terrorgore

To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It




... Nine hundred families already have been moved from Kashgar’s Old City, “the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in central Asia,” as the architect and historian George Michell wrote in the 2008 book “Kashgar: Oasis City on China’s Old Silk Road.”

Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved.

In its place will rise a new Old City, a mix of midrise apartments, plazas, alleys widened into avenues and reproductions of ancient Islamic architecture “to preserve the Uighur culture,” Kashgar’s vice mayor, Xu Jianrong, said in a phone interview.

Demolition is deemed an urgent necessity because an earthquake could strike at any time, collapsing centuries-old buildings and killing thousands. “The entire Kashgar area is in a special area in danger of earthquakes,” Mr. Xu said. “I ask you: What country’s government would not protect its citizens from the dangers of natural disaster?” ...


more at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html?_r=1&hp

the greatest thing about only getting into bob dylan when you are 21 is that it is like being fourteen & hearing nirvana for the first time again, you walk around all OH MY GOD HAVE YOU HEARD THIS GUY?? NO REALLY HAVE YOU LISTENED TO HIGHWAY 61 LIKE ACTUALLY LISTENED HOLYYYY SHIT




THANKS MEGAN + B33R FOR MY AWESOME TAT


she has one too
BLOOD SISTERZ LOL

i keep goin to make total BUMMER DUUUUDE entries all the time because everything is horse shit, but INSTEAD here are some pictures of my awesome CASA! i could take good pictures for you because dion gave me this AMAZING camera to replace all the ones i have left in trucks/had smashed up in fights/had stolen by mexican crackheads over the last year but i lost my battery charger because i am retarded! & the house likes to swallow things up! it giveth, & it taketh away.


we had a couchsurfer from munich last week, he was pretty cool, but kind of weird [for what it's worth we're not amazing couch-hosts either hahahaha, i'm at work like all the time & me & liz don't wanna do touristy shit, so when people stay we've just been like ummmmm let's GO BUY GOON & LAUGH AT SHIT IN ALDI!]. he turned the tv on, we only figured out how to make our tv work once, for eurovision, so i put a stencil of stalin over the telly after he was gone. i wanna go paint it over KREMLIN BAR in town too because it's kind of retarded.


this is my ROOM. how fucken nuts is that! a whole ROOM! i feel heaps bad for having so much space for myself, like i kinda wanna call up some family of 17 kids that live in a mudbrick shack somewhere & tell them to come chill on my huge balcony & share my bed, but i don't have any numbers!


i even have a bed in my room! it's made out of milk crates. but sometimes, i like to go & sleep out on the couch [if there is not somebody on it] because i kind of miss sleeping on couches.


it's my nice cello! i missed it so much. i bought a really crap one for fifty quid in edinburgh but this one is much nicer.


this is one of our bunny whabbits, it is seriously hard to feel bad about life when you are looking at them.

we have a kitchen too where exciting things grow [we are filth wizards] & a bathroom where there is a washing machine we don't use very much.

anyway things are not all horse shit it just FEEEEEEEEEEELLLSSS like that a lotta the time yunno? i just can't wait to go back to doing exciting things in places that are not here because i really fucking fail at this normal life shit. i get mad stress about not being cool or pretty enough all the time, like even going in to fucking work at essen, & i fucking WORK there for fucks. but then i think, maybe these people haven't done half as much cool or exciting stuff as me & i am leaving real soon to go do more epic shitt, so i just gotta Hang In There, Tiger.
also i gotta start lookin after meself better, i dunno, when i get into this Work Yrself Into The Ground thing it totally doesn't do me any favours, i know i'm saving like whoa but i just end up a cranky mess & i'm not eating right or sleeping enough & i don't have any time to exer-cise & i know i feel loads better when i do that & i've lost count of the number of friends i've piked on because i have to work, or when i'm not working i just have nothing. left. i forget what balance is like. gonna go buy some vitamin pills tomorrow. that sounds like a good start.