Protesters fill Venice's streets on final day of Bezos' wedding parties
On Friday (local time), the world's fourth-richest man and his bride Lauren Sanchez Bezos tied the knot during a private ceremony with around 200 celebrity guests on the secluded island of San Giorgio.
The wedding, however, angered many Venetians, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos, while ordinary residents suffer from over tourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.
As the two newlyweds prepared for the final party Saturday evening (local time), hundreds of Venetians and protesters from across Italy filled Venice's tiny streets with colourful banners reading 'Kisses Yes, Bezos No' and 'No Bezos, no War'. Venice has around 50,000 residents.
The demonstration contrasted with the expensive wedding bonanza, seen by critics as an affront to the lagoon city's fragile environment and its citizens, overwhelmed by throngs of tourists.
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'We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people … while the conditions of this city remain precarious,' said Martina Vergnano, one of the demonstrators.
The protest organizers claimed that their planned protest had forced the relocation of Saturday's party (local time) from a supposed initial location to a former medieval shipyard, the Arsenale.
Bezos donated 1 million euros (NZ$1.93 million) each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.
But many protesters blasted the move as a clear attempt to appease angry residents.
'We want a free Venice, which is finally dedicated to its citizens. … Those donations are just a misery and only aimed at clearing Bezos' conscience,' said Flavio Cogo, a Venetian activist who joined Saturday's protest (local time).
Details of the exclusive wedding ceremony Friday night (local time) were a closely guarded secret, until Sánchez Bezos posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos.
Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple's love as to their extraordinary wealth.
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The star-studded guest list included Oprah Winfrey and NFL great Tom Brady, along with Hollywood stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Orlando Bloom, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates and top socialites, including the Kardashian-Jenner clan.
Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children also joined the celebrations.
The bride and groom stayed at the Aman Venice hotel on the Grand Canal, where Bezos posed for photos and Sanchez Bezos blew kisses to the press.
'The planet is burning but don't worry, here's the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sánchez,' read one protest slogan, a reference to the bride's reported wedding weekend wardrobe. It featured a mermaid-lined wedding gown by Dolce & Gabbana and other Dolce Vita-inspired looks by Italian designers, including Schiaparelli and Bottega Veneta.
The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as in keeping with Venice's tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.
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NZ Herald
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He's wearing what looks like a 19th-century cowboy hat with a corduroy vest worn over a slightly puffy white shirt, a large hei tiki and one dangly pounamu earring. He looks as though he has stepped outside the frame of a portrait of a 19th-century colonial cowboy fop. 'I've always been quite a quirky dresser,' he says. He's a Gisborne boy. His book-signing get-up is pretty standard, he says, for East Coast fellas. 'In the East Coast, our cowboy culture is quite strong. When you get into the rural backblocks, bushmen, farmers and kaupoai [cowboys] are one and the same. We've got this strange western influence – so, cowboy hats, waistcoats, cowboy boots for when we go to a special occasion.' Sam with partner Roimata Sinclair at Whāngārā Marae, between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay. Photo / Supplied He is going to the Beehive this month. He is still deciding 'whether my cowboy hat is too much or too little'. I'd put money on him deciding to wear the hat. 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He's standing as an independent for a seat on the Gisborne District Council. He might be a lefty. 'I'm a goofy-footed surfer, if that makes sense.' It might not, but it's a nice image. It makes him sound like some rare wading bird. He's an endlessly enthusiastic conservationist, a bushman and trapper, a hunter and fisherman, a gardener, a forager and an equally enthusiastic eater of huhu bugs. I idiotically asked him if he'd eaten huhu bugs on toast for breakfast the morning we spoke. Idiotically, because he went on to describe, with gleeful relish, exactly what it is like to eat a raw huhu bug. He did not, by the way, have huhu bugs for breakfast the day we spoke. He says he has had huhu bugs for breakfast, but never on toast. He says they taste like peanut butter if you like them or sawdust if you don't. He prefers them cooked. But he will eat them raw. Don't they (as in the nursery rhyme) wriggle and jiggle and tickle inside him? 'I grew up with that one, too! Usually, you give them a bit of a bite and that sorts that out. And a huhu-bug connoisseur will know that once you bite a huhu bug, your mouth just fills with lots of huhu juicy goodness.' Formative years: Gibson in 1993 on a fishing trip with grandfather Graham Vette at Whanarua Bay on the East Coast. Right, in the bush in 1999. Photos / Supplied He was making me feel ill. 'I'm sorry. We can move on if you like.' What a good idea. He almost managed to persuade me that the female berries of the kawakawa tree are a good addition to cocktails. Almost. Because at the end of Think Like a Forest, he issues a word of caution: they make you poo. He lives in Gisborne with his partner, Roimata Sinclair, and their two children, six-year-old Rehua and three-year-old Te Kōtuku, who, like the white heron after which she is named, is obsessed with catching and eating fish. Rehua has a mullet, because he wanted a dragon haircut with racing stripes. He may have inherited his father's style sense. They live in a lovely old villa with a 'beautiful sunny garden with our chickens running around the backyard, and fruit trees. We're really lucky to have all of that'. His favourite chicken is named My Polish Girl. He likes to count his blessings; he says he's 'living the dream'. He likes animals. You can like animals and you can kill animals. That's just country life. His Instagram page doesn't flinch. Here he is with dead beasts, deer and pigs slung around his shoulders like grisly stoles. I ask him what he likes to do when he's not killing things. He says, amused, 'That's a funny way of phrasing it.' What I really want to know is what it's like to kill a deer. Because, you know, who hasn't seen Bambi? It's timely here to mention he is quite often compared with Barry Crump, that author of, yep, cracking yarns and tall tales from the bush. Almost nobody has a good word to say about Crump, who was, by most accounts, a shit. 'As far as writing goes, I'm absolutely flattered. I think that you don't have to respect the man to respect his written work.' Other than this, Trap Man could not be less like Crump. He's not remotely blokey, despite the blokey things he does. He doesn't drink. Not even coffee. He drinks water. He likes to garden. He likes to sit quietly and watch his chickens. The bush, for him, is a place of contemplation, not swaggering about showing off at being a tough guy. Here is how he goes about the killing of a deer – he has a ritual: 'I go and find the deer. I say my little thank you. I have a little bit of a think about who that deer is, how it's operated in its ecosystem. I have a little think about the place that's gone into making that deer what it is.' He hopes it had a happy life. 'It all happens in my thinking. And I always make sure that I think about where the meat of that deer is going to go – whether it's to my family or friends or older people in the community.' Bush tucker: Gibson and Roimata foraging with children Rehua, 6, and Te Kōtuku,3. Photo / Supplied Social media convert What he really likes doing is hanging out with his kids and his partner, all of whom are beguiling. I know this because I have seen them on his Instagram page. Until relatively recently, he didn't own a smartphone. 'No, I didn't. I was just a straight bushman until seven years ago.' He means he certainly didn't have any sort of public profile. He kept coming home from the bush and telling Roimata about all of the amazing objects and plants and insects he came across. 'I'd become really excited and sometimes a little bit worried that not enough young people were stepping into the bush as a career. She said, 'Hey, why don't you take these things that you're super excited about, these stories you're telling, and put them into this space where young people are picking up knowledge … and that's through Instagram and TikTok.' 'I wasn't that keen, but then I just thought, 'Nah, bugger it. Let's give it a go.'' Now, you can't keep him off it. He has no qualms about his kids being on his social media forum. 'I think that's the world our children are growing up with. This is the way I put it: I wouldn't give someone a chainsaw and not teach them how to use it. And I wouldn't give someone a rifle and not be there beside them to teach them the dangers of it and the correct usage of it as a tool. And I think for me, that's my approach with social media. Our children are being raised in that space, so for me, I make sure my children understand it as a tool and how to use it, and also the dangers it can provide.' He comes from farming stock. He learnt how to fish and hunt with one grandfather and how to garden and 'go to the rugby and play cricket' with the other. He was a country kid in Gisborne until his family moved to Hawke's Bay so he could attend a Steiner school when he was 12. 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Should you meet him and should he invite you over for tea, you might consider asking what will be on the menu before accepting. Think Like a Forest streams on TVNZ+ from August 21.
NZ Herald
20 hours ago
- NZ Herald
‘Sam the Trap Man' on why he's running for Gisborne District council
From the bush to Gisborne's council chambers is what 'Sam the Trap Man' hopes to achieve this October. Samuel Oak Vette Gibson has 32,400 followers on Instagram, where he shares his passion for the outdoors, as a dad, bushman and 'part hunter, trapper, fisher, forager & conservationist'. However, the author,
Scoop
2 days ago
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Vape Messaging Targets Young People Via Social Media
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