HUMANITY

We call ourselves human being, a specie that branched out from other mammals in a significant manner about 2.3 million years ago. Those who moved out of Africa million years later were even more developed and acquired more physical resemblance to our present features. Throughout centuries, we human beings continued on a different evolutionary progression than other species by transforming the nature to fashion it more suitable to our well-being. We have created technological schemes to reduce direct effects of nature, while other species have been unable of making such changes. In short, we have made life more comfortable through such innovations, and lengthier through treatments for diseases and ailments. In spite of all the successes we have made in enhancing our living standard and broadening our lifespan, we have caused calamities which have harmed many lives and precipitated extinction of many species. This pattern may cause our own annihilation along with all life forms, considering rapid environmental changes and destructive force of our weaponry in a mass scale:

نامه به خدا- نوشته گریگوریو لوپز ای فوئنتس

کلبه- که در امتدادِ آن وادیِ منحصر به فرد قرار گرفته بود- بر ستیغ یک تپه کوتاه قرار داشت. از این بلندی فرد میتوانست رودخانه را همراه با زمینِ پوشیده از ذرت که با گلهای لوبیا قرمز گُله به گُله تزئین شده بود، و از برداشتِ خوبی‌ حاکی میکرد، در آن سوی حصار مشاهده کند.

تنها چیزی که در حال حاضر زمین احتیاج داشت بارش، و یا حداقل یک رگبار بود. لنچو که با زمین زراعتی خود کاملا مانوس بود، تمام صبح نشسته بود و خیره شدن به سمت شمالِ باختریِ آسمان برای بررسی وضع هوا تنها کاری بود که میتوانست بکند: “میگم خانم، به نظر میاد که بالاخره می‌خواد یه بارونی‌ بزنه.” خانم که مشغول آشپزی بود جواب داد “آره، به امید خدا.”

Sophi City (2)

New Arrivals

People living in Sophi City use resources equally. Whether we call them inhabitants or inmates, they are residents of an island where they will eventually be buried. Streets, shops, and places don’t have names. There is an untold and unwritten code of conduct that everyone, or almost everyone, obeys; and since there is no contact with outside, necessity of a government body has not been envisioned. The more optimist citizens of the island philosophize that up to the recent times, people have been bound to the land where they were born, for the remaining of their lives. They think of the same circumstance, exasperated by the fact that they are denied of the modern technology, and their life style mimics those of their forefathers. At least, optimists reason, their living conditions are much better than those living in the US prisons or clinics; especially those who lose their lives to capital punishment. On The other side, there are pessimists who do not appreciate their life sentence in the island, and they condone their conditions. Some miss their former family members, relatives, and friends. However, it does not take long for the pessimists to join the optimists’ camp, due to the positive attitudes spread out among the islanders. There are people with talents and professions of diverse sorts, and they are free to express themselves. The large room or salon where new arrivals are led to, comprises of two doors; one near the waterfront wharf, and one at the other end leading to the longest street in the island. Above this door, there is a wooden arch-shaped tableau covered with various figures designed by straws and rocks, and a statement made of seashells that reads: “It is not my decision to start life here. It is not my decision to leave this life. It is my decision to enjoy the best life while I am here.” The population of the island is constantly increasing, as there is a new shipment almost every month. When they arrive in the island, they look confused as they are not given much information about their destination after they are sentenced to life to Sophi City. New arrivals enter a large room and stand by the wall looking at the people in the room, whom are dispersed around the room. Some are sitting by themselves, indifferent of the new faces. Some are talking to each other and some are just staring at the new condemned. For the new arrivals, the large room seems small and stifling.