Communism in Texas

Communist Street Lighting Superior to Capitalist Street Lighting
revised and corrected 19 May 2012


The headline is a bit misleading; it should say communist street lamps in Texas, but even that is not quite right. I lived about three years in a communist era dormitory in Bratislava--- Hotel Druzba. And I recall late one night (early one morning) looking at the street lights thinking how dim they were. 


 Now here's the funny ( or sad) thing! Tonight I was standing on the street outside my parents house and I realized: The street lights are even dimmer than the communist ones I saw in Slovakia!.


Right here in the world capital of capitalism, the center of hatred toward communism. The street lights are so bad that communist street lights are better! In fact, much of the street has no light at all. 


 I can imagine various explanations, all of which go to show what an awful country this is--- explanations such as: people don't go out at night unless they are driving a car.... ( which is probably true and is disgusting because, once again, it shows the fundamentally anti-social nature of this place--and that in two sense, first because climate destruction is anti-social behavior toward the rest of the globe, and because everything about cars is anti-social..--- Cars come beween people more than promoting civility.-- 


But the explanations could continue:  In any case people in the eptx don't walk --- and I don't blame them for that.  During the day the heat and sun don't make for healthy outdoor activity.  And, well, where would you go at night?  Where would you walk to?  Two or three miles to the nearest grocery store?  That's unlikely.  Everything is far away because it is assumed that "everyone" has a car.....


 Of course, there is a striking exception every evening when the sun goes down. You can see oddly shaped bodies with running shoes determinedly and stoically walking for their health---doing their laps at a local park---- but it is all so joyless! 


(Incidentally, dare I say that the park in question is a miserable tiny square of green with a few trees?---And doesn't bare comparison with the parks in Bratislava!--I won't call those parks "communist" as I don't know when they came into being. But here again, in "Eastern Europe" (as Americans think about it) I find something better than what exists in Capitalist America.  To be sure, if the parks in Blava pre-date communism, they can't be called "communist"---but they are in (what Americans think of) as "Eastern" Europe, and the things they call parks in El Paso are pathetic by comparison.  (And even those pathetic parks are going to be privatized......)


With public transit, one always walks between stops and it is not such a bother. Anyway, as I have written here before, El Paso Texas is a city hostile toward pedestrians.  If you are a pedestrian you are a potential target of insults from speeding vehicles, and (at the very least if it is after dark) careful inspection by the local police.


Yes I know that there are sidewalks, but the main focus is on enormous roads for the local assault vehicles. Not friendly to pedestrians. All in all, this is the ugliest place I can imagine--- bad food, inadequate infrastructure---- everything designed more for machines than people. Every day that I stay here I am dying. GMOOH!