The accidental witness

There are no accidents.

That’s one of several things I learned during the Global Road Safety Seminar I was lucky enough to attend in Nairobi early this year.

Which is to say that yes, road crashes aren’t exactly accidents at all. To a greater or lesser degree, they are results of personal, cultural, and institutional neglect.
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Biking, Fast and Slow

 

The Messenger parked at the office.

The Messenger parked at the office.

The woman wore a light blue mask to cover the tear on her upper lip which doctors had sewn together a few minutes earlier. Her face hit the ground when she was thrown clear from her electric bike, she said. Not only did she skip on wearing a helmet, she also brought along her daughter, who was, fortunately enough, unhurt when they went out for a quick trip to the grocery that rainy Monday night. [See: Biking, Fast and Slow]

My year or so in biking to work

The Black Swan (left) with electric jeeps in Tacloban. (Photo by Reina Garcia/iCSC)

The Black Swan (left) with electric jeeps in Tacloban. (Photo by Reina Garcia/iCSC)

(This blog entry is being written as part of a 30-day blogging challenge which I read about in the blog of Om Malik, the founder of GigaOm. [See: 30 days of blogging] I posted the blog link on one of my social media accounts and challenged my friends to do the same. Thanks to my undisputed popularity, none of my Facebook friends have so far accepted the challenge. However, a few hours after my status update, Jun Verzola, a former co-worker at GMANews.TV posted a link to a blog of his own about—unsurprisingly enough—blogging, which he wrote about early this year. [See: Blogging is writing is breathing] If you want to join me in the 30 day blogging challenge, please leave a comment below or tag me on Twitter and use the hashtag #30daysofblogging so we can promote it together.)  Continue reading

How biking almost turned me into a middle-aged hipster (Or how biking changed my life)

The Bridgestone Radac road bike as photographed by Bernard Testa, who is also the bike's proud owner.

The Bridgestone Radac road bike as photographed by Bernard Testa, who is now its proud owner.

When they turn forty, most men buy sportscars and/or take a more than passing interest in younger women.

But not me.

I had no such cash for the first and no such luck with the second.

After all, money—minus rent, books, and beer (in that order of importance)—was tighter than rush hour traffic on EDSA. [See: More]

From the Grammar Nazi Dept. Edited the third sentence to read “no such luck with the second” from “no such luck for the second.”