CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

1831: Construction begins on new courthouse

Building Barnstable's new Courthouse

On this day in 1831, construction begins on a new courthouse in Barnstable village to replace one destroyed by fire four years earlier. 

The structure, the columned facade of which can be seen in the photo, eventually becomes the county's superior court, situated close to the county jail and a district court built in the early 1970s.

The statue of Colonial Patriot Mercy Otis Warren was added a few yars ago as a counter balance to her brother's statue which the only one there for decades.

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Chapter 71-Kimberly's Decision

Copyright 1995
By David Rojay

THE LONG BRIDGE RUNNER
Book One/THE MIDWEST

The Kentucky Derby was still on Gurion's mind when he returned home at midnight. Kimberly was not there and there was no indication that she had been there. Gurion fought the infuriation he felt in his chest; he would take some morphine to calm down and drive to the hospital.

In reality, the Fairhaven "Hospital" was a glorified clinic with ten rooms, a Registered Nurse on each shift, a Physician on call and one or two backups in the general area. Operations could be performed during the day-tonsillectomies and appendectomies-anything more complicated fell to Gurion. Various clubs-the Elks, the Lions, the Moose and others were conducting a drive to buy an X-Ray Machine. The nearest X-Ray was in Olney-twenty-seven miles away. There was an Emergency Room of sorts where broken limbs could be set and simple wounds could be treated. This is where Gurion found Kimberly applying a bandage to an accident victim.

"She's been here all day," said Dr. Neurenberg, "got here about 10:00 this morning."

Kimberly was not a nurse, but she had assisted Gurion in applying dressings and administering injections. Upon seeing her hard at work, Gurion repented of his anger and let it turn to love. "Sweetheart," he said when she ran to his arms.

Later, as Gurion lay awake listening to Kimberly's slight snore (something she denied having), he realized that she had underestimated his anger, his thought of leaving the country, his inclination to blame the Goyim for his troubles. Truth be known, the Goyim had not hampered Gurion; every door had been opened. Part of this was due to his personality; he was a likeable guy with special skills and ironically, he seemed more German than Jewish-even to other Jews. But his greatest dilemma was his ignorance of Kimberly. She was not a Jewish wife; the warmth was not there, the loyalty wasn't there-at least that's the way he saw it. Now, for the first time since their marriage, he tried to imagine their graves-headstones with both their names. On the other hand, he reflected on Kimberly as a teacher and a "nurse," on her great social presence. She was beautiful, glamorous, charismatic to a fault. Everyone thought he was the luckiest man alive; but still, her affair tore at him. He didn't deserve this, he said as he went to sleep, "I don't deserve this."

Kimberly rolled over and caressed him. "You never held my tit," she said; and with that, she placed his hand on her left breast and then she was gone-back to the world of dreams.

Gurion was wide-awake now, going over things in his mind. He realized that the trip to the Derby had brought the reality of Abe's death home to him. All hope had died in the car with Daniel and he was left like an envelope around a beating heart, the way he had been on the train out of Poland (Chapter 21). His emotional energy was all used up-all gone. He was drained; there was nothing left. Kimberly lay beside him-smart, cultured, up to a point, but abysmally ignorant of his suffering. Still, he would capitulate to her. Her willfulness was stronger than his. In the morning he would let her decide about the future-about Provincetown and all that. The future would be Kimberly's decision.
____________________________________________________________________
Chapters change on Tuesdays and Friday Evenings:
Be sure to watch David Rojay on The Dan and Dad Show each Saturday night at 9:30 on Channel 17. Read A RED STATE HERO by David Rojay on capecodtoday.com. Read Sea Street-David Rojay's blog on capecodtoday.com and finally check out David Rojay on YOUTUBE. For more information, Google "David Rojay".
Check out my Sea Street Blog: "The Golden Ass EMails.

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Say What?

Link: http://gourl.org/dsfaq

Have you ever asked this question: “What do I say” to the prospect when on Twelve Step call? ^{_{(see footnote)}}

WHAT FOLLOWS IS SOME of HOW A TWELVE STEP CALL GOES WHEN PERFORMED as they had been when the co-founders did this deal, helping alcoholics recover form alcoholism. ---- AND IT WORKED!

"The two friends spoke of their spiritual experience and told him about the course of action they carried out."

Did they follow that with, "Oh but that's too far down the road for YOU. That spiritual stuff - that STEP stuff - is not for the 'still foggy' and "still shakin' newcomer " like you.

Oh, c'mon you know some arrogant SOBs who talk like this in AA meetings. You know you do.

Are you kidding me? No they did not. They made NO BONES about the spiritual program of action. And they brought it out UP FRONT! Right from the get go.

He interrupted: "I used to be strong for the church,
but that won't fix it. I've prayed to God on hangover mornings and sworn that I'd never touch another drop but by nine o'clock I'd be boiled as an owl."

Next day found the prospect more receptive. He had been thinking it over. "Maybe you're right," he said. "God ought to be able to do anything."

Page 157

Holy crap! Did this guy just take Step Two? Yes I believe he did! No classes. No Big Book thumping’. No workbooks. No essay writing. No handouts or religious lectures - -- just one alcoholic talking to another. Amazing. It’s THAT simple.

Not that seminars or Big Book conferences are bad . . . they are wonderful, I have conducted, hosted and and spoken at my fair share of Big Book gatherings and Step Workshops and even attended some myself -- but facilitating a public event for the benefit of educating, motivating, and fellowshipping a group of alcoholics is one thing - nailing ones balls to the walls or whatever it is you posses that is worth nailing - and getting the work done with a another alcohol is something else entirely - and if you think that I think that standing at a podium pitching AA and the twelve step is the same as "Carry this message" then you don't 'get' Step Twelve OR even the entire seventh chapter of that fabulous, fantastic, and terrible tome after which the Fellowship of the Spirit was named, "Alcoholics Anonymous".

We follow the directions and the prospect responds’.

This information is in the Chapter "A Vision For You". The co-author's "VISION" for us involves an awful lot of twelve step work with others doesn't it?

Peace and Love,

Danny S - RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

_{1* For the outsider -}a "Twelve Step call is when a recovered alcoholic goes out to tend to a still sick and suffering alcoholic and running a very specific Twelve Step 'routine' - laid out and detailed in a specific method and order of application in the book, "Alcoholics Anonymous" expected result of which is a spiritual awakening accompanied by a removal of the desire to drink. The is what is meant by "carrying the message". Carrying the message and take someone through the twelve steps are synonymous. I have never seen it fail when administered and followed as directed. Never. And I' have been blessed to have been a party to more applications than many of my fellows.

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Ted and Ayn; Challenge to charter change vote; Compass confuses Tribes; Geek Girl offers technology makeover

TODAY's quote: "Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off." - Syn Rand.
"We will continue this battle here in the United States Senate and in the course of the elections, ... I'm absolutely sure that at the end of the day we will preserve the Medicare system ... and we will get to the day when we have a real prescription drug program." - Ted Kennedy.

Ted and Ayn face each other

In a irony for the ages, pages 4 and 5 of the current edition of The New Yorker feature giant ads advertising Ted Kenndy's autobiography "True Compass" and Ayn Rand's new biographty by Anne C. Heller.
Could any two 2oth century figures be further apart that the Liberal Lion and the original neo-con?

Barnstable Resident Challenges Close Vote

Petition with 130 signatures must be gathered in a week

A Barnstable resident is seeking a recount of a narrow vote this week that would change town government. The charter ballot question passed by one vote Tuesday, 2,580 to 2,579. The charter change will reduce the town council from 13 to 11 members starting in 2011...

Town Clerk Linda Hutchenrider tells the Cape Cod Times that Jeffrey Wilkinson of the town's Centerville section is completing the paperwork to begin the recount process. He must collect 10 signatures from each of the town's 13 precincts, including one notarized signature per precinct, by Nov. 13... WBZ.
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Cape Wind downplays latest obstacle
Apparently think Mashpee faces east rather than south

Cape Wind is describing as "flawed" a finding by the Massachusetts Historical Commission that Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed 130-turbine project, may face another delay after Brona Simon, executive director of the historical commission said claims by two Indian tribes deserve more study.

The Mashpee and Martha's Vineyard Wampanoag (Aquinnah) tribes argue Nantucket Sound is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and that protection is needed because the turbines would be visible on the horizon and that their ancient rituals require an unblocked view of the sunrise. (Editor's note: The sun rises in the east while the only watefront in Mashpee faces south, and the Aquinnah tribe is at the western end of Mratha's Vineyard and facing the rising sun would have them looking in the opposite direction of the site for Cape Wind.)... The Register.
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Geek Girl offers technology makeover

Technology has surged into businesses and non-profits with a whirl of tweets, blog posts and YouTube videos that leave many folks scratching their heads.

A new contest for non-profits aims to clear the problematic blank blue screens, explain social media and assist technology-challenged organizations with the Extreme Geek Makeover... Since then Geek Girl camps have become popular and have been held on Cape Cod and the South Shore. Now the Geek Girls are reaching out to assist non-profits on Cape Cod...The Register.

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Bourne Bridge

Bourne Bridge

by Ana Paulina

Bourne Bridge

     At approximately 11:30 this morning, a funeral precession came whipping through Interstate 495 South, heading towards the Bourne Bridge, leaving behind pockets of 20 minute traffic jams, to anyone trying to access the highway.

And further up Interstate 495 South, between Exit 3 and Exit 4, I discovered this broken down school bus that was headed towards Martha's Vineyard, evacuating small children into a huddled group, with blankets and sleeping bags while they waited for a new form of transit transportation.

Broken down school bus.

I got some nasty looks from this group, my exploration was not welcome.

And heading North on Interstate 495.

The Salvation Army!

"Doing The Most Good"

Beijo!

The End!

Photographical Property and Work of ©Ana Paulina 2009

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Massachusetts Broadband Institute gets over $2 million from Recovery Act

Recovery Act Funding to Lay Groundwork for Enhanced Internet Services

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced that it has awarded grants to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in Alabama, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming under NTIA's State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. The program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will increase broadband access and adoption through better data collection and broadband planning. The data will be displayed in NTIA's national broadband map, a tool that will inform policymakers' efforts and provide consumers with improved information on the broadband Internet services available to them.

NTIA has awarded the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) over $1.5 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning activities over a five-year period in Massachusetts, bringing the total grant award to approximately $2 million. MBI is the designated entity for the state of Massachusetts.

The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program is a matching grant program that implements the joint purposes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA). The program will provide grants to assist states or their designees in gathering and verifying state-specific data on the availability, speed, location, and technology type of broadband services. The data they collect and compile will also be used to develop publicly available state-wide broadband maps and to inform the comprehensive, interactive, and searchable national broadband map that NTIA is required by the Recovery Act to create and make publicly available by February 17, 2011.

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Social Apps are Equal Opportunity!

I saw Josh Bernoff’s article in Ad Age last week announcing the winners of Forrester’s Groundswell Awards. Here’s a link to the same article on Josh’s blog. When I scrolled through the list of winners, I was struck by the number of companies I’d never heard of or small companies on the list. There were relatively few large corporations in the finalists—take a look for yourself; I think you’ll find it enlightening. You can access all the submissions with reviews here.

I’m interested in the small business aspect. Before I take a look at that, it’s worth being explicit about their Groundswell model (see chapter 4, Strategies for Tapping the Groundswell). They added some categories for the contest, but the model provided the framework.

In the B2C sector:

Talking – Lion Brand Yarn

According to Forrester:
Lion Brand Yarn initially set out to build relationships with the online knitting community by talking with their customers via a corporate blog and podcast. As a result of an investment in people rather than products, they found themselves with a passionate and brand loyal group of knitters, who not only engage with the brand but impact the bottom line by buying and using products as a result of social media engagement.

Embracing – Scholastic Book Club

Scholastic (remember them from primary school?) set out to improve their already-successful classroom flyer promotion. According to Forrester:
Together with a private online community of 200 teachers and 100 moms, created with their partner Communispace, Scholastic went through each step of the product development process in 10 weeks. They developed not only a new flyer, but a new opportunity for Scholastic Book Clubs to connect with parents, kids, and teachers . . . The initial test phase of the new flyer resulted in a 3% lift in sales, which, if borne out in the national rollout, will mean millions in new revenue for Scholastic Book Clubs.

In the B2B sector:

Listening – CDW

Ok, CDW isn’t a small business. However, I submit that small retailers or distributors can follow their lead. This is Forrester’s capture of a page in the Large Companies community. Looking at their website, I’m willing to bet that CDW has communities for at least the five basic segments they list on their website, ranging from small business to health care, maybe more.

According to Forrester:
CDW continuously taps members of its private online communities for all kinds of indispensible advice on its products and services, marketing ideas, and innovation. The communities also have inspired new approaches to sales both in terms of generating leads and relationship building with prospects early in the sales process.

Spreading – MetricStream

MetricStream is a privately-held startup that provides regulatory compliance solutions. According to Forrester:
ComplianceOnline was built to serve as the premier destination for content, training, and advisory services dedicated to regulatory compliance, IT governance, and corporate risk management. Today, it attracts more than two million visitors annually, 500,000 registered member-base, and is now a strong lead engine for its parent company - MetricStream.

This is a non-random sample and it doesn’t do justice to all the information about the awards. My only regret is how few non-profits are represented. An award was given to a gutsy Australian town, Flowerdale, which was destroyed by wildfire and raised money online to rebuild.

Spend some time either on the winners page or the submissions page. I guarantee you’ll learn a lot and get some ideas. Small businesses can reach out to their customers and engage them in mutually beneficial activities. Larger businesses can show that they value the individual customer’s ideas and opinions.It's a win-win for both!

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Deck stacked in Yankees' favor

The question isn't new, but the Yankees' win over the Phillies in the just-concluded World Series again has thrown it into stark relief: is the MLB deck stacked in New York's favor?

Naysayers would accurately point out that eight different teams have taken baseball's ultimate prize in the 10 years we've been in the two-thousand-oughts (see table). But they would be missing the larger point, as only a handful of teams are repeat contenders: the Yankees (four times), and the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Phillies (twice each). The rest - representing fully half of the decade's 20 competitors - are one-time wonders.

See the rest of this article on Examiner.com!

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WHOI discovers an undersea killer with an upside

Newly Discovered Fat Molecule may hold unexpected promise in cancer research

Benjamin Van Mooy & WHOI colleague Helen Fredricks, a member of the team that discovered the lipid.

Lipid expert Benjamin Van Mooy in his lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. (Photos by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). This same chemical may hold unexpected promise in cancer research.

The team discovered a previously unknown lipid, or fatty compound, in a virus that has been attacking and killing Emiliania huxleyi, a phytoplankton that plays a major role in the global carbon cycle

"Emiliania huxleyi is the rock star of phytoplankton," explains Kay Bidle, Rutgers assistant professor of marine science in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. "It blooms all over the oceans, and we can easily see it by satellite. We know that these blooms are frequently infected with viruses, and this virus is specific to this phytoplankton."

"The lipids are the key ingredient in the virus that causes the phytoplankton to die," says WHOI scientist Benjamin Van Mooy. "We have a completely different lipid molecule that, as far as we know, is unknown to science."

E. huxleyi grows rapidly in the North Atlantic, "in these big blooms that you can actually see from outer space," Van Mooy says.

"But," adds Van Mooy, "they die just almost as quickly as they start out, and we're not sure why. They die after a few days."

Bidle and Assaf Vardi, a postdoctoral investigator in his laboratory and the study's lead author, had been examining the interaction between the virus and the dying phytoplankton and had developed ideas for how this process works. After Vardi heard lipid expert Van Mooy give a talk in Santa Fe, N.M., he suggested the collaboration between WHOI and Rutgers.

"I saw Ben's talk on marine microbes and lipids...[and] I ran after him," said Vardi. "We told him about our ideas" involving the virus's effect on the phytoplankton.

"They studied the viruses and I study lipids," Van Mooy said. "It seemed like a good mix."

Their paper is published in the Nov. 6 issue of Science

E. huxleyi performs photosynthesis-"just like plants," says Van Mooy. "They suck up carbon dioxide." In doing so, they reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. They form a calcium carbonate shell, also helping to regulate the carbon cycle.

"It's a critical aspect of cancer research, because cancer cells have figured out a way to turn off the programmed cell death pathway. In cancer studies, they try to figure out ways to reactivate those pathways."
                     - Assif Vardi.

If viruses are killing off phytoplankton, this can increase greenhouse emissions, Van Mooy suggests. "That's important because if viruses infect a whole bunch of cells, then they can't perform photosynthesis, they can't take up carbon dioxide."

In April 2008, Van Mooy's team visited the sites of E. huxleyi blooms during a research cruise between Woods Hole and Bermuda and collected samples for lipid analysis back in the laboratory.

They immediately recognized lipids that were just like those in virally infected E. huxleyi cells grown by the Rutgers team. Helen Fredricks, a research associate with Van Mooy, carried out the lipid analyses at WHOI. "Seeing this viral lipid appear during the course of infection was amazing, and then we found it in the ocean too. We were celebrating in the lab that day."

Adds Vardi: "Viruses are really important players in regulating phytoplankton blooms. We zoom into the bloom and try to understand the interaction between the viruses and host, which is this really important, cosmopolitan, bloom-forming species."

After isolating the viral lipids, the team found that the lipids alone were able to bring about the symptoms of viral infection in the phytoplankton. "The lipids themselves act just like the virus," says Van Mooy. "We can cause the phytoplankton to die by just giving the lipids."

This alone was enough to excite the team. "Now we have a biological marker that we can go out on a ship and look for and identify where this [infection of phytoplankton] is happening and learn how to study it better," Van Mooy says.

But there may be other, even farther-reaching implications. Both the virus and the newly found lipid deal their deadly blow by causing the upper-ocean plants to commit cellular suicide. As a major focus of their research at Rutgers, Bidle's lab has found that "programmed cell death" is an important process in the fate of marine phytoplankton and in the demise of blooms in the oceans. Bidle's group had previously found that successful infection of E. huxleyi induced, and actually required, the programmed cell death pathway.

But programmed cell death is not unique to phytoplankton. It is a common and healthy process in all kinds of cells, including human cells.

According to Vardi, "These lipids can induce programmed cell death in many organisms, including animals and plants. They also enrich in plasma membrane, and they are the port of the cell, where pathogens get in and out of the cell. This is important in viral diseases."

There is also a potential connection with cancer. If a healthy cell is stressed or damaged, usually it will kill itself with programmed cell death. But cancer cells have a defect: "They don't kill themselves," says Bidle.

"It's a critical aspect of cancer research, because cancer cells have figured out a way to turn off the programmed cell death pathway," he says. "In cancer studies, they try to figure out ways to reactivate those pathways."

The lipid may help shed light on why cancer cells are unable to commit suicide. Someday, the researchers say, it might suggest ways to correct that defect. Right now, the lipid is only known to be effective in algae, but in the future, the team is hoping to test the effectiveness of their molecule in experiments with cancer cells.

"There's a long way to go between here and curing cancer," Van Mooy says, "but the potential exists that this molecule could have therapeutic applications in the treatment of human disease, including cancer. Hopefully this paper will pique the interest of other investigators."

More immediately, scientists hope to learn more about the central role phytoplankton-and viruses-play in regulating climate. Bidle says this is a particularly interesting virus. "It appears that the virus has...borrowed, copied actually, the genes for this lipid from the host," he says. "Similar genes are still on the host, but the virus has figured out a way to take those genes and put them into its own genome, and alter them enough to make them more toxic."

"I'd like to think [the work] is going to have a continued impact."- Benjamin Van Mooy.

"We find the biosynthetic pathway for this unique lipid encoded in the virus genome, not only in the host, and this has never been described before in any other virus," Vardi says. "We knew that [lipids] were important, but we were really intrigued about why the virus contained these genes. And what is the role of the pathway in the co-evolution of programmed cell death in the host and virus."

Van Mooy sees it as a struggle between two mighty forces. "The phytoplankton are at one end of the boxing ring and they're taking up carbon dioxide, and the viruses are at the other end, and they're out to kill them. And how that works out controls how much carbon dioxide is taken up.

"We're very interested in understanding what controls these phytoplankton," he says. "I didn't know that much about viruses until I started working on this project and the Rutgers researchers didn't know that much about lipids. So now we're both really onto something here. We're continuing to collaborate. "We have found other interesting lipids from these viruses," says Van Mooy.

"There are probably more out there. And who knows what kind of activities they may be involved with. They may hold a cure for a human disease or they may play unknown role in...phytoplankton.

"I'd like to think [the work] is going to have a continued impact."

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.

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Dengue epidemic paralyses Cape Verde

Cape Verdeans ordered to stay home, kill mosquitos
Four deaths, 9,000 affected, WHO sends help

afrol News, 5 November -

A first-ever outbreak of dengue fever in Cape Verde, already causing four deaths and infecting 9,000 persons, has caused panic on the archipelago. Tomorrow, everybody is urged to kill mosquitoes instead of going to work, and both the police and army are sent out to root out the disease.

Chatham writer/videographer, Andy Buckley is scheduled to leave for the Cape Verde island nation next week, and he sent us this report.
Cape Verdeans were among the first to discover and live on Cape Cod. These Portuguese fishermen, however, only stayed here summers to fish, returning to the islands in the Atlantic between Brazil and Africa every Fall. Their descendants still make up a significant part of Cape Cod's population. The island's population today is about twice that of Cape Cod.
2.5 billion in danger
The World Health Organization says some 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the world's population, are now at risk from dengue and estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries

Cape Verdean José Maria Neves has used the last two days to demonstrate his ability to act. The nation is gearing up to tomorrow's great national campaign of cleaning and eradication of the mosquito that carries the dengue virus. The entire population is asked to participate in the campaign, rather than going to work tomorrow.

But action is already in place. In the capital Praia, the worst struck municipality on the archipelago, a police force of 500 men and women and parts of the Cape Verdean army are on the streets to eradicate the dangerous mosquitoes.

PM Neves has also assured foreign help to root out the new epidemic. The World Health Organisation already has shipped staff to Praia, helping to organise the fight against dengue fever. Further, Mr Neves today called on "friendly countries", in particular Portugal, Spain and Cuba, to send emergency aid, including hospital equipment and staff to treat the increasing numbers of infected.

The epidemic has indeed come as a bad surprise to the archipelago, where the tropical mosquito-borne disease never has been registered before. And it has spread as a bushfire. Registered infections are rising at a record rate of one thousand - a day. The latest numbers released in Praia are 8,799 infections. 851 out of them are from the capital.

Also, mortality rates are starting to be significant. Only two days ago, the first death attributed to dengue fever was registered. Today, the number is at four diseased.

Andy Buckley's maelstrom?

We asked Andy Buckley, above with Kane Stanton, why and how he knew about this, and he replied;
  "Peter Burgess applied to our "Come Run with Us" competition for a translator, but he had to withdraw when he got a job."
   "He IM'd me yesterday on FaceBook, advising me to bring bug spray, explaining the situation.
   "We had just earlier that day been at the TACV (Cape Verde Airlines) confirming the tickets, and later at the Consulate applying for our visas.
   "No one said anything about this to us.
So it looks like we're heading into the maelstrom.
   "I'm reminded of Anthony Bourdain's first season, when he did a show of No Reservations in Beirut, and the civil war flared up again. He was evacuated by the US Marines... and won an Emmy for the show."
   Andy will send back reports, assuming he survives the experience.

The population has been shocked and traumatised by the sudden spread of this unknown disease. The epidemic comes at the same time as swine flue was starting to spread rapidly on the archipelago.

But Prime Minister Neves also was obliged to act forcefully for economic reasons. Already yesterday, the Cape Verdean government had no choice but issuing a warning to tourists to take extra precautions due to the outbreak. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry - representing one of Cape Verde's main tourist markets - has already issued a travel warning on Cape Verde.

For the archipelago, such a blow to the tourism industry could spell significant economic consequences. Tourism has developed into the backbone of Cape Verde's economic boom, and the archipelago was aiming at becoming "the new Canary Islands" off the West African coast. With the occurrence of tropical diseases, mass tourism however seems unrealistic.

With a preliminary anti-dengue budget of 40 million escudos (euro 360,000) the Neves government therefore aims at nothing less than the total eradication of dengue fever from the archipelago. For that to happen, massive campaigns to eradicate mosquitoes have to succeed. On the negative side, however, the disease was allowed to spread to almost all islands before being detected.

Dengue fever is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease of humans. In recent years it has become a major public health concern in the tropics. The geographical spread of both the mosquito and the virus has led to the global resurgence of epidemic dengue fever in the past 25 years, according to WHO. There is no known cure to the disease.

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