05.13.08 - 10:20am
The meetings that were held during the elections were in part organized by Kanal Turk which was one of the only channels on TV who were very vocal about their Kemalist beliefs. We can now safely say RIP Kanal Turk as it has been bought over by a pro-AKP company who is famous for their love of all things related to Fetullah Gulen. This raises the following question: Are Islamic companies thinking of taking over the Turkish Media completely thus not leaving any medium on which Kemalists can voice their own opinion? It is said that the Cumhuriyet newspaper is the only newspaper left with no ties to an Islamic third party. I am not condoning what Kanal Turk did in the past because I know how radical their views were but I find it alarming that people will have no way of voicing their opinions anymore.
We cannot have a country where all publications have ties to the AKP, there are other parties and people who do not share the views of the supposed majority.
The viewers of Kanal Turk have showed violent reactions to the buy out resulting in their website being completely dead and other news papers being bombarded with comments against the old owner of the TV channel; Tuncay Ozkan, who seems to be public enemy number 1 these days for selling his company to the wrong people.
Category: Turkey, complaint dept., politics | Tags: | 3 Comments »
05.05.08 - 09:51pm
Today, we finally bought my ticket back home. I will be flying back to Istanbul on the 16th and possibly heading down to the coast a week after. I feel like I keep trying to go back but always manage to stay here because of things going wrong. This time, unless given a permanent contract, there’s no way I’m staying.
I loved Amsterdam even though I was sick for most of my stay. It’s an enchanting little city, even though the smell of pot sickens one over and over again. I ofcourse have been requested to bring back cheese, without which I am not allowed to approach Turkish boarders, otherwise I will be sent back to Holland rather fast.
I managed to accumulate so much in Europe that I’m going to have to DHL some of my stuff across to Izmir. Otherwise, THY will possibly have me pay as much as my ticket to get back home. Summer is knocking at the door and I’m planning on enjoying it fully.
Category: Cesme, Istanbul, Turkey, Where am I?, travel | Tags: | 1 Comment »
04.26.08 - 12:43am
Humans beings are designed for many things; loneliness isn’t one of them.
Category: Quotes | Tags: | 5 Comments »
04.20.08 - 10:40pm
I transfered my domain to Yahoo! in an attempt to keep everything neat and clean. So far, I’m rather happy with the whole process.
I’m still in Amsterdam. I seem to have caught a bug though so I was stuck in bed most of the weekend. I feel rather grumpy.
I have a full week of training lined up, the team I’m going to work with is adorable so that should be painless. I miss home.
I will make a couple of changes to my blog, I’d like to render it more interactive, I would like my friends to contribute more to it so I will be giving out four additional accounts to the most important people in my life so that this place isn’t about me anymore, but is about all of us.
Help me welcome them to my haven of peace and quiet ( oh look, sarcasm! )
Update # 1: Seems like I’ve screwed up some of my permlinks during my transfer, sorry :/
Category: daily doings | Tags: | Be the First to Comment »
04.18.08 - 09:01pm
During my recent trips to Amsterdam I’ve grown to like it. The multicultural side of it all gives it such a charm, that charm mixed with the story book atmosphere of the city and the youthful population makes it a wonderful place to be.
I don’t know if I could live here but I could certainly spend lots of time enjoying it.
Head underwater
And they tell me
To breathe easy for a while
Breathing gets harder, even I know that
Made room for me; but it’s too soon to see
If I’m happy in your hands
I’m unusually hard to hold on to
Category: daily doings | Tags: | 1 Comment »
04.13.08 - 09:33pm
There was a voting booth at the Jewish Museum with several questions on the subject of tolerance, one of them was “Would you welcome Turkey becoming a member of the EU?”
Out of 383799 people who voted; 54% said no 46% said yes.
Category: blank, politics | Tags: | Be the First to Comment »
04.11.08 - 11:39am
Since I don’t have access to my email from work because of the restrictive firewall that we are blessed with, I have been looking for alternatives on how I can frequently check my email, being a junky et all.
I’ve tried doing searches on sites that allow you to retrieve your pop mail through their interface and have found many, but they were all blocked by the nazi firewall. I found a single mail site which wasn’t blocked; Apple!
You just need to sign up for an Apple .dotmac account and they let you retrieve external mail also.
The accounts that they provide have a free trial for two months and then you need to start paying big bucks to keep the account but atleast it is a temporary fix to the no personal email policy at work.
Sif follow policies.
Category: work | Tags: | Be the First to Comment »
04.10.08 - 03:34pm
Who would’ve thought that in all the censorship idiocy this country would’ve seen that Google would be banned.Seriously, this is beyond funny anymore, we’re turning into China. Soon we’ll have a dedicated internet and won’t be able to surf anything outside of that.
How long till they ban hotmail and yahoo?
Category: complaint dept., news | Tags: | 2 Comments »
04.09.08 - 03:31pm
Thanks to Richard, I am now the owner of a funky new lens! His advice always comes in so handy to me. I just end up getting poorer by the minute when I listen to him. Anyhow, when I told him that I wanted to get a portrait lens, he immediately responded by telling me to go get the 50mm 1.8 EF, which costs 100 EUR (probably 1000 EUR in Turkey)(ok, that was a joke, but I bet it’s not far fetched.).
Yesterday, I grabbed Nilbag, who used to work in the German team in Turkey but who has been putting up with me for the last month and a half in Berlin, braving the hard times like a good sidekick. We took the M46 from Tempelhof and ended up at KaDeWe, which is the luxurious shopping destination in the city.
Well, the Germans call it luxurious but I noticed that the prices were the same as everywhere else. The only difference is that they have more well known brands. After dragging ourselves away from the cosmetics department (which we raided) we ended up at the Canon desk and I asked for my lens. I paid 99 EUR and was a happy bunny by the time we got out of there.
I’m not a technical person when it comes to photography, you can start talking about lighting and aperture and whatnot but I’d probably be completely useless in a conversation where basic technical knowledge is needed. I’m more the type of person who finds a professional (yes Richie, that’s you.) - states what she needs - and then is nudged in the right direction.
This lens is amazing. Examples will follow shortly.
On a less happy note, I’ve been finally given the nod of death. I’m heading back to Istanbul on the 16th. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that I finally get to go home, I’m just less happy of the state I’m leaving things in. I guess time will tell how it all pans out.
I’m trying to find a good photography course in Izmir. I hear there are a couple so it shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll have to wait and see.
Have you heard the new Madonna? With each new song she gives me the impression that her singing abilities are lessening by the minute. That said, her new project with J. Timberlake is very good, provided you can skip the bits where she sings. The music is excellent, I find myself playing it over and over again.
Category: Cesme, Izmir, Music, Turkey, Where am I?, daily doings, travel | Tags: | Be the First to Comment »
