World Green Tourism conference in Abu Dhabi

First ever event of the nature and scale, Abu Dhabi witnessed the gathering of global experts at the World Green Tourism conference on 22-24th November 2010. United Arab Emirates isn’t the place that many would relate to any thing ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ considering the opulence and wealth that the region has witnessed.

“Considering the fact that the Emirates subsidises 50-80%of its consumers electricity bills as of now, the reasoning for a green tourism business isn’t much a financial incentive for the hospitality industry. “ says young Jad Frangieh who is the green champion at One to One boutique hotel in Abu Dhabi. On a site visit to the property, he was particularly keen on explaining that “we are not a Green hotel. However, we have decided to join the Green Hotels initiative of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and implement sustainable practices in our properties. It’s high time we that we all wake up and realise that maintaining a green patch of grass in a desert isn’t green and that is in fact the anti-thesis of anything green. We are glad that this conference brought in many innovators and entrepreneurs and practitioners of sustainable tourism”.

Abu Dhabi's electricity rates of 15 fils per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for expatriates and 5 fils for Emiratis are among the lowest in the world. Subash V Puthenveetil, Hygiene and Safety Mangaer from Anantara said,“We are all aware of the fact, there is so much to do in this region when it comes to sustainability. Our management is keen on being the leaders in this segment and we are ready to go with Abu Dhabi tourism in this direction”.

The conference saw experience sharing from regions as varied as Sweden, Thailand, India, Ireland, UK and UAE. Some of the speakers included, Prof. Harold Goodwin from ICRT, Mary Mulvey from Green Box in Ireland, Mansoor Mohamed from City of Cape Town, Arnfinn Oines from Six Senses Resorts and Spas in Thailand. Key note speakers included Bruce Poon Tip of Gap Adventures, Newyork Times Journalist and Author Elizabeth Becker and George Hickton, former CEO of Tourism New Zealand.

Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, Director General of ADTA is keen to take the sustainability initiative to a new level. ‘We have launched the pioneering Green Hotels programme, and also have initiated the Environment, Health and Safety Management System covering the entire tourism sector. We have made only small steps, but we are certainly keen on learning from other destinations to become a globally recognized, sustainable tourism destination.’

Organisers have already announced the dates for next GreenTourism conference on 5-7 December 20100 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi. Prof. Harold Goodwin, Director of International Centre for Responsible Tourism and one of the speakers at the conference said, “For once we are seeing a serious government backed intervention to make the industry more sustainable.”

The Blue Yonder presented two case studies on its experience of working in India in a round table on Green Tourism for Hotels and tour operators as as well as in a session "conversations with industry experts:operating with a commitment to sustainability in the tourism industry.

For more details check World Green Tourism conference site

WTM musings

Four days at the World Travel Market in London can be exhaustive. Meetings, networking, product launches, dinners, drinks and further socialising. It's a world on it's own. It's a place where in the last five years we have come across some fantastic people, who inspired our initiatives, gave us more strength to pursue our dreams, when we thought we had no more energy to fight it out in the tough world of business.

2010 WTM in London was special in many ways. The Responsible tourism networking on the 8th at the 7 Dials club was a super hit. Even when it was organised on the first day, there were many people who rebooked their flights so as to come and attend the event. During the ICRT alumni networking on wednesday I came across a person who said, "Oh my! it was so wonderful, all 23 of us were camping in a room just to watch the pitches of new initiatives". The live feed had some technical glitches. However, I guess the event will be known for the enthusiasm amongst participants wanting to be connected to a network they believe would change the way we understand travel and sustainable development.

The event also resulted in forming new partnerships and alliances. University in Liverpool to ITB in Berlin, to small NGOs and community based tourism initiatives were seen building networks and exploring ways to work together. One of our partners beamed, "Looks like more business actually happens over networking with you guys than sitting in a stand and waiting for buyers to come by". I can imagine that to be quite true. Responsible Tourism Networking simply rocks. Thanks to Sally from Tripbod for the never ending enthusiasm to co-organise such fringe events.

Responsible tourism awards has become a main stay of world responsible tourism day celebrations at the WTM and looks like it's getting tougher and tougher to win an award there. This makes me happy to see two of our friends Ishita Khana and Sam Raphael from Ecosphere and Jungle Bay Resorts in Dominica honoured by Virgin Responsible tourism awards.

WTM sponsored responsible tourism networking also brought together many like minded people and it was wonderful to meet many old friends still working with such amazing passion, that you feel that you have not even touched the tip of ice berg that is sustainable tourism. Catching up with Louis D'Amore (IIPT), Fiona Jeffrey (Just A Drop), Dr. Lars R. Lindkvis (Base Camp Foundation), Justin Francis (responsibletravel.com), Dr. Lotfi Kaabi (Planet Art Exchange) and Luke Ford (Gunyah) was very inspiring. Watch out for these people in the next few months for some really inspiring news.

To see Social Tours, Help Tourism, Ecosphere and The Blue Yonder doing business on the platform of The Green Circuit for me is one of the real highlight of this World Travel Market. Looks like industry is heeding to such initiatives positively. The fact that The Green Circuit stand were always busy with one meeting or the other compared to numerous stands in Incredible India pavillion that was empty might be a message for the future way of doing trade shows. Towards the last day, while rest of the exhibitors were running for their flights or a last minute city trips, the GC partners were seen evaluating the trade show on the spot and planning for the next one. How to forget the wonderful evening spent with the whole team?!

Instead of sharing another positive news in this post as an icing on the cake, I am leaving World Travel Market with a bad taste due to some comments we had to hear from buyers and trade partners and many strangers about the attitude of Incredible India. While exhibitors like Indonesia were going out of their way to promote their local coffee ( probably one of the best coffee I had in many months!) and inviting anyone and everyone to join them, Incredible India caterers were rude, cold and even arrogant enough to refuse drinks or snacks if they were not exhibitors of India pavilion. Apparently they had "instructions" from above that the food / drink services should be provided only to the Indian exhibitors.

The staff at the counter were bluntly refusing tea and coffee to people who come by to take a sip. It was funny to see some of our friends were refused drinks because they didn't look like Indians! (Isn't that sort of racist behaviour as well?). If the catering service was only for Indian exhibitors, why on the earth did they maintain an open cafeteria and ended up gaining bad reputation for a brand that seems to be proud about Athiti Devo Bhava ( Guest is our God!).

Other than the poorly constructed stands at Incredible India pavilon, the ignorance of whoever decided to take such a stand was the most embarrassing momen. Some of us were profusely apologising to those people who brought this to our notice! Not sure if that had any impact to change the negative perception of the tourism department.

Local heroes : inspiring musical trail stories from Kerala

First batch of students getting their training in 'Idakka'

Njeralathu Rampoduval was a very pious man. He had devoted his life in the service of the Goddess in 'Tirumathaam Kunnu', and touched many lives through his melodious music. The depth in his singing, his mastery over the unique percussion instrument“Idakka” and the spirituality he evoked had hundreds of thousands of people in Kerala who listened to him, connect with their souls. It was no surprise then that when he passed away in 1996, Kerala wept as if it's soul was taken away.

His style of singing, a mellifluous blend of tribal, folk and classical styles, called 'Sopana Sangeetham' was traditionally restricted to being rendered within the temple sanctum sanctorum. Njeralathu made it his mission to bring this form of music to the common man and towards the end of his life, 'Sopana Sangeetham' was commonly heard outside the temple sanctum.

Hari Govindan was 17 years old when his father, Njeralathu died. Hari used to accompany his father occasionally during his travels and performances at various temples and public arenas in Kerala. Troubled that the “Idakka” that was his father’s life, lying unused after his death, Hari taught himself how to play the instrument to keep the memory of his father alive. Soon his mastery over the instrument and his renditions of the “Sopana Sangeetham” won him several fans. Six years ago, a group of Nila admirers who had gathered by the banks of the river, urged Hari to recite a few of his father's legendary compositions. I still remember Hari singing for the River Nila, with tears in his eyes into the night. He had composed one particular song about the river on his way while sitting in a bus!

MP Virendra Kumar (MD of Mathrubhumi) paying a visit at the temple with the Idakka. Kalyanikutti Amma is seen 4th from L, in the background is the house she stays and the land she donated

Two years ago, Hari started campaigning with the Government requesting them to provide funds or build a memorial for musicians like his father. It wasn’t uncommon to see talented exponents of traditional music dying in penury for want of patronage. Hari's idea was to record audio clips of these musicians while they were alive so that the new generation could also experience these rare voices and melodies, while giving them an opportunity to perform. He dreamt of a school where students from all segments of the society could come and learn traditional folk music and especially learn to play the Idakka, experience and spread this unique music and folk culture.

Frustrated with empty promises made by politicians and Government officials, a dejected Hari decided to auction the musical instrument of his father to raise funds to keep his memory and art form alive. The reaction from people across Kerala was extreme. Cultural stalwarts were shocked at his decision and accused him of selling art for money without really understanding his objective. But there were others who shared his anguish and deep desire of building a memorial for his musician father and providing an opportunity for similar musicians to have a place in society to be recognized. Many friends and admirers donated liberally and a wonderful campus was born where students from nearby villages come to learn traditional forms of music for free. Hari also built an impressive digital and non-digital archive of traditional music forms and musical instruments and an open-air theatre. The campus also boasts of a beautiful temple where the idol isn't just another stone sculpture, but the Idakka that his father used to play!

Crowd that gathered for the inauguration of the Kalashramam

This campus also has a small house in an obscure corner facing the hillock. This house belongs to Kalyanikutti Amma, a woman in her late 60s who helped Hari achieve his dream when the Government or the rich landlords in the region failed to do so. It was her generous donation of all her land to this cause that helped Hari build this unique memorial of art that is inspiring hundreds of youngsters today to keep traditional art forms alive. Hari didn't forget to renovate her old house within the campus for her comfortable stay.

In its own small way, The Blue Yonder worked in parallel to support Hari through bringing the attention of national and International media to his laudable initiative. David Stott, travel writer, photographer and editor of Foot Prints handbook for India inaugurated the campus, which got it a lot of well-deserved publicity. When James Newton of String Films, well known UK-based filmmaker visited the campus and saw public reaction to this initiative, he had only two words to describe it. "Mind boggling!"

'Njaralathu Kalasramam' (Kala = Art, Asramam = A learning campus), as the campus is called, is where The Blue Yonder organizes the musical trail for our travellers. In addition to experiencing musical styles of central Kerala, our travelers enjoy living in the beautiful campus as well. It gives us immense pleasure that we were part of the journey Hari started, a journey that proves that ordinary people can be the change makers, and accomplish extraordinary feats!

More on how Njaralathu Hari Govindan became part of The Blue Yonder in the upcoming blogs. Watch this space.

Destination stories : the unique fund raiser

N GopalaKrishnan with PM Narayanan Image courtesy The Hindu

This Saturday, Malayala Manorama newspaper featured a story about a gentleman called N. Gopalakrishnan who is involved in fund-raising for Institute for Palliative Medicine.

We had met Gopiettan, as we call him, about 5 years ago when The Blue Yonder had just started taking travellers to remote areas along the River Nila. He spent about a week every month in his traditionally-styled cottage called 'Vaappikudi', facing the river, mostly sitting in the portico reading and writing. His house was named after the slave his forefathers had as part of old-age feudal system in Kerala. For the occasional traveller who came visiting this region, Gopiettan makes for an ideal company. A man of letters, a close friend of writer M.T Vasudevan Nair, he entertains them with his wit and intellect while sharing anecdotes about his life in the IRAS (Indian Railways Accounts Service) and in Kolkata. His love for the railways is so great that even the gate to his cottage is designed like a level crossing! The name board written in Malayalam, Hindi and English reminds one instantly of the yellow-black railway sign boards!

A Kendra Sahitya Academy Award winner for his translation of 'Oriya classic 'Sri Radha'', Gopiettan has also translated 'The Insider', a political novel authored by earlier Prime Minister of India, P V Narasimha Rao. Malayalees though remember him for his beautiful translation of K P Ramanunni's 'Sufi Paranja Katha' (Story told by the Sufi) to English.


Sufi Paranja Katha has been made into a feature film

We met him recently again at the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM)). Like many citizens of Kozhikode, Gopiettan spends a few hours every week at the in-patient section at IPM. Seeing the impact the palliative care movement was having on thousands of people with terminal illness needing end of life care and the community of volunteers alike, he decided to do his bit to raise funds for the movement. He was then discussing how he planned to go about the fund-raising. When we met him after a week, he had actually traded a place with a beggar in the city as the 'spot' looked promising to 'beg'!

Rather than ask his friends for donations (which would have been far simpler and easier for him!), Gopiettan in his unique way decided to get the local community participate in this process. Elegantly dressed as always, resplendent in his royal - waxed moustache and the gold-trimmed walking stick, he cut a majestic figure as he walked about non-descript streets with a small white card requesting the public to donate Re 1 in support of the palliative care movement! Curious and amused, passers-by not just gave him the money he asked for, but impressed with his commitment and humility, many gave a lot more. In the last few months with just a few rounds of his “begging” tour, Gopiettan has collected more than a hundred thousand Rupees, in addition to raising awareness among locals in the city about the movement. With the steady inflow of small amount of cash that Gopiettan brings, IPM has now set up a separate bank account that goes by the name of 'thendu fund' (thendu means “to beg” in Malayalam).


Kozhikode Palliatve care movement: 'a beacon of hope' according to EIU report

In a world that seems bankrupt when it comes to compassion, people like Gopiettan fill us with hope. While India ranks amongst the lowest in the list of 45 countries surveyed in the recent Economist Intelligence Report on end of life palliative care, the same report highlights the palliative care initiative in Kozhikode as a beacon of hope.The report says "With only 3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India’s palliative care services"

It is volunteers like Gopiettan and a movement like this that can perhaps help us dream of a 'compassionate city'.

Master carpenter of River Nila...

The village of Panniyoor on the banks of River Nila (Bharatapuzha) once decided to build a temple complex that would be better than the ones even in Heaven! The onus of building this marvel fell on their master carpenter, Perumthachan.

With a team of fine carpenters in the region, Perumthachan started the work and soon the news spread to the Heavens that the architecture of the temple complex in Panniyoor village had the potential to overshadow the splendour of the Gods. As insecure as only he could get, Lord Indra, the King of Gods himself, set out on a journey to the village to find for himself if there was any truth in these rumours. Once he saw the brilliance of the work in progress, he was overcome with envy and started plotting against the carpenters’ team.

Read the complete post on legends of Nila...posted on The Blue Yonder. blog

Dilli mein sub chaltha hein!

It’s not that every day in your life that a cab driver would ask you to drive the car while he enjoys his can of Kingfisher beer! The night before yesterday, I ended up driving a cab in the rain from Karolbagh to Delhi Cantonment. It was not just the trust the driver showed in me, but the ease in which I took charge of the car for an hour-long journey that surprised me the most. Spiced with stories of the young man who introduced himself as Amit, I drove through streets of Delhi, scared of being hit by vehicles and pedestrians and cows from all sides.

We had noticed that Amit was quite a special person when we went to Gopinath bazaar looking for a taxi that will ‘ferry us’ through the water-logged roads to Karol Bagh. When rest of the taxi drivers refused to come, Amit volunteered and ‘fixed’ 400 Rs for the return trip and while starting the cab made a statement;”can’t stand those guys who don’t take their duty seriously’. As we were busy with some discussions, we didn’t give much thought to his statements.

However with the steering wheel in hand, I had not much option than to hear out Amit. He showed me photographs of his wife, daughters, younger brother and shared with him his journey from being a martial artist, to a dancer and to being a driver. While sharing all this, he kept on giving me directions and couple of times even ‘corrected’ my driving style suggesting that I am driving like a ‘phoren’ person and probably too sophisticated for Delhi roads. Great.! All I was doing was to recheck that I was not driving on a one-way in opposite direction. Of course I was and he said, “Saab, ye Dilli hein, idhar sab chaltha hein”. Considering that there were policemen and traffic wardens present who didn't care about what we were doing, I had to believe what he told me. That, “this is Delhi and everything is alright here”.

If I had an option I would have drove around the whole night just to hear the stories and experiences of life that Amit was sharing with me. From the 18 girlfriends he had while being an instructor to them at driving schools, to the responsibility he finally took to look after his family, and his ability to speak 12 languages, ( at least he could speak smattering English, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu!), the stories seem to have come straight from his heart. There was no other way than to believe him, as it didn’t come across to me as a lie, or something he was trying to show to impress me. In any case I have no clue how he was trying to impress me by asking me to drive his taxi while he was enjoying his beer! How can I not mention that he was also a dancer at the Woogie Boogie?!

Once we were out of the maddening traffic, he commented that I am a ‘good driver’ ( he seems to have forgotten already how much I was struggling while he was ‘sheperding’ me through the traffic by moving inch by inch to ‘occupy’ any advantage we could get over others on the road!). The best part of the drive was when he asked me ‘How the ‘gaadi’ was?’. It was actually a good vehicle, and when I said I was enjoying driving it, he said, “99 ka hein! CNG, Mein bahuth pyar se chalatha hum!”. It was obvious that he was driving it with 'care and love'.

If everyone would do their job as passionately as Amit ( and of course, not handover the taxi for driving to their customers) and engage their guests with real life or spicy stories like this, I guess even a crowded Delhi traffic pass like a cool breeze! My only regret of this adventure is that I couldn’t get a photograph of Amit and his car!

May be this is the local interpreter The Blue Yonder has been looking for in Delhi!

TBY Responsible Tourism networking at the ITB Berlin- 13 March 2009

The Blue Yonder (TBY) has been invited by ITB – Berlin to organise a networking evening to bring together Responsible Tourism initiatives across the world on the 13th March 2009. This was following the success of fringe events organised by TBY and its partner (Your Safe Planet –YSP) in relation with World Travel Market in London in the last two years. Both the events brought together individuals and organisations pursuing Responsible Tourism in destinations and markets.ITB Berlin is dedicating one day on Corporate Social Responsibility of the travel industry and is organising several workshops and conferences on CSR. The evening of 13th March will be providing a platform for Tour Operators, Grass Root organisations, Media, Policy makers and flag-bearers of Responsible Tourism to come together.

Media Partner for the RT Networking

“Being the leading travel show in the world, ITB provides a unique opportunity to learn and share from various RT initiatives across the world. The event will bring together those who are looking for promoting their RT products in the originating markets and those in the markets looking for genuine and unique products from the destinations. Considering the demand for such a gathering to learn and share, it is only natural for us to bring this event to ITB. The networking event will be organised in a way that attendees get an opportunity to present their initiatives to the gathering.”

The Blue Yonder is also organising a workshop focusing on Travel Philanthropy and Responsible Tourism prior to the RT networking event. The 45-minutes discussions and short workshop will be organised in association with Centre for Eco Tourism in Destinations (CESD), Go Philanthropic.om and Travel To Care. The session will be looking at various trends in Travel Philanthropy.

Date 13-03-2009
Venue Messe Berlin / Hall 4.1
Travel Philanthropy workshop 1700:1745
The Blue Yonder Responsible Tourism networking 1800:1930

Those who are interested in attending the event or present their initiatives in front of a gathering that understand Responsibility in Tourism, please contact itb@theblueyonder.com.

Keep yourself update on this page.
© GP 2009

TBY Musical Trail featured in 'Concerto'

Since I can't read German, I can only presume that they have written good things about our Musical trail in Concerto. Feature is not available online. Click on the image to read in German. This is the 4 th article on TBY in the media in less than two weeks. The Week's 'Healthy things to do in 2009', a mention on TBY and Foundation in the Sunday Indian Express, a detailed reference to TBY in Travel Trends Today (T3). None of this available online. So shall try to upload one by one.

Bangalore © GP 2008

Season's Greetings 2009

Bangalore © GP 2008

Reply to Make Travel Fair article

Hello Stephen, Thanks for the note and support for the event on 11th NOV at Abacus. If I had a chance I would have responded earlier, but was travelling and just managed to see your note.

As I had explained in the facebook group as well as in our newsletter, the reason for the networking event was to make sure that small tour operators, grass-root organisations also get a chance to interact and discuss their experience with like-minded people and stake holders from originating markets including the Media, and the Trade buyers. Both the 13th Nov 2007 meeting as well as the 11th Nov 2008 meeting was a proof that there was indeed a demand for this.

However, I have difference of opinion in the way you have presented WTM WRTD of last two years. This was certainly an amazing initiative of ICRT and WTM which was endorsed by UNWTO by becoming a partner. The last two years event has certainly brought in attention of the world into Responsible Tourism and a bigger chunk of the industry is now taking initiative to move towards that way. The efforts need to be enough , but my personal interaction with many big players in the last 2-3 years is that there are certainly positive initiatives that are happening which are measurable.

This was proven beyond doubt after attending the 'Business Case for Responsible Tourism" (as a paid delegate), hearing from representatives of FTO, Intrepid and Tui, on what they are doing and the agenda they have for the coming years to make Responsible Tourism as a way forward to sustain the travel and trade industry they are engaged with.

Yes, we could certainly debate on the fee charged for the seminar. One reason I would support this seminar was for the reason that at least 1/3 of the delegates where not familiar faces of RT,but new players and even mainstream conventional companies. This I think is a positive age as until now, we used to get a feeling that we were always "preaching to the converts". This once again points to my reason for organising the networking which got labelled as a "Fringe" event.

WTM is a larger / bigger platform and I don't think there is nothing wrong in WTM keeping their focus on the bigger players and the industry as a whole. Actually, I think that is the way to do it because they have better out-reach and influences and convincing power to show the RT path for companies like Tui, and FTO whose stake holders literally run the travel industry in the originating market. But at the same time, this should not constrain any small players to show case their work and provide opportunities for big players to source RT 'products' from them. This was what TBY was doing by bringing together the market and service providers at the 11th evening.

The kind of engagement WTM RTD has taken on its shoulder is not a scale that The Blue Yonder or any other small companies can replicate. So while supporting the bigger initiatives of WTM, we also take our initiatives to engage with them rather than boycotting. If I have a difference of opinion with WTM, or any other events and if I have doubts about the sincerity of initiatives, I will not stay away from it. Instead I will be engaging them. Its important that we all take a pro-active role and make changes.

I don't own ICRT nor responsibletravel.com nor WTM. But I guess we have a role now to explain our stand on all these initiatives as we work closely with all these organisations because of our belief in Responsible Tourism as the way forward for travel industry.

As you might already know, it was The Blue Yonder that took the initiative to set up ICRT in India. I am the co-founder and Managing trustee of ICRT India and I wouldn't be in this this role if I don't believe in the objectives of ICRT. We set up ICRT in India exactly similar to the reasons of starting the RT evenings at WTM. An year into setting up TBY, we realised that the scope for making changes in local lives and the travel industry in India is quite big and for a small company it will take more time and will need lots of resources to engage it in its full potential. So we decided to launch ICRT India, in association with the ICRT in the UK, so that we can work much more efficiently. Please check http://icrtindia.org to see the initiatives so far.

As for the role of ICRT in association with WTM< I don't see the point of RTD as a monopoly of ICRT and its affiliates. Though there are many initiatives on Responsible Tourism in different parts of the world, it was certainly ICRT that brought together many people together and even engage WTM on Responsible Tourism. When an organisation happens to be a pioneer and immensely successful at out-reach it is only natural to see familiar faces around. Growth of ICRT to other countries should be found as a positive growth towards Responsible Tourism. ICRTs in different countries have the mandate to function on its own but since our common objectives are together we work closely together to make a better place in the world.

The Blue Yonder like many other operators across the world, promote our holidays on Responsibletravel.com. From few holidays now rt.com has grown into selling hundreds of holidays in different parts of the world. We do have some reservations on the kind of holidays that are sold on the website, especially from many big companies( not because they are big). This was earlier discussed in a Tim Robbins article "Are you being green-washed"? . Except for some of these cases, we think that Responsibletravel.com is doing a fantastic job. From my personal experience itself, I can tell that this online company has influenced the way people choose to travel and how travel companies decide to run their holidays. This is highly commendable. Being hugely successful doesn't have to be looked upon as 'becoming a monster', instead I would engage them with proof if I think they are no longer ethical. We have always raised our concerns to Justin and team whenever we had doubts and we will continue doing it. Boycotting responsibletravel.com will not be our solution.

Hope I am clear on my stand. The reason for TBY to initiate and sponsor the 11th Nov Fringe was because we were taking our responsibility to engage all the stake holders and making sure that World Travel Market is a platform for responsible tourism stakeholders to network in an informal way. As one of the attendees mentioned, "if not for this event, none of us would have met and known the work they were involved in." This will continue and we will be organising an even bigger event in 2009. We will need all support from you! Cheers, G