Sunday, May 31, 2009

'Crazy Turtle Woman' transforms graveyard into maternity ward


MATURA, Trinidad (CNN) -- With its white sand and clear, blue water, Trinidad's Matura Beach looks like a postcard. It's a far cry from its recent past, when leatherback sea turtle carcasses littered the ground and kept tourists away.

Suzan Lakhan Baptiste's efforts have turned a beach from a leatherback turtle graveyard to a nesting colony.

"Twenty years ago, this was a graveyard," Suzan Lakhan Baptiste said of the six-mile stretch of beach near her home.
"The stench was horrendous. You could smell it for miles," she said.
Saddened and frustrated, Baptiste launched a crusade to help end the slaughter of the gentle giants. Today, she and her group are succeeding: What was once a turtle graveyard is now a maternity ward -- one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world.
It hasn't been an easy fight for Baptiste or the turtles.
For 100 million years, the creatures have traveled the world's oceans, outliving the dinosaurs. Over the last 30 years, they have become critically endangered worldwide because of fishing, pollution and hunting.
For centuries, they've been hunted throughout the Caribbean for their meat and fins, and also for their eggs, which some people prize as aphrodisiacs.
"Turtles are in serious trouble," Baptiste said.
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Every year, female leatherbacks make their way onto the beach, laying their eggs deep in the sand. It is a long, complicated ritual during which the enormous, slow-moving animals are easy prey for poachers.
"Leatherbacks [are] very vulnerable," Baptiste said. "They cannot pull their head and flippers back into the shell. They have no sense of defense to actually protect themselves."
By the 1980s, nearly one in three turtles that nested on Matura Beach were killed. When the government asked for volunteers to help protect the endangered creatures, Baptiste and several others answered the call. In 1990, they started Nature Seekers, one of Trinidad's first environmental groups.
'Crazy Turtle Woman'
For years, Baptiste and her group patrolled the beaches every night of turtle nesting season. She often walked alone until sunrise.
Locals mocked her efforts, calling her the "Turtle Police" or "Crazy Turtle Woman," yet her dedication to the unpaid work was fierce; when it conflicted with her day job, she quit and found a new job.
Leatherbacks were a vital source of income for some members of her village, and the poachers who prowled the beaches with machetes could be threatening. When Baptiste's then-husband was injured during a patrol, she became more determined to stand her ground.
"I was very vigilant," she said, adding that at times, she even got into physical fights.
But Baptiste persisted, and a prestigious award from the United Nations Environment Program helped validate her efforts. She and her group also worked hard to convince the villagers that using the turtles for eco-tourism could create a more sustainable income.
"I wanted to show that a turtle is [worth] so much more to us alive than dead," Baptiste said.
Gradually, her message of conservation turned the tide of public opinion, and after nearly two decades under Baptiste's leadership, Nature Seekers has largely won its battle. Today, the leatherbacks' survival rate on Matura Beach is virtually 100 percent.
"Here, turtle slaughter is a thing of the past," Baptiste proclaimed.
Even "Papa George," a village elder who used to hunt leatherbacks with his father, can attest to the cultural shift.
"Suzan brought around the change," he said. "They don't kill the turtles anymore ... because of the visitors."
Nearly 10,000 tourists a year, most of whom are Trinidadian, now visit Matura Beach, and many locals make a living by providing them with accommodations, food and souvenirs.
Since the beach is a prohibited area during the nesting season, Nature Seekers' members act as guides, explaining the turtles' ancient rituals to visitors. In addition, Baptiste and her colleagues gather data on the enormous creatures, tagging and weighing as many leatherbacks as they can. Watch Baptiste and her group weigh a leatherback turtle at night »
During peak season, they might see between 250 or 300 turtles a night. More than 5,000 leatherbacks nest in the area each year. The group's work is often cited as one of the most successful eco-tourism efforts in the Caribbean.
Still, turtle slaughter persists throughout the region, and Baptiste is working to help other groups learn from her success, most recently on the island of Dominica.
She finds joy in sharing her hard-earned knowledge.
"The passion that I feel, it burns me up," she said. "I have seen the fruits of our labor, and it can happen in every community." Watch how Baptiste helped end the slaughter of turtles in her community »
Her efforts -- and those of many others around the region -- are making a difference. While leatherbacks are still critically endangered worldwide, the Caribbean population has begun to rebound.
"When I got started, a lot of people thought I was crazy," Baptiste said, and she admits that she sometimes wondered if they were right. Reflecting on what she and her team have accomplished, she now believes it was worth it.
"I love being crazy, you know?" she said, laughing. "Crazy with a passion, crazy with a dream -- totally environmentally crazy."
Want to get involved? Check out Nature Seekers and see how to help.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/28/cnnheroes.suzan.lakhan.baptiste/index.html

Proof?: Note the birth date on her Kazakh identity card - March 27, 1879


Proof?: Note the birth date on her Kazakh identity card - March 27, 1879

Sakhan's passport photo from 1979


Sakhan's passport photo from 1979

Is this woman really as old as the LIGHT BULB? 'Oldest person in the world' set to celebrate her 130th birthdayto celebrate her 130th birthday




Officials in Kazakhstan say they have a found a woman who will this week celebrate her 130th birthday, making her 16 years older than the oldest known human currently living.
Sakhan Dosova - a mother of ten - says she has never visited a doctor nor eaten sweets. She is addicted to cottage cheese and puts her longevity down to her sense of humour.
Her remarkable age came to light during a census in Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan. Demographers were astonished to find that she was Her date of birth is said to be 27 March 1879, and it is clearly shown on her documents including her Soviet era passport and independent Kazakhstan identity card.
Until the recent census, however, her fame did not extend beyond her far-flung city.
While some Kazakh officials are pressing for more detailed checks on her claim, fearing the country could face ridicule if it is shown to be false, she has no doubts and is basking in her new found fame.
'I don't have any special secret,' she said. 'I've never taken pills and if I was ill, I used granny's remedies to cure me.
'I have never eaten sweets, I don't like them. But I love kurt (a salty dried cottage cheese) and talkan (ground wheat).'
Gaukhar Kanieva, 42, her grand-daughter, said: 'She is a very cheerful woman. We think laughter and her good mood helped her live so long.'

Nailya Dosayeva, head of social and demographical department of Karaganga regional statistics bureau, said there is no doubt that her claim is authentic.
'Sakhan Dosova was found during our census held in February and March. She has an old passport and documents which are genuine, and based on these we can judge her age as being correct.'
The local mayor Islam Togaybayev went to visit her 'to personally congratulate her on such an achievement and show his respect', said his spokesman.
If Sakhan's year of birth is accurate, it means she was born when Queen Victoria still had 22 more years to rule in Britain and Disraeli was prime minister.
It was the year that Stalin and Einstein were born, the Anglo-Zulu war started, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first story.
The year 1879 also saw Edison present his new invention - the light bulb - while the ill-fated last tsar of Russia was just 11 years old.
She was ten when Hitler was born, 38 when Lenin led the Russian Revolution, and reached retirement age, 60, the year the Second World War began.
The old woman lives in poor conditions in an overcrowded flat with one of her granddaughters, though she is said to be in good health apart from some problems with her hearing.
According to one account of her life, twice-married Sarkan was widowed at the Battle of Stalingrad during the Second World War. Only three of her children remain alive.
Officially, the oldest living person in the world is American Edna Parker of the US at 114.
Some Kazakh bureaucrats want more checks to be done to ascertain the accuracy of her claim, pointing out that birth records in Kazakhstan in the 19th century are notoriously unreliable.
'We can see that this is turning into a big story and for the sake of our country, we need to be sure her claim is correct,' said one official.
According to one version of her life, she must have given birth to several children over the age of 60, he said.
'There is no doubt she is very old. But is she really 130? Or was there a white lie long ago which was never corrected? We need to find out.'
The central Asian state is only now recovering from damage to its reputation caused by Sacha Baron Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Senior state statistician Lyudmila Kolesova said: 'We're checking the authenticity of the data on her case.'
Other historical events which took place in 1879 include:
On January 11, The Anglo-Zulu War begins;
On May 26, Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, establishing an Afghan state;
On March 13; The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, marries Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.;
On October 7, Germany and Austria-Hungary create the The Dual Alliance;
The Pirates of Penzance is first performed in Paignton, Devon, England on December 30
German-born physicist Albert Einstein is born on March 14 and Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is born on November 7, followed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on December 18.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164503/Is-woman-really-old-LIGHT-BULB-Oldest-person-world-set-celebrate-130th-birthday.html

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