The opening ceremony of the workshop was attended by a government minister and the press coverage was intense. No mob of paparazzi pushing and hollering, rather the constant (and I mean constant) presence of about 6 photographers taking pictures incessantly. This was all completely novel for me. The minister sat in preferential seating, with his chair positioned about 2 feet forward of his cohort.
The social aspects of the gathering are manageable at the moment. The tendency at present is promotion of social cohesion by way of throwing rocks and stones at an other - mostly our host culture and institution. This makes me feel slightly uneasy as I am actually really grateful that they giving me this opportunity. If that means visiting objects they are proud of and listening to them heap praise and reverence upon their sultan, so mote it be. Still, its all very mild, and it also feels disturbingly gratifying.We are a way off from "organising" an internal social hierarchy, thank fuck, so i'm yet to go into full flight mode.
Writing of fleeing, 24 hours in and some peeps are looking to escape campus for some nightlife. As of yet I just want to put my boots on and get tromping through the ruderal areas behind campus.
Now, some more wildlife-porn:
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| A cicada? The corpse was being explored by wee ants |
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| These are larger ants than those represented by the out-of-focus individual mounting the cicada. They are seem to be building a house-like structure from the leaves of the plant. |
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