Do you know how many boats are on the water right now?
Many more than you can imagine…
Do you know that each of those boats, small or big, is polluting a lot just by running the engines? Many of them use ocean dumping as regular practice to get rid of sludge and other nasty -often toxic- waste.
Did you know?
If you didn’t know, well, now you can read it, I will give you some evidence as well.
With a degree in Nautical Studies for Captains, five years of study plus practical training, graduating with the title of “Engine Cadet”, I have been working on a dozen of boats and I discovered many facts which would shock anyone with a minimum of ethical values.
After witnessing ocean dumping on boats where I was working: “Grimaldi Group Napoli” and “Navigazione due Golfi spa” , I knocked at the door of Greenpeace (Antwerp, Belgium) in order to let them know and find out what would have been possible to do. Unfortunately I was not heard by Greenpeace.
Successively I ask support to an italian lawyer (Gerardo Iorlano) which seem to be willing to help, but actually he never starts any procedure.
To be strange
People is afraid of what they don’t understand. Often the simplest things are not understood.
On a boat, while other members of the crew are obeying orders to dispose highly polluting waste in the sea, I am the strange person, I am odd because I don’t do it.
Being strange means simply not to comply with the majority, but when the majority is doing evil, do you want to be normal or strange?
People following, people leading
Often I angrily ask myself how is possible that the most persons just follow trends, mode and attitude of others…
Why can’t anyone create his own life?
Well, the answer I have found is that we, are supposed to be like that, if there would be more leaders than followers it would not work out. Following other’s way of being is also a conservative natural protection we have, to avoid getting in situations that could harm us…
Unfortunately, in the maritime sector, the leading figures are not always the best example to follow, while the followers – the crew – does not use any common sense obeying even criminal orders…
The fun of curiosity
I mostly start to do things for fun, because I think that I would enjoy the situations where I end up in circumstances which I would never have expected.
The most peculiar fact is, that I often discovered the ‘real meaning’ of my presence, in a certain situation, just at the end of the events, or later. The ‘real meaning’ that I discover, turns out to become much different that the reason why I started to do a certain thing, that ‘real meaning’ becames my purpose, which I was not aware of initially.
Working on boats for about three years, and in the harbour afterwards, made me having tasks which maybe didn’t fit at all with my desire, but, I have learned and discovered things that would have been for me impossible to know otherwise.
Superficiality
Each of us has his level of superficiality, some people pollute while not even thinking about it, they may recognize it or not as devastating practice, often they do it, not just because they have no values nor ethics, but because of their superficiality.
I was thinking about my own superficiality, it seems strange, I don’t repute myself to be superficial, but still:
– I don’t want to live in The Netherlands cause I don’t like the way dutch is spoken there
– I don’t enjoy really much finnish architecture
I do choose a country where I live in also based on those two things: architecture and language, which could be considered as superficial by someone.
Movies & Reality, the opposite of each other
Almost all the things that are fascinating and thrilling in videos or movies, are horrible in reality: war, killings, homelessness, catastrophes…
Romanticizing the worst
Boats accidents, Homelessness, soldiers, survival situations and even mafia.
Does it seems to be funny, exotic, nice, charming or disgusting to you?
Paradoxically enough, we tend to romanticize all the worst possible situations, attitudes or jobs.
Maybe it’s a kind of play-down that we automatically set up in order to relieve ourself from harsh reality.
We are bombarded with videos showing us how beautiful boats are, and consequently, we all love to go for a cruise-boat trip.
Boats are actually highly disturbing the life, ecosystem and natural balance of aquatic environments. In fact, just the presence of any floating structure, alters small and big marine settings. The most people is not even aware of this.
One ‘freedom’
We like to have the ‘freedom’ to do whatever we want and we often misuse that ‘freedom’. For sure in highly industrialized and economically developed countries.
Freedom to travel should not be equal to freedom to pollute without reason, taking an airplane or a boat, just because the ticket was so cheap, it’s an example of misuse.
One wants the freedom to “own” a dog
The dog has no freedom to choose,
Others have no freedom to walk in a park without shoes to become brown.
One wants the freedom to smoke
Others have no freedom to breath clean air,
No freedom to have no cancer,
No freedom to have clean streets.
One ask for freedom to listen loud music
Others have no freedom to quietness,
No freedom to choose what to listen.
One wants to have the freedom to consume and pollute as much as wished,
The fish has no freedom to be free from plastic in his environment,
Other people have no freedom to swim because of the contamination.
Behind any freedom, there is a non-freedom.
Recycling in Denmark, Find what you need, when you need, if you need
I just lost my socks from the window, I go in the night for a bicycle ride, I find nearly new socks right away.
I am with no sheets nor blankets, I need some, I notice on google map a place called “consignment shop”, in Copenhagen and I save it on my map.
After few days I get lost, I look on the map of my smartphone and I notice I am nearby the place I starred previously as “consignment shop”. Not just I find sheets and blankets, but pillows too. The only missing are pillowcases, but I just spotted some white t-shirt that can serve as it.
There are a lot of places in Denmark called “genbrugsstation”, containers park / consignment shops, where you can dispose the garbage and exchange items in a dedicated space, “the free shop”.
Nature & Sharing
Sharing and get benefit from each other is everything but new. With the boom of the sharing economy we all see how much beneficial sharing goods or services can be, Nature does it all the time.
In nature it’s practically impossible for one individual to use more resources that what he is supposed to, just we, as capitalistic artificial humans, have created a vicious circle that puts inequality, and related pollution, at the first place.
Let’s say you want to have food and water, if you eat a watermelon you get them both, in exchange you will spread around the seeds of the plant, giving a favor back, this is so implicit to nature that you don’t even notice you are helping the plant by eating the fruit…
Technology vs Nature
How to know when tech is going against nature?
Well, one easy attitude would be to use technology to better understand and follow nature’s rules.
Expensive things kill you
It’s quite paradoxical that expensive things are in many cases not good, while free, or inexpensive stuff, is making us live longer :
The most expensive things
– Drugs – they kill you
– Cars & vehicles in general (boats included) – statistically kill more than any war
– Plastic surgery – you get also psychological problems from it
While free things are so healthy
– Water – the most healthy drink
– Fruit – the best food
– Fasting – once a month or a week it purifies the body
Changing
I am changing, I changed, I did so many changes that if I change more I become like I was in the beginning.
Why Camping, nature and wildlife are beneficial
Doing wilde ‘uncomfortable’ life, is not just nice to be in contact with nature, get healthier, more spiritual, down to earth and rewild ourself, but also helps us appreciate the commodities we have in everyday life like water, electricity and other luxuries…
The ‘Floating City’ and the childhood
In Copenhagen there is a magic place, one of the few boats that does not pollute at all: The floating city.
It’s a self organized space, where many activities take place regarding recycling and reusing.
They even builded up by them-self boats with recycled materials. I had the pleasure to meet them and stay on the recycled catamaran for short.
When I was a kid, I use to play with a group of other kids in building up a mini villages, constructing small combs with wood and spending a lot of time in that projects. There, at the floating city the same is happening, bringing my feelings to my childhood.
Just with more tools.
Humans vs Animals
who is the smartest animal?
Are chickens stupid?
We may say that chickens are stupid because we have the technology to measure their brain size…
But, are we sure we are smarter than chickens?
If we see how many things we have destructed on this planet, well, chickens are smarter than us because they didn’t damage at all.
We could discuss endless about how smart we are boosting humans above other animal spieces, we can say we have the most developed brain and we won the challenge to dominate nature…
But if we take into account that we are the only animal contaminating air, water and soil, the essential to live, what else should we talk about?
One of the other differences between humans and other animals is that humans have the peculiarity to kill other of their own specie with madness.
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