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Paradise Forests of Asia Pacific | |
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-- crew biography --
Hello my name's Peter and I am, at present, the Chief Mate on the Rainbow Warrior. I have been at sea since 1978, and have been working with Greenpeace intermittently for the last 12 years - sailing on all of their vessels as Mate and Captain - from the Amazon to Antarctica, Eastern Russia to the Marshall islands, encompassing Greenland, Spitzbergan, the Americas and Asia, almost 25 countries in total. It's been a wonderfully rewarding, humbling and educational experience. Unfortunately, I've also seen the hardships, vulnerability and pain inflicted on so many by we the few. The so-called "developed" nations. I've seen our nations continue to abuse and exploit this world, rather than live with it sustainably. Most of us think of our selves as members of an "intelligent" species. Yet, somehow, we do not even see the simplest insanity of unsustainable living. One of the founding principles of Greenpeace, is Ahimsa, or non-violence, a term used and practised by that great man of peace, Mahatma Gandhi. One of my favourite statements of his was when he was asked, on a visit to the British parliament in London, "What do you think of civilization in the west?" To which he replied, "I think it would be a very good idea!" The real heroes, in my opinion, of the environmental and human rights movements around the world, are the countless local individuals. They are, sometime a great personal risk to themselves and often those close to them, willing to stand up and say "No"! without the relative protection and backing of large organizations. These are the people that continually inspire me to continue and I am immensely thankful for their belief their courage and friendship I spend most of my free time travelling - pursuing my main interests of yoga, spiritual philosophy and photography; playing a passable guitar and a painful mandolin; and remembering it is still a wonderful world, though at times only just. |
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