travel writing

I haven't read any Wilfred Thesiger, but somehow I came across this well written eulogy from 2003 which describes the post-Thesiger, post post-colonial state of travel writing:

Usually, the travel-writers had to be 1) posh, 2) young, 3) photographed in native garb at all times, and behaving like a self-conscious imperialistic adventurer (such as Thesiger); then they had 1) to denounce wicked modern culture that had destroyed everything good and pure, while acclaiming the charms of any relic of the Empire;

2) to pretend that they were constantly in personal danger; 3) imply that no Westerner had ever been there before (even when these places crawled with tourists and backpackers).

...So, the genre of post-Imperial travel-writing is extinct - or it should be. A new travel-writing style... is already developing; one free of the confusion about modernity and Empire that characterised the British elite of Thesiger's generation.

Human cultures have always been hybrids: civilisations are certainly changed by the arrival of CNN or Britney Spears T-shirts, but they remain distinctive - and often in the most terrible ways. Chechens still behead their enemies even though they listen to Eminem. The boy soldiers of Congo have mobiles and watch Friends on cable. But they still eat the livers and brains of their prisoners.

Challanging Balkan Exceptionalism

I found the quote in the last post in this review of two books on the Balkins in the London Review of Books written by Misha Glenny during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia. It begins with the absurd quote by Tony Blair that Kosovo is "on the doorstep of Europe", what does this metaphor even mean? This doesn't make any sense geographically, it must mean something else. Mr. Glenny ends the review of Inventing Ruritania: The Imperialism of the Imagination by Vesna Goldsworthy and Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova with listing these six little known facts about recent Balkan history:

1. The only country allied to the Axis that refused to allow any of its Jewish citizens to be deported to Nazi death camps was Bulgaria.
2. There were twice as many Turkish casualties at Gallipoli as Allied ones (the Turks, lest we forget, were defending their home territory).
3. The single most violent period in Balkan history in terms of casualties sustained and the territorial extent of the warfare was a direct consequence of Hitler’s decision to occupy Greece, a decision prompted by Mussolini’s failed attempt to invade Greece in 1940. The Nazi resolve in March 1941 to dismember Yugoslavia was accompanied by the installation of a brutal Fascist administration in Croatia that was entirely
   unrepresentative of the political aspirations of the Croat people. Until Pavelic
   was installed in Croatia, there had been no history of mass violence between
   Serbs and Croats.
4. The Stalinist dictatorships that took root in Romania and Bulgaria were imposed by an agreement reached by Stalin and Churchill. In exchange for handing over these territories to Soviet influence, Churchill, and later Truman, were given a free hand by Stalin to smash a Communist insurgency in Greece that was on the verge of taking power with minimal foreign support.
5. Since 1989, the governments and people of Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia,
   Albania and Greece have all resisted attempts by nationalists to destabilise the
   local or regional polity.
6. The main victims of the sanctions imposed by the UN on Serbia have been the surrounding states, a number of which are attempting to steer their economies through the transition from Communism to capitalism. Bulgaria, for example, has been losing an estimated $2 billion a year. The impact on the economies of Western Europe and America has been negligible. The UN refuses to give Bulgaria any compensation.

Here are some more quotes:

Its inhabitants were in the main white and Christian, but in important
contrast to the Middle East, the region was never colonised by Western powers,
which allowed it to become the repository of any manner of fantastic
imaginings.

[Bram] Stoker’s Gothic novel [Dracula], published in the 1890s, demonstrates an important development in representations of the peninsula. In the period beginning with the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and ending with the protracted negotiations that led to the various treaties of Paris after the First World War, the adjective ‘Balkan’ ceased to be a vague geographical concept and was transformed (for the 20th century at least) into one of the most consistently pejorative epithets in Western political discourse. [see Balkanization]

The new [post-1878 Congress of Belin] Balkan states were thus accepted into the great European hierarchy at the invitation of the Great Powers. As the long list of
conditions attached to their recognition as independent states made clear, they
were expected to know their place and to accommodate the foreign policies of
those Great Powers that demonstrated an interest in the region...Yet already, in
the minds of Western policy-makers and public alike, the new Balkan states were
part of an unbroken pattern of wild, aggressive behaviour stretching back
centuries.

The term ‘Balkans’ was barely used during the Communist period.
Four of the countries were subsumed into the phrase ‘Eastern Europe’ while
Greece and Turkey were ‘Nato’s southern flank’... After the fall of Communism,
Goldsworthy observed how some preposterous portrayals of the Balkans were

"dusted down and cited by journalists and newspaper columnists who, lacking the time to research their subjects thoroughly, are ever eager for readable – and quotable – accounts of life and death in the Balkans. While the turmoil of the Nineties forged new perceptions of individual Balkan nationalities, these frequently grew out of the archetypal representations of the region which were first established in the 19th century and then transmitted and transformed by successive generations of writers."

And you'll never look at the Balkins the same way again.

whoops

"Today the Great Powers are manifestly unwilling to make war. Each one of them, Germany, England, France and the United States, to name a few, has discovered the obvious truth that the richest country has the most to lose by war, and each country wishes for peace above all things."

-Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, early 1914

Does this sound like the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention?

Wishes are like assholes, everybody's got one.

flowerpot filter coffee hack

In my previous post I lamented the popularity of Nescafe and talked about the history of coffee drinking. Anyway, I drink a healthy amount of coffee and tea every day and I like to start my day with a cup of black brewed coffee. I use a french press and an electric coffee grinder to make my coffee when I live in the States. Now that I'm overseas I don't have the implements to make brewed coffee and it's not so common here as well.

I was able to find a tin of ground "American Coffee". I bought a small flower pot and hacked it so it's now a coffee maker for making filter coffee. The flower pot sits perfectly on top of a standard mug:

Shove knife into bottom of flower pot:

put filter in flower pot, put coffee in filter

place coffee making apparatus on top of coffee mug

pour in boiling water

enjoy delicious black coffee:

coffee and tea

The coffee that is available here is primarily Turkish Coffee and the horrible abomination known as Nescafe--instant "coffee". This was the same when I was in Turkey, which was even more appalling considering the Ottoman Empire introduced coffee to the western world--they weren't able to to conquer Vienna with armies but they conquered it with coffee and cafés and from there coffee culture spread westward and northward (read this story of the first Viennese coffee shop). For Turks to drink instant coffee made by a swiss conglomerate (Nestlé S.A.) is a very bizarre thing, in my opinion.



Americans colonists drank tea like their fellow British citizens and then the British government started changing colonial industrial policy regarding tea, including the Tea Act. This expanded the monopoly power of the British East India Company--the Nestlé of the 18th century--the giant corporation that by the late 1700s directly controlled all of Bengal and nearly the entire eastern coast of India. The act allowed the British East India Company to directly import tea from India to the American Colonies, previously it was smuggled. Americans would be able to get higher quality and legal tea direct from India, but they also would have had to pay the Tea Tax, the only part of the hated Townshend Act that was not repealed by parliament. A bunch of smugglers and other angry colonists were upset in this change in Industrial Policy and threw a bunch of tea in Boston Harbor in 1773. Parliament responded with reprisals (Intolerable Acts) and tensions built until war broke out in 1775. Coffee drinking became a patriotic duty.

There's a Thomas Jefferson quote saying that, it's really quite remarkable that the American Revolution became set in motion all over a three-penny tax on tea. I can't find it, every few months ago I try to search for it. I did, however, find a quote from Frederick Douglas 1852 speech, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro", "You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a three-penny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country." ...not quite the quote I was looking for, but a very interesting speech from 10 years before the Emancipation Proclamation none the less. It would be interesting to know how many opinion-leaders of the current Tea Party movement know the history regarding tea in America.

I also ran across this while I was writing this post: "The Women's Petition Against Coffee". It's from England in 1674 and it's a hilarious satire lamenting that men are spending too much time drinking coffee and ignoring husbandly duties:

Since 'tis Reckon'd amongst the Glories of our Native Country, To be a Paradise for Women: The fame in our Apprehensions can consist in nothing more than the brisk Activity of our men, who in former Ages were justly esteemed the Ablest Performers in Christendome; But to our unspeakable Grief, we find of late a very sensible Decay of that true Old English Vigor; our Gallants being every way so Frenchified, that they are become meer Cock-sparrows, fluttering things that come on Sa sa, with a world of Fury, but are not able to stand to it, and in the very first Charge fall down flat before us...

The Occasion of which Insufferable Disaster, after a furious Enquiry, and Discussion of the Point by the Learned of the Faculty, we can Attribute to nothing more than the Excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE...

At these [Coffee] Houses (as at the Springs in Afric) meet all sorts of Animals, whence follows the production of a thousand Monster Opinions and Absurdities; yet for being dangerous to Government, we dare to be their Compurgators, as well knowing them to be too tame and too talkative to make any desperate Politicians: For though they may now and then destroy a Fleet, or kill ten thousand of the French, more than all the Confederates can do, yet this is still in their politick Capacities, for by their personal valour they are scarce fit to be of the Life-guard to a Cherry-tree: and therefore, though they frequently have hot Contests about most Important Subjects; as what colour the Red Sea is of; whether the Great Turk be a Lutheran or a Calvinist (the Great Turk was a name for the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who was a Sunni Muslim -TSD); who Cain's Father in Law was (Cain was the son of Adam & Eve in the Bible -TSD), &c., yet they never fight about them with any other save our Weapon, the Tongue.

Some of our Sots pretend tippling of this boiled Soot cures them of being Drunk... THe Coffee-house being in truth, only a Pimp to the Tavern, a relishing foop prearative to a fresh debauch: For when people have swill'd themselves with a morning draught of more Ale than a Brewer's horse can carry, hither they come for a pennyworth of Settle-brain... once more they troop to the Sack-shop till they are drunker than before; and then by a retrograde motion, stagger back to Soberize themselves with Coffee; Thus like Tennis Balls between two Rackets, the Fopps our Husbands are bandied to and fro all day between the Coffee-house and Tavern, whilst we poor Souls sit mopeing all alone till Twelve at night, and when at last they come to bed smoakt like a Westphalia Hogs-head we have no more comfort of them, than from a shotten Herring or a dryed Bulrush...

Wherefore the Premises considered, and to the end that our Just Rights may be restored, and all the Antient Priviledges of our Sex preserved inviolable; That our Husbands may give us some other Testimonies of their being Men, besides their Beards and wearing of empty Pantaloons: That they no more run the hazard of being Cuckol'd by Dildo's: But returning to the good old strengthning Liquors of our Forefathers; that Natures Exchequer may once again be replenisht, and a Race of Lusty Hero's begot, able by their Atchievments, to equal the Glories of our Ancesters.

We Humbly Pray, That you our Trusty Patrons would improve your Interest, that henceferth the Drinking COFFEE may on severe penalties be forbidden to all Persons under the Age of Threescore (60 years old -TSD); and that instead thereof, Lusty nappy Beer, Cock-Ale, Cordial Canaries, Restoring Malago's, and Back-recruiting Chocholet be Recommended to General Use, throughout the Utopian Territories.

Here's the mens answer to the womens petition against coffee, vindicating their own Performances, and the Vertues of that Liquor, from the Undeserved Aspersions lately cast upon them by their Scandalous Pamphlet.

So there you have it, coffee. Now I'll write the post I intended to write...

Amman part II

Some more notes from Amman

• All the buildings are made of stone. There are no trees, besides small trees, so there is no wood. It's hard to date buildings because a stone building is timeless.
  
• Mostly everything is less that 50 years old, many things are less than 20 years old
• The architecture here is very distinct, definitively middle eastern
• most Apartments are in 5-story 10 unit buildings that are detached from other buildings, no soviet-style apartment blocks or row-homes either
• the mosque minarets are fatter and shorter than the ones in Turkey, many have green florescent tube lighting near the top.
  
• there are many sedans here, no coups or small cars
• there are a lot of American cars here, many of the Hondas and Toyotas are imported from the United States or built for the American market, including my friend's Hybrid Camry
• there are not many small cars here, or motorbikes, scooters, motorcycles. Very different vehicles on the road than the mix you see in Western Europe
  
• There are an increasing amount of hybrids. Jordan eliminated price controls for petroleum
• Large American cars are popular here, or at least they were until price controls for gas were eliminated
  
• Children are taught English in grade school, most people know basic English, more than any non-Western European country I've visited
• The English everyone knows is American English
• People don't remove their shoes at the door as much as they do in other countries
• The city is sprawling, everyone knows how to navigate it by using the main circles (roundabouts) as monuments.
• The American Embassy is massive, it's a sprawling complex the size of a small farm
  

Amman

A few surprises:

1. Propane tanks for stoves and heaters are delivered around by a truck that plays music, like an Ice Cream Truck
2. Less people smoke cigarettes than I would have immagined
3. In Turkey, the social greeting between men was a kiss on each cheek, it's less common here, but it's done for family
4. There was snow on the ground at a house I visited, I knew it was colder and it flurried when I arrived, but it's maybe 10 deg F colder than I expected. I'm glad I brought a pair of long underwear
5. Taxi are extremely cheap, it cost $1 USD for a 10 minute taxi ride. A partial reason for this is that the bus system is unreliable and there is no metro (currently).

Flight to Amman

rand new

My sister rented a car and drove down to Philadelphia to attend my Philadelphia Going-Away Party and help me move some things.

Many things were not ready to leave and a friend stayed until 3 AM helping pack things. After a full day of packing on Wednesday, we left Philadelphia at 4pm--my sister had hoped to make it in New York by 9AM.

My sister took a nap and I left at 8 for my New York Going-Away Party. Instead of using a map to find the proper subway route, I relied on my phone to give me transit directions. I read that it said to take the F train and to get off at the "Christopher Street" station (it probably didn't actually say this). I turned on the "Number One Party School" Episode of This American Life about Penn State. I'm glad I didn't go to that school like my parents encouraged me, listen to the episode to find out why.

I was listening for the "Christopher Street" Station. It never came. Pretty soon the trained looped back east and crossed into Brooklyn. I got off. There wasn't any other lines going to that station so I got back on a train headed east. I then hopped on a Manhattan-bound train at the next stop and got off at Fulton/Broadway-Nassau and got on the 3. Unfortunately, the 3 did not stop at Chistopher Street and I had to get off and get on a Brooklyn Bound 1 train at the 3's next stop.

I arrived at Fat Cat (Billiards) in West Village sometime around 9:30. My party was supposed to begin at 9pm and some people were already waiting for me there.

Fat Cat was a cool place, it's was the right atmosphere I was looking for. They have ping-pong, billiards, and board games. Live Jazz played the night we were there. PBRs were $3. We were able to get enough chairs together to match the size of our party, but it would have been better to reserve space ahead of time. I actually called a few nights before, but it was at 3am and they weren't taking reservations there.

I'm glad everyone attened and that different groups of friends and my sister could all meet each other.


The next day I slept in and packed up and rearranged some things I had moved to my sister's apartment.

I had a lot of things packed to go to Jordan, a large suitcaseful, a backpack, and a shoulder-bag. My sister gave me money and a phone number to take a Town Car from Jackson Heights to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). After packing my things, I decided to try taking public transportation and pocketing the money. I made it to near the subway and a Town Car honked at me and I asked him how much it was to EWR, the number he quoted was less than the number given by my sister's prefered livery company, so I gave in.



During my hour-or-so-long ride from the East-Side (Queens) of the NYC metro to the West-Side (New Jersey), I decided to forgo listening to my iPod or making phone calls and make conversation with my driver. My driver was originally from Lahore, Pakistan, he moved to Brooklyn 8 years ago and Jackson Heights a few years ago. He liked Brooklyn much better, I think he said he lived in a largely-Hasidic neighborhood. It was much quieter and cheaper than Jackson Heights.

The electronic check-in didn't like my Continental One-Pass number. I didn't get a reminder phone call or "it's time to check in" email, did I actually purchase a ticket? Fortunately, the Orbitz-purchased ticket which consided of a Continental leg to Heathrow and a BMI flight to Amman, just wasn't linked to my OnePass number the way a Continental-purchased ticket would be. Continental had to "take ownership" of the ticket and process it. I they printed my boarding pass.

I weighed my suitcase, it was 49 pounds. The limit was 50. This wasn't the first time that has happened to me, although I have learned to pack light over the years... many of the things in the suitcase were things I will be giving away or leaving in Jordan. I watched "Citizen Kane" (1941), "Bullitt" (1968). I first watched "Law Abiding Citizen" (2009), but after 10 minutes I found it stupid and fast-forwarded through most of the scenes not showing Philadelphia.

St. David's Peninsula, Wales from my window:


The 9:20pm flight to Heathrow was 2/3-full and on a Boeing 757. I've never flown transatlantic on a plane so small. The 757 is a mid-sized narrow-body (one aisle) airplane, the size of a plane I would fly to a second-tier US city from a large city.

I arrived at Heathrow and almost went through immigration until the immigration officer told me I didn't need to (although, if my layover were longer, I would have). I went to Terminal 1 and used my computer and got online via Boingo.

The 12:50 BMI flight to Amman was 2/3 full. It was a b It didn't look like a flight to the Middle East at first blush, meaning there weren't many people whose region of origin could be easily determined by their appearance. From a cursatory glance at the Visa line when I arrived, there were a large amount of vistors to Jordan on the flight. Somewhere in the middle of the flight it occured to me that I only had $14 USD in my wallet. I started worrying about the cost of a visa. The visa for Turkey was $20, if I recalled correctly. I hoped that there would be an ATM before immigration and customs. Arriving at Amman's Queen Alia International Aiport, I saw there were none. Fortunately, the cash exchange place had a visa sign... but they would not take my bank card. I gave them $14 and I got 10JD back. The visa cost 10 JD.