On Your Bikes, Downunder!

The coming March 5-6 weekend marks the opening of this year's round of World Naked Bike Rides. Since a measure of warmth is needed to appear on the streets without clothes, the Southern Hemisphere will be the first to start off the activities.
The major Australian city of Melbourne will host a ride this Sunday, March 6, but both this and the weekend after, several locations in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil are expected to form the stage for naked cyclists.
The movement is not just about cycling in the nude, and not all participants have to be completely naked.
The first World Naked Bike Ride started in the Spanish city of Zaragoza in 2001, and then as now, the main aim is to defend the weaker road users against irresponsible car drivers, the waste of energy, pollution, and related 'green' or environmentalist topics.
You know my stance on using naked bodies to protest - I think nobody should feel offended, so that might take away the purpose and effectiveness of a protest. While I do think speed limits should be respected and energy should not be wasted, I also believe that cars can be beautiful design items that should not be demonized, while under public pressure, carmakers are already looking for alternatives to oil.
Having said that, the World Naked Bike Rides could be one of the most effective ways to have
the naked human body be accepted by the public at large. The participants are not all completely naked, and many of them are covered in bright paint, making the rides a carnival-like event full of smiles and beauty.
Some countries are still touchy about allowing naked or semi-naked men and women ride bicycles in city centers in broad daylight, but on the whole, the World Naked Bike Rides have been well received and have been spreading around the world.
Once the cold of winter and spring subsides, early June will see the World Naked Bike Rides fan over across the Northern Hemisphere, with major events taking place in some of the world's most famous locations in North America and Europe.
For the time being, if you are a naturist in the southern half of the world, it's time for you to get nude and get on your bikes!

December in the Nude

Most parts of the world are covered in snow nowadays. A large part of North America, Europe, China, Japan. Even the rest doesn't look so bright. Strong winds and rain in the Middle East, usually a refuge for European holidaymakers.
So how does a naturist survive the winter? There are two answers: either by going textile and limiting his nudity to warm quarters like home and the sauna, or by moving (temporarily at least) to warmer climes.
There are numerous examples of those where naturism is still possible: Australia has naturist beaches and resorts, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and even Thailand.
Those are faraway places for most of the rest of the world, so staying at home and turning the heater up or frequent visits to saunas are more realistic alternatives.
For most of us however, waiting until the spring or summer will be the thing to do.
Naturists are above all realists. Even though we prefer to go through life in the nude, we know this is not always possible. Therefore we go textile when we have to, to protect ourselves from excess cold or heat. December is one of those times. But snow doesn't mean we have to cover up all of the time. Remember, there are people who go skiing in the nude, and they do it on the same type of snow as all other skiers, so it is possible to combine nudity and snow, and to survive. Didn't Spencer Tunick take one of his mass nude shots on a glacier?
See you later this month, so in the meantime keep warm.

Topless in Taiwan (2): The World Games

Here we go again. The same city - Kaohsiung - the same beach, the same phenomenon. Topless foreign women.
But now there's a new element to the game. The 8th edition of the World Games started in the southern Taiwanese city last Thursday, so whatever happens around it receives immediate attention.
The truth this time: three young Brazilian ladies, apparently members of that country's beach volleyball team at the games, enjoyed the beach and the sun so much, they took their tops off to sunbathe. TV footage only revealed one of them sitting upright, two lying face down.
But that was enough to get the whole media mob and the local police into high gear.
The police convinced the ladies to put on their tops, while the media reports had the required shocked locals exclaiming how topless sunbathing did not fit in with local culture, and how some local children might have seen it. For extra ammunition, they also found a Russian couple saying there were no topless sunbathers in Moscow. Probably right, since Moscow isn't exactly a prime beach destination. A young woman said the foreigners should respect local habits.
A man with the Brazilian team said it was the ladies' first day in Taiwan, and they were so happy at seeing the sun and the beach that they didn't realize things were different here.
Too bad they are, but then anyone wearing a bikini in Taiwan is still labeled a 'hot chick' in the media, and topless is completely unheard of. Even by the many Taiwanese who have traveled overseas apparently, since there is not a vibrant beach-going habit, so overseas the Taiwanese will mainly stick to shopping malls and historic monuments.
Too bad. I would've hoped that for once, the police and the other curious citizens would have looked the other way, and considered the topless bathing what it was - a symbol of internationalization during the event during which, according to local propagandists, 'the whole world will be watching Taiwan.'

Naturist World Congress 2008

The International Naturist Federation holds its world congress once every two years, and this year it was the rare occasion that the organization ventured outside of Europe, to Brazil, for its 31st gathering.

The event took place in September at Tambaba in Conde, Paraiba State, in Northeastern Brazil, and is reported on in the latest edition of the Italian naturist magazine Info Naturista.

The passage that interests me, and would rejoice naturists all over the world and particularly in Asia, is that the congress was not a very hidden affair. Brazil's Minister of Tourism was present at the opening, there was a huge fireworks display, and a concert with 24 guitarists. Can you imagine that happening at a naturist congress in Asia? Too bad I can't. Yet. The event was apparently also sponsored by the Brazilian government, which no doubt wisely understood that this was a great opportunity to promote tourism. At a time when the global economy is going down, every event counts, and the naturist dollar must be one of the strongest new currencies in world tourism.

The INF congress elected a new chairperson, yes chairperson, because for the first time since its foundation in 1951, the world naturism organization will be led by a woman, Sieglinde Ivo, former INF Youth Department chief and former head of the Austrian naturists. She will lead the INF at least until the next election, in 2012.

Other decisions of the congress, according to Info Naturista, are:

-keeping a closer watch on legal developments relating to naturism in Europe, particularly with the European Union authorities and the European Parliament;

-developing the http://www.inf-fni.org/ website;

-the abolition of direct membership by individuals with the INF and the return to sole membership for national naturist federations;

-holding the next INF World Congress in September 2010 at the naturist camping village of Pizzo Greco in Italy, more specifically in its southwestern region of Calabria.

You can find the next world congress site at http://www.pizzogreco.com/. A Brazilian naturist resort featured in the Italian magazine Info Naturista is http://www.praiadopinho.com.br/. And the Italian magazine, which also has some articles translated into English or French, is at http://www.infonaturista.org/.

Coming Up: Asianaturist will soon select its Naturist of the Year.