46 Imagine you are a reporter for a newspaper in one of the European capitals. There is a lot of controversy about whaling and the opposing parties won’t sit at the negotiating table. Your editor sends you to one of those remote islands to talk to local people and find out first-hand what they think and how much they are ready to compromise if once such talks open up. Now in a conversation with a local resident you probe different proposals and scenarios (use ideas from “Talking and Writing”) and try to understand who obstructs the solution. Act the conversation out and later report to the class if there is room for the long-awaited negotiations.
47 Imagine there is a group of enthusiasts who are preparing a hiking trip to Arctic wilderness. They have certain survival skills and supplies, but you think that extreme north is specific and you try to talk them out of it. You speak to a team member to find out if they are serious and are aware of the circumstances. Use the tips on the next page.
| His/her track record that gives confidence
| Specifics of the North
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| · been lost in the Brazilian rainforest, where his friend's nose was bitten off by a piranha;
| ü The temperature rarely rises above 10C in summer time. It's wet and windy at sea level and there is always snow on the ridges of rocks.
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| · can make candles from the innards of a dead deer, and knows how to find an explosive compound on the underside of cowpats, can utilise the family saloon car as an all-in-one survival kit;
| ü In the winter the sun disappears for two months. The temperature in this winter of perpetual darkness hovers somewhere between -10C and freezing.
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| · on one occasion, used the foam from the car seats to insulate his clothes;
| ü Force 10 storms regularly batter the shores and destroy anything that is not tied down.
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| · had his close encounters with grizzlies in Canada and once in Africa was horrified by the 5m crocodile that walked past his hammock one morning and astonishingly didn't tear him limb from limb;
| ü That is an inhospitable environment of bare rocks without vegetation or berries to feed on.
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| · is able to trap game, ignite fire with birch bark; once rubbed down an edge of his car’s license plate to manufacture a cutting tool;
| ü The ice meltdown has left many predators hungry and risk of attacks has increased.
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| · now always carries iodine tablets to purify drinking water and remove bacteria and viruses after he had his near-death encounter with malaria in Zambia;
| ü The basic principles of wilderness survival are instinctive: shelter, water, fire and food. All of those can be scarce or problematic.
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| · Petrol mixed with sand in a can and ignited creates a controllable flame over which you can cook.
| ü There is no hitching a lift up there. You have to heel-and-toe it.
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