Naked Bike Ride Shocks Mexico into Thinking about the Environment

MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of bicyclists rolled into the streets Saturday, both in Mexico City and in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, to take part in the World Naked Bike Ride.

Among the objectives of this 6th edition of the show-all ride was, first, to raise awareness about the environmental advantages of bicycles over cars that burn fossil fuel, and, second, to grab the attention of aggressive motorists who make life dangerous for cyclists.

The bike-riders were really asking for a little respect.

According to the daily Reforma, some cyclists painted the slogan “Now you do see me” on their naked bodies, again to make the point that they have to do something really shocking to get self-centered motorists to realize they even exist.

That way they might get their fair share of the road.

“We get naked and paint ourselves with slogans – it’s a way of criticizing motorists who act like they don’t see us, who don’t let us through and even run over us,” said one of the demonstrators, Yereni Carranza, the daily said.

“This way everybody looks at us and even lets us through,” she said.

According to the organizers, some 5,000 cyclists were expected to roll along the Mexico City route that set out from the Monument of the Revolution and went to the Zocalo and other key points around town before returning to where they started.

My Son's song holding at #16 on spotify Viral 50 chart. (to California)

The video is on my blog.

[SHOCKING] unseen footage of RAMPAGE in san jose trump protest

Green tea / White willow

10 yr old "Janna Jihad", Palestinian Journalist (want's to go to Harvard)

Janna Jihad, the Youngest Journalist in Palestine

Iran- PhD Student Imprisoned for refusing to be a spy in Belgium

JUNE 8, 2016- According to the reports, Hamid Babaei, a PhD student incarcerated for nearly three years in Ghohar dasht notorious Prison following a trial that lasted less than 10 minutes, has been denied his rights to conditional release and furlough (temporary leave granted to most of Iran’s inmates). Babaei has also been suffering from severe gum disease and other dental problems in prison, but the authorities have ignored his need for proper medical treatment, an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

“Hamid and his family have requested furlough numerous times but the prosecutor has refused, not even allowing a short furlough on medical grounds so that Hamid could get treatment at a hospital,” said the source.

Babaei has consistently said that he was imprisoned for refusing to operate as an informant in Belgium, where he was completing his PhD as a foreign student, for Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. During his first trial, Babaei was represented by a court-appointed public defender that was mostly silent and did not offer any defense on behalf of his client, said the source.

Babaei’s lawyer initially advised him to confess to the charges laid against him, but Babaei maintained that he was being penalized for refusing to cooperate with the Intelligence Ministry.

“I did not realize that the moment I walked into the Intelligence Ministry would be the last time we would ever be together and that we would be caught in a bitter scenario,” wrote Babaei in a letter to his wife following his arrest in August 2013. “Neither of us deserved this fate in any way.”
“How I wish we had never come back [to Iran] and this painful tragedy had never happened so I would not be staring at Iran’s sky through barbed wire every day,” he said.
Babaei’s wife, Kobra Parsajou, was arrested in September 2014 for speaking to the media about her husband’s condition and handed a suspended six-month prison sentence.
Family members of political prisoners are frequently warned that they will be punished if they speak to the media about the cases.
Babaei, 32, has served two years and 10 months of his six-year prison sentence, which qualifies him for conditional release.
Babaei was pursuing his PhD in finance at the University of Liège in Belgium when he was arrested on August 13, 2013 during a visit to Iran to see his family.
Babaei was held in solitary confinement for 20 days in Evin Prison ’s Ward 240 and 15 days in Ward 209—both security wards. He was subsequently transferred to General Ward 350 on September 18, 2013.
During his arrest he was repeatedly interrogated without any access to a lawyer or contact with his family.
According to the report, on December 21, 2013, during a trial that lasted less than 10 minutes, Judge Mohammad Moghisseh of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Babaei to six years in prison with an additional four-year suspended prison term for “spying and contact with enemy states.” The Appeals Court upheld the ruling.
Babaei, who received his masters in mathematics with honors from the Science and Industry University in Tehran in 2008, was permitted by the Judiciary to visit a dentist outside prison to be treated for severe gum disease on a couple of occasions, but for unspecified reasons the prison authorities did not allow Babaei to attend the appointments even though his family had paid for them.
Amnesty International as well as the Iranian community in Belgium have strongly condemned Babaei’s arrest and conviction and called for his immediate release.