December 21, 2009
Holiday Greetings!
Two years ago, Jean Henley took ownership of our community wireless Internet
broadcasting network off Neahkhanie Mountain overlooking Nehalem Bay. I
ventured onward, developing applications for the fabled “Holy Grail” of
telecommunication: wireless internet voice, data and video--the “Triple Play.”
The technology we developed–a customized Service Control Engine (SCE)–allows us to
monitor and monetize data moving back and forth through our Mexican conduit to our
Neahkahnie Mountain network.
Why I am telling you this? I want to share the details of my quest with all who continue to
make Jean’s and my ambitious efforts possible.
From our Neahkahnie Mountain telecommunications “Petri dish,” we installed full service local
and long distance phone, wireless to fiber optic-to-the-home Internet, and streaming video
capability to and from any corner on earth.
For Jean and I the question was where we should demonstrate our total telecommunication’s
solution, how we could demonstrate our method, and how we can share our Triple Play profits
with coastal communities by re-directing revenues to help maintain healthy ecosystems.
We wanted to assist cultures in promoting sustainable eco-system awareness and
economic abundance for Marine Reserves and Natural Protected Areas.
To that end, on October 12, 2008 I sailed Pax Terra’s 38’ Cutter “Valkyr” solo from
Astoria, Oregon to Puerto Magdalena on Man o’ War Cove in Magdalena Bay, Baja California
Sur, Mexico to begin our work.
Puerto Magdalena is a magnificently beautiful small fishing village on the shores of Magdalena
Island in Magdalena Bay. It is the destination for the 10,000 - 12,000 mile Bering Sea
migrations of the Gray Whale and one of the largest and most abundant sea food harvest areas
on earth. This community of some 30 Mexican fishing families, without telecommunications
infrastructure and limited utilities (electrical, water, sewer) is located nine miles across the bay
from the nearest urban center, Puerto San Carlos, a bustling city with the prospect of being
developed into a model of sensible profitability.
Once there, we set to work to replicate and exceed our accomplishments off Neahkahnie
Mountain. Our company, Pax Terra, installed a 100’ tower providing wireless internet over 100
square miles of Bay and telecommunications to the fishing communities of Magdalena Bay.
Having founded the Magdalena Bay Community non-profit NGO, we were able to provide a
500hp 27’ emergency “vessel assist” power boat, VHS and SPOT safety GPS devices for the
Magdalena Fishing Cooperativa, ensure full-time electrical power generation to the local
school, and make repairs to their solar panel system. We provided local aid to the
Category 4 “Jimena” hurricane-damaged community, including
clothing and repairs to their local restaurant “gathering place,” and
in addition introduced eco-tour yurts similar to those at Nehalem Bay
State Park. We have provided funding support for construction of a
Starbucks style “Magdalena Cyber Café,” complete with
meeting rooms and space for community forums and events.
We are currently in the process of providing over 30 laptops for the
village families, docks for safe boating, management of bayside
concessions to ensure controlled eco-friendly land development,
transitions from fishing to an ecotourism economy and we are even
starting a micro brewery for “Whale Ale” and installing a traditional charcoal-fired oven
for baked bread. All of this has been accomplished within our first six months.
But wait, there’s more… a lot more. The benefit to us back home in Oregon, surrounded
by our own Sea Harvest and eco-system challenged Bay: Pax Terra is putting together a
Magdalena Bay globally interactive website and plans for a Whale and Marine Reserve
Promotion that will provide revenue for the Magdalena Bay Community NGO and La
Alianza para la Conservacion de Bahia Magdalena (ACBM). With Pax-terra’s help,
Magdalena’s bayside community fishermen can convert their endangered and over-fished,
global export sea harvest areas into Marine Reserve status and National Protected Areas for
future Baja and Mexican generations, made in part possible by global Internet revenue sources.
With Pax Terra’s Internet-generated telecommunication community revenue-sharing
achievement, Pax Terra’s telecommunications model can be used here in Oregon to help our
surrounding Nehalem Bayside Community sea and fresh watershed environments.
It’s been more than five generations since children of Nehalem Bay have seen or shared in a
prolific and abundant sea and river harvest and nearly 100 years since the pilings surrounding
the Bay worked 24/7 processing fish.
Wouldn’t it be great if by helping fishing folks 2,000 miles away become self-sufficient into
perpetuity–with telecommunications revenue assets–that a lasting benefit would come home to
rest here at Nehalem Bay, where we have long since forgotten what a river and bay teaming
with wildlife looks like?
Wouldn’t it be great if our children could even know to ask questions necessary for restoring
the Bay and Nehalem River to the conditions of splendor witnessed by Lewis & Clark?
Wouldn’t this be so much better than mutely accepting the real estate development’s picture
window view of nature as our main “spiritual” draw?
On January 30, 2010 at 7 pm PST, in Spanish and English, Pax Terra will stream live video
from the Magdalena Cyber Café to atop Neahkahnie Mountain, explaining in detail how
this all works, what has been done, and what our plans are for the future of these two
geographically distant, yet technologically and environmentally connected communities.
So if you have any desire to know more and/or get involved, enjoy our live video stream
and join us. Soon our work is coming back home.
Gracias and Feliz Navidad !
Harry, Jean, Janet, Marco, Chejo, Martin, Ari, 30 fishing families, the Magdalena Bay
Community NGO, and a whole bunch of cetaceans and other sea creatures who are working to
benefit our future generations.
