GlobalTrek .:. 1983 to Present

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

"Sicko" brings the pain

I like Michael Moore's movies. I don't agree with his points all of the time and I don't think that he offers many viable solutions to some of our nation's many problems, but that's not his job. That's the job of the politicians and the elected representatives of your hometown and state. Watching Sicko will make you realize how woefully inadequate a job they're doing for you and your family.

Moore's latest sees him take a layman's perspective and simple curiosity to investigate how different societies approach health care. From a couple in their 50s who had to move in with their daughter and her family in Colorado Springs after they exhausted their life savings paying for care for the husband through 3 heart attacks to a French mother who has a government paid helper come and assist her with cleaning, cooking and laundry - at no cost to her.

While it's easy to see how & why pundits attack Moore (he feigns being surprised a lot - undoubtedly for effect), it's undeniable that America handles the care of its citizens in very different way to the rest of the civilized world. If you can't pay, you'll very likely get worse care, if any at all.

The film also, in brief, brings to light the fact that insurance companies have come to rule health care in America. If the amount of detail in how this came to happen were represented by the Sahara, we get about two dumptrucks full; and yet, it paints the picture. Starting with Kaiser Permanente, medical care became a for-profit business with patient care being only one of the major concerns. Over time, patient care has taken a back seat to growth and rising profits; with many neglected customers left dying with letters denying their claims for benefit. While I'm not dying, I feel this personally. In January 2006, I ruptured my left ACL and medial meniscus while playing indoor soccer. Luckily, I was insured and the whole episode including surgery and rehab cost me about $600 out of pocket. Even at hundreds of dollars, I felt relieved. When I applied for and got new insurance in October 2006, I was told that coverage for ACL injuries would not be covered as it was a pre-existing condition. They did not specify which knee. Should I be injured again, I have no doubt I'll have to fight in order to be cared for.

For his effort in making the film, Moore's being investigated by the U.S. Treasury department due to part of the film being made in Cuba. Strict regulations are still in place regarding travel to Cuba and what one may and may not do while on the island. Moore went to the main hospital in Havana and arranged treatment for 3 9/11 rescue workers. Later, they were received at a firehouse where all its members stood at attention in honor of their service.

I've been to Cuba. I've listened to Castro speak, at length, about Cuba's relationship with the U.S. and how he would love to have diplomatic relations with his neighbor to the North. I've sat, spoken with, eaten with, drank with and enjoyed time with Cubans and can say with confidence that they mean us no ill. They are no threat and yet for 45 years, our government has forbidden us from interacting with these people. It is our shame, as Americans, to bear for not having engaged our representatives to end the embargo.

Sicko brings to light one of a few 800lb gorillas lurking in American society and in a brief fashion, illustrates the implications of our attitudes toward and systems of health. The resulting impression is frightening, astonishing, shameful, and unacceptable.

For too long, corporate profits have come before care for the people; for too long the few have chosen what the many will be allowed.

We, the people, shall endure it no more.

Sicko opens in cinemas nationwide on June 29th.

Most Expensive Movie Ticket...Ever?

London is expensive. For as long as I can recall, it has been so and I always feel a sting when buying just about anything here. I'll happily cough up for fish & chips, real sausages or stuff I can only get here, but this past weekend I had a taste of how much pain your wallet can feel in this city.

Now, I've been here before and have been living in London off and on for the last month, but have a gander at the following and keep in mind that the pound is worth $1.997:

  • A bus ride is £2.
  • A single ride on the underground costs £4.
  • A pint can go for £2.75 or more.
  • A Ghanian multiple-entry, 6 month visa costs £40.
Okay, so the last one's not really fair to include and I'm happy to pay that. Furthermore, there's a cool discount card called Oyster for the transport bits that gets you about 50% off. Yet, there's one more I have to rant about. Movie tickets.

It's not just the ticket price, it's the whole event of going to the cinema in England that still seems so odd to me; like a fancy night out that's been stripped of its tux and ushers with ice creams. In many cinemas here, you still get assigned seats. At the ticket booth, they give you a seating chart and you have to select your seat. And not all seats are the same! Some are sold as "premium seats" and cost, at least in Leicester Square's Odeon Theatre, £15 (yeah, it really is about $30). I was seated across the aisle from them and saw no difference at all; just another way to snake an extra £2.50 out of you. So, that's just for the movie. Popcorn is like £4.50 for a medium and don't even ask about a Coke. Thank goodness I was totally full having just come from Wagamama; again, happily coughed up £7.95 for some ami udon noodles and £2.95 for an Asahi Special Black there.

So, I spent almost $25 to see Zodiac. At that price, it should be clear that I'm a sucker for serial killer flicks and I enjoyed this one. It was no Silence of the Lambs, but if it had turned out like Hannibal or Hannibal Rising, I think I would have eviscerated the ticket booth attendee.

Maybe I need to eat more fruit, or something.

Pearl is back in "Good Cop, Baby Cop"

Remember The Landlord? Pearl's back and this time...she's not taking any flack.

Good Cop, Baby Cop

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Hillary Clinton shows no sense of originality

Hillary, come on. The fact that you would sign off on this poorly scripted ripoff makes me trust you even less. The "I'm looking out for you" line you served up to Bill with the bowl of carrot slices alone makes me wonder if you're trying to call me fat.

I think I'll try to pin Obama down for dinner, instead.

Oh, and I don't know what you did you get Johnny Sack so miffed that he'd come back from the dead, but you'd better tell the Secret Service that he's in the john. (Click video to start)

Monday, June 18, 2007

Colbert on robots, bears and robot bears

It's simple. I saw it first. Colbert's copying me. I'm putting you on notice, Colbert!!


Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Sudan & Darfur: Then, Now and ...


Summary: This post is as distilled a version of the conflict in Darfur as I can adequately produce without trimming critical detail. Genocide, despite vows of the developed world to act, continues today. Take copious notes and bare witness.


Darfur is an area in Western Sudan, the largest country in Africa and 10th largest in the world. Most of the Western world has had little reason to pay much attention to the hot, arid nation through the middle of which runs the grand Nile. My earliest exposure to the Sudan came in the early 90s when, during my avid basketball card collecting, I came across the massive center for the Philadelphia 76'ers, Manute Bol. At 7'7" and only 200 lbs, Bol was unlike any other human being I'd ever seen; a giant with skin so dark it seemed he was always in the shadows. Beyond Bol, Osama Bin Laden spent five years in the Sudan after his departure/expulsion from Saudi Arabia in 1991; under international sanctions, Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden back to Saudi Arabia provided that the government pardon him; a condition the Saudis refused.

Sudan has a long and utterly fascinating history of influence and conflict. As with any place, history adds rich detail to the comprehension of current events, but I shall leave most of it for your own private study. One intriguing fact: in the North of Sudan, researchers found what is thought to be the world's oldest evidence of warfare dating back to the 12th millennium B.C.

Skipping 12,000 years of history, we fast-forward to the 7th century A.D. when the well-established split between northern and southern Sudan came to be and led to not one, but two vicious and bloody civil wars.

The source of the divide between North and South can be traced, in part, to religious influence. If asked what religion features prominently in Sudan, many would likely say Islam. Despite this being true, Islam didn't arrive in Sudan until around 651 A.D. when the governor of Egypt raided northern Sudan and, not finding much of value, continued towards the Red Sea; an area rich in gold and emeralds. Subsequent to the discovery of riches, an influx of Arab miners began as well as a transition of the economic structure to feudalism. Slavery became a critical aspect of the economy and a shameful piece of Sudanese culture. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the British, French, Belgians and Egyptians all laid claim to various areas of Sudan and led numerous missions to back up their claims.

Due to the size and ecological hostility of Sudan, most of the activity of foreigners occurred in the North leaving the semi-nomadic tribes in the South relatively uninfluenced. This aspect becomes critically important after 1898 when the British, through concessions from the Belgians and French, essentially ruled the entire of the Sudan (though their influence was limited in the South).

In 1943, the British began preparing the North for self-rule by dividing the area into six provinces. Three years later in 1946, the British reversed this decision and announced that the North and South would be ruled under one government situated in Khartoum in the northern part of the country. On top of the vast geographic separation from Khartoum and while most of the bureaucrats and politicians from the South had been trained in English, the new government's official language was to be Arabic. Of the 800 governmental positions vacated by the British in 1953, 4 were given to southerners. This neglect and unfair treatment of the South brought about the first civil war.

Though there is much information about the first civil war, which began in 1955 and continued for 17 years, I shall not cover it here. While it undoubtedly influenced the climate and saw the first calls for southern secession, it is the 2nd civil war that offers more insight into the Sudan of today.

In 1989, and with the backing of the same Islamic fundamentalist party (NIF) who had protected Bin Laden during his time in the Sudan, a coup brought to power a military junta that, unlike previous coalition governments, was wholly unwilling to compromise with the South. The leader of the coup was then Colonel Omar Hassan Al-Bashir who immediately made himself not only a General, but President, Chief of State, Prime Minister and Chief of the Armed Forces. In 1991, Bashir's government introduced a new penal code based on Shar'ia law which included amputations and stonings as punishment. This, however, is only the beginning of the horrors seen in the 1990s.

On the pretext of fighting the southern rebels, the National Islamic government of the Sudan deployed its regular armed forces as well as its militia to attack and raid villages in the South and the Nuba Mountains and take cattle and slaves. Food and supply shipments were systematically shut off by the North. Along with an estimated 2M civilians killed since 1983, over 200,000 southern women and children are thought to have been taken as slaves. The strife and following lack of investment in the South has led to what human rights organizations call a "lost generation" which lacks educational opportunities, access to basic health care services, and has few prospects for productive employment. In 2002, the U.S. accused Sudan of genocide for acts committed during the civil war.

In 2003, as international aid poured in, a second conflict was beginning; one which would grip the world's attention and bring about more mass killings of civilians in Sudan. Much like in Rwanda in 1994 where over 800,000 people were killed and with an estimated 400,000 more Sudanese dead, governments and various groups argued back and forth over whether a genocide was occurring. World leaders chastised the Sudanese government and evoked ineffective sanctions while the world asked, pleaded and demonstrated en masse for immediate action. To this day, it has not come. The following is the story of Darfur.

Situated in Western Sudan, Darfur covers an area comparable to the State of Texas. From the 14th century, Darfur saw foreign invasions similar to those seen in northern Sudan including a Turko-Egyptian invasion which was quashed by Muhammad Ahmad's Islamic Mahdist rule. In 1898, a British Field Commander worth checking out named Herbert Kitchener ended Mahdist rule and brought about an Anglo-Egyptian co-dominium which would rule all of Sudan until 1955 when Sudan was granted independence (see above). In the face of disproportionate development and support of the Nile Valley, disenfranchised Darfuris were preyed upon by various political groups and factionalism took root.

After independence, three major groups inhabited Darfur: camel herders in the North, Arab cattle herders known as the Baggara in the East and South, and sedentery farmers known as the Fur in the central region (Darfur means "land of the Fur"). Beyond their lifestyles, the Baggara and Fur are markedly similar. Both have similar physical features and both practice Islam. In the late 1960s, periods of severe drought forced the camel herders and Baggara into the more fertile central region of the Fur. As competition for access to water and pasture intensified, small-scale raids turned into persistent battles among the different groups. Numerous attempts to create a peace failed.

Early in 2003, two local rebel groups known as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM or SLA) accused Khartoum of oppressing non-Arabs. While the actual date of the beginning of the conflict varies by source (some as early as 2001), a commonly observed early major event was the raid on Al-Fashir in the southern part of Sudan. In the early morning hours of April 25th, 2003, a joint JEM-SLA force raided a government garrison and destroyed a number (4 or 7 depending on source) of bombers and gunships as well killing 75 soldiers, pilots and technicians and capturing another 32 including a Major General. The raid was a massive victory and unlike anything accomplished by another foe of Khartoum, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the 17-year civil war in the South. Khartoum had been completed surprised by the attack and was embarrassed.

During the middle months of 2003, the rebel groups used hit-and-run techniques to continue to strike at government installations winning 34 of 38 engagements. In the face of these numerous defeats, which added to the embarrassment and threatened control of Sudan, Khartoum altered its strategy from direct confrontation with the rebels to systematic attacks on the civilian populations from which the rebels came. The new approach added the use of the air force and a group of armed Baggara herders known as the Janjaweed (roughly translated, it means "devil on horseback") against non-Arab civilians. Note: Various other groups also inhabit Darfur and have been targeted by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias.

Equipped by Khartoum with communication equipment and some artillery and with no rules of engagement, around 20,000 Janjaweed quickly and viciously lashed back at non-Arab villages while ignoring Arab villages. By the spring of 2004, thousands had been killed and over 1M Darfuris had been driven from their homes; their wells poisoned, crops uprooted, fruit trees cut down and their villages burned to the ground. Upwards of 100,000 Darfuris fled across the eastern border of neighboring Chad chased by members of the Janjaweed who clashed with Chadian forces at the border. Beyond more traditional means of violence, the Janjaweed have used rape as a weapon. Culturally in the region, raped women are considered unclean, and are ostracized. Women are even raped in open, public places to increase humiliation for them and their families.

The fleeing Darfuris have congregated in over 100 camps in both Darfur and Chad. These overcrowded camps for displaced persons are now home to more than two million people. They face serious shortages of sanitary facilities, medical supplies and, at times, even food and water. The threat of waterborne disease including cholera and dysentery adds an additional horrible element to an already hugely challenging life in these camps.

And so it has continued, amidst negotiations and sanctions, two-faced politics and private interests for three long years. The African Union has 7,000 poorly equipped and underfunded troops in the region; most accounts detail that they can do little but record atrocities and have little capacity to effect much, if any, protection for civilians. In late 2005, the A.U. said they had plans to increase the size of the force to 12,000 by spring 2006; the force remains at 7,000 poorly equipped and underfunded troops whose leaders are saying they cannot fund them much longer.

Just today, the government of Sudan has agreed to a much larger U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed to Darfur. Al-Bashir had previously categorically ruled out such a force and his agreement to this latest U.N./A.U. force is contingent on all troops being from Africa. U.N. officials say this will make fielding the force difficult, but beyond the difficulty Al-Bashir and the NIF have a long history of reneging on agreements; this force may be actively delayed until hundreds of thousands more are dead.

Today, Omar Al-Bashir is still the President of the Sudan and despite being head of state during two separate mass killings which have left over half a million Sudanese dead, is still being engaged in diplomatic conversations as well as receiving political and military support from countries including China and Russia. The U.N. has passed 16 resolutions on the Sudan. The New York Times reported that 'a confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.

Quite simply, the A.U. is ill-equipped, under-funded and sadly incapable of ending the killing. The structure of the U.N. security council (as well as its historical pattern of failing to protect civilians from genocide) means that China can use its veto power to squash "overly-aggressive" resolutions. President Bush, in the face of all the evidence, on April 18th of this year threatened only sanctions. European leaders have also failed to bring an end to the violence.

What is absolutely, inarguably, completely and shamefully clear is that our leaders have the ability to stop the killing in Darfur.

They are simply choosing not to.

}---{}---{

Image courtesy of America Abroad Media. Various sources including Wikipedia, BBC, SaveDarfur.org, Africana by Robert Fay and a very good article by Dr. Eric Reeves. His site is a fantastic resource for research and commentary on U.S. and international responses to the crisis.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Teddy BEAR for soldiers with owwees


War must be tough. From the frequent threat of bodily harm to finding a camel spider in your trousers to having to endure politicians renaming part of your dinner to "freedom fries", war is no cake-walk. Surprisingly, considering their recent infatuation with armed conflict, the U.S. government has given the green light to a project aimed at aiding soldiers in need.

Ensuring rooms at VA hospitals don't have mold all over them? Ah, not this time. Allocating adequate funds for the pensions of injured soldiers? Um, no. Immediate shipments of up-armored Humvees, body armor with a bonus of shortened tours? Seriously, stop asking.

Rather than any of the above, the U.S. military, long a black hole for financial resources, has added another "you've got to be joking" project. They've developed a prototype called the Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR), a 6-foot-tall robot that will be used to carry injured soldiers out of areas too dangerous for other soldiers to venture. In principal, this sounds like a fantastic idea. Then again, I saw the trailer for iRobot and if you get a bad batch of robot in a combat zone, you'll get precision RPG fire and fearless killing machines running amuck.

Furthermore, have a look at the image at right and more specifically, look at the #1 feature. That's what they feel is the MOST important piece of this massively technological project.

New Scientist magazine reports that the "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease.
Call my a cynic, but I imagine that hardened soldiers that carry automatic weapons, use high explosives, arrest people in perhaps the most dangerous environment on Earth and have just been shot/blown up/etc. MIGHT be more concerned about the robot getting them to a surgeon quickly and without dropping their ass on a mine. But hey, I've never been in a warzone; maybe a teddy is just the ticket.

Full story here.

What the World Eats - from $1.23 to $500.07 a week

Here's a photogallery showing what 15 families from around the world eat in a week. From the 6-member Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp in Chad (above) who eat mostly beans to the 4-member Melander family of Bargteheide, Germany who enjoy a variety of meats, cheeses as well as beer and ice cream.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

My VisualDNA

Who am I? What drives me? How can I express some of that? Enter: Visual DNA.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Google does it AGAIN with Streetview

Update: ET found in New York!

Google maps are really helpful for directions. Google Earth is super slick with its integrated news and photos. Now, Google's ramped it up another notch with virtual walk-abouts through 5 major cities in the U.S.

With a decently high-speed connection, you can plop down on any street and have a look around and walk down the street.

You can explore San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami and New York.

If you look hard enough, you can find social deviants!! (Loads in new tab/window)

Wim Hof hates sweaters

Wim Hof is:

  • Dutch
  • A fine swimmer
  • Not afraid of catching a chill
  • Seriously hardcore
This guy has previously gone to the North Pole, cut a hole in the ice, jumped into the water and held his breath for 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Already in 2007, he's run a half marathon (that's 21km or 13.125mi) above the Polar Circle in Finland where the ground temperature was -30°C and made an attempt at Everest's summit dressed only in shorts and sandals.



Read more about him here. (Loads in new tab/window)

All Praise Fox!

Well, at least for their recent victory against another 'evildoer' of the airwaves. Yesterday, Fox won a verdict against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in a case which centered around Cher and Nicole Richie blurting out expletives at the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards which was shown on Fox. The FCC had ruled that the expletives had violated "decency regulations". Fines for such violations can lighten the offending network's wallet to the tune of $325,000 (and possibly higher for other, Janet Jackson-esque behavior). Apparently, no fines were imposed for the violations at hand.

Fox had challenged the FCC's decision to the appeals court, arguing that the government's decency standard was unclear and violated free speech protections and that the rulings had contradicted findings in past cases.

The three-member appeals panel focused on whether expletives were used repeatedly or were only uttered fleetingly. The FCC had argued that, under certain conditions, one utterance of an expletive can rise to the indecency standard.

...

Fox said it was "very pleased with the court's decision" and that it believes "that government regulation of content serves no purpose other than to chill artistic expression in violation of the First Amendment."

Whole article here. (Loads in new window/tab)

This reminds me of a senior prank of which I was a part back in high school. 10 of us (with the financial backing of well over 100 others) acquired 10,000 4 oz. Dixie Cups and piled them into the hatchback of our buddy John Dias. We then used some 007 maneuvers to enter our school through the roof, block out the motion sensors, set up a network of water hoses and logistics and begin to fill the student center with cups of water. We got just over 1/2 way when the cops showed up with guns and expressed their discontent with the whole shebang. We, quite obviously, were suspended by the school for 5 days. Apparently, someone in the administration decided that was a cakewalk, so they petitioned the Boulder Valley School District and got an additional 5 days tacked on under a "habitual offender" clause.

For about a year prior, one of the other cup-layers named Loring Harkness and I had volunteered as defense attorneys for the Boulder County teen court. We very much wanted a hearing about the extra 5 days where we could plead our case, but our parents shut us out of everything. Loring's mother is an attorney, my father was an esteemed professor and the district barely paid them any mind. Nevermind that 9 of the 10 miscreants were honor students and had never so much as chewed gum in class, we were permanently labeled habitual offenders.

The FCC has, is and will continue to try to pull this sort of thing. They will attempt to make the utterance of one four-letter word "indecent" and will continue to impose their will and censorship on what comes across the airwaves. In the case of Fox News and their campaign of slanted, bigoted chickenhawkery, such censorship may benefit the American people but at a cost of limiting the creative expression of our culture.

So, in this very odd twist of events, let us stand and raise our glasses to the victors, the Fox network. Now, if only the FCC can nail 'em for the pile of bollocks that is Fox News.

Oh, and we got our revenge on the Fairview High School administration. From 10 guys returning to class in wife-beaters with prison numbers and "habitual offender" scrolled on the front, to a hedge trimmed in a the shape of a phallus to my very visible snubbing of the vice principal as she demanded I remove my offensive attire. My response:

"What are you going to do? Suspend me?"

Monday, June 4, 2007

Africa: I'm coming home

Summary: A snippet about my first two ventures into Africa in 1983 and 2002.

I have been exceedingly lucky in that this will be my third visit to the dark continent. At the tender age of 2, my parents brought me to visit the Shaws in Botswana. Even at that age, I recall our truck being chased by elephants and can still feel that thrill. I was baptized in Botswana, as well; thrown in by my mother as a "why not" gesture when my cousin Tom was receiving his dousing. Mum neglected to tell me this until I was 21. Perhaps it was this event that explains what happened when I returned to Africa in 2002.

As part of my university education, I participated in a study abroad program hosted by the University of Pittsburgh (since moved to the University of Virginia) which took around 600 students from about 100 universities and put them on a "small sliver of steel" for a voyage of discovery. After departing from Vancouver, Canada and visiting Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India, we arrived in Mombasa, Kenya. From the first breath of African air, my heart felt that it had found home. I have a number of journal entries from the entire journey and I may post some of the more interesting ones in Tea Time Tales, but for now, I'll post just a short piece from 5 Nov 2002 that I wrote about my time in the Maasai Mara of Kenya.

I wrote a few thoughts in reflection of my time at the camp on my final night. I was pretty tired, but more than that, I was breaking down. I had messed up my eye on safari and it was really hurting me. But I stepped away from the pain. I felt a great connection to this place and the new friends I had made in the small, hot kitchen and did not enjoy much of the time I was around the rest of the SAS crew. I was annoyed by them and in part embarrassed by a great deal of their behavior. They were being loud and I would bet that they missed a vast amount of Kenya that I saw. Here is what I wrote:

Sore eye. Transformation to lion. Don't want to leave Kenya. Kindred spirit was born here and I see it in the eyes of the people. Jones, Mustafa, Meena, Gregory. They all seem like family. We cook together and they teach me about their lives, about cooking, and about Kenya.

Feel defeated. Feel like I'm starting over this time as a full-grown lion. I am so outside of the group. Quiet, contemplative, observant while trying to break away from tourism. I have left a piece of my heart in Kenya.

I wish I could explain all of that, but some I don't want to and some I don't understand myself.
Today, I sit four and a half years after writing that, poised for a return.

A return as a lion.

Leaving Las Palmas

Summary: 4 months in Las Palmas left much to be desired, but did provide one gleaming gem of conviction.

I've yet to meet someone who enjoys the process of moving. Whilst trying to put your life into a few bags, scrubbing and mopping the last few remnants from what was your home and tying up the inevitable loose ends, one seems drawn to recount for their time.

Writing from London where I've been for just under a week, Las Palmas shall survive only in fragments; there were no great lessons, no life-changing experiences, and very little splendor. There were laughs, friends made and many-a-beer thrown back while spouting about 'living life'. In the strictest sense, that was likely true and yet, I don't feel much better for having been there. There were vicious fights between some; callous and cruel indications of the divide between people unwilling to empathize with one another. There was tortilla española, acetunas, fútbol and Carnaval, but one of our last meals was astonishingly overcooked tuna. There were a few nice locals, but mostly they seemed cold and uninterested in my attempts to connect. Perhaps I failed Las Palmas or perhaps the opposite is true, but the sentiment of dissatisfaction permeates all contemplated variants.

There was, however, one revelation that was born in the sands of Las Canteras beach with the aide of Nick Warren's GU030:Paris. I am to continue my journey; a leg who's path will lead to either an indelible, lasting effect on my life or bring about my early demise.

I am to return to Africa.