The Week at the SLHTA, June 7th, 2013

World Environment Day is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. World Environment Day activities take place all year round and climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere.

The World Environment Day celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

Through World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme is able to personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.  Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.

Addressing the gathering on World Environmental Day for 2013, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon stated, ” We like in a world of plenty, where food production outstrips demand, yet 870 million people are undernourished and childhood stunting is a silent pandemic. To create the future we want, we must correct this inequity. We must ensure access to adequate nutrition for all, double the productivity of smallholder farmers who grow the bulk of food in the developing world, and make food systems sustainable in the face of environmental and economic shocks.”

Our planet’s regenerative capacity is being greatly exceeded as the world’s population is now producing and consuming more resources than ever. In fact, in developed and developing countries, people are acquiring much more than what they actually need and therefore producing an enormous amount of waste. Our growing population puts so much pressure on the environment that nowadays the natural resources are no longer as abundant as they used to be. How we use and dispose of non-renewable resources is radically altering our ecosystems and even the planet’s renewable resources (such as water, timber or fish) are rapidly being exhausted. We have now reached a tipping point where the quality of air and water needs to be improved, the level of production needs to be balanced and the amount of waste generated needs to be reduced.

This year’s campaign rallies you to take action from your home and then witness the power of collective decisions you and others have made to reduce food waste, save money, minimize the environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to become more efficient.

Ban Ki-moon made a special appeal to all citizen of the world saying, “On this World Environment Day, I urge all actors in the global food chain to take responsibility for environmentally sustainable and social equitable food systems. The current global population of 7 billion is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050. But the number of hungry people need not increase. By reducing food waste, we can save money and resources, minimize environmental impacts and, most importantly move towards a world where everyone has enough to eat.”

Fresh on the launch of a brand new website, the historic Fond Doux Holiday Plantation in Soufriere, St. Lucia has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence award from TripAdvisor for the second consecutive year.

Situated on a 250 year old working plantation overlooking St. Lucia’s world-famous twin Pitons, the resort is surrounded by tropical rainforest with over 30 varieties of delicious fruit trees. The romantic and secluded hotel features elegant, restored colonial holiday villas, accented with white gingerbread and jalousie shutters. It also offers two onsite restaurants, an organic spa, catered weddings and romance packages, a collage of outdoor swimming pools, and the opportunity to watch cocoa dancers entice the taste of chocolate from Cacao beans.

Thankful for being blessed with “Le Plantation Fonddoux,” translated from French to mean “The Sweet Valley,” a delighted Eroline Lamontagne, General Manager of the award-winning resort, was especially pleased with the TripAdvisor honor. “We thank the staff who has made it possible by their hard work, dedication, loyalty, and sacrifice. We especially thank all of the extended Fond Doux family and friends from around the globe who continue to keep us grounded with transformational advice and feedback.”

Fond Doux Plantation’s highly coveted TripAdvisor award appears to endorse the resort’s unwavering support to combine agriculture, conservation, heritage, and tourism, though Mrs. Lamontagne was quick to point out that the resort “embraces being green not because it is fashionable, but because sustainable tourism is good for business, the environment, and the destination.”

Described by guest reviewers as, “fantastic,” “a complete blast,” “the best day ever,” and “fun on 11 different levels,” Rainforest Adventures St Lucia has received a Trip Advisor “Certificate of Excellence”.

 “We’re thrilled to receive the 2013 TripAdvisor “Certificate of Excellence”, which is a result of the dedicated work of our team on the ground to ensure the guest experience exceeds their expectations,” says Barbara Louis, marketing, sales and reservations manager with Rainforest Adventures St Lucia. “Our in-depth and immersive rainforest experience provides guests with a better understanding of the importance of the environment, while giving them the opportunity to explore the park through safe and thrilling attractions.”

At Rainforest Adventures St Lucia, visitors have many opportunities to explore the surrounding rainforest by jumping aboard an aerial tram, ziplining (either by day or night) through the jungle canopy, or heading out on a themed tour.

Dedicated to ecotourism, the team at Rainforest Adventures St Lucia takes great care to preserve and protect the rainforest by closely observing government legislation and creating unique educational experiences to promote environmental consciousness and conserve at-risk natural resources.

The Certificate of Excellence award is given to outstanding hospitality businesses that have received praise and recognition in reviews by TripAdvisor travelers with winners ranging from hidden attractions to world-renowned parks and museums.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is set to unleash the creativity of youth on Toronto during Caribbean Week in Canada which runs from 26-28 June, 2013. The “Advertise the Caribbean” contest challenges youth to create an original poster advertisement for any of the over 30 CTO member countries. It is open to students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in three categories: Junior Category (ages 12 or under); Middle Category (ages 13-18); and Senior Category( ages 19-21).

“We believe that the youth are quite ingenious and creative and this contest allows them the opportunity to unleash their creativity by generating some of the most compelling reasons for Canadians to visit the Caribbean,” said Sylma Brown, the director of CTO-USA Inc, the CTO’s New York office which organizes Caribbean Week in Canada. The contest is organized by young Caribbean Diaspora professionals in Toronto, spearheaded by Sheldon ‘Solitair’ Pitt.

Caribbean Week in Toronto is a celebration of the sights, sounds, colours, culture and unique holiday attributes of the Caribbean. Tourism officials, the media, artistes, performers, celebrity chefs, sponsors, strategic partners and youth of the Caribbean Diaspora will participate in Caribbean Week activities on 26 and 27 June. The programme includes events for the travel industry, a workshop for National Tourist Office representatives, the Diaspora Forum and Media Marketplace at which leading travel journalists from the GTA interact with representatives from CTO member countries.

Bonne Cachille’s Encounters with Wisdom

Life Would Be Easy…

If It Weren’t for Difficult People

Difficult people have been trained and taught to act the way they do since they were children. In fact, they have been rewarded for their negative behavior throughout their entire lives. Difficult behavior worked for them as children-and, more important, it continues to work for them as adults. We have three choices each time we respond to another person: 1. Be positive; 2. Be negative; and 3. Avoid or ignore them. Difficult people see avoidance as a positive response. When we ignore unacceptable, inappropriate behavior, it will usually happen again because our avoidance tells the difficult person that we are willing to accept their behavior.

Difficult people want to do their own thing, in their own time, in their own way, without interference. And they do not see anything unreasonable about these expectations. There is little in their experience to signal them that their actions are inappropriate.

We learn a lot from difficult people. We tolerate their behavior and attitudes as “part of life.” We make concessions even when we do not receive anything in return. We compromise even when it is 90/10 instead of 50/50. Since we cannot change difficult people, we can only change ourselves and our reactions to their behavior. They need our cooperation and our permission to intimidate, control and repeatedly manipulate us to get their way. In most relationships, we are treated exactly the way we allow ourselves to be treated.