Subject: Re: [68ATTENDEES] Hilton Prague

From: "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:55:54 -0700

If we are going to do anything about the tobacco habbit we should treat it just the same as every other drug problem and place the blame on the producer nations. 

Sent from my GoodLink Wireless Handheld (www.good.com)

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Randall Gellens [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent:	Friday, March 23, 2007 04:40 PM Pacific Standard Time
To:	Murray S. Kucherawy; [email-masked]
Subject:	Re: [68ATTENDEES] Hilton Prague

At 8:36 AM -0700 3/23/07, Murray S. Kucherawy wrote:

>  Unlike all of the people complaining, I had a terrific visit.  The 
> conference was productive, the Hilton staff was friendly and 
> responsive, there was hot water aplenty, the food was delicious 
> (especially the giant included breakfast buffet), the concierge was 
> very helpful, the room very comfortable, and the elevators fast.  I 
> spent a good chunk of time yesterday and today walking around all 
> over Prague both in groups or alone with my camera out, both by day 
> and by night, and was not pickpocketed, harrassed or otherwise 
> bothered by anyone other than the rain today.

We're all very glad to hear this.  Many others had the same good 
experiences, but that does not mean that the unfortunate experiences 
of those who were pickpocketed are invalid.

>  I simply avoided smoky areas of the hotel;

This is much easier said than done, especially if one is here to 
participate in WGs and the plenary, since the Congress rooms (all 
three) are especially smokey.  Personally, my allergies forced me to 
retreat from both plenary sessions after about 90 minutes, and those 
who saw me know that I was really pushing my limits.  Likewise, the 
hotel's so-called non-smoking restaurant, proudly billed as such, was 
so smokey (because of people just in front of it smoking) that others 
at our working lunch saw my eyes go from normal to extremely 
bloodshot within a few minutes, as the rhinorrhea and breathing 
difficulties made productive work difficult and painful.  The 
mezzanine level rooms were much better than the Congress rooms, but 
still unpleasant.

While I am of course happy for you that you are not sensitive to 
smoke, I find it insulting that you seem to think that everyone else 
is like you; it demeans those who have physical difficulties with 
smoke.

>  I find complaints about smoking in a country where that's part of 
> the culture to be silly.

Spoken like someone who is not bothered by it.  Good for you, but 
please don't let your personal experience blind you to that of others.

>    Would we allow smoking in a non-smoking hotel back home if a 
> delegation of Czechs held a conference there?  Of course not. 
> We're guests in their culture.  "Stop smoking!  We bring a lot of 
> money here!" is a singularly western point of view and I find it a 
> little embarrassing.

Maybe so.  How about "Accept evolving cultural norms, and allow those 
who come to your country to do work (and spend money) to actually do 
that work."?

-- 
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
-------------- Randomly-selected tag: ---------------
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

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From: "Schliesser, Benson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:46:17 -0500

So, now we're talking about net neutrality? ;)

With Apologies,
-Benson

----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Li <[email-masked]>
To: Joao Damas <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>
Sent: Sat Mar 24 08:29:08 2007
Subject: Re: [68ATTENDEES] Hilton Prague

On Mar 23, 2007, at 2:28 AM, Joao Damas wrote:

> Don't worry, one day the US will evolve enough to grasp the concept  
> and it will all make sense, in the meantime, consider it to be  
> magic ;)

Since we seem to be using this list for some cross-cultural  
education....

Those of us living in the arid southwest are well-aware of water  
conservation techniques.  The solutions are slightly different, since  
the problem is slightly different.  In the US, the biggest waste of  
water is in irrigation.  For the typical suburban family, this is  
usually the sprinkler system that maintains the lawn.  Since this is  
typically automated, we rely on economic means (i.e., the water bill)  
to apportion pain commensurate to waste.  Other water conservation  
techniques that are employed are low-flow shower heads, low-flow  
toilets, regulations on when and how you may water your lawn or wash  
your car, and in extreme cases of water abuse, flow restrictors that  
basically turn the pipe coming into your house into a straw.

Regards,
Tony