WEBVTT

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There\'s a spirit that I find in Africa.

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The smells, the magic, the laugh
of the people in the market place.

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I don\'t know once you, you get it
in your nose you can\'t get it out.

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And it triggers something deep inside you

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and you just want to keep coming back.

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Africa is a cornucopia of diversity.

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You go from the snow cap
mountains of the Drakensberg,

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to the high Atlas in Morocco,

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to the central Sahara,

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to the Congo rain forest.

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There are 52 countries in Africa.

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And thousands of different languages.

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Within each of those ethnic groups,

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there are unique blends of
modernity and tradition.

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My first trip to Africa was in 1979
and I fell in love with the place.

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I\'ve since been to almost every country

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and have seen the vast diversity
that the continent has to offer.

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I\'ve been to some countries
in Africa that seem

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mired in perpetual hopelessness.

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But I really believe there\'s
tremendous reason for optimism.

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I\'ve flown in a variety of aircraft,

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but my favorite way to
take aerial photographs is

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in my motorized paraglider.

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It\'s quite a challenge taking pictures

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and piloting the aircraft at the same time.

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It is kind of like taking
pictures while riding a unicycle.

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You gotta keep moving or you fall down.

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I can fly really low and slow.

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It\'s the lightest powered
aircraft in the world

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and I can fly it hands-free.

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You\'ve got to balance all of these things
out and then get in the right spot

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and then go tac with your
hands off of the controls.

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I realized that it gave me a position
to visualize the world in a way

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that never had really been seen before.

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From above, you can see
the patterns of life.

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There are things that you would you
be totally oblivious to on the ground

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and once you get up in the
air, they are instantly clear.

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What I really want to do
is show people things that

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they just haven\'t seen before.

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I find it fascinating to explore the
relationship between man and nature.

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From the air, it\'s really
quite apparent how

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they develop their culture as a response

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to the natural environment in
which they found themselves.

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I find it clearer in Africa
than almost any other continent

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because there is much less
development in Africa in general.

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Africa in it\'s natural state
is incredibly beautiful.

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But it\'s slowly eroding as things
get more and more globalized.

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You just see tremendous
amounts of natural resources.

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It’s simply loaded with
gold, diamonds, copper.

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Unfortunately, most African states,
they are just exporting those resources

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rather than being able
to refine it themselves.

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Often when you have an
extractive industry in Africa,

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the money is not distributed fairly.

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The net result is you
have huge devastation,

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loss of habitat for wildlife and diversity

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and the people are left impoverished.

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But if you can go in and teach people
the value of maintaining their habitat

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and wildlife resources, they will respond.

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The challenge is to make people
see the long term benefit

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to conserving their resources and
maintaining them for their children.

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The problem is when you are
hungry and you have malaria

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and you are desperate to feed your kids,

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you\'re not thinking long term.

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When you grow up in a environment
that doesn\'t have the

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kind of opportunities and resources
that we have in the Western world,

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it\'s a real struggle.

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Africans are incredibly resourceful,

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I am always stunned by how they
make something from nothing.

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I don\'t think you can expect Africa
to develop on a Western system

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because it\'s not.

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They have to figure out
what works for them.

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Thirty years I\'ve been traveling in
Africa I’ve seen dramatic change.

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It’s a struggle but I really
think things are getting better.

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It just takes a long time to establish

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the structures and the systems
where they can evolve

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in a way that is most suitable for them.

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I really don\'t think everybody should
live in some kind of a cultural zoo.

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But, people should think
twice about giving up

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what they have for the rush of the new.

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My work in Africa is a love
poem for the continent

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with all of its strengths and weaknesses.

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I\'m just trying to record
the beauty that I see there

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and hope that people can respond to that.

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Isn\'t this just an extraordinary place?

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I love this place. Check it out.