10th Katara Traditional Dhow Festival begins, brings alive tradition and culture

 

 

10th Katara Traditional Dhow Festival begins, brings alive tradition and culture

 

Captivating and full of enthusiasm as always, the 10th Katara Traditional Dhow Festival got off to a sedate but colourful start on a cloudy yet breezy afternoon by the beach of Cultural Village Foundation – Katara on Tuesday.

HE Minister of State and President of the Qatar National Library Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Former Minister of Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al-Sada, HE Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti, General Manager, Cultural Village Foundation — Katara, Ambassadors, and other dignitaries marked the opening by taking a ride in a traditional dhow boat.

Expressing pleasure at the launch of the 10th edition of the Katara Traditional Dhow Festival -- which now is renowned for reviving maritime heritage and history besides culture and folk tradition -- His Excellency Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation — Katara, said, “The festival has reached the hearts and soul of visitors and heritage lovers which includes citizens and residents of all nationalities of Qatar. This festival through heritage, history and story-telling brings alive folklore to the people through the distinctive activities that also contribute to the spread of culture as well as reflecting contemporary generations.”

Dr. Al-Sulaiti stressed said that the festival is being held with all precautionary and Ministry of Public Health protocols in place within the framework of the plan for the gradual lifting of the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus (COVID) pandemic.

He added that the festival plays as a prominent role in keeping the older and younger generations bonded in culture and heritage and showcases to people the heritage of Qatar’s maritime past and present, and also that of other participating countries.

The same can be found in a wonderful painting about the relationship of the earlier generations with the sea and its importance in their lives and why it is important to preserve authentic heritage.

The festival achieves its objectives in enhancing the status of the marine heritage of the society in addition to its vital role in preserving Qatar’s maritime heritage and defines it locally, Arabian, and internationally.

Five countries apart from Qatar are participating at the festival, which includes Kuwait, Sultanate of Oman, Republic of Iraq, India, and Tanzania.

As soon as the sun began to set over the sea, the festival began to glow resplendent in the mix of tradition and culture as stream of visitors and families, maintaining social distancing, began to flow.

The festival once again has a lot and unique things on offer including live oysters and pearls along with their live fishing examples for all to see.

Traditional and impressive dhows and wooden boats, live artists with eye-catching paintings, special pavilions of traditional handicrafts, and workshops showcasing ship-building process and ancient craft, history museums, pottery and fishing art, fish markets, food and music enlivens the festival on all days.

As in the past one decade, the festival is also characterised by a number of competitions and marine shows, besides a variety of cultural activities including drones.

There will also be story-telling and traditional stage shows throughout the festival at Katara beachfront and also include Al Shoush, Al Haddaq and Al Tafris competitions.

The Omani Folk Band is providing artistic performances in the mornings and evenings on all days of the festival.

This year’s edition of the festival is partnered by Qatar Insurance, the Official Insurance Sponsor, Qatar Airways, the Official Carrier, Qatar Petroleum, the Platinum Sponsor, and Al Meera.

 

Lone survivor of the storm in #Goa Stranded farmer in Benaulim

Music is his passion and farming as a hobby give him kicks. He is all but eighty-one years in age, but yet not given up on the things he was most of fond of in life- cultivating his paddy field and rearing his she buffaloes for milk.
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A decade back, his paddy fields yielded two crops in a season. But with the adjoining paddy fields converted into a housing project only one crop is possible per season now – a death knell for farming in the Indian state of Goa.
For the umpteen time Joao Santan Rebello cast his vote last month, to elect his representative to the 15th Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, since Goa got liberated from the Portuguese in 1962. Much has changed over the years with modernization in the tourist-resort state, the small state of India which welcomes some four millions foreign tourists every year. In the race to build mega housing projects to cater to the tourists many a paddy fields have fallen prey.
People like Rebello who hails from coastal village of Benaulim are becoming rarer and rarer to find in Goa , one who continue to cultivate their paddy fields in the face of many obstacles. All his life he has lived on the profits from his paddy fields and buffaloes rearing business - to take care of his family needs and to provide education to his five sons. Giving up on what he has been doing all his life is hard thing and that is what Rebello finds difficult.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272627#ixzz51Y44YBzu

Western tourists in Indian state of Goa celebrate World Ocean's day in Arambol village

Western tourists  clear Arambol Sweetwater Lake of dangerous 'mines'ahead of tourist season
Thousands of volunteers plucked plastic, broken beer bottles and other waste products from the rocks around Sweetwater Lake of Palyem and Arambol beach along Goa’s coast for the last four weeks under
Volunteers however fear that a number of broken glass piece of beer bottles, which they fear lie underneath the water, pose a potential hazard for people who use the SweetWater lake
with divers unable to clear garbage from the water.
volunteers retrieved rusted scrap metal, plastic bottles, and other waste alongside Plastic waste. Volunteers dressed in blue T-shirts sifted through fine sand to remove fragments of plastic as well as collected larger items like beer bottles.

The Sweetwater Lake, situated a few metres away from Arambol Beach, and which falls in the property of Congress leader Jitendra Deshprabhu, the scion of the Deshprabhu family and the erstwhile viscount of Pernem, is one of the most important wetlands on the Arabian coast and a habitat for many migratory birds.

The Sweetwater lake has been in the past been a site for many Full Moon parties, patronised mostly by european tourists and indians too, parties in which trance music and drugs flow easily in the coastal paradise of India, a state which has gained notoriety for the easy availability of drugs

The World Oceans Day kicked off Saturday as a reminder of the major role oceans have in everyday life.
This year, the UN General Assembly launched "Play It Out" -- a global campaign against Plastic pollution that includes a music festival.
"Today, 13,000,000 tonnes of Plastic leak into the oceans every year, what among other damage, kill 100,000 marine animals annually," the UN said in a statement.
"While most Plastics are expected to remain intact for decades or centuries after use, Plastics in the oceans that do erode end up as micro-Plastics that are consumed by fish and other wildlife, quickly making their way into the global food chain,” it said.
"From Plastic straws to Plastic bags, we all are at the frontline of efforts to #BeatPlasticPollution."
The UN added that globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at $3 trillion per year, or about 5% of global GDP, showing the financial importance of oceans for the world.
More than 1,000 related events are being held around the world this year, including film screenings, clean-up activities, interactive talks and painting contests.

The UN General Assembly decided that as of 2009, June 8 would be designated as World Oceans Day to draw global attention to the benefits derived from the oceans and the challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.
According to the UN, the concept of a "World Oceans Day” was first proposed in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro "as a way to celebrate our world’s shared ocean and our personal connection to the sea”.

 ‘Dolphins are not entertainers’

On the occasion of World Oceans Day, World Animal Protection, an international non-profit animal welfare organization, released a statement on its website concerning dolphins.
"Some dolphins are condemned to a life of utter boredom in the confines of a manmade concrete tank or artificial lagoon," it said, criticizing "Swim with the Dolphins" programs.
The movement also stressed that wild dolphins can swim more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) a day and can live for over 50 years, "which amounts to a life sentence in a small, chlorinated pool".
It also criticized the detention of dolphins in Australia for tourism.