That's all from Asia!

Sorry for the delay, but I should wrap this blog up. Most of the 21 or so people who follow this blog would know by now that I'm back in Ottawa. I got home on Oct 3rd and was at work Oct 4ht. My new gig is with a new show called "The West Block with Tom Clark". I'm assigned to the show as the ENG Tech, or basically the camera, editor and handle all the field shoots.

We started off with a bang by heading to the G20 in Cannes, France. We had a sit down interview with the Prime Minister, and did the show live from France. Since that time we have done a few road trips and had sit down interviews with the likes of John McCain, Peter MacKay, and Premier Redford of Alberta.

The show is full HD, and I've been able to get a lot of new toys to play with. The nice part is that get to do a lot of lighting and fortunately I'm given sometime for set up.

It wasn't really a tough call to pull the plug on China. I've had a great run with it and enjoyed it immensely. There are so many stories that we didn't get to. The few we did really opened my eyes to the world and what's going on it. I will miss all the people. Including Ben O'Hara Byrne, who was instrumental in getting me there in the first place, Jas Johal, who came after Ben, and Zhai Qi, Fan Di the people who worked for us there, and the many, many other friends I made while being there.

I would have loved to have stayed, but home was calling me back. It's time reconnect with family and friends for a while. Perhaps if I'm lucky enough to get another chance at something like this I do think I'll grab it, but, I hope Maggi will join me for it.

Since being home, I'm on a Wednesday to Sunday shift. It's a nice way to move back in to Ottawa. If I had to go back to the daily grind, I think it would be a much harder adjustment. The weekly deadline allows us to work on stuff with some thought and time for set up and reflection.

I'm hope that I'm not done completely with spot news, as I do miss that spontaneous challenges that it brings.

Anyways, I haven't figured out how I'm going to modify the blog or start a new chapter.

I'd just like to end this by thanking my wife and family for there support as I traveled the world and put myself through some interesting situations that they may have been less than pleased with. Without their support I never would have been able to do this.

Cheers everyone and will let you know what happens in the next chapter.

Barry

Tripoli stories

In case you missed them or are curious, here are a few stories we did in Libya.

Libya part 2

I suppose I do have a unique job. Just last March I left Benghazi under the cover of darkness and headed for the safety of the Egyptian Libyan border. I'm now making my way back to Tunisia then on to Beijing having spent the last week and and bit in Tripoli. My how things have changed. The majority of people in Libya are now free to speak openly about the oppression that they have faced over the last 42 years. In March, when things could have go either way people were hesitate to give us their full names. Now people are over joyed that they can speak their opinion, give there name, and not face the torture at the hands of a truly bizarre character.

While in the Gaddafi compound that was heavy damaged and looted, many people were busy trying to salvage anything they could. Some just wanted to see inside. It was truly a pleasure to see people literally jumping for joy at the departure of a Tyrant. It was also heartbreaking to see the spot where more than a hundred bodies were discovered burned and locked in a shed. A few escaped, but most didn't and were burned beyond recognition. Truly the act of cowards and mad men. I guess they believe that the dead tell no tells. I guess we will have to wait and see. Even after the bodies had been removed, the smell is something that lingers. Not something I will soon forget.

What's next for Libya now is the hard part. Putting down the guns, putting aside differences and shaping Libya into what could be a leading African country. What ever happens to Gaddafi now will be anti climatic. He may go down fighting, be captured alive, take his own life, who knows? Many Libyans I have meet would like to see him placed in a cage and put on display. Left to bake or rot in the sun down by the port, or hung from Green Square. Most want to see him humiliated as he has humiliated them for the last 42 years. Death they say would be to easy for him.

Of the 50.000 deaths that are spoken of by CNN and others, most Libyans say that is the tax, the price they have to pay for freedom. It's a heavy price. Something I don't think most Canadians could ever get there head around. One gentleman I meet put it this way. "We use to be embarrassed to say we are from Libya, but now I'm proud to call myself Libyan. We may not have much, no food, no water, no money, but now we are free."

update

Just heading out for my holidays, three weeks back home with my wife, my dog and my parents, (my dad turns 80 at the end of July). Jas and I have been busy post hernia operation with a quick overnight to Shanghai via highspeed train. The Chinese are building more and more highspeed in an effort to a) connect the country, b) continue infrastructure programs to stave of inflation and keep economic growth, and c) to prove they can. They are bidding on the California highspeed rail project amongst others. Unfortunately it has encountered a few problems. Namely the Minister in charge being removed over corruption and embezzlement allegations. Oh and the train has been running at 300 kph instead of 350 kph due to safety concerns. It doesn't seem to faze most people here. They also have had more than a dozen stoppages over power issues. I guess safety be dammed. Our trip wasn't stalled, and if was not a bad way to get from Beijing to Shanghai. Comfortable and roomy.

It looks like my chapter here is closing. I informed the company in the winter that I preferred not to renew my contract and there is hope that I will have a job in Ottawa come this fall. There is no time frame as of yet, so I return to Beijing mid August and wait to here when to move home.

Other than that, not much new here. The weather is warm, many, many hot, humid, ugly days here filled with pollution. Interrupted by 2 or 3 days in a row of nice blue sky sunny warm days.

Anyways some of you I may see in the coming weeks, others I will see you this fall.

Cheers

Barry

Hernia with gangrene

So what's new? A little trip down to Hong Kong for some shoots; a story about Hong Kong wine, shark fin soup ban, and finished one on real estate. Made for a nice break from Beijing, Early June found us late, but heading down to Henan and Hubei with stories about water diversion. It was to be about the drought, but it took us so long to get down there the areas we where near had finally received rain.

The fun started when I got back from Yichang and the 3 gorges dam. I've had a hernia for a while, but it hadn't affected me much until last week. So upon returning to Beijing I swung by a clinic to see what was up. They were certain that I had strangulated it and there was significant portion protruding. It was recommend that I get surgery soon, and they sent me to a specialist here in Beijing to get clearance to fly home.

No clearance was given, and I was under the knife in a few hours. Turns out that the protruding bit had already died and was full on gangrene. By 9pm I was out of surgery and was able to talk to Maggi who was more than a little concerned.

Seems though that other than the cost, everything seems to be working out fine. The price of health care, about $20,000.

Will leave you with a couple stories from the Hong Kong trip.

I write this sitting in very nice hotel in Cairo Egypt. I’m a long way from Jan 31 of this year when I first departed for Cairo, and many thousands of Kilometers. The departure of Mubarik on the 17th of February seems like years ago. Yesterday Egyptian exercises the right to vote, (on constitutional amendments) for the first time in over 40 years. The headline in the Egyptian Gazette says it all, “A taste of democracy”. I giant step in the right direction, all be it down a long road. For other countries that road is even longer.

After heading back to Beijing I was looking forward to a little relaxation as the hours we put in where long and had some challenges that seemed to make some days last for a week. How wrong I was. Sometime between 11 pm and 1 am on the 24th/25th, of February I received an email asking me to call Vancouver, also know as “the desk”. There are some other names used, but I won’t bore you with our adolescent attempts at humour that give other names for what amounts to our parents in a work environment.

So Saturday found me “packing light” for what was to be a three or four day trip to Bahrain. (Packing light was a little bit of mistake on my part, but when you are trying to get in on a tourist visa, a $85,000 of TV gear makes you a little conspicuous, however I do what I’m told most days.)

Why Bahrain? Why not? It is easy to get into, has some of its people demanding their human rights and an end to the long rule of a minority over a majority. Makes sense to me. Ok maybe not easy to get to. I flew overnight in a very small seat Air China middle seat from Beijing to Deli. Where I spent four hours trying to get a boarding pass for the trip to Bahrain. Eventually made the flight, once again crammed into the middle and arrived along with Tom Popyk in Bahrain, happy that that fourteen hour adventure was over and ready to work. Ok, I was exhausted and ready for a shower.

Tom and I spent two days around Bahrain’s now well known Pearl Roundabout. It became the focal point of the protesters. Many were eager to show us the bullet holes in lampposts and creators in the concrete. I hunt; I’ve seen bullet holes, those we not just rubber bullets. There was the usual festive atmosphere at Pearl Roundabout; volunteers handing out food and drink, medical aid for those that need it, even a protesters media centre. Protestors are getting pretty media savvy these days.

The protests that started in Tunisia with the self-immolation of a fruit seller have sparked (sorry about the pun, I couldn’t pass on it) a movement that has spread all over North Africa and the Middle East. Off the top of my head: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Syria, and Iran just to name a few. People wanting their human rights a chance at a future. All simple, fundamental rights that you and I have. (Although the voter turn out in Canada is shamefully low and those that don’t vote should be fined and spend a couple of days with someone from a country where they don’t have a right to vote.)

Where was I? Right Bahrain. So on the Tuesday we head for Cairo where we try and avoid having our gear seized. (They may have booted Mubarik, but aren’t foreign media friendly at customs just yet.) At this point we are trying to figure out whether to go to Tunis, or the Egyptian side. You saw the humanitarian crisis from the Tunisian side. Egypt was similar. Eventually a crew went to Malta then to Tunisia after Tom and I headed for the Libya Egyptian border.

We crossed illegally in to Libya as Qaddafi labeled us as Al Qaida collaborators. Funny, I didn’t see anything in the way of Al Qaida the entire time I was in Libya. What I saw were people who were looking for their freedom. Freedom from a tyrant. freedom to choose, freedom to make there own opportunities, to have a chance to marry, to raise a family, to find a job.

It started well. The rebels had taken control of several cities and were euphoric in their achievements. But the Col. wasn’t going to give up that easy. As he pushed back and the situation changed it was clear to me at least that without the help of the outside world, it wouldn’t end well.

My question is this. If the Arab world resents the Western worlds intervention, why is it that the Arab League isn’t leading this? I understand the West’s caution, as you don’t want to come to a party unless you are invited. I think the Arab League needs to take a front and centre roll in this if they want to be taken seriously and not just written off as an organization that will give a stern lecture but take no action. (Sounds like the UN.) (Actually I think this also applies to China. Want to be considered a world super power. Act like one. Ignore the foreign press. Let them do their jobs. Very few listen to us anyways. And quit suppressing your people too! But I digress China is for another time.)

Once we decide that we couldn’t move the story forward much without some serious safety concerns (CBC and us were moving as a group going in and out of Libya,) we moved back to Cairo. We left under the cover of darkness. Fitting as we all felt that we were abandoning a story, and the people.

I find in interesting that Bahrain has removed the Pearl from the Pearl Roundabout. I watched it from the hotel. I guess they think that removing a symbol will remove the will of the people. Reports say there are over 40 dead in Bahrain, and it took the House of Saud to roll in and get things under control by killing unarmed protests.

The people I have met over the last 7 going on 8 weeks have left an impression on me.. They want the same things, not material things, the same chance that other 10% or less of the world has. They are willing to die for it. Would we have that resolve if the rolls were reversed? Nice of the UN to finally act on Libya, at least there is a chance now.

My apology as this has rambled on to long and in many directions. I leave you with a photo of a dog that I took in Egypt on the way back to Cairo. Other than seeing my friends safely out of Libya, the few calls home its one of the few things to make me smile in the last few weeks.

The people

I can’t help but be moved by the people we encounter here. Their passion for change, their desire to break the cycle that they have been trapped in for 42 years is incalculable. It simple defies measurement. Ebrahim we met at the edge of Ras Lanuf. He’s 26 and wants Gaddafi gone. Under educated, unemployed, and unmarried, he speaks of trying to learn English so he can leave what he calls “this shit country”. He loves his country but cannot stand the Regime anymore. He wants change or death. He explains he was beaten while he was detained 3 weeks for speaking out about Gaddafi. He wants the freedom to speak his mind.

On 18year old Bushra, she is seeking answers to her uncles Mohammad’s death in Dec 1992. She now feels empowered to speak and have her voice heard.

Powerful voices, but will they be heard or will the sounds of gunfire drowned out there voice and will they be silenced once again? Force to live under a megalomaniac who has played most world leads for years in the interest of money and or oil. I guess we will wait and see.