How Innovations from Developing Nations Trickle-Up to the West

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/133/as-the-world-turns.html

Very interesting article!

- 8 -

Garbage Terrorism

Been walking around here in Sydney, looking up in the sky, studying buildings, people and everything else that gives me a reason to lay my eyes on things in a safe perimeter away from the ground.

As you probably noticed after 9/11 most countries removed the trashcans from the metro, train and airports due to "terrorism" threats. They also chose  to take away many of the trashcans in the city. This has not only become a constant reminder of 9/11 and that a terrorist "might strike at any moment" (which most of us don't find it likely, but we do know that it can happen, and that is most likely to be in the bigger cities). Anyways, not being able to see a place to dispose whatever we might need to get out of our hands has left us with much more then just a reminder of what might happen(...), it has resulted in a much much dirtier environment.

Non of us what's to step over old McDonald bags, nor crisscross between newly spit gum, or anything else that belongs in one of those green, metallic containers, but still the city doesn't seem to find it big enough of a problem to add some more on to our sidewalks.

Are they really that afraid of what might happen, or are they just not capable of seeing how it looks all around us, or are they so used to it that they have stopped caring?

People feel better in cleaner cities, and the likability that someone would through something on the ground get smaller when a trashcan is close and the streets are clean. Or am I mistaken, are we just a dirty bunch in general?

Ghayath Almadhoun - in english

Just received the English translation for all you non-swedes out there

We, who are strewn about in fragments, whose flesh flies through the air like raindrops, offer our profound apologies to everyone in this civilized world, men, women and children, because we have unintentionally appeared in their peaceful homes without asking permission. 

We apologies for stamping our severed body parts into their snow-white memory, because we have violated the image of the normal, whole human being in their eyes, because we have had the impertinence to leap suddenly on to news bulletins and the pages of the internet and the press, naked except for our blood and charred remains. 

We apologize to all those who did not have the courage to look directly at our injuries for fear they would be too horrified, and to those unable to finish their evening meals after they had unexpectedly seen fresh images of us on television. 

We apologize for the suffering we caused to all who saw us like that, unembellished, with no attempt having been made to put us back together or reassemble our remains before we appeared on their screens. 

We also apologize to the Israeli soldiers who took the trouble to press the buttons in their aircraft and tanks to blow us to pieces, and we are sorry for how hideous we looked after they aimed their shells and bombs straight at our soft heads, and for the hours they are now going to spend in psychiatrists’ clinics, trying to become human again, like they were before our transformation into repulsive body parts that pursue them whenever they try to sleep. 

We are the things you have seen on your screens and in the press, and if you made an effort to fit the pieces together, like a jigsaw, you would get a clear picture of us, so clear that you would be unable to do a thing.

Ghayath Almadhoun

Just read an article about Ghayath Almadhoun, a journalist and poet born in Syria, now living in Swede. I can't find the words right now, so here comes one of his poems. I was considering doing a google translate on it, but i believe it will mess it up too much, so here it comes, only in Swedish.

VI

Vi som sprids omkring som splitter, som regnar omkring som slamsor, vi ber så hemskt mycket om ursäkt

inför denna civiliserade värld, enskilt, individ för individ, män, kvinnor, barn, för att vi helt oavsiktligt

dykt upp i era trygga hem utan tillstånd. Vi ber om ursäkt för de avtryck som våra inälvor lämnat i era


snövita minnen och för att vi gjort repor på bilden av den perfekta och naturliga människan i era ögon.


Skamlöst har vi hoppat rakt in i nyhetssändningarna och dykt upp på internet- och tidningssidorna,


nakna så när som på vårt blod och våra förkolnade lik. Vi ber alla som inte vågat titta direkt på våra


sår för att inte drabbas av illamående om ursäkt, alla som inte kunnat avsluta sin kvällsmat efter att ha

överraskats av vår nyskördade bild på teve; vi ber om förlåtelse för det lidande som vi orsakat alla er

som har sett oss på detta sätt, osminkade rester och stycken

som inte sytts ihop eller plockats upp innan

vi visade oss på skärmen. Vi ber även de israeliska soldaterna om ursäkt, de som hade det besvärliga

uppdraget att trycka på avtryckarna i sina flygplan och tanks för att spränga oss i bitar. Förlåt oss för

den otäcka bild som vi blev efter att ni siktat rakt på våra mjuka huvuden och förlåt oss för alla timmar

som ni nu måste tillbringa på psykiatriska kliniker för att åter bli de människor ni var innan ni förvandlade

oss till vidriga kroppsdelar som förföljer er när ni ska sova. Ja, vi är de saker som sågs på skärmen och

i pressen, och om ni anstränger er hårt för att samla ihop resterna som i ett pussel kommer ni att få en

klar bild av oss, så klar att ni aldrig kommer att kunna göra någonting mer.

Ghayath Almadhoun,

- 7 -

It's on the ground, I'm one of them

I prove myself wrong every day, just through seeing the homeless in the eyes and acknowledge that they are there and human. Most people just pretend like they are a bad breeze of air that you need to put behind you as fast as possible. Don't understand that way of thinking. I just look them in the eyes and smile, but then again, i smile towards most people i meet. Sometimes a get a confused smile back, sometimes the eyes looking back at me are just as cold as the pavement they are walking on. 

But today I have been upset with my own behavior way too many time for my own good. I walked passed a sign that had fallen to the ground during the mornings rush hour. I figured I would look weird if i picked it up. Then i figured that I didn't care if I looked weird or not, but by that time i had passed it, and would have to turn back, pick it up,  do a u-turn and then go to work. I figured i was to lazy to do so, and i don't like when I'm lazy. 

Then came the McDonalds paper bag that someone had just gotten rid of in the midst of the rush hour on my way to Darlinghurst. Should I pic it up? Or shouldn't I? I should! Where is the closest trashcan? I can't see one. Should I pic it up and walk around with it? 

Too late, my long legs swept me passed the trash, and my mind was to slow to react... Have to work on that. Making up my mind.

For some people passing garbage on the street, or walking pass things in the super market that has fallen down, or ignoring the smoke from a garbage bin on fire, is a very small thing, they just don't care. They pass it without even thinking twice about it. Then again, some people seem to pass most things without thinking twice, or even think of it at all. I wonder what these people see the beauty that comes with seeing the ugly? And of course i wonder if they see at all, or if they just blindly walk through life wondering what all the fuss is about?

It would be nice to come with some nice deep insight at this point, but nothing comes to me. Just all these questions regarding what is going on in there minds, and what does it take to get them to open their minds and really see. 

I've try doing so with smiles and small gestures every day. But it seems like many of the grownups have closed down, while the younger ones are still open for it. I've had so many reactions from kids, just through walking on the streets with a small smile on my lips, even more so today, a rainy day that i felt was in need of red lips.

So i wonder what it is that makes people go from being open to closed, if there is any space in between that is in the middle, where one might be able to catch them and get them to stay open?

I either most have been one of the lucky ones who have stayed open, or one of the really lucky ones who was caught in my middle phase, or one of the really really lucky ones who was reopened.

No mater what, I do hope that I am truly open, and that I will remain so for the rest of my days. I like it. Sure, it makes me sad quite often, but it often makes me so extremely happy that it sometimes feel like i'm walking around on clouds.

How can we catch people before they close, and how can we reopen the ones that have already closed for the day? 

I'm trying to start a chain reaction through smiling. I know it's not much but i do hope on making peoples days just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better, and that they in their turn will make someone else's day just a little bit better.....

^-^ 





If I manage to be a part of the chain-reaction of smiles, is there any chance to start a chain-reaction when it comes to others things, like cleaning up the city? If not, what does it take to do so?