Hungry On Two Wheels

I have been biking through Hungary the last two weeks, at times alone, at times with my friend and now it is time to settle down and state a few things I came across. So firstly in terms of cycling routes there are hardly any routes that are separated from the road, sometimes at least there is a trail just for cyclists on the road and in the cities they are usually acceptable.

there sure wasn't a thing missing: cycling along the flooded danube, speeding down a hill on a motorway next to some gigantic trucks, having to return 10 kilometers because the road just ended at a flooded part shortly before Eszergom, biking in the rain and all clothes got completely wet, fleeing from mosquitoes, wild dogs, and figuring out how to get to bike trail out of Budapest for a whole afternoon. but altogether it was amazing, I really enjoyed Hungary. afterwards everything seems just easy but well.

I was constantly looking for places to camp in the bushes next to some road. It was not as easy as I thought as most of the places I passed were fields with huge crops, villages, factories, farms. although I took the euro velo trail most of the time the infrastructure, it's evident, is not made for idiots like me moving without a car. roads are not built for the locals to live a healthy life but for the transport of goods to please economic premises.

I tried to figure out what the numerous trucks that were passing me were delivering. Most of them carried equipment for construction building, food and way too often it was living animals (often labeled with the most cynical logos) and honestly, I expect more chickens, pigs or horses on the road than actual travelers.

I was glad that it is the season for cutting the grass, so there was even a cozy ground below sometimes. when  you come across a field of freshly cut grass you can be sure it is not to be entered by the peasants until it's dried in the sun. Usually I build my tent after the sun's down and leave shortly before the sun rises so no one is bothered by it. however if one doesn't leave any garbage behind or stays like forever people hardly care.

One last thing that bugged me (besides the mosquitoes) was that between the towns along the river, if there's the flood you are basically obliged to use the motorway or even the highway. so what are people going to do that just want to walk to the next town, or crazy cyclists like me? why isn't it possible when building roads to make a path for other things than cars? because they aren't economically relevant. yet, I claim.

pun always intended,
michi

Bag on the Road

I Am Bag on the Road from Michael Logar on Vimeo.

Back on the road. Biking for bread to backoff my stat. this is noting but meaningful. just for the sake of the word play (which is the motivation for most of the things I do). I want to use this blog now what i experience as a plastic bag cycling through the hot winds of the flooded places around middle europe and state a few things I think about conceirning open space and nature and cities.

There is No Magic in Space 4 - No Strings Attached

thanks to maurizio for sound and jc for photography/light

There is No Magic in Space 3 - Karriereleiter

In Mitten. des Überschusses beginnt die Flut zu bergen. Niemand kann voraussagen wann die Wogen über das Land streifen, für wie viel Tage der Berg verstummt und das Tal am Kanal zu Muren droht.

In Mitten. Europas. der Festung. So geschützt vor den sehnsüchtigen Märschen der Mittellosen, den hoffnungsvollen Seelen die an den Grenzen der Zentren um eine Existenz sich mühen. So geschützt vor den Schatten die jenes Mondlicht trifft von dem die Hetzer sagen es würde das Licht unserer untergehenden Sonne zum erlischen bringen. So geschützt, und dennoch machtlos gegen die reinen Kräfte der Elemente die sich über alle Landesgrenzen hinwegsetzen.

In Mitten. des Krisenregimes. Mein, Dein, Unsereins am Main. Zu Abwehr gerufen - wider Wetter, wider Widerrufen - wettert man gegen das Wetten, bildet Menschenketten, beschildert zu Hauf Kaufhausketten und wildert an des Kratzers Stufen. Sind es doch der Wolken Kratzer die das Wasser haltlos auf die Massen strömen lassen

In Mitten. der Kultur. bitten die nassen Massen zu Kassen.

There is No Magic in Space 2 - Beet the System

5 easy steps to reclaim the fields:
-do some research about abandoned places
-get your community together and cycle to a fallow field of land
-start to dig out some soil, plant some seeds
-communicate with neighbors, respect their opinions and try to give constructive input
-cultivate the field as long as possible and leave peacefully before the authorities go all rampage
remember it's a slow growing process; resistence is fertile
(it's kind of shallow I know, but if I don't write it this way I guess I won't write anything at all)

so I was lucky to experience how fast even a small community of autonomous people can set up such a cool project at Vienna's latest occupying movement.
SoliLa! - Solidarisch Landwirtschaften is a collective of citizens who want to farm themselves and regain food sovereignty, the right of the people to define their own food systems (which seems harder and harder if you think of intransparent food production nowadays). regional do-it-yourself gardening seems like the best option to start with. the attitude is: 'if you see a job that's to be done, it's yours!'; the goal is to maintain the city's green spaces instead of building new houses when way too much flats are empty. it's about the opportunities a community without capital strength can achieve to maintain some land for sustainable permaculture and exchange of experience and... ***HOPE*** (are the stars blinding you already? no?)

you can watch a glimpse of the situation in the video above to give you a small picture.
after 11 days people were finally forced to leave by the authorities, well much longer than I had even expected. it struck me that if something is state property it won't even actually belong to the people - only to those with the money to buy it off the state (- so what are taxes for then?? maybe this is going to be the next post...)
however SoliLa! is beginning to reenforce again for the 4th of June where a demonstration is set to react to the horrendous circumstances altogether.

you can get some more news about this on the blog: solila.blogsport.eu
do your research and don't take my words for grenade

-- michi

There is No Magic in Space 1 - Just Cut Debt

yes, debt has been cut one can argue: namely the debt of the banks towards the public; it seems there hasn't been a debt cut the other way around...but now I'll try to cut the polemical approach you've probaby heard enough of already. Lately I did some research about what debt is and I want to sum up what I found out:

David Graeber, anthropologist and author of "Debt: The first 5000 Years" states even though there had been historians writing about the past of money and credit no one has ever done the history of debt up to this point.

according to Graeber debt could be seen in all religions.
like 'life is a debt we owe to the gods'
'we pay interest in the form of rituals'
'and we pay the debt back when we die'

and in more functioal terms:
'you owe a debt to your parents'
'you pay interest in the form of respect'
'and pay them back when becoming a parent'

on the first glance this example looks like you have a symbolic 'primitive' form of monetary debt, however this is not the case at all. I would rather describe it as a form of reciprocity and you can't easily compare reciprocity to money lending:

reciprocity:
you are given the opportunity to live a good life
you pay it back by supporting other people

okay, so we owe debt to cosmos, to nature, to society, and eventually to institutions larger than ourselves, all debt out of material trade eventually became something evil throughout the religions.

let's try to combine the system of reciprocity with the one of monetary debt:
you owe money, give it to someone else, then you can't pay it back
so you have to demand the money back from the person in order to repay the first lender.
so the two things don't really seem to function together...

'cancel the debts and redistribute the land'

if you look at history this isn't even new, it happened over and over again. tax systems - the idea of taxes is basically that you lend the state money and the state owes you social services, right? -- they weren't even typical in ancient greek - at least for greek citizens. the only ones who needed to pay taxes were slaves of conquered land. the conquered people needed to pay back the life they were granted by the heroic colonists thus paying the very army the greeks needed to attack them. and at some point they didn't even realize anymore that they are in debt and debt becomes legitimate in form of taxes. but I want to get deeper into that in a later episode when I've done more research because I most probably still have no idea...

think about it and don't take my words for grenade
-- michi