Arab terms, Arab time - the issue of women

This is a very strenuous time, I hardly get more than a few hours of sleep every night, plagued by thoughts of the past plus worries trying to get the puzzle together. It feels almost impossible to achieve just that. But, at the end, there will be an Expedition!

I have forgotten during these four years of inactivity all the enormous work involved getting an Expedition on its feet. And I am working on two at the same time, plus I have a third in the back of my head. Biggest worry of course is how to get the funding. Will potential sponsors understand the need of such an Expedition? Especially in these times of global economical worries? I have done a quick calculation on the costs and they´re more than double compared to the Siberia journey. Gee, I say....

But there´s also a lot of joy. Like slowly seeing the puzzle becoming a picture is fascinating and in some ways I think, putting together an Expedition, is like having a child born. But, I think most of all, the biggest joy, is all the people who are getting involved. Potential sponsors, regional experts, friends of the same trade and global big wigs. And, the growing interest amongst readers of my blog and fans who´ve followed me for many years. Unfortunately, or fortunately maybe, because one needs critics to stay objective, along with a growing interest you also get the back side of it, peoples jealousy and aggressive emails about your plans. I have been called a lot of things lately, everything from pro-Arab to an enemy of women. A frequent question is, how can you do an Expedition in an area of the world where women are treated like secondary human beings? What about the Honour Killings still going on, even in Western countries where you have Moslem populations? All these mails originate from Sweden...

Let me first of all assure you that I really love and appreciate women. Maybe too much, because it does make life more complicated in many instances, especially whilst needing to concentrate on getting the plans for he Expeditions together... I adore women. Secondly, yes I am pro-Arab in the sence that I think the way they live and think is of great importance to the future and to the well-being of our globe. And, to be able to understand the Arab world, like all things in life, to be able to fullfill my dream and wish, to build a bridge of understanding between their world and the west -well, even in between Arab countries a bridge is needed- the only way to understand the Arab world, is of course, one cannot hope to understand Arabia through the prism of western modernism. I have to understand it on Arab terms, in Arab time. And even though I have some experiences from the Moslem and Arab world (not the same thing, because for example, Indonesia is the biggest Moslem country -population wise-in the world), how can I give judgement, except happiness and joy which is always needed, until I really have experienced Arabia from within and understand all the intricancies involved? If there´s one thing in life I dislike, it is people giving judgement without knowing. This ignorance is, as I see it, one of the major obstacles to a much more peaceful world.

What then do I personally think about Honour killings and the subject of women in the Arab world?

I will give you a complete answer once I return from the two Expeditions, when have a full picture, until then I just want to say, and this applies to all countries, cultures, tribes and walks of life on the globe, for me it is impossible to understand why women and men get treated differently. Once everybody understands that when everybody has the same value, possibilities and wages, society has developed a grand step forward, but, being a Swede, where we are supposed to have equality, there´s still...which is almost impossible to understand.....a difference in pay for the same work. How can this be?

My only concern, a very big one, for my upcoming Expeditions, is how am I going to get in touch with the Arab women? And how am I going to describe their thoughts and lives? This worries me a lot.

A major reason to choose a life as an explorer

It is of course a very privileged life to be an explorer, to have in your mind that everything is possible and fulfil dreams most people never even get close to realising. Not even in mind or thought.

For me, proper exploration today has to do with connecting cultures, opening up horizons in other peoples mind, with the help of a camera, written words with the all mighty pen and by simple and genuine travel, e.g. not using a motorised vehicle. If an explorer turns up in a motorised vehicle, he or she has closed a door before it is even on the way to open up another horizon. By that way you build a new wall, not a bridge over the existing one. A true explorer shows other human beings first of all, this is the way, for example, that the great people along the Kolyma River in Siberia live. Exploration is about building bridges between people, not that ridiculous male theme, I am strongest and I can do this and that. Very tiring indeed.

Another important issue of today's exploration, is to try through science to open up other peoples eyes about the realities we live in. And help to put together this eternal puzzle, concerning the meaning of life, our globe and why are we here.

Hmmm, lost a bit of my train of thought there....what I want to write, is to tell you readers, that one of the most fulfilling aspects of having chosen this life, is all the great people you come across, not only whilst travelling, but people doing what you are doing, exploring!

Two of my best friends, even though I have so far never met them in person, is CuChullaine and Basha O´Reilly. (See photo)These are some of the most intelligent, warm hearted and generous people I have ever come across. Everything they do is to make this a better world to live in. Two grand personalities and human beings who run one of the most prestigious Societies in the world, The Long Riders Guild. I have communicated with them a lot the last two years and they have in many ways done my life a lot of good. Some of the most inspiring people I have ever come across and CuChullaine has also written one of the best books I have ever read. They´re ready for one of the most compelling challenges in history really, a four year global ride! See http://www.theworldride.org/

They are exactly what a world full of copies need, two original thinkers and genuine human beings! I am honoured in many ways to be part in their team of advisers.

Basha as asked me to quote her, because she has a very important job to do and need help:

"Because you have travelled from the Pampas of Patagonia to the frozen tundra of Siberia, we are urging all of your friends throughout the world to check the master breeds list on the World Ride website. If their horse's breed is not represented, I would ask them to print off the DNA form, complete it and send it to The Long Riders' Guild with some mane or tail hairs. In this way, everybody who contributes will become part of the largest collection of equine DNA in history. Horse owners are rushing to represent their favourite breed, including White River horses from Mongolia, Manga Largas from Brazil and Marawaris from India. Yet there are still hundreds left unaccounted for, and we particularly anxious to obtain DNA from the fabled horses of Yakutia."

Mikael, here's the link to the Breeds page: www.theworldride.org/breeds/breeds.htm

The quest of assisting other Expeditions

One of the biggest honours you can get as an explorer, is of course, being asked by other explorers or explorers-to-be who wants advice regarding their upcoming Expeditions. I have been fortunate to have had many queries throughout the years, maybe 50-60 serious ones, and three times as many not so serious ones. That is why I once upon a time started an expedition school which today has hit the grave, unfortunately. To teach people how to do Expeditions, because it is not an easy topic. Almost 80% of the people who have asked my advice and who have set off have failed to do what they hoped to achieve. Basically due to that they lost their enthusiasm after 3-7 weeks. And they had prepared badly when it came to sleeping in a tent, cooking under difficult circumstances and lacked the proper motivation to, why do I do an Expedition?

Right now I have one guy I´ve assisted, my friend Marcin´s Kolyma Expedition, who has had serious problems with the extreme cold and his equipment braking and he has changed his initial route, ending in Bilibino instead of Chersky. And it seems like he has been backed up by two friends most of the time in a vehicle, I am afraid, due to the cold. Still he is fast! But he is a true explorer, no doubt.
Christian Bodegren (see photo above) however, is planning his first Expedition. Travelling by camel from Egypt to Morocco, a great feat. He came to visit me today, we spread maps on the floor, chatted about oasis, where to start and we´ve been looking at what is waiting for him. Question is, he could do as good with a piece of sand paper. His Expedition though, is of great interest to me, since a crossing of the Sahara is part of my great Arabian project. Christian has dived into pretty much all books on the project and he is well versed of all existing routes through this great desert. As far as we know, the only crossing with camels of the Sahara desert by white people, was done by Michael Asher and Marieanetta Peru in the 80`s, but Christian would then be the third European to cross the lot and the first Swede in history. (There are some amazing ultra runners which have crossed it, supported, a reader told me, for example http://www.runningthesahara.com/ , but I consider this sport, not exploration of another culture. Still, what a feat!) Christian, though, is very eager to do it with 5 camels and wants to leave as soon as possible. His only worries are the visa regulations in countries like Libya and Algeria, stupidities is hindering every explorer worldwide, these ridiculous obstacles making life so much harder for the good of all human beings. Christian is also reasonably ambitious and sees the Sahara as a project of three big challenges in his life, which is a great thought and that makes me believe he will do it. No matter what. He is also very sensible regarding sponsors, one of the most frequent questions I get and I have always answered, first do a big Expedition, then ask for sponsors, when you have a better CV. Christian understands this, even if he comes from the south of Sweden.

However, he didn´t like my moose heart stew today, which makes me wonder how he is going to handle a casserole made up of local intestines mixed with goat testicles....

The value of books, new and old

Happiness is to wake up a Sunday morning, dizzy from worrisome thoughts from the day and night before, and pick up one of the loads of books you have next to your bed, and start reading and suddenly realizing you´ve forgotten all worries and suddenly feel full of joy, happiness and see no obstacles att all waiting ahead for you in the future!
The book I picked up this morning was an old book that I picked up back in the late eighties, which I then used for research to write a book about my 2½ years on a push bike from New Zealand to Cairo, The Arabs by David Lamb. A tremendous human being and journalist I came across the first time when doing research for a book after my 2½ years on a push bike from Norway to South-Africa. He had then written a, in black Africa a very controversial, book called The Africans. As good as his about the Arabs.
But the first book on the subject of Arabia I wanted to read, was however, Edward Saids book Orientalism, which has attracted extreme attention globally. I thought that would be a good introduction to this extraordinary subject called Arabia. What a bore! It amazes me that anyone can read more than a few lines before falling asleep. Written by a scholar, for sure. Yawn!
So this morning I started off instead with David Lambs book The Arabs, and he of course is a writer and a story teller and it is a great book. And even though, it is two decades since it was originally published, the book remains a lucid introduction to the main themes of Middle Eastern politics, history and social issues that most westerners find intractable. And, with a bokk like this, suddenly you experience that great feeling of learning and adding new insights into lifeto add to ones knowledge, a supreme feeling.
So, 50% of my research material is 20 years of age almost, but still valid, and I have picked up a lot of new books on the Internet, whose titles have been supplied to me by experts on Arabia, especially my new friend, the humourous Justin Marozzi. One of the more interesting books I have found was whilst walking into a second hand bookshop on Drottninggatan in Stockholm, just to get away from the cold for twenty minutes, waiting to meet my friends Anders and Solan, and then browsed through a section where they were selling books for 2 euro and found Raphael Patais book The Arab Mind! Excellent!
These are happy times, after all!

Communication between humans

I think communication between human beings is the most important aspect of life. If we humans would communicate better and more, we would have less wars and aggressions, there´s no doubt about that. And if I have anything, regarding my abilities to do Expeditions and making them into a success, to brag about, it is my ability to listen to people and get them to talk, to communicate. And only talk when I have to motivate other people to comprehend the necessity to understand what I am doing and why.

The same applies when you go looking for sponsors before a major expedition, because I reckon the upcoming Expeditions, both of them, or should I say, all three, they will cost a huge amount of dollars. Therefore, the last week I have started looking for partners, but it takes a lot of work. And meeting a variety of people who can help, inspire and give you ideas is extremely important and that is what I have done for a month now.

Today I went to Travellers Club of Sweden to listen to a lecture by a well-known Swedish TV-anchor, Arne Weise, and shared a table with my friend and new partner Anders Åberg and a very good friend of his, Claes Ahlin, a lawyer with a big smile. We were able to shoot some ideas around and now we have one very good idea of a possible major sponsor with international connections. See how it goes, I will keep you updated on the developments. And to give you an idea what I look for regarding the choice of sponsors, just have a look at the sponsors from the Siberian Expedition here.

Opportunities arises and a 2500 km drive from Murviel to Stockholm in a 2008 Ford Mustang convertible, with a new 425 hp V-8

“It is travelling like this you really get to know people” , Anders said whilst having a short brake at a Truck Stop in Luxemburg yesterday, “And it is impossible to hide from other people who you really are.”

Anders is a great guy. Middle aged, with a bit of a pouch and an everlasting smile, once an actor who received the Swedish variety of an Oscar –Guldbaggen- who turned into an award winning scriptwriter and documentary maker. He´s extremely honest, agreeable and socially outgoing. He’s a member of Travellers Club of Sweden, just like me, and that is where I met him the first time years ago and we have on and off said that we just have to do a project together. And since we´re both soul searchers, the main project we´ve had in mind for a couple of years, is to do a documentary about people who do a pilgrimage, like the very popular one to Santiago de Compostela. A pilgrimage made famous on our time by the Brazilian writer Paul Coelho. Then we realized not long ago, that this pilgrimage has become something very popular among Westerners, as kind of another hike to add to their trekking CV and we agreed at that moment, that it then had turned into something not so interesting to document. Kind of old news. Then I introduced Anders, just by pure chance, to Facebook, which changed his life in many ways and a discovery he will make a documentary about. Anyway, when I sent out a Newsletter about me preparing for the next Expedition, which would involve deserts, he said he knew a French bloke who 30 years ago walked three times through the Sahara, and I just had to meet him in his village not far from Anders grand house in Murviel. That is how I ended up in Murviel, a picturesque village I left yesterday together with Anders and a relative of his wife, Svante, in a new 2008 Ford Mustang convertible. And quite a few bottles of local red wine in the boot. Now, this amicable bloke named Svante, is kind of an oddball in his own ways, brought up in the U.K and posh schools, meaning he speaks perfect upper class English with the odd hint of a stiff upper lip, who turned into a construction worker living in Surahammar, a kind of a back of beyond settlement in the middle of Sweden, who recently lost his job and came to Murviel to help Anders out. I just want to add that I speak cockney Essex English. All this has made Anders laugh even more than before. Together we´ve travelled three days through Europe and become great friends. That´s what happens whilst travelling in the intimacy of a Ford Mustang Convertible.

However, professionally, the most important thing is that we have realized that Anders would be a perfect partner for me at base. We don´t know how yet, but we´re making plans. It could mean a major difference in every single way, when it comes to everything that concerns the build up for a great and major Expedition. Keep your eyes open, we will know soon….the thing is, time is running fast and the Expedition is not far off and I hardly have neither any cash or sponsors ready…..but I feel very confident regarding the future.

This week has made a major difference. It could mean much more then a series of six documentaries broadcasted globally. It could mean there is a future after the Great Expedition To Come….

Old contacts, becoming new, creating the most amazing possibilities

I met the Samwells just through a coincidence really, 9 years ago. Chris sent me an email basically saying that I am working on a project for the National Geographic regarding Explorers and are you interested to be part of it? I said yes, of course, and we went through a lot together. A film came out of it and then we lost touch due to a specific obstacle that has and still is making life very difficult.
However,why dwell on obstacles and problems in these dififcult times where other people worry too much?
Anyway, Chris and his family, a tough lot, living out in the sticks in an old farm outside Girona in Spain. It is Chris, his wife and four daughters and a bunch of dogs, ducks and hens. See photo here to the left. Chris is like the rest of his family great personalities. He is a producer of film and documentaries, who has gone through a lot of hardships in life and I respect that a lot. It is, for me, easy to respect people who have gone through a lot and return to life full of possibilities and free of bitterness and hate. If it is one thing I dislike is people in the West who complain about life, simple things, when they have all possibilties most people just dream about. Not an unheard of thing in Europe, complaining and moaning about nothing. And becoming bitter from nothing.
I went to visit Chris because I wanted him to be part of the new set up for the great Arabian project and I also brought a very good friend o f mine, Anders Åberg, who had, as always a bunch of great ideas, and as always -you tend to forget these things with time- we ended up in a roller coaster visit. Chris is not the slimmest person on earth and talks incessently, throws out a hundred ideas per second, phones half the world on one of his 3-7 mobile phones and at the end, you wonder if he heard a thing of what you said, since you never get to finish a sentence and if he will be alive tomorrow. Because it is all based on his great generosity, big heart and plenty of food and booze. Not a dead moment with old Chris.
At the end we signed an agreement with Chris on a handwritten piece of paper and if all gos well, which it at the end always does if you have a positive outlook on life, we will produce a series of six programmes. Great news as you can understand! Expedition Arabia here we come!