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
Rumble: This is where I am...
2008-03-02 19:04:00 A view from my room in Cairo this morning. This is where you can find me for the next days, in a four days workshop gathering most of the logisticians in our organisation, defining the strategy for the next five years. Amongst the eighty participants coming from all over the world, there are many faces I have not seen since my time in Uganda, Kosovo or Pakistan. Memories from many emergencies, several adventures. Many people I shared happy and sad times with.View Larger Map
News: The Cost of the War in Iraq: US$3 Trillion
2008-03-02 19:03:00 Before America invaded Iraq , officials in the Bush administration estimated the war might cost tens, at most hundreds, of billions of dollars. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes lay out very different figures in their new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict." In it, they tally data on everything from troop pay to equipment to veteran's entitlements to larger social and economic costs, and examine how mismanagement, opaque accounting, and the privatization of the conflict have resulted in a megabill that Americans could be paying back for the next half-century.Stiglitz: "You can look at it and say, "This is a small percentage of a rich economy," or you can look at things like the proposed children's health-insurance program that was recently vetoed as too expensive?that can be measured in the cost of days of fighting in Iraq. Funding for a major autism research effort is equal to hours of fighting. Bush has said... More About: News , War in Iraq
Rumble: Gorbachev and Louis Vuitton. The end of communism as we knew it. Or
2008-03-01 18:48:00 Apparently this ad has been around for a while, but I only noticed yesterday, spread over two pages of the Alitalia inflight magazine: Former Soviet leader and USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev now makes publicity the French luxury label, Louis Vuitton.The ad shows Gorbachev in a car with a Vuitton bag at his side. The picture is rather dark, suggesting the gloomy ages of the Cold War and Communism . Gorbachev looks through the window at the Berlin Wall, depicted in the background.There is an interesting twist to the whole thing:Poking out of the bag is a publication with the headline (in Cyrillic): "The Murder of Litvinenko: They Wanted to Give Up the Suspect for $7,000.", referring to Alexander V. Litvinenko, the former KGB spy who died last November after being poisoned with a radioactive isotope. On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russia's President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his murder. The British authorities accused one of Litvinenko?s associates, Andrei Lugovoi, of the ...
Rumble: I will never be a city dweller (Cairo version)...
2008-02-29 21:42:00 Half the world's population will live in urban areas by the end of this year and about 70 percent will be city dwellers by 2050, with cities and towns in Asia and Africa registering the biggest growth, according to this article.Thought of that, as we flew into Cairo this afternoon. Miles and miles and miles of grey-yellow buildings with almost no signs of any green. 17 million people. Dah. Forgive me not liking cities!Picture courtesy Wikipedia. Source: The Road Daily More About: Egypt , City , Version
News: Child Soldiers
2008-02-29 18:22:00 What have Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Myanmar, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Colombia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uganda in common? These are all countries where children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts.The UN security council this week expressed "concern at the widespread and systematic use of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, in particular girls, in situations of armed conflict" and "called on all parties to take special measures to protect girls and boys from sexual and gender-based violence." A council statement read at the end of a daylong meeting on children and armed conflict expressed "readiness to review the provisions of its resolutions on the issue" ? but it made no mention of concrete and targeted measures against violators, nor of expanding the monitoring group's activities to compiling data on rape and sexual violence.You know, and THIS is what beats me. Child ren are our future. If children are part of a war ma... More About: News , Soldiers
News: Zambezi Floods in Mozambique
2008-02-28 15:09:00 At work, a team just came back from Mozambique where we provide assistance with the floods, caused by the Zambezi river, due to excessive rain.They brought these pictures with them. They show clearly the size of the devestation, the amount of farm land that was flooded, and the isolation of the villages in the Zambezi flood water.(click on the collage to see the slide show)Pictures courtesy Francesca Erdelmann and Jeronimo Tovela, with thanks to Eva-Kristin Urestad Pedersen. More About: News , Floods
News: Cyclone Ivan in Madagascar
2008-02-28 15:05:00 Cyclone Ivan hit the Northeastern coast of Madagascar Feb 17, as a category 3 cyclone with winds measuring up to 200km/hour. The storm was followed by considerable rainfall, causing quite some flooding.The picture shows flooded rice fields in Alaotra Mangoro, near Lac Alaotra, the main region for rice production in Madagascar. 14,200 hectares are flooded in this region.Thanks for the link, Kirsi! More About: News , Cyclone
News: FreeRice.com heading for a new record.
2008-02-27 01:16:00 FreeRice.com, the now famous online vocabulary game which donates 20 grains of rice for every word you get right, is heading for a new record. So far, in February, the total balance is over 20 billion grains of rice. In concrete terms, that translates into 400,000 kg of rice, or daily food rations for over one million people. Play the game, learn and help!For bloggers and website administrators, here is how you can get the FreeRice icon onto your site and help us spread the fight against hunger!Watch FreeRice distributions in Bangladesh and Myanmar. More About: News , Free , New Record , Record , Heading
News: The Food Crisis. Global Overview
2008-02-26 23:03:00 I hate to bring the bad news about "The Perfect Storm", the metaphor used to describe the global food crisis. But unless if we globally recognize we have a massive problem on our hands, we won't do anything about it.Still not convinced? Well, here are the recent symptoms of The Global Impact of Food Price Inflation:United States: The last time America's grain silos were so empty was in the early seventies, when the Soviet Union bought much of the harvest. Washington is telling the World Food Programme it is facing a 40% increase in food commodity prices compared with last year, and higher fuel bills to transport it, so the US, the biggest single food aid contributor, will radically cut the amount it gives away.Morocco: 34 people jailed this month for taking part in riots over food prices.Egypt: The world's largest importer of wheat has been hard hit by the global price rises, and most of the increase will be absorbed in increased subsidies. The government has also had to relax th... More About: News , Crisis , Overview
News: Sarkozy Video: "Get Lost, You Poor Dumb Ass"
2008-02-26 13:46:00 French President Nicolas Sarkozy was filmed by a journalist on a walkabout at the annual farm fair in Paris last Saturday.Sarkozy offered his hand to a man who said: "Don't touch me, you are soiling me." In reply, Sarkozy said, without dropping his smile: "Casse-toi, pauvre con" ("Get lost, you poor dumb ass")The video was posted on Le Parisien's website and by midday on Sunday it had been seen by more than 350,000 people. (Full)Here is the "Casse-toi, pauvre con!" video: More About: Video , News , Lost , Dumb
Rumble: Pictures from Kenya
2008-02-25 22:01:00 Stuart, a friend and colleague just came back from his Kenya mission where he supported the aid surge after the election trouble. When he told me he brought some pictures back, I thought it would be about crowds fighting with riot police, burning houses and charred cars.But most of his pictures were about children. And they touched me. I don't know why. Maybe because of the innocence they radiate, amidst violence and hatred. Maybe because while their country threatened to go up in flames, these children continued to smile. Pictures courtesy Stuart Zimble (WHO/WFP)
News: The Perfect Storm: A Global Food Crisis.
2008-02-25 00:31:00 The Perfect Storm .The world is heading towards a global food crisis. A number of factors contribute to what could be described as 'A Perfect Storm':The price of fuel increased dramatically in the past years, thus the cost of food production and transport increased dramatically, pushing the price of food higher than ever before.Last year, for the first time in many years, the world's food production went into a deficit, pushing up the price of the commodities, based on a supply and demand dynamic, even higher.Fast growing economies like China pulls people away from rural areas, causing massive urban expansion. A double spin: a smaller agricultural work force and a loss of farm land. China lost an average of 1.23 million hectares of farmland annually in the past years and is now looking for foreign farms because the nation can't feed its 1.3 billion people.The increased food prices hit the most vulnerable countries the hardest: where people used to survive on the 'edge': Their i... More About: News , Food , Global
Rumble: Italian Men - Part 2
2008-02-24 18:54:00 Yesterday, we were talking with the famous "E" and "D" about the "Italian Men" issue, again. We asked ourselves "How it was possible that my previous post about Italian men got most of the Road's Google search hits/?" Is it a myth?After that conversation, and as part of my "research" (ahum) for a series of articles about "How it is to live in Italy", I started to check the Internet for related articles. And found this interesting article and video. About the myth of Italian Men.On the Italian Adriatic coast, where romance reigns and beachcombers bask in the sun, the notorious Latin lover looks for his prey and he hunts his conquest with chat-up lines. The women are fed up. "We run away from Italian men," said Tiziana Andreoletti. "They're such a drag." And it happens all the time. Boy meets girl and boy annoys girl. So, the Italians have enacted an interesting solution to this problem. They have created a beach strictly for women. No men, children or loud disco music are allowed. ... More About: Part
News: Dubai Crane Truck Blooper
2008-02-24 17:11:00 I told you before there is a lot of construction going on around our office in Dubai . Martin sent me a picture of a crane truck with a small problem, close to our office entrance, this morning:Pictures courtesy Martin Kristensson More About: News , Truck , Blooper
News: Did Pilots Fell Asleep in a 30 Minute Flight?
2008-02-23 11:45:00 As a frequent traveller, each time I step into a plane, I feel like I am handing over my life to someone else. I try not to think about the risks involved in flying at 10 miles above safe ground. Sometimes, though news reports make me doubt if I should trust "the system", I hand my life to. This is one of them:Go! Flight 1002 took off from Honolulu at 9:20 a.m. on Feb. 13. It was scheduled to land in Hilo at 10:05 a.m., but the plane flew beyond Hilo Airport and was out of contact with air traffic controllers for more than 20 minutes, officials said.Investigators are trying to determine whether the pilots fell asleep and continued to fly out to sea, or if there was some sort of technical communication problem.The FAA said that even if the pilots did have a communication problem, normal procedure would be to stick to the flight plan and land the aircraft in Hilo at the appointed time. (Full)Check out the story in my eBook: Italians, the Art of Flying and the Laws of Probability.Carto... More About: News , Pilots , Minute
News: Dubai Builds World's Longest Arched Bridge
2008-02-22 19:10:00 Talking about bridges:If you ask anyone living in Dubai "What is the biggest challenge for you?", most probably they will answer: "Traffic is a bitch!". A big part of the problem is the crossing of the creek, separating the 'old' from the 'new' Dubai, which bottlenecks all traffic shuttling between both parts of town, and between Sharjah and the port area of Jebel Ali. When I went back to Dubai in December, 18 months after I changed my duty station in the UAE for Rome, I saw two new bridges over the creek had been built "while I was away".Two weeks ago they announced the construction of a sixth creek crossing, designed as a new landmark for Dubai with a price tag of US$681: A 1.6 km long bridge, 64 metres wide and 15 metres above the water level. It will have 12 lanes for road traffic and a track for the Dubai Metro. It will be able to handle 20,000 vehicles an hour. Once finished in 2012, it will hold the record of "The World's Longest Arched Bridge ".The project also includes ... More About: News , Middle East
News: Czech Police Lost Bridge
2008-02-22 01:23:00 If you are in possession of a bridge, the Czech police would like to talk to you!The police is investigating the theft of a 4 tonne railway bridge from the border town of Cheb. The company responsible for its maintenance raised the alarm when, ever alert, they noticed the bridge disappeared. The bridge was on a disused stretch of rail line just outside Cheb.Martina Hruskova, a spokeswoman for the Czech police, commented to AFP: 'We are not sure if it was taken for personal use or for its scrap value.' Exactly what that 'personal use' might be was left unsaid. (Full)Picture courtesy AP More About: News , Lost , Police , Bridge
News: The World Press Photo of the Year 2007
2008-02-21 21:34:00 Tim Hetherington, a Vanity Fair photographer, won the "World Press Photo of the Year 2007" award with this picture of an American soldier resting at a bunker in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan taken September 16, 2007. The jury said "This image shows the exhaustion of a man and the exhaustion of a nation, we're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line".Der Spiegel published the story behind this picture. An excerpt:They barely slept that night. All of them crowded in the bunker, against the dirt wall "away from the other wall where they would come over. " says Hetherington, "they" being the enemy.It was in that darkest hour that Hetherington took the picture that moved the world. A young soldier, leaning against the earth wall, his helmet off, arms smeared with dirt. He wipes the sweat off his brow, looking directly into the camera, his eyes foggy, his mouth ajar, part shocked, part weary, part desperate. He is wearing a large ring on his left hand.The imag... More About: News
Rumble: Kosovo Fireworks
2008-02-21 20:47:00 Ardian forwarded me these beautiful pictures made by Arijana, during the celebrations of Kosovo 's independence, last Sunday.Both feature in the previous post, Faces from Kosovo.Thanks again, Adrian and Arijana! More About: Fireworks
News: Kosovo, Independence Day
2008-02-19 21:38:00 L, a friend working in Kosovo , sent me her story of the Kosovo Independence day, a sequel to her previous post.Sunday morning, Feb 17 2008.Kosovo awakens to another cold day, covered in a mantle of snow. It might be its last day as a Serbia n province. We have agreed to meet for brunch in the market, at what we call "Police Avenue", right in front of the Justice and Police Department. There are a lot of known faces, internationals, some with a hangover from the day before, taking re-hydration salts to recover and get ready for today, the big day..On Nena Theresa Street, paved a few months ago, they've been preparing since the early morning. This is where the celebration's epicenter will take place. There is a stage and stalls sell everything: food, drinks, t-shirts (damn, I didn't get a chance to get mine) and fire crackers. The first laughs, first stories of the night before come out, of how our Serbian friends are holding up, of the news that we keep getting...None of us have th... More About: News , Independence Day
News: The New Kosovo Flag
2008-02-18 20:01:00 With thanks to Ardian! More About: News , Kosovo , Flag
News: Kosovo, The Birth of a Nation.
2008-02-18 10:25:00 This is a story from "L.", a friend working in Kosovo . The story of Kovoso's independence, seen from within.Friday Feb 15, 2008.It's the coldest day of this year, 2008.... Last night, as we were all holding our breath waiting to see what would happen during the meeting of the Assembly, it started snowing... At first it was really light, almost invisible, but little by little it came down in heaps... We've all been joking that the icing on the cake would be an electricity cut just when they're making the announcement. Lately, it's gone back to 5 - 7, 9 - 11 or 11 - 1, depending on the areas.We're going to one of our favorite places, Tirona, a restaurant where there aren't many 'internationals', where they serve you fried fish and they've got the best rajkia. The owner, who's a friend, has the TV on. We're all staring at the screen. Well! we finally understand that the Assembly hasn't decided anything.. And the electricity is cut at 11 pm....This month, the past few weeks... More About: News , Nation , Birth
Rumble: Faces from Kosovo
2008-02-17 12:52:00 On the eve of Kosovo 's independence, I am thinking of the people I met there in 1999 and 2000, right after the war. I wish for them the transition to the independence would go peacefully and smoothly.Many of those that worked with me, remained in contact through the years. I am proud that all of them have found their own path in life.Ardian was one of our radio operators in Pristina. The first time we talked, was via the radio, when I drove into Pristina for the first time, and Ardian was the one trying to guide us to our office. We are still laughing today how he used the word "Semaphore" instead of "traffic light". "First Semaphore to the left and then second semaphore to the right." I had no clue what a "semaphore" was, so we got completely lost in town.Years later, Ardian joined FITTEST, our ICT intervention team, and worked for us in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. We often sat together joking about our times in Kosovo. Even just thinking back of our stories about Herm... More About: Faces
Rumble: Volunteer!
2008-02-15 21:13:00 Hey, don't sit around thinking 'I wish I could do something to make a difference in the world'! Well, DO something! Here are two easy ways to help. And you don't even have to leave your home....1. Are you an aid worker? Or interested in humanitarian topics in the international news? Or are you regularly browsing the web, checking out the news in general? Then you must regularly come across articles we are interested in at "The International Aidworkers Today".This is a group we recently started with some friends on Newsvine. Each time we find an interesting article, we "seed" this into Newsvine: a simple copy/paste of the link, title and the first paragraph... The article is then automatically fed into Newsvine, and into the Aid Workers group.The articles are about aid or development work - with all issues around it, including the international politics - and all humanitarian topics.The goal is two fold: Raise the general public's awareness about humanitarian issues and provide ... More About: Volunteer
Rumble: Ostend, once more.
2008-02-14 19:34:00 The "Sea Men?s Monument" (Willy Kreitz, 1951) in Ostend, commemorates all those lost at sea. While the sailor standing at the top of the monument looks over the sea confidently, with almost a challenging attitude, the one at the bottom of the pillar mourns for his lost colleagues.Every Easter Monday, the town holds a procession to this monument honouring the victims of the sea, an event culmulating in the blessing of the sea by a priest? Traditional hedon practices in a catholic coat, with a folkloric gravy. ;-)The monument is erected right where Ostend?s first lighthouse was built, back in 1771:View Larger Map More About: Belgium , Flanders
Rumble: My Home Town
2008-02-13 20:42:00 I am still looking at the pictures we took last weekend, during our evening walk along Flander's coast...I was born and raised in Ostend, and left only after I graduated, at the age of 23. But I always come back, even if it was only for the sea. She has always attracted me. The scent of the silt, the mighty power and potential to harm or kill at any moment. Yet endlessly beautiful, inspiring and gracious. Ever changing colours and behaviour, changing moods in a flash.Maybe it was the sense of endlessness, the travel, "leaving but never knowing when you would come back" which always attracted me to the sea. Or the freedom. Just take off in a boat and... go!This boardwalk ("staketsel" in Flemish), runs along the entrance of the port, once busy with a active fishing fleet, cargo vessels and ferries to England. Every so often, a large vessel looses control over its helm, and rams the boardwalk, chewing out a whole piece. And every time, it is repaired. As a kid, we used to climb from t... More About: Belgium , Home , Town , Flanders
Rumble: FreeRice Goes Bangladesh
2008-02-12 15:52:00 I have reported in previous posts about Free Rice , the Internet game which translates your vocabulary skills into donations of rice to the hungry. Up to today, 18 billions grains of rice have been collected by all players.That starts to translate into REAL stuff. FreeRice donated over US$200,000 to the UN World Food Programme, resulting in actual rice going to refugees in Myanmar and Bangladesh :If you are a blogger, you can copy and paste code for the FreeRice widget from this post.Video and picture courtesy WFP.
News: Sometimes I Am Ashamed to Work for the UN.
2008-02-11 17:09:00 I am pissed off. Two articles were published in the last days that make me ashamed to work for the UN.Before we start, let me make something clear: The "UN" is one "brand" consisting of several parts which have completely different goals, operational practices and funding mechanisms. In fear of over-simplifying, I would distinguish three main parts in the UN:"The Political Side", UN secretariat in New York and UN security council, are probably the UN's most visible side. In this large forum "where world issues are debated and decided upon", every nation has its vote and voice. The critics would say "all equal, but some have a bigger vote and a louder voice than others".This side of the UN is funded through direct contributions by the UN member countries, and as such by the taxes citizens like you and me pay."The Peace Keeping Side", codenamed "UNDPKO", are the famous blue helmet-ed forces we see on TV. Stationed in conflict zones like Sudan , Eritrea, DRC etc... they often work hand... More About: News , Work , East Timor , Haiti
Rumble: The untamed romantic in me
2008-02-11 01:49:00 Ok. Call me a romantic, a sentimental fool, a dreamer. But I can not help it. I am addicted to the horizon, the sea and sunsets...I was home, in Belgium, for the weekend. This was the sunset we witnessed last night while walking along the coast. An almost perfect evening to an almost perfect day. Almost no wind, with the sky clear as could be. More About: Romantic
News: Sudanese Refugees Stranded in Israel
More articles from this author:2008-02-10 17:06:00 Some 1,000 African asylum-seekers, including over 200 women and children, are being detained in Ktsiyot prison in Israel 's Negev desert. Some have been held for up to six months. In late September 2007, all newly arrived African asylum-seekers were moved into tents within the prison grounds. Activists from various Israeli advocacy groups have begun to look into prison conditions, being appalled by "harsh conditions" in the camp:"The nights are extremely cold in the desert, yet there is no heating in the tents. The wind simply blows through them. There is no warm water to wash the children, whose ages vary from three weeks to 18 years. At least 16 are under two years old."The women and children are still being held separately from their husbands, despite the prison authority's claim that moving the asylum-seekers to the tent camp was intended to allow for family reunification. There are no social workers to supervise or assist the children, many of whom have undergone severe trauma... More About: News , Middle East , Sudan , Refugees 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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