mayhem on May Day

As all access to Taksim (5 minutes from where I live and a main transport hub on the European side of Istanbul) was basically forbidden or blocked off by tanks and cops with machine guns, I chose to take a different route to work and luckily everything went very smoothly. The roads were empty and it's quite possible I made it to work in record time.

However, not everyone was as lucky. There were about 200 policemen at the end of my street in riot gear and 1 tank. Early in the morning, I read reports of people throwing Molotov cocktails and bricks. Newspapers reported that over 1000 people were arrested or detained.

A bunch of teachers got caught in the tear gas/water cannon cross fire. Two teachers even had tear gas in their apartment!

Workers' unions had had plans to march to Taksim and protest there, but this was banned by the government. Eventually they abandoned their efforts and things calmed down.

May 1 is a holiday in most of Europe, but not Turkey. It seems that the government went through extraordinary measures in attempts to control the places people could access yesterday and how they could access them. Wouldn't it have been better had the allowed a peaceful march and provided security for that instead of encouraging people to hate the police more than they already do? (In Turkey, being a police officer is not seen as a good career. When I tell people my sister wants to be a police officer the first thing they ask is why.)

It seems the ruling AKP tried to use May 1 to exert their power (or lack thereof). There is currently a case pending in the Constitutional Court which aims to outlaw the AKP for being "anti-secular."

One union leader expressed his worry that the AKP is only concerned about one freedom - that of allowing girls wearing the türban (a style of headscarf) to attend university. While I am also concerned about that freedom, I'm also concerned about democracy and the right of people to peacefully march and protest, especially on a day like May 1. Not to mention, the connection between many recent events and the "Deep State." (more to come on this later)

Anyway, tomorrow my mom is arriving and we are heading out to Cappadocia on Monday and then the Aegean coast. I'll be back next weekend.

Until then...

Things are happening

Yes, things are happening. Which partly explains my lack of writing in the past few weeks. But only partly.

So, about those things...

1. Tomorrow I'm getting Lasik. I'm not nervous yet, but I'm sure I will be tomorrow. Some of you have expressed concerns about getting it done in a foreign country. After visiting the hospital, those concerns didn't even cross my mind. This hospital is as nice as, if not nicer, than an American hospital. It has crystal chandeliers! Valet parking! (not to mention it's so clean that I would eat off the floor, my doctor has performed over 50,000 operations, attended numerous trainings in the US, etc.) Some of my coworkers have had Lasik done here and everything went smoothly. Plus, its like 60% cheaper than in the US.

2. Youtube is blocked again. It's getting kind of old. Someone made a video which allegedly insults Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (this is illegal in Turkey) and hence, youtube was blocked again. A temporary, yet ineffective way to deal with the problem...

3. There was an earthquake last Wednesday evening. It measured 4.8 and the epicenter was about 40 km away from Istanbul, across the Marmara Sea. Everyone felt it but me. (I guess that means my apartment building is strong?) Scientists had been predicting that a "big one" is on the way (the last "big one" was in 1999), but some are now changing their predictions based on the fault line which caused this one. So no more "big one" according to some. I'll be preparing my "earthquake bag" soon which will include my passport, socks and underwear, water, some food, etc.

4. Many Turkish workers went on strike on Friday to protest a new social security bill that would raise the retirement age from 58 for women and 60 for men to 65 (keep in mind that Turks have a shorter life span than Americans). The bill also includes other things related to disability and maternity leave and more.

So, for 2 hours on Friday the post office, schools, transportation, hospitals (open for emergencies only), municipality offices, etc. where shut. The government criticized the strike as being tyrannous towards the Turkish people for failing to provide them with the necessary services, but did agree to further examine the options. We'll see as to whether this strike will be effective in preventing the bill from being passed.

5. Probably the biggest news item of the week is that the Turkish Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals filed a request to the Constitutional Court that it disband the ruling AK Party. The AK Party is seen by much of Europe and the US as being reformist, but seen by many Turks as plotting to institute Sharia (Islamic) Law in Turkey. Many Turks are staunch secularists and see the AK Party as a threat to the foundations of the Turkish Republic and the principles of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

So, the Prosecutor case is based on "evidence" that the AK Party is a "hot bed for anti-secular activities." The main issue behind this is the recent decision (now being appealed) that would allow headscarfs (although only certain styles) to be worn in university (this reserved a ban of 20 or so years).

Of course, the European Union is going nuts about this one, as they should be. While I do not support any movements towards an Islamic style government here, I do welcome advances in human rights issues. Turkey is continually being talked by various international organizations as not doing enough to promote human rights and allowing covered girls to attend university dressed as they wish is a step in the right direction in my opinion. But, as I am not Turkish, there are many other sides to this issue that I don't and probably will never be able to understand. I don't want to get into them, just wanted to give a brief overview of my opinion.

At the same time, calling for a political party to be disbanded is not a step in the right direction. One article stated that not even the Nazi party was disbanded in Germany as it was determined to be anti-democratic. In Turkey's history, about 16 political parties have been disbanded.

Anyway, I just wanted to give some (hopefully) objective background information on what's going on here. I don't want to be too opinionated about it because I value that people have different opinions.

I saw a really great exhibit on Islamic Art that is on loan from the Louvre. If my pictures came out well, I'll post them soon.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Here I go again...

I haven’t been writing lately, at least on my blog. Not since December 2007!

After spending some time wondering why, I decided it was because I just wrote about my life. In all actuality, my life here is quite normal and at times, boring.

So, I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach and not just write about my life, but other things that interest me - politics, cultures, different articles I stumble upon on the lovely Internets!, links to interesting things. Writing about these things will not make me feel compelled to write such long posts.

Instead, I will post short, interesting things and hopefully I will do so more frequently. And I hope to encourage discussion by encouraging comments. Comments also encourage me to write more since I know that someone is reading. Post anonymously, I don’t care, just write something!

So, on to my interesting finds of the day. As many of you know, I have a slight Internet obsession. Mainly reading political and social commentary with some more nerdy stuff thrown in occasionally. I have a daily round of blogs and other websites that I read which often provide links to interesting stuff. We’ve been talking about “The Web” in my Elementary Business English class and it’s rather shocking to me that these 4 women don’t seem to find the Internet a) interesting or b) necessary because to me it is both of those and way more. I hear about something or read about something and immediately I want to find out more.

Side note: if you disagree with what I say, great! I’m not here to be preachy or try to make you think like I do, because I value debate and alternate opinions. Please feel free to voice them here.

This picture is quite powerful I think. Living in a Muslim country is a wonderful experience. I have learned so much and I am grateful for every second of it. The blind discrimination and prejudice by many Americans is only due to ignorance and unfounded fear. I’ve been here for 13 months and not one time have I met someone who I thought was a “terrorist.” Not one time did I fear for my life. Not one time did I feel uncomfortable because of religion. Instead, I found the complete opposite. I found a country of warm, hospitable people who are willing to bend over backwards to help you, who want to educate you about Islam, who are confused and scared because much of the world doesn’t understand them and their peaceful religion.

Of course, there are Muslim terrorists. But there are also Christian terrorists and Jewish terrorists and so on.

Asking for the world to live in peace is too much to ask I have learned. But I won’t stop educating myself and learning more and being tolerant. And I encourage you to do the same (ok I’m being a little preachy).

Onwards....to this article - a very interesting piece which explains that Google is going to OUTSPEND the US government on the environment in the fiscal year 2009. I always use Google as an example in my classes (creative company culture, flexible work environment, unique perks) and here I have another example - the social responsibility of a private-sector company outweighing (and outspending) the responsibility of the public-sector.

This leads me to a few questions. What can we do to further encourage the private-sector to develop environmentally-friendly products? What role should the government play with regard to the environment? Can we trust that governmental policy is actually going to benefit the environment and not merely for political and/or economical gains?

Ok! That was fun. I managed to combine a bit of my work life, my regular life, and 2 interesting issues into 1 post. And it wound up being a long post. Now I’m just waiting for the comments to keep me motivated...Sadie - that means you! And thanks to Tracy for the photo!