14 ms·

Having to deal with police four times a day on average on the part of the journey through Croatia is insane. I’d have given up and flown to the next country.

gerdesj 2y ago
Thankfully our hero is made of sterner stuff than either you or me: "On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead involved either conflict or extreme risk."
- ptspts 2y ago
  Why would someone start this long run without enough funding secured for the whole length?
  - dyauspitr 2y ago
    Why do you have a mortgage?
  - em-bee 2y ago
    maybe he was planning to get more funding along the way (by selling his story for example) or some expected funding fell through. for something like this you don't have to have all funding sorted out the day you start. i mean, it would probably help, but i don't think it's wrong to start and see how far you can get.
hipadev23 2y ago
Why did you have so many issues in Croatia? Traffic police and ID checkpoints?
- noman-land 2y ago
  "The police stopped me at least four times a day. Sometimes, I caught locals taking photos of me and reporting me to the police,” he said.
alwa 2y ago
It’s pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South Sudan, apparently on the authorities’ opinion that their immigration laws required ministry approval for his run [0]. I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies—and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is the point he was trying to raise. What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor. [0] https://archive.is/4T13g https://archive.is/4T13g [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:text=Ethnic%20groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  > I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
  - em-bee 2y ago
    exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar in all eastern european countries. so what's special about croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-country/ https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-count... after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/photos-croatia-police-phones-passports-asylum-seekers https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
    - grujicd 2y ago
      > so what's special about croatia To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.
mastermedo 2y ago
This surprised me too. I am from Croatia, and while there is a fair bit of discrimination against anyone that's different in the country, I am very surprised about this magnitude of it. I'm curious about the route he took. Some road types are illegal to run along, and coincidentally the one going from south to north along the coast is illegal to be on for pedestrians to my knowledge. I wouldn't be surprised if any pedestrian was stopped on that road, it's dangerous to run where the speed limit is over 100 km/h.
- Symbiote 2y ago
  He grew up in Britain, and would easily understand the concept and the symbolic "no pedestrians" signs. Others comments mention a route map, but I can't find it.
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  I was surprised but apparently I was dumb, and people see a black person and think "criminal migrant" all the time and that it's somehow not racist to think that, lol. Very many comments in this thread saying exactly that.
grecy 2y ago
Pretty normal for a global traveller. I delt with up to five extortion attempts a day for three years when I drove around Africa. Tons in Honduras too. I NEVER pay, because it makes it worse for those behind me, and now everyone has a cellphone worse for me too - if I pay $20 for them to leave me alone they’ll call the next checkpoint and let them know I’m an easy target. You get used to it, and believe it or not I started looking forward to the game.

gerdesj 2y ago

Thankfully our hero is made of sterner stuff than either you or me: "On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead involved either conflict or extreme risk."

ptspts 2y ago
Why would someone start this long run without enough funding secured for the whole length?
- dyauspitr 2y ago
  Why do you have a mortgage?
- em-bee 2y ago
  maybe he was planning to get more funding along the way (by selling his story for example) or some expected funding fell through. for something like this you don't have to have all funding sorted out the day you start. i mean, it would probably help, but i don't think it's wrong to start and see how far you can get.

hipadev23 2y ago

Why did you have so many issues in Croatia? Traffic police and ID checkpoints?

noman-land 2y ago
"The police stopped me at least four times a day. Sometimes, I caught locals taking photos of me and reporting me to the police,” he said.

alwa 2y ago

It’s pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South Sudan, apparently on the authorities’ opinion that their immigration laws required ministry approval for his run [0]. I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies—and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is the point he was trying to raise. What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor. [0] https://archive.is/4T13g https://archive.is/4T13g [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:text=Ethnic%20groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...

aprilthird2021 2y ago
> I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
- em-bee 2y ago
  exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar in all eastern european countries. so what's special about croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-country/ https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-count... after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/photos-croatia-police-phones-passports-asylum-seekers https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
  - grujicd 2y ago
    > so what's special about croatia To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.

mastermedo 2y ago

This surprised me too. I am from Croatia, and while there is a fair bit of discrimination against anyone that's different in the country, I am very surprised about this magnitude of it. I'm curious about the route he took. Some road types are illegal to run along, and coincidentally the one going from south to north along the coast is illegal to be on for pedestrians to my knowledge. I wouldn't be surprised if any pedestrian was stopped on that road, it's dangerous to run where the speed limit is over 100 km/h.

Symbiote 2y ago
He grew up in Britain, and would easily understand the concept and the symbolic "no pedestrians" signs. Others comments mention a route map, but I can't find it.
aprilthird2021 2y ago
I was surprised but apparently I was dumb, and people see a black person and think "criminal migrant" all the time and that it's somehow not racist to think that, lol. Very many comments in this thread saying exactly that.

grecy 2y ago

Pretty normal for a global traveller. I delt with up to five extortion attempts a day for three years when I drove around Africa. Tons in Honduras too. I NEVER pay, because it makes it worse for those behind me, and now everyone has a cellphone worse for me too - if I pay $20 for them to leave me alone they’ll call the next checkpoint and let them know I’m an easy target. You get used to it, and believe it or not I started looking forward to the game.