I am the Dr. Caroline Fabianski that triggered this discussion: Thank you Ben de la Penas for acknowledging me and congratulation for putting together this text. In case anyone would be interested in knowing the original discussion and the point I made I am available on LinkedIn, please add me as a contact and DM me. Ben and I did chat already. A lot of love to all of you.
I must admit that the previous letter was heavy for me. Decolonization is just a strong word.... and I never even made the link with transport, but now after reading you it seems so obvious. Global north solutions... but I wonder if the industrial revolution and all that fueled the growth of those countries with free goods from colonies, and what would and could be our global south "just revolution"... how we decolonize something where still today (perhaps outside China and India) the north produces the engines ( the volvos, the mercedes, the GMs, fords) and the south uses them even after 20 years on the road,. It is about what jobs do we get of that global market, the innovation o merely the commercial one as consumers. And this is one thought of many - I can see how many people reacted to your letter, it is thought provoking!
I am thinking about how we humanize the jobs in the Global South without having to "formalize" them, following prescriptions from the capitalists, financial institutions, and having the informal economies be the recognized central economies as the facto they are! (P.S. dont know if I mentioned my grandfather was a colectivo driver and my mum drove a cargo mini van -- so do I come from the informal mobility jobs ;)
It's awesome that informal transportation is also in your blood!
And yes, the technology from the imperial and colonial powers are what drives (no pun) informal transportation (e.g. -the surplus military jeeps from WW2, the discarded school buses, the used engines and motorcycles…) but, like the colonial experience, so much of that is adapted, improved — in a word, innovated —upon by the locals to meet their needs.
It is the continuing rounds of colonialism (the exported technocracy, the capital investments) that devalues what is already on the ground and what is already working in favor of solutions from “experts”; that sees the lost livelihoods (of drivers, of touts, of the vendors around the queues and stages) as “collateral damage” on the road to formalization and the “modern city.”
Hip hip, hooray! PREACH.
I am the Dr. Caroline Fabianski that triggered this discussion: Thank you Ben de la Penas for acknowledging me and congratulation for putting together this text. In case anyone would be interested in knowing the original discussion and the point I made I am available on LinkedIn, please add me as a contact and DM me. Ben and I did chat already. A lot of love to all of you.
I must admit that the previous letter was heavy for me. Decolonization is just a strong word.... and I never even made the link with transport, but now after reading you it seems so obvious. Global north solutions... but I wonder if the industrial revolution and all that fueled the growth of those countries with free goods from colonies, and what would and could be our global south "just revolution"... how we decolonize something where still today (perhaps outside China and India) the north produces the engines ( the volvos, the mercedes, the GMs, fords) and the south uses them even after 20 years on the road,. It is about what jobs do we get of that global market, the innovation o merely the commercial one as consumers. And this is one thought of many - I can see how many people reacted to your letter, it is thought provoking!
I am thinking about how we humanize the jobs in the Global South without having to "formalize" them, following prescriptions from the capitalists, financial institutions, and having the informal economies be the recognized central economies as the facto they are! (P.S. dont know if I mentioned my grandfather was a colectivo driver and my mum drove a cargo mini van -- so do I come from the informal mobility jobs ;)
Hey Margarita,
It's awesome that informal transportation is also in your blood!
And yes, the technology from the imperial and colonial powers are what drives (no pun) informal transportation (e.g. -the surplus military jeeps from WW2, the discarded school buses, the used engines and motorcycles…) but, like the colonial experience, so much of that is adapted, improved — in a word, innovated —upon by the locals to meet their needs.
It is the continuing rounds of colonialism (the exported technocracy, the capital investments) that devalues what is already on the ground and what is already working in favor of solutions from “experts”; that sees the lost livelihoods (of drivers, of touts, of the vendors around the queues and stages) as “collateral damage” on the road to formalization and the “modern city.”