Rescue Dogs

After the previous post on the disastrous 9.0 earthquake in Japan this weekend, I found lots of photos of search and rescue teams with dogs. Again, the core Central Asian states are seriously underrepresented - please point me in the right direction if you are in the know. Above, a Japanese dog team is looking for survivors among the destruction at the tsunami-stricken northeast coast. You can see how big ships have been thrown ashore by the mighty waves. Photo by Kazuki Wakasugi. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun

A South Korean rescue dog team arrives in Japan, as seen in the previous post. Source: Reuters

An inhabitant of the town Kesennuma, which suffered terribly under the tsunami, carries his little sheltie. Source: Der Spiegel

Indonesia is another island nation frequently experiencing earthquakes. This photo is from Sumatra 2009. A man is taking several dogs out for a walk in the partly-destroyed city.

Search and rescue dogs arrived in Sumatra from all over the world.

Taiwanese rescue workers with a search and rescue dog assisted with the recovery of survivors in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this year.

The Himalaya Rescue Dog Squad Nepal is the first-ever of its kind in the country. The squad's tasks include rescue operations at high altitudes and in deep jungles, after avalanches, floods, and serious traffic accidents. Since the project is so new and the working conditions are very difficult, there's a fundraising page with more information. The people involved in the project also run a caste-free school.

Ilya Zaslavski and search and rescue dog Perets arrived in Haiti 2010 from Russia. The Haiti earthquake struck a densely populated region with weak infrastructure, and recovery has been very difficult. The earthquake could inflict lasting damage on an already disadvantaged society, so we shouldn't forget about Haiti. The Red Cross has more information.

Speaking of Russia, I found a cute thread about rescue dog training in Russia by volunteers. If your dog likes to search for things and needs an interesting hobby, this could be a nice idea. Many of the more independent-minded breeds that tend to do naughty things when bored (such as shibas and terriers in the thread) are well suited for this kind of complex task.

Dogs that were injured in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake are being treated at a private shelter in Chengdu.

Rescue dog training in China: The People's Liberation Army tends towards rather showy exercises...

Jumping through fiery hoops... and the handler's arms.

Cirayliq rock climbers

I used to do some rock climbing a while ago. I haven't officially quit, but I just haven't done it for a long time now, since I lost my climbing partner and also it's a bit expensive when you live in the city.



Anyway, rock climbing is a sport for which teenagers are the most suited. One of the greatest, albeit aging, stars of rock climbing today is 18-year old David Lama. His parents met in Nepal, where his dad worked as a sherpa and his Austrian mum was mountaineering. They fell in love, and settled in his mum's home country, where they continued to trek on mountains together. When David was born, they soon noticed that he liked climbing around on rocks more than trekking, so they put him in a rock climbing class at the tender age of six.

The rest is, as they say, history. Here David does some tricky bouldering at a competition in Birmingham, 2007:

Both photos in this post are by Rainer Eder. The first one is from David Lama's official website, and the second one is from an interview at Climb and More.

Furthermore, here is a clip from Malaysia (in German and English) - David Lama and a few others among today's top ten rock climbers were invited to the country to explore the rock formations and build new routes (for future rock climbing tourists). Probably for some sexist reason there is hardly any focus at all on the girls, but at least the boys are cute.

Someone who has been around a little bit longer is Serik Kazbekov, 38. He was born in Alma-Ata, but is nowadays competing for Ukraine.



Here is a gallery of photos with Kazbekov (and his daughter with insanely long hair) climbing in the Crimea, by Anna Piunova. Here is his profile at Risk Online.



Serik Kazbekov actually got into rock climbing because of fellow Alma-Ata local Salavat Rakhmetov, who nowadays climbs for Russia. This "ancient" 41 year old family father is still among the world's top climbers! Salavat was introduced to rock climbing by his older brother Kairat, after which he, in his own words, "stopped running 'horizontally' and started running 'vertically' instead". Up until then he had been a professional in light athletics.

In the following video he wins 1st place in bouldering in the rock climbing world championships in Munich 2005.

Georgians with Pets #1

Zaza. Cattle Drive Tusheti by Trix Zürcher, originally uploaded by grijsz.

I've wanted to blog this photo for months. The Cattle Drive Tusheti event is beautifully documented on Flickr. Tusheti, in the north-east of Georgia, is the homeland of the Tush people who have their own unique traditions, for example the great cattle drive between pastures twice a year. Of course, they also cherish their own breed of Caucasian Ovcharka, the mighty sheepdog. Don't miss this Tusheti Flickr set by German artist grijsz living in Tblisi, with lots of puppies, horses and fun. He also has a nice blog with lots of photos and information about Georgia, travelling and art.

Berlinale 2008 - A Highlight

From Son of a Lion by Benjamin Gilmour, interviewed at Spiegel.de. The movie tells a story about the life of Pashtun people in northern Pakistan, a hard life where fathers place a heavy burden on their sons, but also a life of harsh beauty in the mountains near the Afghanistan border. The actors are all amateurs, and the dialogue is improvised.

Falconers in Kyrgyzstan

Joe and Mary Ann McDonald would never have expected to visit Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, but they did. During their trip, they met a couple of Kyrgyz falconers.

"The most exciting 'wildlife' shooting occured in Kyrgyzstan, where we traveled up a long valley surrounded by extremely rugged mountains. The location, near Lake Issik Kul -- a nearly two hundred mile-long lake that is bordered by snow-covered mountains that rise as high as 21,000 feet, was incredibly rugged, and is the home of traditional falconers. The area attracts tourists, and we no sooner arrived than falconers on horseback appeared, with European buzzards (analagous to our redtail hawks or, more properly, rough-legged hawks in appearance) and one golden eagle. The buzzards were incredibly tame, and although treated with respect they were handled in a cavalier fashion I'd never seen with an American falconer, who generally handles their birds with the utmost tenderness. These birds were treated like pet cats or dogs, and seemed to thrive. One falconer carried a buzzard on one shoulder and a ring-necked pheasant on the other, and both coexisted and were handled -- including placing both birds on our heads, with complete sangfroid. I've only 'worked with' pheasants one other time, and then, in the US, the birds were nervous and flighty. This pheasant was completely calm, and I had to wonder if it was handled since the day it hatched to account for this temperament."

Georgians on Flickr

One of the Flickr groups focusing on Georgian culture is "The Georgians". Its manifesto: "We try to catch the individuality of a small but outstanding nation: The Georgians."

Here are some samples from the vast image pool. Click on the photos to see descriptions and larger format at Flickr.



Photographers, from top left to bottom right: 1. grijsz, 2. Rapho, 3. & 4. Paata, 5. grijsz, 6. & 7. Paata, 8. shioshvili.

Mongolian wrestlers

During my travels in Mongolia last summer, I had the privilege of watching a wrestling championship at the festival honouring the holy Otgontenger mountain in the Hangai mountain range in central Mongolia.


(View full size of picture 1. View full size of picture 2.)

The traditional Mongolian wrestler's outfit is, according to legend, designed so that you can tell if the wrestler is a man or a woman. Women are not allowed to participate in wrestling, perhaps because it would be 'dishonourable' if a man was beaten by a woman.

In traditional Mongolian society the roles of women and men are strictly divided: basically, men tend to the horses and hunt, and women do everything else.


(View full size.)


(View full size.)