I had my mind blown and a suspicion confirmed after my jog this morning. There was a cycling race in my city, and there were hundreds and hundreds of Filipino cyclists, racing with bikes that any middle class American cyclist would be envious to have (were talking bikes that cost thousands of dollars). It was interesting to watch the locals argue with cops and firemen and EMS personnel who were trying to keep them from crossing the street and stepping in front of guys and gals on the race course, on bikes going 15 to 25 miles per hour. If youve never been to a third world nation, among the things that you will NOT find there, are order and organization. They can stop! They can stop! the locals would say of the racers as the cops et. al. tried to hold them at bay. This is nothing new. Ego-centrism is HUGE here, hence that whole third world thing. The people cannot come together to make change because everyone is looking out for number one. (example- enter a building and hold the door for the person behind you, and the 100 people behind you view your kindness as a weakness and trample you- get it?) So anyway, I approached a Filipino cyclist who was done with the race and I told him that I used to love to bike in the US and that Ive often thought about doing it here, but my question was, how in the hell do you bike here without drivers running you over, and roadside peasants stepping out in front of you for entertainment, and thus, getting you thrown over the handlebars if you stop, or you cannot stop and you hit them? (Yes, this happens, even if you go jogging. I get up at 4 a.m. and jog to minimize this- though it still happens- because if you wait until later, you cant avoid the game of human pin-ball, and youll either blow an ACL, twist an ankle, or get stoned by an angry mob when you cannot stop in time and you send a little 54 120 pound man flying across the road and everyone within sight picks up rocks and starts stoning you, even though the little native stepped in front of you for entertainment). Anyway, the guy laughed at me and said, The same way you used to. What? I asked, and he said, I live in San Antonio, Texas, man. 90% of the people in this race live abroad. We come home once a year or once every few years and we bring our bikes for this race. No way Id try to bike here. You know that. The number one export of the Philippines is not bananas or coconuts. Unfortunately, it is their brightest, most civilized, and hardest working people.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:11:30 +0000
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