the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

- KOSOVO I have received the last two issues of blue and I admit, it has some appeal. I especially appre- ciated "Clash of Conscience" [August ·1999]. I get the feeling that culture and the environment are important pieces of your magazine, so if that's the case, I have two problems with some of the contributors. The first involved "Kosovo's Shades of Gray" [August 1999]. If the writer, Gary Fabiano, wanted to get a true glimpse of the horrors people faced in this region, he should have also visited Serbia and the people affected by the NATO bombing. We got a lot of coverage of ethnic Albanians suffering in the general media, but little on Yugoslavia. The other article that raised concern was "Surf Meccas: Then and Now," [August 1999] by Chris James. Saying that you should bring a rifle big enough to stop a charging grizzly is totally irresponsible, whether said tongue-in-cheek or not. Please maintain a sense of fairness when presenting us with pol- itics and a sense of compassion with adventurous excursions. Scott Rozell Burlingame, CA I find your publication delightful and interesting, and I should actually thank you, as a surfer, for giving me the opportunity to read alternative writings on surfing-ones that I can rarely find in other mainstream surfing magazines (particularly Maurizio Vetrugno's essay, "Surfing Degree Zero," August 1999). The same issue, though, puzzled me, and the reason was the text in the photographic report on Kosovo by Gary Fabiano [Kosovo's Shades of Gray]. I found both the photographic and writing skills of the author great, especially tak- ing into consideration the backpage story ("Are you a Christian or a Muslim," August 1999). The photographs are amazingly vivid and the text equally thrilling. But at one point, the author goes: "I found the people that I spoke with in Kosovo relieved that NATO exists and has decid- ed to stand up to a despicable human being." This phrase is something I would never expect to find in a publication that belongs to a publishing company that's, in essence, an indepen- dent one (thus not prone to any kind of censorship), founded and created by what must appar- ently be a team of really smart, talented, educated and open-minded people. Your magazine is obviously not about politics-but this is a political statement. One that clearly assumes that NATO's existence is a protective one, and we should be thankful that NATO exists. It also assumes that the NATO bombing on Yugoslavia was an act that you/the writer/us can clearly approve. I believe that all those are debatable issues, multi-sided, many times obscure and certainly not that simple. I would expect your magazine to raise questions, not comment on a huge complicated problem like the Kosovo crisis in such a simplistic, obvi- ous way. Like every single sane individual on the planet, I do myself believe that Milosevic is despicable. And I'm neither pro-Serb, nor pro-Albanian. But, after reading quite a few articles and essays written by various analysts and authors (most of them Americans), I realized that these are delicate, complicated subjects that we shouldn't comment on in a popular way that your TV channel's "News at 9" would. There are many sides of the Kosovo- NATO aggression sit- uation, and many of them are not flattering at all for NATO or the KLA and the ethnic Albanians. On the other hand, reading the article "Clash of Conscience" [August 1999] by Bryony Schwan, I saw a totally different approach to things. I would only expect to find Schwan's open-minded and interesting skepticism in Gary Fabiano's text, which, as described above, regretfully I didn't. Dimitris Karaiskos london, England You have somehow attributed my article as being the ideology of blue magazine. You have also assumed that when I mentioned NATO, I was speaking for you, me, blue and the rest of the world. I feel pretty safe in saying that everyone at blue has a mind of their own and their own opinions, just as you do. blue obviously has a choice regarding the stories they run in the maga- zine and they definitely do not have to go out on a limb and run a controversial story like mine on Kosovo. But blue prints stories from many different perspectives and they don't always live on the comfy side of things. I think they do it because they know it's important. blue could have done what every other magazine does: have a writer put words to the pictures. But they didn't. They had the insight to ask me to write the words. This story may have shed light on a situation that many people might not have been exposed to if they were only reading other mass media publications. My impressions of Kosovo do not come from watching Tv. They have come from studying the history of the region, by going there numerous times and being a witness. The truth is never out in the open-you have to be willing to go look for it. No media organization has ever paid for me to travel there. Most photographers scrape together all the money they have and spend it on something they believe in. We do it with the understanding that a lot of these stories will never make it into print. We do it because we have to, and many dedicated people have died in the process of finding the truth. But guess what? We keep doing it. ' By your wording concerning NATO, I can only come to the conclusion that you did not agree with the intervention. In the past (Bosnia, Rwanda, etc), I think the populist view was to take time in complicated discussions as to how to fix the "complicated problem" while inno- cent people were dying. This time they didn't wait. The lesser of two evils was chosen. If believ- ing in the difference between right and wrong is a "popular way" of thinking, then so be it. In the words of Clarence Darrow, a outspoken lawyer from the early part of this cen- tury, "As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever." Gary Fabiano NYC, NY • SURF I was perusing the magazine racks (one blustery, cold, full-of-itself Minneapolis September afternoon) and ran into blue. THANK YOU! It is a sooth i ng, i ntell igent escape from other sports/adventure/overly aesthetic magazines. I was impressed by your breadth of articles and am tickled and jealous bay-leaf green with all the surfing articles. I have grown up near or on the shore of Lake Superior, bodysurfing and boogie boarding when the storms would bless us with larger, if choppy, waves. On the family boat we hunt for 60 degree water and then jump in. So, yes, I am a happy suffer- er of surfing's first obsession: the love of water. Maurizio Vetrugno's philo- sophical rant on the nature of waves ["Surfing Degree Zero"] and Buzzy Kerbox's and David Carson's shortened autobiographies ["Blue Mountains" & "A Surf Thru Life," August 1999] blend wonderfully. Thanks again for giving me a watery-dream respite in a land-locked state. I am looking for- ward to your next issue. I'll also give a plug for Margo Oberg's Surf School on Kauai- it's a load of fun and it jump-kicked my surfing obsession. laura Witrak Minneapolis, MN THE RAID I was appalled by Jim Garfield's article on the Raid Gauloises 1998 in Ecuador ["Raid Alert," June 1999]. I was there myself, and I unfortu- nately found myself on a "back of the pack" team, and thus interacted with Jim's team for a while. I'd like to contest all of his claims from his article's brief resume. I don't doubt he showed up for the impressive list of "big" races, but I would be willing to bet he hasn't finished many, if ANY. I was at Eco-Challenge BC and know for a fact hi,s team didn't fin- ish, only 14 complete teams did, and five part teams. "Spooky Bear" was spooked right out of the race. Maybe there was too much camping?! As for the 1998 Raid, I thought the organization did all they could to let teams do as much of the course as possible without spread ing the field out in an unmanageable fashion. I don't think Jim has much of a first hand idea of what the race is all about. I must say, however, Jim knows how to tell a story-it's all about what one doesn't say, and not about what one does say. It's a shame he put a false impression on your magazine's readers about the Raid Gauloises, the original and one of the most amazing, well-organized adventure races in the world, Tracyn Thayer Western North Carolina Major Races Finished: Eco-Challenge 1996: unofficially 5th (one team member dropped) Eco-Challenge 1997: officially lIth Beast of the East 1998: 2nd American team Raid Gauloises 1998-winner Beast of the East 1999: one of 22 teams to complete the entire course: 2nd overall, 1st 4-person team ROCK NIRVANA I was reading your article "Thailand's Rock Nirvana" [June 1999] and it inspired me to go to Thailand. I am presently working in India and am thinking about going climbing in December for a week. I brought my climbing gear and would like to use it at least once before I go home. Rai- Leh Beach sounds like the perfect place to go. Matt Wootton Bangalore, India ADVENTURE AS A WAY OF LIFE I just read your letter from the editor in the Paddle issue [April 1999]. My heart and sentiments are with you, and beyond. I felt so compelled to drop you this note. Like many of your subscribers, I spent a I,ifetime involved with adventure activities- clearly addicted to the internal chemicals pul- sating through my brain and pleasure zones. Interestingly, 10 years ago I started a "rea l" natural self-med- ication company Shaman Pharmaceuticals, now ShamanBotanicals.com. I thought I was starting an "i ntellectual" travel adventure company and ensuring the lifestyle I adore. In reality, this vision, the company, the peo- ple are a beautiful thing; yet I spend an inordinate amount of time doing corporate stuff to allow the vision to thrive. However, you know what? Adventure is a way of life. I learned to incorporate that self-administered "risk" into every day-every day's a risk, a story and an adventure. Lisa Conte President and CEO ShamanBotanicals.com San Francisco, CA PLEASE SEND LETTERS, COMMENTS AND IDEAS FOR PUBLICATION IN B-MAIL BY POST: ATTN . B-MAIL, 611 BROADWAY, SUITE 405, NEW YORK, NY, 10012, USA BY EMAIL: B-MAIL@BlUEMAGAZINE.COM LETTERS WILL BE EDITED FOR SPACE AND CLARITY

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