13/02/2010 by mtnspirit
Keeping Land Developers in Their Box
By D.R. Richards,
I remember that particular afternoon, when a friend and I talked about trying to do something to help save Mount Sunapee from the dread of slope-side condo development. Sullivan county, New Hampshire had no history* of activism, none, zero, zip. Being a native, of a conventional, conservative county, I had to really watch my thoughts of not wanting to make waves in my home town. I didn’t want to stand out. Besides, people I talked to said there was “nothing that could be done”, “it was already a done deal”, or they were “going to develop the mountain and what could anyone do anyway”. That particular afternoon, the friend and I decided to call a few people, and set up a meeting at the Abbott Library in Sunapee to see what could be done. That first meeting eventually led to the formation of Friends of Mount Sunapee. (*Current FOMS Vice President Linda Dennis was a founding member of a previous Mt. Sunapee land protection group, but at the time we convened, it was not active).
Mt. Sunapee has Friends
Never underestimate what the efforts of a few committed people can do in the face of deep pockets and driven land developers. Thanks to many, (too many to mention here) the word spread about the threat to our State Park, and eventually it spread to the candidate for New Hampshire governor, John Lynch. Lynch has been the most popular Governor New Hampshire has seen, and because of his courageous stance to defend the state lands of Mount Sunapee, the developers decided to sue him, and the state of NH, because their imaginary back-door deal wasn’t honored. Now I read the owners are threatening to sue again. This time they’re stomping their feet at the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, for again, not getting their desires met to expand their ski area. (For more info click here)
Overdevelopment is not pretty, Okemo, VT
It makes one wonder how some can be so incredibly out of touch with reality, out of touch with the wishes of the locals and the natural environment. I just watched the movie Avatar, (I still have a headache from the Imax 3-D version three days later) and the Muellers’ insatiable appetite for land and profit remind me of the miners in Avatar and their lust for the precious “unobtainium” mineral at all costs.
My dad was a developer. He built one of the first “funnel developments” on Lake Sunapee called Fisher’s Bay. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Avatar, Backcountry Magazine, Bob Bell, Catherine Bushueff, CBMR, Charles Richmond, Crested Butte, Crested Butte Mountain Guides, Crested Butte Weekly, Dexter Richards, Edward Abbey, Fisher's Bay, Friends of Mount Sunapee, Friends of Snodgrass Mountain, Governor John Lynch, Jay Gamble, Jayson Simons-Jones, land protection, Mark Reaman, Mountain Reach, Mt. Sunapee, National Environmental Policy Act, Ridgeline protection, Sunapee, Tim and Diane Mueller, United States Forest Service, unobtainium
Posted in Conservation, Environment, Focus on MSI People, Leadership, Power of Place, Room For Improvement, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
12/02/2010 by mtnspirit
Mountain Spirit is always looking for good ways to work with our friends in Peru, to give back, also to help raise funds for our programs. Boot program fits the bill.
Handmade Fundraiser
By R. Richards
When we walked into Mariano’s boot shop in Cusco last summer we knew we were looking at high quality products. I trained as an apprentice boot maker in Austria, so I recognized the traditional European boot making techniques when I saw them. And here they were in Cusco, Peru, in the form of high quality suede boots, custom made right in the shop. Mariano takes an outline of one’s foot, then gets to work. While we lived in Cusco we talked with him to see if we could order from the states. At an international fair we had put the boots out and they proved so popular, we decided to put them on our website. All proceeds go to the bootmaker, and to Mountain Spirit Institute to further our non-profit educational mission and programs. If you, or someone you know, would like a pair, read on and contact us.
MSI Handmade Peruvian Boots
Boots from Peru
– Hand made from Cusco Peru
– Unique, not mass marketed
– Popular with the people who have ordered them so far.
– Custom to your foot: We (or you can) outline your foot, and we send it via DHL courier directly to Cusco where Mariano completes the order in three days and sends the boots back by DHL
– Suede leather
– Insulated
– Inlaid with traditional local handmade weavings, made on backstrap looms
– Lug Sole made by “Cat” (similar to Vibram)
Uggs Alternative
– Very comfortable
– Made to order.
– We place orders when we have nine or ten orders together.
– GENERIC SIZES OPTION: Some generic sizes are in stock and ship in 24hrs. Call for details.
-PRICES: Custom made $180.00 plus ground shipping in U.S. Price includes custom ordering and shipment from Peru by DHL. Generic sizes $140.00 plus shipping in U.S. from NH, USA
– Turn around time: 8-10 days from when order is sent from USA
-Available in New Zealand starting 8/2010
For further details or to place an order, please call 603-763-2668 or email us at info@mtnspirit.org
Tags: Boots from Peru, Custom Peruvian Boots, Fair Trade Boots, Fundraiser, Mountain Spirit, Uggs alternative
Posted in Fair Trade, MSI News, Peru, Supporting MSI, Sustainable Travel | 2 Comments »
02/02/2010 by mtnspirit
Howard Zinn, 1922 - 2010
Howard Zinn, historian, author, and activist passed away last week at the age of 87. Perhaps best known for his highly influential book A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was a fierce advocate for civil rights. In his memory, the Media Education Foundation has posted a never before seen video, done it 2005. You can see it here.
Tags: A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn, Media Education Foundation
Posted in Inspirational People, Leadership, Milestones | Leave a Comment »
30/01/2010 by mtnspirit
By D.R.Richards
Coloring for the first time, Amantani Island, Peru
The simple act of giving a child a coloring book on the high mountain island of Amantani on Lake Titicaca, where we have been taking small groups for years, bridges our cultures. It also helps reach out by giving a little something back. By no means is it as big as building a school, or other major project that other more established organisations are doing in Peru. As mother Teresa said, “Peace begins with a smile,” and in this case a coloring book, then a smile.
We at Mountain Spirit Institute believe that to truly connect with others in our world, when we travel its good to reach out in anyway you can. Reaching out might be that smile, the coloring book, or listening well to the people you’re visiting rather than building them what you think they need, a good lesson from Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea. Of course listening well implies you need a good interpreter or hopefully have studies the local lanquage, and I don’t mean Spanish. Next time you travel, load up on some coloring books and colored pencils. Leave the chocolates at the city, and take some paper and pencils instead. The local kids will love it, and you’ll smile too.
Tags: Amantani Island, Building Schools, Greg Mortenson, Lake Titicaca, Mother Theresa, Service, service projects, Three Cups of Tea
Posted in Peru, Service, Sustainable Travel, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
28/01/2010 by mtnspirit
Media Violence and the Cultivation of Fear
A new film based on the late George Gerbner’s groundbreaking analysis of media influence and media violence
MEA's Mean World Syndrome
In A New Heaven New Earth, Eckart Tolle says that violence for violence sake is the pain body‘s way of seeking food. Violent films are made by pain bodies for pain bodies to view. He also wrote, however, that if a film, such as a documentary or drama about the Vietnam war or World War II for example, use violence to illustrate the madness of the human mind, to wake us up to the insanity of the egoic mind, then violent depictions can have a role in showing us a way to becoming more fully conscious. I’m still on the fence about Tolle’s comments. Meanwhile, the highly respected Media Education Foundation has just produced a new DVD called Mean World Syndrome.
“In an era dominated by simplified assumptions about the impact of television violence, Gerbner insisted on a broader perspective and a sharper analysis, arguing that the primary impact of the media was to reinforce, not to challenge, the structure of power.”
– Larry Gross, Director, USC Annenberg School of Communication
For years, debates have raged among scholars, politicians, and concerned parents about the effects Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cultivation of Fear, Eckhart Tolle, George Gerbener, Larry Gross, Mean World Syndrome, Media Education Foundation, New World, Pain Body, USC Annenberg School of Communication
Posted in Books, Film/DVD, Health, Holistic Living, Inner Work | Leave a Comment »
28/01/2010 by mtnspirit
U.S. helicopters help Peru evacuate hundreds after rail line was cut
From AP
Image: Mountain Spirit Institute
Helicopter at Aquas Caliente, MP. MSI file photo
Helicopters ferried almost 600 more tourists from the Machu Picchu area after rains slackened Wednesday, leaving up to 1,600 travelers still stranded by mudslides blocking the only land route from the famed Inca citadel.
Authorities said airlifts would continue throughout the week because more tourists had shown up at the evacuation site on foot after completing treks along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, the 15th century Incan fortress that is 8,000 feet above sea level.
Rain-fueled mudslides on Sunday cut the train line that is the only transport link to the remote region atop an Andean mountain ridge. Adding to the worries, tourists flown out Wednesday reported that a rain-swollen river had eroded the site where rescue helicopters are landing.
Stranded tourists charged they are being victimized by price-gouging because food, water and accommodations are scarce in the now isolated Machu Picchu Pueblo, a village of 4,000 residents.
Tags: Helicopter Evacuations, Machu, Peru, Slides Machu Picchu
Posted in Climate Change, Peru, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
28/01/2010 by mtnspirit
Tourists ‘bribe their way out of flooded Machu Picchu’
By Hannah Strange
From: MSNBC
Bus Road to MP, Image: MSI File Photo
British backpackers were among 1,500 tourists trying to escape from Peru’s Inca citadel of Machu Picchu yesterday, which has been cut off by floods and landslides.
As food supplies dwindled and hostels ran out of space many tourists were sleeping in the railway station and the town’s main square while they waited to be rescued by helicopter.
“The situation is about to erupt,” Rudy Chalco, a tour guide with a group of elderly Europeans, told the Peruvian daily newspaper El Comercio. “We don’t have any more food, disorder is starting to reign, the soldiers and police don’t know what to do or how to organise the help that has arrived, people are getting desperate and no one is taking charge.”
Some tourists were paying up to $500 (£300) for a seat on one of the helicopters, he said.
Fernando Celis, one of 300 Chileans stranded in Machu Picchu, said that people were bribing rescuers. “A helicopter arrived yesterday to take out the elderly and the unwell and some tourists who had more money. There are almost no North Americans left, only the backpackers. People on tours who were waving their money about, they were all evacuated,” he said.
He added that local vendors had doubled their prices. Read the rest of this story
Tags: bribes, Bus route, Climate Change, Helicopters, Machu Picchu, Peru, Police, Road to Machu Picchu, Slides
Posted in Climate Change, Peru, Room For Improvement | Leave a Comment »
28/01/2010 by mtnspirit
Peru slide kills tourist, guide near Machu Picchu
From The Times
Flooding at Aquas Caliente near Machu Picchu. Image: Reuters
A mudslide on the famed Inca trail to Machu Picchu killed an Argentine tourist and a Peruvian guide, as authorities evacuated hundreds of tourists by helicopter from a flood zone where more than 1,500 others were still stranded
Cuzco government spokesman Hernet Moscoso said the Argentine, identified as Lucia Ramallo, 23, and the guide, Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope gave way and their tents were crushed. Three other tourists were injured.
Authorities closed the Inca trail, a popular tourist trek that follows a stone path built by the ancient civilization from their capital, Cuzco, to the Machu Picchu citadel.
The deaths raised to five the number of people killed by heavy rains that have caused floods and landslides and collapsed homes, Moscoso said. Read the rest of this story
Image: The Times
Tags: Machu Picchu Slides, Tourists stranded, Urumbamba Flooding
Posted in Climate Change, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
28/01/2010 by mtnspirit
U.S. FDA’s Curious Statement on Carton of Milk
Perplexing labeling re: BGH
We were pulling a small carton of light cream from the fridge tonight and noticed a perplexing statement on Oakhurst’s container. On the one hand, there’s a banner under the logo stating “America’s 1st Farmers’ Pledge, No Artificial Growth Hormones Used”
And then in small print, at the lower left hand corner of the same panel reads, “FDA states No significant difference in milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormone.”
Who are they trying to kid? You can’t fool all the people all the time.
If it’s so safe, why are Americans looking bloated that drink BGH milk. Also why do so many other countries prohibit the sale of BGH milk?
At first we thought it was some sort of trick on Oakhurst’s part. But, on second thought, we concluded it’s another strong-arm tactic of big pharma. I’ll send an email to Oakhurst in the morning and query them as to why there are two apparently contradictory statements on one carton of milk.
Tags: Big Pharma, Bovine Growth Hormone, FDA, Federal Drug Administration, Milk, Oakhurst Dairy, Safe food
Posted in Health, Holistic Living, Room For Improvement | Leave a Comment »
27/01/2010 by mtnspirit
The splendours of New Zealand are best seen by rail
By Dan Poole
The Independent
TranzCoastal crosses the Waimakariri
Grand Central, St Pancras, Milano Centrale – and, er, Britomart? The main station in New Zealand’s largest city sounds as though it is named after a discount car-parts retailer. In fact, Auckland’s Britomart Transport Centre occupies a handsome Victorian building on Queen Elizabeth II Square, and is apparently named after a character from The Faerie Queene.
It is also the northern terminus of New Zealand’s longest train ride – the 12-hour haul south to the capital, Wellington – known as the Overlander. And as if to hint at the views that lie ahead, it is run by Tranz Scenic. Read the rest of this story
Tags: New Zealand, Tranz Scenic Rail
Posted in New Zealand, Sustainable Travel | Leave a Comment »
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