27 March 2006
Smile, please: Open day in Manokwari
Children peering into portholes
© Greenpeace/Sharomov
It's “ Open Boat” day in Manokwari and there are hundreds of school children taking tours of the ship. There's a bustle of people, faces peering in every porthole, queues of kids at every set of stairs, and interested, inquiring people everywhere.
It's great that so many people are keen to visit the ship and find out what is going on. Being on the crew, I get a lot of attention. It’s a weird experience, being asked to pose for photo after photo, then signing the back of pictures of the Warrior. It started getting very surreal when a guy asked me to sign his shirt. I'm so glad I'm not a pop star!
We have a great group of volunteers from the local university to help us out, and lead the tours in Indonesian. As well as offering a tour of the ship, we have set up a photo display up on the bridge deck so everyone can see images of illegal logging and its affects on local communities.
Here, Yuyu, one of our volunteers, writes about his experiences at the open day and his feelings about illegal logging in Papua:
Yuyu: "It has affected me."
© Greenpeace/Cooke
Hello, My name is Yuyu and I am a lecturer at The State University Of Papua, Manokwari.This is my first time here on the Rainbow Warrior, and over the last two days, the ship and its work has influenced my view of Greenpeace. It has very much affected me emotionally. Now I want to save this world, especially the forests. Perhaps for some others people, this is not so important.
As a lecturer in the university it is very exciting for me because in previous times I just sat and did nothing practical about deforestation. I gave lectures to my classes, but did not know anything in reality. By doing this with Greenpeace, it has made me realise how important it is to save the forest. It is hard work and it has a lot of value, even if I am doing just the "words" thing, giving short explanations, and doing no action things.
You have your voice to save the world. For everybody around the globe, please do something to save this world, including the ancient forest in Papua, not for us, but for our next generation. They will need it much more than us. So give the best you have, do the best you can do to save this ancient forest and keep this globe green.
I hope that here the local government, especially the forestry department, will give more attention to this issue (illegal logging) and join co-operative projects with the local community to protect their land, and our forest, and make this Papua become a green place. A better place to live in future.
Say no to illegal logging.
For all the crew, thank you very much for the opportunity you have given me. Keep in touch.
Yuyu
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/cgi-bin/mv/mt-tb.cgi/1417
Comments
Hi, all the weblog readers!
Well, it's amazing to read Yuyu's idea bout what she felt. I'm a university student in Jayapura. And I'm agree with Yuyu. Well, I was in Manokwari. And I know there too. Manokwari is beautiful also. It's not just you Yuyu who feels such things like that. For me, I think how poor of the local people who don't know such things like how precious their forests are. I mean here, they can give their trees to cut off because they wanna eat. For them the money that they receive is a lot. But, actually, the things happen is they can receive in multipliying it by 4 or maybe more, but they can't , never!!!!
They still in poverty.
Well, guys, just say "yes!" to our green world, and "no!" to dark world!!!!!!!
Posted by: tis at March 31, 2006 2:57 AM
Dear Sophie and the weblog readers,
It's me Maya, one of the volunteers of Manokwari's open boat. i also agree with Yuyu and Tisda. to safe the forest is our duty now. when we put any attention to safe the forest is better than do nothing. it's so pity to see so many people in Papua don't realize about the heritage the have. when you save the forest, it means that you have saved your own life, your children and all your grandchildren in the future. the earth is getting older and this your duty to save the living environment especially the forest. by put your attention on such campaign like this, at least you become a hero for yourself and your descendants. remember, too many people bertrayed their nature's calling in their heart, please do not be such people who have destroyed the forest, be one who cares, and you'll see someday, the forests will smile back at you. GBU :)
Posted by: maya at April 1, 2006 6:26 AM
