Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas presents (...continued)


The second precious present from the
feestdagen was actually a Christmas present from Carla: Haruki Murakami's 2002 novel, 海辺のカフカ or Umibe no Kafuka (Tranlated to English as: Kafka on the Shore, although a direct translation, 'Kafka's Coast', should be as appropriate).

Wiki notes that John Updike described this novel as a "real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender." I agree, I started it just because it was nearby when sitting in Carla's living room in Brabant, and since then I have been struggling to let myself concentrate on work. Hopeless... So I submit myself to this novel before I go back to work. I also find the book much less unsettling than Murakami's previous novel I read, 世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World).

The plot (as Wiki supplied) is as follows, although it doesn't do justice to the style:

Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between the two, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters.

The odd chapters tell the 15 year old Kafka's story as he runs away from his father's house to escape an Oedipal curse and to embark upon a quest to find his mother and sister. After a series of adventures, he finds shelter in a quiet, private library in Takamatsu, run by the distant and aloof Miss Saeki and the androgynous Oshima. There he spends his days reading the unabridged Richard Francis Burton translation of A Thousand and One Nights and the collected works of Natsume Sōseki until the police begin inquiring after him in connection with a brutal murder.

The even chapters tell Nakata's story. Due to his uncanny abilities, he has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats. The case of one particular lost cat puts him on a path that ultimately takes him far away from his home, ending up on the road for the first time in his life. He befriends a truck-driver named Hoshino. Hoshino takes him on as a passenger in his truck and soon becomes very attached to the old man.

Nakata and Kafka are on a collision course throughout the novel, but their convergence takes place as much on a metaphysical plane as it does in reality and, in fact, that can be said of the novel itself. Due to the Oedipal theme running through much of the novel, Kafka on the Shore has been called a modern Greek tragedy.

The style is amazing (and amazingly Murakami, if I may say so after reading only two of his novels... Well... Wiki agrees that it is his typical blend):
Kafka on the Shore demonstrates Murakami's typical blend of popular culture, quotidian detail, magical realism, suspense, humor, an involved and at times confusing plot, and potent sexuality.
Murakami also has a magnificient website, which I suggest you visit after first getting to know his world/work a little. (If you already do, click right here...)

Monday, December 29, 2008

Peace. Now!

sign the petition by avaaz.org for peace talks in the middle east...

Petition to the UN Security Council, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA:
We urge you to act immediately to ensure a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to protect civilians on all sides, and to address the growing humanitarian crisis. Only through robust international action and oversight can the bloodshed be stopped, the Gaza crossings safely re-opened and real progress made toward a wider peace in 2009.


Sunday, December 28, 2008

Van alles wa nog nie te laat is, misschien...

My short Christmas trip to Brabant (via Oud-Beijerland) was full of beautiful presents, and I thought starting with them would be a proper way to commemorate the feestdagen. One of the most impressive things about going to Brabant for Christmas is the opening up of a new, different world to me. I am grateful to Eric and the bigger family that allowed that to happen. I sometimes feel I hardly have the right to be in this delicate world of wonders in which they so comfortably move in, owning it, appropriating it, without even realising how chuck full of things-long-gone-by it is... Neither do they realise the power, importance, and beauty of what they have. I feel it is better that way; one cannot protect certain things, but can only keep them, love them, and have them as a part of one's life...

One of those presents was folk music in Brabants, Gerard van Maasakkers in particular. Even I heard of Hee goade mee before, but I didn't expect to come across anything more familiar than that. Well, I was wrong. Although my fave song in the 3 Lp's compilation is still Marieken, I found out about this other song, Bloemen zijn rood, which in fact is a translation of an earlier folk song by Harry Chapin, titled Flowers are green.

The idea for this song came to Chapin when his secretary told him about her son who brought his report card home from school one day. The teacher had written a note in the card saying: "Your son is marching to the beat of a different drummer, but don't worry we will soon have him joining the parade by the end of the term."
The story in the song makes me think of a favourite quote by Henry David Thoreau

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

The lyrics are below, but here is a video that also tells the story (and a link to a nice cover from another band):

Flowers are Red
by Harry Chapin

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me.....

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.

HASANKEYF'I YASATMA GIRISIMI'nden

BASINA VE KAMUOYUNA

Cevre ve Orman Bakani Veysel Eroglu’nun Ilisu Barajina karsi cikanlar boluculerdir yonundeki ve Hasankeyf antik kenti ile ilgili aciklamasini siddetle kiniyoruz.

Veysel Eroglu’nun iddia ettigi gibi Ilisu Projesi ne denize nazir yeni bir Hasankeyf yaratacak ne de tarih korunarak muhtesem bir kent kurulacak. Bu aciklamalar tamamen gercek disi ve goz boyamadan ibarettir. Bir defa yuzlerce eserin oldugu Dicle nehri ve dogayla bir butunluk arz eden Hasankeyf’deki kulturel miras 12 eserin tasinmasiyla kurtarilamaz. Bunun yaninda teknik olarak tasinmasi mumkun olmayan Hasankeyf’in tek kurtulus yolu Ilisu Barajinin durdurulmasidir.

Yeni kurulmak istenilen kent Hasankeyf’e halkin tasinmasi cok suphelidir. Hasankeyf’liler bugun gecerli olan yeniden yerlesim yasalarindan dolayi bu yeni yerlesim alanlarina tasindiklari durumunda borclanacaklar, bundan dolayi da Batman gibi buyuk kentlere gidecekler. Boylece Veysel Eroglu ve hukumeti hayalet bir sehir kuracak. Yine Hasankeyf’liler her sabah kalkip kendi mezarlarin su altinda kaldigini gormek istememekteler. Hasankeyf’liler surdurebilir kalkinma politikasi cercevesinde kulturel turizmin ve yerel dinamiklerin gelistirilmesini talep etmekteler. Planlanan golun ayrica su kalitesi eksik atik su aritma tesisleri ve hizla gelistirilen sulama sonucu cok dusuk seviyede olacak; bu da Firat nehri bolgesinde oldugu gibi tifo ve malaria gibi hastaliklarin yayginlasmasini beraberinde getirecektir.

Veysel Eroglu gibi devletin en ust duzey makamlarini isgal edenler, kulturel miras, ekoloji ve sosyal yapimiz acisindan yikim ve kayiptan baska bir sey getirmeyecek Ilisu projesine karsi cikanlari ‘bolucu’ ilan edilmeleri, bu konusmayi yapanlarin konumlarina yakismayan, talihsiz aciklamalar olarak degerlendirmekteyiz. Bolgemizde, tum Turkiye de ve yurt disinda Hasankeyf in ve Dicle Vadisi’nin sular altinda kalmasini istemeyen tarih, doga ve sosyal kalkinma bilincine sahip her renkten insanlar, koyluler, kentliler, sivil toplum kuruluslari, meslek odalari kuruluslari, aydinlar, yazarlar, sanatcilar, akademisyenler, uzmanlar cesitli faaliyetler yurutmektedir. Etkilenen insanlarin % 80’i ve tum Turkiye insanlarin en az yarisi Ilisu projesinin gerceklesmesini istememektedirler. Butun bu faaliyetleri yuruten insanlar ve halkin cogunlugu bolucu olarak mi degerlendiriliyor? Eger boluculugun tanimi insanlik tarihine sahne olmus tarihsel gecmisi bulunan, binlerce canli cesidine ev sahipligi yapan, topragimiza, gecmisimize ve dolayisiyla yarinlarimiza (Cocuklarimizdan devir aldigimiz tarihimize) gelecegimize sahip cikmak ise biz bu tanimi gocunmadan kabul ediyoruz.

Kendileriyle ayni fikirde olmayanlara saldirgan bir tutum sergileyen Cevre ve Orman bakaninin ve onun dedigine gore ayni dusunen Basbakan R. Tayip Erdogan in ve bazi kose yazarlarinin; Ilisu Baraji’nin bilimsel verilere dayanmadan yapilmasina karsi cikanlara “bolucu” gibi ifadeleri kullanmalarindan dolayi, tarihini, dogasini, kulturunu ve insanini seven bu tarih ve doga sevdalilarindan ozur dilemesini bekliyoruz.

HASANKEYF I YASATMA GIRISIMI

Iletisim: Diren Ozkan: 0535 897 76 66 Ipek Tasli: 0488 212 50 53 hasankeyfgirisimi@gmail.com

Friday, December 19, 2008

bulent hanim yolumuzu aydinlatiyor :)


18/12/2008, www.savaskarsitlari.org

‘Ben çocuk doğurmuş olsam askere göndermezdim’ dediği için halkı askerlikten soğutmakla yargılanan Bülent Ersoy’a mahkemeden iyi haber geldi!


İSTANBUL - Şarkıcı Bülent Ersoy, bir televizyon programında söylediği sözlerle "halkı askerlikten soğuttuğu" iddiasıyla 9 aydan 2,5 yıla kadar hapis istemiyle yargılandığı davada beraat etti.
Bakırköy 18. Asliye Ceza Mahkemesindeki duruşmaya, tutuksuz sanık Bülent Ersoy katılmadı. Müşteki Hayati Karataş ile taraf avukatları ise duruşmada hazır bulundu.
Duruşmada söz alan Karataş, Ersoy’un tutuklu olarak yargılanmasını ve cezalandırılmasını talep etti.
Esas hakkındaki mütalaasını veren Cumhuriyet Savcısı ise Ersoy’un jüri üyesi olarak bulunduğu bir programda, "Ben çocuk doğurmuş olsaydım askere göndermezdim" dediğini ve bu sözler nedeniyle hakkında "yayın yolu ile halkı askerlikten soğuttuğu" iddiasıyla dava açıldığını anımsattı.
Savcı, Ersoy’un sözlerinin düşünce özgürlüğü kapsamında değerlendirilmesi gerektiğini belirterek, suçun unsurları oluşmadığı gerekçesiyle sanığın beraatını istedi.
Mahkeme de sanığın sözlerinin, "şahsi fikrin kişisel haklar yönünden özgürce açıklanması" niteliğinde olduğuna ve suç kastı taşımadığına karar vererek, Ersoy’un beraatına hükmetti.

ilgili diger yazilar: [1] , [2]

song of the day (yesil yesil yesil....)

Poem: Can Yücel
My fave version: Yeni Türkü

ikindiyin saat beşte
baş gardiyan Rıza başta
karalar bastı koğuşa
ikindiyin saat beşte

seyre durduk tantanayı
tutuklayıp sardunyayı
attılar dip kapalıya
ikindiyin saat beşte

dirlik düzenlik kurtulur
müdür koltuğa oturur
çiçek demire vurulur
ikindiyin saat beşte

yataklık etmiş ki zahar
suçu tevatür ve esrar
elbet bir kızıllığı var
ikindiyin saat beşte

canların gözleri yaşta
aklı idamlık yoldaşta
yeşil ölümle dalaşta
sabahleyin saat beşte

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Attacking Margaret Atwood: Are Limits to Growth Real

Rex Weyler

On October 24, in the Ottawa Citizen, columnist Dan Gardner attacked Canadian author Margaret Atwood for “slack, lazy writing” and mocked Maclean’s editor Ken Whyte for not grilling her more thoroughly or “fact checking” her environmental opinions.

Gardner refers to his target as “Margaret F***ing Atwood,” whose status as a “celebrity intellectual” protects her from the sort of tough editing that he endures whenever he submits a column. Canwest widely reprinted the attack, published a week later in the Vancouver Sun.

Margaret Atwood: There are important things not connected to money


What did Ms. Atwood say that so riled Mr. Gardner? First of all, she suggested in reference to the economic crisis that we need “fair regulations” and that there were important things in life “unconnected to money.” Worse, in the Maclean’s interview, she referred to the 1972 Limits to Growth report written by Harvard biophysicist Donella Meadows and her colleagues, the Club of Rome.

Gardner says, “If this were a writer of lesser stature, Mr. Whyte would have followed up with, ‘the 1972 report of the Club of Rome? You mean the one that said world supplies of zinc, gold, tin, copper, oil and natural gas would be completely gone by 1992? You mean that report?’”

The glitch regarding Mr. Gardner’s rigorously edited column is that the Club of Rome book says no such thing.


Irresponsible nonsense

Conventional growth economists and conservative pundits routinely ridicule The Limits to Growth, although few provide precise critique of the content. Within a week of its publication, in Newsweek magazine, Yale economist Henry C. Wallich, dismissed the book as “a piece of irresponsible nonsense.”

“There are no great limits to growth,” U.S. president Ronald Reagan declared in 1985, “when men and women are free to follow their dreams.” He added later, “because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

This inspiring Reaganism serves as the official Neocon rebuff to any talk of environmental limits, paraphrased by Margaret Thatcher, two U.S. Bush administrations, and by the Harper government in Canada. Danish anti-environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg simplifies it: “Smartness will outweigh the extra resource use.” Dreams. Ideas. Smartness. These powers of human imagination will obliterate physics and biology.


Cassandra revisited

Last spring, as the world economy soared, The Wall Street Journal reported nagging commodity shortages in “New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears,” an essay referring to nineteenth century economist Thomas Malthus. Although the business journal documented the social impact of scarce energy, water, arable land, and critical resources worldwide, they hedged: “Now and then across the centuries, powerful voices have warned that human activity would overwhelm the earth’s resources. The Cassandras always proved wrong. Each time, there were new resources to discover, new technologies to propel growth.”

We might note, first, that the authors misread the Cassandra myth. In the Greek story, Apollo lusts after Cassandra, beautiful daughter of Trojan king Priam, and bestows upon her the gift of prophecy. However, she spurns the deity’s advances, so Apollo takes revenge with a curse that no one will believe her. This is not a tale of erroneous predictions, but rather blundering humanity ignoring the truth.

In addition to sleeping through the classics, certain economists may also have skipped calculus and natural science classes. High school biology students know that bacteria in a petri dish or fruit flies in a jar will grow until they exhaust available nutrients, and then perish. The same thing happened to humans on Easter Island. There are zero cases in nature of endless growth. None.

In real ecosystems, growth has only two futures: stability or collapse. “All growth after maturity,” explains Dr. Albert Bartlett, emeritus professor of physics at Colorado University, “is either obesity or cancer.” We live on a vast planet, whose bounty appears at times almost infinite, but human enterprise has reached the scale of the earth itself, and we now witness a big difference between dreams and physical stuff such as oil, trees, and fish. [...] after decades of denial that oil production would peak, The International Energy Agency announced that the world’s 800 largest oil fields are in “accelerating decline [and] current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable.” This announcement arrives now that the data prove irrefutable, but geologists warned in the 1950s that we should plan ahead for the oil decline. Malthus alerted humanity of such things two centuries ago, and The Limits of Growth made similar calculations three decades ago.


What "Limits" really said

In his attack on Ms. Atwood, Gardner apparently borrows a critique of Limits from Ronald Bailey’s Eco-Scam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse, a diatribe full of similar errors and omissions.

Bailey says, “In 1972, The Limits to Growth predicted that at exponential growth rates, the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead, and natural gas by 1993.”

Many skeptics have repeated Bailey’s rendering as if this is true, but Limits to Growth makes no such prediction. Rather, the authors provide a table (p. 56 in my edition) in which they display three columns of numbers to explain potential depletion rates of known or presumed commodity reserves:

1. A static index, showing how long known reserves would last at 1972 rates of consumption.

2. An exponential index, showing depletion at increasing consumption rates.

3. An optimistic index, allowing for future resource discoveries and new mining technologies.

Bailey and Gardner cherry-pick the middle column, the fastest possible depletion, and then misrepresents this as a “prediction” which it clearly is not. I wrote to Mr. Gardner, asking him to explain his conclusion, and he confirms, yes, he used this table and believes he is being “reasonable.”

It is hard to imagine how selecting the extreme scenario among several, presented as data, and calling this scenario a “prediction” is reasonable. Such a conclusion remains particularly puzzling since the Limits authors carefully explain that the data are not predictions and “resource availability … will be determined by factors much more complicated than can be expressed by either the simple static reserve index or the exponential reserve index … [to] account for the many interrelationships among such factors as varying grades of ore, production costs, new mining technology, the elasticity of consumer demand, and substitution of other resources.”

Jean-Marc Jancovici, environmental consultant to the French global warming study, Mission Interministérielle de l’Effet de Serre, refers to Limits to Growth and the IPCC report on climate change as “documents that 99% of the people that quote them never read" [...]

For his column, Gardner uses the phrase “slack and lazy” five times to describe Ms. Atwood’s journalism. Finally, he ridicules her for suggesting that some day “Things unconnected with money will be valued more – friends, family, a walk in the woods.” This notion echoes a principle articulated in 1979 by Norwegian ecologist Arne Naess as, “Richer ends, simpler means.” Authentic qualities of life – reading to your child, walking in the woods – have little to do with money and economic growth. Ms. Atwood makes a valid and important point: We might indeed achieve happy lives with less stuff.


Cassandra, remember, really did see the future. The fools around her brought down Troy.


===================

Here is a discussion about this essay on Tyee.ca

Mr. Gardner’s original column attacking Ms. Atwood

"A Matter of Life and Debt," M. Atwood, NY Times


Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Kendi adımıza verdiğimiz imzalar vicdanımızın sesidir...

BİA Haber Merkezi - İstanbul

17 Aralık 2008, Çarşamba

Özür Diliyorum kampanyasının ilk imzacıları Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'ın sözlerine yanıt verdi. Erdoğan'ın özür dilememesine şaşırmadıklarını söyleyen imzacılar "Kendi adımıza verdiğimiz imzalar vicdanımızın sesidir" diyorlar.

Haber yayına hazırlandığı sırada, kampanyadaki toplam imza sayısı 11 bin 350'yi geçmişti.

Kampanyayı mantıksız bulan Erdoğan bugün "Suç işleyen özür diler, bizim böyle sorunumuz yok, kabul etmiyorum, desteklemiyorum" demişti.

Ağaoğlu: Başbakan bunları değil, Dink'i öldüren zihniyeti konuşsun

Yazar Adalet Ağaoğlu "Burada ifade edilen duyduğumuz mahcubiyettir. Erdoğan bu cümleleri kurmak yerine Hrant Dink'in neden öldüğü hakkında konuşsun" dedi.

"Irkçılık, Türkçülük hala sürmekte. Dink bugün aynı nedenle, hem de bile bile öldürüldüğüne göre kurulacak cümleler bunlar değil. Kampanya Osmanlı'dan bugüne süren bu zihniyet nedeniyle duyduğumuz mahcubiyetin ifadesi."

Aslım: Erdoğan'ınki ergen davranışı

Müzisyen Aylin Aslım Başbakan'ın söyleminini tipik bir ergen söylemi olduğunu söylüyor.

"İşine geldiğinde 800 yıllık mirası sahiplenip işine gelmediğinde ben yapmadım demek tipik bir ergen davranışı ne kadar mantıklıysa bu kampanyayla ilgili söyledikleri de o kadar mantıklı."

Bora: Görmezden geldiğimiz için özür diliyoruz

"Suç illa eylemle olmaz" diyen Aksu Bora "Burada suçtan dolayı özür dilemiyoruz" diyor.

"Göz yummaktan, görmezden gelmiş, unutmuş olmaktan dolayı özür diliyoruz."

Kardaş: Kampanya geçmişle yüzleşmemizin yolunu açacak

"Başbakan'ın bu açıklamasına katılmıyorum. Bu bir vicdan meselesidir. İnsanlar bunu vicdanlarında tartarak özür diliyorlar. Bu Türkiye'nin elini de rahatlatır. Geçmişle yüzleşememe sorununa katkı sunacağını bu ülkeye bir kapı açacağını düşünüyorum."

Contepe: Başbakan'ın ideolojisi belli, tavrı normal

"Bizim zaten devletlerle işimiz yok. devlet başkanı özür dilemeyebilir. Hangi nasıl bir ideolojiye sahip olduklarını, yanlışlığı sürdürdüklerini de biliyoruz."

Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü Bilge Contepe şöyle düşünüyor:

"Israrla özür dilemenin çok önemli olduğunu düşünüyorum. Biz demokratik bir ülkede ve eşit şartlarda yaşamak istiyoruz. Çok çeşitli kültürlerle bir arada yaşayınca demokratik yapıya kavuşur. Ermeniler de bu toprakların asli unsurlarıdır. Bu yüzden onlara yapılmış bu zulme karşı halktan özür diliyorum."

Nesin: Başbakandan "da" özür diliyorum

Prof. Dr. Ayhan Aktar "Bu Başbakan'ın görüşüdür. Başka hiçbir söylemiyorum", Ali Nesin de "Sayın Başbakan'a verdiğim rahatsızlıktan dolayı da özür dilerim!"diyor.

Mansur: Bu tepki kampanyanın önemli olduğunun işareti

"Başbakan devletin başı, özür dilemiyorsa dilemiyordur. Biz kendi adımıza özür diliyoruz. Tüm imzacılar da kendi adına özür diliyor" diyen oyuncu Lale Mansur "Erdoğan'ın sözlerinin Ermeni sorununun nasıl bir tabu olduğunu gösterdiği" görüşünde.

"Bu tepkiler ne kadar doğru bir kampanya olduğunu, Ermeni sorunun ne kadar dokunulmayan, konuşulmayan, konuşulması istenmeyen bir konu olduğunu gösteriyor. Bu özrün ne Ermenistan'la, ne siyasetle, ne partilerle, ne siyasetçilerle alakası var. Burada yaşayan Ermenilerle ilgili. Bunu anlamakta bu kadar zorluk çekmeleri de konunun nasıl bir tabu olduğunu göstergesi."

Elçi: Şaşırmadım

"Türkiye'de Ermeni sorunuyla yüzleşmeden ülkenin başta Kürt sorunu olmak üzere hali hazırdaki sorunlarının çözüleceğini düşünmüyorum" diyen avukat Tahir Elçi "devletin bugüne kadar bu sorunla ilgili bir adım atmaya yanaşmadığını" ifade ediyor.

"Sayın Başbakan'ın bu tutumunu anlamak mümkün değil. Kendisi son iki yıldır bu konulardaki tutumuyla niyetini sergilemiştir. Vatandaşlarına 'beğenmiyorsanız çekin gidin' diyen bir başbakandan bu anlamda demokratik bir adım atmasını beklemiyorum. Şaşırmadım."(BÇ/TK)

Monday, December 15, 2008

QuOte oF tHE daY

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

Ozur Diliyoruz...

Irkçılığa ve Milliyetçiliğe DurDe Girişimi tarafından düzenlenen "Özür diliyorum" kampanyasının web sitesi bugün itibariyle yayında. Artık imzalarınızı çevrimiçi olarak doğrudan bu siteye atabilirsiniz.

imza metni:
"1915'te Osmanlı Ermenileri'nin maruz kaldığı Büyük Felâket'e duyarsız kalınmasını, bunun inkâr edilmesini vicdanım kabul etmiyor.
Bu adaletsizliği reddediyor, kendi payıma Ermeni kardeşlerimin duygu ve acılarını paylaşıyor, onlardan özür diliyorum."
Katilmak icin tiklayin

Katilanlar

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hasankeyf Kurtuluyor

12 Aralık 2008
Hasankeyf’i sular altında bırakacak olan Ilısu Barajı’na kredi veren ülkelerden Avusturya projeden desteğini çektiğini açıkladı. Avusturya Dışişleri Bakanı Michael Spindelegger, Avusturya ulusal televizyon kanalı ORF’nin ana haber bülteninde yaptığı açıklamada Türkiye’nin gerekli şartları yerine getirmemesi nedeni ile Ilısu Barajı Projesi’nden çekildiklerini açıkladı.

Almanya, Avusturya ve İsviçre’nin Ilısu Barajı için Türkiye’ye verdiği “kredi desteğini çekme ültimatomunun” süresi dolmadan Avusturya baraj projesinden desteğini çektiğini açıkladı.

Baraj karşıtı aktivistlerin önceki gün Ilısu Barajı’na kredi desteği veren Avusturyalı bankayı işgal etmesinin ardından ulusal televizyon kanalı ORF’nin ana haber bültenine katılan Dışişleri Bakanı Michael Spindelegger yaptığı açıklamada, Türkiye’nin 153 şartın hiçbirini yerine getirmediğini belirterek “Bir taraf şartları belirlediyse (150’den fazla şart belirlendi) ve bu şartlar yerine getirilmediyse proje finanse edilemez. Benim için Avusturya bu ortaklığa artık son vermiştir” dedi. Aynı programda baraja finans desteği veren Oesterreichische Kontrollbank’ın (OeKB) direktörü Rudolf Scholten de Türkiye’nin projenin şartlarını yerine getirmediğini kabul etti.

Doğa Derneği Kampanya Koordinatörü Erkut Ertürk de yaptığı açıklamada:“Bu Hasankeyf ve Dicle Vadisi’nin çok uzun zamandır beklediği bir haber. Bu karar kampanyamız açısından büyük bir dönüm noktası. Hasankeyfli’ler ile birlikte Doğa Derneği, Türkiye’nin Ilısu baraj projesini iptal ederek bu korkunç hatadan geri dönmesini ve Hasankeyf’in UNESCO’nun Dünya Miras Listesi'ne eklenmesini talep ediyor. Şimdi başta hükümet olmak üzere herkes bu tarihi mirasa ve doğal zenginliğe sahip çıkmalıdır. Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan böyle bir kararla hem Türkiye’nin doğal ve tarihi mirasına sahip çıkmış, hem de alternatif bir kalkınma vizyonu ortaya koymuş olacaktır” dedi.

Doğa Derneği bir hafta önce belirlenen şartların ihlal edilerek, baraj inşaatının başladığını fotoğraflarla duyurmuştu.

Haber bültenindeki röportajı izlemek için:
http://ondemand. orf.at/news/ player.php? id=zib2&day= 2008-12-10

Monday, November 24, 2008

THE City


Istanbul is The City.

When I am here with friends from abroad, this observation becomes even more factual. I enjoyed the presence of best friends from Amsterdam, Heather and Marina (H&M in vernacular), as much as they enjoyed being here.

Other than that, it is my city. So having friends around means they get to know me. Every step is an inroad to the curves of my brain. Every walk explains something about me. So I felt extremely privileged to have them around.

Here is what one can do in a week's time in The City (excluding the excursive walks and home-made delicacies that would be a much more extensive list)...

1. first night out:meze-rakı-friends...
Cezayir Restaurant is in an old Italian school building with great food and atmosphere. The wonderful feeling of coming together spontaneously with 20 beloved people at once merges with the enjoyment of experimental delicacies on traditional recipes. oh shiva... I'm back at home... :D
a dub reggae concert in Ghetto:
Dub L.F.O is from Tel Aviv. They are good and their energy matches their music, and the club itself is fantastic.

2. horse-riding
To detox and recovery after a night of dancing, it's best to wake up early, go to the forest close to the black sea coast and have a walk with an equine soulmate. a crispy weather, and a walk after the ride towards the commons, all smiles etc... great people to meet at each step. I notice that I miss this lightness.

3. old city and old friends
While I met my best friend and her new baby, the girls go to the old city to do their touristy stuff... Mondays are not a good choice for this, but they come back tired and excited.
I recognise once more that I don't feel like becoming a mother. It looks tough. Pelin, however, seems to have fit the role perfectly. I like her calling the baby the dude, and herself a cow when Selin is being fed. Also that she doesn't stigmatise the event at all...

4. Ottoman food and
KargaArt
Çiya in Kadıköy is a must-go: the revival of Ottoman food for reasonable prices. A walk to the Kadife street full of nice bars and cafés brought us to my fave bar around the neighbourhood: Karga, which is located in an old Istanbul house with a fantastic staircase and an authentic atmosphere.

5. more good food... a surprise and a bit of frustration

This city never stops growing and changing. Often, this is not enjoyable to observe. Going to the "Orhan Pamuk district" and walking around the neighbourhood I used to live and work in only a few years ago was shocking in the sad sense of the word.

Nişantaşı is losing its elegance and style. But Zazi was a nice restaurant, serves fusion food and good wines. The highly modern style fits the food perfectly. Although I don't like either in general, the service made up for any disagreements I could have with the style. - Apparently, when I wasn't here Cemal got famous and all. I intend to see one of his movies soon preferably one in which he rides horses, which I know he does elegantly and well...

6. Selim Sesler at Araf
This one was for Heather, but we all enjoyed it tremendously. Araf, the name of the bar, means "purgatory". Selim Sesler, the name of the famous clarinet master that was playing, means "benign sounds" (alternatively "flawless sounds"). We danced to flawless sounds in the purgatory for 5 hours or so. Gypsy music has a certain universal quality to it; we could all dance without feeling tired, and despite several injuries and none of us had a chance to get depressed that night. We needed a rest the next day.


7. spoiling ourselves
with mantı and çiğbörek at Çesta on Bağdat Street and with a hair and nail treatment which one can afford in the City we spent a day spoiling ourselves, and helping the local economy. The shopped for clothes, too: This is the only way I like shopping for clothes. I go to my aunt's boutique in Feneryolu, have some tea and a nice conversation, eat simit filled with kaşar peyniri, try several things and ask the opinions of the many family members who are there and feel like a human being, member of a loving circle, rather than a consumer. Always works. H&M looked great in their new sweaters and hair, and I guess they also enjoyed the process of 'being treated'...

8. Another night out: Cabaret Cine is back... (almost)
Cabaret Cine is about to open after an extensive renovation. We were there for a pre-opening celebration, a dance party like the old times. I wish it was not modernised as much. It used to be much more Istanbul-like (see pic.), but it was nice to be with old friends and dance with them. Alev and Emin are always nice to see again. 
So it was another night of dancing... For the non-Istanbullers, the program was to see Istanbul Modern and/or Santralistanbul and have a nice dinner in the fish restaurants along the Bosporus, before joining us.  



9. a walk along the coast

The Asian side of Istanbul (actually only the Kadiköy district, but hey...) is the sister city of Amsterdam. It has a long coastline with old villas, 
seagulls and magnolia trees, accompanied by the 
wonderful salty smell of the Marmara sea. The storm that destroyed the Karaköy port was just starting when we went there for a short walk. 

We smelled the linden trees, speculated about which 
tree was called what in each language we spoke, took photos, and fantasised about moving to the old Istanbul house in the picture, turning it into a culture centre was Heather's idea. 
I would rather keep it silent, with only solitary philosophers to be allowed to live and work there... 


This is a recommendable walk unless it is summer and crowded. One can read (and translate) 
the Istanbul poems of the most beloved poets of the last century that are printed on the benches for extra effect ;)

Ben bir ceviz ağacıyım Gülhane Parkında
Ne sen bunun farkındasın
Ne de polis farkında...

10. Taksim, Beyoğlu, Pera 
(bookshops, music shops, and a whole lot of desserts to try)
We have been to Beyoğlu so many times and for so many different kinds of excursions that it is difficult to summarise it all.
 
Simply put, one must see it because it is the heart of İstanbul. I will put a single photo (of Çiçek Pasajı), probably one of the most picturesque spots in the neighbourhood, but it has many beautiful buildings that were once built as consulates in the Ottoman Capital. 


İstiklal Street is also my favourite place to shop. (Clothing is a different matter. It is endurable in the way I described above, now I am talking about real shopping.) 
Robinson Crusoe is the bookshop I choose most often: I can easily spend a whole day there. I think I will write in the next few months about the books I bought.

Heather had the CD-bonanza, and Marina indulged herself to Turkish literature and handicrafts. Then, we had to have more specialities to try: Boza, Sahlep, and Tavukgöğsü...




11. Concerts: Transglobal Underground and Nigel Kennedy...
Good ones. Very much so. It was even better as I was bumping into a friend every 15 minutes. Really cool.

12. Wonderful people: Başak, Eylem, Erkut, Ömer, Melike, Mahir, Güner, Lale, Güler, and others who made it possible by opening their minds/houses/refrigerators/cars/bookshelves to us... (and Pako, Püskül, Toros and Enigma who allowed us to their homes, and cared for us in the most wondrous, intuitive, and welcoming manner).

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

QuoTe(s) oF tHe DAy



"The last time somebody said, 'I find I can write much better with a word processor.', I replied, 'They used to say the same thing about drugs'."
Roy Blount Jr. (click for his wikipage)

"Many a person has been saved from summer alcoholism, not to mention hypertoxicity, by Dostoyevsky. [...] A good heavy book holds you down. It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic."

“Reading and Nothingness, Of Proust in the Summer Sun,” New York Times (June 2, 1985) Roy Blount Jr. (click for his official site)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

On Obama, change, and hope

Since Barrack Obama won, I have been struggling with news such as " Japanese citizens in the town of Obama celebrated"; or "70 reasons for the African-Americans in the US to be proud". I find Obama a spectecular politician so far, but his pigmentation (and that blacks in the US should be proud of their pigmentation because he is elected) is of no relevance to my appreciation of his political skills. On the contrary, from a Laclauian perspective, Obama managed to turn himself into a sign of hope by bring together non-whites as much as blacks in America, by understanding both, and getting away with it (and getting away with complexity). Here is an opinion piece that notes this.

Obama and the War on Brains
The New York Times; November 9, 2008
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF


Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.
Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.
We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.
Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.
Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.
As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas.
At least since Adlai Stevenson’s campaigns for the presidency in the 1950s, it’s been a disadvantage in American politics to seem too learned. Thoughtfulness is portrayed as wimpishness, and careful deliberation is for sissies. The social critic William Burroughs once bluntly declared that “intellectuals are deviants in the U.S.”
(It doesn’t help that intellectuals are often as full of themselves as of ideas. After one of Stevenson’s high-brow speeches, an admirer yelled out something like, You’ll have the vote of every thinking American! Stevenson is said to have shouted back: That’s not enough. I need a majority!)
Yet times may be changing. How else do we explain the election in 2008 of an Ivy League-educated law professor who has favorite philosophers and poets?
Granted, Mr. Obama may have been protected from accusations of excessive intelligence by his race. That distracted everyone, and as a black man he didn’t fit the stereotype of a pointy-head ivory tower elitist. But it may also be that President Bush has discredited superficiality.
An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions, and — President Bush, lend me your ears — that leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity.
(Intellectuals are for real. In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”)
Mr. Obama, unlike most politicians near a microphone, exults in complexity. He doesn’t condescend or oversimplify nearly as much as politicians often do, and he speaks in paragraphs rather than sound bites. Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level.
...
...

Friday, November 07, 2008

Göstere göstere HAYIR


26 yıl sonra anayasa yeniden referanduma sunuluyor. Türkiye ve dünyadan toplam 49 noktada kurulacak sandıklarda ve internet üzerinde 82 Anayasası yeniden oylanacak.

Genç Siviller'in başlattığı sivil anayasa kampanyasının ilk ayağı 7 Kasım Cuma günü gerçekleşiyor. 82 Anayasası'nın halk oyuna sunuluşunun ve %91 EVET oyu ile kabul edilişinin yıldönümünde sembolik bir referandum düzenleniyor. Türkiye'de 42, dünyadan 7 farklı noktada kurulacak sandıklarda 'Bu defa Göstere Göstere HAYIR' mesajı verilecek. Oylama iki haftadır www.darbedevamediyor.com adresinde sürmekte.

Referandum 11.00 – 19.00 saatlerinde gerçekleşecek. Beyoğlu Galatasaray Lisesi önünde kurulacak sandıkta ise 12.30 – 13.00 saatleri arasında tanınmış sanatçılar, entelektüeller ve hukukçular oy kullanacak.

Oylama merkezlerinden gelen sonuçlar Beyoğlu Balo Sokakta bulunan Yeşil Ev'de kurulacak kampanya merkezinde toplanacak, illerden MSN ve SKYPE üzerinden canlı yayın yapılacak, gece Anayasal Parti ile son bulacak.

Tarih: 7 Kasım Cuma

Oy veren ünlülerle konuşma olanağı: Galatasaray Lisesi önü 12.30 – 13.00

Anayasal Parti: Yeşil Ev İstiklal cad. Balo sok. No:21 Kat:1 Beyoğlu Saat:20.30 – 23.30

İletişim: 0 212 2518949 / 0 532 3572053 (Turgay)

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

wit


Emma Thompson has always amazed me.
This time she brings us the story of an intelligent and inspired woman who needs to deal with chemothreaphy (it's not her cancer but her treatment that is narrated in the movie). She has to deal with the treatment on her own, as most strong and intelligent women in modern times deal with numerous difficulties. But the tone is very sober, not overly dramatic. And her reflections make up a critique of the medical system, and the deeply painful loss of metaphysical inspiration. The movie is based on Margaret Edson's play, which I so far couldn't find any online copies of. But start with the movie... I rarely suggest a movie against a book. Often times books are tortured and murdered by Hollywood. Most recently I had to endure the gracious Deleuzian cyberpunk sci-fi book Babylon Babies by Maurice G. Dantec being turned on its head into Babylon AD. Just so that you know and skip at all costs; here is what wikipedia notes on the reception of the movie:
Director Mathieu Kassovitz was very unhappy with the distributors, 20th Century Fox, producers and other partners. He described the film as "pure violence and stupidity" and stated that "parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."
The film was universally panned by critics.
Rotten Tomatoes records a 7% "rotten" rating (based on 87 reviews), with the consensus being: A poorly constructed, derivative sci-fi stinker with a weak script and poor action sequences.
Metacritic compiles a 26% rating based on 15 reviews.

A political muddle

Zygmunt Bauman, guardian.co.uk, October 26 2008

Gerhard Schröder declared 10 years ago, during the Third Way and New Labour honeymoon, that "economic policy is neither left not right. It is either good or bad". Ten years later, we are allowed to conclude that this was a self-fulfilling prophecy. When he made his declaration, 11 out of 15 governments of the then European Union were run by socialists. Now, election after election, country after country, the left is elbowed out from positions of power. In the course of the last decade, social-democratic parties have presided over the economic policy of privatisation of gains and nationalisation of losses. They ran states preoccupied with deregulation, privatisation and individualisation.

At the end of the New Labour decade, Gordon Brown leads the all-European effort to mobilise the taxpayers into the campaign to recapitalise the capitalist economy, saving it from the consequences of its own greed and inbuilt suicidal tendency. There is almost nothing left to distinguish left from right in economic, or any other, policy.

And there is no distinctly left vision or credible program that would appeal to the imagination of electors and convince them that good economic policy may be synonymous with left economic policy. Following the line of Third Way thinking, to be left meant to be able to do more thoroughly the job that the right demands to be done but fails to do properly. It was Tony Blair's New Labour that laid institutional foundations under Margaret Thatcher inchoate ideas of "there is no society, only individuals and families". It was the French Socialist Party that did most for the dismantling of the French social state. And as to the post-communist parties in east-central Europe, renamed as social democrats, they are the most enthusiastic and vociferous advocates and most consistent practitioners of unlimited freedom for the rich and leaving the poor to their own care.

Over more than a century, the distinctive mark of the left was to believe that it is the sacrosanct duty of community to care for and to assist all its members, collectively, against the powerful forces they are unable to fight alone. Social-democratic hopes to perform that task used to be invested in the modern state, powerful and ambitious enough to limit the damage perpetuated by the free play of the markets by forcing the economic interests to respect the political will of the nation and the ethical principles of national community. But nation states are no longer as powerful as they used to be or hoped to become. The political states once claiming full military, economic and cultural sovereignty over their territory and its population are no longer sovereign in any of those aspects of common life.

Genuine powers, the powers that decide the range of life options and life chances of most of our contemporaries, have evaporated from the nation state into the global space, where they float free from political control: politics has remained as local as before and therefore is no longer able to reach them, let alone to constrain. One of the effects of globalisation is the divorce between power (the capacity to have things done) and politics. We have now power freed from politics in the global space, and politics deprived of power in the local space.

That development left the socialists without the crucial (the only?) instrument intended to be used in the implementation of their project. Simply, a social state guaranteeing existential security to all can no longer be constructed, nor survive, in the framework of the nation state (the forces that would have to be tamed for that purpose are not in the nation state command). Attempts to use the weakened state for that purpose were in most cases foiled under the pressure of exterritorial, global economic forces or the markets.

Increasingly, social democrats revealed their sudden inability to deliver on their promise. Hence the desperate effort to find another trademark and legitimation. The Italian Democratic Party or for that matter the Polish Left and Democrats, exemplify the destination to which that search leads: total absence of trademark and legitimation. In this form, the distant offspring of the old left can count only on the failures of their adversaries as their sole electoral chance, and on the disaffected and angry victims of those failures as their only electoral constituency.

The first collateral casualty was the issue of existential security. That past jewel in the left's crown has been dropped by the parties wrongly called left; it now lies, so to speak, on the street – from which it has been promptly picked up by forces equally wrongly called right. The Italian Lega is now promising to restore the existential security – which the Democratic Party promises to further undermine by more deregulation of capital and trade markets and more flexibility of the labour market, and by a yet wider opening of the country doors to the mysterious, unpredictable and uncontrollable global forces.

Only, fraudulently, it interprets the causes of existential insecurity differently from the left of the past: not as a product of the capitalist free-for-all (freedom for the high and mighty, impotence for the lowly and resourceless), but as the outcome of the well-off Lombardians needing to share their wealth with indolent Calabrians or Sicilians and of the need, common to them all, to share their means of living with foreigners. They forget that the immigration of millions of ancestors of the 21st century Italians to the US and Latin America enormously contributed to their present riches.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

A short animated film about the feedback loops likely to lead to catastrophic climate change, and what needs to be done.
by Leo Murray

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Friday, October 17, 2008

First Moroccan mayor in the Netherlands

RNW News 16-10-2008
Rotterdam City Council has voted Ahmed Aboutaleb as its mayor. The current deputy social affairs minister and member of the Labour party will be the first ever Dutch mayor of Moroccan origin. The appointment still has to be officially approved by the interior minister. Mr Aboutaleb will succeed Conservative VVD party member Ivo Opstelten, who has been in office for ten years.
Rotterdam City Council said Mr Aboutaleb is "extremely involved in local government" and "an inspiration for all Rotterdam residents".
But the small rightwing party, Leefbaar Rotterdam, with a large representation on the city's council criticised the appointment of Mr Aboutaleb: "He lives in Amsterdam, he's an opportunistic career climber, an Ajax supporter and worst of all, he has two passports", said leader Ronald Sörensen.
The National Committee of Moroccans (LBM) has applauded the new appointment of Mr Aboutaleb. "The Moroccan community is writing history by providing such a large and leading city with its lord mayor", says a spokesperson for the organisation.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Yeşiller Partisi: “Ilısu barajına karşı çıkanları terör örgütünün uzantısı ilan eden Başbakan Erdoğan özür dilemeli.”

İstanbul, 15 Ekim 2008 - Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü Ümit Şahin, Ilısu barajına karşı çıkanları terör örgütünün uzantısı olmakla suçlayan Başbakan Erdoğan'ın haddini aştığını söyledi ve yıllardır Hasankeyf'i korumak için mücadele edenlerden özür dilemeye çağırdı.

Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü Ümit Şahin tarafından yapılan açıklama şöyle:
“Ilısu barajına karşı çıkanlara terör örgütünün uzantısı diyen Başbakan Erdoğan haddini aşıyor. Hasankeyf’te en değerli tarihi eserlerin sonsuza kadar sulara gömüleceği, yüzlerce köyün ortadan kalkacağı, insanların göç etmek zorunda kalacağı, endemik türlerin ortadan kalkacağı, ekosistemin ciddi zararlar göreceği açık. Ilısu bölgeye kalkınma değil, insani ve sosyal yıkım getirecek bir projedir.
Türkiye’de yıllardır pek çok kesim Hasankeyf’i ve bölgedeki yaşamı korumak için mücadele veriyor. Türkiye’nin AB’ye girmesini en çok destekleyen Avrupa Yeşilleri de Ilısu’ya karşı ve kendi ülkelerinde kredi garantisinin iptali için çalışıyorlar. Üstelik bu çabalar sonuç vermek üzeredir ve Başbakan’ın paniklemesinin nedeni kredi garantilerinin kesileceğini görmelerinden duydukları korku olabilir. Bize böyle ağır sözler söyleyen Başbakan, Türkiye’nin en büyük destekçisi olan Avrupa Yeşilleri’ne ne cevap veriyor merak ediyoruz.
Başbakan Erdoğan açıkça gerçekleri çarpıtmakta, haksız olduğunu bildiği için de doğruları dile getirenlere hakaret etmektedir. Başbakan’dan sözlerini geri almasını ve Türkiye’de ve dünyada doğayı ve tarihi mirası korumak için mücadele verenlerden özür dilemesini istiyoruz.”
Yeşiller Partisi MYK üyesi sanatçı Yasemin Göksu ise Başbakan Erdoğan’a seslenerek şunları söyledi:
"Evet burada bir yalan var, ama yalanı söyleyen sizsiniz. Binlerce yıllık bir kültür ve coğrafi yapıya sahip Hasnkeyf' e suni bir deniz manzarası yapıştırmak, nasıl bir haddini bilmemek ve cehalet örneğidir? Demek ki sizin dünyanızda bir yer "deniz manzarası" yoksa değersiz... Ama denizler de, termik santrallerinizden, nükleer santrallerinizden, yazlıklarınızdan, talan edilmiş orman alanlarınız ve 2 B'lerinize kurduğunuz turistik tesislerinizden daha değerli değil. Değerli olsa gerçekten turizm cenneti olarak ve kendi doğallıklarında bırakılırlardı. Demek ki Hasankeyf’in binlerce yıllık bilgeliği, heybeti, ruhu yetmiyor size güzel görünmesi için. Bir insan, binlerce yıllık mirasın üzerine TOKİ blokları dikmekle övünebilir mi?..."
Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü Bilge Contepe ise konu ile ilgili olarak Yeşiller Partisi’nin tavrını şu sözlerle özetledi:
“Ilusu barajının yapımı; Hasankeyf’in tarihi, kültürel ve ekolojik değerlerinin yok olmasına, binlerce dönüm tarım arazisinin sular altında klmasına ve yerli halkın yaşam ortamlarından koparılmasına neden olacaktır. Bu önemli sorunun sınırları aşan bir mücadeleye kavuşması dünya Yeşilleri’nin mücadelesiyle gerçekleşmiştir. Bundan sonra da mücadelemize devam edeceğiz ve Hasankeyf’in sular altında kalmasına izin vermeyeceğiz.”


Yesiller Partisi

Friday, October 10, 2008

song of the mood creeping over to amsterdam...

hazy shade of winter
Simon and Garfunkel

Time, time, time, see whats become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the salvation army band
Down by the riverside, its bound to be a better ride
Than what youve got planned
Carry your cup in your hand
And look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
Thats an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around, the grass is high
The fields are ripe, its the springtime of my life

Ahhh, seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Wont you stop and remember me
At any convenient time
Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime

But look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around, leaves are brown
Theres a patch of snow on the ground...

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Türkiye’nin akildisi nükleer santral macerasi bugün bitmistir. Nükleer santral projeleri ve ihale tamamen iptal edilmelidir.

İstanbul, 24 Eylül 2008
Bugün, Enerji Bakanlığı tarafından yapılan nükleer santral ihalesine şartname alan 13 şirketten sadece biri, Rus Atostroyexport teklif verdi.
Bu sonuç, pek çok nedenle kamuoyu desteği olmayan nükleer endüstrinin çöküşünün son işaretidir.
Şu anda yapılması gereken, nükleer ihalenin derhal iptal edilmesi ve hükümetin elindeki bütün nükleer projelerden vazgeçtiğini açıklamasıdır. Hükümet, 1000 MW’lık tek reaktörü 5 milyar dolar eden nükleer yatırımı devlet eliyle yapmak gibi bir inada kalkışmamalıdır. Zaten şirketler kamuoyu baskısı nedeniyle ve bu kadar pahalı bir yatırım için kredi bulmaları imkansız olduğu için ihaleden çekilmişlerdir.
Nükleer karşıtlarının, yeşillerin, çevrecilerin ve duyarlı kamuoyunun en baştan beri gerçekleri söylediği bir kez daha kanıtlanmıştır.
Bu sonuç, Türkiye’deki bütün nükleer karşıtlarının, Akkuyu ve Sinop halkının zaferidir.
Şimdi, akılcı, yeşil bir enerji politikası için mücadele zamanı.
Bilge Contepe - Ümit Şahin
Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüleri

Yeşiller Partisi
İstanbul Yeşil Ev:
İstiklal cad. Balo sok. No:21 Kat:1 Beyoglu - İstanbul
Tel: 212-244 77 80 ve 533-362 02 13
yesillerbilgi@yahoo.com.tr
www.yesiller.org
www.yesilgazete.org

Monday, September 15, 2008

Presidents must be held accountable

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio, introduced a resolution to impeach President Bush into the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Kucinich tells the House Judiciary Committee that Congress has a duty "to demand accountability for one of the gravest injustices imaginable...The decision before us is whether Congress will stand up to tell future Presidents that America has seen the last of these injustices, not the first."
Full text of Congressman Kucinich's testimony
Official Website

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

“BirGün okuruna yönelik polis şiddetinin sorumlusu AKP’nin cesaretlendirmesidir.”

Yeşiller: “BirGün okuruna yönelik polis şiddetinin sorumlusu AKP’nin cesaretlendirmesidir.”

8 Eylül 2008, İstanbul - Yeşiller Partisi bugün yaptığı basın açıklamasıyla Tutku Türkol adlı öğrencinin BirGün gazetesi okuduğu için polis şiddetine maruz kalmasını kınadı. Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü Bilge Contepe tarafından yapılan açıklama şöyle:

“Genç bir kadın, İstanbul Kadıköy’de BirGün gazetesi okuduğu için polis tarafından kaçırılıyor, karakola götürülüyor, şiddete maruz kalıyor, boğazı sıkılıyor, tehdit ediliyor ve yasal bir gözaltı işlemi de yapılmadan, yani geride bir kanıt bırakmadan bırakılıyor.
Hangi devirde, nerede yaşıyoruz?
Açıkça görülüyor ki, insanların okuduğu gazeteye ve düşüncelerine bakılarak devletin resmi güvenlik görevlileri tarafından böyle bir muameleye maruz bırakılmalarının asıl sorumlusu, polisleri diledikleri yerde diledikleri gibi davranmaları için cesaretlendiren AKP’nin polis devletidir. İşkencecileri cezalandırmayan aynı anlayıştır. Toplumsal olaylara 1 Mayıs gösterilerinden Sinop’taki nükleer karşıtı eylemlere kadar demokratik hakları çiğneyerek müdahale eden aynı anlayıştır. Kadına yönelik şiddeti ve tacizi görmezden gelen aynı anlayıştır.
Sokakta korkmadan dolaşmak, dilediğimiz gazeteyi taşımak, okuduğumuz gazete BirGün olduğu için, muhalif olduğumuz için ya da kadın olduğumuz için polis şiddetine maruz kalmak istemiyoruz. Sokaklarda polislerin güvenlik sağlamak için değil, halkın güvenliğine karşı tehdit oluşturarak dolaştıkları bir ülkede yaşamak da istemiyoruz.
Bu suçu işleyen polis memurları görevden alınmalı, ama bununla yetinilmemelidir. Soruşturma tamamlanana kadar, bu rezaletten sorumlu olan tüm polis yetkilileri Moda Karakolu’nun en üst amirinden İstanbul Emniyet Müdürü’ne kadar kızağa alınmalıdır. AKP, kendine ait bir polis devleti kurmadığını ancak her türlü polis şiddetinde en sert önlemleri alarak ispatlayabilir. Aksi takdirde polis şiddetini bir kez daha cesaratlendirmiş, işkencecileri cezasız bırakmak için koruma politikasını sürdürmüş olacaklardır.
Tutku Türkol’a ve bütün BirGün okurlarına geçmiş olsun diyoruz. Yeşiller Partisi olarak vercekleri mücadelede yanlarında olacağız.

Bilge Contepe
Yeşiller Partisi Eş Sözcüsü

Sunday, September 07, 2008

çıldırmak üzereyiz!

Basına ve Kamuoyuna;

Travesti ve transseküeller olarak şiddet her an gündemimizde. Artık çıldırmak üzereyiz!

En son olarak tıpkı Ankara ve İzmir'de olduğu gibi, Bağdat Caddesi'nde yaşayan travesti ve transseksüeller olarak bizlere de Kabahatlar Kanunu gerekçe gösterilerek para cezaları kesiliyordu. Yine uzun zamandır yaşadığımız bu bölgede polisin keyfi gözaltı ve baskıları devam etmekteydi.

Bu bölgede uzun süredir yaşayan travesti ve transseküeller olarak bizler, durumun böyle daha fazla devam edemeyeceğini iyi bildiğimizden hukuki süreci başlattık. Başta talimatları veren komiser Ömer Bahadır Gülseren olmak üzere bize zulmeden polislerden şikayetçi olduk. Ve bu tarihten itibaren de yaşadığımız baskılar artarak devam etti.

Yolda yürürken kimlik ve gerekçe gösterilmeksizin apar topar ekip otolarına bindiriliyoruz ve gece çok geç bir saatte Kayışdağı'nın, Fikirtepe'nin ıssız bölgelerine bırakılıyoruz. Yine polis, tiner çeken suça meyilli şahısları bizleri sindirmek için üzerimize salmaktan çekinmiyor. Bunun dışında evlerimizin etrafında kara camlı sivil polis otoları sürekli olarak kol geziyor ve gündüz ailemizle sokakta yürürken dahi sırf cinsiyet kimliğimizden dolayı kimlik kontrolüne maruz kalıyoruz. Polis memurları son derece kaba, aşağılayıcı tavırlarla bizleri ailemizin yanında rencide ediyor.

Son olarak şikayetçi olduğumuz Ömer Bahadır Gülseren adlı bu şahıs bir kafede otururken polislerden davacı olan arkadaşımızı, yanında bulunan kalabalık polis grubuna işaret etmiş, yaptığı küfür ve aşağılamaların yanında bir de arkadaşımızı hedef göstermiştir.

Polise sınırsız yetkiler tanıyan yeni Polis Vaziyetleri ve Selahiyet kanunu pek çok kişinin ölüme varan mağduriyetler yaşamasına yol açtığı gibi, zaten polisin keyfi muameleden çekinmediği biz travesti ve transseksüellerin hayatını da iyice zorlaştırmıştır. Bizler gördüğümüz bu insanlık dışı muamelenin hepimizin sorunu olduğunu düşünüyoruz, çünkü biliyoruz ki emniyet güçlerini kontrol eden, denetleyen etkin bir mekanizma yok ve hepimiz risk altındayız.

Sonuç olarak başlattığımız hukuki mücadelenin sonuna kadar takipçisi olacağımızı buradan duyuruyor ve hepinizi 09 Eylül Salı günü İnsan Hakları Derneği İstanbul Beyoğlu Şubesi'nde saat 12:00'de yapacağımız basın açıklamasına basın açıklamasına davet ediyoruz.

Tüm duyarlı kişi ve kurumları mücadelemize destek olmaya çağırıyoruz.
Kadın Kapısı Sosyal Merkezi
Cinsiyetçiliğe Karşı Dayanışma Ağı (KEG)
Lambdaİstanbul LGBTT Dayanışma Derneği
İnsan Hakları Derneği
Küresel Eylem Grubu
DSİP