Sonaisali Island Resort — magnificent hotel on lonely island. But it is not necessary to miss here — set of entertainments, the fine nature, and the main thing — the warm emerald sea — all it at your order.
Hotel from the Australian architects
The hotel has opened in 1992, it is constructed in traditions of Fijian architecture which so is harmoniously entered in a surrounding landscape. The resort consists of the general premises and a bungalow, shaded by magnificent tropical vegetation. At hotel restaurants it is offered to the menu, made under the influence of Asian, Indian and an European cuisine.
The freshest components are used only, vegetables and fruit are grown up there and then, on island. Also probably to arrange a romantic supper for two at a stellar light, under silent whisper of ocean waves.
Arrangement: at 4 o'clock flight from Sydney, at 3 o'clock flight from Oakland, at 10 o'clock flight from Los Angeles, in 3 minutes of driving from island Viti Levu. The hotel is designed by the Sydney architect, therefore, you to the full like the Australian aesthetics and up to the end will understand local mentality.
In hotel: 2 restaurants, a bar, a car rent and bicycles, shops, excursions, business centre, exchange, transfers from/in the airport, a laundry, a first-aid post, trading gallery from 3 large shops and several boutiques.
The Conference hall offers ample opportunities for carrying out of private meetings, trainings, conferences and seminars. The club for children works daily from 9 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock in the evening and offers the whole complex of entertainments for children from 4 till 12 years. In hotel there is a service of co-ordinators (wedding, on the organisation of meetings, on work with the Japanese clients, on work with groups).
Restaurants and bars: — Restaurant Sunset Terrace. — Restaurant The Plantation.
Sports and entertainments: tennis, riding, driving by boats, fishing, a water ski, a paintball, billiards-pool, the TV with the big screen in foyer, tables for Ping-Pong and board games, trips on jungle on motorcycles.
Residential architect Sydney — knows true sense in the Australian culture and is always ready to offer original architectural projects.
This Monday I was a very busy crafter. Because of that I didn't get quite as much reading done as I normally would, but I was doing something bookish all the same. I got this idea from Living With Lindsay so if you would like to do this craft you should go over to her blog to find out how. Basically it is a foam wreath covered in pages ripped from a book. This took me about three and a half hours. On her blog it says her materials cost $2. Mine were a little more than that. I actually had to buy a glue gun and glue because I didn't have any, that cost me $5. I don't have a Dollar Tree around here so I had to go to Michael's to find the wreath (it was a last resort though, believe me). My foam wreath cost about $5. I already had a book I purchased at a used book store several years ago about the Rothschilds. I never read it and I probably never would have so I didn't feel too bad about ripping it up. So overall the actual wreath cost me $5.
This was really easy to make! Anyone can do it, but watch out for glue gun burns!
A fire in the southwest of China has destroyed the 600-year-old Gongchen tower, part of an ancient city gate in Weishan county in Dali prefecture, Yunnan province.
The fire started at about 3 a.m. on Saturday. Firefighters struggled for nearly 2 hours to put out the flames. About 300 square meters of the architecture was burnt down. No causalities have been reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Gongchen tower was a city gate tower, which was built in 1390 during the Ming Dynasty. It was listed as a key cultural protection site in Yunnan province. Last month, a fire engulfed an ancient Miao village in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
In 2006, China nominated the village as a UNESCO World Heritage site. And in January last year, Dukezong Ancient Town, in the famous resort county Shangri-la in Yunnan province, was also burned down in a fire. The so called "Moonlight City" is one of the most renowned resorts in Shangri-la, known for its well-preserved ancient Tibetan dwellings.
The British Government is refusing to negotiate with Greece about the return of the so-called Elgin Marbles despite a request to do so from the United Nations, a decision that could prompt Athens to begin legal action for the first time.Athens prepares legal action over the UK's 'grubby' refusal to negotiate [Credit: Independent]
British campaigners likened the UK’s stance to “clinging on to stolen booty for dear life” and contrasted it with the “generous act” of returning the sculptures to help a friendly country on the brink of economic collapse. Youth unemployment has hit 50 per cent and suicide rates have soared amid a crisis so severe the Financial Times has warned Greece could turn into a “quasi slave economy”.
In 2013, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) invited the UK to take part in mediation about the marbles, created 2,500 years ago to decorate the Parthenon temple in Athens. Then last year it asked for a response by 31 March.
However a Government source said the UK “won’t be able to make any significant announcement this side of the [May] election”.
A motion calling for the UK to reply to Unesco and move to return the marbles is to be filed in the House of Commons on Monday.
The failure to respond in time could prompt Greece to abandon decades of diplomacy and take legal action, possibly in the European Court of Human Rights. A team of lawyers in London, including leading QC Geoffrey Robertson and Amal Clooney, wife of actor George, is preparing a “book-length” document setting out the options.
A source who has advised successive Greek governments said the main problem was finding a court to take jurisdiction in the case, but once that hurdle was overcome “then the lawyers are saying there is about a 75 to 80 per cent chance of success”.
The marbles are regarded as some of the finest works of art in history and a symbol of the birth of Western civilisation. Some sculptures were taken to Britain by Lord Elgin in controversial circumstances just over 200 years ago when Greece was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.
Dr Elena Korka, director of antiquities at the Greek Culture Ministry, said the central issue was “reunifying these exceptional, outstanding and most important sculptures, which belong as an integral part of a unique symbolic monument for the whole world”.
“This is the essence of it, making something which exists today as whole as it can be… this is what the public wants, every poll shows it. It’s such an important issue. Even if Greece didn’t ask for it, the whole world would,” she said.
She said if the British authorities relented it would be “a day of true joy, not only for the monument itself but I think for the value of the gesture for the sake of co-operation”. “It would definitely help the [public] morale. It would be a huge boost,” she said.
Asked about the prospect of legal action, Dr Korka said Greece was “still so much into the process of mediation that we’re not thinking of the next step”. “We haven’t exhausted the possibilities so let’s not go so fast,” she said.
She added that the UK’s silence since 2013 was “not so polite really”.
David Hill, chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Australia, said there was a “growing appreciation even among people who are timid about the prospect of litigation that we have reached the point of last resort if this UNESCO gambit fails. The diplomatic and political strategies of the last 30 years have not produced any progress at all.”
Polls have consistently showed strong support in Britain for returning the marbles. In November, a survey for The Times found there was a two-to-one majority in favour.
Andrew George, chairman of Marbles Reunited and Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, said: “One of our friends is down on their uppers and we can offer something to them that might make their lives easier and give them a lift, which can only be good for their economy.
“It would be a generous act which would improve Britain’s standing in the world. At the moment we look rather grubby… like we are clinging on to stolen booty for dear life.”
He said he planned to lodge an early day motion in the Commons tomorrow calling for the Government to “demonstrate that Britain is prepared to... reunite these British-held Parthenon sculptures with those now displayed in the purpose-built Acropolis Museum in the shadow of the monument to which they belong, the Parthenon in Athens”.
The British Museum, which denies Elgin stole the marbles, argues that it “tells the story of cultural achievement throughout the world” and the Parthenon sculptures are “a significant part of that story”. It regards itself as “a unique resource for the world” with visitors able to “re-examine cultural identities and explore the complex network of interconnected human cultures” within its walls.
“The Parthenon Sculptures are a vital element in this interconnected world collection. They are a part of the world’s shared heritage and transcend political boundaries,” it says.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it would “respond in due course” to UNESCO.
Author: Ian Johnston | Source: Indpendent [March 07, 2015]
This week Caribousmom asked us to discuss our countries' search for independence or national holidays. In addition, we could talk about our summer reading lists. Here's what participants came up with.
*Sheri from A Novel Menagerie and Jason from Moored at Sea discussed what America means to them.
*Pussreboots talked about her memories of the Bicentennial in 1976. Very cool!
*Rikki educated us on Reunification Day in Germany. Thank you, Rikki.
*Crime fiction fan The Unfinished Person from Just a Reading Fool provided us with a summer reading list and Icedream from Reading In Appalachia gave us a list of books that make her think of freedom and summer.
*Canadians Bookworm Kristen and Chris from book-a-rama discussed Canada Day and Canadian books.
*Finally, Diane from The Book Resort joined us for the first time this week. She gave us a list of the books she was looking forward to reading this summer.
Thanks to all the participants this week. Can't wait to see what the topic will be for next week!
A coalition of environmental groups filed suit in federal court on Wednesday to push back against Bureau of Land Management's permitting of hydraulic fracturing wells near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.An oil well is pictured in September 2012 off County Road 6480 at sunset [Credit: Daily Times]
The suit, which names the BLM and the U.S. Interior Department as defendants, argues that the federal government is putting the environment, public health and the region's cultural resources at sites like Chaco Culture at risk by allowing oil and gas development in the lower San Juan Basin, primarily the Lybrook area.
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, the San Juan Citizens Alliance, WildEarth Guardians and the Natural Resources Defense Council, with attorneys from the Western Environmental Law Center, collectively filed the complaint in New Mexico's U.S. District Court, arguing that the BLM's ongoing permitting of drilling in the area violates the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and the National Historic Preservation Act, or NHPA.
The groups also took to the state Capitol Wednesday to try to convince legislators to support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, production for Mancos Shale oil in the Gallup Play area. The drilling process involves injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release the natural gas or oil inside.
On Dec. 30, the BLM said it would defer issuing leases for five Navajo allotment parcels that represent 2,803 acres in response to a protest filed by environmental groups that demanded the agency suspend fracking on public lands near the Chaco park.
The BLM's Farmington Field Office is expected to finalize its amended resource management plan later this year, said Victoria Barr, the BLM Farmington Field Office district manager. Barr declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Jeremy Nichols, the climate energy program director at Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, said the lawsuit was a last resort but a necessary one, given BLM's continued drilling permitting.
"The BLM has not fully analyzed the full impacts of horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the Mancos Shale area. Why are they approving all these permits? We wanted to take it to court and have a judge decide," Nichols said.
Groups like WildEarth Guardians complain that the BLM should cease approving all oil drilling permits in the Mancos area at least until its management plan is completed.
"They're leaping before looking because, at the same time, they're trying to update their (resource management) plan, and they've acknowledged that fracking wasn't something they'd thought hard about," Nichols said. "While they're doing that, they're approving dozens — over 100 permits. It doesn't add up to us."
Overall, Nichols said the groups' concern rests with the unknown implications of unchecked drilling in a culturally sensitive region.
"They are approving these permits and arguing that they're insignificant. It's unfortunate that we have to go to court," he said. "Maybe they should think more about the public resources that are at stake. These are public lands and minerals. It's not the oil and gas industry's lands and minerals. Hopefully, we can get BLM to realize that a little restraint is warranted."
Colleen Cooley with Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment said in the group's March 11 press release that the impacts of ongoing horizontal drilling pose dangers to Native communities who live in the region.
"The (BLM) is not taking serious consideration of the sacredness of the Greater Chaco region and the impacts on surrounding Diné communities as they continue to approve more drilling and fracking," Cooley said in the release. "It's time to account for what really matters, our health, our environment, and future generations."
Author: James Fenton | Source: The Daily Times [March 11, 2015]
