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In his article on giardia, Dave McBee gives a graphic description of what this parasite does and his experience with it. He tells first of his attempt to cure the illness with modern medicine, but that left him worse off than he was in the beginning. Following that failure, he consults a naturopath, who, after a brief examination, prescribes a few herbs. This natural method is able to succeed where modern medicine failed. A telling tale, no?
One can always depend upon Tamarack Song to have a different – dare I say hollistic? – view of things. Over at Nature Skills, he has an article on Mosquito Bite Prevention. Some of his more interesting advise is thus:
In his article Lord of Machines: Into Middle Earth with J.R.R. Tolkien, James Bell compares Tolkein’s Middle Earth myth with today’s Earth First/Earth Liberation Front movements.
I find it interesting that we admire Tolkien so much, but put today’s eco-activists in jail.
My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs). There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power stations.
In a related article, Starhawk compares Tolkien’s trolls to corporations.
The following excerpt is from an article concerning Wilderness Walkabouts, which I’ll be participating in in a couple weeks.
I once heard Tom Brown Jr. proclaim that, "If you don't have any place to be or a time to be there you will never be lost." This is the essence of the art of a Walkabout. You are searching, but not necessarily for anything in particular. You are following your heart and the mysteries that the world leaves for you, be they elk tracks, the top of an unknown peak or a "blank" spot on the map. Your goal is to discover beauty and blend into the landscape. Along the way you sample the wild edible plants, gather your water from the creek or spring, shelter yourself under an ancient tree. When it rains you get wet and when the sun beats down you are hot. Whether it's one day or a week, by yourself or in a small group, on a good wilderness walkabout you are constantly faced with the unknown, both in the world around you and within. Where does this canyon go? Where will I sleep tonight? How will it be to not see anyone else for an entire day? What sort of tracks are these? Will I be able to start a fire in the pouring rain? You have left behind the known comforts of family, school, home, work, four walls and electricity in exchange for a chance to interact with Mystery for a time. The world around you becomes a metaphor for your internal landscape as you face your fear of a dark starless night and the unknown future that waits for you when you return.
An obvious follow up to DP, today I finished reading Adventure Travel in the Third World : Everything You Need To Know To Survive in Remote and Hostile Destinations by Jeff Randall and Mike Perrin. Unlike DP, I’m not a big fan of this book. Though I did learn some things in the wilderness survival and first-aid sections, the book is written rather poorly and the travel advice is, I think, common sense.
It’s not necessarily a bad book, and I certainly respect the authors for their experience and knowledge, but I don’t recommend it.
Robert Young Pelton’s The Wold’s Most Dangerous Places is worthy of being added to the “books that will make you a better human being” list. Different from RYP’s autobiography, DP is adrenaline-filled and hard-hitting. That I read its 1057 pages in little over a week is probably the highest praise I can give.
The bulk of DP acts as a guidebook to the countries profiled, but there are other sections included. When people asked me what I was reading, I found it great fun to read off a couple chapter titles to them: Bribes, Drugs, Getting Arrested, Guns, Kidnapping, Land Mines, and Mercenaries are just some of the more interesting ones.
This 5th edition, published in 2003, can at times feel extremely dated. For instance, the Iraq chapter is pre invasion of Baghdad. The Mercenaries chapter doesn’t mention Blackwater, I think one of the most prominent merc groups, but I guess few knew of them before Fallujah. Pre Ariel Sharon coma, pre Hamas victory. The U.S. chapter even has profiles of Powell and Ashcroft (and, of course, the profile of Cheney mentions nothing of his marksmanship).
The political analysis and history is single-minded and the humor dark, but that’s to be expected from someone who has experienced all that RYP and his contributors have. At times his more compassionate side comes through, making it evident that he’s still part human under that large, bushy mustache.
Despite its shortcomings, DP includes detailed information on locations that you’ll never hear about it in school or the news. Where journalists fear for their lives, RYP is admired and respected by rebel groups, dictators, and special forces groups alike.
Hard-core readers of DP... seek the stone-heavy truth of experience and the wisdom-inducing perspective of intense emotional experience, tempered by the cool intellectual framework of research. Welcome to DP: No walls, no barriers, no bull.
I went to a presentation by Forest Ethics about the Inland Temperate Rainforest (the only one in the world) today. It’s a pretty amazing region, in some ways like the Amazon, but is being destroyed by clearcutting. Forest Ethics puts pressure on logging companies by annoying people like Victoria’s Secret (who put out 1,000,000 million catalogs a day) and hardware stores to stop doing business with loggers who operate in the region.
For those interested in training and discussion in more direct action, and aren’t afraid of the FBI, Forest Defenders is hosting a Cascadia Action Camp this weekend and Wild Earth is a 4 day conference happening this June in B.C.
Northern Thailand is flooding. You know what the funny part is? It’s not even the rainy season yet. The rainy season starts in June/July, exactly when I’ll be kicking around the North.
I suppose that’s one way to put my fancy moisture-wicking clothing to the test.