Clipe din Viata !
“Ne pierdem în amănuntul dimineții, în căldura amiezii și mai ales în pașii grăbiți spre casă, spre ceea ce suntem obișnuiți zi de zi să facem.
Oare vreodată ai avut curajul să te oprești și să realizezi că defapt, în viață, te grăbești? E vorba de o grabă parcă impusă, undeva notat și apoi remunerat. Altfel nu îmi pot imagina de ce, dimineața, mă grăbesc să nu mă împiedic de scările tarziului și uit să observ că miroase a salcâm. Uit că e ziua de naștere a celei mai importante persoane din viața mea, și asta pentru că e o nouă zi de rutină obositoare.
Este o grabă impusă de artificialul și “normalul” societății și culturii . Dar păcat că ajungem să ne însuşim această grabă și în lumea noastră interioară, contopim visarea cu ora, cu timpul, uităm că răbdarea este un principal atuu al succesului și vrem TOTUL acum, imposibilul nimic să ne aparțină într-o secundă.
Cred cu tărie că această grabă își pune amprenta și asupra sufletului nostru… Și de aici nu e decât un pas către dezamăgire, pentru că nu realizăm că liniștea și visarea se contopesc cu adevărat spre împlinire. Și nu întâmplător am câștigat mult mai mult când nu m-am grăbit și nu am reușit când graba s-a impus!” – (by Mite)
Snaps and thoughts !
These are just some snapshots of Dubai International Airport. Couple of days back I spent almost twelve hours there. Huge and beautiful airport with everything your heart desires readily and easily available for decent prices. Luxury brands available at every turn of the head, luxurious hotels here and there, restaurants and bars that serve all the food and drinks you ever want. People , like ants, going by their business, running to catch a flight or spending some money from the budget they have for their vacation on things they don’t really need , or looking for that place where they can enjoy the difficult to understand pleasure of inhaling the smoke out of a fine cigarette while gently sipping some caffeine.
And yet, you start getting a quite uneasy feeling when you know that , despite having all the life’s small pleasures there, at your wallet’s desire and possibility, you are stuck in a bubble, you don’t smell the wind and you don’t really feel the sun burning your skin. You can not go anywhere until it is facilitated to you.
Probably, seeing the speed of evolution in technology and in peoples dreams, during our lifetime , we will get closer to having colonies, trying to continue life in the vast universe our planet is a grain of. Would I be able to adapt to such a life? Would I ever want to live such a life? Not sure…and I am glad that I might actually not need to find out (or at least I can hope I don’t need to find that out) .
Another Two Takes !!!
Another two takes on Doha’s Skyline. While first one is eye-pleasing with amazing colours,the second one stays more true(in my opinion) to the beautiful ever-changing image and essence of this beautiful city and country. Despite all the negatives like an enslaving sponsorship system that is taken advantage of by still nomad minded company owners (yes…they are few of them left in existence..despite the progress) you can not overlook the good parts…the ambition of a young nation of catching up to speed with the rest of the world and even going way ahead comparing with many of its global competitors . Despite having a high cost to pay, financially and socially speaking, for the progress they made in the last ten years or so…this little country in the Persian Gulf has managed pretty well so far to blend in the old with the new , traditional views with secular views (those nomad minded enslaving individuals make an exception to this…and there are promises that the sponsorship system will be tweaked a bit to step into the 21St century). Anyway sheer perfection exists only in our dreams…therefore I can say it loud that I really enjoy this little corner of “fusion civilization”.
Piatra Neamt – Unforgettable !!!
I am sorry for the poor quality of this night shot. I was lazy to carry a tripod that evening. My ISO was way high and I was in a cable-car.
Roads to Nowhere … !!!
And I mean that literally …Roads to Nowhere…!!! Yesterday I spent my whole day in the middle of nowhere and these were a few of the roads going there…!!! Small little villages looking almost forgotten by the rest of the world were even the mobile signal is so scarce that I had to go up on the highest hill in the area to use my 21st century technology. I had even bought the only one bottle of water available in the local shop. So…yes….they were just Roads to nowhere…!!!
Inhumanity and Cruelty
At the beginning of 2011 I started working on a project to support a campaign initiated on the local web media and forums against the inhuman conditions exiting at that time in some of the biggest pet shops in Doha, Qatar. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to finish it as I left the country . As per what information i managed to gather after that, it seems that the local authorities did a very good job addressing the issue and there have been radical improvements . I can just hope they continue … I inserted in this post just a very few of the images I have managed to capture for the project)
Skyline – Doha, Qatar
Doha, Qatar. One of the fastest growing cities in the world. I’ve lived there for almost 9 years and definitely fell in love with the place. When I first arrived there, in May 2002, they were just a couple of buildings that could be seen on the skyline . The rate that this city, and the whole country, developed at was fantastic. It is true that the oil and natural liquefied gas money had a lot to do with it, but that doesn’t take anything away from the ambition of Qatari people to build one of the most successful and modern cities in the world. With a population of little over 1.5 million from which just about 20 % are Qataris, this little country managed to accept and assimilate all the cultures of the others that found a home there (more than 80 other nationalities…some say even more than 120..) and still keep untouched their identity as a nation.
They have the perfect blend of a multitude of nationalities with all they have to bring, the local culture and tradition and the 21st century lifestyle.
