What's going on?
It's too bad we don't know what's going on.
- American Tourist w/ southern accent
I had forgotten about the smell in the city. Lisse warned me that a friend of hers found the city very stinky, but somehow i never noticed during the years i lived here. Coming from Amsterdam here, though, was a little mistake as the difference is quite drastic - Amsterdam being a rather clean, tidy city and Rome being rather dirty. Pollution creates a foul odor that hangs about the city, and the dirt of the streets and cars (contrasted with Amsterdam's plethora of cyclists), along with the slight humidity, helps that grime stick to one's body and clothes quite unpleasantly.
It could be a clean enough city, if people made more use of the transport system and the transport system were re-redeveloped a little, and if people would stop throwing their trash on the ground and use the many trash cans around. How can people just litter their streets? Don't they care about their home at all? Even Phnom Penh with its dirt roads seemed cleaner, but that's probably due to its lack of pamphlet advertising and its massive recycling campaign (not a true campaign, but poor people come up with very creative ways to reuse anything and everything).
I wonder if the age of the city, if being surrounded by Old Stuff (and Old Falling Down Stuff at that) has numbed their minds to the seediness of their surroundings and made them complacently accept that they must live in a decrepit city. Has the memory of their past glories destroyed any desire to better themselves in the present? Not that they don't try a little, but their present glories amount to what, being on the losing side of a world war and bringing down the cost of living for the rest of the EU? Why not concentrate on bettering your immediate surroundings and stop throwing trash on the ground?
I think there's too much history tied into Rome. Everywhere you turn is more of it - the Coliseum, the Pantheon, St. Peters - and if not this history them a homage to this history, such as the square coliseum in EUR (as seen in a motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins). What is the point of all these ruins other than to serve as a reminder - yeah, you once were something... once, a couple thousand years ago - or to bring in revenue via tourism? In a sense, this history seems a scientific approach to ancestor worship, as well as a copout for working towards a socially concious, clean Rome.
Perhaps the best argument i've heard about the need for history is that those who forget it, repeat it. But those who remember it repeat it as well, so that argument seems a little foolish. Maybe this city would be better off destroying its heritage and starting a new culture, one that knows how to clean up after itself, one that respects a little bit of health in the environment.
Or maybe i'm off-base thinking that littering is a Bad Thing, or that pollution is a Bad Thing. Maybe it's just my U.S.-centric mindset trying to impose itself on a foreign country. Maybe the culture must exist as a whole, the good and the bad, and it is silly to try to separate the two. Maybe Romans should feel satisfied living their lifestyle, grimy as others might find it.
Oh, the quote at the top was from a tourist watching a soccer game in a bar.
- American Tourist w/ southern accent
I had forgotten about the smell in the city. Lisse warned me that a friend of hers found the city very stinky, but somehow i never noticed during the years i lived here. Coming from Amsterdam here, though, was a little mistake as the difference is quite drastic - Amsterdam being a rather clean, tidy city and Rome being rather dirty. Pollution creates a foul odor that hangs about the city, and the dirt of the streets and cars (contrasted with Amsterdam's plethora of cyclists), along with the slight humidity, helps that grime stick to one's body and clothes quite unpleasantly.
It could be a clean enough city, if people made more use of the transport system and the transport system were re-redeveloped a little, and if people would stop throwing their trash on the ground and use the many trash cans around. How can people just litter their streets? Don't they care about their home at all? Even Phnom Penh with its dirt roads seemed cleaner, but that's probably due to its lack of pamphlet advertising and its massive recycling campaign (not a true campaign, but poor people come up with very creative ways to reuse anything and everything).
I wonder if the age of the city, if being surrounded by Old Stuff (and Old Falling Down Stuff at that) has numbed their minds to the seediness of their surroundings and made them complacently accept that they must live in a decrepit city. Has the memory of their past glories destroyed any desire to better themselves in the present? Not that they don't try a little, but their present glories amount to what, being on the losing side of a world war and bringing down the cost of living for the rest of the EU? Why not concentrate on bettering your immediate surroundings and stop throwing trash on the ground?
I think there's too much history tied into Rome. Everywhere you turn is more of it - the Coliseum, the Pantheon, St. Peters - and if not this history them a homage to this history, such as the square coliseum in EUR (as seen in a motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins). What is the point of all these ruins other than to serve as a reminder - yeah, you once were something... once, a couple thousand years ago - or to bring in revenue via tourism? In a sense, this history seems a scientific approach to ancestor worship, as well as a copout for working towards a socially concious, clean Rome.
Perhaps the best argument i've heard about the need for history is that those who forget it, repeat it. But those who remember it repeat it as well, so that argument seems a little foolish. Maybe this city would be better off destroying its heritage and starting a new culture, one that knows how to clean up after itself, one that respects a little bit of health in the environment.
Or maybe i'm off-base thinking that littering is a Bad Thing, or that pollution is a Bad Thing. Maybe it's just my U.S.-centric mindset trying to impose itself on a foreign country. Maybe the culture must exist as a whole, the good and the bad, and it is silly to try to separate the two. Maybe Romans should feel satisfied living their lifestyle, grimy as others might find it.
Oh, the quote at the top was from a tourist watching a soccer game in a bar.
posted by francisco at 11/25/2004 01:50:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home