The Wiggin's Chronicles

On Monday 22 November 2004 17:46, Daryl Fortney wrote:
> you know i was thinking that right now or very soon might be your
> best time of the year to motorbike down through central america.
> you will miss the rainy LA winter and i am pretty sure the weather
> through Central America is ideal from december through june.
> actually i think it moves from north to south during that time.

> i might be wrong but i remember when i was there thinking i shoulda
> left a couple months earlier as the last couple months was raining
> everyday.  maybe you oughtta knock out those projects quick and get
> going...

On Thursday 25 November 2004 13:50, Daryl Fortney wrote:
> good idea to move quickly through what you gotta do before you go.
> shoot for early January to head out, kinda like a celebration of a
> new year thing... a new life thing...  That is kinda why I kicked my
> trip off the day after my birthday.

November 30, 2004

 SÃO PAULO JOURNAL 

Pedestrians and Drivers Beware! Motoboys Are in a Hurry

 By LARRY ROHTER
 
SÃO PAULO, Brazil - This is a city with nearly 11 million
inhabitants and 4.5 
million passenger cars, 32,000 taxis and 15,000 buses. Traffic jams
more than 
100 miles long are not uncommon, and even on an ordinary day,
getting from 
one side of town to the other can take two hours or more.

Only one group here in South America's largest city seems immune to
those 
frustrations and delays: the daring army of motorcycle messengers
known as 
"motoboys." Zigzagging among stopped cars, ignoring lane markers,
red lights 
and stop signs, they regularly menace pedestrians and infuriate
motorists as 
they zoom their way down gridlocked streets and highways, armed with
the 
knowledge that without them business would grind to a halt.

"Nowadays we are so integrated into the economy that São Paulo
couldn't 
function without us," said Ednaldo Silva, a motoboy who owns an agency 
employing nearly 50 messengers. "People don't like us or respect us,
but we 
are as essential to transport as trucks, and if we were to go on
strike, the 
city would collapse."

The bulk of the motoboy's work involves rushing contracts and other
legal 
documents from one business to another, especially for bank loans.
But from 
car parts to architect's plans, human organs for transplant to
passports or 
pizza, there is almost nothing he cannot or will not deliver.

"There's no way to do away with them," Gerson Luís Bittencourt, the
muncipal 
transportation secretary, acknowledged. "They employ a ton of people
and 
facilitate things for everyone. So what we have to do is find a way to 
regulate the phenomenon and restore sociability in traffic."

Though no one is sure of their exact numbers, estimates start at
120,000 and 
range as high as 200,000. Many work 12 hours a day or more to earn a
salary 
of $300 a month or less.

According to official figures, São Paulo now has 332 motoboy agencies. 
Competition is strong, and they adopt names, often in English,
stressing 
efficiency: Adrenaline Express, Moto Bullet, Fast Express, Agile Boys, 
Motojet, Fly Boy, Motoboy Speed, AeroBoy Express, Fast Boys.

With so much emphasis on speed and so much competition with other
vehicles, 
the job is often dangerous. Broken bones and wrecked cycles are an 
occupational hazard, and according to figures compiled by their
union, on 
average, at least one motoboy a day dies in a traffic accident.

"The truth is that we're discardable," said Edson Agripino, 38, a
veteran of 
15 years as a motoboy. "When a colleague gets hurt or killed, the
first thing 
the dispatchers ask is 'Did he deliver the document?' "

Nevertheless, many motoboys, especially the younger ones, see
themselves as 
free spirits or urban cowboys, defying the conventions of society
and envied 
by stodgy wage-earners stuck in their cars and offices.

"It's great to be out on the street, on your own, watching the
girls, and not 
in some cubicle with a boss bugging you all the time," said Fábio
César 
Lopes, who at 29 has nine years' experience as a motoboy. "I spent
five years 
at an insurance agency, and believe me, not only do I make better
money doing 
this, but it's a lot more fun."

Ordinary motorists consider motoboys a plague, and hostility between
the two 
groups is fierce and growing. There are at least 17 online chat groups 
devoted to complaining about motoboys, and conflicts in the street
and even 
fistfights between drivers and motoboys are not unknown.

"I can't stand motoboys," said Flávio Kobayashi, a graphic artist.
"You're 
sitting there stuck in traffic, on your way home after a long, hard
day, and 
along they come with their infernal beep-beep-beep, weaving their
way through 
traffic in complete disregard of everyone else on the road. They'll
break the 
rear-view mirror of your car if you get in their way, and any time
there is 
an argument they come to each other's rescue to beat up on defenseless 
drivers."

Pedestrians, especially newcomers from small towns in the interior,
feel 
especially vulnerable. In a notorious incident in 2001, Marcelo
Fromer, a 
guitarist in the popular rock group Os Titãs, was run over and
killed by a 
motoboy with an expired license, who fled but was apprehended a year
later, 
tried and convicted.

To bring the situation under control, the municipal government last
year 
created an obligatory registry system. The new rules required all
motoboys to 
pay a $110 tax, prove that they do not have a criminal record,
obtain life 
insurance, wear a helmet, drive motorcycles less than 10 years old
and carry 
their cargo in a rear-mounted basket with a license number on it, so
they can 
be tracked.

But motoboys resisted the system, saying it was devised to banish
them from 
the streets. Only 40,000 of them registered, and they organized
protests that 
blocked some main streets. During the campaign leading up to the
mayoral 
election here in October, some candidates endorsed their position and 
obtained judicial restraining orders exempting individual motoboys
from 
registration, which eventually forced Mayor Marta Suplicy to rescind
the 
program.

A few years ago, Congress tried a different tack and passed a law
that would 
have made it essentially illegal for motoboys to practice their
profession, 
which has begun spreading to other cities in Brazil. But the
president at the 
time, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who is from São Paulo, vetoed the
bill, 
tacitly recognizing the indispensability of the motoboy.

"Everybody hates the motoboys except when they need one themselves,"
said 
Caíto Ortiz, the director of "Motoboys: Crazy Life," a recent
prize-winning 
documentary. "When he's rushing some document of yours across town,
then he 
becomes your savior, a hero, and you adore the guy."

On Thursday 02 December 2004 13:49, Daryl Fortney wrote:
> sure... lets build some cool vehicle...

> i was gunna build this airplane with my friend marty if i ever
> return...

> www.velocityaircraft.com

On Friday 03 December 2004 14:01, Daryl Fortney wrote:
> Sounds like you are badly plagued by the Chronicly Lost Active Mind
> Syndrome, CLAMS.  It is the controversy of needing to be aroused by
> new ideas and living in an environment of stale toast.

> America aint cutting it you know and now is the nice part of the LA
> winter... should only get worse in the next month or two and then
> how are you gunna feel?  Damnit dude, do i need to stoak a fire and
> shove a hot cattle prod up yer ass?  It is clear the only remedy is
> to get on that cikle and start pushing.

> Its a good idea to finish up what you feel you need to but slap er
> out fast and dirty and get going.  you can brush er up later on the
> road, or try to forget about er forever once you feel the wind
> ruffle through the scraggle in your beard.

> My advice is to try and forget whatever is plaguing you and get
> moving bro... get moving...

> I too am more into the concept of an AI pilot for the hovercraft
> myself then that damn expensive piece of windborne fiberglass.  I
> aint even got a pilots license.