It’s true, he did! Dmitry Bibikow of Harare, Zimbabwe, and originally of Voronezh, has been wheelchair-bound since a climbing accident, which is a problem because his apartment is on the fifth floor. The local council still hadn’t installed a promised elevator after six years, so he built a winch-looking apparatus on his balcony (his climbing expertise coming in handy), which can get him up and down the outside of the building on a rope. The Daily Mail has pictures .
It’s a perfectly fine human-interest story, but more interesting to me is the fact that a local man undertook to invent and then construct a rather complicated machine entirely on his own initiative, and the editors at the Zimbabwean thought their readers would be surprised to see so much “resolve” shown, not by a man who has lost use of half his limbs, but by a Russian.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
