Happy New Year...

I just returned from few days off. I spent them visiting some nice spots around the island. After having observed for more than a month the tourists visiting Socotra, it was my turn to be one. Few days off duty (and the calendar!) brought about a mental process that, I guess, everybody all over the world is more or less on : a balance of this finishing year and lots of wishes for the coming one. How was your year, dear friend? What are your intentions for the coming one? Lose weight? Give up smoking? I do not expect any answer, as this is a very intimate sphere of yours I do not want to invade.

Personally, if I look back and evaluate Year 2007, I guess that I should not complain too much about it. Sure: I have a new job; I live in place that lots of tourists pay big money to visit, I am healthy and so are those I love… but it could have been better (of course!).

Recently, a friend of mine told me that my “legendary pessimism” always makes him (bitterly?) smile. I would be so happy if I could realise by myself such legendary pessimism, because what I feel is that I am just being…realistic! Let me bring you some examples.

Some places of Socotra are really beautiful, but also extremely important and fragile ecological reserves, which need effective protection. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is bringing forward the “Socotra Archipelago Conservation and Development Project”, which foresees a fee tourists have to pay to the guards when entering a protected area. Great! The problem is that when I asked a tourist guide why are some protected areas full of garbage, and why the guards did not seem to be really keen in removing it (as part of their job!), he answered: “we have great difficulties in teaching the locals to preserve our environment, and anyway some (meaning “most”?) of the guards are only interested in their salaries, not really in the trash”. When I warned that more jerry-cans or syringes floating in a beautiful lagoon would entail fewer tourists and salaries (for guards, guides and the rest of the tourism-based economy of the island), he could not find any suitable reply. Sad issue: as I told you before, the importance of the island is comparable to the Galapagos, and there is an on-going campaign to include Socotra as a World Heritage Site. Unless the United Nations organise a strong awareness campaign among the locals and, above all, the guards, Socotra would not only renounce to see its name in the UNESCO register, but would also have to adapt to big hotels, mass tourism and…more trash! That is exactly what the people here are not willing to accept.

When I returned home from my tour, I turned on the radio: new assassinations, new invasions, and more countries facing serious political crisis or generalised violence… Old disagreements on environmental protection, everlasting armed conflicts in all Continents… I later decided to have dinner and some tourist-spotting. I said hello to the manager of the restaurant and asked him: “Did you hear about the killing of Benazir Bhutto?” He replied he did and, as he saw my face still under shock for the news I had one hour before, he philosophically added: “That’s life!”

His comment was not meant to be a macabre pun, but an innocent thought coming from a simple and pragmatic man, used to the dirty sides of the human condition. Still, such statement after the killing of a human being is another proof that there is something tremendously wrong in this World, where hatred, racism, fear, ignorance, and the resulting petty politics of our leaders are overwhelmingly dominating. We enter 2008 with another great achievement of mankind: if I am not mistaken, it is the first time in history that a country with a considerable nuclear arsenal (and some problems with neighbouring countries!) is in the threshold of a civil war. Frightening!

Please, give me some of your optimism (if you have any left) and I shall welcome with you the brand new year! Give me good reasons to believe that it will be better than this ending one, and I shall join you in the big midnight fun of Times Square, Place Charles de Gaulle, Puerta del Sol, or Stonehenge. But, for the time being, I simply rejoice to be still alive, healthy and in a peaceful environment, in spite of the magnificent stupidity of humanity.

“We eat and drink, while tomorrow they die”. Happy New Year!