title, what title?

Turkey is in turmoil. Rumors of explosions, actual explosions, politicians proclaiming truisms and nothing more, toxic political environment, political deadlock, inactive opposition... Just adds to the stress at our biggest project at the office. In my daily commute, I find much needed solitude in listening to BBC4's excellent podcasts on history. I'd like to share three recent episodes that I really enjoyed for those of you who want an escape from the madness going on around us. Rumi's Poetry: Mevlana in Turkish, Rumi is a household name in Turkey, but we are educated very poorly about his life or works. This podcast is a great introduction to a deep subject, and a fresh look at the fact that Islam is not a monolithic culture:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ztx2w Haitian Revolution: The only example of a successful slave revolution is the Haitian Revolution. Also an example of how the international system can suffocate any deviating countries from the internati...

Tarih'in akışının bizi götürdüğü yönü ilerleme olarak adlandırmayı bırakalı çok uzun zaman oldu. Tarih'in kör bir kendini tekrardan ibaret olduğunu da düşünmüyorum. 1970'lerden beri Mark Twain'e atfedilen "tarih kendini tekrar etmese de kendi ile kafiyelidir" - "history does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes" sözü şu an tarihin akışı ile ilgili düşüncelerimi en  iyi anlatan söz durumunda. Dünya'nın geçirdiği bu çalkantılı günleri 1848 Avrupa Devrimleri'ne benzeten yazılar okuyorum birkaç zamandır. Türkiye'nin geçirdiği günler bana daha çok şu aralar okumaya başladığım Goya'nın hayatı nedeniyle 1808-1823 arası İspanyol tarihini hatırlatıyor. Fransız Devrimi'nin Gaspçısı Napoleon tarafından işgal edilen İspanya'nın başına Napoleon'un kardeşi kral olarak getirilir. Bu dönemde Goya'nın da içinde bulunduğu aydınlar Fransız İhtilali'nin rüzgarı ile bu gelişmeyi desteklerler. Taa ki 1808 yılının 2 Mayısında F...

Here are some of the most interesting readings from last week: How does learning Turkish feel to a German writer? Our reluctance to use the word no seems to be a big problem:   http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/10/20/how-to-say-no-in-turkish/ A Syrian Law student's precarious journey over 10 borders from Syria to Sweeden. A must-read before any discussion on refugees:  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/ten-borders Early detection could make living with Schizophrenia possible:  http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/stop-the-madness/ U.S is a terrorist state, which used human Guinea Pigs and advanced psyhcology to develop torture methods beyond the imagination of Mengele. When it was found out that one of the torture victim was innocent, the official reaction was: "One can only be sure of the suspects innocence after the suspect fails to give any information after such horrendous torture." This is beyond outrageous:  https://medium.com...

Adalet bir kelimeden öteye gitmezken, kapımızın önünde ölenleri gazeteden okumaya devam ederken dinlenesi bir şarkı. Antifa ve Anarşist Otonom Grupların ana yurdu Berlin'e selamlarımla. Unutmayın, hiç bir demokrasi hayallerimizdeki gibi değildir... Aşk Şarkısı   Herşey öylesine çabuk başladı ki, Üzerimizden uçan bir taş, Savaş borusu gibi çaldı, Bir anda kıyamet koptu, Hücüm ettik ve kaçtık dalgalar gibi, Tazzikli su kırbaç gibi, Biber gazı ısırır yüzünü, Kırık dökük dükkanların camları, Yanmış duruyor arabalar... Emrediyorlar herkese: "Akıllı olun" "Kitleyin kapınızı ve kapatın gözlerinizi!" Bu sırada radyoda çalan tatlı bir aşk şarkısı, Televizyonlardan gelen tatlı bir aşk şarkısı... Kapının tam da önünde, senin mahallende, Adalet sadece bir kelimeden ibaret. Emrediyorlar herkese: "Akıllı olun" "Kitleyin kapınızı ve kapatın gözlerinizi!" Bu sırada radyoda çalan tatlı bir aşk şarkısı, Televizyonlardan gelen tatlı bir aşk şarkısı... ...

" Des Moines'de (Erzincan) ya da San Antonio'da (Adana) genç bir çocuk şu anda homoseksüel olduğunu fark ediyor. Anne baba'sının bunu fark ederlerse  onu evden atacaklarını, okul arkadaşlarının onu ezeceklerini, televizyondaki ahlakçıların kendi üzerlerine düşeni yapacaklarını biliyor. Ve önünde iki seçeneği kalıyor: İntahar ya da yalanla yaşamaya devam. Ama birgün o genç çocuk gazeteyi açıp San Fransisco'da (İstanbul'da) bir homoseksüel seçimi kazandı haberini okuduğunda iki yeni seçimi olacak: San Fransisco'ya (İstanbul'a) gelmek, ya da San Antonio'da (Adana'da) kalıp mücadele etmek! Seçildikten iki gün sonra genç bir sesten telefon aldım. Altoona, Pennslyvania (Pursaklar, Ankara) arıyordu. "Teşekkürler" dedi. Homoseksüel adayları seçmek zorundasınız! Seçmelisiniz ki bu çocuk gibiler, dünya için umut olduğunu bilebilsinler. Daha iyi bir yarın için umut olduğunu bilebilsinler. Umut olmadan bizler, sadece gayler değil, Si...

Where is Waldo? 2 yıl önce bu günlerde bir Cuma konformist mi konformist bir başka haftayı kapatmıştım.  Apolitik hayatıma 2 saatlik bir ekolojik eylem sığdırma planları ile sevgilim ile buluştum. Aklımda Heine'nin ürkütücü gerçekçi kehanetini yaptığı "Kitapları yakıldığı yerde insanların yanması yakındır" sözü vardı. Çadırların yakıldığı ülkemde, insanların -yeniden- yakılacağından korkuyor, bu sefer korkumla, bu korkuyu bana yaşatanların ağızlarına sakız edip bir türlü uygulama geçiremediği şekilde, "barışçıl" şekilde yüzleşmeye hazırlanıyordum. Taksime doğru yürürken havayı kaplayan dayanışma kokusunu Hrant Dink'i anma yürüyüşlerine nasıl benzediğini konuşurken bir kaç senedir tanımaya başladığım, 2 hafta önce Beşiktaş - Gençlerbirliği maçında iyice haşır neşir olduğum biber hazının kokusu ile irkildik. 10-15 dakika içinde önümüzden arkamızdan bizleri ezmek istercesine üzerimize zırhlı araçlar sürülmeye başlandı. TOMA lafının aklımda ilk olarak ora...

I have not hidden the fact that I LOVE Scotland: http://actoker.blogspot.com.tr/search/label/scotland Reading Ulysses, which is set just before Irish home rule, all the independence process feels very familiar. I hope Scotland's story ends similar to Ireland.  Just like Björk says for Grönland: Declare independence! Don't let them do that to you! Declare independence! Don't let them do that to you! Damn colonists Ignore their patronizing Tear off their blindfolds Open their eyes DECLARE INDEPENDENCE!

Hatay'da emperyalist oyunlar oynanıyor ( link ). Bu sefer figüran değil, sahne arkasındayız. Nedense Bob Dylan'ın Highway 61 Revisited şarkısının sözleri aklıma geldi: Bir sonraki Dünya Savaşı'nı çıkarmaya çalışan Gezgin kumarbaz çok sıkılmıştı, "Daha önce böyle birşeye kalkışmadım" diyen Tertipçisi önce koltuğundan düşüyordu, "61. Otobanda, beyazlatıcıları güneşe yaydık mı, Hallederiz kolayca bu işi de!"

"Six Four" - "23" - "Candle" - "Never Forget." These words does not exists on the Chinese side of the internet. In these wild days of the Internet, it seems like what does not show up in your search results, is simply not there. So the Chinese authorities are using the very same routers and servers that made the so-called "social-web revolution" possible to erase an authentic People's revolution in the Peoples Republic of China... In case you have forgotten, in the middle ages before Twitter and Facebook "revolutionized" the "way we interact" or before the "Arab Spring" brought fresh winds of "democracy" to the "suppressed" people of the world the fire  it was still possible to gather hundreds of thousands of people around the common cause of ending repression. In case you have forgotten, or never heard of it, its name was Tianenmen: Source: (Catherine Henriette/AFP/Getty Im...

On world poetry day I listed some of my favorite poets. To my shame I forgot to add the great American poet Allen Ginsberg to the list. In my biannual "I've-got-to-update-my-mobile-playlist" routine, I format my mobile memory -I am sooo happy not being shackled to itunes btw-  and sift through my music library, looking for new discoveries and re-affirm the classics which are always included in the list. The unusual, one-time duet of the Clash and Allen Ginsberg titled "The Capitol Air" is one of those classics. Ginsberg sings one of his acerbic social critiques with the Clash in the background. I found out recently that this delightful punk rock-poetry coming together was not one time. In 1982 movie Poetry in Motion 20 contemporary American poets sang their poems. Ginsberg was once again reciting his poems with punk rock in the background. I had quoted the Turkish singer/songwriter Sezen Aksu in my entry for World Poetry day: Poetry is dying out...

When the name of the great Mexican Revolutionary Zapata is the name of the production company that promotes a once-popular Turkish Schlager- arabesque singer.

No other poem describes the dismal state that the world is in right now: "TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." from the legendary poem Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.

Democracy is the mother of all buzzwords. From totalitarian regimes calling themselves the real democrats (German Democratic Republic, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) to the so called advanced democracies such as US, where the wealthy are simply rewriting rules for themselves (1), or Germany, where the state recklessly lets the police attack peaceful protesters who are protesting the construction in their own city(2), the word democracy is used to whitewash practices that are directly contrary to what the democracy supposed to mean. Add to this the dangerous Western (mostly American) international relations rhetoric, that democracy is a panacea that would magically cure all the worlds problems. Although it is not logical, and perhaps not ethical, to choose any other form of government over democracy, it is certainly not realistic to believe democracy is a solution to any problem. In my humble opinion, it is only a tool, or a mere set of practices, that lets people solve probl...

A Taiwanese TV station is famous for producing video animations of the top news almost instantly. This one about the Wikileaks is among the best commentaries on Wikileaks I came across:

AP Photo/Charlie Riede Today, I am once again ashamed of being human. See more pictures from the Gulf Coast here ( link to the article. ). We are all guilty. But some are more guilty. This includes the hot air talking Obama, growth obsessed Chinese politicians. Do watch this video from Copenhagen Farce of last year. The video ( link to the video ) includes voice recordings from the last minute talks between China, India, Germany, France and USA. The recordings are in English, subtitled in German. BP was rather ambiguous, what they meant by  with their hip and greenwashed slogan "BP: Beyond Petroleum." I know what is beyond petroleum: DEATH. Watch their commercial ( link to the video ).

I have such a low opinion of mankind these days. The tribalism surrounding all matters of international and local politics, our ability to fool ourselves into self-importance, our lethargic response to matters of environment, and above all, how easy it is, for people of similar intelligence and manners to draw completely opposite conclusions about a matter that is so obvious makes me tired and pessimistic about the mankind. World Cup is therefore a very welcome break from all of this never ending and repeating history of human stupidity. In case you haven't noticed yet, I support the most stylish team in the tournament. Which  happens to be managed by the God himself.

Turkey's dynamic and to be honest visionary foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu boasted the new Turkish foreign policy doctrine in this Foreign Policy article . I am quoting from the article: The second methodological principle is to base Turkish foreign policy on a "consistent and systematic" framework around the world. Turkey's vision for the Middle East is not in opposition to its approach in Central Asia or in the Balkans; our approach to Africa is no different from our approach to Asia. Turkey is also actively trying to improve relations with nearby countries like Greece, Iraq, the Russian Federation, and Syria. Prime Minister Erdogan made a brave speech during the meeting of his parliamentary group. I hope his call for a tougher approach to Israel's violent and reckless approach to the Middle East problem will bring a change to the response of the international community. I am not optimistic about this, since Obama is in a real hard position to open up yet an...

"Capitol Air" Allen Ginsberg Frankfurt-New York December 15, 1980 I don't like the government where I live I don't like dictatorship of the Rich I dion't like bureaucrats telling me what to eat I dont' like Police dogs sniffing round my feet I don't like Communist Censorship of my books I don't like Marxists complaining about my looks I don't like Castro insulting members of my sex Leftists insisting we got the mystic Fix I don't like Capitalists selling me gasoline Coke Multinationals burning Amazon trees to smoke Big Corporation takeover media mind I don't like the Top-bananas that're robbing Guatemala banks blind I don't like K.G.B. Gulag concentration camps I don't like Maoists' Cambodian Death Dance 15 Million were killed by Stalin Secretary of Terror He has killed our old Red Revolutionary for ever I don't like Anarchists screaming Love Is Free I don't like the C.I.A. they killed John Kennedy Paranoiac tanks si...

... realy, they are very decent people... ... for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to poop on! "...maybe it was made up by over-eager scientists, the same scientists who made up things like evolution and gravity." Unlike Triumph, these Congressman do believe in this. In the mean time, heres what the scientists think:

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored He was tryin' to create a next world war He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before But yes I think it can be very easily done We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun And have it on Highway 61. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 - 1965