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September 26, 2005
Interview with an old hippy!
September 26th 2005
Today, I had the chance to speak with one of those individuals who have inspired and lead change- Yosy Flug. Yosy immediately won everyone over by sharing some delicious local pastry with us. Hmmmm mmmm. All crew were very appreciative.
Yosy is described by folk in the area as a local hero. Hero, for some ofhis past diving exploits, in 76 he completed the deepest dive in the world at the time and he was one of the first local divers at
Sharem-El-Sheik. Unfortunately in 91 Yosy was paralysed in a diving
accident and one of the hardest things he ever did was getting his toes to wiggle - a feat that took two weeks of sheer concentration. Yosy is up and about on his feet these day, although not as sprightly as he used to be and less able to dive.
This is not the only reason Yosy is considered a local hero.
A LOCAL VICTORY STORY:
In the early 90s there were government plans to sell off Jaffo port - to change a charming ancient port that has survived from the bible, survived Napoleon, a Turkish and a British occupation into a sterile commercialized zone. For Yosy, Jaffo port is special as somewhere that Arabs and Jews alike sit together as equals, something he attributes to fishermen and sailors all being equal against the elements at sea. Not to be beaten Yosy worked to pull together a local movement with Environmental and other organisations to demonstrate against the plans.
And boy, did they succeed.
A decision was taken to preserve and renovate the port. In addition
legislation was changed for all to ensure that citizens are made aware of plans in advance.
The fight goes on to make the municipality rather than the government
responsible for the port and to bring back some of the life to the area, as many residents and restaurants left when the earlier plans were announced.
Yosy acknowledges that bringing about change take years and needs all
people to work together. Yosy has a vision of all the different
organizations working together to bring about real holistic change. He thinks that people in Israel (and the rest of the world) need to work together to support the weak and the poor to make a healthier environment and at the same time the environment has to be protected as it is the poor and the week that suffer when we exploit our environment.
And how does he think this will happen? There are already signs of
movement. With the hurricanes Katrina and Rita people have started to wake up to the dangers and urgency of climate change and again it is the poor that are suffering. Yosy strongly supports the work of Greenpeace activists in taking a stand to wake people to the realities that we are causing in exploiting our environment.
Donna Mattfield
Posted by Hussein at September 26, 2005 12:01 AM