Environment: ....us and the future...

Foto of me 8 years ago at Perito Moreno,Argentina... (I wonder how the glaciar looks now)

Robert Swan caught my attention when he came to deliver a speach on Identity at the Business Week 2007 at Erasmus University. It was his amazing communicating skills plus his amazing carrer that left me perplexed.

Belive it or not by the age of 33 he had walked to the north and south poles. Its astonishing how determined and focus some individuals can be about their goals. And you would wonder why the hell Id care about someone who has walked the poles. To begin with he did the walk all on his own. These walks were only the beggining of his carrer. They inspired him to strive for his goal " to work for the preservation of the Antarctic as the last great wilderness on earth". He then became the UN Goodwill Ambassador and had to deliver a speach about conservation of the enviorment. Shocking to me was the images he showed us of a before and after place in the Antartica from where he removed 1,000 tons of garbage. All this removal was done by hand, and they could only work in the terrain 3 months every year. In his fight towards sustainability and preservation for the enviorment he also bought a Yacht, named 2041 by which he went around Africa informing about AIDS and enviormental problems. He now leads expeditions to antartica and has opened an education station in Antartica.

Robert Swan, has left his life behind and has no money nor pension funds waiting for him. He is working on what he believes neeeds to be done to save our enviorment now and for the future. Its admirable how dedicated he is, and how determined he is to transmit his believes to others.

I think lately we have all heard a lot of enviormental talk, but sometimes it takes good speaker to inspire us to do a large change. Just think about the next two things:

• 10 of the past 15 years were the hottest on record
• Antarctica's ice sheet holds 70% of the world's fresh water supply. If it were to melt, the world's oceans would rise approximately 70 meters or 230 feet

And do note that in 2041 it will not only be the 40th anniversary of september 11 attacks, the 100 th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the 50th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. But most importantly, it will be the year that the Environmental Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty comes up for review. This treaty has set the antartica as a scientific preserve and military activity in the continent is banned. Lets keep it this way and work together to preserve the enviorment and our future lives.

...Summer...

So the summer itinerary is complete!!! Im really excited as the journey approches, except for the fact that I will be traveling alone. You can have a look at My more exact itinerary, but in the bottom i attach an overall picture, created by MyMaps of Google :) In total it will be 4 days in Toronto and almost 3 weeks in the states, mainly jumping around cities for very short times. Chicago,Washington,Dallas (not intending to meet with Bush,but might arrange a meeting with him..) San Franscico (and hoping around California) and Hawaii. Then towards Sydney (where I will be working) to spend some time with my parents, a visit to friends in Melbourne and a visit to Auckland and northern Australia. Then arrival in Bangkok to spend one month backpacking in Laos&Cambodia, and before spending 1 week with my parents at my old home Tokyo (super freaking excited about that!!!) ill spend 3 days in Singapore.

Then, back via London to Amsterdam and take all my things and go to Paris to start a new life and hmm try and get some rest :)

Well, I will be meeting a few of you in most of the locations. If by any chance you are traveling as well, do let me know, meeting up is always good. Im gona see a bunch of you this summer, which is very exciting :D But suprises are always welcomed! Im leaving the transiberia train for next year :) but yeah, its still in my list :)

For now, thats all folks!

Almost a week since arrival from Italy

Vezza D Oglio + Bailey´s ---- "Back into the past"

It is scary how quickly time is flying bye. One weekend ago we were in Italy, and now here we are finalizing our courses and I am geting ready for my summer departure. It just feels that things are going a bit too quickly. But I cant stop time!!! As I get all the preparations done for moving away and for my summer trip (by the way itineary is definative and hostels have been booked!). I got about 5 shifts to go in my job, and then its over....woho, just sounds surreal.
In the meanwhile i have spend a few hours today attempting to create my own website which hasnt been very successful with the free webhosters, so maybe we will leave that for another day :D Better to keep you all updated through my blog.

Since I didnt upload any pictures from the past weekend I have decided it might be a good idea to do so. So here we go. . . (unfortunately its just taking too long to upload the pictures, so I leave these 3 images as the summary of my past weekend in Italy)

The little kiten, so cute :)

Lovely Venice

Walk the World : World Hunger

Today we walked the world.

Walking the World is an event to raise awarness of hunger in the world. It takes place every year and people walk in each time zone of the world.Starting at 13.00 by the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam, we walked 5 kilometers. The 5 kilometers were representative of the fact that every 5 seconds a child dies of hunger. In total 18,000 children die every day. So to raise some awarness, we joined the event organized by the World Food Program, and supported by TNT and Unilever, and walked together with 2498 other people the 5 kilometers. True, it was cloudy, but what can you expect from the Netherlands. . .

If you didnt walk this year dont forget to:

Walk the World in 2008

(you can walk a walk or organize your own)

and

Donate some money to the World Food Program

Three Walkers of Rotterdam´s 2007 Walk the World Walk

Wine

Its shamefull, embarrasing and pathetic.

As a country tries to go forward to reduce the number of deaths in the road, to try and implement a new driving license by "points", to try to rais conciousness of the importance of not mixing driving and drinking there is still one person who comes up with criticism ....very UNconstructive criticism.

Let me introduce you to mr.X who on may 4th was awarded the honorific medal from the Wine Academy in Castella y Leon (Spain). As he recieved his price he decided to make some remarks about how wine and driving are related.

His speach included the following statements:

After seeing the new advertisments which note that one should not drink and drive he states " Let me drink!" and ironically he joked about the new ads.

He also comments "I dont like to be told that I can not go at a higher velocity than that stated in the rules, that you can not eat hamburgers, you must prevent this and that and in addition I forbid you to drink wine"

" The number of wine glasses that I must or must not drink, let me drink them on my own and with peace. I am not puting anybodys life in stake, im not hurting anybody".

He has decided to name the traffic regulations agains drinking and driving as the "law agaist the wine" (Note:In Spain, it is still allowed to drink a cup of wine or a beer if you want to drive).

"Wine is a drink that all spaniards should be proud of"

Let me introduce you to the great man who made all these comments. His name is Jose Maria Aznar, and yes, he WAS the Spanish President (1996-2004). Simply unbelivable. Criticizing the opposition is okay. However, making such pathetic statements on the hard work of some that try and improve a system to make the roads saver for all of us is simply Disrespectfull, Pathetic, and Embarassing... And worse, to think that he was representing us for 8 years is outraging.

In case you havent met him yet: Here is his profile picture. P.S. His wife name is Ana Botella, let me translate (Ana Bottle), Dont forget to check out his little moustache, isnt he..... (you fill in the blank).