Beautify CNMI! is a coalition of concerned citizens, private groups, and government entities united to enhance the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands' natural beauty and foster community pride in its residents and visitors.
Its the first week of February, which means its time for another First Friday Film event! Tomorrow (Friday 2/3), we will be screening the award-winning film There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho, by New Zealand director Briar March. Showtime will be 6:30pm at the AmericanMemorialParksVisitorsCenter. This very movingfeature documentary is not to be missed. The film follows three people from Takuu atoll in the Solomon Islands as their community experiences thedevastating effects of climate change firsthand. Will they decide to stay with their damaged and sinking island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever? You can see the trailer for the film here: http://www.thereoncewasanisland.com/
Additionally, we will have Noah Idechong, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Palau and founding member of the Palau Conservation Society, giving a very special video presentation about the effects of climate change on Micronesia and how Palau and other Micronesian nations are looking to combat it through political means. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. A special thanks goes to the NMI Council for Humanities, who sponsored this film.
A new documentary on Rota’s Talakhaya Revegetation Project will be featured tonight, Jan. 25, on Channel 2 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The Talakhaya Revegetation Project was implemented in 2006, where community planting efforts were greatly increased to reduce impacts of decades of deforestation by illegal burning.
The 14 minute, locally shot and produced documentary highlights the challenges they face with burning and soil erosion, the revegetation efforts of the community, and the project's successes over the last 5 years to reduce sediment from running off of the land and polluting adjacent coral reef ecosystems. The short film will air immediately following Channel 2’s evening news programs.
Funding for the film and the Rota DLNR headed revegetation program has come from the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative.
First Friday Films will be featuring its first film of the year and you don’t want to miss it. The Economics of Happiness, a film by HelenaNorberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, & John Page, will be showing on January 6, 2012, 6:30pm at the AmericanMemorialParksVisitorsCenter.
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of business and banking. The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On one hand, the alliance between governments and big business continues to promote globalization and consolidation of corporate power. And on the other, people all over the world are resisting those policies. Communities are coming together to re-build more human-scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – the economics of localization. More information about the film can be found here.
Anthony Pellegrino, owner of Saipan Aquaculture Co. Inc. and CargoAirBridge, will be on hand to discuss his vision for a sustainable local economy in the NMI as well as to share how he believes the community can participate in building it.Additionally, he will be answering audience questions following the film.
For planning purposes, the movie runs about 65 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.
Here it goes, I'm asking for your help yet one more time. Will you nominate Kathy Pagapular's San Vicente Elementary School Sixth Grade Class for a Peter Benchley Ocean Award in Youth Activism? Kathy's class supported shark protections in the Northern Marianas this year and jumpstarted momentum for a year of shark conservation. They deserve recognition.
The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2011. Nominations should include 2- 6 paragraphs on the nominee and why the nominator finds them deserving in their category. Feel free to include supporting materials and/or links. Please include the nominees contact information and your contact information.
Submit to benchleys@bluefront.org. Mark subject line - Benchley Nomination - Youth Activism. Nominators names will be held in confidence.
2011 was a watershed year in shark conservation. And where did it all start? Saipan. On January 27, Governor Ben Fitial signed a law criminalizing the sale, trade, and possession of shark fin. This act kicked off 12 months of improved protections for sharks, including shark sanctuaries in The Bahamas, Honduras, the Marshalls, and Tokelau, shark fin bans in Guam, California, Washington, Oregon, and half a dozen Canadian cities, protections for oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, and silky sharks on the high seas, and agreements by international and regional bodies to implement more protections in 2012.
The law in the Northern Marianas was supported by many in the community, including fishermen, divers, and the conservation-minded, but a sixth grade class at San Vicente Elementary School may have done more than anyone else to make sure sharks received protections.
I could tell their story, but filmmaker Rob Stewart does it much better with his short film Sharkwater Saipan. This short film is just a preview of Rob's second feature film Revolution, due out in theaters next year.
I am asking you to write your own nominations (but I am available to help or edit). Two paragraphs should not be that difficult. Think of this award as something that will come home to the Marianas, not just San Vicente Elementary.
I make this request as the Saipan Blogger and the Godfather of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, not as someone who works for an organization that shall go unnamed. I have had the honor of meeting many shark champions around the world this year including Tony DeBrum from the Marshall Islands, Ev Quiel and Melanie Blas on Guam, Manoa Rasagitale in Fiji, Rob Stewart in Canada, and many others, but my home and my heart lies with Saipan. So let's bring that award home!
On Dec 17th, 40 volunteers collected 20 bags weighing approximately 100 lbs. This is our last, but not the least, beach clean-up for the year 2011. The clean-up was followed by calisthenics lead by our S&R lifeguards and a healthy breakfast at the cafeteria.
Sharing with you are the pictures from our recently concluded “1st Tree Planting” initiative of Tan Holdings at the Susupe Beach Park. A group of 50 executives and key managers went out early in the morning of Saturday, Dec 10, 2011 to join and participate in this worthy activity. More tree planting activities are set for 2012 as we continue our commitment to share our time in preserving our mother earth.
The Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Monthly cleanup brigade is deviating from its regular 1st Saturday of the month schedule and scheduled its December cleanup on December 17, 2011 picking up trash at Old Man by the Sea, Saipan.
The beach is littered with float and jet-stream trash and it needs our help so DEQ is asking for more volunteers to join this particular cleanup.
If you would like to volunteer your time to clean and beautify our island, please meet the DEQ representative on Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. along the road heading to King Fisher Golf. Come join us and “Pick it Up!”
Volunteers will split into groups and clean until 10:00 am and break for drinks and then continue, if needed.
This month, outstanding brigade volunteers who participated in at least ten (10) monthly cleanups will receive a brigade cap and those who participated in at least three (3) cleanups will receive a green brigade t-shirt.
This is a cleanup that should not be missed, so join DEQ’s cleanup brigade and “Pick It Up!” Let us work together for the health of our coral reefs and cleanliness of our beaches for everyone to enjoy.
So join DEQ’s Cleanup Brigade and “Pick It Up!” Let us work together for the health of our coral reefs and cleanliness of our beaches for everyone to enjoy.
For more information about volunteering, please contact the DEQ office at 664-8500/1.
