Is the strike over? Do we have gas? Do we have bananas at a bargain price?
Good!
These last few days I saw from afar the strike that happened in Brazil, and how it directly affected the lives of literally everyone. Every strike demands something, improvements for the class that does it. And the aim of the strike is to disturb. Bother everyone.
France is the country of the strike. Right now the trains are on strike. It started two months ago and will continue until the end of June. Pure and simple chaos. But I will not go into the merit of a strike, nor address the political sense, because that is not the purpose of the blog.
The point is that with this truckers' strike, the city stopped. No one else got around and that caught my attention. Of course, I only noticed this because I completely changed reality ... if I had it in Santos, I might not even notice it. So Santos, beautiful and wonderful, is the perfect city to ride a bike! It is flat, it is small, you can do everything by bike! Everything!
But why don't we use so much bicycle? Why do we neglect this means of transport?
Thinking to myself, I found some answers. Some justifiable, others not, and others to be pitied.
In the justifiable category I thought, of course, about the issue of bicycle thefts. The difference between Santos' theft and Strasbourg's is that Santos has the approach; someone stops you and takes from you what has always been yours. In Strasbourg it's the good old swipe. You are going to have a coffee and when she comes back she is no longer there. It's boring? IT'S. But it is not traumatizing. The big difference is the violence that is present.
Another point that I also thought is the fact that it rains a lot in Santos. We have times of the year when it rains for days without stopping and it really is a hindrance to ride a bike with the rains that we have. Attention that when I say rain, I don't include summer rain. Summer rains have a time to fall and, when they fall, not even those with cars can get around!
In the non-justifiable category I thought about the heat and the police “blitz”. A backpack with everything to clean and refresh and air conditioning do all the work. When I worked in Santos I had colleagues who went by bicycle and none of them smelled bad. Lame excuse!
The police blitz or I don't know what they call it, is usually done in the middle of the afternoon (when we're working!).
In the category of feeling sorry, you have the thought that “bicycle is a poor thing! I huh! Bike? Me? You're crazy! ” or simple disregard for the most sustainable means of transport on the planet. You pay 200 reais in the spinning class to do what the simple commute does, and for free! If I tell you that in a month my quadriceps appeared again and my leg is BEAUTIFUL, you answer what?
Another point is the issue of female harassment. Although this is present in any existing means of transport, on the bicycle there may be a small persecution on the part of the living being without character. Both are to be pitied.
I believe that cycling is a habit that we should all have. It is not simple to start but there are only positive things about it. It is cheaper, it does not pollute, it is good for health and yes, it is faster. The bike lanes will appear when the number of bikes no longer holds. In that sense, we cannot complain about the city. They put cycle lanes on the canals and on the main avenues. If its use is intense, new ones will be made.
To want to have a “European lifestyle”, to be “chic” and blablablá, you must first put your feet on the ground and realize that there is no such thing as “the poor thing, the rich thing”. This is the first of our problems.
Here my boss comes by bicycle, just like me.
In Switzerland, the president of the laboratory where my cousin works also goes by bicycle, as does the building cleaner.
There is no way to want equality if the first thing we do is separate. So, are we going to evolve?
A bientôt e, Perdoe o meu francês!
p.s.: Queria fazer um texto sobre um desafio daqui da cidade, mais saiu esse na hora de digitar. Sorry! 😀
#evolve
