Projeto de aventura especial e adaptação de equipamentos turísticos para pessoas portadoras de deficiência estão entre as prioridades do governo.

O Ministério do Turismo (MTur) apresentou, em Maputo, capital de Moçambique, a experiência brasileira em acessibilidade para o turismo. Foi no Seminário Regional de Acessibilidade e Meio Ambiente, realizado no início deste mês com a participação de mais de 20 países de língua portuguesa. 

"O Ministério desenvolve uma série de projetos voltados para a inclusão das pessoas

 com deficiência no turismo. Já temos casos de sucesso que podemos mostrar ao mundo, como o de Aventura Especial na cidade de Socorro, em São Paulo", conta o diretor do Departamento de Estruturação e Ordenamento Turístico, Ricardo Moesch, que representou o MTur no evento. 

Socorro (SP) é um dos destinos turísticos que fazem parte do projeto 10 Destinos Referência em Segmentos Turísticos do MTur. O projeto de adaptação de meios de hospedagem, restaurantes e atrativos turísticos da cidade para pessoas com deficiência também foi apresentado na África. "Em 2009, houve um aumento de 20% nas operações de Turismo de Aventura em Socorro, com relação a 2008", afirma o diretor do Conselho de Turismo do município, José Fernandes Franco, confirmando o sucesso do projeto. A cidade chamou atenção também dos organizadores da Copa de 2014 e das Olimpíadas 2016, eventos que exigem cumprimento de normas de acessibilidade nas instalações esportivas. 

O MTur distribuiu para os participantes do evento as quatro cartilhas que compõem a coleção "Turismo Acessível". Cada volume é dedicado a um tema: "Introdução a uma Viagem de Inclusão"; "Mapeamento e Planejamento - Acessibilidade em Destinos Turísticos"; "Bem Atender no Turismo Acessível" e "Bem Atender no Turismo de Aventura Adaptada". 

Ilhéus é um excelente destino para o turismo acessível com suas paisagens belíssimas, é necessária uma adaptação para as praias com estrutura de lazer e aumento do número de leitos na rede hoteleira que hoje contamos com apenas 05 unidades e a adequação das calçadas para os cadeirantes, um forte exemplo é um acesso na Av. Lomanto Junior - Pontal que termina em um poste. A Cooperbom Turismo já tem um projeto no qual está trabalhando para o turista com deficiência e está formando parcerias. Ilhéus pode se tornar referência para este tipo de turismo a exemplo da cidade de Socorro - SP.

Fonte Cooperbom Turismo:

http://cooperbomturismo.blogspot.com/2010/03/mtur-apresenta-experiencia-de.html

By far the most flexible and accommodating venue we found in Maputo as we planned the Inclusive Tourism Seminar was Residencial Kaya Kwanga. "Kaya Kwanga" means (in Soto, I believe) "Your Home."

The homey feel was evident in the rapidly-executed modifications undertaken to accommodate 15 wheelchair-using guest from 17 countries. We left the infrastructure upgraded for accessibility in the process. For those wanting an affordable, if slightly challenging, family-oriented base to work from in Maputo Kaya Kwanga might be an option.

Other wheelchair-users stayed at Cardoso, Southern Sun, Avenida, Hotel Turismo, and the Holiday Inn with varying degress of satisfaction with their limited accessibility.

Now let me change glossaries and pull out the superlatives to describe a new hotel that we discovered while driving past - it is not even in this year's Maputo telephone directory!

Within minutes of moving into my room at Hotel Afrin there was a housekeeping team at the door to welcome me. That was followed by the head of housekeeping doing a total furniture makeover adding a lower table to the kitchen and innumerable small touches to enhance the accessibility of the environment.

And it didn't need much!

The room was huge. No carpets. Easy to open wall-sized curtains to a (inaccessible) balcony.

My home won the 2006 Universal Design Award for Silicon Valley based on a remodel of our master bathroom. I am glad I did not have to compete with this hotel's design. I would have lost!

The photos show a superbly designed wet room. The unfortunate flaw was using a Portuguese standard for door widths (70 cm) and then losing an addition 1.5 cm through moulding. Once again hoteliers, build for the clientelle who you want to attract and exceed their expectations. Never be satisfied wth mere compliance with minimum standards.

Now, as important as architecture is, as appealing as the hotels excellent art and fair food was, the coup de grace of staying at Hotel Afrin were my daily visits from the two owners Iboo and Fortunato.

It did not slip past my attention that my first encounter with Iboo was as an empty pair of black loafers outside the door to the mini-mosque across the hall from my room. When Fortunato sought me out one night to inform me that he planned to support our work he was palming his prayer beads. Successful, exceedingly sharp businessmen, these two gentle Sufis were the highlight of my perfectly comfortable stay at Hotel Afrin.

Five stars plus for design and service!

Q: "Are you American? "

A: "Yes," I reply.

Q: "You don't look American."

[Confused pause on my part - What does one say to the guy in customs who questions your nationality when he has your passport in hand and you only have your face as collateral?]

A: "Muito obigado." [Translation: "Thank you very much." Processing internally:  I consider it a sign of my success at cultural competence and appropriate behavior to not immediately be marked as American when a guest in another country - although I'm a bit surprised that I seem to be wearing my citizen-of-the-world identity so obviously once I am home.]

Q: "What's with the beard?" The officer glances at my passport.

A: "Excuse me?"

Q: "Your beard. It looks like it was cut like you are supposed to cut it. Did you convert?"

[Confused pause - Level 2]

A: [Tentatively] "No" [Light bulb goes on. Try humor.]  Oh! Asalam aleykum!"

Q: Your beard doesn't look American. Did you convert?

A: No [Practical dilemma: How do I prove that I am not Muslim? Moral dilemma: Why would I want to? Observation: Save humor for an audience that doesn't offer free tickets to Guantanamo as the consolation prize for bad improv.] "Aren't they supposed to not cut any facial hair? See I shaved my neck."

Q: "I wouldn't know."

A: "Sorry for joking. You're serious.  I forgot what your job is. No, I didn't convert."

[Having publicly professed my non-faith three times in a row I silently pray that I won't hear a cock crow and I head off to quickly find the first restaurant that serves pork - preferable Kosher - just to shake the guy in sunglasses, ear bud, and trench coat who I am sure I will see following behind me if I turn around quick enough.]

Aleykum asalam! Welcome home to America.

The clock on my laptop tells me it is 11:47 AM but I can't remember if it is set to Johannesburg, Paris, Lisbon, New York City, or somewhere that exists only in Gabriel García Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The predawn darkness and occasional wall clock here in LAX tell me that it is closer to time for bacon & eggs than bacalhau and batatas but my stomach is voting more for the latter while even Starbucks sleeps.

But this is the story of Magdala Morales and not jet lag and gastronomy.

The wait in JFK was of only a few hours  (during which I learned from the helpful young man and his mother waiting across from me that they were returning from a quick trip to Puerto Rico to try to see the family's youngest boy after the father was sentenced to life for various atrocities.) Lifelines cross that would not otherwise during travel.

Arriving here at LAX at around midnight the crew helping with the aisle chair were fairly timely and attentive or at least I made it off the plane safely and without incident before all the flight crew had holed up for the night at some hotel. (My expectations of service diminish perceptibly after more than 24 hours in transit while, unfortunately, my level of need for them increases.)

So I am all the more grateful to G2 passenger services employee Magdala Morales.

Learning that I was unable to find my cell phone she mobilized what appeared to be a battalion of co-workers. From the cavalleros holding lassos of electric cord in one hand as they ran carpet cleaners across the empty expanses of sage-gray carpeted terminal to the TSA security and unseen aides on her phone we developed a plan and eventually located the phone.

Thanks, Magdala for putting in the overtime.

 

A quick note: If you get the chance to visit Portugal and you or a member of your party have a disability I can highly recommend Accessible Portugal based on my personal experience on their tours and interviewing their staff.
Find more photos like this on Tour Watch

From here in Maputo, across the border from South Africa, it is encouraging to read the followingreport of leadership by the UNWTO. This week we are gathered to review progress toward extending the benefits of development to people with disabilities. The upcoming seminar on Inclusive Tourism will be a specific instance of a tool for development benefitting people with disabilities.

Let us hope that UNWTO will come to explicitly champion Inclusive Tourism knowing that disability is a cross-cutting issue that is both cause and effect of poverty.

From e-TurboNews:

Global challenges, such as the recent economic crisis and the climate imperatives, can only be addressed in a global cooperative manner and in fora such as the UN or the G-20," said UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai, in his opening remarks at the Tourism Ministers' Meeting (T20) "Travel and tourism: stimuli for the global economy" (February 22-24, Johannesburg).

The ministry of tourism of the Republic of South Africa, with the support of UNWTO, is hosting a Tourism Ministers' Meeting (T20) under the theme "Travel and tourism: stimuli for the global economy" from February 22-24, 2010 in Johannesburg.

Tourism ministers meeting at the UNWTO General Assembly (October 2009, Astana, Kazakhstan) expressed a strong sentiment that tourism should be further mainstreamed in global economic decision-making.

Travel and tourism can make a valuable contribution to the economic recovery and can be an important pillar of the global efforts to unlock enhanced economic growth, infrastructure development, trade promotion, poverty eradication, and particularly job creation.

The T20 is a members-driven initiative with the support of UNWTO.

Read the full speech of UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai: http://www.unwto.org/pdf/TR_T20.pdf .

Source:

http://www.eturbonews.com/14558/tourisms-contribution-global-agenda-unwto-address-t20-ministers-

Lisbon was home to Fernando Pessoa.

Wikipedia says:

Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃du pɨˈsoɐ]; b. June 13, 1888 in Lisbon, Portugal -- d. November 30, 1935 in the same city at the Hospital of São Luís) was a Portuguese poet and writer. He was also a literary critic and translator. The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda. He was bilingual in Portuguese and English, and fluent in French.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Pessoa

Pessoa illuminates the transcendent dynamic of inner processes in two of his poems that recently caught my attention. Funny, his meditation on a lake in "Contemplo o Lago Mudo" also evokes my recurring paradoxical experience with trees blowing in a wind but seen through a window emotionally stirring while physically separated.

Contemplo o lago mudo (Fernando Pessoa)

 

Contemplo o lago mudo

Que uma brisa estremece

Não sei se penso em tudo

Ou se tudo me esquece

O lago nada me diz,

Não sinto a brisa mexê-lo

Não sei se sou feliz

Nem se desejo sê-lo.

Trémulos vincos risonhos

Na água adormecida.

Por que fiz eu dos sonhos

A minha única vida?

And, a reflection on love - here romantic love. Who doesn't know the paradox of its mute revelation? Or the discomfort of simmering in the presence of its absence?

O Amor (Fernando Pessoa)

O amor, quando se revela,
Não se sabe revelar.
Sabe bem olhar p'ra ela,
Mas não lhe sabe falar.

Quem quer dizer o que sente
Não sabe o que há de dizer.
Fala: parece que mente
Cala: parece esquecer

Ah, mas se ela adivinhasse,
Se pudesse ouvir o olhar,
E se um olhar lhe bastasse
Pr'a saber que a estão a amar!

Mas quem sente muito, cala;
Quem quer dizer quanto sente
Fica sem alma nem fala,
Fica só, inteiramente!

Mas se isto puder contar-lhe
O que não lhe ouso contar,
Já não terei que falar-lhe
Porque lhe estou a falar...

St. Benedict's wisdom in cultivating tactiturnitas comes to mind. In O Amor Pessoa evokes the image of only two lovers while Benedict's Rule sets a praxis for a community seeking a  sustainable spirituality of love.

The monk Andrew Marr, OSB of St.Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan shares a reflection on the latter:

Joan Chittister shows us how words can build connections when she says that "the goal of monastic silence, and monastic speech, is respect for others. . . .

The rule [Monastic Rule of St. Benedict] does not call for absolute silence; it calls for thoughtful talk." When words are spoken between people in an environment of silence, these words are much more likely to be in tune with the Word. Words spoken outside of an environment of silence are more apt to be mere chatter...

Just as obedience must come from the heart, so silence must also come from the heart. It is very possible for there to be much noise and chattering beneath tightly closed lips. The "silent treatment" we give to people we have a grudge against is noisier than a tirade...

When we consider Mimetic Theory in relation to silence and noise, we can see readily that acquisitive mimesis is a great noise maker. The mimetic rivalry that results from acquisitive mimesis wraps us so tightly with one another that it becomes impossible to listen to that person. At the same time, we think that the desires generated by the other are our own desires, because we are no longer capable of hearing the truth of what is in ourselves...

James Alison offers us a dramatic presentation of how inner and outer noise prevented Elijah from hearing God until he was plunged "into the shamed silence of one who knows himself uncovered, and for that reason, deprived of legitimate speech" (1 Kings 18-19).

Elijah could not hear God's voice in the wind, earthquake or fire. And no wonder! Those phenomena echoed the inner noise that had filled Elijah with a sense of triumph when he defeated the prophets of Baal. Alison points out that what seemed to be a story of triumph turned out to be "the story of the un-deceiving of Elijah, . . . the story of how Elijah learnt not to identify God with all those special effects which he had known how to manipulate to such violent effect."

What Elijah heard from the "still small voice" was what Elijah could not hear when the crowd was cheering him on to his bloody victory over Baal's prophets. He had become a mimetic double of the prophets of Baal who had brought Yahweh down to Baal's level, a level of sacrificial violence.

After hearing the still small voice, Elijah went away, his zeal all but extinguished. All he did afterward was choose Elisha to be his successor, a successor who pursued his ministry with a lot more healing and a lot less violence than did his master.

Such was the result of the still small voice.

Source:
http://andrewmarr.homestead.com/files/silence.htm

This visit to Portugal is unlikely to physically take me to a place I came to appreciate while buried in the archives of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library at St. John's University one summer - the Monastery at Alcobaça. Still, this short meander along a Benedictine stream through Portuguese culture is a satisfying consolation prize.

Perhaps a potent mix of Pessoa, Benedict, and jet-lag from the flight up from Maputo will allow me at least an inclination toward taciturnitas.

Não sei se penso em tudo

Ou se tudo me esquece...

Não sei se sou feliz

Nem se desejo sê-lo.

Fala: parece que mente
Cala: parece esquecer

Several people have that I share the video of my familiarization tour to Alaska sponsored by Waypoint Yacht Charter Services in Travelogues at RollingRains.com.

Here is the famous transfer scene followed by a more placid paddle to from the glacier back to the mother ship on Glacier Bay in Alaska.

 

Try it for yourself by contacting:

Sherri Backstrom, Director
sherri@waypointcharter.com

Waypoint Yacht Charter Services
4648 Lakeway Drive Bellingham, WA 98229

Toll Free (US & Canada): (888) 491-2949
Office Phone & Fax: (360) 656-5934

Saturday July 18, 2009 will be the annual Shared Adventures "Day on the Beach." This year with Pacific Blue Inn open to offer accessible accommodation the area continues to grow in it appeal to travelers with disabilities.

Santa Cruz is less than an hour's drive from the fully accessible Monterey Bay Aquarium (where two of the SCUBA divers who do the public shows feeding fish in the two-story kelp tank are wheelchair-users.)

Santa Cruz Harbor has both a ramp and a power lift on the South Dock to take those with mobility impairments from the pier down to the floating dock and onto one of several charter vessels that, while not fully accessible, regularly making the Bay accessible to people with disabilities.

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