lastmanineurope

Well once again I have not been in touch for a while Blogface and for that I apologise.

Since we last spoke, Obama has been made president-elect which is great news. He has got a lot of shit to sort out for America so we'll see how he does next year. Something tells me that people/the media will get on his back if he doesn't miraculously sort things out straight away; it will be a slow and steady process.

Over the last few months, I have learnt about some extremely inspirational people; people I would call heroes. I've written a tiny bit about them below:

Paul Rusesabagina
You may have seen Hotel Rwanda and heard his story. I read his story of events on holiday in his book and he really is a selfless man. He saved over a 1000 innocent civilians during the Rwandian civil war by hiding them in his hotel. During this time he could have easily left (the UN offered to take him) but he stayed to save the lives of the civilians. The Hutus regularly came to murder the occupants but Paul kept his nerve and kept them away with words (and bribes!) only. I see him as a hero because he was so altruistic throughout the affair and didn't just crumble when so many others would have.

Joe Simpson
Born and bred a Sheffielder, Joe Simpson climbed Siula Grande in Peru in the 80s. Near the top he broke a leg. His fellow climber presumed him dead and climbed back down. Joe spent three and a half days hauling himself back down the mountain in immense pain over boulders and glaciers (unroped). He recounts the story in the documentary film ‘Touching the void’ and I find it amazing how, near death, he pushed himself in an effort to survive. A lot of people feel that anyone would do the same in that situation but personally I don’t think I’d have the will power to see myself through such pain and such a challenge.

Christopher Johnson McCandless
Another film ‘Into the wild’ brought this man to my attention. Chris aced his way through school and was all set to go off to Harvard. Instead, he sent all his savings ($24k) to Unicef and decided to hike into Alaskan wilderness to live in isolation from the modern world. It is incredibly inspiring to see someone so intelligent and settled in the “normal” life decide to completely rip up the rule book and live his life exactly how he wishes. You have to be emotionally strong to just give up friends/family/love/etc. Some may think he is a little selfish; he nerve contacted his family – but what an extraordinary journey for him to go on. It was like the biggest experiment that he could perform on himself and, although he died tragically from starvation, he lived his life to the absolute full and allowed him to do things that no one would even get close to.