Outside bloggin no more

I'm ending my stint here as a contributor to Outside's blog, but look for more bylines in the magazine. A final field test entry:

Field Tested: BaileyWorks Messenger Bag

Was it North Face that pioneered expedition-class gear as casual wear? I can't pinpoint it, but some time in the 1990's, I remember seeing people walking down the streets of New York with scuba gear on a rainy day. Hey, I'm all for testing products in extreme conditions, but there comes a point where pro-grade should be left to the pros.

Enter the BaileyWorks SuperPro Messenger Bag.

The Portsmouth, New Hampshire, bag designer describes this baby as "Built for the Working Bike Messenger" and loads it up with a Cordura shell, waterproof lining, a blink-light clip and reflective strip, and options for customization when ordering online. More importantly, it has an innovative "split strap," which is a kind of extra harness that snugs the bag across your chest and keeps the one-shoulder bag from flopping forward. The strap is reversible, so you can wear the bag on your right or left shoulder.

The SuperPro runs from $145 in small to $185 for XX-large (presumably for that extra yard of pricey Cordura?). And, true, there ain't a blueprint, estate deal or urgent law brief it can't handle.

Now, are you a professional bike messenger, racing through the streets of New York, Chicago and San Fran on a tarot-card-studded fixie? Probably not. You're probably like me. I'm a daily bike commuter lugging my laptop, lunch and papers to the office, on the same steel 18-speed I use for weekend warrior rides. For a messenger bag, I use this:

It's a piece of swag (thanks, Salon.com) from the Cartoon Network, promoting a show called Out of Jimmy's Head. It's canvas. It has lots of pockets: two on the front plus one on each side, plus a zippered pocket inside, and some loops for pens. It has a decent Velcro closure for the flap that isn't so aggressive it rips your sweater off. The strap is adjustable and, uh, reversible. What's more, the bag is completely waterproof -- when I wrap it, or its contents, in a plastic grocery bag from my local Albertsons.

And as nice as the BaileyWorks bag is, I'm not going to trade in my trusty satchel for it.

--Matthew Fishbane

Q&A with Dean Karnazes

Seven Days in the Desert
DEAN KARNAZES talks about racing in the most extreme conditions on earth.

The Ultramarathon Man wants to be the first person to complete all four legs of the 4 Deserts race series in one year. He survived the Gobi March and the Atacama Crossing, which he won last March. Next up, the Sahara Race—scheduled to begin this Sunday in Bahariya, Egypt—and the Last Desert, at the end of November, in Antarctica.

"My intention is to not necessarily win any of the individual races (the Atacama win was a fluke), but to pace myself to successfully make it through all four," Karnazes said in an email. "I also threw in the Badwater Ultramarathon after Gobi because I wanted to run one of the great deserts in North America."

He took fourth there. Outside caught up with Karnazes just before his departure for Cairo and the 135-degree heat and grueling soft sand of the Sahara.

What's the format of the race?

The 4 Desert series is always the same. They start the race at 8 in the morning, so you do whatever you can to get the finish line. You're on the clock. It's like the Tour de France. You can wait and try to run at night, but the advantage is going to belong to someone who can handle the heat during the day.

How do you plan on tackling the Saharan heat?

Read the rest at Outside Online.


(photo courtesy Dean Karnazes)

Masquerade

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Tragic Hero

An addendum to the Earl Blumenauer saga. The New York Times noticed that Congressman Blumenauer had inserted the bike commuter act into the $700 billion bailout bill.

But they also noted that Congressman Blumenauer voted against the bill.

Bicyclers, collect your $20-a-month credit starting in January, and think of our bike-lapel-pin-wearing hero when you do.

Rise and Stall of the Moto-Taxi

Outside's October issue is now online.


(photo by Sand Paper, on flickr)

The Big Idea
Rise and Stall of the Moto-Taxi
What gets 50 miles per gallon but not a second look in the U.S.?

A COUPLE of years ago, while living in Cambodia, I stumbled onto a sketchy street on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. My Khmer was good enough for me to understand that the residents really didn't want me around but not good enough to negotiate a graceful exit. As one woman's shouts began to elevate, I raised a finger and said the magic word: moto! Three moto-taxi drivers peeled out to my aid. The red Honda in the middle looked fast, so I leaped on and shouted, "Go! Go! Go!" The driver opened the throttle and weaved through pedestrians and cars until we reached the safety of the wider city.

That ride left me thinking, Why don't we have these in the U.S.?

READ THE REST at Outside.

Timeline of a Tragedy

Outside goes live today with an interactive review of events on K2 last August.

Interview with Congressman Earl Blumenauer

Two Wheeled Act
Bike-friendly Congressman Earl Blumenauer talks to Outside’s Matthew Fishbane.

Tucked deep down behind the new leases for off-shore drilling in the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act, a broad energy bill that the House passed last week , were the tiny remains of something called the Bicycle Commuter Act. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, of Oregon's Third District, originally sponsored the bill last session in hopes of bringing bicycles into the commuting mainstream by offering reimbursements and subsidies to the calorie-powered. We caught up with the Congressman, who regularly bikes to his DC offices, to talk about bike safety, infrastructure, and how the Portland model might spread.

What's the basic idea of the Bike Commuter Act?

The concept is to provide equity for people who burn calories instead of fossil fuel.

READ the rest of the Q&A at Outside

Photo: BikePortland.org

Tuk-Tuk Tsk-Tsk: The Case for American Motorcycle Taxis

What's the Big Idea?

Why have moto-taxis --those clever, efficient little tuk-tuks and boda-bodas that move people everywhere else-- never made it to the U.S.? That's the premise of this month's Big Idea column I wrote for Outside, on newsstands now.

(Online in a couple of weeks.)

Close to the Bone: Searching for Justice in Colombia

In the Sierra Nevada, 2007

I've got a brief on the forgotten victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia in this month's Walrus, Canadian magazine of the year winner.

SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA — I’m trudging down the lower slopes above the city of Santa Marta with a black plastic bag of human bones dangling like a scarf bundle from the handle of my shovel. An assistant to the forensic anthropologist I’ve been shadowing for the past eight days — a big, ribald gravedigger — stops on a ridge overlooking the misty clouds that have rolled in off the Caribbean, and laughs. “Do you want me to carry Doña Tulia?” he asks. That’s what we have taken to calling the woman we exhumed two days ago, a likely victim of paramilitary violence. “Tulia’s no trouble,” I say, more spooked by my nonchalance than by the bones.

Read the rest here. Or buy the Walrus -- great publication.

Outside

I'm at Outside now. I write and edit there, and contribute to the blog regularly. Here's a sample of some recent stuff:

Field Tested: Tacx Fortius VR Trainer

Twenty-one switchbacks on the legendary Alpe d'Huez. I can tell you what it's like to ride them. I just did. Last night. In my living room. Perched on the amazing Tacx Fortius VR Trainer.

To give you a sense of it, and to best simulate morale-crushing winter weather, we put together a little video in the ugliest indoor area we could find: the basement at Outside. Note that the video mistakenly describes the price as 760 dollars -- those are Euros, we meant to say. But more on that later. Check it out:

I was a VR-is-all-virtual-and-no-reality kind of guy, too. But this simulator takes stationary riding to whole new level, and promises more in the future. The basic idea is to provide a life-like riding environment indoors. To do this, Tacx, a Dutch pro-level maker of trainers and accessories, threw a motorized brake on the flywheel, and hooked it up to a power pack that communicates information between your trainer and your PC (note to Mac users: you're not invited). What you see is what you pedal. Resistance adjusts to match the incline on your screen, from out-of-the-saddle 12 percent verts to coasting descents. Go ahead and bomb: crashes are unlikely.

read the rest here.

Here's a quick Q&A with a solo sea kayaker:

Q&A: Fastest Circumnavigation of Newfoundland

On July 29, 48-year-old Greg Stamer completed the fastest unsupported solo sea kayak circumnavigation of Newfoundland. He clocked 1306 miles in 44 days on his Greenlander pro, besting the previous record by 22 days, mostly by cutting from headland to headland, and putting in a bunch of over-50-mile days. Floating by the same 'berg fields that produced the one that sunk the Titanic, Stamer camped in the remains of old fishing villages or on spectacular islands with nothing but caribou and the occasional bear. Outside caught up with him by phone on his return to Florida, where he lives with his chow-golden-mix dog, Bear.

How did you do it so fast?

I just pushed harder. I did a lot of long crossings, a lot of which had never been done before by sea kayak. There's this one that's known as "The Rock." A lot of the coastline is sheer cliffs, and that made finding places to land a little difficult. I had topo maps and gps, but you'd plan, and it'd look flat on your map, but you'd get there and find it was a 30-foot cliff.

On the long crossings, you generally don't see land, but if you spot it 26 miles out, it's kind of like Chinese torture, the way [the land] comes up on you so slowly. Or you're completely enclosed in fog -- there was a lot of fog this year. And only two to three days where the wind was actually calm.

Still, you always feel like you have company. I saw hundreds and hundreds of whales. They come up close to the boat and breathe. You hear them, but by the time you turn they're gone. Lots of dolphins, too, playing. One time I heard a gurgling sound at the back, and I thought some kelp had gotten into the drop-down skeg.
I turned around to look and there was a large grey dorsal fin about two boat lengths back. I spun my boat real quick and got ready to jab it in the nose. Must've thought I was a wounded seal or something. I don't know if that was [the shark's] comment on my paddling stroke.

How did you fuel up?

I paddled around Iceland last summer and lost 22 lbs., so I decided on this trip I was not going to let that happen again. A lot of olive oil. I loaded up on my meals at night. Stopped every hour to snack on high-calorie stuff. I did stop in some of these villages. They eat this dish called poutine, which is fries with fat and more fat. I ate a fair amount of that. I figure my body's a furnace on a trip like this. I only lost 5 pounds this time.

What did you paddle?

I used an all-carbon Greenland style paddle, which has a narrow and unfeathered blade. It's good for long-distances, very quiet. Good for rolling, too. You sweep it through the water, and it's like a big glider. I had a pretty heavily laden kayak, so it's more like being on a touring bike than a racer. You're hauling 4 liters of water, tent, camping gear, 200 pounds of gear. You're not going to wear your racing kit for a tour.

Any screech?

Oh, that's very strong rum they drink up there. I stopped in one place, asked if they mind if I put up a
tent. What they say out there is "Boy" but they pronounce it "bay." So they said, "Won't hear of that, bay, you're comin' inside." So we stayed up drinking rum until 2 in the morning, which probably wasn't a good idea considering [paddling] is almost like running a marathon. But they call it being screeched in. You're supposed to kiss a fresh cod, that's part of the initiation. I didn't do that, but I'm almost a Newfoundlander now.

The people in Newfoundland have to be the most hospitable people in the world. I think it comes from before all the cod moratoriums, when the region was supported by small fishermen. Drownings are very common -- people falling between boats and what-not. So there's a real culture of reaching out and helping, especially on the water. They'll go out of their way to bring you ashore. Here's the keys to the car. Just leave the keys on the tire. That sort of thing. It really restores your faith in people.

-- Matthew Fishbane

photos courtesy: Greg Stamer

Cross-Country from NY to Santa Fe

Monday Morning Links

Bogota, Barrio Santo Domingo, by excusa2

Revisiting

• A new golden age for travel writing? In the Guardian (U.K.)
• The Times put the death of Dith Pran front and center over the weekend, including their slightly-creepy "The Last Word" obituary video series. And the trials? Nuon Chea's not getting any younger.
  
• An interesting take on the buzzed-about "implosion" of the FARC, from the CIP. In response, I suspect, to Juan Forero's report earlier in the week.
• For Spanish speakers, this dispatch from the FARC implosion, by Colombian Hector Abad Faciolince.
• Teo Ballve on how trade gets thrown into the "security" cocktail, at NACLA.

What Colombia and Frogs have in common

photo: mr. ëd, flickr

Andrew Revkin muses today in Dot Earth on the problem of complexity in newspaper coverage. He's talking about frogs, by way of example, and the post is worth a thorough read (especially following through on to this link to a discussion from On the Media), but his larger topic is the way complex, shifting topics get explained in the press.

What’s a journalist (or citizen) to do? The more definitive a statement, the more effort should go into testing its basis. Somehow, we need to figure out a better way to deal with complexity and uncertainty. That goes for scientists, journal publishers, and definitely journalists and readers.

The problem of the golden frog, it turns out, is the problem of complex political and social realities like those of Colombia. "The more complex or conditional a story is," Revkin writes, "often the less space it is granted."

Monday morning links

Fernando Vergara / AP, from here

borders and migrations

• Jason DeParle takes a look at the World Bank, in the eighth installment of his globe-trotting series in the New York Times, Border Crossings.
• New York City accents, from the free daily AM New York. (Feb. 20: I'm late to it, but if you haven't come across this, give a listen.)
  
• The bizarre spectacle of the concert "Paz Sin Fronteras" on a border bridge between Colombia and Venezuela. Estimates put more than 100,000 people swarming in the mud pit below the bridge. El Tiempo has splashed news of the concert across its front page all weekend. But did these "chancellors of peace" really succeed in "making the border forgotten" by wearing white? One unhappy partier in this story: President Alvaro Uribe, who was asked by organizer Juanes not to attend. "We're neutral," the rocker said in reference to the concert, "and this is not a political act."
  
• Tangentially related, but worth a read: Keith Gessen's look at meritocracy hypocrisy, in the Sunday Book Review.
  

Contrapposto

eyes, all of a sudden, on kidnapping in Colombia

photo: El Tiempo -- (left to right) Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Eduardo Géchem, Gloria Polanco and Orlando Beltrán.

With the news today of the release of four former Colombian lawmakers after more than six years in captivity, came a statement from the FARC declaring an end to "unilateral liberations," until demands for a New-York-City-sized distension zone is conceded to the rebels. Good news for the four pictured above. Bad news for the 500 still left, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and three Americans.

While the wires relay developments (all 627 related » at the moment over on Google News), only one article so far puts some of these developments in context, and I recommend taking a look at Kevin Whitelaw's review of the "War on Kidnapping" in U.S. News & World Report, and then follow on to a previous article on the power of both kidnapping imagery and the FARC.

Anyone who sees recent releases as purely positive steps, should reconsider the scope of the conflict. Whitelaw writes:

Places to hide. Kidnapping remains a problem. A number of hostages—U.S. intelligence agencies estimate some 750—remain in captivity. Many are middle-class Colombians, but there are also several dozen high-profile captives, like Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian woman and former Colombian presidential candidate. The guerrillas can still find places to hide in Colombia's jungle, which is almost the size of France. "That's the part of the territory the bad guys still know more about than us," says Colombia's Vice President Francisco Santos. "They have been there for 45 years, and we have been there systematically only for five."

Remember that kidnapping peaked back in 2000 at an astonishing rate of over 3500 a year. Such was the bonanza that armed groups took to calling road blocks and other random kidnapping techniques "pesca milgarosa" or miraculous fishing.

Here's what it looks like to come out of the jungle after 6 years. That's left-wing senator Piedad Cordoba in yellow -- she's been shuttling back and forth to Chavez to help negotiate the release.



Finally, who's still out there? Another excellent post from Adam Isacson, at the Center for International Policy, provides a full update.

More on the aftermath of kidnapping

Photo: Luis Perez, flickr -- stationary bike in Chocó

El Tiempo today paints an odd portrait of the Pacific coastal town of Nuqui, Chocó, where, the article leads, 7 people have recently lost their jobs.

They lost their jobs in this remote beach front, accessible only by air and sea, because last month 6 Colombian tourists were taken hostage by the FARC. Nuqui, and the national parks nearby, are a destination for viewing humpback whales at their northernmost migration, and local officials claim that 450 tourists had visited in the two weeks prior to the kidnapping.

Since then, of course, hotel owners have had nothing but cancellations, especially from foreigners. How long does it take for tourist sites to recover from publicized aggression? It had been six years since anything warlike had happened in this sleepy town, said one local. "People die of old age here, life is so relaxed" said the town doctor. "I haven't had my first heart attack."

Last week, the article says, a pair of foreigners arrived. They are being escorted by local military, and the Colombian Tourism Ministry is pushing its all-clear signal as best it can. (The reporting credit includes: "by invitation of the presidency and the authorities of Nuqui.")

One of the recently unemployed is quoted:

"Yo recibía a los turistas en el aeropuerto, compraba el pescado para la comida, arreglaba la planta y bombeaba el agua para las cabañas. Estaba encarretado con la parte turística y feliz porque conocía a mucha gente", dice Moreno, de 29 años

"I received the tourists at the airport, bought fish for dinner, checked the power plant and pumped water for the cabins. I was into the touristic part and happy to meet a lot of people," Moreno, 29, said.

So, following on the Weigel case: can the six tourists be billed for Moreno's lost salary?

Ask not what your country can do for you

photo: REUTERS - 24/11/2003 (from El Pais) -- Reinhilt Weigel (brandishing an automatic), Asier Huegun Exteberría and members of what turned out to be the first division of the ELN to lay down arms.

What if kidnapping were treated more like a disease than a crime? You may remember the case of Reinhilt Weigel, a German national who was kidnapped in 2003 along with a Spaniard, a Brit and four Israelis who were trekking to the Lost City of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. Held for 74 days by Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), the European hostages were released, and picked up by a Colombian helicopter escorted by German commandos.

Ve varned you, mein fraulien, said the German Foreign Ministry, who had restricted travel to the area. The ministry promptly slapped Weigel with a 12,640-Euro bill -- for the helicopter ride and other expenses incurred in the aftermath of an "irresponsible adventure."

Weigel's case had taken some bad PR through the publication of the above proof-of-life photo, on the day of release, showing a healthy-looking and apparently convivial Weigel with her captors. Regardless, she refused to pay and took the matter to court, where a Berlin judge declared that only the return airfare to Germany was her responsibility.

Yesterday, that ruling was overturned, and will likely now go on to a higher Federal Administrative Court, as the case will set precedent.

And just what precedent is that? A fascinating one that tiptoes along the line that separates personal and state responsibility.

When I lived in Colombia, it was running joke with some Colombian friends that we wanted to set up an adventure tour for just the kind of high-octane Israeli and European backpackers that the Santa Marta coast attracts. We'd bring them down to the farm, where they'd be kidnapped by a band of actors playing guerrilla, let them pay their ransom for the mere thrill of it before letting them go, revealing the play, and carrying on with the tour. Smiling photo of hostage carrying machine gun included.

Truth is these schemes are already in place in Colombia. At Hacienda Napoles, Pablo Escobar's former 7,000-acre ranch (with 11 wild hippos left over from the old zoological days), it's still possible to negotiate a guided tour of a working coke lab in the paramilitary-controlled area. I met a man who regularly took Israelis (and anyone who'd pay the ticket price, no more than any other tour in Colombia) to see the field kitchens and sample uncut merch, as if at a winery.

So, now does your government have a responsibility to bail you out of that kind of adventure, when it inevitably goes wrong? The debate around Weigel, unfortunately, is clouded by perceptions of her likability. Nevermind any debate about whether the ELN are simply criminals, organized terrorists (as they are currently designated by the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe), a guerrilla army or what? The concession is that the ELN won't be paying for that helicopter ride.

I've made the same trek as Weigel -- with the same tour company belonging to the well-reputed Frankie Rey -- three times, and twice with a group of 45 upper class school children. I was in the region again last June to report on forensic anthropology there. As a reporter, I want to know that if I take risks to tell stories about the world to the people in my country, that in exchange my government will help provide for my safety. More to the point, though, I'm intrigued by the idea of someone being "irresponsible" enough to get themselves kidnapped. The agency is all their own, and the obvious off-shoot is an insurance package for high-risk behavior. That way, when you go to Colombia and get caught by the FARC, it's actually you who've caught a case of the FARC instead.

In Colombia, where the news was picked up by El Tiempo, comments quickly turned the lens on their own Ingrid Betancourt, former presidential candidate who on Saturday, Feb. 23 completes 6 years in captivity. Will she pay for the current visit of French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner? How about the public Mass to be held in France -- will that run her more than a wedding? And then the comments turn vitriolic, criticizing "romantic" foreigners for believing guerrilla propaganda, and wondering aloud that after Weigel finishes with her own government, will she sue Colombia for letting the ELN exist in the first place?

Why legality has nothing to do with it: Cocaleros on strike in Antioquia, Colombia

They've been growing coca for the past two decades. Waves of drug mafiosi, then paramilitary bosses, now guerrilla have reaped power and money from the region's farmers. Now the Colombian government has moved in with 3,000 eradicators and a security escort of 1,800 national police. The plan is to rip up coca plants one by one. In response, thousands of growers have gathered in the region's towns to protest, reports El Tiempo today. They've been disrupting traffic on the main coastal highway, shaking down cars, and letting local municipal governments know that they won't give up a long-standing livelihood without a fight.

Eradication has already taken the lives of 30 men, most dramatically in the Macarena National Park, through 2006. (Visit the Colombian National Parks website and find the strangely ominous "undefined" in the sections covering descriptions and visitor's guides.) Eradicators there were ambushed by guerrilla and injured by mines; they expect the same welcome as they move into this new front in Northeastern Colombia, where by UN accounts, 23 percent of the coca fields targeted for eradication are located.

What's really going on? Peel back the layers and find rumors that the strikes are being led by the 18th division of the FARC, under alias "Ramon Ruiz." Peel some more and find that aerial spraying, which had been occurring in the region from time immemorial, had settled recently into a once-a-year rate, allowing for three good three-month harvests before a replanting of sprayed crops. Eradication undercuts this deal by leaving peasants to bridge too long of a season without income. The structures are in place for providing replacement crops of cocoa or coffee, or simply paying off former growers as "family park rangers" to the tune of US$157 a month for two months until they get on their feet. The growers counter with a demand for a two-year window of unobstructed coca growing for "paying off debts." The government replies that it doesn't negotiate with illicit product. The bloody tally begins: 9,000 hectares by March 30, promises the national police; one police shot dead and 8 workers blown to bits by a mined coca plant so far.

The Colombia of president Alvaro Uribe currently has nearly 7,000 peasants on eradication detail, earning US$300 a month for plodding through minefields to force a destitute population of farmers into growing something significantly less lucrative than what they've lived off of for decades. The stated goal is to pull up 100,000 hectares (386 square miles) of coca. The operation will cost the government, subsidized by the US's Plan Colombia of military and economic aid, US$26.2 million. Some 120,000 Colombian families live off of coca.

Immokalee

Photos of Immokalee, Florida

Miami Update

Turns out the Andeans give Miami a skip. They prefer the restaurant kitchens of the New Jersey and New York areas and don't really have a foothold in the capital of Latin America. These are the time-honed patterns of immigration: pioneers taking root, bringing their friends and family. Yesterday I spent the day chasing after the Ecuadorian and Peruvian communities in Miami, and found out that they barely exist. In fact, the whole idea of a barrio or ethnic neighborhood seems to have been exploded down here. Even the Calle Ocho, supposed center of Cuban life (Cubans make up over half of the Hispanic population in Miami), seemed dispersed and more of a drive-by strip than a hot-bed. Elsewhere, I was told by one Peruvian restaurant worker to check out Kendall, the lower middle class suburb to the southwest, but even there, despite a row of Peruvian chicken joints and even a local "chifa" serving Peru's take on Chinese cuisine, the car culture had managed to dissipate any concentration of feeling.

"Do you ever see tecnocumbia?" I asked.

"We check the local papers -- there's La Cronica and El Golazo -- and see what's playing. But shows like that, they'll just stop off here for a night or two on their way to New Jersey. Up there, I can tell you, my cousins are into that. It just never took off here."

How could tecnocumbia never take off in Miami, where the melting pot muddles what it is to be a Latin American national? What -- they have too much taste in music here? That was one theory we floated. What is the critical mass required to have home-country musical phenomena come through? How many Ecuadorians is enough (because the assumption is that there will be no "crossover" appeal) to make it worthwhile for Grupo Deseo to make a stop, put on their bikinis and waggle their hips to the tune of Mi Chiquito?

No luck, meantime, tracking down whoever is responsible for the estrellasecuatorians site that got me going on this wild goose chase to begin with. Turns out the phone number on the contacts page is listed from Summerland Key. A strange location for a music promoter. Especially one who never returns calls.

In South Florida

Down in Miami poking around the capital of Latin America, catching up with a couple of local promoters of technocumbia, just possibly the world's worst music. It's a phenomenon that mixes many of the things I'm interested in right now: how immigrants bring their past and homes with them across countries, why they like to stay in touch with what they knew before, and how new technologies change the way they do that.
If you've never seen technocumbia, click below, but consider yourself warned.



Also hoping to catch up with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, 100 miles due West. Lately, they've been asking Burger King to raise the price of their products by one penny, to cover unfair wages for the migrant tomato pickers. Want to guess what BK has said?

This time, they'd gone too far

photo: BuzzSugar

Here's the throwaway line that caught my interest:

The Colombian version was canceled in October after a woman confessed on the show that she had hired someone to kill her husband.

So ends a late paragraph in Alessandra Stanley's review of "The Moment of Truth," a Fox reality-TV offering this season. The show's basic premise is to ask increasingly intimate questions and reward truthful answers with cash. Half the fun is in watching the contestant squirm, the other half is in watching his family seethe. Classy.

According to Stanley, the Fox version is expected to be "quite tame" compared to adaptations abroad. Digging a little with friends in TV down in Colombia, I found that it isn't exactly true to say the show was canceled after the hired-killer confession. Instead, the show's demise seems to be due to a crusader named Santiago Salah, a Colombian lawyer who published high-holy op-eds in the daily El Tiempo, lashing out against the gameshow as morally reprehensible. If you speak Spanish, check out this Telemundo report.

Still, there's a charm to this whole mess. Colombian morality, their twisted sense of Catholic guilt and truth, their ability to take distraction to professional heights, and then Fox television glomming on to things of a piece. It wasn't long after the October end to "Nada mas que la verdad" that Colombia turned its attentions to an equally compelling reality show, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez negotiated with Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the FARC, to have two long-held, high-profile hostages released.

So what, exactly, is going too far in Colombia? Let Fox show us.