Around the world with the wind. (Passing By (literally!)).

There are many ways of characterizing the first non-stop balloon trip around the world which the Breitling Orbiter 3 team completed in March 1999: athletic, historic, technological, human or even philosophical. All these different facets have excited me, because they contain all the necessary ingredients for constructing a major epic while at the same time explaining its interest and success.

Originally, it was a dream that any pilot in love with his sport might cherish: to execute the ultimate, the longest, the most passionate flight around the world. This was the dream of a number of aeronauts, the first attempt being in 1981, and it became a veritable competition beginning in the early 1990s. The International Aeronautics Federation developed rules: the flight had to be more than 25,000 kilometres, cross all the meridians and remain outside two caps, one on each pole, with a radius of 6,000 kilometres.

The public and the media viewed it as the greatest adventure of the century. The poles, the continents, the mountains, outer space and the depths of the sea had all been explored, but the balloon, even though invented in 1783, had not yet travelled around the world. It remained a blank page to be written in the history books.

The adventure also took on the allure of a technological challenge. At the time I began organizing the Breitling Orbiter project, the longest-flying balloon had been in the air six days, while our meteorologists recommended that we be independent for three weeks. We would have to build a monstrous shell, some 55 metres high, covered by a thermal isolation layer, as well as a pressurized cabin that would allow a team to survive at an altitude of 10,000 metres, where the jet streams blow. For several years, each competitor threw himself into in-depth research and met with bitter failure. But, after all, isn't it normal to remember that dreams can only be realized after much effort and sacrifice?

Naturally, I was motivated by the challenges described above, but another aspect fascinated me even more: the symbolic side. Until then, science had afforded tremendous progress, but most inventions were intended to allow man better control over the forces of nature. In our case, pilots had to surrender themselves to the elements, let themselves be pushed by air currents. One must understand that a balloon is carried by the wind, at the same speed and in the same direction.

The sole purpose of the ultra-sophisticated technology we had to develop was to better understand the atmosphere, better play with it-in sum, to enter into an alliance with nature.

Humankind's visceral need to seek to control everything results in much of the suffering in one's life. It is difficult to accept the fact that life leads us beyond what our will requires. In that, a balloon flight forces us to admit that our own will is a small thing compared to the blowing of the wind. A certain amount of dominance is necessary; but only enough to control that which is in our power to control; indeed, freedom consists in changing one's flight altitude to find other directions of wind. It is the same thing in life where free will consists in changing one's attitude to lift oneself psychologically and philosophically and, thereby, make the best use of our capabilities and inner resources to adapt ourselves to unexpected aspects of our existence. Brian Jones and I, therefore, departed on a trip that was as much a competition as a school of life, as much a trip around the world as a trip around ourselves.

After the failures of all our competitors, the Breitling Orbiter 3 finally took off on 1 March 1999 from Chateaux d'Oex in the Swiss Alps. The first challenge consisted in travelling sufficiently far south to comply with some restrictions that would force us to pass over the 26th parallel. In the view of our two meteorology wizards, this difficulty was comparable to trying to thread a needle from 15,000 kilometres away. But we were successful. Playing with the low-pressure regions over the Mediterranean and the high pressure zones over India, navigating at times in the jet stream, but often in much slower winds, and concentrating 100 per cent on remaining at the precise altitude calculated by our meteorologists, it took us 11 days to arrive at the Pacific.

Air controllers and Swiss diplomats contributed to opening up our path across Egypt, Yemen, India, China and Japan, demonstrating, in passing, that a trip around the world is also a trip through countries, men and political regions.

The strategic choices were often painful. Was it better to fly north in fast winds, or south in slow winds? As we approached the Pacific, the question was raised even more painfully, because the southern route added 4,000 kilometres to the trajectory! In the end, that is what our meteorologists decided, because of the storms lashing the north. This immense ocean made us miss the reassuring splendour of the African deserts we had flown over for a week; this seemingly infinite expanse of waves became a mirror in which Brian and I found ourselves alone with our emotions. In winds of 30 kilometres per hour, surrounded by storm clouds, cut off from our control centre by satellite antenna problems, we saw ourselves as helpless, our chances of succeeding and our reserves of propane diminishing. We could only accept our fear and learn to live through it, because it is as useless to fight against one's emotions as against the blowing of the wind.

After six most agonizing days of the flight, our meteorologists' bet paid off and we finally entered a powerful jet stream that took us towards Mexico at 180 kilometres per hour. When we approached the Caribbean, our speed fell once again, and the jet stream ejected us, as it had done Richard Branson, an earlier balloonist and British businessman, when a few months earlier it had forced him to splash down south of Hawaii. In despair, we tried one last poker hand, using an enormous quantity of propane to climb as high as possible. There, at 11,000 metres, the currents miraculously took us in the right direction. But we still had more than 10,000 kilometres to go with the last eighth of our gas reserves; we could only succeed with an increase in the force of the wind and that was when our speed quadrupled. On 20 March, we passed the last meridian of our dream at 200 kilometres an hour and landed the next day in Egypt and in the history books, with the longest distance and duration flight in the history of aviat ion. But, even more important than all that, we came back with the feeling of having been able to enter into a new relationship with our planet--more intimate, more respectful. We were struck by the contrast between the beauty of the world that we so admired from up high and the horrors that continue to occur below.

Why had we had the chance to realize our life dreams, while so many people do not even have the chance to survive war, famine and the other atrocities that make up the daily existence of so many humans? Travel around the world pushed by the forces of nature made us feel like taking the world in our arms and never again being capable of indifference to what is happening there. That is why I was happy to become Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and for the books we wrote, Around the World in 20 Days and The Greatest Adventure, to culminate with the announcement of the creation of a humanitarian fund. The Winds of Hope Foundation is intended to apply the financial and media wind-falls of our flight to help certain types of suffering that have been forgotten or neglected by the public and the press.

If our trip around the world was the last adventure of this century, greater solidarity and more respectful relationships among human beings could be the first adventure of the next.

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So reads Article I of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted by the General Assembly on 20 November 1963.

Articulate. Affirmative. But not Actionable. The Declaration was not a legally binding document. It took another two years to create an instrument with the force of law.

On 21 December 1965, the General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which entered into force on 4 January 1969 and now has 155 States parties, that is 155 nations who explicitly agree to respect its provisions. It defines racial discrimination as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise ... of human rights and fundamental freedoms...". The Convention established the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the first such human rights treaty monitoring body, which reviews reports of the States parties to the Convention.

In 1968, shortly before the Convention entered into force, the first International Conference on Human Rights, meeting in Tehran, Iran, called for the criminalization of racist and Nazi organizations. The General Assembly on 11 December 1969 designated 1971 as the International Year for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, and on 2 November 1972 the ten-year period beginning 10 December 1973 as the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.

The first World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination was held in Geneva in 1978, at the mid-point of the first Decade, which reaffirmed the inherent falsity of racism and the threat it posed to friendly relations among peoples and nations. It specifically condemned apartheid--"the extreme form of institutionalized racism"--as a crime against humanity, an affront to the dignity of mankind and a threat to peace and security in the world. In addition, it recommended that because of the severe economic inequalities that resulted from racial discrimination, efforts to combat racism should include measures aimed at improving the living conditions of men and women.

The second World Conference was held in Geneva from 1 to 12 August 1983. In November, the General Assembly proclaimed the Second Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, which began on 10 December 1983 and witnessed one of the greatest achievements of the United Nations: in 1990, the South African Government released Nelson Mandela and began to dismantle the system of apartheid. On 20 December 1993, the General Assembly proclaimed the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1994-2003). That year, the Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September 2001, will focus on practical steps to eradicate racism, including measures of prevention, education and protection. It will also endeavour to provide effective remedies for the victims of racism and racial discrimination. According to High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson: "It must not only raise awareness about the scourge of racism, but it must lead to positive actions at the national, regional and international levels that can bring relief to those who bear the brunt of racism and racial discrimination. This is a subject that requires firmness of resolve, disciplined and persistent action, and clear-sighted thinking."