[imc-presse] [Fwd: Fair Trade ship s/v Estelle started her journey to G8 events in Rostock]

[Anna]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: Fair Trade ship s/v Estelle started her journey to G8 events in
Rostock
Datum: Mon, 28 May 2007 16:37:57 +0300
Von: Estelle Project <project2007 at estelle.fi>
An: undisclosed-recipients:;

For immediate release - distribute freely
Pictures available at http://www.pp.htv.fi/jkumanto/estelle/estelle.html


S/v Estelle left Helsinki towards alternative G8 events in Rostock

The Finnish Fair Trade sailing ship Estelle, running on windpower and
locally produced biodiesel, left Helsinki on Sunday after 8 pm
accompanied with an anti-G8 demonstration. The journey to Rostock takes
more or less one week – depending on the wind. In Rostock, the vessel
campaigns for a fairer world and serves as one of the venues for the
alternative G8 summit.

S/v Estelle's campaign tour of the summer 2007 started in Helsinki,
where the ship participates in the World Village festival, the biggest
multicultural city festival in Finland. Estelle's tour promotes Fair
Trade and highlights the links between environmental sustainability and
social justice in particular. The first stop after Helsinki will be
Rostock, where Estelle participates in the alternative summit that takes
place parellel to the official G8 meeting in a close-by holiday resort
of Heiligendamm.

"The diversity of the planned seminars, workshops and other events is
truly inspiring. New forms and practices of social organization,
democratic decision-making and alternative economics are growing from
the grass-roots level. Rostock will be one of the places where these
initiatives meet. The events are not only for protesting, but for
creativity and for building up a better world" comments Jyri Jaakkola,
responsible for organising Estelle's own workshop on Fair Trade.

The alternative summit is organised by a wide platform of NGOs and
social movements, and slong the panels invited speakers, there will be
over 120 workshops, part of which take place at Estelle. Moreover, the
movement that seeks alrenatives for the G8's neoliberal policies is
presented in various informal meetings and actions ranging from
demonstrations to concerts and other cultural events.

Among the many issues dealt with during the summit days, Fair Trade,
developing country dept and ecological sustainability are on top of
Estelle's agenda. The interconnectedness of the issues is clarified with
the concept of ecological debt.

"All the debts of the developing countries have already been paid,
because the Northern models of consumption and production are built on
the exploitation of cheap resources from the global South. Our lifestyle
causes destruction of local livelihoods in developing countries due to
wastes, pollution, degradation of ecosystems and climate change. The
debt question is more meaningful when we ask, how much we, the
industrialized countries, owe to the global South for the environmental
destruction we have caused” says Elina Toivonen, the tour co-ordinator
sailing with Estelle.

Besides participating in workshops and public debates, the Estelle crew
is engaged in promoting ecological sustainability and social justice
through practical work and daily choices. The ship has been renovated
into sailing condition over the years largely by volunteer work and
recycled materials. She has also delivered a cargo of 300 m2 of
humanitarian aid to war-mangled Angola bringing back locally produced
handicrafts and cultural items. During the on-going summer tour, Estelle
gives a practical example encouraging the use of renewable energy. The
ship runs on windpower and biodiesel produced by Finnish small-scale
producers.

"Biofuels do offer one way of fighting against the climate change.
However, there is a great risk of the business being dominated of by big
transnational corporations, which create a lot of other environmental
and social problems especially in developing countries," says Jaakkola
and continues: "To become sustainable, the production of biofuels must
be controlled by local communities and targeted towards local needs, not
driven by search of profits on world markets. Otherwise they just
increase our ecological debt."

- - -

For further information Estelle's G8 events, please contact Jyri
Jaakkola tel. +358-50-5720273 or project2007 at estelle.fi. Jaakkola is
available for interviews in Rostock during the summit days.


Pictures available at http://www.pp.htv.fi/jkumanto/estelle/estelle.html
and by request from project2007 at estelle.fi.

- - s/v Estelle in a nutshell - -

Estelle is a Finnish sailing ship specialized in Fair Trade and
development co-operation purposes as well as awareness-raising on
related issues. Between mid-eighties and mid-nineties, she was renovated
practically from a wreck into sailing condition largely by volunteer
work and using recycled materials. In 2002, she visited Angola
delivering a cargo of humanitarian aid there and bringing back
handicrafts of local small-scale producers.

Estelle is 53 meters long and has a cargo capacity of 220 tons / 317
cubic meters. She is the biggest sailing ship operating as a merchant
vessel in Europe. This makes her one of the most environmentally sound
means of transportation when crossing seas - as well as a great tool in
reaching people directly in awareness-raising purposes.

For more information please visit www.estelle.fi or contact
project2007 at estelle.fi.

- - -
s/v Estelle & the New Wind Association
Kirkkotie 6-10
20540 Turku, Finland
+358-2-2339313 Office
+358-2-2371670 Fax
www.estelle.fi


-- 

http://keys.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/lookup?op=get&search=ECE49D5C
jabber: anna_too at amessage.info

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: G8_press_release_Helsinki.rtf
Type: application/rtf
Size: 15159 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : /pipermail/imc-presse/attachments/20070528/51bb14bf/attachment.rtf