Mei Keng Fatt's food in Kuala Lumpur

Mei Keng Fatt's seafood restaurant in Kuala Lumpur is my favourite Chinese restaurant in Asia. Over 30 years I have trawled Chinese restaurants in Singapore, Saigon, Bangkok,Kathmandu, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Manila, Dhakha, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Lahore, Colombo, Almaty, Samarkand, Dharamsala, Peshawar any many other cities. i first came here in 1983 and have become a regular.

Outside Fatt's restaurant

Everytime I come to Kuala Lumpur I come with friends and enjoy the amazing array of seafood and tasty vegetarian dishes at Mei Keng Fatt. Last Friday night I had a gastromical feast in this humble eatery with no front wall or door, just exposed to the street. I took Naila and my boys along with my good friend Stefan Kuhne Hellmessen.

Naila,Mahdi and Stefan

The most outstanding was a plate of succulent oysters and Australian lobster, washed down with Tiger beer, and the spinach soup which was delicious.

Ablai right watching as I get stuck into the lobster.

I can strongly recommend Fatt's food house to any one coming this way.


Spicey Crab dish at Mei King Fatt's seafood restaurant.



Below are a few photos of our trip in Kuala Lumpur. It was a great weekend.

I am now in Bangkok for regional meetings so will check the Thai and Chinese food out here.



Ablai flying in a KLM Boeing 747 from Jakarta to KL.



The twin towers in Kuala Lumpur

Political incorrectness is so very refreshing.

Bill Nicol, a leading Australian consultant on leadership and management, works here in Indonesia. We see a bit of each other. Both of us have a strong distrust and dislike for business gurus.

Bill wrote to me yesterday.

"It is mid Monday morning. My brain atrophied long ago although gets the occasional ray of sunlight it needs to prevent it stopping altogether. Thank you for including the Garry Stager commentary. I loved reading it.

Personally, I loathe reading business and leadership books. I flick through them in bookshops and buy an occasional one that takes my transitory fancy. I can say from personal experience that none helped me run my own business other than into the ground. Like you, I would prefer to read a good story like that of murder in Fiji and a gentle poem or two than a book written by a guru whose entire experience is limited to motivating minor minds rather than building ball-busting businesses."

Gary S Stager Ph.D. writes "What business gurus like Don Tapscott, Daniel Pink,(the cover of his book above) Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins have in common is that none of them actually ever ran a business prior to hitting the bestseller list offering business advice to others. Most of them have never been the night manager of a Seven-Eleven let alone launched or managed an innovative business venture.

They are fancy talkers.

That is their skill. Several are evangelicals. Faith or pseudoscience, along with a dose of prosperity theology, is used to advance their arguments.

Their audience is adults who dream of being rich or increase their personal productivity. Neither goal is analogous to the education of children.

There’s trouble right here in River City

I’ve observed that the fancy talkers tend to have three or four good stories, perhaps as many as seven, they use to captivate their readers. If you see the author on Charlie Rose, you hear the three stories. Google an interview and you’ll read the three stories. Read the book and the three stories will appear verbatim. There is a polish to their schtick that often masquerades a lack of depth or thoughtfulness.

Many of these authors are linguistic jugglers. They can turn a phrase (or at least a handful of rehearsed ones) brilliantly. I compared Thomas Friedman to Nipsey Russell in my review of Friedman’s book due to his penchant for reducing complex ideas to puns.

Ultimately the success of these books is based on the authors’ ability to reduce complex concepts to simplistic binary dichotomies or playground rhymes. Such books are filled with numbered rule-based advice with little room for nuance. Issues are either black or white. The principles apply to any situation.

Obviously, lots of people buy these books. Some even read them. Many of the readers are hooked on this genre of business book and purchase lots of them. Ironically, the people who don’t read these books are successful business leaders. The New York Times article, C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success, tells us that most successful business leaders, the people self-help book readers wish to emulate, do not read business books. They read poetry and novels and great non-fiction written by experts. In short, CEO libraries are tributes to a great liberal arts education. Now that is a lesson school leaders should learn.

It is the great insecurity of wannabes that drives the sales of popular business books. I am of the opinion that educators with limited time should not squander it studying to be CEOs. This is especially true when these books are written by charlatans and touted by educational gurus who themselves are fancy talkers.

Education should be about doing, not talking. Education leaders should be well versed in the literature (past and present) of their chosen profession."

To me the only book worth its salt is Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, 'Learning to Lead.' It is simple, but profound book written by humble people.

The most enlightening part of the book is the Chart of Distinctions between Manager and Leader:

The manager administers; the leader innovates.

The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.

The manager maintains; the leader develops.

The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.

The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.

The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader
has his or her eye on the horizon.

The manager imitates; the leader originates.

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

Use this as a check list and you will soon find out is you are a leader, a manager or neither.

Bob McKerrow

-

The Most Famous Photograph in the World

Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

I left New Zealand in early 1968 to travel to South America. I was 19 years old and filled with idealism and believed the world could be a better place with the right leadership.. I was hoping to climb high Andean peaks in Peru, but in the back of my mind, I wanted to get to know my teenage hero, Che Guevara. He died 5 months before I left for Panama, Columbia, Equador, Peru by ship. On arrival in Peru in early 1968, I could see why Che wanted to change the face of South America. I saw poverty, discrimination and exploitation in almost every town and village I travelled to.

I often think about what he might have achieved had he not been killed in Octover 7, 1967. On my return to New Zealand I eagerly read his book " Bolivain Diaries" which shaped my young mind. Those were heady days.

If he had of been alive today, he would have turned 80. That photo of Che was etched in my mind as a young man and is still there today. He along with Archibald Baxter, Gandhi, Henri Dunant, Eileen McNatty (my mother), Kate Shepherd and Nelson Mandala shaped by thinking and philosophy and I treasure their influences dearly.

So I was happy to see on TV that thousands of people have witnessed the unveiling of a statue of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in his Argentine birthplace on what would have been his 80th birthday.

Events to mark the life and legacy of the man most simply know as El Che were held around the city of Rosario.

While Guevara was Argentine, born and bred, he had more followers and was better known around the world than in his home country.

He flourished in Cuba, fought in Africa and died in Bolivia.

At home, military governments and Cold War politics helped suppress his ideas and image.

But now the man known simply in Argentina as El Che is home.

The four-tonne bronze statue that has been unveiled in Rosario joins the numerous Che museums dotted around the country.


The statue of Che erected today in his honour


It's a brand that encapsulates a whole store of values, a whole load of ideas that people hold

Che the revolutionary, Che the icon, Che the seller of everything from vodka to T-shirts is everywhere.

Michael Casey, who has studied the phenomenon and has a book coming out on the subject, said the icon had become a brand but not just in a capitalist way.

"It's a brand that encapsulates a whole store of values, a whole load of ideas that people hold," he said.

"And they therefore sell those ideas, whether it's leftists in Argentina or manufacturers of snowboards wanting to sell snowboards under a revolutionary label."

Che Guevara's children travelled from Cuba to join thousands of followers from Argentina and beyond in Rosario for the birthday celebrations.

But events had to be curtailed because of widespread protests by truck drivers and farmers blocking Argentina's roads.

Che would probably have approved of that kind of radical action far more than his new statue and certainly more than today's ubiquitous Che merchandising.

What does Wikipaedia say about Che:

Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. His stylized image also later became an ubiquitous countercultural symbol worldwide.

As a young medical student, Guevara travelled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of monopoly capitalism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology.

Later, in Mexico, he joined and was promoted to commander in Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, playing a pivotal role in the successful guerrilla campaign to overthrow the U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. After the Cuban revolution, Guevara served in many prominent governmental positions, including president of the national bank, minister of industry, and “supreme prosecutor” over the revolutionary tribunals and executions of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. Along with traversing the globe to meet an array of world leaders on behalf of Cuban socialism, he was a prolific writer and diarist. One of his most prominent published works includes a manual on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first in an unsuccessful attempt in Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured with help of the CIA and executed.

Both notorious for his harsh discipline and revered for his unwavering dedication to his revolutionary doctrines, Guevara remains an admired, controversial, and significant historical figure. As a result of his death and romantic visage, along with his invocation to armed class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by "moral" rather than "material" incentives; Guevara evolved into a quintessential icon of leftist inspired movements, as well as a global merchandising sensation. He has been venerated and reviled in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, books, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown at the start of article), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

The New Boss at Red Cross - Will he change the world ?

Bosses come and go. Some are leaders, some are managers and some you would follow to the ends of the earth. Others you are delighted when they depart. I have had all types of leaders and managers in my career and I can spot the effective ones a mile away. To capture my experiences, I am slowly putting together a book on the essential differences between leaders and managers, which will hopefully guide people to be come more effectice at leading teams.

Late last month my organisation got a new leader, who I believe will develop into a great leader. From humble origins in Africa to being an Ambassador, a Minister in his Government, years in prison, a refugee and a wonderful humanitarian, Bekele Geleta is my new boss. We've known each other for some years and when I was head of the South Asia region, he was head of the South East Asia region. Here is an article I would like to share with you about Bekele, a man who I believe can contribute to making the world a better place to live in. They say it only through pain, suffering and hardship that the human heart will be unlocked to greatness. Bekele has had his share of pain, suffering and hardship.

New York (Tadias) - It was announced in Geneva last week that Ethiopian-born Bekele Geleta, 64, has been appointed as the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Mr. Geleta is currently the general manager of international operations for the Canadian Red Cross. He spent five years in prison in Ethiopia, and later served as a Cabinet Minister and the Ethiopian Ambassador to Japan.

According to The Ottawa Citizen: “Geleta came to Canada as a refugee in 1992, settling in Ottawa with his wife, Tsehay Mulugeta, and four young sons. He soon started building a new career in humanitarian work, serving with Care Canada, the Red Cross and other organizations,” which eventually led to last week’s announcement of his new prestigious post.

Here is my interview with Bekele Geleta.



Above: Bekele Geleta. Photo Courtesy of Canadian Red Cross.

Tadias: Mr. Geleta, congratulations from all of us at Tadias on your new position. How does it feel to be named the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies?

Mr. Geleta: Well, good, firstly. There’s a bit of anxiety around taking over a huge challenge with great responsibilities. We’re seeing more disasters with increasing frequency and intensity; conflicts around the world are creating worsening vulnerability. There’s desperation, famine, insecurity, urban violence - the world of humanitarian work is becoming more and more challenging and therefore I’m coming into the Secretary General position at a very critical time. I feel very determined to make a difference in the lives of the vulnerable going forward.

Tadias: How do you imagine your typical work day would be like in Geneva?

Mr. Geleta: Well, it will be very interesting. I’ll start very early in the morning, attend and lead meetings, take time to reflect, conceptualize and give guidance. I like to walk around and talk to staff in their offices, motivate them, and I’ll respond to requests and issues raised by national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from around the world.

The days for the Red Cross chief executive are extremely busy. There is no down time. I know this from my days as head of the Africa Department in the late 90s and early 2000. My days were extremely busy so, I can imagine that for the Secretary General it will be full and busy days.

Tadias: In all of your years building a career in humanitarian work, what do you consider your finest achievement?

Mr. Geleta: Every effort in the humanitarian world is an achievement. Every life saved is an achievement. Every livelihood contributed to or improved is an achievement. It’s really difficult to say, this is better than that. In the Red Cross - even when I was in prison - I considered every contribution to be a good contribution.

Probably the most sustainable contribution is what I was able to do in building the capacity of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in Africa and South East Asia. That’s extremely important because when disasters happen the early hours are the hours in which the most lives are saved; the period before international support arrives. So, the more capacity that’s been built-up internally and the more sustainable it becomes, the more effective it will be in saving lives in those early hours after a disaster and reducing vulnerability. Capacity is extremely important. Capacity of indigenous organizations and capacity built-in to the community factor largely in the humanitarian world and I’ve done quite a bit in this area in the countries I have worked in.

Tadias: We have learned through press reports that you spent five years in prison in Ethiopia, and later served as a cabinet minister and as the Ethiopian ambassador to Japan. How have your experiences in Ethiopia helped you in your career serving as a humanitarian?

Mr. Geleta: I have known vulnerability first hand. I come from a poor family. I worked myself out of it.

I have lived in a prison where for the first two years, at five o’clock, nearly every day, buses arrived, names were called, they were taken away and those people never came back. No one would see them again or know what became of them or whose turn would be next. It was very difficult life in prison and a terrible kind of vulnerability to live through.

I have also been a refugee, in Canada, which also brings its own kind of vulnerability. Not in that you don’t have food or a place to stay. Not that your children won’t be able to attend school. It’s a vulnerability based in the feeling that you are a burden on a society that you have not contributed to. It’s a different kind of vulnerability.

But that actually makes one feel very strongly about supporting the vulnerable. I identify with the vulnerable and feel very strongly in my heart that I must work to support them.

On the good side of life I have been a deputy minister and ambassador to Japan. These positions exposed me to management skills, to the workings of diplomacy and enabled me to gain a certain comfort when dealing with heads of state and people at all different levels of government. And it enables a person to feel comfortable in any situation - from the lowest point in prison to the imperial palace - I feel able to contribute at any level.

It prepares a person to be useful at all levels and has prepared me well to quickly assess situations, I can easily enter into dialogues with people at the highest levels and I can also work with volunteers and staff to most efficiently respond to a disaster or other situations.



Above: Mr. Bekele Geleta, General Manager, Canadian Red Cross
International Operations hands over a symbolic key to Mr. Siasat Baeha,
Head of Village of Hilihati, Lahewa, Indonesia.
Photo Courtesy of Canadian Red Cross.

Tadias: We understand that you came to Canada as a refugee in 1992, settling in Ottawa with your wife and four young sons. What are your reflections regarding your Canadian home?

Mr. Geleta: I often tell my Canadian colleagues, I’m a Canadian by choice, not by accident and there’s a big difference in that. If you are a Canadian by birth, you’ll probably only start to really feel it when you are outside the country for the first time. But if you are a Canadian by choice, you come here and you realize how important it is to your life. And then you realize that this country, the Canadian people have done a lot of good. They take you in, they help you to establish a home, ensure that your children can attend school, it’s tremendous. So, I feel really great about choosing Canada as my adopted home.

There is some difficulty when people like me come, having been educated at one of the best universities in the world and having worked in your home country at a certain level but you come out of your country and become a refugee. They can’t fit you in at a senior level in your new country because you don’t know the system. They can’t graft you somewhere in the middle because there are those who have been working their butts off to achieve those positions and so it’s very difficult for organization to graft a refugee into what they might consider a suitable level. But we can’t be taken as beginners either. We’re not beginners. So essentially we become misfits. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s simply what we are. That’s the reality

Therefore it’s up to us. At whatever level of experience, whatever level of education, we must find a way to access the new country’s systems. That’s what I did and I’m not alone.

There are a great many refugees who have attained certain levels of education or experience and come to new countries and I hear them complaining and I say, complaining is not enough. One has to do the work, one has to make a major effort to find a way to access the system and it does not depend on the new country. It depends on you.

And once you realize it’s up to you and you make the effort you will come to see that great opportunities are available.

So, my message to other refugees is, find a way. Canada is a great country and we are lucky to live here.

Tadias: What’s your vision for the Red cross for the following years under your direction?

Mr. Geleta: Well, this interview comes a bit early to fully answer that question, just at the very beginning of this assignment, before I take over the position.

The one thing I can say is that the Red Cross has an excellent strategy called Strategy 2010 which was formulated in 2000, revised four years ago in Seoul and articulated the direction of the Federation going forward. This strategy will hopefully go a long way toward making the Red Cross, the largest humanitarian movement, the most efficient and most reliable civil society organization in the world.

One should always remember is that the Red Cross has a special relationship not only with the community but also with governments around the world. This makes the Red Cross unique because there is no other civil society that has established a permanent presence in every country and community. Only governments or faith-based organizations have permanent presences in every country. The only civil society entity that has come to that level is the Red Cross. It’s known everywhere by everybody and it’s challenge, my challenge, is to make it the world’s most efficient humanitarian organization; an organization that everyone feels comfortable with, an organization that people feel they can turn to and know they can rely on.

So that’s what I’ll be working on and from the lessons of Strategy 2010, I will look forward to 2020.

Tadias: There has been recent press reports that famine is once again imminent in Ethiopia. According to BBC: “Six million children in Ethiopia are at risk of acute malnutrition following the failure of rains, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, has warned. More than 60,000 children in two Ethiopian regions require immediate specialist feeding just to survive.” Does this concern the Red Cross? and if so what are your plans to act to prevent this disaster?

Mr. Geleta: The Federation has already issued a preliminary appeal for 2 million Swiss Francs but that is preliminary. Assessments are being done and following the assessments, there will be further appeals for funding to support the Ethiopian Red Cross Society in the work they will be doing to help the vulnerable, the children.

Ethiopia has a strong Red Cross Society. I worked very hard to make it a sustainable organization and it is a strong society with many volunteers and good leadership. So the Federation has good and reliable partners in the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and we will be doing a full assessment around the issue of food security and as necessary increasing the level of expertise sent into the country to support the national society.

Tadias: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Mr. Geleta: The message I have for Ethiopians in the Diaspora: please do less politics; more development. And participate and contribute to the humanitarian endeavours which will help lessen the vulnerability of Ethiopians. You can always take the Red Cross as your partner. You can support your people in Ethiopia - including the children - by supporting the work of the Red Cross. The Ethiopian Red Cross or, if you like, the Canadian Red Cross, because you can be certain that there you have a partner in lessening the vulnerability of people.

Tadias: Mr. Geleta, once again our warm thanks for taking our questions and best wishes in your endeavors.

Thanks to Tadias Magazine, New York.By Liben Eabisa

First Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008



—-

Working and living in Central Asia - Keeping people alive in the high Pamir Mountains.

A friend and colleague asked me the other day, what was the most rewarding Red Cross assignment I have had in the last ten years ? It was Central Asia from 1996 to 1999. Here are some excerpts from the diary:

As I write a bevy of 4000 to 4500 metre peaks stud the horizon less than 10 km from my window (see photo above). Living in Almaty, Kazakhstan, which nestles in the foothills of the northern Tien Shan mountains and working with people living in the Central Asia, has brought another distant dream true. Ever since I was a boy I was fascinated by the thought of Samarkand and travelling the ancient silk road which twists through the Celestial Mountains (Tien Shan)

After three years in Afghanistan (1993-1996) I moved in late 1996 to Central Asia to be in charge of major Red Cross programmes in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.




With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, one in twelve people have had to move in Central Asia because of dire economic difficulties or conflict. In Tajikistan one in five people have had to move due to the civil war. Therefore my work with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the support of the national Red Cross societies in these five Central Asian countries, has been important in assisting isolated elderly and families who are facing starvation and other forms of acute deprivation.


My work takes me from the high Pamirs in the east of Central Asia to the extreme west where the Kara Kum desert in Turkmenistan meets the Kopet Dagh mountains on the Iranian border. I am rarely out of sight of soaring snow capped peaks.

In Gorno-Badakhshan many children show signs of stunted growth because of malnutrition, and are delighted to get even one pie a day.




Much of my travelling is done along the ancient silk road which travels through the heart of Central Asia, formerly linking China in the east to Europe in the west. Frequently I pass through the historic cities of Samarkand, Tashkent, Khojent, Khokand, Dushanbe, Termez, Merv, Ashgabat and cross the mighty Oxus River.

One of the most Herculean tasks has been during the past 3 months when have hauled 3200 metric tonnes of coal, 2,000 m2 of glass, 25 tonnes of roofing iron, 500 stoves, 600 flues and 2,000 sets of bed linen plus thousands of tonnes of food to remote hospitals scattered throughout the high Pamir mountains of Tajikistan.

Sunset of the high peaks of the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan


The coal is extracted from the Alai coal mines at 3,300 metres under the shadow of the 7,134 m Peak Lenin, to the schools, clinics and hospitals situated in the Pamirs where temperatures plunge as low as -40 oC during the long and bitterly cold winter. Last winter we distributed just over 5000 metric tonnes of coal, but now with having provided all the institutions with an improved type of stove, which burns less coal and produces greater heat, we have distributed slightly lesser amounts this year.

From the Alai mine, the coal is moved by truck (more than 600 truck loads this year) over the Kyrgyzstan pass, further up the Kyzl-Art or Red Clay Pass at 4,275 m then over the incredibly high White Horse Pass at 4,650 m and driven to the recipients, an average of 600 - 800 km away.

A lake in the Pamir mountains in Gorno Badakhshan



The Alai mine is situated at the cross roads of the old silk road. It is in a small valley leading to the larger Alai Valley, which connects Kashgar and the Sarafshan mountains of Tajikistan. Traders going through the nearby town of Saritash had a choice of taking the Pamir route up to Murgab and then down into Afghanistan or the more westerly Alai valley.


Zebunisso Karimova; all she wants is her family to be healthy. Her eyes fill with tears as she tells the Red Crescent that most of her furniture has been sold or traded to buy food.


The stoves were produced in the ancient Kyrgyz city of Osh, creating jobs for many unemployed engineers and metal workers. Osh celebrated its 3000 year anniversary late last decade.

In the remote areas of Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast ( GBAO) in the Pamirs, we have worked closely with the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan financing the purchase of sheep, goats and yaks to enable these remote Red Cross branches to generate income which will in time, enable them to finance their programmes. Earlier this year I visited I visited the valley of Joshangoaz at about 3,500 metres where a Red Cross shepherd tends about 150 sheep and goats.

One of the coldest nights I spent in Tajikistan was in Murgab situated at 4000 m, where the temperature dropped to - 30 oC.


Our Red Cross workers; drivers, shepherds and field officers tell stories of hardship and danger of the past three winters of getting coal and food out to the people. Heavy snow falls blocking roads for weeks, frostbite while repairing vehicles, convoys getting scuttled by avalanches and being looted by modern day highway men is not uncommon.


The Tien Shan mountains lie mainly in Kyrgyzstan with northern parts stretching into Kazakhstan and a south-east finger poking into Uzbekistan. Approximately 750 km, or half of the Tien Shan lie in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Home to 60% of the world's dwindling population of the snow leopard ( Panthera uncia) there are estimated to be about 450 snow leopards dwelling here.

A young Kazakh girl.



In the foothills of Kyrgyzstan's Tienshan mountains, the International Federation of Red Cross supports the Kyrgyz Red Crescent to run a large relief programme providing food to isolated elderly people on a pension of approximately US $15 a month, and to institutions such as schools, orphanages and mentally handicapped homes.


I live on the outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan, at about 1000 m.

It is paradise for mountaineers and skiers for you can drive to 2600 m within 45 minutes and can climb a 4200 m peak in a day and for six months of the year, the Chimbulak ski field offers some of the best and cheapest skiing in the world.

But it the people that makes Almaty's local mountains unique. The relationship between mountain dwellers and mountains has long fascinated me and it has been great to make strong friends with Kazakhstani mountaineers and share their natural mountain life-style.

Looking across the foothills to Almaty in winter



These mountaineers live in the foothills of the Tien Shan and every Friday night either walk the four hours to their alpine huts from Almaty or drive. They spend every spare moment, every holiday in the mountains and from the age of three or four, the children ski like the wind and climb rock like a mountain goat. They have their songs, poems, climbing competitions and age old traditions of producing exquisite wood carvings.

Khan Tengri, the highest peak in Kazakhstan 7000 metres high


I fondly recall spending Christmas and New Years day (1996-97) with my good mates Sergy and Yuri, their families and other Kazakh and Russian mountaineers in their club huts consuming large amounts of Vodka, horse meat and intestines, the staple of Kazakhstan. Outside at least a metre of snow covered the ground offering superb skiing. It was here I first met Anatoly Boukreev the famous Kazakh climber who not only climbed Mt. Everest a few times, but made one of the most selfless rescues on Mt Everest in 1996.

I met the greatest of Kazakh mountaineers in 1997, Anatoli Boukreev


Spending days with Kazakhstani mountaineers and their extended families in the alpine huts in the Tien Shans while blizzards rage outside, it has been amazing to find those who have scaled Everest, Makalau, Dhalagauri and to hear them speaking modestly of significant climbs in most ranges of the world.

In 1997 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has assisted 3 million elderly, orphans, handicapped people and multi-children families through a very difficult year. With one of the worst winters on record affecting Central Asia and heavy snow and severe gales lashing the region, we have stepped up our relief assistance to those without heating and inadequate clothing.

A view from the road into Gorno Badakshan in the Pamir mlountains. We had to cart coal over passes up to 4,600 metres in winter.


Bob McKerrow 1999

We knocked the bastard off ! ( A Sir Edmund Hillary quote)

Announcing to his climbing companions that he and Tenzing had reached Everest's summit: Edmund Hillary said:

"We knocked the bastard off."

Forty years ago today, 6 June 1968, I knocked my first Andean summit off. This is the third episode of our trip to Peru.

Fifteen years after Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest, a bunch of young and enthuisiastic New Zealand mountaineers arrived at the foot of many unclimbed Andean summits in Peru, the mountain range was the Cordillera Vilcabamba. See the location on the map below.


We were seven young New Zealanders and one Englishman who had mortgaged our souls and hearts to have a last chance at a beavy of unclimbed mountains. I recall our leader Ken McNatty telling me " With nearly all major mountains in the world having been climbed, you'll never get another chance in history to climb so many peaks for the first time."

The peaks of Pumasillo and Sacsarayoc in the Cordillera Vilcabamba taken from Paccha.



I was 19 when I left New Zealand, and 20 when I stood atop of my first of many virgin Andean summits. Here is the extract from my diary of the first two climbs we did in the Andes.

Wednesday 5 June 2008

Paul Green, Ken McNatty and I left our base camp (situated at 4200 m) early morning with bulging 40 kg mountain mules packs and headed down valley and forked sou’west into the valley that we believe leads to the unclimbed peak, Cupola. 5200 m. We were hoping to do the first ascent by the south ridge. We had yet to set foot on an Andean Glacier, or snow yet, so were we being too optimistic ? We made hard work of the heavy loads and at 4 pm, we camped on the smow-line . Above, the twisted icefall streaked longitudinally with avalanche debris, and the skyline ridge dotted with bulges resembling Athenic helmets, were taking on the soft red and purple shades as the sun set. We erected our tent and put on down jackets, drank tea, as we looked for a route.

Thursday 6 June 2008

Slept in patches. We awoke at 5am and crawled out of the tent. A clear sky and the stars were dancing heel and toe. It would soon dawn a glorious day. Wolfed down breakfast and started the climb at 6am.. We threaded our way through a steepish icefall which led us out onto a glacier. We then had to negotiate an ice face that led onto a rocky buttress which tested our rusty climbing skills to the utmost Once on top of the buttress, a knife edge snow arête led to the summit. I couldn’t contain my joy. In twenty minutes or so and we would be on top of out first Andean summit, an unclimbed summit at that. The ridge was exposed and dropped away with alrming abruptness. We moved carefully, but surely, belaying all the way with three on the rope. Ken McNatty and Paul Green are solid climbers and a joy to be with. Sonn we stepped on thye summit. We had climbed 2000 feet in four hours. The view from the top was breathtaking. Similtaneously we saw a huge needle in front of us and we all started talking at once. "Does it have a name and can we climb it ?" We consulted the map and it was an unnamed and unclimbed peak between us and Nevado Blanco, the next named peak on the map. This was exciting stuff discovering an unnamed peak. We agreed that we would attempt to climb it tomorrow and if successful, we would call it La Aguja, "the Needle" because of its pointed spire. We were at 5,200 metres and La Aguja we estimated it to be at least 150 m higher.

Looking from the summit of Cupola to La Aguja


Our descent was uneventful and we got back to our camp at mid afternoon for a rest and preparation for tomorrow for La Aguja. It was an exciting day and my thoughts were on La Aguja. Would we be able to find a route up and how safe would that tottering ridge be ? These thoughts swirled like mist round and round in my head as I fell asleep.

Friday 7 June 1968

I stirred about 4 a.m and peeked out the tent door. A star-studded sky greeted me. The climb was on. We were well prepared. We had heated milk the night before and put it in a Thermos Flask. So breakfast was Wheetbix with hot milk and some biscuits washed down with tea. We were away by 6 a.m. We found a good route through the glacier to the snow field beneath the towering Needle, We looked at the possible routes. We decided to attempt the south ridge which is on the right-hand side of the photo posted above. We had to negotiate the tricky mushrooms on the ridge which took time to negotiate. With three on one rope, you move slowly. As I belayed I would look around the whole massif and take in the view. At one stage Paul shouted out,” Watch me and your belay, not the mountains,” as he caught me being a tourist and not a mountaineer. We had a series of fragile mushrooms to negotiate and with the hot sun beating down, the tops were beginning to melt and break. We needed to move more quickly. The summit seemed hours away.

Negotiating the tricky mushrooms on the south ridge of La Aguja.

After negotiating the mushroom flecked ridge, we came to to final 100 metre pinnacle, a mixture of rock and snow. Paul Green, who had recently done one of the few ascents of the Coxcomb ridge of Mt. Aspiring in New Zealand,, eagerly volunteered to lead the final summit push. He climbed his way up a narrow gap between rock and ice, using both to get the required purchase as he steadily climbed towards the summit. This super piece of climbing took an hour. We quickly joined him and then it was a further hour of climbing to the summit. We all stood atop this precarious summit, which was threatening to topple at any moment.

Bob leading out along the ridge of La Aguja with Ken McNatty roped to him. Paul took the photo. Paul did the lead to the summit between the snow and rock on the left side of the Needle

A second first ascent in two days and the honour fell to us to name it, La Aguja. Our vantage afforded an amazing view of the Pumasillo and Panta Massif. Looking about at the mass of peaks, many unclimbed summits, faces and ridges, we were in for another three months of exciting climbing. On the descent we encountered white-out conditions but we picked up our morning’s footprints and we gingerly picked our way back to base without incident Providence had been with us so far. Two first ascents in two days.

Saturday 8 June 1968

At 5 am it was snowing. We decided to wait the day out sleeping, reading a brewing tea. The next morning it was still snowing so we decided to go back to base camp to let the snow settle, consolidate and freeze as it is very avalanche prone on the high mountains for days after heavy snow falls.



Why were we one of the most successful expeditions in the Andes? No big names, no egos, and most of us had started in the dense bush before graduating to the high mountains. We knew the art of carrying bags of cement to build huts, ran club trips, some were chief guides of tramping (bushwalking) clubs and above all, we believed that team work would see us through.
We also realised quickly that in the winter in Peru, avalanches are rare in the morning but by early afternoon the snow slopes become unstable. So our approach was to put in high camps like the one above which we climbed Torayoc and the Nu Nu from. These high camps enabled us to get on the summits early and off the mountain before the avalanches started. Also when the weather was good, we could stay high and climb two or three neighbouring mountains from the same high camp. Leadership and organisation was another key factor. Ken McNatty, on reflection, was a man with vision and sound judgement, who quietly led bunch of strong individuals. Today he is one of New Zealand;s leadind scientist and a marathon runner at 60 +. And Paul Green and his Wellingtonian clubmates from the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering club. Al Higgins, Pete Goodwin and Mac Riding, were strong organisers. They packed 2 tonne of equipment and food that came with us by boat.

In addition, we all had crash courses in Spanish, enhanced by courting beautiful young lasses on the boat from Panama, to Columbia, Equador and through the Boulevards of Lima, as we waited for our mountaineering equipment to arrive.

But our fast improving Spanish was going to be of little help as we hit the alto plano, where descendents of the Incas, the Quetchua Indians lived and spoke only Quetchua. As the weeks rolled by, we spent a lot of time with the two Quetchua families in the valley, headed by Juan and Simien digging a potato field below.


Juan Pablo and his daughter Nellie.


Four of the eight of us. Bob McKerrow, Pete Goodwin, Mac Riding and Paul Green.



Bob on the summit of Mellizos after the first ascent with John E. E. S. Lawrence of the North Face of Mellizos


The Cordillera Vilcabmaba range, lying west-north-west of Cuzco in Peru, consists largely of a series of separate massifs and nudos, approx 100 km long which develop principally in an east-west direction. It is bounded to the south and west the Rio Apurimac, to the north by the Rio Vilcabamba-Urubamba, and to the east by the Rio Paucartambo


So forty years on it all seems like yesterday. I am currently getting my colour slide collection converted to electronic images. They have reproduced quite well.
I will write another episode of this memorable trip when I have time.

Sanity, family, work and reflecting.

The discussion and feedback last week on How the Other Half Dies and poverty in general was quite heavy and weighed on my conscience so I feel I need to lighten up with a posting about a trip to Yogyakarta with my 8 year old boy, Abali, ten days ago. I find my family a leveller, and draws me out of constantly thinking about and wanting to change the world. Ablai said to me recently, " Dad, you help people but can you take Mahdi and I to football on Saturday." Naila my wife often says "you help everyone out there but can't you spend more time with your family." So I am getting the message and am beginning to get more balance into my life as I spend more time with my family.



I had a trip to Yogyakarta last week where the Red Cross built 12500 houses after the 2006 earthquake and we continue doing quite a lot of water sanitation work as well as running a rehabilitation programme for those with spinal injuries caused by crush injuries during the quake. The city and surrounding areas appear almost fully rehabilitated and life is almost back to normal. I need to attend a meeting on the future of our work there so I took Ablai with me as he was on school holidays. Ablai is on a cycle rickshaw below. While I was working, he went with friend on a cycle rickshaw. Some of the photos are his.





The pilots on our Garuda flight let Ablai sit in the cockpit and try the pilot's helmet on.





Located within the Yogyakarta province, Yogyakarta city is known as a center of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows.

The Sultan's palace





It is also famous as a center for Indonesian higher education. At Yogyakarta's center is the kraton, or Sultan's palace. While the city sprawls in all directions from the kraton, the core of the modern city is to the north.







Sultan palace in YogyakartaThe Yogyakarta Sultanate, formally the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, was formed in 1755 when the existing Sultanate of Mataram was divided by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in two under the Treaty of Giyanti. This treaty states that the Sultanate of Mataram was to be divided into the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat with Yogyakarta as the capital and Mangkubumi who became Sultan Hamengkubuwono I as its Sultan and the Sultanate of Surakarta Hadiningrat with Surakarta as the capital and Pakubuwono III who was the ruler of the Sultanate of Mataram as its Sultan. The Sultan Hamengkubuwono I spent the next 37 years building the new capital, with the Kraton as the centerpiece and the court at Surakarta as the blueprint model. By the time he died in 1792, his territory exceeded Surakarta's.



Borobudar, a Budhist site near Yogyakarta







The ruler Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX (April 12, 1912 - 1988) held a degree from the Dutch Leiden University, and held for a time the largely ceremonial position of Vice-President of Indonesia, in recognition of his status, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of Defense.



In support of Indonesia declaring independence from the Dutch and Japanese occupation, in September 5, 1945, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogya and Sri Paku Alam VIII in Yogya declared their sultanates to be part of the Republic of Indonesia. In return for this unfailing support, a law was passed in 1950, in which Yogyakarta was granted the status of province Daerah Istimewa (Special Region Province), with special status that recognizes the power of the Sultan in his own region's domestic affairs. Hence Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was appointed as the governor for life. During the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch after World War II (1945-1950), the capital of the newly-declared Indonesian republic was temporarily moved to Yogyakarta when the Dutch reoccupied Jakarta from January 1946 until August 1950.



The current ruler of Yogyakarta is his son, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who holds a law degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada. Upon the elder sultan's death, the position of governor, according to the agreement with Indonesia, was to pass to his heir. However, the central government at that time insisted on an election. In 1998, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X was elected as governor by the provincial house of representatives (DPRD) of Yogyakarta, defying the will of the central government. He remains the only governor in Java without a military background: "I may be a sultan," he has been quoted in Asia Week as saying, "but is it not possible for me to also be a democrat?"[2]









2006 Earthquake



The province of Yogyakarta bore the brunt of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake on 27 May 2006 which killed 5,782 people and left some 36,299 persons injured. More than 135,000 houses are damaged, and 600,000 people are homeless [3]. The earthquake extensively damaged the local region of Bantul, and its surrounding hinterland. The most significant number of deaths occurred in this region.



The coincidence of the recent eruption of Mount Merapi, and the earthquake would not be lost on the older and more superstitious Javanese - as such natural phenonomena are given considerable



Abali took this photo of Mt. Merapi from the plane.









strong>A statue of Budha taken at Borobudar near Yogyakarta







Borobudar