Man sues tourist company over bad hotel tour

It almost sounds racist, unless you put yourself in the shoes of the person who has undergone such conditions. A British holidaymaker, responding to a tourist brochure, booked rooms at a hotel in Greece, and when he went their with his family, he found that the hotel was full of Germans, with only 25 of the 700 families being English, and most of the other 675 being German. Now this was not a reason for the complaint that he made, but it was the fact that all the facilities, the reps over there, all of this communication was in German and he could not enjoy his stay:

A British holidaymaker was awarded compensation by a court because there were too many German tourists at the hotel he booked in Greece, newspapers reported on Saturday. David Barnish, 47, paid 4,000 pounds (5,100 euros, 8,000 dollars) to take his wife and three daughters to a resort in Kos, but the family were unable to take part in entertainment or children's activities because they were only organised in the German language, the Daily Telegraph and Sun reported.
Barnish sued holiday company Thomson for breach of contract, claiming it had failed to disclose that the Grecotel Park hotel was used almost exclusively by Germans. A court in the central English city of Stoke awarded him 750 pounds in compensation after a judge ruled that customers at a hotel featured in an English-language brochure should be provided for in their own language, the reports said.

This was an interesting case, and was substantiating the consumers cannot be taken for a ride. If they are not getting what they have paid for, then they can complain and get their complaints heard.

Outlawing using swear words

Imagine being able to outlaw swear words ? At times of anxiety or anger or exultation, people do end up using words that they would not use in normal conversation; and of course there are the people who feel that their words will not have an impact unless there is a good mix of swear words. It always feel good to have a normal conversation without a mix of bad words, and if that can happen through peer pressure or by a good amount of moral conditioning rather than by law, all the better. In the case of this small town in the US, it happened due to a 14 year old:

South Pasadena, a tranquil city of tree-shaded cottages at the base of a mountain range eight miles north of downtown Los Angeles, isn't the first to try to rein in potty mouths. Earlier this year, the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri, proposed banning swearing in bars. Last year, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons called for an industrywide ban on racially and sexually charged epithets. But what's different about the latest push to stop public cussing is that it was proposed by a 14-year-old boy.
"I finally told my friends, `I don't cuss.' And I said, `If you want to hang out with me, you don't cuss."' It took a couple of years, but enough friends finally came around that Hatch formed a 50-member club, handed out fliers and called the group's first meeting, held June 1. Nine months later, the No Cussing Club has a Web site, claims a membership of 10,000 and boasts chapters in several states and countries. Hatch considers his greatest achievement, though, to be getting his hometown of 25,000 to become a cuss-free zone.

It sounds a bit strange, but who would not want a neighborhood where the language is more civil, and polite ?