As of today, you can find the book Duurzaam Varen in the bookstores and online. Sorry, it is in Dutch, so here it is described in English
The book covers a about all actions you can take to prevent and reduce fossil fuel emissions, from diesel, gas and petrol. Every chapter starts with the small things you can do right now. Like tricks to reduce the use of your diesel engine, or your devices in your galley. Step by step it builts up to a complete sailing and living in fossil freedom.
There is also an eye for other aspects, such as the use of water, and how to stop your water pollution. Think of the e.coli bacterias we emit in the water. Think of the ecocides we use in our bottom paints and are spread in our ambient water. With some changes this is unnecessary.
The content of the book tries to be complete on all matters of sustainability on sailing yacht and motor yachts.
Everything is systematically built up, starting with the question what you can prevent. Prevention is mostly the cheapest. Since the best energy is the energy you don’t use, or not? Second is if one can reduce, then reuse/repair, or if not, recycle. When these options are covered, you use about 70 to 80 % less. The remaining 20-30% of the energy can be taken care of by solar panels, wind and propeller alternators.
Ever seen how a canoe is built? You need the right tree, you need to saw it in the right piece, and from there it is a lot of gouge work.
Of any vessel, anything that floats, even a garbage bin, I think: would it also sail? Indeed, it is fast, see the regatta we did some months ago and the video. But the sailiing capacities? I really wonder. In Balerup, San Blas archipelago, Panama, Ivin’s brother Pedro introduced us on his sailing canoe for a short ride. Check the movie!
The Netherlands is bubbling with all kinds of sustainable initiatives. For example, in Rotterdam, a group of five enthusiastic volunteers has now filled 5 rooftops in the neighborhood with solar-panels; each rooftop delivers from 38.000 to 71.000 kWh per year. The rooftops were not theirs, they had no money, but they managed.
A Blijstroom initiative. Opening of the solar roof in the ‘Ackersdijkstraat’ on top of the ‘SKAR’-building, with all proud participants holding their electronic equipment.
How?
Well, in the north of Rotterdam there are lots of flat roofs, mainly apartment buildings, schools and some companies. For households, small enterprises and schoolboards it’s usually too big an investment budget to buy the solar-panels, or there are administrative issues etcetera. The volunteers fix those problems by using their head, and by using the power of the collective. They call it ‘Blijstroom’ (happy electricity)
Larger scale, bigger ambitions
‘Blijstroom’ (happy electricity) is now part of ‘Energie van Rotterdam’ (the energy of Rotterdam). In the first few years, together with the other cooperatives, they focus on developing 90 cooperative solar roofs in the city. Each district will have its own solar roof. They should be ready by 2025.
‘Blijstroom’s logo: Happy energy for optimists
Finance: participant’s money and available grants
‘Blijstroom’ uses the Cooperative Energy Generation Subsidy Scheme (SCE), also known as the “postal code rose scheme”.
Example for the ‘postal code rose’: the most recent ‘Blijstroom’ solar roof is located at the orange dot in ‘Liskwartier’, the centre of the ‘postal code rose’. The surrounding neigbourhoods in dark gray are part of the rose.
The most important is that per project a minimum number of participating members:
• must live or be established in the same area (the ‘postal code rose’)
• and receive power via a small-scale consumption connection.
More sustainable opportunities
‘Blijstroom’ also generates investments from people who want to invest in sustainability, but for example cannot put panels on their own roof. They can invest in roof panels in their neighbourhood. The minimum is 200 Euros, the maximum is 20.000 euros. Moneywise, the investors get 2,5 % interest on their loan and after 15 years they get the initial sum of money back. Of course, the real profit is in the improvement of the neighborhood. In the future, it no longer has to rely on polluting fossil fuels, which will create a healthy and resilient community!
I am a real carnivore. I grew up with a mother loving the French kitchen, so I do love the sirloins, beefs, livers, casseroles, and many more. I married a wife with great interest in the Mediterranean kitchen, from Turkish köfte to the Greek gyros, the Italian Gnocchi and the Moroccan sheep’s balls, and I ate it all with great taste.
But slowly, and at least during the last decade, I did not like the Dutch meat and milk that much anymore. But why?
Milk
Holland may be small, but it is the world’s second largest producer of agro industrial products. Our diary production is even the biggest. So you would say we are the specialists.
Once I tried different milks. But sorry, there was not even the slightest difference.
Let’s have a look at how it is processed. The cows are all the same. The more the same, the better to industrialize. Only the black and white spots differ, because the industry doesnot care.
The lifes are exactly the same. As soon as possible, she delivers a calf. This is taken away straight away, to make the milk production going. To keep this going, she delivers a calf each year.
There is no scientific proof wether a cow would prefer a meadow over a stable, so it depends on the farmer’s way to run his company. It could very well be she only sees the outside world on her way to the abattoir. She will make that walk when she is at the age of six, half way through her life, as her milk production slows down.
A modern stable in Holland. In the inner circle the cows automatically get their food, exactly balanced to get the milk specifications like the fat level, just as the marketing department dictates. On the outer circle the manure is automatically drained away. In between are the nipples of the cow. The connection to the milk machine is the only human handwork the cow will experience every day. This delivers about 10,000 liter of milk per cow per year. More than 10 tons per year.
Now I understand why I slowly started to find milk more and more boring. Same with yoghurt and buttermilk. Lucky us, an adult doesnot need milk. But a bit of diary and cereals in the morning would be nice. So what I do now, is making my own yoghurt. This tastes differently because you can vary the yoghurt bacteria culture. Extra side effect: the sour of the yoghurt eliminates a part of the sweetness that is added to the cereals.
Still I question if this is the way to process food from animals.
The meat: what you see is what you get.
Also the meat always tastes the same. You cannot taste one sirloin from the other, even if you buy it from different supermarket butchers. They all look the same too.
What doesnot help to like meat is the association with the abuse of these animals. That sticks to you, and it sticks to the meat you have on your plate. Especially the mistreatment and violence against pigs has become too systematic, too much integrated in the culture of this large scale industry. This same industry is even subsidized by the government; it is also an abuse of our tax money.
Finally you start to think that you taste this abuse, so in Holland a piece of pork on my plate became an exception. It is mostly beef or goat meat I eat, or vegetarian.
Hi, I am 08845-87-JJ-2347620. Hi, I am 08845-87-JJ-2347622Hi, we’re from the 08845-87-JJ- series
Colombia! Tastes!
But then I discovered the meat in Colombia!
This was real meat! Wow, I at beef, sirloin, hamburgers, and every time the pieces differed in taste. Yes, sometimes there was a sin or a little tendon in the meat, but I don’t care at all, I put that aside.
This medium fried sirloin is has full taste. Just next to the cut off piece, you can see a little tendonish part in the meat, but I did not care. I could taste wealth of grasses, spices, everything this cow must have eaten in her life. And, by the way, this sirloin costs one third of the price you pay in Europe.
Meadows! Grasses! Spices!
I was discovering a bit the outskirts of the Colombian town I was in. I ended up on a path through the fields, the meadows if you like. I walked between the cows. They are always outside. They have an easy life, just hanging around and eating. I met a women picking spices. She said: “They eat grass and there are about 25 sorts of grass here.” And she continued: “They also eat the spices if they like. So if you don’t mind, I go picking them before they do.”
Wow. Every cow eats to its own wish, taste, belief, I don’t know.
But I do know why every piece of meat is different here and rich of taste.
The Panamanian Parliament and the President have agreed to a big concession for copper mining to a Canadian miner.
Protests have been starting everywhere, but no response from the government. The ultimate way here in Central America is to make roadblocks. What is the real cause of these massive protests?
Just at this time some fellow sailors had to go from the harbour to Panama City. A ride of 300 kilometers. How did that work?
The roadblock
Maggie and Peter left early in the morning and tried it. For more than an hour it was going fine. But suddenly, after some 100 kilometers, you could see a thin string of smoke over the forest. Getting closer, there was a roadblock. Some burning tyres on the road with a piece of timber, some people next to it sitting laid back on some chairs, and on the road a line of cars waiting. Just waiting.
A roadblock consists of some burning tyres and a piece of lumber. It is so effective in Panama because alternative roads are rare. What can you do else than wait?
What to do, how to avoid, how to get to your destination now?
As a backpacker, you simply step out the car and pass the roadblock by foot. But, when the police or army is there, the atmosphere gets aggressive. Then you can be robbed, beaten, whatever.
Also protesters need sleep. So you can try to get through in the night and hope to get to your final destianation. There are some risks.
First, gangs could take over control and they will ask a bribe, a ‘passage fee’. You recognize them because they wear masks. They want a dollar, could be five or ten. If they are drunk or drugged, it gets tricky.
The further you go, the better. But, suppose you have to go back and new roadblocks have appeared? Then you get trapped between roadblocks and that is the worst thing to happen.
We saw a pickup truck with fruit and vegetables passing a roadblock. Perhaps there has been passing a small bribes here to the protesters in the form of fresh fruit?
In the Western papers you could read the cause of the Panamanian protests was about biodiversity. Is it?
Peter interviewed some Panamanians. A protester, a taxi driver and an employee of the Copa (Colombia-Panama) Airlines. The main question: what is the cause?
In general, it has hardly to do about the concession that the Government gave to this Canadian mining industry. For the people that appeared only to be the straw that breaks the camels’ back. The drop that made the bucket overflow.
The interviewees voted different, but they all agreed that these roadblocks are necessary and they all hope the number will expand. Here some shared answers to the questions.
So is it about corruption “Man, believe me, they are all corrupt. So yes and no.”
But the former president (Mr. Martinelli) has just been sentenced for 12 years behind bars, because of corruption. “Man, that is just politics, to get him away, because he is a threat. Believe me, all parties are corrupt. The mining company buys politicians as much as it is necessary to get that concession.”
So It is more subtle “Former president Martinelli was corrupt just as anyone, but the difference is, he also did good for the country. The economy got better, there became more jobs, and he started setting up a pension law. So that was OK. But under the new president we see nothing going our way and he doesnot get that message. ”h?
So the anti-corruption regulations of the new president is nothing worth? “In one way it is even worse. It fights the small corruption, the bribes of small people, who have problems paying the school tuition for their children. This hurts, because the big companies and the government can still do what they want. Like now with this concession to the Canadian copper miner.”
Our Western papers mention the motive of the protest that the mining concession gives damage to the biodiversity. “Bio- what??”
The situation two days after these interviews the roadblocks have multiplied. Every red dot is a roadblock. It is even difficult for the authorities to keep Panama City clean, so it is getting serious.
What happens if you put a economic scientist, a financial specialist and an cartographical artist together?
In a 20 minutes animated video you find out how or money system works. It unravels our -often over complex- financial system, the different functions and mechanisms, and the power and the politics enforcing and maintaining it.
The question is if our money system works pro or contra a sustainable development of our world. Does this system sustain, or does it compromise the environment and possibilities of our future generations? What would be your answer to that question?
From European perspective, the Panamanian attention for waste is limited to Panama City. In every other area, city or village one just puts everything together and that’s it. And that is the best option, because treating your bag of that costs money, so many people just drop there stuff. That is why you see so many plastic bottles in the water and on land.
In most villages, a public garbage can is rarity. Today I walked through Porto Belo, a town in the East of Panama, I bought me a nice snack on a wooden stick and ate it, but I walked with that stick one mile through the centre of the town to finde a carbage can. There was nonen. I ended up at the shop where I bought it and they had a carbage bag of their own.
The waste station of Panamarina
We entered Panamarina, a harbour with moorings and with a boatyard and all services. Including a sailmaker, a restaurant, et cetera.
Most amazing is the service of the waste station. I interviewed Silvie, who keeps office at the marina.
Let the pictures tell about it.
The waste station is made in a separate part of the workshop building. The sign on the right shows what waste streams there are. The old motor oil is not on it, but Panamarina also has a separate stream for that
.
Next to the old motor oil there are 9 streams.
Every waste stream as it should be
Next to the glass bottles also the plastic bottles and pots go separate. Silvie: “We discovered that not only we, but many people reuse them.” Just wash them carefully and you have a life time storage for jelly, screws, whatever.The aluminium tins and the steel cans also are separately streamed, simply because it makes money for the recyclingPerhaps the most important stream is formed by the batteries. Especially the conventional ones are very toxic. Only one lead acid AA battery can pollute the amount of 3 swimming pools! Also the stream of electronic devices can seriously damage the environment. Most diodes and electronic switches contain very toxic materials. When not incinerated on a high temperature, they create dioxines and PCB’s and other carcinogens.Also the food rests go separate. It is always good for cattle or chickens. The carton and paper is also recycled, but, Silvie has to admit that this stream can not be recycled to new paper, because the transport to Panama City is simply to costly. So often it is used to burn.The final reststream is simply: anything that burns. Funny thing is, that these containers are always the empty ones. That makes sense: there is not many left over!
For me as an environmentalist, it is a great relief to see Panamarina being serious about waste. Also the Panamananiam personel seems to be more aware and keep everything clean here. What is so nice, the yard itself is cleaner than most yards.
Panamarina shows the example that it is possible to change. To create the awareness that we can all separate and treat waste, and most of all, create less waste. Mother Earth for all of us, also for the future generations.
The tropical paradise islands Cayos Holandeses are little, not even 1/10 of the Isle of Wight. We met Ivin and he pioneered here on one of the islands and built a restaurant.
The Cayos Holandes have a moving history and Ivin knows a lot of it. He tells about the ‘Beyond people’ who seem to have slaughtered themselves. About the settlement of pirates and the Guna people, living together and fighting side by side, about the diaspora and the Guna lobby and the United Nations, and Ivin tells about Ivin.
Ivin telling his about the history of the Guna
.
The “Indios Cueva”
In the sixteenth century the Spanish discoverers entered the San Blas Islands. The indigenous people living on the Northern part of the mainland of what is called Panama now, already heard stories about these intruders, and about the gold they wanted and the diseases they brought. So whenever some stranger came and asked if there was gold, they answered: “Cueva” and pointed to the South. In their language it meant “beyond” or “more far away”. Funny side effect: In Spanish this could also mean ‘cave’ , so up to them that made sense. Ever since these indigenous people are called the Indios Cueva.
The Spanish entering the coast of Central America to explore and colonize it.
Very a pity, but about hundred years later the islands were deserted. They only found bones. Could it because a disease brought by the Spanish? Ivin told that there must have been a big fight between clans or families, since they found broken and damaged bones. Perhaps a combination? However, in the early 17th century the new settlers only found bones.
Edward Mansvelt entered, pirates settled
Early 17th century, Central America was occupied by the Spanish. The Spanish were dominant and by far too strong for any other country. But the English, French and Dutchmen tried to weaken them by sending private ships, the so called ‘privateers’, or corsairs or buccaneers. They got an official letter with a mission, mostly including to damage and rob any Spanish ship they met at sea. A part of the loot was for the country, the rest was for them. These buccaneers were just as pirates, raiding settlements and attacking and robbing the full loaded Spanish ships. It was dangerous work, but you could get very rich from it. Famous men were the Welsh man Henry Morgan, and the Dutchman Piet Hein, who once robbed a Spanish silver fleet and sailed back to Holland.
The heydays of this sort of piracy were in the 17th century, thanks to Edward Mansvelt.
Edward Mansvelt portraited when he was the admiral of 10-15 ships, see the background.
Around 1760, Mansvelt got a letter from the Dutch officials stating the mission to raid settlements on Cuba, as well as to make as much damage to Spanish ships in general and get as much goods from them. Which he did, for years. In contrary to earlier buccaneers, his raids were large scale projects. These led to great success. Once his fleet counted 15 ships. By the way, it is said that his right hand and protégé was the young Henry Morgan, who later invaded Panama successfully.
Now, every pirate needs a base, a safe place to retire with his ships, for maintenance et cetera. Most preferable this base should be in a remote area where no armada could come and where you can see ships coming from far away. The Cayos Holandeses (Dutch Islands) were perfect for that. It was a group of five islands, beautifully surrounded by sandbanks and coral reefs, and only small shallow gullies to enter.
The red arrow shows on which island we are in the Cayos Holandes
On the neighbouring islands the English, French and Portuguese made the same bases. On the islands was some water, there are coconuts, and plenty fish around. And the mainland was close to get many fruits and vegetables. You could survive a Spanish surrounding for a long time.
If you dig a 1 meter deep hole in the ground some hundred meters from the sea, the water is fresh. At least potable enough for the pirates.
Guna and pirates in perfect harmony
In the 17th century, Spanish conquered the current Colombia. Many Guna died, but a part managed to go North, to the current Panama and the San Blas islands. They also settled on the Caya Holandeses. Probably the first Guna settled before the pirates came, we don’t know. But sure is, that the combination was great: the buccaneers had the ships and the guns to defend the waters and keep most of the Spanish army on a distance. And the Guna were with many to repulse the final intruders. The Guna and the pirates together were considered unbeatable and they lived in perfect harmony, enjoying their sovereignty.
The Guna saw the Dutch ships driven by the sails, so they took this over on their canoes. The long lateral plan prevents the leeway (drift) very well. (on a later blog we show a video).
Diaspora and international acknowledgment
Living healthy and in harmony for centuries, the Guna population grew. Many young Guna men left for the mainland and tried to find a job. With their roots, many became seamen. The Guna were spread all over the continent. Many were also in the USA, we will see later.
In 1904 Panama formed its own nation. It was with help from the USA (read: to dig their Panama Canal). The government also had the ambition to make the Guna law abiding Panamanian citizens and started an assimilation program.
The Guna preferred to keep their own, long fought and cherished culture and laws. They resisted. A US anthropologist studying the Guna, Richard Marsh, supported them on communication and organization of the revolt, often called the ‘San Blas Revolt.’ The government answered by setting up an ‘police army’ that should invade all Guna territory, including the islands.
Meanwhile, Gunas living in the USA, created a lobby and got their message into the networks of American politicians. Their message was simple: we Guna people are free, for centuries we are sovereign. Now this new Panamanian government wants us to colonize.
This got the US citizens in the heart. No colonization anymore! (read: the USA wanted no distractions in digging the Panama Canal).
A political pressure developed. It was even brought into the United Nations. There was decided that Panama should leave the Guna alone. The Americans sent a frigate to the San Blas to make clear that they mean what they say. Panama, also under influence by the US owned Panama Canal, stepped back and started to talk with the Guna. A treaty was made. The Guna kept their sovereignty but was officially a part of Panama.
Ivin lives the history and the future
Now a century later. Ivin is a Guna who left the islands 30 years ago. He tells: “I started working in a kitchen of a restaurant in Panama City. The restaurant hired a great French chef and I learned a lot.“
He continued: “I was lucky. The kitchen won international prizes and the restaurant became famous, so I could get good jobs as a cook. Last years I ran the kitchen of a super yacht and I traveled the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. I have seen much.”
That was his diaspora and now he is back. He started his restaurant here on Baledup, an island of the Cayos Holandeses. “I do everything my way here. Just like the Guna people doing it for centuries now”, he said. More and more sailors come here, enjoying the golden beaches, the nature, the fish.
“And now again the sailors come from the sea. Especially the Dutch, to buy my bread and to eat my meals,” he says.
He concludes rhetorically: “You see how history repeats itself?”
Some centuries ago, the pirate Eduard, originally Dutch, found some islands in the San Blas archipelago to stay,. It is ust North of Panama and they were called Cayos Holandeses Since one century it is a part of the Cuna tribe. Now, Ibin started from scratch to make a living here on this deserted island. Does he manage it? Does he settle? Now, three years after his start, we take a look. About hard work and optimism. Check this video interview on location. Location paradise?
Banedup is paradise island. That is the first impression when we anchored here, just near the beach to the south. It is part of the Cayos Holandeces, in the San Blas archipelago just north of Panama.
It looks like someone’s living on this island, doesn’t it? And it’s true, they do!
How is it to live here?
Janet lives and works here on Paderup for half a year now. Together with friends she runs a little grocery for the sailors, and offers internet through a satellite connection. A great opportunity for the sailors passing by, because it is the only stable connection to the internet here.
In the beginning it was hard work. Making the area free from trees and plants and building a house was not easy. But as you see, it has been done now!
Especially for Janet the start was not what she expected. Her friends lured her: “Just come for some weeks or so.” And she did. But it was silent, with only very sometimes an incidental guest. Once a week the lancha with groceries came. But that was all.
The island Paderup lies in the Cayos Holandeses, a part of the San Blas Islands to the North of Panama. The Cuna people live there in a reasonable sovereignty, protected by the UN. They don’t recognize possession of land, so it makes the threshold to start a business lower. Also the taxes are much lower.
Lost in paradise
The weeks became months. Especially in the periods when their friends left to Panama to make some money, she was on her own. You can feel lost then.
Luckily on the other side of the island Ibin and his family already started a settlement, as the real first pioneers. (more later about how Ibin settled here). They did not have much time for a chat, since they were busy from dawn to dusk to get settled with a their project.
But there were good moments. Janet told: “Sometimes people from another island visited. That was nice and they became friends. But to be honest, it was lonesome in paradise. A real highlight was when their friends sent her a present for her birthday, brought by a charter yacht that could pass by on her very birthday. All guests from that ship sung a great Happy Birthday To You.”
Paradise regained
They opened a shop with the groceries and vegetables from the weekly lancha. More and more yachts came, attracted by this new ‘supermarket on a deserted island’.
The first charter yachts chose this island to anchor and to let the people visit paradise, making fun with the hammock and played volley with the volleyball net just in the water of the beach.
Slowly the regular coming and going of guest started. Janet started getting used to the life here.
Janet, not without pride, before the grocery shop and next to the solar panel that is directly feeding the satellite antenna. That antenna is to the very right of the picture. No sun, no internet, is the simple rule on this paradise island.
Next to the groceries, they also invested in a satellite connection and that becomes a powerful attraction since there is no other stable internet connection here. It gives us the opportunity to send you this blog from the sun covered bench with a view on the beach and the palmtrees and the sea. We stay connected to you, just as Janet stays connected to her friends.
Also in paradise, we are really happy when connected to each other.
Next week: Three years ago Ibin and his family started a settlement on the other side of this island. The real pioneers! You will see, they made a good start. But what are the plans for the future?
