Rituparna Som

Friday, August 04, 2006  

On a mission to travel to unrecognized countries, BBC reporter Simon Reeve’s got enough material to write an encyclopedia.

For someone who started his career sorting mail for a newspaper and investigating neo-Nazi terrorists on the run when he was just 19, Simon Reeve’s career path seems ‘boringly normal’. Now 33, he’s written two books, one of which has been made into a Oscar winning documentary, has traveled to countries that ‘don’t officially exist’ and has been detained by a supposedly extinct KGB in one of those ‘countries’ - Transdniestria. So when he says he sometimes dreams of a normal life of going to the supermarket to pick up groceries, it’s easy to believe him.

As the reporter for BBC World’s ‘Weekend in the Danger Zone’, airing this weekend, Simon Reeve has covered quite a bit of the grotty corners of the globe. “I got my first break when I found two South African neo Nazi terrorists. When I met them I saw what absolutely pathetic individuals they were. Terrorism interested me then, as the impact a few individuals can have on the politics of the world,” he explains. “Perhaps it was the lack of a formal training in journalism, but I have an insatiable hunger to find and investigate.”

According to Reeve, there are more than 200 countries that aren’t officially recognized and he takes upon himself to make sure they exist in our lingo as comfortably as UK or India. “I might sound pompous, but I would liken my work to shining light on conflicts that the international world has forgotten.”

There are moments of ‘why am I doing this?’ Like in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, a country ruled by warlords, he almost got caught in the middle of a warlord battle complete with 15 odd machine guns on either side. “I see refugees my age and consider myself so lucky for my accidental birth into a first world country.” Then there are moments when the aforementioned KGB is convinced by a third party that Simon’s a British aristocrat and the Queen’s relative. “We heard them barking outside the cell and thought ‘now what?!’ They then served us a delicious green salad and invited us all for drinks!”

To balance out, he pulls out another anecdote. “Somalia is a lawless country. Yet right next to it is Somaliland - a country with a functional army, police force, traffic lights and a minister of tourism. And it’s not recognized as an official country internationally! That’s when I start hoping my work makes people aware and restores the balance somewhere.”

Source: DNA-India