Red Corner: Biking through Chernobyl Redux

by Neil Woodburn on

Yesterday’s post about Elena’s motorcycle tour through the ghost towns of Chernobyl has, once again, revived the controversy on whether her photo log was faked or not. I’ve received a couple of emails mentioning this, and recall that it was a big issue when the site was making news a year or so ago.

Frankly I don’t care.

I would normally be rather angry to fall for a bogus website, but I think the naysayers here are missing the point. If Elena did indeed fake her motorcycle tour through Chernobyl, she was nonetheless able to raise a tremendous amount of awareness about the dangers of nuclear energy, the agony of those who suffered and died because of the tragedy, and the plight of those still suffering as a result. Even if it all was a big pack of lies, Elena’s website has carried a very powerful message to countless people who probably haven’t thought about Chernobyl since 1984.

For those of you still on the fence regarding the legitimacy of Elena’s claims, take a moment to check out a couple of recent books whose authenticity no one has questioned. The most powerful, Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl is a collection of 190 color photographs taken by Robert Polidori that are far more sobering than what appears on Elena’s website (although most are similar in vein). Described as a “coffee table book,” it’s hardly the cheerful conversation piece I’d want sitting in my living room, despite its high artistic quality.

A more recent book that is getting a lot of good press is Wormwood Forest by Mary Mycio. Mycio focuses much more on the effects of the disaster on the natural surroundings of Chernobyl. She discusses the ghost towns, the squatters, environmental damage, and how she came to the sobering statistic of the number of humans affected by the disaster: 5.85 million. Although I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet, it seems to be the most up-to-date, all-inclusive profile of the disaster and its impact on the world today.

I’ll certainly read it thoroughly, however, before hitching a ride on Elena’s Kawasaki–whether she has one or not.

Africa Travel: Cameroon

by Adrienne Wilson on

I know little about Cameroon other than what
I’ve heard from the lips of the Afropean hip-hop/R&B duo Les
Nubians. The French singing pair come from a half French and Cameroonian background and most of their songs are in
French, a language which I understand nothing really. So in that case my knowledge of Cameroon is shrinking even further. The last time
I mentioned the country I touched on their annual marathon up
Mount Cameroon, but mentioned little about the Bakweri people and their culture. Pilot Guides has an excellent country
guide and points reader to an enormous amount of information including traditional Bakweri wrestling an event that
happens every Sunday during Feb. and March.

Overall the Bakweri people have an extremely fascinating
culture. They are known in history to be territorial people and fierce fighters. A good wrestling match draws the
traits from the ancestors, physical endurance and great competitive spirit are among two of them. The event is quite a
spectacle. Contestants wear skimpy sarongs and battle it out in a large grassy wrestling pitch. Drummers play on
elevated stages setting an atmosphere already enhanced by the background that is Cameroon’s landscape. You can learn
more about the matches and other events like the one pictured above that few non-Bakweri people get to attend head to
Pilot Guides and
afterwards this through site on the culture, Bakwerirama.

New Orleans is Back?

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve seen
a bunch of pieces about the return of New Orleans, but this one in the Mercury News was
particularly good. In the wake of  the ravaging hurricane Katrina, the city was devastated, its inhabitants lost a
great deal. Some of them left with nothing. A true tragedy to a place that is a core part of the country’s character.
But can the city bounce back?

Well, if the piece here is to be believed, the answer is yes. And more than
that, as the city struggles to get back on its feet, the hopes and future of the city largely rests on its ability to
bring in tourists. So take a look at the piece and consider holding your next big event there, a bachelor party, a
weekend with the wife and kids. Especailly with Mardi gras no the immedaite horizon, take the time and head there, live
it up and help bring back one of America’s great cities.

Papers From Everywhere

by Erik Olsen on

Even though I work in journalism, I have to say I
think our national papers often do a less than satisfactory job on international news. Sure, most of the major papers
have an international section, and their correspondents are out there doing the very best they can finding the key, big
stories in a place. But most of the time those stories are run because of the immediate importance or interest to
Americans and/or their readership. And the stories themselves can also often have a decidedly American bias. That’s
just an opinion. You’re free to disagree. But the point I’m making is that there is one hell of a lot of news happening
in other places that you never find out about in our own media.

So with that rambling preamble, let m
introduce you to a site (one of many out there, but I did find this one
particularly cool) that lists newspaper around the world. Maybe you’re taking a trip to Rio or Copenhagen, Denmark.
Perhaps it would behoove you to see what’s actually happening in those countries. Of course, in many cases you’d have
to speak the language to read the news. But many of these papers offer English version and/or have an English language
paper in general.

Red Corner: Biking Through the Ghost Towns of Chernobyl

by Neil Woodburn on

If yesterday’s post about touring Chernobyl whetted your appetite for nuclear adventure, take a moment to check out the following site.

Kiddofspeed.com chronicles the adventures of Elena, a Ukrainian woman with a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle and a passion for riding it through Chernobyl’s Death Zone-a place where “nature is blooming” and “one can ride with no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog..”

Elena takes the time to educate the reader about the tragedy which occurred at Chernobyl and the dangers of radiation. She then presents a virtual tour of what is left at ground zero and the surrounding areas which were evacuated shortly after the disaster and remain a ghost town today.

It is difficult to describe the power and emotion the site evokes. Each photo is a terrifying snapshot of post-apocalypse that no Hollywood movie has been quite able to capture; the eeriness of empty buildings, villages with no people, the long stretches of lonely roads, schools so quickly evacuated that notes are still posted on the walls, family photographs askew on apartment floors, calendars frozen on the date of the explosion, silence everywhere, and overgrown fields where wild herds of horses gallop freely.

Elena also takes care to describe the various radiation levels she comes across on her journeys and how quickly her Geiger counter can jump by merely stepping a few feet in the wrong direction.

Although this site has been around for a while, and challenged by critics who claim it is fake, Elena’s careful documentation leaves no doubt in my mind that her expose of this terrifying nightmare is indeed the real McCoy. Check it out. It will be the most extraordinarily sobering thing you do all day.