John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Reading Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" at the moment and it it's very interesting to read form the perspective of farmer families having lived on farmland in Oklahoma all their lives, trying to eke out a living from arid country blighted with dust-storms that destroy the crops year after year until the companies that own the land and are leasing it finally decide that they need to turn a profit off it so they evict the families, destroy the land with mechanised cotton farming and the families have to move further west to California...
'Peters', Jacobs', Rance's, Joad's; an' the houses all dark, standin' like miser'ble ratty boxes, but they was good partines an' dancing'. An' there was meetin's and shoutin' glory. They was weddin's all in them houses. An' then I'd want to go in town an' kill folks. 'Cause what'd they take when they tractored the folks off the lan' What'd they get so their "margin a profit" was safe? They got Pa dyin' on the groun', an' Joe yellin' his first breath, an' me jerkin' like a billygoat under a bush in the night. What'd they get? God knows the lan' aint no good. Nobody been able to make a crop for years. But them sons-a-bitches at their desks, they jus' chopped folks in two for their margin of profit. They jus' cut 'em in two. Place where folks live is them folks. They ain't whole, out lonely on the road in a piled-up car. THey ain't alive no more. Them sons-a-bitches killed 'em.'
It really makes you think, what is the value of a society that destroys people's dreams for the sake of profit which is meant to be creating those very dreams. How does an economic system deal with the value of lives, experiences, memories when it treats a piece of land as nothing but a resource for the generation of profit? What sort of value can the concept of "family" find within this kind of society when that value cannot be expressed in terms of finance?
And another interesting piece on the concept of incarceration as a means of punishment/rehabilitiation. From the perspective of Tom Joad, the protagonist, who was incarcertaed for four years for killing a man in self-defence.
'The thing that give me the mos' trouble was, it didn't make no sense. You don't look for no sense when lightnin' kills a cow, or it comes up a flood. That's jus' the way things is. But when a bunch of men take an' lock you up for four years, it ought to have some meaning. Men is supposed to think things out. Here they put me in, an' keep me an' feed me four years. That ought to either make me so I won't do her again or else punish me so I'll be afraid to do her again' - he paused - 'but if Herb or anybody else come for me, I'd do her again. Do her before I could figure her out. Specially if I was drunk. That sort of senselessness kind a worries a man.'
'They's a guy in McAlester - lifer. He studies all the time. He's sec'etary of the warden - writes the warden's letters an' stuff like that. Well, he's one hell of a bright guy an' reads law an' all stuff like that. Well, I talked to him one time about her, 'cause he reads so much stuff. An' he says it don't do no good to read books. Says he's read ever'thing prisons now, an in the old times; an' he says she makes less sense to him than she did before he starts readin'. He says it's a thing that started way to hell an' gone back, an' nobody seems to be able to stop her, an' nobody got sense enough to change her. He says for God's sake don't read about her because he says for one thing you'll jus' get messed up worse, an' for another you won't have no respect for the guys that owrk the gover'ments.'
Makes you question what exactly the prison system achieves and what it's goals are. It's a huge drain on taxpayer's funding but it does it actually rehabilitate? Is it just a punitive measure? Is it just an expensive way to keep criminals off the streets? What is the significance in taking a man and locking him up with other men and then managing that society? And what is the alternative to this system?
Labels: literature, philosophy
Balconies and the Moon
If there is one prominent symbol of Ramadan it is the crescent moon. Although it is a symbol of Islam itself, the crescent moons are really all over the place during Ramadan. Following on from the last post about sitting on my balcony at suhoor, I've come to realise that I've been looking at the moon a lot since the beginning of Ramadan. I look at it every night and I am able to really notice the way it changes.... as it waxes and wanes or whatever you call it.
Which led me to realise that this is the first time in my life since I was very young that I actually am living in a place with a balcony. Balconies rock. Here are some photos from mine.
Labels: bahrain, ramadan
Suhoor and the First Call to Prayer
One of my favourite parts of Ramadan is the first call to prayer. The morning call is when you are meant to stop eating, drinking and smoking and start fasting. At the moment it happens at around 4am or a little bit later. It will be getting later and later as the month wears on...
My apartment has two balconies facing the street and they are generally good places to chill. One of my favourite parts of the night is to eat something light for suhoor (the last meal) and to go out onto the balcony right before the first call. At this time, the street is pretty quiet, only the occasional car, definitely no traffic so when it's time for the first call, I can hear 3 different calls to prayer from 3 different mosques simultaneously.
The result is really amazing as the calls to prayer emanate from seemingly everywhere around my little balcony. To call it 'atmospheric' doesn't even begin to describe it. For those of us that aren't muslims, that aren't used to something so innately spiritual being around us every day of our lives, it really feels like something different. It puts my mind in a different state, a relaxed but contemplative state. There's something about it that makes me feel at peace with the world, and I love it.
Just one of the things that I love so much about this part of the world.
Labels: bahrain, philosophy, ramadan
Ramadan Day 1
So a few people have been asking me the reasons behind my decision to fast this Ramadan and basically there are a lot of reasons:
- I'm in the Gulf, in a very Muslim part of the world. Ramadan here isn't just a decision to not do certain things during certain hours of the day, it's an absolute way of life. The entire country adjusts itself completely. Working hours are shifted, all restaurants/cafes are closed during the day and then open far later. It's illegal to smoke, drink or eat in public. Life revolves around different meal times like iftar and suhoor, it's all that people talk about, decorations are different around the city, Coke has special Ramadan cans, the list goes on... It makes sense to be an active part of this way of life rather than having to work around it by sneaking cigarrettes in the toilet or going home to make lunch from stocked up foodstuffs.
- One of my main goals for coming here was to understand the mentality of the people and to understand the "culture", which is not just eating cool food and wearing fancy clothes, but to really understand why people do things here the way they do them.
- It is a good opportunity to get in touch with a different side of my spirituality, ask myself different questions about who I am, what I believe, what I need from life and what keeps me going day to day.
- It is a good opportunity to take myself to a different limit, challenge myself in a different way.
- The concept behind putting yourself in the shoes of someone who does not eat more than one meal a day, does not have ready access to water or the luxuries of smoking and loud car stereos (a hell of a lot of people in this world) is definitely an interesting concept. From what I understand, this is one of the main concepts behind Ramadan and it certainly makes sense to me.
- But I have to admit, a big lure is the feeling that you're part of a community. Ramadan brings the community together. People ask about each other's health, habits and wellbeing more during this period. People support each other, they take their meals communally and they reflect together. In that sense, it is a wonderful time.
So Day 1.
Apart from the fact that I had to work 12 hours today - starting at 8.30am to clean up the office a bit, had a meeting with a French Embassy representative, had a long planning session with the MC team, did some Exchange-related emailing and spreadsheet research, had a meeting with Tima & Aseeri, half-attended an Exchange team meeting and finally culminating with a meeting with one of our Board members which went til 8pm.
I ended up breaking my fast at Iftar over a can of Coke and a cigarette before the last meeting... and eventually consumed a nice Turkey sandwich at O'Briens. Not bad for my first iftar I guess...
Following this I chilled out at home for a while and then a bunch of us went to La Maison du Cafe to smoke shisha, have the second meal (the name of which I forget) and listen to some nice Ramadan tunes (very soft songs sung by a guy playing an Arabian guitar thingy).
Following this we went back to the apartment to chill out and watched Becker, Seinfeld, Frasier and Friends - a good flash back to 90s sitcoms which were some of the best sitcoms in my opinion.
Then Simi and I went to Beirouti for some Lebanese food for our suhoor (last meal).
Now am lying in my bed at home contemplating my first day of my first real Ramadan and thinking that it was pretty damn good. :)
Labels: bahrain, people, ramadan
New York City
And onto the second city I visited in July - New York City.
Basically, I had mixed feelings about this city. I'd heard Lyna raving about it for weeks before she left Bahrain so I was looking forward to something special or extraordinary. It was special in many ways. I mean the city is just huge, Manhattan is just a crazy cage full of people running everywhere, it's like they're on those exercise wheels seriously and constantly pepped up on something. The bustle of it was great, I love bustling cities, but the people were quite annoying. They kept walking around yelling randomly or at each other, seemingly unable to have a conversation at a reasonable volume. And everyone had that famous New York "fuck off" attitude. Which is great really, it's great to love yourself and your city but it's time to wake up and smell the roses. NYC is not what it once was, the world is full of cities that rival it in almost everything. Multiculturalism, size, food, drinks, partying, shopping, culture, etc. You name it there's a better city for it - and there's better cities with combinations of them too...
So my lasting picture of NYC was of an big, interesting, bustling city full of people who are proud to be marginally deluded assholes (note: this is a generalisation, and like all generalisation, doesn't apply to everyone).
Although I'm not usually much of a sight-seeing tourist, I did make an effort to see some of the 'sights'.
I checked out Times Square in all its glory and had a Jambo Juice while watching life go by.
Wall St was interesting too. Complete with the big 'fuck off' American flag posted up all over this building and the shitloads of security personnel, cops and God-knows-who-else to go with protecting the bastard. Is there a bigger monument to Capitalist greed than this building? Smack in the middle of Wall St with a massive American flag on it? A big 'fuck you' to the have-nots of the world? I can understand why they have security all over it.
Anyway I decided it would be a good idea to have Starbucks and a bagel on Wall St to feel really part of the New York capitalist scene... and it was interesting to note that people in suits everywhere are exactly the same. I'm sure they have personalities they leave at home but once the suit comes on, the personality hides somewhere while they talk about stock tips, their boss and why Larry hit on them at the office party last weekend... BORING.
i saw the chick with the torch in her hand for free on the passing Staten Island ferry. WoOt.
The best of the 'sights' though was this place, the UNHQ in New York, a place I would love to work one day and a kind of inspiring one. There really isn't much to see inside, apart from a few display pieces in the lobby, a giftshop, a bookshop, a post office (from which you can send UN mail), a crappy cafe and thats about it. It was still enjoyable to just sit there and soak it up for a while... the UN atmosphere, as cheesy as it sounds...
...it was cool to hang out with these guys for at least a few hours :D
So not to forget the purpose of my trip was for a meeting at the AIESEC US office. And an interesting meeting it was.
It's a pretty colourful office. I think that green chest of drawers with the flowers on top of it is a particularly nice touch.
And then onto this sushi restaurant on Paul's recommendation where I actually had decent sashimi for the first time since leaving Australia... oh man I miss Sydney fish markets.
But finally, as usual for me, it's the little places to chill that really count on any trip and, just like that cafe in Frankfurt in my last post, I found an NYC cafe to call my home/office too.
-aroma- cafe, as it was called, had decent coffee (for new york), free wifi, great (albeit pricey) sandwiches and a relaxed student atmosphere. I think I was there 3 times out of the 5-6 days I was in New York. Loved it.
Labels: food+drink, New York, people, travel
Frankfurt
Instead of the customary after-IC-euphoria-posting I think I'd rather catch up on some reflections and favourite pictures from two other cities I visited in July - starting with Frankfurt. A place I stopped over at on my way to NYC for a meeting, and then again on the way back.
My brief but eventful journey started on one of these trains. The trip from the airport into Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) cost me E$3.50 each way which is pretty damn expensive for a 15 minute ride but these trains were worth it. They were like long-distance trains, super fast, super smooth, super comfortable with reclining seats, tray tables and magazines.
The train station itself is very cool looking and reminded me a lot of Flinders St station in Melbourne - in terms of looks, positioning in the city, and the clock thing...
One thing I love about Frankfurt is the juxtaposition of really cool shiny skyscraper glass towers like this one...
... with beautiful European-style cobblestoned streets, parks, benches and many places to relax and watch the world go by.
In addition, Frankfurt has a very interesting historic precinct (that was flooded with tourists of course) which includes this very German-style looking building with the roofs that look like steps.
My favourite part of my day in Frankfurt (thats the first day I mean, on the way to NYC, I didn't take any pictures on the second) would have to be the time I spent at this little cafe on their Fressgasse (a street affectionally nicknamed so, after the amount of eating one can do on it). Sipping an espresso and reading Kafka in the morning made me feel very European... and the espresso was the best one I'd had since leaving Melbourne a month before... I returned to the cafe on my second day in Frankfurt (which was on the way back to Bahrain from NYC) and partook in some more coffee and reading...
Generally it was really nice to be able to walk around the city freely, look at things and bask in the German-ness of it all. There is something about travelling alone with no agenda in particular that makes you feel like you have the world at your feet...
Labels: architecture, food+drink, Frankfurt, travel
