TravelStream™ news feed for member oldrover on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/oldrover en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:39:39 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217592000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217592000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217592000/tpod.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:39:39 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

With all the movements, emotional things and such seriousness, the small things that fill the interstices of life go unmentioned. But they accumulate in my mind.I came to Turkey to explore the possibility of emigrating permanently. Well, the experiment is concluded in so far as that singular idea is concerned. I won't be emigrating to Turkey. That's not a failure. Like Edison said of the compounds before tungsten, one positively discovers what doesn't work.The notion begin to erode pretty quickly as I sought to transition from a traveler to a resident. The main thing was the language, I think. Despite my 1 1/2 years of Turkish language instruction I just haven't gotten very far with it. And I don't foresee getting much better. There are two principle reasons. One is that I am a visual person, not an aural one. I retain more things by sight than by hearing. I learn Turkish by reading rather than hearing. The other is that, well, I just don't put much effort into it; I naturally gravitate to other interests that are more compelling to me. I was walking down the street one day remembering how I once decided I wasn't going to try and learn how to throw a pot on a ceramic wheel (or play golf, for that matter). I just didn't have time to overcome the initial frustrations of trying to learn these things. Better to get on with other things.Associated with the language issue, then, were the little domestic things I faced upon first settling down. They were comparatively minor things, but I couldn't cope with my limited Turkish language. I realized that it would be a very long time, even with concentrated effort, to acquire a language skill that gave me the sense of personal freedom of action that I had in my own culture. It was going to be an inefficient life. Were I younger I might have time to deal with that. Now, it's too late, I'm thinking.I have not lost my fondness for Anatolia and its history, culture and people. But here I notice I am straying into more seriousness than I had intended at the outset of this piece.Back to the close-in domestic scene. As mentioned many times before, I am living near the main iconic (and tourist-centric) structures of Bursa, the Green Tomb (Yeşil Turbe) and Green Mosque (Yeşil Camii). Currently the Tomb is undergoing restoration. So in addition to its natural shroud of trees, a view of it is further compromised by fencing and scaffolding (not to mention some unfortunate latter day architecture).The door of the Green Mosque (about 50 meters from my front door) is said by the Lonely Planet guide to Turkey to be "a supremely beautiful building which represents a turning point in Turkish architectural style. Before this, Turkish mosques echoed the Persian style . . . but in the Yesil Camii a purely Turkish style emerges."Sliding to the left, as one faces the front door of the Camii, across an alley is the cafe that I frequent on an almost daily basis. It has a very fast, and free, wireless internet connection. Of course, I always have to have a tea or something at the cafe. (No, no alcohol).I spend hours there, reading news, emails, and posting this stuff. One of the servers, Hamdi Bey, seems to have sort of "adopted" me. He greets me when we first see each other. During the recent European Cup football championships, when Turkey was a contestant, and the cafe was set up as a viewing parlor, Hamdi Bey reserved a front seat for me (unsolicited). Unfortunately, he didn't quell the cigarette smokers all about me. Hamdi Bey took my picture on the cafe veranda. He was thrilled with my picture of him, and I intend to get a print of it for him. Other of the servers also greet me by name these days.A couple of doors down from the cafe, and in a direct line between the door of the mosque and my door, is a parking area for visitors to the mosque and cafes nearby. There is also a public WC beneath the small parking lot. And these combined services are the hangout of a band of guys I call "Los Gelcis" (GEL-gee-s). That's a neologism of my own creation. "Los," of course, is the Spanish masculine plural article. Gelci is my neologism, with an English plural appended. So, from one who can't and won't learn Turkish, here's how it goes.<i>Gelmek is the Turkish infinitive for "come." The command form of a verb in Turkish is the root stem of the verb, in this case, <i>gel. This is the word you hear uttered most often in Turkey. It seems that every time someone is backing up a bus, truck or car, there is a guy out back shouting, "<i>Gel, gel, gel." Or, more likely, "<i>Gelgelgelgelgel. . . ."Now, for a person who performs a task the suffix "<i>ci" is attached (this is the short explanation, skipping the Turkish alphabet and vowel harmony part). So, a person who makes a key (<i>anahtar) is called an <i>anahtarci. A doorman is called a "<i>kapici" (<i>kapi=door + <i>ci, the one who attends). So, Los Gelcis, the guys who shout at drivers trying to park and unpark their cars.These same fellows also attend to the WC, cleaning and collecting a small fee. Most mosques have a WC in or proximate to them. Let's just say they vary in maintenance. So, if you are ever in a pinch, head for the minarets. And, people--guys, too--carry your own paper!After you descend from the parking lot and pass by the door of the WC, a few steps across an alley and down a few more, you are about before the door to my rental. The other day I went to scoot a dried leaf on the wooden floor of my downstairs living room. Only the leaf scooted too! I stomped it before it could scurry into a base molding crevice. See what I found (picture at bottom). The Turkish One Lira coin is about the size of a US25cent coin. I find myself more amused than freaked out by that. It reminds me of the F-89 Scorpion planes that briefly were assigned to the base in my home town back in the 50s or 60s. I've always wondered if the planes were specifically designed to mimic the insect, or was the name given after the resemblance was noticed.A last item for today is to show my supposedly Ottoman mug that I bought at a local antique shop shortly after arriving here. I needed a tea mug anyway. Since, the handle just broke off! Clay fatigue I guess. So far the super glue is holding.The blue glazed brick bit is from the Muradiye Complex. I know about proscriptions relating to Turkish antiquities. I hope this doesn't qualify. I found it behind a bush when I went to look into a window of a building. The building had not a trace of glazed brick on it. The nearest that I saw was about 50 yards away. So it didn't seem to be an <i>in situ archaeological treasure either. I guess all thieves rationalize their takings.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217530800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217530800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1217530800/tpod.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:22:33 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Bursa, Turkey

One of the "plans" in Istanbul was to attend a concert by Sezen Aksu, whom I feel comfortable in calling a diva of Turkish pop music. Somehow that plan failed to materialize.Back here in Bursa, yesterday I saw a poster advertising her appearance here for last night. So I went straight to a ticket office and got a ticket. It wasn't cheap.I had been first introduced to Sezen Aksu by way of a film, "Crossing the Bridge." The film (also CD), which I highly recommend to anyone with an interest in Turkey, is a latter day survey of the music of Istanbul, from grunge (don't be put off by the early pieces) to folk, pop and classical. Aksu's song, near the end of the film, a love song to Istanbul, I think. I don't know what the words were, but just the emotion had me choked up.(One snitty side note: A security guy at the entrance to the open air theater wanted to see my camera. Instead of the camera he too hastily grabbed the pouch and jerked open the reserve battery pocket, one of the two batteries falling to the floor to be sent to oblivion by the trampling herd).Well, I'm sorry to say that Aksu's musical performance didn't do much for me. I mean, it is Turkish music, and it is different. The band's music sounded pretty ok, but sung Turkish. . . . I don't know. It just didn't get to me. But the crowd loved it, and her. And of their love for her, I can see why, and I hardly know any of her story. A sort of Edith Piaf of Turkey, in some respects. What I saw, though was heart-warming.She was unpretentious. She at times chatted with the audience. At one point a mother set her about 3 year old son on the stage, to be embraced and chatted to by a kneeling Aksu. She joked, and made sexy moves. She ceded&nbsp; the stage two times to solo performances by two of her supporting band. The crowd sang along to almost all of her songs.My little camera (and my location) were just not up to the justice of the occassion. The clip I do show is from the last, encore piece, so it might be a little funky, by her stage norm.In any case, while composing this piece I have tunned in to her website and hear her singing in the background. Check it out:http://www.sezenaksu.com.tr/sezen/default.aspxP.S. I just found that battery. It had fallen into my day pack. I swore at that guy for nothing. <i>Mea culpa.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1216659600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1216659600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1216659600/tpod.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:44:08 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Istanbul, Turkey

A week passed since the departure of G. I next made plans to visit Istanbul. In April, during an exploratory visit to Bursa, I had seen a painting by a young Turkish artist that was within my price range. It was at a temporary exhibit in a restored Ottoman era bath. The bath had been beautifully restored and was to now serve, not as a bath, but as a community center. The exhibit was up for the restored building's dedication. In my usual way, I equivocated over the art. Then it was gone. The artist returned to Istanbul. My quasi-obsession for the painting persisted. My friend in Bursa said that he knew of someone who knew the artist. But he was a very busy person and I had yet to apply heat for this follow-up information.Well, finally, with the trip to Istanbul in the plans, I did urge my friend to obtain the name and phone number of the artist's friend. In the meanwhile, G. phoned. I could tell that she was still in anguish over our parting. But I was sure that her anguish was intuition-driven, and I thought I had better resolve our understanding. I said that I would come to Ankara on my way to Istanbul. I can't here go into the details of the weekend. But on Monday, when I left for Istanbul, my shirt front was amply tear moistened.In Istanbul I had made arrangements to lodge with a man I had met in Mardin, in far southeast Turkey, in May. It was a chance encounter in a juice bar, I guess you'd call it. He was Finnish, and an artist. He was also an evangelical Christian minister.But in Istanbul I had to reorder my intentions as I had hastily left Bursa before obtaining the necessary information to track down the artist of the painting I so desired. There were two other persons I wanted to contact, having been contacted by them through a travelers' social network in which I participate. And I wanted to do a little book shopping.On Monday I walked around Istanbul, book shopping as I traveled the basic tourist path between Taksim Square-Istiklal Caddesi-and Sultanhamet. At 10:00pm I was to meet Shirley, a contemporary-aged New Zealand woman teaching English in Istanbul. So I bid my time until then.We had a nice conversation over a beer, as mostly she told me of her amusing travails over some property issues. She "couldn't remember" why she had contacted me for a meeting.On Tuesday I decided to tour Topkapi, as I was currently reading about the Ottoman period of that time. To my surprise, Topkapi was closed! I thought museums in Turkey were closed on Mondays. A visit to the Sultanhamet Tourist Information office produced a list of museums and their checkerboard days of closures. I guess you've gotta know. . . .I therefore decided to go to Dolmabache Palace. But by the time I got there, there was a long line, I misread my watch (cell phone 24-hour time) and concluded I didn't have enough time to take the tour and still get back to treat my artist/evangelist host to dinner--an early one at 5 because of his other commitments. So I spent the rest of the afternoon reading in the public garden cafe on the edge of the breeze and Bosphorus. I read from my newly acquired The Janissaries by Godfrey Goodwin.I couldn't stay a third night with the padre as my host had other guests arriving. But wait. As I announced, there's more! Monday G. phoned (surprising enough) and said that she had been invited to travel to Istanbul on Tuesday with a couple of friends, and did I want to get together? Well, I'm trying not to burn my bridges, and am always open to . . . . well, the next chapter in this curious adventure of life.However, I did not trust G.'s friend and "plans." So I didn't want to be stranded in Istanbul without a place to lodge and having missed my return ferry to Bursa. I wanted to make sure that these travelers would actually get to Istanbul and lodging was provided.Well--what a surprise--for one reason and another, they got a late start to Istanbul, driving from Ankara. Nor, even at that, was I clear on the accommodation scenario. So I decided to return to Bursa with my now heavier pack, having obtained some left articles in Istanbul and a couple of books. The ferry between Istanbul and Bursa takes almost precisely 1 1/2 hours, and costs 20YTL, or, most recently, about US$16.50 (Thanks to the policies of our idiot president the dollar continues to slide). The ferry actually docks at Mudanya, and from there one takes a bus to a suburb of Bursa, and there transfers to the Metro rail line.The metro station closest to my home is coincidentally adjacent to the former hamam, now cultural center where I had seen the painting of my desire. So I went in there to seek the name of the . . . . well, any information I could. No one spoke English, and my Turkish is not up to this kind of discussion. So I called my Turkish friend. Again, skipping details, I did obtain the phone number of the woman in Istanbul who knew the artist of the sought painting.I went on home and had a shower. By this time G. had arrived in Istanbul--or at least was close enough to make that a pretty sure thing. So, I quickly reversed my course, and caught the last ferry (I think it was 9:30pm) to Istanbul.From here on it would help to have a knowledge, or map of, Istanbul to understand what this crazy old dog goes through for love. (Understand that as you will . . . .)The ferry docks at Yenikapi on the European side. G. was waiting for me on the Asian side at the Kadikoy ferry landing (while her "friends" had dinner and socialized at the home of the family of one of the pair. Actually, he was a new boyfriend of G.'s friend. Got that?).I got to Yenikapi at 11:00pm. I had no idea of how late the Istanbul ferries ran. (On a previous trip to Istanbul, years before, I had arrived at another ferry landing too late. On my walk instead I was subjected to an attempted mugging, and subsequently spent three nights in an Istanbul hospital with a couple of cracked ribs). But from Yenikapi ferry landing I had to walk a short distance to a suburban rail line. I had no idea if that line was running that late, and when I got to the station there weren't many people. And they could have been waiting for a train in the other direction.Calls to G., who for being a Turk from Ankara, knew less about Istanbul than I, didn't provide me with precise assurance how I was to get to Asian Kadikoy from European Yenikapi. It was an idealized plan. I knew some possibilities. But the way she was advising seemed to me to be impossible--especially at 11:00pm plus. (Well, there was always the fall back to a VERY expensive taxi ride).Well, finally more people started to arrive and populate the train platform. And then a train headed into the city did come. The "plan" was to take the train into Emönönü and there transfer to the metro line, go across to Beyğolu. From there one would normally take a finicular, called Tunel, up to one end of Istiklal Caddesi, take a tourist street car, or walk the long walk to Taksim Square; then, I was told, catch a dolmuş to Kadiköy. Despite my notion that no such dolmuş existed (I was wrong), and the Tunel and street car were surely shut down at this hour, I was committed.I dashed from the train station to across the street metro stop,&nbsp; and in a short time the metro came. As it passed the Emönönü docks I saw a boat at the [for] Üskudar Dock on the Asian side. I took a chance and got off at the Emönönü station and ran to the dock, got a ticket (that is, a "jeton" for the turnstile) and jumped on the ferry, basically as it was moving out!The crossing to Üskudar took about 30 minutes. G. waited alone at Kadiköy. My bad Turkish is even worse under pressure. One guy pointed one way. There another guy pointed somewhere else. I followed that point. I don't know; traveler's intuition, I guess: I walked about 200 meters, around some curves, and found a line of dolmuşes from Üskudar to Kadiköy.&nbsp; And through the wonders of the cell phone (which I am absolutely not comfortable with) G. and I linked up there with an embrace.After about 45 minutes the "friends" came, and we were taken to an apartment. The way I get it, the apartment was that of G.'s friend's new boyfriend, who was in the process of getting a divorce. In any case, we were left alone in a pretty nice apartment.Most importantly (well, maybe not most), G. called the friend of the artist, got the artist's phone number, called him, and an appointment was made for a meeting on Friday afternoon to purchase the painting that had been on my mind since April.Meanwhile, we spent a couple of days in Istanbul, doing what two people do in Istanbul.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215772260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215772260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215772260/tpod.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:22:29 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

. . . . one does not leave behind one's human condition.&nbsp; My "girlfriend"&nbsp; came to visit me in Bursa. She left 36 hours ahead of schedule. Is she still my girlfriend? Time will tell. &nbsp; I knew there would be good days and bad days. This was one of the bad. Not real bad. Just sad bad. Well, some anger and frustration&nbsp; too. A lot of that was coincidental. A piling on, as they would say in football. We had a nice time while it lasted, though. At least I thought so. No doubt that was a lot of the problem.&nbsp; The first evening we went to the Muradiye Complex, which I had just discovered a couple of days before. The Complex is at the heart of a "neighborhood" not far from the core of Bursa. The Complex itself is a set of Ottoman era buildings; sultan family tombs, largely, and a mosque. There is also there, facing the Complex, a small, charming park. Adjacent to the park are an Turkish Folk Costume Museum and an Ottoman house museum. But we arrived late in the afternoon and all of these sites were closed; a street market was in the process of packing up. But a quaint restaurant, in the old "Soup Kitchen" of the Complex was doing business, and we had a nice meal there. &nbsp; The next morning I began to "tour guide" my friend around some highlights of Bursa, the ones I have been similarly introduced to to this point. The first being the quaint out-lying village of Cumalıkızık. (In Turkish these i's are undotted, meaining they have an "uh" sound. Also, the c without the tail is pronounced as a j. So the name is something like Joom-ah-luck-uh-zuhk. There we stopped into an a fresco "restaurant" that serves an, I guess, Turkish "country breakfast."&nbsp; We went on to walk around the village, the village in a relative tranquil state this day not being a weekend with droves of tourists. We did, however, have a brief chat with a young couple from Taiwan.&nbsp; The next thing on our agenda was to take the swelteringly hot bus back in to Bursa, but only as far as the first Metro station. And from there we could take the relatively cooler Metro to the other end of the line, and there transfer to a dolmus for the next 12 or 15 km to the coastal town of Mudanya.&nbsp; It was hotter than I expected in Mudanya, but there was a breeze off the Sea of Marmara, which mitigated our comfort somewhat. &nbsp; We visited the building in which the Mudanya Conference took place in October of 1922. That conference was the first recognition of western powers of the new Turkish Republic, won in a war of independence under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk.&nbsp; Then it was on to Zeytinbaği, or Triliye, as it is also known. There we pretty much also just walked around. Zeytinbaği is a small town and known for olive oil production (and olive oil related products). We walked to a tea garden on a promontory at the highest point of the small town. Nice breeze off the Marmara.&nbsp; Later, back down in town we had a fish dinner at one of the town's sea frontage restaurants before catching a dolmus to take us back to the end-of-the-line metro station--and hot Bursa.&nbsp; The next morning the "plan" was to visit another outlying village, this one on an isthmus in a lake west of Bursa. It called for a similar combination of Metro to the end of the line and a connecting dolmus to the objective location. On the way my companion complained of not feeling well. (In the end, this was a telltale of her anguish, disappointment, hurt--call it what you will--of our conversation of the evening before). We rested, and had a tea and some bread. Then continued on to the end of the Metro line.&nbsp; But we missed the connection, and there wasn't another run until two hours later. I'm skipping some of the details, but essentially my friend was in the throes of bailing on the situation, and deciding, and by phone to the bus company arranging, an earlier return to Ankara. &nbsp; We returned to my house in Bursa, she packed, and we caught a city bus to the otogar, the large inter-city bus terminal. It was very close. Too close for any closing remarks. She ran to the bus which was just backing out of the dock, I following with her light luggage. And then she was gone with a wave.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215435900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215435900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215435900/tpod.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:12:57 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

Don't read further unless you want a toxic dose of it. About a year and a half ago I began assembling what I call "Apocalyptic Notes." I read fairly widely, although very concentratedly in the <i>New York Times. But, in a wide range of observations. Taken cummulatively they "fuel" my cynicism. Below is my preface to the collection. Note that the first entry--at the end of a long list--actually predates by about nine months my law professor friend's being "scared" by an even more recent climate change report.In view of my cynicism about the future, I am not going wild. I still habitually live quite lightly by almost all standards. I wonder, though, if, as more and more become infected with such cynicism toward the future, whether a snowball effect of moral abandonment will gather.Apocalyptic Notes<i>apocalypse: a prophetic disclosure; revelation; a final catastrophe. These are some of the definitions. But these notes actually tend to inform the notion that the world will end, not with a bang, but with a whimper. &nbsp;&nbsp; What follows are collections of news articles, mostly, that offer insights into the daily abrasions to which humans, mostly, are inflicting upon the global environment, its own social organizations, and its seemingly precarious continuance. 26 October 2007 [My "Forward"]&nbsp;&nbsp; The first article reprinted here has come 10 months after I first began assembling this document (for what purpose I don't really know). But it seems a pithy summary of the trends seen in all of the articles I have selected. A "tipping point" is often spoken of these days. That term seems to me to imply that a definite precipice will come to be recognized . . . . at some indistinct future period. But I rather see it as a "tipping period," the apex of a parabolic bell curve, and at which we may be experiencing in these days. It reminds me of those experiences of astronaughts in training, and others of interest (like Stephen Hawking), who ride the "Vomit Comet," I think it is called. The plane flies a parabolic curve, and during a short period the occupants experience the weightlessness of space, floating uncontrollably about the interior of the plane. Perhaps it is--and unfortunately this seems to be my world view; perhaps it is that humanity is now in that apex period of the <i>tipping phase, where we have recognized our new status--we know we are going to crash down--but we (humanity--especially politicians) are floating about uncontrollably, unable to firmly grasp a remedy for the eventual crash.U.N. Warns of Rapid Decay of Environment By JAMES KANTER Published: October 26, 2007 PARIS, Oct. 25 - The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued Thursday by the United Nations. Climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are putting humanity at risk, the United Nations Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997. "The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the Environment Program, said in a telephone interview. Many biologists and climate scientists have concluded that human activities have become a dominant influence on the Earth's climate and ecosystems. But there is still a range of views on whether the changes could have catastrophic impacts, as the human population heads toward nine billion by midcentury, or more manageable results. Over the last two decades, the world population increased by almost 34 percent, to 6.7 billion, from 5 billion. But the land available to each person is shrinking, from 19.5 acres in 1900 to 5 acres by 2005, the report said. Population growth combined with unsustainable consumption has resulted in an increasingly stressed planet where natural disasters and environmental degradation endanger people, plants and animal species. Persistent problems include a rapid rise of "dead zones," where marine life no longer can be supported because pollutants like runoff fertilizers deplete oxygen. But Mr. Steiner, of the Environment Program, did note that Western European governments had taken effective measures to reduce air pollutants and that Brazil had made efforts to roll back some deforestation. He said an international treaty to tackle the hole in the earth's ozone layer had led to the phasing out of 95 percent of ozone-damaging chemicals. "Life would be easier if we didn't have the kind of population growth rates that we have at the moment," Mr. Steiner said. "But to force people to stop having children would be a simplistic answer. The more realistic,ethical and practical issue is to accelerate human well-being and make more rational use of the resources we have on this planet." Mr. Steiner said parts of Africa could reach an environmental tipping point if changing rainfall patterns turned semi-arid zones into arid zones and made agriculture much harder. He said another tipping point could occur in India and China if Himalayan glaciers shrank so much that they no longer supplied adequate amounts of water. He also warned of a global collapse of all species being fished by 2050, if fishing around the world continued at its current pace. The report said that two and a half times more fish were being caught than the oceans could produce in a sustainable manner, and that the level of fish stocks classed as collapsed had roughly doubled over the past 20 years, to 30 percent. [My comment: So, do you want to have children and grandchildren?]16 January 2007 <i>-- The New York Times The abrupt acceleration of melting in Greenland has taken climate scientis by surprise...Tidewater glaciers have doubled and tripled in speed all over Greenland.&nbsp;&nbsp; "The general thinking until very recently was that ice sheets don't react very quickly to climate," said Martin Truffer, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "But that thinking is changing right now, because we're seeing things that people have thought are impossible." &nbsp;&nbsp; "There is a dark side to this," he said about the new island. "We felt the exhilaration of discovery. We were exploring something new. But of course, there was also something scary about what we did there. We were looking in the face of these changes, and all of us were thinking of the dire consequences." 22 January 2007 -- <i>The New York Times &nbsp; Americans are increasingly living in a house of cards - credit cards.&nbsp; A disturbing new report shows that with health care costs continuing their sharp rise, low- and middle-income patients are reaching for their credit cards with alarming frequency to cover treatment that they otherwise would be unable to afford. 11 February 2007 -- Off NPR &nbsp;&nbsp; It's minor, not apocalyptic. But it's a sign. A report on modern kitchen appliances that "aid" people in keeping kosher. It was something about appliances that turned on or off electronics (stoves and refrigerator lights or some such things) so that humans would not have to interact with the devices (ie., work, perhaps) in order to strictly observe sabbath proscriptions. In my mind surely a sign of increasing radical irrationality. What hope for peace in such trends? 23 January 2007 -- <i>The New York Times &nbsp; Article noting the expansion of the Antarctic Ozone Hole due to the increase in use of harmful air conditioning refrigerants by people in India and China....thanks in part to an explosion of demand for air-conditioners in hot places like India and southern China - mostly relying on refrigerants already banned in Europe and in the process of being phased out in the United States - the ozone layer is proving very hard to repair. Four months ago, scientists discovered that the "hole" created by the world's use of ozone-depleting gases - in aerosol spray cans, aging refrigerators and old air-conditioners - had expanded again, stretching once more to the record size of 2001.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/business/23cool.html?pagewanted=1 In America, the dying of bees <i>NYTimes, 27 February 2007 &nbsp; In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation's most profitable.... The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.... http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?hp <i>NYTimes, March 15, 2007 [edited down] &nbsp; Recent studies have shown that steeply rising production of HCFC-22 by China, India and other developing countries has slowed the healing of the ozone layer, which protects humans, animals and vegetation from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays. &nbsp; Use of HCFC-22 has soared in the third world with the economic growth of China, India and other countries, along with the sharp drop in air-conditioner costs that has accompanied China's growing skill in making them cheaply. Mr. Seebaluck said Mauritius's use of HCFC-22 had risen more than 100-fold in the last six years because of a boom in hotel construction and the rapid expansion of the fishing industry, which uses a lot of refrigeration to preserve freshness. &nbsp; The use in India and China, far larger markets, has been rising as much as 35 percent a year lately, with specialists predicting that similar growth could last through 2016. <i>New York TimesSelect:&nbsp; "Our Crumbling Foundation" By BOB HERBERT Published: April 5, 2007 Fifty-nine years ago this week - on April 3, 1948 - President Truman signed the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now, more than half a century later, the U.S. can't even rebuild New Orleans. &nbsp;&nbsp; It doesn't seem able to build much of anything, really. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. infrastructure is in sad shape, and it would take more than a trillion and a half dollars over a five-year period to bring it back to a reasonably adequate condition. .... But, as we learned with New Orleans, there are consequences to neglecting the infrastructure.... U.N. Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts Article&nbsp; By ANDREW C. REVKIN Published: April 5, 2007 &nbsp; The latest United Nations assessment of the role of humans in global warming has found with "high confidence" that greenhouse gas emissions are at least partly responsible for a host of changes already under way, including longer growing seasons and shrinking glaciers. Some of the changes could be beneficial, but most will prove harmful in the long run, the report says.... &nbsp;&nbsp; In the long run, most regions are likely to be more harmed than helped by the changes, the draft says. For example, projections for coming decades foresee intensifying drought and downpours, as well as a relentless intrusion of rising seas - at an uncertain rate - along crowded coasts and around low-lying islands. &nbsp;&nbsp; Water supplies fed by alpine snows or ice sheets are already experiencing changes and could be greatly disrupted, it said. &nbsp;&nbsp; Among other findings, the draft says: ¶"Coasts are very likely to be exposed to increasing risks due to climate change and sea-level rise, and the effect will be exacerbated by increasing human-induced pressures on coastal areas." ¶"It is likely that corals will experience a major decline due to increased bleaching and mortality due to rising seawater temperatures." ¶Many of the world's regions that are already vulnerable to climate and coastal hazards are likely to see the biggest effects from additional changes driven by the buildup of greenhouse gases. "Poor communities can be especially vulnerable," it says, "because they tend to be concentrated in relatively high-risk areas, have more limited coping capacities, and can be more dependent on climate-sensitive resources such as local water and food supplies." Op-Ed Columnist <i>New York Times TimesSelect&nbsp; "Upsetting the Balance" By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: April 11, 2007 [selections] Masai Mara, Kenya &nbsp;&nbsp; Over the last 10 years, "the weather has changed," explained our Masai naturalist, Daniel Memusi. "All of a sudden it is becoming unpredictable. ...April has always been a rainy month - every afternoon and all night. You expect rain, but no rain." If the few scattered rains this April don't become more intense, he added, the farmers who just planted their crops will have serious problems. "This should be a very wet month for anyone who knows the Mara, but instead the rains came in January and February," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp; One should never extrapolate about climate change from any single ecosystem or brief period. But as The Times's environmental reporter Andrew C. Revkin recently noted, scientists say it's increasingly clear "that worldwide precipitation is shifting away from the equator and toward the poles." "Rainfall has changed dramatically in the last 30 years - it is less predictable now," said Julius Kipng'etich, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, which manages Kenya's Noah's ark of endangered species. If climate changes bring more severe droughts and floods, and the animal migrations are disrupted, "the brand of the Mara dies," added Mr. Kipng'etich, referring to Kenya's "Lion King" grassland. By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: April 11, 2007 [on-line <i>NYTimes] GHORAMARA ISLAND, India - Shyamal Mandal lives at the edge of ruin. &nbsp;&nbsp; The article goes on to describe the subsidence of farms and homes in the Indian Ganges delta due to rising tides and climate factors. [But I lost it.] BELTSVILLE, Md., April 23, 2007 - What is happening to the bees? Kalim A. Bhatti for <i>The New York Times &nbsp;&nbsp; More than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost - tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives. About 60 researchers from North America sifted the possibilities at the meeting today. Some expressed concern about the speed at which adult bees are disappearing from their hives; some colonies have collapsed in as little as two days. Others noted that countries in Europe, as well as Guatemala and parts of Brazil, are also struggling for answers. "There are losses around the world that may or not be linked," Dr. Pettis said. "There are so many of our crops that require pollinators," said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat whose district includes that state's central agricultural valley, and who presided last month at a Congressional hearing on the bee issue. "We need an urgent call to arms to try to ascertain what is really going on here with the bees, and bring as much science as we possibly can to bear on the problem." By ROBERT WRIGHT Published: April 28, 2007 This week the mystery deepened: Why no space aliens? On Tuesday, scientists reported finding the most "Earthlike" planet ever, Gliese 581c. Its sun is cooler than ours, but also closer, so Gliese is in that climatic comfort zone conducive to water - hence to life, hence to evolution, hence to intelligent beings with advanced technology. Yet they never phone. It's actually a serious question, long pondered by sci-fi types. Since a civilization whose technological evolution was ahead of ours by even a few centuries could contact us from far, far away (and certainly from Gliese, a mere 20 light-years away), what does it mean that we haven't heard a thing from any corner of this vast universe? That life got started on few or no other planets? That on other planets giant asteroids kept pressing evolution's reset button? Or, distressingly, that when civilizations reach the technological level we've reached, they tend to wipe themselves out, or at least bomb themselves back into the Stone Age? O.K., that last one is pretty wild speculation. But you have to admit that current events aren't wildly at odds with it. There's an apocalyptic vibe in the zeitgeist, and it's not hard to imagine how the technological sophistication that got us to the brink of global civilization could be our undoing. Let us count the ways.(1) Classic nuclear Armageddon. This threat is in remission. Economic interdependence dulls enmity among nuclear powers, and crisis-averting lines of communication have gotten stronger since the cold war. Still, things can change. (2) Eco-apocalypse. Solving climate change and other global environmental problems is a political nightmare. Nations are tempted to play "free rider" and not join in the sacrifices, since they'll share the rewards anyway. The good news is that past environmental problems have featured negative-feedback loops: when negligence makes the problem bad enough, political will appears. (3) Terrorism. Alas, the negative-feedback loop - bad outcomes lead to smart policies - may not apply here. We reacted to 9/11 by freaking out and invading one too many countries, creating more terrorists. With the ranks of terrorists growing - amid evolving biotechnology and loose nukes - we could within a decade see terrorism on a scale that would make us forget any restraint we had learned from the Iraq war's outcome. If 3,000 deaths led to two wars, how many wars would 300,000 deaths yield? And how many new terrorists? Terrorism alone won't wipe out humanity. But with our unwitting help, it could strengthen other lethal forces. It could give weight to the initially fanciful "clash of civilizations" thesis. Muslim states could fall under the control of radicals and opt out of what might otherwise have become a global civilization. Armed with nukes (Pakistan already is), they would revive the nuclear Armageddon scenario. A fissure between civilizations would also sabotage the solution of environmental problems, and the ensuing eco-calamity could make people on both sides of the fissure receptive to radical messages. The worse things got, the worse they'd get. So while no one of the Big Three doomsday dynamics is likely to bring the apocalypse, they could well combine to form a positive-feedback loop, a k a the planetary death spiral. And the catalyst would be terrorism, along with our mishandling of it. Disheartened? There's more: to avoid mishandling things, we may have to forsake our beloved evolutionary heritage. We may more often have to resist the retributive impulse that worked fine in the environment where it evolved but now often misfires. We may have to appreciate how our moral condemnations - which can help start wars - are subtly biased by our primate brains in self-serving ways that, in some contexts, no longer serve our selves. We may have to cultivate our moral imagination, putting ourselves in the shoes of people who hate us. The point wouldn't be to validate the hate, but to understand it and so undermine it. Still, this understanding involves seeing how, from a certain point of view, hating us "makes sense" - and our evolved brains tend to resist that particular epiphany. If salvation indeed means transcending engrained irrationality, then the odds may well be against us. But look at the bright side: if you do run into any space aliens, they're likely to be reasonable creatures. Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster, a Study Finds By ANDREW C. REVKIN Published: May 1, 2007&nbsp; From The New York Times Learning Network &nbsp;&nbsp; Climate scientists may have significantly underestimated the power of global warming from human-generated heat-trapping gases to shrink the cap of sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean, according to a new study of polar trends. &nbsp;&nbsp; The study, published online today in Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that an open-water Arctic in summers could be more likely in this century than had been estimated in the latest international review of climate research released in February by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. &nbsp;&nbsp; "There are huge changes going on," said Julienne Stroeve, a lead author of the new study and a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "Just with warm waters entering the Arctic, combined with warming air temperatures, this is wreaking havoc on the sea ice, really." And, on the local (U.S.) front this from a David Brooks op-ed peice in the NYTimes, 070515: First, it's really important. As Isaac Ehrlich of the State University of New York at Buffalo detailed recently, the U.S. became the richest country because in the 19th and 20th centuries it had the most schooling and the best circumstances to help people develop their own capacities. But this advantage is eroding. High school graduation rates have peaked and are sliding. And over the next 25 years, the Educational Testing Service reports, better educated people will leave the work force and they'll be replaced by people with less education and worse skills. Op-Ed Columnist TimesSelect&nbsp; The Insurgent Advantage By DAVID BROOKS Published: May 18, 2007 The war on terror has shredded the reputation of the Bush administration. It's destroyed the reputation of Tony Blair's government in Britain, Ehud Olmert's government in Israel and Nuri al-Maliki's government in Iraq. And here's a prediction: It will destroy future American administrations, and future Israeli, European and world governments as well. That's because setbacks in the war on terror don't only flow from the mistakes of individual leaders and generals. They're structural. Thanks to a series of organizational technological innovations, guerrilla insurgencies are increasingly able to take on and defeat nation-states. Over the past few years, John Robb has been dissecting the behavior of these groups on his blog, Global Guerrillas. Robb is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and Yale University, and he has worked both as a special ops counterterrorism officer and as a successful software executive. In other words, he's had personal experience both with modern warfare and the sort of information management that is the key to winning it. He's collected his thoughts in a fast, thought-sparking book, "Brave New War" that, astonishingly, has received only one print review - distributed by U.P.I. - in the month since it's been published. Robb observes that today's extremist organizations are not like the P.L.O. under Yasir Arafat. They're not liberation armies. Instead, modern terror groups are open-source, decentralized conglomerations of small, quasi-independent groups. There are between 70 and 100 groups that make up the Iraqi insurgency, and they are organized, Robb says, like a bazaar. It's pointless to decapitate the head of the insurgency or disrupt its command structure, because the insurgency doesn't have these things. Instead, it is a swarm of disparate companies that share information, learn from each other's experiments and respond quickly to environmental signals. For example, the U.S. has spent billions trying to disrupt attacks from improvised explosive devices, but the I.E.D. manufacturing stream has transmogrified and now includes sophisticated metallurgy, outsourcing and fast innovation cycles. The number of I.E.D. attacks has remained pretty constant throughout the war. Superempowered global guerrillas - whether it's Al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents, Nigerian oil fighters or the Brazilian gang P.C.C. - specialize in what Robb calls systems disruption. They attack the networks that support modern life. In one case, Iraqi insurgents spent roughly $2,000 to blow up an oil pipeline in Southeast Iraq. It cost the Iraqi government $500 million in lost revenue. For the insurgents, that was a return on investment of 25 million percent. The 9/11 attacks, the Madrid bombings, the Niger Delta oil well attacks and even the Samarra mosque bombing were all attempts to disrupt the economic and social systems of target nations. But, Robb continues, these new groups are not seeking to take over their countries the way 20th-century guerrillas did. They have a prenational, feudal mind-set to go along with their postnational Silicon Valley-style organizational methods. They merely seek to weaken states, so they can prosper in the lawless space created by collapse of law and order. That way the groups don't have to construct anything or assume responsibility for anything. In fact they've learned, as Lawrence of Arabia learned decades ago, that it's better to weaken target governments, but not actually destroy them. When nations don't feel existentially threatened, they don't mobilize all their resources to defeat their foes. They try to fight wars on the cheap, and end up in a feckless semibelligerent state somewhere between real war and nonwar. Robb is pessimistic (excessively so) that top-heavy, pork-driven institutions like the Defense Department or the Department of Homeland Security can ever keep up with open-source insurgencies. Since 9/11, he believes, big government institutions have engaged in a process of hindsight re-engineering designed to reduce future risk, when in fact, the very nature of the threat is that it's random and cannot be anticipated. He thinks democratic nations need to build their own decentralized counterinsurgency networks, though he goes over the top in imagining local squads of grass-roots terror fighters. But time and again, he hints at the core issue, which is that nation-states are inefficient learning organizations, at least compared to their feudal and postnational foes. If the Iraqi insurgents defeat the U.S. then every bad guy on earth will study and learn their techniques. The people now running for president will find themselves in bigger heaps of trouble than the current one now is - trouble that this presidential campaign hasn't even dealt with. &nbsp;&nbsp; Not a lot to quote, except for the concluding paragraph. But I have read it in the day after a trip walking through down-town Portland, and in which I had to sadly laugh at the sight of people of which I characterized as a zoo of human physical wreckage and decrepitute. I was thinking, who would want to go to the zoo when one could stand on the street corner of downtown Portland and see such a varied lot of specimens: the fat, the ugly, the tatooed, pierced, dirty, slouched, and on and on. People with both either a weird sense of adornment and/or no sense of self reflection and respect. Later in the school library I saw a young woman (20-ish,, maybe) morbidly obese. She was not far from being as wide at the hips as she was tall. She seemed to have no breasts. And, of course, as is the "fashion" these days, her shirt was just long enough--when stretched, which is not most of the time--to touch the top of her trowsers, thus revealing a couple of inches of flesh at its most expansive latitude. As is often the case, I had notions of trying, as they call it, "intervention." To softly accost her and bring some reflection. One would think she has to be hurting. (Although I have read of a sort of "fat pride movement." My quotes for whatever it is called that I can't remember). But I just shook my head in sorrow. &nbsp; Anyway, the concluding paragraph in Paul Krugman's NY Times op-ed piece today, Friday, June 15, 2007: Whatever the full explanation for America's stature deficit, our relative shortness, like our low life expectancy, suggests that something is amiss with our way of life. A critical European might say that America is a land of harried parents and neglected children, of expensive health care that misses those who need it most, a society that for all its wealth somehow manages to be nasty, brutish - and short. Editorial Observer Millions of Missing Birds, Vanishing in Plain Sight Published: June 19, 2007 in on-line NY Times &nbsp;&nbsp; Last week, the Audubon Society released a new report describing the sharp and startling population decline of some of the most familiar and common birds in America: several kinds of sparrows, the Northern bobwhite, the Eastern meadowlark, the common grackle and the common tern. The average decline of the 20 species in the Audubon Society's report is 68 percent. . . . . &nbsp;&nbsp; The Audubon Society portrait of common bird species in decline is really a report on who humans are. Let me offer a proposition about Homo sapiens. We are the only species on earth capable of an ethical awareness of other species and, thus, the only species capable of happily ignoring that awareness. So far, our economic interests have proved to be completely incompatible with all but a very few forms of life. It's not that we believe that other species don't matter. It's that, historically speaking, it hasn't been worth believing one way or another. I don't suppose that most Americans would actively kill a whippoorwill if they had the chance. Yet in the past 40 years its number has dropped by 1.6 million. &nbsp;&nbsp; In our everyday economic behavior, we seem determined to discover whether we can live alone on earth. E.O. Wilson has argued eloquently and persuasively that we cannot, that who we are depends as much on the richness and diversity of the biological life around us as it does on any inherent quality in our genes. Environmentalists of every stripe argue that we must somehow begin to correlate our economic behavior - by which I mean every aspect of it: production, consumption, habitation - with the welfare of other species. &nbsp;&nbsp; This is the premise of sustainability. But the very foundation of our economic interests is self-interest, and in the survival of other species we see way too little self to care. &nbsp;&nbsp; The trouble with humans is that even the smallest changes in our behavior require an epiphany. And yet compared to the fixity of other species, the narrowness of their habitats, the strictness of their diets, the precision of the niches they occupy, we are flexibility itself. &nbsp;&nbsp; We look around us, expecting the rest of the world's occupants to adapt to the changes that we have caused, when, in fact, we have the right to expect adaptation only from ourselves.My own thoughts and observations: Some of my "cosmic" thoughts stem from these manifestations of growth. Or, that is, perhaps they stem from the picture of the Earth at night, showing the lights of inhabited areas, which also emphasize the concentrations as well as the spread. I'm sure you are familiar with it. One of my latent "art projects" is to place a photograph, or map, of the earth in a petrie dish; then distribute a bacteria in a similar pattern to the light pattern seen in the above mentioned night photograph. Then photograph the bacteria in its stages of growth until all the nutrients (agar, I think; ie., natural resources) are consummed, and the culture dies. &nbsp; Therefore, I view humans, for all of our manifestations of consciousness, as cosmically nothing more than a wriggling, expanding mass of microbes on a spherical petrie dish. I'm sure most would be loathe to so extrapolate across the expanse of that idea. &nbsp;&nbsp; This morning an article in the NY Times by Paul Krugman refreshed my thoughts with his column noting that the American stature has been superceded by that of the euopean. His concluding paragraph becomes another note in my collection I call "Notes on the Apocalypse:" &nbsp;&nbsp; "Whatever the full explanation for America's stature deficit, our relative shortness, like our low life expectancy, suggests that somethings amiss with our way of life. A critical European might say that America is a land of harried parents and neglected children, of expensive health care that misses those who need it most, a society that for all its wealth somehow manages to be nasty, brutish - and short." Comment:&nbsp; These two (following) articles on the same day. . . . Not to mention all the others. Look, I don't call this aggregation "Apocalyptic Notes" for nothing. Perhaps they can be seen as a collection of dying canaries. I'm sorry, I'm just not an optimist. I think this is a record of the disruptions and deterioration of the globe and the life forms upon it. And, I don't see remedial efforts--even should they be mounted--and I don't think any or many will be--will ever amount to enough force to overcome the fatal inertia already in motion. Simply, too many remedies are called for. Each individual system may not yet be at what is commonaly called "the tipping point," beyond which, as I understand it, nothing is to be done. But, from my travels and readings, I believe the human condition in the aggregate is beyond the tipping point; beyond in quantities, lack of education and resources to mount significant remedial efforts, even should the will be galvanized to do so; and we are far, far from any hope in that regard, taken up as humans are with the petty local stresses that many of these same disruptions are engendering. I guess there is a fatal symbiosis in process there. &nbsp; I don't show the complete articles here. But so many conclude with "Unless . . . " statements. Look at the second headline below: ". . .Requires Quick Response. . ."&nbsp; So many articles, in so many areas of human activity; and all I can think is, it's not going to happen. JKG Study Sees Climate Change Impact on Alaska By WILLIAM YARDLEY Published: June 28, 2007 NYT &nbsp;&nbsp; Many of Alaska's roads, runways, railroads and water and sewer systems will wear out more quickly and cost more to repair or replace because of climate change, according to a study released yesterday. &nbsp;&nbsp; Higher temperatures, melting permafrost, a reduction in polar ice and increased flooding are expected to raise the repair and replacement cost of thousands of infrastructure projects as much as $6.1 billion for a total of nearly $40 billion - about a 20 percent increase - from now to 2030, according to the study, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Likely Spread of Deserts to Fertile Land Requires Quick Response, U.N. Report Says By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Published: June 28, 2007 NYT ROME, June 27 - Enough fertile land could turn into desert within the next generation to create an "environmental crisis of global proportions," large-scale migrations and political instability in parts of Africa and Central Asia unless current trends are quickly stemmed, a new United Nations report concludes. &nbsp;&nbsp; "The costs of desertification are large," said Zafar Adeel of the United Nations University, who is based in Canada and is an author of the report, to be released Thursday. &nbsp;&nbsp; "Already at the moment there are tens of millions of people on the move," Dr. Adeel said in an interview. "There's internal displacement. There's international migration. There are a number of causes. But by and large, in sub-SaharanAfrica and Central Asia this movement is triggered by degradation of land." &nbsp;&nbsp; The report's authors say individual nations and international groups must collaborate to solve what has so far been an underrecognized crisis in the making, caused mainly by climate change. Water resources are overexploited because the poor have no other options, and climate change has exacerbated the cycle. Governments and wealthier countries must aid these populations to develop more sustainable livelihoods or suffer the consequences, the report says. .... &nbsp;&nbsp; "All of our concerns here in Europe about immigration bypass the huge crisis that is already occurring in the developing world, which is already bad," he said. "If you add climate change to the mix, there's a danger of it spinning out of control." Op-Ed Columnist Doha and Dalian By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: September 19, 2007 Dalian, China In the last few weeks, I happened to visit Doha and Dalian, and I must say: I was stunned. Before explaining why, let me acknowledge that chances are you've not visited Doha or Dalian recently. Indeed, it may be - I presume nothing - that you have never heard of either city. Doha is the capital of Qatar, a tiny state east of Saudi Arabia. Dalian is in northeast China and is one of China's Silicon Valleys because of its proliferation of software parks and its dynamic, techie mayor, Xia Deren. What was stunning is that I hadn't been to either city for more than three years, and I barely recognized either one. In Doha, since I was last there, a skyline that looks like a mini-Manhattan has sprouted from the desert. Whatever construction cranes are not in China must be in Doha today. This once sleepy harbor now has a profile of skyscrapers, thanks to a huge injection of oil and gas revenues. Dalian, with six million people, already had a mini-Manhattan when I was last here. It seems to have grown two more since - including a gleaming new convention complex built on a man-made peninsula. But this, alas, is not a travel column. It's an energy column. If you want to know why I remain a climate skeptic - not a skeptic about climate change, but a skeptic that we're going to be able to mitigate it - it's partly because of Doha and Dalian. Can you imagine how much energy all these new skyscrapers in just two cities you've never heard of are going to consume and how much CO2 they are going to emit? I am not blaming them. It is a blessing that their people are growing out of poverty. And, after all, they're just following the high-energy growth model pioneered by America. We're still the world's biggest energy hogs, but we're now producing carbon copies in places you've never heard of. Yes, "Americans" are popping up all over now - people who once lived low-energy lifestyles but by dint of oil wealth or hard work are now moving into U.S.-style apartments, cars and appliances.Our planet cannot tolerate so many "Americans," unless we take the lead and change what it means to be an American in energy terms. Attention Kmart shoppers: the world consumed about 66.6 million barrels a day of oil in 1990. We're now consuming 83 million barrels a day. "Demand for oil has grown 22 percent in the U.S. since 1990. China's oil demand has grown nearly 200 percent in this same period," Margo Oge, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's office of transportation and air quality, told the Tianjin China Green Car conference that attended. "By 2030, the global thirst for oil is forecast to increase by another 40 percent if we maintainbusiness as usual." Such an appetite would devour every incremental green initiative we make. Hey, I'm really glad you switched to long-lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs in your house. But the growth in Doha and Dalian ate all your energy savings for breakfast. I'm glad you bought a hybrid car. But Doha and Dalian devoured that before noon. I am glad that the U.S. Congress is debating whether to bring U.S. auto mileage requirements up to European levels by 2020. Doha and Dalian will have those gains for lunch - maybe just the first course. I'm glad that solar and wind power are "soaring" toward 2 percent of U.S. energy generation, but Doha and Dalian will devour all those gains for dinner. I am thrilled that you are now doing the "20 green things" suggested by your favorite American magazine. Doha and Dalian will snack on them all, like popcorn before bedtime. But, as I said, this is not just about "them." It is still very much about us. Peter Bakker is the chief executive of TNT, the biggest express delivery company in Europe. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2007 just listed TNT as the No. 1 company in terms of energy and environmental practices. Mr. Bakker, whom I met in China, told me this story: "We operate 35,000 trucks and 48 aircraft in Europe. We just bought two Boeing 747s, which, when fully operational, will do nine round trips every week between our home base in Liège [Belgium] and Shanghai. They leave Liège only partly full and every day fly back to Europe as full as you can stuff them with iPods and computers. By our calculations, just these two 747s will use as much fuel each week as our 48 other aircraft combined and emit as much CO2." That's why we're fooling ourselves. There is no green revolution, or, if there is, the counter-revolution is trumping it at every turn. Without a transformational technological breakthrough in the energy space, all of the incremental gains we're making will be devoured by the exponential growth of all the new and old "Americans." I've been editing this two or three years later. Have politicians addressed any of this? That is, with any urgency? What's changed?&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215431220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215431220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215431220/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:02:42 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

Sunday was my "hiking day." (And I'm thinking of changing to Saturday, as I usually hike myself into such tiredness that I'm not able to get going very well on Monday (See notes with pictures). Then Sundays I can do the lighter diversionary excursions)).From the previous Sunday's hike, in which I fell into a family picnic, I had seen the other side of the gorge and wanted to explore up into that far side. Which I did. Nothing much to say about it. (Although I can stretch it). It was just a lot of uphill hiking. And not always on determinable paths. The ground cover is light and sparse enough that it is often hard to determine a path from a merely clear, but leafed over, area. So I just keep going, hitting the path, loosing it, hitting it, and so on.But there is a path. And I was surprised that it was as well trod as it showed in places. In fact, in two instances I found separate cash register receipts each dated within the last ten days. Which points out another fact. Parenthetically, I have a contact with a university professor of environmental law. She has recently been shocked--after all these years--by a report of some agency relative to the failure of the Arctic ice cap to coalesce this summer. And she urged me to "spread the word on climate change" here in Turkey. Well, I am reluctant to share my cynicism with her. Or any one, for that matter. (On second thought, I'll provide a toxic dose of it in my next dated report). But surely the Turks could, if anything, give lessons in environmental degradation. I began my hike on this Sunday in a park of sorts where families were engaged in picnics. It overlooked the rocky--and now dry--creekbed that issued from the gorge. Waterworks perhaps above probably diverted the little late season water. In any case, the creek bed was a veritable trash bin. The Turkish mentality, I am sorry to say, is anything but, "pack it out." It is more like, "flick it, toss it, leave it." And thus, as I went ever higher up into the woods my way was confirmed often as not by sundry leavings--a plastic something--than actual path indications. Of course these indicators diminished the higher I went. But even the end of my hike at a certain prominence was marked by three 12-guage shotgun shells.Which reminds me. The woods were remarkably quiet, except for insects. I have been told there are wild pigs therein, and perhaps bear. But I heard or saw nary a thing. Except for a couple of, I must say, pretty big scat leavings. Wild pig rootings can be seen everywhere. But I heard absolutely no sounds in the large quantities of dry leaves. And, the really large wild pigs I had seen in Australia ran away from human contact, so I wasn't very concerned.The&nbsp; only other thing almost worthy of remarking upon for this hike was that in the early stages, as I was trying to find my way in to a bona fide trail, I crossed into a fenced area (and fashioned a dog-dealing hiking stick), and then encountered two bee keepers. They signaled me to come ahead. The one fellow, though he had a head and upper body protection, seemed to have three visible stings on his lower lip. He seemed pretty stoic about it. I was invited to tea, but declined (thus loosing a good picture, I thought), and went on upward with their permission.Later, coming down by a roadway from the bee keepers' place I came to a school of some sorts, from which was issuing some horrid Turkish music which I could hear for "miles" up in the gorge, and absolutely dominated the local residential area. It was some sort of celebration of which I had no energy nor inclination to investigate. The music was so bad and loud. Lines of men (I saw one little girl) were doing some sort of line two-step, or something, reminding me of pictures of American Shakers I have seen in history books. I thought, "You've gotta be brain-dead to enjoy that kind of music and activity." That's what tiredness and cynicism will do for you.Nevertheless, I was able to catch a city bus from there and get somewhat close to my home. There a bath. And by the time I got to a local restaurant for something to eat, it was well after 10:00pm. Yes, they said they had food, but no fish--even though it was named as a Balik (Fish) Restaurant. I, again too tired to struggle with the language, settled for an orange Fanta and a chicken shish. I tried to sleep while waiting for the small salad and two sticks of chicken--which seemed to take 30 minutes. At about 25 minutes I tried to walk out, but the guy said, "Geliyor, geliyor," it's coming, it's coming. I think they actually went down the street for it.I bought a beer on the way home, anyway. Drank most of it in bed, then was out of it. Thus of my ". . . having a great time in Turkey."
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215288780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215288780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1215288780/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:48:53 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

By sheer coincidence, in my first days in Bursa while I was out walking the streets looking for a rental, I came upon the studio of--apparently--Bursa's only fine arts sculptor. He was teaching a drawing class in his studio, a converted hamam, or Turkish bath.Okan told me he was working on a commissioned project two days a week in a village some distance outside Bursa. I said that I would like to go with him one day as I had never seen a sculptor or stone cutter work before. And so it came to be that this was the day for that visit.In the morning I walked to Okan's studio, getting there around 9 am, I think. I thought it was kind of a late start, but as I have perhaps written before, Bursa seems to operate on a clock time slightly rotated clock-wise from mine. They start later in the morning, and go later into the night.Okan, his assistant and I took a bus to a suburban dolmuş station, then from there a dolmuş to the village of Görükle, a "village" about 10+ kilometers west of Bursa. Well, it used to be a village, perhaps. But now it was rather more like a separate suburban town, having grown up around the Uludağ University complex. Scores of the "standard" modern Turkish concrete apartment complexes now populate the hillsides. Okan had previously done one public sculpture symbolizing the academic nature of the place. The current project, so far consisting of three separate human figures, was being roughed out in the yard of the Görükle Municipal Maintenance shop and vehicle parking. The idea is that the major debris is better handled there, and of course, the work can proceed relatively undisturbed. The figures will be moved to the final site while still having some strength in substance, then be finely tuned by Okan.There is not much to say about the work out there. I basically sat around all day, occasionally rousing myself to photograph work in progress--and to go with the guys into the older village part for lunch. I didn't see any payment made for our four lunches. Okan seems to be pretty well known by the core locals.For lunch, and after, a second assistant joined the crew. They are students. Okan instructs them in the rough blocking cutting while he works toward the finer detailing. They all use heavy-duty electric stone cutting saws (Okan a finer cutter/grinder) as well as chisles and hammers. None wear ear or respiratory protection. They all wear dark glasses, but that seems to be because of brightness, not eye protection. The stone is not marble, but a fairly pure whitish calcareous material. And, they all smoke cigarettes. It's not for me to lecture. . . .They worked fairly consistently, but it was casual in spirit. Collegial. Fortunately the day was windy and blew the dust quickly away, and was a welcome cooling influence. I wanted to join in with the assistants (except for not having the necessary protective devices and clothing. I said to the assistant, "It's work. But art is fun work. That's why we do it, because it's fun to create." The pictures probably tell as much as any more I could write.Except the . . .. ok, well, bitch,. . . . one of the "yard" dogs. Well underway, (and not for the first time) as you might see. A very friendly gal, but none too happy at day's end, apparently having lapped up some insecticide or something in a near-by field.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214990280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214990280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214990280/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:39:56 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

On this day I decided to use the house washing machine to do some laundry.The control knob on the washing machine is broken; it can't turn the controls. I bought some "super glue" and glued the broken piece back. It broke again when I tried it. So much for "super glue." Nevertheless, I glued the piece back on.Nevermind, I could use the vise-grip pliers to run the control, and just put the knob on to read the station in the cycle. I started a wash. I put my cell phone "reminder" on an hour, and took a nap. It was a hot day.When I woke, the washing was still in progress. I looked at the numbers and saw it was just about to the spin-dry number. But when it got to that number, it didn't spin-dry. In fact, I hadn't been cognizant enough to notice that rather than draining water between wash and rinse cycles, the machine had just been accumulating water, and as I watched water started gushing out a hole at the top of the back! It was even dribbling out of the soap dish tray at the front top. I freaked, and fearing water in the electronics, pulled the plug.But, with the machine off, I couldn't open the front-loading door. So I had to turn it back on to open the door, which then poured water and I immediately noticed the floor drain was too clogged to drain rapidly and a lake was forming on the floor in which I didn't want to be standing while worrying about electronics and tracking on recently cleaned floors so I shut the door again.I thought: I'm going to take a walk. Let the floor drain and dry; deal with it later.Just then the door bell--well, it's actually kind of a bird chirping sound--rang. Or rather, chirped. It was my friend Mesut and a visitor from Belgium. They were visiting the Green Mosque and stopped by. Just in time.We three went walking, first visiting a couple of other noted mosques, then taking a dolmus up to the Teleferik station. We bought picnic makings: bread, tomatoes, sausage links, green peppers. The Teleferik is a cable car that goes high up into the mountains that rise steeply out of Bursa city. We just went up to the first station, then hiked up through the woods to a spot Mesut and some mates have for camping. Basically we just made a lunch, enjoyed the scenery, and went back down to the city.In the evening we went to the Karabaş-i Veli Cultural Center for an evening performance of the Whirling Dervishes and accompanying music and song. The ney player (the ney is a bamboo flute) recognized me from previous attendances, and invited the three of us to have tea with him after the evening session.Afterwards, I walked with him and his family part of the way back to my place, as I had to get to bed for the next day's outing with the sculptors.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214847420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214847420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214847420/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:16:04 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

I think I wrote last that this would cease to be a "travel" blog as I settled into a "life in Bursa" routine. But, as this weekend proved, there are still Turkish travel blogable experiences to be had. Especially if one goes out exploring on weekends.On Saturday, therefore, I sought to escape the heat and humidity of Bursa by going to the coast of the Sea of Marmara, at a nearby town of Mudanya. It worked. There the heat was less, and the breeze from the sea was as enlivening as Friday's heat in town was oppressive.On the way to the metro for the first leg of the outward journey I passed an old woman and a very young child. Their contrast so impressed me that after walking on a bit I decided to go back and seek a photograph. The lady basically acquiesced to my seeking permission. When I showed her the picture in the camera screen she softly smiled and sweetly patted me on the arm.One here takes a metro line to one end, then walks across the street to a mini-bus, or dolmus terminus and catches a ride to Mudanya, on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. The metro is 1.50 YTL, the dolmus 2 YTL, so from the city to the coast it's only about US$2.85 one way. Not a bad deal.I stayed on the dolmus to see how far it would go, and it went all the way through the town of Mudanya, which was great since I really wanted to go on to another smaller place called Zeytinbagi (which I think basically translates to "olive grove"). Furthermore, it was on up above town, which put me out in a nice hilltop, cliffside breeze. The dolmus driver said a lager bus would take me on to Zeytinbaği. But I decided to hitchhike in the waiting.I was starting to stick my thumb out. I say starting, since I can't remember that my arm was actually straightened as the first car pulled up in my face. It was a father and son, and they took me right to quayside Zeytinbaği.Nothing extraordinary there. Well, I mean, it's a nice Ottoman era town, with friendly folk. I walked around, bought two large, baseball-sized juicy peaches, ate them in the shade. Went over to the seawall and soaked my bug-bitten feet in salt water for a spell. Bought 200gr of pistachios and walked up to a higher park and ate them in the view and breeze. A fellow joined me and just started to share in the nuts. Fine. I was amused at the company, even though our conversational limits were of the very narrowest. When the nuts were finished I invited him for tea. He accepted, making that the first time I could treat a Turk to something.I wanted to go back toward Mudanya to another, smaller village I had seen, Kumyaka. Walking out to the edge of town the guy at the dolmus stand caught me, and the dolmus left in about 5 minutes.In Kumyaka I walked around a bit, read a bit, then had a fish dinner beside the sea, in the breeze, as the sun descended.Back on the highway at the dolmus stop I think I was in time for the last two dolmus of the evening. Nevertheless, I sought hitchhiking in the meanwhile. Often I am troubled by being stared at as I walk around, the unmistakable <i>yabanci, foreigner. But also it works to my advantage, too. Hitchhiking proves pretty easy, as the Turks are a kind and friendly lot, and invariably curious about a foreigner, especially, perhaps, an old <i>haci-looking guy like me. And so it was that about as soon as I stuck my thumb out a man and his wife pulled up. He ordered the wife into the back, me into the front seat, and he offered, as well, a ride to the two young ladies at the dolmus stop. He pulled up at the Mudanya dolmus terminal, and I ran to catch a Bursa-bound dolmus that was just exiting the yard. Those Turkish Travel Pixies, working on a Saturday evening!Sunday I try to designate as a "hiking day." Bursa basically crowds the northern slope of Uludağ, a mountain with a skiing resort, it is so high. And the foothills to it are steep and high next to the city, and so provide a very quick access to steep forests. I had seen a road angling up across the face of the hillside on the east side of the city. Where it disappeared there was a deep gorge. And so I had to find out what was back in there.I took a metro train to a station I guessed to be parallel with where the road seemed to emerge out of the urban housing, and from there I walked up the hot, San Francisco-steep streets in search of the road beginning--trying to keep in the shade of buildings.Eventually I found the dirt road and set out upon it. It was steeper than I had thought. From the valley it looks to be about a15 percent grade. On it it seems more like a 30 to 35 percent grade. Fortunately, there was not too much traffic, and I had to eat a minimum of dust.When I rounded the bend seen from way below, there was a little village there! I walked through the village, heading, as far as the road would go, deeper into the canyon. At one point I encountered three people, and as often happens people often suspect me of being German. And, in some instances, my very limited German language can cover ground&nbsp; that my very limited Turkish cannot. The woman had worked in Germany, and so I could basically say that I was an American, had also lived a little in Germany, where, and that I was just "walking going."And, I just kept walking along the crude road, seeing where it was to go. A couple of cars passed.I had brought water enough, but in my usual carelessness, had not brought any food. And I was getting hungry, frankly.I came to where the cars were parked, and heard voices. I came upon the people spanning the continuing trail, and was passing through them when "the questions" came. And, an invitation to stay and have some food.A fine barbecue picnic was under preparation. Shortly, more people--family and friends--arrived. A son-in-law spoke English, having spent two years getting his Masters in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in Albany, New York. (Speaking of which--I can't help the diversion--I went to the university site to check on the spelling, [http://www.rpi.edu/] and found this lead article:<i>On the Boil: New Nano Technique Significantly Boosts Boiling Efficiency &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Whoever penned the old adage "a watched pot never boils" surely never tried to heat up water in a pot lined with copper nanorods. A new study from researchers at Rensselaer shows that by adding an invisible layer of the nanomaterials to the bottom of a metal vessel, an order of magnitude less energy is required to bring water to boil. This increase in efficiency could have a big impact on cooling computer chips, improving heat transfer systems, and reducing costs for industrial boiling applications.)<img class="content yui-img" src="http://www.rpi.edu/homepage/lead/062608-nanoboiling.jpg" alt="On the Boil: New Nano Technique Significantly Boosts Boiling Efficiency" border="0" height="240" width="360"><img class="content yui-img" src="http://www.rpi.edu/homepage/headlines/062608-nanotube-boiling.gif" alt="On the Boil: New Nano Technique Significantly Boosts Boiling Efficiency" border="0" height="158" width="194">This fellow, Erkan, and I could pretty freely talk, and he, of course, could pretty fully explain me to all the others. His father-in-law was born and raised in the village I had passed through, and was something of a mountain man. He had blue eyes, as did his lovely daughter, and his parents were from Salonika (Thessalonika, Greece). I noticed their blue eyes were as Kemal Ataturk's, who was also from Salonika, or Saloniki, as they say here.The father was frying, on a flat slab rock, a couple of dark, gelatinous meat things. When fried to their specs he cut me a chunk. And thus I had my first taste of what I guess to be spleen! I don't know who's. It was a little like a dark red (for the blood) liver, though more fibrous. It was ok, but once is enough. Erkan told me that the European Union had an issue with spleen being considered a food product. And, folks, that's all I know.Better was the fried fish, fried eggplant and pepper veggies, and meatballs.After eating I joined the bunch of 20/30 somethings (though smokers) for yet a further climb into the steep canyon--of which, ". . . .there is no end." My legs were aching, but I kept up. I was a year older than the family patriarch.While we were about to drive back down to Bursa (Erkan and his wife providing the lift back) another member of the hiking party handed me a <i>hatirlamak, a "rememberance." It was a carabiner! Somewhere in the preceding 2 or 3 hours or so I had been thinking I wanted something just like that to attach my pocket knife cord to my belt so I wouldn't have to keep playing with my knots and loops. The carabiner was of a color matching my knife cord. I don't know if the Turkish Travel Pixies were in on this one or not.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214493300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214493300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oldrover/1/1214493300/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:50:39 -0500 Turkey: 2008 and Beyond

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bursa, Turkey

For the foreseeable future this will no longer be a travel blog. It will be a blog about an American in Bursa. About a somewhat eccentric retiree as he tries for the first time to establish a life in a foreign country, no longer the traveler, but a resident. I have seen, though, that I will always be the <i>yabanci, the foreigner. More about that in later days. Once I've got some sort of a pattern going, I will begin reading Ottoman history, and visiting local sites pertaining thereto.Meanwhile I have rented a house in Bursa. It is a nice house, by all who have seen it so far. My own ardor was compromised in the beginning by the dirty condition in which it was turned over to me. Furthermore, by the unwillingness of the rentee to be responsible for the cleaning of the house, which, he formerly lived in and had expressed some reverence for. And not only that, but he is a doctor. One would think. . . .Nevertheless, the responsibility for cleaning was in my ken to pursue. The rentee's "man," Ibrahim, offered that his wife would perform the cleaning for 50YTL, or about US$41, by my last check. For most this is an easy choice. Now, I wouldn't call my self miserly, but I do internally deliberate these things, probably more than most, and often do opt for discomfort over paving it over with cash. But in this case I went for it.So, last Thursday the house was pretty thoroughly cleaned, by Ibrahim's wife, and Ibrahim. I think they were here about six hours, and did a pretty good job. They missed some things that I am continuing to pursue; but they also did some things that I might not have done myself. So, the place looks better, and feels better.With that accomplished, on Friday I took an early bus to Ankara, to retrieve clothing and books that I had left with my girlfriend. The scenery and geography near Bursa are pretty and interesting. But once up on the Anatolian plateau, not so. I slept most of the way.The highlights in Ankara--that I can report on--merely included seeing a movie (a sort of B silly romantic comedy), and a quarter final in the Euro Cup 2008 soccer race between Croatia and Turkey. Turkey won an exciting game. I would also say that the weather in Ankara was surprisingly refreshing. A spring-like warm dryness.Back in Bursa, I spent the morning taking down and cleaning the curtain guide rails in my bedroom. I found the curtains would not move not because the rails were dirty, but because the round glides were too big for the rail space. So I spent time with my nail clippers chopping about 1/32 of an inch off each side of the round plastic glides. I was spending the afternoon, in the now more hot and humid weather, reading (a book purchased in Ankara, Quinn's Post. More about that later), when I got a call from Zeynep, the young Turkish woman who has been of great assistance to my coming to terms in Bursa. (See a previous blog: "Getting Gased: A Profound and Humbling Experience," June 13, 2008 ). There were some more domestic issues to pursue, and she was prodding me to get to it. So we agreed to do so the following late afternoon.On Tuesday afternoon at 5:30 Z. and her husband picked me up from the place called Heykel, the city center, with the statue and monument to Kemal Ataturk. I wanted to purchase a pillow and sheets for my bed, and a couple of towels. There was the broken handle to the washing machine to also seek to replace or repair. I had imagined Zeynep would walk with me through the Bursa center market area for this shopping. There are scores of stores and stalls selling, well, everything imaginable. But instead, we drove to an outlying (I wouldn't exactly call it a suburban), modern store selling domestic items. There I purchased the above mentioned linens, and a pair of in-house sandals as well.We tried another store for the washing machine handle. No luck. Nor would you have such luck at an American store. You need to go to, you know, older junk stores and the like. But Zeynep and her husband are younger and urban, and I think, not all that familiar with their own city, or such kinds of tasks. We drove across town to what I will call a suburban mall.Now, I am simply blown away by Turkish malls. I have never seen the like in America, and certainly not in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. There the latest "mall" at my time of leaving was some sort of horrid, California-International Disney World-like village. But these Turkish malls! They are huge, modern, glitzy, clean, and chock with offerings of international styles.And, as I could have predicted, no washing machine handle replacement there. Even in a store almost exactly like a Home Depot in America.I invited Zeynep and her husband to dinner. But they would not have it. I was to join them at their home (apartment) for dinner. At the mall they shopped for the evening meal--salmon.Their top floor apartment is huge. I didn't see the extent of it. It was well and fully appointed. Zeynep is doing her correspondence course on a Macintosh laptop that is newer and nicer than mine. The salmon was over cooked. Fried. Zeynep admits to not being a typical Turkish woman. She really doesn't know how to cook. Her mother is an opthamologist, and her father a retired government statistician. They are well off; she didn't have to learn these things. She and her husband are largely supported by her parents, I believe. Many, if not most of Turkey's young people are living with parents well into their 30s.They took me home. It was about 12:30am. I had talked to them about Bursa seeming to operate on a different clock . . . . later at night, later in the mornings. But, all was quiet. Five minutes after Zeynep and her husband left, some neighbors a couple of doors down came out to have tea on the steps. There were about five adults and maybe three children. I guess they don't have gardens. I got to sleep in spite of their conversation echoing up into my bedroom window. But I was able to note that they finally called it quits at 3:00am.On Wednesday, now, I sought to address my primary aggravation: the toilet water pipe that was poking me in the ass for being too long, and the looseness of the toilet seat that was loose so as to accommodate same unorthodox, retrofitted pipe.I returned to the suburban mall, now knowing which store to go to for the needed supplies. It is called Koçtaş, and is pretty much a carbon copy of what in America is a Home Depot. There I bought a small hacksaw, some locking pliers, some WD-40, and some new machine screws and nuts to replace in the overhead curtain rails, to make further work there easier.I had lunch in the mall food court. A chicken burger. And then I walked the entire length of the three floors, just to assay the place. There is an Apple Computer store there. In addition to a Starbucks, there is another coffee shop by the name Tschibo, where I read in my Gallipoli book, and had a coffee . . . . and some rememberance.In November/December of 1969 I worked my passage from Santos, Brazil to Hamburg, Germany as a deckhand on a German freighter. Most of the cargo was coffee beans, as I recall. The following winter, 1970/71, I worked at a small plastics recycling plant outside of Hamburg. On a couple of occasions I went with the delivery truck into Hamburg where we took raw recycled plastic to the Tschibo Coffee Company. There they used the plastic to make little dishes in which they sold the coffee. And, the driver and I would have a cup of coffee, of course. I thought I had seen--and participated in--an interesting cycle of international capitalism.When I left the mall, due to the heat I walked along a grassy area that was being watered. Past a sprinkler a tattoo of large cool water drops thudded into my back. I wondered what it was like to be so machine gunned. Does one have consciousness long enough before shock to physically assess the process? To think: "Each of these holes is going to drain blood from my brain until I loose consciousness--for eternity."And today, I thought, Each night we will ourselves to a little death (not the French kind. Well, maybe for some of you). We submit ourselves to what we believe to be a temporary cessation of consciousness. Oh, yes, we may dream. But that comes later--after the void.But, in yesterday's late afternoon I went on to much more prosaic thoughts. I took off the toilet seat, sawed and planed with my knife, and made the physical corrections so that the seat is not loose, the top does not come down against my back, and the little hose does not poke my butt.Then I went up to the cafe and was shown by Hamdi to my front row reserved seat, to watch, in sadness--when Germany scored--happiness--when Turkey scored; but finally dejection as Turkey fell in a semi-final match to Germany, 3-2.
]]>