Some facts about me....and you

Super hero, here some facts about me, as you tagged me. I will ask for disclosure of some other bloggers' as well.)):

1) Born anarchist. Turned to be a social-liberal-democrat. Anti-nationalist. But still in love with Bakunin and George Moustaki.

2) Tall, thin, but you can feel my thoughts.

3) Studied for nothing. Law, philosophy, and drama/movies (UCI) made me escape in the world of Peter Stuyvesant and Martini: advertisement.

4) Making ads was not what I wanted and changed to PR; ended up as a communication manager but still can not talk Turkish.

5) Married at the age of 45 at Ciragan Palace. After 9 failed relations. Now happy with a non-typical Turkish spouse.

6) Born in the Netherlands, but made in Italy. Best friends in Holland: male from Iran, female from Suriname. Best friends in Turkey: male from France, female from Turkey but lives in Greece. Best friend in the USA: male from Holland, a female of Jewish Italian heritage.

7) I love to discover cultures and languages, but allergic to dogmatism. Traveller, open mind, but for some people still narrow minded.

And her I go to tag some others, only them with a blog:

Esra
Myrthe
Dinc
Bea
Metin
Derya
Kathryn

Unions support the Dutch kids

The General Dutch Union of Teachers support the protest of their high school kids.
Somethingh different than high school shootings...

And this is not fun anymore...

The British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, has been found guilty in Sudan of insulting religion after she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Gillian, 54, from Liverpool, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will then be deported.
She had been accused on three counts of insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. And what the Western world is still reacting peacefully while for example the OIC didn't make a statement, yet.
Instead of condemning these kind of ridiculous sentences it has to do something about inciting real hate, hate preaches, planned suicide attacks, and undermining the civil societies by imams in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Argentina etc. And the state ideology of Turkey don't left any space for manoeuvre either. The Secr. General of the OIC is a Turk and it can do more than it did...until now.
Calling a teddy beer 'Muhammad'...you are kidding; the Sudanese government doesn't have anything else to do? Darfur? It is a sad sad time for dialogue.
And what shall we do with all the men who are named 'Muhammad'? All 250 lashes?

Strike!

Last week Friday Dutch high school kids went on strike. Between the age of 12 and 18. One reason: to decrease the total amount of school hours with 80 annually. From 1040 to 960.
I must say: interesting to see those kids on strike.

But this week Monday it became ugly: during protest marches they clashed with the police, especially in Amsterdam.

For tomorrow. Friday the 30th. is a special protest manifestation planned. If you are 16 years or younger you need approval by or your parents or the principal of the school you attend. 17 years and older, you can go...

Expats blogging about Turkey

Via Carpetblog I came across an article in Today's Zaman about expat-bloggers in Turkey.

[French blogger Marie-Antide] Fort provides advice to İstanbul's foreigners and amateur bloggers. "Listen, observe, open your mind to the city's rhythm, movement and craziness. Question yourself and break down prejudice. This is the way to depict İstanbul accurately."

This advice captures the open-mindedness and the profound yet lucid love of İstanbul shared by most of these foreign bloggers. As Vincent wrote in his introduction to "James in Turkey": "Turkey might be my favorite country in the world, but that doesn't mean I can't criticize, scream and cry about it. I think there is much that can be changed with a little effort here and there, and this is where I rant what I think to whoever is interested in listening. I invite you to comment and scorn as you please; I might learn something."

Unfortunately, the article doesn't seem to give the links to the blogs, so I did a bit of ...ugh ugh... research myself to provide you with the links to the blogs mentioned. Apart from Carpetblog (who has long been one of my favorite bloggers in the region), the blogs mentioned are James in Turkey, Turkish Muse, Du miel aux épices (in French), Dilek Zaptçıoğlu's Istanbul-blog (in German) and İstanbul la Turque (again in French).

Have fun exploring these blogs!

Fun or not....

Turk Telecom was on strike for the past 5 weeks, and twice problems with Internet. Today already the forth day without I-net connection.b A really disaster if you are for 50% dependent on email and Internet services. Today Turk Telecom announced that they reached an agreement, so the strike is over. But still no services. They told me: 'it's your (wireless) modem', but they told me the last time the same and in the end they were wrong.
The funny thing is, Turk Telecom didn't stop their advertisement campaign. This for me a new way 'of positioning and branding' and quiet unique in the world....

Day Opnening - 29 November

Grand Place, Market Square, Groote Markt: Brussels.