Reflections

It's been great to experience the thrill of the Soccer World Cup. Our nation has had a great taste of success and victory (even though Bafana Bafana didn't get through to the 2nd round). We are all very proud of our boys. As a nation, we've temporarily placed our cynism on hold and relished in the gees of positivity all around us.

It's truly a time in the history of our young nation, that we should never forget. We must keep the stories alive for future generations.

My question is: How then, after having experienced such a marvelous injection of positivity, have we snapped back to our jaded viewpoints so quickly? What can we learn from the way we spoke during the World Cup and now?

There's a saying that "Life and death lie in the power of the tongue!" Are we speaking life into our nation? Or Death?

A lot of people have been asking 'how do we keep the gees alive'? The way speak about ourselves and about those around us will give a good indication about what happens to gees.

Come on People! Whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is noteworthy and of good report; speak of these things.

A REFLECTION ON SA's NEXT MOVE

It's been a month of ups and downs, highs and lows. A month of spectacular failure vs spectacular success!! The Soccer World Cup has been a consistent topic of conversation, which has people from all walks of life united around a common idea. Finally we have something to discuss with the car guard or the housekeeper or even a stranger in the bank queue! The magic of the moment is South Africa's golden opportunity to harness the current power and energy oozing from the positive mood the citizens are in. How does one do it? Many people are starting to wonder: "How do we keep this mood alive?"

Mountains have always supplied me with great metaphors and examples of the human struggle. Not surprisingly then, I look to the mountains as my frame of reference.

A question I often get asked after a presentation is: What is the greatest risk when you're climbing a mountain?". This is a quality question, because it indicates that the questioner is not easily duped into the warm and fuzzy "if you can dream it, you can do it" ideology. I agree with this statement, but perhaps from a mathematical standpoint it should read: "if you can calculate it, you can do it"!  So, let's talk about risk. What are the typical risk factors involved in climbing big mountains? A scary statistic (which is changing steadily due to a few years of great weather and hundreds of summit successes on Everest) has been that 1 in every 7 climbers who climb to the top of Mt. Everest die. As if this is not enough to give you white knuckles while reading this; the second tallest mountain on our planet (K2 in Pakistan) has a fatality rate of 1 to 3!! 

If these statistics are what one is up against, what measures can be put into place to avoid being part of the statistic? Some obvious aswers are: planning, preparation and sticking to the game plan. If a climber is not prepared to do a thorough diagnosis of these three crucial elements of an expedition, then they must surely face the dire consequences as set out above. There is a tiny element of luck involved as well, but for the sake of this topic, I'll stick to the tangible points. Off course, there is no magic bullet for experience. The more mountains you've climbed in your lifetime, the better your judgement of things like weather, altitude symptoms and the calculation of risk. More and more mountaineers are trying to accomplish the 7 Summits (which is the tallest peak on each of the 7 continents). This means that more and more inexperienced climbers are heading for the mountains, which may cause an unfortunate increase in the fatality statistic.

"Why do climbers die once they've summitted", you may ask. Herein lies the crucial question, which brings me to the World Cup. Climbers die on the way down from the top of the mountain, because - in their minds - they made the top of the mountain the goal. Obviously the top of a mountain is a goal, but an experienced mountaineer will tell you that it's not the goal. Come again? When people set a goal to reach the top of a mountain, they often forget that the top is only half way! Consequently many climbers have literally run out of steam once the goal is achieved. This poses a serious danger to their descent. When Bruce Herod (my team mate in the 1996 Everest expedition) reached the top of Everest (a dream he had had for many years) he sat down below the Hillary step to rest for a few minutes. Unfortunately he never got up again. There was simply not enough energy left in him to make the descent. As a result he froze to death while resting.

So, what should the goal then be? A successful expedition is when every climber makes it back home alive. Note, I did not say back to the base camp, but BACK HOME! In other words, envision yourself far beyond the goal of reaching the top. What does this have to do with the World Cup? We South Africans are close to the top of our Mt. Everest. The 2010 FIFA World Cup is almost done and dusted. We've done the planning, we've prepared well and we've stuck to the game plan. We have also harnessed the experience of those who've done it before. As South Africans, we can taste the victory, the glory of a successful summit. The only way to hold on to the positive energy we are all embodying right now, is to have another shared  vision. To use this current success and propel our memory into the future for more of the same. In other words (to avoid the Big WC Babalas which may beset us) we must ENVISION BEYOND the end of the World Cup. We should start a national dialogue, mobilise our collective creativity and create a memory of the future. What kind of SA do we want to live in? How do we want the world to see us? What needs to happen for this idea/vision to be achieved? By when would we like to achieve it? I've heard it suggested that Football Friday should continue and be used in the pursuit of something else. South Africans are creative, viby, energetic and resillient. Let's use these attributes to create our common identity.

As our beloved patriarch Nelson Mandela said: "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speak to youth in a language that they understand. Sport can create hope, where once, there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers".

Sport can give us hope. Hope creates vision. Without a vision people perish.

With the Soccer World Cup occupying every aspect of thought and conversation at the moment; I was thrilled to come across a recent article about a tennis match which, eclipsed by the Beautiful Game, made history of epic proportions.

It's not only the actual game that captured my imagination as much as the inspirational journalistic style of the article. In my opinion, this is a brilliant view of the true raison deitre of sport. I find Ed Smith's article of the 11 hour match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut during Wimbledon's first round, worth repeating. I'd love to paraphrase the article, but this would not do justice to the (in my view) magnificence of his observations.

EPIC OF POETIC PROPORTIONS - ED SMITH

The word epic is nearly always an inappropriate cliche. Not this time. Breaking - no, smashing - the record for the longest tennis match, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut reminded us how sport can transcend the simple matter of winning and losing. In flinging themselves at the linits of human endurance in the first round of Wimbledon, Isner and Mahut showed how sport can inspire us all. For 11 hours this week (24 June 2010) they were locked in a relentless dual. The previous record match was a mere six and a half. At that point, Isner and Mahut were only warming up.

The psychological burden alone is astonishing. Serving to stay in the match just once is a nerve shredding experience. Mahut had to do it 55 times! It is rare that a single sports match takes players to the edge of their capacity in so many different areas: physical fitness, mental toughness and competitive fire. It is one thing to suffer complete exhaustion in endurance sports, but marathon runners don't have to decide to serve and volley at break point. In that respect, the Mahut-Isner match was like a cruelly draining hybrid of chess and triathlon.

How can we measure the achievement? I was going to say that it was like scoring 800 in a Test Match. But that doesn't quite capture it. Perhaps we must turn to the arts: Imagine waiting until Brunhilde had finished the final chord of Wagner's five-hour Gotterdammerung, then, just as the gods go up in smoke, telling her to start again - from the beginning. Epic is the only way to describe the Isner-Mahut duel: epic in emotional depth and epic in it's human dimension. Yes, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer gave us a wonderful final last year. But Mahut-Isner was all the more moving because neither is a star. An yet, they own a record that will almost certainly never be broken. It is likely that both will retreat into relative obscurity. But many greats never leave so deep an imprint. Here, surely, is a lesson for us all about the essence of sport. Too often, modern sport has retreated into the narrow-minded elitism of celebrity culture. Who cares about county cricket, people say, or Championship football? If it doesn't have the prefix "premier", let's turn to another channel. Sport gave us the modern saying "winner takes all". Sadly, it has now come to embody it.

There is another, better way to look at sport: It can produce great moments of human drama at every level - from the school pitch to the Olympic podium. We have all sat through boring matches in which two excellent sides retreat into a defensive stalemate. And every fan has watched two unheralded teams unexpectedly produce the match of the tournament. It is quite wrong to think to that superstars have a monopoly on great sport. Democratic unpredictability is sports ace card. No-one, not pundits, not broadcasters, not fans and certainly not  the players had any idea that the Isner-Mahut match would become a classic.

With the score a mere 7-8 in the final set, one fan popped into Wimbledon village to watch England play Slovenia. When he returned, it was locked at 28-27. We kid ourselves that sport is all about winning, about being the best, about quantifiable supremacy. It isn't. The phrase "winning is the only thing that matters" is both depressing and wrong. Sports inspires us most when it taps into timeless human narratives. We will never tire of watching reincarnations of Hector and Achilles.

On Wednesday, as the sun faded over London on one of the longest nights of the year, here was perhaps the oldest story of all: two men, locked in combat, finding a shared heroism in refusing to yeild, to except retreat.. In Thursday's final act, one of them (Mahut) had to lose 6-4  3-6  6-7(9)  7-6(3)  70-68. But by then, both had won something bigger than the tennis match. And it wasn't a place in history. For sport has one prize even swetter than that. They found out what they were capable of, how deep were their reserves of endurance willpower.

That is the ultimate prize in sport. And we should aplaud it to the rafters when we see it.

Source: The Times, London

Imagine doing your first skydive ever.  It's a tandem jump, you freefall for almost a minute from above Mount Everest, the highest point on earth, and set a record in the process?   How insane is that!  
It took 15 years of planning before it all came together last month (Oct 2008) when skydivers from various countries (incl SA) jumped from an aircraft over Everest.   The 41 solo and tandem jumps set 23 national and international skydiving records and included a 72yr old man, a woman who jumped on her 30th birthday and even some 1st timers in tandem jumps.
Because of the subzero temperatures and thin air they used extra thick parachutes that were also 3 times the normal size.  Their suits were specially made in Nepal and they used breathing equipment as they leapt into the freezing air at 29,500ft (8,992m) to see the summit of Everest sticking above the clouds.
Hurtling through the air for almost a minute of freefall before opening the chute and landing at the world's highest drop zone  - Shyangboche airstrip in the Himalayas (12,350ft or 3,764m) - must've been an awesome, unforgettable adventure and, incredibly, there were no serious mishaps so kudos to the organisers who put an amazing amount of effort into the planning.

It's not very often I come into contact with someone who truly understands what it means to make a difference but that's exactly what happened when I was recently invited to speak at Kingsway School, just off Beyers Naude drive in the northwest of Johannesburg.    What a wonderful experience!    I thought I was there to inspire, but the inspiration I received from the staff and learners will stay with me for a long time and the story of how the school got started is an extremely powerful example of how one person can make a difference!

It all began when a lady, who was extremely concerned about children begging on street corners, did a little investigating and found that they were either homeless or parentless or both and that begging was their only means of survival. She soon made her garage available and started providing food and basic numeracy and literacy skills to 20 kids.  Word spread, classes grew and, in time, more space was needed and there followed an epic journey during many obstacles were overcome until, eventually, Kingsway school was established - with National Education accreditation. Currently it provides education to over 300 children from informal settlements in that area but, amazingly, the story doesn't end there and plans are underway to build a bigger school able to cater for the education needs of over 1000 children.

The school principal beams when she speaks of the resilience the children display in the face of extraordinary hardships and the difference their education is making to families who, otherwise, would not be able to send their children to school. Success stories include a learner who is now studying to become a teacher and another who's gone on train in the field of road traffic management.

A truly moving and incredible story of a school that evolved from one persons concern for children begging and yet how often do we not hear (or say) the words “nothing I do will make any difference”?

If you're as inspired as I am to find ways to support them on their journey, and in continuing to reach their goals, contact us and we'll pass on your email.   If you aren't, perhaps you need a motivational talk!!!  (shameless plug)  

She may "only" have been in 16th place but in that 10 kilometre swim in Beijing today Natalie du Toit finished just 1min22sec outside of the winning time of 1hr59min27,7sec.   

What a fantastic performance and what a powerful example that dreams can come true - if you truly want them to.

As a child I dreamt of, one day, Mount Everest and will never forget how I felt, aged 25, on being selected for the 1996 SA Everest expedition.  Natalie says her dream of participating in an Olympics began when she was just 6 and today, 18yrs later, her dream became reality.   There were lots of hurdles in those 18 years, not least of which was her leg being amputated, but I feel that what separates the Natalies from the rest of us is whether the dream is just a dream or whether we're prepared to do whatever it takes to make that dream come true.
I believe that however high the mountain there is always a way up and Natalie was able to find that way up, to transform her dream into a belief and do whatever it took to make it happen.  
In her own words "you have to keep your dreams and never give them up".   That's exactly what she's done and, in the process, proven beyond doubt that you can make your dreams come true.

(Photo it.eurosport.yahoo.com)

If the results of performance enhancing drugs tests are anything to go by the 2008 Olympics seem, with a few exceptions, pretty "clean" but I couldn't help feeling saddened when a particular Spitz/Phelps comparison struck me the other day.  Mark Spitz record setting performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics earned him instant worldwide acclaim for the superb and dedicated athlete that he was.    Last week, in amongst other headlines about Michael Phelps' growing collection of gold medals was this one: "I'm drug free, says Phelps".
For me it's not about Michael Phelps being asked the question - it's that it needs to be asked at all.
In the multi-billions dollars business of sport the competitive drive to win can be fierce so why am I surprised that the ways of using drugs (and the ways of hiding their use!) are being developed at the same rate as, if not faster than, the methods used to detect them?   Athletes are faced by a mind-boggling array - stimulants, "lean mass builders", diuretics, sedatives, painkillers, masking drugs - for optimal performance, super alertness, to counteract fatigue, increased aggression, increased blood pressure, diuretics for sports with weight limits, painkillers to override injuries athletes but also for an injury free athlete to perform beyond their normal pain threshold and physical limits.   And then there are also the masking drugs used to avoid detection of the others.   All this can surely be extremely tempting to an athlete/sportsperson with a win-at-all-costs mindset and perhaps the real surprise is that there've been so few positive tests at the Beijing Olympics.
It still saddens me, though, that those few cast their murky shadow over the achievements of all the others participants.   It's doubtful that such a headline followed Mark Spitz' 7 gold swims in 1972 but, fast-forwarding to the present, any drug-free athlete setting new standards will not be able to simply savour their success as Mark Spitz was able to - without being asked that question.

Email from Sydney, Australia, tells us we're not alone:

In 2003, on my 2nd attempt at Mt Everest, I met a Japanese man trying to break his own world record of the oldest man ever to climb to the highest point on earth.   His resilience was astounding!  A slow climber myself (the days climb can take me 80% longer than my team mates) I’d pass him on the route most days.  He always looked as though he was on his last legs and, being even slower than I am, I’d wonder if he’d ever make it to the next camp, never mind the top of Everest!    I couldn’t have been more wrong!
At that stage I’d been a mountaineer for 7yrs and should’ve given him a whole lot more credit.  The slower you climb at high altitude, the better you acclimatise.   Not only did he make it to camp each day but his exceptionally slow pace meant that his push for the top was perfectly timed to take advantage of the ever unpredictable weather window.   Retired school teacher, Katsukuke Yanagisawa, aged 71 summitted Everest that year  -  an honour which eluded our entire team as well as many other experienced international climbing teams in 2003!

Like so many others I thought his record would remain unchallenged so imagine the astonishment when a 76yr old Nepalese man beat that record on 25 May 2008 by summitting Everest and making it back down safely.
At the same time Sir Ranulph Fiennes, legendary explorer, was on Everest for the 2nd time attempting to summit.  On his 1st attempt he suffered a heart attack just 300 metres from the top and was incredibly fortunate to survive.  Now aged 64, his 2nd attempt was also thwarted by heart problems and vertigo and Sir Ranulph decided to abandon his goal.

In my opinion it is “Sagamartha” (Everest’s Nepalese name - meaning Mother Goddess of the Earth) that decides who will summit - and who will not.   Certainly young or old are equally at her tempestuous mercy.
I salute those who have had the determination to keep trying until they reach their goal.
I salute - even more – those who recognise that life is more valuable than a few minutes on that very small surface area called the summit and who have the courage to turn around.
I salute you, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, for choosing life.

Shape magazine and Sanex have again teamed up to run the 2008 competition to find "one woman who epitomises all that Shape and Sanex stand for".   
The 2008 winner will be chosen from eight finalists and Deshun and Neil Tuck (clinical psychologist) have been invited to participate in judging the finals at a fabulous event to be held in Cape Town.

(left) No prizes for guessing who these gorgeous guys are.   Deshun says they're even more gorgeous in real life and really nice guys too!

(right)  Boogeying with Jake White at the party for all the Laureus guests on Sunday night.  Deshun looked  stunning in an outfit by fabulous Johannesburg design label, Sun Goddess, who also dressed her for the gala awards ceremony.

Ok so the "rolling blackouts" are causing havoc all over the country:  Eskom shuts down the mining industry and asks the government to stave off foreign investment till 2013, the esteemed Minerals & Energy Minister says we all have to go to bed early to save power, traffic intersections are turned into battlezones and otherwise mild-mannered people are driven to bouts of wild rage.  I must confess, however, that today's "outage" has had an unexpectedly wonderful affect - on my day, anyway.   Arriving at a darkened office this morning it quickly became apparent that creative and urgent thinking was required if morning coffee was to be a likelihood.   In a flash we'd relocated to Seattle Coffee Co in Hyde Park (safe from blackouts?) from where I write this.   Great coffee, nice ambience, wireless i'net and easy access to the Exclusive Books' sale tables outside.   Working doesn't get much better than this!    Must have a word with Deshun....

I've been absolutely amazed at the amount of support and interest there has been for the Kilimanjaro trip. It's times like these and people like you (loyal supporters) that make my efforts at high altitude worthwhile. I appreciate all the prayers and positive energy that was passed along the networks in cyberspace!

The news of Lucky Dube's senseless killing is the last straw!!

It's been a conversation all morning and all I hear are the muted pleas for government to DO SOMETHING!!!!

Well, have we got any evidence that our leaders are truly committed to our protection? The very people they expect to vote for them? I'm not convinced. So, what do we do? I doubt that louder shouts and more radical approaches (like burning tyres and marching the streets) will yield different results. If we keep doing what we've always done, we'll keep getting what we always got.

There is, however, a method that worked for our country before and I don't see why it shouldn't work again.....

Do you remember what we did to transition from apartheid to democracy?

Do you remember the chaos, the paranoia, the frustration, the uncertainty and the hope?

Well, I reckon we should reflect back on what caused the miracle of those uncertain days.

As a nation, we didn't wait for governement to tell us and do on our behalf! We got off our butts and did it for ourselves!!! We MOBILISED!!!

Churches preached a message of peace
Schools distributed Peace t_shirts
Our leaders inspired tollerance
Our communities used hope instead of fear to push forward
Business printed bumper sticker and taxi's displayed them proudly!

WE Prayed!!!

I really believe that if we pull together and unite around the kind of South Africa we want to see in five years time, we should start now. RIGHT NOW!!!!

What kind of South Africa do you want to see and what are you going to do about it!!!

If you have read any stories about Mt. Everest or the Himalayas, you'll probably have heard about a tribe called the Sherpa.

One of the questions I often get asked about after my talks is: "How can you climbers make those poor Sherpas work so hard to help you go up mountains?"

The interesting thing is: the Sherpas have actually turned their superior genetic advantage into their business. Guiding and helping teams up the highest mountains in the world - which are all in the Himalayas - is the Sherpas' way of feeding their families. Kind of like the same way a firefighter will sell his skill to help people out of burning building.

I'll write a few blogs on just 'how' it is that the that they are superior to ALL of us in the rest of the world.

Watch this space.