words were failing him but love was not. The beautiful smiles of great grandpa meeting newest great granddaughter made one of the most touching photos of Dad I have ever seen.

It is appropriate to celebrate Dad's life in the land of the Duwamish with a final potlatch. After this memorial we will distribute to the younger generation the collection of stuffed animal toy birds that grew around him because friends and family brought these memories of the outdoors to him at home.

As we turn Frank over to the Trinity and to all who have gone before us I want to say thank you to Dad and thank you to you for listening to my story.

It takes a long time to tell a man's story - more time than we have here today. However, I hope this short story was long enough to tell a man's truth.

The Second International Conference on Accessible Tourism - Tourism for All was held on November 26-27 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Topics discussed included: training and education, accessibility, standards, economic crisis, profitability and examples of good practice in the tourism industry.

The Tourist Club of Association of Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Dunav organized the conference with the support of Ministry of Economy and Regional Development.

The following presentations in PDF format from the ENAT site:

• "Accessible Ada Ciganlija: An Oasis in Belgrade".
• Mr. Ivor Ambrose, ENAT:  "Cooperation and Competitiveness in European Tourism for All"
• Prof. Jovan Popesku, Singidunum University, Belgrade: "The need for tourism workers' education and training".
• Ms. Sanja Jakovljevic, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, adviser: "Adjustment of Persons with Disabilities in Tourism".
• Mr. Srdjan Dživdžanović, generalni sekretar, Association of Travel; Agencies of Serbia: "Accessibility, Tourist Agencies' Point of View, Today and the Future".
• Svetozar Krstic, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, "Tourism for All in Europe"
•  

The true Christmas spirit was never fluffy Santa Clauses and cherubic babies smiling in pristine beds of straw.

Dorothy Day had it right when she characterized her work as "Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable." So has DREDF (Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund) for the past 30 years.

Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth!