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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-06-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2006. PAGE 5. Other Views Around the world on muscle power S o what have you been up to the past couple of years? If you're like me the answer is: same old, same old. Nothing much. Workeatsleep. Couple of car trips, a bout of the flu...walked the dogs...read some books...mowed the grass...passed the time. For Colin Angus and his fiancée Julie Wafeai the past two years have been somewhat more eventful. They went around the world. I mean...the entire planet. These two 30- something's circumnavigated the globe. And what's 'truly amazing is, they did it • without expending an eyedropper's worth of gasoline, diesel or aviation fuel. They circled the planet using only the power of their legs and arms and backs. There were three of them when they started off from Vancouver in June of 2004 on mountain bikes laden like pack mules, heading north. Angus's friend Tim Harvey was on board then too. - The original plan was for Angus and Harvey to make the round-the-world trip together. Angus's fiancee Julie was merely going to do the first leg, cycling to Alaska 'to keep them company'. By early summer, Julie was back in Vancouver. Meanwhile. in Whitehorse, Angus and Harvey traded in their bikes for canoes and paddled 1.500 km down the Yukon River to Fairbanks. Alaska. There, they switched to an ocean-going rowboat and rowed another 1,600 km to the Alaska coast and the Bering Sea. Once they got to saltwater, rowing the mere 800 km across the Bering Sea to Russia was a piece of cake. Angus and Harvey then spent two months hiking 850 km across the trackless Siberian wastes. Angus has to take the month of December off for surgery but by January he rejoins Harvey and they cycle, ski and trudge towards Moscow. Travel under adverse conditions is usually a bonding experience but not always. Somewhere between northeastern Siberia and. the outskirts of Moscow, the two men get to bickering and fall out. They decide they will go their separate ways. It takes Angus six months to make it to Moscow. Harvey, who arrives two months later, will eventually abandon the whole idea and drop out. But for Colin Angus, support is at hand. His fiancée Julie flies to Moscow and re-joins him. Together they bicycle from Moscow to Lisbon, Portugal in just 49 days — a grueling average of 110 kilometres a day. Nothing like a change of pace after a 5.500 km ride — Colin and Julie switch to a rowboat. point the prow, Columbus-like, toward the New World and start rowing. It is late September of 2005. Which is to say, Hurricane Season. I'll spare you the details. Suffice to say that after four cyclones, uncounted storms and 146 days in a 24-foot rowboat, Colin Angus and Julie Wafeai make it to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. They rest and take on supplies. Then they'-re, back in. the boat and rowing to Costa Rica, a mere 2,400 kilometres further west. ' From there, a trifling bike ride of 6,000 km fetches them up in Vancouver in front of a totem pole at Kitsilano Point — the very spot they set out from 23 months earlier. Julie Wafeai goes in the record books as the first Canadian woman to do what Columbus did five centuries ago — cross the Atlantic. Except that Julie did it with even more primitive technology than Columbus. Chris had sails and windpower; Julie just had a pair of oars and a strong back. And Colin Angus becomes the first person in history to circumnavigate the earth using only muscle power. If -these two were Americans, Brits or Aussies, they'd have moyie deals, cross- country speaking tours and their own TV series. But this is Canada, eh? The day after they cycled into Vancouver, their incredible story made page four of my morning newspaper, just above the Canadian Tire garden tractor ad. I haven't heard a word about them since. Why'd they do it? They're `Greenies'. Angus says they wanted "to draw attention to environmentally responsible forms of transportation and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions". Fair enough. We've all heard plenty of politicians and environmental spokesthingies contribute to global warming as they preached -that particular sermon. . But these are two folks who walked the walk, not to mention pedaled, paddled and rowed it. Too bad they're Canadian. They'd be heroes anywhere else. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to - the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters'brief and concise. Back in the game It's a good night for sport. The skies are clear, the temperature pleasantiand a good breeze keeps the mosquitoes at bay. The athletes in shades of magenta and teal work their way down the field, Struggling for supremacy of the black and white ball. The action is fast, rugged and high-spirited. There are bursts of speed, then mild scuffles, flying leaps and purposeful kicks. The goalies - stand firm, alert, ready to protect the net when the attack nears. Or at least that's the way it should be. I'm watching my grandson's soccer match and the `athletes' in this case are seven and under. The skies, the temperature and the breeze may all have been accurate, but the account of the action on the field was perhaps not so much. They do wear snazzy colours, and there is some struggle to gain control of the ball. But in addition to the usual type of action you might see at a game is the less familiar. A player suddenly decides to turn_ his attention to a friend standing on the sidelines. Or his mind may be diverted and as the ball skids past one way, he's enroute to the other end. Yet, I'd rather watch them play at this level then professionally. Sitting there the . other night I remembered how entertaining that can be. It's been a long time since I've had to hustle around in an evening — hot dogs for supper, dishes left in the sink — to get my young ones off to a game somewhere. There were occasions when it was two different directions in an evening or on a weekend. Can't say I really miss that part; it's nice to have life slow down at the end of a long day. But I do miss seeing the kids at play. And I've also noticed something else. When I sat on those bleachers, or for that matter attended things at the schools„ I never thought about what it would mean regarding my place in the community when I no longer had children at hoine. It 'is through the kids that parents often become acquainted. Their children's social activities take them to other's homes. It wasn't all that many years ago, I remember walking through town with my visiting sister and pointing to many houses, offering some little insight into the connection, however small, the people inside might have with us or our childl'en. "Do you know everybody in town?" my sister wondered. My response was of course; no, but I did have to admit that I was acquainted with quite a few. Not so anymore. People are coming and going, many of the ones that I had come to know from attending baseball, soccer and school events have gone to other places. The children have grown and those of us still in town don't find ourselves in the same places as frequently as we did in the past. It's changed so much as a matter of fact that now my children actually take me out of the community, with our weekends and free time spent making the connection with family who don't live around the corner. So I watched the soccer game the other night, which was of course not in my town, and thought of how much of what we do as parents centres around our kids, even in preparing them for independence. It's little wonder that the transition to empty nest can be a tough one. And how nice it is have a grandchild to get you hack in the game a bit.. Aunion seeking help for some of the world's neediest people has run into Ontario's most influential lobby and its friends in government and been dumped on as if it wanted a 50 per cent raise. _ Ontario' members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees joined groups in other countries saying Israel is moving slowly to help Arabs obtain their own state and Ontario should pOsh it by boycotting its goods. The issue, difficult to encapsulate, stems from 1948, when Western powers gave Jews part of Palestine inhabited by many Arabs as their state and they since have seized much more and built pressure for two separate states. Israel has said it wants separation, but indicated it is unwilling to give up anything like all the land it seized, continued building new homes on it, tightened its grip by building a wall and dropped many- hints it may set boundaries unilaterally. Israel also refuses to negotiate with the Hamas party Palestinians chose recently to represent them on the stronger ground it has called for the destruction of the state of Israel arid approved suicide bombings. One indication of the pro-Israel lobby 's influence is hundreds of MPPs in all parties, who knoW the importance of Jewish votes, which are crucial in some ridings, have expressed solidarity with Israel over the years Only one MPP, New Democrat Peter Kormos in 2000. has said Israel treats Arabs unfairly and should return some of the seized land. Pro-Israel• views also dominate editorial 01)1111011 and letters in .1 hree 'of the four major Toronto newspapers. Jews and their supporters have called on the union to stick to negotiating pay raises for its members and not interfere in overseas issues. Lnions. ironically are often criticized for caring only I or themselves. hut many have protested over decades at oppression as far away as Indonesia and Chile. • Jews accused the union of singling out Israel. and refusing to criticize countries with poor human rights records such as China and Russia. but it has condemned these and even some Arab states. Critics dismiss boycotts as ineffective, but unions led a call for Ontario to stop importing wines for liquor stores and produce for institutions from South Africa because it discriminated against blacks, and a Liberal government complied in the 1980s and Nelson Mandela said this helped. Jews have said the union is uninformed on conditions in Israel. but Ontario church representatives just returned from a 16-day visit have contributed they. saw Israel constantly intimidating and humiliating often malnourished Arabs and making their lives unbearable. Among other noteworthy statistics, while Jews express fear of attacks by Arabs, Jews have killed three times as many Arabs, including many women and children, but they do it under the authority of a state, using tanks, helicopter gun ships and soldiers. " Israel had 700,000 Jewish residents in 1948, but now has 5 million, who speak with New York, London and Russian accents and have taken land from Arabs. Israel claims it cannot negotiate with Hamas because it is terrorist, but Menachem Begin Union fights to lobby group led a group which blew up a hotel, killing 91 Britons, Arabs and Jews, Yitzhak Shamir was prominent in another which murdered the United Nations' mediator; and Yitzhak Rabin was high ranking in a third which slaughtered British peacekeepers and left their bodies hanging in trees. All- three later became Israel prime ministers, so it would be difficult for Israel to argue terrorists cannot change their spots. The only response by Ontario politicians to CUPE's proposal has been Liberal Immigration Minister Mike Colle's comment, prompted by a Conservative, it was appalling and should be withdrawn. Colle has many Jewish voters in his riding and is very much in their pocket and told one of their rallies Israeli Jews suffer terribly from Arab suicide bombers, while expressing no sympathy for Arabs. But the union's plea shows concern at the injustice is growing among the public and one day the politician, will have to catch up.