#Hundred Islands National Park

[girltravelfactor]

Hundred Islands National Park is a protected area located in Alaminos City, Pangasinan, Philippines. The islands are believed to be about two million years old.

[kaijuno]

For 13 thousand dollars, Englishman Brendon Grimshaw bought a tiny uninhabited island in the Seychelles and moved there forever. When Grimshaw was under forty, he quit his job as a newspaper editor and started a new life. By this time, no human had set foot on the island for 50 years. As befits a real Robinson, Brendon found himself a companion from among the natives. His name was René Lafortin. Together with Rene, Brendon began to equip his new home. While René came to the island only occasionally, Brendon lived on it for decades by himself, never leaving. For 39 years, Grimshaw and Lafortin planted 16 thousand trees with their own hands and built almost 5 kilometers of paths. In 2007, Rene Lafortin died, and Brendon was left all alone on the island. He was 81 years old. He attracted 2,000 new bird species to the island and introduced more than a hundred giant tortoises, which in the rest of the world (including the Seychelles) were already on the verge of extinction. Thanks to Grimshaw's efforts, the once deserted island now hosts two-thirds of the Seychelles' fauna. An abandoned piece of land has turned into a real paradise. A few years ago, the prince of Saudi Arabia offered Brendon Grimshaw $50 million for the island, but he refused. “I don’t want the island to become a favorite vacation spot for the rich. Better let it be a national park that everyone can enjoy.” And he achieved just that. In 2008 the island was indeed declared a national park.

Read more about his island:

[caapsiizzereads]

Would you do a Jamie Tartt imagine where he and his girlfriend's anniversary is during an away game so he's super clingy and pouty he's missing it before/after the game, thanks in advance!

🤲

Jamie has been ecstatic about playing for the England national team. He doesn’t care about the extra travel or extra training – it’s all worth it. That is, until the date of an away match falls on your one-year anniversary. Suddenly, he isn’t excited for the match at all. He asks if you can come with him, but you’re swamped with work, so that isn’t an option.

Jamie can be one dramatic bitch sometimes, and it’s exactly one of those times. You insist that it’s fine and you can celebrate on the next day, but it’s not good enough for him.

“We’ll have other anniversaries,” you’re trying to comfort him. It’s only after you say it that you realize that it’s a bit presumptuous.

Jamie doesn’t seem to notice. “But this is our first one!”

“Jamie, it’s fine, really. We’ll just celebrate on the next day, it’s not a big deal.”

He whines.

“Okay, this is it. You don’t get to complain. You will be in Naples, playing for the fucking national team, while I’m stuck here.”

“But it’s no fun if you’re not there!” he pouts.

“It is if you win the match. Have some ice cream for me.” You kiss him on the cheek, and he lays his head on your chest miserably.

Jamie stays glued to your side for the whole day before he has to leave, he kisses you, like, a hundred times, and then hugs you for a full three minutes before stepping out the door.

You facetime when he’s there. He calls you the first thing in the morning, and you just hang out on a call while getting ready for your days, you say that you’ll be cheering for him and wish him good luck on his match. Then he texts you right after the match, and you congratulate him on the win.

The team is getting on the bus to go to the airport, and Jamie just can’t wait to get back to you. He googles all the food places that will still be open when he lands, so that you’ll be able to at least have a simple dinner at home. Fortunately, being a famous footballer comes with some privileges, one of which is that certain restaurants are willing to provide their services for him even after their regular closing time.

Jamie texts you when he lands, and you instantly reply, which means that you aren’t asleep yet, so he happily stops by a restaurant to pick up the food on his way home.

When Jamie parks by your house, he notices that the lights are off. It’s been only an hour since you texted him, surely you couldn’t fall asleep, right? He quietly enters the house and takes off his shoes. Now, standing in the hallway, he can see the dim light coming from the kitchen.

He walks into the room to find it illuminated by a dozen candles and you sitting on the kitchen island, smiling charmingly at him.

“Hi,” you greet him playfully.

“Hi,” he says softly, feeling the warmth in his cheeks. No matter how much time goes by, you always have this effect on him. “I got dinner,” he lifts his hand with the takeout bags in it. “And ice cream. Had to get it here, though, didn’t think it could survive the flight.”

“I got wine,” you nod in the direction of a wine bottle and two empty glasses standing on the counter.

Jamie puts the bags near them and walks up to you, standing in the space between your legs. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss. “Happy anniversary.”

Jamie melts into your embrace, smiling blissfully at you. “Happy anniversary.”

[hohfics]

A Matter of Life and Death - Chapter 9/9 - Korra x Asami

AO3 | Korra x Asami | Rated M | Canon Divergence

The sculpture in Avatar Korra park stood three stories high, fists clenched, her left boot elevated, purveying the skyline, and for the first time, gaze alight. Once jade eyes beaming an ethereal blue from into the Republic City night. 

Citizens enjoying the quiet balmy evening found their gazes lifting skyward at Avatar Aang’s statue, on an island a hundred miles away, responded in kind. Eyes blazing, his arrow tattoos had opened and cut bright in the dark. Every likeness, every carving, every soft toy plushie of their beloved former avatar lit up. Ikki almost fell off her father’s bed when she saw that old family photos of smiling Aang flashed with blue streaks, alongside Korra’s pouting wanted poster’s.

At The High Temple in the Fire Nation, sages fell to their knees as the eyes of Roku started to radiate from all the tapestries and effigies.

The ancient oak carving on Kyoshi island beamed brightly, the villagers gawping up at it had a litany of reactions, the most extreme of which involved a man who had an entire body, foaming-at-the-mouth fit of praise.

An air acolyte posted at the Southern Air Temple had much the same reaction when the spiral of idols in the Hall of Avatars started to glow, one by one until finally a tendril of illumination crawled from the base of Wan’s statue, filling the markings of Raava behind him. 

In the Spirit World, Korra stood at the bottom of the golden escalator as her past lives stepped forward to embrace her. Aang began the ceremony of reconnection with a thumb to her forehead and heart chakra, but others favoured hand shakes and shoulder touches until, finally, Avatar Wan ran at her full tilt, arms open, grin wide, grey body filling with colour for but a moment as he wrapped his soul around her, and like the others disappeared back into the ether.

Over a hundred lifetimes and thousands of years filled Korra’s periphery, the inundation of knowledge and power percolated through her being and became focused in a single burst of the Avatar state. She lifted from the ground, blue of her eyes almost blindingly white, the spirits drew ever closer, water pulsed for miles around, heat kissed the skin of everyone near and the earth rumbled. 

[entheognosis]

For 13 thousand dollars, Englishman Brendon Grimshaw bought a tiny uninhabited island in the Seychelles and moved there forever. When Grimshaw was under forty, he quit his job as a newspaper editor and started a new life. By this time, no human had set foot on the island for 50 years. As befits a real Robinson, Brendon found himself a companion from among the natives. His name was René Lafortin. Together with Rene, Brendon began to equip his new home. While René came to the island only occasionally, Brendon lived on it for decades by himself, never leaving. For 39 years, Grimshaw and Lafortin planted 16 thousand trees with their own hands and built almost 5 kilometers of paths. In 2007, Rene Lafortin died, and Brendon was left all alone on the island. He was 81 years old. He attracted 2,000 new bird species to the island and introduced more than a hundred giant tortoises, which in the rest of the world (including the Seychelles) were already on the verge of extinction. Thanks to Grimshaw's efforts, the once deserted island now hosts two-thirds of the Seychelles' fauna. An abandoned piece of land has turned into a real paradise. A few years ago, the prince of Saudi Arabia offered Brendon Grimshaw $50 million for the island, but he refused. “I don’t want the island to become a favorite vacation spot for the rich. Better let it be a national park that everyone can enjoy.” And he achieved just that. In 2008 the island was indeed declared a national park.

[vestaignis]

Заброшенное судно-отель на Ко Чанге.

Abandoned ship-hotel on Koh Chang.

На побережье острова Ко Чанг, входящего в состав морского национального парка Таиланда расположен крупный туристический комплекс «Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort» (60 гектар), изюминкой которого был круизный лайнер The Galaxy (Aunchaleena)  в качестве главного здания отеля. Это стометровое судно, перестроенное в гостиницу с 7-мью этажами. Что бы отбуксировать судно-донор для отеля вглубь территории парка, пришлось рыть канал, который потом засыпали. На огромной площади курорта тогда появились фантастической красоты пруды с лотосами, тропические парки, кокосовые рощи, гигантские статуи слонов, водопады и великолепный пляж с белым песочком. На данный же момент комплекс пришел в упадок, но туристов продолжает манить заброшенный лайнер — отель, он даже стал своеобразной достопримечательностью острова, для любителей отдыха в необычных местах. Причины угасания популярности этого места просты: проблемы с транспортной доступностью (придется взять на прокат машину и отправиться вглубь острова) и с самой инфраструктурой на Ко Чанге. А также есть версия, что морской курорт попросту закрыли из-за отсутствия разрешительных документов на строительство в заповедной зоне.

В настоящее время прогуливаясь вдоль пляжа, можно увидеть колоритные лодки-шале и оригинальный административный корпус, расположенный в заросшей лагуне. Несмотря на то, что главный отель курорта совсем в плачевном состоянии, ходят слухи, что часть корпуса еще функционирует, там сдаются номера по бросовой цене. Также сдаются номера в кораблях-шале, правда, былой роскоши там уже нет, но провести несколько ночей любители экзотики и экономии тоже могут. Мало вероятно что "флагман" курорта когда-нибудь восстановят, это слишком нерентабельно.

On the coast of the island of Koh Chang, which is part of the marine national park of Thailand, there is a large tourist complex “Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort” (60 hectares), the highlight of which was the cruise ship The Galaxy (Aunchaleena) as the main hotel building. This is a hundred-meter ship, converted into a hotel with 7 floors. In order to tow the donor ship for the hotel deep into the park, they had to dig a canal, which was then filled in. The huge area of ​​the resort then featured fantastically beautiful lotus ponds, tropical parks, coconut groves, giant elephant statues, waterfalls and a magnificent white sand beach.

At the moment, the complex has fallen into disrepair, but tourists continue to be attracted by the abandoned liner - a hotel; it has even become a kind of landmark of the island for those who like to relax in unusual places. The reasons for the fading popularity of this place are simple: problems with transport accessibility (you will have to rent a car and go deep into the island) and with the infrastructure on Koh Chang itself. There is also a version that the seaside resort was simply closed due to the lack of permits for construction in a protected area.

Nowadays, walking along the beach, you can see colorful chalet boats and the original administrative building located in an overgrown lagoon. Despite the fact that the main hotel of the resort is in a very deplorable state, there are rumors that part of the building is still functioning and rooms are being rented out there at a bargain price. Rooms are also available for rent in chalet ships, however, the former luxury is no longer there, but lovers of exoticism and economy can also spend a few nights. It is unlikely that the “flagship” of the resort will ever be restored; it is too unprofitable.

Источник:https://t.me/+hAtkre-p-zI3Njdi, /satang.ru/otel-prizrak, /novate.ru/blogs/030521/58646/,/tursputnik.com/2021/08/zabroshennoe-sudno-otel-v-tayskih-dzhunglyah.html, /www.ixbt.com/live/travel/kak-poddelnyy-kruiznyy-layner-okazalsya-v-dzhunglyah-tailanda.html.

[emilybeemartin]

Inktober Days 10-12

Day 10: "Fortune"

On the farthest-flung spit of the Florida Keys are a handful of islands bearing the second-oldest surviving European name in the US, recorded by Ponce de León for the abundance of sea turtles and the lack of fresh water (Florida’s name is considered the oldest). Shallow straits create a ship trap that has claimed hundreds of vessels from the age of sail, including loaded Spanish treasure galleons. Old lighthouses stand as memories to the effort to guide ships through lucrative but risky channels. Rising from Garden Key is a hexagonal fortress—Fort Jefferson, the largest all-brick fort in the US, which housed Union prisoners during the Civil War. Under the turquoise water are some of the most intact coral reefs in the continental US. The water teems with sea life, and in addition to several year-round seabird species, the islands serve as stopovers for migrating birds. It’s a treasure trove lousy with natural and historical abundance. A vast fortune of biodiversity and human history.

This message is not brought to you by Visit Dry Tortugas LLC—it’s brought to you by a too-romantic ranger who’s a sucker for lonely maritime outposts and would desperately like to visit this unusual little member of the National Park Service.

Day 11: "Wander"

Some parks more than others seem to invite visitors to wander. It’s the twists of a path, dipping in and out of the rises in a landscape. It’s the light filtering through dark forests, promising something new beyond the branches. It’s the shoulders of a massive mountain standing like a beacon, or its invisible summit covered in clouds. Mount Rainier, like so many other protected places, seems to beckon—come. Explore. Take it in.

But stay on the path—alpine habitats are fragile.

Day 12: "Spicy"

Olympic was the first park I fell in love with, and it was a twenty-year long-distance relationship. A National Geographic article I read in high school painted a picture of verdant rainforests dripping with moss, wild windy coastlines, and high snowy peaks. I desperately wanted to see these places myself, stand under the towering cedars and breathe in their spicy scent. My desire to visit was so strong that the summers I worked in Glacier and Yellowstone, I would constantly plot the drive west, hoping the travel time would somehow get shorter. It was eleven hours. I could do that in a long weekend, couldn’t I? Take one of my precious few days off and just blitz to the coast?

The plans never worked out, which is probably for the best. Instead, after two years of Covid-cancelled plans, my husband and I decided to make the trip together from the east coast. It was infinitely better than a snatched day and a half all alone. For a week, we explored the glaciated mountains, rocky beaches, and primordial rainforests. After two-thirds of my life spent pining after this park, it was everything I’d dreamed it would be and more.

[clove-pinks]

Almost 200 years since the first mill strike in the United States, which took place in my ancestral hometown of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1824:

In late May 1824, a group of Pawtucket mill owners decided to make some drastic changes. Citing a “general depression,” they announced a plan to extend the workday by an hour, reduce the worker’s mealtime, and cut wages by 25%.

Workers in town did not accept these new conditions. About one hundred women walked out of the mills, causing them to shut down. From May 26th to June 3rd, 1824, a large number of additional textiles workers joined them in going on strike.

It was specifically women workers who were targeted by the mill owners, who claimed they made what was "'generally considered to be extravagant wages for young women.' The owners believed the young women would passively accept such wage decreases." The Pawtucket Mill Strike would inspire other working class uprisings such as Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion.

Power looms in 1835: illustration from NPS article.

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 1 Pt. 2 (Newlywed New Parents)

As they established their family in Henford, Daisy and Neal Nesbitt were regulars at the Finchwick Fair – living as they did just a stone's throw from Finchwick Square. Hundreds of years before the amalgamation of Finchwick, the Bramblewood, and the surrounding farmlands, Finchwick was a vital trading place along the River Bagley, giving an economic lifeblood to the area that helped grow the old milling town.

Daisy was always proud to show her produce and lead meditation sessions for the community, earning countless ribbons to display at home. Neal was content to interview locals about their utilities to help formulate his civic design concepts, and eventually he came out of his shell and began to enjoy being around people – but he was always happier when his wife was by his side. Though they loved the outdoors and made a point to get out with friends, they hated leaving their daughter with babysitters and were both homebodies at heart.

Caring for Heather and Ralph while they pushed ahead in their careers was hard enough, they weren't itching to add another child, but they didn't want to wait too long and hoped Heather could be close to her siblings. They were both only children, and they wanted their daughter to know the bonds they'd missed out on.

Daisy's boss offered her an opportunity to research botany techniques for the company through a grant, which gave her more time at home with her daughter. It meant spending long hours indoors bent over research papers and writing, which she didn't love, though she was grateful not to have to miss her daughter's milestones. Neal's job required him on work sites for long hours, but no matter how tiring his day, he found time for his family when he came home.

On weekends, they loved to visit Isle of Volpe Park on the outskirts of town. The ruins of Lord Volpe’s medieval castle stood on an island lined with willow trees and a stunning old oak said to have been planted by Lord Volpe himself seven centuries ago, with the help of the mysterious Princess Cordelia. She had lived in a cottage under picturesque waterfalls Lord Volpe named in her honour, until one day, Cordelia disappeared, and Lord Volpe lost interest in everything around him, including the town they’d founded together. Despite the legendary origins of the stunning national park, to the Nesbitts it was a place where Heather and Ralph could crawl or run around and watch the foxes that ran wild all over Henford.

Would Daisy and Neal find time to expand their family while maintaining busy careers? ->

<- Previous Chapter

[staycalmandhugaclone]

Aloha!

My lovelies, lemme tell yuh: that. was. magical!! We flew back home a couple nights ago, but took the weekend to get re-situated, so now I'll take a minute to recap for funzies! The hubby and I got to spend over a week on the Big Island of Hawaii, and we did just about everything! We witnessed baby sea turtles make their first trip to the ocean, we saw the volcano erupting, we visited every national park on the island (and a few state parks), walked through lava tubes, snorkeled on black and white sand beaches with hundreds of tropical fish, swam with wild manta rays, blew $300 on an incredible resort dinner (we definitely got 2 desserts), and sat nearly front row at a mesmerizing luau!

I'd say we're happy to be back, but... Hawaii... that being said, we are back, and, if nothing else, I'm pretty excited to start writing again (totally didn't mean to have our lovelies on a tropical island as I visited a tropical island, but it was very fun timing). I missed you all and will gradually catch up on everything I've missed over the next couple days, but I think I really want to spend some time writing for now 😆

We nearly ran into the sea turtles a couple times while trying to get out of the water!

[rjzimmerman]

Climate Workers Wanted. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Three years ago, Alexsandra Sesepasara moved home to American Samoa, a remote chain of Pacific islands, with her family after more than a decade of military service. She took a job as a water resources engineer for the utility that provides power, cleans up trash and manages drinking water for the more than 49,000 residents of the territory.

But soon after she arrived, she realized that rising seas and worsening storms, fueled by climate change, had brought new problems to her homeland, while exacerbating old ones. Saltwater was seeping into the islands’ fresh water supply, shutting down schools and leading to boil water notices. In December, the issue caused a nearby hospital to close all nonessential services for nearly a week.

There was another problem, Sesepasara said: American Samoa didn’t have enough workers to fix its water issues.

But this summer, the American Samoa Power Authority, her employer, became one of nine entities across the country to receive funding under a $60 million federal program intended to help train workers to combat the growing challenges of climate change.

The climate jobs of the future, experts told me, may mean adjusting how we think of the jobs of the past: Electricians may need to learn to install solar panels, construction workers may need to deal with new engineering requirements and bankers may need to manage climate risk.

“This is a model of us adapting our jobs in real time to the reality and need of the moment,” said Ned Gardiner, a program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office, which is coordinating technical assistance for the grantees.

The funding comes as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions in tax incentives for clean energy and climate programs across the country.

While most of the applications NOAA received for the grant program focused on coastal resilience and protecting marine economies, the agency was open to proposals from sectors like shipping, engineering and finance, Gardiner said.

“Every job will be affected by climate change,” said Lara Skinner, founding executive director of the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University. “We look at every sector of the economy, and every sector will have to change. This isn’t some little transition.”

The tax incentives in the I.R.A. could ultimately help fund more than 6,200 projects in utility-scale clean energy and storage and almost four million jobs, according to the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, a labor organization educating workers on climate action.

NOAA’s work force program isn’t the only funding for jobs included in the I.R.A. Hundreds of millions of dollars are also available to hire employees in the National Park Service and workers to expedite clean energy projects in rural America, as well as to train a new generation of Indigenous workers through the Indian Youth Service Corps.

Last year, the Biden administration also launched the American Climate Corps to put 20,000 young Americans into jobs addressing global warming.

In the short term, there’s a lot of physical work that can be done to mitigate the climate crisis, like building more flood-resilient communities.

[alphaman99]

Damn, Thatʼs Interesting!  ·

WoW That's Amaaaaazing  ·

“For 13 thousand dollars, Englishman Brendon Grimshaw bought a tiny uninhabited island in the Seychelles and moved there forever. When Grimshaw was under forty, he quit his job as a newspaper editor and started a new life.

By this time, no human had set foot on the island for 50 years. As befits a real Robinson, Brendon found himself a companion from among the natives. His name was René Lafortin. Together with Rene, Brendon began to equip his new home. While René came to the island only occasionally, Brendon lived on it for decades by himself, never leaving.

For 39 years, Grimshaw and Lafortin planted 16 thousand trees with their own hands and built almost 5 kilometers of paths. In 2007, Rene Lafortin died, and Brendon was left all alone on the island.

He was 81 years old. He attracted 2,000 new bird species to the island and introduced more than a hundred giant tortoises, which in the rest of the world (including the Seychelles) were already on the verge of extinction. Thanks to Grimshaw's efforts, the once deserted island now hosts two-thirds of the Seychelles' fauna. An abandoned piece of land has turned into a real paradise.

A few years ago, the prince of Saudi Arabia offered Brendon Grimshaw $50 million for the island, but he refused. “I don’t want the island to become a favorite vacation spot for the rich. Better let it be a national park that everyone can enjoy.”

And he achieved just that. In 2008 the island was indeed declared a national park.”

[mybeingthere]

Britain has a long history of beacon lighting spanning many hundreds of years. Beacons have been lit on village greens, castle battlements, church towers, farms, beaches, front gardens, car parks and mountain tops to celebrate Royal Weddings, Jubilees and Coronations.

In 1897 beacons were lit nationally to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. (She reigned for a total of 63 years.) In 1977 and 2002 beacons were lit to celebrate The Queen’s Silver and Golden Jubilees. On Monday 4th June 2012, the aim is to light over 2,012 - perhaps as many as 4,000 – beacons, from Tonga to the Falkland Islands and Malta to Kenya. And the network of beacons that will criss-cross the UK, placed on historic landmarks, hill-top vantage points and famous mountains, will include Ditchling Beacon.

Ditchling Beacon is an Early Iron Age contour hillfort positioned on the Downs just south of the village of Ditchling with commanding views of the Weald to the north. It is one of the 139 original anchor-chain beacons situated around the country and has been used many times for occasions of unity and celebration, but also as a communication tool to warn of impending invasion and coastal attack.

The most notable occasions were in the 16th century when raiders from France regularly struck the Sussex coast and Brighton. These attacks reached their height in June 1514 when the French, led by Admiral Prégnant (nick-named Prior John), set fire to virtually all the buildings in Brighton’s old town, with the exception of St Nicholas’ Church. They were eventually driven off by archers from across the county who were alerted by a warning beacon on the Downs. There were further raids on Brighton in 1545, but as before, the French were repelled by the large numbers who gathered on the cliff, attracted by the beacon. In 1587, Ditchling was part of the same chain of beacons, designed to provide warning of the long anticipated attack by the Spanish.

http://www.thepostmagazine.co.uk/brighto.../ditchling-beacon

[reasoningdaily]

CAP HAITIEN, Haiti-- Bill and Hillary Clinton have hailed the factory churning out Old Navy sweatshirts in an industrial park here as a shining achievement in their efforts to rebuild this island nation after a destructive earthquake in 2010.

But the garment factory has underdelivered on projected jobs. Haitian workers have accused managers of bullying and sexual harassment. And an ABC News investigation has found that after opening its factory in the Haitian industrial park — built with $400 million of global aid — the Korean firm became a Clinton Foundation donor and its owner invested in a startup company owned by Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff.

“This was ‘building back better,’ in the words of Bill Clinton,” said Jake Johnston, an analyst with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonpartisan group that has studied the earthquake reconstruction. “Haiti was going to stand on its own two feet. Certainly, by that standard, it’s been a complete failure … Six years later, it’s pretty clear that hasn’t happened.”

‘FOBs’: How Hillary’s State Dept. Gave Special Attention to ‘Friends of Bill’ After Haiti Quake

Clinton Foundation Statement to ABC News

Haiti’s struggles were made all the more difficult earlier this month by the tragic fallout from Hurricane Matthew.

Few global humanitarian efforts have been more personal and important to Bill and Hillary Clinton, by their own estimation, than their attempt to shepherd the revival of the desperately poor island nation, where they long ago spent a delayed honeymoon. Even before the 2010 quake, Bill Clinton was serving as the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, and after the quake he helped lead the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and a key Haitian reconstruction commission, in addition to helping oversee the relief work of the Clinton Foundation there.

“It has been one of the great joys of my life,” Bill Clinton said during one trip to Haiti.

But the post-quake projects nurtured along with $10 billion in international relief and hefty support from the U.S. government and the Clinton Foundation have, at best, had mixed results, experts told ABC News. Several of those initiatives have benefited Clinton friends and foundation donors as much as Haitians, Johnston said.

“Contributors to the Clinton Foundation benefited from the relief effort in Haiti writ large,” Johnston said. “The evidence indicates that those who were contributing to the Clinton Foundation and active in Haiti were certainly a part of that reconstruction process.”

With Hundreds Living in Tents, a Luxury Hotel

In elite circles in Haiti, the Clintons are held in high regard. Henry Robert Louis, who helped the government rebuilding effort, told ABC News that Bill Clinton’s “time and expertise were greatly valued and helped us achieve more than we possibly could have without him.”

And the Clinton Foundation touts its success in deploying over $30 million in relief support. “The Clinton Foundation disbursed every dollar of that aid and did not take one cent in overhead,” said Bruce Lindsey, the foundation’s chairman, in a nine-page statement to ABC News. “As a philanthropic organization, the Clinton Foundation’s work in Haiti has only one goal: to help the people of Haiti.”

But in Port-au-Prince, where neighborhoods still teem with flimsy lean-tos and tarp-covered shacks, residents told ABC News they harbor frustrations with the way the Clintons marshaled international aid.

“I didn’t get any of the money,” said Inèse Luma, who lives crammed with five relatives in a makeshift home of tarp, wood and plastic. “I don’t think I’m ever going to have a permanent house.”

Efforts to rebuild the thousands of homes destroyed by the 7.0 quake have inched forward. In six years, USAID says, it has constructed fewer than 1,500 homes, and many of those have had to be rebuilt because of poor workmanship.

At the same time, the Clinton Foundation says it “facilitated” the construction of a luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince, a Marriott owned by Denis O’Brien, who has given $10 million to $25 million to the Clinton Foundation. O’Brien, an Irish billionaire who runs the Jamaica-based telecom giant Digicel, said he financed the hotel himself.

In an interview, O’Brien told ABC News that Bill Clinton “was encouraging to everybody.”

“He would introduce people to other people and say ‘Why don’t you do this project?’” O’Brien said. “It was like Noah’s ark. In the aftermath of the earthquake, President Clinton said to 50, 60 and 100 people, ‘Please come down to Haiti, maybe invest money there, maybe adopt a project.’”

O’Brien recognized the “little bit of a contradiction” between the decision to build a Marriott just blocks from the neediest Haitian neighborhoods.

“If you want to get foreign investors to come down to Haiti, they want to stay in branded hotel,” he said. “They want to stay in comfort environment. And they want to have the place to have meetings.”

The Marriott was one of several hotel projects pursued in Haiti. Johnston said he believes more energy should have been dedicated to housing instead. “It speaks to putting the political priorities over the actual needs on the ground,” he said.

The Korean Factory With Clinton Connections

No project received as much attention from the Clintons as the long-discussed industrial park and garment factory built a six hour drive north of the Haitian capital, in a speck of a town called Caracol.

The location was well beyond the destructive earthquake’s epicenter, in a rural part of the country left largely untouched by the disaster. But economists working with the State Department argued that drawing residents out of densely populated Port-au-Prince to more rural areas would help make Haiti more resilient.

The project, strongly backed by the U.S. government, held great promise. At one point, officials estimated it would bring 100,000 new jobs to Haiti.

Clinton Foundation donors surfaced in many facets of the project.

The modern industrial park, with wide, clear roads connecting rows of low-slung warehouses, would be paid for by the Inter-American Development Bank, which provided $256.8 million in grants to support construction. The bank has donated $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to its website. Large American retailers, including Wal-Mart and Gap Inc., have served as buyers for the clothes shipped from Haiti to the U.S. with special U.S. tax breaks. Wal-Mart has given $1 million to $5 million, and Gap has given $100,000 to $250,000 to the foundation. And in 2012, SAE-A, the Korean garment company that was recruited to become the anchor tenant of the park, gave $50,000 to $100,000 to the foundation.

Both Bill and Hillary Clinton attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony shortly after the factory opened in 2012.

“A single building was not here a year ago, and now more than a thousand Haitians are coming to work,” Hillary Clinton said at the ceremony. “This is something that is remarkable.”

For Haiti, the factory was an avenue into a new industry — textiles — and the jobs it could bring. Hillary Clinton predicted a factory humming with 20,000 jobs by 2016. Estimates of how many people work there now range from 8,000 to 9,000.

Sae-A has built and continues to operate two schools, with plans for a third. The company has supported medical missions, donated clothing and delivered 4½ tons of medical supplies to remote villages in cargo trucks emblazoned with the words “Sae-A loves Haiti.”

What Sae-A has received, according to State Department records, is the ability to operate a productive garment factory with a nominal tax burden, duty-free access for its products in the U.S. and an enormous — if untrained — pool of inexpensive labor. The Haitian government provided the land for the factory, the development bank paid for the factory’s construction, and USAID built a power plant to provide an uninterrupted flow of electricity and a neighborhood of small pastel-colored dwellings to house many of the workers.

Allegations of Abuse

The invitation to SEA-A to anchor the industrial park occurred despite past allegations of worker abuse the company faced in Guatemala. As the labor group Worker Rights Consortium reported in 2012, Sae-A’s Guatemala managers were accused of stifling union workers and mistreating female employees. The New York Times reported in 2012 that, before sealing the deal in Haiti, the AFL-CIO sent a detailed memo to American and international officials describing “acts of violence and intimidation” and declaring the company “one of the major labor violators.” A SAE-A spokesman told ABC News that “corrective action was taken, including dismissal of two of our local managers and improvement of grievance procedures.”

Now assertions against the company are emerging in Haiti, according to workers and labor advocates interviewed by ABC News. In April, a group called Better Work Haiti published a report finding the factory was noncompliant in the areas of sexual harassment, bullying and humiliation of employees. Yannick Etienne, a labor organizer, told ABC News she received reports from SAE-A workers that they had to provide sexual favors to supervisors in order to obtain jobs in the factory.

“We’ve heard that there are people who are victim of this sexual harassment situation in the park,” she said.

SAE-A spokesman Lon Garwood told ABC News that the “health, safety and well-being of workers is our priority.”

“If something arises,” he said, “we act swiftly to adjust and address it.”

During a tour of the factory for ABC News, an SEA-A manager said those issues were minor and in the past — mainly the result of misunderstandings, not ill will. Today, signs posted around the factory floor show cartoon images with a red slash through them of managers bullying employees.

But factory officials were reluctant to let ABC News reporters talk directly to workers during a recent visit. When ABC News asked to speak with workers, one company official spoke in Korean to another, saying, “I don’t think you should allow that.” Eventually, three workers were taken from another part of the factory to be interviewed.

Haitians are just eager for the work, said one of the workers, Mileon Fontila, as her managers looked on. “They’re just trying to get more people jobs,” she said.

An Investment in Clinton Aide’s New Firm

At an opening ceremony for the park in 2012, Bill and Hillary Clinton singled out one person for her dedication to the successful launch of the Sae-A factory at Caracol: Cheryl Mills. At the time, she was serving as Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff.

“I want to thank our friend Cheryl Mills because it was her determination, her sheer will to work through every obstacle that made this possible,” Bill Clinton said.

Hillary Clinton praised “my chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, who has been, as others have already said, a real driver of our government’s support for everything that we see here today.”

Two years after the factory was operational, Mills had left the State Department. She turned up, according to an online press release, at a Sae-A company event in Costa Rica. She appeared there, the release said, on behalf of her privately owned international development firm, Black Ivy Group. “Ms. Mills was invited and came to the event as a guest, as did many others,” Garwood said, in response to questions from ABC News.

The chairman of SAE-A, Woong-ki Kim, was identified on the Black Ivy website as one of the initial investors in the firm. That page has since been taken down. “The chairman’s investment in Black Ivy was a personal investment that was not made until late in 2014,” Garwood said. “As a policy, the chairman does not discuss his personal investments.”

Black Ivy Group is described on its website as a firm that “builds and grows commercial enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa” and focuses on “building and leveraging a vast network of global and local relationships spanning the public, private and government sectors.” Mills’ partner in the venture, Jean-Louis Warnholz, worked on the Caracol project in Haiti while serving as a senior State Department adviser to Hillary Clinton.

Messages left with Black Ivy and with Mills’ attorney were not returned.

The Clinton Foundation’s chairman told ABC News that it “was not involved” in the decision to build Caracol, did not work to recruit Sae-A as its anchor tenant, did not help secure financing from the Inter-American Development Bank or help persuade companies such as Gap and Wal-Mart to buy goods there.

In past interviews and assertions on its website, however, the foundation has embraced the Caracol project. One foundation official, Greg Milne, was quoted in a press report saying the foundation “helped to promote Caracol as an investment destination and worked … to attract new tenants and investments to the park.” The website adds that the foundation was part of the “collaboration” to plan Caracol and “assisted with [its] development.” Sae-A officials credited the Clintons for bringing together “the private sector, [aid groups], individuals and others who care about the country to tackle and work towards a better Haiti.”

Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Angel Urena, did not respond to or acknowledge repeated requests by ABC News to interview Clinton on the topic.

In Haiti, there remain deep misgivings about the international earthquake relief effort. It is a sore subject for the former U.S. president, who spoke repeatedly about it in public in recent weeks, after ABC News submitted questions to the Clinton Foundation on the subject.

“I’m sure we made a few mistakes, but way, way more good than harm was done by this,” Bill Clinton said at the final meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, of which SAE-A was a member. “It was the most organized, clearly directed efforts to bring private capital to Haiti, to do good work, either through not-for-profits or through profitmaking ventures that would include Haitians, that I’ve ever seen.”

[aaronburrdaily]

October 30, 1809

Catteau says that it rains usually every day of October in Zealand. Since I landed in Elsinore, I forgot when, but you may see by looking back, it has been every day fine till Friday last, excepting only the day I came from Elsinore to this place. But since Thursday we have not seen sun or moon. A constant fog, and, generally, mist so heavy as to wet you. Called on d'C.'s; the King and Queen have arrived on the Island of Zealand. Will be this night at Fredericksberg, and to-morrow make their entrè in town. G.H. Olsen called this morning; and at 12 Professor Ramus, by appointment, to visit the collection of coins and medals at Rosenborg. This palace built by Charles IV. or V., I forget which, and is at one end of the gardens, which are open for the public as a promenade. The palace and garden are in the same enclosure. A wood extending the length of the garden, and about one hundred yards wide. The collection is immense. Ramus says forty thousand, being in value and number next to those of Paris and Vienna. The coins of all times and all nations; Europe, Asia, America, and from the early days of Athens. Several of Alexander and Philip. Most of them are described in a work printed at the expense of the government, three immense volumes in folio, and sold for the inconsiderable price of ———. The Flora Danica¹ is published and sold in like manner. Being with the Professor, paid nothing. Hosack and Robinson accompanied me. Din. a table d'hôte.² Evening to Fredericksberg, a very muddy walk of more than two English miles. The park and gardens must be some hundreds of acres. Water, bridges, fountains; the effect (of the illumination) in some places pretty, but nowhere answering my expectations. Almost total want of music. The crowd such that one was in a constant struggle. The sentinels on each side prevented any one from going out of the walks. Got home at 10 and consoled myself with Tem.³

1 The Danish Flora. 2 For diner à [la] table d'hôte. 3 For Tempe, a girl previously referred to.

[finderbridge]

Northeast India-Seven Sisters State of India✨

Seven States in the eastern most part of India

The Northeast corner of India is calling all adventure seekers and nature lovers! Often referred to as the Seven Sisters, these eight states (Arunachal Pradesh snuck in!) boast breathtaking landscapes, vibrant cultures, and some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. Let's explore a glimpse of what each has to offer:

1. Arunachal Pradesh: The Land of Dawn-Lit Mountains

Imagine snow-capped peaks piercing the clouds, emerald valleys cradling serene monasteries, and rushing rivers carving their way through the Himalayas.

2. Assam: Gateway to the Seven Sisters & Land of One-Horned Rhinos

Assam is the heart of the Northeast, with vast tea plantations blanketing rolling hills. Spot the elusive one-horned rhino in Kaziranga National Park, or cruise down the mighty Brahmaputra River.

3. Nagaland: Where Warriors Dance & Hornbill Festivals Dazzle

Immerse yourself in the rich tribal heritage of Nagaland. Witness the vibrant Hornbill Festival, a celebration of music, dance, and indigenous crafts.

4. Manipur: The Land of Exquisite Dance & Serene Lakes

Manipur is a cultural haven, famous for its graceful Manipuri dance form. Take a boat ride on Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India, dotted with unique floating islands made of phumdis (heterogeneous masses of vegetation).

5. Meghalaya: Abode of Clouds & The Wettest Place on Earth ️

Meghalaya lives up to its name, with dramatic waterfalls cascading down lush hills and misty clouds clinging to the peaks. Sohra (Cherrapunjee) holds the record for the highest annual rainfall, making it a haven for trekkers seeking a truly mystical experience.

6. Mizoram: The Sing-Song State & Land of a Hundred Hills

Mizoram's rolling green hills and friendly locals who love to sing will leave you enchanted. Explore hidden waterfalls, trek through bamboo forests, or simply relax and soak in the serenity.

7. Sikkim: Where Himalayas Meet Serenity ️

Sikkim is a trekker's paradise. Hike through the Himalayas, marvel at the beauty of snow-capped Kanchenjunga, or visit serene monasteries nestled amidst the mountains.

8. Tripura: Unexplored Gem & Land of Tripurasundari Temple

Tripura is an off-the-beaten-path destination with a rich history and vibrant culture. Visit the magnificent Tripurasundari Temple, one of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage sites, or explore the untouched beauty of its hills and forests.