I have a few things to say today about some different subjects. I was watching the Television the other night. While I was flipping the channels I caught sight of my least favourite show; "Once Upon A Time". Here we go again! Turning perfectly good fairy tales into soap operas for adults with the usual large spoonful of sexual content. For my part , I think they should darn well leave the 'children's stories' the way Anderson and the Grimm boys wrote them.
I watched another program on Monday night about the 'Secrets of the Mediterranean: Cousteau's Lost World. In it his youngest son,
Pierre-Yves retraced the steps his father took diving in the Mediterranean. He did this to see how far the pollution and overfishing has gone to harm the ocean, as his father suggested it might in the 50's. Pierre was joined by National Geographic marine ecologist Enric Sala.
They launched the expedition from the same place as Cousteau did and they showed parts of his original film to see how the underwater landscape had changed. It is appalling how much this Eco-system has changed! There are no big fish meaning that it is very over fished in the Mediterranean. The waters are not as clear as they should be because a lot of the species that kept it clean over 30 years ago no longer live. Too much diving by non-essential divers harms the coral and other marine life.
There was one fellow named Miguel who was a marine scientist of some sort and fisherman on the film. He does not over fish. His opinion is that the more reserves there are the better things will go for aquatic life in the future.
So you see there is hope. There are reserves and wardens that protect them. They are not afraid to penalize poachers who spear fish for instance. Now 20% of the Mediterranean is protected and they plan to take more of it back.
Pierre's film does leave me feeling hopeful but also very aware of the work it will take to get the Mediterranean back to the way it should be for future generations.
Putin
Okay folks on to a different subject. Vladamir Putin, has been reported to be worth over $70 billion dollars. Last April, Putin revealed both his salary and estimated net worth. He was portraying himself as a humble man of the people with very meager, practically non-existent, income and assets. This portrayal did not sit well with many experts of Russian government and politics. It does not sit well with a lot of non-experts like myself and a lot of my friends. These experts agree that, without question, Putin has used his last decade of absolute power and wholehearted corruption to stash away a vast personal fortune estimated at more than $70 billion. A fortune that simply does not jibe with the humble, man-of-the-people, portrait Putin paints of himself.
As far as Putin's politics I think I agree with what Richard Brodsky says about it all on The Huffington Post . I agree that he wants to restore Russia's world power. I also read the article by Angela Charlton and Stephen Wilson; Associated Press Writers. It gave me the impression that he wants us to see him as a kind of benevolent monarch when it comes to Sochi .
That is all I have for today. Just wish if you had comments that you would make them here.
The Wee Few Thoughts of Dylan the Dog
I don't have much to say today as I am busy barking for no particular reason. I wonder if Ruth thinks I may be barking just to hear my own voice. I know from reading blogs my lady has had up; that many of my kind do exactly that. I must say my voice is quite lovely and I often like to hear the various tones I can produce with 'humming'. It is great fun and puzzles my lady a lot.
One more thing....I think that Spring finally is right around the corner.