Big cruise ships banned from Venice centre from August: govt

MSN – AFP, 13 July 2021 

Scenes like this will soon be a thing of the past in Venice (Miguel Medina)

Large cruise ships will be banned from sailing into the centre of Venice from August 1 amid fears they are causing irreparable damage to the lagoon city, Italy's government said Tuesday. 

a large ship in the water: Scenes like this will soon be a thing of the past in Venice© Miguel MEDINA Scenes like this will soon be a thing of the past in Venice

"The decree adopted today represents an important step for the protection of the Venetian lagoon system," said Prime Minister Mario Draghi in a statement following a cabinet minister that approved the law. 

Instead they will be diverted to the city's industrial port of Marghera, although this is viewed as only a temporary solution, with ministers calling for ideas on a new permanent terminal. 

Campaigners have for years been calling for cruise ships to be banned from sailing past the iconic St Mark's Square, saying they cause large waves that undermine the city's foundations and harm the fragile ecosystem of its lagoon. 

The debate was reignited by the return last month of cruise ships after months of quiet in the city during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO late last month recommended Venice be put on a list of "World Heritage in Danger" sites ahead of a meeting of its World Heritage Committee in China starting Friday. 

Infrastructure minister Enrico Giovannini said the ban was a "necessary step to protect the environmental, landscape, artistic and cultural integrity of Venice". 

The ban will apply to ships which fulfil any of four criteria: weighing more than 25,000 tonnes, measuring more than 180 metres long, more than 35 metres high or producing more than 0.1 percent sulphur. 

Ships that do not fulfil one of these criteria -- notably smaller cruise ships with around 200 passengers -- are "considered sustainable" and will continue to be able to dock in Venice centre.

Pacific's Cook Islands mulls new name

Yahoo – AFP, 5 March 2019

Dancers from the Cook Islands perform during a ceremony in the capital,
Avarua. The government is considering changing the name of the tiny nation to
something more traditional

The tiny Pacific nation of Cook Islands is considering changing its name to something that reflects its Polynesian culture, rather than honouring the British explorer James Cook.

The government set up a committee in January to find a new indigenous name for the grouping of 15 islands, about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) northeast of New Zealand.

Initially the idea was to have the indigenous moniker feature alongside the existing Cook Islands name, in the same way that its larger neighbour is sometimes known as Aotearoa-New Zealand.

But committee chairman Danny Mataroa said Monday that once discussions began it became apparent there was support for dropping the Cook Islands name altogether in favour of one in the local language, known as Cook Islands Maori.

Map showing the Cook Islands

"When the committee members, which include Cook Islands historians and people with deep traditional knowledge, met we decided it was time we change the name of the country," he told AFP.

Mataroa said the new name should reflect the country's heritage, its people and its strong Christian belief.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown backed the move, but said there was still a long way to go before the nation of 12,000 people changed its name.

"I'm quite happy to look at a traditional name for our country which more reflects the true Polynesian nature of our island nation," he told Radio New Zealand.

It is not the first time the issue has surfaced, with a 1994 referendum to change the name to Avaiki Nui resoundingly defeated.

Weightlifter Sam Pera parades the Cook Islands flag during the opening ceremony 

of the 2004 Olympic Games. The tiny Pacific Ocean nation is considering a name 

change to something more traditional

The Cook Islands were a British protectorate from 1888 until 1900, when they came under New Zealand's jurisdiction.

The Cooks gained independence in 1965 but maintains close ties to Wellington, which takes responsibility for the Cooks' external affairs and allows its citizens to live and work in New Zealand.

Panda diplomacy: Two giant pandas from China land in Indonesia

Yahoo – AFP, 28 September 2017

One of two giant pandas stays inside a cage as they arrive at the
Sukarno-Hatta airport in Indonesia

Two giant pandas from China arrived in Indonesia on Thursday in an act of "panda diplomacy" aimed at celebrating 60 years of bilateral ties.

Cai Tao and Hu Chun, both aged seven, arrived from Sichuan province and will be housed at a safari zoo in Bogor, a city near the capital Jakarta.

The pandas were lent by Beijing to mark the diplomatic anniversary despite recent tensions between the nations, with a number of clashes between Chinese and Indonesian vessels in the South China Sea.

The delivery is the first time Indonesia has been lent pandas, the country's forest and environment ministry said, making it the 16th country to be gifted with the animals by China.

A safari zoo will be their home for the next ten years once they clear an initial month-long quarantine.

"We hope we can breed them, that Hu Chun and Cai Tao will mate so they'll have offspring while they're here," said Yulius Suprihardo, a spokesman for Taman Safari Indonesia.

The zoo has built a 1,300 metres squared panda home for Cai Tao, who weighs 128kg (282 pounds), and Hu Chun, who weighs 113 kg (249 pounds).

Giant pandas are considered vulnerable and there are only about 1,800 in the wild, according to conservation organisation World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

China's use of giant pandas -- a national icon -- as gifts has a long history and has been dubbed "panda diplomacy".

Indonesia maintains it has no maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea, unlike other Asian nations, and does not contest ownership of reefs or islets there.

But Beijing's expansive claims in the sea overlap Indonesia's exclusive economic zone -- waters where a state has the right to exploit resources -- around the remote Natuna Islands.

The skirmishes have prompted Indonesia to bolster defences there.

In July, Indonesia changed the name South China Sea to North Natuna Sea to show its sovereignty in the waters, prompting criticism from Beijing.

Hawaiian canoe comes home after epic round-the-world odyssey

Yahoo – AFP, 18 June 2017

Hawaiian canoe comes home after epic round-the-world odyssey

Los Angeles (AFP) - A traditional double-hulled canoe has returned to Hawaii after concluding a three-year epic journey around the globe, the first trip of its kind by such a boat.

The Hokule'a vessel and its crew entered the marina at Honolulu's Magic Island peninsula on Saturday after sailing more than 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 kilometres) since its departure from the island of Oahu in 2014.

Large crowds gathered for the homecoming celebration to commemorate the end of the odyssey, which intended to "weave a lei of hope around the world through sharing indigenous wisdom, groundbreaking conservation and preservation initiatives," according to voyage organisers.

The goal was to use only ancient methods of wayfinding -- reading the stars, winds and waves -- to guide the journey, just as the first Polynesian settlers who reached the archipelago did hundreds of years ago.

The Hokule'a -- the Hawaiian name for "star of gladness" -- was the first traditional double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe built in 600 years, according to the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

The canoe's maiden voyage in 1976 was to Tahiti in French Polynesia.

Crews of some dozen people rotated at major ports of call throughout the round-the-world journey after undergoing training.

The homecoming celebration kicked off a three-day summit to celebrate the journey and discuss future sailing plans.

"Through her voyages, Hokule'a has sparked a reawakening of Hawaiian culture, language, identity and revitalised voyaging and navigation traditions throughout the Pacific Ocean," voyage organisers said.

Ancient warrior's tomb and huge treasure hoard found in Greece

Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2015

An undated picture released on October 26, 2105 by the Greek Culture Ministry

 shows an ivory comb, one of the items found in a 3,500 years old warrior tomb 

unearthed in the Peloponeese region of Greece (AFP Photo)

Athens (AFP) - US archaeologists in Greece have uncovered the skeleton of an ancient warrior that has lain undisturbed for more than 3,500 years along with a huge hoard of treasure, the Greek culture ministry announced Monday.

The treasure is "the most important to have been discovered in 65 years" in continental Greece, the ministry said.

The wooden coffin of the unknown soldier -- evidently a person of some importance -- was found on the site of the Mycenaean-era Palace of Nestor on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula.

He had been laid to rest with an array of fine gold jewellery, including an ornate string of pearls, signet rings, a bronze sword with a gold and ivory handle, silver vases and ivory combs.

The jewellery is decorated in the style of the Minoans, the civilisation that flourished on the island of Crete from around 2000 BC, with the figures of deities, animals and floral motifs.

The archaeologists, Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker from the University of Cincinnati, have identified more than 1,400 pieces "whose quality testifies to the influence of the Minoans" on the later Mycenaeans.

The Mycenean civilisation spread from the Peloponnese across the whole of the eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd century BC.

The tomb, which stands at 2.4 metres (7 feet 10 inches) long and 1.5 metres wide, was unearthed during excavations begun in May near Pylos, on the site of the palace of Nestor.

Built between 1300 and 1200 BC, the palace's ruins were discovered in 1939.

Canadian wins Swedish prize for fight for Inuit rights

Yahoo – AFP, 1 October 2015

The Inuit culture in the Arctic is acutely threatened by climate change," according

to the Right Livelihood jury (AFP Photo)

Stockholm (AFP) - Inuit and Arctic activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier of Canada on Thursday won the 2015 Right Livelihood Award, the jury for the Swedish human rights prize announced.

Watt-Cloutier was honoured for her "lifelong work to protect the Inuit of the Arctic and defend their right to maintain their livelihoods and culture, which are acutely threatened by climate change," the jury said in a statement.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier addresses the 

2007 Women Leaders Global
Security meeting in New York 
(AFP Photo/Don Emmert)

She shared the prize with two other laureates: Ugandan activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabageserales, who fights for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersexual (LGBTI) communities, and Italian doctor Gino Strada who founded the medical charity Emergency that helps rehabilitate war victims.

The three laureates will share the 3.0-million-kronor (320,00-euro, $358,000) prize sum.

The foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, Tony de Brum, and the islands' entire population meanwhile won the Right Livelihood Honorary Award for their "their vision and courage to take legal action against the nuclear powers for failing to honour their disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull founded the donor-funded prize in 1980 after the Nobel Foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create awards honouring efforts in the fields of the environment and international development.

They were introduced "to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today," according to the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which oftens calls its distinction the "alternative Nobel prize."

Related Article:

Marshall Islands sues nine nuclear powers over failure to disarm

Photos emerge of incredible Easter Island discovery

News.com.au, June 10, 2015

Archaeologists dig up the famous statues. Picture: Easter Island Statue
Project Source: Supplied

THERE’S a lot more to Easter Island’s famous statues than first meets the eye.

A new series of photographs of the 2012 excavation has emerged that captures the moment archaeologists dug out the previously hidden stone bodies, discovering a surprising secret along the way; the monoliths were covered in detailed ancient tattoos.

The images have been shared widely on social media, being viewed more than 1 million times on Imgur.

They show intricate markings such as crescents, which academics say represent the canoes of the local Polynesians, the UK’s Mirror reports. Little else is known about the markings yet.

Detailed markings are visible. Picture: The Easter Island Statue Project
Source: Supplied

There are 887 huge statues carved between AD 100 and 1800 — which are up to 10 metres tall. Members of the Easter Island Statue Project have been excavating the statues for years, and provided the first photos of their torsos in 2012. This surprised many, with people believing they only had heads.

“The reason people think they are (only) heads is there are about 150 statues buried up to the shoulders on the slope of a volcano, and these are the most famous, most beautiful and most photographed of all the Easter Island statues,” Jo Anne Van Tilburg from the Easter Island Statue Project said.

“This suggested to people who had not seen photos of (other unearthed statues) that they are heads only.”

They are fascinating. Picture: The Easter Island Statue Project Source: Supplied

In 1919 pictures of the first excavations by the Mana Expedition to Easter Island revealed that some statues were full sized. The discovery was confirmed in 1955 by the explorer Thor Heyerdahl when his Norwegian Archaeological Expedition excavated a statue.

Over subsequent decades the discoveries were gradually forgotten, known by archaeologists but not by tourists, who began visiting the isolated island in the 1990s.

They’re discovering an island that was first settled by Polynesian people who arrived by canoe as part of a great wave of Pacific colonisation.

Much remains unknown about the statues — how were they made? How was such a remote island populated? How were they moved around the island? And what happened to the society that had resorted to cannibalism by the time Captain James Cook visited in 1774?

Related Articles:

The Mysteries Revealed of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (5) - Oct 18-21, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Easter Island’s Carnival Magic Seduces Tourists

Jakarta Globe, Mike Leyral, Feb 22, 2015

People take part in dance contest in Hanga Roa on Chile's Easter Island (or Rapa
 Nui as its inhabitants call it) in the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 10, 2015 as part of the 47th
 edition of Tapati, an all-out 15-day contest between rival teams to crown a new monarch.
(AFP Photo/Gregory Boissy)

Far from home on Chile’s Easter Island for Carnival festivities, one middle-aged American woman throws caution to the wind. Stripped down to a thong, she lets a local reveler paint her chest.

“If someone had told me I would end up walking down the street almost naked, I would never have believed it,” the woman, who only gave her first name Susan, said.

Susan is one of a few thousand tourists who joined the Pacific island’s 9,000 residents for Tapati, an exuberant mix of music, dance and traditional sports that takes place for two weeks every February.

In the island’s only town Hanga Roa, revelers wait in a long line under the blistering tropical summer sun to take part in a time-honored ritual — a plunge in an old tub filled with clay.

A man known as Ale then spreads with his hand this reddish-brown natural paint on the bodies of other locals — and any tourist ready to participate.

Then, other lines form in front of tubs filled with white and yellow paint.

It’s time for the Rapa Nui — the Polynesian word for both the island and its residents — to paint symbols, inspired by the local Birdman legend, or characters from the long-lost Rongorongo system of writing.

Shortly after 5:00 p.m., a warrior blows into an enormous shell, signaling the start of the nightly parade, which features colorful floats and dancers in elaborate costumes, not unlike the massive Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.

The Tapati festival is at once a test of masculine strength and feminine grace celebrating Polynesian pride.

Easter Island is at the southernmost point of the so-called Polynesian Triangle — a Pacific region with Hawaii and New Zealand at the other corners.

The Unesco World Heritage Site is famous for its nearly 900 massive stone monuments — the Moai, carved by the Rapa Nui hundreds of years ago.

Rival teams are locked in an all-out contest to crown a new Tapati queen, who reigns for a year.

Numerous races and other contests take place — including reed board surfing, underwater fishing, fruit-carrying, a triathlon and horse races — but the nightly parades and dance competitions are the highlight.

Locals spend months carving out large wooden statues for the parade floats from Eucalyptus trees representing deified ancestors, such as the mystical Moai stone giants or the Birdman.

One night, a man draped in animal skins leads the way on his motorcycle, featuring a bull’s skull on the steering wheel.

Behind him, a woman dressed as a mermaid — her costume made of all-natural materials including a tail taken from a tuna caught just that morning — poses on a float decorated with huge wooden octopuses.

People originally from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia play large pahu drums, while the Rapa Nui prefer horse jaws that make a light sound close to maracas when the teeth hit one another.

Some of the Tapati activities reflect a more Latin vibe taken from Chile — the elderly do battle to be the accordion king, as young people display their tango skills.

But the Polynesian dance competitions are fierce.

At the Hanga Vare Vare, the main festival stage in Hanga Roa, dancers sway sensually to the Polynesian drum rhythms.

Agence France-Presse

Related Article:

The Mysteries Revealed of Rapa Nui (5) - Oct 18-21, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Jakarta Welcomes Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth

Jakarta Globe, Dec 22, 2014

The USS Forth Worth was welcomed in

 Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok port by traditional

dancers on Monday. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

Jakarta. The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth arrived in Jakarta on Monday as part of a 16-month rotational deployment in support of the Indo-Asia Pacific rebalance.

This port visit is Fort Worth’s first in Southeast Asia, and also marks the first visit of a littoral combat ship to the archipelagic nation.

Greeting the ship upon its arrival were the US ambassador to Indonesia, Robert O. Blake Jr.;  commander of Indonesia’s Western Fleet Command, Rear Adm. Widodo; commander of the US 7th Fleet’s Task Force 73, Rear Adm. Charlie Williams; and commander of the Destroyer Squadron 7, Capt. Fred Kacher.

“Fort Worth’s arrival in Jakarta is the first of many engagements she will conduct with regional navies while deployed to 7th Fleet for the next 15 months,” said Williams. “This port visit also speaks to our strong and growing partnership with the Indonesian Navy.”

Southeast Asia is a textbook example of a littoral region and an area where LCS is uniquely suited to operate. With its maneuverability, high speed and shallow draft, LCS-class vessels provide a regular and routine presence in the region, while gaining access to places where larger US Navy ships cannot reach.

Fort Worth is of comparable size to the warships operated by regional navies in Southeast Asia, and a major benefit of the platform is its ability to work with them during exercises like Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat).

Fort Worth will return to Indonesia in 2015 as part of the Carat series.

“Fort Worth’s arrival in Jakarta is a new dawn for US Navy operations in Southeast Asia,” Kacher said. “As someone who has lived and worked in the region for the past two years, the question I consistently receive from our partners is, ‘When is LCS coming?’

“With Fort Worth now here, and additional LCSs rotationally deploying to Singapore in the coming years, I can confidently tell our partners that LCS is here for good and she’s ready to operate at sea with you,” he added.

Fort Worth will employ the surface warfare mission package for her entire deployment, augmenting her 57-millimeter gun and rolling airframe missile launcher with two 30-mm guns, two 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boats and two six-member maritime security boarding teams.

Enhancing the SUW mission package is the embarked aviation detachment from Helicopter Maritime Squadron (HSM) 35, the Navy’s first composite expeditionary helicopter squadron, which consists of one MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and one MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aircraft system.

The Fire Scout will complement the MH-60R by extending the HSM-35’s range and endurance, enhancing maritime domain awareness.

“Our embarked surface warfare mission package provides us with significant capability,” said Cmdr. Kendall Bridgewater, LCS Crew 104 commanding officer. “With two RHIBs and highly trained boarding teams, LCS has the tools and skilled sailors to train and operate with our partners as we work together to ensure maritime security.”

Since departing San Diego on Nov. 17, Fort Worth transited the Pacific Ocean and visited Hawaii and Guam. Following the Jakarta port visit, Fort Worth will head to Singapore, the primary maintenance and logistics hub for littoral combat ships rotationally deployed to the 7th Fleet.

The US 7th Fleet conducts forward-deployed naval operations in support of US national interests in the Indo-Asia-Pacific area of operations. As the US Navy’s largest numbered fleet, the 7th Fleet interacts with 35 other maritime nations to build partnerships that foster maritime security, promote stability and prevent conflict.

US attempts to halt Paris auction of sacred Native American artefacts

Embassy calls for delay to see whether masks and headdresses can be reclaimed by Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes

theguardian.com, Kim Willsher in Paris, Sunday 8 December 2013        

A Kachina Angwushahai-i mask, circa 1860-1870, which is one of 25 Native
 American artefacts due to be auctioned in Paris. Photograph: Arnaud
Guillaume/AFP/Getty Images

International campaigners are making last-minute efforts to halt the sale in Paris of sacred ceremonial masks and headdresses from Native American tribes.

The US embassy appealed to the auction house to delay the sale, due to be held on Monday and Tuesday, so the 25 items from the Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes can be identified to see whether they can reclaim them.

The battle follows attempts to halt an auction of 70 Hopi masks in Paris in April. Even the intervention of the Hollywood actor Robert Redford, who described the earlier sale as a "criminal act … that could have serious moral consequences", was not enough to halt the €930,000 (£780,000) sale.

On Friday, Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples, lost a legal challenge over the latest auction. The French judge, Claire David, said neither moral nor philosophical considerations could justify preventing a legal sale.

On Saturday, Mark Taplin, the US charge d'affaires in Paris, delivered a letter to the EVE auction house asking for the sale to be delayed.

"The embassy made this request on behalf of the two tribes so that they might have the opportunity to identify the objects, investigate their provenance and determine whether they have a claim to recover the items under the 1970 Unesco convention on the export and transfer of ownership of cultural property, to which France is a signatory, or under other laws," the embassy said in a statement.

US diplomats emphasised the "great importance" of the objects to the Native Americans and said they should not be sold "precipitously and in the absence of consultation" with the two tribes.

The sale of sacred Native American artefacts was banned in the US in 1990 but there is no similar legislation in France.

The EVE auction will sell more than 100 Amerindian artefacts, but the rare masks, described as "exceptional" are the most contested. Among them, is a version of the Tumas Crow Mother mask dating from the 1860s and given a catalogue price of between €60,000 and €80,000.

EVE auctioneer Alain Leroy said: "Never has a sale of Amerindian art gathered together as many ancient and rare objects."

Related Articles:

Native American masks sold in Paris to be returned to tribes - New

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Orcas put on show as ferry transports tribal artifacts to Bainbridge Island

Killer whales have been thrilling whale watchers this week in Puget Sound. But
they were especially exciting Tuesday when nearly three dozen orcas surrounded
 the ferry from Seattle as it approached the terminal on Bainbridge Island. NOAA
Fisheries Service photo by Candice Emmons

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