Have young men just plain lost it.

All I seam to here these days are what the young girls or young ladies are doing as regards anything adventurous.

Here is the example that I wish to talk about, URL:onelittlewheel.com...

Two young ladies from England are going to ride a bicycle from the UK overland to Thailand and the following is the route. All this to support HIV/AIDS awareness oh yes and by the way raising money for charity on the way.

We will travel overland from England to Thailand. Listening, cycling, listening, cycling…..
We are currently planning to cycle through Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbijan and then the Stans (Iran might be a bit too hard to get a Visa for in the current climate!), Pakistan, India. At this junction we have a dilemma. We will firstly try a catch a boat from India to Singapore and go up through Malaysia to Thailand. If that fails, and miraculously the India / Myanmar (Burma) border opens, we will cycle through Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and into Thailand. OR we will try and go through Nepal into China and round the top to Vietnam, Cambodia and into Thailand.
We will be travelling for 9 months visiting schools and projects along the way, asking the young people we meet to respond to the challenges of HIV / AIDS in our world today. The responses can be individual or group responses; they can take whatever form the VOICES decide to use. Fingers crossed we are hoping to leave July 2010!
‘…we glibly say the world is a small place. That is nonsense: the world is enormous… It’s diversity and variety is staggering.‘ Alastair Humphreys. One of the key aims of this project is to highlight our unity through diversity.
The journey is a major challenge in its own right; 12 – 15,000km by bike and train is no mean feat! The team will no doubt encounter many challenges along the way

Sorry I seam to have put this in the wrong forum please adjust.

I'm not quite sure what your title has to do with this story...


Maybe the answer lies more in that women are taking more non-traditional paths to follow their life ambitions, but let me ask one question. What if two guys did the same thing, would they have anyone even notice their efforts?

What makes anything great are paths others have not gone, and in this case they seem to be following one of those paths that being female may have presented the opportunity.

maybe young men are off doing that all the while-but young girls make the papers?
and if they are cute a picture as well..this is what they propose to do-
they could change their mind-
thats an adventure- promises young girls make - and do these young girls need help and a boost along the way? you havent sent them any money yet have you?
not again- last time was a russian marine biologist who was swimming the volga and just needed money for towels..


[edit on 14-7-2010 by p51mustang]

reply to post by Xtrozero


Dear Xtrozero

While I do think that what these two young ladies are doing is remarkable I wanted to draw attention to this up coming achievement on behalf of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

While the title may be just a tad tongue in cheek. At the same time it is true I only seam to hear about adventurous females, true they may just sell more news print.

reply to post by p51mustang


Dear p51mustang

Can you name an adventure of this magnitude by young men off the top of your head that has been in the new recently???

As a counterpoint, consider the recent efforts of this young guy who recently became the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest, at age 13.

Nevertheless, I think I basicaly understand the point the OP is trying to make. I don't think picking specific examples is a good way to argue general trends, however.

I don't think it can be denied that, broadly speaking and in the developed world at least, younger men have become increasingly "femininzed." Moreover, the efforts of females in all sorts of fields have been given special attention for a long time. People used to talk endlessly about classroom unfairness to girls, but in actual fact there are now more women in colleges and universities than men.

In a very broad sense, the labor most valued by society no longer involves muscles and brawn. There is less celebration of the macho, hard-hat, muscular type of man than there used to be, because heavy industry and farming make up less and less of the economic output of the developed world, and services and deskwork have become more central at all levels. There has also been lots of gender blurring at work in the media for some time and I suppose the effects are kicking in, so to speak.



[edit on 7/15/10 by silent thunder]

reply to post by MAC269


Kudos to you! Fun and interesting trip for sure! And for a great cause.

What's this about young men just plain lost it and all?

Be safe and be careful. There's young men all about that, well,,,,,,it's in all history, know what I mean?

There's also old men, and there's also crazy women, too.

And lions and tigers and bears as well.

Maybe young men on more focused on their careers so they can be in the position to donate to such publicized charities? That wasnt a serious answer, as Im not going to generalize all young men or young women, plus I disagree with the premise of the thread(that girls do more of this stuff than boys) anyway. But the point of my answer is, everyone has a role to play to make a positive difference even if their not the ones in the spotlight.

After further reading past the OP, well, yeah. Where are all these young men? (They are there, by the way)

Strong women are the future? Sounds good to me.

How about strong people get together and forget all about gender and do great things? For the benefit of ALL?

Men went to the moon, discovered the new world, flew the first airplane, climbed the highest mountains, etc. We've already done everything adventurous, the girls can have fun riding their bicycles, being adventurous.

Actually now that I think of it, adventure itself is dying. There are basically no unexplored areas left. Want to know what it looks like in Timbucktu or Tibet? Just pull up Google Earth. And you can find a freaking Starbucks in just about every city on earth.

Travel itself is losing its meaning. The way the world is going you have two choices, wherever you are: A mall or a slum. And in both cases they all look increasingly the same.

Where has the pith-helmeted romance of it all gone, I ask you?

reply to post by MAC269
i dont much pay attention to young men. but the story of the kid that got stuck
out in a canyon when a rock pinned his arm- and he cut it off at the elbow with a swiss army and walked 12 miles out and got help. what a sissy..
or the 12 year old boy that shot a 1200 lb wild hog with a 50 caliber pistol. what a punk.





[edit on 15-7-2010 by p51mustang]

reply to post by p51mustang


Dear p51mustang

Thanks you have made your point but those news items had not reached me here.

Have you red the route that these young ladies are taking. Talk about adventurous.

I just hope they make it here.

reply to post by kyred


Dear kyred

I am with you there will you follow their progress on their website???

reply to post by CREAM


Dear CREAM

Yes lets all follow their progress on their website. At least they deserve some encouragement.

reply to post by kyred


Dear kyred

You know that was just to get your attention Right???

reply to post by silent thunder


Dear silent thunder

The OP point is to bring this wonderful effort to all your attention. Doing so in a tongue in cheek manor.

I do truly applaud any young man or woman that takes on the idea of raising funds for any worthy cause.
Now, when said money is made and handed over to said corporation overseeing the fight for said cure, I truly wonder what percentage goes to someone in a suit or the secretary or the advertising agency or… Etc.
I imagine 1 to 3 cents per dollar actually goes towards paying for the building where said “research” is done or pays lab techs or assistants or buys new computers or beakers or Etc.
God/Goddess Bless you for your efforts but if Jerry Lewis couldn’t find a cure for MS or MD or whatever the flavor of the week was and he raised quadrillions of dollars and had several years.
Well I hate to preach the doom and gloom but accountability is the real problem.
Thank you for caring though.

reply to post by g146541


Dear g146541

I am glade you brought that up.

If you have a look at the ladies front page they tell you there that any money donated to them will all go to the two charities.

Now I can not speak for The Food Chain simply because I no nothing about them.

What I most certainly can do is speak for The Camillian Social Center Rayong.

The out goings there are over $60,000USD each month, spent on 8 projects looking after over 80 children with HIV/AIDS.

Out of the cash that comes in there are only two Thai ladies who have wages that are not directly related to one of those 8 projects. This equals about $600USD.

Some one has to do the books which account for every penny.

I do agree not all are like this.