lufthansa

2 languages; 4 employees (in person); 3 employees (via telephone); 1 trip to another airline's desk; 8 boarding passes; 7 baggage transport stickers; 5 increasingly nervous smiles; 45 minutes: 1 check-in.

istiklal street

A circle of police harassing a cripple. One slaps him and roughly shoves his wheelchair, sending the man's wares skittering across the pavement. Then, grabbing him by the neck, shaking him with both hands as the other cops look on . . . But, we move on. We conjecture he had spoken out against the military.

the blue mosque

The profound regenerative power of tranquility at the price of cancerous memes and institutionalized ignorance ~ is there another way?

tourism

A disease: parasites trick the host into consuming itself. One becomes one's own enemy; one destroys one's habitat; one consciously makes of oneself a parody. Willing slow suicide. Tourism is the slowly warming water which bathes the frog in comfort, dulling his will to escape.