The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Adventurer to recreate Shackleton’s Antarctic exploits Posted: 03 Dec 2012 05:05 AM PST SYDNEY, Dec 3 — A polar explorer who famously retraced Douglas Mawson's Antarctic trek yesterday launched an ambitious new challenge — recreating Ernest Shackleton's perilous crossing of the Southern Ocean. Tim Jarvis, a renowned British/Australian adventurer who in 2007 re-enacted Mawson's 1912 odyssey across the frozen continent, is planning a similar trip in 2013 to follow Shackleton's dramatic 1916 voyage. Jarvis described the perilous 1,300-km Southern Ocean crossing in a spartan lifeboat and punishing traverse of South Georgia Island with basic gear and rations as "the biggest survival journey of them all". Shackleton had hoped to complete the first land crossing of the Antarctic when his ship, the Endurance, was crushed by ice, triggering a desperate mission on a lifeboat from nearby Elephant Island to South Georgia for help. The adventurer and five other men made it across the hostile ocean with little more than the clothes on their backs and the most basic of rations and battled across the rugged island to a whaling station to raise the alarm.  This undated handout image taken by Champagne Productions and released by www.shackletonepic.com to AFP on December 2, 2012 shows members of the expedition crew on board the expedition vessel Alexandra Shackleton (from clockwise) Barry Gray, Tim Jarvis, Paul Swain, Nick Bubb, Ed Wardle and Seb Coulthard in Portmouth, England. — AFP/Champagne Productions pic Inspired by the story and hoping to map the dramatic changes that global warming has brought to the region, Jarvis and a crew of five sailors will repeat the ocean crossing in a replica boat with all the same privations. They will be without navigational aids or any modern equipment, live off the same lard rations as Shackleton's men and wear the same clothes as they battle high seas and icy, bleak conditions to reach Stromness on South Georgia. "I'm expecting constant hardship and vigilance; there are periods of darkness down there, we're on a boat with absolutely no modern navigational aids whatsoever, we'll just be going into darkness," Jarvis told AFP at the crew's official farewell from Sydney yesterday. "Icebergs can loom up on the horizon; we wouldn't even see them until they're on us; there are whales, it's big, big sea," he added. "It's a very, very challenging boat journey and we'll require the luck that he had I think. Expect the worst, hope for the best." Along with Norway's Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, Australian explorer Mawson and Briton Robert Falcon Scott — his patron-turned-rival — Shackleton was among the great Antarctic explorers. Though his first polar expedition was with Scott in 1901, Shackleton and his mentor went on to part ways, sparking an intense rivalry that overshadowed his career. Scott perished on his return journey from the pole in 1912, having been beaten to the milestone by Amundsen five weeks earlier. Shackleton died of a heart attack off South Georgia in 1922 during his fourth Antarctic expedition, aiming to circumnavigate the continent. He is buried on the island and Jarvis said it would "be fantastic to feel that he was there with us", almost 100 years on from his original mercy dash. The men will set off in their replica lifeboat, named the Alexandra Shackleton after the explorer's granddaughter, in early January 2013 from South America and expect the journey to take two months. It has taken six years and A$2.5 million (RM7.8 million) to plan. The sailors are undertaking basic mountaineering training in the French Alps "testing gear and learning how to pull themselves out of crevasses with virtually no equipment — we've only got a tiny section of rope". A support vessel, the Australis, a modern and fully equipped steel-hulled motor boat, will trail the lifeboat, but will only go to its aid in the event of a serious emergency. As well as honouring Shackleton's legacy, Jarvis hopes to raise awareness about the impact of climate change on the polar regions. "The irony is that Shackleton tried to save his men from Antarctica," he said. "We are now trying to save Antarctica from man." — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Time for Santa to wave ‘vaarwel’ to Black Pete? Posted: 03 Dec 2012 04:31 AM PST  Saint Nicholas (2nd left) is escorted by his three assistants called "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete) during a traditional parade in central Brussels December 1, 2012. — Reuters pic Saint Nicholas, or "Sinterklaas" in Dutch, brings presents to children on December 5 in the Netherlands and on December 6 in Belgium, and is always accompanied by at least one assistant dressed in 17th century costume who has a blackened face. The tradition has been difficult for Dutch and Belgian people to explain abroad, where "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete) is viewed with either outrage or ridicule. Dutch pub "De Hems" in London opts for blue face paint instead. Sinterklaas celebrations in western Canada organised by the Dutch community were called off last year and former Dutch colony Suriname has said Zwarte Piet is not welcome this year because of concerns over racism. For most Dutch and Belgians Zwarte Piet is an innocuous fairytale character who assists the popular Sinterklaas and hands out candy to children, but some there too argue he is a harmful stereotype best done away with. "It was about six years ago when my mum came home from work and phoned me," performance artist Quinsy Gario, who was born on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, told Reuters. "On the phone I could hear her trembling. She was upset, livid, and said someone at work had called her Zwarte Piet." In 2011, Gario decided to protest against the tradition by standing with a "Zwarte Piet is racism" T-shirt in a crowd watching a Sinterklaas parade in the Dutch town of Dordrecht. His subsequent arrest made headlines in Dutch media. Film by a bystander showed three police officers pinning him to the ground and kneeing him in the back. Gario also said he had pepper spray sprayed in his eyes. "I spent six and a half hours in a jail cell for freedom of expression," he said. Business embrace Nevertheless, Zwarte Piet remains popular in 2012, and his traditional arrival by boat with Sinterklaas a few weeks ahead of the actual celebration was witnessed by thousands of starry-eyed children in Brussels and Amsterdam. Sinterklaas, the presents he brings, as well as the traditional food and candy sold around this time are also good business for companies such as toy stores and supermarkets. "Families with children are a very important customer group of ours. How would you explain to your children that Zwarte Piet is no longer allowed?," said Chief Operating Officer Sander van der Laan of Albert Heijn, the Netherlands' largest supermarket. Dutch anti-discrimination organisation RADAR said that it would talk to retail organisations in the coming months about how to make Zwarte Piet less racist. "We believe that you have to go to Piet, not Zwarte Piet, to leave the celebration intact but get rid of the stereotypes," said Margriet Maris, a lawyer at RADAR. Formal complaints are still quite rare. Belgium's centre of equal opportunities said that of more than 4,000 complaints it received a year only one or two were related to Zwarte Piet. RADAR said it had received about 25 related complaints this year, still only a fraction of the 1,000 it dealt with overall. The tradition of St Nicholas exists in other European countries, including Austria and Germany. But he is only accompanied by black helpers in the Netherlands and Belgium. Celebrations were depicted on paintings of 17th century Dutch artists Jan Steen and Richard Brakenburg, but Zwarte Piet only made his first appearance in a mid-19th century illustrated book by Dutch teacher Jan Schenkman. Entitled "St Nicholas and his servant," it showed a short, dark-faced man dressed in a Moorish costume a few steps behind an imposing white man with a white beard and bishop's outfit. "There's a theory that says that important people had a black servant, it was a status symbol. Sinterklaas was an important man, so he needed one too," said John Helsloot a researcher at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam. "Somebody who dresses up as Zwarte Piet is not a racist but it is a fact that he's part of a tradition which gives a stereotypical, racist image of black people," he said. Pressure on Zwarte Piet seems to be increasing in 2012 and even well-known conservative blog "Geen Stijl" (No Style) has written that it's time for Sinterklaas to find a new helper. "It's 2012, people," wrote GeenStijl in a post that attracted much attention. "We're better than Zwarte Piet." — Reuters |
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