[This is an older post. I wrote it in October, and never got around to publishing it. So here we go. I may have been a little downbeat. But the vacations are coming up, and I'll get lots of blue sky and open space, so life could be much worse. :-)
In other news, I am about to complete my book-chapter on "Security of Electronic Voting" - I am quite proud and hope that it will be a good reference. If Allah is with us, they will publish the book in February, and if the power-that-be don't have me run over by a truck for complicating their lives, fame and riches to hopefully to come. Or at least, some consulting money.]
[October]
After a while, a life sign from me. I have just returned from a short trip to the Patagonian coast, to escape the city for my birthday. I went with my girlfriend to the Peninsular Valdez, to see the Southern Right Whales that are there at the moment to copulate leisurely and give birth to last year's baby projects. A solid 20 hours of bus travel (though thank God in “business class” sleeper bus) got us there, and we spent almost 4 days.
Seeing the whales was amazing – I had seen whales before only from the coast, in South Africa, and being in a 10 meter boat at “I can touch them” distance was very different! The sounds they make, the communication by bashing the ocean with their fins, the jumps of the babies out of the water... Well, when I say “baby”, imagine a creature of some 5 meters length – but in comparison to the 15 meters of mom, that's still small.
They are quite curious, and get close without seeming afraid, investigating the boat. Fortunately, we went with a small boat, only some 10 people, so the noise was minimal, and the feeling of being closer all the more intense. The only way to be closer yet would be in the water with them, diving, which I didn't get to do this time, but I certainly will try another day.
In addition to the giants, we also got accompanied by a bunch of dolphins, swimming around, under and before the boat, jumping, having fun, and annoying the whales -- the two don't like each other particularly – maybe the dolphins are too fizzy for the patient tranquil whales :-). Add to that a few sea lions checking things out, and you have the multitud that came to throw a wet party on my first anniversary of the beginning of old age. Coool!!
I took a few videos, and will try to put some here on the blog, if that doesn't work (that is, if you don't see any here), drop me a line and I'll send some via email.
Anyway, being in Patagonia again, with the wind-swept coast, the huge sky, just the immense beauty of it all, made me feel so different. Mariana and me spent the better part of a whole afternoon just lying in some high dunes near Puerto Pirámides (the only, and tiny, village on the Peninsular), looking up into the sky, with clouds forming and changing and passing by, in absolute silence, only the wind singing in the grass. It put me in almost a kind of trance, between dreaming (various funky things) and being awake, just in the moment. An amazing experience, and I felt maybe closer to the essence of “real life” than with most other things I do, and people here in the city of Buenos Aires do, in their daily life. Would I be “wasting time” if I did that every day? Not only after 20 hours bus ride, over a long weekend, twice a year? Would I be leading and “unproductive life”, not using my potential to “make an impact” in the way the world works? Do I need to live in the capital to make my life worthwhile?
As you will have noticed by my previous posts, my love affair with Buenos Aires as a city has cooled a bit. Having been here for over a year now, I have come to miss the ample green spaces that for instance Berlin has, I have come to miss the distinctive cityscapes that other cities I've known -like Boston or Sydney- have. Buenos Aires remains fascinating culturally, but as for quality of life, this mega-city does not play in the upper league. Of course, the beneficial exchange rate does allow me a certain lifestyle in the form of eating out in nice restaurants, the odd touristic trip, a 55m apartment of my own, and the liberty to work as a pro-bono consultant in an area that fascinates me while maintaining that lifestyle. But when it comes to “non-monetary” lifestyle benefits, the situation is less clear.
A few examples: This time I brought my bicycle, intent on cycling as a means of commuting to work, like I've been doing in Berlin. Cycling has been my main form or aerobic exercise, and has kept me from getting all too fat in Berlin (well, at least in summer... ;-) ). Now, after hesitating for weeks, I have finally taken up cycling here. It's the first place where I cycle always with my helmet, because I am simply scared of facing the traffic mania out on the capital's streets without it. As I have mentioned before, traffic here depends much more on goodwill and constant 360 degree vigilance than on any traffic rules, street lanes and similar restricting silly trappings. The traffic is constant and heavy, even during the weekends (when I don't go to work). There are very few “quiet” back streets to take – there are buses on virtually all streets, and the smaller the street, the more likely they are to pass you on 30cm space, leaving to praying for balance and your life, never mind ubiquitous potholes. The bigger arteries, like Avenida Corrientes from which I live 2 blocks away, confront you with a maelstrom of 8 lanes of moving metal, but at least they have the left lane “reserved” for bicycles during the daytime, which gives you some space unmolested from buses and constant traffic. Of course, despite the fact that parking there is prohibited, there are constantly autos in that lane, and I have to cycle very alert to not fall victim to carelessly opened taxi doors, turning automobilists who don't bother using their indicators, etc. At the same time, I notice that I adopt the wild-west style myself – I don't bother much with red lights and similar insignificant details, I just go when there are no cars, walkers, bikes, horse-cards, man-carts, buses, trucks, ... If you add to that the incredible noise levels that a street like that produces, and the pollution of the buses, many of which may well be older than myself, you have a situation in which cycling is a heavy duty, mentally straining exercise, which doesn't allow you a second of mind-slip. The risk of accidents is pretty high, and even though nothing has happened to me yet (knock on wood), this makes me also feel uncomfortable taking my laptop when I cycle, which is central to all my projects here. Add to that that the subway costs 22 cents to use, and is 4 blocks from my house, and this plan of aerobic exercise has pretty much failed. The bike is pretty much reserved for the weekend, when I brave the maelstrom for 15 minutes to go to the only big green space the city has – the Reserva Ecologica down by the Rio de la Plata – to cycle there. Better than nothing – but I still see my waistline grow again, and since I hate gyms (which admittedly abound here) I keep searching for alternatives.
I could, of course, move further away from the center, to the greener and quieter suburbs. There, there is more opportunity for recreation of the kind I want. But I keep working in the very city center; actually the literal center of the whole country – our offices are situated meters from the central plaza of the city, with the congress building and a little headstone called “kilómetro zero” - the point from where all distance measurement in Argentina start. So, if I move out, I face commutes of at least an hour or so, each way. And I am not certain at all if a bit more green and quiet are worth spending 2-3 hours of each of my living days sitting/standing in some train, or worse, an overcrowded aging bus.
And working somewhere else? At the moment, that makes no sense at all. I have entered into a very interesting project at my NGO. A colleague and me are investigating the topic of electronic voting, and I am preparing a comparison of e-vote solutions that have been used globally in the last few years, and the solutions that are offered in Argentina, combating for several contracts for elections here next year and 2006. It's very technical work (encryption and security, user interfaces,...) but also procedural (how to organize an election in the best possible way), and not least political (how voting equipment contract are bid for, what types of corruption exist, how can the procurement process be made transparent, which role can open-source play, etc.). It is a hot topic, exactly at the crossroads of technology and politics of democracy, my sweet spot. And I get to co-author a book that my NGO will publish on the topic! If I get very lucky, I might even get the change to advise the government technically on e-vote issues. So, in short, I would be mad to quit all this now for a bit more horizon over my head, and a few cars less. Or would I?
So, basically, I stay in my still fairly residential barrio of Almagro, enjoy short commutes and try to ignore the noise, and console myself that at least I have a balcony and a bit of a view out front (admittedly, onto a tall building, but at least it's some 50m away, and a few trees in between – in comparison, my rear window shows a wall, at 2 meters distance, with my neighbor's window, which provides me with the spectacle of him in bathing robes, playing Solitaire on his computer every morning, but I digress...)
But I have no doubts that, every time I will be in Patagonia, or another part of this beautiful country that is so much more that just Buenos Aires, mother nature will remind me to keep an eye open for a chance to see her sky, in full, every day.
posted by Ingo @ 1:14 PM
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