While staying in the port town of Agios Kirykos in Ikaria island, we met with Antoni Font Gelabert. Antoni has been involved in environmental protection and sustainability for over 30 years, including seven years of being a board member of Greenpeace International. He is currently working on two projects. The first, Pandion, is an environmental consultancy firm. As he explains, Pandion is the Latin name of the fishing eagle, since they mostly work in marine conservation. The second is Ocean Observer, a project that aims to introduce electric boats into operation, from installing electric engines to borrowing electric boats to non-governmental organisations.
Coming from Mallorca and having expertise in the Balearic Islands, Antoni visits Greek islands every year for the past 12 years. Connected to both these places, he transfers his experiences from home to the processes that the Greek islands are undergoing now. As he says, he is interested in seeing and understanding how the same processes that have destroyed Mallorca are acting in different places.
“I come from a place that is strongly saturated by human pressure. Mallorca is growing at the rate of the full population of Samos each year. In the coming years, Mallorca will grow by 300 000 people, ten times the population of Samos. So mainly the challenges and the problems we detect have to do with this overcrowding and the pressure of tourism. But not only tourism: there are people who want to come to Mallorca because Mallorca has very good infrastructure, very good transport and all these things that are fantastic for any project or business. In fact, of the 80 000 people who come to live there each year, 50 000 go away because they don’t find their real dream. So Mallorca is what I call a dream shredder: a shredder that destroys the dreams of 50 000 people whose dreams don’t come true. Because the pressures and the competition are really hard. But the rules of neoliberalism say that everything must go in the direction of growth.”
“On our islands we have released the ropes and we are drifting in terms of the relation of people with nature. And here, of course, this is starting to happen. But when we come here, we feel like in the Baleares 50 years ago. There is internet, there is everything that is in our islands, but many ways of doing are still old fashioned. And that has a lot of value: I love the old fashioned way of relating to nature. In the basic sense, I feel at home.”
He talked about where he sees the current problems of the Mediterranean – and the ways to solve them.
Lesbos lately became famous for the „most unbearable refugee camp in the world“ as they call it here. Now, we might already have forgotten about it, but the hard reality in the packed camp of Moria and people waiting for years to get asylum rights, is a part of daily life on the island. And: People are still coming and drowning on their way to Europe.
At the harbour, visitors of fancy coffee bars and refugee families fishing coexist quite separately. ut there is a minority of locals and mostly foreigners who run projects & activities that are extremely valuable for the many lost on Lesbos…depressed, with no future and especially with nothing to do. Europe turns a blind eye and the Greek government obeys Europe by ignoring refugees needs, especially in legal processes. This should convince Afghans, Syrians, and many Africans NOT to cross over at all! “I can see – in the future – the Mediterranean Sea full of blood since you cannot stop people from escaping violence at home“ 26-year-old Omar from Syria stated. In April 2017 he started refuge4refugees- an NGOo working on Lesbos and Samos. We stayed much longer than we thought and got closer to many more heroes…VIDEO
“Either you love it - or you hate it and you have to leave immediately” was a sentence repeated by many. Especially the ones that migrated and live here now for years…and their love affair goes on. They are the active population for the needed changes in a land of “no compromises”
voice: Giorgos Maskalidis >>> video
PS : The fist team of 2019 MEDLand storytellig-project is related to the last recorded story in 2018: Christodoulos is the heart of the team now - and the focus of the story. How comes? We are four now, plus one.. Eleonora from Berlin, Germany, connected to the project through Workaway-platform. Her skills are journalism - audio, with a finger in video also.
Here are our news from Limnos: On this island, Christos - doctor and psychiatrist - is guided by an ancient story involving a hero and a snake.
In the Odyssay Homer tells the story of Philoktitis. He was a great hero of the Trojan war. One day he was bitten by a snake - an incurable wound. And the generals - also Ulysses - betrayed him and decided to leave him to die on the island of Limnos. Philoktitis was very weak, but just when his life seemed to come to end, he took some clay from the ground in the cave where he was hiding. He put it onto his wound - and it healed.
PS : The fist team of 2019 MEDLand storytellig-project is related to the last recorded story in 2018: Christodoulos is the heart of the team now - and the focus of the story. How comes? We are four now, plus one.. Eleonora from Berlin, Germany, connected to the project through Workaway-platform. Her skills are journalism - audio, with a finger in video also.
The fist team of 2019 MEDLand storytellig-project is related to the last recorded story in 2018: Christodoulos is the heart of the team now - and the focus of the story. How comes? We are four now, plus one.. Eleonora from Berlin, Germany, connected to the project through Workaway-platform. Her skills are journalism - audio, with a finger in video also.
The fist team of 2019 MED Land sory-tellig projectwas related to the last recorded story in 2018 -Christodoulos is actually the hart of the team now and focus of the story. How comes ? We were four, plus one.. Eleonora from Berlin - German. She connected to the project through Work Away platform . Her skills are radion journalism -audio, with a finger in video also- Bojan-Eleonora-Christodoulos-Makis (Christodoulos skipper) and Odyssey Christodoulos decided to do a pilgrimage-ritual trip through the historical places in N-Aegeian sea , from Athens to Istanbul via Limnos island, passing also Marathon field, A—temple where armies got together to attack Troja… than Limnos is connected to Odyssey karma where he betrayed fellow man… “…and it is time now to release this pain”. Rituals and conversations with Odyssey are Christodoulous occupation..while he is sailing on his own boat at his age of 83! BUT! every day newborn, with a lot of smile, positive thoughts and joy for life, philosophy, cipora, vine, good food, poetry. The trip final destination was his home island Ikaria ))
Christos is 84 now. When his daughters asked him who would accompany him on his sailing journey he replied: A few friends - Bojan from Slovenia. Just him, his daughters asked? So, Christos thought he would need someone else: Ulysses. Ulysses? Yes, his Athomos - his spirit, to get into a dialogue. This way Christos wants to really experience the connection between the past and the present: In his own identity, the Greek culture, but also in religion and most of all: human nature. Because for Christos, we are still the same. We share the same problems in live, war, love. And t is time now to release this pain, he says.
Rituals and conversations with Ulysses are Christodoulous occupation..while he is sailing on his own boat at his age of 84! BUT! every day newborn, with a lot of smile, positive thoughts and joy for life..philosophy, poetry, cipora, good food,…The trip final destination is Ikaria.
Participants were from Croatia and Slovenia, mostly second year students of geomancy
Hvar island is MED land home island/ port for Nalu and main office for the project , lacated in Museum of Stari -grad (MED Land partner). The cooperation between 4 of us-MEDLand project, LAGŠKOLJ(local action group), Museum of Stari Grad and Vitaaa (org. started by Marko Pogačnik) made it happened.
an impression of geomancy in practice is edited in
image&sound track -5min image&sound track -5min
The workshop was held on the island of Hvar – a dragonlike island in the Adriatic.*
The participants came from Croatia and Slovenia, mostly second year students of geomancy, assistants for field work, some permanent collaborators, as well as some newcomers and organizers of the event from the island. All in all, there were 25 participants! The workshop took 2 days of intensive work (plus 2 additional hours on the third day). Its focus was on connecting, understanding, communicating and acting in imagination for the wellbeing of Hvar.
The workshop was well prepared, since a smaller group already started to map the potential places to visit (Instagram post AND post), and also due to the fact that Marko Pogačnik came for a short visit to do the research on which the workshop was based (Instagram post). The main push to do the workshop on Hvar was the invitation of the FLAG organization and Museum of the island of Hvar. The organization was in good hands of LAGŠKOLJ (locat action group)w
… AND the last hours of the workshop were blessed with rain – after two months of drought! It has now been raining for two days
*Hvar – a dragonlike island where the first settlement in the whole Adriatic region was built, and now (Stari Grad) has 2,400 years of continuous history.
NALU- THE PROJECT BOAT IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST IN SAYING, IF, WHEN AND HOW WE MOVE OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN SEAS ..FROM ISLAND TO THE ISLAND / Working on Nalu was the last physical activity of MED Land project in 2018 and the first one in 2019 —>more