ISSN 1847-6694
NEKTARINA (S)PACE
April 2013
Earth Day In this issue: The Plitvice Lakes, Liveable Cities, Rivers in Urban Areas, Supernatural Festival, Wellgreen Lewes Skincare and more
Earth Day 2013
Every year on April 22, more than one billion people take part in Earth Day. Across the globe, individuals, communities, organizations, and governments acknowledge the amazing planet we call home and take action to protect it.
Climate change has many faces. A man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise, a farmer in Kansas struggling to make ends meet as prolonged drought ravages the crops, a fisherman on the Niger River whose nets often come up empty, a child in New Jersey who lost her home to a super-storm, a woman in Bangladesh who can’t get fresh water due to more frequent flooding and cyclones… And they’re not only human faces. They’re the polar bear in the melting arctic, the tiger in India’s threatened mangrove forests, the right whale in plankton-poor parts of the warming North Atlantic, the orangutan in Indonesian forests segmented by more frequent bushfires and droughts…
These faces of climate change are multiplying every day. For many, climate change can often seem remote and hazy – a vague and complex problem far off in the distance that our grandchildren may have to solve. But that’s only because they’re still fortunate enough to be insulated from its mounting consequences. Climate change has very real effects on people, animals, and the ecosystems and natural resources on which we all depend. Left unchecked, they’ll spread like wildfire. Luckily, other faces of climate change are also multiplying every day. Every person who does his or her part to fix the problem is also a Face of Climate Change: the entrepreneurs who see opportunity in creating the new green economy, the activists who organize community action and awareness campaigns, the engineers who design the clean technology of the future, the public servants who fight for climate change laws and for mitigation efforts, the ordinary people who commit to living sustainably…
On April 22, 2013, more than one billion people around the world will take part in the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day. From Beijing to Cairo, Melbourne to London, Rio to Johannesburg, New Delhi to New York, communities everywhere will voice their concerns for the planet, and take action to protect it. We’ll harness that power to show the world The Face of Climate Change. And we’ll call on our leaders to act boldly together, as we have, in this pivotal year.
Between now and Earth Day, we’ll collect and display images of people, animals, and places directly affected or threatened by climate change – as well as images of people stepping up to do something about it. We’ll tell the world their stories. But we need your help. We need you to be climate reporters. So, send us your pictures and stories that show The Face of Climate Change. On and around Earth Day, an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world, including next to federal government buildings in countries that produce the most carbon pollution. The display will also be made available online to anyone who wants to view or show it. Together, we’ll highlight the solutions and showcase the collective power of individuals taking action across the world. In doing so, we hope to inspire our leaders to act and inspire ourselves to redouble our efforts in the fight against climate change.
Nektarina (S)pace NEKTARINA (S)PACE IS A WEBMAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY NEKTARINA NON PROFIT, A NON PROFIT, NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. WWW.NEKTARINANONPROFIT.COM ISSN 1847-6691
April Greens NEKTARINA (S)PACE IS A WEBMAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY NEKTARINA NON PROFIT, A NON PROFIT, NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. WWW.NEKTARINANONPROFIT.COM ISSN 1847-6691
Nektarina (S)pace, Web Magazine Year 2, Issue # 8, April 2013 Published by Nektarina Non Profit ISSN 1847 - 6694 Under Creative Commons Licence
Working together towards a sustainable future. www.nektarinanonprofit.com Nektarina Non Profit is a non governmental, non profit organization, and most of our projects are based on volunteer work. Our articles are a compilation of data (where we always provide the source) or articles / opinion pieces (in which case there is a by-line). We come from different backgrounds, and English is not the first language for any of us, so there might be an occasional flop :). If you are using any of our content, it would be great if you could link it back to us, and if you are using other people’s content (that you found in this magazine) please make sure to copy the source links we provided. Thank you!
In this issue: Earth Day 2013 Priti Rajagopalan—A Woman of Substance, Exhibition : No Borders, Interview: Jean Paul Brice Affana - Inspiring Africa, The Balkans—Connecting Point, Education for Sustainable Development—Positive Examples: Status and perspectives in Montenegro, Planet Ocean—Yann Arthus Bertrand, The Bookshelf: Tony Juniper—What has nature ever done for us?, World Nature Heritage Site: The Plitvice Lakes, Wellgreen Lewes—A skincare ideology, River Runs Through It—Belgrade Rivers Photo Essay, Liveable Cities: Lugano, Switzerland, Supernatural Festival, Pretty Funky Creative— Arts and Crafts, The Olive Tree Inspiration, Delish! Recipe of the Month: Cottage Pie, and more
/pieces Pains and Laughs of Fundraising and Sustainable Agriculture will be published in our May issue/
Mustered by: Publisher: Nektarina Non Profit Creative Director & Editor-In-Chief: Sandra Antonovic Lead Researcher & Contributing Editor: Livia Minca Content Contributor: Yula Pannadopoulos Journalist: Alyosha Melnychenko Photography: Sandra Antonovic Contributors for the April Issue: Daniela Arnel and Tjasa Oresnik
A very special “thank you� to amazing and inspiring: Priti Rajagopalan Amanda Jane Saurin Andjelka Ilic Rozana Mihovilovic Perc Jean Paul Brice Affana for sharing their thoughts, crafts and photographs with us
Contributing photographers: Martijn Deijl (pages 24/25 “Where Gandhi used to meditate”; and pages 36/37) Biljana Ilic (The Balkans and pages 104/105) Snezana Antonovic (River Runs Through It) Miroslav Bukorovic (Montenegro) All photographs on pages 142-157 Copyright Wellgreen Lewes All photographs on pages 194—211 Copyright Andjelka Ilic All photographs on pages 213—221 Copyright Olivetta.biz Content and visuals on pages 2—11 provided by Earth Day Network Cover page photograph: Plitvice Lakes, Copyright Sandra Antonovic Plitvice Lakes and Lugano photographs, Copyright Sandra Antonovic Further Notes & Acknowledgments - Please refer to pages 234/235
Contributors: This could be you! If interested, email us to space@nektarinanonprofit.com
This issue has been done in A4 format, and it is printable. However, we urge to consider your environmental responsibility before printing. Choose reading it online, or download it for free to your device and read it offline.
From our desk: By Yula Pannadopoulos Spring is here (although it doesn’t always feel like it, brrr!) and we are diving deep with our eighth issue . Things are spicing up, and we have some very cool content this month, from great interviews to World Nature Heritage Site, from Liveable Cities to Education for Sustainability, from inspiring crafts to thought-provoking exhibitions.
This month we celebrate Earth Day, we are talking about what has nature done for us, and we are sharing information on things to read, visit and see. We are certain you’ll find them inspiring, thought-provoking, beautifully amazing and educational. We carried over two pieces that were announced for April - Sustainable Agriculture and The Pains and Laughs of Fundraising. We will publish them in May issue - we had such an amazing influx of great content for
this issue, we thought it might be a good idea to leave something for upcoming months too :). We’d like to thank everyone who helped make this issue - last few weeks have been challenging behind-the-scenes, but with the help of so many lovely, happy, positive people we managed to produce a great issue (and deliver it on time :) )
Enjoy!
A woman of substance: Priti Rajagopalan
Beautiful, smart, determined, thought provoking - she captures your attention the very moment you meet her. Priti Rajagopalan, an inspiring young woman from the city of Nagpur in India, is our Woman of Substance choice this month. Priti was kind enough to find time in her busy schedule and share some thoughts with us. Our favourite one? “The realist feels, there is going to be injustice, there is going to be societies that come out of them. But for every injustice done may it be environmental degradation, racial , political or economical there will be one or many who will stand up to it and fight for what is right for you, me and all around us.
Read full interview →
Nektarina (S)pace: You are from India. Most of our readers haven't been to India (yet). They see it as a place of hardship, but also a place of an amazing beauty. What is your perception of India? How do you see it. Priti Rajagopalan: As a child who grew up in a middle income family, we kids were aware of times (grandparents and parents) where education and food was a luxury. Despite that, they remain some of the happiest and the most contented people I have known in my life. The thing about growing up around in a society that has people from every social and economic status is typical of most developing nations and so it is for India. My perception of India has changed with my years. It used to be of green trees, chirping birds, playing gully (street) cricket, watching Indian mythology (Ramayan and Mahabharat) on weekends and enjoying absolutely amazing food during cultural events like Diwali (festival of lights), Holi (festival of colours). It is only recently, after having traveled around, have i realised the incredible unity India has managed in the past century. I confess, a lot of how i problem solve or think is based on what I have seen around me and the experience of growing up in a small town. To sum it up in one sentence, I do not like a lot of things happening in the country but definitely am proud of a lot of what we have achieved and what we are capable of.
Nektarina (S)pace: You spent some of your academic years in India and some of them in Abu Dhabi. How would you compare the experience of studying in these two countries, with cultures that (seem) so different ? What were the main differences and what were the similarities? How did you adjust?
Priti Rajagopalan: I did most of my life in India and an extremely brief period in Abu Dhabi. At first, it was absolutely different and a difficult transition. But, more so infrastructure wise - fast cars, cheap petrol, really high buildings and outward exuberance that I was not used to nor liked much. Culturally, the Indian diaspora in Abu Dhabi is huge so the cultural shock was minimal. Definitely though, the way people thought Indian or otherwise was different in terms of luxury of affording things as well as how the luxury changed their opinions and the way they lived.
Nektarina (S)pace: What would you say is the main thing India and its people can teach the rest of the world? Endurance, the life so very dependent on the nature, or something else? Priti Rajagopalan: Indians are extremely hard working people. Similarly, India and Indians have always stood for deep humanitarian values which forms an important part of our cultural heritage. Our tribes have given birth to some great environmental movements, great men like Swami Vivekananda and Gandhiji have derived their teachings from our faith and rich cultural heritage of compassion, empathy and oneness.
Nektarina (S)pace: You are quite young, but you are a very eager activist for many years now. Could you tell us something about your work / volunteer experiences? Priti Rajagopalan: I have been involved with climate change related work for 5 years now. It began as a small waste management and composting project which made me a British Council Climate Champion. After that i worked in rural India on solar projects and also traveled to Bangladesh to do adaptation work in coastal areas. My values and ideals have been driven by what I have seen on ground during my work. I have always been interested in Math and Economics thus got into policy and have done my bit of policy work in research institutes. Having said that, I feel policy should be derivative of ground realities and social and economic reality of the masses and not the other way round and that is that i strive to do.
Nektarina (S)pace: You worked for the World Bank as a research assistant, but you were also an Indian youth delegate for UNFCC. How would you say these two complement each other (if they are)? Priti Rajagopalan: Both are multilateral agencies which try to bring in various perspectives and blocs on the same table. There are countries that require help and there are countries that want to help and this synergy is the healthiest part of both these forum. As an Indian youth delegate my work was more policy and networking and the linking of international negotiations to Domestic policies. World bank was more on building real-time solutions on the ground. Like I have previously mentioned there is no use of a policy that cannot work for the masses and help in making positive changes to a society. What that policy or the positive change is subjective and that’s where most problems begin.
My values and ideals have been driven by what I have seen on ground during my work. I feel policy should be derivative of ground realities and social and economic reality of the masses and not the other way round and that is that i strive to do.
Nektarina (S)pace: How does your work and volunteering impact your life, your thoughts and perspectives? Priti Rajagopalan: My work and volunteering have impacted my life mostly positively. Sometimes you travel and see a lot of things that you don't like for example disrespect for women, atrocities towards a particular group of people or simply corruption which indirectly ruins important sectors like agriculture and food security. There are moments like these that make you feel helpless but then you realise " you can either sit and cry or try doing something, whatever you can to make a small change". This mantra has won me a lot of friends and the greatest reward in knowing there is a network of people working towards making small or big but significant changes to people and societies around them and that nobody is alone in doing what they are. And, i cannot thank my two greatest strengths - my partner and brother who have been the biggest support of my professional life. They keep me grounded and that sometimes is the most important thing.
Nektarina (S)pace: You travel quite a lot for your work and volunteering activities. In which way does travel impact (enrichen) you? Priti Rajagopalan: First of all, the choices I make as a traveler have been affected by the person I am. I have managed to stay a vegetarian, keep my carbon footprint to the minimum I can and respecting cultural and social norms of the places i visit. Also, I believe I have learnt an incredible amount of life lessons and perspectives from my travels and meeting people. Once you travel someplace you might physically leave that country but a part of it always stays with you. And all these parts assimilate themselves over time and before you know you have changed a lot as a person.
Nektarina (S)pace: What inspires you? What moves you? Where do you find your energy? Priti Rajagopalan: My greatest inspiration is every single person who is coming up with amazing ideas to integrate the world and change the way things work. What moves me most is when a person takes up an initiative to create a change and empowers scores others out of passion and nothing else. That person has had to come out of a comfort zone and out of a lot of selflessness. That is my greatest inspiration. Passion gives you infinite energy. It will show you sides of yourself that you never knew existed.
Nektarina (S)pace: How do you see the future of India and your hometown Nagpur? How do you see the future of this planet? Priti Rajagopalan:
There will be lesser trees, fewer birds to chirp, more technology to give us an illusion of development. The pessimist me says this.
We will have a just , fair political and economic system. Happy people all around who love environment, social justice and economic parity as much as they love their blackberry or iphones. My incredibly unrealistic optimistic self tells me that.
The realist feels, there is going to be injustice, there is going to be societies that come out of them. But for every injustice done may it be environmental degradation, racial , political or economical there will be one or many who will stand up to it and fight for what is right for you, me and all around us.
Exhibition: No Borders
by Adrian Tahourdin
A thought-provoking exhibition recently opened at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, in partnership with Arnolfini. “No Borders”, featuring a dozen modern artists from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, “reflects upon the globalised conditions of the world today and the particular histories and contexts that inform current art practices”. The show runs until June and is free. Greeting the viewer in the hall of the gallery are five panoramic photographs, “Peripheral Stories”, by Hala Elkoussy of the outskirts of Cairo (all taken before the Arab Spring): waste ground, half-built tower blocks, electricity pylons, dusty roads unpeopled. Elkoussy describes her native city as one that “is changing at a very fast pace” (below). The Mumbai-born artist Shilpa Gupta’s mesmerizing “In Our Times” consists of two seesawing old-fashioned-looking microphones mounted on a stand, one intoning Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s first speech as President of Pakistan in 1947, the other Jawaharlal Nehru’s inaugural address as the first Prime Minister of newly independent India, all overlaid with plangent vocals. “I would not like to be called a ‘political’ artist, rather just an ‘everyday’ artist as politics is part of our daily lives . . . “. Yto Barrada’s photographs show economic migrants asleep in a park in Tangier as they prepare to undertake the dangerous journey to “fortress” Europe. Barrada explains that "to cross" is called "to burn": “you burn your past, your identity, your papers, because if you're caught on the other side if you're from Algeria you may get permission to stay, because of the political situation; if you're from Morocco you're sent back right away. So there's this obsession to get on the other side where the grass is greener that animates the streets of the city of Tangier, that governs everything you do from the morning to the night”.
No Borders reflects upon the globalised conditions of the world today and the particular histories and contexts that inform current art practices.
Further south we see stark photographic portraits of sugar-cane cutters by the South African Zwelethu Mthethwa. The Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari’s touching and witty film “Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright” depicts an epistolary dialogue between two former lovers: we watch as one types out questions about their relationship on a manual typewriter and, in a nod to the fact that they haven't communicated for a decade, the responses instantly arrive on -screen. The Delhi-born Amar Kanwar’s half-hour film “A Season Outside”, about the violence and disruption on the Kashmir border between India and Pakistan (only last week two Indian and two Pakistani soldiers were killed in skirmishes), opens with the extraordinary flag-lowering ceremony that takes place at the border gates at sunset - an apparent show of strength on both sides - and develops into a personal meditation on the intractable problem. There are striking works by the Pakistani miniaturists Imran Qureshi and Shahzia Sikander - “I think that in the West you have a false idea about Pakistan. It’s believed and wrongly so, that we are gagged and limited in our artistic production”, writes Imran Qureshi. Elsewhere we have Ai Weiwei’s compacted, lightly scented and all-too-tactile (my companion was gently admonished for fingering it) cubic metre “A Ton of Tea”, apparently made of “Pur Er blend of tea as it is drunk by ordinary Chinese citizens across the country”.
Inspiring Africa: Jean Paul Brice Affana
Nektarina (S)pace: You are from Cameroon. Could you tell us something about your country? Jean Paul: Cameroon is known as the ‘‘Africa in miniature’’ which means that in the country you can find so many different things at the same time, such as biodiversity, people, culture, languages, values, etc. As a small Africa, Cameroon offers people the opportunity to find themselves comfortable while enjoying the nature. With over 20 million inhabitants, Cameroon has two official languages – French and English – with over 100 local languages. This makes us special.
Nektarina (S)pace: Africa is a mesmerizing, maybe even mysterious continent to many people. What is your perception of Africa? Jean Paul: I’m African and I’m happy to be from this amazing continent where daily life is definitively not something you take for granted. When you go out of the continent, you discover sometimes with high disappointment that the idea others have about Africa is not what the reality is about. In many countries worldwide, Africa is however synonym of poverty, diseases, crime, corruption, HIV/AIDS, and all this makes me sad. Because all these issues and problems are present in other countries as well, not only in Africa! But so many media, politicians and even families prefer to ‘‘teach’’ this image of Africa to the public, their citizens, their children, so that later they have no respect for Africans. Thus, racism, xenophobia and all related behaviors are happening. Why? Just because people don’t want to know the truth about Africa, or they just don’t care.
Nektarina (S)pace: Can the rest of the world learn from Africa? Jean Paul: The most important thing Africa can teach to the rest of the world is ‘‘Survival’’. Yes, survival is our daily dish in Africa and this is something that people don’t experience everywhere in the world. There are several places in the world where life conditions are so good and amazing that young people for example take it for granted and do nothing for their communities. If they ever decide to do something, they only contribute to problems. But in Africa, those young persons who contribute to crime for example, do it only because they have to survive, not because they have so much good life conditions that they don’t know what to do out of it. We struggle a lot in Africa and this makes us good fighters for our survival. Every day, every week, every month, we struggle to survive. That is the main thing according to me that my continent can teach to others.
Nektarina (S)pace: You are quite young (26 years old), but you are a very eager activist for many years now. Could you tell us something about your work / volunteer experiences? Jean Paul: The truth behind my work and volunteer experience and why I already achieved so much while still being that young is that I became aware of my possible contribution to address global challenges as a global citizen very early. I can say that I was lucky enough as this was in 2004 and since then I have had a long way. But this was not the only reasons. I also had the chance to meet with people and other leaders who knew how to motivate me and to encourage me. My elder sister for example has played an important role here. I will never thank her enough.
First when I joined volunteer activities in Cameroon, mostly in the cities of YaoundĂŠ and NgaoundĂŠrĂŠ, I discovered that when working with others we can achieve more and have a better impact. Then I have been working with many community projects and youth-led initiatives which gave me this strong experience and work achievements I already have while also being so young. I connected later with the global community and supported in the best of my capacity many projects and campaigns, speaking at global events, sharing my experience and skills as trainer of facilitator, coordinating youth networks and youth-led projects, meeting with high leaders and Heads of State, etc. I did quite a lot already and this encouraged me to keep going and achieve even more.
Nektarina (S)pace: You are a founder of Vital Actions for Sustainable Development (AVD). Could you share with us more about that part of your work? Jean Paul: I co-founded Vital Actions for Sustainable Development (AVD) in 2008 in Cameroon. The idea came to my minds when I was in University and discovered that I needed a platform where I can express myself and transform into actions and projects all the ideas I developed in my head since 2004. I had many on them and they keep coming in. The NGO has permanent members and volunteers who work together to implement activities that raise awareness about environmental issues and the importance of achieving sustainable development for all. Through informal educational activities and learning for change, we train, inform, educate and empower people to become eco-citizens in our cities so that they support sustainable development and save our environment. In 2009 the World Bank recognised my work when I shared my vision of a world where young people can be positive agents for change in addressing sustainable development by participating to the World Bank Essay Competition 2009.
I went to South Korea and met there with other young leaders sharing the same vision as I do. That also encouraged me later to connect the work of AVD with other global youth so that we can work together in achieving great success. Today AVD is growing in its achievements and is one of the most successful youth-led NGOs in Cameroon, and even in Central Africa. I’m proud of the work we do and my colleagues as well as our volunteers are so amazing in their commitment. We are a great team!
Continued →
Nektarina (S)pace: How does your work and volunteering impact your life, your thoughts and perspectives? Jean Paul: The work I’m doing has a direct impact on my personal life. First I’m now able to act as an eco-citizen who understand the role of ‘‘green’’ attitudes and lifestyles to contribute to sustainable development starting from the little things. Secondly I’m able to see myself as a global citizen who understands the global challenges and the fact that we cannot solve them by using the same thinking we used when creating them, to quote Einstein. This is essential for me given that I understand now a lot about the mechanisms around the work of international development agencies, intergovernmental processes, the United Nations, etc. I have learned about all these institutions when I was a student at primary and secondary school, and now I’m experiencing working with them. This is something I never expected and thought before when I was a child, a student. All this has now an impact of my life. I can see the big picture and understand it very well. I can be able to accept the differences between people and agree that we are all united despite our diversity. I’m able to accept the failures of my work and understand that I can improve it more while working with these lessons learned and with other people’ support. This is how my work and experience impact my own life and the life of others around me.
Nektarina (S)pace: You travel quite a lot for your work and volunteering activities. In which way does travel impact (enrichen) you? Jean Paul: Travelling is something I mostly do for my work and the last three years have been full of new experiences. I had the opportunity to virtually connect and exchange with my peers and other key leaders worldwide. However while travelling I met with many of them physically and this has something different.
When you finally discover the persons behind the emails and the social media, you are honoured and happy. Travelling has also enabled me to connect with most of the people I’m working with now at the global level. The success of the Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest I have been coordinating globally in 2011 and 2012 was possible because I connected with a very special person in 2009 in another country. That is how travels contribute to my work experience and also to my personal life. I meet with people. I work with them. I discover new things and I learn from them as they can learn from me too. I like that part of my work, mostly when the impact and added value is direct and has a long term impact.
Nektarina (S)pace: What inspires you? What moves you? Where do you find your energy? There is a French assertion that says ‘‘Aux âmes bien nées, la valeur n’attend
point le nombre d’années’’. This means that it doesn’t matter if you are young pr not, when the time comes for you to do something, you have and will do it. I’m strongly convinced that my work and achievements so far is also related to this assertion. However I have to add that I didn’t wait for someone to ask me to do something and consider myself as a global citizen aware of the global challenges the world faces. When I want to do something I always try and start before accepting the hard conditions later. Because I know that if I don’t start to do something, I will never know if I can make it or not. I’m naturally a fighter and a hard worker. That makes me special when working with others too. When I started to become aware of these characters that I have I was able to find myself and also decided to join community groups as a volunteer to address those challenges. It always motivates me also to work with people sharing the same goals as I do.
That is the best motivation ever give that you realise that you are not alone and you are a group, a community! Nektarina (S)pace: How do you see the future of Africa and Cameroon? How do you see the future of this planet? Africa can rise from its problems if its sons and daughters become more active in addressing them. I don’t think we will do it in one day. It needs time and years, decades, but it is possible. Our planet counts on us all. There is no future planned. We design it. Together. That is why I’m contributing to make the best design out of it while being an active activist and young professional. Everyone has a role t play here. We are a global family of global citizens.
The Balkans Connecting Point
What does the word 'Balkan' refer to? Mountain. 'Balkan' is a Turkish word, meaning 'wooded mountain' or 'black mountain'. The Turkish word originates from the Central Asian term 'barkhan', which denotes a crescent-shaped sand dune. The Balkan Peninsula is an almost entirely mountainous region. The average altitude varies from 470 m (Bulgaria) to 850 m (FYR of Macedonia). The entire peninsula has an area of around 550,000 km² and has roughly 55 million inhabitants.
What is the highest peak in the Balkans? Musala (Mt. Rila). Musala (2,925 m) is the highest peak of Mount Rila, Bulgaria. Mytikas (2,918 m) is the highest point of Mount Olympus, Greece. Vihren (2,914 m) is the highest point of the Pirin Mountain in south-western Bulgaria. Triglav (2,864 m) is the highest peak of the Julian Alps, in Slovenia. Its positioning in the Balkan peninsula is somewhat controversial though. It is interesting that the names of these high mountains reflect ancient religious beliefs connecting them to celestial gods. Thus, Mt. Olympus was the seat of Olympic gods of ancient Greeks. Musala derives its name from Mus Allah, or Allah's Mountain, while it's earlier, Bulgarian name, was Tangra. Tangra was ancient god of the skies, creator of entire universe, of Altaic peoples. Triglav (Three-headed) was a god of ancient Slavs.
What is the name of the central mountain range of the Balkan Peninsula? Stara Planina. The Stara Planina stretches from eastern Serbia into Bulgaria. It is about 560 km long. Its highest peak is Botev 2,376 m (in Bulgaria). The term 'Balkan Peninsula' was first coined in 1808 by August Zeune, a German geographer.
It is noteworthy that the peninsula got its name after the Turkish word for this mountain, and not after its Slavic name, which would have been logical considering the fact that the majority of the population was and is Slavic. This clearly reflected aggressive aspirations of Europe's big powers towards reigning these regions, as opposed to self-governing drive of Balkan nations in the nineteenth century. Kopaonik and Suva Planina are in Serbia, Sar Planina is at the border between Serbia and Macedonia.
What is the longest river in the Balkan Peninsula? Morava. The Morava river system (Ibar-Zapadna Morava-Velika Morava) lies in Serbia, and with a length of 550 km it is the longest waterway in the Balkan Peninsula. The Drina runs through Serbia and Bosnia and is 487 km long. It is formed by the rivers Piva and Tara (the latter is famous for the beautiful canyon and rafting possibilities) and it has a big electroenergetic potential of six billion kilowatt-hours. The Marica (Maritsa, Greek: Evros), flowing through Bulgaria and constituting the border between Greece and Turkey, is 480 km long. In 1371 an important battle took place on the Marica, between invading Ottoman forces and defending Serb forces. The Serbs lost, and the Ottomans penetrated deep into the Balkans for the first time. The Vardar (Greek: Axios), the river flowing from Skopje into the Aegean sea close to Thessaloniki, is 388 km long and found in Macedonia.
Which one is NOT a catabatic (descending) wind of the Balkans? Sirocco. Catabatic winds are cold, descending winds. The Vardarac is a northern wind blowing down the valley of Vardar. The Kosava (Koshava) is strong wind in Serbia, blowing from south-east. The Bura (Italian: Bora) is a very strong catabatic wind on the Adriatic coast, the strongest below Mount Velebit in Croatia. In 2006 a wind speed of 235 km/h was measured on the Croatian island Pag. The Sirocco ("Yugo" in Serbo-Croatian) comes from the Sahara. Blowing over the Mediterranean Sea, it becomes wet bringing clouds, humidity and rain. It is a warm, anabatic (ascending) wind.
The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geography; historically the area was known as a crossroads of several cultures. It has been a meeting point between the Latin and Greek parts of the Roman Empire. It became an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity. Many Jewish people fled here from Inquisition.
The northern border of the Balkan Peninsula lies on three rivers. Which ones? Danube, Sava and Kupa. There is more than one definition as to what constitutes the northern border of the Balkan Peninsula. The line formed by the rivers Danube, Sava and Kupa is perhaps the most widely used. Also used are the lines Danube-Sava-Krka-Socha, Danube-Sava-Ljubljana-Trieste and others.
What does the term 'balkanize' mean? To divide a country into small, ineffectual parts. 'To balkanize' means 'to divide into small, quarreling, ineffectual parts'. The term is a reference to the general political situation in the Balkans between the Congress of Berlin (1878) and the Second Balkan War (1913), when the European part of the Ottoman Empire (Rumelia) was split into small states that were often in a state of war. But this process essentially echoed the competing and antagonistic interests of the big powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France and Russia) in the Ottoman heritage in Balkans.
What does the Serbocroat term 'vlah' NOT represent? Gipsy. The Serbo-Croatian term 'vlah' illustrates the complicated ethnic history of the Balkans well. In the Middle Ages the term was used to describe the old Balkan population (romanized Illyrians, Thracians and Celts) that retreated to the mountains and to Adriatic islands during Great Shift of nations in 6th and 7th centuries. They eventually became shepherds, so the term has gradually acquired the meaning of shepherd as an occupation. After the Ottoman conquest, Christians were to a greater extent marginalized in mountainous areas, thus also becoming shepherds, or 'vlahs' for the newly Islamized population. Vlahs in eastern Serbia, however, are a separate ethnic group, culturally and linguistically linked to Romanians. There are many geographic toponyms reflecting this history, like Mount Vlasic in Bosnia, region Stari Vlah in Serbia, Mount Romania in Bosnia etc.
On this point in the Iron Gate, the Danube is only 150 m wide. What is the name of this gorge? Great Kazan. The Iron Gate (Djerdapska Klisura) is a 134 km-long system of gorges in the Danube, forming part of the border between Romania and Serbia. The main gorges are Golubac Gorge (14.5 km long, 230 wide on the narrowest part), Gospodin Vir (15 km long, 220 m wide) and Great Kazan (Kazan means 'kettle' in Serbian), with a length of 19 km (together with the Small Kazan) and the narrowest point of 150 m. The Danube is 54 m deep here. In 105 AD, before his conquest of Dacia (Romania), the Roman emperor Trajan erected a bridge (Trajan's Bridge) here. Today the Iron Gate is a national park in Serbia.
Lepenski Vir is the archeological site in the Iron Gate, where exciting ichtiomorphical (piscine) Mesolithic figures were excavated (the peak of the Lepenski Vir Culture was between 5300 BC and 4800 BC). Rich findings in Lepenski Vir indicate the high cultural level of these early Europeans.
The first urban settlement in Europe, older than the cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt, was erected on the banks of Danube, near Belgrade. What is its name? Vinca. Some 15 km east of Belgrade, near the village of Vinca (pronounced Vincha), the first urban settlement in Europe was built in the 6th millennium BC. This is earlier than the first urban settlements in Mesopotamia. It was the main settlement of the Neolithic Vinca culture, discovered by Miloje Vasic in 1908. The site was excavated from 1918-1934. The Vinca culture flourished between the 6th and 3rd millennium BC in the wider Balkan area, stretching also into Asia Minor and Central Europe. The Kostolac culture is a culture from the Copper Age that succeeded the Vinca culture. The Butmir Culture is also a Neolithic culture, in Bosnia, dating around 2,500 BC. Butmir is near Sarajevo. It is noteworthy that near Krapina (North-western Croatia), archeologist Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger discovered what is today the biggest fossil site of the Neanderthal man. He found over eight hundred fossil remains. They are dated to be around 100,000 years old. On the other site near Vindija, Croatia, a 38,000 year old bone fragment was found in 1980. Analysis showed that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens share about 99.5% of their DNA.
To what political philosophy did the Balkans give rise? Democracy. Democracy (from the Greek words demos or 'people' and kratos 'rule') was a political system developed by the ancient Greeks in Athens, during the first millennium BC. Liberalism is an English political thought developed during the 18th and 19th centuries. Socialism was developed in France, Germany and England during 19th century. Fascism was developed in Italy during the 1920s.
This anthropological variety of the Caucasian race is described in the Western Balkans, in the background of the Adriatic coast. What is it called? Dinaric. Physical anthropology divides races according to various physical measurements. The Dinaric variety of the Caucasian race is tall, relatively robust, with long legs, brachicephalic, brown eyes, and hair dark brown. The nose is large and convex. It is prototyped in the Western Balkans, and got its name from the Dinaric Mountain Range. Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean are other types of Caucasians.
One of the biggest bird reserves in Europe lies in a lake on the Balkans. Which one? Skadar. Lake Skadar (Albanian: Skutari) is the largest lake in the Balkans, with an area of 370-530 km2, depending on the water level. It is shared by Montenegro and Albania. The lake was formed as a crypto-depression. The river Moracha fills the lake while the river Boyana drains it. Lake Skadar is one of the biggest bird reserves in Europe, with almost 300 species.
Which of the following winds does NOT blow in the seas surrounding Balkan Peninsula? Foehn. Maltemi is a strong northern wind in the Aegean region, mostly in summer, that is strongest in the afternoons. It can reach 7 to 8 Beaufort. The Maestral is a mild daily westerly wind in the Adriatic region that blows from the sea onto the coast. It is the result of the daily warming of the coast relative to the sea. As already said, the Sirocco is a wind that comes from the Sahara, bringing rain and big waves. The Foehn is a hot and dry wind descending from the leeward side of the Alps.
The weather in the Balkans is influenced mainly by three huge weather systems. Name the one that does NOT influence the Balkan weather directly! Beaufort High. Most of the Balkans has a continental climate, with a Mediterranean climate on its coasts. The weather conditions are influenced by three major weather systems - Siberian High, Azores High and Icelandic Low. The Azores High is an anticyclonic high pressure system (sea-level pressure 1024 mbar) near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. It brings warm and dry weather in summer. The Icelandic Low is a cyclonic low-pressure system near Iceland in northern Atlantic, cyclonic activity bringing rain and moisture. The Siberian High is an anticyclonic system (sea-level pressure often above 1040 mbar, with record of 1083.8 mb!) of cold dry air that accumulates above Eurasia in winter (November-March). The air in Siberian High is often colder than - 40 Celsius. It is responsible for cold winters in Balkans. Beaufort High is an anticyclone that is formed above the Beaufort Sea, north of northwestern Canada.
This landscape in the Western Balkans is characterized by its rugged surface, extensive underground drainage and caves. Which one is NOT one of its names? Corso. Karst, Kras and Carso are the German, Serbocroation and Italian names for this landscape. This landscape is formed by the dissolution in water of calcium-carbonate bedrock. Characteristic formations are clints, grikes, disappearing and reappearing springs, limestone pavements, poljes (basins), caves, sinkholes etc. Corso is a term for the pedestrian street.
This formidable cave system in Slovenia is one of the most beautiful in the world. What is it called? Postojna. Postojna cave (Postojnska jama) is a very beautiful, 20 km long carst cave system in Western Slovenia. It was discovered in the 17th century. Endemic Proteus anguinus ('Human fish') live in the cave and so does a species of blind salamander.
Which mountain massif is NOT in the Balkan Peninsula? Taurus Mountains. The Rhodopes Mountains (Golyam Perelik 2,191m) lie mostly in Bulgaria. The Dinaric Alps (Prokletije 2,692m) are a mountain range that is around 650 km long, along the eastern Adriatic coast. It is the third biggest mountain range in Europe, after the Alps and the Scandinavian Mountains. The Pindus Mountains (Smolikas 2,637m) are a 160 km long mountain range in northern Greece. The Taurus Mountains are in southeastern Turkey (Aladaglar, 4,000 m).
This lake is the deepest in the Balkans (288 m), preserving more than 200 endemic species. What is it called? Ohrid. Lake Ohrid is the deepest and oldest lake in the Balkans (from the Pliocene, about 5 million years ago). It is a tectonic lake found in Macedonia. Lakes of similar origin are rare in the world, the most notable examples being Lake Baikal in Russia and Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Lake Ohrid represents a unique ecosystem harboring more than 200 endemic species. The Black Drim River flows from Lake Ohrid into the Adriatic Sea. The other answer options are also lakes in Central Balkans.
What are the most numerous people of the Balkans? Greeks. The Greeks are the most numerous of the Balkan peoples (around 10.5 million), followed by Serbs (9.5 million) and Bulgarians (6.5 million). The overall majority of inhabitants are of Slavic origin (around 27 million out of around 45 million). The language spoken most widely in the Balkans is Serbo-Croatian, spoken by more than 16 million people.
What is the major religion in the Balkans? Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The majority of the Balkan people belong to Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins). Majority of Albanians and Turks, and some 40% of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Muslims. Croats and Slovenes are mostly Catholic. The religious differences played a major role in the processes of constituting national states in the 19th century, as well as in the processes of balkanization.
Positive Examples: Montenegro
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Status and perspectives in Montenegro
The Montenegrin educational system has experienced a number of recent systemic changes as an answer to social reality which asks for changes in education and as it has begun to cooperate with the wider region and the European Union. One important aim of reforms in Montenegro is to create a new generation of people who will respect and apply the principles and concept of sustainable development in Montenegro. In order to support sustainable development implementation, with particular reference to the education sector, new educational curricula should be developed. The new curricula developed around the ESD concept for primary schools, secondary vocational schools, high schools, and also universities must underline the knowledge and skills that ensure achieving important economical, social, and environmental goals.
So far, the introduction of sustainable development content in the Montenegrin education system is in its initial phase. Some of the mostpressing issues have been spelled out in the document “Action Plan— Integration of Sustainable Development into Educational System 2007– 2009”. The aim of developing the Action Plan was to create conditions for planned introduction of sustainable development contents into the Montenegrin educational system. It defines tasks, roles, dynamics and required financial resources of educational institutions responsible for delivering envisaged activities. The Action Plan was brought in line with principles and goals of UN Strategy, National Strategy for Sustainable Development, as well as with those principles and goals given in the key documents of educational reform implementation. New curricula are modernized and adjusted to contemporary requirements in Europe, built based on a goal-oriented planning of contents and teachers themselves can choose methods and activities by which the goals can be best achieved. One step in Montenegro has been to give teachers, students, and schools the independence to create new subject curricula. It means the local community can create around 20% of the local curricula’s contents. Trials within the last few years have shown that this does depend on teachers’ motivations to adjust the curricula to the local community and school. This is an opportunity for sustainable development to gain traction and teachers who have worked with this program have received training and aid. The percentage of sustainable development contents within new subject curricula is very high. According to plan, new curricula will comprise all pupils in the grades from first to ninth until the end of school year 2013/14.
One important aim of reforms in Montenegro is to create a new generation of people who will respect and apply the principles and concept of sustainable development in Montenegro.
Delivering sustainable development in education in Montenegro is based on the idea that children and young people may play an active role in promoting sustainable development. Therefore, children are considered as active agents of change to promote sustainability in the home and in the wider community (for example recycling, energy and water saving, etc). Accordingly, schools should act as a focal point for sustainability issues in their communities, while learning in that manner needs to be a practical experience. Another recent model in Montenegro has promoted elective subjects in primary schools, high schools, and secondary vocational schools, giving students different avenues to explore their creativity and satisfy their interests. Also, through elective subjects, teachers are often teaching in areas in which they are highly qualified. When it comes to general high school, by choosing compulsory elective subjects pupils create their own “orientation� and that way they actively influence the formation of their own professional orientation.
Quality programme realization is not possible to achieve without trained teachers and adequate teacher aids. Beforehand, it is necessary to develop training programme for teachers who are instructing under new educational curricula, capacitate trainers, develop a small pilot-project that will test the training model with a small cohort of teachers and afterwards in line with activities envisaged by the Action Plan start with the training of teachers. The Bureau for Educational Services and Centre for Vocational Education are the organizers of teacher training for realization of new curricula while the Examination Centre organizes training for test authors and training for administering exams.
Local community can create around 20% of the local curricula’s contents. This does depend on teachers’ motivations to adjust the curricula to the local community and school.
Teachers’ training should include interactive work (exchange of experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and needs between leaders and participants, as well as among participants), and cooperation and partnership (cooperative learning). Application of ICT, introducing of E-learning and Distance learning by means of videoconference system completely provides for sustainable teacher training system and quality implementation of educational system reform.
Delivering sustainable development in education in Montenegro is based on the idea that children and young people may play an active role in promoting sustainable development. Therefore, children are considered as active agents of change to promote sustainability in the home and in the wider community (for example recycling, energy and water saving, etc).
Development and application of teacher aids is also very important for understanding, learning and adopting these contents (textbooks, handbooks, magazines, computers, videotapes, projectors, media materials). Textbooks as a primary teacher aid and a part of comprehensive reform education, of course, have an important role in realization of programmes in the area of sustainable development. Doubtless, themes related to this area are far more present in textbooks, which resulted in a large number of projects in the field of environment and sustainable development. This fact gave additional impulse to familiarization of children with different cultures, new comprehension of significance that environment has, more refined respect of the environment, as well as adoption of new criteria and standards.
Our Blockbuster:
Can we imagine a film that would change the way people look at the ocean? Can we explain simply, to everyone, the greatest natural mystery of our planet? And lastly, can we help our children believe in a better and more sustainable world tomorrow? This is the triple challenge of a new cinema adventure signed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and editor- in-chief Michael Pitiot, who brings with him the scientific missions of TARA, a unique pool of researchers, oceanographers and biolo- gists from several countries. Thanks to its astonishing photography, the film takes us on a magnificent and unprecedented journey into the heart of the least known regions of our planet. The film narrates the most marvelous and also the most terrifying human experiences of our time. Filmed in extreme geographical conditions all over the globe, it describes the modern Odyssey of people who go out to discover their blue planet. The film is also a plea for humanity to respect the world in which we live. It serves a noble and universal cause that will be defended at the next Earth Summit, in Rio, in 2012. If you are an NGO or a school and that you wish to organize a free screening of the film Planet Ocean, please contact the GoodPlanet Foundation : anne.lelay@goodplanet.org More information: http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv/planet-ocean http://ocean.goodplanet.org/?lang=en
The Bookshelf
By Tony Juniper
One of the gravest misconceptions of modern times is the still widely held view that efforts to nurture nature can be a drag on economic development. Nothing could be further from the truth. From nutrient recycling in soils to the protection of coasts by wetlands and from carbon capture and storage in forests to the pollination of crop plants by insects, nature is has massive economic value. Without it there is no development, no economy and no prospect to meet long-term poverty reduction goals. The truth is that the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ecology, not the other way around. In my new book called "What has nature ever done for us?" I tell the stories of how natural systems sustain our welfare. Some of the things I discovered left me stunned. A case in point concerns the economic value of India’s vultures – or more accurately their former value. Across the subcontinent during the 1990s, India’s three vulture species suffered a catastrophic decline. It was caused by an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat farm animals. Residues in the bodies of dead cattle and buffalo proved toxic to such birds and their numbers plummeted from about 40 million to a few tens of thousands. Each year the vultures were eating about 12 million tonnes of rotting flesh. With the vultures’ gone this became food for wild dogs. Their population rocketed and more dog bites and human rabies infections followed.
This in turn led to an estimated 50,000 or so more deaths than would otherwise have been the case. The cost of this and other consequences on India’s economy was (over a decade or so) put at an eye-watering US$34 billion.. Taken together, the loss of natural services is believed to be costing the global economy more than 6 trillion dollars per year, or equivalent to around 11 per cent of world GDP. By contrast, the estimated cost of meeting global targets to avert the impending mass extinction of species is put at about US$76 billion, or about 0.12 per cent of annual GDP. There are many initiatives underway that set out to restore services once provided by nature. For example, efforts to reverse the decline in vulture populations are being co-ordinated by a consortium of national conservation organisations and multi-national vulture experts, including the RSPB. This initiative, Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (SAVE), was launched in 2011 to help coordinate research, advocacy and implementation of the actions needed to prevent these birds from disappearing forever. This and a whole lot of other work is not only about conservation for its own sake, but also about the practical benefits we all derive from what nature provides. The sooner political and business leaders realize that it makes economic sense to nurture nature the more likely it will be that goals to improve human wellbeing can be met.
Tony Juniper is Britain’s best known environmental campaigner, and a former director of Friends of the Earth. He is the author of several books including Saving Planet Earth, which accompanied the BBC TV series.
By Jessica Shankleman
The word "nature" isn't usually written with a capital letter, but for the Prince of Wales' introduction to Tony Juniper's new book, "Nature" becomes a proper noun. From the $3.7tr that could be saved through carbon capture by halving the deforestation rate, to the $81bn worth of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, What has Nature Ever Done for Us? vividly reminds readers about the economic value of our natural resources, and what we stand to lose by ignoring and eradicating them. Juniper's sixth book is so clearly written and enjoyably readable that it looks set to become a valuable tool for business leaders and students striving to gain a better understanding of the green economy. Throughout 12 chapters, each covering a different aspect of the natural world, Juniper delivers fact after fact illustrating just how dependent our economic success has become, and will continue to be, on nature. With an engaging and non-preachy tone, he joins the dots for readers explaining how the impact of human activity on nature could have much wider unintended consequences elsewhere. One of the more startling examples shows how the dramatic drop in population of India's "natural bin men" – vultures – appears to have inadvertently led to a rise in dog populations, and therefore rabies cases, costing the country around $34bn by some estimates. The other chapters cover a range of topics, including the value of pollination, fish, and soil, which Juniper says alone could capture 5.5 billion tonnes of additional carbon each year if it were better managed.
Juniper takes a traditional "people, planet, profit" triple bottom line approach, highlighting the emerging trend for businesses to try and integrate the value of natural capital into their business models. The book does not focus on many of the more well-known low carbon technologies, such as wind turbines and electric cars, and instead Juniper highlights some of the less celebrated innovations that have already, or could in future, improve our lifestyles while preserving the environment. One surprising example is the horseshoe crab, whose copper based blood is still considered the best substance for testing the sterility of drugs – no synthetic alternative has proved as successful. He also draws attention to elephants' giant guts, which have helped us to develop more efficient ways of making biofuels, as we better understand how they break down food. Some of the natural processes Juniper describes are so fundamental to our existence, such as photosynthesis or the story of evolution, that his explanations might strike as a little basic to readers already au fait with the latest environmental thinking. (Anyone whose seen Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now video understands the basic process of evolution, right?) But nevertheless, both novices and experts can draw lessons from the way Juniper communicates these concepts in an incredibly accessible way. In fact, the book could prove a particularly valuable resource for sustainability leaders who struggle to convince their colleagues and senior management about the value of green projects. With a foreword by Prince Charles, and its richly interwoven facts and figures, What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? deserves to be a hit with nature lovers and business leaders alike.
World Nature Heritage Site: The Plitvice Lakes
Plitvice Lakes National Park contains a series of beautiful lakes, caves and waterfalls. These have been formed by processes typical of karst landscapes such as the deposition of travertine barriers, creating natural dams. These geological processes continue today. The Plitvice Lakes basin is a geomorphologic formation of biological origin, a karst river basin of limestone and dolomite, with approximately 20 lakes, created by the deposition of calcium carbonate precipitated in water through the agency of moss, algae and aquatic bacteria. These create strange, characteristic shapes and contain travertine-roofed and vaulted caves. The carbonates date from the Upper Trias, Juras and Cretaceous Ages and are up to 4,000 m thick. In order to maintain and preserve the natural characteristics of the lakes, the whole of surface and most of the subterranean drainage system has to be embraced by extending the original borders of the park. The new areas comprise layers of karstified limestone with dolomites of Jurassic age. There are 16 interlinked lakes between Mala Kapela Mountain and Pljesevica Mountain. The lake system is divided into the upper and lower lakes: the upper lakes lie in a dolomite valley and are surrounded by thick forests and interlinked by numerous waterfalls; the lower lakes, smaller and shallower, lie on the limestone bedrock and are surrounded only by sparse underbrush. The upper lakes are separated by dolomite barriers, which grow with the formation of travertine, forming thus travertine barriers. Travertine is mostly formed on the spots where water falls from an elevation, by the incrustation of algae and moss with calcium carbonate. The lower lakes were formed by crumbling and caving-in of the vaults above subterranean cavities through which water of the upper lakes disappeared.
The forest, that comprises pure stands of beech at lower altitudes and mixed stands of beech and fir at higher levels, can also be classified in terms of underlying strata of dolomite and limestone complexes. The dolomite communities comprise tertiary pine, hornbeam, spruce and beech-fir forests. The limestone communities have a smaller number of forest types but cover a larger area with communities of spruce and fern, spruce in beech, coppiced hornbeam with sumac, maple and heather. Hydrophytic communities of black alder, grey ivy, willow, reeds and bulrush communities are found. There are a large mosaic of meadow communities, depending on altitude, geology soils and other ecological factors. The area is fauna-rich, including European brown bear, wolf, eagle owl and capercaillie. There are records of 126 species of bird, of which 70 breed. The area was the cradle of the prehistoric Illyrian tribe of Japuds dating from 1000 BC. The Japudic culture was followed by the Romans and from the 8th century AD was occupied by Slavs. Archaeological remains include a prehistoric settlement on the site of the current Plitvice village, fortifications, Bronze Age tools and ceramics.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The national park was founded in 1949 and is situated in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The important north-south road connection, which passes through the national park area, connects the Croatian inland with the Adriatic coastal region.
Wellgreen Lewes A skincare ideology
By Amanda Jane Saurin
It’s fascinating to look at the marketing of skincare for women (and increasingly men) and appreciate fully the subtext, which suggests that perfect skin is a pre-requisite for happiness, that ageing is a conquerable evil and that only the beautiful succeed. Any product designed for the over 35s is aimed at ‘anti-ageing’ and by 40, without the right creams and unguents we are lost. This is of course absolute nonsense.
Wellgreen Lewes was established to create skincare that cares for the skin. Every ingredient is chosen to promote the health of the skin. We believe that everyone deserves beautiful, healthy skin at every stage of their lives – this is not a question of anti-ageing, lip plumping, youth serum, wrinkle diminishing hyperbole, it is so much simpler than that. As with excellent food, which feeds and delights the body, the skin benefits from being cleansed and nourished with the best quality ingredients and less is definitely more. A quick glance at the majority of soaps for example reveals a plethora of ingredients: colours, artificial fragrances, cheap oils, animal fats and frequently palm oil. In fact, the production of soap requires an acid, an alkali and water and that’s all, other herbs and essential oils can add to the individual needs of the skin but are not strictly necessary.
Wellgreen Lewes was established to create skincare that cares for the skin. Every ingredient is chosen to promote the health of the skin.
It is the same story with moisturisers but in these products there is the additional issue of product preservation. Large commercial enterprises need products to have a shelf life of around 2 years and so the preservatives used need to be very effective and long lasting, hence the advent of parabens. Unfortunately these are linked to studies alleging a possible link to breast cancer although no definitive causal link has been proved. Equally the creams need to retain their stability over a long period of time thus another whole raft of ingredients are added.
Wellgreen Lewes was created to offer something completely different - a skincare business that avoids chemical ingredients.
Finally there is the smell of the product – this is most interesting because ‘fragrance’ is accepted as commercially sensitive information, which means that the actual ‘scenting’ ingredients do not need to be revealed on the label. The vast majority of fragrance used commercially has never seen the flower it purports to smell of. Honeysuckle for example is almost never natural because the process of production in large quantity is so expensive. Equally the majority of Rose scented products are usually either artificially produced fragrance oil or a combination of other essential oils that in combination smell a bit like roses. Fragrances often contain phthalates, which although they are chemical plasticisers can be found in perfumes/fragrances because they extend the scent. Phthalates have been linked in numerous studies to hormone disruption, which may affect development and fertility.
Wellgreen Lewes was created to offer something completely different - a skincare business that avoids chemical ingredients, instead creating a truly natural range of products from scratch where the needs of the skin are paramount – I’m a firm believer in celebrating the skin you have, whatever your age.
For us, it all starts with the plants. We believe that using the best quality flowers and herbs picked at exactly the optimum moment creates the freshest, most delicious products. Whilst living in Cyprus for 7 years I was luckily enough to meet a fantastic herbalist and distiller, Mariam Khan. Over the course of many months she patiently taught me to distil using an ancient method used throughout the Levant. It involves a large copper Alembic Still, copious amounts of blossom and a great deal of patience. I learnt to distil using orange blossom facilitated by living beside hundreds of orange trees. Every April I picked masses of blossom whilst the trees were a hum with honey bees. When orange blossom is distilled, the orange flower water (hydrosol) produced is actually heavenly.
Even now when I travel back every year especially to distil, it makes me giddy with delight. As the hydrosol emerges from the Still, the Neroli essential oil floats to the top, gradually forming a thick enough layer to skim off. Having moved back to the UK making our own flower waters and essential oils is still a priority. It means we can ensure that the flowers and herbs are not contaminated and picked at exactly the right moment. Everything we use is either grown by us or our friends. As the seasons turn, we distill violets, orange blossom, daphne odora, bluebells, roses, lavender, myrtle, bay and jasmine to name but a few. The joy of our work is that we are not constrained by the need for acres of monoculturally produced hybrids, we can choose to distil whatever we want and when it has gone, it’s gone until the next season. For our visitors, Wellgreen Lewes HQ smells divine for most of the time.
Having got our essential oils and flower waters, we make a series of products that are constantly evolving. Our Soaps are mild, moisturising, cold process and made in small batches of 25 – we only use olive oil with a little coconut oil for added bubble. Most of our soaps only have 4 ingredients – oil, water, sodium hydroxide and an essential oil. The scents are entirely natural and completely delicious. I particularly love the fact that when the soaps warm up in the shower the scent develops into an all-enveloping scrumptiousness. We also make Body Butters, which are a wonderful blend of natural, unadulterated oils whipped up to make a soft, soothing moisturiser for the whole body. We developed a Healing Body Butter from locally wild gathered herbs for those with very dry eczematous skin which works beautifully and then found it was being bought by athletes who use it to protect their feet on long runs and to prevent friction discomfort.
Our Face Cream is made to order, we don’t sell it in shops because we don’t want to have to use a ‘nasty’ preservative. Instead we use minimal, natural preservation and on receiving an order, make it and send it out the following day. The difference between our cream and a conventional cream is astonishing. We make the product mindfully and with the consumer rather than the profit in mind and the product speaks for itself. We are delighted to work alongside our friend Mark the local bee keeper and we use his honey and beeswax in all our balms. As another small producer, Mark’s care for his bees is excellent and the honey he produces is from many of the flowers we use in our products and it tastes delicious.
We have come to a turning point I think in terms of what we, as consumers want and we have a very clear choice to make – do we want to invest in small, conscientious producers who sacrifice big profit for quality and ethical productivity or do we want to support big pharma who create and foster harmful self-image and supply products increasingly divorced from nature which have profit not environment at their heart?
It’s the same as the argument for organic food; using products that are sensitively created from plants that are encouraging biodiversity has to be good. Caring for our skin is not beauty frippery, it is about looking after ourselves – we all have to wash and keep our skin from drying out so perhaps we should think of it as looking after ourselves with products that don’t cost the earth – quite literally.
website www.wellgreenlewes.com facebook https://www.facebook.com/ WellgreenLewes twitter @wellgreenlewes phone 079 799 26831
River Runs Through It /Belgrade/
Although it spreads around two major rivers, Belgrade still did not fully integrate the river banks. The riverbanks in the Belgrade urban area are 200 km long. That same area also includes 16 river islands. Among them the best known are: Ada Ciganlija, Veliko ratno ostrvo, Gročanska ada. In view of its length (2850 km) and the ramified river basin (120 tributaries) the Danube is one of the largest rivers in the world and the second largest in Europe, after the river Volga. The course of the Danube through Serbia is 588 km and it is fully is navigable, making it a natural connection with Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In the Belgrade area, the course of the Danube is 60 km: from Stari Banovci to Grocka. The river Sava is 945 km long and in the Belgrade area its course is 30 km long, from Obrenovac upstream to its mouth where it empties into the Danube. All the 207 kilometers of the course of the Sava through Serbia are navigable . VELIKO RATNO OSTRVO (MAJOR WAR ISLAND) The island marks the mouth of the Sava as it empties into the Danube. Throughout the history, the island was an important strategic point either for the conquest or the defence of Belgrade. For example, during the first siege of Belgrade in 1521 the Turks launched most of their attacks on Belgrade Fortress from the island. In liberating Belgrade in 1806 the rebel army headed by Karađorđe also used the island for military purposes. A similar strategy was followed by the imperial army of Austria-Hungary during the offensive on Belgrade in 1915. Today, the Veliko ratno ostrvo is colonized by nature lovers, and on its northern tip lies the famous Zemun beach called Lido. The island and the waters around are home of numerous rare species including endangered birds, but also a morphologically and geologically extremely interesting area.
Liveable Cities: Lugano, Switzerland
Lugano is a lakeside city in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of southern Switzerland. Part of a temperate micro-climate, Lugano offers palm trees, picturesque boulevards, stunning views of the lake and the Alps, and plenty of opportunity for outdoor and indoor activities. Lugano also makes a good base for visiting other cities and sites in the area. The city is a pleasant place to relax in the summertime and is only half an hour away from Lake Como.
Lugano is small enough to get around on foot, and many of the streets are pedestrian-only, but the hills above the lakefront are very steep so the bus or the funicular from the center of town might be a better option on the way up to the train station if you have a lot of bags. Taxis can be found on the main roads. Ferries and Funiculars are great options for seeing the views.
The name of the city comes from the Latin „lucus", meaning „sacred forest." Archaeological finds have shown that the area was settled by Etruscans and Celts. In the ninth century the town was subject to the bishop of Como, who gradually extended his rights there; during the Middle Ages in the complex struggles between Milan and Como, and later between Milan, France and the Swiss Confederates it changed hands several times and came finally under Swiss rule in 1513. When the French invaded Switzerland in 1798 they abolished the system of subject areas, and created a canton Lugano, which was renamed Ticino in 1803.
Super Natural Festival /Belgrade/
SUPERNATURAL is one of the leading environmental movements in Serbia. Member of United Nations Global Compact, Slow food, partner of WWF, Friends of the Earth, DC Environmental Network, Europarc federation, Ministry of environment Republic of Serbia, City of Belgrade, and other renowned institutions. Our core values are environment, education and culture.
Supernatural festival celebrates Mother Earth day and is a fusion of all of our activities. It is an event that gathers variety of international and domestic environmental organizations, authentic and organic food producers, a place where you can have fun listening to good music but also achieve quality education. Supernatural festival promotes a lifestyle of love and harmony with Mother Earth.
Pretty Funky Creative
Meet Andjelka, a lovely girl from central Serbia, a young creative, a positive soul who recycles clothes and fabric by creating jewelry and fashion accessories.
Last week we had coffee with Andjelka, and here is what we talked about:
Nektarina (S)pace: What triggered you to start designing and creating jewelry and accessories? Andjelka: I don’t think anything in particular triggered me to start designing and creating jewelry. Ever since I was a child I liked fiddling with things, sewing, fixing things. My grandmother was a seamstress, so there were always threads, needles and pins all over the house.
Nektarina (S)pace: What materials do you use and why? To what extent do you like to experiment? Andjelka: I use everything and anything that can’t be used anymore, but still has some kind of sentimental value for me. I find that way of recycling, reusing clothes, mixing and matching absolutely amazing. Nektarina (S)pace: You come from Serbia and the Balkans, the region of beauty, and often conflict. To what extent do your surroundings and your background inspire or influence your artwork and your designs?
Andjelka: It is true that Serbia is a country full of contradictions, however I wouldn’t say that has had any particular influence to my work. I was more influenced by my family, where crafts were always a part of our lives, and many members of my family used to (or still do) make things with their own hands. Both my grandmothers were quite creative, and they probably influenced me the most. Nektarina (S)pace: Where do you find your inspiration? Andjelka: My friends and family inspire me. My work inspires me. I love to work and create things, and once I create something, it becomes an inspiration, a trigger for me to work and create further. Nektarina (S)pace: Do you think art and creativity brings people together, connects them, helps them learn and discover new things? What would you say is the power behind any kind of art or craft, regardless of whether it's a hobby or a calling? Andjelka: Yes, I do think that art connects people, and I think that in art we have a law of action and reaction. Art moves society to reach further and achieve more. The true power of art is that it allows us to express ourselves in a very specific way, that wouldn’t have been possible without art. We all have that power of creativity, no one can take that away from us, but it is up to us to find it (within ourselves) and bring it out, to the light of day. By doing so we can inspire others to let go of their fears and inhibitions. Letting go of one’s fears and inhibitions allows us to unleash our creativity. At that point anyone and everyone can become an artist.
The Olive Tree Inspiration
“Embracing the nature” summarizes the arts and crafts of a small manufacture in Pula, Istria (Croatia). They produce jewelry and items for home and office, and they are all made from olive tree.
To find out more about their work and products, visit: http://olivetta.biz
Continued →
According to the 4th-century BC father of botany, Theophrastus, olive trees ordinarily attained an age of about 200 years, he mentions that the very olive tree of Athena still grew on the Acropolis; it was still to be seen there in the 2nd century AD; and when Pausanias was shown it, ca 170 AD, he reported :
"Legend also says that when the Persians fired Athens the olive was burnt down, but on the very day it was burnt it grew again to the height of two cubits." Indeed, olive suckers sprout readily from the stump, and the great age of some existing olive trees shows that it was perfectly possible that the olive tree of the Acropolis dated to the Bronze Age.
The leafy branches of the olive tree – the olive branch as a symbol of abundance, glory and peace – were used to crown the victors of friendly games and bloody wars. As emblems of benediction and purification, they were also ritually offered to deities and powerful figures; some were even found in Tutankhamen's tomb.
info@olivetta.biz www.olivetta.biz http://www.facebook.com/Maslinovo.drvo twitter.com/Olivetta1
Delish! Veggie Cottage Pie
Ingredients & Preparation
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1 tbs vegetable oil
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1 tbs chopped thyme
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1 onion, finely chopped
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1 cup (250ml) vegetable stock
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2 celery stalks, chopped
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1 large carrot, chopped
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2 garlic cloves, crushed
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2 tbs sundried tomato pesto
1 cup (250ml) tomato passata (sieved tomatoes) ·
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1 bay leaf
400g can lentils, rinsed, drained ·
800g potatoes, peeled, chopped
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100g unsalted butter
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1/2 cup (125ml) milk
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2 egg yolks
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100g grated cheddar (see note)
Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat and cook onion for 1-2 minutes. Add celery, carrot and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add pesto, passata, bay, thyme and stock. Simmer gently for 15 minutes until vegetables are cooked. Stir in lentils and season, then transfer to a 1.2-litre baking dish. Meanwhile, cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and mash. Stir in butter, milk, yolks and cheese. Spread over lentil mixture and roughen top with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes or until bubbling and golden. ·
Urban Ideas: Poetry in Public Transport /Zagreb/
Sources, Notes and Acknowledgments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plitvice_Lakes_National_Park http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv/planet-ocean http://www.beograd.rs/cms/view.php?id=201830 http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2013/01/no-borders.html http://www.za-grad.com/ideje/158/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php? fbid=511283925600538&set=a.504550639607200.1073741829.503074389754825& type=1&theater http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/The-Balkan-Peninsula-255002.html http://www.supernatural.rs/about-us/ www.businessgreen.com/bg/review/2235992/what-has-nature-ever-done-for-usthe-answer-is-a-hell-of-a-lot
http://wikitravel.org/en/Lugano http://www.swissworld.org/en/geography/towns/lugano/
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/ archive/2013/01/21/guest-blog-by-tony-juniper-what-has-nature-ever-donefor-us.aspx http://ocean.goodplanet.org/?lang=en http://www.goodplanet.org/exposition-planete-ocean-une-premiere-escale-auhavre/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php? fbid=10151520252189512&set=a.382543644511.159651.113972689511&type=1& theater http://picafric.com http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3479/lentil+vegetable+cottage+pie+vegetarian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive
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Nektarina (S)pace is a web magazine published monthly by Nektarina Non Profit, a non governmental, non profit organization registred in Croatia. ISSN 1847-6694