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E-DAY – PEACE - CHILDREN - DOLPHIN FAMILY
a message from Dr Horace Dobbs, the Founder of International Dolphin Watch (IDW)
Dear Dolphin Friend
E-DAY
The 1st August 2006 was an historic day for International Dolphin Watch. It was the day we launched our first monthly E MAIL NEWSLETTER.
The Email Newsletter presents us with an opportunity to give those with an interest in dolphins more news stories than ever before. It also enables us to give much broader coverage of the many long term activities of International Dolphin Watch. This proved to be too much material for us to send out in individual Emails. The solution we have come up with therefore, is to include E Mail Newsletters in a special section of our website which is accessible to registered Friends of IDW.
MODELS FOR PEACE
Dolphins are intelligent. They have brains as large as ours and have had them for about 30 million years longer than humans. They have often been described as “Our cousins in the sea”. It could be argued that they have evolved beyond us to a stage where they live largely in harmony with one another and their environment. Furthermore they radiate a sense of joy that most of us can pick up on despite the death, pain and imprisonment we inflict upon them. And it is such aspects of their lifestyles that I feel could provide guidelines for models of human behaviour.
There are times when I feel extremely frustrated by my inability to have any direct personal influence on the horrifying atrocities that are happening around the world. However, it is my heartfelt desire that by bringing Friends of the Dolphins together with the collective love, joy, harmony and peace, qualities that the dolphins imbue, we can create a collective consciousness that could help make our beautiful planet a more peaceful place to live. Not just for ourselves, but for our grandchildren. I am optimistic for this possibility by the example of the sudden, unexpected breach of the Berlin Wall in 1989 which was brought about solely by the weight of public opinion, a global consciousness if you like, at a time when it seemed there was no resolution in sight for the division between East and West Germany.
CHILDREN WELCOME
International Dolphin Watch has always striven to encourage youngsters to take part in dolphin activities with the unstinting support of two teachers, Robin Petch and Kris Simpson. Virtually all children now have access to computers and most of them are much more computer literate than me. Which isn’t difficult !
The introduction of the E Mail Newsletter gives us the opportunity to encourage and enthuse children in ways which were impossible before computers became a vital part of their education.
I hope therefore, that you will register as many children as you can to become DOLPHIN FRIENDS and encourage them to contribute to future Newsletters. The cost of £10/Friend will be a far healthier gift than giving them sweets!
A GLOBAL FAMILY
Ever since I founded IDW in 1978 I have tried to embody in it the concept of a global family of dolphin lovers. The rapid and easy communication between Friends of IDW that the introduction of the E Mail Newsletters has brought about means, I hope, that each new friend can feel that he or she has indeed become a member of a diverse family of dolphin lovers with many different aims, interests and aspirations from a wide variety of religions and ethnic groups. Everyone around the world loves dolphins. They are universal symbols of harmony and peace.
Dr Horace Dobbs
Honorary Director IDW
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