My dedication to ..... by kombizz
I dedicate this piece of my image to 'Darwin's Nightmare', and people of Mwanza.

It was directed by an Austrian highly intelligent filmmaker Hubert Sauper who has a deep understanding of the political, social and economical complexities of the realities he is filming. His film was nominated for an Academy Award.

In Darwin's Nightmare, Saupert transports us to Tanzania, to the small town of Mwanza on the shores of Africa's biggest lake Victoria. We learn that the town sees a lot of business because of the massive exports of a fish called the Nile Perch. This species of fish was not known in that lake before the 1960s when it was introduced to the lake. A predatory species, the fish multiplied, but also caused the extinction of other species to the point that the lake could be considered a mono culture.

The export of the fish is seemingly good for the development of Mwanza because it gives jobs to tousands of people who work in a processing plant. Two airplanes come every day from Russia to this little town to load in 500 tons of frozen, packaged fish fillets and fly them back to the restaurants and dining rooms of Europe. The daily cargo could feed the little town for a long time, but the villagers don't get to see the fish fillets because after the fish has gone through he modern processing plant, they cannot afford the fish. Although millions of people in the Tanzanian interior live on the brink of famine. Some of them will eat fried fish heads, which are processed in vast open-air pits infested with maggots and scavenging birds. Along the shores of the lake, homeless children fight over scraps of food and get high from the fumes of melting plastic-foam containers used to pack the fish. In the encampments where the fishermen live, AIDS is rampant and the afflicted walk back to their villages to die.

Unfortunately the fish business is a ........

http://www.darwinsnightmare.com/
http://www.1001productions.net/LM/DAR/Darwin1.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424024/

Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah !
When conservation of the ( http://cheetah.irandoe.org/news/index.html )Asiatic Cheetah is far important than saving the life of an old lady who was injured by the Ecotour's one day trip.
Dr Houshang Ziaie is one of the directors of EcoTour-Iran who is more interested in saving the Iranian cheetah while ignore the plead of an injured traumatized old lady who suppose to be my mother !!!!!


http://www.passionforpixels.com/albums/albus29/EcoTour_2.jpg

Unprofessional Reputed Iranian Nature Tour Company

The EcoTour company (Eco Expert Ltd) in Tehran, Iran is an eco tourism nature company. They were established 1998 to promote Iran's eco tourism attractions and to improve bio-cultural attitudes among people, both locally and internationally, and to pave the way for interested tourists. They claim to have received approval from the three top Iranian Tourism Training Centres, the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation and hold classes and training courses about nature and its value.

Mr Ali Adhami, the board of directors in their website says: "We guarantee well- equipped, selectively catered, safe and eco- friendly trips." ( http://www.ecotour-iran.com/about_new.htm)

On 10 August 2007, I took my mother and her friend on EcoTour’s one day trekking trip to Kondelus Village. Unfortunately the company hired a mini-bus driver who was not familiar with the road to Chaloos that has a series of dangerous winding sections and tunnels. As a result, the bus driver hit the wall of Tunnel No 6. As a result of the resulting huge impact, my mother fell over and was badly injured, she suffered shock of accident and injuries to her foot.

My mother needed financial assistance for medical treatment, but Ecotours told us they would pay nothing towards the cost as all the expenses would be paid for by the driver’s Third Party Insurance. This contradicts what Ecotours have told passengers that whoever travels with them is insured for 1,000,000 tomans for hospital, doctors’ expenses. I feel that they contradict themselves because they try to escape from their responsibility toward my mother and myself and other passengers.
Since 10/08/07, NOBODY from Iran-EcoTour Company (Dr Houman Jowkar, Dr Houshang Ziaie, Dr Bijan Farhang Darreh-shouri, Mr Ali Adhami), and tour leaders (Mr Mohamad Manzarnejad, Mrs Azadeh Jouhari, Mr Ali Islam) has contacted my mother by any means and asked her how she was! i.e.-Was she alive or dead ! Apparently one of the EcoTour's director cares more about Iranian Cheetah rather than take care of my old injured & traumatized mother!!

I wonder what Iran-Ecotour's response would be if my mother had been a foreign tourist traveling with them? Do you think it would be different?

Unprofessional Reputed Iranian Nature Tour Company

The EcoTour company (Eco Expert Ltd) in Tehran, Iran is an eco tourism nature company. They were established 1998 to promote Iran's eco tourism attractions and to improve bio-cultural attitudes among people, both locally and internationally, and to pave the way for interested tourists. They claim to have received approval from the three top Iranian Tourism Training Centres, the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation and hold classes and training courses about nature and its value.
Mr Ali Adhami, the board of directors in their website says: "We guarantee well- equipped, selectively catered, safe and eco- friendly trips."
On 10 August 2007, I took my mother and her friend on EcoTour’s one day trekking trip to Kondelus Village. Unfortunately the company hired a mini-bus driver who was not familiar with the road to Chaloos that has a series of dangerous winding sections and tunnels. As a result, the bus driver hit the wall of Tunnel No 6. As a result of the resulting huge impact, my mother fell over and was badly injured, she suffered shock of accident and injuries to her foot.

My mother needed financial assistance for medical treatment, but Ecotours told us they would pay nothing towards the cost as all the expenses would be paid for by the driver’s Third Party Insurance. This contradicts what Ecotours have told passengers that whoever travels with them is insured for 1,000,000 tomans for hospital, doctors’ expenses. I feel that they contradict themselves because they try to escape from their responsibility toward my mother and myself and other passengers.