Bits: Viva Egypt, Sinking Bengali Ferries and Romanian Traffic Cops/Ballerinas

Cairo, Egypt--1950. Photo from Slate.

1.

"Egypt Independent" from Slate

In celebration of Egypt's independence from the British Empire, Slate posted pictures of Egypt through the years and it looks amazing.

2.

"Thirty-one dead as Bangladesh ferry sinks" & "Chronology - Bangladesh ferry disaster" from Reuters

Because of the recent ferry accident near Dhaka, Reuters decided to compile a list of all the ferry accidents in Bangladesh, which is sort of strange and interesting.

3.

"All the jam's a stage for Romanian traffic police" by Kate Connolly, from the Guardian

So Romanian traffic cops in Timisoara have to take ballet lessons in order to become more graceful and to calm angry drivers, giving them something to enjoy while stuck in traffic or behind red lights. There really is nothing more to say about it.

Bits: East River Access, Anti-Koran Film and Luxury with Development

1.

"East River's Edge" editorial from the New York Observer

I like the way the Observer thinks.

2.

"Dutch lawmaker says anti-Koran film almost finished" by Alexandra Hudson, from Reuters

So Dutch politician and now filmmaker Geert Wilders created an "anti-Koran" film, which obviously offends Muslims around the world. Yes, he has freedom of speech and the right to create whatever he wants, but, think about it: if someone made an anti-Bible film, how would that go over?

And, on another note, it's interested to see that Turkey made a statement against the film, considering their struggle between remaining secular and non-secular.

3.

"Pondering Public Uses for a Hall Named Great" by Terry Pristin from the New York Times

It's a good thing New York City is restoring and no destroying the Battery Maritime Building, which is in itself an interesting place (the ferry to Governor's Island used to dock there). It's an even better thing that New York City is looking for public uses for the building. But why are luxury apartments (and hotels, in this case) attached to every restoration and development project?

A Clean(er) Bangladesh

The street outside my oldest aunt's house in Bangladesh.

After reading this article about a plastic bag ban in Ireland (brought to my attention by my lovely Hannah), I thought about Bangladesh. And garbage.

Back in 1995, one of my clearest memories of Bangladesh was the overwhelming smell of garbage. The heavy heat of the summer plus the immense amounts of trash lying around in the streets created the deepest, strongest scent of rot. It felt like you were branded with that smell for days.

Afterwards, before we left for Bangladesh back in December, I read somewhere that Bangladesh banned plastic (polythene, as they call it) bags because of clogged drainage systems, in 2002. Instead, they have these neat netted bags and, of course, paper bags.

While the government thought ahead with the plastic bag ban, there is still no accountability for garbage in Bangladesh. The lack of garbage cans is to be expected. At my oldest aunt's house, I looked for a place to throw out a candy wrapper, but I couldn't find a garbage can. I asked my aunt where I should throw it. She took it and threw it off the balcony. This is where my mother picked up her habit from. Outside, the streets are filled with litter, just like in 1995, and every so often, as you drive, you see heaps of garbage along the roads. Poorer people pick through the piles, looking for anything that could be recycled, useful for themselves or sold for money.

On a similar note, in Dhaka, we were used to green-colored baby taxis, or autorickshaws. During an outing to Sonargon, I noticed more and more yellow-colored autorickshaws as we got further and further away from Dhaka. My cousin, Dola, pointed them out to me and told me that the government was going to ban them soon and replace them with the green autorickshaws. Why? The yellow autorickshaws ran on petrol, which contributed to Bangladesh's already horrible air quality. The newer, green autorickshaws run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.

These laws, along with the abundance of rickshaws and human-powered vehicles (walking carts, carrying cargo by hand, rowing boats (!!!)), would make you think that Bangladesh is well on its way to being a clean country, but you'd be wrong. Despite the CNGs and cycling in Dhaka, the streets were still clogged with cars and buses. The air was thick with smog and dust--I had a constant cough the entire time I was there. It took me a week to adjust to New York's cleaner air when I got back. Shocking, no?

Through the Viewfinder

While working on the Rail last month, Walter, Anna and I talked about cameras. I've been carrying my DSLR with me a lot lately and Walter just purchased his own DSLR. Anna mentioned that she wanted to take portraits and Walter offered her his other camera, a twin-lens reflexive camera from Seagull. The camera was in the office today, so I played around with it. This camera is, to me, a wonderful throwback to the old days of photography. There is no typical viewfinder; rather, you look through the top of the camera, using a sort of pop-up-box. The scene recreates itself on a flat surface by two lens. It's hard to explain, but the image through its viewfinder was amazing, so I decided to take pictures of those images.










Check out more pictures here.

Flying Over Maine, Early in the Morning

Jerusalem Without a Country

I'm surprised this story didn't get more coverage. I only stumbled upon it thanks to those handy Google alerts. So Monopoly is putting out a world edition and people get to vote on which countries and cities get placed on the board. These include Istanbul, Turkey; Cairo, Egypt; Paris, France; and Jerusalem.

Originally, Jerusalem was listed as part of Israel, but that caused a ruckus with Palestinian supporters who believe the city, or at least East Jerusalem, should be part of Palestine. In response, someone pulled the country name. This caught the attention of pro-Israel supporters who wanted to know why Jerusalem was the only city without a country. To appease everyone, Hasbro got rid of all the country names. Thus the boards would read: Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, Jerusalem, and so on.

While it's a smart move on Hasbro's part to please their customers, I still think it's unnecessary to not include ALL the countries' names. It is widely understood that Jerusalem is a disputed city so it makes sense to make it a country-less city.

Moving Cargo

Check out the guy on the rickshaw holding the long, long metal pipe.

Building in the West Bank

Why, why, why does Israel continue to expand settlements in the West Bank? Why? The Israel government declares those settlements as "illegal," but they don't do anything else about it. Yet, when it comes to Palestinian development, Israel refuses to cooperate. Looking at the statistics in this BBC article proves just that. If Israel really condemned the settlements, they'd evict the residents. It's as simple as that. If it were Palestinian settlers, Israel would have forced them out. If they were really pushing for peace and come to some sort of deal with Palestine, then the least they could do is respect the borders of the occupied lands, no? Don't settle on land that doesn't belong to you.

Roofs of Dhaka

the aspect of landing, or, the aspect of leaving

dropped
stomach knows as soon as plane
lifts off
            not grounded
            not touching earth
        midair

        somewhere
        tilted
        in vehicle
            that somehow flies
        a mystery
            of science

dizzying landing
extending to my stomach

humans don't fly &
        we are not
        connected
to anything at that moment


& under flat rows
of clouds that look
like tissues
flat & rumpled, white
dim subdued lights
of the city glow through
hints of the bustle

everything is clearer
above the world

I am closer to
the starts than I've
ever been before

I want to be the leaver, not get left behind

see where the water ends and
the sky begins (at night it
all meshes together
like one
dark
mess) & ships look like
they're flying

so
many
things
will
feel
familiar

breathe
sigh
in

make the first move
before anything
can be
set

get away first
get away far
get away close
to change my way of mind
setting of my mind
being of my mind
being molded
infiltrated with settings of
these different settings while
sunsets stay golden they
have different tints different
angles different shading

clouds leave shadows
on the world I fly
to Florida and I see
all of New York displayed
to my right each skyscraper
ready to be picked up by my
hand and
those clouds above leave
gray spots all over New York
darkening those streets for
those few seconds as the
clouds slowly roll away
darkening everything in its path
but I fly ahead and
beat the clouds