Budapest Critical Mass 2009

Critical Mass Budapest is a mass demonstration aimed at bringing the public’s attention to the crisis caused by motor vehicles, e.g. traffic jams and environmental pollution. It promotes the bicycle as a healthy, fast, cheap and environmentally friendly alternative mode of transport. The organisers of this event would like to encourage the local population to use their bicycles for transportation whenever possible, and not just for recreation or sports.



Much like in other parts of the world, the goals of Critical Mass Budapest are to raise awareness on the benefits of bicycling and other alternative means of transportation, and to assert cyclists' right to the road.



Critical Mass Budapest is also meant to influence decision makers and city planners toward creating more bicycle paths, designing better and safer bicycle lanes, and providing facilities for bicycle storage and transport. These are meant to result in reduced smog and traffic, thereby improving the quality of life in the city.



Critical Mass is completely independent of any political parties, organisations or movements. It is not a registered organisation, but rather an “organised coincidence” (as it is often called in other places).



While offering an opportunity for cyclists to make a statement, socialise, and celebrate cycling, Critical Mass is non-confrontational toward motorists and attempts to minimise the level of inconvenience the rides cause for all those who are not involved: pedestrians, public transportation, and individual drivers.



(source: www.criticalmass.hu)
the photos were taken by me

Flobots: handlebars

One of the few rap songs with meaningfull lyrics. I also like the music its built up carefully and the short trumpet solo in the middle is cool...brings a mood.



Lyrics:

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it's good to be
ALIVE
and I'm a famous rapper
even when the paths're all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm Proud to be an American"
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome

And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it's good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
I'm all curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine
Sixty four miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
Cuz I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let'em all die from exasperation
Have'em all healed from their lacerations
Have'em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like'em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
Because I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Twitter rocks

I have joined Twitter almost a year ago in 2008 July. As usual I didnt recognise its potencial for the first sight. Ok, microblogging but what to do with 140 characters in a jungle of messages. So after posting some random messages and adding some buddies I left twitter and I haven't open it for months.

I don't remember exactly why, but in the middle of February 2009 I opened again Twitter (thank God my laptop remembered the password) and I started to post there again. The result is impressive. Within two months the number of followers has increased dramatically.



So Twitter rocks!

poem by leah harris, a survivor of psychiatry in the u.s.

Article 12*


“Let the revolution begin” --Myra Kovary
For Tina, Celia, Daniel, and all who struggled in service of justice and truth at the UN for users and survivors of psychiatry.

For too long they have treated us without our permission--
Listen! We are human like the rest of humanity
Our so-called “insanity” is no excuse to deprive us of our liberty
Decision-making ability, or control over our own destinies.


Just because we are in distress doesn’t mean you can treat us
Under duress.
My body is my temple and you’ve no right to put
Electrodes on my temples and shock me against my wishes
Vicious how we are drugged against our will
Our sensitive systems flooded with toxic pills
And you try to tell us that we’re ill?


We may not make sense to you
Jive with your consensus reality
But you’ve not got the right to treat us with brutality
The lethality of your methods is well known
Treatments shown to impact our mortality
Lessen our lives by twenty-five years
Tears of humiliation I have shed at the indignities
Inflicted on me because you say I have a mental abnormality
And no right to my own autonomy.


Check it: Article 12 of the CRPD declares that
We’ve got the capacity to chart the course of our own existence
Our resistance to your psychiatric schemes
Your medical model regimes
Doesn’t mean you can deem us unfit
Now that’s some paternalistic bullshit!


We don’t need a “guardian” to make our choices
Article 12 says that our voices are valid and true
Now, I may want your help, but if I do, I’ll ask you.
Your support may be met with appreciation
But no longer can you “help” me without my cooperation
Respect my right to self-determination
And together we can build a new global foundation
Based on human rights and collective liberation.


(anti) copyright Leah Harris

* Article 12 - Equal recognition before the law
1. States Parties reaffirm that persons with disabilities have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law.

2. States Parties shall recognize that persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.


3. States Parties shall take appropriate measures to provide access by persons with disabilities to the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity.


4. States Parties shall ensure that all measures that relate to the exercise of legal capacity provide for appropriate and effective safeguards to prevent abuse in accordance with international human rights law. Such safeguards shall ensure that measures relating to the exercise of legal capacity respect the rights, will and preferences of the person, are free of conflict of interest and undue influence, are proportional and tailored to the person's circumstances, apply for the shortest time possible and are subject to regular review by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body. The safeguards shall be proportional to the degree to which such measures affect the person's rights and interests.


5. Subject to the provisions of this article, States Parties shall take all appropriate and effective measures to ensure the equal right of persons with disabilities to own or inherit property, to control their own financial affairs and to have equal access to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit, and shall ensure that persons with disabilities are not arbitrarily deprived of their property.

Hagia Sophia, Aya Sophia, Istanbul

Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya, from the Greek: Αγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia) is a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral in 1520.

The current building was originally constructed as a church between A.D. 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and was in fact the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site (the previous two had both been destroyed by riots). It was designed by two architects, Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The Church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 50 foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly 1000 years.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque.[1] The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. The Islamic features — such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the four minarets outside — were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It remained as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum by the Republic of Turkey.

For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul), the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque.

Although it is sometimes referred to as Santa Sophia, the Greek name in full is Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. It was to this, the Holy Wisdom of God, that the Church was dedicated (Sophia being a Latin phonetic spelling of the Greek word Wisdom). So Santa Sophia should be understood as the title of the church, Holy Wisdom, rather than a reference to some Saint Sophia.
(source)