WTF is with us all?

I think, good Josh, that this one should start off with a raver warning... beware, rave below...

You know life is good when you LOVE almost all of it, the people, the changes and challenges, the evolution of self, work; that's where I'm at right now - in that weird space where I feel like I prefer not being on holiday.  Maybe that's because of a good holiday though.  Either way, enjoying the people in my life (though wish we lived not so far apart), a real feeling of purpose at work, and in that my profession of education, wild doses of exercise, lots of sleep ... the secret I guess is a patch of limited travel (though I have plans to make that sensational too).

The backdrop however is challenging - Hong Kong itself is going through a dark patch that is reminiscent of some of the challenges SA faces, indeed that the world faces. Here's a paragraph from the South China Post (interestingly a publication now owned by Jack Ma - definitely not anti-Beijing)

Do Beijing and Hong Kong officials really know what they’re up against? Those millions of people who have taken to the streets over the past seven weeks aren’t ordinary protesters. They are the product of a city that is tough to live in, that was created and shaped by forebears who were even more resilient.

Given what they’ve endured and been forced to accept, only the foolhardy would fail to take them seriously now that they have decided enough is enough.

Pampered senior officials with luxury government-provided housing and cars, hefty salaries, reasonable working conditions and generous pensions aren’t likely to relate  to ordinary Hongkongers. The squeezed

living, unaffordable rents, crowded commutes and long working hours of the majority are foreign to those who formulate the policies that govern Hong Kong. They would therefore have little, if any, comprehension of what is driving people onto the streets and the anger that has been mounting. Ignoring and doing nothing to placate is bad enough; trying to shut down avenues of protest and silence will only lead to disaster.

And I think that sums it up - the haves and the have nots - young people here fed up with being the celluloid that the film-script lives of the powerful are written on.  The result... stuff grinds to a halt - this is one of my initially failed trips to work earlier this week (the subway has been an effective target of protest; on this day I got as far as North Point - it took half an hour to get out of the bowels of the building.

I like the photo because of the looking guy on the left 

So I write this on the day that we've all had to go home - because of a typhoon this time (Macy delightfully quips that even Mother Nature thinks that Hong Kong needs a break :-), and I read the following in the Daily Maverick about South Africa:

And those are seriously tragic numbers, along with the fact that the economy contracted 3.2% in the first half of the year...literally W.T.F?!?  And then you remember - Jacob Zuma, corruption, state capture (and its fightback).

Earlier this week I read an article in the NY Times - I can't remember what it was about, but it had this delightful photo from a trump rally (many thanks NYT):

There's a lot to be seen in this pic - aside from the scary midfield mouth with its pearly-white gnashers (for example the African American dude, who seems surely in the wrong place? Nope).  The part that I'm going to call out is this, a zoom-in on the auntie on the left...

In particular her Rolex and house-sized De Beer's special.  And all of this reminded me of the pre-liberation Apartheid days.  Back then, there was an Afrikaans Band called the Gereformeerde Blues Band, whose front man was a delightful human called Johannes Kerkorrel (both words are a play on the Gereformeerde Kerk - the Apartheid Church - his name translating into the delightfully obscene "Johnny Church-organ".  They were a leftist alternative Afrikaans band, and one of their songs was "BMW".  And here are it's words (I don't think much translation is required... but if necessary, get help, it's delightfully ironic and comes off their album "Eet Kreef" (Eat Crayfish, but probably more directly translated into the Eat Cake of French revolution fame).

Ons ry 'n BMW
Ons ry 'n BMW
Ons gaan elke jaar oorsee
Ons ry 'n BMW
Ons sal jou nie 'n lift gee
Ons ry 'n BMW
Vir rylopers sê ons nee
Ons ry 'n BMW
Moet ons alles dan verniet weggee?
Nee!
Ons ry 'n BMW
Polina gaan maak vir die miesies tee!
Ons drink net suurlemoentee
Ons ry 'n BMW
Ons stem vir die PFP, die KP, die NP

Alles met 'n P, net nie die ANC, nee!
Ons ry 'n BMW
Moeni politiek praat hier nie,
Ons sal blou moord skree
Ons ry 'n BMW
Kan iemand asseblief my sonbril aangee?
En het enigiemand nog 'n idee?

The essence of the song is the savage un-generosity of the wealthy, their determination to stoop to any indignity, including fascism, just to hang onto their material goods.

And I think that is the thread that connects the fascist past to the Trumpist and Hong Kong present, along with the realities of the unemployed and the down-trodden.  The people clinging are made miserable by their lack of generosity and humanity, the people wanting are bereft of opportunity but fed an endless stream of desire, and beware those who have nothing to lose.  If you haven't seen The Great Hack (Netflix Documentary) try and give it a watch - savage stuff.

In case you think this is preachy - it's really not - here I am, playing my part in the great cesspool of a species gone nuts - and as I said at the beginning - really happy, but also slightly guilty and struggling to know what to do to contribute positively.

Eating pizza with the boys

Having a drink on Mils beach ... while Rome burns.

So what to do?  And Education feels like it's deeply part of the solution - learning - to work things out collectively, in collective interest.  I'll part with a description of Paulo Friere's educational dichotomy - reading the Pedagogy of Freedom at the moment - the stuff that the species needs, or else...

"There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of generations into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the 'practice of freedom', the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."

Paradise holiday villa in Bali - chillin with the Schats in Villa Asante, Canggu

We went to Bali for a week, and stayed at Pieter and Robyn's house.  This was something that Ange was really keen on, on Robyn has been saying to me for ages - "you guys must come to Bali".  But I'm thinking to myself - I don't really like crowds and population pressure wasted places - I want unspoiled (being spoiled by SA, which while getting alarmingly more populated in my life-time, still really is often pristine).  I think this about Bali, because I've been there before - Seminyak, Kuta, and to some extent it felt like a giant Aussie trailer park - so to speak (and not that I would necessarily mind that).  Anyway - I was just wrong wrong wrong.  The place is super-populated and mildly hammered - but it was fantastic.  For a range of reasons.  Two of them being Canggu, and being with the Schats crew - in their totally fabulous house - and by that, I mean this (what you can't see in this pic are the volleyball court and garden behind me, and details like table tennis tables and cracking sound system which are lurking in the shadows under the open area on the left.  Serious holiday chill-zone, unrivaled.  I was keeping my HK habit going and was up early to go running without fiendish traffic - so this pic below is the early morning scene.

Asante means thank you in Swahili - thank you indeed

Aiden and Evan soaking up some pool - time. 

Canggu itself - the Bali bustle

Bali is densely populated, but Canggu felt quite real to me - much much more than a holiday spot, some very cool and interesting things going on.

The beaches succeed in being packed and chilled - its actually really lovely.  There's a cool mix of local Balinese out enjoying a weekend late afternoon, kites (omnipresent in Bali - very cool streaming Dragon kites included, you can see some of them above).  Sand is volcanic dark brown, but a perfect grit - not hyperfine get into everything, and not sandpaper you coarse.

There are a million places to hire boards - longboards, soft-tops, shorts - anything you want, all super reasonably priced.  Here Michael and Aiden getting ready for a late afternoon outing.  Left dad here a bit grumpy when Aiden came back in well after dusk having been a km off the beach, thanks little brother, very relaxing.

Detail a bit challenging - but a solid 8 foot, nice shape, plenty of fun.  There were also absolutely pounding places further along the beach - 12, 15 foot -  cousin Ethan Ballantine would have had an absolute blast.

Ev and Aiden ready for a feed at one of the beach spots after a solid couple of hours out.  Blue lips.  Wrinkly fingers.

The best way to get around is by scooter - they cost about R70 a day to hire.  Here Ev and I out in the morning to check out the surf options.

The restaurants were EXCELLENT in my view, great blend of local and healthy and foreign, prices hugely reasonable.  Here with the Schats gang at the Canteen - berry and wheatgrass smoothies, avo with feta and chilli on toast - heaven.

Bali and custom bikes

One of the things that I thought was just LOVELY about Bali was the crazy custom motorcycle scene.  Who would have thought?  Now my motorcycle days are way behind me (replaced as they are by the MAMIL era bicycle; for example, have a fab plan to go for another little ride in the US - this time a couple of days through North Carolina on my way to a work thing ...)  But Bali really made me miss them in so many ways.  In the past, I had some exposure, via Gerry Steyn, to the South African custom bike scene.  And it was always about huge, go freakishly fast, or look and sound freakishly mean (in the case of the Harley crew) bikes.  In Bali, no no, EVERYTHING gets customized, and it is so so cool.  Here are some examples, with their originals (where possible to find them):

How cool is this Honda Cub?  It's just fantastic.  GREAT paint-job, cool crome-work, really nice fork and crown, cool colour combo and seating - perfect black spoked rims and fat takkies.  I think it is simply beyond lovely.  While it maybe unrecognisable here, in it's usual guise it's a 50 to 125 cc (depending on the year, this one a 50) classic postie bike of my childhood.  What is interesting about it though, is that the Honda Cub is the best selling vehicle, of any category, of all time.  Toyota Corolla?  Goodbye.  Over 100 million Honda Cubs have been sold world-wide - check out below for its more recognisable form.

Really cool details - a really special little jewel.

Here is the 1969 version - appropriate I thought - and immediately recognisable.

And here is the 2019 Super Cub - yours for HKD13K (the price of a bicyle) with 125 power and ABS.  WTF?

I have no idea what this started its life as - but it is a 125 offroader, that's been turned into a chopper.  So cool.
Ev absolutely loved it.  You can see another with a wild faring in the background.

The next one has a bit of a story.  We are sitting down for dinner in a lovely Italian place, overlooking a rice paddy, when a guy comes rolling in on a much bigger and louder bike.  I look at the bike and see that it has Africa Twin on the tank.  I think it really can't be ... the Africa Twin was a late 1980's bike that was front and centre of my desires.  Honda built them as commercial versions of their Paris Dakar racers - 750cc offroad twin - it was the ULTIMATE adventure bike (and so successful that it has become a category of bike itself - the BMW GS range, the KTM Adventures etc.  You see them all over South Africa now (I think they are called adventure tourers - or Galander-scooters to petrol-heads :-).  So I get up and go and have a look at the bike - which as you will see below, does not look anything like the original any more.  And it is definitely an Africa Twin - I can see from the engine - and it is lovely.  So I say to the guy who has just ridden in on it, " I LOVE your bike - this was my dream bike back in South Africa just as I was getting to the age when I could ride".  He smiles a huge smile - and holds out the keys - and says "you have to take it for a spin then".  Haha - how cool is that?  So it takes me a while to get over some initial apprehension - not often an affliction - and a short while later I am literally ROARING along a road next to the rice paddies.  It went like an absolute missile - beautifully tuned, free breathing - paradise. 

Here is the original 750 cc Africa Twin....

And here is the Bali bad boy bad ass version - Josh it was GREAT!!!