缅甸仰光潘素丹街的路边办事员昂敏用他的旧打字机处理客户的文件。叶昂洙/法新社仰光耳朵清洁工、路边管道工和打字机供出租：只是仰光潘素丹街人行道上发现的过时工作的一个样本，旧世界的企业还在那里工作。我找到顾客。多年来，旅游者一直对仰光的零散交易着迷，从自行车三轮车转向交通，到路边使用打字机的职员。一些职业已经成为2011年开始的政治和经济改革的受害者。随着电力供应的改善使冰箱变得可行，冰水销售商逐渐消失；公交售票员在城市交通网络的改造中迷失了方向；固定电话亭是移动时代的遗迹。但是，作为缅甸最大城市的心脏，潘素丹仍然是模糊职业的发源地，在那些几十年来一直在古老的殖民地建筑下的坑坑洼洼的人行道上从事贸易的人们中唤起了怀旧之情。”这是读书、作家、诗人的必经之路。“每个人都来了，每个人都在这里学习，”潘素丹的长期画廊老板昂素敏说。你所需要知道的一切，你都可以来到潘索丹。”潘索丹是由英国人建造的，曾经被称为Phayre街，市中心的主干道从火车站向南延伸到河边，在那里，商人们乘早渡船到达。仰光的增长——统计数据显示，自1983年以来，人口增长了近一倍，达到730万——使得城市服务业难以赶上。每年的季风季节阻塞了数十年的管道系统，这是闵昂最繁忙的时候。这位58岁的男子坐在水塞、水管和一个备用马桶盖中间，为自己的服务做广告。他是仰光街头水管工人队伍中的一名老兵，仍在迅速现代化的商业首都找到工作。”只要有厕所，我们就有工作。近距离接触的是47岁的Khin Ohn Myint，他提供快速的修剪，修复向内生长的脚趾甲和注射器耳朵，以清除积垢。”她说：“我没有钱投资其他企业，所以我是为了谋生。”她每天挣10美元左右，让孩子上大学，这样他们就可以从事其他职业了。她说，她喜欢帮助人们减轻痛苦，甚至不得不从顾客的耳朵里偶尔取出蟑螂。”潘索丹对我们来说是一条历史悠久的街道，”她说。法新社
Roadside clerk Aung Min works on a customer's document with his old typewriter along Pansodan Street in Yangon, Myanmar. YE AUNG THU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

YANGON－Ear cleaners, roadside plumbers and typewriters for hire: just a sample of the antiquated jobs found on the pavements of Yangon's Pansodan Street, where old-world businesses still find customers.

For years, tourists have been fascinated by odd trades in Yangon, from cycle trishaws swerving through traffic to roadside clerks using typewriters.

Some professions have become victims of the political and economic reforms that started in earnest in 2011.

Iced water sellers melted away as improved power supplies made fridges viable; bus conductors lost out in the revamp of the city's transportation network; and landline phone stalls are a relic in the mobile era.

But Pansodan, the beating heart of Myanmar's biggest city, remains home to obscure professions and evokes nostalgia among those who have plied their trade for decades along the potholed pavements below aging colonial architecture.

"This is the street for the books, for the writers, for the poets. Everyone comes, everyone learns here," said Aung Soe Min, a longtime gallery owner on Pansodan.

"Everything you need to know, you can come to Pansodan."

Built by the British and once called Phayre Street, the downtown artery runs south from the train station to the river, where traders arrive by morning ferry.

Yangon's growth－statistics show the population has nearly doubled since 1983 to reach 7.3 million－has left city services struggling to catch up.

The annual monsoon season clogs decades-old plumbing networks and that is when Min Aung is busiest.

Sitting among plungers, pipes and a spare toilet lid serving as an advertisement for his services, the 58-year-old is a veteran of Yangon's small army of streetside plumbers who still find work in the rapidly modernizing commercial capital.

"As long as there are toilets, there is work for us," Min Aung said.

Close by is Khin Ohn Myint, 47, who provides quick manicures, fixes ingrown toenails and syringes ears to remove wax buildup.

"I didn't have money to invest in other businesses, so I did this for a living," she said.

Earning around $10 a day, she has put her children through university so they can pursue other careers.

She says she enjoys helping relieve people's suffering and has even had to remove the occasional cockroach from a customer's ear.

"Pansodan is a historic street for us," she said.

AGENCE FRANCE - PRESSE

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