A Certain Light

I will be travelling again to India soon. Just as I had done on the trip in November, I will be going through Dubai. Mentioning the Middle East, of course, brings up anxiety and unease - the tense downward relationship spiral with Iran, the possibility of a surprise strike on that country, the bloodshed in Syria, and so on. But, today, I want to focus on something else - women's dress.

Dubai is a Mecca for the fashion forward. At Dubai Airport in November, M. and I wandered in a happy daze, absorbing all the upscale consumer goodies available for ogling in the luxury high-end airport stores. Finally, tiring of this spectator sport, we sat and waited at our gate for our connecting flight. Besides the usual clutch of impatient international travelers in their de rigueur sweat pants and/or business attire, Arab families strolled by, men in their traditional garb and women in the black abayas (cloaks) and shaylas (head scarves). Far from looking primitive and barbaric, the dresses struck me as graceful and fluid, both the men's clothing and the women's. I was surprised at my own reactions - the black covering for women always strike me as rather ugly and unbecoming when I see them in India or in New York or other cities. So how did they suddenly look rather attractive now?

Was I becoming an Orientalist in my early middle age? The natives must be dressed suitably native, and all that? On reflection, I decided that it was in fact about aesthetics and visual impressions. My impressions about Middle Eastern clothing have, in fact, much to do with the setting in which I see the garb. In the strong desert light (albeit filtered through airport glass windows) there is a pleasing visual contrast between the black, the white and natural illumination against a predominantly sandy background. The abaya, the shaylas and the men's galabiyyas look attractive in this sort of light. In the sub-tropical light of India, the white galabiyyas are acceptable but the women's black abayas,however, look stifling and funereal. In the muted light of the Northern hemisphere, the abayas, shaylas and niqabs just look jarring and ugly.

So much of beauty in costume, then, has to do with geography and the angle of the sun's rays. I, for one, rarely wear the saturated colors of India that look so beautiful in the South Asian light. I stick to pastels and soft shades here, when I need color and brightness. Occasionally, I'll break out an acid pink or gemstone green to celebrate summer flowers, but then it's back to the somber browns, blacks and greys for winter with whispery pinks, blues, and purples to liven up harsh days. And silver and gold glitter to reflect the sparkling snow - the sparkling snow that has given us the go-by so far this season, for the most part.

The Mobs that Never Came

Thinking of the relative calm and order during the disorderly time last week, when the storm laid low the western sections of Fairfield County, I decided to probe more deeply into the causes of the relative discipline and stoicism on display in these parts. Since these parts are what I call home for the forseeable future, I would like to, er, compare and contrast, analyze, etc.

Hurricane Katrina laid waste to Louisiana and Mississippi. New Orleans is in ruins, and the total breakdown there meant that people were pretty much on their own, which meant that there was widescale looting and rampaging through stores by members of the general public. The January earthquake in Haiti was also followed by lawlessness, looting and rioting. Last month's earthquake in Chile also triggered some sporadic looting of shops in Concepcion and Santiago (although nowhere near what the media reporting would have us believe).

I'd like to think that we are a special people here in Fairfield County, the We Don't Behave Like That kind of people. And yes, all of us who were affected behaved exceptionally well. Those without power and hot water ate at diners and restaurants, built fires and went without showers. Those who had power took in whole families for three days at a time, with no complaint. We all took a break from life and just chilled (well, some perhaps a little too literally for comfort). But might not our good behavior here have also to do with the fact that a) the storm did not affect all of Connecticut, so reinforcements could come in quickly but just as importantly b) we simply never imagined that the powers-that-be would NOT respond to our plight. They had to respond, this is Fairfield County!

Perhaps, that is the difference between us here in Fairfield County and the others in New Orleans, Port-au-Prince and Santiago. We don't loot and riot because the government comes in quickly to aid us in times of trouble, and we expect it to do so. The folks in the other places have no such grand expectations from the authorities. They know quite well that during a catastrophe, they will be abandoned. Rioting, looting, mayhem are not just a result of a breakdown, they are symptoms of a basic lack of faith in government because during normal times, the institutions of authority bypass those in the ghettoes and the shanties. When the punitive powers of the state - the police, the national guard, etc. - recede during earthquakes and hurricanes, the general feeling is that it's every person for himself or herself. Nobody's coming with repair crews and hot food, or at least not soon. It's the jungle and the best-armed will rule, even if briefly. To sum it up even more clearly - it is finally about class and access to power. I would have said that it's about race too but in this country race and class (especially in Louisiana and Mississippi) are so intertwined, that it doesn't need to be said.

The Storm

The Storm of 2010. What else do they call it? The worst weather-related disaster here in fifty years? The worst in 25 years? Well, basically, the worst in a long time. And we lived through it! People throughout lower Fairfield County lost power for several days. Hotels were sold out for miles around. Some people went away to New York (where things could not have been much better, especially in Westchester County) or to New Jersey to stay with friends and family. Many people had to toss out the contents of their fridges and freezers, a kind of Mother Nature-enforced deep cleaning, I guess.

At the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish in the face of so much physical destruction and so much disruption to people's lives, may I just say that Fairfield County denizens were amazing! There was no breakdown of law and order. Nobody looted shops and warehouses. Firefighters did what they had to do, electrical workers worked long hours, and it helped that even the most frustrated people who had no power for days did not have meltdowns, at least not in public. Community spirit showed itself in the quiet opening of doors to friends and neighbors. Larger meals were cooked, more showers were taken in many households, and life went on despite the stress and the strain of being homeless, so to speak. Restaurants and hotels did fabulous business, of course, and the libraries were the gathering ground of hundreds. On Monday, I couldn't even park in the library's lot because there were so many people there.

How did we fare? Well, we were very fortunate, because we only lost power for one hour on Monday. We did have friends staying with us, which was fine because we drank wine and tea and ate cookies and pie. And the children just loved the extended sleepover-cum-playdate. We do have a pine tree in the neighbor's yard that is leaning over into our property, but the power's still on and one of these days, CL&P will take care of the tree. I'm not complaining.