Monthly Archives: March 2009

 
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B/O on the 2/3


The train was already in the station at Grand Army Plaza when I swiped my Metrocard. I double-timed it down the stairs.  The automated voice on the newer trains announced to stand clear of the closing doors. I flew through the nearest open door moments before it shut. I watched the platform slip away as I congratulated myself on my agility and speed and on the fact that I would now only be 10 minutes late to work instead of 15 had I been forced to wait for the next train.

Then I turned around.

I was alone in the car.

It takes a moment to process why one would be alone in a train car during the height of rush hour. Was this train out of service? Maybe we were headed straight for the bowels of the city, some Dante-esque place where the trains are destined for an eternity of riding on a circular track, never reaching a terminus. But through the window to the next car I could see plenty of people. In fact they looked like they were wedged in tighter than a toothpick between two molars.

And then I understood. The realization came to me slowly as if riding on a wave of air molecules. The entire car had been compromised by one extremely rank homeless guy.

I've smelled plenty of foul stuff before. One particularly horrific stink involved a county fair ride called the Gravitron. It was an enclosed ride shaped like a spaceship. You entered into complete darkness (except for strobe lights) and then the spaceship spun around gathering enough centrifugal force that you'd "stick" to the walls. After a month at the fair servicing thousands of funnel-cake-eating, pot-smoking teenagers, I imagine they had no choice but to burn the ride to the ground to eliminate the smell.

But this. This was extraterrestrial stink. I know I'm failing you as your faithful subway commuter, but I honestly can't describe the smell. It was layers and layers and months and months of egregious filth so powerful that it cleared an entire subway car. This was the kind of smell that stays with you. It permeates the fibers of your coat and your hair. Your eyes water. Even breathing through your mouth doesn't stop the funk from going undetected. Somehow, despite years of commuting under my belt, I'd boarded this car anyway. Rookie mistake.

There are not many things that would cause a New Yorker to forgo an opportunity to sit and instead pack himself into a car for the next 30 minutes. I've remained in cars next to people eating chicken wings, in complete darkness, with a mariachi band working the crowd, but this was unbearable. Damn the MTA for locking the doors between the cars.

The ride to Bergen Street when I could move to the next car was interminable. I was poised as we pulled into the station. As soon as the doors opened, I burst out of the car coughing like someone who had been stuck in a gas chamber then suddenly set free. I squeezed my way into the next car. People around me wrinkled their noses and issued sidelong glances at the new girl who stank to high heaven.

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Pakistan: signs of fracture


The attack on a police academy which killed nine comes just weeks after a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked. Lahore, Punjab province's largest city, has experienced two high-profile terrorist attack in a very short time span, proving that militants are not limited to the lawless Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).

In an earlier post, "Pakistan dilemma," I discussed Pakistani government's decision to enter into a peace agreement with Taliban militants based in Swat Valley. The militants have established a Sharia court there and govern in the same authoritarian way as they did back in Afghanistan.

The decision to allow the militants to flourish in Swat Valley has hurt Pakistan's chances of defeating terrorism and getting rid of the Taliban and their al Qaeda friends. Why will the militants fear the government or the security forces when they see that, with enough pressure, the government is ready to agree to their demands?

President Obama has promised to overhaul America's policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan. He needs to stop pouring billions into Pakistan when the country's government is caving under the terrorists' demands. Terrorism in Pakistan can be defeated only when the country's government grows a spine.

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Environmental initiatives in Bangladesh


I recently visited Bangladesh and was very impressed by several of the environmental initiatives this small, poor, and overcrowded nation of a growing 150 million has achieved.

Bangladesh has already managed to completely ban polythene plastic bags in 2002, is successfully using a much cleaner alternative vehicle fuel of compressed natural gas (CNG), is reducing greenhouse gas by keeping vast amounts of waste out of landfills, and uses cycle-rickshaws, probably the most-green urban transportation around, which are abundant all over the cities.

Bangladesh has banned thin polythene bags since 2002; instead people bring their own reusable bag or must purchase a bag like these ones made from recycled materials.
 
Bangladesh is a relatively new country, becoming independent only in 1971; before this it was known as East Pakistan after the partition from India along with West Pakistan (now just known as Pakistan) in 1947.

This nation, wedged between India on the west and north and Myanmar on the east, is one of the poorest and most crowded places in the world; it’s also going to be most affected by global warming. Most of the time when you hear about this country in the news it’s for some kind of natural disaster like Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 or about a lot of its land disappearing if all the glaciers of the Himalayas melt and raise the sea levels.

So maybe because of this or despite it, Bangladesh has the environment in mind.

Bangladesh has thousands of cycle-rickshaws, which are by far the cleanest form of urban transportation.

 

One major problem is air pollution. The government has addressed this with the alternative fuel of compressed natural gas (CNG), which is less polluting than gas and diesel fuels. But industries such as brick factories are another major concern that several international agencies are addressing.

Compressed natural gas was implemented to clean the air and is now mandatory in all auto-rickshaws, which are now painted green and simply referred to as CNGs.

 

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Model (CDM) allows developed nations who signed the treaty to invest in clean technologies in developing nations. Bangladesh is a place that CDM is designed for and several CDM projects are operating successfully. One project is by an NGO named Waste Concern, which takes organic trash, turns it into salable compost, and sells the carbon credits in the overseas market. They keep the trash out of the waste stream and reduce greenhouse gases. In addition Waste Concern has created jobs for the poor and cleaned up the cities.

Tons of organic waste accumulates every day in city markets like this one, the Karwan Bazar in the capital Dhaka. Waste Concern takes the waste, makes compost, reduces greenhouse gas, sells carbon-credits, and has created jobs.

 

Making cleaner brick factories is the latest CDM project for a company that already has helped bring compressed natural gas to the country. Iftikhar “Sabu” Hussain, CEO of CNG Distribution Company, took me on a tour of the pilot clean-brick kiln on the outskirts of the capital city Dhaka.

Brick factories near Dhaka spew out smoke and pollute nearby farmlands.

 

The countryside adjacent to Dhaka is emerald green farmlands starkly contrasted with dirty white brick-kiln smokestacks belching black smoke. Bricks are essential building materials here; everything is built with bricks and the industry is in demand.

Bricks are essential building materials in Bangladesh; everything is built with them.

 

These seasonal factories spring up in the dry season and are unregulated and abusive to workers, says Hussain. They burn coal inefficiently and the smoke and soot fills the air and falls onto the nearby crops.

Workers at the pilot clean-brick kiln organize the bricks.

 

Mr. Hussain’s brick kiln uses technology from China that infuses coal into the actual bricks themselves. When fired, the embedded coal hardens the brick and combusts, therefore using less external coal and releasing much less smoke.


This pilot clean-brick kiln releases less smoke than traditional ones.

 

This factory seemed to release less smoke when I visited, but it wasn’t perfect. Some smoke still escaped, but as Hussain says, it’s still in the experimental stage.

The clean-brick kiln sits adjacent to farmlands outside of Dhaka.

 

keeping the earth ever green

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The whole story


Ron Howard is considering working on "an adaptation of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft — which is a graphic novel from Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz that takes elements of Lovecraft's struggles in real life and combines them with a fantastical element that includes transforming all of his darkest nightmares into reality"

You want to know Lovecraft's darkest nightmare? Barack Obama as president.
Artists, Lovecraft readers, and gothic/emo students everywhere have also chosen to ignore Lovecraft's larger-than-life racism and how intertwined his hatred was with his work. It's not enough that a bunch of "fans" gather at his grave in Providence every year to "celebrate" the man. A fan-created Lovecraft website contains a page explaining the misconceptions about the author. They don't even touch racism. They don't even try to justify any of the following:

The mass of contemporary Jews are hopeless as far as America is concerned. They are the product of alien blood, & inherit alien ideals, impulses, & emotions which forever preclude the possibility of wholesale assimilation…

The primal savage or ape merely looks about his native forest to find a mate; the exalted Aryan should lift his eyes to the worlds of space and consider his relation to infinity!!!!

Let's not be bothered by things like truth, reality, and history. Let's all go to the movies!

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Calls for Submissions

May 2009: Mothers and Fathers

May 2009: Mothers and Fathers Alarge majority of an individual’s brain development occurs betweenbirth and age 5. The most direct and constant influence during theseyears are mothers and fathers, or those that serve in such a role.Children unable to form strong attachment with their parents duringthis time frequently have difficulty forming solid, long-termrelationships throughout the … Continue reading May 2009: Mothers and Fathers →


May 2009: Mothers and Fathers
Alarge majority of an individual’s brain development occurs betweenbirth and age 5. The most direct and constant influence during theseyears are mothers and fathers, or those that serve in such a role.Children unable to form strong attachment with their parents duringthis time frequently have difficulty forming solid, long-termrelationships throughout the rest of their lives. Caring, nurturingmothers and fathers are critical in ensuring proper early childhooddevelopment, and encouraging continuing growth throughout childhood,adolescence, and into adulthood.
In our May issue, InTheFray Magazine wouldlike to explore mothers and fathers. Think about your own parents andthe role they’ve played in your life. Think about your role as a motheror father and how you contribute to your own child’s well-being. We’dalso like you to explore the more metaphorical applications of theterms. People often refer to their country, their planet, or their Godas a mother or a father. What do we mean when we say this? We encourageyou to explore this concept thoroughly, in all of its differentmeanings.
Contributors interested inpitching relevant news features, poetry/fiction, cultural criticism,commentary pieces, personal essays, visual essays, travel stories, orbook reviews should e-mail us at mothersandfathers-at-inthefray-dot-org.Send us a well-developed, one-paragraph pitch for your proposed piece NO LATER THAN APRIL 13, 2009.  First-time contributors are urged to review our submissions guidelines at http://inthefray.org/submit and review recent pieces published in InTheFray Magazine at http://inthefray.org.

I am a writer/editor turned web developer. I've served as both Editor-in-chief and Technical Developer of In The Fray Magazine over the past 5 years. I am gainfully employed, writing, editing and developing on the web for a small private college in Duluth, MN. I enjoy both silence and heavy metal, John Milton and Stephen King, sunrise and sunset. Like all of us, I contain multitudes.

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Saudi Arabia: Winds of change


According to the AP, a Saudi human rights group has published the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" report, accusing the country's notorious religious police of discriminating against women. The report "also urged an end to the marriage of underage girls and demanded a faster pace for judicial reform, including retraining judges."

Saudi women are sidelined, no doubt, but there is a ray of hope. Many bright young women are now standing up and voicing their opinions and concerns, refusing to give in to the country's oppressive environment.

Faisal Abbas, editor of the London-based Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, recently interviewed one such role model for Saudi women. Muna Abu Sulayman, who has been called  the Oprah of Saudi Arabia, is the first woman from the country to host a show on an Arab satellite channel. She now heads the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, working on disaster relief operations and promoting dialogue between the Islamic world and the West.

A mother of two, Muna wears the veil and believes that being religious does not stop one from accepting modern ideas and ways.

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A true vagina warrior princess


"Theatre is a tool for social change. It makes you happy and is therapy for the soul. A lot of people don't realize that theatre can tap into a place where people need to do something for themselves. I provide that outlet."

-Lilly Lips, theatre producer, director, and activist for _gaia

Let me introduce you to Lillian Ribeiro (a.k.a. Lilly Lips), true vagina warrior princess, activist, and my bohemian artist hero. I met Lillian while auditioning for her production of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues for V-Day 2006 in Union City, New Jersey. It had been over a year since I had auditioned for anything. The last audition I had gone to was for Dracula on Broadway, which had gone disastrous as I nervously piped Frank Wildhorn's No One Knows Who I Am out of tune live, in front of Frank Wildhorn himself.

The first thing Lillian said to me as I walked into the room was "How is your vagina feeling today?" If that didn't break the ice, I don't know what would have. Next, I had to audibly produce the best orgasm I possible could. I felt like Meg Ryan in that famous scene from When Harry Met Sally.

Lastly, Lillian asked me why I wanted to be involved with the Vagina Monologues.  My reason was more real than the fake orgasm I had just produced. I was just coming out of a very dark period in my life, where I had been subject to years of abusive relationships with men. Somehow, theatre has always behaved like my deus ex machina. My theatre god has appeared numerous times and lifted me out of my fiery pit of low self-esteem and dysfunctional chaos. I wanted to help and educate women so they wouldn't have to go through the same thing. Within a few days, the casting director called me and told me I got the part! I was to recite two monologues about the clitoris. But, what was I to do? I still couldn't say vagina without cracking up.

Lillian is a very giving director. Our rehearsals consisted of belly dancing and self-empowerment workshops. Most of the actors themselves were victims of abuse. We could all attest that this production was a very healing experience.

This past Sunday, I met with Lillian and asked her why she does what she does. "Theatre gives people a voice to express themselves, using characters as an outlet. You're walking in someone else's shoes to understand what their life is like. We've lost a bit of that—really understanding humanity. Actors fulfill [things] within themselves." 

Lillian has directed the Vagina Monologues for the past five years for V-Day. At the end of our production, she asked members of the cast and audience to raise their hands if they or someone they knew had been the victim of abuse. She boldly said she would continue to participate in V-Day until the day came when no one raised their hand.

This year, Lillian Ribeiro and _gaia are producing A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls (edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle), presented by Art House Productions on Saturday, April 4 for V-Day 2009 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She will also be hosting Lunafest: Short Films By, For, About Women on April 19 at LITM in Jersey City as part of the V-Day festivities. If you're in the area, stop by. Who knows, you may even experience the healing power of a true vagina warrior princess, just like I did.

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Ask Ms. Turnstiles


It is time for our first installment of what is sure to be a popular feature: Ask Ms. Turnstiles. This is where you, the reader, get to ask Ms. Turnstiles anything and everything about the subway.  

Let's begin with a topic that's on everyone's mind.

Q. What is this "doomsday budget" I keep hearing about?

A. This is the latest action blockbuster by Steven Spielberg in which the MTA decides to raise fares 10 percent while cutting bus and subway service in order to cover a $1.2 billion deficit. The climax happens when commuters smite the entire board of directors from the bridge of the yacht purchased by one board member for commuting to his Manhattan office from his home in Rye, New York.

Q. Ms. Turnstiles, I never understand the conductor's announcements. Why is that?

A. Perhaps…should get…checked. Everyone…the…perfectly. Ms. Turnstiles…doesn't…talking about. Oh,…very important…the…train…out of service. To get to…take the…train to…and then the…train. Got it?

Q. What are "metrosexuals"?

A. They are individuals who have sex (also known as "bing bong") on the subway. (Thank you Dave Barry for this astute answer.)

Q. Is it true that you stole the name Ms. Turnstiles from the 1949 film On the Town starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra?

A. No comment.

Q. This is my first trip to New York. I love taking the subway, but when using my Metrocard, I often get a message that says, "Swipe again at this turnstile." What should I do?

A. That's an easy answer for Ms. Turnstiles. You should go up to the street level and hail a cab.

Q. Why do they call New York subway commuters "straphangers"?

A. Back in the old days (defined as P.B. or pre-BlackBerry) subways had leather straps from which riders could hang themselves when it took more than an hour to travel one stop.

Let's wrap up this very informative session with a tip for commuters: Beware the Chinese curses lady.  

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