Taipei Essential

We had already seen the other two big cities' story in Asia, Beijing and Shanghai, this time let's see another amazing city, Taipei, which is where I'm from.

If you Google image "Taipei" you will mostly get the image of Taipei 101 which is the most symbolic building in Taipei. Taipei 101 is as known as the Taipei World Financial Center it is a multi-purpose building, if you want to step out from the image of a serious busy city surrounding by skyscrapers and take a breath you can go on the top of Taipei 101 and view the gorgeous city view from the tallest point, and the beauty of this city will amaze you. But Taipei 101 is not the place I want to recommend today.

Today I would like to introduce some other place Eslite bookstore is a place you can relax, read, and spend your afternoon or whole day there. People loves to go to Eslite in

middle of the night maybe take a sip of coffee and spend rest of your night in books. In Eslite you can find almost every kind of published lectures in major languages such as English, Chinese, French, and some others. Eslite usually has café that people can buy books and stay there and eat and read. Go to Eslite had become a “fashion trend” in Taiwan especially Taipei, some tourists listed Eslite as one of the must-to-do when they visit Taiwan and of course my family and I really enjoy the environment in Eslite.

Just like Austin, TX, Taipei is also a place full of live music and independent music. In Taipei we have plenty events every year for people who want to show off their skills and share their music, the

government has push and encourage people to try out for those music events. In Taipei there are many neat live houses for example, Legacy Taipei, THE WALL, and Witch House they have live music concert every weekend. Listen to concert in the live house is different from listen to concert in the big concert, in the live house people dress casually and everything is soft and touches your heart nothing fancy but the purest voice and the power through the music. A lot of singers love to take their guitar, stand on the stage and sing what they feel to sing at the moment, nothing is in rush or worried.

Small City of Saudi Arabia

Rahima, Saudi Arabia is one of many little cities in this Middle Eastern nation. This one in particular is right outside the Aramco compound, Ras Tanura. This small run down city holds an abundance of delicious Arabic foods as well as the American fast foods KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. In the old tattered shops there is everything from expensive gold souks to fake brand clothing stores, and of course the traditional clothing of Saudi Arabia.

The layout of the main shopping area of the city is two main streets that enclose about four perpendicular side roads. One of these roads contains the gold souks, there is a men's street and women's street, and the last street contains Abdulah's Jewelry which caters to westerners as well as some electronic shops.

Rahima is filthy. Trash and oil marks cover the sidewalks and streets. The buildings are all a tan color covered in dust from a previous shamall. Many people live above their shops, so AC vents drip on to the pedestrians. Mangy cats walk around, indifferent to the people. But what makes the distraught nature of this city interesting is walking into a gold souk or Abdulah's Jewelry. When walking in the heavy door the clean air is refreshing. The pail floor is spotless. Shiny gold hangs in the windows and along the wall in glass cases. Under glass tables white spotlights are delicately placed to enhance the sparkling diamonds inlaid in gold on the soft off white trays. It is amazing that those stores can have such beauty and richness inside while outside lies the dirt and chaos of the street and the honking horns of cars.

When the time for Prayer approaches, all of the shops close up with metal blinders locked at the floor, the dirty streets are free of the chaos of cars and people that are now at the mosque. But it is still not quiet. Prayer call echoes through the streets. There are multiple mosques throughout Rahima. Most are simple square buildings with a tall standing minaret. There is one large mosque which is not a sore sight like the rest of Rahima. It has four minarets surrounding the large dome with a crescent moon on top. I have never been inside, but I have heard it is very pretty. Intricate designs adorn parts of the walls and there are areas of stained glass. Prayer call occurs five times a day: two thirty minute prayers and three fifteen minute prayers.

There are many cities in Saudi Arabia with the same characteristics I described, so Rahima is not exactly the impoverished city, but rather the norm, especially for a small city. There are also many people who live in Rahima who are from a different country which has worse conditions so they work in Saudi and send their money home. I have also never talked to anyone who lives in Rahima because the majority of the people out

are men and Sharia Law forbids assosiation with someone of the opposite sex.

A trip into Rahima is always chaotic with its horid drivers and timing the trip between prayers, but non the less it adds a little diversity to the day and a pit stop at a shawarma stand is always enjoyed.

Video of Islamic Prayer Call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GiZPyII-hg

The Hierarchy of District 9

Statue in front of District 9 caption saying: "District 9, Paving the way to unity"

District 9 is a motion picture directed by Neill Blomkamp which depicts the compartmentalization of an alien race, segregating them from the rest of the population. The "prawns" are only allowed to live in a government camp that translates to a real world slum or ghetto. This movie consists of a classic problem with urbanization, the separation of classes. In a city, someone has to be on the bottom of the social/economic ladder.

In Johannesburg, South Africa this is true for the immigrating aliens who are not accustomed to the social norms of human society. In the picture above is a statue showing the unity between the aliens and humans. This statue is only an act to satisfy the ironically named "humanitarians" of earth but the aliens are still a completely seperated part of the community. One woman when being interviewed for the documentary style

A picture showing the would be new residence for the aliens

movie says "[the government is] spending so much money to keep them here when they could be spending it on other things. At least they're keeping them separate from us." The aliens are considered to be hostile and gross creatures. In district 9 there is an abundance of gang activity and crime but what is not acknowledged is the fact that the aliens are uneducated. For instance when Wikus van de Merwe is going from shack to shack asking for the signatures of residents agreeing to move out of their homes within 24 hours many do not know what eviction means and yet are still forced to sign the document. But why keep them confined on earth if they only contribute violence and crime to human society? Because their weapons are more powerful than anything ever created by man yet men have not been able to control or reverse engineer any of the weapons.

Humans had been performing cruel experiments on the aliens for years trying to master their technology. And although the aliens have more advanced technology they are still confined to their camp and looked down upon. Having to live amongst the discarded remains of Johannesburg, the aliens become such monsters that society systematically organized them to be.

Movie Trailer