Wangi Wangi Island, Wakatobi Island Group

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sun 25 Aug 2019 00:12
05:19.46S 123:31.99E
In Mendati we were sitting out forecast strong winds that didn't quite materialise. The last time the rally was officially here there were demonstrations by some of the locals against the food and hospitality being lavished upon visiting yachties. This was partly about the yachties being fed lunch during Ramadan and partly against the hospitality per se. As a result it is no longer an official rally stop but a suggested stopover en route to the next destination. Apparently no anchoring arrangements have been received from the local government and so we weren’t sure what kind of reception we would receive. To our surprise there is a purpose built information centre in which Gino resides, anxious to receive the fleet! Students from the local schools congregate each day, keen to meet us and practice their english and to guide us on walks around the town. Water, fuel and other services are available through the centre which makes it a good place to visit at this point on the rally! As elsewhere in Indonesia local people love to say hello and have their picture taken with us and so we continue with our celebrity status.
Indonesia often crops up as an example of poor environmental practice - deforestation, plastic waste and so on - and I am afraid from what little we have seen of the place it seems that this is the case. In our last anchorage, Tifu village, there were felled trees by the small dock and the daily drone of chainsaws cutting them up. Around the anchorage we could see areas cleared of forest and on our excursion to inland villages the full extent of the deforestation became clear - most of it has gone and what little remains is being plundered. It is easy to be critical from an outside perspective but we do wonder who gains by cutting down all the trees. Most of the land is steep and doesn’t appear to have been cleared for anything other than the value of the timber. The local people remain poor although we suspect that the logging now is a local, unregulated affair. A clue as to where the problem lies was given by the new electricity supply being put in for Tifu village. Mile upon mile of new power lines are being installed to provide an electricity supply to replace the generator that currently gives a supply for a few hours each day. A great improvement you might think and yet even the average yachtie could immediately see that this was the least efficient way possible to provide a supply. There will be significant power loss over the length of the lines and the power source will be some large oil or coal fired generator. A far more cost effective and efficient way of supplying remote villages like Tifu would be through local solar and wind power. The government of Indonesia will know this - Indonesia supplies wind turbine technology including to the wind farms being erected around the UK. All around the world it will require a government lead to bring in a more sustainable approach to address global warming. The fact that this isn’t happening to anything like a great enough extent must be a reflection of the power of vested interests and the political corruption that puts vested interests ahead of a more sustainable future for the vast majority. I include the UK in this assessment, in the US under Trump it is now government policy!
Plastic particulates have been found in the snow and ice of the Arctic in surprisingly high concentrations (BBC news website). It seems that plastic particulates are found on land and in the sea all around the world. We have seen the extent of plastic waste in the oceans and washed up on even the most remote beaches. Here in Indonesia discarded plastic is everywhere - there is no serious attempt to collect and dispose of it. You walk through it in the streets, it fills every watercourse, floats in the sea. And this is where the UK is dumping plastic waste we are told is recycled!! Plastic is absolutely everywhere and is used throughout daily life as packaging, drinks bottles, carrier bags, containers and in fact pretty much everything you can think of. A salutary reminder of how extensive the problems are that we are facing all around the world. There is an awareness of the problem here in Indonesia and yachties have come across local initiatives to try and clear up the waste. There was even a plastic free day at the market in Mendati back in May but the problem is so wide ranging it is going to require major changes of individual behaviour to address the issue - difficult in poorer remote locations, never mind in and around industrial centres like Jakarta. We have now, however, come across an interesting project in Buton to get youngsters involved as “ambassadors” for the better use and disposal of plastic on which more in a later post.
Of course we are having a fabulous time, visiting interesting places and meeting the wonderful people. I can’t however give you the earlier David Attenborough impression that the world is a wonderful place, teeming with wildlife or, in our case, pristine exotic locations. We are in another phase of mass animal extinctions, world temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, weather patterns are much more unpredictable and violent and the evidence we are seeing is of a world that is damaged, polluted, overcrowded and completely unsustainable. We all of us have to wake up and take this seriously and I am determined to try and do as much as I can in whatever time I have left to play my part in effecting the change that is so urgently required.

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Out of focus dancing



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Out of focus traditional dress



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Logged timber



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Deforested landscape



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Logs along the foreshore



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I like this photo!



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Cooking in Bajo village - houses constructed on reclaimed land and stilts by a former nomadic seafaring tribe required to settle in permanent locations



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He likes this picture!




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Could be anywhere over here



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There is an awareness of the issue


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Bajo village


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Edible seaweed is an important local export to China


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The seaweed is purple before drying to a less apprising brown colour