telegraph pole
As promised in yesterday's blog caged children I will write today about the beauty I see in telegraph poles.
I have always thought that having telegraph poles in an earthquake prone area like Japan is absurd. Imagine having your life-line -- electricity and telecomunications wires -- attached to a reinforced concrete pole that is 1 foot in diametre. Not only do they stick up and obstruct some of our narrow foot paths (ironic name for a pedestrian walkway, for some are no wider than the foot-wide poles themselves), they also create a web of live elecrtical cables and telecommunication lines above our heads emitting electromagnetic waves that induces semi-zombie states in some inhabitants, quaintly discribed as apathy. (I'm almost convinced)
When I speak to my friends they all agree -- "telegraph poles are not only an eyesore, they are dangerous, and should be buried underground where no one can see them." "In most normal countries people will not tolerate seeing ugly things like that in the city." "It ruins the view" "Sanfransisco has earthquakes, and their cables are underground"...
Hang on. I've heards similar words before: they are aimed at the homless sleeping outside the Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, they are aimed at severly mentally challenged people on public transport (they shouldn't be here, Y don't they take one of those special buses?). They are also aimed at old people who are suffering from senile dimentia and are losing their faculties.... and where do they go?
Old people's homes. Hidden from our sites, buried from our thoughts; no longer an eyesore, not ruining the beauty of our physical world...
I took this picture the day that I realised that telegraph poles are beautiful. They stand tall with pride, they carry electicity and telephone lines to our home, they create obstacles so that we can go around them to go forward -- like obstacles in life that help us grow, not one of them is the same (some have fuse boxes, others routers, some have street lamps, others none), their wires shoot off in different angles, and have different colours... just like humans - young and old - there is not one telegraph pole alike.
I often wondered when the Japanese government was going to start a huge publicly-funded project to bury the telegraph poles in one of their vain efforts to boost the economy (they seem to be so good at initiating redundant public works like building the "longest slide in the world"?).
I hope they never take the telegraph poles from the streets of Tokyo.
2 comments:
Wow that slide looks fun as hell. I wish it was closer, any way I just wanted to say that I think there is antoher great aspect of telephone poles that you are overlooking, or maybe it is not legal there, but you can post anything you want on them. For example, Missing Dog, or House Party @ ...., Or advertising, anything you can think up, you can put on a pole. While it is not that big in my area, I have done it, but the ads did come down the next day. Some did it, and it was not me. So the next day I put up more. Same thing. The war, if you will, went on for a while. It was fun, but I gave up. Anyway, the poles are good for posting things on... That is what I am getting at.
yeah, I forgot about the ads on the poles! The one in the picture is an ad for a paediatric clinic. Must admit we also get the dubious ads (e.g. exotic massage services) but I think someone removes them in the middle of the night.... or they just take a walk coz they are depressed.
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