Mir

I've been involved with Greenpeace since the early nineties, when I
started volunteering for the campaign against nuclear shipments through the Panama Canal. This is my second trip on a Greenpeace vessel -- the first was last year as a volunteer deckhand on board the Rainbow Warrior, a much smaller ship than the Esperanza. This time I'm working in the engine department, and on the way here we crossed the equator. I underwent an intense ritual of passage, and I feel I can call myself a sailor now.

Sometimes when I'm in the hot, greasy and dark bowels of the ship I miss working out on deck, being a little more in touch with nature, with where we are. But everybody is essential to keeping this thing running smoothly.

I left my sedentary life about a year ago. I've been moving around, seeing other people, hearing other languages, looking at differences and similarities. There are still so many places to visit, and so many things to learn. And a lot of ballast to pump overboard.

It really drives me mad how just a few professional politicians and industry lobbyists can decide the fate of billions of people. But all things change, we only have to go and make them change, and not lose faith in the future. I think people in South Africa know very well that the powerful are not invulnerable. That's why it is an honor for me to be on this country as a dissident voice during the WSSD.