From a preferred destination to a most-avoided holiday spot – the downslide in the Indo-Australian tourism sector has come rather fast in the wake of the alleged racist attacks on Indians there. Indian tourists are cancelling plans to travel Down Under after watching the plight of Indian students there.

“We’ve just stopped selling Australia as a destination to our clients. We are instead asking them to go to Singapore etc,” says chairman of STIC travels, Subhash Goyal.

In March 2009 alone, as many as 30, 500 Indians had travelled to Austarlia. But that has changed now.

“We used to send at least 200 tourists to Australia in one month. It’s now come down to 40 or so. People are very worried about their safety and security. If it doesn’t stop, it will affect long term plans,” says another travel agent Inderpreet Singh Sodhi.

And while and even Tourism Minister Kumar Selja has cancelled her trip to the Oz land, the Indian Tourism Ministry is trying hard to play down the panic.

“We are saying go to Australia. These are isolated incidents. After all how did we project ourselves after 26/11? Things are fine,” says Tourism Secretary, Sujit Banerjee.

After all, Australians have been among the top five foreign tourists coming in to India.

An airport in England has started charging airline passengers to “kiss and drop” zone outside its main terminal.

All drivers, including taxis, will have to fork out STG1 ($A2.07) for spending up to 10 minutes in the drop-off zone at Luton Airport, north of London. It’s the first of it’s kind in England, but isn’t likely to be the last. This comes after the airport recently introduced other charges, ranging from baggage trollies to the ability to jump security queues and needing plastic bags for your liquids in your carry ons.

As you can imagine, these new fees haven’t been all that popular, but the airport has defended the fees as something it needs to do to keep the airport running smoothly and within its budget constraints. Not everyone needs to pay these fees though. While the charge to “kiss and drop” isn’t excessive, it can be avoided altogether – the free carpark is only a two minute bus ride away. With that in mind, is this fee really a money making scheme, or just another luxury that a passenger can pay for?

After all, we don’t all need to fly first class. Do we?

My long haitus on the site has been the result of a 2 week holiday back to the States. Back to visit family, to visit my 2 week old neice, and to further plan for my upcoming wedding in September. It was a good trip; no a great trip, but it was a whirlwind of a trip nonetheless. Two weeks of nonstop activities has me longing for a holiday from my holiday. It’s good to be home though. It’s very good to be home. While I miss my friends and family, and always will, I’ve realised that Australia fits me. It’s a really good fit actually. Fifteen minutes into my drive from the Los Angeles airport, I remembered why I was always frustrated on Southern California highways. Fifteen minutes into a shopping experience at a local mall in San Diego, I remembered why an economy of scale has its positives and negatives. Fifteen minutes after I left, I remembered that I’m 7,000 miles away from my closest friends and family.

Living overseas has always been an adventure, but after returning home for the first time since leaving 18 months ago, I’ve been able to refresh my thoughts and truly understand and remember why I was so excited and jazzed about moving to another country. More specifically, Australia.

The majority of my trip was spent in San Diego, however between my partner and I, we had trips to Los Angeles (Disneyland), San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Each of these locales, although all quite different from each other, had traits that very similiar; traits that I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed had I not been out of the country for the past 18 months.

1.) Excess - That’s right, excess. America is all about excess. I love food, a lot, but I found myself rarely being able to finish the meal that was given to me. The portions were absolutely huge. People say that I’ve lost weight since moving to Australia. I was never THAT big to begin with, but I suppose I can see why. Unlimited refills on drinks (not a common occurance in Australia), towering mountains of french fries and more salad dressing that I know what to do with sat before me at almost every meal I had. I must say though, the unlimited refills on coffee struck a very pleasing chord.
Especially in Las Vegas, where excess is the norm, everything (and I mean everything/everyone) was in excess. Drinking, gambling, food ($9 Prime Ribs) were abundant. You couldn’t help but be surrounding by an uneccesarily large amount of everything, everywhere you went.

2.) Traffic - Traffic, and the way people drive. Large suburbans driven by soccer moms who, according to them, are the single most important person on the freeway, made only worse by the fact that they’re tailgating you in the slow lane because your 75mph just isn’t fast enough for them. Perhaps I’m stereotyping, perhaps not. Either way, drivers in Souther California as a whole, don’t use their blinkers, don’t let you in when merging, don’t understand where the fast lane is, and seem to think that driving 90mph while talking on their cellphone, weaving in and out of traffic in their SUV to get to their destination 2 minutes earlier, is the most important issue of the day.

3.) Outlook - This may seem a bit weird, but American’s need to lighten up, myself included. Things are too serious. Watching newcasters on TV, seeing people interact in a business environment, daily life seems to be a bit to rigid. Now I’m not saying that Americans don’t know how to have a good time, but c’mon, life is funny. Laugh at yourself, slow down, smell the roses. It’s not all about rushing from one place to another and checking things off your list. I know everyone has that kind of day every once in awhile, but have a chat with the barista at the coffee shop, talk to your coworkers, understand what’s going on around you. People tend to shut themselves off in Southern California. Windows on their cars are up with the A/C full blast, people walking around with iPods on, they order their coffee whilst on the phone, barely giving the person working the time of day; this is the kind of stuff that is a stark difference for me, between Australia and America.

While life would be different in any country, and each have their positives and negatives, this past trip has shown me that my decision to live in Australia was a good one. It’s one that has more positives than negatives associated with it, and although it has put me 7000 miles away from a great number of people that are important to me, I know that the ones that are truly great friends and great family members we’ll see on a pretty regular basis. To be honest, between Skype, Vonage VOIP, and email, I talk to my parents on almost a daily basis, and my closest friends almost every other day. The world is getting smaller. Maybe that’s a good thing? Fifteen years ago, Australia would have felt a lot further away, more isolated.

Either way, I love it here.

Clean up after yourself. In fact, why not clean up after everyone else also? It’s a sad fact that people have no respect for the environment in which they live, but alas, some people just don’t care.

Today is Clean up Australia Day. In 1989 an ‘average Australian bloke’ had a simple idea to make a difference in his own backyard – Sydney Harbour. This simple idea has turned into an annual tradition in which ‘average Australians’ clean up their beautiful country. But why must it be just one day out of the year, in which we clean up around us? Wouldn’t it just be easier to keep it clean all year round? Probably, but unfortunately most people don’t think that way.

So what can you do?

Today, all across Australia, thousands of people are volunteering their time to clean up the land around them, but it doesn’t stop there. You can become involved in organisations that continue to do this year round and help keep this country beautiful. “Living Green” is a lifestyle that is becoming more and more common within Australia, as many Aussies realise that our carbon footprint continues to grow and continues to impact the world around us. Many have become actively involved in organisations, while others simply become more conscious of things like the amount of water we use, the amount of electricity we use, or what is thrown away or recycled. Even the smallest, environmental decision will help Australia become more environmentally friendly.

After all, it started with an ‘average Australian bloke’, Ian Kiernan. Once setting up the “Clean up Australia” campaign, he approached the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), with an idea to take his Clean Up concept global. Clean Up the World is an international campaign that encourages communities to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment through the Clean Up the World Membership program.

Who says one man can’t make a difference? So get out and do your part. Australia appreciates it.

SFGate.com profiled a few women who have immigrated from India to America recently, and found out how life in a country has been for them, at home, while their husbands are off working.

Reema Shahani, 26, who holds a master’s degree in human rights, fills her day looking for recipes online.

Varkha Chellani, 37, a former credit analyst, keeps herself busy taking care of two children.

And former computer programmer Gomathy Kannan, 25, is taking dancing classes and writing a blog.

Shahani, Chellani and Kannan are among the thousands of women who came to the United States on the coattails of their husbands’ H-1B visas, granted to highly skilled professionals to fill jobs at the software companies and technology labs of Silicon Valley. But under the conditions of their H-4 dependent visas, spouses are not allowed to work here. Often highly educated and skilled, they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of social and financial dependency on their husbands, while struggling to adjust to life in a new country.

The State Department issued more than 135,000 H-1B visas in 2006, together with about 74,000 H-4 visas for their spouses. A lot of the H-1B visas go to workers in Silicon Valley: The area’s companies employ about 35,000 H-1B holders, estimates the Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Association. And the majority are workers from Asia, according to the Department of Homeland Security – nearly 45 percent of all H-1B petitions approved in fiscal year 2005 were for workers born in India.

In Silicon Valley, many of the Indian women’s stories are similar. Most were born into higher castes in India, graduated with college degrees in computer science or business, worked in fast-paced companies, had a support network of friends and family. Moving to the United States seemed like a great opportunity, but all too often there was little discussion about the terms of their immigration status. Now, while their husbands are climbing the career ladder, they stay at home alone, isolated.

“There is a high level of depression in that community because those women are not integrating into society by working, and it prolongs the homesickness,” said immigration lawyer Shivali Shah, who did a survey of 100 H-4 holders. “They usually arrive during their prime working years, and it is very demoralizing for them.”

Killing time

Reema Shahani swapped the turmoil of city life in Delhi for a quiet suburban apartment in Santa Clara.

While her husband has a thriving career in a giant high-tech company, Shahani spends her days browsing the Internet and watching the Food Network. When she arrived in 2006, she did not have a driver’s license and her world was reduced to the size of a two-bedroom apartment.

“It is really sad. You sit alone the whole day and don’t do anything,” Shahani said. “I would always tell my husband, ‘Why should I be here? It’s a complete waste of my time.’ ”

After the first year, frustrated with the monotony of her new life, Shahani began volunteering at the Indian Community Center in Milpitas, where she met other women in the same situation.

Many women prefer the immigration forums and chat rooms on the Internet, where they can pour their hearts out anonymously. Malathy Jey, founder of Indusladies.com, a networking site for Indian women based in Austin, Texas, estimates that her site receives about 2 million page views a month.

Jey, 32, who worked as an IT specialist for Ford Motor Co. in Chennai, India, before moving to Austin on an H-4 visa with her husband, said she came up with the idea for the Web site during long days spent at home looking for things to do.

Indusladies.com offers relationship advice and recipes, as well as the opportunity for women to share their frustrations with the immigration process.

“I got married to an H-1B visa holder, which put me in H-4 visa status – yes, that dreaded H-4,” wrote one of the users. “Being H-4, I can’t work or earn a single dollar and all I can do is stay at home and stare at the four walls.”

While couples can apply for permanent residency, or a green card, which would allow the dependent spouse to work, the process can take years, and Indian and Chinese immigrants face annual quotas set by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I’ve gone through my ups and downs and was even regretting being here,” said Varkha Chellani, who has been waiting for seven years for a green card, while her friends achieve career success in India.
Potential benefit

Chellani, who brings her 2-year-old daughter Vidhi to weekly play dates at the community center, is interested in early childhood education and has been volunteering at the center developing classroom curriculum for the kids. She would like to go back to school, she said, but paying tuition while living on one income and supporting two kids is a challenge.

Volunteering is another common strategy for the women, who are afraid future employers are going to question gaps in their resumes, and many local nonprofit groups are taking notice, said John Power, executive director of the matching service Thevolunteercenter.net, which works with agencies in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

“They are individuals who have had a professional background and are looking for some proper ways to continue their careers,” Power said. “It’s very desirable to find people with such skills, and the potential benefit is huge.”

Some women, including Kannan, who sometimes had to stay in the office in Chennai until 3 a.m., see their H-4 status as an opportunity to take a break and do the things they never had time for, such as painting or dancing. Kannan, however, also volunteers as a computer specialist at the Indian Community Center once a week.

“It really helps me to do something useful,” Kannan said. Her husband agrees.

“He feels that I should be working with the technology. Otherwise I will be lagging behind.”
Skilled visa holders

135,000

approximate number of H-1B visas issued by the State Department in 2006

74,000

approximate number H-4 visas for spouses issued the same year

35,000

approximate number of H-1B workers in Silicon Valley area companies

For the record, I live in Australia now, but the experiences I’ve had here, as well as the experiences I had in Spain, have given me a unique view on life in America, and I must say, there’s a lot that is taken for granted.

It’s Monday even, around 9pm, and you’ve got a craving for the new Snow Patrol CD. So where are you going to find it? Really just about anywhere. The American retail market is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, either here in Australia, over in Europe, or other international destinations I’ve had the pleasure to travel to. North America, as a whole, is considered to be extremely convienent, almost too much so. Here in Australia, the shops close around 5pm or so, each day except for “late night shopping” nights on Thursdays. Is this convienent? Sure it’s not, but at what point must we throw convenience aside for the things in life that truly matter. I worked in the retail sector in America for years, and on numerous instances, it’d keep me from having dinner with the family, hanging out with my friends, and even occasionally missing important holiday events. Why? For the convenience of the shoppers.

Unfortunately, it looks as if the rest of the world may start to follow this trend. The retail sector, in countries around the world, is growing at an unbelievable rate. Will other countries follow the lead of the American retail sector and keep their doors open at all hours of the day? Perhaps. Is it worth it? Maybe, but it really doesn’t matter. The retail sector as a whole is the 2nd largest employer in the country. Whether or not we should have the accessibility to products we don’t even need, the retail market plays a big part in keeping the economy afloat. Many of the employed individuals in the retail sector are younger, and often pump their hard earned money right back into the market. I don’t think the 9a-9p hours are going anywhere anytime soon, and it might just get worse from here. A economic slowdown won’t help, in fact it may just make retailers go to extremes and milk the market for all it’s worth.

So treasure those family dinners, and appreciate the time spent with your friends, because despite how few and far between those are now, they may soon disappear completely.

I recently came across a discussion that sparked my interest.

Do we, as a culture believe that being intelligent is a virtue? Do we think smart people are “stuck up”? Do we value educational achievement as a society or only in individual families? I’ve had people tell me that they never watch the news, read a paper or check out a news site on the internet. Do adults in our society value learning new things or is it viewed as acting “intellectually superior” to do that?

I was never the “smartest kid” in the class growing up, but often times felt there were some kids that just didn’t care about their education, and it was evident that their parents didn’t either. These kids often ridiculed the kids that took their education seriously, and would make it known that they “looked down” on them. This behavior, as I look back on it, was prevalent from middle school through college. It seems to me that this behavior isn’t necessarily a “one off” thing, but something that is in fact inherent in American society.

Could this be a worldwide epidemic, or a trait found only in America?