Adnan's Boat

Last night, one of my students, kindly hosted some fellow teachers and myself on his 19m power boat. The night cruise showed the city at its best and included a delightful supper. Rough life, but someone has to do it!

Sorry about the quality of the video but the sea was a little rough.

You can see Rumeli Hisar and the Bospherous Bridge.

Istanbul A- Z

from Ataturk to Zoo

Ataturk: The cult of personality around this man, who modernised the aging empire nearly a hundred years ago, is still strongly felt. There will be no criticism of this man!

Baklava: sugar soaked, layered pastry that will rot the teeth, expand the waist line and is sold by the kilo.

Coffee: Thick, black and toxic if you make the mistake of sipping the dregs.

Dervish: These guys are still spinning despite the religious movement basically being banned in 1922. The tradition has been revived for the tourists, for a small fee of 25 ytl.

Eminonu: this is where all the ferries leave from and also a good place for people watching, tea and a fresh fish sandwich.

Fruit Sellers: These guys are everywhere, pushing their wooden carts and yelling incomprehensibly in the streets. The peaches are great this time of year.

Golden Horn: I shit you not! This is the name of the peninsular on the European side of the city. Home of Topkapi palace and Sultan Ahmet, it is where all the touristy stuff is located.

Headscarves: You look at pictures from the 1950s-60s you will not see one headscarf in Istanbul. Today, it is viewed by some as a type of rebellion against the secular state. You cannot wear a headscarf if you want to go to university or hold a government position.

Intolerence: of traffic, of the weather, of each other. You will see lots of this here.

Jellyfish: schools of the buggers. You will see them everywhere in the Bosphorus, even at the swimming beaches... ioooo

Kurds: I have read that one in three Turks are Kurdish. They are held in pretty low regard by the rest of the population, as the Kurdish Freedom Fighters (or the PKK terrorist, depending on your point of view) keep on blowing up bits of Istanbul.

Limonata: a sort of Turkish lemonade, very refreshing on a summer's day.

Metro: The Istanbul underground - very modern with plenty of glass and marble but only services a small part of the city.

Noses: This is how you can tell if an Istanbulu is from the east of Turkey. They all come from "Nose City" apparently.

Ottoman: The empire that took over eastern Europe, most of the middle east and a bit of North Africa... before they got hammered in World War Part One.

Pazar: The Anglicized version is Bazaar or market. Haggling is a essential part of the experience at the Grand Bazaar. The modern Turk seems to prefer the the massive, brightly lit, crisp, clean, muzak and product placement of the Shopping Mall. These are huge.

Queues: these do not work here. Go to the post office. Take ticket and then use your elbows to barge through to the front of the line.

Radio: There is about a million different radio stations in this town. You can have the latest selection of American chart music, Turkish pop and some good alternative stations as well. No BBC though damn it!

Simit: Those bread rings a bit like the German Breadzils, that are sold everywhere and make a filling, yet a little bland and carb enriched, fifty Kroosh breakfast.

Taxis: These guys can be annoying. "Baltilimani?" "No! Traffic! Problem!" Call yourself a bloody taxi driver... where is Robert De Nero when you need him.

Ulker: Turkish Nestle. Just as omnipresent but maybe not as evil.... maybe...

Very expensive Vhisky: There is no W in Turkish but there is Vhisky. Due to heavy taxes on every type of liquor other than the native raki, it is very expensive.

Water: Is what most people they say they like about Istanbul. The Bospherous is very beautiful, especially at night when your vision is impaired.

Xenophonbia:"The strong and unreasonable dislike or fear of people from other countries" from Collins Cobuild English Dictionary. Comments from students:"English and German peoples are cold" or "All black people are thieves and drug dealers." This might not be true of all Turks, but these beliefs are common among people I speak to. If not the dislike of other cultures, the strong and unreasonable belief in the superiority of theirs. Comments from students: "Turkey is the best country!" "What other countries have you been to?" "None, this is the best!"

Young: Due to the Turkish tradition of getting married and having lots of babies at an early age, the Turkish population is generally is very young, very poor and very illiterate (by Western standards).

Zoo: There is no zoo in Istanbul, unless you count the human zoo that some consider this city to be. There are many different species trapped here against their will. At least in a zoo they would get fed regularly.

More

Attack of the Killer Turtle

This really cracked me up!

Attack of the Killer Turtle

Walking to work this morning, I said "Is that a Turtle?", looking down an alley around an apartment building. On investigation, the little bugger attacked me with speed and agression that is rarely found in highly trained attack dogs.

Scary or Funny

I would not give this guy the remote control for the tellie, let alone the nukes.

You decide.

Enjoy



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Political Zing

Came across this video blog by chance.

Worth a look of you have a minute.

Enjoy

Taksim

View from the top of a building, looking up to Taksim Square and down to Istaklal.

Merchants of Cool

This is a really good doco I saw a couple of years ago.

I think I have a copy of it on VHS somewhere. Now you can just watch it on the net.

It is really worth a watch if you have time and a fast connection.

Catch it, before it's no longer cool.

"They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year. "

-PBS.org

Proposal

OMG!!

My sister is getting married.

Spread the news.

Joanna Watkins-Mark Wood

2007

Observations

One thing I find interesting, is shops playing songs, with lyrics that would get a "Parental Advisory Warning".

You will be walking around a supermarket and notice a little old headscarf woman comparing the price of tinned vegetables while dulcet tones are advising to:

"smack my bitch up"

Or wandering down Istaklal past shops where teenage girls compare the latest fashions, with blaring soundsystems that croon:

"I wanna drug that's gonna,
make my dick shrink,
my brain melt,
and my heart beat like a drum,
can I get some,
can I get some,
Cocaine!"

Just interesting.

Catstantinople

One thing I have noticed about Istanbul, compared to other metropolis, is the lack of rats and cockroaches.

Sydney is awash with an army of 'roches ready to blitzkrieg your kitchen as soon as the lights go out. I have seen rats in London that could make off with a small child.

Why the lack of pests here?

There is one answer I can think of:

Cats

A phalanx of cats.

Fluffy, mangy, skinny, scruffy, scraggy, sickly, scrawny, decrepit, ragtag, indigent, gaunt, lanky, weedy, pussies, moggies, kitties, tabbies and tomcats.

As Bangkok streets are ruled by dogs, it is the cats who control Istanbul.

They are everywhere, slinking across roofs, sunning themselves on sidewalks, furtively eyeing fish stands, rummaging in rubbish, lounging in book store windows, wandering past waiters and waiting expectantly outside people's front doors.

In the spring the streets were awash with kittens. They were everywhere, very cute until you see a few by the side of the road that didn't make it.

One student explained the reason. The Quran says that it is fine to feed animals outside your home but not inside.

Some houses have a little feeder and a bowl of water by their door's for their feline friends.

Some people are not as friendly, especially restauranteurs, who fear this business's reputation. They are the first to shoo the intruders.

I have even seen people in the streets or in cafes trying to scare them off. A begging cat can really disturb you meal.

As a result, they tend to be wild and not all that trusting of their human patrons.

When I leave our building of a morning, it is common to see at least half a dozen hanging around. The smell of amonia (or cats piss) is pervasive.

Thanks to the chosen method of rubbish collection in this city ie. dumping it in the street, means that there is a smorgasboard of dining options for them.

One overly friendly old girl wandered into our flat one evening and make herself at home on my clothes in my wardrobe, only leaving to loudly demand food when ever someone went into the kitchen.

We eventually tricked her outside. We don't have any cat food anyway.

If I have a choice I would definitely prefer cats over other vermin, even if they do get to plague numbers at some times.

Middle-East

A cease fire.
This is good news.

From last week:

It has been three weeks since the beginning of hostilities between Turkey's neighbor's to the east.
I cannot really tell you much, except to tell you what has been going on here.

The Turkish government supports the idea of peace, but appears to be doing very little to achieve this aim, as far as I can tell from reading the papers.

There has been many anti-Israel/US protests. The government is a conservative, Islamic party, which is a reformed version of an even more conservative Islamic party after the last coup.

Turkish Politics

All the parties have only been around since the last coup in 1980.

I taught Cengiz, a columnist for Hurriyet, the "best" newspaper in the country (it still features nearly naked women on the back page... both the media magnates here seem to follow Murdoch's line of "you can't sell a paper without tits."). He gave me an insight into Turkish politics.

There are about five or six major parties all holding a relatively significant share of the parliament. Comparing his country to the west he noted that in an established market there were two major players: Coke and Pepsi, McDonald's and Burger King, Phillip Morris (aka Kraft Foods) and British-American Tobaccos etc etc.

Turkey is not an established market.

However, Erdogan has done a pretty good job of bringing the country up to date.

This is an aside.

Peaceful Protest or Riot

It was good to see some good, old fashioned protesting in Perth when I logged onto the ABC website recently.

Shortly after that some of my colleagues told me about a protest that they happened to witness on Istaklal Street, not far from my flat.

The peaceful protest moved from Taksim to Tunel, drawing attention to their opinion of the behaviour of Israel and the apparent American complicity.

The large group of people were met by a body of police in full riot gear. Without warning the police fired a hail of tear and got busy with the large sticks, to disperse the crowd.

This was outside the school's branch in Taksim. A student opened a window on the fifth floor and was apparently floored by the fumes.

I saw pictures on the local news. The coppers did not seem to be holding back.

However, search as I may the next day, I could not find a single reference to the incident in any English language newspaper or website.

If you find anything about this, please let me know.

Something to think about for the next protest you complain that they are suppressing your "right to protest" (incidentally, if you can find any reference to "rights" in the Australian constitution, I would like to hear about that too).

There are more protests scheduled. There seem to be movements here that are very pro-militant -Islam.

Incidentally, insulting "Turkishness" is against the law in this country.

I will let you know I offend anybody and I am kicked out.

Opinions:

Shortly after I returned from holiday, and heard the news I got in touch with an Israeli friend who I met while traveling around Australia.

He said that this is the first time, in a long time, that the Israeli people (himself included) felt absolutely "just" in their actions.

This conflict, he told me, had been on the cards for quite some time and the kiddnapping of the soldiers was just an excuse to get to work.

Only only hope he is not called to the front, to test his beliefs.

He and a friend also set up a "peace stall" in a local shopping mall near his home in the south.

He said that someone hit him in the head and that this was not surprising: "we are at war".

Six Degrees

I have a cousin who married a Lebanese guy.

Hi, to Kate and Paul.

I now have two little Irish-Lebanese-Australian second cousins.

Shout outs to Liam and Abigail too.

Paul's family is safely in the mountains, but his uncle works at the only harbour still running in Lebanon. I hope for his safety.

Personally, I am tending to agree with a wise man, who said: I think the Americans should stop giving weapons to the Israelis and the Iranians should stop giving weapons to Hezbollah.

It is also interesting that America delivers aid to Lebanon and bombs to Israel at the same time. I am not sure how that is justified.

Final Word

I do not see any winners here.

The real losers are, and will be for years to come, the Lebanese people, who have not asked for this.

If I was voting, I am not sure I would give Hezbollah any power.

How did they run for parliament anyway - not sure how I feel about letting internationally recognised terrorist organisations run for seats in parliament.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

A soldier is a terrorist in a uniform.

Even more Photos

Kekova

Inside Pirates

More Ruins at the Sunken City

More Photos from the Holiday

Efes

The Library

Theatre View

From the Gallery for the blind

Viddyblog Into

My first viddy blog, lets see if this works

Viddyblog

It is a bit dodgy, but give it a bash.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=video&file=MOV01720.MPG

Hopefully, more to come.

Enjoy.