Compared to New York, this is a real place where real things happen. Not microaggressions that are tweeted about, not theory; these are adult aggressions, bodily, bloodying. The beggars are missing arms or legs and come up to tap on the glass, show you their stumps, open their mouths to show you no tongue. They wipe the windshields with rags. Children, eight or nine years old, pull carts over potholes, look for plastic in the garbage piles or sell socks and balloons on the corniche. You buy a balloon and that child eats, or you don’t buy a balloon. It’s sensory overload with nowhere to hide.
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