AMDA Net & Training Fund

[Jaime Baquero]

Did it suddenly become kindergarten hour in here?

Yes Rover it did. I apologize. I promise no more messages from my side saying anything about Robinson. Is part of the past.

 

[Anonymous]

 

[clarionreef]

Good job Rover!
Steve

 

[clarionreef]

Hey folks,
Go to the first page of this thread and see again the P.O.Box of the NET FUND.
AMDA NET FUND
P.O.BOX 1052
811-E EAST BASE ST.
MADISON, FLORIDA 32341

Then, in the environmental spirit of recycling...read the stuff said a year ago.
Whats different now is that a lot more divers in Indonesia have the material to become independant of all the chatter and can go to work.
Steve

 

[Jaime Baquero]

So, what will happen with the Philippines?

 

[clarionreef]

There are hundreds of Filipinos using or knowing how to use the nets.
Forcing them to use the thin, brittle 1 lb. skinny netting however has made many of them backslide to cyanide.
Pointing this out has earned me villification among those that serve this inequity. This has clouded the question and made it a shoot the messenger thing and not a help the divers thing.
MACs thing is certification body counts. Thats what they are paid to provide. I understand that AND disrespect that as a 'end all be all' solution and in fact see that it has been an impediment to progress in the Philippines. Trying to force feed a thousand poor villages a corporate frozen seafood process that works somewhat well in 'developing' countries is a failed strategy and takes courage to admit.
If certification talk is not the centerpeice of all MAC dialogue then the impasse is reached inevitably. This myopic, selfish, pig-headed and wrong approach has ruined years of progress and must come to an end.
Trying to buy off Ferdie and Ruwi with cash offers absolutely nailed it for me. Ruwi was offended and Ferdie was not surprised. He always knew that they lead lives of desperation and are besides themselves over how to CONTROL everything.
Philippine progress without MAC lording over it can be exciting.
Extricating their influence from the Bureau of Fisheries thru the purchase of his trusted ally, the in country co-ordinator LINO ALVAREZ....is the key.
Lino has to go....[ I mean its great to control BFAR with one well placed salary ? ] and MAC has to accept that their time has passed.
Their failure will now fuel a nationalism not seen on this issue. The link of foreign environmentalism with foreign control of the resource will become a hot issue now.
Local nationalism and more radical environmental and social sentiment will use this BFAR/exporter dalliance with the MAC way as justification for a ban. Cooler heads may prevail and others may negotiate a better deal with them as MACs alliance with the exploitive class of exporters [ MAC veep the head of the party!] renders them irrelevant to parlay with.
Filipinos must arise and not delegate their problems to foreigners and their city based lackeys to fix.
Laban pa rin...
Steve