Introducing the Deux Pas Vers l'Autre Expedition - Two Steps Towards Others

In January of 2018 a pair of adventurers – Marie Couderc and Nil Hoppenot – will set out on what they call the Deux Pas Vers l'Autre expedition. This journey on foot will take them 10,000 km (6213 miles) across Southern Europe completely on foot in an effort to get to know more about their own neighboring countries.
Both Marie and Nil are experienced travelers who have been all over the world. But, like many of us, they often overlook the opportunities for adventure that can come in our own backyard. To that end, they will begin their trek in Portugal and march all the way to Istanbul, Turkey, spring their experiences along the way.

All told, the journey is expected to take roughly 500 days to complete, crossing through 17 different countries while en route. They'l spend four full season on the road and visit 120 national parks, and hike some of Europe's most iconic trails along the way.

The video below is a teaser for what they expect to find on this excursion, and you can read an interview with Marie and Nil here. In that profile they discuss what they hope to accomplish during their trek, as well as their workflow for sharing their adventures while on the road. They hope to immerse themselves in local cultures, explore the history of the places they visit, and soak up the incredibly landscapes they find along the way.

Marie and Nil's adventure sounds like a grand one, but I especially appreciate the idea of exploring places closer to home. They are both European, but haven't taken the time to visit some of the places that are close by, choosing instead to jet off to destinations like Thailand and Mexico. Sometimes we're so caught up in seeing the distant places that we forget about the ones right under our nose.

Find out more and follow along on the couple's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

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6 Things Akrobatik & Mr. Lif Know About Life

Between Akrobatik’s emergency aortic dissection surgery and Mr. Lif’s near-fatal tour bus crash, the legendary Massachusetts-based duo The Perceptionists have experienced major events that have affected their perception of life.

Read the full feature at UndergroundHipHop.com.

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How Emcee & Producer Dads Share Hip-Hop With Their Kids

For hip-hop artists who are fathers, their music and their children will always be intertwined.

I spoke with six hip-hop dads to find out how they’re sharing their love of hip-hop with their kids.

Read the full feature at UndergroundHipHop.com.

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12 true things you can't say about culture if you want to appear cultural

What is culture?

A very long time ago my teacher in social sciencies asked me that question. Well, it was in a test, so technically he asked everybody that question. I was perplexed. I knew instinctively that something was seriously wrong, but I coldn't put my finger on it.

Aged 11, I wasn't systematic and mature enough to grasp just how to phrase or voice my opposition. I just resigned to quiet hatred instead; A hatred that grew, when just one person got the full 10 points on that particular question for listing activities like Opera, Theater, Music etc.

30 years later, that question and the expected answer to it still haunts me. What really grinds my gears the most (yes, invoking Peter Grifin) is that our teacher never meant to tell us something new or deep, a principle or a method. No, he actually wanted us to mindlessly list two handfuls of human activities, the more esoteric or obsolete the better. Opera was better than theater and theater beat film and recorded music. I don't think anybody answered pick-and-mix candy, McDonald's or comic books but I don't think it would have scored at all - maybe negatively. Actually, to his merit, I think Lars Ahnlund might have accepted porn as an item on the list of human culture.

 Culture schmulture, I say!

Culture is something created by a living thing. Human culture is something created by humans, as opposed to nature which just is (or in certain respects created by more or less conscious animals). The list I wish I had composed and handed in is the following one. I still stand by this list. I do understand, however, that the cultural elite would disagree vehemently.

1. Pollution is the highest form of human culture
1. The most successful culture and perhaps most worthy of the notion is the most spread and high-impact results of human activity and here we have been busy; deforestation, depleting the ozon layer, fertilizers, DDT, dumping radioactive waste, plastic waste, animal extinction...
2. Global warming comes a close second in humanity's greatest cultural achievements
1. Where pollution is general, global warming is a special and focused branch of human culture
3. Agriculture
1. Almost all areable land on earth is used for growing human crops for food (for us or animals) or fuel
4. Murder
1. To sustain 7 bn people's lust for meat, human culture has created a system for efficient kidnapping, incarceration, degradation, torture and murder of billions of land living animals
2. We of course do this in a smaller scale with humans too
3. As a byproduct of our general activities here on earth we are also responsible for the complete or practical extinction of millions of species
4. Oh, I almost forgot, and then there is war too
5. Buildings
1. The lion part of everything we humans do is about getting a place to lay our hats. The pollution, the transport systems, the mining, the energy production... It's all geared toward building houses and maintaining them.
6. Porn
1. It's amazing that the business of publishing graphic pictures of naked people appears only mid-list. This is also the first "real"culture item, even if still frowned upon by the elite; it's too pervasive, too enjoyable and modern to be considered culture, they claim. For them, only old, all but obsolete, and extinct culture counts
7. Fast food chains
1. What says "here be humans", and thus human culture, better than a McDonald's, a KFC or a non-name hamburger kiosk?
8. Clothing retailers
1. 7bn people need clothes as much as they need food. Not only are there clothing shops wherever there are human settlements, the clothes have been crafted and personalized since the dawn of time. My teacher and the cultural elite might give more points for haute couture hig
9. Cars
1. Hopefully, this item will soon fall off the list; cars are so last century in my mind. But I guess they will still be with us in some form all the way to 2050.
10.  Cute cat videos
1. An alien civilization could be forgiven for thinking that our economy was built on the creation of videos of cuddly or stupid looking animals. Of course, this answer wouldn't have been relevant in 1983, but could be substituted by comics
11. Popular music
1. It's simply never quiet is it? New songs, albeit with the same chords, the same girl group or guy group choruses, are churned out by an increasingly desperate music industry. It's almost all junk, but for a couple of weeks it feels new and fresh and happening, and if the teens like it and tweet about it you have to get on the train too.
   
12. IKEA
1. Cheap flat-packet furniture to fill our houses, to discard it soon enough and buy more... Perhaps IKEA deserve a higher culture rating; If all the agony that goes into putting the pieces together to actual furniture could be recorded it would probably outrank food chains on the list. For now, Kamprad will have to do with at least making the list

The rest; niche culture: Weapons, Sports, Litterature - OK, I admit it's a close call, but I don't think books are a match for cute cats videos or Korean pop; Gangnam style, Classical music - this might still be big business but it's nowhere near making the top ten (11) list of human culture


Not qualified as culture due to irrelevance and small footprint:

• Small hunter gatherer tribes in remote locations (their cultures failed and shrunk)
• Opera - killed by theater
• Theater - in the pocess of being killed by film. For all practical purposes it is already economically irrelevant compared to recorded entertainment
•  Oil paintings
•  Ball room dancing

So, what would you add, change or disqualify on the list?
 I see it as a work in progress and am (somewhat) open for suggestions

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More bang for the buck

Just in case you don't read The Economist (and I have begun to read it with less and less interest, so I'm feeling you), here is a both interesting and entertaining article about prostitution. If you for some reason can't access the article, Zerohedge has summarized it here.

ZH (always pessimistic) takes the view that deflation is affecting even the esteemable services of the world's oldest profession, but there actually is an uptick in price in 2014, albeit after several years of falling prices.

It seems the most expensive package you can buy would be a caucasian white, athletic, busty, true blonde with very long hair, in New York (or cost-of-living adjusted, Boston), that is open for several clients at once, and who swallows.

If you for some reason would want to go cheap, I guess a very fat, but flat-chested, black woman in Tokyo with short, dark hair should be your pick.

BTW, the reason ordinary prostitutes are so cheap in Tokyo, despite the general price level (PPP) being so high is that "European style services" are so much simpler and less weird than what Japanese prostitutes offer to Japanese clients.

Racist and sexist, both, they are, the johns, it seems.

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Extreme Swedish culture

I happened upon this chart today. I am always pleased to see things related to me on the extreme end of any scale, in particular if that means it's far away from "bad stuff" at the other extreme.

In this chart from Inglehart and Welzel, Sweden occupies the very top right hand corner (with Norway, Denmark and Switzerland not far off), while Iraq, Zimbabwe and Ghana take the bottom left corner.

Unfortunately, Sweden and Denmark have the world's highest taxes

 

E.g., if you own a TV in Sweden you need to pay a quarterly TV license fee.

When you buy a new TV the retailer reports that to the authorities

and they promptly send an invoice to you.

If you don't pay, they visit you to check if you own a TV

From Business Insider:

On the y-axis, traditional values emphasize the importance of religion, parent-child relationships, and authority, according to WVS. People who embrace these tend to reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide. These societies usually exhibit high levels of nationalism and national pride, too. In the U.S., these values would likely align more with conservative ideologies. Oppositely, secular-rational values represent the other extreme and tend to relate to liberal ways of thinking.

On the x-axis, survival values revere economic and physical security and safety and are linked to low levels of trust and tolerance. On the other side, self-expression values give high priority to protecting the environment, promoting gender equality, and tolerating foreigners and gays and lesbians.

The chart also groups nearby countries with shared characteristics such as "Islamic" or "English Speaking," showing how much things like language and religion shape culture.

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Making Music, Angolan Style

Like all other African countries, Angola’s music defines the nation, enshrining the fibre of its culture, its aspirations and its dreams.  That unique music is generated from its own unique instruments.

In fact, Angolan musical instruments are a rare collection of odd and not-so-odd gadgets, simply crafted with the wisdom of sound, African sound, playing notes and rhythms that strike a chord in the roots of the soul.

Each instrument assumes a specific role for which it was crafted and is represented in almost all Angolan traditional events, ancient and modern from storytelling, folklore, music and dance to meetings and special gatherings, even healing rituals and in battle, as an instrument to communicate with soldiers or the enemy.

One of the most important Angolan instruments is the Marimba (as pictured above), a kind of xylophone made from wood with different sizes of gourds attached, which produce a highly recognisable sound for all Angolans. They can be played by two or three people using wood sticks similar to the familiar drumstick.

Then there is the Kissanje (or Mbira), Chisanji and Likembe, depending on the region and its native language), one of the oldest which because of its portable size is commonly carried during long trips “to keep away the solitude and warm the heart with familiar sounds”. This instrument is made usually by fixing metal blades in a plank of wood, and is played using the thumbs.

There are different types of drum according to their function, type of membrane and size of resonance box, but all usually have carved inscriptions to mark their relevance, or for purely ornamental purposes.

Other types of drum are the Phwitas, to be found along the coastline of Angola, used centuries ago for signalling in battle. This type of drum was also used to send messages between tribes, due to the penetrating and loud sound it makes.
(From Sonangol Universo Magazine Autumn 2007)

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The Importance of Play Dolls in Angola

In my previous years of living in Angola in the 90's, I came across many young Angolan children who carried around and took care of dolls very much in the same manner as children in western cultures.  It was evident that most all of the dolls that I spotted were originally sourced from North America.

In Western culture the current definition of a doll is quite narrow, a plaything for a child. Generally, most dolls in Angola, as in most all of Africa, are used by children, primarily girls, to help them envisage their future roles as adult women, mothers and the primary caregivers in their communities. Though used in play, the forms of many dolls encode important social and aesthetic concepts about appropriate demeanor and the links between physical and moral beauty. Not surprisingly, dolls in different African societies emphasize in both form and decoration, aspects of ideal feminine beauty. They include elaborate coiffures, body ornamentation and physical features that underscore the importance of fertility.

Until a few years ago, little contact had been made with the Ndimba people, who are relatives of the Mwila clans of Southern Angola. This doll was handed down to the vendor by her mother. The centre or core of Ndimba dolls is made from a solid piece of carved wood. Fabric is obtained from the doll makers actual clothing. Plastic, wire and grass fibre rings are as those worn by the owner as bangles. Beads decorate the hairdo,

which are meant to replicate the owners coiffure. The name given to the doll will become the name of the owners first born child. At the left, a young Ndimba girl holds a similar doll.

Ovambo dolls are amongst the rarest and most sought after beaded artworks from southern Africa. The men of the Kwanyama Ovambo peoples of southern Angola and northern Namibia carved these dolls as prophecies of future children. Fathers would give these dolls to their daughters. The dolls are rich in symbolism - the obviously phallic shape alluded to fertility and the importance of the male while the blue beads resemble garments worn by Ovambo women.  (Information from Galerie Ezakwantu, South Africa)

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Angolan Stamps: Telling the Story of the Nation

More than just gummed paper used to confirm postal payment, Angola's postage stamps tell a story about the nation's politics, nation, and culture.  During the 140 years since the first Angolan stamp appeared, the message that the subsequent Angolan governments have wanted to send through the stamps has changed through the transition from monarchy through to empire, to a focus on the heroes, diversity and beauty of an independent and resurging Angolan nation.

The first Angolan stamps were issued in July 1870 displaying a crown, when Angola was a colony of Portugal, which was still a monarchy.   After the fall of the monarchy in 1910, most Angolan stamps showed the head of reigining king, starting with Luis, then Carlos and then Manoel II.

The subsequent political tranistion to independence in 1975, produced stamps that showed the leaders of the revolution and depictions of the struggle for freedom during the civil war.

Rising from a need to satisfy stamp collectors, an increasing number of Angolan stamp issues from the 1990s onward were aimed at supplying specialist collectors.  Some of these stamps showed the unusual birds, moths, butterflies and animals of the nation as well as the celebration of the national arts and crafts that are unique to the land.  (Adapted from the Sonangol 2009 Universo magazine)

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Superstition in Angola: Its Effects

Africa' cultures are anchored in spirituality; not in just Christian beliefs.  Animist beliefs in the supernatural are the basis of many Angolan superstitions or folk beliefs, just the same as the common superstitions here in North America.

For example, in Angola, the twitching in your lower eyelid signals that you will soon be shedding tears or when the upper eyelid twitches, it’s a sign you will meet someone unexpectedly.  Or additionally, when you you encounter a dead snake across the road is suspected as a sign that that fate will come to that person.

Though taken very lightly here in North America, the reaction to superstitions in Angola has real and tragic results. For example there is a growing trend in Angola of children being accused of witchcraft since there are so many superstitions against witchcraft.   What is the basis of this?

Unfortunately for many areas in Africa and elsewhere in the world, misfortune seems to be striking with vengeance. Particularly in country like Angola where the people have been scarred by war, famine, economic collapse, death, and HIV infections, there are many “why me?” questions to be answered.  Essentially,  'when AIDS or a disaster begins to kill, someone in the family gets blamed for it.' Other children in Angola have been accused of transforming into animals and eating crops at night. Yet scientific analysis found that late rains had caused poor crop yield during that period.

Some common traits in children accused to have witchcraft are: stubbornness, learning disabilities, physical disabilities such as epilepsy, unruly behavior and not taking school seriously. Many of these traits deemed “witch-like” are usually considered normal adolescent behavior in the West. Children suffering from disease such as AIDS and malaria are also prime targets of witchcraft accusations. Once accused of witchcraft, a child is punished, beaten, starved and sometimes killed to “cleanse” her or him of supposed magical powers. (UNHCR/Open Forum Report 2009)

As Christians, it is exciting to know that salvation through Christ can free Angolans from the bondage of these beliefs and free children from such accusations.  We look forward to bring this message once again to Angola.

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A Real African Christmas Card

Here is an African Christmas card that I received last year from an African friend living in southern Africa.  Enjoy!


An African dog went to a telegraph office and wrote a Christmas greeting:  WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF.
The Postmaster said, "There's only nine WOOFS here. You could get another 'WOOF' for the same price."
The dog answered, "But that would make no sense at all!"

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Smoke Free Day

I had some errands to run in the city center today and saw something interesting on my way back home. A bunch of students were doing a cigarette exchange near some of the tram stops. If you gave them your cigarettes, then they gave you preservativ (condoms). That's an interesting trade.

I found out later on that the students were all medical students and this was part of a smoke free day campaign. I wonder just how successful they'll be? Smoking is every where over here. But kudos to the med students for giving it a shot.

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