Filmmakers Reconsider Columbus

New York, NY (UCTP Taino News) - Filmmakers Carlos Germosen and Crystal Whelan of Nu Heightz Cinema have produced a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) urging the American Public to "Reconsider Columbus Day".The 60 second spot features a compelling message which they hope will "encourage people to learn the other side to the story of Columbus".

"We want to help shed light on the truth by using mass media" stated Whelan. She continued stating "We hope people will petition for a nationally recognized indigenous holiday to honor the people who were here first."

The producers reached out to local community activists and indigenous organizations like the United Confederation of Taino People to help develop the script.

"We were honored to be asked to collaborate on this project as our ancestors in particular were the first to be negatively impacted by Columbus" stated Roberto Borrero, a representative of the Confederation.

"The issue goes beyond Caribbean Indigenous Peoples however, it is really about society being complacent with symbols of genocide." said Borrero.

The Reconsider Columbus Day PSA is currently being featured on You Tube and the producers are working to broadcast it on local television networks. Nu Heights Cinema has also set up a Reconsider Columbus Day website at www.reconsidercolumbusday.org to help bring more attention to the issue.

10.08.2009

Study: Toxic metals in produce grown on Vieques

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico: A new study has found dangerous levels of toxic metals in produce grown on a Puerto Rican island formerly used as a Navy bombing range, despite U.S. government claims that the soil there is safe.

Some products from a research farm on Vieques Island had as much as 20 times the acceptable amount of lead and cadmium, according to the study released last week by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

Researcher Arturo Massol said peppers, spinach and tomatoes showed higher levels of contamination than products from the nearby Puerto Rican mainland and would pose a health risk to humans. Food grown at the farm is strictly for research and is not meant for consumption.

A Navy spokesman, Cmdr. J.A. "Cappy" Surett, reiterated Monday that the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has determined the soil on Vieques does not pose a health risk to people. A 2003 study by the agency found that Navy training exercises elevated the levels of some metals in the soil, but islanders were not exposed to harmful levels of contamination.

Vieques' small farming community requested the analysis by Massol, who has also studied contamination among the island's fish populations.

After decades of being hammered by live rounds from warships and planes, the Vieques bombing range closed in April 2003 following years of protests.

Since 2005, workers overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been clearing mortar shells and unexploded munitions in a cleanup expected to take about 10 years.

Article Source: The Associated Press

Researching Impact Of Global Warming On Corals

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — For just one late-summer night each year, the shallow waters off the coast of Puerto Rico fill with the pale-pink spawn of elkhorn corals -- the tiny, round packets of the adult corals' eggs and sperm.

This year, Iliana Baums, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, is there to collect the coral spawn as part of a research and education project to grow the newborn juvenile corals for distribution to aquaria and to the wild. "It looks like it's snowing," she said, "except that the egg and sperm packets rise underwater to the surface rather than fall to the ground."

Baums's reason for collecting the spawn is twofold: she hopes to acquire important information about how corals will respond to global warming, and she also is teaching a group of 28 aquarium professionals, as part of an international workshop, how they can participate in the protection of corals. Baums will hunt for and collect coral spawn on the nights of 21 and 22 August. For seven days thereafter, she will remain at the site, working to grow the newborn juvenile corals for distribution to aquaria and to the wild.

According to Baums, corals are extremely sensitive to changes in water temperature. "An increase in water temperature of just a couple degrees Celsius results in visible damage to adult corals and their offspring," she said. Referring to a paper published in a July 2008 issue of the journal Science in which the authors report that one-third of all reef-building corals face an elevated risk of extinction from climate change and other factors, Baums said it is imperative that scientists and marine-resource managers begin to think about how to rescue these important animals.

That's why Baums is searching for particular populations of coral that produce offspring that are better able to withstand high water temperatures. Because most coral species are triggered by moonlight to release their egg-sperm packets, Baums will begin her experiment with a nighttime trip to a designated reef off the coast of Puerto Rico. There, she will collect spawn from elkhorn corals, which are protected as a threatened species by the United States Endangered Species Act. In small rearing chambers, she will place eggs from certain populations with sperm from certain other populations.

Over the next seven days, she will raise the newly formed juvenile corals in saltwater tanks on land. She then will ship half of them to several aquaria around the world and will return the other half to the reef. "Corals are most vulnerable when they are very small, and our protected nursery will help them to get through the first critical days," said Baums.

Next, the juvenile corals in captivity will be subjected to a variety of higher-than-normal and lower-than-normal water temperatures in order to pinpoint those offspring whose parents can tolerate abnormal water conditions. Once Baums identifies these individuals, she will search their genomes for variants of genes that are responsible for resistance to abnormal water temperatures. With this knowledge, she then can develop genetic markers that will enable her to identify wild elkhorn-coral populations throughout the Caribbean that contain such gene variants.

Water from the ocean is pumped into tubs where juvenile corals will be raised for a period of seven days after scientists harvest them from the wild.

In collaboration with SECORE (SExual COral REproduction), an international organization of professional aquarists and scientists that is concerned about coral conservation, Baums will hold a workshop during the annual coral-spawning event in Puerto Rico. Through the workshop, she and other researchers will teach a group of 28 aquarium professionals from around the world how to collect coral spawn, do fertilization experiments, raise larvae, and care for larvae once they are shipped back to the participants' home institutions. The workshop, which is now in its third year, already has been given to over 60 aquarium professionals. Baums and other members of SECORE plan to continue to the workshop in future years to reach as many aquarium professionals as possible.

"Poachers often collect wild corals to satisfy the demand for aquariums, but aquarium professionals are looking for alternative, less destructive sources of these animals. SECORE's goal is to develop methods to eventually breed corals in captivity, thereby reducing some of the pressure to collect corals from the wild," she said. "We are starting by raising juveniles from wild-caught eggs and sperm, which enables us to provide aquariums with the corals they desire without damaging wild adult colonies.

In return, the aquarium operators help us to perform the experiments and give us tips on how to raise adult corals in captivity, which is something they are very good at." Baums added that the establishment of good aquarium populations is a safeguard against the extinction of elkhorn corals.

The corals that Baums ships to aquaria will undergo one of two treatments: half of them will be exposed to species of the zooxanthellae -- algae that live inside the cells of corals and provide them with necessary nutrients and energy -- that naturally occur with elkhorn corals, and half of them will be exposed to zooxanthellae from other regions of the world, where elkhorn corals are not present.

In past years, elkhorn corals in captivity readily took up foreign zooxanthellae and coped better than those that took up only native species of zooxanthellae. These observations will be tested in a controlled experiment as part of this year's workshop. While Baums said she would not release foreign strains of zooxanthellae into the wild, she does think such measures could be beneficial to corals that are maintained in aquaria.

Baums is partnering with Margaret Miller, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who will do the same experiment using corals from Florida, where annual minimum water temperatures are lower. The team will compare corals in the two locations to learn if there are any differences in their abilities to withstand high and low water temperatures. A goal of the research is to find out if current temperature differences between Florida and Puerto Rico will influence the abilities of corals to tolerate future warm-water conditions associated with global warming.

This research and the workshop are funded by the NOAA and the National Science Foundation.

Photo: Scientists capture coral spawn using a special net. (Credit: Ramon Villaverde, Columbus Zoo)

Columbus the Exploiter...

UCTP Taino News - In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in search of new lands, gold and the wealth that these "discoveries" would bring him. He 'discovered' and 'claimed' many islands throughout the Caribbean. But, what kind of 'discovery' is it if there are already people there? And, what right did he have to 'claim' these lands, when the Taino people had been living there for thousands of years?

As if that weren't enough, what he did next was truly despicable. Columbus wrote in his journal that the Taino were strong, well-built people and that with his weapons and 50 men he could enslave the entire population. He forced the Taino to mine for gold for him. Those who refused were killed, those who did not meet their quotas had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. Women and children were raped. The people were tortured, starved and worked to death.

Others were killed in even more horrific ways... they were cut in half with swords, hung in groups of 13 representing the Savior and the Apostles, roasted alive, while others were chased down by starving attack dogs and torn apart. Shiploads of Taino people were taken to the slave markets in Seville, Spain to be sold for profit. Many died enroute and were thrown overboard. Other exploiters who came after Columbus said it was possible to find your way to the Indies by following the bodies in the water.

Columbus was the first slave trader in the Americas. Millions died as the greed and brutality he brought to their shores caused death and destruction to the Taino people.

Although the truth is known about Columbus, the USA still honors him with a federal holiday.

Columbus Day is the ONLY disputed holiday with 17 states refusing to honor this murderer.

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Sustainability Practices in the Caribbean

by Prensa Latina

SAN JUAN (PL) - The Path to Sustainability is the general theme for the Green Globe International Conference and the Green Tourism Conference to be held November 1st - 3rd at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

A press release from the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) says the conference is a joint staging of the 2nd biennial International Green Globe Conference (the inaugural edition was held March 2004 in New Zeeland) and the 3rd biennial Caribbean Green Tourism Conference.

The 2006 edition is organized by the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) assisted by its parent organization, the Caribbean Hotel Association, and Green Globe Asia Pacific (GGAP). The goal of the conference is to determine the sustainability priorities and actions that GGAP, CAST and their industry partners must pursue over the next two years, in service to the regional tourism industry.

The conference program is structured around three main topics: Tourism Sustainability; Achieving Market Value Added; and Innovative Practices. On the first day, participants will have the opportunity to discuss current sustainability problems in order to redefine the urgency for actions and solutions. In addition, they will study sustainability strategies in Jamaica and Dominica, as well as the public-private sector collaboration role within the tourism industry. Day two will focus on sustainable tourism marketing products and includes a plenary session with a Green Suppliers' Forum on Products & Technology.

Energy conservation, wastewater treatment, sustainable building design, and air quality are some of the issues to be addressed on the second day of the conference - which will also include a discussion forum for participants of the Green Globe Caribbean Program.

Activities will culminate with the case presentations from award-winning properties, the 2006 American Express Caribbean Environmental Award winners Sandals Montego Bay (large hotel category) and 3 Rivers Eco Lodge (small hotel category).

Other conference highlights are a gala opening with a featured speaker, a trade fair of sustainability products and solutions, nature tours, and informal functions with opportunities for networking and exploring the best of Jamaica, among other activities.