Comments on: Where East Meets West

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:32:22 +0000

Lyn, When a tragedy happens at home, we feel some of the pain but it is then that we also feel far away. We have sporadic acces to the Internet and rarely get news anyother way. When something happens we are usually oblivious for a day or two. However, with Virginia Tech we learned about the shootings right away and then had to deal with not knowing details for a day or two. We do miss out on some of the group greif that accompanies tragedies. It probably takes something really big like 9/11 or Katrina for the the whole world to greive with us. Just as it takes something really big like the tsunami or something really shocking such as Steve Irwin for us to join in on other countries tragedies. For example, India has something big and shocking about everyday and we don’t hear about them at home. When there are things like the shooting in Utah, which was in a mall we frequent, or Virginia Tech we end up getting much of our information and filters from people we know in emails. It also is different if we are in a country where the news is in English. With Virginia Tech we saw it on the news when we went to stores and restaurants but couldn’t understand anything they were saying.

By: Lyn

Lyn — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:11:25 +0000

Tom, I’m curious what it is like being in another country when something tragic happens here at home in the U.S. Here we know what it was like when the Virginia Tech tragedy occured, but with your family over seas…what must that be like? Your post gives us an insight what it is like to be in another country when something significant happens there. Still, what was it like for you and Anne when you heard what happened here?

By: Kelley

Kelley — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:43:05 +0000

Tom,

You’ve written a very insightful blog here. From the outside looking in, I think you’ve hit the majority of my perceptions right on the head. Having lived in Turkey a few times, I’m very worried for this country. It heartens me to know that the majority of the country is still for the secular gov’t, but I worry about charismatic speakers with the Islamist bent gaining the upper hand. It could take them entirely in the wrong direction (Iran is a prime example) and I would be heartbroken if that happens. We’ll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, thank you and your family so much for writing this blog! What an education not only for you all, but for the rest of us reading! Enjoy the remainder of your travels.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:37:03 +0000

Funda,

As a registered user this comment when straight up. I definitely would like to leave it up. You are correct we can not understand centuries of history in three weeks. All we can do its filter what we see and learn through the lenses we have built. It is great to hear from someone with more personal insight.

By: Funda

Funda — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:04:03 +0000

Hello again,
I have been following your site ever since I saw you on tv, on Oprah show. Being a Turk especially intrested me you visiting Turkey. Well obviously you cannot exactly know all internal Turkish politics, but I like to give a brief history of our near past. Until 1950 Turkey was ruled by Republican People Party (Ataturk’s party).Until that time we built the infrastructure, opened schools, factories, built railways, since there was no private capital, state had to do it all, and we started paying Ottoman’s debt in 1929 when the world economic crisis broke out. In 1950 elections Democrat Party(!)won, (they won mostly because the public servants were saying Ismet Inonu, prime minister of Republican People Party, was very stingy, didn’t give them a salary raise that they were asking for!, imagine at that time we didn’t have any external debt, and the budget was giving surplus, and the Democrat Party wasn’t elites’! party, they were talking as their villager, peasant partisans)and so called Democrat party with the help of American’s created first external debt, under the name Marshall Aid (indeed we didn’t need that, we didn’t enter 2. world war, we were sellig chromium to Europe in ruins, shortly doing pretty well). This Democrat Party was supported by The United States in the name of the cold war against communism. Well first they changed the prayer in the mosques from turkish to arabic ( so people wouldn’t understand anything, it is easy to fool people that way!), opened religous schools everywhere, suppressed the media and the public. They ruled the country for 10 years and went down with coup d’etat, but the damage was done. 1960 constitution was the most modern and best constitution ever. Then late 60s began the fighting between right and left. There was another coup d’etat, this time against all the modern gains,against 1960 constitution, against the socialists. And finally we had 1980 coup d’etat, which swept away all the humanist, modernist, socialist, it was the last blow and ever since Turkey became more religious. Before 1980 women weren’t wearing those scarfs(turban indeed), only the peasants and villagers were wearing scarfs without any hair covering concern. It is normal today that you see many women covered their hair unfortunately. After the elections in 2002, you see even more. We believe that the last two last two coup d’etat were made thanks to the United States, because Ataturk’s revolutions were made against emperyalism, were made for freedom, to be independant economically and politically, because unfortunately the location is the world’s most unstable place, because it is very strategic, a tampon between communist Russia and oil rich araps, The United States would prefer a puppet government instead of a patriot of freedom. And now this Islamist government is very wellcome for the americans. If it were only to them they would send soldiers to Iraq along with the americans, they would give the permission to use Incirlik base, they would do anything to keep their big brother “Americans” by their side. ( It is a paradox, isn’t it, while you were fighting against radical islamists else where, you are feeding another in Turkey, of course the objective is not to create radicals, just to keep them moderate, keep the reins in control for the big “Green Band Project or Moderate Islam Project”, forget about the secular Turks, who would care if their freedom is taken from them, or they are being killed with uncontrolable illeterate ultra islamists/nationalists ). This is how the mechanism works down there. You said that Iran is the most extreme, how about Saudi Arabia, do you really think that there is more freedom there, maybe you didn’t hear bacause it is The United States ally.
And the answer to your question “why some nations cannot separete religion from daily life and live harmoniously. Well first of all in your country Islam is not a menace, nobody is trying to change the regime; second Islam is not only a religion , it is a set of very strict rules that regulates your daily life. It is a threat to every open society.
I hope I enlighted why Turkey is becoming more religious. I wish you a happy trip. I don’t expect you to put this comment on your site, I just wanted to write to you.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:19:27 +0000

My husband and I love your photos of New Zealand- we lived there for 2 glorious years and are homesick for its beauty (and fish and chips). We’ve traveled abroad for most of our married lives and are expanding our family in the next year. So often our friends have told us: “You know, once you have kids, you can’t lead even a fraction of the lives you’ve been leading these past several years.” It’s then that I promptly direct them to your website as if citing a groundbreaking study’s conclusion that having children does not equal death in the suburbs. Thanks for the inspiration, all six of you.