Where the question began
A life that led to one question.
Can all the railways of the earth be joined together? The question came from a war, from decades among many peoples, and from a newborn child.
Adolescence
A country at war
He was in his teens when his country went through a revolution and a change of government. Before it could rebuild its order, a neighbour invaded and seized a wide stretch of its land. It was ordinary people who held the borders, and fought for years until the invader was driven out.
“That war left behind close to a million dead and martyred, and my own two brothers were among them.”
35 years
The years of travel
After the war he settled in several countries, learned several languages, met his wife, and began a life full of adventure. For more than thirty-five years he worked in several fields at once, and met princes and politicians, international merchants, university professors and social activists.
What he saw
Conflict and calm, side by side
He saw nations in conflict and peoples living side by side in peace. He saw poverty beside wealth, and celebration beside mourning. Slowly he came to believe that what sets nations against each other is, more than anything, unfamiliarity and distance.
“After every calm a storm is on its way. Those who think sooner, and seek a remedy sooner, will be the ones who prevail.”
The book
A road, set down on paper
The Global Rail Network is his answer: a single rail network joining six continents and every nation, built on justice, shared ownership and finance without usury. He offers it not as a finished plan but as a proposal for his time, and an invitation to those who can build it.
For her
A gift to a granddaughter
After these years of travel, he became a grandfather. The book is dedicated to that newborn girl, and through her to every child opening their eyes in these years.
“If you want the truth of it, I wrote this book for no one as I wrote it for her.”