Category Archives: environment

Offshore

Posted on 5 January 2018 by

In one of the most significant environmental decisions the Trump administration has taken, a ban on offshore drilling was lifted on 4 January 2018.  The New York Times reported: While the plan puts the administration squarely on the side of … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, infrastructure, oil, political economy | Leave a comment

Of Ballast and Land Reclamation

Posted on 25 April 2017 by

That extraordinary image is from some time in the 1970s, and the container-ship steaming so serenely in Hudson River is a Jugolinija ship belonging to the Yugoslav national shipping line.  What is of course poignant about the image is that … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, environment, imperialism & colonialism, infrastructure, political economy, transport, Uncategorized, war | 1 Comment

The Multivalence of Infrastructures II – Rail

Posted on 28 March 2017 by

I am reading a fascinating article about colonial engineering. Canay Ozden’s fabulous “Pontifex Minimus” is about the British engineer of the Low (or old) Aswan Dam, and the article just drips with all sorts of wonderful quotable sections.  For example, … Continue reading →

Posted in empire, empire, imperialism & colonialism, environment, imperialism & colonialism, infrastructure, Uncategorized, war | Leave a comment

Silt

Posted on 15 April 2015 by

Silt Stephen Burt Things you know but can’t say, the sort of things, or propositions that build up week after week at the end of the day, & have to be dredged by the practical operators so that their grosser … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, literature, ports, readings | Leave a comment

Pirate Jenny: Labour and capital in Khor Fakkan

Posted on 4 March 2015 by

14 February 2015 in Khor Fakkan port After several hours of watching the unloading of the ship, and after walking on the port to go to the duty-free shop (to buy a new memory card for my camera), it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Allan Sekula, capital accumulation, environment, labour, logistics, Middle East, readings, transport, Travels | Leave a comment

Anyone’s Ghost: Fishing grounds of the Arabian Sea

Posted on 3 March 2015 by

12 February 2015 Morning We passed Salalah in the night, and the sea is not as lonely as it was yesterday, with the AIS showing at least 5 or 6 ships at a time (when it was sometimes entirely bereft … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, labour, Middle East, Travels | Leave a comment

Train whistles and futures

Posted on 14 December 2014 by

I am reading two books simultaneously through both of which trains rattle and whistle and snake…  But which in some ways are as different as they can be.  Bill Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis is a panoramic history of the making of Chicago in the … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, environment, finance and insurance, infrastructure, labour, literature, political economy, transport | Leave a comment