Happines with you was a cry of despair

Panic within
your cubicled heart
just naked white
walls naked skin
I hurl curse scream 
obscured cubicle walls
pushed in

 Excerpt from the 3:15 Experiment  (August 21 )

How to make an (almost) healthy desert in less than 15 minutes

Inspired by a single mom’s post on how to live simple, keep busy and still cook your own food.


Ingredients:

10 whole-grain waffles (pre-cooked frozen or lazy version- bought frozen)

2 oatmeal bars (do not know how to make them, drop me a comment or buy granola type bars)

2 cups of organic vanilla yoghurt (non dairy version :o-soy)

One cup of fruits: mixed berries or sliced bananas or nuts & raisins

Whipped cream (soy –based can also be purchased)

One or two spoons of milk (or non-dairy versions)



Place five light toasted waffles on a plate (if round place four in a circle and one on top to cover the empty space) . Sprinkle with milk. Put in microwave for 1-2 minutes until milk soaks in and they’re mushy . Cover with one cup yoghurt. Place oat bar chunks on top. Top them with the other five waffles. Cover with one cup yoghurt mixed with fruits. Top it all with the whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Makes five servings. I haven't thought about taking pictures before dinner and now is gone.

Transit and Traffic

Eco-Friday: Why I've always loved to travel by train

Contest details

and many thanks to Fare Free Pittsburgh  for mentioning it.

Lunar Eclipse - A Christmas Fable

Above frost like reason the atmosphere revolved

clearer: yet ‘twas the darkest night of the year

lunar eclipse during winter solstice

happens once in five hundred years.            (Aren’t

                      we smart to predict such a rare occurrence

                        to un- whirl the human genome to create

                                                      mice that tweet?)

What wonderous knowledge, indeed.





Below your desk a high-school quiz on STDs:

no cure for AIDS, 33 million HIV + worldwide gives

a country for people with a death sentence in a medical file.

Newspaper picture: a girl too young to be bride fading

bliss beams in a seat her beloved (never husband

to be ) gives her a ring. Then she went gentle

into that good night, yet ‘twas

no raging against the fading of the light.



For all our knowledge and our human might is

just awareness of the moonless night.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

This story comes in handy when cutting toenails...

Once upon a time, in a city like this one lived a little boy called Nick. Now, let me tell you from the beginning, there was nothing extraordinary about Nick, whom like any other little boy was brave enough to climb trees and defend his sister from mischievous dogs. Like you and you and like you too… There was only one thing in this world that Nick was afraid of… and that was not monsters in his closet or dragons but getting his toenails cut. His mother had to develop a very complex ritual around cutting his toenails, even more complex than washing and brushing his sister's long hair.

But one summer, his parents were getting ready to move to another big city (for his father's career);  and Nick had to go live with his grandmother. His grandmother did not live anywhere near the city, but in a small township by the Allegheny National Forest. She had a small wooden cabin with a cozy fireplace, an eat-in kitchen and only two bedrooms –one for her and one for the grandkids. Other than that she was one of the most ordinary grandma's: like yours and yours and like your granny too… She baked cookies, played bingo and had some old, old eyeglasses. And she had no idea about "toenail cutting" rituals.  Because Nick's parents were  very busy, busy with their moving and job transfers,  so they forgot to mention it.  And Nick did not say a thing about it, of course, what big boy would admit to be afraid of having his toenails cut. And he made his sister promise she won't tell either…

After a few weeks Nick started complaining that his shoes got smaller and are hurting his feet. So his grandma' took him to the shoe store and they bought a new pair of shoes: size 8 [one size bigger]… But that solution was short term. And after a few more weeks she had to take him to the shoe store again, because he complained that his shoes were getting smaller and were hurting his feet again. This time she bought him a pair of size 9 shoes. And grandma' had to use the money she had saved to buy a new pair of glasses to pay for them. (This is what usually happens when grandchildren spend their summer with their grandmother's – the grandchildren get new shoes and the grandmothers get to keep their old glasses.)  But she was also worried. So would if your grandparents and yours and yours too, if their grandchildren's feet grew much faster than it is usual for ordinary boys and girls… this when Nick's grandma called the local pediatrician to make an appointment.

As we now, pediatricians in rural areas are only few and far in-between and they are very, very busy. Thus Nick had to wait for about a month in order to be seen by the doctor, since, as abnormal as foot overgrowth may seem it's no emergency when the child has no fever but plenty of appetite for home cooked meals and energy. Not long before the month had passed Nick started complaining about foot pain again, it seemed like his shoes were magically shrinking… Hence his grandma took him again to the small countryside department store and so it happened that they were out of shoes size 10 and up that week…They ordered more big size shoes and meantime Nick had to go home wearing some props that were used for advertizing…
On the way home, grandma and Nick stopped to visit a friend of hers' who used to work as a nurse. And he saw Nick's unusual shoes and asked grandma':

Friend: What is wrong with his feet?

Grandma: Well, since he came here his feet grew and grew until we ran out of fitting shoes. And I bought him bigger …

Friend: Let me have a look.

And when Nick took the prop shoes off, Grandma's Friend noticed the overgrown toe nails and realized that they were the cause of all that ado. So he went to his tool shack and grabbed a small axe he used for wood carving and "chomp, chomp" he cut the toenails like they were some overgrown branches. (And to be honest with you I do not believe that there were any scissors strong enough to cut those toenails, this is why an axe had to be used…)
Nick did not fear any scissors since and his grandma' agreed to keep this story a secret. Tho' his sister was not able to keep a secret and this is how I heard the story and now I am telling it to you…



In memoriam Ana B. (1949?-1992?)

The confessions of a bus rider (4)

The bridges of Armstrong County or how to persuade your Republican representative to fund public transportation

After the most recent pre-election campaign I realized -like this was not common knowledge already, noted Nim - that Republicans do not like taxes. Or so they say… To be more precise, they oppose both taxation and centralization. So, to write a republican and ask them to establish a dedicated state fund for public transportation in Pennsylvania, because that would raise two issues he (or she) likes to oppose (or at best avoid discussion). One issue is revenue –more taxes, more fees? The other is redistribution of funds (who will get what) therefore centralization. So instead of asking for dedicated funding, what I'd like to ask them (the Republicans) is to reduce taxes. Yes, you read it well: Reduce Taxes. More specific: reduce state taxes. Give each county the ability to re-direct that potential revenue towards whatever that particular county needs more. And if you do look at the numbers, it may even make sense…

For example, when the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission had to vote recently on a new "band-aid" funding solution for the Port Authority of Allegheny County, 22 of the 49 commissioners present decided to oppose it. For example two out of the three Armstrong County commissioners present voted nay. So if it were up to Armstrong County the funding solution as pernicious and temporary as it was, it'd fail. But if you listen to their point, you cannot but nod in agreement. They too have roads and bridges in dire need for upgrades and repairs and when some extra money is available at state level, what does the state do? Patching public transportation budgets in Allegheny County.

It does not seem fair, does it? said Yuri

Well, to be fair, if one uses the 2000 Census numbers and a median 3.3% state tax (excludes unemployment contribution)applied to each median income to figure out each county's contribution to PA revenue from payroll (1) taxes only, it results that Allegheny County's contribution is about $651,783,921 and Armstrong County's is $25,563,236 (2). (And these numbers do not even consider all other contributions such as business taxes, tobacco & alcohol fees, sales taxes etc. ) So what if we wouldn't pay any state taxes from our incomes?
This means the Port Authority's budget shortfall is about 7.2% of what we pay in state taxes. And why we ask to pay less in state taxes, so we could pay more towards local projects without paying more taxes. Same for other taxes the county businesses do pay to
wards the state budget - instate of increasing them, just lower the percentage that goes to the state coffers so more can get to local projects. As for Armstrong county, they shall finance their bridge and road projects from their own residents revenues - after all it is only fair...

Or not? asked Anais -after all this is one state we all live in.

Yeah, but I ride the bus in Pittsburgh and I could not care less about the crumbling bridges of Armstrong County.(Annamari)

Notes:
(1) adjusted gross earnings for individuals
(2) these are very rough estimates of the actual tax contributions that will make most accountants cringe. But they do reflect an actual ratio ... In Pennsylvania the
 counties in major urban metro area generate significantly more tax revenue than rural areas.

Sources:
@lndaley  reports from Dec.13 SPC comission meeting
Census data for Allegheny and Armstrong Counties from :
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42003lk.html
respective : http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42005lk.html

a mother

She used to consider motherhood as being a transient state of facts. She said you need to dwell in it positively but have to not let it define you. To hold unto that which you were before you were with child and you will become again once they'll move forward and return only as visitors.

Yet, this morning, an image of three Barbie dolls sitting cleverly on a table chair and taking in the morning son, got caught in her field of view. And she knew, as soon as the image of her current reality touched the boundaries of her visual field, that she had changed and this change is irreversible.

.

Confessions Tuesday : about several authors...

When I woke up this morning my Droid was blinking -  as it  does when I get new e-mail. So I check my e-mail and realized that one is a notice - I was tagged on Facebook>

"Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes, and they don't have to be listed in order of relevance to you. "
I got to think a little about my list since I hate typing in the droid so I took my morning shower and got dressed before I opened my computer and wrote my own list:

"1. William Shakespeare


2. William Faulkner


3. Fyodor Dostoevsky


4. Marin Sorescu


5. Panait Istrati


6. Andre Gide


7. Reiner Maria Rilke


8. Omar Khayyam


9. Elizabeth Bishop


10. Adrienne Rich


11. Michael Ondaatje


12. Iris Murdoch


13. Paul Squires


14. George Bacovia


15. Hans Christian Andersen"


This is not an exhaustive list  - Being an aspiring writer myself I have to acknowledge the influence of some writers such is more about style than it is about an impact on my life. This explains the presence of Elizabeth Bishop.

In fact, it is interesting that when trying to figure out this list I excluded all authors of philosophy and non-fiction books. Although I owe more to Immanuel Kant, Plato, Wittgenstein, T.S. Kuhn or John Stuart Mill when making life changing decisions than to any author above - with the exception of Dostoevsky, Khayyam and Murdoch.  Not to mention that my good habit of questioning stereotypes was perhaps rooted in the works of Jean Henri Fabre and his notes on the helpfulness and friendliness of creatures long considered bearers of bad fortunes such as the owl, the bat and the frog.

But it also made me realize that there are several authors such as Koestler and Luise Rinser who did not make the list because I never got to read a second book by them even though the first had a definite impact on me. I am talking about The Call Girls  and  respective Mitte des Lebens. It is perhaps the time to add more titles to my list... this is why I am forwarding the request to Bea, Julie , Gautami, Hannah , Bryan, Dhyan and whomever wants to try it...No need to reply or foward it , just  try it for yourself...

PS If you would like to read one of the Romanian authors from the list but cannot read in Romanian

for Bacovia I'd  suggest Brenda Walker's translation :Complete Poetical Works and Selected Prose of George Bacovia

and for Marin Sorescu :Selected Poems. Translated By Michael Hamburger

Confession Tuesday: The confessions of a bus rider (2)

"In my life I’ve found myself the only pedestrian in Los Angeles, and the only white pedestrian in Johannesburg. Begging lifts from acquaintances, I’d end up in the back seat like an eight-year-old."

In all honesty, this statement is not mine. I only was the only white bus rider on the former 51A, passing through the Projects, who was neither a drug addict, nor a case worker. The story from which I quoted above belongs to Simon Kuper. A non-driver, with whom I sympathize because I am a non-driver too. Especially since I moved to Pittsburgh and I experienced the shortfalls of being one of the few suburbanites without a driver's license. And if for the older women it did not seem that unusual to be a non-driver - after all I am a woman and do not need that power extension called "car" to stress my social status - in my age group I was quite a rarity.


Fortunately , in the last two years, I started to notice more often bus riders in my age group. And I realized that there are more people in my age group returning to the city. The " new trendsetters", as Simon Kuper calls them...and he is right. And he rightly notes that cars are no longer what they used to be... They do no longer stress the driver's prestige, unless they are custom made, since the broad supply of good quality vehicles and the auto industry crisis drove prices down. They are not the time savers they used to be either - a car ride would only 'save' me 20-30 minutes from the trip. But I did use my bus ride to write the draft on this blog post. And honestly, you wouldn't want me to do that while driving? Not to mention that the costs of driving , either quantifiable such as insurance, gas and maintenance or not, like pollution, are going up as the prices of cars go down...

It is not that the car will disappear as a mean of transportation. On the contrary - as developing countries adopt it , more and more cars will roam the Earth. After all they have their use, especially in rural areas where the only other option may seem to be riding horses or walking ten miles to the closest store. But they are no longer the defining mean of transportation for the 21st Century, as they were for the 20th...

Plus, there is something else about it, about being a "non-driver" in love with the opportunities of urban dwelling ... Such as the possibility to walk out in the morning and stop for a cup of coffee in my way to work . Or the indescribable emotions - to be able to stroll down the Corso* on an warm evening thinking "And maybe I will meet with a friend ...or make a new acquaintance "

And I realize that I cannot wait for the day when my son will graduate from high-school and I will be able to move back to the city. Because it is not that I am a non-driver...  but that I am a pedestrian and a bus-rider.

P.S
@shadow "realize bike is also a mode.I've done bus+zipcar+walk+zipcar+bike for a trip."

me: Yeap, bike riders are citizens of the 21st Century too.




*Corso -the generic name used by Romanians to denote the main walking route (boulevard ) of the city.

Confession Tuesday: the confessions of a bus rider...

In case you ever wondered how you can get a ride in a prisoner transportation and containment police unit without actually getting arrested, there is at least one way to do it. The way I did it -  use public transportation as my one and only commuting option one cold, snowy winter day:

.......

IT was during one of those snowy days that I got to ride in a vehicle that, I hope, I’ll never get to ride in again. It was a dog day evening with freezing snow hitting the ground and the 35A never made it to the bottom of Stilley road, so I decided to walk. By the time I got one quarter mile up the road I could already feel frost in my bone marrows as I started stumbling against the wind. This is when the police car stopped in front of me. It was not a patrol car but a prisoner transportation and containment police unit – a Jeep with a protection glass screen between the front and back seats and some cool safety features. One guy in, the driver, asked me something along the lines " Where are you coming from & have you been drinking?". I guess I looked like one that just tried some johnny walker swing…


“Coming from work & going home. Not drunk, but frozen. That 35A did not show” I said. “Now I am walking home”

I do not know if he just felt bad about leaving me behind to walk myself into becoming Mrs. Frosty or he did not want to take a chance, but he replied:”get in. It is dangerous to walk down here at night; you could get hit by a car”.
............................
 
 
More on the Allegheny County Transit Council blog.

Public Transit III: And what was all that talk about?

According to Wikipedia (we cannot trust it 100%, but this is not serious, serious research) PAT is “the 11th largest [public transit] agency in the U.S.”A statement that can only make me wonder how much worse public transit is for the rest of the U.S. No wonder that in 2005 USA accounts for 18.33% of the global yearly greenhouse emissions, second only to China and it is ranked as number one for cumulative emissions in the 1990-2005 period(1). For contrast, in the same year EU (27) accounted for only 13.35% of the global yearly greenhouse emission (1) even though its population is larger: 490.898 million (2) compared to 288.4 million (3) for the United States.


The statement that, a solid public transit network can help reduce emissions and our dependency on oil is a truism. So I will not spend my time and space on numbers –though I am sure that a solid research can be done. I will return instead to my previous posts on the subject:




The first one, Public Transit I, covers the public transit system in various other cities, most of them European cities. The point?

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the research of supply chains and operation management of similar companies, organizations etc. which are successful in order to improve your own operations and supply chain.

Or, in short and simple English, benchmarking is to learn from other successful businesses how to make yours better than theirs.

So what could PAT learn from the transit agencies covered in the first post?

From Bucharest’s RATB it can learn that the use that transit can be re-directed so instead of converging to one focal point: downtown, it will converge towards several interconnected points in the core area of the city. And of course the connection between these points has to be able to avoid traffic so we are talking about a busway or an assigned bus lane, T rails or underground connections. The gain: By avoiding concentration to one point, the transit system can avoid unpredictable delays during peak traffic hours as well as major events such as sport events, official visits, major conventions etc.

From Budapest’s BKV it can learn how to take advantage of all resources (trains, ferry, incline) in order to cover a huge area and serve a population counted in millions.

From Freiburg’s RVF it can learn how to manage the transit system and solve the problem of wages and salaries by outsourcing services to several subcontractors that specialize on different types of transit (railway, rural transit, city transit). And for VAG it can learn how to cover a whole city and offer service to about 210,000 people per day with a minimal number of routes.

From New York’s MTA it can learn that it can be done in the United States as well, and how it can be done in the States.



The second post , Public Service, describes the way a client perceived two major nonprofit agencies offering a certain type of services  we call “public”. The point?


Marketing:

Unlike the users of services such as Medicaid and food stamps, a majority of people taking advantage of the specific services offered by the city’s public library and county’s public transit system do have alternatives. These alternatives are obviously costlier –as it is more expensive to buy books or purchase a ticket to see a magic show – and in the case of public transit they are also inconvenient -to find parking in Oakland or Downtown is not only expensive but also difficult. However, most of these people are also American consumers. Therefore, if PAT does not even look as if it is trying to make it a pleasant experience, most of these consumers will find alternatives.

For example: several people complain about the condition of sidewalks (or lack thereof).

The answer: It is not our property; we cannot make any changes, contact your city district or your borough.

Ok, I got that – you cannot fix it. But, can you help? Is PAT able to show me, the customer, that at least it cares as much as I do if I get to the bus stop in one piece or not? After all it is PAT’s interest as much  as it is mine. If I break my legs (or worse) they lose a client. To give another example of what is this “ show that you care “ that I am talking about let’s take Walmart and their organic cotton apparel campaign. It is quite obvious that Walmart is not selling organic cotton t-shirts for $5 for direct profit, but in order to retain the cash strapped liberal & environmental conscious consumers it gained recently. What does the Walmart example illustrate? Maybe consumers turned to Walmart’s goods or PAT’s services because it was their only option on the short term. Or because they perceive it as less costly in a period when “cost awareness” and “price sensitivity” is the trend on the market. But you (Walmart/PAT) still need to show that you need them as much as they need you. You have to show them that you care about their particular needs. Because what builds a strong business or organization is not a fad or a short term need but consumer loyalty.



In all honesty, the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT) is definitely trying to improve both services as well as the way they communicate with their clients. It is a start, I admit…But it is a very timid start in my opinion. And this is exactly what I am going to write about in the fourth and last post from the Public Transit series.





Notes
(1) Source Climate Analysis Indicator Tool (CAIT)
(2) Source: EPP.Eurostat
(3)Sourse : U.S. Census

Public Transit II: Public Service?

There are two kinds of public service I use on a regular basis since I moved to Pittsburgh. No, no...hold your breaks ...I was not talking about  TANF and food stamps. I meant public transit and public libraries.

You might have noted my previous posts on the main public library network in the Burgh. If you haven't, you can read them  here and here. I haven't wrote much about the Port Authority, nothing beyond the accidental rant here and there.

And there is one more  thing these two institutions have in common -they are both affected by the projected budget cuts which are plaguing most states and cities in 2010. However, the reaction of their management teams couldn't have been more different.

Carnegie Public (CLP) :

The website as well as the client interface are cooler than last year and some extra features were added.
I am not sure if they were able to organize more events this year or they were just able to advertise them better. Whatever they did it worked for us : we viewed 2 puppet shows, one magic show and two open stage musicals .
I am certain that their staff is worried and frustrated since the funding cuts usually will lead to layoffs.However they were neither less friendly. nor less helpful because of it (kudos to them!).
Just browse the 2009 annual report and you will get the message -it is quite simple: this is what we are, what we have accomplished , what we can do and will do in the future and how we think this can be done. It reads just like an invitation ...

Pittsburgh Port Authority:

Beside the addition of a twitter account and blog there are no major changes to the website. It is as hard to navigate and colorless as it was 5 years ago. It almost tells me: you know that you are not welcomed and we know that you won’t use our services if you had an alternative.


The customer service people are as unhelpful and unfriendly as ever (do they get paid $20/hour too so they can read to me the same information I can read and still do not get from their website?)


The recent route changes were supposed to improve traffic flow. Somehow all I hear around me are stories about buses which went missing on route, missed connections and a lot of raised shoulders.

The drivers whom were unfriendly are even more so, the friendly ones are now reserved. Yes, I understand that your jobs are at stake but com’on what are you afraid of ? Are you going to be sanctioned for siding with the passengers if you , at least , let us know why a bus did not make it on schedule?

And for PR : rumors that the fare is going to be soon $7.

I know I may sound unfair towards PAT, but this is why they made me feel lately - as a peon in a game between management, unions and the State Senate.

Public Transit I - here and there

I found myself saying it, for  the umpteenth time: I used the public transit resources in several European countries & cities and  nowhere was the public transit system worse than it is here.
the reply I usually get : oh, but that is in Europe. Here public transit is not manageable. Distances are too big. People are too attached to their cars. Yada, Yada...
And, as if  the repetitive : we cannot improve it, it does not work here was not bad enough, the most recent route changes in Pittsburgh made it even worse. And not  because it eliminated more routes and resulted in more delays and detours than before, we were already used to that. This time they had to say it:

the route changes were actually meant to improve the traffic flow by offering better service in areas with high demand and eliminating only the routes where demand was negligible.(They don't ).


Before I even start discussing the local system, I would like to give the local reader an idea about places where public transit actually works. This are all places where I stayed as a student or tourist for more than a week(1).


Bucharest , Romania:

Country GDP @purchasing power parity : $256.3 billion (2009 est.) / per capita: $11,500(http://www.indexmundi.com/)

City area:110 sq. miles Population: about 2 millions (http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )

Public transit RATB: Bus, Subway, Light Rail Fares (2 trips magnetic cards):$.80 or $2.14 for the Airport Express. It offers 161 routes and 2835 stops , it covers 1946 km (1209 miles) , it serves 2.6 million riders per day and , as of may 2010, the incomes are: lowest salary (PT cleaner) $29/month, highest : $3279/month (CFO) , median driver salary: $1065/month (http://www.ratb.ro/ )

Comments:
Cons: There is no service between  midnight and 5 am. Buses were often off schedule and riders had to wait for a bus for 20 minutes or more in the summer heat or the winter's freezing cold, though I was told that the situation improved in the last years. Buses can easily get overcrowded during peek hours. If one needs to change the bus or light rail route during the trip, one cannot purchase a transfer but has to pay for each trip individually. However:
Pros: The public transit system has a large number of routes well organized into a complex network which covers all city areas. In order to avoid downtown congestion, the backbone of the public transit system is the underground subway connecting several focus points towards which the rest of the traffic converges (2).  There is separate service for the airport and railway station as well as neighborhood to neighborhood routes. Many vehicles are relatively new, well kept  and comfortable. There is supposed to be a specially designed space in order to accommodate wheelchair bound riders and strollers.
    The access to each  vehicle  is through all doors. Riders are able  to purchase one trip tickets, magnetic cards or monthly passes through different vendors. The fare is paid by composting a ticket or swiping a magnetic card through a ticket reader (or at the entrance of subway station). Controllers may check riders on a random basis and riders that are found  traveling without paying are fined a hefty fee.


Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Country GDP @ purchasing power parity 2.812 trillion (2009 est.) /per capita $34,200 (http://www.indexmundi.com/)
City Area: 59.10 sq. miles Population: about 219, 665 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_im_Breisgau)

Public Transit RVF: Bus, Incline, Light Rail, Regional Train  RVF covers an 1864 miles area around the city and outsources transit services to several regional providers as well as the Deutche Ban     Fare: single ticket zone 1 $2.74 zone 2 $4.07zone 3 $6.65 (http://www.rvf.de/ )
VAG (main provider for the city area) offers 31 routes and serves about 200,000 riders per day and according to the website (http://www.vag-freiburg.de/en/wir-ueber-uns/about-the-vag.html) the four light rail routes are the backbone of the network are coordinated with the bus routes in order to  effectively cover the whole city.
Comments:
Pros: During peek hours trams run every 7 and a half minutes (it used to be every five minutes) , buses run every quarter an hour on average. Service is available 24/7. Tickets can be bought from automatic vendors as well as through the RVF office. The fare is paid by swiping magnetic tickets through a ticket reader. Controllers may check randomly if riders paid their fare, but with the exception of train rides I had not seen a controller. There is accommodation for wheel chair bound riders and stroller. Buses are more comfortable then trams, some long distance ones even featured resting support for your head and window curtains.
There is no downtown congestion, because the city center is closed to all vehicles but public transit ones and bikes.
Cons:Drivers are always on schedule and if you miss a bus or tram do not expect them to wait even if they see you running after it. Since the buses and trams are always on time, you are also expected to make it on time...

Tübingen , Germany
City Area 41.75 sq.miles  Population 85,344 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCbingen)
Public Transit: Bus, Regional Train SVT offers 35 routes and 370 stops. Fare:  one ticket is $2.61and is good for 60 minutes.(http://www.svtue.de/aktuell.html)
Comments: Because the  student dormitory was nearby the University Building, Mensa, Penny Markt, Farmers Market, Library and the  town center I had barely used the public transit services. But buses are always on schedule. There are trains running to Stuttgart every hour. There is 24/7 service.

Germans, in general, are quite conscious about the environment, therefore riding the bus to work or a bike is very well regarded in the community in spite of the fact that the average German family can afford to purchase and maintain cars.


Budapest, Hungary

Country GDP @ purchasing power parity $185.7 billion (2009 est.) /per capita $18,700 (2009 est.) (http://www.indexmundi.com/)
City Area: 345 sq.miles Population 2,055,000-2,100,000 (http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf)

Public Transit BKV:Bus, Light Rail, Subway, Regional Train it offers 4990 stops , it has over 2800 vehicles in its fleet,  it covers 825 million sq miles in an year, it serves 3.58 riders per day(3). Fares: a ticket is $1.61, if bought on board $1.85 and a transfer ticket $2.26.

Comments:
Cons: I never got how the transfer fare works and from what I heard neither did other visitors. Not all vehicles seem to offer access for wheelchair bound riders and strollers.
Pros: There is timely comprehensive service available to all areas, no matter how peripheral they are located, even though the area serviced is almost three times bigger than Bucharest and almost six and half times bigger than Freiburg. 24/7 service is available for riders in several areas of the city. 

Ferry transit on the Danube, run by private contractors, offers regular service for commuters living on the nearby localities and working in the city.


Sofia, Bulgaria

Country GDP @purchasing power parity $90.44 billion (2009 est.) /per capita $12,600 (2009 est.)
(http://www.indexmundi.com/ )
City Area 80 sq.miles Population $1,050,000 (http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )

Public Transit(SKGT): Bus, Light Rail it offers 121 routes  (4 served by private contractors) and it covers 1114.4 miles of road and single track (4)Fare -1 trip single ticket -$ 0.68. Tickets can be purchased on the board of the vehicle as well. (http://www.skgt-bg.com/index_en.htm)

Cons: Compared to Bucharest and Budapest the vehicles are older and there is no subway. Controllers were extremely rude. There is no night service.
Pros: Even though the University's building and the hostel where we stayed were on the outskirts of the city I never had any trouble getting downtown or to the Vitosha mountain by bus or T.



New York, USA

GDP @purchasing power parity $14.26 trillion (2009 est.)/ per capita $46,400 (2009 est.) (http://www.indexmundi.com/ )
City Area 4349 sq.miles Population about 20 million (http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )

Public Transit:PANYNJ  PATH rail ,bus , ferry and MTA subway, bus, light rail.
PANYNJ serves about 389041 riders per day and the price for a single ticket is $1.75 (not including ferry service)  (http://www.panynj.gov/)
MTA serves 8,476,693 riders each weekday, offers 422 routes , 734 subway and railway stations and it covers 5971 miles. The fare for a subway or local bus ride is $2.25. The fare for an express bus ride is $5.50 (http://www.mta.info/)

Comments:
I only used the subway in Manhattan or from Manhattan and back.
Cons:  The boot workers were not among the most helpful employees. I had to stop another rider and ask for directions.
Pros:Once I figured out how to use the map and schedule I did not have any issues finding my way around. There was no place I wanted to visit that was not accessible by subway. Underground transfer tunnels allow changing routes without paying even if the lines are not connected. There are directions signs all over the place and maps so one can avoid the not so helpful boot employees. We got lost one time even after asking for directions a few times, but we were told that it was the most complex transfer path and it does happen even to  regular riders.




Caveat: Because I can only read in  English and Romanian ( some basic German too), the information provided is not always the most accurate or the most recent one as I was unable to verify it against the original for Sofia and Budapest. For Freiburg and Tubingen I had to guess sometimes. In all cases when I used figures such as the average number of riders per day were used or the median salary for... , these were all approximations. I rounded the results after converting units and currency.

Only the cities in which I spent enough time to form an opinion about public transportation were discussed. These might not be the most relevant or the best examples for public transit but these are the networks I can remember well. I do recall of course the design of light rail cars  and ferry boats in Strasbourg ( ten years ago and they already looked 22nd  century) but in the  one day  spent there I did not make much use of them.



Notes:

(1) Unless otherwise specified, the information is based on my experience using public transit in each of the cities mentioned above.
(2) for local readers, imagine underground subway connecting 4 hubs (Downtown, Pitt, Chatham and E Liberty) on the 5th.
(3) 2008 data/http://www.bkv.hu/english/evesjelentes/annualreport2008.pdf
(4) Some data as old as 2006.

Confession Tuesday

Last week I received  bag full of goodies (a backpack of books).

Now that a week had passed I shall thank my friend for bringing Borges back into my life - I definitely missed reading him. I really needed to read it again but I do think anyone would need my review.

The week's second read :"No Logo" by Naomi Klein. The book is a must read even though you may not (I may not) agree with Klein's basic beliefs. It is an in depth, intelligent analysis of branding as well as job issues such as temp employment and outsourcing well supported by facts.

 

Most important the Man Booker Prize long list was just announced and here are (at a glance) the four books I consider reading whilst juggling job applications and other obligations. Ideally, i.e. if time allows, I shall be able to read all thirteen books. Or I can cheat and eliminate the ones that are not really worth my oh! so precious time by reading  Falstaff's reviews. (hopefully he'll post them this year as well).

Christos Tsiolkas, the Slap (Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009) -an Australian author with an obvious Greek ancestry and a skill for intriguing titles (what do you think about: Who's Afraid of the Working Class? ). Not to mention openly gay (which I found out after I made my choice). 

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America , because it is Peter Carey.

Andrea Levy's The Long Song  tells the story of a house slave in 19th Century Jamaica, so is a good match to my latest reading travels. Also, according to her Brtish Council presentation:  "Critics have praised the novel’s refusal of easy racial binaries and its nuanced characterization in this respect". And I always favored books praised to overcome stereotypes.

 
 

 

 

And last but not least , Trespass by Rose Tremain. A book about healing, with characters able to overcome barriers such as gender and sexuality .

Artsy

a colorful paper molded hand modeling a bracelet made from band aid strips. the neat part - this is the work of a five year old.

Confession Tuesday:

I must confess that the reason beyond my absence from blogging is mainly due to distraction. It is a kind of positive distraction, though the stress of job hunting in today’s market gets me on my downbeat ”I fell again in a melancholy-full barrel” mood at times.
First, I hadn’t been able to put together more than a few drafty poetic lines after exhausting my inspiration on business letters, friendly letters asking for favors and LinkedIn invitation type letters.
Second, I had not been able to bring myself to the state in which I can read poetry: neither on the web, nor at home though there is a book by Milosz waiting for me at home. (I am going to participate in the 3:15 experiment though*, because nighttime me is not expected to interfere with the new daytime me. I have to confess that after watching this Nova/ PBS documentary on what dreams are, I could barely wait for the month of August).

Fortunately, I do have the time and patience, during my long bus commute hours to read prose : novels, YA and graphic novels… I pick them randomly  from the Library’s shelves. I read them  because a friend had once chucked a remark at me or  my earthwalking friend has a sac full of goodies for me.

Now I am reading “Infidel” by Ayyan Hirsi Ali – I hadn’t finished the first part yet but it is already fascinating me. Her world is hard to imagine for a woman like me raised as a single child, surrounded by the love of a family who was thought that “whomever you decide to marry we do hope that he will be a good man and a Christian ** but you must remember that no matter how well you get along with your husband there are two things you must keep in mind: men are rarely faithful and nowadays temptation is (more global) and you shall never depend on a man for your roof or bread if you decide you may want to step out of your marriage, you must have a college degree”. For me there is nothing stranger than the concept of baarri –the wife that only lives to honor her husband.

I only picked “Infidel” from the library shelf because it was in the near vicinity of the definitive edition of “The Diary Of A Young Girl” by Anna Frank. This edition was suggested involuntary by O. It adds back in all the paragraphs eliminated by Otto Frank for the 1947 edition because of length requirements or issues he had considered inappropriate such Anne’s open accounts on sexuality. And it is based mainly on the b version of the diary. I must confess that when reading it unabridged and uncensored by an adult it had brought Anne much closer to me as a teenager – the teenager I was once, the teenager my son is. When I finished it though, I was weighted down by the same rhetorical question: How can one be so blind to ignore the intrinsic qualities of this young girl –her sensitivity and intelligence, her humanity. How can one be blind to the promises her future held for her just because he belongs to another religion? How can we be so blind?”

It was no coincidence perhaps that both books were so close to each other on the shelf as they do have one thing in common , one space that is not a mere geographical one, i.e. Holland. A place best described by Theo van Gogh’s comment : “If I can’t put my name on my own film, in Holland, then Holland isn’t Holland any more, and I am not me”***

The connection transposed in the shelf space by librarians at Carnegie Library is only one a the few events that made me change my opinion on the usefulness of librarians in US. But this is another story for another time...

*Thank you Gwen, aka Art Predator, for the invitation.

**though my mom in her role of black sheep of the family did not forget to stress that in her opinion Jewish men were better at respecting their wife and remaining faithful to them , she was biased that way I guess.

*** “Infidel” , Introduction, p xii. The quotation was Theo van Gogh’s answer to the suggestion that he remove his name from the short he made together with the book’s author (submission, part 1). The projected part 2 was never completed because Theo van Gogh was killed by a Muslim fundamentalist in November 2004.

the meaning of things?

Forty days had passed since the death of our dearest friend, almost six weeks. Two weeks since I moved here and started my new job at the Library.


I found the living accommodations very suitable –your friend is even nicer that I was expecting it. And yes, my job at the library keeps me very busy. To my surprise I find it captivating, it is much more about it than re-shelving the books and helping with the new catalogs. Next year I may be the one leading the writing program for young writers.  You may tell Annamari not to worry; I try to accomplish meaningful things.


Surprisingly, the more I get involved into all these noteworthy activities, the more I fall apart from the real meaning of things. This is why I was unable to write poetry lately. The more I do, the less I have something to tell. Isn’t that strange ? (Of course, you shall not mention this to Annamari).


As always,


Anaïs

Confession Tuesday: Name. Identity. Culture.

Reading “Anil’s Ghost” for the South Asian Reading Challenge* I had an eerie feeling . There were no details from Anil’s past or present to help me identify her in terms of her Sri Lankan past beyond what she seemed willing to reveal. And that was very little…


The name, especially the name. Her given name –a boy’s name she had chosen for herself and bought from her brother. Her surname that tells the reader no more than Portuguese roots may suggest that her family was neither part of the Sinhala majority or the Tamil minority but … When I tried to trace a Tissera family and their relations I was attempting to materialize Anil's ghost (one of her ghosts to be more precise). But I was not able to find many clues. Not because the European surname but because Ondaatje chose on purpose a name that will be hard to attach to a specific family. Had he chosen a name such as Fonseca,De Saram or Da Silva it would have been much easier for me to incorporate the imaginary character within the histories of a real family, ethnic group etc. **



Why my obsession with the name? After all ,
“what's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Shakespeare, as usual. Take it out of the context and you may wonder as I do – when did we came to act so casual towards names?

Names used to be magic. You recall the way Adam participated to the act of Creation by naming animals and plants.

It was customary to baptize again a child considered sickly or unlucky because it was believed that the bearer of a new name is going to be a new person as well.

Emigrants to the new world would often change their names in order to become members of a new nation, new culture and often, a new language.

In South Asia surnames often indicate one’s caste or social status.

In many European countries people took the name of the trades they were passing down from generation to generation to define their family trees.

But how often do you think about your name as it were no different than what you are. The culture. The self. The person. How often do you wonder, what's in my name?

I had done it quite often recently, because I am like Anil. I am occupying a “dis-located” position in terms of

my nationality: no longer Romanian but white or South Asian or Hispanic or… (depending on the eye of the beholder)

my family: each time I try to pull it around me and wear it as a proud denomination it keeps on crumbling, fragmented, spread all over the world.

my name: Ana is nowadays such a common name – it could be Hispanic, Italian, or add an "n" and it is British, Scandinavian, Hungarian...
 or Romanian. And, in Romanian, Ana turned to be gender neutral as it turned into a gender exclusive name living no option for the possible male offspring but to be born female.( It used to be anna, annas).

As for my surname: well I had to Google that too, because I am still (and in spite of it all I read) a classic when it comes my obsession for the notions of self and identity. But the results were not defined by one language – it seems that the same three phonemes were chained one to another by different tongues and different cultures to call

actions, weapons, brewery tools,
volume units for liquid, time.
Malaysian princes , a Swedish Model, a British sculptor.
Some of my own ancestors among whom one is the mayor of a village, lost now but
 once the nest of a blooming Neolithic civilization.
An ill reputed Chinese writer
– ill reputed from my point of view because he was a member of the Communist party,
fortunately this is only one and the least usual transcription of his name-
and , why not?
 part of the valley of the Thousand Buddha Caves and singing sands.

Such an ubiquitous name. Perhaps the reason why I had to reinvent myself ,and since:I am the brood

of mixed blood, the offspring of contingency call me Ana, Anaïs, Ieronim
or ,if you wish, you could call me

A lány neve Annamari.

I live in a foreign

language.

Notes:

* Book review coming soon.

** More details on the  name-identity-culture in Ondaatje's "Anil's Ghost" in  this paper about transnational identity I discovered grace to Sakura from Chasing Bawa.

Confession Tuesday: Extravaganza(s)

Extravaganza according to Merriam-Webster, 2 : a lavish or spectacular show or event.

(In fact a kiosk selling $5 Kubideh Kebab is neither lavish, nor spectacular. Even if the kebab is Iranian...  But the conflict kitchen concept in Pittsburgh is (a little) extravagant. It does not lack customers though –the food is definitely yummy…)

The reading extravaganza festival – I am not sure it was as spectacular as my daughter had imagined. But it definitely made a splash – after all that rain there was plenty of water and mud to go around. To this add plenty of events involving more water, thunderstorms and mermaids.

And boat races

Certainly, where it is water there are also some fish to catch. Or books…Unfortunately I was only granted a few nanoseconds for browsing through the teen section before I got dragged to the “Oh, mommy, these books have pictures!” section. This is how I explained  later to my teenage son why he got a book about teenage girls in his pile– Hey, I only read the title “Nerves Out Loud” and thought it will fit you like a glove. Plus the kid on the cover picture could very well be a boy –




Ok, I admit -I am short sighted.

“Nerves out loud” is a collection of seven short stories. Seven accomplished women writers share their unique, life-changing experiences as teenagers. Middle-class girl gone wild (you are not insane, you are a poet). The next door girl struggling with an eating disorder. What it is to be a foster child. How it feels to fell in love with your best friend when she is also a girl… Seven different stories, seven different girls and yet one open, honest tone. One style, straightforward, equally accessible and captivating for the teen and adult reader. Hence, if you know a teen girl do not hesitate and gift her the book.

And if you know if there is a similar collection for boys – drop me a note. I am  still searching…