"We cling to memories as if they define us,
but what we do is who we really are."
...Dara Horn"
Speaking of what we do. I hauled my smoky fire place flavored laundry in just now. This smoked by the Blaze of the Century downstairs last week. Everybody's shook up, but okay.
The upside is fresh duds at last.
That, and refreshing showers when I come in from our first mini-heatwave. The precious little things are the particles of experience that make a life.
In mind of my recent experience.
Last night I heard fire engines, and smelled smoke. Another fire somewhere close. Sirens. They herald such drama. Though we never notice them much. Police fire medical.
It's just the background soundtrack of the Emerald City.
Like screams overhead as hundreds of planes land, and take off.
Everywhere guys yelling laughing kids screaming traffic cats dogs complaining,...out loud. Also those little sounds in the middle of the night that no one can identify.
Hint,...it's faeries.
Still we never notice the sirens till one of them has our name on it. When the siren drives up to your house or building then,...stops.
Your heart skips a beat.
Suddenly you're center stage in the vast ongoing story of this town.
...for a few minutes anyway.
No sooner than you're famous infamous dead or missing. The spotlight quickly moves on to bestow momentary "Stardom" on some other character player in the saga.
Eventually everyone get's their turn.
Eventually everyone get's their turn.
I loves this town,...in a way.
12 comments:
A lot of signs in this photo are in Chinese. Are you sure this is not a city in China? Or is this just a sign of the times? I know the Chinese have taken over and totally exploited Africa and are hard at work on Southeast and South Asia now. I think they may well be the most brutal of all the colonists that have ever existed. And boy, are they rude!
I’d want to ask the locals in various places where they’ve extended their influence before generalizing about the Chinese as brutal colonists. I’m sure they’ve a long way to go to match the appalling record of, say, King Leopold II of Belgium (10 million Congolese dead, millions of hands amputated in a forced rubber harvest). As far as I know, the only place that China has entered forcibly in recent history is Tibet.
The potential for future bad behavior is there, I suppose. China is the likely next world hegemon. So we’ll find out - I hope not the hard way.
Z
The Chinese have learned how to rob people blind and convince them that they are doing them a favor. They view all non-Chinese as less than dogs.
Go see what they have done in Africa... it's no secret. It's been worse than death in many ways!
For Z
You have not seen documentaries on horrible China actions in Africa for last 10 years?
Tibet is ancient history and they don't use that method for more distant places. Only Taiwan has to worry about Tibet style actions. The way they take over everything now in Africa and south and east Asia is the new style where they tell you they help and then you go bankrupt while they take all the money. This is happens in some smaller places in the west too. Watch your wallet. You are already living in dreajm world on China actions. With China, has been going on for at least one decade now. Five years solid in south and east Asia. Only India is on guard against the buggers.
So *that’s* what “Ink Plum” means. I had no idea.
Hi Jan. I’m willing to believe all kinds of bad things about the Chinese, but I want some solider evidence than your passing mention of documentaries on US propaganda TV, which I don’t watch.
Come to think of it, there are some hints I’ve gleaned online over the years which tend to support your view. One is that China has behaved very belligerently toward smaller nations in the South China Sea, especially Viet Nam, whose fishing vessels it has often threatened. Also, I’ve read that China semi-surreptitiously nibbles away at Viet Namese territory, habitually moving their border posts inside that country’s land area. Probably the worst I’ve heard so far is the story of Chinese vessels regularly dumping industrial wastes out of large vessels off the coast of a stateless country - viz., Somalia. The result was the destruction of the livelihoods of Somalian fishermen, many of whom then resorted to piracy for a living. I’m sure you recall that farrago; it took quite a while for assorted navies to put the piracy down, and even now I wouldn’t want to go yachting in that part of the world.
The insidious way of taking over an economy that you describe, including one’s personal economy - yes, I think I see that around me in action. It’s a particularly ruthless form of capitalism. But have they really killed 10 million Africans? If so, I haven’t heard about it. Maybe they’ll get around to it. Many hegemons do.
One more data point. Some years ago I heard a very smart Canadian I knew describe the mainland Chinese as *the* most racist society, ever. It’s just one man’s word, but he did have a recent PhD in Asian studies.
As for European racism - yes, it’s very real. I found this out after I got interested in that Gypsy flamenco dancer you may recall. I looked up what things are like for Romanies in Europe, and the racism is so thick there you could cut it with a knife. These are the original Western imperialists, after all.
It appears to be a thin line to walk between not being a bigot, prejudiced against everyone, and not being a fool and an easy victim.
Z
For Z
I am not AMERIKAN!!! I do not see USA TV and propaganda!!! I watch AlJazeera, Press TV, Deutsche Welle, RT, and so on. ONly America people I read are Noam Chomsky and like him.
Chinese leave behind them walking dead after taking all the money and properties like ports and CAPITALIST systems anywhere they go. They did this in Africa. Now they are taking over east and south ASIA and even into places in the west. You do not have to kill people to make them wish they were dead!!! Chinese are EXPERT in this!!! They have taken CAPITALISM and made a monster while calling themselves Communist!!!
They hate anyone not Chinese and will only tolerate them only if they can rob them of everything.
Look at Thailand. Ethnic Chinese, who have lived in Thailand for generations have taken over all of the economic and money positions of the country! This is true even moreso now than ever. DO YOU NOT TRAVEL TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD??? Why do Amerikans only know their own backyard???
You must hate me too as I'm though a Nigger Chinese by family,...Ethiopian too.
Grandma was Chinese as are most of my surviving cousins. I fucking spent my first years alive in Chinatown. Mandarin was my if not first language my co-language. I spoke it like Mexicans speak Spanish, and English here.
You always seem so angry. Please calm...be calmed,...such passions for justice are good, but raging is bad for your guts.
It's that commie stuff. ...it stirs the passions. Makes one rage at things. Which tho' necessary in some ways going to far ain't.
My Mom was a Young Communist at City College when she was a kid. At the time they were the 'only' American political force that supported freedom for Blacks.
She left when they made the deal with Hitler.
Also while on the subject.
I'm American.
My family has been here since the late 18th century. Though our direct paper trail fades in the early 1820's. We were property so there's a money trail.
Before 1820 or so by inference. That is we traced where the group of slaves my ancestors were part of were moved, and bought. We're somewhat sure of our ancestors first appearance in this place after 1790 or so.
As for before that.
DNA testing puts my fathers people coming from East Africa. Perhaps Ethiopia. Though I'm not Ethiopian, and don't pretend to be so. Peoples of any diaspora have a choice of identities. Some of my relatives...not the Chinese ones insist on being Africans.
Fine.
I don't see myself as Ethiopian. Though my distant ancestors in the 1790's would have bowed to Emperor Lyasu. I never would...got this thing about feudalism.
Me I'm from Brooklyn.
Ya know where I vote pay taxes, and have white cops point guns at me.
Heck I should be as angry as you, but somehow not. Maybe it's just having the possibility of pointless death happen at any time calms one. Like a soldier in War. You have no time to worry about that.
If it happens it happens...meanwhile you just go about your business. I was going to post something about nearly being shot a few weeks ago. I'm still traumatized, but oddly not as deeply as you'd think. This since as I say I fully expected it.
The rage vengeance thing is just too much energy for no result.
Btw the above photo I took a few years ago on Sullivan Street in downtown Manhattan.
There are large Asian communities there including Chinese...in Queens as well. Chinese, and Mexicans are the largest growing communities in NYC. On the whole these guys aren't much trouble.
Not generally violent stupid or racist.
As say the average white guy from 'Jersey might be.
Except the fucking Tibetans,
Yeah I hope they kick the Chinese out of their country, and all that.
However these guys like the Israelis prove that just because your people were or are being persecuted. That don't automatically make you nice guys.
Here in town Tibetans are virulently racist against blacks,...they even shoot us.
Like maybe three years ago.
A black couple went into one of their take-out places, and before they could order the owner shot them both,...no deaths.
He said he thought they were going to rob him.
Swell huh. I guess he learned how to be American.
Hold your hat on Jan. I asked for evidence to support your assertions, not for louder shouting.
I’m familiar with the media you name, and of course I know about Chomsky. BTW, are you quite sure that broadcasts where you live aren’t also propaganda, just like in the USA? If you live in Western Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. All western media serve basically the same banking and corporate interests.
I used to travel a good deal, until about twenty years ago. Now I’m too poor to travel. Another victory for capitalism!
I’ve visited Thailand, and a close friend of mine lived there for decades. He didn’t much like the Chinese business types, but the situation didn’t sound as sinister as you’re suggesting. I suppose it’s possible things may have changed since he left there.
It seems to me you’ve got a bit of a bee in your bonnet, and are seeing the Yellow Menace everywhere. Are you sure there isn’t a Chinaman under your bed? If not, perhaps you could stop insisting that I am obliged to agree with you and present some solid evidence and more lucid arguments why I should.
Z
Sid - you spoke Mandarin?! It’s not too late to get back on the gravy train!
That’s interesting about the commies being the only group in America to support blacks back then. It helps explain why Harry Hay was a politically active communist - the only group in the country that supported radical social change.
Disappointing about the Tibetans. I hope it’s not all of them.
I’m keeping my eye on China. They could turn out to be as bad as Jan is saying, especially once they’re the new global hegemon, which time is approaching. And it’s a fact that wealthy Chinese have been buying up large chunks of the West Coast, much like in BC and New Zealand. They do seem to be obsessed with money. Too much fondness for capitalism is something I consider to be a serious character flaw.
Z
“The rage vengeance thing is just too much energy for no result.“
Yeah, I’m afraid that’s true. If you’re enraged enough to want vengeance, it’s probably because something’s being done to you that you have no power to prevent. That being the case, rage will only help your local heart surgeon.
Of course, if you actually are in a position to burn down Wall Street or the like, by all means do it.
Z
Wall Street is only two blocks long so burning it down seems doable.
Don't know where all this yellow peril stuff came from,...just like the old days when whites out west used to lynch them.
As I say Asians are insular like Europeans. So they both have a bit more bigotry than most.
This is just a rough ethnic gage. Folks is however folks. Some cool some shits.
It's a mixed bag of shit.
Me I just want to get along like Rodney King.
I think most of us want this.
With that this thread goes to sleep before it becomes a flame war.
Post a Comment