CURRENT MISSION

Trying to find my rightful place in this world, and creating freedom in every possible sense, for myself and those around me. Then attempting to use that freedom in the best possible way (once I figure out what that is)

ABOUT ME

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I think that open mindedness and cooperation are the keys to flourishing, enlightenment, nirvana, heaven, paradise, or whatever you call the top of that great mountain, regardless of the path you take to get there.

I want to finish my life having had an overall positive effect on the world.

My goal in life is to keep hold of that attitude.

Someone who once heard me talking like that once said to me: "how cute, the idealism of the early twenties!"

Other people respond by saying that "if you aren't a communist before the age of 20, you don't have a heart, but if you are still a communist after the age of 30 then you don't have a brain."

I hope that I never say these phrases to anyone.

The heroes in this world are the ones who manage to hold onto that idealism. In this world it is a very difficult thing to do, and requires great strength, determination, dedication. And all the more so because that strength is seen as weakness - people who want to change the world for the better are often seen as people who just don't know how to grow up and "realise" that the way things are now is either the best or the only way that they can be.

I hope that I can one day be one of those people who manages to hold onto their idealism on the day when I can choose between idealism and an easy, comfortable life. I hope that I can one day be one of those rare people who says NO when the world asks us to choose between having a heart and a brain. But if not, then at least not become cynical and belittle the people that do.

PHILOSOPHY

There are many paths to the top of a mountain.

There is always a possibility that I am wrong (we all think that we are right, even those of us who are wrong).

As Bertrand Russel says, the problem with the world is that the "bad" people are full of confident certainty, whereas the good people are constantly plagued by doubt.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I realise that I have been lucky in my life; that I have been able to live the life that I have led thanks to the generosity of amazing people, such as my family, such as people who have hosted me on couchsurfing and picked me up hitchhiking. I don't want to be someone who just takes, who doesn't realise that life is a series of circles of generosity. I don't believe in Karma, but I prefer to live as if it existed.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Stayed with Joao Almeida. His house is small and dirty, but the atmosphere there was unequalled by anything I have seen, before or since. 10 -15 travellers at any one time were making themselves at home and sharing stories around the fire. I have never seen such beautiful concentration of open mindedness

Joao Janeiro in Lisboa took me and my then girlfriend to inaccessible beaches, amazing little known restaurants, and advised us on all the best things to do to give us the most authentic possible Lisbon experience. One day he took us to gather seafood with him and then showed us how to cook it in the traditional Portuguese style.

Interests

Philosophy, Religious studies, Capoeira and other martial arts and dance forms (although I don't make any claim beyond these being interests - I am not necessarily good at any of them). Open mindedness. Understanding "us and them" mentalities, where they come from, how to fight them. Keeping my mind open and seeing what enters. Writing.

• arts
• writing
• dancing
• capoeira
• seafood
• cooking
• flying
• traveling
• martial arts
• hitchhiking
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm sick of reading the same books and watching the same films and listening to the same music over and over again. I want to open my mind to new things.

Don't like horror films, they scare me, or chick flicks.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Travelling with my cousin Anthony, lying on the top of a tarp covered bush truck as we travelled through the Guyanese jungle and savannah from Georgetown to the Brazilian border. Monkeys jumping around in the trees around us, toucans flying over us, and then surrounded by millions of stars as night fell. Feeling absorbed by the musty smells of the jungle and the dusty smells of the savannah, and the constant sounds of the jungle and the rumbling of the truck as it made its way slowly but surely along the trail through the virgin rainforest.

A waterfall in Iceland that was humbling in its power. A car that dropped in there would have been mangled within seconds. It was so cold that the spray from the waterfall was freezing before it hit us. We also saw wind make waterfalls fall upwards instead of downwards.

On the train from Sweden to Norway, I was lucky enough to be crossing the arctic circle at sunset during summer. The sun went half way down across the horizon, then started to rise again.

Playing with one of Diane Macturks giant otters in the rupununi river.

Teach, Learn, Share

Everybody has a story to tell, it is just that sometimes they need prompting to tell it. Next time you are sitting on a train, strike up a conversation with the person opposite you.

Everyone in the world, to the last person, thinks that they are right. The only person who can ever really be right, therefore, are the ones who are willing to admit that they are wrong and change their ideas based on better evidence.

Countries I’ve Visited

Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Ghana, Guyana, Switzerland, United Kingdom

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