Epilogue- Perspectives, Fear Not of the City, Reflections

From the start of the assignment, Perspectives were key to identifying and analyzing the city. Everyone has differing ideas, opinions and interests, crafted from their environment, upbringing, childhood, economic and other demographic factors. I chose certain blogs to reflect upon, not just due to their context and topic, but on the basis that i knew these fellow students, and their personality, and it was more interesting as a result to see their views because of this. Obviously, someone who lives in Port Of Spain will feel different about it (not necessarily more or less passionately, but just different) than someone who lives in Toco. The blogs upon which i reflect are:

1. Sevastar Ramlogan's Blog- "The Arts Of Trinidad's City" http://urbantriniart.blogspot.com/

            His blog talked about the way that art can be found in numerous places, not just in architecture, but in the processes, relationships and activity that goes on within the urban city.                        More Specifically, his article Art in Architecture http://urbantriniart.blogspot.com/2013/04/art-in-architecture.html which spoke of not just the purpose behind architecture in building construction, but also the expressive nature that symbolizes art and artistry, showcasing the talent and abilities of our builders (foreign and local). Again, perspectives with respect to whether this art is beautiful or not is certainly a shaky concept (think SBCS's construction). He also talked about the way that this beauty and art of architecture transitions from one time to another, just as trends of fashion and music do so.This related very closely to a couple of my posts, but especially the first post that i did, where i attempted to show the influence of builders in architecture, as well as the post on green spaces as themselves a form of artistry and architecture (which i failed to initially pick up upon).

2. Tabeeta Dwarika's Blog- "Urban Unsustainability" http://urbangeographer8.blogspot.com/

She talked about the challenges that cities faced with respect to sustainability and in the ways that they themselves became unsustainable through "development". The "development" is in quotes as quite accurately, she highlighted the negative effects of this development as in fact being the exact opposite of the intended progress. One specific post that was done is: "You Have Space For me Too? http://urbangeographer8.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-have-space-for-me-to.html This was related to my blog post on gentrification, which talked about urban sprawl. Her perspective was a little different, but just as important, as it outlined how the Northern Range has been dragged into, and negatively affected by this same urban sprawl. At what point does housing (see also the post on homelessness) take priority over the detriment of the environment and its resources?



3. Nirvana Hanooman's Blog - "City Dwellings"--http://citydwellingstt.blogspot.com

She spoke about the different types of dwellings, and apart from having fantastic pictures, also represented inequality, as well as those who have and do not have their own dwellings. For some, a dwelling is simply a house, while for others it is a home. This has to do with each person's satisfaction with their position in the urban scape.
Her post: Homelessness, Nowhere to Go, http://citydwellingstt.blogspot.com/2013/03/homelessness-no-where-to-go.html reflected the sentiment of my post, Homeless: Sweep them under the rug, while also highlighting the frustration that these homeless persons feel. We can sympathize with them all we want, but unless we make an effort to assist them, they will forever be in such an unfortunate and definitely unfair situation. Her Photo of the Homeless man outside of the bank was quite telling and severely ironic.

All in all, it was fun to do such a creative assignment, and i tried my best to make up little stories, poems and calypsos to counter the equally important theory and offer some entertainment. The entire class had extremely good blogs and it was interesting to see everybody's passion and viewpoint! Thanks for visiting and following! :)