Blog 1/24/09

Cultures of Change

Hola, Que pasa? Como estan ustedes?

Salaam wa allakum! Sabah en noor, Kiif halkum?

I’m leaving a land rich in fresh water that has no green technology and entering a water poor land that's trying to be one of the leaders in new green energies. Both have long standing love affairs with the plastic bag and disposable water bottles. In Panama I see them both floating along the shoreline or blowing on the wind. In Amman, Jordan they constitute another life form. Every color bag is seen resting in the treetops at night and floating through the air by day. I’m afraid to ask to where they’re all migrating.

It is impossible to ask shopkeepers in either country - in either language – to put groceries in a consumer provided bag. They look at me insulted, as if the plastic bag were a symbol of the shore’s credibility. And this – in Panama – from a country who’s indigenous tribes make the most GORGEOUS ‘bolsas’ (bags) out of local jute. In Amman where water is SOOOOOO scarce, squashed plastic water bottles line the roads, some still half full. No one has communal drinking fountains – this from a region where communal basins for washing your feet before entering the mosque is ubiquitous.

Sometimes cultural behaviors makes me crazy.