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February 21st 2009
(Sorry for the pictures. The first day that I could go out and take them, it was hazy). It's been five years that I left Africa.......so when we landed at 430am, I was not sure what to expect: excited on the one hand but nervous on the other. I have to admit that I was also mentally prepared to go to battle, given all those years I spent fighting my way past corrupt officers, police, and officials asking for cadeaux and threatening you. But to my surprise, everyone was calm and friendly. So we snaked along the Cape from the airport in the city center on the corniche road......it was very dry and sandy, the desert meeting the sea. All along the road were posh restaurants, casinos, and patesseries packed with party-goers at 5am. The houses--mansions--were ... read more
November 30th 2008
This year's Beirut Marathon invited local NGOs to set up water stations for the runners. We were assigned to Kilometer 25 in Jal el Dib. The migrant workers and social workers from Ethiopia set up a microphone and loudspeakers, saying, "Ethiopia, Ethiopia, go, go" when the Ethiopian marathon runners passed by. When a runner from Iraq or Egypt passed by, they were yelling, "Marathon, yalla, yalla!" I didn't think that cheering on some runners could be so fun, but it was a great to be dancing and clapping and encouraging them on as they passed us by..... The guy with no legs was the most impressive. To be honest, we felt a bit small given that we have legs and we can't even run the marathon, so I have to make a note to remember him ... read more
Building a New City?, or Living in a Construction Site
Published: November 26th 2008Middle East » Lebanon » Beirut
November 26th 2008
Okay, I'm cheating on this blog because I live here. Ashrafieh has converted from a posh district of the city to a large construction site. Literally, it's nearly every block that has a new apartment building coming up. What's happening? At about 6am, small groups of Syrian construction workers start walking up the hill from Sodeco to various construction sites around the district. Each one in almost business-suit long pants, carrying his lunch in a plastic bag, heads for the buildings. By 7am, pumps are pumping, engines are humming, hammers are pounding, metal is clanging, dirt is flying. My once quiet apartment on a cul-de-sac away from the honking horns is now 2.5 meters away from a new building going up. All this continues through until 5-6pm, depending on which construction site it is. For me, ... read more
August 17th 2008
I feel guilty to say this but when I lived in Tirana, in a way I felt a bit bored and understimulated. I didn't see alot of culture or arts in play. The city's residents seemed a bit conformist to me and the entertainment options seemed limited. Now, on this trip, I see a new Tirana. The residents are going through a transformation where there is more diversity, more demand for culture, arts, style, entertainment, etc. The city's visual appearance is changing to become more modern, bigger, and more prosperous. There is more activity everywhere. Today, I walking from the apartment and I saw the clear blue skies and the mountains behind the city. I just felt taken by the city and its march to a brighter future. But I still some signs of the rough ... read more
August 15th 2008
After Lufthansa refused to allow me to change my ticket to Georgia, I have decided to spend the rest of my holiday in Tirana. Actually, it's very good because I am really enjoying having the time to spend here and re-connect with this place where I used to live. The transformation of Tirana into a modern European capital is amazing. Today, I was walking near the lake and I was just taken by the beautiful of the lake, the pine trees, and these huge mountains to the east. It's really a beautiful and under-appreciated country. South of the lake is a new neighborhood with many apartment buildings under construction and I feel that this would be a good investment. It's a quiet place without too much noise and pollution from the city, yet only a 3 ... read more
August 11th 2008
We left an empty, hot Tirana on Sunday morning and took the three hour drive down south to Vlore. The road passes through Durres which had become a parking lot of cars with foreign plates--Albanians home for the summer holidays--and teenagers on holiday walking to the beach. The road winds down along the coast, past some abandoned factories, empty railroad tracks, and a million roadside restaurants and gas stations. The roads follows the thin coastal strip between the mountains and the beach. Bledi and his friend Olsi were playing Albanian pop music the whole way down. It seemed a shame to me to see so much land not under cultivation when the world is experiencing a food crisis and the sun shines brightly on Albania. The entire route was lined with wedding processions, usually one guy ... read more
August 7th 2008
When I first came to Albania in 2004, I landed at a small shack-sized airport and drove into a city where alot people looked and acted the same and where the country was still struggling to take its place among European countries. Yesterday, I landed in the morning to the city's new airport--which although still sized for a small country (ie, only one luggage belt for arriving passengers) had all the modern trappings and architecture you expect in 2008. A modern, organized parking lot has taken the place of the mud field where the driver once picked me up two years ago. A new road leads into the city center, where buildings have sprouted up and businesses have taken the place of where young guys used to wash cars and still out front of businesses with ... read more
July 26th 2008
Jakarta in a strange way grows on you. The city becomes very tropical and is a huge urban metropolis but then the leaves and trees surround you and you see that nature is not far away and the jungle is not completely distanced from you in the city. The speed of the traffic whirls past you. It's dirty, full of cars, hot, steamy, but life is buzzing around. So let me complain just a bit. My work put me in this corporate apartment and sure it's in the diplomatic quarter with mansions for blocks around. But there is no store within a 20 minute walk. I wanted a bottle of water and had to take a taxi around the city on a 30 minute drive. It's fine for someone with a car and who wants a ... read more
July 22nd 2008
Singapore came as a relief after being in Phnom Penh, working to back-breaking hours. Everything in Singapore is easy and effecient, with immigration officials even offering you a candy while they process you in. After being hot, sticky, and hardly finding air conditioning (much less a functioning air conditioning) for the past two weeks, Singapore came as a dream, as a re-connection to civilization. A short metro ride, and Orchard Road with hoards of shoppers unrolled in front of me. Borders with its magazines and books, sushi places, all the global brands of clothes lay there for the taking. The connection to "real people's lives and their struggles" are certainly absent, but the air conditioning, cleaniness, and easiness of modernity were a huge relief. I was thinking the whole time about the future. Is Singapore the ... read more
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