Patagoniacs

War in Chad - Cease Fire ?

Latest news from the AFP. The rebels accepted the principle of a cease-fire.

What I like is the comment of the rebels about the Air strikes :

Le porte-parole des rebelles Abderaman Koulamallah a reconnu l'intervention des hélicoptères, mais assuré qu'ils n'avaient causé "aucun dégât".
  "Nous sommes dissimulés sous les arbres, et étalés sur une vingtaine de kilomètres, entre 10 et 30 km au nord", a-t-il ajouté. "Mais N'Djamena peut toujours fanfaronner, nous encerclons la ville et avons conservé nos forces quasiment intactes".

It's the first time I see that trees are strong enough to protect people against Air strikes.
I think that in Irak and Afghanistan now, they will use trees to protect from Apache's attacks ... :-)

And as usual, a lot of deaths, refugees, and civilian casualties for what ?

Crazy world !

War in Chad - Update

Message received right now, 12h48 GMT :
Withdrawal to the French Operation Base. We fear another attack.
(picture : AFP/SONIA ROLLEY)

War in Chad - Report from the field

Here are some news received directly from N'Djamena, Chad, where the war is on, and rebels are fighting against the President (Deby). I received this news by SMS

(picture taken on "lemonde.fr" - French Defense Ministry)

1st  of Feb  : +237xxxxxxx Here is my Cameroun phone number in case of. I do not sleep at home tonight, but with friends.

2nd of Feb :
- They are in town. We are all grouped in one house. We are planning an extraction if the planes can land.
- The French are gathering the French Citizens to make an evacuation.
- looting in town. Stand by. We have an armored vehicle. Good to have a security chief with a good experience of wars. If not, it would be such a mess.
- Quiet after intense fights from 8h30 till 17. French helicopters are flying over the city and the airport. I decided to stay, because we still have some staff in the East of the country.
- For the moment, the Army won against the rebels. French Army secured some key points for the extractions of foreign citizens.
- French Army is extracting the foreign citizens.

3rd of Feb :
- Security Chief tries to drive the people to the airport. I'm still in the house. 5 planes for to extract people.  Isolated staff is driven to the airport in armored cars.
- Thanks. I do not move. Head down !
- I begin to write the summary of last days for the HQ. Lessons learnt
- Neutral ... (about France). Chief Secu is driving the people to the french base. Helicos. Hope we'll get flights. There were shots on the vehicles this morning.
- 103 staff extracted to Gabon and Cameroun. Trying to set up an office to manage the crisis.Shots stopped.
- Office and home robbed. A new life begins ....
- Moved population everywhere, humanitarian crisis rising.

Chocolate of war !

Very interesting report from Global Witness NGO about the role of Cocoa in financing some conflicts in Africa, and especially in Ivory Coast.
You can download the full report here :

Download cotedivoire.pdf

I saw few weeks a ago on a TV boradcast, a subject about the Diamonds in Nigeria, and their role in financing the war.
I found that interesting but, as I do not buy diamonds every day, I slept well, knowing that at least, I haven't gave any money to finance this conflict.

Same thing with drug and Poppy in Afghanistan. I know that now Afghanistan is the leading producer of poppy and so opium, but once again, in some way, I consider this a little bit far away from me.

The hot chocolate report is different. As I eat a lot of chocolate, there is a high probability that I finally helped to finance the conflicts mentioned in the report.

Well, I am not going to stop eating chocolate, but for sure I will stay informed and check how I can avoid buying chocolate of war.

Talibans are back

If you are reading the headlines of the newspapers, in addition to our fight between Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal in France, you may have noticed that the Talibans are back.
But, are they really back ? Who are they ?
In order to simplify our view of the world, the media usually try to explain us the things of the world, with simple schemes. The bad guys, the good guys. The poor, the rich etc. For example, everybody is speaking of Al Quaeda. And many people imagine that it's a world company, well organized, with a board of directors, planning for the next growth of terrorism strikes in the world. The reality looks very different. It's much more a flag, a symbol, than an organization. That's why it's so hard to track and fight. Because there is not any strong links and physical coordination between the different elements.
So, in Afghanistan, the Talibans are back. But, in fact they were always there. Remember, after 9/11, the coalition forces won the battle in few days in Afghanistan. At this time, almost the full country was under the Taliban's control. And you can really imagine that with a few weeks war, all the bad guys are gone ? People in these countries are able to adapt themselves to many situations. Not any western army ever won in Afghanistan (read the History of the country). The fact behind this new movie "Taliban, the return", is that the population may be tired of this war again, and the population will help the people who bring them money, food, and help (support the opium crop, protect them, respect their religion etc).
Now the medias point out that the Talibans are back, and so, to fight against these bad guys, the Pentagon will need more troops, money etc.
Since many years, I was always very careful about what journalists say, because the reality is often far away from what they say.
Here, once again, I really think that they are playing the exact role the politics want to see. It's hard to keep searching the truth in a world controlled by media.

Vote for environment !

With Patagonia and Goodplanet.org, act now and Vote for environment.
Ok, this message comes a little bit late, as the campaign began in mid January 2007, but it's never too late to act.
You can have a look at the press release (in French), here :

Vote for environment

Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes part in this action and support goodplanet and Patagonia. Go have a look on their websites and support your planet.
(photo credit : Yann Arthus-Bertrand).

Valentine's day Underwear !

On the 14th of Feb, it is the Famous VALENTINE'S DAY. You'll see on billboards in the cities a lot of nice beautiful women wearing underwear, to give nice (kinky) ideas to men and the kind of gift they can make.
Patagonia, as usual, goes another way. Instead of offering your girlfriend (boyfriend), wife, room mate, etc, underwear, take all their underwear and send them to Patagonia.
It's spring time and cleaning time !

PATAGONIA WANTS YOUR UNDERWEAR… … AND MUCH MORE !
PATAGONIA ANNOUNCES MAJOR EXPANSION OF GARMENT RECYCLING PROGRAM AND BEGINS RECYCLING COMPETITORS’ GARMENTS Patagonia, Inc., the outdoor gear and apparel company, announced yesterday the expansion of the Common Threads Recycling Program. This revolutionary program, which initially asked customers to return worn out Capilene baselayers to Patagonia, was launched in Europe in Fall 2006. Now it has been expanded to include any Patagonia used fleeces, any used Polartec-branded fleece garments from other companies, and Patagonia cotton tee shirts.

You can read the full document and downlaoad it here

Concrete actions for a better planet !

VIVE KAILLOUX !!!

The famous brand "kailloux" is launching its new organic coton t-shirts !!!
As Romu says in its email, it is not a "marketing" move but something obvious to save the planet :-)
Hey, Romu, and if it helps selling more t-shirts, it's good too :-))
So go on the WEB 2.0 e-commerce website of Kailloux, and (if you need one), buy a nice T-shirt to go climbing

(made by climbers, for climbers)

It's Fashion !

Yes, it's fashion to be ALTER, to be ECO, to be ALTER ECO, to be Ecologist, Environment fighter, etc etc.
In France, our political leaders and candidates passed their exams in front of Nicolas Hulot, to tell their ideas, engagements, for a better planet if they win the next french elections.
French people showed that with only 5 minutes of lights off, you can help the planet.
All this is good, of course, because we see that clearly, the message of Yvon Chouinard, and other enviro active people, since years, is finally reaching the conscious of everybody.
It isn't perfect yet but it's a good move.
The problem is that I see a dark side on this move. When something is fashion, then you have a lot of aftermaths which give the total contrary effect than the expected one. Take surfing for example. It's more and more "fashion" (yes, even Chanel is using surfboards to display its logo, ... beurk ). And so you have more and more people who are changing what was surf at the very beginning (read about these kind of changes the last text of "Vagues" with the great comparison between Da Cat (Dora) and Laird Hamilton).
So, when it's fashion, the message is displayed everywhere, but the initial meaning may be changed. And I am a little bit afraid that in our case, we will see effectively more politics involved in it, but not really because they care about our planet, but more because if they do not take actions, they may loose their power and influence ... And there is a high risk that some people will use the fashion words "alter", "eco", etc, just to be fashion.
Ok, it's a bit a pessimistic vision, but do not misinterpret my words, I support and encourage the decisions of the political leaders and the actions of Nicolas Hulot of course, but I hardly believe the words, and prefer to see results.

Nicolas said No !

Today :
Beautiful waves.
L'abbe Pierre surfed his last one.
A cloud which looks like a dwarf hat.
And Nicolas Hulot said he will not be a candidate ... I just hope that he will keep fighting to let our political leaders take into account the ecology question on earth. When you look at the beach like on this picture, when you hear about a boat loosing dangerous products in the sea, when you look at the climate, you cannot afford to minimize the question of ecology in our economy and politics.

The North Face in Russia

Here is a picture of the advertisings which are on Tverskaya Street downtown Moscow !
I saw many of these here, to promote the places to buy the North Face equipement.
2 places are mentionned, one in the Extreme Center in the North of Moscow, and one in the Sport Hit center.
Will go have a look there as soon as I can.

Experiences cannot be transfered to others

Reading an interview of Francis Fukuyama, I am not surprised to read that in some ways, the war in Irak is the Vietnam of G.W. Bush, and I am not surprised to see that past experiences and lessons, especially regarding war, are never taken for granted, and what people reproduce the most easily are not the successes but the failures.
If we look at the Military situation of the USA, they are loosing war not only in Irak, but also in Afghanistan. So the US government says that, the Pakistan is partly responsible for hosting terrorists, Iran is helping terrorists in Irak. But all these talks are useless. They only hide the fact that the global strategy is not the good one, and the tactics which are applied, even if well performed by the soldiers, are far away from reaching the victory effects.
Regarding Afghanistan's history, it's interesting to see that in this area of the world, the Afghan people (tadjiks, Pashtun, ...) never lost a war against invaders (about Afghanistan situation read here). Almost everybody knows it, and despite these facts which are clearly explained by the geography of the country, the people's determination, the differences between Guerrilla and Conventional forces course of action, there is always a very intelligent strategic thinker, sitting in his leather chair in Washington D.C. to think that he is smarter, stronger than History. And History always prove he's wrong.
These guys are like little kids. You show them the fireplace, the oven, you tell them, do not touch it, it's hot, and it hurts. But, because they do not know, they always want to try, to feel how it is really. As if the envy to learn, even from failures, is stronger than facing the failure itself.
Now, "W" is sending other forces in Irak (20,000 men !!!), the US gov. accuses the Pakistan to be the epicenter of Al Qaida, the US gov. is wondering about what actions are to be taken against Iran !
About the Pakistan, even if it is true (and it's known that effectively some areas in Pakistan, are definitely out of control and, the frontier with Afghanistan, is really hard to control), why saying this publicly instead of finding concrete military solutions on the ground ? To justify the failures of the control of the country. It's like during cold war. It's easier to say that you are fighting a bigger threat than you thought, than saying that you are not able to fight and win because your strategy is wrong.
I really think that all these guys in Washington should watch "Over There", they should go in hospitals in Bagdad, in Kabul, they should sit with warlords and drink some tea. Only like this, they will be able to understand that conventional war in these countries is not the solution. The peace relies more on the creation of a real link and efficiency to help these countries in reaching the model they want, which cannot be the US democracy model.

(ps : picture sricptum -  the picture shows the last mercedes model in Afghanistan.)

Surf and snow info

Hot winter is not so bad for some surfers, especially in Parlementia. All the news are available here.
Also, for those who want to get some adrenaline in the mountains, have a look there , on Yadugaz
And for people who are not Patagoniacs and live in Moscow, now there is a brand new The North Face shop. I've seen that on a street advertising. That's funny, because few years ago, The North Face had a very bad experience on the Russian market, due to a special context, and problems to manage the distribution network. Now, with the market changing a lot, growing fast, The North Face is going back in Moscow.

Good News

Tired of sad news ?
Want to read good news ?
For French speaking people :
www.reportersdespoirs.org
www.grainesdechangement.com

Patagonia WetSuit mystery

I've read on 70 percent a post about the Patagonia wetsuit. In this post, it is mentionned :

I estimate the guy has $400 or so in the wetsuit and $400 to $800 dollars of billable time in making the site. That’s either some serious brand loyalty or a very sneaky guerilla marketing campaign. Given Patagonia’s stellar reputation and the fact the the photos on the site are pretty bad, I’m going with the latter.

Well, I would like to clarify some points.
First of all, I am not an employee of Patagonia. I've been working years ago for Patagonia, as a consultant for Russia. Since then I only kept some very good contacts with some people inside the company, and this is true that I really like the brand, the products, the spirit etc etc. So, on my side, I am not doing any paid viral marketing.

Then, as far as I know, (but this can be easily validated by Ali) the website done by Ali, about the Patagonia wetsuit, has not been ordered by Patagonia, and is not inserted in any viral marketing campaign. You can see the comments Ali put on my blog .
To tell you the story of the post I've done about the Patagonia wetsuit, I received from Patagonia a mail about the award Patagonia received for this mail (because, as I told you, I kept good relations with Patagonia Europe). So I asked Patagonia Europe if I can receive more details and publish it on the blog. They sent me the PDF, and I wrote a post. That's it.
Only content publishing, and from my point of view, people who are ready to pay a little bit more some products, but they know the money will be partly used for the planet. Nothing really elaborated and calculated behind this. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask them on this blog.

Recognition ...

While looking at the stats of this blog, I saw in the sources a blog. It's always interesting to know how come people finally found you on the web, because, honestly, this is such a mess ... :-)
So I decided to go have a look at this blog. Here it is : the Woolard Speak.
And I saw that Andrew Woolard mentionned MY BLOG (yes, my blog :-))), as an example of consumer blog.

Two consumer-generated blogs that showcase brand culture so wonderfully they should make companies drool:
Patagoniacs
Moleskinerie (previously mentioned)

Firstly, thank you to Andrew to mention the patagoniacs blog. In someway it is always nice to get  a recognition :-)). Looking at his small resume, I understand that we have some common points, regarding Running for example.
Secondly, let me make a little focus about the story of this blog.
in 2003, a friend of mine told me about the blogs and the fantastic power of the blogs. At this time I had a blog I used mainly to publish pictures and small stories about my trip in Tahiti and other surf trips. That was much easier to tell people, look there, instead of sending 1 mail to many. But at this time, I was not convinced by the impact of blogs on people, brands, markets, politics.
Then after a trip in Central Asia, I decided to open a "real" blog. And as I had contacts with Patagonia, and as I am a Patagoniac (I'll explain why later), I openned this blog. The aim was between the marketing experience, the personal experience, learning about blog and how it can be helpful to people, brands, etc etc.
At the begining, the Patagoniac blog was about the brand, the actions, the products, and all the questions related to Patagonia (ecology, sports, ...). I was not very active, at this time (see the first posts in French). First steps, first experience about blogs. Of course at this time I told Patagonia about this blog. I never intended to squat any domain, or brand. No that was just an experience.
Then, after some days, some posts, I wrote this post about Blogs, introspection .. and I changed a little bit the editorial lines of the blog (wow, that looks serious ... :-))) But that was not to be more efficient, that was a personal need. I was booby trapped by the blogs :-))
That's in few lines the story, the evolution of this blog. Now, some posts are personal, hidden messages to the happy few, some posts are still speaking about what I like or love (surfing, running, environment). I would say that, now this is a "normal"  blog, the mirror of a part of my life, with up and downs, with good posts and bad posts. Normal life, but that does not mean not interesting life :-))
About the fact that I am a Patagoniac, some explanations. I discovered the brand while I was spending time in the Alps, skiing, snowboarding. And I looked at the products. They were really good (expensive yes, but good ;-)). I bought some. At this time I knew nothing about the hidden part of Patagonia (environment, 1% for the planet ...). I received some catalogs, and I was interested by the brand, the texts, the engagement. Moreover, the brand is involved in the sports I practise (Surf, ski, snowboarding, trail running, climbing ...) Few brands cover all these segments in fact, with the ability to stick to the same image, the same guidelines.
So I became a Patagoniac, because I really embraced the brand, its values, the engagement ...

(Picture scriptum : early morning the sun was shining in Moscow, then the clouds appear, and it's again a sunless day, so this picture will bring colors to this post and this day).

Back from Hell

One sentence I liked in "Over there" (Quote from Amazon reviews : "Over There: Season One is simply a revelation, a new way to look at a drama about a new kind of American war".)
A women who is Alcoholic is shouting at a man who tries to help her. He is a former soldier who became a junkie after Gulf War 1.

She : "Go to hell !"
He : "Thanks, I've been."

Simple, strong, funny, deep.

Christmas time ...

It's christmas time and everybody is looking for ideas and gifts.
Well here are some, always tested and approved by your personal surfer blogger :
1- Books  (sorry, mainly in French, for the other in english, look in the right column of this blog):

"Lettres a prunelle" : If you have kids, a daughter for example, or if you still have a kid soul, which keeps you wise and happy, this book will be a good friend for every day.

"Journal d'Hirondelle" : Amelie Nothomb. If you like her books, you'll definitely love this one.

"Petite Philosophie du Surf": Tired of these empty DVD with always the same waves, tired of these books with picture of waves you will never ride, then take a break, and enter the Philosophy of surfing. Nice book to read between your winter sessions ...

2- DVD :

Good selection of Videos of surfing on www.surfhistory.com

3- Clothes, accessories :
I specially recommend the Micro Puff Pullover from Patagonia : A "must have" in winter ! Light, warm, efficient.
And many other clothes or accessories available on Patagonia.com.
Also if you want some nice allweather trail shoes, I recommend the Puma Trail fox and Salomon's shoes.

Unknown

Everybody knows James Bond. His name, his life, ...
Millions of people are watching his adventures.
But, reality seems to be a bit different.
Few lines in the newspapers, 20 seconds in the night breaking news. A french military from the secret service died in Irak.
No name, no myth, nothing.
Life is definitely not a movie.

Special post for SURFKULTURA

Special info for the Spanish speaking readers !

Desnivel editions are launching the Spanish version of Yvon's book at the end of september with the Spanish title: Que mi gente se vaya a hacer surf.

Claire in Regulator WetSuits

Thanks again to Tex (and Marion) for the info :

You remember Claire, a Patagoniac ..., well here she is again :

Claire Karabatsos during the prizegiving at the EuroSima Awards,
receiving the "Special Award for Ecological Innovation" for the Patagonia Regulator Wetsuit! 

(Look here all the champagne bottles, I am quite sure Tex was there on purpose)

plus Claire in the wetsuit - fitting perfectly...

Patagonia E-commerce

Here it is !!!
The new E-commerce website of Patagonia is available in Europe !
You can now order your prefered clothes online, wherever you are in Europe.
I just hope that we will also benefit from the nice sales seasons as we can see in the US :-))

Well done Patagonia team !

Let My People Go surfing in French

You may remember this post about Yvon's latest book ? Well, now, the book is available in French and there will be a press conference on the 6th of November in Paris about this book.
The translation of the title in French sounds a bit less funny I think, but still, it translates the spirit of Yvon.
Here are the french docs about this book :

Download homme d'affaire malgre moi presentation

Download the french first page and presentation

In France, this french version of the book is not available yet on Amazon and other internet websites, but you can order it directly to Patagonia or buy it in a Nature et Decouvertes shop.

The Kailloux team ...

So here they are ...
Congratulations to Kailloux and the new members !!!
Go have a look there and there
Really good example of how you can have a good team for your brand and moreover, have a fun altogether.

Madonna, music, politics, Moscow

Madonna in Moscow !!!
This is not a scoop, but a lot of newspapers talked about it.
And, guess what !?? : I WAS THERE !!!
I will be able to tell to my little kids in 50 years : I WAS THERE ?
Well, so, here is a picture of the stadium with a lot of people etc etc.
But honestly, the place is huge, and was not full ! So looks like many tickets were unsold.
As for me, I didn't had to buy the tickets, a friend of a friend  who knows a friend had someone who could get some tickets for people with short hair, teeth, and hands :-)) I said YES !
So the concert :
It began at 21h30, and NOT 19h30. Hopefully, this is September, and it's 15 degres and not -20 !!!!
I was too, too, too, far away (hey, I did not pay :-))), but the lights, screens and sound were good.
The show : very hard to tell. Some very good moments, lights, innovations, some quite uninteresting.
What I noticed :
- Madonna is no longer a kid :-)) She is a responsible woman, taking care about AIDS, Politics, ... She told the Russian spectators to be free, to express themselves, and she mentionned that the Americans seem to be free, and it looks like the land of Freedom, but it is not so true, so Russia, as they have now access to liberty (compare with the soviet era), can be free, and express life etc ... (well, I did not managed to tape the speech, so I do my best :-))).
- Madonna has very good dancers ! For sure, they are good ! Believe me. They are running, fighting, dancing, jumping ... Wow !!! Great.

To be honest, I prefered the Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert in Paris, some years ago, it was great, alive, etc. But the concert of Madonna, was nice, original for some parts, and surprising.

oh, just one note from a friend who made a joke saying :

"This concert is more a Team Building for the Police, than a concert :-)))"

He mentionned that, due to the number of policeman, etc everywhere, for security reasons !!!
That made me laugh a lot ...

Surf everywhere !

You may have noticed it, surfboards and surf culture are good to sell ANYTHING ! If you have been in libraries you may have noticed that many magazines are showing surfers, waves, etc.
You may have also noticed that HERMES has asked a shaper to make some boards for the shop in Biarritz.

Honestly, all this did not disturbed me, till I openned Surfer's Journal and also after I read an article about Cuba in Surf Session.

There is a huge gap between the image of surfing in these glossy magazines and shops, and the reality of surf, travel, boats, poor countries, smiles of kids, life far away from reality or deep inside reality (terrorism, piracy, illness, ...).

I find this cool that Kelly is considered as a legend, because he is a legend, but I can hardly stand the use of Surfing for wrong purpose, for elements which do not protect the planet.

I would like to see more magazines giving money to Surfrider foundation, I would like to see, for each advertising using the surf image, 1 euro for the planet.
This would be the right thing to do to use the REAL surf image and spirit.

patagoniacs

Surf - Israel - Lebanon - Sebban

You have all heard about the events in Lebanon now and the fights.
Totally by chance, someone offered me a book from Michael Sebban. "la terre promise pas encore"
This book was published in 2002.
It stroke me ! Really. Everything is there ! All the events of these last days are written in between lines there, through the atmosphere. I coul quote the most relevant ones, but I hate looking like a Nostradamus of the after-events :-)
For surfers who are willing to be more implicated in the today's world understanding, I strongly recommend to read this book.
I think that now I will read the other books from Michael (Kotel California)

Change the world and Change this

You may have heard about CHANGE THIS. This is a very interesting website, with many manifestos.
I strongly recommend this one :Never the same !

What does it take to change the world? To change people? To make a difference, every day? Charles Halton presents 18 characteristics to help you create transformational experiences.

Nice reading during your holidays ...

Alex in Abysse

Few days ago, Alex Chabot successfully climbed the Abysse Line in the south of France.
See more text and pictures here.
Alex proposed a 9A for it !

Who wants to try ?

All the posts about Alex are here.

Tags Technorati : Alex Chabot

Terre Papillon

TERRE PAPILLON proposes now nice models of T Shirt.

Hand made, quality, unique !

The pictures are not showing really the beauty of the colors, but, believe me, it is really nice ! !

Do not hesitate to go there and buy some for the summer time !

Surf and fashion !

I have seen in a famous french fashion magazine for women, a swimsuits section. No, I am not looking at these sections for my pleasure, or for perverse reasons, but for work (some have worse jobs :-)).

And in a full double page you see a nice girl (she probably never surfed a wave, but that is not the point), with a full Chanel Suit (jacket and shorty). It is mentionned : Total surf couture, and the jacket is called a "surf jacket".

1- Who wears a jacket for surfing ?

2- I have never seen anywhere that Chanel became a surf company ! (did someone saw Karl Lagerfeld on a Longboard in Malibu these last 40 years ??) (I know that there are some Chanel Surfboards, but I am not sure the shape is worth paying millions of Euros for it). 

3- I find that a little bit outrageous to use the Surf image to sell clothes at Euros 1,390 for the jacket and Euros 200 for the shorty !

If at least Chanel was giving part of this money to Surfrider foundation, then I would have smile and say it's nice. But honestly, when you look at this, don't you think they are pulling our legs a bit too far !

Just hope I'll never see such a joke on the beach I'll go surfing, but, I am quite sure these kind of clothes are more common in night clubs far away from waves !

Patagonia shows the way for RIP CURL ?

Thanks to THE PITON where I found the adress of this site.

On Pocket-lint I found an interesting article about Rip Curl.

Rip Curl Goes Green ! Rip Curl created the RipCurl Planet Label and shows its implication in environment. The products of this label are made of natural fabrics such as linen and bamboo.

After Patagonia and the choice of Organic Cotton, other brands are making the choice of ecology for their products.

Rip Curl presents a 100 per cent organic cotton T-shirt range. Organic cotton is a real alternative to conventional cotton, which is far from being as ecological as it seems.

The real question is : Do they do that to increase their sales and be more fashionable, or do they really believe the choice of organic coton and natural fibers will help the planet ? It looks like they really take care and take concrete actions

But the only way to really know is to wait 10 years and see if they 'll increase their use of organic cotton and if they engaged their company in a true ecological strategy.

But, I find that interesting and nice that such brands look concerned by our planet.

Patagonia in Verbier

For those who are going to spend some holidays in verbier, they will find Patagonia clothes without any problems. Go see this URL

Patagonia can be found just across the street from Ski Service, below the Rosalp Hotel on the “Rue De Medran” in the heart of Verbier. T +41 27 771 12 53 | F +41 27 771 67 71.

Want to work at Patagonia ?

PATAGONIA HIRES PROFESSIONAL SURFER DEVON HOWARD

TO MANAGE NEWEST RETAIL STORE IN CARDIFF BY THE SEA, CA

Ventura, CA - February 29, 2006. Patagonia, Inc., the outdoor apparel company, is slated to open doors at their newest retail shop in Cardiff By The Sea, CA in mid-May. The new store will occupy the first floor of a 3,000-sq-ft building, located on San Elijo Ave between Birmingham and Manchester. "We couldn't have asked for a better location for our new shop" said Patagonia Surf ambassador, Chris Malloy. "It's an honor to have our first surf shop in such a historic surf town."

As a rule, Patagonia works to preserve the historic nature of its retail structures, while seeking to incorporate environmental improvements and minimize waste. Patagonia will use low toxic paints and resins, reclaimed wood and recyclable steel fixtures in the store remodel.

Patagonia's new Cardiff store will be managed by pro surfer Devon Howard. Before joining Patagonia Devon managed Mitch's Surf Shop in La Jolla for five years and was the managing editor of Longboard Magazine for five years. He is a freelance writer and photographer who has been published in many industry magazines including Surfer, The Surfer's Journal, Transworld Surf, and Pacific Longboard. Amidst these professional accomplishments, Devon kept focused on surfing - he surfed in the top ranks of the ASP (national and international) longboard tour for over a decade. His surfing has been featured in the movies - Single-Fin: Yellow, The Seedling, Contours, Way of Life, and Sprout. During his last global surf wander, Devon worked with Thomas Campbell documenting the making of the surf movie Sprout. Born and raised in San Diego, Devon graduated from USD and has lived in Encinitas since the late '90s.

"I'm excited to be working with Patagonia and the Malloys to bring this new store to Cardiff," said Store Manager Devon Howard. "Aside from offering a new line of high quality surf equipment that is also environmentally sensitive, we want to be an active voice for more ecological awareness in the local surf community. We're a two minute walk from Cardiff Reef and want to work on local issues like restoring the nearby San Dieguito Lagoon that drains right into the reef."

Go look at Patagonia for the retail job positions

Google and TechnoServe

I' ve read an interesting post about Google Actions to fight global poverty. It's here : "TechnoServe comes to Google".

TechnoServe helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build successful small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that benefit the world’s poor.

That's good to see that IT people are involved in fighting poverty. it would even be better if such companies like Google can sign up for the 1% for the planet program :-)

Imagine, if only 1% of Google sales were given to the planet !!! that's a huge amount of money. Hey, let's launch an action to persuade Google to help the planet and so, stick to the "Don't be evil" Motto.

Are the Patagoniacs Extremists ?

Nowadays we see ma