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Note: All links (which used to point to photos hosted on MSN) are broken. They will be fixed as soon as I can get the pictures up somewhere else. 9 Mar 2004
Written in the first day of the year 2002, as calculated from the alleged birth date of Jesus according a Roman(?) calendar, from the shores of a distant land, in the midst of a people looking for a culture since their old one had its heyday four centuries ago and now is seen by most as the root cause of all the evils that plague this land; a land that is probably considered by many who will be reading this email as one at the fringes of the "civilized" world, certainly one which just a few decades ago would not have had anything to do with the birthday of Jesus and only converted to the Roman calendar roughly 70 years ago. Written, perhaps, with the same confusion and directionless that has gripped my people since 1938 or maybe earlier, or at least in empathy, as a reflection of it. Written, also, with the painful awareness that the contents of this communique actually only reflect a narrow sub-section of the society, that of the middle class people of Istanbul. Written, then, from a very interesting place in the sense that it's cursed and also in the sense that it is blessed; this heaven, this hell as the poet calls it.
Istanbul: This city never fails to amaze me. I know it by memory, though some would argue that an absence of 12 years has made me a foreigner; I can remember its smells, I can guess what people's faces mean, or what someone is about to say... It's where I grew up, sheltered and privileged, true, but still considering it home. Half-remembered, half re-discovered and mostly left behind, but home nonetheless. In past visits, I had felt like I knew nobody in town, which was true for all practical purposes. Everyone else I knew -except immediate family- had left, mostly for the US. This time, coming back is slightly different. My sister and some of my best friends have returned to live here. There have been some changes of course, one of the most prominent being the new Mercedes that my Grandma now rides. She hops around the house on her contraption while cackling gleefully (or complaining, as the mood suits her).
Getting a visa was the easiest experience I've had in my entire life. The American Consulate's street has been cordoned off. There are no longer lines that go around the block. (I remember queuing for several days before being able to get in). No more humiliating treatment at the hands of my own countryman who has been given the job of admitting the selected few through those doors. You go in, you drop-off your application; the next day you learn the result. Better for security, better for the applicants, better, I assume, for the consulate staff. I am thoroughly impressed. Interestingly, this time the only person having a difficulty was a Turkic man from China. He showed a PRC passport, spoke a very different and accented type of Turkish and no English; had trouble understanding the concept of dropping off filled in application forms. He did not look Chinese at all: In the street, he would have fit right in with the crowd. Don't know what happened to him in the end, for I easily got my visa and walked out.
The economy was a big topic of conversation. Turkey's ill-managed, crisis-hit economy should already be bankrupt if the macroeconomic data were evaluated in the light of western economic thought. This after all, is the country with the largest denomination in circulation - as has been the case with every visit, I had the misfortune to see a new higher denomination bill, in this case the 20 million lira. No wonder there are shows like Who wants to be a Turkish millionaire? The answer is nobody: A million this time got me 100 grams of roasted chestnuts at the street corner, or about 10 of them -and two of those were wormy. No other country is quite in the same situation, the closest is Argentina and just look at how dire the situation is over there. Indeed this was one of the biggest issues here: Are we going to be like Argentina? On paper, we are in a worse economical situation. But the social strife has been quite muted so far. The government, which should have fallen months ago, is still in power. Commercially, people are still shopping (though most should not have the money to do so): Most of the cars on the streets were at most 3-4 years old. Shopping centers were packed; it was worse than the day after Thanksgiving in the US. And when Lord of the Rings came out, cinemas were packed: We had to reserve two days in advance in order to get in. This is in a country where a cinema ticket costs 8 million versus minimum wage of 163 million per month.
Santa: I was happy to escape the endless litany of Christmas carols, the almost palpable pressure to buy buy buy (especially now, when Americans are being exhorted to shop in the name of patriotism), the whole so-called Christmas spirit which has been converted into the one of the sorriest, sappiest rituals of human existence from its simple pagan roots and on which a good percentage of the economy of the world superpower is based. That is, until I went into a Turkish mall. It came as a rude shock; to have the misfortune see, on December 29th, the thinnest Santa in existence! I wish I was able to show this guy from the front. He had hung a ball down his belly - looked more pregnant than portly (or looked like me, if youprefer a more gruesome image). Call me reactionary, but I am bothered by this. I am not going to bother belabouring whether Santa has a place in Turkish culture, but for Satan's Sake, Christmas was well past; the turkey had been eaten and the remnants of the apple pie were growing cold. But not, obviously, in this country.
I encountered many other travesties of commercialism, many of which are simply too dire to mention. I took a picture of just one of them to indicate how badly confused things are here. How many kids are going to be able to understand what the name means?
I was also amazed at the prominence of cell phones. An entire culture has rapidly grown up around those things. The cell phone industry is far more advanced and accepted here than in the States. People send SMS text messages to one another, WAP and GPCRS are commonly used terms. The TV commercials for wireless service providers are the among the longest and most elaborate.
I frequented empty teahouses in the cold, walked around town, drinking in the places and sights I didn't even know I had missed, I met with friends I had not seen for years. I took a few pictures. And, of course, I enaged in our national pastime, no, not backgammon, wrestling or kidnapping fair skinned western women. I talked with people on country matters.
Saving the country: Taxi drivers, old classmates, chestnut roasters, waiters, passengers in a dolmush, fishermen, everyone loves to discuss how to save the country. Practically everyone, including media agrees that the current leadership is old-fashioned, completely corrupt and inept. Almost all would side with making the government smaller and more efficient, reforming the tax collection methods, and bringing in anti-corruption reforms. Yet none of these happen, nor are they likely to happen. Despite the optimistic outlook, it is obvious that the country is running on IMF backed loans and the savings generated by the grey economy. How long will it run?
One answer is that it has always run this way; we've always had our doomsayers, why should it not continue hobbling along? Despite all the talk, there's little indigenous action, with most reforms coming along because the IMF wills it or to achieve requirements for EU membership.
This is a very dangerous path that we are treading. With traditional political opposition from the left all but gone, the only viable opposition is provided by the religiously oriented parties. The establishment's answer so far has been as idiotic as all their other ventures: to oppress them through various means. Curiously, this seems to have worked so far. However, this strategy has the consequence of polarizing the country into religionists and secularists, a division very keenly felt throughout society. This is what's so dangerous. At a time where religious extremism (not just Islamic, but also in all other major monotheistic religions) is turning into a harder and sharper instrument for political means, we cannot afford to go down the path Algiers and Egypt have gone.
This communique has lasted too long. Perhaps, one day I will meet with every one of you over a cup of tea in a smoky cafe and talk, at length... Till then, a very happy new year. May last year turn out to be the worst of our lives.
Istanbul, 2 January 2002
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