Monday, October 08, 2007

Bloggers and commenters wanted

Most of the Turkish bloggers and expats in Turkey who replied to the statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, like Erkan, Bea, Emre and Christine, put all the info about the ongoing discussion on the blog at http://www.sargasso.nl/.
Now it's time for comments of people from Turkey, the Netherlands and elsewhere to discuss these statements and our replies.
Today it's the 4th day of Belief in Democracy. In total there will be 8 statements published - of the three persons mentioned above - and the 8 replies from us. Each day: last day Friday the 12th. But discussion is open. You don't have to use your real name and you don't need to be a blogger!
Below are the first 4 statements, replies and comments.
Friday October 5 click here.
Saturday October 6 click here.
Sunday October 7 click here.
Monday October 8 click here.

So, join the debate.

Messages of Mercy


An advertising agency in Saudi Arabia plans to air public service commercials to promote kinder treatment of domestic helpers in a country where reports of abuse of foreign workers are rife. The ads will air on Arab satellite television stations after the holy month of Ramadan said Kaswara al-Khatib, founder and chief creative director of Full Stop Advertising. Continue reading here.

The three ads cost around $100,000 (dhs367,000) and were financed by a non-profit subsidiary of construction giant Saudi Bin Ladin Group, the family-run business which was set up by the father of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. "We deal with helpers as if they are not humans and have no feelings", said the 37-year-old former electrical engineer.

Everybody in the region knows how badly Saudi people are treating their maid/domestic helpers. Hope this awareness campaign creates not only attention for them during the holy month of Ramadan, but for a long time. There were couple of cases here as well, one Middle Eastern couple struggled their Filipino maid at their home, and locked her up in the house. Some kind of revenge like what American soldiers are doing in Iraq. The maid found a way to run away and went to the police station with bruised body and blood marks on her. Sad really:(((

Shop names in Turkish?


This is another ridiculous piece of legislation: all shop names must be renamed in Turkish in Bodrum. To protect the Turkish language....
I don't know how they will translate the BodyShop, McDonalds, Tesco, Reebok Store, Swarovski store etc. into Turkish.
Are the SHELL shop, BP shop, Total shop, still allowed? And what about Carrefour?
What about all the discos, hotels, restaurants?
Why not re-brand Bodrum as a city into Halicarnassus..)) That would be fun..

Day opening - October 8


Haka dance by Maori New Zealand