G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y

It almost looked like I wouldn't be able to pencil a page of TSG the other day, but I managed to squeeze it in later in the evening, so you'll notice I readded it to my daily to-list after taking it out.

I used to use a whiteboard for this sort of thing back in Houston, but with much work being done at the Cairo studio over the past three months—work that involved tearing into walls—I had to do without a wall-mounted whiteboard and opted to try a block-pad instead, starting each day with a fresh sheet of paper. It is evidently impossible for me to function without some form of daily checklist.

I typically throw away a day's sheet as soon as the day is over, but I've been keeping them for the last few days now, realizing that it's something you can't do with the whiteboard and can only do with this, and so, perhaps there can be some kind of use for them; glued onto canvas to use as the backdrop for an artwork, folded and sewn into some kind of artist book, etc.

My artist brain doesn't always get along with my anti-hoarder brain.

Inbox 33, RSS at 1836(!).

#journal

Kitchen is now in the hands of a dear friend, who designs and manufactures this sort of thing. Passed a preliminary design his way and the rest is up to him. Despite the kitchen's small size, I do not anticipate speediness; probably 2-3 months if I were to guess. Time moves very differently in Egypt.

Few days of existence without handymen around. Have all but forgotten what my routine used to look like and feel like I need to retrain myself all over again. The idea was that Cairo would allow for the space and time to do all things creative, but it hasn't quite turned out that way, not yet.

(Photo above taken in downtown Cairo.)

#journal

“The imperial civilization may well have absorbed numerous contributions from various conquered peoples, but the hybrid result was still alien to the vast majority. The process of assimilation was often painful and traumatic. It is not easy to give up a familiar and beloved local tradition, just as it is difficult and stressful to understand and adopt a new culture.”

From Yuval Noah Harari's SAPIENS.

“Worse still, even when subject peoples were successful in adopting the imperial culture, it could take decades, if not centuries, until the imperial elite accepted them as part of 'us'. The generations between conquest and acceptance were left out in the cold. They had already lost their beloved local culture, but they were not allowed to take an equal part in the imperial world. On the contrary, their adopted culture continued to view them as barbarians.”

Still the case today thousands of years since the first empires. Take Rishi Sunak for instance, a man of Indian ethnicity who ascended to the seat of British Prime Minister 167 years after the British conquest of India, and who still faced questions about the authenticity of his Britishness despite having practically nothing Indian about him other than his features. If instead a white British PM who'd developed a soft spot for Indian Culture had went on and on about his love for Indian food, music, history, cinema, and textiles, no one would've batted an eye. We still, as a species, seem to be hardwired to be optically xenophobic more than anything. Some of us more than others anyway.

To be expected though, given that the doctrine of equality and human rights is still so very young when considered in the context of human history. But then again, we've kind of been through all this before:

“During the second century AD, Rome was ruled by a line of emporers born in Iberia, in whose veins probably flowed at least a few drops of local Iberian blood. The reigns of Iberian emperors—from Trajan to Marcus Aurelius—are often seen as the empire's golden age. After that, all the ethnic dams were let down. Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) was the scion of a Punic family from Libya. Elagabalus (218-22) was a Syrian. Emperor Philip (244-9) was known colloquially as 'Philip the Arab'. The empire's new citizens adopted Roman imperial culture with such zest that, for centuries and even millenia after the empire itself collapsed, they continued to speak the empire's language, to live by the empire's laws, and to believe in the Christian God that the empire had adopted from one of its Levantine provinces.”

#reads

A most suffocating heatwave swept through the country last week, but it broke over the last couple days and a most pleasant breeze—cool and minty—is making its way through the studio this morning.

Plumbing and electric work are finally done, as is all the wall and floor fixups they necessitated (although, a couple more wall touchups would be ideal but I'm just way too drained to deal with them). Next up: the actual fucking kitchen.

#journal

“An empire that cannot sustain a blow and remain standing is not really an empire. Yet even the Romans found it hard to stomach the news arriving from northern Iberia in the middle of the second century BC. A small, insignificant mountain town called Numantia, inhabited by the peninsula's native Celts, had dared to throw off the Roman yoke. Rome at the time was the unquestioned master of the entire Mediterranean basin, having vanquished the Macedonian and Seleucid empires, subjugated the proud people of Greece, and turned Carthage into a smouldering ruin. The Numantians had nothing on their side but their fierce love of freedom and their inhospitable terrain. Yet they forced legion after legion to surrender or retreat in shame.”

From Yuval Noah Harari's SAPIENS.

“Eventually, in 134 BC, Roman patience snapped. The Senate decided to send Scipio Aemilianus, Rome's foremost general and the man who had levelled Carthage, to take care of the Numantians. He was given a massive army of more than 30,000 soldiers. Scipio, who respected the fighting spirit and martial skill of the Numantians, preferred not to waste his soldiers in unnecessary combat. Instead, he encircled Numantia with a line of fortifications, blocking the town's contact with the outside world. Hunger did his work for him. After more than a year, the food supply ran out. When the Numantians realized that all hope was lost, they burned down their home; according to Roman accounts, most of them killed themselves so as not to become Roman slaves.”

Can we say hardcore?

History helps us see our present in new light, and perhaps make considerations for our future. We might therefore regard our modern day Numantians to be the people of Cuba and Palestine, both having endured blockades not for a mere year, but for decades.

#reads

  • Live TV Wall: Live TV from across the globe, all on one screen.

  • Marginalia Search: Discover surprising, content-rich websites from the less commercial, obscure corners of the internet.

  • Ya Old Blogroll: Curated list of active blogs (where I just discovered Ganzeer.Today just so happens to be listed).

#radar

Public talk at Medrar in Cairo tomorrow.

Hopefully dentist doesn't fuck me up today. But whatever he does it'll surely be better than the don't-put-anything-in-mouth stage of gum-pain I'm currently in.

#event #Cairo

Today in international news is something else.

#radar

Life these days.

#journal #Cairo

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