Istanbul: The Drug

by Edwin Gardner

Well what to say… I’m back in the low and flat lands of the Netherlands again. Still suspended between here and Istanbul, not landed yet, not really touched down. Of course practically nothing changed in ‘Dutchia’, and besides that I’m not back in my old home yet and still living from my suitcase. So it still feels somewhat like i’m on the move. Well maybe this in between condition is a good rehab from my Istanbul drug. Although it still feels a bit like a ‘cold turkey’.

A few days before I left and I put my last visiting friends into a taxi to the airport, I had a chat with a psychology student in the Chill Out Hostel. We talked about Istanbul how I liked it etc.. Bottom line we agreed that Istanbul was an amplifier of feelings. The poetic and romantic character of the city mixed with the merciless energy of modernity makes that, when you feel good, you feel on top of the world and when you feel down, you feel like you’re almost in the gutter. And guess what that is exactly what drugs do right… So for my very pleasant Istnabul habit … addiction is pleasantly lurking around the corner.

Transmediale 07

by Banu Alpay

 

Transmediale is an annual festival for digital art and culture and this year I was lucky enough to experience it for the first time.

The festival’s 07 theme was unfinished and from Unfinished Cities to Unfinishing Creations it has addressed many progressing outcomes of our very unfinished digital/cyber/urban culture. First of all, I should say, as a first time visitor, Berlin and Akademie der Kunste was the perfect spot for the event.The city itself has just got so much to offer…

Ok.. tuning to the subject now..

In this year’s Transmediale I got to hear Orhan Esen’s presentation within the Unfinished Cities conference. Mr Esen is the co-writer and co-editor of the book ‘Self Service City: Istanbul. His book is “a book that gathers analyses, essays, reports and images about Istanbul – not least in view of Western European metropolises in which the autonomous appropriation of urban spaces is similarly excluded from the prevailing pictures of an urban civitas”(Transmediale, 44). In his speech, he mainly talked about the gated communities of Istanbul such as Kemer Country (formerly known as Gokturk village), and why the demand is so increasingly high for this segregated living style of the upper class. He pointed out many things such as the need of security, exclusivity, suburban life, and more hands on nature experience. He also mentioned the marketing strategies of these big property management companies who claim that they don’t only sell you a house but apparently introduce you to a new and better life style as well. This is all open to various arguments but listening to his speech i couldn’t help but ask myself the most inevitable question. Considering the extreme ends of architectural examples (gecekondus vs. gated communities and skyscrapers) we have here; is this city’s expansion so out of control to feed the needs of the increasing population that we don’t worry about fixing it but just keep building on the damage? Unfortunately, i think the answer is pretty obvious to that and it only underlines how we ended up with this abstract fusion of architecture as a result of Istanbul’s socioeconomic imbalance, but complaining is the easy part. Actually changing things will be and is the most challenging part for our generation. These dilemmas exist in most metropolises but Istanbul is one of the only few that has survived beautifully for over 3000 years, and i know me, you and a lot more will work hard to keep it that way!

Apart from the subject related most to this blog, Transmediale housed many more interesting conferences, video screenings, interactive projects, and brilliant art installations. I’ll strongly suggest to those who are into contemporary digital culture and practices to keep an eye on this festival. www.transmediale.de

For more photos of Transmediale, visit http://web.mac.com/banuny/iWeb/Site/Transmediale%2007.html

Banu-n-between

Interview with Jake Olson

A while ago I got in touch with Jake Olson, he stumbled upon my blog, and like me he is foreigner in Turkey, writing about his experiences and reflections on life in Turkey. Jake invited me for an interview, and I thought it would be nice to do it vice versa. So we interviewed each other. Here you can read Jake interviewing me (in two parts/posts). An here is my interview with Jake:

Jake Olson is a 28 year old American living in Adana Turkey. He has lived in Turkey for 2-1/2 years where he met his wife Rana (a Turk of Arab Orthodox origin.) Jake’s interests include exploring Adana and the surrounding area, reading, Outdoor adventures, pursuing his spiritual life, ultimate Frisbee, learning Turkish, making new friends, writing for his blog, and traveling. Jake and Rana are living out their first years of marriage in Adana. He’s currently teaches and authors The Foreign Perspective (ForeignPerspective.wordpress.com); a blog about life as an American in Adana .

So, you’re living in Adana. My friends said Adana? What would someone want to do Andana! …. So I understand you got married with a Turkish girl. How did that happen? and how did it result in you ending up in Adana.

I originally came to Turkey on a summer adventure where the focus was spending a few weeks experiencing life in a different country. One of the values of the program was to visit a place where there aren’t a lot of other foreigners (tourists.) Adana fit that criteria. It’s not exactly a tourist magnet. Of course, we also saw Efes, Istanbul, Cappidocia, etc, but the focus was living in Adana. That summer trip motivated me to try to come stay for a year in Adana. During that year, I met Rana, and stayed to see what would happen. Before I knew it, we were married. We decided to stay in Adana because it’s ours. (i.e. Antakya is hers, America is mine, but Adana is ours.) It’s where we met, so it’s a great place for us to start our lives together.

What do you like about the ‘Turkish way of (daily) life’?

I love the fact that neighborhoods are still a living reality. They say in Turkey that you don’t rent/buy a home, but the neighborhood. It’s true. My neighborhood has been a big part of my experience. I leave the house and chat with people everywhere. I’m often offered tea by people working at neighboring businesses, other families in the building drop off extra food sometimes. In fact, today I just picked up some Lahmacun at the local oven, we dropped off the meat, and they cooked the lahmacun. They all know me by name there, it’s great. Most people here care what’s going on around them, most specifically about the people around them. You feel this most as a foreigner because you’re reached out to even more.

That you’re also a Turkish speaker gives you quite some more insights into the Turkish culture. Have you discovered some remarkable similarities with your own cultural background from the States?

Oh yea. Most of the core motivations in life seem to be the same. The more readily you can understand the language, the easier it is to see that we’re all a lot alike. We all want to be loved by a few and accepted by the crowd. Most of us believe that a better job or more money would make us happier, (even though we see many examples to the contrary.) We all have deep prejudices about others that are hard to change, and very few people are satisfied with life the way it is. The reality of who we are as people doesn’t change much from Turkish to American culture. When you can’t speak to people, Turks all seem so different, but when you can sit and talk in Turkish, you see more similarities than differences.

Have you come across Turkish cultural things that you just couldn’t get your head around, things you just couldn’t grasp?

I’m still struggling to understand what place religion has in peoples’ daily lives. You see marks of Islam everywhere. In some senses there is deep allegiance to the national religion, and in other senses there seems to be a deep distrust and rejection of it. An interesting paradox is in the total disdain for pork and the blanket acceptance of alcohol use.

You choose a Turkish woman to be your spouse, could you say anything in general (hard… but it’s always fun to generalize , right?) that you love about Turkish women?
As foreigners, we develop quick stereotypes about Turkish women; over emotional, irrational, submissive, etc. Marrying a woman who is level-headed, rational and assertive has made me reconsider my stereotypes to say the least. I will say though that my wife brings a deep loyalty and a depth of emotion into the relationship that I think is directly linked to her Turkishness. I love those things about her.

You’ve been quite a while now in Turkey, what was one of the hardest things to get accustomed to?

I think that by far the biggest adjustment has been adjusting to life without a car and without cheap gas prices. In American a big expression of my freedom was the freedom with which I got in the car and did anything I wanted any time I wanted, on my schedule. In Turkey, I’m constantly adjusting to the schedule of the masses, the bus/train/etc. schedule. It’s been a big adjustment.

And what was the easiest ?

In general everything gets a lot easier when you stop expecting things to be similar to life in your native country. When I stopped judging things by what I was used to, I started getting used to things the way they are here, at that point, you start to accept the good with the bad. For example, if you expect Nescafe (instant coffee) to taste like the standard coffee in America, you’ll be sorely disappointed, but if you see it as a different beverage (not coffee) it’s fine.

What do you miss?

My family, winter, snow, my church, my friends, disc golf, clean cities, having a car, the wide assortment of microbrews and coffee shops we have in the states, pork.

The States are always in the news, especially if it concerns geopolitics. you’re an American. What kind of question do you sometimes get from Turks in the context of current affairs, where the US plays a dominant role?

I’m constantly asked about Bush and the war in Iraq. The thing that troubles me most about the way the questions are asked is the fact that people are all too willing to believe that others (Bush, his administration, the army, etc.) are willfully doing harm to others. Everybody knows Iraq is a mess and that many horrible mistakes have been made, but I don’t think anyone is intentionally doing evil over there. Of course, America’s denial of the problems and mistakes doesn’t help the world forgive them though.

I really appreciate though that people are open to me as an American person even though they are frustrated and angry with American foreign policy.

Here in Istanbul, the people around me tend to look more Westwards and don’t like to be associated with ‘the Middle East’. How is this in Adana?

I would say that it’s almost exactly the same. People I meet still believe what Ataturk taught about Turkey, namely that it’s aspirations and allegiances should be toward the West, not towards the Middle East.

Over they years you probably also learned Turkey has quite a complicated history and still is a complicated case of a nation state. What do you think has been one of the most positive developments you’ve seen over the past two years.

Wow, I wish I had something to say. I think the problems here are worked out over decades, not years. Anything that changes in 2 years is superficial at best. One thing I continually remind myself of when Turkey’s progress seems slow is that when Ataturk died in 1938, 75% of the population was illiterate (90% of women.) In 2000 93.5 % of men and 76.5% of women could read and write. That’s a pretty fast march to modernity. Not much changes in 2 years, but a lot has changed in the last 80.

And what has been negative?

I wish I could say that I see Turkey getting more stable, but the more I learn about Turkey, the more I realize that economic and social catastrophes come and go regularly. My biggest concern about living here long term is related to the constant threat things like earthquakes, military takeovers and financial crises. It seems like these people and this country needs stability.

What hold’s the near future for you in Adana?

We’ve decided to spend the first phase of our married life here (5 or so years.) If I can find a niche where I can keep doing work I enjoy for a livable wage, I think we’ll be here for a long long time.

We”ll that’s it I guess. Thanks a lot.