Karen Lotter's Blog
Posted by Karen Lotter
I worry a bit about my own country because I don’t see much happening here on the eco-tourism front, so I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I read that an advertising agency is showing the way.
My Tree in Africa is an eco tourism initiative launched for the 2010 Soccer World Cup by South African based Zoom Advertising.
2010 Carbon Footprint
Deon Robbertze, creative director of Zoom Advertising explains that South African Tourism recently made an appeal that people involved in the tourism industry did something about the carbon footprint of overseas visitors to this country. “My tree in Africa' is a solution. With 2010 looming, we need to promote South Africa as environmentally responsible, because many of these visitors will be green-aware.”
Working together with highly respected organization Food and Trees for Africa, Zoom’s green initiative is simple to grasp and easy to implement. Every R80 collected will pay for the planting of a tree in Africa.
Food and Trees for Africa
This non-profit organisation, which was established in 1990 addresses greening, global warming mitigation, sustainable natural resource management, and food security. Through countless projects it creates awareness of the benefits of healthy environments and climate change while contributing to poverty alleviation, improved environments, capacity building and skills development.
Gaining momentum by the day, Zoom Advertising has signed up Travel Smart, to the ‘My Tree in Africa' campaign. Travel Smart - which is a group of companies, of which Giltedge Travel is one member - has gone one step further and stated it will also make its own organization carbon neutral.
So it looks like Eco tourism is picking up speed in South Africa, even if it is being driven by an advertising agency.
Posted by Karen Lotter
What kind of people become volunteers? I was wondering about that when I was working on the Habitat for Humanity International Global Village article.
Young volunteers also arrive from
But volunteer tourism for most, is a way to give and receive in a real, genuine and uncluttered way. Volunteer tourism is a way to celebrate what we in
Posted by Karen Lotter
One of the interesting things about being a forensic science fan, is that people all want give you their opinions of the criminal justice system when they know that you are interested in forensics. Before you get a chance to open your mouth, they babble on about everything from fingerprints and DNA to toolmarks and bitemark evidence.
Of course, they all believe they are all closet forensic psychologists or forensic psychiatrists who slip into the role of criminal profiler whenever they hear of a crime that has been committed that interests or horrifies them.
Calling in the Real Criminal Profiler
I know the wealth of profilers in popular fiction and on TV and in the movies have contributed to this illusion that criminal profiling is just a manner of instinct and a “sixth sense.”
I often wonder whether the public realizes that criminal profilers are not really a dime, a dozen, and that most are people with extensive experience and training and qualifications in forensic psychology or forensic psychiatry.
But, when watching crime programs on TV (I watch a lot of real crime) it seems like the FBI always calls in a criminal profiler who seems to say very similar things in very different crimes.
Forensic Science and the Criminal Justice System
The fact is that although the criminal justice system relies much more nowadays on forensic evidence, most convictions are still due to good solid police work, which is unglamorous and often very dangerous.
However, there is no doubt that the public’s fascination with all things forensic science is here to stay.
Posted by Karen Lotter
In real life, Forensic Psychology and Forensic Psychiatry are not what we see in movies like Silence of the Lambs or British TV show, Cracker although, because of shows like these, profilers – both real and fictional – have become high profile celebrities.
Silence of the Lambs first popularised profiling when it won five Oscars and cast a completely new light on insanity.
Behavioral Science Unit (BSU)
In an unprecedented move, author Thomas Harris received permission to go to meetings of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI and learn about the men who did the profiling. From them, he devised the novels, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.
According to Crimelibary.com : “the unfortunate impression was given in this story that young agents can become profilers without any field experience and that female agents might be left alone with dangerous killers—even go out on their own to try to apprehend them.”
Forensic Psychologist
Psychologists study behaviour. They do not have a medial degree. Forensic psychology is the practice of clinical psychology within our legal system. A forensic psychologist may assist in a wide variety of civil matters as well as criminal ones. Forensic psychologists work mainly in the prison and probation services to develop intervention techniques and treatment programs. Much of the work of a forensic psychologist focuses on therapy in correctional settings.
Forensic Psychiatrist
Psychiatrists on the other hand first qualify as medial doctors, then specialize as psychiatrist and then usually do an extra qualification in Forensic Psychiatry.
Favorite Criminal Profilers in Fiction
One of my favourite criminal profilers in fiction is Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhymes, who is a quadriplegic, and has the ability to profile criminals from his home through other police officers.
I also have a soft spot for James Patterson's forensic psychologist, Alex Cross.
Posted by Karen Lotter
I’m not quite sure what started me on bite marks maybe one of the true crime programs I enjoy watching in TV – we get the Crime and Investigation Channel here in South Africa so I am intimately familiar with serial killers and a host of forensic science topics from watching reruns of the programs.
I guess it was one of the serial killer programs that focused on Ted Bundy. In this one True Crime writer Anne Rule was talking about the time when she and Ted Bundy were friends.
While a university student in Seattle, Bundy worked all kinds of odd jobs including as a night-shift volunteer at Seattle's Suicide Hot Line. That was where he met and worked with former Seattle policewoman and fledgling crime writer Ann Rule. Who later wrote the most famous biography of Bundy and his crimes, The Stranger Beside Me.
In an interview with Katherine Ramsland, Rule says that she knew that Bundy was a serial killer but s tiny shed of doubt remained and that the bite mark evidence during the trial, which she covered as a reporter, remained the hardest for her:
"To be absolutely sure about his guilt," Rule remembers, "I needed to see direct physical evidence, and there it was, no question. It made me sick to my stomach. I went down to the hall to the ladies' room and threw up. Yet he still maintained this suave, friendly look. It was a bad day for me."
The Stranger Beside Me launched her career.
Being an Anne Rule fan and a writer I wondered at the incredible coincidence of a serial killer and a true crime writer becoming friends before their paths would take them in such opposite, yet similar directions.
