For those looking for some tasty noms in Machester, please stop by any of Tampopo's locations. Not just because the noms are tasty (and they are exceedingly nom-worthy), but also because they're partnering with the Mines Advisory Group and some of their tasty noms include a donation to MAG's work in clearing unexploded ordnance (or UXO) from the kinds of places that I like to go on holiday. And I know how unhappy you'd all be if I stepped on something unpleasant.
Seriously though, folks - UXO is a humanitarian problem, but it's also an economic problem. If you've got land polluted by UXO you can't build homes, roads, schools, hospitals, or factories, you can't farm it, you can't make it work for you. So you're economically buggered. Laos enjoys the unenviable reputation as the most heavily bombed nation on earth - per capita, more bombs were dropped on it than were used by all of the combatants involved in WWII - 270 million pieces of cluster munitions. Problem with these little buggers is that they don't always go off right away - they sit in the ground, armed, for years, they lurk, waiting for someone to pick them up, maybe hit them with a plough, and whoops, one trouser-leg too many. Not very nice.
Anyway, here's a little bit of info about the partnership. Thanks!
