Matador Network's Blog, page 2249

1 tweet deported this blogger

If I was being deported for overstaying visa, I would have been deported a wk ago. Instead I was interrogated about a tweet and detained.

— ⌠ Derek4Real ⌡ (@the_HoliDaze) June 6, 2014

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU TWEET, and where you tweet it from.

Derek Freal (aka travel personality The HoliDaze), is currently detained in Jakarta, Indonesia, and will be deported from the country within the next few days. The charge is technically for overstaying his visa limitations, but Freal is convinced he was really incarcerated for posting a tweet that associated the Indonesian government with the F bomb.

“As far as I know,” Freal commented. “This is the first incidence where someone has been deported for Tweeting.”

The situation is certainly bizarre, and begs the question — can a country really do that? They’ve banned Twitter altogether in places such as Turkey and Iran, and it has been censored in places like Venezuela and Egypt. Arrests have been made by people hacking the system during times of political revolt, but to deport someone on the basis of a 140-character message seems a bit radical. 

Legal process? They held up a photo of my tweet “did you say this?” “Yes.” and then threw me in a cell. Justice or persecution? @16Classic

— ⌠ Derek4Real ⌡ (@the_HoliDaze) June 7, 2014

Freal has been tweeting from his jail cell since the beginning of June, asking his 23,000+ followers and blog fans to help support his release, and get a lighter deportation sentence. Because of his work for the Indonesian tourism industry, Freal currently will not be blacklisted by the government, and will be able to return to the country after six months.

But as one friend so aptly put it, “The Indonesian immigration authorities don’t fuck around.” Whether the consequences are really based on his illegal residency (according to Freal, there are many expats currently living in Indonesia without having renewed their work or residency visas), or a personal vendetta based on a nasty tweet, Freal is probably lucky to have only received deportation for his offenses.

What do you think? Does the government have the right to detain a foreigner based on something they’ve said on social media?

Or was the Indonesian immigration authority right to have proceeded with the situation as they did? 

 

 

10 facts about people from Orlando

Photo: Cavale Doom

AS I’VE WATCHED ORLANDO evolve as a city over the last decade or so, I’m always surprised to find that outsiders

see it as essentially just the place that happens to be attached by an interstate to Disney World. Even for all the naysaying I’ve done about the place in the past, the fact is people in Orlando know what’s up.

1. We don’t go to theme parks.

If you live in Orlando, or any of the surrounding towns that are basically just Orlando’s suburbs (Sanford, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Oviedo, Altamonte, etc.), getting onto I-4 and taking it all the way to Kissimmee is enough of a pain in the ass to not want to go even if you have annual passes. There’s plenty to do that isn’t absurdly hot, expensive, and kid-infested.

2. We pay a lot less for the theme parks when we do go.

If we do decide to hit up Universal Studios or SeaWorld, we go on days that are free. Being a Florida resident means deep discounts at places like Disney World, where we usually pay at least $100 less than the out-of-state ticket price.

3. We go to I-Drive for things that aren’t Disney-related.

As much as it sucks to drive to International Drive, there’s still great stuff there, like restaurants (Pio-Pio International), cheap timeshare resorts (I attended a hotel party when I visited recently), dueling piano bars, and semi-rundown attractions like Wonder Works.

4. We eat at independently owned restaurants.

There’s actually a very lively food scene in Orlando, evidenced by multiple hip, upscale restaurants with rotating menus and locally sourced ingredients. Ravenous Pig is probably the best known, along with Rusty Spoon (allegedly started by a disgruntled ex-Ravenous Pig chef). There’s also Cask & Larder, Ravenous Pig’s soul-food experiment — I actually went non-vegetarian to try it.

And then you’ve got Little Vietnam’s unpronounceable restaurants, Sweet Cupcakes, 4Rivers BBQ, Lazy Moon’s 30-inch pizzas, and Prato’s seasonal Italian menu.

5. We go to farmers markets.

Anyone who thinks Orlando is all about metropolitanism and neon lights forgets that before there was Disney, there was practically nothing but mid-Florida rural boringness here. There’s still not much development to speak of around the Orlando area, so every Saturday of the entire butthole-hot year you can find local produce, plants, wares, goods, and foods riddled throughout the city. Winter Park’s is probably the best, though, and the only place I’ve ever seen a rabbit on a leash.

6. We watch soccer matches at Fiddler’s Green.

Considered to be one of the country’s top Irish pubs, Fiddler’s Green is maybe the best meetup spot in town for soccer fans. Dim and dusky with plenty of draft beer and some mean corned beef, it’s the perfect venue for a raucous World Cup viewing. Just get there an hour and a half early to claim a spot.

7. We know which downtown spots to avoid.

Downtowns are typically where some of the liveliest bar scenes are, and that can be true for Orlando if you’re into watching drunk girls stumble into the street, smoking cigars with dude-bros, grinding, sipping syrupy drinks, etc. From live music at Tanqueray’s to craft beer at Tap & Grind, rooftop Hanson’s Shoe Repair, the hipster-y BBQ and I Bars, and even to comedy at SAC, there are more good than bad ways to spend your downtime nighttime.

8. We go NoDo.

Or we’ll avoid downtown traffic altogether and just go north of downtown. Sometimes we prefer scotch and a movie at Stardust, a gin and tonic at a neo-speakeasy, having a few more in a craft furniture shop (and actually buying the chair we sat on), or a cask ale at Redlight Red Light.

9. We hang out in Winter Park.

Other than the aforementioned farmers market, downtown Winter Park is a great place to blow an afternoon, stick around for an evening date perusing the wine bars, sweets shops, fine dining, and ritzy stores, or just sit in the park. The rest of Winter Park is where about half the places I mention in this article are.

10. We do active things in nature.

Let’s not forget that all of Florida is basically a swampland, so swimming, canoeing, camping, and hiking spots (and mosquitoes) are all abundant around the Orlando area. And while Wet ’n Wild is alright, Mother Nature offers a few of her own water parks, like Wekiwa, Blue Springs, beaches within half an hour’s drive, and even some late-night kayaking with bioluminescent aquatic life.

7 adventures in Thailand not to miss

Photo: Maria Ly

Win a trip to Thailand! See details below.
1. Climbing Railay

Features: Famous for bolted sport climbing with challenging, overhanging routes and bouldering opportunities in caves, shorelines, and on sea stacks only reachable by boat (known as “deep water soloing”).

Best time to go: Avoid monsoon by visiting Railay November through April.

Welcome to the towering limestone cliffs of your dreams. While there is established climbing all over the peninsula, the best and greatest concentration of routes is found on Tonsai, a cove just down from Railay West. This is also where you’ll find the climbing community — both local and foreign.

2. Diving Koh Tao

Features: Wrecks, corals, tropical fish, warm water, killer visibility, and plenty of post-dive entertainment.

Best time to go: Visibility is best July through September.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find better diving at a more affordable price than on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. Instructors and divers come from all over the world for the clear, warm water with an abundance of tropical fish, corals, and wrecks. Koh Tao is small enough to feel intimate and unspoilt, yet has some great beachfront bars, restaurants, and classic Thai bungalow accommodations.

3. Sailing the Andaman Sea from Phuket

Photo: Chang’r

Features: Relatively calm and shallow seas along with many reliable outfitters makes finding a reputable boat easy. Everywhere you sail will be gorgeous. Two words: Uninhabited islands!

Best time to go: Avoid monsoon by booking your boat between November and April.

Just offshore of Phuket lies some of the best cruising in the world. Plenty of boats-for-hire sit waiting in the marinas, ready to whisk you off on the trip of a lifetime. If the sailing bug gets you good, consider signing up for a lesson from Royal Yachting Association-certified captains who will show you the ropes (quite literally) over an afternoon or multi-day lesson.

For those seeking a multi-day adventure, inquire about trips to the rugged and untracked Tarutao National Marine Park. In an area crowded with noisy longtails and fancy motor yachts, there’s nothing better than switching off the engine, hoisting sail, and letting Mother Nature do the work.

4. Jungle trekking around Pai

Photo: Davidlohr Bueso

Features: Waterfalls, rivers, open grassy fields flanked by steep jungle mountains.

Best time to go: March is Pai’s most comfortable month as it transitions from winter (October to February) to summer (April to May). Rainy season starts in May or June and can be a fantastic, tourist-free time to visit, as the rains bring out lush tropical foliage.

Northern Thailand is home to some of the best jungle trekking in Southeast Asia, and few towns make a better basecamp than Pai, located about three hours northwest from Chiang Mai. The area has trails, waterfalls, hot springs, and excellent local food. While Chiang Mai commands more tourist dollars, Pai is the laid-back alternative, popular with backpackers and nature lovers for decades.

5. Exploring Bangkok’s Chatuchak Weekend Market

Photo: ePi.Longo

Features: Great food, bargain prices, authentic goods, and sensory overload.

Best time to go: Every stall is open on Saturdays and Sundays (get there early — 9am or so) but a few stay open all week long. Most vendors close shop about 6pm.

Dive right into the largest outdoor market in Thailand (and probably all of Southeast Asia), which covers 35 acres and contains over 15,000 stalls. The deeper you explore, the deeper you’ll go into a fascinating menagerie of exotic birds, hand-carved teak furniture, fresh-cooked rice dishes, live prawns, puppies, pet squirrels, bolts of brightly colored fabric, massage oils, candles, patent leather goods, sandals…you get the picture. Chatuchak Market — or the more farang-friendly “JJ Market” — has it all and is an adventure to explore, so join the 200,000 other daily visitors navigating the circular market, where a prominent clocktower marks the center.

Pro tip: If you see something you like, buy it straight away because you’re unlikely to find your way back to that particular stall in this tangled web of hyper-commerce.

6. Muay Thai training camp

Photo: Colby Otero

Features: Get abs like those Spartans in 300 while also learning basic self-defense.

Best time to go: Anytime. This is a great rainy season activity.

You don’t have to be an aspiring professional kickboxer or mixed martial artist to attend Muay Thai kickboxing camp in Thailand. Anyone willing to pay the price both financially and physically will be rewarded with seriously elevated levels of fitness, increased hand-eye coordination, more confidence, and a deep sense of camaraderie.

Many Thai gyms in Phuket, Bangkok, Krabi, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Koh Samui, and Koh Phangan cater to Westerners just learning the sport. There’s no long-term commitment required — train for a day or a year. Facilities are clean, modern, and comparable to any martial arts gym in the West. Just be careful you don’t get so fit that you become unrecognizable and have trouble passing back through immigration like this poor bloke.

7. Sea Kayaking Ao Nang Bay

Photo: Madeleine Holland

Features: Karst islands, white-sand beaches, sea caves, grottoes, and a waterline view of Thailand like none other.

Best time to go: January through March, while busy with tourists, offers the best weather.

Eighty-three islands pockmark this rugged bay of steep cliffs, white-sand beaches, and crystal-clear tropical water. Hiring a kayak or joining a tour is super easy — reputable outfitters like Sea Canoe offer everything from daily excursions to weeklong “mothership” (travel by motorboat with kayaks in-tow) adventures.

Kayaking is a quiet way to enjoy the beauty of Ao Nang. You’ll paddle by massive jungle cliff faces, stalactite-filled sea caves, maze-like mangroves, and day-glow coral. Bring or rent snorkel gear for a refreshing plunge over the side.

Here’s your chance to give back and promote socially responsible travel to Southeast Asia. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is giving three groups of friends the opportunity to explore Thailand and participate in volunteer community projects that are helping make the world a better place. Enter today for your chance to win.

On Americans and cultural identity

Photo: Sébastien Barré

I was in a London pub, and, being an American, I couldn’t quite place the guy’s accent.

“Where you from?” I asked.

“Dublin,” he said.

“Ah!” I said, “I’m Irish too!”

He gave me a tired smile and said, “You sound pretty fuckin’ American to me. Why is it every American says they’re Irish even though they’ve never been to Ireland?”

“A few of my great-great-grandparents were Irish. I’m actually more like 37.5% Irish,” I said. “And like, a quarter German, a quarter Scottish, a sixteenth Dutch, and a sixteenth French.”

“You’re allowed to just say you’re American, man.”

Okay, fair enough. A real Irishman would’ve known he was speaking in an Irish accent. And maybe would know more about Ireland than what he learned from a two-hour walking tour of Dublin and The Wind That Shakes the Barley. But I’m Irish, goddammit. My mom made us corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty’s when we were growing up, and my grandpa sang “Galway Bay” whenever he’d had a drink or two. He’d never been to Ireland himself, but the heritage was there. What’s national heritage if not lyric memorization?

Europeans have a difficult time with Americans who say they’re “from” their country, and then give complex genealogical breakdowns of which long-forgotten ancestor actually lived there. The frustration is that, rather than meeting an actual kinsman who can actually talk to you about your shared heritage and homeland, you’re getting a burger-eating, baseball-watching, corn-fed bubba telling you about his family tree. It’s like being forced to watch a slideshow without any of the pictures.

But we’re not going to stop doing it anytime soon. The official American narrative is that we are a “melting pot” of diverse cultures, all coming together and assimilating into a single American culture, but that’s never been totally accurate. We are probably much closer to a “chunky stew,” as Philip Glass once said (I actually found an article claiming we’re more of a vindaloo). Basically, we’re all in the same pot, but we’ve never fully assimilated.

A recent map demonstrated how Americans have formed cultural pockets based on their original language and ethnicity, by showing the most common languages spoken behind English and Spanish by state:

Photo: Gizmodo

As my last name suggests, I’m of German descent patrilineally, and I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, which has so many German immigrants that an old canal that used to run through the city was nicknamed the Rhine. To be fair, my family never spoke German, and I don’t know anyone who did — but shadows of the city’s former German culture remain. There’s a lot of sausage and sauerkraut in Cincinnati, there are still tunnels under the streets where they used to store kegs of beer, and we throw the country’s biggest Oktoberfest, even though we’ve perverted it slightly by placing way more emphasis than is necessary on the Chicken Dance.

Looking from the outside, it’s easy to dismiss America’s obsession with our hyphenated heritage as silly or unnecessary, but “American” isn’t a heritage in the same way that “German,” “Irish,” “Japanese,” or “Persian” are. America has done a decent job of creating its own, distinct American culture. We have somewhat common ideals, we have our own sports and music and culture, and we have a somewhat common history. Even the parts of our history that aren’t shared are somehow made a part of our identity — that’s what the whole idea of the “melting pot” is for.

But to be an American, you have to do something that people of other countries have never had to do: You have to figure out how you fit into America. And that can be difficult. If you don’t agree with mainstream American political beliefs, you’re missing one major component of that American heritage. If you come from one of the many groups that has been marginalized by that shared American history — whether it be because of your gender, class, ethnicity, skin color, or sexual orientation — it can be hard to see how you fit into America. And if you don’t subscribe to the more mainstream American Protestant religious life, it can feel like you’re not quite American.

The easy thing to do is fall back into the heritage of your ancestors, rather than trying to force yourself into a culture that doesn’t quite seem to fit.

For me, I tend to think of myself as American. But when I went to Ireland for a couple days with my little sister, I remember one moment clearer than all the rest. As I walked up to the immigration desk, an old customs agent took my passport, opened it up, and looked down at my middle name:

“Donovan?” he said, “Sounds like you’ve got some Irish in yeh.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but way back, like 150 years.”

He flipped to an open page, stamped it, and said, “Welcome home, lad.”

3 songs better than World Cup theme

The 2014 Brazil World Cup now has an official theme song, and it sucks. At least, that’s what lots of Brazilians have been saying since the video dropped Friday. I thought “generic foreign rhythms and lazy stereotypes” captured the sentiment fairly well.

So, here are three other songs (from Brazil) that might serve better as the (un)official soundtrack to the tournament.

“Football Country” is a collaboration between São Paulo rapper Emicida and ostentation funk performer MC Guimé. As with a lot of the country’s socially conscious urban songs, it helps to know the language. But there are English-language subtitles over the video’s extended intro, which make the themes pretty clear.

The next contender, “Everyone’s Cup,” is a Coca-Cola production, so it’s unsurprisingly more polished. But it features Amazonian star Gaby Amarantos and moves through uplifting scenes of real Brazil without stereotyping.

For a more aggressive, Brazilian, and visually impressive take on the same song, check out this effort below, “Everyone Click Play.”

This post was originally published at From Brazil and is reprinted here with permission.

33 colossal statues [pics]

We often find ourselves marveling at the largest geological features on Earth, from the peaks of Mount Everest and K2 to the depths of the Mariana Trench. But humankind has left its own forms of colossal structures.

Built to commemorate memorable historical figures, deities, and events, utterly massive monuments and statues can be found all over the planet. Check out these 35 photos of colossal undertakings that define the word “monumental.”

1

Lord Murugan (Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia)
Built of 250 tons of steel, 1,550 cubic meters of concrete, and 300 liters of gold paint, the statue of Lord Murugan at the entrance of the Batu Caves is the tallest statue of a Hindu deity in Malaysia. In 2006, the statue was revealed during the festival of Thaipusam.
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2

Spring Temple Buddha (Lushan County, Henan, China)
The Spring Temple Buddha is the single tallest statue on the planet at a height of 128 meters (420 feet). A Buddhist monastery can be found beneath the statue, which is built from roughly 1,100 pieces of copper cast.


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3

Cristo de la Concordia (Cochabamba, Bolivia)
The Bolivian statue of Jesus Christ with his arms spread measures 40.44 meters when the pedestal is included. Reminiscent of the more famous Christ the Redeemer outside Rio, the statue leads visitors up 1,399 stairs to a viewing area within the arms of the statue (only accessible on Sundays).
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4

Ten Directions Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (Mount Emei, Sichuan, China)
Completed in 2006, the Ten Directions Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is a 48-meter, ten-headed Bodhisattva Samantabhadra sitting on a four-headed, six-tusked elephant. The base of the statue doubles as a temple. Devotees can enter, pray, and make offerings.


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5

Rodina-Mat zovyot! (Volgograd, Russia)
Rodina-Mat zovyot! is considered a complex engineering feat due to the extended posture of the statue, ("The Motherland Calls" in English). When dedicated in 1967, it was the tallest statue in the world. It weighs 7,900 tons.


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6

Great Buddha of Thailand (Ang Thong, Thailand)
The tallest statue in Thailand, the Great Buddha of Thailand is 92 meters high (the same size as the Statue of Liberty if including its base). Construction began in 1990 but didn't end until 2008. Also known as the Big Buddha, the statue is composed of cement and carries a coat of gold paint.


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7

Cross of the Valle de los Caídos (Madrid, Spain)
At a height of 152 meters, this cross sits atop a massive underground basilica and crypt carved into a granite ridge in the Sierra de Guadarrama. To complete the complex, a Benedictine abbey can be found on the opposite side of the mountain.
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8

Rear-Front (Magnitogorsk, Russia)
Depicting a worker passing a sword to a warrior, Rear-Front is 15 meters in height. Completed in 1979, the statue is part of a “sword triptych” with The Motherland in Volgograd and the Warrior-Liberator in Berlin.


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9

Guan Yin of the South Sea of Sanya (Sanya, Hainan, China)
The statue of Guan Yin measures 108 meters tall, making it the fourth-tallest statue on Earth. It has three aspects, all holding different poses (one faces inland and the remaining two face the South China Sea). The statue (unsurprisingly) took six years to build.


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10

Leshan Giant Buddha (Leshan, China)
Construction of the Leshan Giant Buddha, measuring 71 meters tall, was led by a Buddhist monk named Haitong in the 700s. It is said that he gouged his eyes out in an act of dedication when funding for the construction project was threatened.


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11

Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue (Erdene, Töv Province, Mongolia)
The Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, 40 meters tall, sits on top of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex on the bank of the Tuul River. Visitors can walk up to the head of the horse through the statue's chest and neck.


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12

Mangal Mahadev (Savanne, Mauritius)
Another statue of the Hindu god Shiva (the third tallest, at 33 meters), found on Ganga Talao Lake, was inaugurated in 2007. Mangal Mahadev is a replica of a Shiva statue at Sursagar Lake in Vadodara, Gujarat, India.


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13

Mansudae Grand Monument (Pyongyang, North Korea)
Originally comprising one statue, that of Kim Il-sung, the site was expanded to include a statue of Kim Jong-il in 2012 after the leader's death. Twenty meters in height, the original was completed in 1972. Photographers are told to photograph only the entire statue (not in parts) by their tour leader so as to “avoid causing offense.”


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14

The Merlion of Sentosa (Sentosa Island, Singapore)
An oversized replica of the merlion, a lion-headed fish from mythology, the Merlion of Sentosa is 37 meters tall. In Singapore, the creature is considered to be a national emblem. The republic originally derived its name from a Malay word meaning "lion city."


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15

African Renaissance Monument (Collines des Mamelles, Dakar, Senegal)
Standing 49 meters in height, the African Renaissance Monument depicts a man and woman, with a child held in the man's left arm (as the child points towards the west). The giant statue, which cost $27 million to build and took four years to complete, attracted much controversy during the building process.
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16

Guardian of the Valleys (Aberbeeg, Monmouthshire, South Wales)
The Guardian of the Valleys is a 20-meter statue near the Six Bells Colliery, a coal mine in Wales. It was built in 2010 to commemorate the disaster of 1960, in which an explosion killed 45 men working in the mine. The statue is composed of thousands of steel ribbons.


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17

Erawan Museum (Samut Prakan, Thailand)
Measuring 29 meters, a statue of Erawan (also known as Airavata) makes up Erawan Museum. Erawan, the king-god of elephants, is depicted with three heads. There are three stories within the museum, containing artifacts and relics.


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18

Mevlana Statue (Buca, Izmir, Turkey)
Including its foundation, the statue of Mevlana Rumi (a 13th-century mystic, poet, and theologian) is 20 meters in height. A cafe sits below the statue, which was designed and built by the sculptor Eray Okkan.


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19

Laykyun Setkyar (Khatakan Taung, Myanmar)
The second tallest statue in the world, runner-up to the Spring Temple Buddha, is the 116-meter Laykyun Setkyar. Construction of the statue, which depicts the Gautama Buddha, took nearly 12 years. Two smaller Buddhas (sizable in their own right) can be found nearby.
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20

Statue of Liberty (New York City, United States)
The colossal Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The 46-meter figure is visited by over 3 million people annually. It has developed a green patina due to the oxidization of its copper skin.
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21

Thiruvalluvar Statue (Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India)
In Kanyakumari, one finds the 40-meter statue of Thiruvalluvar, a Tamil poet and philosopher. The total height of the statue and pedestal is 133 feet, signifying the 133 chapters in the Thirukkural (Thiruvalluvar 's classic book).
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22

Hermannsdenkmal (Teutoburger Wald, Nordrhein-Westphalia, Germany)
The 53-meter statue of Cherusci war chief Arminius attracts over 130,000 visitors yearly to the southern region of the Teutoburg Forest. Translated, the sword reads “German unity [is] my strength ‒ my strength [is] Germany's might.”
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23

Lord Shiva Statue at Murudeshwara (Karnataka, India)
Murudeshwara, another name for the Hindu god Shiva, is the town in which this 37-meter statue can be found. The statue is the second tallest of Lord Shiva in the world, costing approximately 50 million rupees to build.


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24

Ushiku Daibutsu (Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan)
One of the tallest statues in the world, Ushiku Daibutsu weighs in at 4,003 tons at a height of 120 meters. The bronze statue is so large it contains four levels (which essentially function as a museum) and an elevator, which takes visitors up 85 meters to an observation floor.


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25

Vulcan Statue (Birmingham, Alabama, United States)
At 17 meters in height, the statue of Vulcan is the largest cast-iron statue on the entire planet. It was originally created as Birmingham's entry for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition - better known as the 1904 World's Fair.
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26

Mactan Shrine (Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, Philippines)
Built of bronze and 20 meters tall, the shrine depicts Lapu-Lapu, the native chieftain who defeated Ferdinand Magellan's soldiers in the 1521 Battle of Mactan. Magellan was subsequently killed after the battle. The shrine supposedly sits where the battle took place.
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27

Vishnu Statue (Bukit Peninsula, Bali, Indonesia)
A statue of Vishnu measuring 23 meters in height can be found in Garuda Wisnu Kencana, a cultural park at the southern end of Bali. Additionally, a large statue of Garuda, Vishnu's mythical bird mount, resides in the park.
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28

Dream (St Helens, Merseyside, England)
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. A work of public art by Jaume Plensa, Dream is a sculpture of the elongated head and neck of a woman in a state of meditation. Twenty meters in height, the statue weights in at 500 tons and is composed of white dolomite - a stark contrast to the former coal mine over which the sculpture sits.
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29

Tribute to Courage (Huntsville, Texas)
A 20-meter statue of Sam Houston, an American soldier and politician best known for his efforts in bringing about Texas' independence and statehood, can be found in Hunstville, Texas. Travelers driving by on Interstate 45 can see the statue with ease as they pass.


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30

Mao Zedong (Changsha, Hunan, China)
The monument of Mao Zedong's face was built in 2009 and is 32 meters tall. Depicting Chairman Mao at the young age of 32 (circa 1925), the statue is said to have cost upwards of $35 million to build.
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31

Arch of Reunification (South of Pyongyang, North Korea)
The Arch of Reunification was built to recognize and commemorate the proposals for Korean reunification set forth by Kim Il-sung. Made of concrete and depicting two women holding a sphere together, it reaches over the Reunification Highway, which leads to the DMZ.


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32

Christ Blessing Statue (Manado City, Indonesia)
Thought up by an Indian real estate developer, Christ Blessing stands 50 meters tall. The statue took three years to build and cost roughly 5 billion rupiah. The fiber and steel structure leans at 20 degrees, making the statue appear as if it were flying.


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33

Emperors Yan and Huang (Zhengzhou, Henan, China)
Emperors Yan and Huang measure 106 meters tall. The statues depict Yan Di and Huang Di, two of the earliest emperors of China. It's a safe bet to say the two emperors are the largest facial sculptures in the world.


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Paris's 'Love Bridge' is collapsing

Photo: N’Grid

THE PARIS “LOVE BRIDGE” has partially collapsed, proving that structural integrity is just as important as eternal devotion. The bridge, which is actually called the Pont des Arts, has become famous in the last several years for its padlocks, which are placed on the chainlink guardrails by lovers, who then lock them and toss the keys into the Seine as a romantic gesture.

Yesterday, 2.4 meters of the guardrail at the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight, and local authorities quickly evacuated the bridge and shut it down. The Parisian government (and Parisians themselves) have been asking tourists not to put locks on the bridge for years now, citing exactly what happened on Sunday.

The “love locks” tradition isn’t remotely new, and it didn’t originate in Paris. It’s believed to have begun at Most Ljubavi, a bridge in the Serbian town of Vrnjačka Banja, around the time of World War I. A local schoolteacher fell in love with a soldier and got engaged. The two would meet at Most Ljubavi every night, until he went off to war, where he fell in love with a Greek woman and called off the engagement. The schoolteacher died of heartbreak, and the local girls began writing the names of themselves and their lovers onto locks, and then placing those locks onto the bridge to keep the same thing from happening to them.

The tradition has taken off in the last 15 years especially, after being featured in a number of books and movies. An Italian romance novel called I Want You and the subsequent film adaptation kicked off a love-lock explosion on Ponte Milvio in Rome, and a recent episode of “Parks and Recreation” featured two of the main characters putting locks on Pont des Arts, which couldn’t have helped their lock problem.

And it’s not limited to these cities: The Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Germany is a love lock bridge, as are the chainlinks on Mount Huang in China. There are love locks in Tel Aviv, London, Tokyo, Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Sevilla, Ottawa, and Montevideo. The New York City Department of Transportation recently asked people to stop placing them on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Even in Paris, the tradition is hardly limited to the Pont des Arts. If you walk along the Seine, you’ll find pretty much any bridge that has a chainlink you can snap a padlock onto has several, presumably put their by tourists who weren’t sure which bridge they were supposed to go to, or who just wanted to be renegades. When I was in Paris this spring, there were vendors standing on the bridge and selling locks, as well as markers so you could write your names on them. Some of the locks had names professionally engraved. My fiancee and I may or may not have taken part in the tradition ourselves. (Seriously Paris, we’re sorry about that. Or, you know, if I was confirming that we had done it, I’d be sorry.) Recently, padlocks were even removed from the Eiffel Tower.

If you’re not the type of person who has any architectural knowledge, love locks are a pretty cute tradition. It’s hard to go to the Pont des Arts and not feel slightly heartwarmed that so many couples in love have made their way across the bridge in the mere handful of years of the tradition there.

But it may be time for this tradition to come to a hasty end. It’s just not something that suits itself for a world with 7 billion people and god knows how many romantic relationships. And while I personally love the idea of eternally commemorating my love somehow, I don’t want to commemorate it with the headline “17 DIE IN BRIDGE COLLAPSE.”

Here are a few other ideas for how you can best commemorate your love:

Plant a tree.
Take a kissing selfie so all of your Facebook friends will hate you.
Just write your name over the top of someone else’s lock.
Buy a star.
Fuck like rabbits. Nothing says “we’re doing this forever” like a baby.

Another possibility is to only put up locks for actual long-term relationships. No flings allowed. I was in Dublin a few years ago, where the Ha’penny Bridge had become a love-lock bridge (though all the locks have since been removed by the city).

A Dubliner, suggesting a possible solution for those who are slightly less committed, said, “In Paris, when two lovers fall in love, they put a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine, as a grand symbolic gesture. Here in Ireland, we know better. We put on a combination lock and come back later to take it off.”

5 facts on Brazil's soccer hooligans

Photo: Crystian Cruz

IT WAS THE FINAL ROUND of 2013’s Brazilian Championship. At stake were second place for Paraná’s Atlético Paranaense, and relegation for Rio’s Vasco da Gama. In the stands of Arena Joinville, the host’s landslide win was overshadowed by displays of genuine brutality.

The wildness of the organizadas — as organized groups of hooligans are known in Brazil — resulted in the suspension of the game. Four fans were taken to the hospital, one of them in severe condition. Six men were arrested. Fortunately, no one died.

Next morning, Brazilian sports newspaper LANCE! reported that 234 people had lost their lives in clashes connected to soccer in the past 25 years. The initial death was registered in April of 1988. That victim was the head of Mancha Verde, Palmeiras’ organizada based in São Paulo.

Since the episode in Joinville, one more person has died, a fan of Recife’s Sport FC who was beaten in the head by a toilet in the second tier of Campeonato Brasileiro.

The numbers may seen small in comparison with other countries. The tragedy at Heysel in 1985 alone killed 39 people on account of the irresponsibility of Liverpool’s hooligans. But violence is a serious problem in Brazilian soccer and has its own particularities.

1. Problems typically unfold outside the stadiums.

There were two things out of the ordinary in the clashes between the organizadas of Atlético Paranaense and Vasco. The first is that people were imprisoned. The second is that the violence happened inside the stadiums. That’s rare. Clashes between fans are regularly scheduled on the internet and consummated in the streets.

Twenty-year-old Atlético Mineiro fan Lucas Batista Marcelino was shot and killed by two Cruzeiro fans, on a motorbike, in the east zone of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. It happened in 2009, about 10km from where the clubs were playing.

Three years later, about a thousand fans from Palmeiras e Corinthians turned São Paulo’s north zone into their own Colosseum. The conflict took place at Inajar de Souza Avenue, 10km away from Pacaembu Stadium. Two men were shot.

2. Different sets of hooligans can team up.

There’s no cooperation between fans of local rivals, such as Corinthians and Palmeiras. But organizadas from different states make alliances that are pretty valuable in away games.

Palmeiras’ Mancha Verde, for instance, is friends with Vasco’s Força Jovem. São Paulo’s Independente has an alliance with Flamengo’s Jovem. There are also cases of discrepancies between two organizadas that have led to broken relations. Corinthians’ Gaviões da Fiel and Atlético Mineiro’s Galoucura used to be friends, but now can’t stand each other.

It sometimes ensures peace, but can also make some circumstances worse. Palmeiras’ organizada is even more of an enemy in the eyes of Flamengos because of their friendship with Vascos. The result of this can be seen in the Brazilian episode of “Football Factories,” a series of films about hooliganism. A bus bringing Palmeiras fans back to São Paulo is shot at on the road.

3. Players aren’t immune.

Palmeiras’ former midfielder João Vítor was shopping at the club’s store, on Turiassu street, near the team’s stadium, when he became involved in a fight with Mancha Verde members.

Vagner Love, one of Palmeira’s best strikers in the last ten years, was getting money out of an ATM, also in the vicinity of the club’s stadium, when he was beaten by organizados.

In Brazilian football, players are no safer than the fans in the stands. When the hooligans decide a footballer is not playing well, they forget about swearing and things get real.

This year, a group of criminals invaded Corinthian’s training field, and there were reports of aggression against employees. Mário Gobbi, the club’s president and a police delegate, said striker Guerrero was held by the neck by one of the hooligans.

4. It’s a super homophobic scene.

The squads of European hooligans have an inclination towards ultranationalism and neo-fascist ideologies, and discrimination typically runs rampant against black people and immigrants. There’s prejudice in Brazil as well, and the most common is homophobia.

There was a derby between Corinthians and São Paulo this year, where thousands of corintianos called goalkeeper Rogério Ceni a “fag.” São Paulo is often mocked as “a homosexual team” — as if this were some kind of offense.

Last year, Emerson, Corinthians’ Libertadores hero, with two goals in the final match against Boca Juniors, published a picture on Instagram where he was kissing a male friend. What in the beginning was an exceptional action against homophobia turned out to be a lamentable episode. After pressure from various members of Gaviões da Fiel, he retracted, said he hadn’t meant to offend, and publicly stated that he really prefers women.

Corinthians fans are not the only homophobes in Brazilian football, of course. Atlético Mineiros believe that a good way to offend Cruzeiros is by calling them “Mary.” São Paulo fans stopped singing player Rycharlison’s name because he was seen as gay. The player finally came out as homosexual in 2013.

5. They really like Carnaval.

São Paulo organizadas are also into carnival parades. The headquarters are usually located in the same place where drummers and sambistas rehearse for Carnaval every year. And they are very relevant. The Corinthians-related Gaviões da Fiel, for instance, won the city “special group” four times.

Palmeiras’ Mancha Verde never won a title, but is always on the first tier. As for São Paulo’s Dragões da Real, they have held a place in the Carnival parade “special group” for the past three years.

In 2012, a member of Império da Casa Verde broke into the jury’s space and tore apart some of the votes. Soon after, Gaviões da Field did the same. Corintianos continued the violence by kicking and moving the grids that separated the Sambódromo do Anhembi from the streets.

In 2012 and 2013, the three groups were in the same run — a cause of deep concern for police and authorities.

The luckiest, most unlucky man

AS MACABRE AS it sounds, I couldn’t stop laughing through this animated story. Frane Selak truly is the world’s luckiest, most unlucky man. And the best part about it is, he pretty much didn’t let any of these near-death experiences, involving various modes of transportation, keep him from living a normal life. I’d feel like i was unstoppable, but he is probably happy just to be alive.

The end of the story truly shows the power of karma, and that amazing things can happen to you even after you feel like your life has nowhere else to go. Maybe if I meet Mr. Selak in person and shake his hand, some of his good luck will rub off on me.

How to piss off a Mexican

Photo: Humberto López

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Claim our food is not “that” spicy.

An Italian visiting Mexico once dared to say: “We have chiles a lot spicier in Southern Italy.” That was the last thing he said. His throat is still recovering after eating a chile toreado.

Fail to say good morning when you enter an elevator.

You can spit on our shoes — well, no, you can’t really — but we may be less offended than if you enter the elevator without saying buenos días.

Say we don’t look Mexican.

If you’ve met more than one Mexican in your life, you know we’re like tamales: de chile, de mole, or sweet. We all look different — call it multiculturalism, crossbreeding, or foreign invasion. And even when some of us don’t look like the Mexicans you see in the movies, we’re all “more Mexican than mole.”

Ask something completely ignorant, as if your image of Mexicans from an old movie where they’re always taking a nap in the shade of a cactus.

Example: “Are there cars in Mexico?”

Say Mexico isn’t in North America.

I’m not going to lie — many of us would love to be as far as we can from the gringos. But, after studying geography for many, many years, we’re 300% sure Mexico — or the United States of Mexico, our official name — is in North America.

Think “Mexican” is a language.

In Mexico we speak Castilian (you can also call it Spanish). And we’re very proud of the variations and idioms we’ve given to our language. ¡Ándale!

Claim to have been to Mexico because you went to Cancun.

Enough said.

Say your favorite Mexican dish is chili con carne.

Which is NOT a Mexican dish. Period. And please be careful; this topic has destroyed the strongest of friendships.

Arrive on time.

We’re not famous for our punctuality. In fact, we’re very well know for our creativity when it comes to making up excuses for being late.

When you get invited to a party, the worst thing you can do is be on time. The hosts will open the door and look at you, perplexed and offended, “What are you doing here now?!” The best is to be the last one to arrive. You’ll be the hero because everyone thought you weren’t going to make it, and there you are!

Insult our mothers.

Okay, it’s bad everywhere to insult someone’s mother, but in Mexico it’s particularly dangerous. You can use the worst insults you know when you talk to a Mexican; he’ll laugh with you, and he may teach you some new ones. But please don’t mention his mother, or it’ll be the last thing you do!

What if we’re already pissed off?

Invite us to drink mezcal, eat the worm inside the bottle, make us laugh, and…you’re forgiven!