Dan Climbing Mt. Aconcagua for ONE
January 17th, 2008 at 3:11 pm | posted by Chandler.SmithDan Robinson, ONE member, mountaineer and British navy pilot, has begun his climb up Mt. Aconcagua. This is the first peak of seven that he will climb in the name of ONE. As he climbs the Seven Summits, he’s planting a ONE flag on the top of each. Read his almost daily updates at www.dan-robinson.com.
-Chandler Smith
Thursday, January 17, 200815-16th Jan…Casa de Piedra to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp)
Hey guys. Managed to get some internet access but it is very slow and very expensive so I’ll combine the last two days. Yesterday we moved from Casa de Piedra to Base Camp at Plaza Argentina. It was a climb of over 3000ft in elevation and around 8 miles. The climb took just over 6 hours and upon arriving at base camp, it was the first time that I really noticed the affects of altitude. Base camp itself is like something out of a Star Wars movie as it is a very dry, rocky environment surrounded by huge mountains including Aconcagua and its Polish Glacier. I woke up this morning with a mild headache, sore throat and a nose bleed that have stayed with me throughout the day. Other than that I feel okay! I look up at the summit of Aconcagua and sometimes I dare to imagine myself raising the ONE campaign banner at the top. It is a very long way and there are lenticular clouds sitting menacingly on the summit. An indication of very high winds that sometimes can range from 100-200mph. I have a lot of work ahead.
Thought for the day:
Our generations challenge is to help the poorest of the poor to escape the misery of extreme poverty so that they can begin their own ascent up the ladder of economic development. The end of poverty, in this sense, is not only the end of extreme suffering but also the beginning of economic progress and of the hope and security that accompany economic development.
See you all soon.
-Dan Robinson
January 19th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
The fact that as of 1/19/08 there were NO comments to a 5/10/2007 posting at the Sam Spade’s San Francisco ONE affilated blog about ending unnecessary childhood deaths speaks for itself as to the meaningfulness of this blog site and the TOTAL ABSENCE of ONENESS within ONE. I found out about ONE from a streamer of a DVD my son was watching, with people earning tens of millions of dollars pleading for the poor. PLEASE see MY blog at myspace.com/fixingour1worldnow In short, ALL the problems could be solved IN A SINGLE DAY if only everyone REALLY wanted it, meaning that they shared what was theirs with the poor the same as they would with their own brother. The fact is that Brad Pitt and George Clooney and the others promoting ONE don’t REALLY want an equitable redistribution of wealth; just to beg the government to be a little “kinder” while hundreds of millions of people live in slave labor camps run by the companies on the NY Stock Exchange. I wrote a screenplay 30 years ago when my sister was working for Michael Apted at Universal Studios about two people like you and me getting the rest to take the world back, as Frank Cappra prophesized in “Meet John Doe” the John Doe’s eventually would do. Every cause promoter in Hollywood has told me the plot is “ridiculous.” In fact, it’s called “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,” after a story by Dostoevsky of that title, in which someone dreams that the world is straightened out and tries convincng everyone that it really IS possible. Only joining ONE is NEVER going to do it. BEING ONE is the ONLY solution. You’ll notice in my blog mention of the 10/5 California Monthly issue with a pentagon study anticipating nuclear attacks HERE within five yeras, meaning within another three or so now. The game is up. The rich will fry with the poor. Neither Donald Trump or Bill Gates can prevent it, and their billions won’t matter a wit when they disintegrate with the rest of us. The fact is, the terrorists are portrayed as lunatics, when it is WE who are the lunatics living in a crazy world so long, we no longer notice that what we are doing is nuts. Corporate colonialism HAS TO end. WHEN the people who DO all the work start telling the bosses what they will earn and what the bosses will earn, instead of the other way around, the terrorists will shake our hands instead of blow us up, and not until then. But ONE doesn’t want to touch THAT one. They want to feel good about helping a little. I tell insurance company executives whose mistakes screw up people’s lives that the mistakes should take twenty minutes to fix, not two months, and ultimately they do–while 10,000 OTHER mistakes drag on for another two months. Think about it: in ONE DAY, it can all be arranged, once everyone realizes that they HAVE TO. Over 90% of our wealth is in the hands of 1% of the people. The other 99% won’t feel a bit of difference if EVERYTHING wee straightened out, and won’t cry about the trust fund babies who ahve to give up their hundreds of millions of dollars. DO YOU want us to be ONE, or just to promote yourself? The internet made it possible. It’s just a question of whether anyone with the ability to use it has the will. The founder of Craigslist sure doesn’t. He played dumb with me for an hour. Whadaya say?