This is the first day of Fall, the best season. I always liked Fall but in Louisiana it is truly stellar because there is a day in early Fall when the humidity leaves the air. This lowers the heat index greatly and it becomes possible to go outdoors. The month of October is as cool as summer in Southern California, and since there is outdoor exercise again one can absorb natural vitamin D. The city of New Orleans glows, sparkles, shines in ochre sunlight. You can walk the length of the levee and see all the ships come in. It is the month of application deadlines for major grants, the MLA Job Information List, and applications to graduate and professional schools. You define your muscles, state your positions, see your possibilities, and look ahead to the next sunlit year.
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Meanwhile, I have not found any really accurate videos of Lima traffic. I thought traffic in Africa (for age of vehicles) or India (for volume) might be worse, but the videos indicate that it is actually better because it is lighter (in Africa) and vehicles are lighter (in India). I have heard that the very worst traffic is in Baghdad, Dhaka, and Lahore, but again, there are so many three-wheelers and other mini-vehicles in these places that although traffic seems to be as crowded and chaotic as it is in Lima, it just doesn’t look as dangerous. Traffic is also very chaotic in East Asia but again, comparatively non-scary insofar as many of the vehicles are lighter than regular cars. Mexico City traffic is famous, of course, but it is all too modern and organized, and the streets are too well maintained, for this city’s traffic to be comparable to that of poorer countries. Brazilian traffic is not comparable, either, because too many of the cars there are too well maintained.
The closest approximation I have found so far to Lima traffic is in Cairo. There are many videos and I do not know which one to choose. Some are especially good for the illustratively desperate tones of the voiceovers. There are also interviews of Cairo cab drivers, with subtitles, which are very interesting. And it is interesting how many people are horrified by traffic worldwide and have videotaped it. “Traffic + [city of your choice]” is a very amusing search term to type into YouTube.
In lieu of a horrifying traffic video of my own choice I offer you an alternative: the website of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle, AIDESEP. These people are modern, eco-smart, and brave, and they are fighting Big Oil. I was never interested in visiting the jungle – the heat and the mosquitos sound unattracive and we all know what our modernist antihero said, POUCA SAÚDE E MUITA SAÚVA, OS MALES DO BRASIL SÃO. But I would visit the jungle for the sake of visiting AIDESEP people.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 