Owner: The Road to the Horizon URL:http://theroadtothehorizon.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:34:26 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Short stories about travel to the world's most remote places, working in war torn countries, life as a humanitarian worker, and about the road which is more important than the destination. Site statistics:Click here
Blog: Snow 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Some of you are asking me 'Where are you now'? Well, I am home in Belgium at this moment. These are the last months of my sabbatical year before I go back to work. And this morning, it started snowing. As I was driving Hannah to school, the roads choked up and cars started banging into each other. What just 5 cm of snow can do... Agreed, it does not snow often in Belgium, and we're not used to it.As I sat in a traffic jam, the snow made me think back of the time I worked in Kosovo. I wrote several short stories about my time there (see Italians , the Art of Flying and the Laws of Probability , Scene of War and The Pizza Place on the Corner ), but I have not yet described our 'adventures' during the Kosovar winter time. Of the many times we had to use the snow scooter to get up to the mountain tops to service our radio stations, and got completely stuck. About living in a place so dependent on electricity, but where the electricity just did not work...It was the first time I worked
The Day I Got Deported From the US 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Spring 2003. Pretty soon after the Iraq war started.Dulles International Airport, Washington. Scene at immigration counter.him: So where do you come from now, sir? (flips through my passport, filled with stamps in Arab writing)me: Right now, from London Heathrow, but that was just a transit. I flew in from Cairo, Egypt.him: How long did you stay in Cairo?me: One day.him: Where were you before that?me: In Jordanhim: And how long did you stay there?me: Also one day.him: Where did you come before that?me: Iraqhim: ?!?!me: Baghdad, Iraq. I work for the UN, you see.him: Do you have any tickets to prove that?me: No, I flew on a UN plane.him: I do not see Iraq immigration stamps in your passport.me: No, there is no Iraq immigration anymore since the war. The US military checks inbound passengers, but they do not stamp passports.him: OK, how long where you there for?me: A week.him: So where were you longer than a week? Where do you actually live?me: Well, my legal residency is in Belgium, but
Blog: A Lot of Crab -eh Crap?- ! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 1. A lot of Crab!While editing my Dutch eBook, Addicted to the horizon , a lot of memories are coming back. Tine and I were scanning through some old pictures when she reminded me how intriguing some of this stuff was. [there is a lesson here: one gets easily used to the extra-ordinary].I guess I got used to all of it, having gone over these pictures so many times already. And having been there. Things like the shot above, taken during our expedition to Clipperton, a deserted island in the Pacific. The land crabs were piling up trying to devour the bone of a spare rib. That is a lot of crab! They would eat anything. Plastic, cardboard, sleeping bags, ropes,... This made the island pretty clean!Human waste was considered a delicacy. While squatting 'au naturel' on the island, shorts around our ankles, we had to scuffle forward as dozens of crabs would be fighting for your waste, piled on top of each other. If you were not scuffling fast enough, they would grab hold of your private p
Blog: The Intelligence of a Human Being 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Statement: A machine can never replace the intelligence of a human being.(even though the picture might make you think otherwise) I was impressed with the translation software I found on Altavista's Babelfish and used for the online translations of this blog (see icon in the right column). I tried to find one which could use Dutch as a source language, to translate my Dutch eBook. In the end, I found one, so I did a random test with something I wrote about Clipperton Island. Tine and I could not stop laughing with the translation into English:Friday 6 March 13h local time:"clip by barrel on the radar, clip by barrel on the radar", calls someone vanop the bridge. Everyone leaves falls what falls, and sprint to the brug."Waar, where?"here to see you that not, which stipjes"That dingetjes here? Bah, which are golves, man"no, no not where, we are scarcely on ten mile of clip by barrel, and according to Mike is that the moment that we must see clip by barrel on the baffle".But dot that com
Blog: Pakistan stories #1 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I am still working on the Dutch eBook about the expeditions. I should be finished inserting the last pictures today. Once that is done, I will get more time to continue writing short stories for 'The Road to the Horizon'.. Meanwhile, just thought of a story today... Actually several. Will publish them as separate blogs, and maybe later combine them to one short story about Pakistan
. Here's one:TV Censorship, the Pakistani WayWhen I arrived in Pakistan, there was not much to do in the evenings, but to sit in the guesthouse, read a bit or watch TV. It stroke me I would regularly get a test picture on the TV screen, you know, the colour patterns. Like there was some kind of technical problem at the TV station. Sometimes, hours would go by, and all was fine, and other times, the test picture would appear every couple of minutes. It would happen seemingly at random, no matter if it was a movie, a TV series or a documentary they showed.. It was a mystery to me.After a while, I figured ou
What is this blog is all about? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This blog is all about stories. Stories of remote, sometimes exotic places. Either where 'few men have ever gone to', but more often where 'nobody with a sane mind would ever want to go to'. The stories are about the people I met there and the situations I encountered. All 'True Stories', even though the names of people are changed to protect their privacy.Some stories are inspired by the work I do as a relief worker for an international humanitarian organisation. These are the stories about war-torn countries, areas devastated by natural disasters, or engulfed by political turmoil with an impoverished population.Another inspiration is what I do in my spare time: expeditions to places even more remote than those I work in, searching 'the end of the known world'.Yet other stories are just picked up while sailing and travelling with the family.Sometimes the travel gave me funny stories, sometimes silly. Other times, the stories are about being enraging, sad or baffled. A couple o
The Polls 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Please, please, take the time to fill in the polls to help me make the blog better! All polls are local and will NOT take you to another website unless if you click the 'see map' link, where you will see the worldmap marking who answered from where!For any direct feedback, feel free to write to peter(dot)casier(at)pandora(dot)beFree Poll by Blog FluxFree Poll by Blog Flux Read more:Polls
Latest Updates About This Blog 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Feb 17, 2007:Moved the poll away from the main page and put it in a separate page.Feb 16, 2007:I marked the eBook directory with tags 'new', and 'updated' to indicated the most recent changes My Dutch eBook (about my expeditions to the Pacific and Antarctic) is now ready, with hundreds of pictures: Addicted to the Horizon I have started translating parts of this blog-site into Dutch, published hereAs an experiment I have added polls to the latest stories so I can get faster feedback. If you think they are a drag, let me know. Added pictures from my time in Dubai- UAE and East Timor (they were taken one day before Pero was killed) to the Flickr account. You can access the pictures through the 'My Pictures' sectionOh, and I changed the front page banner. Pretty cool, no? A picture taken by my friend Arie Nugteren during our expedition to Howland Island in the Pacific.Have Fun!Peter Read more:Latest Updates
TV Censorship, the Pakistani Way 1970-01-01 00:59:59 When I arrived in Pakistan, there was not much to do in the evenings, but to sit in the guesthouse, read a bit or watch TV. It struck me I would regularly get a test picture on the TV screen, you know, the colour patterns. Like there was some kind of technical problem at the TV station. Sometimes, hours would go by, and all was fine, and other times, the test picture would appear every couple of minutes. It would happen seemingly at random, no matter if it was a movie, a TV series or a documentary they showed.. It was a mystery to me.After a while, I figured out that the test pictures appeared each time there was a 'sensitive' scene, where a bit of 'flesh' or some male/female intimacy was shown. Be it a lady in a short skirt, a person undressing (even taking off a shirt), people kissing,... I thought that could not be a coincidence! It was real funny, and really frustrating in some TV shows like 'Silk Stalkings'. You know, those pseudo detective series where all the 'good guys' Read more:Censorship
, Pakistani
Islamabad Stories#2: The US Special Forces Have Arrived! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Islamabad, Pakistan. Sept 14 2001Yawn! Another interagency coordination meeting. Since 9/11 three days ago, we had one every morning. And it goes on and on and on and on… Stuff which is important, no doubt, but not really interesting for me. I don't have a real say in those meetings, as my unit merely plays a logistics support role. So I sit in the back, in a corner, trying to blend in with the furniture.I knew exactly how this was going to evolve. Two planes crash into the NY World Trade Center, and all hell was to break loose in Central Asia. The morning after 9/11, it seemed however that few people sitting in this room now, realized how it was going to influence their work, their lives for the coming years… They all had a typical denial reaction. Until it started to hit them in the face. Now, three days later.And there was no denying the facts anymore today! Pakistan and Afghanistan are now continuously in the news, with the world's big news networks flying in with plane loa Read more:Stories
, Special
, Forces
, Special Forces
Blog: Others Do It So Much Better Than Me#1: Pernille in Uganda 1970-01-01 00:59:59 While writing for my blog, and doing research for some of the stories in the eBook, I came across some interesting material. So interesting, it actually made me a bit jealous. "There are a lot of people out there that Do It Much Better Than Me", I'm thinking.That is why I am starting a new Blog-thread called just that "Others
Do It So Much Better Than Me." This is the first one in a series pointing to travel-jewels I found.I lived in Uganda
for four years. I wrote a few shortstories for the eBook about it: The Ugly Duckling, Kadee and Abby One and Abby Two. There are some more in the making.However, I found a blog-site reflecting exactly how I always wanted to write about daily life in Uganda: I've left Copenhagen for Uganda.It is written by Pernille, a Danish lady working for the MS (the Danish Association for International Co-operation) in North Uganda.It is the ONLY blogsite I visit daily, being curious for updates.Pernille writes fluently, witty, inventive, sometimes cynical, mad
Blog : Others Do It So Much Better Than Me # 2 : Carl De Keyzer 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Carl De Keyzer, a Belgian professional photographer, once sent me this picture (click on it to enlarge). It is still one of the best I have ever seen of Afghanistan. One picture so full of different stories. The scars of war, the kids, the mountains, the isolation, the poverty, a past with barely a future.. all in one shot.Carl did several missions shooting in war-torn and isolated places. He has a gift, I would pay dearly to have myself :-) His website is here. Just magnificent.Give feedback about my blog through the local poll. Read more:Others
The Man With the Air Conditioner on his Head, Shot at Us 1970-01-01 00:59:59 One fine day. Uganda. 1997."Just for your information', says Lionel on his mobile phone from Brazzaville.. On the other side of the line, in Kampala, Uganda, I smile. I love Lionel. His French accent seeps through his English."Just for your information, I drove back from the airport a few minutes ago. Dropped off one of our staff. On the way back, I saw some troops on the street. There was machine gunfire here and there. Not much, but it does not seem normal. I am going back to the hotel, and will let you know what's happening"As I put the phone down, I look at Mats, sitting at his desk on my left. We have an open space office. No walls, so everyone can see everyone else. And hear everyone else. Mats puts his chin up, and smiles as if saying "And… what news from Lionel?"."Dunno… Gunfire in Brazzaville town. He's going back to his hotel"Through the years in this "humanitarian business', Lionel developed a sixth sense for danger. Like many of us. I don't Read more:Conditioner
, Air Conditioner
A Peep Through the Keyhole: 1970-01-01 00:59:59 To satisfy the curiosity of the readers, and to acknowledge some stories friends reminded me of (and to deal with my frustration of not being able to publish everything at once), here is a list of blogs-ideas-short stories I am working on, or which are finished and awaiting publication: (phew, that was a long sentence!)Are First Impressions Deceiving? The Adventures of Egbert in KosovoA short story of an Indian in Kosovo Faces of KosovoEither a blog or short story or series - I dunno yet, about ex-colleagues of mine in Kosovo. Kosovars that worked for us 'way back', and what has become of them Stuck in MpulunguShort story about an adventure in Zambia More of 'Others Do It So Much Better Than Me' A series about the 'Loos of the World'a surprise. includes a contest with books to win! Girl Powereither a blog, or a short story or a series of courageous women I met over the years. Islamabad stories - The SequelMore in the series of 'Islamabad Stories' The Blues BrothersTwo brothers Read more:Keyhole
Blog: The Intelligence of a Human Being - Part #2 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I re-state:A machine can never replace the intelligence of a human being.(even though the picture might make you think otherwise)Most of the Google advertisements on this page are generated automatically, based on the contents of the blog. I do have to monitor it though. Sometimes I have to block some ads which seem weird or inappropriate within the context of the story. Like the short story about the Taliban in Afghanistan (In Pace) was generating an ad about 'Meeting Afghan Woman Online"...The funniest is that my post about The Day I got Deported from the US generated an ad:"Visit the US visa-free for 90 days. Download application guide.www.usimmigrationsupport.org"Do you think "They" are monitoring? You know, "Them" ? :-) Do you think "They" are trying to send me a message that "they" have forgiven me?"They" must be, as even within the time of writing this blog, the deportation story generated three more similar ads on one page claiming "they" can get me a US visa 'trouble free'
Blog: Others Do It So Much Better Than Me # 3: .. The World's Most Dangerous Places 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The World
's Most Dangerous Places
by Robert Young Pelton (Harper Collins) is a book I wished I could have written. All 1,022 pages of it.One of the best books, and by far the best travel book, I have ever read. My copy is the 4th edition, released in 2000, but the 5th hit the market in 2003.It is a travel guide about 'those places no-one in his right mind' would want to travel to. It is not only a travel guide. It is a handbook for the 'extreme traveller', a 'data bible' cramped with interesting facts and background material. All about the countries considered as the "World's Most Dangerous" and about how to take precautions for about any kind of situation you could encounter.For each of the countries listed, R.Y.Pelton gives an introduction, a travel story, maps, describes who the 'players' -those in power- are, how you get there (in and out), what the dangers are, and other factual data. Full of reference material, book titles, websites, historical facts, etc...It is easy Read more:Others
Blog: The Intelligence of a Human Being - Part #3 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Probably the subtitle of this blog should be:'How a 30,000 ton icebreaker turned into a flowerpot'.Or:'How our lifes are ruled by machines...'I keep all my blog pictures on Flickr. I have hundreds of pictures stored there, mostly for my Dutch eBook. Last week something went wrong. I noticed it first when the front page picture of the eBook had turned the Akademik Federov - a huge Antarctic research/cargo vessel into a vase with flowers. Pretty strong trick. I mean it is a 30,000 ton ship!I logged onto Flickr, and could not believe my eyes. Probably one third of my pictures had been replaced by completely different ones. There were flowers, beach parties, animals,... instead of my expedition pictures from the Antarctic and the Pacific. On the Flickr forum, a stream of complaints started. Everyone had the same problem: 'their pictures were switched with those from others': A lady wrote: "I like the new Flickr pictures. On all my self portraits, I seem to have lost 40 pounds, and 30
Reader's Digest of the Short Stories 2007-03-01 23:17:00 This blog contains both typical blog entries (I call them 'ramblings') and short-stories. For a peek preview of all short-stories, go to the Reader
's Digest
of 'The Road the to Horizon' Read more:Short
, Stories
Wild Cannabis and "Oh Baby"! 2007-03-01 09:39:00 At the time, our Islamabad main office was based in a building called ‘Saudi-Pak tower’, along one of the main avenues. At first (and second, and third,..) sight, it was a weird looking office building. Weird, in a good way. You could not see any windows, but it had an exotic, Middle-Eastern flair to it. I spent a couple of years working in Saudi Pak towers. Quite some memories.Wild Cannabis
You needed to pass a security checkpoint next to the building before being allowed to drive onto the parking lot. This caused a bit of traffic jam in the morning, when everyone was coming to work. Next to the checkpoint was a piece of bare land, with different billboards from the UN agencies and NGOs based in ‘The Tower’. Sometimes the weeds on the bare field were growing that high, they would almost cover the view of the billboards. As I was sitting in the car, queuing up one morning, I thought at first, I was mistaken. But no, the wild cannabis was growing that high, it almost covered up t
The Reader's Digest of 'The Road to the Horizon' 2007-01-02 10:45:00 For the readers' convenience, here is a short introduction and a quote for each of the eBook chapters. Click on the title to view the entire short-story.Introduction to "The Road to the Horizon"How I made the decision to change my life, how I got in the world of humanitarian aid, and how I started 'walking the Road to the Horizon' African music played on the tape recorder, that night, as I sat in the car for what seemed like hours. I remember it very well. Just looking into the dark night. Listening to the exotic sounds, dreaming of exotic places. It suddenly darned on me: “This is not my life. Actually it is not a life at all”. Life is supposed to be creative. Variable. Free. Filled with the laughter of children, working with people one likes, working when one likes, doing what one likes. Going to places one likes. I wanted to do things so once, old and ready to die, I could take my grand children on my knee, and close my eyes, and look back on a life I could be proud off. A li Read more:Reader
, Digest
Blog: Others Do It So Much Better Than Me # 4 : The Kite Runner 2007-03-03 15:44:00 In the introduction to the eBook, I wrote about the decision to quit my managing job in a large corporate firm and to do something completely different with my life. Back then, in 1993, I swore NEVER to be a manager again. I wanted life to be simple. 9 to 5! Set off on a job with a clear perimeter and targets, so it was easy to measure how I performed. Being a technician (again) during my first missions to Africa, made life much simpler for me: either the installed equipment worked or it did not.. Much easier than work as a manager where deliverables are greyer and objectives more obscure..Somewhere along the road, I must have done something wrong, as 10 years later I ended up as the director of the Dubai office... I was probably the only director running around in Tshirt, safari pants and sandals in the office. I did keep a suit in my locker, though, just in case a government official showed up for a meeting.One day, I put my suit on for the deputy minister of Agriculture from a Weste Read more:Others
, Runner
Rumble: Will Blogging Get You Fired? 2007-03-04 17:56:00 Possible subtitles for this rumble: “What have Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Sudan and Ellen Simonetti, an attractive young flight attendant have in common?“ (And it is not what you think, you dirty minds, you!)“The conscience struggles while standing on the soapbox”“The Day I met the Terrorist Organisation, to Publish or not to Publish?”Or maybe just “Ramble, rumble and the sorts. A Retrospective Trip Into a Trouble Mind!” :-)My fifteen minutes of fame.This website is now about 6 weeks old. Born out of the lust to (finally) publish my short-stories. And flattered by the response from the readers. It is always nice to do something, that others find interesting. Little was I prepared for what happened this weekend. Normally the counters in the right column show me an average of two to three users online at any given time. I knew something was different when last Thursday night (eh, Friday morning 2 AM), just before going to bed, I saw Read more:Blogging
, Fired
Rumble: Others Do It So Much Better Than Me #5: Jonathan Dumont 2007-03-06 20:39:00 In one of my previous lives, I made two video documentaries about the expeditions we did to the Antarctic. Well, to be precise, for one I did the camera work and script, and Bart did the studio work (which was probably 90% of the sweat!). For the other one, James took the shots, Bart did the studio work, and I did the bossing around. It taught me some of the art of videography. Or at least made me appreciate the technology, efforts and creativity behind videography.JonathanDumont
once was a senior producer for CNN and a TV news producer for the BBC. He won several Emmy Awards for his work. But now, he is the videographer-cineast-script writer-cameraman-celebrity chaser at WFP. He makes/supervises all the video productions WFP does. Once I received permission to run a free video informercial (PSA) on the big displays at the Dubai airport. I called Jonathan in the morning, and he emailed me a custom made clip in the afternoon. Talking about fast! I think that spot is still running today Read more:Others
The Day the Groom Got Deported From the US. 2007-03-07 08:58:00 This story is a true story, just like all of them in ‘The Road to the Horizon’. It is a story within a story.. It happened in the background from ‘The Day I Got Deported from the US’, which I published before. In many ways, this one is much more painful than mine.To protect the privacy of the people involved, I changed their names.I met Omar and Iman at London Heathrow. Well, I did not exactly “meet” them. I saw them on the same flight as I was, from Cairo to London. They showed up at the departure gate in London for the flight to Washington too, and were sitting in a row of seats, their backs to mine.They were a lovely couple. Both were tall, slim, well groomed. Two young attractive, ordinary people. And clearly very much in love, as they sat with hands stranded one in another, her head on his shoulder as they were talking. I felt a bit embarrassed overhearing their conversation, but I could not help it, as we were sitting back to back. They spoke mostly in English, with
Rumble: Climate Change Gives Flowers To One, Famine To the Other. 2007-03-08 20:29:00 Subtitle: ClimateChange
? You Bet? Two newsflashes came in today....Newsflash: Belgium Had The Warmest Winter Ever.“With an average temperature of 6.6°C, this winter has been the warmest ever in Belgium.”I thought to remember that ‘winters used to be much colder’, but I had not been home for a whole winter since a long long time. I had nothing to compare with. Apart from that one day with snow, it did not feel cold. Wet, yeah, but not cold. Until I saw heard the news: The warmest winter ever..This evening, we were driving the kids back from school, and I found this tree in bloom, along the road. First week of March! Usually this does not happen for another 4-8 weeks. You don’t need to be an expert to know this is not normal anymore.Newsflash: Southern Africa Heading for a Food Crisis. Again.The other side of the “weather change medal”...On a positive note:Since 2004, harvests in southern Africa have generally improved due to better weather patterns and the broader availa Read more:Flowers
, Famine
hotel 2007-01-06 11:07:00 ignore this, this is a test.
News: The New African Genocide 2006-01-01 05:49:00 Source: CBS News online08 March 2007Less than ten miles from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's mansion in Harare — the largest private residence on the African
continent — Cleophus Masxigora digs for mice. On a good day, he told me, he can find 100 to 200. To capture the vermin, he burns brush to immobilize them, then kills them with several thumps of a shovel. This practice has become so widespread in Zimbabwe that, as a Zimbabwean journalist informed me, state-run television has broadcast warnings against citizens setting brush fires. Masxigora began hunting mice to support (and feed) his wife and three children soon after Mugabe began confiscating thousands of productive, white-owned farms in 2000, a policy that has since led to mass starvation. Not long ago, Zimbabwe, the "breadbasket of Africa," exported meat and produced what was widely considered to be Africa's finest livestock. Today, Masxigora tells me that each mouse nets $30 Zim dollars, about 12 cents, which makes Read more:Genocide
News: The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them 2006-01-01 05:40:00 Source: Ottawa Citizen 08 March 2007By Sheila SisuluAnnie's life was good -- she had studied agriculture at a university and her husband was a gold and diamond trader. Together, they lived with their children in a four-bedroom house in Bukavu, which lies on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Yes, they had lived well. That is, until her husband was forced to flee for his life and she was gang-raped by five of the government soldiers looking for him. When they returned, they told her, they would kill her.She didn't wait -- she took her children and went in search of peace and safety. But before she found it, she was stopped by a rebel ambush and sexually violated with bottles. Only then did she make it to a refugee camp, where for the past year she has been living in a mud house and sleeping on the ground with her nine children.Annie's story is all too familiar. The faces may change, the details vary and the language in which it's told may be different, but Read more:Lives
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