27 October 2008
How to Clean Your Turkey
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized .
Not the fowl, but the country. Over at the WOSM (World Organization for the Scouting Movement) there is a strangely titled story that nevertheless informs the reader that there was a recent conference in Constantinople. Just kidding, I mean Istanbul. The conference was regarding “Scouting for a cleaner world”.
ARO’s Communications Unit Manager, Euloge Ishimwe participated and made a presentation on the World Scout Environment Programme as well as on the environment situation in Africa.
Main topics included:
Climate Change
Freshwater
Global Warming
Carbon Emissions
A relative from Syria who has recently become a permanent resident of America helped to educate me on this matter. I have a great interest in why things are different around the world so one of the first questions I asked him was, “What is the biggest difference you see between Syria and America?” His answer was that America is much, much cleaner. He’s been around the Middle East, especially to Lebannon, Jordan and Egypt and it’s the same all over. The areas are messy. Many residents throw their trash anywhere and most of it is uncollected due to cross-purposes of government regulation and citizen participation.
My Girl Scout troop just did a beach cleanup, a couple of our girls have earned awards for community service involving cleaning their local areas, and my old Cub Scout pack even got a certificate for helping the city on a project, trimming the city-owned plants along a major boulevard.
So, why this conference focused on carbon emissions instead of trash collection is a mystery to me. I’ve noticed that there are a lot more conferences than outings announced by the WOSM. Any Scouter knows it’s not what you talk about, it’s what you do that’s important. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more action like the ASEAN recently concluded in Jarkarta, Indonesia. I am happy to see freshwater discussed, though, since there are many problems associated with dirty water.
Update: It looks like Turkey is taking this seriously.
After the last seminar, people gathered to watch the cleaning of the bottom of Kaş Harbor. The Kaymakam, chief of police and the commander of Coast Guard Boat 113 initiated the main part of the campaign by diving together followed by another 33 divers, including two English men.
In minutes, some odd things came out from various parts of the harbor, such as lids for pots and pans, plastic bottles, tires, even a metal garbage trolley, shoes, bottles and more. Meanwhile, the students collected the garbage on the ground. A team of fishermen and environmental activists worked on the pipes of solid waste to classify and register the output of the day.
Over the following two days, boy and girl scouts will collect garbage from the famous pebble beaches like Küçükçakıl and Büyükçakıl, while divers collect refuse from underwater.
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- The Boy Scouts of Iraq
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One Comment so far...
» Kuwaiti Scouts Clean Up Says:
10 November 2008 at 4:18 pm.
[...] wonder if this is a trend. After the meeting in Turkey about Scouts helping to clean up the environment, followed by a clean-up event, I now see another clean-up event in Kuwait. Perhaps the Middle-East [...]
