The world's beaches are in trouble!
Shipbreaking takes place in poor countries, where once pretty beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey are turned into ship graveyards. However, old ships contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead paint and PCBs, which are released into the environment. The Rainbow Warrior is in India to visit the shipbreaking yards. Evedien from the Netherlands is on board....
December 09, 2003
Monkeys
Today was the first time I set foot on land after a long time. It has now been exactly one month since we left Bombay the first time. It felt strange, I even got a little bit dizzy. The reason I got on land was to take a picture of the banner between the masts. The banner reads: "Greenpeace - Persecuted for Exposing Corporate Crime". Below the banner we also hung all the flags from all nationalities on board. Beside me there were of course a number of people watching us. It almost feels that we are monkeys in a zoo, trapped in their living environment.
We finally got fresh supplies on board, so finally we have fruit and vegetables again! Everybody is very happy about that. But it still feels strange that we're not allowed off the ship. Some of us have contacted our consuls. The latest we heard is that all consuls got together to discuss our issue. They planned on talking to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. So that's good news. Hopefully this and all people who send faxes to the Ministers will help. Most of the crew also got response from family and friends. So I would like to thank everybody who's trying to help us. Keep your fingers crossed!
This is a very personal message from Délcio - here in Brazil - to Devika, Adarsh, Ramapati, Stephanie, Martin, Lesley, Emily and other members of RW’s crew in India… it was lovely to see your photos in the website; I miss you friends so much. Take care, and be sure you all are doing the right thing. Kisses, Délcio.
Posted by: Délcio Rodrigues at December 12, 2003 02:51 AMI've been following your blog here for a week or two and find it really interesting to see what happens day to day with your crew. As it happens today I saw GreenPeace on REAL TV. They were airing a segment about the Greenpeace crew storming a Shell oil rig that was about to be sunk. Were you there then? Looks like you guys saved the day after alot of back and forth with the Shell Oil folks.
Any chance you could make a post about the crew and tell us who all is onboard and a little about how you came to be there? Maybe a clickable photo that would be large enough to see all the faces? You know, putting faces with the story makes it all the more interesting to those of us who follow.
Keep up the good work! And thanks for writing the journal. I may just learn alot that I wouldn't have otherwise about what your organization does.
Posted by: the country girl at December 12, 2003 11:19 AMoops. I see you already added a CREW PROFILE link. Is that new? I swear I looked for something like that earlier this week and didn't see it. I'll enjoy looking over that now!
Posted by: the country girl at December 12, 2003 11:21 AMI stumbled into your blog by coincidence. Nice to see what you look like after doing having a lot of contact by phone & E-mail, but never actually meeting. Good luck on your mission!
Gr. from Rotterdam, Evert