Radikal Bogota

Posted on June 4, 2014 by admin

If you are going to lose your wallet in Bogota you might as well do it after you’ve taken some e. It’s been a crazy few days in this city… read on.

Graffiti is legal in large parts of the city.

There are more Maria’s than Jesus statues

It took me some time to realize why Bogota felt familiar. Finally I realized there is a big similarity to Manila. There are a massive amount of people, the public transport is in total chaos, the colorfulness and of course Jeusus everywhere. It is less of a surprise if you realize the Spanish screwed both these countries over and influenced them a lot.

Bogota has a long history of violence, from fighting for independence from the Spanish, to a civil war that was caused because the two ruling parties tried to kick out the communists. For the past few years thing have been quiet but a massive amount of police hang out at every corner of the city.

What I did like about the city is that it’s built very close to beautiful green mountains, so whenever the smog or masses of people get too overwhelming I can always look to the distance and soak in some green. It’s also really fun to discover lots of exotic fruit that I haven’t seen even in Asia, as well as lots of interesting new foods.

Tamal rice and chicken rapped in palm tree leaves.

Bogota is also known for its drug culture. Although use of drugs in public is illegal there are some known parks where the distinctive smell of weed carries to a great distance. The police keeps their distance perhaps because the smokers are rich students.

I also visited an alternative techno music festival called Radikal and despite the heavy searching at the entrance I can say most everyone was on some type of drug or another. There were even people sniffing glue! I found some e from a very respectable source and for the first time in my life I took half a pill. An hour later just as I was thinking this wouldn’t affect me, the music started being much better and I started to really enjoy myself, really. I was completely clear headed, I could even do math. The one thing I couldn’t do was be angry, or sad or violent.

Agua de Panela, a sweet hot drink that you dip cheese into!

Even when I lost my wallet I could only think positive things about the situation. I thought it would be a good idea to put a small wallet on a necklace so I don’t lose it. The necklace broke while I was dancing and I didn’t notice the wallet fell down. Usually I would never be able to dance in such crowded conditions and would feel really violent every time someone would stepped on me or bumped into me but while on e it didn’t bother me at all.

So basically this could be a great solution to bring world peace!

Colorful streets of old town Bogota.

I was worried I’d feel depressed the next day as e uses one’s serotonin deposits but I wasn’t. I only felt really tired but I slept only 4 hours so that made sense. Drugs are a certain doorway into hacking your own brain and what I find interesting is finding ways to teach your own brain to go through those doorways even without drugs. Even now, days later I feel that just by ‘remembering’ the feelings I had while on e I can increase my ‘happiness’ by around 20% which for someone like me who isn’t really good with this whole ‘happy’ thing is quite a lot.

Peace AND Love?

Posted on May 25, 2014 by admin

Tamera is a community in Portugal which focuses on bringing peace to the world through free love and a sustainable ecological model of living. I Just came back from an introduction week there and It was nothing like I expected it to be! Read on…

Entrance to Tamera

My first impression of Tamera was of a German retirement home. There were many 60+ year olds strolling around the 150 hectors and everything was calm, beautiful and… German! I knew Tamera was founded by Germans but I had no Idea that even today, more than 30 years later, it was still a little German colony in the heart of Portugal’s farm land. The main spoken language is German, most people are German and the culture is most definitely German. There are schedules and time tables and task lists. Not what one would expect from a ‘hippy’ community. The upside was that there was almost no ‘mushy’ fake hugging and the usually endless introduction and farewell circles were limited in time, with each person getting exactly 2 minutes to speak, exactly!

The best compost toilets ever! Notice the piece of wood preventing the toilet lid from hitting the wall. German engineering!

I came to Tamera asking myself what enabled this community to succeed for more than three decades when so many other communities broke apart. There is no doubt in my mind that the ‘German’ management is part of the answer.

Daily Life

My daily life there was very different from someone who is a member of the community. In fact, we were kept quite apart from the community. This was another surprise for me. If I were living in a closed community and there were some newcomers coming I’d run to see who they are, but I suppose it might be expected with the amount of guests Tamera gets.

Breakfast was at 7:00 a.m!!! And from 8:30-10:30 we were asked to join Karma Yoga. What the hell is that, you might be asking yourself. Luckily I had heard of this new and improved way to manage slave labour from friends who came across this. You are asked to work for free in order to better your Karma and advance your spiritual being. At least Tom Sawyer had the decency of tricking people to believe painting the fences was fun. Needless to say, I didn’t join the garden work and went back to sleep after breakfast, or read a book, or practiced Karate. I figure my Karma is fucked beyond salvation anyway.

It wasn’t easy finding a small area that wasn’t squeaky clean

From 11:30-13:00 we had a ‘geistic hour’ about one of the core values of Tamera. Geist is a big part of the language of Tamera, along with words like ‘vision’, ‘coherence’, ‘pilgrimage’ and others. It means something between philosophic and spiritual. Basically someone was talking, quoting all these German scholars and then we could ask questions. Somehow my questions always managed to create the most upheaval. “Do you have any proof of the ‘inner goodness’ of humans?” “Are you aware that you sound very heteronormative and seem to ignore the whole queer community?” were some of the issues I brought up. But don’t worry, the instructors from the community made sure things didn’t get too exciting, telling everyone to take a deep breath and calm down. God forbid I have some fun.

At 13:00 we had lunch and then Siesta time until 16:00.

We then met for another 3 hours doing more practical things, such as community ‘trust’ building exercises or experiencing their unique type of group psycho-drama therapy they call ‘Forum’. In ‘Forum’ one person brings up a problem or questions through acting it out and being guided by the Forum ‘leader’ after which others can become mirrors helping that person see parts of himself he might be missing or give him advice.

19:00 was dinner time.

At 20:00 the small bar opened and we could get to know the different members of our interesting group. This went on until 24:00.

And so life went on.

Free Love

Let’s admit it, this is most likely the reason you are reading this piece. As a champion of open relationships, polyamory or anything not monogamy, this was one of the main issues I was specifically interested in Tamera. How do things not get terribly ‘messy’ and complicated in such an ‘open’ community?

Well, part of the answer is they talk about it… a lot! From my prodding questions they seem to talk about it way more than they actually do it. In fact, I wasn’t the only one who felt that the whole environment was far from being ‘sexy’, even to the point of experiencing a libido decrease. Part of this might be due to the underdeveloped practice of movement methods, no morning yoga, no Contact improvisation jams (except for the one I created) and no communal sports games. Instead, their communal time is spent in lectures about current ecological issues. Their Sunday ‘church’ is used to update the community on projects that are going on and sings peace songs (one of which was in Hebrew which was super strange for me). As you can see there isn’t much that might get the ‘juices’ flowing.

Probably the ‘sexiest’ picture I could find. Check out those solar panels!

“There can be no peace on earth as long as there is war in love”

This is the statement from which Tamera’s philosophy of free loves arises and I’ll admit even I like it. But their solution is quite the opposite of personal ‘freedom’:

“We must ask ourselves if each of our actions will create more peace or not and act accordingly, creating an environment of complete trust and openness between all members of the community”.

If you have to get the whole community’s agreement before you can go have some fun with someone, well you’re not going to have much fun are you? Actually, the whole ‘process’ of exposure to the community sort of takes all the spontaneity, fun and excitement out of sex and love.

Autonomy

solar ‘oven’ for use in crises areas.

Tamera aims to produce 80% of all their energy food and water they need. They claim that in a time of crisis a change in behavior patterns will reduce their usage by 20%. So far their greatest and most inspiring success comes from their water retention and soil management plan. They have built a set of dams to collect rain water and through planting support plants and nourishing their land they have managed to stop the desertification process that is taking place in nearby farms. They currently supply 100% of their own water and have managed to replenish ground water levels, creating actual abundance. Their permaculture gardens are well on their way and in a much better state than what I experienced in Australia. They have horses and pigs that do the digging for them (and tractors) but none of the animals are used for food as it is entirely a vegan community. For energy they mostly relay on massive solar panels but they also research and create methods that can be used in third world countries or disaster zones. For instance, creating biogas from vegetables or an ‘oven’ that is created by mirrors collecting, focusing and directing sun light.

One of the water retention areas created.

Compared to these advances it was quite disappointing to hear about Tamer’s financial situation. They are is far from being autonomous. 60% of their money comes from guests and seminars, 20% from donations and 20% from people in the community that work outside. Although there is no rule about having to give your money to the community people working outside the community give around 50% of their income. There are no rules about how many hours one needs to work and community members trust that others are working to their best of their capabilities.

The bottom line is Tamera is in debt of 1.8 million euro. I thought that was really a lot but I guess if you divide it by 150 members it’s ‘just’ 12000 euro each. Compared to their vast knowledge of ecological issues, (which was sometimes seasoned with strange beliefs like prayer reducing radiation!?!?) I found their knowledge in economic issues lacking. For instance they live with myths about the Kibbutz model being successful while the truth is that all the Kibbutz’s in Israel were always supported by the Israeli government or the Jewish agency and their debt had to be reduced and erased time after time to prevent bankruptcy. To be fair, the myth that ‘take what you need and give what you can’ is a good idea probably comes from one relatively new and unique Kibbutz that seems to be making this work. The name of the place is Samar (sorry for the Hebrew link but there is very little information about them out their) and on my next visit to Israel I’ll be sure to check them out.

It was especially sad for me to see how they used one of the sessions to try to get us guests to donate more money. I myself ask for donations or ‘crowd funding’ for my free self defense books for children so why did this bother me? Perhaps, as George Orwell explained in a brilliant article ‘Why Are Beggars Despised?’ (a link Amanda Palmer thanked me for so it’s worth a look!), it’s because of their failure to earn a decent living and the disparity which was present in their asking. This reminded me of the regular ‘ritual’ that accompanied every meal were those who prepared the meal ‘begged’ for people to come help wash the dishes. To me this is just bad management. This is obviously a very subjective feeling. If I would whole heartedly agree with Tamera’s vision and project I would probably be happy to donate money, just as I’m happy to donate to musicians I like (Amanda Palmer again) or the guy from the Free walking tour of Lisbon who was awesome. On a second thought, it might just be the phenomenon my favorite behavior psychologist Dan Arieli speaks about. There are two separate pathways in the brain, the empathetic-social one and the calculating one. We were already paying for our introduction week and thus the whole week I was already in my ‘calculating’ mode. If the whole week had been donation based the situation might have been different. I would have probably donated and participated in the garden and kitchen work much more.

Like Attracts Like

The Founders (pic from Tamera web site)

This is probably my main realization after a week in Tamera. Tamera’s history started out with two very strong and charismatic leaders (Sabine Lichtenfels, Dieter Duhm). Only after there were enough people with the same mind set the community ‘democratized’. Joining Tamera is a very slow process that takes at least two years (in which one must also pay for their stay), thus weaning out all those who are not of the exact same mindset as the rest of the community. Every new ‘electron’ added to this community ‘atom’ must fit in without exciting the rest of the electrons to a higher energy level. So if you want to join you better be a careful, meticulous and calm person who chooses to believe in the ‘inner good’ of humanity, romanticize the ‘harmony’ of nature and refuse to accept any violence in your life. I might be generalizing but I can see definite WWII post-trauma syndromes in this behavior. As for me, as one of my favorite writers put it:

“Violence is a language, perhaps the most primitive and primal language of them all.” Forgetting this language will likely cause part of ‘humanity’ to atrophy, much like a muscle that needs to be hurt and destroyed in order to trigger new muscle growth. If this is the ‘new human’ Tamara people are attempting to build and if this is their ‘heaven’ people like me don’t have a place in it. But we already agreed I’m going to Hell right?

Despite all my criticism I am very curious to see how they develop and hope their experiment does survive because I’m all for variety which makes for a more interesting reality, just as long as they don’t become the stifling majority.

Desert Storm

Posted on April 30, 2014 by admin

A climbing camp to Jordan was a great excuse for me to escape the stifling Jewish holiday of Passover. If my ancestors supposedly spent 40 years in the desert after escaping captivity in Egypt then spending a week in the desert to commemorate that, makes much more sense than obsessively cleaning the house from bread crumbs and starving for a week (although actual history probably has little to do with this fairy tale). Anyway, read on!

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Passing the border was a long and tedious affair on both sides. The Israelis want you to pay 100 NIS to leave the country and the Jordanians want you to be registered with a ‘guide’. Luckily the organizers of the camp had everything under control so after standing on lines in the heat for a few hours we were on our way.

The small Bedouin village in the Wadi Ram desert seemed to have gone through a zombie apocalypse of sorts. One story half destroyed houses covered with graffiti and littered with junk, spread out in the middle of nowhere. Women clad all in black, only their eyes peeking behind their veil, darted around in the background, quickly disappearing whenever someone saw them. An occasional man on a camel or jeep could be seen passing through.

Some boys playing soccer in a makeshift playground proved that there was some life in this seemingly dead village. A few young girls, still unveiled, were playing in the dirt at the outskirts of the playground. They waved to me and smiled. I did the same hoping that perhaps seeing a grown ‘free woman’ will help them change their future even though I know it won’t.

A few moments before we nearly flipped over.
Go pro pic by Kfir Amir

On the way to the local store I got a marriage offer from one of the young men. No, I didn’t asked how many camels I was worth. The store itself was pretty basic but did have snickers chocolate bars which are turning out to be the one constant food source I’m encountering everywhere I go!

The rock cliffs and canyons are massive and beautiful but the sand stone is crumbly and some holds literally fall to pieces in your hand or under your feet so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is also only Trad climbing and I couldn’t really find people to climb with so I only went climbing for one day and spent the rest of the time bouldering or hiking.

The most popular thing to do in the area is Jeep trips and a few days into the camp we took a jeep into the middle of the desert to camp out there for the night.

The jeep driver was probably 70+ and seemed half blind and deaf. He almost flipped the jeep over trying to reverse down a steep sand dune. Some of us managed to jump out and he just kept driving without noticing he’d left us behind! The rest of the group banging on his window was the only thing that saved us from being stranded there.

The desert seemed endless and empty but actually walking for only a few minutes brought me in contact with other groups or jeeps jumping traversing through the area.

The next day I awoke to a sand storm, rain and an upset stomach, so I cut my trip short by a day and hitchhiked from the Israeli border in Eilat back to Jerusalem which is always a great way to travel.

I Met Kfir and some other High lingers so I have these cool pics that he took.

I Met Kfir Amir and some other High liners so I have these cool pics that he took.

Asia Insights

Posted on March 3, 2014 by admin

I never thought I would travel in Asia, let alone spend 7 months there moving from Vietnam to Thailand, Laos, China, Hong Kong and Philippines! One of the coolest things about traveling is noticing the small differences in culture and human behavior, things we usually take for granted. Here are some of my personal observations on this matter, read on…

Hong Kong High tech shower

Toilets – one of the most diverging points of a society is the bathroom! In China you better be prepared to squat, in Thailand you will use a bucket to flush the toilet even if there is running water in the tap. In Philippines a toilet seat is far from being required and forget about hot water! Vietnam is quite westernized in this department although there isn’t any separation between the shower and toilet so prepare for a wet toilet seat (like almost everywhere in Asia!) while Hong Kong is a different world and you can even choose the temperature of the water!

street market Hanoi Vietnam

Supermarkets – supermarkets are a great way to get to know a society. In north Vietnam there almost aren’t any, all the locals still go to the markets twice a day to buy fresh products. Thailand and Hong Kong have been taken over by 711! But in Hong Kong all the supermarkets are so tiny and overcrowded there are actual human traffic jams in the aisles. The Philippines was a big surprise for me with loads of western products. While in China they have no bread, only dried crackers, but a whole section of different kinds of noodles. Also the cosmetics section which is massive everywhere in Asia (packed with skin whitening creams!) was much smaller.

Bicycling in Laos, hiding from the sun as usual in Asia.

Getting around – It is amazing how many different ways to make a Tuk Tuk there are. Thailand is famous for its Tuk Tuks that seem to be specifically manufactured. In the Philippines they just attach makeshift carriages to a motorbike. In Vietnam there are only motorbikes! In Laos they look like small converted tractors with the passengers sitting in the back but most people are still on bicycles.

Public transportation also varies a lot. Hong Kong is definitely the best with cheap super advanced metro and buses. Thailand is the land of luxury intercity buses (some even have a massage chair!). Laos will use the words “luxury” and “first class” but don’t believe them. Vietnam was surprisingly ok with bus schedules and air con! In China you have to take your shoes off to get into the sleeper buses which are crammed, with no marked seats and not all seats are created equal. The Philippines was probably the worst, with no schedule, no air con, and buses that seem they might fall apart on the way.

Folding money in the Philippines

Money – I mean the actual notes! Vietnam is smart enough to get rid of all the coins although they have an obsession for new crisp notes and won’t accept anything that looks too old. While in the Philippines they are obsessed with folding and crinkling up the notes! Laos has the most confusing notes in my opinion with all of them looking pretty much the same. Hong Kong has some high tech plastic notes. And in Thailand the heavier the coin the less it’s worth!

Utensils – A knife cannot be found anywhere in asia! Even modern Hong Kong will give you a fork and spoon. In Vietnam and China even those are rare and you better know how to use them chopsticks.

Communication – In China you will get shouted at, but don’t take it too hard they shout at each other all the time too. In Laos you might be completely ignored while in Vietnam people might just shake their heads in a ‘no’ motion. In Thailand people will say ‘yes, yes’ even if the answer is no, in Hong Kong people will smile and politely keep speaking Cantonese at you and in the Philippines you will almost always find someone that speaks decent English!!!

Food coloring and bucket of sugar in this Philippines traditional desert

Food – Asia is known for it’s strange ‘delights’. In Vietnam, silk worms, frogs, snails and dogs are a common thing. China will outdo even that with eating… well everything….there aren’t even any rats on the street. China will also over-fry and over-chemical everything. I’ve heard stories of apples not rotting for more than three months. Personally, for the first time in my life I had constant heartburn after two weeks there.

Thailand is queen, king and emperor of spicy food, but also of delicious fruit, fruit shake and fresh coconut water which I will miss forever. Laos was a bit dull while Philippines is obsessed with food coloring and sugar (seriously they add sugar to peanut butter!). For desserts head over to Hong Kong for endless delicious varieties of sweet soups, mochi style rice dough or jelly dessert.

I would recommend staying away from the Dorian stinky fruit which is popular throughout Asia, unless you enjoy the smell of sewage.

Tea house in China

Coffee or Tea? Vietnam has Its own delicious variation of ice coffee and also some strange room temperature teas, in China you will spend a small fortune for a cappuccino so you better stick with the endless varieties of teas served in tiny miniature bowls. Laos and especially Thailand are home of bubble milk Tea but not much when it comes to quality stuff.

Drugs – Thailand weed is great, Vietnam isn’t too bad either but don’t expect too much of the Chinese brand. Good luck finding any in Hong Kong. Laos is rumored to have opium but I couldn’t find any. In the Philippines they smoke pipes since rolling paper is very expensive and the weed had a delayed effect on me kicking in only half an hour after I smoked.

Chocolate? What in Asia? You have to be kidding me?!?!

Islands of Surprise

Posted on February 10, 2014 by admin

I knew nothing of the Philippines before arriving here and I’m happy to report I discovered many pleasant surprises. The biggest one would be everyone speaks English. Ok, maybe not everyone, but even in small villages most locals can more or less communicate in English. They all learn English from kindergarten but my guess is it’s probably because TV and movies are in English and not dubbed. Even those that don’t are helpful and nice to me for no apparent reason. What a difference from China!!!

One of the colorful jeepney’s

Manila reminded me of Tel Aviv but once you leave it, it’s a different country and definitely a third world one. Getting around is quite difficult, there are no real bus schedules and the king of the roads are the Jeepney’s, which actually have their own wiki. They started out as old U.S jeeps but today some have progressed to modern small trucks. They are decorated with colorful art and sometimes come with massive loud speakers and really lousy music.

Some tricycles, not yet crammed with people.

Their little brother is the tricycle, the local adaptation of a tuk tuk, but here it’s simply a motorbike (or bicycle) which has a cart attached to its side. I was crammed in the tiny cart with 4 other people and two others were siting on the back of the motorbike, one of the sitting on a folded wooden chair attached to the back!

A nude sculptor of Maria Magdalena in Manila university.

Christianity is also a very big thing here and there seem to be more churches than McDonalds. I have to be quite careful not to blurt “Jesus Christ” every time I see something strange, which happens quite a lot. But it is a strange brand of Christianity, one that doesn’t seem to try and dress women’s bodies, maybe it’s just too hot for that?

Right now I’m in Contanbaco, a small village which has a nice climbing crag 5 minutes from the village center. I’m the only foreigner in the village right now but I still feel surprisingly comfortable. I was happy to discover that there are local climbers here that come climbing every weekend and even happier to discover quite a few women amongst them.

One of the women lead climbed a hard 5.12!

If you do plan on coming climbing bring your own gear as unfortunately the gear some of the locals use is not up to safety standards.

Local climbers showing true professionalism bringing a Coffee maker and a hammock to the crag!

Food for Thought

Posted on January 26, 2014 by admin

Two food related events in Hong Kong made me rethink some of my concepts about what I put into my body and how. Read on for one of the most researched blogs I’ve written in a while and in my opinion a must read for Vegetarians and Vegans.

Tasted too good to be healthy!

I was invited by a friend to her dad’s new Raw Vegan restaurant, Greenwoods Raw Cafe. It’s the first of its kind in HK and a first time for me. My sister was a raw vegan for awhile so I knew that meant no animal products and no cooking of basic vegetables and fruits. I’ll admit I came there expecting tasteless salads and was surprised to eat one of the most delicious meals in my life, especially the chocolate and vanilla desserts.

Simon Chau explained that it’s one of the basic ideas behind the place, to show people that raw vegans can eat well, although for him this is only a transitional stage leading toward eating a mono diet, one simple food in every meal or even day, like most animal do. Chau is considered an expert on healthy and green living in HK, and was able to answer all of my nosey questions with a smile. For instance is boiling the tea considered cooking? Do they freeze thing? What do they think about alcohol? (see end of blog for detailed answers)

Chau explaining the use of blender.

The first of the two indispensable tools for making tasty raw Vegan food would be a specialized dryer which removes moisture from food and hardens it without cooking. This allows them to make crispy crackers and bread like stuff. The second would be a blender without which they would have to chew around 700 grams of leafy greens a day which would take up quite some time and effort.

The second purpose of the place is to provide classes and a support framework for people trying this life style, making sure they do it correctly but also helping with social stigma they face. I admit I thought my sister had gone nuts when she told me about this. The biggest health mistake according to Chau is eating too much fats, like nuts and avocado instead of sugars. He recommends 80% natural sugar from fruits 10% protein and 10% fat. I couldn’t help but postulate that Chau’s high energies and huge smile might be explained by a constant ‘sugar high’.

Delicious!

Chau also invited us to a 10 course dinner later that week. The dinner was a combination of a musical stand up and persuasions to try this life style. Although some of the 10 dishes were just a leaf, or a tea spoon of dried Daikon, the main course of vegan lasagne was delicious. I learned a lot of things from this dinner, the main one being, if you feed people delicious gourmet food for free they will sit through anything!

5 days for a cracker!

I was still a little hungry after the meals but to be fair I came after long training sessions. They offer a monthly trial program which I might have been tempted to try especially if I could get cheap take away from the place. Unfortunately the catch really is the cost. Although the place is not for profit and has many volunteers, the cost of the organic material is very expensive and the preparation time is very high. The ingredients for an entire chocolate cake cost around 100 U.S $ and it takes 5 hours to make! The crackers take 5 days to prepare!!! This makes it a lifestyle a privileged few can explore and for me it is too much of a time/money investment.

An evolutionary perspective:

Raw foodists such as Chau argue that humans are the only animals that cook their food thus our bodies can’t be adapted for this kind of food. On the other hand my favorite historian Yuval Noa Harrai thinks discovering how to cook food is linked to the evolution of human intelligence because more calories (and time) were available for the brain to develop. These interesting facts caused me to go on a little research project. These are my conclusions:

Homo sapiens, better knows as us, appeared around 200,000 years ago. Other humanoids were here long before us, more than 2 million years ago and they were most definitely eating meat. Even modern chimpanzees, which diverged from us around 4 million years ago, are actually far from being vegan, and their diet consists of fruit, plants, nuts, seeds, roots, insects, and eggs.

When humanoids actually started cooking their food is a much more difficult question to answer. While there are well documented facts that humanoids have been using fire for 400,000 years (and perhaps before that), the time at which use of fire was actually mastered or when it was used to cook with is much debated and probably diverges much between group to group. It’s not like they had internet to pass on the information. Even Raw foodists will agree to put it around 250,000 years ago which still predates our species so in my not professional opinion cooking can’t be all that bad.

Agriculture is a baby compared to both these things and started around 10,000 years ago which is a strong argument against Gluten and milk. If you want the whole story check out this link.

The next step in evolution?music jam after eating.

An interesting fact people tend to ignore when using evolutionary arguments is, do we actually want to go back to living like our genetic ancestors? As the life expectancy was somewhere between 30-54 (if you survived the first 15 years) I’d have to say probably not. In fact life expectancy is constantly rising so we can’t be doing everything wrong can we?

The most interesting research I found revolves around the theory that growth of human life expectancy along with growth of brain, intelligence and longer time to maturity is all linked to a shift in our humanoid forefathers diet towards skill-intensive, difficult-to-acquire, high-quality foods. This created a natural selection for group corporation, intelligence and passing on knowledge.

Could Raw Vegans (especially in the intermediate gourmet stage) who most definitely are shifting their diet towards skill-intensive, difficult-to-acquire, high-quality foods be the next step in human evolution? Chau and those involved in the restaurant do seem to be almost of a different species, more cooperative and communicative, less aggressive than ‘main stream’ humans, caring for all life – and also super thin. I guess if they manage to use technology and research to get enough calories to stay healthy and pass on their genes they might have a chance. When it comes to evolution only time, and very much of it will tell.

Q&A About Raw Vegans
>Do they drink Tea?
Yes, but they don’t boil it. Tea is brewed in a special way and never goes above around 41 degrees Celsius which is the temperature enzymes break down and according to Chau food loses its nutritional value and becomes unhealthy. This is why Chau prefers the term “Living Food” instead of Raw Food.
>Do they Freeze food?
Chau rates food in a four grade system A to D or Healthy to Devilish. For him frozen food would be considered a B and he would prefer not to freeze his stomach and eats everything at room temperature but occasionally it’s ok and the restaurant does use this especially when making deserts.
>How about Alcohol?
Get’s a D- as in Devilish! Although if you are brewing your own by fermenting fruit Chau will look upon it more kindly and the Kafir (yeast starter) they use to make delicious vegan cheese out of nuts does have alcohol.
>Where does Vegan’s B12 Vitamin come from?
Chau explained that B12 comes from not washing their vegetables too much. I heard this before so I decided to research the subject a little. B12 is only produced by bacteria and herbivores have these bacteria living in their digestive system producing B12 for them. By eating herbivores we can get their B12 especially if we eat their liver. Plants pulled from the ground and not washed may contain leftovers of B12 from the bacteria in the soil. And there is some research that the human intestinal tract itself may contain B12 producing bacteria, but it is unclear whether this is enough for the human body and most vegetarian/ Vegan associations will recommend taking supplements. Chau does not take any supplement and thinks that by eating raw vegan your absorption of B12 is maximized. He is also very honest in saying that more research is needed and that they are experimenting on themselves which is why a support framework is needed.

HOT POT HK

Posted on January 19, 2014 by admin

After almost two weeks in HK it’s about time I tried to write something clever about it, read on…

Architecture for too many people!

A hot pot is a traditional Asian dish where all these different things are thrown into the pot, vegetables, pork, frogs… whatever they have around really. They cook this all together in a special pot they put on a burner that is on the table.

Well, HK is a cultural hot pot. It’s obviously Chinese because people look Chinese and speak Chinese (well Cantonese- a type of Chinese) but it is so influenced by the British that were in control I’m sometimes surprised I’m not in Australia. The most prominent thing I’ve noticed is the “security signs” everywhere! They are in English too, what to do, what not to do… it’s all written on a million signs! Even trees have their own sign! You see, a while back some trees fell down and since then there is an office that follows tree’s health! They are also still massively hysterical about SARS here.

Ok, Thanks? Left over SARS fear!

The other most noticible thing in HK is the amount of people! Too many of them everywhere!!! This forces the entire architecture of the city to cater to so many people. Massive high rise housing complexes (with security guards!), over walks bridges and underground tunnels connect the city in a complex 3D maze. It’s almost impossible to walk a straight line in HK because you get sucked into one of these bridges or find yourself in the underground metro or some massive hidden shopping mall.

Really?

Is there anything you can climb in HK?

Those evil birds!!

There are so many of these massive shopping malls it’s almost nightmarish. They have caused all the small restaurants and shops I’ve seen everywere else in east asia to close which is a real shame. Globalism sucks!!!

The central area which is filled with clubs and pubs was packed with people of all ages and all nationalities… too many people again, human traffic congestion!

So what can you do?

Can all the signs be an attempt to deal with the overflow of humans? Does everything have to stay exactly in place or else this overcrowded culture will collapse into itself?

Even trees have signs

Performance Issues

Posted on December 30, 2013 by admin

“It will change your life” said Vangelis, the organizer of the “No Borders” dancing project. This sentence along with his martial arts knowledge lured me, a non-dancer, to join. After 3 weeks I can say it has. After only 3 days of intense 7 hours training a day, parts of myself I never knew existed started to move and I began to realize how martial arts training can and should change. To make things even better I discovered a bunch of super talented individuals from around the world, most of whom I actually liked and can now crash on their couches 🙂

Terrified by Joshua and Tomoko’s performance!

The last week the group was focused on their final performances which I had no interest to participate in. You see, I realized that dancers try to express themselves through movement (yeah very deep I know) and that I have no desire towards this type of self-expression. I tried, I really did but it’s just not there. For me, there is something too self-absorbed or even self-imposing on “forcing” people to see me move. I don’t feel watching me “dance” can give any value to anyone. I mean, I wouldn’t want to see myself dance so why should others?

Priceless looks from locals. Rahul’s street preformance.

I will admit that watching some of the “real” dancers and performances was valuable to me and even surprisingly enjoyable with moments of brilliance. Iina and Ianthe asked the crowd to participate and edit their work by opening and closing their eyes. Tomoko and Chuck danced with each other through a window separating them. Rahul interacted with shocked and delighted Chinese locals in one of the best street performances I’ve seen. Joshua and Tomoko scared the shit out of me trying to escape from plastic wrap. There were also some great short movies all of which will hopefully go online so you can see for yourself.

Are these moments of brilliance worth the “waste” of time and boredom I felt throughout the rest of the performances, feeling like I was watching people’s sub consciousness flow out in perhaps a therapy of sorts? Can you not have one without the other? I’m not sure I have the answers. And even if I did it would be entirely subjective coming from my ‘barking puppy on speed’, limited attention span.

The Frame!

I didn’t dance but I did contribute two interactive art installations. PostArt (the envelopes some of you created) and “The Frame”, a python program which allows people to put different avatars on their face and exchange their face with others in real time. There wasn’t much of a crowd but the 20 or so locals that came seemed to enjoy it.

Safety not even last!

The next day I helped with set up of the final group performance. It’s been a long time since I organized an event and I forgot how much fun it is to climb on ladders and set things up. Especially Chinese flaky ladders.

I’m not entirely sure I have anything smart to say as my final words of self-indulging self-expression. Maybe I’ll end with a question (I’ll be happy for you to answer): “What makes us invest so much time and efforts into putting our ideas and thoughts out there even if no one really wants to listen?”

I think I have a beginning of an answer but you’ll have to read my sci fi book: 0 Point Energy 😉

The Sky is Burning!

Posted on November 19, 2013 by admin

The Yi Peng festival in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand embodied the essence of Thailand’s ‘Safety Last!’ moto. If I’d believe in miracles I’d say it was a miracle the city hasn’t burnt down. Since I don’t I’ll just say it’s a statistical deviation – read on!

A lantern stuck in a tree

Lighting the night sky

Thousands of people went out to the streets, buying small hot air lanterns and literally burning their money into the sky for “good luck”. The air balloons mostly lit the sky in a beautiful, if very polluting display. Some of the balloons weren’t so lucky and got tangled in trees and electric lines, burning everything in their way. But a power outage here and there is not going to stop the celebration is it?

There were also parades and food stalls

One of the smallest Fireworks that filled the night

but the real danger was the Fireworks. It seems the municipality found a way to save funds. Instead of paying for fireworks they just make it legal (or at least not illegal) to buy and shoot fireworks anywhere you want. Walking down the road felt like a war zone, fire crackers exploding left and right. More than one massive firework missile was accidentally shot into a bar or hotel. Kids as young as two years old were playing with explosives in the road. Hopefully they came out of the 3 day festival with the same amount of fingers.

It’s not stars – it’s lanterns!

Vang Vieng

Posted on November 16, 2013 by admin

Laos does not have an ocean but some genius managed to market Vang Vieng and the river that flows through it as a must go place for “tubing” and parties. Read on for my experience…

How exciting… Not! Well the view is nice

I don’t know if they had a really weak winter or if this is the norm but the tubing was so boring and slow. I was cooking in the sun trying to paddle to get it over with. Along the river there are bars that will try to fish you towards them and offer free welcome shots. Rumor has it that some of them have closed because of people drowning. To drown in this river you would definitely have to be very very drunk!

“With gods help, the food was a son of a bitch” is by far the best hebrew saying on this wall!

The parties were just as disappointing. I really am too old to suffer through dozens of young drunken teens trying too hard to have a good time.

Obviously it wasn’t the tubing or parties that brought me to the town, it was the climbing. I was warned ahead of time that some of the places have really bad anchors and it’s dangerous to climb so I went to an area called the “sleeping wall” were I was told it was safe. The anchors have definitely seen better days but they were acceptable. The climbing itself was so so. No nice views at sleeping wall, and slightly dirty and sharp.

What wasn’t acceptable was the way to the sleeping wall. Instead of simply taking a small boat we were directed by the locals to pass a tiny makeshift bridge for which the locals asked 5000 kip (less than a dollar and the same price for a boat). We than got completely lost in agricultural fields and had to climb over fences and escape cows? locals pointing to this way or that or just completely ignoring us.

Playing catch the hot air balloon?

I can only say two good things about Vang Vien, the accommodation was super cheap 4 euro for a clean private room with a fan and hot water! And the French baguette! After 4 months in Asia with noodles and rice some high quality bread was great.

Strangely enough, even though we only met 2 other Israeli’s the whole place is covered with Hebrew signs and almost every restaurant serves Israeli food. I had one of the best Shakshuka’s at a place called Victor’s. Another strange experience was watching a hot air balloon land almost on top of a local farm house. It was obvious the ten or so people driving like crazy in the truck and then running into the field had little control over where the balloon would land. Talk about globalization 🙂

Still In The Trees

anthropological experiences from the fringe frontier

Category Archives: life style