Monday, August 2, 2010

Hot Tuesday in Baku and why there are no ceiling fans here

I know I may be dwelling on the hot weather here...but it is so oppressive I can see why everyone (who can) leaves in August. Last year I was back in the US for the early part of this month...this trip will have me heading back for a visit at the end of the month. I've developed a fairly good system to cool down the apartment. Keep the windows and curtains all closed and thank goodness, unlike many Bakuvians who normally only have AC in bedroom, there is also one in living room. So it becomes possible for me to cool apartment if I keep the second bedroom door closed (there is no AC in that room).
For quite sometime I've been baffled about the absence of ceiling fans here....well, after a lengthy discussion with my Dutch, soon to be ex-colleague (he's calling it quits here) the MIT trained political economist Phd......here's the likely reason. Economies/societies such as this one where the timeline for rapid growth has been so condensed will view such nascent technology as undesirable....fans seem primitive....go directly to AC once you have electricity....in fact, you see this mentally in other examples too...elevators or escaltors in buildings with no stairs....
There are also no communal or public laundry facilities...you went from hand washing to owning a machine....no need to have the in between step...no machine, hand wash.....another enlightened day in Baku....

1 comment:

  1. Hey Janice--excellent and perceptive. For a riff on this see http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-cultural-ideology-of-progess-in.html

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