Matador Network's Blog, page 2289

An homage to the birthplace of modern travel

WE’D BEEN PATIENT MOST OF THE DRIVE. But somewhere around the 6th hour across North Carolina, having dropped from the highlands to the Piedmont to the coastal plain, past the damp winter fields of cotton stubble, past the endless stretches of pine flatwoods, the kids were getting restless. Nobody could wait to reach the Outer Banks.

We’d been preparing for this trip. I checked out books on the Wright Brothers, who had become funny-hatted characters in my kindergarten-aged kids’ stories. I wondered how old Orville and Wilbur would’ve perceived this road on their first trip from Dayton in 1900. What levels of anticipation must they have had in these last couple dozen miles?

The chain of barrier islands known as the Outer Banks — or OBX as it’s commonly abbreviated — juts off the coast of North Carolina, with the Albemarle Sound distancing it from any large cities (the closest is Norfolk, Virgina, about an hour and a half away). This was one of the reasons the Wright Brothers originally chose it as the site of their flight experiments. Beyond just winds and soft dunes, it was an area out of the public eye.

This distance makes OBX a kind of mini-pilgrimage for many travelers, especially East Coast surfers and anglers. For us, and for different reasons, the Outer Banks is as good as it can get in our part of the world. For one, whereas most of the Atlantic is characterized by a shallow continental shelf that diminishes wave-power, OBX’s geography and steep dropoff allows swells to break harder, similar to the Pacific. Kelly Slater said about the role of Hatteras (the most eastward jutting point of OBX) in his surfing development: “Hatteras was my Pipeline, my Mecca.”

But OBX’s position in the Atlantic is also a convergence zone of two major ocean currents — the Labrador flowing south from the Arctic and the warm Gulf Stream flowing north — which results in an incredible biodiversity of marine life and some of the best fishing in the Atlantic.

I wondered how old Orville and Wilbur would’ve perceived this road on their first trip from Dayton in 1900. What levels of anticipation must they have had in these last couple dozen miles?

Just when it seemed we couldn’t take any more driving, we were on the bridge crossing the Alligator River, and into a kind of terrain I’d never seen before. It looked similar to bogs down in Florida, but with different vegetation. These were pocosins, upland swamps full of tupelo trees, pond pine, and venus flytrap. I was partly tempted to turn into one of the sandy entrances to the Alligator River Wildlife persevere — but kept going across another long bridge to Roanoke Island, site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s English colony in 1587 — later known as the “Lost” Colony. I tried to explain this somewhat arcane piece of history to my wife (a native of Argentina), and kids. “Where did the colonists go?”

I sided with historians who believe these colonists eventually integrated with descendants of the local Roanoke Indians, who had been friendly with the English (and likely helped them survive) on their first encounter in the New World.

The final bridge took us across Roanoke Sound and onto the Outer Banks proper. There was a weird light to the early afternoon as the thick cloud banks that were overhead all day now pushed out to sea. After a somewhat bleak February morning, from the giant dunes at Jockey’s Ridge to the low country buildings of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, everything seemed to glow warmly. Passing several kite stores, whose banners and windsocks flapped strongly towards the sea, I got super excited about the prospect of offshore wind and possibly great wave conditions.

Over the next four days we explored various pockets of the Outer Banks, from north near the Virginia border on a 4×4 beach road past Corolla, to down south along the National Seashore to Cape Hatteras. I found many parts of the trip strangely moving. From the early contact of the English with the Native Americans here, to the long stretches of open coast where Blackbeard and so many other pirates (including inland pirates that ambushed floundering vessels) pillaged and eventually perished, there seem to be so many juxtapositions of history — particularly the history of travel — in this raw edge of the US coast.

Perhaps most of all, as travelers we all tend to take for granted that every time we get on a plane, the very principles of flight, the system of controls used by pilots today, goes back to the Wright Brothers. They figured it out. The whole concept of adapting to changing wind conditions by “wing warping” goes back to their summers testing out gliders, and then, finally, planes, at Kill Devil Hills. It feels like a hallowed ground out there, made more powerful by the fact that it’s not a closed off museum but the same wide open fields where they camped and flew. You can walk in the same places and feel these same winds.

Here were some of our highlights:

Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills

The set of images gives you an idea of the scale of this place. The stone marker in the middle image shows the launch spot (including a replica of the rail used by the Wright Brothers to launch their plane). The smaller markers set out at different distances show the landing spots of the first four flights on December 17, 1903. The fourth flight was 852 feet, with the “flyer” in the air for 59 seconds.

This was the fourth year that the Wright Brothers had come to the Outer Banks (a replica of their camp building and hangar is in the bottom shot). The first three years they made thousands of test flights in different model gliders — both manned and using the gliders as kites — slowly developing the concept they called “wing warping,” adjusting to changing wind conditions and actively turning / flying the craft.

A week before we arrived there was a large snow event in the southern US; more than 6 inches fell in Kill Devil Hills, and locals came to the monument to sled / snowboard.

Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head

“I wish I could create a computer model of what I saw when I come up the ramp each morning.” This was how Chris Crockett (pictured left) described how he sees the water — and the always changing currents, tides, wind, weather, even sand compositions along the beach — that are all interrelated and help one understand where and how to fish. Born in Emerald Isle, he’s spent his entire life as a waterman on the shores of North Carolina. On the pro surfing tour as a grom, and learning boat-building and fishing “from the old-timers,” he’s now an outdoor educator who has taught thousands of North Carolina youth who come each year to Jennette’s Pier. A state-run facility, Jennette’s is both a working ocean research center and an educational facility offering programs in biology of fish, alternative energy (Jennette’s Pier is itself powered by wind and solar), beach exploration, water runoff, plankton, and Crockett’s obvious favorite, fishing.

The fish weren’t biting that morning, so he gave Layla (6) and Micael (3) a beginner’s lesson on identifying common local species (drum, spot) and practice casting.

“If people would just listen to me,” he said, “and everyone just took a break from inland netting and fishing for a year, this would be the best fishery in the world.”

Corolla, North Carolina

The island of Corolla, North Carolina, is only accessibly by 4×4. If you spend enough time driving along the beach and the various beach houses scattered around the island, you’ll eventually see wild horses. Supposedly this is the only place in North America with this particular horse, which has no domestic blood, but is all descended from the same thoroughbred families of colonial Spanish Mustangs that have been on the island for 575 years. The horses are not afraid of humans and basically just wander the island grazing and taking shelter wherever and however they please.

Surfing OBX

There wasn’t enough swell while we were there to really shortboard, but I got fun rides in my kayak. Water temp was a frigid 39 degrees, meaning short sessions, empty breaks. It’s just you and dolphins.

Note the tire tracks. People with ORV passes can drive along different beaches in the Outer Banks. At first this threw me: I’m not used to seeing vehicles when I’m out on the beach. But later I realized how good this makes it for locals (and the potential for epic exploration if you have the right vehicle). There’s a huge community of anglers and surfers who can dial in exactly where they want to surf or fish, and being able to drive the beach gives them next-level access.

A couple more things about the Outer Banks: (1) Be careful out there. The steep dropoff is way different than most other beaches along the Atlantic, and it would be easy to get swept out into water deeper than you could stand up in by the shorebreak. (2) Surf conditions in OBX are no joke; it can go off with as perfect wave conditions as you can imagine. Check this shot of last year’s Outer Banks Pro at Jennette’s Pier for reference. Image via WRV:

Jockey’s Ridge

Jockey’s Ridge State Park contains the largest sand dunes on the Atlantic, and stretches eastward to Roanoke Sound, allowing you to explore from the dunes back to tidelands. The morning we visited was clear and mild, perfect for flying kites and, as we saw, to learn to fly a para-glider (several local outfitters use Jockey’s Ridge as a training ground for hang gliding lessons.) When you’re atop the dunes you get sweet views both out to the Atlantic as well as back into the sound. We could’ve easily explored here all day.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Hatteras is one of only 10 federally protected national seashores in the US. It has the feel of driving into a national park, with day-use / picnic areas and bathrooms along the way and four campgrounds, each giving an epic setup for extended surf / fish / kayaking trips. The campgrounds are closed in winter, unfortunately, but the Frisco Woods private campground is open year-round.

We saw a ton of wildlife on Hatteras, including these deer which came out at dusk. The dolphins were feeding all day just off the shorebreak. It was pretty windblown and cold, giving a kind of gnarly feel, making it not hard to imagine this area as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” — a name conferred after the hundreds and possibly thousands of shipwrecks at the Diamond Shoals, a twelve-mile-long sandbar off this stretch of coast where southbound ship are driven by the current.

More than anything about being here, it came down to a feeling of solitude and being able to just regroup as a family. I felt lucky to see this place for the first time in the winter, when the population is only 7,000 in Kill Devil Hills (it grows to 40,000 in summer), and the conversations in lines at the grocery stores and gas stations were always slow paced and centered around fishing spots and swell predictions. On the way out I thought again of Wilbur and Orville, wondering at the international fame and crazy trajectory their lives took after their invention. I wondered how much they thought back on those dunes and winds, the place where — out of view from the rest of the world — they finally got off the ground.

Editor’s note: Accommodations provided by our friends at The Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Mapmakers at odds over Crimea

Graphic: Wikimedia Commons

Something of a cold war is brewing amongst mapmakers over what to do with Crimea.

After Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula was “validated” by voters Sunday but not recognized by most of the international community, mapmakers are stuck in a conundrum about whether to include the territory in the Russian Federation, keep it in Ukraine, or denote it as disputed.

On Wednesday, the National Geographic Society made the first move, announcing future maps will include Crimea as part of Russia. José Valdés, geographer and director of editorial and research for National Geographic Maps, told U.S. News:

“We map de facto, in other words we map the world as it is, not as people would like it to be. As you can only surmise, sometimes our maps are not received in a positive light by some individuals who want to see the world in a different light.”

Meanwhile, Rand McNally, maker of educational maps found in classrooms throughout the US, stated they will keep Crimea in Ukraine, citing the US State Department as the ultimate authority on territorial boundaries. On the digital front, Google Maps recently updated their rendering of the peninsula with a red dotted line, meant to convey the area’s ownership is in dispute.

What do you think — should mapmakers move Crimea into the Russian Federation?

32 best Airbnbs in Venice, Italy

If you haven’t realized it yet, Airbnb is basically the ‘Couchsurfing’ of 2014. Sort of. The user-friendly website allows travelers to find location-based accommodations posted by the owners looking to rent out their spaces nightly.

Those places, however, span 34,000 cities in 194 countries, and the prices (on a sliding scale from $10-$1,000 and beyond, a handy feature you can adjust yourself) are more than broke-traveler friendly. Furthermore, you can sort by neighborhood, amenities, property type, and host language, and you might just find that you have the opportunity to stay in a room that’s just as cool as the city you’re visiting (as the site boasts, “tree houses, castles, boats, etc.,” around the world).

Here are 32 excellent Airbnbs in Venice, Italy
The cheap

$35/night • Via Amba Aradam, Venice, Veneto 30173, Italy

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Take a minute to recognize what you’re getting here for $35 a night. You’re not getting a manky cot in a room of 6, nor a shared room at all — you’re getting a whole Venetian apartment. A whole apartment.

$35/night • Venice, Veneto, Italy

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After the first night, this single “hostel-style room” drops down to $21 a night. It’s not immediately in the city, but from the comments it looks as well connected to the city as described.

$50/night • Corte Castello, Mestre, Veneto 30173, Italy

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Kitschy but attractive, this slight departure from the $35 demonstrates a significant jump in accommodation quality. Also, who doesn’t love multi-colored inflatable Smurf dolls haphazardly attached to the wall?

$51/night • Via Antonio Canini, Venice, Veneto 30175, Italy

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A “one-room-fits-all,” this listing boasts wifi and a TV in-room. That’s practically a hotel room, for a third the price. The back-and-forth between the owner and recent renters is heartwarming, and sort of makes me feel like I’d be staying with my Italian mom.

$54/night • Via Nervesa, Venice, Veneto 30171, Italy

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Look at how chic this place is. It looks like a goddamn Pottery Barn ad, complete with needlessly low-hanging lantern. If you want to stay in style and on a budget (while still having every amenity a Westerner expects), this is probably my top pick.

$62/night • Viale San Marco, Venice, Veneto 30173, Italy

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My first reaction when I saw this place was “Wow. Orange.” After flipping through the pictures, I concluded that this is probably the most colorful Airbnb I was going to encounter, and that staying here would be like going to see my crazy aunt (which I confess, makes it personally all the more appealing).

$78/night • Sestiere Santa Croce, Venice, Veneto 30135, Italy

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Sure, this room was brought to you by Ikea, but with 5-star ratings across the board it’s a serious contender when deciding where to stay in Venice. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s got a canal side, and if that isn’t authentic Venice I don’t know what is.

$85/night • Calle Sabbion, Venice, Veneto 30123, Italy

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Though we’re headed away from anything that can be considered ‘cheap’, this room closely approximates what I think of when I think about going to Venice (it’s probably the woodwork and the regal wallpaper). With full amenities and no extra charge for additional people, this suddenly becomes very cheap with another person or couple of people.

The midrange

$120/night • Calle Squero, Venice, Veneto 30121, Italy

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Back to basics, this place is ideal if you’ve got the extra cash and want to feel like you’ve actually moved to Venice. It’s minimalist, but 37 incredibly happy customers must be on to something.

$134/night • San Polo, Venice, Veneto 30125, Italy

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Sure, the offerings of this Airbnb are sparse at best, but what you’re paying for is the ability to roll out of bed and look out the window onto a scene straight-up stolen from Assassin’s Creed. That, and the location: “2 minutes walking to San Polo square, 2 minutes walking to boat stop San Tomà on Canal Grande, 2 minutes walking to Chiesa dei Frari, 1 minute to supermarket Billa, 15/20 minutes walking to train station.”

$142/night • San Marco Square, Venice, Veneto 30124, Italy

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Okay, so getting over the fact that this is basically an attic, this spot is ideal if you want to pay to pretend you’re a middle-class Renaissance artist (and who goes to Venice not pretending they’re either a Renaissance artist, James Bond, or Indiana Jones?). The view is killer, the location is killer, the amenities are decent, and (according to the comments) the photos are accurate.

$156/night • Calle Arco, Venice, Veneto 30122, Italy

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The draw here is definitely not the inside but everything that’s outside. I just want to get a powdered wig and cane and traipse up and down those stairs onto the landing forever and then bypass the actual apartment and go to the balcony to wave at boats passing by.

$156/night • Calle Brazza, Venice, Veneto 30121, Italy

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Holy crap this place is modern. If you want to experience the past from the standpoint of the future (and can afford to do so at $156 a night) this is probably your best bet.

$156/night • Sestiere Castello, Venice, Veneto 30122, Italy

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Ok, so ‘Federico’ could have probably chosen a more welcoming profile picture, but thankfully I barely noticed while ogling this listing. It’s elegant in its simplicity, and the idea of it being “located in a hidden and traditional square of Venice away from touristic routes” intrigues me.

$168/night • Venice, Veneto 30122, Italy

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This place is gorgeous. I would live in this apartment anywhere, but the fact that it’s in Venice makes it a no-brainer (namely, the canal-view window/door thing). Yes, they do say you have to go to a local café to get your wifi, and, yes, this quote, “The snake in paradice is the smelte in the bathroom,” from the comments is more than enough to raise an eyebrow, but all-in-all it seems a solid choice if you’re looking to hole up your whole family somewhere central in Venice.

$212/night • Sestiere di San Marco, Venice, Veneto 30124, Italy

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As if designed by the collaborative team that brought you Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and Alcatraz prison, this place reminds me a bit of staying in a theme room at Disneyland Hotel. Everything makes sense, and there’s a unity to it, but that doesn’t change the fact that the whole shebang is objectively strange. Fortunately for me, I like strange.

$212/night • Castello, Venezia, Veneto 30122, Italy

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Owned by the same mysterious ‘Veronica’ as the previous listing, this place has a different feel altogether. The best of both worlds, between look and location, this has to be my pick for the best midrange place in Venice.

$262/night • Sestiere Dorsoduro, Venice, Veneto 30123, Italy

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Before I get a flood of comments on this article about how “$262 is hardly midrange,” I will add that this is the upper limit before the massive jump to ultra-cush. That, and comparable accommodations in these locations are likely to cost WAY more than this a night. Plus, just look at this place — there’s a wire spiral staircase. With no extra charge for the up-to-6-people it accommodates, you and a group of friends could split this place for $44.83 a night.

The ultra-cush

$622/night • Sestiere di San Marco, Venice, Veneto 30124, Italy

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We’ve left the realm of the readily affordable and can now push the boundaries of the amenities as we prepare to look at places that cost more a night than I make in a month. This first place, however, is sort of cheating since it’s a duplex that houses 13, which would cost each person $47.85. Sadly, there’s just no fun in that, so assuming you felt like you needed two whole apartments to yourself for your weekend in Venice, this is as good as it gets.

$630/night • Sestiere San Polo, Venice, Veneto 30125, Italy

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One thing immediately jumps out at me reading this listing. 4 bathrooms. Jacuzzi tubs in every bathroom. Because at $630 a night, it’s very important to me that I always have the option to step away from any toilet and immediately into a Jacuzzi tub.

$637/night • Sestiere San Marco, Venice, Veneto 30124, Italy

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The most important thing about this place is that no matter where you are in the whole apartment, you can see the city you’ve traveled to. Be it in the bedroom, kitchen, living room, or shower, you can see Venice — and it’s very likely Venice can see you too.

$664/night • Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Our very first self-proclaimed palazzo, if that kind of thing tickles your fancy. A complete home and basic foothold in Venice, the beauty of this place has to be the living-room fireplace, though the size of the palazzo is also quite appealing. Plus, the profile picture of the host looks like she’s partied about has hard as I would in a place like that.

$834/night • Sestiere Castello, Venice, Veneto 30122, Italy

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The title says it all: “five-star luxury palace, canal views.” Personalized concierge and cleaning lady, included. Piano and bronze statues in the living room, included. Feelings of modern royalty, also included. Those people who claim there are some things money can’t buy have clearly never stayed in a place like this.

$848/night • Ramo de l’Orso, Venice, Veneto 30124, Italy

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Ah, there’s nothing that eases waking from a restful night’s sleep like having the drapes around the bed pulled back by golden cherubs. Another fusion of look and location, every detail from the “18th-century” room, the “Chinese” room, the “Arabian-style” indoor garden, and the “Turkish” room is spot on, and immersing yourself in the hallway art collection would be an experience in itself. Still, for $848 a night, I’d expect “Edouard” to throw in those fancy costumes as a souvenir.

$877/night • Sestiere San Polo, Venice, Veneto 30125, Italy

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Another from Faville Tours, this modern home has room for you and 19 of your friends. Or, if you’re like me, the fantasy of staying in a place that could support 19 friends if I had 19 friends. Broken down, that’s $43.80 a person a night, which makes this place pretty affordable, all things considered.

$1132/night • Campiello Albrizzi S. Polo, Venice, Veneto 30125, Italy

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This is the absolute upper-end of Airbnbs for Venice. If you have ever had the desire to take out a mortgage and leverage your child’s college fund for the ability to stay in a historic palazzo of nobility (complete with frescoed ceiling), this is where you could stay. This place has so much history it’s impossible not to be haunted, so you’re guaranteed the most authentic Venetian experience feasible.

Honorable mentions

$20/night • Via Giulio Cesare Parolari, 88/b, Venice, Veneto 30174, Italy

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You know, I laughed when I first saw this, but after $1100/night, suddenly $20 for a “covered wagoon in nature” doesn’t seem so bad. Sadly, however, I am “too much afraid of ants,” so this place probably isn’t going to work for me.

$40/night • Via Olivi, Mestre, Veneto, Italy

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Back to basics, this place is perfect for you and a couple friends headed to Venice. It’s got all of the amenities of a hostel and the comforts of a home.

$92/night • Cannaregio, Venice, 30121, Italy

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The name alone earned this a spot in honorable mentions. The “Conceptual Devices Apartment 1” seems a bit like an architecture student’s flat, but the courtyard is nice, and it’s got a great view of Palazzo Labia. Whatever that means.

$92/night • Fondamenta Rio della Tana, Venice, Veneto 30122, Italy

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This place is pretty sweet, though not cheap enough to make the cheap list, and not remarkable enough to go anywhere else. Still, I’d definitely stay here over a comparably priced hotel.

$184/night • Sestiere Santa Croce, Venice, Veneto 30135, Italy

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Another great alternative, this place doesn’t really provide the option of splitting the price with friends but looks to be as romantic and well-situated as the listing describes. Plus, it receives consistently high remarks.

$269/night • Sestiere Cannaregio, Venice, Veneto 30121, Italy

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A fascinating and bizarre blend of old and new, this modern yet pseudo-historical-industrial style is sure to be the perfect place for someone. At $269, however, I’m not sure it’s the best bang for your buck.

16 islands that could soon vanish

THERE IS A LOT OF DEBATE about how long these islands have and which are in the most danger due to climate change.

Whether they vanish in this lifetime or stay with us for another few centuries is anyone’s guess, but one thing is clear: With the onset of rising sea levels and warming temperatures, many low-lying islands face challenges they have never faced before.

Some island nations have already begun relocation efforts for their people, including some of those pictured below.

1

Maldives
Located 400 kilometers southwest of India, this island chain has an average elevation of 1.5 meters, making it the lowest-lying country in the world.
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2

Ghoramara
With a population of about 5,000, this Bengali island is located in the Sundarban Delta of India. According to Research Journal of Recent Sciences, it lost half its area between 1972 and 2010.
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3

Kiribati
This country of 33 islands is located in the Pacific between Hawaii and Australia. One of the world's most vulnerable nations to climate change, its government is searching for a place to move its 103,000 inhabitants.
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Intermission





How do you move 100,000 people off a disappearing island?





3 effects of climate change you haven’t heard of





25 reasons to visit the Canary Islands [pics]












4

Tuvalu
Situated 4.5 meters above sea level, this Polynesian nation is the fourth smallest country in the world. "Unless urgent actions are done against climate change in 50 years' time, the world will just come and collect our bodies from the sea," says one Tuvalu citizen in the documentary film King Tide.
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5

Palmerston Island
This remote island, part of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, has a population of 62 inhabitants.
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6

Ghizo Island
Ghizo is part of the sovereign nation of the Solomon Islands, a chain of remote islands located east of Papua New Guinea. Ghizo is 11km long and 5km wide.
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7

Marshall Islands
Averaging two meters above sea level, this island country is made up of 29 atolls and coral reefs and has a population of more than 68,000 people.





8

Trinidad and Tobago
This island nation is situated 11 kilometers off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and covers 5,128 square kilometers, with many small islands and coastline communities vulnerable to climate change.
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9

Boigu
Can you see the house in the photo? The Australian island of Boigu is one of the lowest-lying of the Torres Strait Islands, located six kilometers from the mainland of Papua New Guinea. It is home to about 260 indigenous people. In February 2014, the Australian Government said it would put $26.2 million toward seawalls for the Torres Strait Islands.
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Intermission





How to be environmentally proactive in 2030





Climate change summit in Bolivia ends today





Don’t believe in global warming?












10

Vanua Levu
This is Fiji's second biggest island. According to government official Alipate Bolalevu, more than 600 villages across Fiji have been identified as threatened by rising sea levels.
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11

Paracel Islands
Ownership of these islands has long been disputed between China and Vietnam. Made up of islets, sandbanks, and reefs, the highest point is 14 meters, making the islands vulnerable to climate change.
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12

Huene
Part of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea, this island has already been bisected by the ocean.
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13

Aitutaki
In the remote Cook Islands north of Rarotonga, Aitutaki has a population of just over 2,000 and is well visited by tourists who make it to this part of the South Pacific. Its 123-meter summit won't be disappearing anytime soon, but unfortunately its inhabitants depend on land area that is much closer to the sea.

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14

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Located northwest of Australia, these islands have 75km of shoreline. The Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve protects a diverse range of marine life, including endemic species of sea snakes and mollusks.
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15

Aldabra Group
Part of the Seychelles, the Aldabra Group has four main islands. One is Aldabra, the world's second largest coral atoll, with an elevation of eight meters. It is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and home to the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.
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16

Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Territory of low-lying islands in the Atlantic Ocean, which face a number of environmental challenges.
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The post 16 astonishing images of islands that could disappear in the next century appeared first on Matador Network.

What the US could learn from Bolivia

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A VERY IMPORTANT READ today published at Take Part. The article “Bolivia: A Country With No McDonald’s” (which has been true since 2002) focuses on the concept of food sovereignty, a term defined by Via Campesina in 1996 as:

People’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

Reading this, I immediately recalled the seemingly endless mono-culture fields of soy and corn planted across the Pampas in Argentina, each with little signs advertising the type of Monsanto products used. The development of agribusiness there (and throughout Latin America) has been bitterly — and rightfully — opposed by local residents who are experiencing increasing health problems. As shown by a 2013 Associated Press report, these problems are clearly linked to the unregulated usage of pesticides sold by Monsanto.

A small victory came at the start of 2014 when a labor appeals court in north-central Argentina ruled that the construction of a Monsanto GMO seed plant was unconstitutional, and halted work at the site. (It should be mentioned as well that this came after more than 100 days of activists blockading the construction site).

But Bolivia is the first country to actually adapt the principles of food sovereignty as a part of its constitution. As writer Steve Holt explains in the article:

Food sovereignty, or local control, has even been codified in Bolivia’s laws, thanks in part to the work of the country’s first indigenous president, Democratic-Socialist Evo Morales, who took office in 2006. When the country’s constitution was rewritten in 2009, 12 articles were added to specifically lay out a vision for food sovereignty. Two more laws, passed in 2011 and 2012, further codified the nation’s apparent resistance to industrial agriculture and an economy too heavily weighted toward commodity crops. Morales, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in February, slammed U.S. fast-food chains, calling them a “great harm to humanity” and accusing them of trying to control food production globally.

This ethos of locally produced agriculture is antithetical to the government’s approach here in the US. Take for example the history of lobbyists appointed to senior positions in the Food and Drug Administration. Case in point: Michael R. Taylor, a former Monsanto lobbyist who was appointed a senior adviser to the FDA on food safety in 1991. Upon completion of his tenure, he became one of Monsanto’s vice-presidents.

And at the beginning of this year, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto on genetically engineered seed patents, giving the company the ability to sue farmers whose fields are inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto materials. This means that farmers whose fields are contaminated simply by wind dispersal (even if they did not wish to have any Monsanto seeds on their property) are now liable.

As always, though, what the US does well in spite of the government, in spite of the seeming juggernaut of multinational corporations, is enterprising at the municipal level, developing initiatives that benefit local economies. As the graph below shows, there’s been almost a 360% growth of local farmers markets since 1994.

What are your views of food sovereignty, and what steps have you taken (if any) to ensure your own food security?

The post What America can learn about food sovereignty from Bolivia appeared first on Matador Network.

Mapped: The world’s abortion laws

Screengrab: Center for Reproductive Rights

MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH. All over the world, students will read about females who have pushed boundaries, shattered ceilings, and made the world better for the children studying them.

Here is another important lesson: The Center for Reproductive Rights created an incredible interactive map where visitors can easily see the differences in international abortion laws. Countries are first sorted into one of five categories:

To save the woman’s life or prohibited altogether

To preserve health

Socioeconomic grounds

Without restriction as to reason

Unknown

Take at look at which countries fall under these general categories, and then click on an individual country to read more about the specifics of the laws there.

As an American, I am aware of the differences in laws across the states. But as an expat, I realized after looking at this map that I don’t know what the laws are in my current home, Japan. Now I know. Abortion after rape is OK, but spousal consent is required.

Take a moment to visit this map and educate yourself on where and under what restrictions women are able to receive an abortion worldwide.

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Stop giving a f@¢% what they think

Photo: Joseph Mietus

This article was inspired by the work of Julien Smith and The Flinch .

Every day from the moment we wake up, we live our lives caring what other people think of us. We accept the status quo for what it is because everyone around us does.

We tiptoe our way through life by doing things in order to please others, not because it’s what we believe in. Eventually our actions, appearances, and lives become molded by how we think other people perceive us.

How are these pants going to make me look? What will my colleagues think if I speak out? Are those people talking shit behind my back? If I take this job, what will my friends and family think of me?

Just writing that paragraph gave me a headache…. It’s exhausting. It’s dreadful. It has to stop.

Living a life that follows what other people think is a terrible way to live. It makes you become the spineless spectator who waits for other people to take action first. It makes you become a follower. Worst of all, it makes you become someone who doesn’t take a stand for anything.

Today is the last day we live a life dictated by others. Today, we’re going to get to the bottom of the truth. Today is the day we stop giving a f@$%.

No one really cares.

Believe it or not, we’re not that special. We go through our days thinking about how other people might be judging us. But the truth is — those people are thinking the exact same thing.

No one in today’s smartphone-crazed society has time in their schedule to think more than a brief second about us. The fact of the matter is, when we do have time to get our thoughts straight, we’re too busy thinking about ourselves and our own shortcomings — not others’.

A study done by the National Science Foundation claims that people have on average 50,000+ thoughts a day. This means that even if someone thought about us 10 times in one day, it’s only 0.02% of their overall daily thoughts.

“You’ll worry less about what people think about you when you realize how seldom they do.”

- David Foster Wallace

It is a sad but simple truth that the average person filters their world through their ego, meaning they think of most things relating to “me” or “my.” This means that unless you’ve done something that directly affects another person or their life, they’re not going to spend much time thinking about you at all.

I’ve always enjoyed watching performers trying to hustle some change at the New York City train stations. These people simply don’t give a f@$%. But the more interesting observation I made is how the spectators act. Rather than watching the actual performers, most people are looking around to see how other people are reacting. If people are laughing, they start laughing too. But if people aren’t paying attention, they also pay no mind.

Even when provided the blatantly obvious opportunity to judge someone, people are still thinking about how others may perceive them.

Once you understand that this is how people’s minds work, it’s a big step towards freedom.

You can’t please everyone.

It’s impossible to live up to everyone’s expectations.

There will always be people — no matter what we say or how we treat them — that will judge us. Whether you’re at the gym, at work, taking the train, or even online playing Call of Duty. Even now it’s happening. You’ll never be able to stop people from judging you, but you can stop it from affecting you.

Think about the worst thing that could possibly happen when someone is judging you or what you’re doing. Chances are, nothing will happen. Absolutely nothing. No one is going to go out of their busy lives to confront us, or even react for that matter. Because as I mentioned before, no one actually cares. What will happen is that people will respect you for claiming your ground. They may disagree with you, but they’ll respect you.

Start standing up for what you believe in — causes, opinions, anything. You’re going to have people that disagree with you anyways, so why not express how you truly feel?

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in life.”

- Winston Churchill

I’ve learned that it’s better to be loved< by a few people you care about than to be liked by everyone. Your family, friends, spouse -- these are the people who love you for who you are, and the people who will be there for you during your worst times. Focus on these people. They’re the only ones that matter.

You reap what you sow.

Worrying too much about what other people think can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the way we think starts to become the way we behave. These individuals become people-pleasers and overly accommodating to others, thinking it will stop them from being judged.

In fact, the opposite is true. Most people don’t like pushovers. The behavior we use in an attempt to please others can actually cause the reverse.

And if how we think affects our behaviors, then how we behave affects who we attract. This means that if you’re a pushover, you’re going to be attracting others in your life who are also pushovers. This can be a dangerous path to go down if you don’t recognize its consequences.

It’s been said that we are the average of the five people we hang out with the most. When we start to attract and associate with people who share our same weaknesses, we’re stuck. We stop growing, because there’s no one to challenge us to be better. We start thinking this is the norm, and we remain comfortable. This is not a place you want to be.

Now let’s talk about the cure. Here are 5 ways to stop giving a f@$%.

1. Know your values.

First and foremost, you need to know what’s important to you in life, what you truly value, and what you’re ultimately aiming for. Once you know who you really are and what matters to you, what other people think of you becomes significantly less important. When you know your values, you’ll have something to stand up for — something you believe in.

You’ll stop saying yes to everything. Instead, you’ll learn to say no when friends pressure you to go bar-hopping, or when a tempting business opportunity distracts you from your business. When you have your values straight, you have your shit straight.

2. Put yourself out there.

Now that you know what your values are, it’s time to put yourself out there. This can be done several ways. Here are a few suggestions:

Blogging
Wearing a polka-dot sweater
Public speaking
Flirting/asking someone out

Keep in mind that when you’re doing any of these activities, you have to speak your mind. Be honest with yourself and what you share, because the world doesn’t need another conflict-avoider who does what everyone else does.

3. Surround yourself with pros.

Surround yourself with people who are self-assured and live life without compromising their core values. These people will rub off on you quickly.

One of my best friends, Cody, has been a big influence on me. Having spent the summer with him, I’ve observed countless times where he strongly voiced his opinion on controversial topics. What I learned was that he was simply voicing opinions that people already had in their heads but were too afraid to voice. People admired him for being so honest and direct, even when they disagreed with his views.

Thanks for not giving a f@$%, Cody.

4. Create a “growth list.”

OK, now we’re getting personal. I haven’t told anyone this, but I have this list called the “growth list.” A growth list is comprised of all the things in life that make you uncomfortable. These are fears, insecurities — anything that gives you the jitters.

My growth list.

Here’s how it works: You start by writing all the things that make you feel uncomfortable. Then, one by one, you do them. Once you complete the task, you move on to the next. Repeat.

My first growth task was taking a cold shower (The Flinch). I turned the water as cold as it could get, and I could feel my body shake before I even entered the shower. This was the inner bullshit voice in my head talking.

It was hard at first. But, surprisingly, it got easier the second time. Then even easier the third time. Before I knew it, my body stopped shaking — I was no longer uncomfortable. I’ve conquered my fear.

This exercise does wonders. I have yet to find a better way to get out of my comfort zone. You can read all the books in the world about being confident or getting over your fears, but if you don’t take action, you’re just someone who’s read how to ride a bicycle without ever having ridden one.

5. Travel alone.

If you’re looking for an ultimate transformation that combines all of the points above, you should travel alone. Traveling with other people can be fun, but you won’t get the opportunity to truly get out of your comfort zone. You’ll be exposed to different social cultures, break social norms that you didn’t even know existed, and ultimately be forced to burst out of your small bubble.

Bring as little as possible, and fit everything into one backpack. Plan nothing, except for a one-way flight to your destination. Figure everything else out when you’re there. Trust me, you’ll be just fine.

It won’t be easy initially, but don’t get discouraged. Being comfortable with the uncomfortable will grow with time. I continue to struggle with it every day, as do many others. But you need to get started today.

The world is already full of people who obey the status quo. But the people who don’t give a f@$% are the ones that change the world.

Be the latter. Start living life the way you want, be fearless like you once were as a child, and always, always stand up for the truth.

Someone has to.

This post was originally published at The Growth List and is reprinted here with permission.

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These animal parents are a$$holes

THE CUTENESS OF a panda is just an adorable sham, a distraction for stupid humans to put time and effort into “saving” them from extinction; meanwhile, pandas contribute to their own demise. But I suppose humans do as well. The following video is definitely evidence of “nature versus nurture”; I just called my parents to apologize for putting up with me during my angsty teenager phase, noting that my life could have been worse — I could have been born a seahorse.

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7 signs you're from Canada

Photo: Rafael Chacon

1. You get Tim Hortons withdrawals.

Canadians love Tim Hortons. Every one of us that’s outside of Canada has Tim Hortons withdrawals, and it’s always undoubtedly the first stop on the way home from the airport after visiting a foreign country. Every time a friend from another country visits, we bring them to Tim Hortons and make them order a double-double (two creams, two sugars). When they take their first sip, we anxiously await their response — and get incredibly offended when they shrug and say, “It’s just…coffee.”

Fine, so the coffee’s average, but Tim Hortons is still a Canadian cultural staple and one we take VERY seriously. The commercials are probably half the reason why — they’re 30 seconds of nostalgia, and kids playing hockey, and just general pulling-at-our-Canadian-heartstrings. When living abroad, I actually looked up the commercials on YouTube just to get a little taste of home. And I know I’m not the only one.

You can bet that every good Canadian on a road trip in Canada has downloaded the Tim Hortons app. I know I want to know exactly how far I am from a Tim’s at any point, in case I need my coffee-and-a-donut fix.

2. Your definition of Canadian is “not American.”

There’s absolutely no way to piss off a Canadian better than to call them an American. While it’s an incredibly easy mistake to make in light of the very similar culture and accent, we take it personally when people don’t automatically know we’re Canadian. We feel you should just be able to tell, somehow, due to our mannerisms and the Canadian sayings (eh?).

When asked what defines Canada as a country, our response is always along the lines of “we’re nicer,” “we have free healthcare,” or “we’re colder” — all direct comparisons to our neighbors south of the border. We may watch American television, use American products, and wear American clothes, but we’ll always still insist we are visibly very different, dammit!

3. It’s still a shock to see cereal boxes in only English.

Because of the Official Languages Act, virtually every single label in Canada is written in both French and English. This includes everything from shirts to soup to shampoo. Every single child in the country began learning French by reading the backside of the cereal box, picking up words like “honey,” “sugar,” and “free” (miel, sucre, and gratuit).

For most people, this is all they ever learn — and yet it’s still surprising to most Canadians to see an all-English cereal box. Seeing products in both English and Spanish practically stops my heart.

4. You use the metric system…sort of.

Canada converted to the metric system in the 1970s, and yet there is still widespread use of the imperial system everywhere.

While we love to make fun of Americans for not converting to the metric system like the rest of the world, we have yet to fully convert ourselves. We still measure height in feet and inches and weight in pounds. Pool, oven, and body temperatures are measured in Fahrenheit, while air temperature is Celsius.

It seems we’re still in a state of mid-conversion, with no signs of ever fully using the metric system in the near future.

5. You grew up with every chocolate bar imaginable.

Canada has the best chocolate — and yes, it is a chocolate bar, not a candy bar.

We are the middle ground between American (Nestlé) and British (Cadbury) chocolate companies, so we get all the goods. Americans don’t get to know the joys of Dairy Milk, Caramilk, Aero Bars, and the real Smarties (candy-covered chocolate, kind of like M&Ms), while 3 Musketeers, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Oh Henry!, and Skor aren’t available outside North America. And then we have our exclusively Canadian brands, such as Coffee Crisp, Crispy Crunch, Jersey Milk, and Wunderbars.

You know you were born and raised Canadian if you got the biggest selection of any other country on Halloween.

6. You measure distance in time.

When people ask where I’m from in Canada, I tell them I live about two and a half hours from Toronto, and it almost always results in a blank stare. Canadians rarely have any idea how many kilometers it is to the next town — they only know how long it takes to drive there.

Driving is the main (and frequently the only) way to get around Canada, so it makes sense that we like to know how long it will take to get somewhere. Ask us how many kilometers it is from Toronto to Montreal, and we’ll give that blank stare right back to you. This has happened to me a few times, and you’d think I’d have figured out the mileage by now, but it just doesn’t seem to matter. 5½ to 6 hours makes way more sense than 542km ever would.

7. Every conversation begins and ends with the weather.

If you want to pique a Canadian’s interest, just start talking about the weather. Canadians love to talk about the weather. Hot, cold, rainy, sunny, snowy, icy — it doesn’t matter. We’re fascinated by the weather. It might have something to do with the fact that our weather changes so frequently. It can be 15°C (60°F) one day, and -15°C (5°F) the next.

One thing you can be sure of, though, is that if it’s winter, we WILL be complaining about the weather, regardless of what it is. If it’s a beautiful, sunny winter day, it’s still too cold. If it’s snowing, we’ll complain that we have to shovel later. God help us if it’s raining in winter — it isn’t cold enough if it’s raining!

We absolutely love to complain about the weather, and it’s a sure sign you aren’t a real Canadian if you actually like the snow.

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The next generation of beatboxers

BEATBOXING IS A VOCAL FORM that blew up as one of the original elements of hip-hop in the 1980s. Early masters from that era such as Doug E. Fresh still rock crowds on occasion, as in this clip of beatboxing and freestying with Will Smith from 2012.

These days, beatboxers are more influenced by electronic music and dubstep than rap or hip-hop, says Kaila Mullady, a 21-year-old beatboxer from Long Island. She herself loves indie-alternative, and one of her beatboxing colleagues is also an opera singer.

And unlike the world of hip-hop, where the goal is to outdo your opponents and declare yourself number one, beatboxing favors a more collaborative approach.

In a televised battle in Mexico City, two artists — El Akdmiko and Owner Beatz — seemingly compete against one another. But while one beatboxes, the other dances to his competitor’s flow. When one switches up the beat to make it a little bit more like reggaeton, the other follows suit. “It’s a conversation,” says Mullady, and one that she’s often had with non-English speakers.

As beatboxing popularity spawns widespread competitions, an international championship, and even a beatboxing-only television network, here are some massive talents taking it to the next level.

ALEM (France)

Current vice-world champion beatboxer. Distinct style, hella dubstep influence. From what I can tell, his beats are less melodic and more focused on speed and variation. The French-born DJ began by “copying the beats I made on the drums.”

BMG (France)

Goes by the tagline, “Human beatbox is universal.” Seamlessly balances two disparate rhythms/basslines at once. Names Jamaican dancehall as a big influence.

Mouzik the Dream Team (Taiwan)

From Taipei, Taiwan, come three young men who function like an a capella beatboxing choir — each person imitating a different instrument.

Kaila Mullady (USA)

From Long Island, NY. She’s a big presence in the beatboxing world, and among its remarkably few women. Mullady travels several times a month, plays shows across the country, and occasionally the world.

While Mullady views the obvious gender disparity in her scene as something like fodder — “it’s motivating,” she says — she faces a barrage of odd comments after each performance.

“I get off stage, and the compliment I get is such a backhanded one. It’s always like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so good for a girl!”

She also teaches beat rhyming to children. It’s “helping kids figure out, what is the music in your head?”

Who are your favorite beatboxers?

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