Akhbar El Mango

Maybe there needs to be less wondering about the challenges the future might bring - and more research into what allows the future to work as well as it does now. The future of what life might be in some future, crowded growing City with limited resources is presently alive and well in Cairo, Egypt. 25 million people live peacefully and increasingly productively in the great City called "The Big Mango" . . . a comparative analogy to The Big Apple - New York City. The pictures below are just the smallest slices of the amazing expanse of human development that is Cairo - which greets the visitor arriving by air.

This tiny slice of the North West Cairo shows the Cairo to Alexandria highway leaving town and heading for the Mediterrenean coast . . .



Another highway in the southeast forms part of the ring road now enabling traffic to flow around the great City and access its numerous satellite cities.


Near Mohandiseen the buildings thicken into a concrete jungle - a busy and expensive jungle!






The new ring road is steadily getting smoother and better maintained and it now routinely hosts traffic jams that are a testament to Cairo's history of record-setting congestion!

This long distance picture below shows, in the center, the new Cairo-Egypt Museum of Civilization in Ein El Sira. The thick collection of apartment buildings were built in just the past few years.

In the northeast, as the smog thickens - one can see the pyramid shape of the monument to Anwar Sadat - at the site of his assassination by extremists so long ago - an event which galvanized Egypt's leadership towards a modernized future.

Inside this giant expanse of concrete, rebar, copper wire, and plumbing - friends meet in a cafe . .

and a cat sleeps peacefully on the door steps!

Two Ducks Walking

The children who own these ducks learned about them on the internet and then went and bought them from an internet website. Just 5 dollars each!

Aerial Views

From high above southern Cairo one can see the new Egyptian Museum of Civilization taking shape at Ein El Sira. The springs of Ein El Sira used to provide the original Roman town at Fustat with water. Now the water is dammed and forms part of new park beside the museum.
In the photo below, north is to the "up" direction. The Nile River is approximately 1.5 kilometres to the left. Ein El Sira was the location of the water utility district office where the Time Traveller first worked in Egypt.

Lily Padua

Sometimes the world moves in mysterious ways – brings a happy opportunity set amidst new scenery. This latest world - somewhere in Italy - arrived in an invitation in an email. The long flight was greeted with classic architecture.

Including an old Government building . . .

And an ancient palace in the heart of town. . .

. . with descriptive text . . .

And a palace across the garden . . .

classic parks . . .

Exotic botanical gardens holding specimens favoured by ancient practioners of medicine . .

There were canals – not so many as in Venice - but apparently the ancient Roman town of Padua was originally an Island with a wall around it.


And sacred places built to celebrate saints gone in all but relic and spirit.

And the most sacred of all – the gelateria – featuring flavours constructed by skilled engineer of the medium.

The way out included streets with ancient towers . . .

And the streets seemed to be filled with music.

Training Wings

Amidst the WWII fighters and trainers of past blogs, there was another airplane which was used for training of pilots. It was the biplane - a slower and steadier way to build pilots.

Wikipedia has an entry for the Dehavilland Tiger Moth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Tiger_Moth

And two videos are provided below.

Land of Lakes

In a land far far away the trees are a multitude of grass in a giant field and where people are made hidden in the shadows of ancient wilderness. Here, the residents live by catching dew in barrels of green plastic.


. . . .and work ceaselessly to scrape away the moss which seeks to devour the roofs of cabins.


Two suns from two journeys meet again at the end of the day.


Sometimes it seems like we can sail on this fluid that shimmers like time itself ,

and float between shadow and light – held in place by a gaze fixed on some far horizon.

In this land strange creatures live and call out as they have for millennia

– with a voice we waited lifetimes to hear again.

New Lands

Less than two centuries ago this land was still waiting to feel the first waves of western humanity. With the arrival of the oil age - a place which was previously too cold to survive in became a new frontier welcoming all who would make the Journey.

as is commemorated by this statue in a large park situated in the City's river valley.

And in modern day – the journey and the arrival has become a celebration for the scores of nationalities who have come to Edmonton to start a new life. And that celebration has become an annual party called Heritage Days! This year more than 300,000 people joined in the three-day long festivities.

There are scores of pavilions for almost all nations on the planet.

There are cultural dance presentations

In just a few months this lake will be frozen solid and some new immigrants will learn to skate beneath the northern lights.