I apologize for the blurry image above. This is a frame from the Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ. The man with the camera is Kenji Nagai, a Japanese journalist filming anti-government protests in Burma.
Moments after this image was captured, Nagai was shot at point-blank range and killed by Burmese soldiers.
I’m not an alarmist. I’m also not a survivalist, a conspiracy theorist, or just about any other kind of -ist you can think of. I try to be an optimist whenever possible, and a pragmatist when necessary.
But what am I after watching Collapse, a film that essentially features a man, a chair and a lit cigarette? I am concerned, and you should be as well.
Martin Strel is an unusual man. He’s Slovenian. He drinks a lot. He doesn’t seem to have a job currently, though previously he was a professional gambler.
And he swims. Not just laps in a recreational pool, we’re talking epic, endurance swims. He has covered the full lengths of both the Mississippi and China’s Yangtze River, from start to finish.
His latest mission: to swim the length of the Amazon River. Did I say he was an unusual guy?
