When you look at the chaotic and unstable situation in Zimbabwe today, it is important to recall this was a country that in the early years of Mugabe's rule, was one of the most affluent nations in sub-Sahara Africa.

Despite the fact that agriculture was thriving, with beef and tobacco generating billions to help boost the economy, Mugabe wasn't happy. He wasn't happy because the old socialist revolutionary in him grated at the post-colonial legacy that saw a white minority in possession of large amounts of land and responsible for economic progress. Some 4,000 white farmers produced the goods and products that underwrote the prosperity, and on some level Mugabe saw this as lingering evidence that black Africa was still under the yoke of the old colonial oppressors.

In the late 1990's he saw an opportunity to change the status quo he so despised. According to the official story, allies of Mugabe were responsible for looting the pension fund for war veterans. When angry veterans demanded their rightful compensation, Mugabe saw a way to attack white ownership of land while posing as the champion of black Africans who had been exploited by colonialism. The compensation he offered the veterans was white owned farm land. He basically gave the veterans the green light to go ahead and take it over.

Mugabe is a game player and schemer, no simple minded idealist. This move on behalf of landless Africans was far from the noble instincts of a social revolutionary. Even though Mugabe may appear mad by any reasonable standard, there is in fact method to his madness. The veterans uprising was used to displace white farmers and encourage them to leave. Mugabe knew the veterans would be unable to take over where the original owners left off. The squatters simply lacked the resources and expertise to run the farms efficiently.

Jonathan Moyo, one time Mugabe information minister, claims that there was nothing spontaneous about the veteran revolt. He claims it was a carefully thought out government strategy.

So why would Mugabe willingly destroy the engine of his country's economy? Part of the answer is that he was under political pressure and survival was the name of the game. Mugabe owes his power to the Shona tribe, and so-called "land reform" was a ploy to enrich his closest political allies. By 2006 only 200 white farmers remained in business.

The political rationale behind the move had more in common with Stalin's Russia than a modern state. The white community was viewed by Mugabe as the "bourgeoisie". An elite minority that owed their real loyalties to foreign interests. But Mugabe's class suspicions weren't only directed at whites, they were also aimed at blacks. Large numbers of the black middle class have been forced into exile also as a result of his policies.

This move against white farmers proved to be disastrous. Most of the deserted farm land lay fallow. Tens of thousands of black farm employees were laid off, adding to economic difficulties that quickly began to spiral out of control.

The rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is now the highest in the world, 1,600%. Much of this is driven by government borrowing in an effort to cover rising expenses. The infrastructure itself is falling apart. Schools are run down, hospitals critically underfunded and short of both equipment and medicines. To make matters worse, even basic services are failing or in bad shape - for example sewage-treatment plants.

Mugabe's response to the disaster is to become ever more remote and autocratic. He has retreated into a realm characterized by delusions-of-grandeur. Open contempt is expressed for any who dare to criticize his rule. His recent urban cleansing project, dubbed Operation Murambatsvina (Clean Out the Filth), served the double purpose of targeting the poor, some of whom support his political rivals, and freeing up urban space for property development.

He no longer even bothers to put on a democratic mask for the benefit of the world press. When Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change was arrested recently after attempting to attend a rally, he was viciously beaten in police custody. The government made no effort to cover up this abuse. On the contrary they permitted the media to record Tsvangirai as he stumbled out of the police station with a fractured skull. Mugabe's retort to criticism was a testy "go hang".

As matters go from bad to worse in Zimbabwe at ever accelerating rates of speed, Mugabe it seems is primarily concerned with his legacy. He has hired architects to construct a huge shrine in homage to his life and times. It is to be named the Robert Mugabe Memorial and it will chronicle the events of his life, from, rebel leader to life President. The structure is being built in the President's home town of Zvimba.

A crisis is looming with the country at breaking point under unsustainable levels of inflation and unemployment. Before the memorial is finished, Mugabe may be out of time and out of power.

By: Aidan Maconachy
Aidan Maconachy resides in Ontario, Canada. He has a BA Hons and a BEd. He taught in the UK and Canada, and has been a contributor to a variety of magazines and newspapers over the years. You can visit his blog at http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com.

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"The Bay Area has the highest concentration of earthquake faults in the world." -Bill Lettis, earth sciences consultant.

What happened in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States was not only the worst natural disaster in the history of this country, but also the loudest wake-up call ever experienced by our comfortable over-confident society. We never dreamed something of such horror and magnitude could ever happen here - even though all the TV meteorologists told us it might, then days before the storm hit land, told us it would.

“The bad news: The chances of the Big One happening in the next 30 years are about 90%, and the odds are that it will be in our own back yard.” –reporter Chris Treadway, Montclarion January 1999.

Along the West Coast from Canada to Mexico, we still think the Big Quake won’t really happen, even though we’ve been told repeatedly by every geologist and every emergency response and emergency management agency that it will. The odds of Katrina happening were extremely small - less than a 1% probability. The odds of the Big Quake have been reported conservatively at about 70% probability, and by the specialists in the trenches, 90%.

In the next 30 years, by the way, doesn’t mean after 30 more years (hello) it means any time now, within this 30 year span. It could be today, or tonight while you sleep. How prepared are we? There is no question of IF it will happen; the only question is WHEN, and Katrina surely is telling us we’d best not wait till the last minute to do what we can to prepare. That will be way too late..

Here are a few things we DO know:
1. The areas of destruction probably will be vast, and potentially spread over a much larger area than Katrina.

2. Those areas will look a lot like New Orleans did, except possibly there will be less flooding and more bleeding.

3. There will be thousands more physical and trauma injuries, as structures collapse on people, and buildings and cars trap or crush people, and torn power lines cause electrocutions and fires.

4. The Big Quake is likely to be worse than Katrina. I won’t say more; you already know this.

5. All city, county, and state Disaster Planning and Response agencies have been telling us since 1989, very clearly and specifically, that every citizen should expect and be prepared to manage on our own without outside help for at least 24 hours to three days immediately following a major disaster of any kind.

6. An abundance of information and detailed instructions have been published and widely distributed for free, everywhere on the West Coast. Have you read some of it?

7. The State of California (and I believe Oregon and Washington as well) has mandated every county and city to provide disaster preparedness and civilian disaster response training for their citizens. Do you know where to get it? The majority of these training programs are based on a similar framework called CERT (Citizens Emergency Response Training) or NERT (neighborhood Emergency Response Training) and the training is provided through either Police or Fire Departments. Oakland California has its own program called CORE (Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergency) which contains most of the elements of CERT.

Common weak points in most citizen training programs have been:
1. They often have inadequate staffing and funding (most are free to the citizens) and
2. Most of them use some type of (often sketchy) version of "Standard" First Aid. (See the article “Why Isn’t Standard First Aid Good Enough”)

"One thing we know about the Bay Area is that there is no escape – we all live near a fault-line." -Bill Lettis, earth sciences consultant.

The evolution of Oakland's CORE program began in 1989 with the Loma Prieta Earthquake and the collapse of a mile of freeway at the Cypress Overpass. In that catastrophic event, the responsibility for commanding the massive response and rescue operations fell upon Battalion Chief Manny Navarro. He was surprised to see, firsthand, that the greatest number of rescues were not made by the million-dollar earth-moving equipment, not the fire engines or the ambulances or the sonar devices. The greatest number of rescues were made by the people who lived near the freeway, in the neighborhood.

Why? Because in the first crucial moments, they were already there. They rushed to help, climbing up on dangerously unstable broken structures to pull people out and hand them down to others waiting to receive them below, and carry them to a safe area. With no equipment and no training, they responded as human beings and did whatever they could. In his own words, Chief Navarro was professionally and personally “stunned.” Later he said (and I paraphrase, but this is essentially accurate) “I realized we’re spending the most money for the fewest results. It was obvious – We should be training the people in the neighborhood.” And that became a priority of the Oakland Fire Department, and would ultimately result in legislative mandate at the state level..

Now, in theory at least, every citizen in California can receive Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Response Training. However there are some shortfalls. Over the years, municipal OES (Offices of Emergency Services, which usually direct the citizen training, overseen by Fire or Police Department administration) have had repeated staffing and funding cuts. They’ve been cut, trimmed, and cut some more. (You know the drill.) And sometimes, scheduled citizen’s courses can be canceled, delayed, or otherwise trumped by other (higher priority?) activities of the agencies that oversee them. Perhaps that's what happened to the Disaster First Aid all-day training course and Hands-On Workshops.

The CORE volunteers and instructors are serious and dedicated. This program is important, and spirited in the way things used to be when people were really neighbors to each other. That perspective is no longer old-fashioned – and we had better wake up to the reality – it has become a survival necessity.

When a massive disaster happens and thousands of people are injured, NO city has thousands of ambulances, or thousands of empty hospital beds. And even worse, virtually ALL of the hospitals in the East Bay are sitting within one mile or less from an active earthquake fault line. Even if there are roads open, and even if you could get to a hospital, it might be destroyed, or shut down and evacuated. If nobody can help us for 24 hours or more, as they realistically predict, how can we survive? We will have to help ourselves and each other. Do you know how? Can you spare a few hours a week to learn?

Free or very inexpensive classes have been available in West Coast cities for 15 years, and other courses are available through many employers and corporations. Have some folks in your neighborhood or at your job taken them? Does anybody know what to do? Does anybody care?

A final thought: Let a start be made.
It’s not like it’s something really hard and difficult to do. Almost anyone can do it. You can do it too, for yourself, for your family. Your kid's school can do it. If you have any kind of neighborhood group, softball team, bridge club, poker night, bowling team, park or community center, you've already got the groundwork laid to start a neighbrhood CERT group right there.

Many of the countless people who died in the Katrina Hurricane and flood were not initially hurt by the storm’s destruction. Hundreds died because they did not have drinking water. The human body can go about 3 days without water and then, pretty much, it dries up and dies. Everyone knew the storm was coming. Anyone could have stored some clean water while they still had it, in plastic bottles or whatever. But they didn’t.

What are you going to do when 911 can’t come?

By: Victoria Chames
Victoria Chames is the author of the Training System and text/handbook "Disaster First Aid - When 911 Can't Come." She served for eight years as a line firefighter for Alameda County O.E.S. Fire Department, and as a Fire Training Officer and Emergency Medical Services Officer and Trainer. Now retired from Fire Service she is a hospital Emergency Room Medical Technician and Program Director of Fire Med, a state of California EMSA approved Continuing Education program for EMTs and Paramedics, provider #01-0022.
Disaster First Aid is a one-day hands-on course for Citizens' Disaster Response Emergency First Aid Care.

Read the article "Why Isn't Standard First Aid Good Enough?" at the Disaster First Aid website: http://www.disasterfirstaid.com.

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Saudi King Abdullah’s declaration that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq amounted to an “illegitimate foreign occupation” were met with surprise in Washington. “We were a little surprised to see those remarks,” Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters. The King’s proclamation was far from surprising and it indicates that Saudi Arabia is now shifting from words—words that Washington apparently ignored, given its terming Abdullah’s comments a “surprise”—to actions to safeguard its own critical interests.

A March 2006 report commissioned by Saudi Arabia’s Government warned that Shia-led Iraq was becoming a “key vehicle” that Iran was “using to achieve its military security and intelligence aims.” The report also stated, “Saudi Arabia has a special responsibility to ensure the welfare and security of Sunnis in Iraq.” In an op-ed piece published in the November 29, 2006 edition of The Washington Post, Nawaf Obaid, an advisor to the Saudi Government, took a more robust approach as the civil war in Iraq and ethnic cleansing of Sunni neighborhoods intensified. Obaid wrote:

Over the past year, a chorus of voices has called for Saudi Arabia to protect the Sunni community in Iraq and thwart Iranian influence there. Senior Iraqi tribal and religious figures, along with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries, have petitioned the Saudi leadership to provide Iraqi Sunnis with weapons and financial support. Moreover, domestic pressure to intervene is intense. Major Saudi tribal confederations, which have extremely close historical and communal ties with their counterparts in Iraq, are demanding action. They are supported by a new generation of Saudi royals in strategic government positions who are eager to see the kingdom play a more muscular role in the region.

He then warned that Saudi Arabia would not tolerate a “massacre” of Iraq’s Sunni population, as it would imperil Saudi Arabia’s critical regional interests. “To turn a blind eye to the massacre of Iraqi Sunnis would be to abandon the principles upon which the kingdom was founded. It would undermine Saudi Arabia's credibility in the Sunni world and would be a capitulation to Iran's militarist actions in the region,” he stated. Afterward, the point being made, he was “fired” and then days later, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Turki al-Faisal, resigned for “Saudi domestic matters.”

Even as the U.S. was working out a new strategy for stabilizing Iraq, Vice President Cheney was publicly arguing that the U.S. should give up efforts to win over Iraq’s Sunni minority. Ultimately, the new strategy centered around the existing Shia-led Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, even as it maintains highly visible ties to Shia sectarian militias and has continued to show little inclination toward national reconciliation for all of Iraq’s peoples. Since the current approach in Iraq was launched in January, the United States has done little to insist on the development of a truly national Iraqi government. It has not pushed Prime Minister Maliki to bring about a coalition government with Sunnis. Instead, it has allowed the sectarian Maliki government a relatively free hand, even when it acted to discredit Sunni rape victims and cast disproportionate blame on the Sunnis for Iraq's sectarian violence in which Shia militias have played a major role. To the Saudi leadership, such a course amounted to little more than an unwillingness to listen to Saudi Arabia’s concerns, indifference to Saudi Arabia’s critical interests, and essentially a “business as usual” course that could only erode Saudi Arabia’s regional position.

With the situation in Iraq being only slightly improved from that of a few months ago, even as the Iranian standing in the Middle East has increased, Saudi Arabia has now concluded that the U.S. is unwilling and/or unable to protect Saudi Arabia's critical regional interests and those of the Middle East's Sunni population. As such, given what it perceives to be the choice of accepting increasing regional instability coupled with rising Iranian power or diverging from U.S. policy interests and goals, Saudi Arabia has determined that it is in its national interest to begin cutting deals to safeguard its own critical regional interests and those of the Middle East's Sunnis.

Saudi Arabia is no longer willing to abet a situation that sustains Iraq's sectarianism, even if that means taking on U.S. policies. "In the beloved Iraq, the bloodshed is continuing under an illegal foreign occupation and detestable sectarianism," King Abdullah declared, almost certainly in such harsh terms that Iraq's Sunnis would be assured that Saudi Arabia is now coming to their aid and, more importantly, that the U.S. might begin listening to Saudi Arabia's longstanding concerns on Iraq's sectarian evolution. An Iraq that is a Shia-satellite of Iran would pose a major threat to Saudi Arabia's most vital interests.

In the longer-term context, these rumblings mark the first tremors of a changing alignment of interests in the Middle East. As often happen, when a nation's geopolitical credibility wanes, its allies scramble to safeguard their own national interests. U.S. credibility in the Middle East has diminished as a result of its poor performance in Iraq. Now, Saudi Arabia believes it can only secure its own interests by acting on its own, even if its course may complicate some U.S. regional priorities and preferences.

Saudi Arabia is not going to become an enemy of the U.S. However, it will fill the diplomacy vacuum that the U.S. has created in its very limited willingness to engage in direct negotiations with the major states that have influence over Iraq's sectarian actors. That means, Saudi Arabia will begin using its standing to negotiate deals to try to stabilize Iraq and mitigate the risks of possible Iranian dominance in the Middle East.

What does the U.S. have to do?

• First, Congress needs to act responsibly. Tying military funding to arbitrary deadlines, even if it is politically popular at home, only further diminishes U.S. credibility in a region in which it is widely viewed, among allies and enemies alike, as a declining power. Softer goals that accommodate domestic public opinion, while accommodating the on-the-ground reality and geopolitical interests in their non-binding nature, would be better.

• Second, the U.S. needs to make clear that it backs the formation of a truly national and legitimate Iraqi government in which Shia, Sunnis and Kurds have sufficient power to protect their basic rights and no single ethnic group has the ability to dominate the country and thereby oppress the other ethnic groups. In contrast, continuing unconditional and unwavering support for a sectarian Iraqi government can only widen divisions between the U.S. and important Sunni Arab States such as Saudi Arabia.

• Third, the U.S. needs to be willing to engage in direct and unconditional diplomacy when it comes to stabilizing Iraq. The issue of stabilizing Iraq is a wholly separate matter from Iran's nuclear issue and needs to be treated as such. Otherwise, with the U.S. bowing out of diplomatic routes, Saudi Arabia will undertake the task itself in order to safeguard its own critical regional interests and those of the Middle East's Sunnis.

In the end, the geopolitical costs of failure in Iraq—and, as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, Shia domination is as much a failure as an all-out civil war—are so great that Saudi Arabia and others who would bear the adverse consequences are now willing to act on their own. Unless the U.S. recognizes this situation and takes corrective action as defined in the above three steps, it will increasingly lose its ability to influence the evolution of events, both in Iraq and also in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is now responding to what it believes to be a shift in the regional balance of power to protect its critical interests.

By: Don Sutherland
Don Sutherland has researched and written on a wide range of geopolitical issues.

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Passing the Left Bank, a brasserie on Santana Row in San Jose, it’s easy to forget you’re not in Paris. The street scene is a freshly concocted recreation of a French boulevard, or… is it an Italian plaza? A few steps further and you’ve entered Sino, artistic chef Chris Yeo’s hip interpretation of a metropolitan Asian bistro with dim sum carts swirling about richly minimalist ruby, gold and bronze booths. No, you’ve been transported to Beijing’s poshest restaurant… or have you? Meanwhile, at El Jardin in Santana Row park, a Latin jazz trio plays, reminiscent of an evening in Buenos Aires… or not.

There are so many sensory experiences along San Jose’s themed shopping and dining district called Santana Row, that it’s understandable why so many first-time visitors might become confused about where they are. In creating Santana Row, some of the world’s best urban experiences were fused, generating a new place that defies categorization. More than a shopping district, it is a community with parks, townhouses and a hotel. Facades of the five-story buildings along the boulevard hint stylistically that Santana Row evolved over the past century. A pseudo art deco frieze atop one of the false fronts heroically declares “DeForest” hinting that some industrial plant once occupied the building in the 1930s. The consistent height of the buildings along its 1500-foot “Main Street” shocks one’s senses after arriving from sprawling Silicon Valley where building height seems constrained only by purpose. Suddenly, you’ve entered an urban canyon as is common in European cities.

Santana Row’s developer set out to redefine the urban neighborhood, by salvaging its best characteristics and filling its street-level spaces with chic shops and gathering spots that would attract upscale tenants and residents. The strategy worked. Santana Row is home to such famous names in fashion as Gucci, Tommy Bahama, Ann Taylor, Burberry and Brooks Brothers. Discriminating diners are attracted to such one-of-a-kind restaurants as Tanglewood where inventive forms of “comfort food” are served in what General Manager Andy O’Day calls “Spirited American Cuisine.” Entrees include such unusual items as “Coca-Cola Braised Pork Belly” or “Buttermilk Fried Wolfe Quail” served with honey-buttered mini biscuits, American culinary legend James Beard’s favorite biscuit.

Just like Tanglewood’s menu, everything about Santana Row is completely new and yet, also, remembered vaguely. We’ve been here before… somewhere in our imagination. That sense of familiarity amidst the surreal is the result of a wholly California invention… the theme park. Santana Row is an adult evolution of the theme park, where an idealized, proverbial environment is created for our enjoyment. It stands to reason that the state where the theme park was invented (Disneyland, 1955) would also extend its affection for whimsy to shopping. Throughout the golden state, shopping is more than what is inside the store. It’s the experience that goes with it.

If San Diego was the birthplace of California, then Old Town San Diego - the city’s historic pueblo dating from 1769 – is the birthplace of themed shopping. Here in 1968, California established a state historic park to preserve its first downtown. Today, 27 early-1800s homes, a one-room school house, the first church in San Diego and government buildings are preserved. Scattered among the historic buildings once-derelict motels and shops have since been transformed into Mission-revival adobes containing 106 shops and 12 art galleries that bring life to the museum-like quiet of the state park by selling colorful south of the border crafts, clothing and treasures. On visiting Old Town, a government official from Mexico was overheard saying to another of his colleagues, “The Americans are even doing Mexico better than us.” Patio restaurants amidst the themed shops resonate with the happy sounds of Mariachi musicians as they entertain diners and stroll beneath columned arbors draped with magenta bougainvillea.

Beyond the limed walls and red tile roofs of Old Town, the maritime history of San Diego (home to the U.S. Navy, America’s tuna fleet, cruise ships and numerous yacht clubs) is celebrated at Seaport Village. A contrast of silvery-black weathered buildings and colorfully painted salt box structures provide a nautical flair along the waterfront. Lushly landscaped paths wind past curio shops and eateries and along San Diego Bay where benches provide good spots to watch passing sailboats and warships.

Further up the California coast in Orange County’s Newport Beach, coastal life is the theme of Fashion Island, an enclave of Mediterranean style with splashing fountains and a signature koi pond. The first impression one has on entering Gary’s Island - one of three local Gary’s stores in the mall - is the brilliance of the apparel’s tropical colors: turquoise and yellow, pink, and lime. While, at Lola Rouge Kids, designer fashionistas aged 6 to 16 go “gahgah” over its trend-setting party wear. Clearly, you’re not in London any more. Though, if you seek more conservative rags to don, explore Orange County’s only Bloomingdale’s or Neiman Marcus among Fashion Island’s 200 specialty stores.

The granddaddy of California’s destination shopping centers is Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza. Although sleek South Coast Plaza does not fit categorization as themed shopping, because it is such a favorite of travelers (24 million shoppers a year) it deserves a spot on any review of what makes California shopping special. South Coast Plaza’s distinction is its unusual concentration of the most glamorous names in design: Tiffany & Co., Valentino, CHANEL, St. John, Hermes, Dior, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton and Giorgio Armani to name a few (there just isn’t space here to name them all). More than a shopping center, South Coast Plaza’s 280 stores elevate shopping to the level of performance with their showmanship and the center’s five valet parking stations and five concierge desks that will arrange dinner reservations or theater tickets, if you can bear to stop perusing the stores.

If not, performance shopping is found at two of the biggest names in entertainment, Disney and Universal Pictures. Set between Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure theme parks, the shops and restaurants at Downtown Disney in Anaheim are all about having fun, whether buying sports merchandise at the ESPN Zone, listening to jazz as you dine at House of Blues, purchasing Disney memories at World of Disney, being amazed at the Lego Imagination Center or creating a new persona at Sephora. Universal City Walk at the entrance to Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles claims 65 cool things to do, from finding native American arts and crafts at Adobe Road, to dressing like a “hog” at the Harley Davidson store, to finding Southern California skateboard fashions at Skechers, to unearthing rare video games at EB Games, or to being amused by the rock and roll memorabilia as you chow down on a burger at the Hard rock Café Hollywood.

There’s a local saying that goes, “nobody walks in L.A.,” though along Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, it seems everyone in L.A. County is. This is one of the places to see Hollywood celebrities out and about, particularly midweek when it’s less crowded. Among those who have been seen on the three-block-long Promenade include Brad Pitt, Cher, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Charlise Theron, Jennifer Aniston, Whoopi Goldberg... by now you’ve figured out all area celebrities eventually stop here to watch a film at any of several multi-screen motion picture complexes, to shop at Fred Segal or buy an Austrian ice cream at Charley Tremmel’s.

If star watching is your bag, look for them (again, midweek) at the Beverly Center in L.A. (between Beverly Hills and Hollywood) or in Palm Springs along Palm Canyon Boulevard. The ultimate star-watching location is, however, Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive (pronounced Roh-DAY-oh). This posh street of high-end stores was the set for Julia Robert’s character’s shopping spree in the movie Pretty Woman. The shopping area is much more compact than the impression it made on the big screen. Allow an hour to walk its three blocks and a budget of $10,000 if you actually plan to buy something at Bijan (431 N. Rodeo Drive) reputed to be the world’s most expensive store. Though, the window shopping and people watching are free.

If there is an opposite of stuffy and pricey Rodeo Drive it must be historic Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles. This is where the Pueblo de Los Angeles began and this mercado still exudes the liveliness of a Mexican village. Street vendors sell Mexican jumping beans, restaurants serve authentic traditional recipes and vibrant Mexican art and crafts are displayed under red tile and canvas awnings along its cobbled streets.

The sights and textures of Olvera Street’s glimpse of old Mexico are quite a contrast from the Assyrian architecture of the Citadel Outlets south of downtown L.A. on Interstate 5. This outlet center was once the headquarters of the Samson Tire & Rubber Co. and to reflect a Samson and Delilah theme was fashioned after a 7th-century B.C. Assyrian palace and is adorned with heraldic griffins and bas-reliefs of Babylonian princes in the style of ancient Samaria, Akkadia and Babylonia. Today, the winged guardians at its entrance guard the retail royalty of: Calvin Klien, Tommy Hilfiger and the United Colors of Benetton, among the center’s many outlet stores.

If the Citadel is Sumaria, then Carmel by the Sea must be the place Californian Thomas Kinkade got his inspiration to paint cottages and gardens. This village set beside a picture-perfect bay on the Monterey Peninsula has, since its earliest days, sought to protect its beauty, charm and environment. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 displaced artists, poets, musicians and writers (Jack London among them), they gathered here and influenced the town’s bohemian style. Today, this village of Tudor-styled cottages and 200-plus shops is the epitome of “quaint,” a village of homes without street numbers where art galleries are more prevalent than petrol stations.

Columbia State Historic Park near Sonora, in the Gold Country, is another place that rejects the present. There, the 1850s live always. Wells Fargo stage coaches roll along its dusty streets, miners retell their tall tales, shops are filled with goods reminiscent of the California gold rush, and the sounds of laughter, card games and honky-tonk pianos are heard from inside saloons along its wooden sidewalks. A similar atmosphere is found in Old Sacramento, the original jumping off spot for the California gold rush in 1849. A blend of tourist shops and those serving the local populace keep travelers and residents alike returning to Old Sacramento, as happened from 1848 to the early 1870s, when the California Gold Rush eventually slowed.

One themed California shopping area that has never slowed down is San Francisco’s famous Chinatown. Since its earliest days, Chinatown has been a window to the Far East, importing exotic goods and spices to scent San Francisco streets with commerce and character. The Chinese immigrants who founded Chinatown didn’t know they were building a themed shopping area. They recreated what was familiar to them. The resulting pagoda-marked district is as close a resemblance of China as you’ll find outside the Orient. Street signs read in both Chinese and English characters, buildings have the stacked, up-swung roofs of royal palaces, smoked ducks hang in shop windows, small markets sell produce and fresh fish along the street, Chinese is spoken in all the shops, and carts laden with goods crowd sidewalks waiting to be shipped across the country. None of this was done to evoke character; it is real life in a fantasy place.

Just as on Santana Row, it’s easy to forget that you’re in California when exploring the fascinating shops of San Francisco’s Chinatown. As, California’s themed shopping areas have the common ability to entertain as you shop California.

Linking Shop California
Beverly Center – beverlycenter.com
Carmel by the Sea – carmelcalifornia.org
Chinatown – sanfranciscochinatown.com
Citadel Outlets – citadeloutlets.com
Columbia State Historic Park – parks.ca.gov/?page_id=552
Downtown Disney - disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/moreMagic/landing?
DowntownDisneyLandingPage
Fashion Island – shopfashionisland.com
Old Sacramento – oldsacramento.com
Old Town San Diego – oldtownsandiego.org
Palm Canyon Boulevard – palm-springs.org
Rodeo Drive – beverlyhillsbehere.com
Santa Monica – santamonica.com
Shop California – shopcalifornia.org
Seaport Village – spvillage.com
Santana Row – santanarow.com
South Coast Plaza – southcoastplaza.com
Universal Citywalk – citywalkhollywood.com

By: John Poimiroo
John Poimiroo is a travel writer, editor, photographer and communication specialist whose favorite subject is California. Find more at http://www.californiafun.us.

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