> i dont understand, inst the US, one big comercially ownned
> country?
Woah, back up. USA = Unicycling Society of America
(www.unicycling.org/usa/). And I should clarify what I was saying about us
there. Not that all the USA volunteers over the years didn’t do a good job
and work hard. Just that the lack of a financial incentive leads to
different results. In my mind the USA has been mostly focused on running
conventions and putting out newsletters, in that order. And very little
else. There always seems to be a shortage of volunteer power to do more.
BTW, Canada has no national unicycling organization, and we (the USA) have
made an effort to be more North American in scope. All Canadian unicyclists
should join. If the idea is distasteful, someone needs to start up a
national Canadian organization (this is where being president of both the
USA and IUF gets conflicting).
> WHAT I SAID SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SEROUSLY BECAUSE I AM AN
> IGNORENT NORTH AMERICAN, AND WE DO NOT KNOW MUCH FROM WHAT
> THE MEDIA CHOOSES TO SHOW US.
Being “ignorent” is a choice, and is not something you’re doomed to, unless
you do nothing about it. However it’s true you have to take most forms of
media with a grain of salt. You can’t listen to the message without paying
attention to who is delivering the message, and what their motivations
are. This is something I always try to keep in mind. In America we tend to
get American-centric news. In Canada you probably get Canadian-centric news.
Usually this is just the news being delivered in a way the media companies
think people want it (as they are also in business). Unfortunately it also
results in us sometimes getting skewed information.
Like watching the Olympics on TV (in the US). Okay, the Americans did this
and the Americans did that. What about this other sport over here, that has
no American contenders? ABC used to show it when they covered the Olympics.
The coverage is not balanced, but it is what the network execs think we want
to see. I don’t know why they think we want to see that many special
interest stories about the athletes… do we? 
Back to being ignorant. Since the news in TV and newspapers is produced by
private businesses, they will tend to tell only the stories that they think
will sell the best, while retaining their integrity. In most cases this
means to cover as much as possible, but not necessarily from a generic point
of view. If they are shown to use very unbalanced reporting, they lose their
credibility. But if you want to read or hear about the stuff they’re not
telling, you have to read and look elsewhere. Other forms of media, such as
smaller newspapers, magazines, TV specials, etc. But again, take note of who
is telling the story and what their motivations are.
This is even true with the USA Newsletter, which I help produce. Of course
we’re going to focus on the good things about unicycling and not play up the
bad. Most people probably don’t even know that unicycling causes tooth
decay. We’ll never tell!
For instance, I’d like to hear more about the Israel/Palestine problem from
other points of view. It seems our country is sitting back and looking
concerned while these people blow each other up, when we could probably be
doing something constructive to help end it. But I digress, as we’re way off
topic.
Stay on top,
JF