Police of Openess...

You can say a lot about Sarkozy's stance against Turkey's EU membership, but the guy has a domestic and economical agenda as well. Of his 33-person cabinet, 11 are women, 20% are from the left. And Rachida Dati, Rama Yade and Fadela Amara have one thing in common: They're women, they're from minority backgrounds and they're feminists. So, a woman from the Maghreb region of North Africa is now in charge of the Justice Ministry on Place Vendôme, a woman born in Senegal is responsible for human rights issues in the Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay and a woman of Algerian descent is to henceforth devote herself to the socially disadvantaged in the banlieues.



France's newly appointed Justice Minister Rachida Dati, and Rama Yade, new junior minister for human rights.

And Socialist politician and human rights activist Bernard Kouchner is now Minister of Foreign Affairs!!
Imagine...AKP wins the absolute majority in the parliament and asks Baykal to become Foreign Minister...and asks 10 women from the CHP, DP and MHP to join his new cabinet...

This can happen to you too...))

My first job as a copywriter was to make a campaign for Post-it memos for the Netherlands.
Click on the picture to enlarge it. As you see, this kind of memo is still doing well..))

A blog about the Netherlands

Today I came across an interesting blog of an American woman, who moved with husband and kids to the Netherlands. In fact only for 1 year, but decided at the end to stay longer.
It's good and funny to see your country through the eyes of a foreigner.
How she describes the Dutchies and the 'Dutch way', is worth reading.

Cross cultural communication

Can you deal with other business cultures without knowing their language(s)?
Yes, and no. Yes, if you have a language which both of you can speak, and no, when the business cultures are too different and both of you are too prejudiced.

But how to manage business people acting globally? Simple, adapting to the business culture in the country you want to do business with. And for the sake of mankind, leave all your prejudices at home.
Dutch people like me tend to be critical. Not to put someone else down, or to let someone to loose his face. No, I am critical because I want to learn and listen to others, and don't want to take everything for granted. So, being critical means, I am interested.

The Netherlands is a small but, business-wise, important country. We were invaded by the Scandinavians, the French, Italians, Spanish and the Germans. But we are still there. And know how to trade. In fact the first multinational was the VOC.

At the same time, the Dutch speaks 3.6 (average) foreign languages. Basically, always English, German and French. But you will find easily Dutch people speaking 5 or more languages.

About cross cultural communication, which has also to do with dealing with other cultures and habits, two Dutch people became famous about this subject. Fons Trompenaars, with his books: Riding the Waves of Culture, Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Building Cross-Cultural Competence and 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, and Geert Hofstede, check out his site: http://www.geerthofstede.nl/

No discrimination anymore

Plasters are now available in all kinds of colors...

The world upside down

May I introduce you to Düzgün Yıldırım. According to wikipedia a Dutch citizen, born in 'Turkish Kurdistan'. In September 1980, at the age of 17, he came to the Netherlands as a political refugee. Today, Turkish Daily News, put an article with the catchy but also suggestive heading on their front page 'Holland’s new problem child: Yıldırım'.
Now, I can tell you, he is not our Dutch problem child. There are more important issues to solve. But since the Turkish media are following their 'citizens' closely in West Europe, here are some facts.
In 1994 Mr. Yirdirim was elected in the city council of Zwolle, for the moderate socialist party the PVDA. Not nice for him but the PVDA, put him on a lower place for the city elections of 2002. Which made him change his opinion: he moved to the real left socialist SP. But he didn't succeed to be elected. But he came back in the city council in 2003.
For the national parliament elections of 2006, several districts pushed the SP to put him on higher places. Although the SP gained a lot of seats, he was not one of them on their list.
But during the 'Senate' elections (the First Chamber) he gained some preferential votes (One of these votes was of himself). But his party, like all other parties in the Netherlands, have their own programme and rules. For the SP are preferential votes not valid, which he agreed upon and which is embedded in their party structure.
He was put on place 18, but only 12 seats were available.
Now we get the difficult part: the election council recognize the preferential votes, but his party not, which is their legal right. And he knows this, when the PVDA put him on an unelected place in 2002, and he made the switch to SP... sounds opportunistic to me.
Te SP congress voted him away with 993 against 38 away yesterday.

Another important note: his voting area (Zwolle, Hengelo, and Arnhem), are in the east of the Netherlands, and was a battlefield for PKK supporters and the Wolves (MHP) in the nineties. The first party is illegal and is 'declared' a terrorist organization. The second, the Grey Wolves, of the MHP, are considered as patriots in Turkey but not in the Netherlands. Fascism is not allowed.

Overall: It is a sad story for Mr. Yildirim, who 2 years ago told, live on Dutch Television, that he has two university degrees, and two of a college. In the end, he has one open university degree: management and organization.

And the sage goes on...
And do we threat our brothers in Europe well? Yes, we do...
But it is up to them which way we have to go, now...it's their turn...

Don't be sheepish

...ladies and gentlemen, stay ahead of the flock..))

America falls in Love with Africa

Yes, the Banana Republic...keep on shopping.

Freaking Hot!

It's so freaking warm in Turkey, that even the flowers are starting to sweat...
Istanbul today, 38 degrees, no wind, and a forecast which only says: no rain in the next 10 days...
Maybe a voodoo-do-do witch can make some rain...

Since when...

...is Turkey defining who is the head of the Greek Orthodox Church? Read it here.
It's obvious, that the so many called reforms and law implementations, after 1923 became anachronistic. The Constitutional Court in Ankara say simply that all religions fall under the rules of Religious (Islamic) Directorate of Turkey.
Athens came today with a clear and logical answer, read it here.

Media rows

While there is some kind of row between Turkey and Germany about 'teen Marco', a more serious row started with the publication of Merkel breastfeeding the twin brothers Kaczynski (one is president and the other PM of Poland) in Polish magazine Wprost. All about the fact that Poland, since they became member of the EU, demands more and more of the EU. Already the biggest beneficiary of the EU, they want more 'a have to say'. In contrary, Poland became within the EU increasingly unpopular. Their human rights record is terrible, especially regarding homosexuals, gypsies, Jews etc. But Germany still feels a 'guilt' against Poland since they invaded that country in 1939. And the far right populist twin brothers know this very well. Read here more about this dispute.

Maybe Ali Babacan must play a different card from now. Which one? Will tell you after he made his call to me..))

A poem of Dylan Thomas

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

Just arrived

Good to know this place before arriving at Gatwick airport in London.

Cem Uzan and Turkish Imperialisme

Yesterday evening there was an interesting TV special: Cem Uzan almost the whole evening in discussion. What he told sounds reasonable, especially regarding SE Turkey (it's an economical problem) and the EU (not a good match).

Although the guy has a notorious past, wanted by Interpol, and Nokia and Motorola are not happy with him, at least to say...he made a good impression.

Personally, I think that he will get a lot of protest votes. Turkish politics will be interesting again...more elections, and more reforms which will be delayed. And yes, of course this is because of the 'imperialistic' EU. Friends in Latin America are wondering when they will be enlisted as 'imperialistic enemies of Turkey' now as well, and what about African countries, countries in the Far East....

And is it not strange that Turkish people are saying that the Ottoman Empire (pure imperialism, only that they never left..) is an example for world history? They know at least how to deal with religions...etc.

I really get annoyed by comments like this, mainly made by anonymous people on forums, but now on blogs as well. You can criticize everybody, calling Europeans killers, but the sensitivity of the Turks are out of proportions when it comes to their history....

The curse of Turan

The Curse of Turan (Hungarian: Turáni átok) is a popular belief that Hungarians have been under the influence of a malicious spell for many centuries. The "curse" manifests itself as inner strife, pessimism, misfortune and several historic catastrophes. The first disaster was the invasion by the Mongols, and the second the invasion by the Ottomans, Battle of Mohács in 1526.
I heard about this from a Hungarian friend. There is also an expression in Hungary: 'What are the 4 worst things you can face: the Death, no house, no food and a Turk'. But never could verify this expression...

Kurdistan

Although I sympathize with the Kurds regarding their culture, language and tradition (please: no honor killing, which sounds more like horror killing), I don't sympathize with a guerrilla group as the PKK. In fact, Europe suffered a lot in the seventies and eighties of the last century because of these kind of organizations (RAF, Beider Meinhoff Gruppe, Rote Army etc.)
I came across an article which shows the 'New Kurdistan', which is outrageous.
Both Armenians and Kurds are claiming the same land. Also, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Iraq will lose territory.
Their map is ridiculous. And as long as Europe doesn't want to see the intentions of the PKK, their goals will be alive. Yes, the PKK is still alive and kicking.

Holland European Champion football under 21 year

Holland brushed aside Serbia to retain the European Under-21 Championship title with a convincing victory.
Last year the Dutch became European champion under 21, in Portugal. This year again, but now playing in the Netherlands.

Interesting ads

These ads are made by Lara Sao Paulo.

Should we stay or should we go now?

Meetings and meetings. Announcements, warnings, threats, statements, counter threats and counter warnings. And so on. Is Turkey going into Iraq or not? I thought that a regular army can not win a war if the enemy are guerrillas. Take a look at Baghdad. 100.000 USA troops and still everyday suicide bombings etc. Will Turkey make the same mistake?

Kunta Kinte, 'Armenian Seed', the Denial of Racism!

This is Orhan Kemal Cengiz. A columnist for Turkish Daily News. And who writes every week on Friday a column. I must say, his columns are really newsworthy and excellently written, and for sure, lots of Turks don't like what he writes. I think, when written in Turkish and in an ordinary daily such as Sabah or Hurriyet, the nationalists will lynch him. The hunt is already started in Turkey by some people. Since the (ultra) nationalists most of the time don't understand another language than Turkish, it's safer for him to publish his comments in Turkish Daily.

Here is the start of the article, further reading link below the article.

Friday, June 22, 2007
By Orhan Kemal Cengiz

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

If you asked a man in the street in Turkey what racism means, you would probably receive a vague answer and some random examples rather than a conceptual definition. These examples most probably would refer to other countries, like the United States and European countries, but not Turkey at all!
For us, racism is what the white man did to the black man. Racism is just an image for us haunting our memories from the film “Roots”. It is the picture of the white man who was whipping a black guy: “Say your name nigger”, “My name is Kunta Kinte”, “Your name is Toby boy”, until at last, after hours of lashing, Kunta Kinte gives in and says “my name is Toby sir!” This is the only form of racism we know.
I have never come across any Turkish person who considers himself a racist. However, racist remarks are just flying in the air in the daily conversations in this country. Our language is full of racist remarks. For example, Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, is called an “Armenian seed” (Ermeni Dölü). If you consider how much Öcalan is hated in this country then you can imagine how “flattering” being an “Armenian seed” may be. “Jews are cowards!” “Arabs are back stabbing people”! Not to mention very offensive vocabulary about the Roma people!

Continue reading here.