The Road to the Horizon The Road to the Horizon Short stories about travelling to remote places, working in unusual places, life as a humanitarian aid worker, expeditions and sailing. But mostly about enjoying the road more than reaching the destination. Articles
The heart is what counts
2009-09-09 21:43:00 In what seems to become an ongoing series about humanitarian advocacy ;-)... Here is another video which spoke to my heart. Compare this piece of (he)art with the MSF video we discussed earlier, and you will see what I mean when I say "you don't have to fake stories to move a public"Added to inspirational video collection.Video courtesy the Strongheart Fellowship Programme More About: Heart
Sunset this evening
2009-09-09 08:56:00 Miracle Beach at Fregene tonight. No words needed. More About: Sunset
A false start this morning
2009-09-07 22:04:00 Here I am, waking up tickled by sunlight. I get a shower, water the plants, clean up the place a bit, get into the car, drive up the highway. And then I hear a funny noise in the back...Oops, punctured tyre.. No problem I have done this before... A Smart does not come with a spare tyre, but with a handy electric pump. I park on the emergency lane. 30 ton truck racing 2 inches past you. You "pump it up" and drive off..Oops... puncture too big.... I barely make it to the next gas station. All flat again. No problem.. I have a can of tyre glue filler (how do you call that stuff?), made for just that. Except that there is no tool to get the valve off the tyre. No way to fit the glue tube onto the tyre.Well, this is a gas station, so I ask the pompista. Nope. "No tools." He points at the gas station at other side of the highway: "Ask there". Luckily there is an underpass. Off I go.I explain with the best of my Italian, that there is a problem with my "bomba" and I am looking for a "bombi... More About: Italy , Start , Morning
What's been keeping me busy
2009-09-07 00:08:00 Nope, I don't mean just the past few days - I spent the weekend home in Belgium. I don't mean the hours spent trying to get Windows XP reinstalled on Lana's laptop. And figuring out which driver was the right one for her wireless card. And preferably did not conflict with the network card. Beh.I don't mean neighter the debugging of the LAN ("Daddy, why does the Internet only work for 5 minutes in one go?") - which was just a reset of the wireless router...No, I mean in the past weeks... What's been keeping me busy (outside of work)..Well. I kicked off several new sites: Humanitarian News is my mega-multi-mucho aggregator, taking in the latest posts from about 600 different sites.. It is my first project made on a non-blog platform.. My first timid tries in "Drupal", a webdevelopment platform (the real dudes call it a "CMS or Content Management System") used by The In-Crowd for Real Websites. The whole site is automated, with half-hourly broadcasts on Twitter: @HumanityNews."Hum...
MSF video: An ad too far?
2009-09-04 00:46:00 The UK branch of MSF - Doctors without Borders - launched a new advertisement campaign in the movie theaters. On their website, they asked for feedback, claiming "It is our attempt to make a deliberate move away from some traditional charity advertising which can tend to focus on images of starving children."The video stirred up quite a bit of noise on the "aid watch dog" blogs: Aid Watch and Aid Thoughts. Also the esteemed Philantrophy gave a pitch (Update: see further below for the other "usual suspects" joining in ;-) ). While the commentary has now been disabled on the MSF website (I wonder why, Mr and Mrs MSF, as you "would really appreciate your feedback on the ad." - Update: this is incorrect.. apparently there were never any comments possible on the MSF website.. Confusing.. - see updates below and Marc's comments), the discussion continues on Osocio. The MSF web editor also joined the discussion on DuckRabbit...By coincidence, just a few days ago, I published a post about ... More About: Video
Warning! Swine Flu flu prevention leaves white spot on your face
2009-08-31 08:20:00 Picture courtesy of my colleague aidworker Paul, blogging at Head Down, Eyes Open. Even though Paul was much more serious about H1N1 in his post. (Sorry Paul...!) More About: White , Spot , Prevention , Face , Warning
Picture of the Day: MSF in a message
2009-08-29 14:22:00 I previously posted how a UNICEF ad gave a clear, simple and hard message. This -almost blank- ad for Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without borders beats anything on simplicity.More Picture s of the Day on The RoadPicture courtesy La Cocina Creativa and Agencia McCann-Erickson. More About: Picture of the day , Message
World Hunger: Disaster in the making (again)...
2009-08-28 12:34:00 Just watching the articles on AidNews flowing by, it looks like hunger in the world is still here, and it is not getting better. The alarm bells are ringing everywhere:Kenya drought worsens hunger riskNumber of Kenyans in need of food aid jumps by over 50%Hunger on the rise in Mexico as recession bitesCameroon ups maize output to avert food crisisUganda faces a food shortage crisisNigeria may face food crisisWater crisis to hit Asian foodIndia to import food amid droughtHunger warning for South Sudan now at pre-famine condition.Drought looming in Syria, 250,000 people at riskMillions in Nepal facing hunger.And that is just in the past days, not including those affected by violence or conflicts.We are in for a rough couple of months to come...Picture courtesy A.Chicheri (WFP) More About: World , Disaster
Picks of the Week: War jewelry, Seychelles and Africa...
2009-08-28 09:08:00 It has been a while since I published my "Picks" or "Links" of the week, so time to catch up:Project Diaspora is all about empowering Africa by Africans. Read their moving pledge.WikiGender is a Wiki aimed at exchanging and improving the knowledge on gender-related issues around the world.On a lighter note: Africa goes webcam with this Kilimanjaro webcam.And even lighter: Gado is one of the true great African cartoonists.The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organisations at Harvard University now features its own blog with some in depth coverage of international justice and human rights.It is great to see blogs, as a social media advocacy tool, to go mainstream. My list of nonprofit blogs became so large I could not feature them on The Road anymore, so I collected them on a Delicious bookmark list. I tagged them differently for organisations, individuals, magazines, teams and projects.A collection of the latest articles of these blogs, you find on nonprofitblogs.info.One example of a UN ... More About: Jewelry , Week
Let me introduce to you... Ahmed, the dead terrorist
2009-08-27 18:20:00 You might be surprised I post this video. Humour about terrorism, blabla. Then again, where I come from, we make jokes about anything and everything. The more sarcastic, the better. Guess it is our way of "dealing with stuff".So here,.... Ahmed The Dead Terrorist . Politically far from correct, but ever so funny...
Me? I did not do a thing !
2009-08-27 00:53:00 We keep on moving on The Road. Last week, we had a long weekend here in Rome, and I took the opportunity of doing some major clean-up and re-organisation of my blog network.- I checked all links I have in the aid resources, aid worker blogs and aid news widgets in the side column to see if they were still valid.- As the list has expanded to over 400 links, it became impossible to manage manually, so I extracted all nonprofit blogs (excluding those from aidworkers) and put them in a dedicated delicious folder.- While I was at it, I made an aggregator of these nonprofit blogs. Check out NonProfit Blogs, and linked a Twitter account to it: @NonProfitBlogs- As I scanned over 200 of these blogs within 24 hours, I got a good view as to what's up in the nonprofit blogging world. And I wrote a post about my findings on BlogTips.- I also turfed all these blogs for their pageranks, and... (yes, you guessed it!)... wrote a post about it. :-)- One of the tools I use extensively to aggregate RS... More About: Thing
Picture of the Day: Unicef in a message
2009-08-26 19:02:00 "Los sueños de los niños no pueden morir" means "Children's dreams can not die"This UNICEF ad is so simple and powerful, it hurts.More Picture s of the Day on The RoadPicture courtesy Ads of the World and advertising agency OUT (Santiago Chile) More About: Picture of the day , Message
10 seconds of sunset over Lake Bolsena
2009-08-24 00:09:00 A snapshot of tonight's sunset over Lake Bolsena, about two hours North of Rome. The wind settled, the clouds disappeared, and lake became quiet. More About: Sunset
Obama: H1N1 prevention? Yes, we can!
2009-08-22 11:40:00 Picture courtesy of my colleague aidworker Paul, blogging at Head Down, Eyes Open. Even though Paul was much more serious about H1N1 in his post. (Sorry Paul...!) More About: Obama , Prevention
Rumble: Airport confusion
2008-06-11 00:01:00 I flew to Brindisi again, this evening. Rome to Brindisi is served by Alitalia ("Always Late In Take-off, Always Late In Arrival") or AirOne ("Air-One, Baggage-Zero"). This evening, I was booked on AirOne (and no, I did not risk to check any baggage in, otherwise I had 75% chance to spend the next day speaking to the lady at the lost luggage counter).A bus was taking us from the terminal to the plane at Fiumicion airport. The bus zigzagged in-between parked planes, stopping here, and stopping there, until it parked itself next to an empty AirOne plane. Driver got out, talked to some guy next to the plane, who pointed to a Blu-Express plane a bit further on the tarmac. The driver was lost, did not know which plane to drive us to.The bus drove to the Blu-Express plane. The passengers got off but were confused. "We were supposed to fly AirOne, not Blu-Express. Blu-Express does not fly to Brindisi", they mumbled. Some went up the stairs, came back down, and finally we boarded after it w... More About: Airport , Confusion
Rumble: If you had only one more lecture to give.
2008-06-09 09:24:00 "If your time here had come to an end, and you had one more lecture to give, one more message to bring, what would it be?".Randy Pauch, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, put "The Last Lecture" challenge into practice. The video moved me, and it will move you.You can follow Randy's moments on his site.Added to "My Inspirational Videos" on The RoadWith thanks to Worldman and Pumuckl More About: Give
Rumble: Kalidasa, a walk and flowers.
2008-06-08 22:08:00 My apartment is part of a several two story houses, clustered together. All apartments are on the first floor, and underneath, there are several small shops.As of 6:30 am, I hear Laura, my neighbour, opening the coffee bar downstairs. By 7 am, Valentina opens up her newspaper shop, followed by Theresa and her dry cleaning shop half an hour later. Around 11, Antonio and his family open up the restaurant.For miles around, there are no other shops nor restaurants, so come winter, come summer, come rain, hail or sun, the community congregates around this small area, from early morning to late in the evening.There is always laughter from children playing in the street, chatter from the people sitting on the terrace, greeting the passers-by "Ciao, caro!" "Come stai, bella?"..This afternoon, I was sitting on my terrace, reading in the sun, engulfed by the background chit-chattering, kids laughter and the scent of the flowers blooming all around. I went for a gelato, and walked up to the be... More About: Flowers , Rome , Walk
Rumble: Discovering Puglia
2008-06-08 19:15:00 As I was in Brindisi two weeks ago, I spent the weekend discovering Puglia , the South-Eastern tip of Italy, driving around the "heel of the Italian boot".This part of the country, filled with vineyards and olive tree farms is more or less left aside by international tourists, even tough it features an unspoiled nature, sand beaches as well a rocky coastline dotted with cliffs. While in the summer this region must be scorched by the sun, this time of the year, the temperature is just right.Many parts of Puglia either remind me of the Balkans, or of Greece. Exotic enough to make one dream.Early morning views in St. Maria de Leuca:Midday in Gallipoli:
Rumble: Be the Change You Want to See
2008-06-08 13:20:00 "Be the change you want to see" by singer/songwriter Kat Edmonson. Now added to "My Inspiration Videos" on The Road.Inspired by Positive Communications More About: Change
News: Sandinista priest presides UN General Assembly
2008-06-07 20:43:00 Former Nicaragua n Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann is elected president of the U.N. General Assembly . His bio is more interesting than merely "being a US born Roman Catholic priest".He backed the revolution in Nicaragua, joining Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega's government as foreign minister, a period sprouting fierce US under cover opposition in the so-called "contra-revolution".D'Escoto's anti-American past includes successfully taking the US to the International Court of Justice in the Hague for arming Contra rebels and staging a hunger strike against U.S. policy.In 2004 he told a U.S. news program former President Ronald Reagan was "the butcher of my people" and called President George W. Bush Reagan's "spiritual heir". (Full)In his acceptance speech, he said "(..)love is what is most needed in this world. Selfishness is what has gotten us into the terrible quagmire in which the world is sinking, almost irreversibly, unless something big happens."d'Escoto spoke ... More About: News , General Assembly
Picture of the day: Hindering the Hungry
2008-06-07 20:02:00 Poor Bangladeshi boys share a bowl of rice while in Rome, the world leaders assembled at the UN summit in Rome to find a solution for the food crisis.The Guardian published a critical look at the summit titled "Hindering the Hungry ".Source: The Other World NewsPicture courtesy Rafiqur Rahman (Reuters) More About: Picture of the day
Rumble: No fish today: Italian fishermen on strike.
2008-06-07 19:59:00 Often, in weekends, I stroll along the port of Fiumicino near Rome , a base for the local fishermen. Today , there was something different: there was no activity by the fishing trawlers, they were on strike.Banners on the boat said in English (and strangely enough, also in Arabic): "High Fuel Prices Kill the Fish ery", "High Fuel, On Strike " and "Fuel Prices Kill Us. Only Imported Fish Today."More posts on The Road about Rome. More About: Italian
News: Expensive Food, Poor Farmer.
2008-06-07 12:35:00 1. The global export food prices have been skyrocketing since months (Post)2. Combined with the raising fuel prices, it has caused - what is called - "A Global Food Crisis", urged by world leaders to be tackled urgently. (Post)3. The crisis has sparked the question if the world can produce enough food to feed itself and how we can find ways to increase crop yields. (Post)Yet, something is wrong with this picture... Take the case of Thailand :1. 3 billion people worldwide rely on rice as a staple food (Source)2. Thailand is one of the world's main rice exporters (Source)3. The price of Thai B grade rice, a widely traded variety, reached $795 per ton in April, an increase of 147 percent from a year earlier. Source)4. And yet, Thai rice farmers are getting a lower price for their produce, because of the highly successful crop this year (Source), urging the Thai government to bring in a subsidy scheme buying up 2.5 million tons of rice at a higher-than-market price. (Source)Do you see t... More About: News , Poor , Farmer
News: Zimbabwe suspends aid agencies
2008-06-05 22:50:00 Zimbabwe's government has indefinitely suspended all field work by aid groups and non-governmental organisations.The suspension of all field operations by private voluntary organisations (PVOs) and NGOs ordered by Zimbabwe's government comes nearly a week after President Robert Mugabe banned some aid agencies from the country.One of the largest organisations, Care International, was forbidden to work after being accused of campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) ahead of the presidential election run-off on 27 June. Care has denied the accusation. (Full)More posts on The Road about Zimbabwe.Source: The Road DailyPicture courtesy usafricaonline.com More About: News , Zimbabwe , Agencies
News: Food crisis: Who will win the battle for fertile land?
2008-06-05 01:31:00 In The Global Food Crisis - A Perfect Storm, I outlined in causes of the global food crisis. One of them was the struggle for arable land, either through the increase 'need for food' to feed the increasing world population, and the decrease of available land through climate change and desertification.Already several years ago, the "food crisis" alarm bells started ringing fearing the world is running out of fertile land.Back in 2005, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined satellite land cover images with agricultural census data from every country in the world to create detailed maps of global land use. The maps showed roughly 40% of our planet (is being used for either growing crops or grazing cattle. By comparison, only 7% of the world's land was being used for agriculture in 1700. The research indicates that there is now little room for further agricultural expansion. (Full)Amplified by the current food crisis, food-deficit countries (countries that can not... More About: News , Land , Battle
News: Cost of solving the food crisis: $30 billion/year.
2008-06-04 22:44:00 "Resolving the global food crisis could cost as much as $30 billion a year and wealthier nations are doing little to help the developing world face the problem", UN officials said at the Food Summit in Rome.Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), opened the summit by sharply criticizing wealthy nations cutting back on agriculture programs for the world's poor and ignoring deforestation ? while spending billions on carbon markets, subsidies for farmers and biofuel production."The developing countries did in fact forge policies, strategies and programs that ? if they had received appropriate funding ? would have given us world food security," Diouf, said, adding that international community finally began to mobilize to help after images of food riots and starvation emerged in the media. He said there had been plenty of meetings on the need for anti-hunger programs and agricultural development in poor nations in the last decade but not enough money to ma... More About: News , Cost , Crisis , Year
News: Dunkin' Donuts, a scarf and extremism.
2008-06-02 16:27:00 Only in America... On May 7, Dunkin? Donuts began running an ad, featuring local celebrity chef Rachael Ray wearing a black-and-white fringed scarf.The ad has now been revoked due to protest that Ms. Ray?s scarf resembled "to the type typically worn by Muslim extremists". (Full)Apart from thinking "Only in America!", the whole story truly saddens me. Even if the scarf was a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf of Arab men, then why does this have to be automatically associated with extremism, or seen as a symbol of support to terrorism? Is this a sign of the depth of the world's polarization into Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim?I have lived in Dubai for five years. I don't think I ever lived in a more tolerant society with respect for other cultures, religions and opinions. Far more tolerant than back home in Belgium, and certainly far more than the US. Sometimes I am ashamed on behalf of us, Westerners. Picture courtesy boston.com More About: News , Dunkin Donuts , Extremism
News: When Green goes Commercial: the new colonization of Africa
2008-05-31 23:14:00 More than a century after the last ?scramble for Africa ?, when European powers fought to colonise the continent, there is a new stampede into one of the world?s biggest areas of uncultivated terrain.Last year, by one estimate, the government of Mozambique received bids from foreign investors to buy 110,000 square kilometres of land, more than an eighth of the entire country.In neighbouring Tanzania , a Swedish company, is bidding for 50,000 hectares on the banks of a lake in the Rufiji province. And that is just one example.Why? A rush from European companies to grow biofuel.(Full)It begs to think if agrable land can not be used for better purposes. Using the same two examples: Tanzania has more than 40 percent of the population in chronic food-deficit regions where irregular rainfall causes recurring food shortages. Mozambique has 660,000 vulnerable people in need food assistance, and suffers from yearly flooding displacing hundreds of thousands of people.More about biofuel on The R... More About: News , Commercial , Green
Rumble: The plane with the shortest life, crashed before its first take-off
2008-05-30 23:43:00 Those of you frequently reading this blog, know I am a frequent traveller. There were times, I averaged 40 flights a month. That is why I frequently post stuff about planes, airports and air travel in general...As an aidworker, I often fly "bush planes", "special charters", or at least fly in areas where ummm... air travel might not be as strictly controlled as it should be. I gave some examples in The Road's short story "Italians, the art of flying and the laws of probability".However, this story, beats all odds:Back in November last year, a brand new Airbus A340-600 from Etihad left the Airbus factory hanger in Toulouse, France. It had never flown before, and was being tested by its crew, who were to pick up the plane for its final testing. According to a friend, here is what happened:The crew of nine taxied out to the run-up area. They took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually an empty aircraft. This was their first mistake as they obviously didn't read the run-up... More About: Life , Plane , Crashed
News:Tegucigalpa air crash
More articles from this author:2008-05-30 22:02:00 Remember a previous post The World's 10 most dangerous landing strips"? Remember how to those landing strips I added to the list, as I had experienced them as "more than scary"?Tegucigalpa in Honduras was definitive "my top favourite": coming in between mountains, a final approach skimming just a few meters above a small hill, just before diving onto a runway which seems almost tucked away in a valley. Each time, it amazed me we could actually pull the brakes in time, without tumbling off the end of the runway... It surely seemed to take all of the pilot's skills. Have a look again at the video on this post, and you will understand...Today Tegucigalpa airport seemed to have proven its sad reputation as "one of the world's most dangerous landing strips" as a TACA flight overshot the runway.(Full)Picture courtesy AFP/BBC More About: News , Crash 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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