Nanga Parbat lures German entertainer to visit Pakistan Pakistanis are far friendlier and hospitable than the people of any other country Exclusive Interview by Fawad Mehmood/Kashif Rizvi/Nigah Mohammad , Hina Nasir Rolf Becker, a graduate of Dresden Technical University, expressing deep love for Pakistani people said that all Pakistanis he had met were far friendlier and hospitable than the people of any other country in the world. Rolf Becker came to Pakistan wanting to see the magnificent peaks of 26,600 feet (8,126 meters) high Nanga Parbat and toured various mountains in the Karakoram Range. His name mentioned at least 12 times in the Guinness Book of World Records. Becker had a citation in the Guinness Book of World Record for playing street organ for 48 hours without any interruption. In addition to his twelve entries in the Guinness Book of World Records made him include the spectacular Trabi (An East German made car) tours Paris-Dakar Rally and Hall-Hollywood (Route 66), known as the legendary oldies Rally Mille Miglia and the bathtub trips on the Elbe River far beyond the West German borders. The most powerful of the world like Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, James Baker, and Henry Kissinger ... enjoyed the most fun events of the crazy most types of the Republic to which he was elected in an RTL show. For promotion of good products of his home country (Glashutte watches in Atlanta, owls in Athens, bathtubs in Hong Kong, Rhön beer in Djibouti) he made the trips between Beijing, Los Angeles, Kaliningrad, and Rio de Janeiro for attention. There would be dozens of things with which I could earn even more money, but not when I had so much fun, the philosophy of life-affirming artist. He earned the first of the citations in 1990: with the Trabi by Hollywood (starting his trip in New York eventually), 1991: he played barrel organs in Beijing (obtained from military), 1992: Trabant rally to Africa on the route Magdeburg (Germany) - Marrakesh, 1993: Advertisement for Baumkuchen in Sri Lanka , 1994: Promoting Coke in Brazil, 1995: Wore owls to Athens, 1996: Rolf is roaring at the Olympic Games in Atlanta , 1998: Trabi Tour Berlin Kurdistan-Iran , 2000: With Trabi at the Olympic Games in Australia (Driving his East German-made Trabant, he was by far the only driver who has visited all the continents!) Becker said that he had also visited Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and got the impression that the women there were ‘black moving objects’ because of the black burqas and abayas they wore. He said that he had visited “80 countries” before coming to Pakistan. He explains that he earned his livelihood by his expertise in mime work. He said that he loved to see people laugh at his performances. Rolf Becker said: “I have visited as many as 80 countries including touring the United States three times, Japan, Sri Lanka, Britain, Russia and China.” The first time he visited the US was right after the Berlin Wall crumbled in 1990, the second time in 1996 for the Atlanta Olympics and then in 2002. He calls himself (and his car) an ambassador and a bridge between people of other countries and the people of his East German homeland. He said that he had always wanted to work in Hollywood. “I was assisted in this regard by an American airline Pan Am (Pan American World Airways) in 1989. The airline helped me acquire proper visa. First of all I visited New York and then Washington DC. I performed on the streets of the US capital. Then I visited St Louis where an editor of St Louis Post saw my street performance and wrote a full length article on it. I was then approached by the owner of a large hotel, who asked me if I worked for the newspaper. When I replied in the negative, he appointed me to work in his hotel to entertain the guests staying there. But I was still too far from realizing my dream of going to the Hollywood. Thomas Johannes Gottschalk, who was a renowned German radio and television host, entertainer and actor, met me in St Louis and he enabled me to perform in Hollywood.” Becker stopped in Reno on his way to Salt Lake City for the Winter Olympics. Commenting on Pakistani foods, he said that he loved Pakistani fruit juice beverages, and he wondered why Pakistanis preferred foreign brands over their own delicious drinks. Defining his aim regarding his public entertainment, he said that he wanted to make the people laugh wholeheartedly. According to him he had met “Taliban in Kazakhstan”. He said that the people he met talked with a Russian accent. When he asked the militants why they were fighting, they told him that if anyone killed their brothers and sons, they would fight back ferociously. When he asked the Taliban why they espoused an extremist ideology, “they replied that they had not adopted an extremist ideology at all, but they were fighting for their freedom.” When he was asked if there could be collaboration between Pakistan Helpline Welfare Organization and his NGO ‘Action Medeor’, he said that he needed to visit the school being run by PHL before making any commitments. He said that he had been working with a German medical aid organization named Action Medeor. Becker disclosed that he arrived in Pakistan in 2013 and was “just 10 kilometres away” from the spot where 10 foreign climbers were shot and murdered by 15 extremists at the Base Camp of Nanga Parbat. He said that he had left his BMW SUV at that time and had returned for retrieving the vehicle. Rolf Becker was born on May 11, 1947 in Halle, a small town in Saxony-Anhalt in what was then East Germany. He was taught how to develop pictures when he was just 10 years old. Completing the first ten years of schooling from his hometown, he joined the East German Army at the age of 19 for the compulsory military service prior to starting his studies as a railway engineer at the Dresden Technical University. He said that although he had an engineering degree, but the first job he got was in a leather manufacturing company. He was inspired by a beggar who used to entertain people in the city where he used to work. “I obtained a license and I did not have enough money for the official fee for the license. I got my license free of cost because the officers at the licensing office liked my performance.” Rolf Becker said that he was called by the top executive of the state in which he was working in 1983. According to Becker, he earned 150 East German Marks. He said that a five-star hotel had hired him for a single day and paid him 1,000 Marks. At one time he faced charges that he was making fun of the political leaders of East Germany, Rolf Becker said. Becker said that he was a deep thinking political man, who wanted change in East Germany. “We wanted liberty, which East Germany lacked back then.” As East Germans, he said that their movement was highly restricted in the West Germany. He took part in the campaign for reunification of the two Germanys. Becker said that he started making speeches for liberty in 1989 against the repressive East German regime of Erich Honecker. He was punished in various ways for doing so
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:42:19 +0000
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