Exploring Freedom in the New Middle East…what a fantastic title of this exclusive article from the developments that are taking place in the Middle East. It is written by another of my exploring friends, Maha, who ends up during her explorations in one of the most spectacular countries on earth- Syria. I once passed through the country, north to east to south by bicycle and liked it the most of the countries I than visited south of Turkey. By far. Great people, great atmosphere and excellent food. Maha gets initially the same feelings and it has become a visit which has changed her life in many ways. I also know that most of my exploring friends come from the West and kind of push their opinions and thoughts on you readers from their Western perspective, no matter how sensible and right they are, they´re not local. Maha is from the area and I feel her views as a young woman is more important than ever. However, as always, I have to add that the views of the writer might not necessarily be the views of the site. And Maha, which isn´t her real name, feels lethally threatened by the authorities, so she stays anonymous. And as you see, real exploring makes a difference!

Exploring Freedom in the new Middle East

by

Maha A

Syria is one of the most beautiful countries around the world; I am so grateful that I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to explore such beautiful country!! And it happened that I turned to be a witness to a time of change in Syria. But seeing the image of Hamza Ali Al-Khatib, who is just 13 years old has changed all my perspectives.

I wonder if the Syrian regime felt ashamed or felt some mercy with the death of Hamza – I don’t think there is a more provocative image than seeing the blood shed from the body of an innocent child.

The death of this small child should be enough to convict those who committed this crime and must lead to a restructuring of the Syrian regime. Hamza, surprised the Arab awakening movement within the region, with his claim for his rights and his dream of freedom. He paid the price for this freedom when he went out to protest against the arrest of some children in his city (Derra).

Hamza, gave us a model of real resistance by standing against injustice, tyranny, and those who sold false slogans to the people. Today this regime seems to be very weak in front of Hamza’s body and what happened to him in the face of injustice and which used unmoral ways for their own corrupt desires. And this is how the regime handles unarmed protesters of any age.

Torture is usual in Syria and it is not something new or strange – most Syrians have suffered of it for years, especially, in Hama’s events in 80s. And it is normal that people have decided to keep quiet about it because they wouldn’t prefer to end up in jail or tortured by the regime under any circumstances. But in 80s’ events, there was no media to cover what was going on. There was no Facebook or Twitter. So at that time nobody could see the image of the only 13 years old little boy tortured under the name of State Security.

Yet, people are terrified to speak out and if anyone dares to speak out then the regime is able to crack him/her down and threating him/her and their families which have been seen repeatedly.

On the other hand, all this blood and oppression revealed the truth that this resistance does not emerge from the womb of dictatorial regimes, but comes from a desire to be free in a democratic system, which reflect the aspirations and interests of the street.

All this injustice stemming from the defense of an unjust and bloody dictator, has killed an innocent child and revealed a Syria that commits massacres against its own people. The regime’s legitimacy was lost with the first drop of blood shed in Syria and the mask of this regime has been falling down.

What I am sure about it that Syria is going through a very critical mess – the harsher this regime would be, the more tough the protesters on street would be . People who went out to protest have no choices but to carry this out until the end because there is noway that this regime would be able to forgive them.

And here again, I wonder if I would be able to explore blood scent instead of Jasmin scent (Syria famous of Jasmin). I wonder if I can do more than just listening to people’s stories. Finally, in the memory of Hamza Al-Khatib, how many children will die while i will be just a witness who should  go out to search for the Jasmin scent.

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Mohamed Bouazizi shakes the Arab World

by

Christian Bodegren

Who would have thought that a 26 year old fruit and vegetable salesman named Mohamed Bouazizi, would get an entire Arab world to shake? And who could have known that he would be the one that triggered people in Tunisia to rise up in anger against a tyrant who’s dominated their country for 24 years, and chase him out of the country?

I would not have thought it, that day I stood before the court in Tunisia in 2010 on charges of an illegal sale of my dromedaries, with my Sahara expedition fresh in my memory. My female lawyer told me:

“I’m sorry for everything, but it’s probably best that you do not come back to Libya for at least five years.”

I managed to leave the country after my second attempt, sure that I wouldn´t be able to return for a long time. Maybe never. That was also the end of my Saharan dream. Two days later I walked into a church in Sweden where my big brother was getting married, who knows, maybe everything has a purpose. Several months later Ben Ali fled, and the people of Tunisia were raising their hands to the sky, and they could take their first deep breath of freedom. After days, months and years of dictatorship where television, radio, press and regular access to the internet which was completely in the hands of the regime. This has been a revolution like a glass of water under a dripping tap, which slowly fills up and overflows. And that last drop in this case was the young man named Mohamed Bouazizi.

Somehow the Tunisians wrote a manual on how a modern revolution of today can be made and they even exported it to Egypt. In my mind, it is not difficult to understand that the Libyans took the courage after 40 years of oppression and began their revolutionary journey after the Egyptian people succeed. Mubarak was backed by a strong police and security apparatus, which had a very good track of people who actively worked against the regime. And Egypt was also an indispensable ally for the United States in the Arab world. If the Egyptians managed to overthrow Mubarak, I thought it wouldn´t be impossible for the Libyans to overthrow Gaddafi.

I remember my friend Mohammed shouted to me, as he left me on the shores of the Red sea to start my journey with three young camels in October 2009:

“There are as many police officers in Egypt as grains of sand in the Sahara!”

And I spent a major part of my Expedition money on bribing the police. I have had a few thoughts about Kaddafi and Libya:

Muammar Kaddafi has almost written a manual how to succeed as a dictator in a country. A man with a best before date, I hope. He has been in control since 1969 and has made Libya to North Africa’s now most closed, controlled country. Because he sits on the North Africa’s largest oil reserves. Which means the uprising in Libya will push up the oil prices. This is going to make the global recovery of the economy to slow down. And that is going to make the USA and Europe to handle this situation completely different compare to what we have seeing before whit Tunisia and Egypt. Everything is linked, and when it comes to supporting various regimes with export and import, most countries are guilty, and all should take responsibility for that too. As long it iss not making any fuss which can have a effect on the economy we have no reason to interfere. It is all about the money.

Khadafy’s eccentric approach to running the country in his personal day to day mood, have repeatedly destroyed the lives of the people in Libya. I did also became involved in his family’s problems during my time in Libya. It happened during my time in southern Libya, along with my four dromedaries, when I was trying to get the necessary permits so I could cross into southern Algeria, and whilst I was trying to get an extension of my visa. I didn´t get any of them. And it was all due to Mr. Gaddafi’s youngest son, Hannibal and his heavily pregnant wife in 2008, who had an incident when they had poured boiling water on two house maids in the suite at a luxury hotel in Geneva, and got arrested for it. That made the mad Gaddafi call out for jihad against Switzerland. It killed my chances to get needed permits. Isn´t this politics at its best or what?

My journey ended in the same country this great Arab revolution started. Tunisia. This is where I fled. A country where a 26 year old fruit and vegetable salesman named Mohamed Bouazizi was working.

One person can make a difference.

Christian Bodegren is now preparing for a new Expedition.

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Why Yemen is not Egypt

by

Kyle Anthony Foster

With the winds of change blowing across the Arab world, many news organizations are focusing on Yemen as a potential next Egypt. My analysis is that Yemen will not descend into chaos as Egypt, or at least Cairo, has. Why? Simple. The people of Yemen do not hate President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

President Saleh has a remarkable touch with the people of Yemen. He’s actually a pretty hard-working president who is seen regularly on television at various ribbon-cutting ceremonies across the country. From large-scale projects to small schools, Ali is there, with the people, promoting the interests of the country. President Saleh’s sons have a respectable reputation and — unlike other sons of Arab leaders — they have not run rampant over the population.

In the 2006 Yemen presidential election, Ali Abdullah Saleh won the vote with a reported 77 percent. International election monitors were welcomed and the results were reported as generally fair. In a region where president/dictators generally win with 99 percent of the vote, this result was monumental as a standard for transparency and fairness in elections for the region. Furthermore, it may not have been too far off the mark.

The Saleh regime has managed to keep the faith with the people of Yemen. Yemenis enjoy perhaps more freedoms than the people of any other Arab nation. Civil society institutions are permitted and encouraged by grants from the Yemen Social Fund For Development. The Yemeni press has issues with the government; however, relative to other Arab states, it enjoys an incredible amount of freedom of expression.

Yemenis understand that their country faces some monumental problems. Yemen is the poorest Arab state, and unemployment and illiteracy are rampant — both figures hover around 50 percent. The nation faces a crushing water shortage. The list of development concerns is endless, and if not faced now, there will be trouble later.

The winds of change are blowing across the Arab region, and if they continue to do so for an extended time, the Saleh regime could be vulnerable. Most Yemenis do have concerns about the pace of change and the level of commitment to democracy that the Saleh regime embraces. But they are generally willing to extend President Saleh more time, with limits. For now, the social contract that President Saleh has earned through genuine concern for the nation will stand.

Kyle next to me at a kat chew in Sanaa

Kyle Foster is an international development and political consultant.

He studied at the University of Nebraska and the School For
International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.  He lives in Sana’a,
Yemen and the United States.

Read previous article by Kyle on my site here!

And don´t miss this slide show from Yemen here!

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Yemen Needs Change

by

Rashad Saeed

Rashad Saeed

2011 brought freedom to many Arab states, starting in Tunisia moving to Egypt, Jordan and Yemen, and proved that people are still alive where authorities and regimes thought that they had killed the will of the people. In the last two years, Yemen witnessed a lot of political developments, but the most important are the postponement of parliament elections for two years  and creating a national talk committee  to undertake the national discussion between the congress ruling Party and opposition. The talk committee started with 200 representatives, and then reduced to 16, ended with 4 representatives as the president wished.

By the end of 2010, specially, after the 20^th Gulf Cup and the success of organizing it in Aden despite of all security concerns; authority, congress party and their allays misunderstood how to use the success and thought that they could control all national crisis the same – through the power of security forces – so, president Saleh appeared in front of students at the Aden University  announcing  his move to elections alone and canceling the role of the national talk committee ignoring all agreements agreed on before. At the same time, the ruling party representatives in the Yemeni parliament presented new constitutional amendments which allowed the president to run for no limited periods.

On the other side, the opposition represented by The Joint meeting of parties realized this bold step of the ruling party which controlled the army and security forces, so, they threatened to go down to the street to start their peaceful demonstrations, but the ruling party had no ears to listen to that.

The joint meeting of parties decided to make 2011 a year of peaceful conflict and went to street calling for “popular Intifada”. At the beginning, they organized some festivals in some cities, while the ruling party was also preparing for the elections. Meanwhile, Tunisia’s people were arising against their regime and after a few days they won the battle. It didn´t seem that the Yemeni regime learnt anything from the Tunisian lesson. President Saleh appeared again in front of some military congregation  informing people and opposition parties that he refused the results of national talk committee and his wished to continue going to elections alone. President Saleh said in his speech that Yemen is not Tunisia and he would not allow what happened in Tunisia to happen in Yemen. This was also was the American position concerning Yemen.

But the Tunisian revolution gave the Yemenis a new spirit to return to the streets to protest and once again raise their demands of changes and reforms, aloud enough for the regime  to understand that changes are needed. But the regime continued their stubbornness concerning elections, national talk and constitutional amendments.

Unlike the wish of the regime, the freedom spirit moved on from Tunisia to reach Egypt – a country which is considered as a reference for many Arab regimes – caused a lot of changes there and once again encouraged Yemenis to return to the streets and raise their ceiling of demands despite the concessions presented by Saleh .

Last week, the joint meeting of parties called for a “Thursday of Anger”, so, hundreds of thousands of people went to streets in many Yemeni governorates demanding for change, chanting against corruption and despotism and raising songs that demanded the president to depart with his party, but even thought they never stopped our protests, they gathered their supporters and pushed them to streets in a step to show their power to the opposition which is trying – as they think – to ride the wave of revolution and changes happening in the Arab area.

They won´t win over the people.

Rashad Saeed

If you want to get into contact with Rashad, write to me at mikael@mikaelstrandberg.com and I will forward it.

Don´t miss this slideshow from Yemen!

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“Everything in due time!”

“This is the Arab World, everything just takes a bit extra time!”

Muttrah harbour by night.......

I have heard these phrases quite a few times since I arrived to the conclusion, that the Arab World would be my place to be for the upcoming years. I am an extraordinarily impatient person at times, especially when it comes to trying to get an Expedition on its feet. But, the good thing with getting older, is that you have had time to realize that one needs to learn and just follow the main stream of how things are run, otherwise you will die with a broken heart and a serious stomach ulcer on top of that! Things just take time in this part of the world and there is a reason for this.

When Sultan Qaboos took over Oman after a bloodless coup against his father, Saeed Bin Tamur, 1970, the country had no secondary schools, only two primary schools, they had only 10 km:s of paved road, they had two hospitals run by an American Mission and Oman was involved in a civil war. Today it is one of the most progressive and well-to-do countries in the world. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos have done an amazing job and have also caught up with its richer neighbors and have supplied even remote villages in this desert sultanate with electricity. The capital Muscat, where we live, is a vibrant, modern and for everyday, a fast growing hectic city. Traffic is one of the worst and most dangerous in the world. I am scared every time I venture out in the traffic. The country is growing at such a fast pace, so that the city´s infrastructure is not coping with the demand and far too many drivers are not trained to handle this growing traffic. I have been very close to getting killed several times since coming here for some utterly stupid behavior called tail piping where other drivers are a mere inch from your car no matter the speed. And, on top of that, drivers are aggressive, blaring their horn and every time they pass you they seem extremely stressed and tired. It is what city life in the West is like.

Traffic is still relatively slow in Bahla, but in Muscat, a nightmare....

One just gets a feeling, that things are moving a bit too fast for the local inhabitants. One has to remember it is less than 40 years ago, when very few Omanis for example had shoes nor electricity. Amazing development! For this reason, the deeply ingrained traditions coming from their Bedouin roots are still very strong. And that is one major reason everything in this part of the world is an enormous waiting game and personal contacts and bonding is more important than any other place on earth. One person just doesn´t take a supreme decision, no matter how powerful he is, without asking other members of the group. It is Bedu democracy.

Mountain bedu of Oman.

I have realized since I came here, that patience is more than a virtue. It is way of survival. I guess that is one reason this Expedition is meant to be, patience is very good for the survival of the human race. And that is kind of what we are doing right now, learning patience, waiting for things to happen, because in some ways things are just out of our hands. It is up to others to take a decision. Either good, like a go ahead or not at all, buddy. It is not that we don´t have anything to do. On the contrary. We could work day and night and still only cover 10% of what we have to do. For example, there´s the issue of all the other countries on route, where we need permits, contacts, visas and on top of that we have to find good camels, and they are dead expensive here, some racing camels cost 1 million dollars…..per camel! And precious time just have a habit off running away….soon we have to go through the heavy labor of renewing a visa to this spectacular country…not easy, but possible.

But, in the meantime we have set up an interesting day to day life. We work in front of the computer most of the time in our apartment when not meeting friends, making new faschinating contacts like royals, ambassadors and Bedouins or buying food at all these gigantic supermarkets, but we are trying to find more local and far more interesting shops…we walk a couple of hours a day at high speed, try to find the Arab soul in all this and enjoy the weather. Most of all, we are waiting for things to happen…

The reason I bring this very exiting and important issue up in this report is due to this email that I received yesterday:

Know that the Bani Hasan tribe has been undertaking camel treks out of Yemen across Africa for centuries – guess that’s already been “explored” (without GPS receivers and sat-phones).

I’ve lived in Yemen for a while now and you are like every dick head tourist I’ve seen coming through here, donning local clothes and a jambiya (you know the locals laugh at foreigners doing that, right?), giving yourself a local name (priceless) and blogging about the place like you discovered it.

However, you stand apart in your unfailing ability to aggrandise yourself for doing what is otherwise standard adventure tourism. You’re no more of an explorer than the 1000th Yemeni traveling through Sweden can claim he is exploring stockholm.

Why not explore the mind of the self-important ethnocentric tourist? You’ve got a head start.

amelahodalt (this person did leave his or hers email, but no name)

Me an ethnocentric dick? Possibly....

During my 25 years of exploration, I have never, ever received an email as offensive and full of bitterness, jealousy and hatred as this one. I am sorry to, once again, find out that so many people feel bad in this world of ours and use so much of their joy to live to pour out their hate and bitterness for something they disagree with. I have received tons of letters, emails, phone calls throughout the years and I have been stopped in the street many times by people who disagree with what I do, who I am and how I see life. Of course, I wish everybody would love me, but that is definitely not the case! But I accept all kinds of critique. It is part of any life where you have personal opinions.

However, to be able to have a debate about anything in life, opinions have to be free and many. Within a limit. Offensive emails like this one, based on hatred, jealousy and bitterness, leads nowhere. But there are, after all no smoke without fire, and some of these issues this person highlights comes up a lot in my sphere, what is an explorer and what is true exploration, so I will start a debate by answering this persons accusations. Feel relatively free to come with opinions, but since I moderate everything, because I on and off get these type of emails, I will not allow more emails like this one, which is free of any reason, good research and thought.

About the Beni Hassan tribe, like the more well-known Beni Hilal tribe, and other Arabs who have traveled both ways, to and from Mecca, this is true, but there´s absolutely no written records that a full east to west trip has been done without a prolonged break. Especially not in modern times. However, one of the main ideas with the Expedition, is to highlight the Arabs as great travellers and their amazing journeys. One of them is the well-known Ibn Battuta. And that is why 50% of the members are Arab, so that they can become modern day Ibn Battutas and give the Arab world a voice from the exploration point.

Reality today, in the modern era of exploration,is that this is how most Bedu travel with their camels today...even the famous Al-Mahra tribe.

When it comes to satellite phones and GPS, it shows that you have no idea about my past history of exploration, feel free to read this. I have never, ever used a GPS and never will. However when it comes to satellite phones, I did have it on the Siberian Expedition and will have bring one on the upcoming Expedition. This is due to the need to communicate via Internet. Plus that authorities nowadays won´t let you into the country without one. It is considered another measure of security. But, I will never, ever, use the satellite phone to call for help or assistance. It hasn´t happened and it never will.

When it comes to donning local dress, I agree fully with you. This is the first time in my life, that I have put on local dress, and I agree with your assessment. The reason is as follows: I was given it as a gift from Pamela and our two friends Mohammed and Hussein, to wear for one day. From which all photos are taken. I felt very uncomfortable, but realized that there were many in the souk who actually felt honored and liked it that I wore there local Sanaani dress. But that was the only time. But, it could well happen again in the future. Once again, I wish you would have done your home work better. This is the thing with blind hate, jealousy and bitterness, it works over reason and research. Better to do something with your own life in stead. Enjoy it. Do it in a way you think is appropriate. Write about it. Because communication is the most important issue for a stable future for the globe.

Together with Hussein...yes, we are all laughing!

The giving of the name Ahmed Al-Hamdani was the same evening. It was Hussein and Mohammed who gave it to me. As a sign of their respect. For what I don´t know. However, many western tourists, adventure travelers and explorers have been given names whether they like it or not. Two well known ones are Wyman Bury and Wilfried Thesiger. I have been given local names, whether I like it or not, meeting other people, tribes, like the maasai. I was throughout my Expedition there called Olorogwa, which means the fiery one. Local names are always given by local people as a sign of respect and appreciation. Maybe that is why you have never experienced this.

When it comes to my love of writing, well, I will always write as I have just discovered a place! For me, I do discover all the time and for me it is a new discovery. It is about loving life. I really love life! And whether you like it or not, I have a following of readers globally who wants me to write the way I do. And its people. If you don´t like my writing, why bother reading it?

That last paragraph reeks of jealousy. I won´t even comment it.

To sum it all up, I see you love Yemen and the Yemenis, which I do as well and you have come across a lot of tourists and travelers that you don´t like. I am sorry to hear that. Why don´t you start a blog and write about your feelings? Find a solution to your anger?

Communication in minus 45 in Siberia......

Yemen was one of the highlights of my life in many ways. See the slide show from there!

Since Pamela and myself together with Salim and Nasr will face the upcoming debate together, Pamela, who is an academic look upon the email like this and will leave her comment as a comment! Start the debate!

Stockholm early morning, autumn has arrived, it is windy and it has been raining all night, but days are sunny and the autumn colors are fantastic! However, I feel real heavy headed and extremely tired. I just get a few hours of sleep right now. And my mood is swinging from desperation to joy….It is always the same story….time to leave, not knowing when I will return….I am kind of packing everything together, cleaning out the apartment, phoning my friends, saying good bye, storing the extremely few things I have after a disastrous divorce and I am ready to take the big step and leave Sweden for awhile, sweating away for awhile in a desert.

Right now I get many questions from you readers about when is the Expedition taking place, and I answer:

“In shallah, when the time is ready…”

I just don´t know, this Expedition just grows, and is getting quite difficult to handle. I have pretty much worked day and night since the vision arrived. I do need 8 hours to feel human, but 5-6, it is tough, but I am living on all the joy all this gives me! But I am leaving Sweden now, getting ready to leave on The Expedition as soon as I have acquired camels, trained them, set everything up with my partners, Salim and Nasr, and have most permits needed, so if all goes well, between 3-12 months from now…..however, remember Chrsitian Bodegren, the Swede I helped with my experience, he is on his way! Go for it Christian! (See http://www.christianbodegren.com/ ) Even though his English sometimes makes things hard to understand, it is an interesting read from a guy who has put his life at stake and wants to become an explorer!

“And the funding?” people ask. Same answer:

“In shallah, when time is ready, all things will fall in place….”

I have slowly turned my mind into the Arab way of thinking, as you see, all is written in the stars already, so why worry….;-)….So right now, am trying to check out of Sweden, which isn´t all to easy. There´s the Internet company who says I need to pay another three months, the gym wants an additional month and so on…..times are hard, so nobody is really helpful, they want their money, whether they need it or not…hardest is getting the time to meet all my best friends…I will soon say goodbye to my family, which is always a nightmare, but I have done so many times now, so it is part of life….

But, once on the Expedition, all these normal day worries will be gone with the wind!

Just a small report from the flat….

Just came back from London and ended up at my brothers house in Dala-Järna. Which is where I am born, bred and educated. Kalle, my brother, is out of work, 60 and don´t know what to do with life. Any suggestion from me, which includes him cycling from Sweden to Oman, writing a blog about his thoughts and inspiring other people in his situation how to do with life, ends with:

“Am sixty for Christ sake!”

This is putting limits to oneself, just because of age. I don´t believe in setting any limits to what is possible or not. Neither does my friends Ollie, Jamie, Gunnar and Sam whom I have met during my visit to London, this cosmopolitan and great city. I will write a bit about all of them -these inspiring people- in the upcoming blogs, because the response from my blogging from Yemen, has been amazing, an average of 1200 readers a day the last three weeks, and it is still continuing. Let me start with Olly.

He is still only 33 or something, but mature like a 50-year old, extremely helpful and generous and I have a feeling there´s no limits to what he can do. It wouldn´t surprise me if he would be running Great Britain at the end of the day. He is that good. But most of all, he is a genuinly good human being who wants to make a difference. And he is every day of his life. I am very lucky and privilaged to have a friend like him. Or, as I say after I have entered the Arab World, he is a genuine brother. And I think, having good friends, is a major part of understanding the meaning of life.

Talking about the meaning of life, I went to London to meet a person with profound contacts, Gunnar, with the very exiting country called Saudi-Arabia, who after every new visit with people who have an intimite relation with this giant of a country, grows and I really want to go there more than ever! Next country to get into deepely as part of the preparation for the Big One, Anyway, on the trip over to London, on the plane, I started to read Mohammed Asad´s book, The Road To Mecca (photo at the top right) and suddenly I realised how simple it is to make a change in life. I started to think about my brother, who is suffering from not having a job, and that just be reading you can get very inspired to change your life. Mohammed Asad changed his dramatically, from being an Austrian Jew to a Pakistani Arab, and Mohammed Asad would easily be another brother had we met or he would be alive. The book is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read.

He is a true explorer in the sence of the word and his exploring, which I personally think should be the base of all explorations, is a cultural bridge builder and a search for the meaning of life. He found his version and he found in the Arab desert as so many others. Like the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ. So, maybe even mine might become a pilgrimige than….This is the book I would suggest for any upcoming explorer to read, when to find out, why do I want to explore and what is true exploration. His prose is beautiful, adventures many, knowledge of desert great and his historical significance is amazing. I will bring his book on my upcoming trip, to bring out when I need inspiration, help and peace of mind at the same time and he wrote this strophe in his book about the eternal question, why do I and we travel, upon meeting a Kurdish Beduoin in the desert: (This will become my quote of life.)

“If water stands motionless in pools, it becomes stale, muddy and foul, only when it moves and flows does it remain clear.”

This will become my quote of life. Next I will write about Jamie.

I was woken early today by the muezzin calling for the beginning of the first days fast and I just realized, that I am in a country, maybe on the brink of a civil war, dominated by aggressive hatred from all involved, and every day, the local newspapers are filled with stories about violence, hatred, bitterness and reports about loosely knitted Al Qaeda build ups, external countries interfering and, suddenly, I remembered all the local people I have come across lately, from the poorest to the powerful, who believe in this upcoming Expedition and vision and who will do their best to help me pass through Yemen.

This piece was initially written a year ago in Yemen, but, unfortunately still stands like a fact of life, still today in October 2010, well it has been going on since early 2006:

I am in Yemen at the moment studying Arabic and I am also trying to understand Islam and the Arab world better, not only as preparation for life, but also for the preparation of the Big Expedition! It is slowly coming to life…..

Why have I than created another blog? Well, as you understand of the title of this report, it has to do with hate.

Ramadan has arrived to the Arab world and Yemen and I wouldn´t like to be at any other place at the moment. It is an exiting time when Moslem’s rejoice in a festive mood interlinked with spirituality. I was woken early today by the muezzin calling for the beginning of the first days fast and I just realized, that I am in a country, maybe on the brink of a civil war, dominated by aggressive hatred from all involved, and every day, the local newspapers are filled with stories about violence, hatred, bitterness and reports about loosely knitted Al Qaeda build ups, external countries interfering and, suddenly, I remembered all the local people I have come across lately, from the poorest to the powerful, who believe in this upcoming Expedition and vision and who will do their best to help me pass through Yemen. And they all say that they are inspired by what I want to do and it makes them think good and they see a future. They see hope. So, this morning, as a kind of revelation, I woke with the muezzin and realized that I have, the last two and a half years of my life; I have been dominated by one person’s hatred and only wish in life, to destroy every hope I have to do good things in life. To make a difference. To inspire and educate in the overwhelmingly good things in life.

Every time I have written something on my blog, this person have phoned, written or personally visited most people I have described or written about, telling them all about all mistakes I have done in life, what an awful and evil human being I am. This person has even written to newspapers all over the world to inform them about my evil side. It has caused me an enormous amount of worries, loss of work and damaged reputation and at times I have been so scared stiff of this persons hatred, bitterness and stalking that I have been paralyzed. It has been very difficult to do my job. But, suddenly I realized this past night, if I am going to help to inspire people who are really suffering, well, than I can’t hide away like a sissy and let one single person ruin my life. So my life in hiding just ended a few hours ago.

So, if you, or anyone, get mentioned in any of my blogs, you might be harassed with a call or email from the messenger of hate and bitterness. Please tell me if. It will help me continue to live a dream and at the end of it all, make a world easier to understand!

Why hate when life is so short, instead of living and love?