Month: August 2001
For the reader who never agrees with me, I’m a completely reliable critic
“Was rock criticism ever influential? I have my doubts. I know it reaches people who care about music and who want more variety, depth, honesty, independence or crankiness than they get from other sources of information about music. (It also reaches some very touchy musicians.) But popular music too rarely informs broader culture journalism. Most…
People used to flag cabs from every corner but now you’ve got to hunt
“Some nights when I’m done with my shift, I look at all this cash I have to give to the cab company
Somalia’s air traffic managed in Kenya; small arms fire is the pilot’s problem
“A couple of goats ended up under the wheels of a KingAir once and according to Somali compensation law the herder got paid double their value. I guess they’re all in on it now.”
Slaughtermen earn three times their normal income, vets twice theirs
“When their livestock is infected, farmers routinely get twice the value of their animals, while greedier ones are getting tens of thousands of pounds for cows worth just a few hundred. Across the country there are dozens of foot and mouth millionaires, with the biggest payment going to a farmer in Scotland who received a…
Pouring water in purses and threatening with bricks
“I am from one of South Africa’s most violent communities
Borders drawn with a ruler, and half as close to Berlin as to Moscow
“South of Mamonovo, a miles-long line of motor vehicles stretches down to the Polish border. Many drivers arrive the previous evening and spend the night in their car, in order to get past the frontier as early as possible after the frontier checkpoint opens in the morning. Those who are in a particular hurry can…
I am climbing a staircase where on every stair people are trying to drag me back
“My Cape Town is younger and more vital, a teenager: beautiful, caring, dreamy, craving attention, frequently drugged or drunk, liable to be raped, stabbed, shot, cavalier towards HIV and tuberculosis, often angry, given to bombs, fires, and in-your-face racism. My city is emerging from a difficult childhood with hard-nosed characteristics but no sense of identity.”
Crawling worm lives inside human body
“Another strange medical incident was registered in the territory of the Ulyanovsk region. This illness is rare and there is not much research there. In the beginning there is a knob on the body of a human being. The knob starts moving under the skin afterwards. The parasite Dirofilaria repens, ‘a terrible crawling thread,’ can…