Day Opening - December 2

Salto Natale: Zürich’s Christmas show.

Some Paparazzi Gossips:)

I am going to post little different this time, if Hans don't mind, little bit of paparazzi gossips. Don't want to talk about Politic, country relations, planes crashes ect..

Here is some paparazzi gossips:
Picture and news taken from USMAGAZINE and People magazines

1) Britney Spears pregnant again;

I was shocked when I heard it as well, she didn't take care of her last 2 kids that she is pregnant again but thanks god she isn't..

A day after both Rotem and Spears pal Sam Lutfi issued statements firmly denying the cover story— which claimed Spears was carrying Rotem's child — a rep for the tabloid released alleged text messages from Rotem, in which he said, "Yes, it's true."

On Wednesday, Rotem released the following statement to Us: “There is absolutely no truth to this.”

Good thing Spears isn't expecting. For a look at her scarier parenting moments,

2) Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt:

I adore this couple not because of I personally met Angelina Jolie on her UN Jordan tour and stayed in my husband's hotel and spending 3 hours in meeting with UN members what they can do with Palestine refugees..

Brangelina not only joined forces to raise their ever-growing brood (four kids and counting!), they've also created the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which donated millions to organizations like Doctors Without Borders.

3) Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony

Yes she is finally pregnant and glooming:)

"I thought it was a more relaxing experience than working with actors that you don't know," Lopez tells Us about acting and performing with her Anthony, whom she married June 5, 2004. The couple - who also co-starred in the movie El Cantante - went on tour together this fall.

4) David & Victoria Beckham

I know I know, they are not my favorite couple but what can I say, David being tick is short when he talks but if they are making a lot of money I guess they have very good people behind them:)) I shouldn't talk about my clients like that I guess, opps:))

"I always knew David's would sell because it's him," Victoria has said of creating his and hers perfumes with David, her husband of eight years. "But I wasn't sure if anyone would want to smell like me."


5) Julia Roberts and the last gossip:))

A mother of three, has made it clear – in her actions and now in words – that she doesn't like paparazzi staking out schools in order to get photos. Roberts, 40, recently chased down a photographer in her SUV near a school and gave him an earful, in an incident that was caught on video and shown on TMZ. Asked by Access Hollywood for Friday's show what she said to the man, Roberts replied, "I just told him a school is not a place for a grown man to be crawling around trying to take pictures.

" She added: "If you want to take a picture of a person, then go to an adult place. Go to the coffee shop, go to the grocery store, go to the restaurant. Don't stake out someones children's church, school or playground environment."
She is one of my favorite actress.. I do agree sometime with her in recent issue: they do have hard time with all those paparazzi and photographers in daily life.. well I guess this is what they get when you are famous, but why I don't see Tom Hanks in daily routine pictures where he eats where their kids goes to school ect? I wonder never hear anything about him except when he is launching his new movie.

Day Opening - December 1

Lapland, home of Santa Claus.

Hand luggage...

Nothing to declare?

Day Opening - November 30

Tuscany, Italy.

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.

Day Opnening - 28 November

Acropolis, Athens, Greece.

Winter has arrived in Yerevan

Last Saturday we had the first snow of this winter in Yerevan. It snowed all day, but in the lower lying parts of the city the snow melted pretty soon. In the highest parts of the city it snowed at least 5cms. Since Saturday we've had a drop in temperature as well: During the day it is just above freezing. Snow seems to have come rather early this year, because usually it doesn't start to snow until mid-December. We'll see what the weather brings in the next weeks.

I am still surprised at how fast seasons change in Armenia, or at least in Yerevan. Usually spring and fall last a few weeks (a few being less than a month). Within two or three weeks the weather can change from winter to summer or the other way around. This year I had the feeling, though that fall lasted longer than usual.

Day Opening - November 27

Sydney, Opera house.

Day Opening - November 26

Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

New co blogger

Soon, Seda Han Doukas, a dear friend of mine, will join us here as co blogger.
She is born and raised in Turkey but moved last year to Thessaloniki, Greece, where she married Thomas Doukas, a great friend! Picture of Seda is made couple of months ago.

Day Opening - November 25

Cementerio General of Santiago de Chile.


Below, Paris Street, Santiago de Chile





Statue "La Miseria" (The Misery, 1910), by Ernesto Concha, Museum of Modern Arts, Santiago de Chile.

Christmas shopping.

Pictures made by:
Eduardo Labbe
http://santiagodechiledailyphoto.blogspot.com

Visa's, visa's and visa's.

As Turkey doesn't make any progress with integration in the European Union, where it wants so desperately be a member of (while many Turks say they don't want to be a member as an answer to the growing resistance in Europe against Turkey as a member of the EU),
the ruling by the European Court of Justice, caused controversy in Turkey. And it continues.
Today, TÜGİAD called for action. Their points are made upon believe not on facts.
This week we had a business luncheon with the some Turkish newspapers guru's. Their complain was that most of their staff members cannot speak English, can not read it well, and interpret, what most of the time comes in by wire, wrong.
To make it short: as Turkey wants that their citizens can freely travel to Europe, it has to change its attitude, since it looks like that the EU is always wrong and Turkey is always right.
To give you a full insight about Turkish citizens rights in Europe, please read the following thesis made by a Turkish PhD student.
For people who are unaware about current EU legislation, by December 21, the EU labor market for some countries such as Poland, will be open. More than 2 1/2 years after they formally joined the EU. Why should the EU give a privileged status to Turkey when it failed to implement agreement after agreement. And let the Generals do their dirty business.
Read the complete report here.

Within the family...

Derya put yesterday an interesting article on her blog.

All about marriages within the family. You can read her entry here.
For me is it amazing that some Islamic scholars in the Sharia law still defend these kind of practices.
Marriages in medieval Europe were often arranged, especially in the aristocracy and royal families to protect family possessions or extend them. Most of these marriages were often
between first degree cousins. Which is not called incest but inbreeding.

In most of the Western world, while incest generally describes forbidden sexual relations within the family, the applicable definitions of family vary.
Within the United States, marriage between first cousins is illegal in some states, but not in others.
In twenty-four states marriages between first cousins are prohibited, and another seven permit them only under special circumstances. Utah, for example, permits first cousins to marry only if both spouses are over age 65, or at least 55 with evidence of sterility; North Carolina permits first cousins to marry unless they are "double first cousins" (cousins through more than one line); Maine permits first cousins to marry only upon presentation of a certificate of genetic counselling. The other states with some, but not absolute, limits on first-cousin marriage are Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
First-cousin marriage without restriction is permitted in nineteen states — Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia—and the District of Columbia.

First-cousin marriage is illegal in Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas (such marriages may not be performed after 1 September 2005, although previous marriages are still recognized), Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming, although the United States Constitution has been interpreted as requiring these states to give "full faith and credit" to such marriages performed in other states.

Yet, in the absence of a United States Supreme Court ruling, the scope of the Full Faith and Credit Clause is not clear in this context, especially as it would have implications on whether states were required to recognize marriages commenced in Massachusetts between same-sex couples. There are conflicts and courts have interpreted the clause differently. Some states, such as Wisconsin, have marriage abroad laws that make marriages by their residents in jurisdictions in order to circumvent their state's marriage restrictions null and void, and marriages contracted in that state to avoid restrictions in another jurisdiction likewise void.
The definitions of incest and inbreeding are distinct. Incest describes socially taboo sexual activity between individuals who are considered to be too closely related to enter into marriage. In other words, it is a social and cultural term.

Inbreeding describes procreation between individuals with varying degrees of genetic closeness, regardless of their relative social positions. It is a scientific term, rather than a social or cultural term.

With the exeption of Sweden, the USA has a total different view about this matter.
While in the Middle East the discussion is going on, who cares for all those retarded children born out these kinde of marriages? Culture relativisme still rules parts of the world.