ECOCLUB Blogs™

  <p> <img alt="" src="https://ecoclub.com/images/64/dolphins.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 5px;" />It is 72 years since shrude businessmen in Marine Studios dolphinarium in Florida discovered that dolphins could be taught to perform tricks, and four years since the UN Year of the Dolphin 2007, when scientific evidence surfaced that dolphins are human-like, self-aware, intelligent beings and &nbsp;<a href="http://www.indefenseofdolphins.com/">‘nonhuman persons’</a> . &nbsp;In the European Union alone, there are 34 dolphinaria, hosting 280 captive dolphins, whales and other cetaceans, many of whom were not born in captivity but are actually products of poaching and smuggling. &nbsp;There are another 26 dolphinaria in non-EU European countries and many more in the United States, Mexico and Japan.</p> <p> Thus, this week greek Green MEP Michail Tremopoulos raised a written question to the Commission of the European Parliament in Brussels, asking the European Commission to consider banning dolphinaria, facilities where dolphins and whales are kept in captivity and forced to ‘entertain’ spectators , in many cases tourists, by performing degrading and unnatural tricks and acrobatics. Tremopoulos based his question on Council Directive 1999/22/EC relating to the keeping of wild animals in zoos which requires that zoos accommodate “their animals under conditions which aim to satisfy the biological and conservation...

The Lodge at Big Falls has increased its capacity to eight units with the addition of two new elegant cabanas. Features:  Hardwood floor and ceiling made from a mix of secondary tropical hardwoods including nargusta, santa maria and milady - Insulated roof helps cool in hot weather - 2 Queen beds - Two ceiling fans - Air conditioning - En-suite bathroom and shower - On-demand gas water heater is energy efficient and you will not run out of hot water - Kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, table top stove with two burners - Outside verandah facing the river bank.

  Today we attended the long-awaited presentation of  a new study – proposal for a new Greek Tourism Development Model, prepared by the greek association of tourism enterprises, SETE, which represents the interests of  large tourism businesses. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, there was nothing new therein, apart from some truisms and neoliberal recipes for more golf, holiday homes, 5-star hotels and the removal of all ‘bureaucratic’ obstacles that scare (?) investors planning mega-resorts. Although the proposal contains some telling statistics indicating that greek tourism has already reached stagnation – for example excessive hotel construction during 2000-2009 which has resulted in a 400,000 bed surplus with the highest increase 154% in 4 and 5-star hotels --  it fails to interpret these very numbers, arguing for more expansion, and more luxury hotels. But what was particularly annoying and regressive was its critique of small-size (locally-owned) tourism businesses and of  alternative forms of tourism, which it considers as a mere add-ons to the Sun-sea-sand model ‘which should not be abandoned’. Other key features are its total lack of attention to (serious) hotel worker issues ,  an arrogance towards elected governments including the strange demand for a permanent secretary for tourism which will not change when there is a government...

opening the new year with two great videos: the award-winning, short film "Pet Shop" by new greek director Michael-Gabriel Zenelis, a subtle comment on the cruel, consumerist, competitive system but also hopeful in a way by showing that the alternatives are in front of us. The second video is one of the best by 'The Love Police' team, who humorously protest against the taking over of the commons by the corporates (using a famous London tourist attraction as an example), the loss of our privacy by security hysteria and what links the two processes. Non quia difficilia sunt non audemus, sed quia non audemus, difficilia sunt. "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." - Seneca  

Ancient Grains and Modern Tastes Kritamon Restaurant, Archanes, Crete Tuesday, February 1, 2011 7:00 pm - 10:30 pm Presented by Chef-Proprietor Dimitris Mavrakis, Kritamon Restaurant Organic Vintner Evangelos Sinadinakis, Eltina Wines in collaboration with Nikki Rose of Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries A four-course dinner featuring fresh, local organic ingredients paired with organic wines. Full menu link 26 Euros per person Advance reservations required. Space is limited to 30 people. Contact Kritamon directly to make reservations Tel 2810 753092 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.kritamon.gr  

  After 20 years in business, it seemed time to try another format for our popular EcoTourism Management newsletter. It isn't exactly NBC News but I thought a video version might be more engaging; it seems people are reading less and watching more. While you won't have time to get through a whole bowl of popcorn (maybe a handful) while you watch this, I'm hoping it still conveys some food for thought. http://www.14dd5266c70789bdc806364df4586335-gdprlock/user/Reinventure?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/WwUiyLQsKNU You can still read the written version at http://www.kalahari-online.com/winter11.pdf Let me know which version you prefer! Happy 2011 Carol

Wish everybody a happy year 2011!

Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT) facilitated the participation of artisans from the Chitral district to Lok Virsa Handicraft/ Looming Exhibition in Shakarparian, Islamabad from December 28 to30, 2010. The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight the products from different parts of Pakistan, giving market linkages and exposure opportunities to artisans to learn from each other’s work. Chitral’s pavilion attracted a good number of visitors who showed interest in the handicrafts and bought Chitrali cap, woolen and goat-hair carpet, wooden spoon and so on. In the meantime, training about looming was also imparted to artisans aimed at diversifying their products and to make it more market-friendly. This could be possible by changing the designs, patterns and color system of the products. Likewise, the frame looming which is in vogue in Chitral has to be changed for an easier method called ‘pit looming’, practiced in Sindh and Punjab. It is quite worrying that at present the handicraft of Chitral is at cross-road. The work, which is more or less women-centered, is labor-intensive whilst the price is not as encouraging as to engage young generation. This means the handicraft is dying out. The only safe way to protect it is by...

Along with the mainstreaming of worries for Climate Change, there are sinister attempts through a revival of long-discredited malthusianism, to blame it on the many have-nots rather than the few haves, on overpopulation rather than on capitalism, on some of the symptoms rather than the causes. The 8-point platform of 'Deep Ecology', written by Arne Naess and George Sessions,  contains an arbitrary malthusian argument that is very hard to digest: "The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a *substantial decrease* of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life *requires* such a decrease." Most of the other 7 points are apolitical truisms ("Eco-La-La" a la Bookchin) talking about..."humans" in general. Arne Naess, the founder of Deep Ecology, was a very affluent dweller of a very affluent country, in fact the younger brother of the famous Norwegian shipping magnate Erling Dekke Naess. Indeed many radical philosophers and leaders (such as Engels and Marx, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Castro, Che) were also offsprings of the bourgeoisie and of the aristocracy, however they went against the interests of their class, and suffered to various degrees for it. Naess, perhaps the youngest ever university philosophy professor at 27 y.o., went mountaineering and had time...

The Kalash people, living in Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur valleys of the district, began to celebrate their winter festival Chitramas on Wednesday with spiritual zeal. The final day of the weeklong festival coincides with the first day of the new year of Kalash calendar. In every village, some Kalash men and women volunteer to confine themselves in a cattle pen. The tradition is called Autik, which means ‘to get secluded’ in the local dialect. The secluded persons completely insulate themselves from other people during the week and eat the meat of slaughtered goats, drink and pass time in merrymaking. The elder Kalash congregate on the hilltops or plateaus to observe the movement of sun on the basis of which they declare the advent of new year on the final day of the festival. Tash Khan, a Kalash youth from Rumbur valley, working at a government office in Chitral city, said he availed a week leave to participate in the festival but failed to enlist himself among the people on seclusion. He said during Autik even a sight of other people was believed to pollute them. “Kalash slaughter their goats, mostly one goat per adult man or woman, on the concluding day...