Ted Simon - twice around the globe on his bike.
A 78,000mile journey across five continents - Ted Simon is a British journalist who wrote for the English newspapers Daily Mail, The Observer and The Times. In late 1973, Simon began traveling around the world on a Triumph Tiger 500cc motorcycle. For four years he travelled over 78,000 miles through forty-five countries. Most accounts from his trip are detailed in his book, Jupiter's Travels.
In 2001 Simon started a new journey that roughly followed the same route as his 1973 trip, this time riding a BMW. He was around 70 years old at that time and completed the journey in 3 years. His new book is called: Dreaming of Jupiter.
Ted was in Barga this weekend for a presentation of the book at the Liberia Barga Vecchia. (other presentations this year in the bookshop are here;Dizionario Garfagnino Andrea Giannasi Simone Togneri )
The interesting thing about this presentation was not just the fact that Ted Simon had gone round the world on his motorbike, but had managed to do it again 24 years later giving him an unrivalled world view with all the changes in the interveaning years showing up sharply in focus. He summarised increasing problems on a global scale into three main categories.
1. population explosion - the world's population had reached over 6.7 billion - thirty years ago it was only 4.2 billion
2. the fact that people are now more informed and actually know that they are poor and disadvantaged - with a consequent rise in resentment
3. the damage to the environment
"Thousands of years ago it was written in the Baghavad Gita that without memory we are like monkeys, we are doomed to chaos and foolishness. Memory is, in my view, the most important single aspect of humanity. Because without it we have nothing to compare anything with: we can't make stories, we can't develop our imagination, everything depends on our ability to remember things. We all know: people who don't remember are doomed to repeat their mistakes." - Ted Simon
Ted Simon's site is here
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- doggybag : Guest_2226 - sorry no images of this event
- Guest_2226 : Salve, sono a chiedervi se avete le foto della Storica, pedalata cicloturistica per bici d'epoca dispotata il 14 settembre a Barga,sono un atleta del team Jolly Bike che ha fatto la manifestazione. Cordiali saluti
- Guest_4356 : I want to rent a 2 bed appartment from 6.3.09 - 6.5.09. Must have wi-fi. Please email «email» with details, thanks.
- Guest_225 : Wonderful concert last night. Thanks Hamish et al and thanks Keane for continuing to cover Barga News. We had withdrawel symtoms while you were away. Adelina
- izzy : Thanks for all of your hard work DB in getting Barga News up and running again, welcome back I have missed you.
- everyone : you will be sorely missed.
- W. Shakespeare : Lear? Not at all! Those words are lifted from Macbeth's soliloquy:"....L ife's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
- Quentin Compson : Yes, Ma'am. It would be King Lear I believe, an allusion to the fool (and to Lear himself). But there is a more recent connection between Yokapatawpha and the Coldfields with a Biblical reference -- Absalom -- rather than the Shakespearean one to which you allude.
- poetry : Miss Coldfield, considered poetess laureate of Yoknapatawpha County, may simply be quoting Shakespeare, I do believe.
- Quentin Compson : Rosa: Stay in your own novel, please. You have no business in The Sound and the Fury, although I appear in both.
- Quentin Compson : Doggy, May I refer you to three sources on the Action-Theory dialectic? Albert Camus: "To do is to be." Jean-Paul Sartre: "To be is to do." Francis Albert Sinatra; "Do be do be doo." That should answer your question.
- Rosa Coldfield : ... it is a tale Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
- doggybag : Quentin - your constant focus on ideas over deeds makes you a highly unreliable commentator- quite often it is difficult to tell which of the actions you are suggesting are mere figments of your imagination and which you really do think should be acted upon.
- Quentin Compson : Hey, you two ought to get together sometime.
- Rosa Coldfield : Why of course : )
- Thomas Sutpen : Miss Rosa knows very well who will merely endure, and who will ultimately prevail
- Rosa Coldfield : It is not entirely clear, however, who has been sorest lately or with whom ; )
- Lord Beaconsfield : Welcom back, Barganews, you were sorely missed
- doggybag : fingers and legs crossed
- Santi : Thank you for answering my question.
- Cartier-Bresson : What a wonderful image of the equally wonderful Maestra Paola -- that could be no one else's elegantly gloved hand...
- Guest_4784 : the girl behind the bar is in the ALTANA rest. just inside the old city
- message for Santi : Altana
- Santi : O.K. Which bar is it?
- doggybag : Hello Santi - no - not the Alpino
- Santi : Is the daily image of the girl behind the bar is of Alpino?
- Casey Jones : Summer bus schedule to real station: see Forum Aug 5.
- aquilotta : Hi Doggybag! sorry haven't been in touch for so long. Love your daily images as always.
- Guest_3522 : And here I thought there were roadents eating my main board.
- doggybag : you are welcome Guest_689 ... now if I could just fix the sound streaming system with is doing a serious chipmonk impression on some computers
- Guest_689 : Dear Mr Braganews Thank you for fixing the webcam
