On the morning of the Battle of Big Horn, Crazy Horse rose early to meet the dawn and paid homage to his creator. He then turned to his brave band of Indians and said ..
"Today is a great day to die....”
Is today, or any day for that matter, a great day to die?!
It is, if you believe enough in what your doing....
As the Rebels close in on Tripoli....an all too apparent realization washes over me.
They bid goodbye to their families and joined the mobs of men heading to ‘liberate’ Tripoli and dispose of the Gaddafi Regime. They were from all different backgrounds, tribes and professions, but they all shared one thing in common. They were there to lay down their lives for their belief in what they were doing.
They were prepared to die.
It has always fascinated me. Men, women and children who are prepared to die for what they believe in.
Those of us growing up in developed westernized nations may find it hard to relate to. We all live in relatively cushy worlds, rebellions, revolts and revolutions dont really exist. Laying down your life for David Cameron or dying for your belief in capitalism is just something that we are not really prepared to do.
Take religion out of this equation and you are left with men and women who are described by some as ‘Freedom Fighters’ and by others as ‘Terrorists’.
Similar words are thrown around, separatist, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerilla, rebel even patriot to name but a few. They all fascinate me because they all have something in common.
The willingness and commitment to die.
The aphorism is all too cliche, ‘One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter’.
So as the rebels march forward on Tripoli, the sons of Libya are risking their life for a post- Gaddafi life. A single sniper bullet could end their lives instantly, a tank shell could blow them to pieces any second, but they march on.
Death may scare them, but death is the ultimate sacrifice for ones freedom.
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freeeeedom!!!” - William Wallace.
I have made a list of current conflicts around the world that severely hinder travel on a domestic level around the world. There you will find, men women and children who are believe that today, may just well be, a great day to die.
(Note that I have not added to this list any religious based organization or groups who have been criminally inspired)
"wat u lookin at?" ..... was the response a little old lady got when she inquired about what the local youths on her street were up to.
In a separate incident on the other side of this city, an elderly man was smashed in the face and landed face first on the concrete, instantly sending him into a coma, then the afterlife, after he too, confronted the youth on his life-long neighbourhood street.
London cut loose.
Its loose ends were burning, wildly and dangerously, flapping about in the air like an electrical cord igniting and exploding. There were sparks, there were flames, there were deaths and there were stunned Londoners left wondering what just unfolded on their doorsteps.
I had the unfortunate experience of living close by to the madness that consumed parts of London last week
I was following the mayhem on twitter and watching out the window. It was the first place I instinctively turned to following the revolutions across the 'Arab Spring'.....but sadly, this was no revolution, this was no uprising, this was just disgusting, this was just mindless violence and a spontaneous crime spree.
Now the dust has settled, the windows being repaired, there remain many deep rooted questions that must be addressed.
Its a given that Politicians will slander each other, propose preposterous proposals and sing a tune of righteous and order. But behind the words, cracks remain. Scars that wont heal with a parliamentary inquiry, embers that wont extinguish with empty rhetoric.
London, madness arrived on your own doorstep last week.
The shutters came down and hoodies came up. Worlds collided.
Which begs the question, what kind of world do we live in when elderly ladies get mocked and elderly men get punched in the face on their own doorsteps?
London has stirred. It was ugly. But it was real, we weren't dreaming. It makes me think, that bigger things are on the way. Bigger riots, more feverish anger, greater force, deeper wounds, deeper divisions.
Life is not sustainable at the moment. If you read my last post below, I mentioned the fact that we will need 27 planet earths like this one to sustain the worlds growing population if we plan to survive without killing each other off.
I dont see us pulling 27 earths out of the magic bag anytime soon. I do unfortunately, see a lot of death and destruction on the horizon.
However morbid it sounds, however painful and disturbing it is to ponder on that thought, i think the slap of reality across the face we just experienced in london is a wake up call....
I watched a documentary last night called ‘Man on Earth’ it was simply about that, mans time on earth.
The droopy old dude who was narrating the whole saga wasn’t nearly as exciting as the revealing of Mother Earths resilient and adaptive nature. Mother Nature, Planet Earth, The World, Gaia, Pachamama, Home, ........ whatever you call it, she’s as gentle and humbling as she is tough and unforgiving.
I dunno why I inherently call the planet a She. Maybe it has something to do with a womens resilient spirit, her sensitive nature or simply because of the direct correlation with the ability to reproduce.
The theme olde Tony was reiterating throughout the documentary was simply that. Mother Earth, our Planet, reproduces. She adapts to conditions. She has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.
But the Earth is sensitive to external forces and reacts sharply, not always with such speed, but with a consistent and almost methodical, calculated reaction.
I think this is definitely why I call the planet a She.
Cue the topic ‘climate change’.
Yeah yeah, blah blah, its a two word phrase thrown around more than the the 90‘s classic, ‘ya mumma’.
But it is a fact. Climate change occurred 7000 years ago. The World adapted to the external forces it was forced to endure.
The entirety of Africa was once abundant with natural resources. Awash with such distinguished features such as lakes and rivers, covered from coast to coast with pristine rain forests. That all disappeared due to Mother Earths reaction to atmospheric conditions. Climate change.
Now the north of Africa is peeled back, the lush green fertile surface erased and now there exists nothing but sand, hot dry crusty sand.
From the Atlantic ocean to the Mediterranean sea, fucking hot sand.
Random fact. The Sahara is over 9 million square kilometers of desert. Say what?! Must suck being a camels toe. (Hot sand ;)
Climate change is occurring now. This minute, all around the World. The Planet is reacting and Mother Earth is buckling under the pressure.
Cracks are showing. Literally. Like the ones in the roads of downtown Christchurch, New Zealand.
There are three easily identifiable issues staring down the barrel at Mother Earth.
Population, overconsumption and inefficient resource use.
It is claimed that if humans don’t sort out these issues by 2050, just 40 years from now, then we will need 27 other planets just like this one, to be able to support ourselves. If that is, we continue to use and consume the Worlds natural and non natural resources at the rate we are going and reproduce the way we are reproducing.
Astonishing aye?! The kind of startling fact that makes you not want to bring up kids in this World, for their sake.
There is not doubt, with us ants (humans) affecting the atmospheric conditions of theWorld, the knock on affects every living organism that clings to Mother Earths skin. Ok thats not fair, cows also need to look at the amount of farts they beef out. This has a massive effect on the ozone layer.
Cows fart 4 times more than humans. If that is anywhere near how many my girlfriend can pop out on a good day, thats some serious gas.
So whats the answer?!
Probably not.
I ride a bike everywhere, but thats almost suicidal on a good day in London. Don’t buy Mcdonalds in places like Brazil where cattle are farmed on irreplaceable Amazonian soil. Conserve the precious amounts of finite fresh water we have....turn off unnecessary lights....the list goes on and who am I to blast these ideals down your throat?! Im certainly guilty of simple pleasures, although I did secretly tell myself I was a dirty rotten bastard when munching down a cheeseburger on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
What I think every human being occupying space on the surface of this Earth can do to affect climate change is quite simple.
Be conscious. Be conscious of how your actions in your everyday life affect others, not just those in immediate vicinity, but those in far away lands also.
Sounds like some sermon delivered to you by new age Buddha Backpacker Boy here, but its not. Nor am I preaching to the choir, singing REMs ‘its the end of the world as we know it...”
Im just welcoming you to our world like Roy Orbison would. This is reality. The world around us is changing.
Our planet is hanging on a thread. Its a delicate world out there. Your world can be turned upside down at any moment.
Better book that ticket to Timbuktu then.....
If you haven’t yet seen this dazzling documentary, filmed over the course of 10 years, shot aerially over 75 different countries, then lock it in. The entire thing is free on youtube, as the famous Yann Arthus - Bertrand did not want to make any royalties or cash from this labour of love.
Iraq. One of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth.
A turbulent mash up of ancient civilization and cave men with guns. This is the region once described as the 'craddle of civilization', the birthplace of writing and the wheel, where the hanging gardens of Babelyon lie....
Iraq, its on its knees. Theyre bleeding rivers of blood, too thick for a backpacker to swim through.
After 10 straight years of indiscriminate killings, of rife and ugly secteriran killings, suicide bombings and assassinations.... the people are broken, the country plunged back into the dark ages.
Its certainly a dark enough place at the moment.
Enduring the despotic dictatorship reign of sadistic Saddam must of been tough for the average Iraqi, then comes the gulf war followed by the invasion of the 'coalition of the willing'. In between foreign intervention and tyranny there's the bickering civil wars, the relentless acts of daily violence...where does it end for Iraq? Actually, where and when does it even begin...?!
Iraq has gone past the point of anything that resembles normality. No matter your race, religon or nationality, somone will find an excuse to kill you.
Torture is something you can buy down at the local market. It comes in a multi-pack containing a sack, duct tape and a humungous-sized machette. Hang around the market long enough and you might even catch the rough end of a good olde fashioned 'market blast'
Hostage taking is just what happens.
Heres a list of the known foreign victims, living and perished .... but just remember, for every 1 foreigner kidnapped 12 Iraqis succumb to the same fate.
The only cool thing about Baghdad is the fresh air on the open-roof bus tours. The roof-top rips open when you pull on the cord beneath the seat...
Travel in Iraq is possible.
There does exist a budgetpacker style of travel. But it can be only found in the north of Iraq. Iraq Kurdistan is different.
Thats northern Iraq, a region that is actually considered one of the up and coming destinations in the world, according to the New York Times. The Kurds are known to be very hospitable people and food and lodging is cheap.
There is a saying, every car in Iraq is a taxi. But watch yourself, not every man is a taxi driver.
(A bizarre clip on whats really going on in Iraq.....)
Just last week, a mass grave containing 900 people was unearthed. Nearly every day, the daily headlines murmur something about death and misery in this god forsaken and forgotten land.
Theres plenty of other places in the world that have sun and sand.
A discombobulated country on the horn of Africa. Affectionally known as 'the land of spices'
Somalia. Its certainly hot and spicy.
A backpacking trip through here would guarantee a bit of a rush. The experience would leave you with the hair permanently standing up on the back of your neck. Or just leave you.....
Its a country when pretty much anything goes. The reality of day-to-day life in Somalia is the stuff hopelessness is made of.
Without a functioning government in this country since 1991, the country has gone through a bit of a turbulent time of late, a bit of a free-for-all.
And by that I dont mean freebies or free-dom in any sense..
The large land mass that was once home to the largest army in Africa during the 80's, has now barely enough soldiers to protect the fragmented capital city of Mogadishu.
Corruption and extortion seem to be the very threads that hold together the fiscal policy of the country.
The entire economy is based upon these two pillars of power abuse.
From the barely audible or rarely visible government to the dare devil rooky pirates, there's plenty of characters in between who are just as shady.
Al-Shabab fighters control the southern and central parts of the country. Proudly charging round on camels sprouting their religious and political ideologies. They even have the odd crack at taking Mogadishu, the country's capital city, also known as the 'city of death'. The transitional government only controls a few square blocks of the capital city. The remainder is controlled by rogue war lords, powerful clans and/or extreme Islamic-inspired militias.
Odds are, you could probably haggle on the price of your hostel room, playing them all off on each other.
'ah come on...willy the warload said he'd do it for a fiver...Al Shabab don't have any mixed dorms available.....and your the government, surely you could offer me a bit more of a 'discount'
Loosely interpreted, the name Al Shabab can mean 'the youth' and as it happens to be, there are no girls in the gang, so they are also known as 'the lads', or at least thats what they call themselves.
Standard sharia law applies in the southern and central regions and 'the lads' are known for their no-nonsense responses, you don't really don't want to be cracking out the skimpy bathers down at the beach.
(This photo of a dead US solider being dragged through the streets was taken by a journalist whose collagues were only days earlier beaten to death for taking photos)
If your volunteerpacking, be very wary of the stats stacked up against you, in the past two years, 42 relief workers have been merked. Goneski.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, a couple of greypackers traveling around the world got mixed up in the madness, to say the least. The couple now hold the accolades for the longest held captives by Somali pirates, a cushy 400 days at the hands of these ruthless thugs and criminals of the high seas.
They were released a couple of months ago. Needless to say, don't think they'll be going back anytime soon.
So basically, any form of independent backpacking adventure would basically classify as suicidal. The only way you can even think about moving about is with armoured guards, private security or Ethiopian or official Somali troops. It is likely no matter which one of these options you choose, you will engage in some form of street battle.
Pack a bullet proof vest. And your hanky. There might be tears.
Its certainly not on the top of the list for tourism destinations. In fact, its almost at the bottom of my list. Coming in at number 4 of the worlds worst places to backpack is Chechnya.
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Chechnya is a federal republic within the borders of Russia. It has its own president, parliment and consitution. Its ongoing conflict with Russia since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 has been the bane of its existence.
There has been pretty much an ongoing war since its inception onto the global stage in 91.
Human Rights Watch rencently issued these comments.... "If you are detained in Chechnya, you face a real and immediate risk of torture. And there is little chance that your torturer will be held accountable,"
You'll want to watch your antics in the bedroom whilst traveling in Chechnya. If your caught in the act of, or even accused of sex in the bum, your better hoist your pants up and run for the hills.
Article 148 of the Criminal Law Act punishes "anal sexual intercourse between a man and a woman or a man and a man" by caning and then if your caught again, death. Death comes in the form of stoning for women or beheadings for men. Tough love.
Chechnya is famous for its traditional knives and daggers. This is probably the first thing youll need to buy upon entering the country. English is spoken by pretty much no one so good luck there.
Flashpackers may be slightly enthused to know that you can enter by plane 3 times a week from Russia. For the slackpacker there exists a weekly train route but its prone to hijackings and bombs. But forget it. Seriously. The regions of Dagestan/ Chechnya / Ingushetia are notorious for kidnap risk. One of the highest rates in the world. If you dodge that, you have to deal with the worst of the worst in corrupt cops, i dont think even the Dalai Lamas patience and supply of $100US notes would hold up. The 'officials' tip off the local gangs who then either rip you off again, or simply kidnap you and eventually rip you off for more, or blatantly knock you off. Mass graves are like recreational parks in Chechnya.
(Local Kindergarten..)
Partypackers wont be so enthused to know that there is not a single disco or club in Chechnya. Its not a dry country per se but dont try and look like your having fun.
(Leave the kids at home..)
There is only one hotel to stay, a random 5 star bang smack in the middle of war torn Grozny. Its most famous guest of all time was Mike Tyson. Ha, aint nobody gonna mess with Mike. The Hotel Arena actually steamed in with a classy review on Trip Advisor, check it out...
If somehow your still convinced on traveling to Chechnya, watch this famous Russian film, called Voyna, literally translates as 'War'. Funny enough the capital City Grozny translates as 'terrible'.
Is today, or any day for that matter, a great day to die?!
