A bitter bit of politics!

As some of you might know, 3 weeks ago the legislative elections were held in Venezuela, in which the opposition parties, united as the Democratic Unity Table, got the majority of the votes with a 52 %, thus neglecting Chávez’s United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) the ‘supermajority’ (more than two thirds of the seats of the Congress) that allowed it to pass major legislation submitted by Chávez without serious debate or dissent.

Anyway, I’m not going to get myself involved in a political dissertation on Venezuelan political situation relating it to the 11 years, I think, Chavez has been in power. But being a Venezuelan outside my country I’m used to getting a lot of recognition from random people who hearing my country of origin, go straight into saluting, shaking hands, smiling and proudly saying Hugo Chavez!!!... and I’m not getting into details there either.

The last one of those, I met while eating my nightly ice cream walking around Port Yasmine here in Hammamet. We bumped into this street kiosk which I don’t even know what they were selling really (probably those fake tattoos), but as a pet, they had this funny looking ‘dog’ with more ears than actual dog (reason being it was not a dog but a Desert’s Fox). Anyway, random guy with funny hair approaches me right hand first, big smile and deep, serious looking eyes searching for acceptance from this Socialist Brother... while I’m thinking “oh here it comes...”

“HU-GO Chavezzzzz!!!”

And after a few negatives from my side, this disappointed street revolutionary replied “...you know nothing about politics”. I won’t give any details on my feelings here either, but I can tell you this intellectual street-fake-tattoo artist carried on with my friend and after hearing he came from Venice, excited and proud he delighted us with his story of how he had made 18 grand selling cocaine while living Padova when Italy won the World Cup... No comments needed!

So it could actually be I know nothing about politics, no problem. But I know this.

What you see in the picture is a sign installed outside the Venezuelan Congress, in downtown Caracas. There you have a picture of Chavez with the biggest of his charismatic smiles, head bent down a little to the right in a sign of his humble greatness, arms open and saying “Bienvenidos diputados de la oposicion” “Welcome deputies from the opposition”... “Ayudenos a construir el pais del que los vamos a correr” “Help us building up the country, of which we’re going to kick you out”

Personally, I wouldn’t mind a bit of humour from politicians nowadays although I aknowledge the mission in front of them has nothing of comical. A bit of a cheeky comment here and some good old sarcasm over there just to remind us that they want, at some point, have fun like any normal person.

But this sign is one more display of the disrespect, the abuse and the disregard the Venezuelan people have to live with everyday. An insolent show of Chavez's disdain and the classist content of his speech with which he’s creating a bipolar society in Venezuela

I don’t want to change anyone’s political views or convince you of this or that, I just want to share what’s happening in Venezuela... And hopefully I’ll bump into less of those... well, upsetting episodes when I say I’m Venezuela, and enjoy my ice cream.

Rowley would GO...

One of the stories that's been sowing up in my FB page for the last couple of months is Jeff Rowley's Charge for Charity.

I met Rowley in G-Land, in the Souteastern tip of Java, Indonesia. A meaningful name for any surfer, we saw G'land pumping for a good couple of days.

They say there's only once chance to make a good impression, and my first sight of this lanky goofy looking Victorian was watching him piggy dogging and fighting his way out of a 6 ft freight training pit at Money Trees... "He rips" I thought.

We surfed a few times during that week, including one solid 6 ft session at Speedies in which with their loud and pushing "Go Fonzie GOOOO!" Jeff and Boogs made me paddle into some of the best waves of my life for sure.

Nowadays Rowley is still charging big waves, and fighting a big cause with it. He's commited himself in catching a 20 ft wave (hawaiian meassure) before the end of February 2011, he's trying to get himslef voted into The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau competition in Waimea, Hawaii, and he's fundraising for the Keep-A-Breast Foundation

You can check an introductory video on his website or you can check it out here (well internet is not cooperating in Tunisia right now so you can check it out in his website) and you can visit his firstgiving site and sponsor his good cause here

He's been surfing, he's been training, he's been swiming, and doing a great bloody job with all his fundraising. A great effort mate!

The wheel...

"When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle". Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills


I've been in Hammamet, Tunisia, for almost 3 weeks now. At first I was excited about the idea of spending a month or so in an Arabic country thinking it would provide enough stimulation for writing and getting myself into a travelling spirit, again.
A few km outside of Hammamet, Port Yasmine area turned out to be quite a dull place.
A randomly series of arabic-themed hotels, resorts, shops, and horse-powered cars, it gives the sensation of being in one low budget American film about the Griswolds family on holidays, The Groundhog Holiday I would call it, all very cheesy, very cliché, very soul less. I was about to say that it feels like there was no planning or a vision on what they wanted to create of this place, but it actually seems like this is what they were after. All these constructions seems pretty evenly built with a tad of bad taste, a few cupfuls of lack of personality and given one good mixed into one soul less American-wannabe Arabic salad!
It has, instead, given me a fair bit of time to check the web and make something useful out of it. So I've been trying to look for interesting reads, websites about interesting bicycling or charity projects, and a few arty, cycling or culinary blogs. I've also been trying to use these cyber social networks to my advantage. Those which seem like dangerous ways to waste your time and to get your girlfriend to find out things she doesn't necessarily needs to know, can be quite a useful tool in spreading the word around about important projects, information, advertising and promoting events, and also a good provider of healthy entertaining... if you’re willing to look for such. It’s all there, you just need to wonder and have a look
I’ve also been thinking about my blog and what I should be posting these days when fiddling around on the boat takes the most of my time and life off the boat consists on taking the 5 minute walk to the gelateria after dinner. I realized is hopeless trying to find interesting things to say when nothing really interesting is happening here. But there’s plenty of things going on out there worth having a look, entertain yourself for a while and share it with friends and others. So I thought of sharing some here every now and then...
Last month as some of you might know, I rode across the UK along with other 23 cyclist in what was called the Slow Food, Fast Ride... We were lucky enough to have Tom on the team as the designated chef. Apart from a few good meals, Tom’s an interesting character and worth having a chat or two. He rode from NY to Rio a few years ago in the search for the perfect meal and wrote a book about his trip called The Hungry Cyclist. You can check his website here.
From Tom’s FB last week I read about the Copenhagen Wheel Project. Which is, as you can see in the website, a pretty cool thing. They’re basically “transforming your ordinary bicycle into a hybrid e-bike that also provides feedback on pollution, traffic congestion and road condition in real time”. Checking out the video on their site, I couldn’t help but wonder on all this technology and specially the iPhones.
A year ago I saw an Iphone listening to a music on the TV, searching for the album in the internet and buying the album from Itunes store. Just like that, 10 minutes. Although from that day I’ve seen many other awesome tricks by the little black thingy, that day Impressed, and scared! I started joking about the little tool which (or maybe I should referring to it as a WHO) in a few years would threaten human kind. Admire the machine, but I want to think that this dependency a lot of people are developing around these Smart phones today can be quite mistuning for man and its reality.
I had a look at the Copenhagen Wheel Project last week and kept thinking about it for a while. I’m left speechless almost on a daily basis with stories and news about humans just doing what they are suppose to do I guess, progressing. I admire this type of forward thinking and I’m thankful of these pioneers who have taken us where we are today. But sometimes I think is just too much. Watching the video today and the little iPod connected to the bike I just felt overwhelmed. Is that really necessary? I thought. Would a perfect invention like the bicycle, ever need an iPod connected to it? I don’t think so. Maybe, as the quote as the beginning says, “progress should’ve stopped when man invented the bike” .

The Bogey Woogey!

We've been daydreaming about cycling since we finished JOGLE 2010 at Land's End almost a month ago. And I say we, because it's been a constant emailing back and forth with the rest of the boys talking about future projects, riding the pyrenees, what rides we've been up to, etc. It's fun everytime I get an email with the subject Re: DREAM TEAM and I rush to check it out to see what they are up to.

I've left my bike at my sister's place in the UK and I've been focusing on this new boat I'll be sailing for the next few months and going out running almost everyday. Feels good having a rest from that much cycling I did last year, but I still think of it so much. Every day, every minute I think of cycling, so getting news from others who are sharing thoughts somehow feels quite comforting.

James put together this video with a few clips and pictures of the ride across the UK. Check it out, it's quite vintage... pretty cool!

http://www.jamesbowthorpe.com/?p=323