On the Road to Now

New old connections

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:16:00 +0000

I come back to this blog with much uncertainty and also determination. I am slowly forgetting how to interact with human beings from a real, present place, and I need to do something about it before I forget that there is any such thing as real interactions. I have been so busy that it's been easy to take the cursory interactions of my days as 'real' interactions simply because they exist at all. It's a difficult balance between being glad I have enough work in this day and age, not wanting to give any up because of uncertainty about the future, and feeling the emptiness of a prolonged disconnect from dear ones. I have not had time for meaningful phone calls or emails or conversations, but it's easy to hide that under a multitude of facebook link-posts or 'likes' or ten-word comments. But hey, I already wrote more than ten words here, even if they're all about me, so there's hope! I am determined to come back and re-connect and hope to find you all again because I've missed this wonderful bloggommunity.

The weight of it

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:35:00 +0000

Impasse

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:06:00 +0000

Hello blog friends, and a happy new year and I hope you have a fabulous 2012! For some nebulous reason, I'm sure it'll be a fantastic year for everyone. Thank you for your continued visits, for your warm wishes, and for your company.

It's been a long time since I wrote anything meaningful on this blog, since I posted anything other than photos. I don't really know what to do with this blog. I seem to have forgotten how to write, or rather, to communicate, or maybe, how to share, or to have lost the motivation for it. This makes posting difficult, and it makes having a blog seem strange.

Not a very good description of how it feels, probably because I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it's just the onset of winter here in Canada, the long, dark road ahead. No doubt, as with other winters, blogs, and blog breaks, I will come out at the other end eventually. Until then, I wish you well.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:24:00 +0000

Lenin vs. Freedom: Lenin wins, again

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:56:00 +0000

The Historical Museum, formerly known as Lenin Museum. Notice the statue of Manas, a national hero who, like most other national heroes, excelled at violent combat. Manas's statue replaced the statue of "a winged woman called Freedom holding a tunduk, the criss-crossed top of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt," that in turn had replaced the statue of Lenin. After much 'national' debate, Freedom was removed because it showed a woman instead of a man holding the tunduk and thus was against 'national values' and brought bad luck.

Ex-Lenin, current Historical Museum, from the side. Like many other official buildings in Bishkek, it is made entirely of marble, because a marble quarry was discovered in the early 1970s just when these buildings were being constructed.

Lenin's statue, moved from the front of the ex-Lenin Museum, now stands at its back...

... and faces the government building where the executive works. This, unlike the Freedom woman statue, has not brought any bad luck.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - looks like home

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:23:00 +0000

Coffee shop in Chelsea, NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:42:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Along the New York City High Line.

The NYC Post Office

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:36:00 +0000

NYC Thanksgiving Parade - glimpses

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Fall colours in Central Park

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:10:00 +0000

NY lights (part two)

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:01:00 +0000

SO not ready for this...

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Yes, that is indeed snow, and a lot of it, too...
Clarification: this is NYC, not even Ottawa. Ottawa is warm and sunny;
I am in snowy NYC...

Approaching NYC, again

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:20:00 +0000

I love Ottawa

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:27:00 +0000

(A small part of) New York City at night

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:10:00 +0000

The flowers in my cubicle

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:27:00 +0000

A few week ago I started buying flowers to put in my cubicle, which was beginning to feel a bit too gray and square and boxed in, particularly as I do not have a window in sight. As a side note, a few days after I got the first flowers, the florist I keep passing by decided to have a sale and I also got a vase for $5. Funny how these things happen...

But what I really wanted to share today is these beautiful flowers I have, which keep stealing my focus. Since I got them yesterday I constantly "find" myself staring at them instead of working - they are so beautiful, it's hard to resist. Or is it that my focus is too low to begin with so I don't want to resist? Oh well, who cares, I mean look at them!

#25 - Sadness

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:30:00 +0000

#24 - NY lights

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:27:00 +0000

The power of the poor

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:13:00 +0000

On the bus to work and back home I have plenty of time to look at people. In the morning I see puffy eyes, wet hair, cranky children glued to their parents, well ironed shirts, people reading emails on their phones. In the evening it all seems in slow motion, quieter, people move less, blink slower. Some carry groceries, most stare out the window.

I assume most of them are US citizens (which in NYC you never know, I guess). And I think of poor, tired, overworked people I saw in Cambodia or Kosovo, and how everyone is caught in this big money-making-for-the-elites machine that is all around us. And yet, the Americans on the bus in NYC have tremendous power compared to, say, a Cambodian or a Romanian, simply by virtue of their vote. Their vote matters a whole lot because who sits in the US Congress matters a whole lot to all of us, no matter where we live.

That's a lot of power to carry on one pair of tired shoulders, and looking at their faces on the bus, I'd venture a guess that most people here don't give a damn. Actually it's not a guess, New Yorkers have one of the lowest voting rates in the country. Their noses are too close to the grind, the next rent and bills are always coming - who has time to read about the policies of each party, the actions of the government, and the impact US policies are having on anything from dams in the Amazon to anti-gay bills in Uganda? And anyway, is there anyone left today who truly believes in the so-called democratic political process?

I'm reminded of Noam Chomsky saying how student loans are a form of social control, because they keep people's noses to the grind so that they don't have the time or energy to become socially or politically involved. In the US, more than anything it is outright, overwhelming poverty that's keeping people down: one in six people are below the poverty line. Until one day when there will be too many poor with too little to lose. And we already know from France, from the UK, from Greece, we know it will not be pretty. In the US even less so: there are just too many guns lying around.

#22 revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Touristing in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:26:00 +0000

My sister is visiting NYC, so last night we took a nighttime bus tour. We sat on the roof of one of those red tourist buses, with a guide telling us stories about the places we passed by. It was a fascinating tour, though rather noisy and windy - if you plan for one, have a good windbreaker on is my advice. This photo here shows you the tail end of Times Square, as we are starting the tour.

Here we are coming upon Washington Square Park, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, a place with a long and diverse history, have a read if interested. You can also see our trusted guide and some fellow tourists in the foreground.

And if you turn your head the other way (and tilt it slightly) you can see these beautiful townhouses facing directly into the park.

We even crossed briefly into Brooklyn, and on the way back into Manhattan we could see the skyline of the city center. According to our guide, Brooklyn itself has about 2.6 million people, and if it separated from NYC it would become the 4th most populous US city.

Our guide, full of interesting trivia, also shared a couple of laws that are still in the city books, though apparently they're not enforced too strenuously: In Brooklyn it is not allowed to carry an ice cream cone in your trouser pocket on a Sunday. Other days of the week are not mentioned. Neither are other pockets. And in New York it is forbidden to leave your donkey in a bathtub overnight. So be careful with that when you come visit.

On a much more serious note, this shows the US national debt. You see it here frozen in a photo, but in reality the numbers are always climbing.

And, back in the middle of the city, we are once again approaching Times Square. New York never sleeps.

After the storm

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:44:00 +0000

This is not actually a photo related to Hurricane Irene, but its grayness seemed fitting. We've had the hurricane move through the city, downgraded to tropical storm leves, and thankfully no major impacts were felt in the area I am now. Many people are without electricity along the coast, though, and many have experienced damages - they are in my thoughts.

On kindness

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:57:00 +0000

Yesterday as I was walking to work I kept getting pushed and jostled and rushed by people trying to pass me, or to start jaywalking from behind me, or by cars trying to turn right while pedestrians still crossed. And I got really tired of it at one point, and angry, and then I thought that New York City would be a true test of courtesy and kindness. If one could keep it up here, while walking to and from work every day, one would be truly kind and courteous. New York City could be the ultimate kindness test.

The thing is, it is always like that, at least in this part of town. People rush to get to work, to unload the truck, to buy that coffee, all quite serious and self-important and blank eyed. And there are so many people who cross the street, that if the cab doesn't cut through them, it won't be able to turn the corner until the next green light, or maybe until the morning rush finishes. And the truck is not allowed to stop for too long, and barely has a space to squeeze in, so it really needs to be unloaded very quickly, with the merchandise somehow cutting through the river of people. If the truck is routinely late, or the cab, or the employee, someone would likely lose their job. So in effect, for some people the only way to make it is by pushing through and ignoring the other human beings around. Not for everyone, of course.

Later in the day, after some more caffeine, I realized that the idea of NYC as a test for kindness is faulty reasoning, because kindness is an ability, a potential(ity), just like greed and selfishness are. They are all like muscles, they get stronger through frequent exercise and an appropriate diet, or they get flabby. A test like NYC would only show how you are in the moment, but not how you are as a person. And clearly, NYC is not the right environment for developing and sustaining courtesy and kindness, and getting flabby kindness muscles is almost a foregone conclusion.

Particularly since the other muscles of greed and selfishness receive such a steady, powerful diet. The amount of advertising that I get force-fed on my 30 minutes morning walk is staggering, and none of the ads tells me to slow down or let someone else go first, or that I'm enough as I am. As a colleague told me the other day, speaking of being annoyed with the "slow" people on the street, "you are still resisting it now, because you just arrived, but it'll get to you, you'll see." And I will probably see. Which reminds me with renewed force why I wanted to move to Ottawa from Toronto, why I like living in Canada (even taking into account the enormous privilege of it all): there is nothing wrong with seeking communities and environments that support those muscles I want to develop. We all need support in becoming the best we can be, and to say that we should already and always be so no matter where and when is just a set up.

NYC - Broadway again

noreply@blogger.com (Manuela) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:07:00 +0000

Straw art, ground floor of the Flatiron building (below).

The Flatiron building, which I passed by without noticing (other than the straw art in its ground floor window, pictured above). But I kept seeing all these tourists taking pictures of something behind me as I walked, so I eventually turned to see what the fuss was about. It is indeed as narrow as it looks.

Dingy Broadway. In fact, Broadway is more dingy than it isn't. It's a bit of a patchwork, some bits are ok and some not so much. And, sadly, it smells of pee more often than it doesn't. Not a walk I care to repeat.

Cirque de Soleil promoting their upcoming show.

I'm dedicating this photo to Lynne, who would have done a much better job at it.

Posh Broadway.