Boulevard des Martyrs Square

Sitting on the lowlying wall on Boulevard des Martyrs Square, tucked in among the buildings on one side of the street with the name,is a way to look out over the city and bay at any time of day. It especially starts to come alive after 5 PM. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, announced today his contribution of 3 billion dollars in the fight against global warming. From this square, you can see many of the challenges the globe currently faces, even with the apparent success. The run-down square is the local recreation center. Children play among the black wrought iron benches (where adults sit to talk-a favorite passtime in societies with a low level of literacy),a huge tree with its trunk painted white, and a fountain, which isn't turned on. Teenage boys aim their cues at the balls on two pool tables. Perched on the wall's edge, I looked out over the bay with smoke stacks spewing black smoke on its shores, toward the large hotels and the city center lying at the base of Algiers' hills, and just below I see a shantytown, with I'm not sure how many satellite dishes per small, corrugated roof dwelling. In the evening young people and children, neat and with clean clothes, are in the street descending into the bidounville, startled when they see me with a glance above. The bidounville itelf has trash around its edges and on its roofs, a contrast with the neat appearance of the people I currently see entering its folds. When the call to prayer sounds, all eventually disappear from the square. Only a few older men sit on a seat looking into the distance over the city. Ramadan starts on Sunday; yet so far the only notice of it I've seen are newspaper articles announcing the deployment of more police and security measures in Algiers. I'm wondering if more festive foods and clothes and more religious items will begin appearing in stores and on the streets once the month of fasting begins. What is amazing is the determination and persistence of the people I see. Children play and go to school, yet unaware of life's struggles. Adults deal with the traffic jams, the cars that break down, the labor needed to run a shop or deliver goods, yet survive to take on another day. Today, my taxi driver's (Djeloul, 40 with 4 children) car suffered "un pan (breakdown)" in the middle of a busy street. Djeloul tried intently to restart it and disappeared several times under the hood. He finally called the police and my hotel, using my cell phone-since his phone card had run out of time. The police helped him reposition the vehicle, so Djeloul could then coast it down the inclines of Algiers' sloping hillside, ducking the traffic in a one-way street on one occasion (explaining all the time in limited French that his car had experienced "une panne"), to his parking garage. There we waited on the ground floor until an open space emerged; and Djeloul, with perspiration mounting, could roll the automobile in and snare another taxi to return me to my hotel. The human species may experience a lot of challenges and suffer a myriad of indignaties but most of its members never seem to give up.