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Category Archives: Islands

Islands Group sets expansion in 2015

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PLATFORM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.Islands Group president and chief executive officer Jonathan Jay Aldeguer says they will be aggressive in expanding Islands Pasalubong because it also serves as a platform for community-based business to tap. (SUN.STAR FILE)

THE Islands Group of Companies is beefing up its business units by branching out to more areas across the country on the back of the thriving tourism-retail sector.

Islands Group president and chief executive officer Jonathan Jay Aldeguer said the company is set to open nine additional outlets of Islands Pasalubong in Manila and Cebu beginning the first half of 2015.

The firm opened its flagship store in Manila in Quezon City last month. By next year, four more outlets will open in Manila in areas like Makati, Paraaque-Alabang and another outlet in Quezon City.

In Cebu, Aldeguer said they plan to open at least five outlets. A new outlet of Islands Pasalubong costs from P8 million to P10 million.

Small businesses

We are a bit aggressive in expanding Islands Pasalubong because this is a business that caters to everybody. Aside from that this is a concept that showcases the delicacies of the different destinations in the country, and more importantly, a platform for community-based business to plug in their business to us, said Aldeguer.

He noted that for their Manila operation alone, they have already tapped at least 20 micro-entrepereneurs. Every quarter, the store will introduce or feature different delicacies.

Islands Pasalubong is a one-stop shop that houses the best and most complete assortment of Cebuano brands in local delicacies as well as the hard to find homemade varieties.

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Islands Group sets expansion in 2015

Exploring the Sub-Antarctic Islands

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Dunedin Botanic Garden Collection Curator, Kate Caldwell is off to explore the native flora and fauna of wildlife reserves in the Sub-Antarctic Islands after winning an Enderby Trust Scholarship.

Ms Caldwell was awarded the Enderby Trust Scholarship to travel to the UNESCO World Heritage Site after demonstrating her commitment to conservation and ecology through her work at the Garden and for the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Ms Caldwell undertook an apprenticeship with the Botanic Garden before taking up the Collection Curator role and has also volunteered and worked for DOC in pest eradication as well as native plant monitoring and restoration.

Going to the Sub-Antarctic Islands will feed into Ms Caldwells work with native plants at the Garden giving her further insight into New Zealand native flora.

"The Sub-Antarctic Islands are a mecca in New Zealand for plant people" says Ms Caldwell "This trip will really broaden my understanding of New Zealand flora as offshore the plants are unique due to their adaptations to each islands environment."

The expedition she will join, Forgotten Islands of the South Pacific will leave from Bluff on 4 January 2015 and return on 11 January. During the journey Ms Caldwell will visit the pristine Snares Island, observing the seabird burrowed landmass from a boat from which she may see endemic Snares Crested Penguins, Fernbirds and Tomtits, dramatic coastline and tree daisy forests. She will then go ashore on the flora rich Auckland Islands and Campbell Island.

Ms Caldwell says it is a privilege to be chosen to go on the expedition and to experience such untouched, remote and wild places.

"I am drawn to places that belong to nature. Places that teem with life, evoking primeval Aotearoa. Places whose rhythms are not, like almost everywhere else on earth, modified and moderated by humans," says Ms Caldwell. "I wouldnt have been able to do this without the support of the Trust who is committed to sending young people down to experience these special places."

Curator Team Leader, Alan Matchett says the trip is an incredible opportunity for Ms Caldwell on all counts and her colleagues at the Botanic Garden are excited for her.

"Kate already has a very good knowledge of our native flora and their habitats, but what she will encounter on the Sub-Antarctic Islands will mostly be new and result in an unforgettable adventure that will be enthusiastically shared on her return," he says.

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Exploring the Sub-Antarctic Islands

the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man thrill ride at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure 2014 – Video

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the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man thrill ride at Universal Orlando #39;s Islands of Adventure 2014
the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man thrill ride at Universal Orlando #39;s Islands of Adventure.full attraction 2014.

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the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man thrill ride at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure 2014 - Video

Churchill feared Japanese invasion of Falkland Islands, archives suggest

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LONDON Wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered troops to the Falkland Islands in 1942 because he feared Japan could invade the far-flung British territory, according to documents at the National Archives in London.

He was concerned that Japan might use the islands as a base to disrupt valuable Allied shipping routes around Cape Horn and from Argentinas River Plate into the South Atlantic.

A total of 1,700 soldiers were dispatched from Britain to defend the outpost in this little-known episode of World War II.

On April 1, 1942, Churchill, writing to a committee of senior defense officials, stated: It would be a very serious thing to lose the Falkland Islands to the Japanese and no comfort to say that it would hurt the United States more than ourselves.

The Falkland Islands are very well known, and their loss would be a shock to the whole empire.

They would certainly have to be retaken. The object of the reinforcement would be to make it necessary for the Japanese to extend their attacking force to a tangible size. This might well act as a deterrent.

Britain was anxious to retain the islands as they were the only base for its South Atlantic Fleet. There were also fears that if the Panama Canal was closed, then the route around Cape Horn would become critical for supplies from Australia and New Zealand to Britain.

But an examination of the files reveals Britain was slow to wake up to the Japanese threat and some officials were dismissive. Requests for soldiers and weapons were effectively declined until Churchill became involved in January 1942.

In August 1941, Britains military attache in Argentina urged the War Office to send troops to the Falklands to bolster local defenses. However, London declined, arguing Japan was too far away and afraid of U.S. retribution.

A few days after Japans attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Esmond Ovey, Britains ambassador in Argentina, wrote that the Japanese ambassador had assured the acting president that Japan would see that the Falklands are returned to Argentina.

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Churchill feared Japanese invasion of Falkland Islands, archives suggest

World's strangest islands

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Published December 10, 2014

When we think of taking an island vacation, many of us immediately think of clear blue waters, cloudless skies and warm, sandy beaches. However, not all island are created equal. In fact, some islands are just plain weird.

Check out our list of the strangest islands in the world. Many of them are open to the public, and have historical pasts that make them truly unique. If you're feeling adventurous, go check them out for yourself.

This island off the coast of Naples, which is actually made up of two minor islands linked by a bridge, is uninhabited, since many of its former owners were either met with extremely bad luck or untimely deaths. The island is surrounded by clear, blue water and beautiful skies, but believed to be extremely cursed. Watch this video to learn more about this cursed island.

Usaga Jima, or Rabbit Island is home to hundreds of friendly, feral rabbits. Between 1929 and 1945, when the island was a production site for Japans chemical weapons before and during WWII, a colony of rabbits was brought to the island to test poison gas. Some believe the current rabbit inhabitants are related to the original group, but others believe they are descendants of rabbits brought to the island by school children in the 1970s. The island is now a popular tourist resort with a small golf course, camping grounds and beaches.

Sable Island sits in the middle of The Graveyard of the Atlantic, and has been the site of roughly 475 shipwrecks, and is home to over 400 wild horses. These horses have managed to survive on the island with only sea grass and rainwater. While it has never been permanently settled, it has been occupied by shipwrecked sailors, transported convicts and pirates. It was declared Canadas 43rd National Park on June 20th, 2013.

Christmas Island is a protected Australian national park, and acts as the ideal ecosystem for the Christmas Island red crab. Throughout most of the year, the crabs live under the forest canopy, but during the rainy season nearly 120 million crabs make the five mile, month long journey to the ocean to spawn. Super-colonies of ants have been known to terrorize and blind the crabs throughout their migration.

La Isla de las Munecas, or Island of the Dolls, is located in the canals of Xochimico, near Mexico City. The island is said to be dedicated to the soul of a girl who mysteriously drowned on the island many years ago, and the hundreds of severed limbs and decapitated heads of dolls are possessed by her spirit.

Vulcan Island, or Vulcan Point, is considered the geographical equivalent to the 2012 film Inception. On the island of Luzon is Lake Taal, which has the Taal Volcano inside it. At the top of the volcano is a basin, or caldera, which is filled with water and creates a crater lake. At the center of the lake is Vulcan Point, which is one of the volcanos cones. In a nut shell: Vulcan Point is an island inside a lake inside an island inside a lake inside an island inside the Pacific Ocean.

It is estimated that anywhere between 2000 and 5000 snakes currently inhabit the 106 acre island, making it less than appealing and expressly forbidden by the Brazilian Navy for anyone to land on except scientists. The Golden Lancehead Viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the world, is the sole snake inhabitant.

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World's strangest islands


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