Ivory Coast Basilica Surpasses St. Peter’s

It already is being called one of the new wonders of Africa or, conversely, a monumental folly.

What “it” is is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, the largest church ever built and the object of much debate in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, where it rises above the surrounding forest like some unearthly transplant.

Built at a reported cost of $180 million under the orders of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who has ruled the West African nation since its independence from France in 1960, the marble, bronze and glass cathedral is 525 feet tall, has a dome higher and wider than St. Peter’s in Rome and a plaza that can hold 300,000 people.

The Catholic cathedral has been donated to the Vatican by Houphouet-Boigny and will be dedicated by Pope John Paul II in Yamoussoukro on Monday.

Only 10% of the country’s population is Catholic, so the basilica is likely to be more of a tourist attraction than a church, but in the economically troubled Ivory Coast, that might be a blessing.

Quick Fact: There are expected to be 10 million cruise passengers annually by the year 2000.

Soviets Can’t Lick This Problem: Moscow, which often boasts of having the world’s best ice cream, has a shortage in these waning days of summer.

Ice cream kiosks on street corners and in city parks have been displaying “no ice cream” signs, although they continue to sell souvenirs, marshmallows, chocolates and other candies.

Ice cream is still available at foreign outlets, such as the Baskin-Robbins stores in the Rossia Hotel and on the Arbat pedestrian mall, or the Soviet-Swiss joint-venture Pinguin.

But lines are long and prices are high for Muscovites who have always taken pride in their own ice cream, which they buy in paper-wrapped slabs or on sticks, rather than in cones.

Officials said the shortage has been caused by two of the three ice cream-making factories in Moscow being closed for repairs this summer.

Fees Take a Hike: If it seems as though you’re paying a bit more to camp or hike or fish these days, you are. On Sept. 1, California’s Department of Parks and Recreation raised the cost of campsites, day use, boat rentals and other services in the state parks system.

Most fees were increased by about $2, with the idea being to place a greater portion of the cost of state park operation on park users rather than taxpayers as a whole.

Grains of Time: Studies on how to restore Cancun’s beach are about half complete, and work will probably begin in 1991. A large portion of the resort’s famous white-sand beach washed away when Hurricane Gilbert hit the Yucatan Peninsula two years ago.

Quintana Roo Gov. Miguel Borge Martin was recently quoted in the Mexican press as saying that everyone who benefits from the beach should cooperate to restore the seven-mile section of beach. His comment was an apparent call to resort hotel owners to foot the bill for the expensive work.

Because the movement of heavy equipment and construction workers will disrupt tourist activities, work on restoring the beach is unlikely to begin before next year, after the peak tourism season that begins in December.

Quick Fact: The Netherlands accounts for nearly two-thirds of world trade in cut flowers and over half of world trade in potted plants.

Bucha-rats, Romania: One of the things about dictators is that they tend to attract rats, both human and animal.

Having rid itself of Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania is now turning its attention to ridding Bucharest of rats, which multiplied rapidly in the last years of Ceausescu’s regime because few chemical poisons were brought into the country under the dictator’s drive to cut imports.

A $300,000 war has been delared on the rodents, which forage in garbage bins and scurry under the gleaming Western cars outside luxury hotels at night.

Snakes Alive: Those planning on dining in the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong in the near future would be advised to steer clear of the Tai Wah Chinese restaurant.

Recently, authorities found a live 25-foot, 44-pound python, along with raw and processed skins of Royal Bengal tigers, bears, deer, wolves and lizards piled in the back yard of the restaurant.

“The huge stock of contraband was awaiting export by illegal traders,” police said.

Hunting or selling wildlife has been banned in Bangladesh since 1982.