120 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ Trotting To China ] [ By Simon Moleke-Njie ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
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TROTTING TO CHINA
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by Simon Moleke-Njie
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"I am 46. By the time I get to China I will be 50."
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Which means Paul Coleman will be on his feet for the next four years...
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trekking from Manchester (England) to Beijing (China) in his one-man-crusade
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to save the earth. He is English, and plants trees as he trots. Over 189m,
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Coleman covers 20km, a day. His bag weighs over 25kg when stuffed with food
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items. His boot-Austrian made, is designed by Meindl and is estimated to
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cover a distance of 2000 miles before it wears out. His walking staff of
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over 1/50 is a souvenir from the Scottish Highlands anointed by friends: a
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farmer, "I put food in this staff; you will never go hungry." A fisherman,
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"I put fish in this staff; you will always have to eat." A nurse, "I put
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health in this staff; you will always know good health." Coleman never goes
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hungry, is in robust health, counts on Providence and believes in miracles.
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For him life is a fairytale.
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With an powerful aura of benediction from the High-Chief of the Maya
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Indians in Mexico, Coleman left Manchester in November of 2000, walking
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through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany to Poland. On July 18th he planted
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a tree in Warsaw, close to Batorego. He came through Poznan where over a
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hundred people gathered to bid him a hero's welcome... "this is a souvenir
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for me, seeing those people gathered there, old and young to wish me well."
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While in Brussels, he addressed the EU Parliament, tabling a protest of
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"The Impact of War on Nature," from his experience in Sarajevo where 80% of
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trees have been destroyed by war. The Parliament agreed to pass a
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resolution. Coleman will stop in Bombay in November 2002 to address a
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conference of The Global People's Assembly (an organization which he is a
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co-founder), as an official delegate of the UN.
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Luck smiled on him in Warsaw. Sitting with a group of stunned listeners
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at Rick's Casablanca Cafe narrating his incredible expeditions across the
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Americas, a Danish film company got interested and stroke a deal to shoot a
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documentary of his adventures. The first phase of the shooting that will
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span over six years started off in Warsaw and its environs. It will trace
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his tracks across the countries he's been through, to see "if the dream of
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one man can change the world," said one of the co-producers. While
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Cyberspacing in Rick's, Coleman received an e-mail from school children in
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Mexico saying they had planted over 5000 trees following his examples.
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It all started when Coleman went holidaying in Iceland. Enraptured by
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nature's wealth and beauty, he later abandoned his job as chauffeur for a
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wealthy Canadian lady, resolving to protest against man's destruction of
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Earth by trekking from Canada to the Amazon. Starting in 1992 he did it in 2
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years, stopping on his way to address a UN summit in Mexico. He talked about
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Earth and Peace. He was granted a presidential escort across Mexico,
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followed by over 10,000 people including politicians. In his sojourn he
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planted over a million trees. In honor of his trip the Mexican government
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invested $125 million for the preservation of the Mexican rain forest.
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In the Amazon he relived Indiana Jones' ordeals, coming close to death
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when a sting from a lethal bullet-ant paralyzed his leg for three hours
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after he accidentally stepped into their hole.
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"It was a nerve-racking encounter. Luckily there was only one sting, but
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what a sting! I had a bottle of rum. I didn't pour it on the wound. I drank
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it!" he recalls laughing, "I learnt a lesson after this. In the jungle you
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see first with your ears and then with your eyes. You train your senses to
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become sensitive enough to guide you. Through this you learn not to disturb
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other creatures as they go about their business of living. A handful of
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Kung-Fu techniques of walking silently on brittle leaves came very handy. An
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old Indian taught me how to stitch a wound with the claws of an ant."
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Seeing the destruction in the Amazon he returned, rallied artist, poets
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and journalist through a newspaper advert with a slogan that he needed help
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to make a fairytale come true. His intention was to travel as a team to the
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Amazon. "I knew that seeing the destruction there will later have an effect
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on their work." With eight volunteers they left. Upon return he wrote a
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fairytale: "Salvadoro The Ant." It is about the smallest of ants that went
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on an expedition and discovered the meaning of life and the beauty of the
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forest. Salvadora the Ant sums Coleman's experience and aspirations.
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Coleman is an encyclopedia of nature. For him the most beautiful place on
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this planet is around the Darian Gap, a dense forest between the borders of
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Panama and Colombia. Decorated with coral riffs, it harbors some of the
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rarest living creatures including the most deadly specie of toads: "The
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Golden Toad" that kills by a simple touch of its skin.
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"I hope that trees shall continuously be planted after I leave Poland.
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This will be a great pleasure upon my return here someday to shade under
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them. In Africa and South America, it is indeed sad to know 80 trees are
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destroyed in the process of getting a single Mahogany lug. My greatest wish
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here is to see a tree planted for each victim killed during the war in
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Poland."
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Coleman admits with much regret that his greatest ordeal is of crossing
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borders. It constitutes his major problem. "In my humble efforts I hope to
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leave a story with the indigenous people as well as I take one with me. I
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leave a message also, and my messages are more important than myself," he
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said while packing his bag in Warsaw on July 29th as he prepared to take the
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route to China the next day.
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Simon Mol.
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uXu #614 Underground eXperts United 2002 uXu #614
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http://www.uXu.org/ - info@uxu.org
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