Turkish election Blues

It's interesting to see how Turkey voted.
It seems that there are two winners, AK party (rules the current one party government) and the Ultra Nationalists MHP. And one big loser, the CHP.
The 10% threshold, established by the secularist in the early eighties of the last century are now working against them. Cynical or not?
In my columns of March 1, 2007 and February 28, 2007, I wrote about three important issues regarding how a head of state, in the Netherlands our Queen Beatrix, has to deal with the constitution.
The first one is that in the Netherlands a one-party government can not rule the country. Second is that always one member of the Royal family is in fact in charge of the army, so a Coup d'etat is impossible. And third, our head of state must take care about minorities. All written down in our constitution. And all these important issues are not guaranteed in the Turkish Constitution.
Also, in the Netherlands we have a popular vote system. Which is neither in Turkey, nor in the USA and UK.
If only the last can be introduced in Turkey, in my opinion, the next generation of politicians will be able to solve and handle the current polarized Turkish political environment.
Anyway, I hope that the AK party will reach out for consensus and compromise politics.

Intolerance

As we are dealing the last years in the Netherlands still with more intolerance from all sides, yesterday night some lunatics threw a Molotov cocktail to a Mosque, in the city of Haarlem. In the end, no damage. At the same time when Jews, especially in Amsterdam, are more and more subjects of personal attacks by Moroccan Muslim immigrants, we can make the conclusion that all integration policies have failed so far.
And it doesn't matter who governs the country...
And a pity to read that today in Sason (East Turkey), Diyarbakir (South East Turkey) and in Antalya, people of different parties were fighting with each other on election day...
We definitely need more cross cultural communication knowledge.

Alcohol ban

Looks like there is an alcohol ban today, on Turkish election day. No alcohol served and sold in supermarkets. This changes completely my view about this current government: CHP is now my party..)

I tried to manipulate Idil this morning to vote for my man, Cem Uzan, but she didn't listen..)

Only if Cem promised free ice cream every Sunday during summertime...or free raki after Friday prayers...)

In West Europe you always see close to a Roman Catholic church, bars. So after Sunday mass, people go straight there to drink Jenever in the Good Old Days...

Anyway, the local shops here sell my favorite beer Efes Extra. So I will watch this evening with some nice cold beer the results of these important elections.

The weather

Looks like the UK gets more rain than needed. And we, here in South East Europe, are suffering. Since June the 10th it's at least 28 degrees. Today 32, later this week up to 38 in Istanbul.
Lived for 2 full years in Miami where it is summer from mid February until mid December (other two months are considered as 'spring'). In the mid of the Summer, June until October, the temperature was never higher than 32 degrees. But I had the ocean in front of me, and of course a huge swimming pool. (...)

Early Expansion of Christianity and Islam

This is a neutral point of view how both Islam and Christianity developed in the early centuries.
It's worth reading without making a point about today's situation.

Here is the link: hyperhistory.