https://frank-samol.de Frank Samol: urban & urbane Sun, 15 Dec 2024 12:00:52 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 Karl-Marx-Allee – A Berlin Street https://frank-samol.de/karl-marx-allee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=karl-marx-allee https://frank-samol.de/karl-marx-allee/#respond Sat, 17 Jun 2023 15:40:53 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=7818 As it happens, my last efforts to put some order in our basement coincided with the 70th anniversary of the uprising of 17 June 1953. Even though I was not yet born at that time, I associate many memories with the anniversary of this historic event in the early days of the German Democratic Republic.

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Cleaning out the basement

As it happens, my last efforts to put some order in our basement coincided with the 70th anniversary of the uprising of 17 June 1953. Even though I was not yet born at that time, I associate many memories with the anniversary of this historic event in the early days of the German Democratic Republic, and with the street, where the uprising started.

A painter and his painting

While rummaging in one of the back corners of the cellar, I found a reproduction of the painting “Baustelle Weberwiese” by the little-known painter Lothar Howald.  The painting with its dark wooden frame was a birthday present during our time in Dresden, in the late 1990s, more than 45 years after the uprising. It first hung in my office in Löbauer Straße, then in Zittauer Straße. The picture shows a meeting of architects and construction workers, among them – in the spirit of socialist realism- also some women, in front of scaffolding and growing buildings on the Weberwiese.

Lothar Howald - Baustelle Weberwiese, 1953

It was also in Dresden, where the painting was exhibited for the first time, at the Third German Art Exhibition from 1 March to 25 May 1953. On 12 March 1952, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit published an article on the subject on 12 March entitled “Painter Brigades Provide Optimism”.

A example of Socialist Realism

 

“In formal terms, this painting amounts to idealising naturalism. As precisely as each badge and each machine model should be recognisable, the overall impression must be ‘unrealistic’: namely, victorious and optimistic in any case. After all, anyone looking at such a picture is supposed to be filled with “courage, confidence and enthusiasm” for the goals of the SED, for the Five-Year Plan and the “defence of progress”.

The painter Lothar Howald and his painting are largely forgotten today. On the internet, there are still picture postcards with a reproduction in black and white on offer, at a price of 8.99 EUR. My attempts to sell the painting on various classified ad portals have so far failed due to lack of demand.

The construction site

The former “Große Frankfurter Straße“, the main street and arterial road to the Hanseatic city of Frankfurt an der Oder, was given the name “Stalinallee” on 21 December 1949, shortly after the founding of the GDR on 7 October 1949, as a birthday present to the Soviet dictator.  Stalinallee was the first “socialist street” in the still young GDR.  The street, which had been badly bombed in World War II, was to be rebuilt with a new urban planning and architectural concept. A shining example of socialist architecture was to be built in the centre of Berlin, based above all on the Soviet model. After an urban planning competition, construction began in 1951 under the direction of Hermann Henselmann.

Entwurf Stalinallee - Bundesarchiv 183-18301-0001 - Fotograf*in: Gielow , 1953

Despite a massive shortage of materials, the 2.3-kilometre-long Stalinallee was the largest construction site in the GDR. The work was under great time pressure. Therefore, workers, machines and building materials were gathered from all over the Republic, to the annoyance of the residents of the rest of the GDR. With an appeal in the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland, workers were sought for the “National Reconstruction Programme Berlin”.

As early as 21 December 1952, there was a ceremonial handover of keys for more than 1,000 flats, and in January 1953 the first 70 flats were occupied. About two-thirds of the living space was given to rubble women, construction workers and reconstruction helpers, the rest went to white-collar workers and academics.

The flats in Stalinallee were pure luxury at the time: unlike the holes in the tenement blocks, they were not only large and bright, but had lifts, district heating, hot water supply, built-in cupboards, tiled bathrooms and rubbish chutes. Some also had telephone connections and parquet flooring, and there were terraces on the roofs for the general use of the tenants.

The uprising

Even before the first foundations had been dug, the GDR honoured the street’s namesake: on 3 August 1951, a 4.80-metre statue of Josef Stalin was ceremoniously unveiled. When the dictator died on 5 March 1953, there was the first large demonstration in Stalinallee, tens of thousands of people marched to the monument to condole with the deceased dictator.

Only a quarter of a year later, on 16 and 17 June, the construction workers of Stalinallee demonstrated against an increase in standards that had been decided shortly before. This demanded that workers work 10 per cent more, but without receiving more pay in return. The construction workers’ protest against this unpaid extra work at the Stalinallee construction site turned into an uprising that quickly spread to almost all cities and districts in the GDR.

In the East: Knocking off Stalin from his pedestal

After its suppression, this first mass uprising in the Soviet Union’s sphere of rule after the end of World War II, was always understood in the GDR and the Soviet Union as a “fascist coup attempt”.

After the official renunciation of Stalin worship at the 22nd Party Congress of the CPSU in October 1961, all cities, mountains, institutions and enterprises, streets and squares in the Soviet Union named after Stalin were given new names. Just two weeks later, on 14 November 1961, the GDR also renamed Stalinallee as Karl-Marx-Allee. At the same time as the street was renamed, soldiers of the National People’s Army knocked the Stalin statue off its pedestal in a night and fog operation.

In the West: A public holiday in summer

In the West, the Berlin Senate decided as early as 22 June 1953, only a few days after the uprising, to rename the Charlottenburger Chaussee, which runs from the Brandenburg Gate through the Tiergarten to Charlottenburg, as the Street of 17 June. in the Federal Republic of Germany, 17 June was declared a public holiday on 4 August 1953.

Ten years later, on 11 June 1963, almost two years after the Berlin Wall was built, the then Federal President Heinrich Lübke proclaimed 17 June a “national day of remembrance”. After the fall of the Wall and the restoration of German unity, 3 October was declared “German Unity Day”. The law of 4 August 1953 was repealed, but the Federal President’s proclamation of 11 June 1963 is still valid.

In my youth, but also later, this holiday in June was always something like the beginning of the summer holiday season. The historical occasion increasingly faded into the background.

In the summer of 1961 I missed the 17 June holiday in Germany, because I was with my parents in Vienna. This year, I waved to Khruchov and Kennedy as they drove past Schwarzenbergplatz in an open convertible during their meeting on 3 and 4 June.  Khruchov later laid a wreath there at the Red Army Monument.

There is a street in Berlin…

In 1969, the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann dedicated a song to the street with the title “Eight arguments for keeping the name Stalinallee for Stalinallee“.

 

Und Henselmann kriegte Haue, damit er die Straße baut.   Und weil er sie dann gebaut hat, hat man ihn wieder verhaut.

 And Henselmann got a beating so that he would build the street. And because he built it, they beat him up again.

However, the song was only released in 1972 on the long-playing record “Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten” (“Don’t wait for better times”), which was only released in the West. The LP with the cover photo of Biermann’s flat in Chausseestraße was one of the first records I bought after I finally had a record player.

The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising

The Plebeians rehearse the uprising
The Plebeians rehearse the uprising - Scene photo from the production of the Schiller Theatre Berlin in 1966

In my school’s theatre group, I took part in the performance of Günter Grass’ play “Die Plebejer rehearse den Aufstand” (The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising) around the same time. First performed in 1966, the play caused a major scandal because it denounced Bertolt Brecht’s behaviour towards the uprising on 17 June 1953.

The Karl Marx Bookshop on Karl Marx Allee

Bookshop in Karl-Marx-Allee
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-23200-0120 / Weiß, Günter / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

In the 1970s, during frequent visits to Berlin, the Karl Marx Bookshop was always a destination on day trips from the west to the east part of the city.With the money from the compulsory exchange of I bought here the three volumes of Das Kapital, some other volumes of the blue complete edition of the works of Marx and Engels, as well as many other books and novels from Aufbau-Verlag.

Modern times

Frankfurter Allee Bastian Pudill on Unsplash

Today, Karl-Marx-Allee and Frankfurter Allee are popular residential areas, much sought after by tenants, but also by speculators. I often drive through this ensemble on my way to Berlin-Mitte or to the north of the city. 

The street as an ensemble as well as many individual buildings are listed. The residential buildings in the avenue were bought by various investors after German reunification and often extensively renovated.

However, many of the commercial pavilions and shops, which are also listed, stand empty and suffer from the general crisis of trade and commerce in the city centres.

Weberwiese - Photo by Georgi Kalaydzhiev on Unsplash

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/karl-marx-allee/feed/ 0 Cairo – Fighting for Public Space https://frank-samol.de/rights-to-the-city-cairo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rights-to-the-city-cairo https://frank-samol.de/rights-to-the-city-cairo/#respond Wed, 14 Jun 2023 11:09:13 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=7065 I still occasionally come back to Cairo, in my mind or in virtual explorations online. Perusing the June edition of Le Monde Diplomatique,  I stumbled upon an article by Sophie Pommier titled "Le Caire, ville entravée", which loosely translates to “Cairo, a city in shackles“. 

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I still occasionally come back to Cairo, in my mind or in virtual explorations online. Perusing the June edition of Le Monde Diplomatique,  I stumbled upon an article by Sophie Pommier titled “Le Caire, ville entravée“, which loosely translates to “Cairo, a city in shackles“. 

Sophie Pommier eloquently sheds light on the somber reality of Cairo’s dwindling political freedom since the rise of General Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi in 2013, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the city. This coincides with ambitious and grandiose projects aiming at reshaping and modernising the cityscape.  However, beneath the veneer of progress lies an agenda driven by the privatisation and control of public spaces.

A poignant illustration of the issue at hand is the recently inaugurated “Mamsha Ahl Misr,” the “Walkway of the People of Egypt,” as it is euphemistically called and promoted on Instagram.  It runs along the Nile Corniche, in close proximity to the extensive Maspero urban redevelopment project still under construction that has displaced thousands of people from an informal settlement in a central location. 

2011
Google Earth
2023
Google Earth

The ”Walkway of the People of Egypt“ as a seemingly benign endeavour in fact establishes two levels of access to the river Nile: a first level at the narrow edge of the road accessible to all, for the popular masses, close to the cars stuck in the city’s eternal traffic jam, the zahma as it is called in colloquial Egyptian. And a second level of a sleek wooden promenade for the better off happy few, directly at the water’s edge, with posh restaurants and cafés, pontoons for private yachts and water taxi services. 

”Mamsha is a one of a kind commercial lifestyle destination located on the bank of the River Nile. It features popular eateries, fine diners, casual eating outlets and cafés to satisfy all cravings. Mamsha is the newest landmark, bringing life back to downtown Cairo with its ongoing entertainment events and attractions to compliment the charisma of the Nile’s spirit.“ (Counsel Masters, operators of Mamsha Ahl Misr)  

As Sophie Pommier states in her article, gone are the days that I very well remember when lovers met under the tree cover of the corniche, youths smoked cigarettes by the river, and people set in plastic chairs with friends, watching the feluccas go by with their thundering music. 

The ”Walkway of the People of Egypt“ is in line with the plans to redesign the main squares and spaces in the city centre that were launched soon after the military coup of July 2013 in order to avoid that gathering in public places become sites of protest, as Tahrir Square was in 2011. 

2011
Google Earth
2023
Google Earth

The new concept is a city in shackles, with invisible, but increasingly insurmountable walls. These walls segregate the compounds of the rich, the privatised neighbourhoods on the outskirts like Madinaty or New Cairo, where one can only get around by car, from the even more distant suburbs for the poor or the few remaining dilapidated informal housing areas in central Cairo.

Ten years ago, just months before the military coup in July 2013, there were still lofty aspirations for a public space revolution that would change Cairo from the ground. 

Looking back even further, dating back over twenty years to 2002, at the peak of power of the Mubarak regime, expectations for public spaces were more modest, but nevertheless aspirational.

Twenty years ago, conquering public space in bumper cars

At that time, I had the privilege of working with a team of Egyptian and international colleagues on the upgrading of Manshiet Nasr, one the largest informal settlements in Cairo, situated near the historic centre at the foot of the Moqattam hills. As part of our efforts, we supported young women from the neighbourhood in organising and taking initiatives to improve their living conditions. Most of the young women had never left their neighbourhood and never seen the river Nile, just a few kilometres away. As part of our support, we arranged a visit to the Nile Corniche, including a felucca sail on the river. 

In return, once they successfully registered as a women’s association, they invited us to an evening outing at a popular Nile-side restaurant that featured a small amusement park with bumper cars. The young women had never seen or experienced bumper cars before, and they eagerly requested driving lessons. 

I still cherish the memories of these driving lessons by the riverside of the Nile as one of the most rewarding experiences in my professional career.

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/rights-to-the-city-cairo/feed/ 0 Baghdad – The Walled City https://frank-samol.de/baghdad-the-walled-city/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=baghdad-the-walled-city https://frank-samol.de/baghdad-the-walled-city/#respond Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:53:46 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=7041 I just returned from a short assignment to Baghdad. I had never been there before and did not know what to expect. Actually, I did not see much of the city, apart on the way from the airport to the safe compound in the Green Zone where I was staying,

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I just returned from a short assignment to Baghdad. I had never been there before and did not know what to expect. Actually, I did not see much of the city, apart on the way from the airport to the safe compound in the Green Zone where I was staying, and on my way back. And there were two travels to meetings outside the Green Zone, each in a small convoy of two armoured vehicles, the drivers and co-drivers armed with submachine guns. 

BE367F05-4449-4DF7-9847-BDEAD725EDEE_1_201_a.jpeg

Inside the Green Zone, there were only few cars and almost no people in the streets. Outside, in the small part of the city that I have seen, there was a bit of traffic and and some pedestrians moving around. 

The green zone is a new model of a walled city.

It is encircled by concrete walls, with just a few heavily guarded gates. These gates are completely closed between midnight and five am in the morning.  Established following the 2003 war, the wall primarily aims to protect government officials, foreign diplomats, and individuals working or residing within the fortified area. These individuals are considered high-value targets due to their roles in governance, diplomacy, and decision-making processes.

My colleagues and me were definitely high-value targets: a drive of 500 m in a soft skin car from our compound to famous Dojo’s, one of the few restaurants inside the Green Zone, as a weekend go-out,  costed about 200 USD. In comparison, our Iraqi colleagues told me that they pay just around 3 dollars for a normal taxi ride of 8 km from their home to their office compound in the Green Zone.

Inside the walled city, security costs for high-value targets are at least 20 times higher than for ordinary Iraqi citizens. 

And there is little green inside the green zone. Just more walls, and more heavily guarded gates and entrances to official buildings and compounds of embassies or UN organisations. Most of the few private residences are enclosed by walls and under video surveillance. Even inside the safe compounds, there are more walls, narrow pathways and little space to move.

 

Alas, almost nothing is left of the historic walls around the Old City that were originally built during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century. And even less is left of the splendour and beauty of medieval Baghdad, the capital of knowledge and city of a Thousand and One Nights.

An update, just under a month later: outside the Green Zone, beyond the walls, there iss obviously a lot going on that I have not seen. The following article in the Washington Post describes a different dynamic, but no less disturbing.

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/baghdad-the-walled-city/feed/ 0 Who will serve tea or coffee in Egypt‘s New Capital in the desert? https://frank-samol.de/who-will-serve-tea-or-coffee-in-egypts-new-capital-in-the-desert/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=who-will-serve-tea-or-coffee-in-egypts-new-capital-in-the-desert Sun, 12 Jun 2022 10:40:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6506 Back to Cairo for a short visit of a couple of days, after a long absence of ten years, I wanted to update myself on the New Administrative Capital that is being built in the desert some 40 km East from Cairo’s centre.  The grand design covers an area of 725 square

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Back to Cairo for a short visit of a couple of days, after a long absence of ten years, I wanted to update myself on the New Administrative Capital that is being built in the desert some 40 km East from Cairo’s centre. 

The grand design covers an area of 725 square kilometers. As the new seat of the government it provides space for all ministries, the parliament, and all embassies. It comprises a huge central business district, its own airport, a monorail and another opera house. At some point, 6.5 million people are to live there. Currently however only a few of the buildings are completed and fully functional, among them the compound of a five-star luxury hotel. 

Source Google Earth June 2022

I learnt that the new capital will possibly remain fenced, as a huge gated government compound with its own management and administration. How this will work with the millions of people to live and work there upon its completion remains an open question.

And what about the large numbers of support personal that are typical for Egyptian public administration, the “farash” serving tea or coffee in offices, guards, cleaners, gardeners and other workers? 

For them housing in the New Capital that easily will cost 50,000 USD for a two-room apartment may not be affordable. Where will they live and how will they find access to their places of livelihood?

The opening, originally already planned for end 2021, has repeatedly been postponed. Now it shall reportedly be inaugurated jointly with another grand project, the new Grand Egyptian Museum, for which planning started already in 2002.

Reading about the repeatedly postponed opening reminded me of my time in the General Organisation for Physical Planning – GOPP in the then Ministry of Housing, Utilities and New Communities in the 1980s. At that time, in a distant past, GOPP had planned a previous avatar of a New Capital, Sadat City, at the Cairo – Alexandria desert road. 

Each summer in the three years of my assignment in Egypt preparations for moving the Ministry to Sadat City started, discussing floor plans and distribution of office space. The expectation was that the move would then happen in autumn, after the summer break. It however never happened. 

Almost nobody in the Ministry and the organisation that had planned the new capital actually wanted to move there. The same was obviously the case with all other ministries and the government as a whole. It was somehow a rather special, but harmless and now historic example of the Egyptian deep state. In the end, Sadat City was converted into an industrial town that today dawns in the desert.

Already in 2015,  my old friend and colleague David Sims published his book Egypt’s Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster. The book amply dismantled the myth that the cure to Egypt‘s population growth and housing needs lies in building new towns and sub-urban settlements in the country‘s deserts.

The New Administrative Capital seems however a completely new, more ambitious iteration of the New City and New Capital concept. It aims much higher, with monumental, almost pharaonic dimensions. And also the costs are of astronomical dimensions, summing up to 45 billion USD.

In the meantime, most of the rest of the city crumbles, sometimes glossed over with cosmetic measures such as the beautification of Cairo’s city centre around Midan Talaat Harb with its impressing Art Noveau buildings. Other important elements of the Cairo’s cityscape are threatened by other forms of inner-city real estate development and the government’s city modernisation policy.

Midan Talaat Harb

Prominent cases in point are the current ongoing heavily contested redevelopment of the Maspero triangle, a former slum area centrally located behind the iconic Radio Cairo building, close to the Nile and Midan Tahrir, or the razing of large swaths of the City of the Dead, Cairo’s historic cemetery beneath the Mokattam cliffs that dates back to the seventh century, for building a a flyover bridge that will link central Cairo to the New Administrative Capital.

 

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]]> Does a humble flower like coltsfoot suffer from road noise? https://frank-samol.de/does-a-humble-flower-like-coltsfoot-suffer-from-road-noise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=does-a-humble-flower-like-coltsfoot-suffer-from-road-noise https://frank-samol.de/does-a-humble-flower-like-coltsfoot-suffer-from-road-noise/#respond Sat, 19 Feb 2022 13:15:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=7019 I actually do not know. I neither remember where I took this photo of obviously flourishing coltsfoot. However, I came across media reports on a recent study by Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The study suggests that flowers indeed suffer from noise pollution, particularly in urban areas and along highways, on

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I actually do not know. I neither remember where I took this photo of obviously flourishing coltsfoot.

However, I came across media reports on a recent study by Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The study suggests that flowers indeed suffer from noise pollution, particularly in urban areas and along highways, on the realm of botany.

The researchers started by cultivating a selection of flowers commonly found in cities in the laboratory and then divided them into two groups. One group was left to grow in peace, while the other was exposed to daily traffic noise – the 73-decibel sound of which was recorded on a highway. After a good two weeks, the scientists examined the plants’ leaves.

The results were nothing short of eye-opening. The flowers exposed to the simulated traffic noise exhibited a noticeable phenomenon: stunted growth. None of the plants exposed to the noise developed well. Chemical compounds were found in high concentrations in the leaves, which are considered indicators of exceptional stress in plants. According to the analysis, the levels were two to three times higher than in the comparison group. Lower growth and a smaller number of germinating seeds were observed.

Stress caused by road noise not only harms people, but also plants.

In contrast, the concentration of certain hormones that stimulate growth and ensure general plant health was significantly lower. The leaves in the comparison group were measurably larger and heavier. In addition, the resilience of the noise-stressed plants to cold temperatures, drought and insects harmful to them decreased.

Students of Mentor High School in Ohio, USA, conducted a similar experiment. They inquired the impact of traffic noise pollution on plant growth within urban community gardens. Again,  two sets of plants were exposed to different noise levels, this time over a period of six weeks. And again, the results showed a statistically significant difference in average plant height and weight between the two conditional groups. ntor High School,ntor High School,Mentor High Scho

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/does-a-humble-flower-like-coltsfoot-suffer-from-road-noise/feed/ 0 The world in whose hands? https://frank-samol.de/the-world-in-whose-hands/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-world-in-whose-hands https://frank-samol.de/the-world-in-whose-hands/#respond Sat, 06 Nov 2021 14:33:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6762 On the occasion of the mid-term of COP26*: Food for thought… and challenging calculations According to a new Oxfam study presented at COP26 in Glasgow, the richest one percent – fewer people than the population of Germany – will be responsible for 16 percent of total global emissions by 2030. The world’s super-rich

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On the occasion of the mid-term of COP26*: Food for thought… and challenging calculations

According to a new Oxfam study presented at COP26 in Glasgow, the richest one percent – fewer people than the population of Germany – will be responsible for 16 percent of total global emissions by 2030.

The world’s super-rich produce umpteen times more climate-damaging greenhouse gases than the rest of humanity. By 2030, the per capita emissions of the richest ten percent of the world’s population are expected to exceed the target by a factor of nine, and the richest one percent by a factor of 30. By contrast, the per capita emissions of the poorer half of the world’s population will remain far below the targeted 1.5-degree limit for global warming in 2030. 

The study also points out that the geographic distribution in greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly no longer composed mainly of traditional industrialised countries. Almost a quarter (23 percent) of the richest one percent will be Chinese and a tenth (eleven percent) will be Indian. (Already today, almost 30% of global CO2 emissions are emitted by China.)

The OXFAM study argues that climate policy should focus more on the super-rich.

In a single space flight, a billionaire produces more emissions than someone from the poorest billion people in an entire lifetime.

On a completely different note, there is a growing notion that “streaming is the new flying”, with estimates that “a cappuccino has the same CO2 footprint as two hours of Zoom”. And for processes as simple as sending an email on Gmail, a Whatsapp message, a Facebook emoji, uploading a video on Tiktok or a cat photo on Snapchat, massive resources are needed: the global digital industry consumes so much water, raw materials and energy that its ecological footprint is three times that of countries like France or the UK. Digital technologies now consume one-tenth of the world’s electricity and are responsible for nearly 4 percent of global CO2 emissions – almost twice as much as global civil aviation.

What can the average Chinese, Indian and all the other citizens of this world make out of this? And what does this mean for the poorer half of the world’s population? At closer look at the study, and some simple calculations may provide some answers.

*Yes, there were already 25 editions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) who have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The first one took place in 1995 in Berlin. Since then, total global greenhouse gas emissions have further increased by around 40%.

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/the-world-in-whose-hands/feed/ 0 Are high-tech face masks new fashion items? https://frank-samol.de/are-high-tech-face-masks-new-fashion-items/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-high-tech-face-masks-new-fashion-items https://frank-samol.de/are-high-tech-face-masks-new-fashion-items/#respond Tue, 24 Aug 2021 11:13:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6983 I remember very well my time in Delhi when air pollution levels regularly peaked in November and were quite unbearable throughout winter. Since then air pollution in Delhi has even got worse. But Delhi is not the only metropolis where the air is hardly breathable any more. Now I just read that

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I remember very well my time in Delhi when air pollution levels regularly peaked in November and were quite unbearable throughout winter. Since then air pollution in Delhi has even got worse. But Delhi is not the only metropolis where the air is hardly breathable any more.


Now I just read that Philips India, well in advance of the next “autumn pollution season”, has launched a new face mask that also works as an air purifier for the Indian market. In China, this mask seems to have already been available in 2020.

According to Philips, its Fresh Air Mask combines excellent breathing comfort and strong filtration performance that shall protect from rising air pollution levels in the country. There is however no information whether the mask also provides protection against the COVID-19 virus and it’s variants.

A new dimension of personal wearable…

As a new dimension of personal wearable it comes in nice colours in a “contemporary design” as Philips calls it.


… not affordable for everyone 

The cost of around 90 USD (6,990 INR) is quite substantial. Moreover, adding to the initial investment costs, the filters need to be changed regularly.

This looks like another technical solution to address the symptoms of what is wrong in our environment rather then the causes, but only for some.

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/are-high-tech-face-masks-new-fashion-items/feed/ 0 Sublime instruments https://frank-samol.de/sublime-instruments/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sublime-instruments https://frank-samol.de/sublime-instruments/#respond Sat, 21 Aug 2021 14:09:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6785 As of 3 July, many single-use plastic products are banned in the European Union. This includes, above all, plastic tableware and cutlery. What many people have been using on a daily basis will thus soon be a thing of the past? It should actually be clear to everyone that the

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As of 3 July, many single-use plastic products are banned in the European Union. This includes, above all, plastic tableware and cutlery.

What many people have been using on a daily basis will thus soon be a thing of the past? It should actually be clear to everyone that the excessive use of disposable plastic cannot go on like this.

Abandoning plastic cutlery may actually be a chance to rediscover the joy of eating with more sublime instruments or even with the hands.

For example, the 1972 documentary “Banana Leaf” by the two American industrial designers Ray and Charles Eames explores how people of different castes in India eat. 

The interesting thing is that the poorest eat only on a banana leaf. The higher the caste, the more cutlery and crockery is added. But the highest caste, who are only concerned with spiritual existence, again eat from the banana leaf without utensils.

More insights on plastic cutlery as a global phenomenon of our throwaway culture provides the German contribution to to the London Design Biennale 2021:  SPOON ARCHAEOLOGY EXCAVATING THE PAST AND PRESENCE OF DESIGN PRACTICE.

https://twitter.com/DesignFizz/status/1408749751185510401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1408749751185510401%7Ctwgr%5Ea9bd1e1a0754903955d42f239ae198600ab30957%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.frank-samol.de%2Fsublime-instruments%2F

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/sublime-instruments/feed/ 0 Rising Heat III https://frank-samol.de/rising-heat-iii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rising-heat-iii https://frank-samol.de/rising-heat-iii/#respond Mon, 16 Aug 2021 14:33:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6802 As the current heat wave is subsiding in Turkey and the Southern Mediterranean, the Economist has just published an article stating that with rising heat the demand for air conditioning is set to surge by 2050. The article is based on a study on air conditioning and global inequality published recently. Both

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As the current heat wave is subsiding in Turkey and the Southern Mediterranean, the Economist has just published an article stating that with rising heat the demand for air conditioning is set to surge by 2050.


The article is based on a study on air conditioning and global inequality published recently.

Both current and future air conditioner usage is concentrated among high-income households. Not only do richer countries have much more air conditioning than poorer countries, but within countries adoption is highly concentrated among high-income households.

L. Davis, P. Gertler, S. Jarvis, C. Wolfram: Air conditioning and global inequality 

So air conditioning is only a strategy for the rich to adapt to climate change. It is not really an option for large parts of the global population. And by the surge in cooling to be expected, the rich will contribute to even more warming of the planet.

On the other hand, according to recent estimates, in India alone 630,000 people die each year from high temperatures. With further rising temperatures this number could increase to 1.4 million deaths per year by 2050. 

While the study argues that increased adoption of air conditioning could save millions of lives, it will probably not be the lives of the poor.

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]]> https://frank-samol.de/rising-heat-iii/feed/ 0 Where are they? https://frank-samol.de/where-are-they/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-are-they https://frank-samol.de/where-are-they/#respond Sun, 08 Aug 2021 10:37:00 +0000 https://frank-samol.de/?p=6960 Half of mankind lives in the areas indicated in white on the map above. (Source: Max Galka – metrocosm.com) 25 percent of the world’s population do not have a classic address.   According to Google, around 25 percent of humanity, i.e. around two billion people, either do not have a classic

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Half of mankind lives in the areas indicated in white on the map above. (Source: Max Galka – metrocosm.com)

25 percent of the world’s population do not have a classic address.

 

According to Google, around 25 percent of humanity, i.e. around two billion people, either do not have a classic address in street and house number format, or they have an address that is very difficult to find.

 

Of course, Google has a technical solution for this. It might however be worthwhile to also consult the atlas of informality. I presume that the majority of the people without an address live in informal settlements. Numbers somehow coincide:

An estimated 25% of the world’s population live in informal settlements.

While more than 60 percent of the world’s total population is now online, the many people without a classic address, and those living in informal settlements, may not benefit yet from Google’s technical innovation.

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