Last night on one of the Italian TV channels, La7, in the program called L'infedele, conducted by Gad Lerner, they talked about Turkey, Iraq, PKK and the Armenian issue. During the whole day in our mailing lists for Turks living in Italy we received mails asking for Turkish people (around 5 people were asked for) living in Milan who would like to participate in the program as part of the audience to represent the Turkish side. The program was supposed to be on air at 21.30 and the audience was called for 20.30. The problem is, if they were really sincerely willing to have some people representing the Turkish side they would have made this call days before so that people would get ready/cancel appointments etc. to be able to attend the show. When you receive a call just hours before a live talk show it is not easy to say immediately 'OK, I am available'.
I wasn't willing to watch the show, in fact, since I get usually very angry seeing these one-sided discussions that go nowhere. But my husband while zapping had found the program and called me saying 'They are talking about Turkey again'. After finishing whatever it was I doing, I joined him. From the Turkish side there was only Yasemin Taskin, correspondent of the Turkish newspaper Sabah in Rome. Otherwise, there was someone from the Catholic University in Milan, some expert on Pakistan, a guy, whose name I don't remember, born in Turkey but of which origin he is I have no idea, an Armenian woman with the surname Arslan, an Italian economist (she seemed really well informed, and talked quite reasonably) and audience which was just watching... They had a live connection to Murat Belge of Bilgi University, Istanbul. Everything said in the program in Italian was translated to English for him, he gave his answers in Turkish and his words were translated back to Italian. The first sentence, the first translation to Italian and it was not correct, so I lost my interest and belief in the program immediately.
Once again, I am no politician or politics enthusiast, so all I can report is how everything looked to 'a Turkish man on the street'. The 'Turkish side' did not exist. Whoever was chosen to represent the Turkish side was, in fact, on 'the other side', thus it was quite a 'one-sided' discussion, again. Nothing seemed to be resolved, nothing seemed to be clearer, they tried to draw a parallel between the Turkish army and Pakistani army (!!!!), which was opposed by, if I am not mistaken, the guy from the Catholic University in Milan, Murat Belge was himself as usual, Yasemin Taskin was left alone there to give the Turkish view (the cameraman was fixing the camera on her most of the time; she is quite attractive, to tell the truth), and before I fell asleep on the sofa nobody from the audience said a word.. I don't think they said any words at all afterwards either.
Hence, another pointless discussion on TV that caused only a discussion between me and my husband. Yes, me and my husband always have some kind of fiery discussion when we watch these things because he being from the west, although quite ignorant on our issues, thinks to know everything and has the right solution to all the problems, and me being Turkish and quite a nationalist (in his eyes) have to defend myself, my people, my history. I am so fed up being on the defensive side! It is not easy being a Turk outside of Turkey. We are like fish out of the fish bowl....
Showing posts with label Messages from Florence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Messages from Florence. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
News from Hans
I was on the phone with Hans just a few minutes ago. He has no internet connection at home and he is going crazy, literally :-) He said that he has read some books about Turkey and Istanbul these last days (good for him) and has learned a lot. He also said that he decided to learn Turkish (very good for him). He is very worried because he cannot answer any e-mails, nor can write on his blog. When I suggested him to go to an internet cafe he refused it, showing his age (?) as an excuse. And he asked me to write a few lines. Since I have been at home with a sick baby on and off these last three weeks I told him that all I could write right now was a recipe, and guess what: he doesn't want to see any recipes on his blog...
Well friends, I think we should all pray that he gets his internet connection back fast enough.. Otherwise both you and I will suffer.. You, because there won't be anything interesting here to read about, and I, because he will be calling me everyday and begging me to write something, anything!
Well friends, I think we should all pray that he gets his internet connection back fast enough.. Otherwise both you and I will suffer.. You, because there won't be anything interesting here to read about, and I, because he will be calling me everyday and begging me to write something, anything!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Pasta in the news
Today we have a "shopping strike" in Italy: nobody is supposed to buy pasta. Not only uncooked pasta, but the consumers are invited to stay away from the bars where it is usual for most Italians to have their morning croissant and lunch, which is usually some kind of pasta. The consumer associations urge us to show our disapproval of the expected increase in the price of pasta, bread and milk this autumn. Italy is the country where the consumption of pasta is the highest in the world. An Italian cannot survive two consecutive days without eating his pasta. The Italian families have just survived the expensive shopping period for school materials these last weeks, and they had enough of the rumors and news about the price increase in their beloved pasta. I wonder if this strike will have any effect on the decisions of the government, I have my doubts..
By the way, I once made the longest pasta with a Norwegian friend in a longest pasta making competition (!) in Bergen, Norway. Look at the photo above (the girl on the left is me). And can you believe that this photo was on the front page of Bergens Tidende, a daily Norwegian newspaper? And not only that, it was news that began on the front page and took half of the third page as well. In Norway there is something called "agurk nyheter", meaning "cucumber news", news that is quite stupid and unimportant but is published because it is summer time and the journalists do not have much to do. Yes, I was in a cucumber news article in Norway, with my longest pasta.... :-)
By the way, I once made the longest pasta with a Norwegian friend in a longest pasta making competition (!) in Bergen, Norway. Look at the photo above (the girl on the left is me). And can you believe that this photo was on the front page of Bergens Tidende, a daily Norwegian newspaper? And not only that, it was news that began on the front page and took half of the third page as well. In Norway there is something called "agurk nyheter", meaning "cucumber news", news that is quite stupid and unimportant but is published because it is summer time and the journalists do not have much to do. Yes, I was in a cucumber news article in Norway, with my longest pasta.... :-)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Looking on the 'mathematical' side of things
I need some help here. I am a computer scientist, more on the mathematics side than the software side.. I teach mathematics at the university. And nowadays I have problem in understanding something. There were some elections. Some party got about 47% of the votes. So, it means that 53% of the voters did not vote for them, right? The party that got 47% of the votes chose also the president of the country, saying that their candidate is chosen by the people. Now. This is what I cannot understand: according to mathematics 53 is bigger than 47. Hence, 53% of "something" is also more than 47% of "that-thing" . That would mean that the president is loved and wanted by less than half of the population of the country. But this is not what they are claiming. I think either they don't know mathematics or they are using some other modulo in their calculations, like modulo 50, which would result in 47 being bigger than 3, and proving them right :-)
Anyway, I am no politician and I cannot even say that I like politics. I love trying to explain some social situations using mathematical theorems though.. Here is an article that does exactly the same thing. Enjoy!
The Myth, the Math, the Sex
By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 12, 2007, in Week & Review, NYTimes
EVERYONE knows men are promiscuous by nature. It’s part of the genetic strategy that evolved to help men spread their genes far and wide. The strategy is different for a woman, who has to go through so much just to have a baby and then nurture it. She is genetically programmed to want just one man who will stick with her and help raise their children.
Surveys bear this out. In study after study and in country after country, men report more, often many more, sexual partners than women.
One survey, recently reported by the federal government, concluded that men had a median of seven female sex partners. Women had a median of four male sex partners. Another study, by British researchers, stated that men had 12.7 heterosexual partners in their lifetimes and women had 6.5.
But there is just one problem, mathematicians say. It is logically impossible for heterosexual men to have more partners on average than heterosexual women. Those survey results cannot be correct.
It is about time for mathematicians to set the record straight, said David Gale, an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Surveys and studies to the contrary notwithstanding, the conclusion that men have substantially more sex partners than women is not and cannot be true for purely logical reasons,” Dr. Gale said.
He even provided a proof, writing in an e-mail message:
“By way of dramatization, we change the context slightly and will prove what will be called the High School Prom Theorem. We suppose that on the day after the prom, each girl is asked to give the number of boys she danced with. These numbers are then added up giving a number G. The same information is then obtained from the boys, giving a number B.
Theorem: G=B
Proof: Both G and B are equal to C, the number of couples who danced together at the prom. Q.E.D.”
Sex survey researchers say they know that Dr. Gale is correct. Men and women in a population must have roughly equal numbers of partners. So, when men report many more than women, what is going on and what is to be believed?
“I have heard this question before,” said Cheryl D. Fryar, a health statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics and a lead author of the new federal report, “Drug Use and Sexual Behaviors Reported by Adults: United States, 1999-2002,” which found that men had a median of seven partners and women four.
But when it comes to an explanation, she added, “I have no idea.”
“This is what is reported,” Ms. Fryar said. “The reason why they report it I do not know.”
Sevgi O. Aral, who is associate director for science in the division of sexually transmitted disease prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there are several possible explanations and all are probably operating.
One is that men are going outside the population to find partners, to prostitutes, for example, who are not part of the survey, or are having sex when they travel to other countries.
Another, of course, is that men exaggerate the number of partners they have and women underestimate.
Dr. Aral said she cannot determine what the true number of sex partners is for men and women, but, she added, “I would say that men have more partners on average but the difference is not as big as it seems in the numbers we are looking at.”
Dr. Gale is still troubled. He said invoking women who are outside the survey population cannot begin to explain a difference of 75 percent in the number of partners, as occurred in the study saying men had seven partners and women four. Something like a prostitute effect, he said, “would be negligible.” The most likely explanation, by far, is that the numbers cannot be trusted.
Ronald Graham, a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, San Diego, agreed with Dr. Gale. After all, on average, men would have to have three more partners than women, raising the question of where all those extra partners might be.
“Some might be imaginary,” Dr. Graham said. “Maybe two are in the man’s mind and one really exists.”
Dr. Gale added that he is not just being querulous when he raises the question of logical impossibility. The problem, he said, is that when such data are published, with no asterisk next to them saying they can’t be true, they just “reinforce the stereotypes of promiscuous males and chaste females.”
In fact, he added, the survey data themselves may be part of the problem. If asked, a man, believing that he should have a lot of partners, may feel compelled to exaggerate, and a woman, believing that she should have few partners, may minimize her past.
“In this way,” Dr. Gale said, “the false conclusions people draw from these surveys may have a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Anyway, I am no politician and I cannot even say that I like politics. I love trying to explain some social situations using mathematical theorems though.. Here is an article that does exactly the same thing. Enjoy!
The Myth, the Math, the Sex
By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 12, 2007, in Week & Review, NYTimes
EVERYONE knows men are promiscuous by nature. It’s part of the genetic strategy that evolved to help men spread their genes far and wide. The strategy is different for a woman, who has to go through so much just to have a baby and then nurture it. She is genetically programmed to want just one man who will stick with her and help raise their children.
Surveys bear this out. In study after study and in country after country, men report more, often many more, sexual partners than women.
One survey, recently reported by the federal government, concluded that men had a median of seven female sex partners. Women had a median of four male sex partners. Another study, by British researchers, stated that men had 12.7 heterosexual partners in their lifetimes and women had 6.5.
But there is just one problem, mathematicians say. It is logically impossible for heterosexual men to have more partners on average than heterosexual women. Those survey results cannot be correct.
It is about time for mathematicians to set the record straight, said David Gale, an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Surveys and studies to the contrary notwithstanding, the conclusion that men have substantially more sex partners than women is not and cannot be true for purely logical reasons,” Dr. Gale said.
He even provided a proof, writing in an e-mail message:
“By way of dramatization, we change the context slightly and will prove what will be called the High School Prom Theorem. We suppose that on the day after the prom, each girl is asked to give the number of boys she danced with. These numbers are then added up giving a number G. The same information is then obtained from the boys, giving a number B.
Theorem: G=B
Proof: Both G and B are equal to C, the number of couples who danced together at the prom. Q.E.D.”
Sex survey researchers say they know that Dr. Gale is correct. Men and women in a population must have roughly equal numbers of partners. So, when men report many more than women, what is going on and what is to be believed?
“I have heard this question before,” said Cheryl D. Fryar, a health statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics and a lead author of the new federal report, “Drug Use and Sexual Behaviors Reported by Adults: United States, 1999-2002,” which found that men had a median of seven partners and women four.
But when it comes to an explanation, she added, “I have no idea.”
“This is what is reported,” Ms. Fryar said. “The reason why they report it I do not know.”
Sevgi O. Aral, who is associate director for science in the division of sexually transmitted disease prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there are several possible explanations and all are probably operating.
One is that men are going outside the population to find partners, to prostitutes, for example, who are not part of the survey, or are having sex when they travel to other countries.
Another, of course, is that men exaggerate the number of partners they have and women underestimate.
Dr. Aral said she cannot determine what the true number of sex partners is for men and women, but, she added, “I would say that men have more partners on average but the difference is not as big as it seems in the numbers we are looking at.”
Dr. Gale is still troubled. He said invoking women who are outside the survey population cannot begin to explain a difference of 75 percent in the number of partners, as occurred in the study saying men had seven partners and women four. Something like a prostitute effect, he said, “would be negligible.” The most likely explanation, by far, is that the numbers cannot be trusted.
Ronald Graham, a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, San Diego, agreed with Dr. Gale. After all, on average, men would have to have three more partners than women, raising the question of where all those extra partners might be.
“Some might be imaginary,” Dr. Graham said. “Maybe two are in the man’s mind and one really exists.”
Dr. Gale added that he is not just being querulous when he raises the question of logical impossibility. The problem, he said, is that when such data are published, with no asterisk next to them saying they can’t be true, they just “reinforce the stereotypes of promiscuous males and chaste females.”
In fact, he added, the survey data themselves may be part of the problem. If asked, a man, believing that he should have a lot of partners, may feel compelled to exaggerate, and a woman, believing that she should have few partners, may minimize her past.
“In this way,” Dr. Gale said, “the false conclusions people draw from these surveys may have a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Thursday, August 16, 2007
That French thing...
We came back from France last Thursday evening only after 10 days of touring around. I will write more about our tour in my blog, but here I want to report my first observations.
- The cities on the French Riviera are not that special except for their esplanades.
- I didn't see many beautiful French women. Are they all hiding up in Paris, or their beauty is hidden to the eye? :-P
- I don't want to hear anybody complaining about the way we Turks and/or Italians drive any more after seeing how the French are driving. They are crazy. They drive fast on highways, in the cities and, worst of all, inside the parking houses. They do not obey most of the traffic rules and if you point out their mistake they get angry and they always have a finger ready to show you where the sky is. I don't even want to comment on how the women are driving and behaving in traffic...
- If you have a SUV, stay far away from the parking houses in France, because they are made for tiny little cars. On many occasions we were afraid to enter these houses with our car since the max height was most of the time 1.80 meters (and in two of them even 1.70 meters)! Once we parked our car in a parking house but were not able to open the trunk because if we did, it would have touched the ceiling!
- You eat very well in France but you also pay quite much for what you eat. And those crepes... How much we ate.. We even looked for an open crepe shop (most of them were closed for vacation) for over an hour under rain in Lyon, waited for the girl to prepare our crepes for about 20 minutes and ate them again under the rain.. with no umbrella.
- It was very strange to find more than 90% of the churches closed. We love going inside churches, studying their architecture (not that we know anything about architecture, but it is fun) and trying to find some elements, symbols that hint the presence/influence of the Templar knights, Freemasons, Mary Magdalene etc. Do not miss out the cathedral in St. Maximin if you also like that kind of stuff.
- What is it with the French and their love for lingerie? I have never seen so many lingerie shops on one single street in my life.
- I have been stopped by people that were asking for directions many times. They thought I was French. I am not sure whether this is good or bad... that I look 'French', I mean... :-)
- All in all France is a beautiful country definitely worth many other visits. But beware: it is not a cheap touristic destination.
Now I have to pack, again, since me and by sweety are off to Austria this Saturday. We will be relaxing on the mountain in a spa hotel for a week.
- The cities on the French Riviera are not that special except for their esplanades.
- I didn't see many beautiful French women. Are they all hiding up in Paris, or their beauty is hidden to the eye? :-P
- I don't want to hear anybody complaining about the way we Turks and/or Italians drive any more after seeing how the French are driving. They are crazy. They drive fast on highways, in the cities and, worst of all, inside the parking houses. They do not obey most of the traffic rules and if you point out their mistake they get angry and they always have a finger ready to show you where the sky is. I don't even want to comment on how the women are driving and behaving in traffic...
- If you have a SUV, stay far away from the parking houses in France, because they are made for tiny little cars. On many occasions we were afraid to enter these houses with our car since the max height was most of the time 1.80 meters (and in two of them even 1.70 meters)! Once we parked our car in a parking house but were not able to open the trunk because if we did, it would have touched the ceiling!
- You eat very well in France but you also pay quite much for what you eat. And those crepes... How much we ate.. We even looked for an open crepe shop (most of them were closed for vacation) for over an hour under rain in Lyon, waited for the girl to prepare our crepes for about 20 minutes and ate them again under the rain.. with no umbrella.
- It was very strange to find more than 90% of the churches closed. We love going inside churches, studying their architecture (not that we know anything about architecture, but it is fun) and trying to find some elements, symbols that hint the presence/influence of the Templar knights, Freemasons, Mary Magdalene etc. Do not miss out the cathedral in St. Maximin if you also like that kind of stuff.
- What is it with the French and their love for lingerie? I have never seen so many lingerie shops on one single street in my life.
- I have been stopped by people that were asking for directions many times. They thought I was French. I am not sure whether this is good or bad... that I look 'French', I mean... :-)
- All in all France is a beautiful country definitely worth many other visits. But beware: it is not a cheap touristic destination.
Now I have to pack, again, since me and by sweety are off to Austria this Saturday. We will be relaxing on the mountain in a spa hotel for a week.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Hitting the road...
It is vacation time here in Italy and me and my family will also follow the trend. Tomorrow we will pack our car with our luggage, baby's diapers, kids' toys, refrigerating bag full of baby food and cold water and leave... This year our destination is France, mainly Provence. We have no particular plan for the travel when it comes to the locations to visit, hotels to stay at, the length of travel etc. We will just go with the wind ;-) This means that I won't be able to post anything here until September. The main problem is, however, that I won't be able to edit the posts of Hans. So let me apologize on behalf of him for any grammatical mistakes, formatting errors and typos that he might (and most probably will) make during my absence.. :-) I promise to take care of all of these when I am back.
Wishing you all a beautiful August wherever you are..
Wishing you all a beautiful August wherever you are..
Friday, July 27, 2007
A different view at the latest Turkish elections
While surfing in blogosphere I came across an interesting article written by a Dutch journalist stationed in Beirut, Lebanon, Harald Doornbos. He is trying to draw a parallel between the outcome of the Turkish elections and the birth rate observed in secular and Islamist families in Turkey. Since I believe in looking at different aspects of every happening I would like to take your attention to his post:
BYE BYE TO THE GREATEST TURK EVER...
So it is official now - Over 46 percent of Turks voted for the Islamists. Call it a farewell to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - the greatest Turk ever. The end of Secularism. The beginning of the end. Death to the president, long live the sultan!
Turkey might have been an example for millions of oppressed progressive Muslims in Islamic countries - but no longer. One of the few truly secular Muslim countries (together with Bosnia and Albania) chooses - voluntarily - for mixing politics with God. Give me one example of a successful country where politics and religion aren't separated? Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Pakistan, The Sudan, Lebanon? Good luck Turkey.
And isn't democracy a great system?!
Especially if it works like this:
Progressive secular Turkish families (Mostly city people) all have one or two children. Logically - because if you are progressive, not terribly religious and you care about a future for yourself and your children, it is rather obvious that you don't want 20 children.
Now here comes the countryside: Schooling is wanky, future not that rosy, conservative village mentality, religion very important and the result of this all is: Large families.
You can read the whole article here. See for yourself if he is convincing enough in his theory ;-)
BYE BYE TO THE GREATEST TURK EVER...
So it is official now - Over 46 percent of Turks voted for the Islamists. Call it a farewell to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - the greatest Turk ever. The end of Secularism. The beginning of the end. Death to the president, long live the sultan!
Turkey might have been an example for millions of oppressed progressive Muslims in Islamic countries - but no longer. One of the few truly secular Muslim countries (together with Bosnia and Albania) chooses - voluntarily - for mixing politics with God. Give me one example of a successful country where politics and religion aren't separated? Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Pakistan, The Sudan, Lebanon? Good luck Turkey.
And isn't democracy a great system?!
Especially if it works like this:
Progressive secular Turkish families (Mostly city people) all have one or two children. Logically - because if you are progressive, not terribly religious and you care about a future for yourself and your children, it is rather obvious that you don't want 20 children.
Now here comes the countryside: Schooling is wanky, future not that rosy, conservative village mentality, religion very important and the result of this all is: Large families.
You can read the whole article here. See for yourself if he is convincing enough in his theory ;-)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The insignificant citizens of Turkey
Who are they? Of course us, the ones that live in other countries. We are many, I guess, but we cannot vote in the coming elections unless we travel to Turkey between 25th of June and 22nd of July. Many countries let their citizens vote by post or at their embassies/consulates, but we, the Turkish citizens, are not given this right. Why??
First post from Florence
Hello all. Hans has been kind enough to introduce me. I should correct just one thing: I am not that fluent in German; although I have studied it for 6 years as my second foreign language I have never practiced it. I use it only in my occasional trips to Germany to talk to waiters at the cafes and restaurants, and for communicating with shop assistants. Yet, I should admit that it was great help in learning Norwegian since their grammars are alike and there are quite a few similar words.
I don't think I will be posting as often as Hans, I don't even manage posting to my own blog very often, but I will definitely continue editing his posts and helping him technically whenever he needs my help.
I don't think I will be posting as often as Hans, I don't even manage posting to my own blog very often, but I will definitely continue editing his posts and helping him technically whenever he needs my help.
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