THE HUNT FOR HE WEN

by

Oliver Steeds

He Zhimin’s hands shake as he holds a small coloured photograph of his son. The shakes had started nine months ago, when his son vanished. On the back of the card, he has printed his son’s details. “He Wen, Age 35, 1metre 75cm. Missing…”

Unlike Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known dissident and artist who was arrested boarding a plane to Hong Kong, on April 3rd, He Wen’s disappearance has gone largely unreported by the world’s media and there are no high profile calls for his release. “Kill the monkey to scare the chickens” as the Chinese saying goes which may go someway to understanding why the authorities have arrested Ai Weiwei. But perhaps it’s He Wen’s story that holds the key to understanding China’s most repressive crackdown since Tiananmen 1989.

China’s inflationary squeeze is starting to hit ordinary people. The cost of living is up and many of the poorest are struggling to fill their rice bowls. Last year there were more than 100,000 protests across the country often sparked by individuals or communities rising up against local or provincial cases of corruption, land-development, employment or human rights violations. Most of those protesting have faced official disinterest, intransigence and violence.

Brick Factory - one of dozens that Mr He has been searching in - the building in the foreground with the blue roof is where the mud is mixed and packed and then cut into bricks

In January this year an unknown group, inspired by events in North Africa and the Middle East, launched their own Jasmine Revolution with calls on twitter and other bulletin boards for a united protest against the repressive, single-party rule of the Communist Party.

The Party fears a generalised, national protest could provide the focus and glue to the millions of increasingly marginalised and disaffected. It is these “faceless millions” who could pose the real threat to the government’s long term strategy and the cohesion of the Chinese state itself.

He Zhimin is one of them. He’s a farmer in Sanyuan Town, a few miles outside Shaanxi’s provincial capital of Xian.

Last June, a woman approached his son at the local market, offered him a job and money and then abducted him. Mr He says the woman was part of a trafficking gang and that his son was abducted and forced in to a life of slavery – like thousands of other mentally impaired young men.

He Wen's room - as it was when he was abducted. He went missing in the summer and Mr He has purposefully left the mosquito net and fan up as a constant reminder to the day He Wen went missing.

“My son is a kind-hearted child,” Mr He says. “He is as tall and strong as I am. He’s able to work but he has the mental age of a child. Our whole family searched the town for him but he never came back. I have to remain positive because one way or another I’ve got to keep looking for him. Whether I find him alive or his corpse, either way I must find my son.”

Mr He immediately reported the disappearance to the police, but he claims they refuse to take on the case. They refused to take witness statements and he wasn’t even allowed to register He Wen as a missing person.

Mr He is left to search for his son on his own, printing off thousands of ‘Missing Person’ posters and distributing them around the county. Within a few weeks, he began getting calls from eyewitnesses, many claiming they had seen him working in local brick factories.

“As my son is mentally impaired, they made him work in the kiln,” Mr He says. “It’s easy to control him. The bricks were still hot when they made my son move them. They told me he was beaten all over his body with bricks [ if he didn’t work hard enough?”]

With hundreds of brick kilns across the county, Mr He has an almost impossible task. In the last nine months he has visited 40 kilns and come across many other cases of mentally impaired people who have been abducted into slavery. As a result of his investigations, he’s been threatened and at times even violently attacked.

Mr Li holding up a missing persons card for his missing son.

A couple of months ago Mr. He got a call about a man fitting his son’s description in a village 50 miles north of Sanyuan.

It turned out not to be his son, but 32 year old Liu Xiaoping. He too was mentally impaired and had been abducted and enslaved in brick factories for 10 months. At times he worked with Mr. He’s son.

Xiaoping’s father says during the day his son had to work in a brick factory and by night he was chained to a bed. “If he wasn’t working as they wanted, the factory owners would get a hot metal rod and burn it across his face. Sometimes, they purposefully put hot bricks on the back of Xiaoping’s legs as punishment.”

Xiaoping’s injuries got so bad that he couldn’t do any more physical labour and he was thrown out onto the streets and that was when Mr. He found him. “If Mr He hadn’t found him then, he would have been dead within two days,” Mr Liu says

The hillside being devoured by the brick factory - earth being dug out here is then used to make bricks in the factory below.

When Mr He found him he had been tortured so badly the toes on his left foot had to be amputated. He spent the next 41days in a specialist burns unit at the local hospital until funds ran out. His family are now bankrupt and the State is doing nothing to support them.

Xiaoping’s parents and Mr He both talk in desperation of the state’s failure to help them. And they are not alone. The Beijing based NGO “Enable Disability Studies Institute” estimate that at least 10,000 people with mental impairments have already been abducted and 1.5million are at risk. At best the authorities are impassive, at worst they are actively trying to cover it up.

Yang Bin, from the charity says it’s incredibly difficult to prosecute the traffickers and the owners of the brick factories: “China’s legal system is weak. Modern day China is like a lawless jungle which enables the traffickers to prey on the weak and vulnerable and with impunity.”

In December last year, a local journalist broke the story that 137 mentally impaired people had been abducted from a government run welfare centre in Sichuan Province. Reports were horrific. A dozen people were found barely alive in a brick factory in Xinjiang Province, others were found dotted around the country, most often in brick factories. Survivors spoke of being tortured with electric cattle prods, some were beaten with bricks, some died, others simply disappeared when their slave masters took them away when their bodies were too beaten and exhausted to work.

Within days, the story went nationwide. People were horrified and wanted answers. As a local journalist started to dig around, the trafficking ring behind the abductions came into focus. A man had set up a front-company and claimed to be providing jobs and training for patients.

Mr Li's missing son - also mentally impaired like He Wen and abducted from the same village as He Wen in December 2010

At the time he was even lauded in the local press and given an Entrepreneurial Award by a local politician. Chinese journalists were quick to jump on the State’s failure to protect the mentally impaired – one of many cases where the country’s social safety net is creaking under the pressures of growth and change. A Communist Party Official was implicated and arrested.

Then, like so many other occasions when public anger rises and protests escalate the State police went in and silenced anyone reporting on the case. When we tried to investigate as part of an ‘Unreported World documentary for Channel 4, we too were arrested. In the eyes of Beijing, reporting on state failure cannot be tolerated.

Stories like these and the abduction of He Wen strike at the heart of China’s problems. Cracks are opening up as China feels the growing pains of massive social upheaval and economic development.

In name this is the People’s Republic where the state is supposed to protect all. But in reality, as China powers ahead the most vulnerable are being left behind and all too often exploited. This is the lack of ‘social harmony’ the Party fears most.

THE HUNT FOR HE WEN

But the hunt for He Wen is on. Where the state is failing, I believe we can help. Since making a film about Mr. He’s search for son that aired in the UK (available online – see below), there has been a wave of interest to support the search.

To that end, I have crossed over from being just an impartial journalist documenting an event, to now trying to have an impact. For some journalists, the ethics of involvement are questionable, but for me, this is a simple choice – I can make a difference, so I must. Silence and inactivity in this, smacks of complicity.

I have now launched a campaign called Finding He Wen. The money we raise will go to the ongoing search on the ground in China – going brick factory to brick factory, hiring a local lawyer to take the case on, register it with the police, ‘legally encourage’ them to conduct an investigation, whilst also engaging the local press to spread the word of He Wen’s abduction.

Oliver Steeds (www.oliversteeds.com)

MORE DETAILS:

FINDING HE WEN:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Finding-He-Wen/109111182511235?sk=wall

FINDING HE WEN: Donate:

http://www.justgiving.com/findinghewen/

WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY: CHINA’S LOST SONS: On YOUTUBE (available worldwide)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1W49Pzj-PY&feature=related

More Details about the Film:

http://oliversteeds.com/blog/ollys-world/chinas-lost-sons/

Reporter Oliver Steeds with the not so secret police in Sichuan Province. A team of 10 'undercover' plain clothes agents saw the team off at the station ensuring they left their patch.

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I get loads of emails about these issues. It is obviously questions that tends to create debate, opinions and which many in the business talk about right now. In my opinion though, this is kind of an extra class at school, maybe not necessary for most, but important for some. Because I am for all kinds of adventures, no matter what! But since I have received so many emails and thought about it a lot since Ireland, and I have written about it earlier and it is kind of growing by the day on me, well, maybe we in the world of adventure and exploration have to find ways to set up some guidelines to define. It is normal evolution and development. With this article I kind of want to make these issues more clear and possibly more understandable. Let me than first talk about the subject of:

1. Who can call her- or himself an explorer?

The organizers of the 1st Adventure Filmfestival in Killarney made a quite clear distinction between what they see as adventurers and explorers. Basically, if you deal with people, cultures, animals, scientific or un-scientific research and anything else than yourself on an Expedition, you are in the business of exploration. If you, however, either ski to any of the poles or climb a peak like Everest, which basically is a personal thing where the essence of it all is oneself against nature, than you are in the business of adventure. (If you don´t do research in these areas) So, the organizers, the  Explore Foundation, wanted to concentrate on what they see as the exploration part and therefore hardly any of the films dealt with mountaineering or polar skiing.

However, everyone seem to start out as adventurer as a youngster, hoping to get into exploration, where the self is less important and the values of the world and life is a greater pull. This applies to me. I saw myself as a new Indiana Jones, but ended up today, wishing I could be Karen Armstrong (See film below) There´s no doubt that age defines. I guess the older you get, the more you understand, the less important one realizes that one is.

How do you define what is an explorer? Anyone seem to get away calling themselves an adventurer, because at the end of the day, that isn´t a chosen title that appeal to the world as much as calling yourself an explorer. Whatever that is. I have seen, especially in Britain, as quick as you have taken the diapers off and start to travel, you call yourself an explorer. It has a grand appeal in Britain especially. Which is fully understandable, since the UK, in my eyes, is still the worlds biggest exporter of adventure and exploration. But also the main part of the exploring world who use the words record breaking, unsupported and being first more than the rest of the globe.

But how do you define what an explorer is? Well, I call myself an explorer, because I have been doing this job since 1986 and I don´t know any other word which summarizes all I do.  Soon I will take it away.

However, I have talked to a lot of people involved in this business and it seems like if you are a Fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, have featured somehow with National Geographic, have carried the Flag of any of the clubs, you have a reason. But, things have changed lately. To appeal to the Explorers Club, you need to have done years of work and have a scientific base to your explorations/adventures. Makes sense. The RGS seem to have lowered their standards a lot. Being a Fellow there isn´t as much an honor as ten years back. I think it is due to that explorers/adventurers are not wanted as much as geographers. The debate is still going on, see here. Check here what it takes to get in.  The word explorer is deleted and the high standards dead. Maybe the president Michael Palin can sort things out.

Others, like for example the important ExplorersWeb, who make a living out of the name explorer, has no clear distinction what defines an explorer, but have set up important guidelines on other important issues which deals with this odd world. They do focus primarily on climbers and polar skiers, though. They also go against the stream and Tom and Tina Sjögren have no interest being part of any clubs I mention in this article. Even if they´re more than qualified.

The Long Riders Guild have a long list of guide lines which has to be met to become a member of their guild. See here!

So, is there a definition? Not really. If you see yourself as an explorer, you are one!

This topic has been discussed and commented in this article, The need for debate on Expedition Arabia. And in CuChullaine O´Reilly´s excellent article on Ethical Exploration! And, of course, Arita Baaijens Exploration, an outdoor activity or not?

2. Unsupported.

I have to admit I had no idea really what it meant, when I planned my Arabian Expedition and I called it unsupported. Mainly because I had the idea, if you don´t have air drops or similar, but do all by yourself, it is unsupported. Than I talked to a legend at the RGS, Shane Winser, and she rightfully said:

“Hogwash! If you carry a satellite phone, how can you call that unsupported?”

So right, as always, Shane. ExplorersWeb has set up a great guideline on rules and definitions to be able to claim this and that, see here! It is almost perfect, but again, it deals with people who go for mountains, poles, oceans and nothing with Expeditions dealing with cultures, people and animals first hand. If you do that, it is impossible to call anything unsupported. However, they do think it is ok with a satellite phone and GPS to be able to claim an unsupported. So who is right?

This topic has been discussed in these two articles, Am I a fake and cheat?

3. To claim to be first.

This is a tag that follows many in the field. I have done those mistakes. You think it will give you more attention. You say; This is a first, unsupported and record breaking. Even if your idea is to photograph relatively unknown tribes in Africa or elsewhere, you still throw in those tags because you think it will draw more attention to what you do. Something I fully can understand. But is it needed to get the attention one obviously wants? And can one really claim to be first today in a way that actually makes a difference now when all the major (except the depth of oceans) geographical prizes have been taken?

I think so, if you choose to do something as challenging as Matvey Shparo and Börge Ousland by crossing the whole North Pole from one side to another in winter darkness. I think that is extra ordinary and historical.  So is Ed Stafford´s 2 year walk along the Amazon. Otherwise, to claim that you have been where no other white person has been or you have crossed Greenland in a shopping cart, it is just not true. And it isn´t worth trying to claim it. We live in a world of massive information possibilities and if it isn´t true, it will eventually hit back at you. Look at The Long Walk series.  And this article I wrote earlier called Fakes and Cheats.  And on top of all this, people are exploring and travelling more than ever.

So, do you need to use these massive words like unsupported, record breaking and the first ever to make a living?

Answer:

I hope not. I think that in the future, more interest has to lie in matters dealing with the well being of others, building bridges between cultures and creating understanding globally, and less with being first and unsupported. It has pretty much all been done. However, the world is forever changing, so new knowledge is always needed. And always will be. Do we need self occupied adventurers?

Yes, we do. We all have to be reminded that everything is possible. But, I hope, much less.

Initially, when you start a career in this genre, you do claim this and that, you are so full of yourself, I am talking from my own experience here, and possibly it can be a short time winner, to be able to claim that you have done this unsupported and it is a first. One or two sponsors can buy that.  But in the long run, if you need to live on it for the rest of your life, it needs to involve matters how we look upon this world and what we can do to sort out the problems we have created for futures to come. There´s only a few who can live on being the one who did the first. Whether it is true or not. So for most people, there has to be something more.

As an example, I had a general email from SVT (Swedish television) yesterday that they have absolutely no interest in self promoting adventures.  They get tons of emails from people all over the world who wants to do firsts and unsupported. It is of no interest to them anymore. Just as an example of the changing winds of society.

Maybe Killarney and Explore Foundation could become a hub of exploration and define?

As a final note, see this extra ordinary TED talk with one of my favorite scholars.

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]]> http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/2011/04/17/how-important-is-it-to-be-first-andor-unsupported/feed/ 21 http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/2011/03/07/voices-of-exploration-robin-hanbury-tenison/ http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/2011/03/07/voices-of-exploration-robin-hanbury-tenison/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:28:30 +0000 admin http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/?p=4237 Voices of Exploration – An ever-expanding database of exclusive monthly interviews with the world’s leading explorers.

Regardless of where we were born, mankind’s urge to explore transcends all differences of nationality and faith. It remains an emblem of universality deserving of a wider global study.

Ironically, though the public has long yearned for fresh voices who could share their hard-won wisdom, in the corporate-dominated world, where finances always come first, meaningful dialogue with the world’s leading explorers has been passed over in preference to slick ads and predictable yearly awards.

That is why I am proud to announce the launching of this valuable new series.

The Voices of Exploration project is designed to be an ever-expanding data bank of interviews and wisdom. My friend, Basha O’Reilly, is one of the Founders of the Long Riders Guild, who has already launched the Voices of Authority equestrian educational program.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, (74) is one of the Founding Members of The Long Riders’ Guild, the first international association of equestrian explorers.  He is also a Founder and President of Survival International, the world’s leading organisation supporting tribal peoples. Named as ‘the greatest explorer’ by the Sunday Times, and ‘the doyen of British Explorers’ by the Spectator, he has been on more than 30 expeditions, including as leader of the Royal Geographical Society’s largest expedition, taking 115 scientists to study the rainforests of Sarawak. This research and his book, “Mulu: the Rainforest”, started the international concern for tropical rainforests.

On Survival’s behalf he has led several overseas missions, including visiting 33 Indian tribes as a guest of the Brazilian government in 1971; Indians of the Darien in Panama and Colombia in 1972; tribes of the outer islands of Indonesia in 1974 and 1975; leading an investigation into excessive logging in Sarawak in 1988; assessing the status of the indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia in 1992 and 1994; and in NE India in 1995; and of the Bushmen of the Kalahari in 1980 and 2005.

A graduate of Oxford University, he has been a Council Member, and is a Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society; winner of the Pio Manzu Award; an International Fellow of the Explorers Club, Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow, Trustee of the Ecological Foundation and Fellow of the Linnean Society.

Among his many publications are: A Question of Survival, 1973; A Pattern of Peoples, 1975; The Yanomami, 1982; Fragile Eden, The Oxford Book of Exploration; Mulu: The Rain Forest; his two autobiographies: Worlds Apart and Worlds Within;The Seventy Great Journeys in History and The Great Explorers.

His 5 books on Long Rides are: White Horses over France; A Ride along the Great Wall; Fragile Eden; Spanish Pilgrimage; and Land of Eagles.

Says Robin: ‘I have consistently been proved right by events, often to the great surprise of those who know me. It is better, as Napoleon said, to be lucky than clever.’

I was lucky enough to catch Robin at his home in Cornwall, where he kindly agreed to answer these questions.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison in the Tenere Desert, Niger, North Africa

Who do you think was the most influential explorer in history and why?

I would plump for Humboldt, as he was one of the first, and certainly the most prolific of the polymath scientific explorers, who studied everything.

Who inspired you to become an explorer and why?

Wilfred Thesiger, who I got to know well and who came on one of my expeditions, was inspiring because he was an absolute purist.  Difficult to be that today.

What is your favourite exploration book and why?

Peter Fleming’s Amazon Adventure set the tone followed by so many later British explorers of concealing great physical endurance under a self deprecatory insouciance.

RHT with Yanomami Children, Brazil, 1981

What is your favourite exploration film and why?

They just keep getting better and better. George McGavin, the splendid bug man, strikes exactly the right note to inspire others to explore.  His most recent film for the BBC was Lost Land of the Tiger.

If you were travelling to the South Pole in the “Heroic Age,” would you prefer to travel with Shackleton, Amundson or Scott, and why?

I don’t do cold, but if I did it would have to be Amundsen, as he used dogs – and survived!

After leading so many expeditions to so many countries, what was the most dangerous situation you survived?

Probably when I tried to cross illegally from Brazil to Paraguay in 1965 in the little boat I had set out in from the mouth of the Orinoco on what was to become the longest river journey ever.  I covered the boat in water hyacinth to pretend I was a floating island, but got caught by the border military.  They were so impressed that I was travelling alone, that they put me up for the night and then let me go.

Camargue Horses at Cabilla Manor Farm, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

What is the greatest sacrifice you have made to be an explorer?

It’s been a great life, but I would have earned a lot more doing almost anything else.

What is the single greatest change you have witnessed in the exploration world since you began?

The almost total destruction of the rain forest, especially in Borneo, where it was virtually intact when I first went there in 1958 and now only 5% is left.

What modern technology or techniques do you find most helpful?

My philosophy has always been to take as little as possible and rely on local knowledge.  Although obviously incredibly useful, the GPS had destroyed true exploration, as it is now virtually impossible to be responsible and still get lost.

Robin started Survival International.

What piece of equipment always goes with you?

A sleeping bag.

Please tell us what prompted you help found Survival International.

Inspiration came while on a remote tributary of the Orinoco on an expedition.  I was travelling with an ethnobotanist called Conrad Gorinsky, who pointed out that Amerindian tribes were dying out rapidly, but there was no international organisation fighting for them.

Robin and the horse are soul mates

Which book would you recommend to would-be explorers today?

Any of David Attenborough’s about the natural world.  No one has inspired more people to want to do something about our vanishing ecosystems.

What would you tell young explorers to be wary of?

Believing that the showing off, which is the natural urge which gets most of them, including me, into the field, actually means anything.  They must move on to making a difference.

Why is it important for humans to continue exploring?

Because we haven’t begun to understand how the natural world works.

Which of your many achievements do you think will be most remembered?

Getting Survival International going.

Robin and exploring wife Loella

What’s your greatest concern for the future of exploration?

That academics will take the excitement out of it.

Links of interest:

www.thelongridersguild.com

www.robinsbooks.co.uk/

Survival International

Royal Geographical Society

Explorers Club

Linnean Society

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Female leadership in the desert!

Venus and Mars in the desert

During the past twenty years I’ve spend most winter seasons exploring the desert of Egypt and Sudan on camel. Sometimes friends kept me company during a leg of the journey, which was great. Camels are wonderful animals, but a conversation with them can be boring because they are only interested in food. So it was fun to have a friend around, although, to be honest, with some of them the fun didn’t last very long. A week at the most. After that the top-dog type of guys – never seen a desert, let alone knew a thing about camels – would point out how I could and should organize my caravan in a much better and more efficient way.

“This is the limit,” one of them shouted with a face turned purple. I was repairing a broken saddle without consulting him. A terrible insult, according to him. “Well, do you know how to do it?” I asked genuinely surprised. “No, but you don’t have to rub into my face.”

Another friend was annoyed because I made him feel insecure whenever he walked with the camels. Why? Picture the following scene: my friend climbs steep hill after steep hill with heavily laden camels and after two hills I, of course, tell him to circumnavigate those hills. Something he would have done automatically if he would have been the one to carry the load. Anyway, my friend was not amused and our never ending arguments threatened the relationship. So in the end I decided to give it a try and shut up in order to let him learn from mistakes. It worked. Until one of the camels seriously injured herself because of a stupid and unnecessary mistake my friend make. ‘No more soft approach,’ I decided there and then.
My top-dogs friends had a problem with female leadership, I decided. But as the list of incidents grew doubt crept in. ’Maybe it is me,’ I thought. After all, I was the only constant factor in all those stories. A man in my position would never question his leadership style, but being a female, I wondered what I could do to avoid future fights. I searched for female role models in the desert and hoped they could teach me a few tricks. But alas, female caravaners were hard to come by. All the local desert guides where male and they couldn’t care less about the feelings of their staff. On the contrary. A guide, or chabir, does not accept any criticism during a dangerous desert crossing. Which makes perfect sense. A guide is responsible for the lives of people and animals in the caravan and conflicts create tension and confusion, which in turn may affect his judgement.
Imagine my joy and disbelief when about five years ago I came across a thesis about trade in west Africa. The historian who wrote it claimed and proved that women in the region played an active role in caravan trade. As a merchant, investor and even as a caravaner.

Recently I travelled to Mauritania and met two female caravaners, both well into their seventies now. I also met the sons and daughters of a locally well known woman who had worked as a trader and a caravaner. One of her sons, now a grandfather, rubbed his knees and shins with a painful grimace when he talked about the long journeys with his mother. The whole family went together, parents and children, and they were on the road for several months. The children walked or sat on top of salt loads, hour after painful hour. The caravan would only come to a stop after sunset. And after such an exhausting day the mother still had to cook. Women were also responsible for selling goods at foreign markets. The profit was used to buy local products they could sell back home.

"

When I asked men and women about the daily routine in a trade caravan, nothing indicated that women had an inferior position. “Men and women worked together,” an old man commented. Many others confirmed this. In I learned that in Mauritania women have always had a very strong position in society and within the family. Women are also well educated. When I explained to a few young women that their Dutch sisters, in order to keep their marriage intact, pretend that their husband is the boss, the girls laughed and laughed. They just couldn’t believe what I said. In Mauritania, they giggled, it is the other way around. Men like strong women. Indeed, if a spouse bosses his wife around she knows something is wrong. Very wrong. When a husband acts out of character he usually fancies another woman.

Needless to say that I had the time of my life in Mauritania, where I met a lot of bold, bright and strong women. The Mauritanian caravan model functions, these role models taught me, because next to every strong woman stands a gentle man.

You can read more about the fantastic personality at http://www.aritabaaijens.nl and http://www.linkedin.com/in/aritabaaijens

The ex-pat camp in the Wahiba Sands. We went here with Mark Evans and his friends over the weekend, a lovely break from Muscat-life....

Pain!

Woke up early this morning after sleeping 10 hours. Exhausted after a visit to the Wahiba Sands, the great soothing desert, but no sleep at all. Tooth-ache. I am waiting to call the dentist when he opens at 9 a.m. Another of Talib´s contacts. Thank God I have been hit by this pain now, not on an expedition. It totally cripples you. The worst part of having a tooth-ache is that you can´t really communicate as you would like!

I have always been most content with life when I am dwelling into another culture. It is a learning experience, it is fascinating, never boring, you never know what to expect, it stimulates all your senses, makes you question everything you have learned from the day you left the Western crib, but most of all, you come across a lot of fantastic people. Meeting people is for me, the elixir of life! Therefore the main theme of the upcoming Expedition is connecting cultures, meeting people and building a bridge of understanding between the West and East. But, it is the most difficult project I have embarked upon, because it is a subject that involves people with the extremest of thoughts in both ends, which really touches the soul of human kind.  The best and the worst. It is a gigantic task and at times it just feels impossible! For this reason, I really admire people who have embarked upon a road to try to connect cultures and educate. And made a success out of it!

Mark together with one of his employees trying to figure out an interesting route for the Connecting Culture group....

One of them is Mark Evans, one of our best friends here in Muscat.  Having him here, makes such a difference for us.  He is an explorer himself , a Fellow of the Explorers Club and The Royal Geographical Society, which means we can discuss all aspects of everything which deals with Expeditions with him. Everything from planning, route assessment and sponsoring. Mark works full time today with Outward Bounds and after a life of teaching in places like Kenya and Saudi-Arabia and after spending a year on Svalbard, he has made Oman his home. What Mark doesn´t know abouth the Omani outback doesn´t exist. He has just released a book about his 28 days exploring the Rub Al-Khali. He is very modest and careful when it regards himself, but he is pretty much good at anything he puts his head into, but most of all, it is another great human being I have come across, and he has set up an organisation called Connecting Cultures. An initiative where he invites, supports and encourages young people from all over the world to meet in Oman, travel by camel and at the same time connect them culturally and enhance their understanding of each other. It is genuinely a great vision he has accomplished! A new Connecting Cultures Expedition for young people is coming up the 3-10th of December and I have been honored indeed to be able to supply Mark with a very positiveminded and excellent young lady from Sweden, Julia Samuelsson who will attend it.

Julia Samuelsson, the Swedish representative at the Connecting Culture event the 3-10th of December

Mark has of course met a lot of inspiring people in his 48 year old life. The most impressive one, who started his thoughts of a Connecting Culture theme, was a speech at Hyde Park in London by a South-African named Ian Player. Mark contacted this awesome personality and during the hardest times of getting his project on board, he was encouraged by Ian himself. A thoroughly inspiring person and after reading about him on Wikipedia I think I have a new favourite role model to strive for! The same inspirational help applies for Mark who is continuously motivating me not to give up this project, which at times seems impossible. I am beginning to understand why nobody ever has traveled by camel from Arabia’s easternmost tip till its westernmost point…..it wasn´t the physical limitations, it was the red tape…..still is!

Just back from the dentist. It will cost me 60 rial to sort out the mess I have created by not taking care off my gums and teeth….why does it all heap on to you, when not needed?

My friends at Explorers Web published this article today, sad, but true, but don´t judge to hard, people do mistakes, the need to gain some kind of success in life makes people do desperate things, we need to forgive and they will learn from their experience. Read this http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=18835

However, to avoid, which occurs a lot, not too loose my train of thought….A visit to London to check the possibility of any Expedition and its success, is a must! So is connections which you have built up throughout the years. Two of the most important I have is friends doing pretty much the same thing – continuously putting pressure on life!

I am talking about two of the nicest people I have ever come across, my old friend and chairman of the British Chapter of Explorers Club, Barry Moss and the new Face of Discovery Channel – Olly Steeds. They have both helped me for many years with their belief, compassion, friendship and extraordinary kind words.

Ollie had set me up for a lot of meetings with some amazing people in his range of friends. Stephen and Jamie taught me pretty much about everything about the Gulf area and the digital side of exploration. As always I went to Stanfords to pick up some maps over Rub Al-Khali and went to the Royal Geographic Society to browse thru old Expedition papers and reports in the area where I am setting up my two upcoming Expeditions….didn´t find anything I dind´t know about though, Internet has changed a lot, for the better….and went to a lecture at the Scientific Exploration Society on Wednesday evening and had a chat with Sir John Blashford-Snell and then the pub again. The London Pub scene….I like it.

I spent all Thursday meeting a lot of people, who gave me a lot of positive and negative output on my upcoming Expedition. Most think it is impossible, which I like. I need to hear these things to concentrate and focus. And Thursday evening I spent at the Polish Club with some of my London friends….I have always been an Anglophile by the way….and I believe I have a new very good friend after that meeting, old Sam from the Hebrides. Same age, exiting life, gone through many obstacles, fantastic guy!

Came back three in the morning, went to the airport at 5….well, I am extremely tired…but, once again, the adventure is on!