ECOCLUB Blogs™

Viriathus, leader of the Lusitanians (now Portuguese) and previously honoured as "a friend of Rome" was executed/assasinated on Roman orders. When the perpetrators came to collect, the Roman consul Servilius Cipianus ordered their execution saying: "Roma proditores non pendit" (Rome does not pay traitors). With the death of Viriathus, Lusitanian resistance waned and Lusitania was romanized and lost its language.As Karl Marx wrote “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor's_justicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viriathus

We are all descendants of migrants. Many of us migrate during our lifetime, even for short periods. There are no illegal human beings. Yet, many 'worry' about the 'problem' of 'illegal' migration. They are scared by people who are seeking a better life, at the same time that they are hiring them, for peanuts and without medical insurance, to clean their homes, offices and cars and babysit their children. Others have no moral problem, but still want to 'integrate' migrants by force, to interfere with what clothes they should or should not wear, to teach them history, a new language, to ensure that they enjoy from day 1 the same rights and privileges as old citizens. In effect, they may be creating in the short term as many obstacles as those who oppose migration. It is a difficult topic. Ideally, we should be able to do away with borders, but the precondition for this is a world without wars, with 'liberty, fraternity and equality'. A world which today seems at least as distant as in 1789.Related Website: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/events/migrants/

Modern greeks are more or less laggards in the EU in terms of computer use, rather opting for the great outdoors. Not so for our ancient forefathers, as the 2,100 year old 'Antikythera mechanism' has now been confirmed as the world's earliest computer: "The level of miniaturisation and complexity of its parts is comparable to that of 18th century clocks."http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1960316,00.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/...E933C9C66E22E65

Quiz: in which major travel awards the winner in one of the categories was a subsidiary of the award sponsors? Shurely shome mishtake? But who cares, they take turns winning awards.

A great movie, Babel by the new, great Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, in another powerful screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) In a way, a hymn to globalisation, a criticism on borders and their dehumanising influence, the plight of immigrants, the anti-terrorism hysteria, urban loneliness and the sometimes surreal position of tourism in all these. A must see!

Just received an evaluation form for a conference I had attended er,  four years ago.One of the questions asks 'what did you expect to gain from our conference'Honestly? Er, I don't remember.

On a nature tour operator's website, I came across a sticker saying"100% (country name) owned & operated, click for 100% verification"I wonder how the 100% (why not 1000%) verification is performed. Does one has to sing the national anthem backwards? Do you get to shoot any enemies?Inoccuous but still ugly & dangerous nationalism.

Interesting rank:http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_pri_...ners-per-capitaOne can spot at least 8 picture perfect tourism destinations in the top 20!And how about the alternative "Happy Planet Index" which attemps to show "the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens". Some of the same tourism destinations are up there too! Strange, except if a jail is considered an efficient use of space. No wonder, who is at 2nd place, most happiest: Colombia. Hmmmhttp://www.happyplanetindex.org/list.htm

The Independent's Johann Hari commenting on the recent papal comments furore, attributes it to Freud's 'Narcissism of small differences' whereby 'you are more likely to hate someone who is very similar to you, rather than someone who is drastically different'... Brilliant!http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=985

were recently approached by an intermediary, who wanted to do an editorial for us in a leading magazine promoting 'environmentalism and corporate social responsibility'. Great. Small detail? we would have to pay Euros 3,000. Bit my tongue and remained polite. Why?Would have loved to explain the irony to them, but after all it was just someone 'doing their job', selling ads...