The Places

Polo’s Bastards Worst Destinations of 2011

Well, 2011 was a hell of a year and a lot of countries made a play for their place in the list of the worst of 2011 with unexpected and out of character descents into dangerous territory everywhere from Greece to Norway and the UK. The Middle East saw massive changes and Mother Nature really…

The 7 Most Dangerous Countries for Bloggers

Sure, you’ve probably heard of a few big cases of bloggers being sued or held up to professional standards of journalism that they spectacularly failed to meet, but did you also know that around the world there are over 60 bloggers currently behind bars for writing a lousy blog? The sad truth is that this…

Honduras – Dulia

I heard my wife outside the clinic door asking “what happened.” Since we were accustomed to seeing any number of maladies and nasties, that question in our rural clinic didn’t necessarily mean anything significant. I walked out of our pharmacy and headed for the door. As I opened the screen that headed to the waiting…

Pakistan – Sympathy in Short Supply

The devastating earthquake in Pakistan’s northern mountains is turning into one of the toughest relief operations the world has ever known. Nearly 80,000 are thought to have died and many more are slowly succumbing to starvation, injuries and exposure to freezing temperatures and torrential rain. There has been a fair amount of idiotic political posturing…