In Ahmadinejad's Iran, no tolerance for loose headscarfs

I've always found it remarkable that there are people who actually think that they can successfully (trans)form society by simply imposing their ideas on other people. History is full of examples that demonstrate the failure of such attempts. Is it that these people are too pigheaded to accept any lessons from history or is it just that the capacity of their brains does not permit them to do so?

For a long time, I had the idea that the clerical regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran had (finally) realized that imposing Islamic rules on society would be to no avail. I had deduced this from the fact that the regime had been tolerating certain phenomena and practices, such as loose headscarfs (the scarf actually looked like a fashion item), fashionable and attractive clothes, young people dating in public parks, mixed parties at private homes (even though there were occasional police raids), the easy access to alcoholic drinks and so on.

However, it seems that under the current government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the authorities are much less willing to maintain such a policy of toleration. The picture below exemplifies this change to an intolerant, ruthless and rather brutal policy:


source: Masih Alinejad

According to messages in the Iranian blogosphere, this women was questioned by the police for being "improperly" dressed. In the struggle that followed, the woman was beaten by an officer and ended up having a face covered with blood. For more about the incident read this and this on Kamangir's blog.

Market in Jaffa

Changed the banner!

This new banner is a detail of "Market in Jaffa", painted by Gustav Bauernfeind (1847-1904) in 1887.

In ancient times, Jaffa (or Yafo in Arabic) was an important port city on the Levantine coast. Today it's part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area (the municipality is actually called Tel Aviv-Yafo).

The thesis issue: a road trip along the Mediterranean

After several months of pretending to do important things, I've finally started writing my thesis since a couple of months. Doing research is something I like very much, so I do not have any difficulty in the process of research. However, as there are so many possible subjects - and paths within these subjects - I do find it difficult to make decisions. For this reason, my attempts to write a thesis have turned in something like a road trip along the Mediterranean.

Last year, when I was studying in Florence, Italy, I was thinking of doing my final thesis on Turkish-Italian relations in the Ataturk-Mussolini period. I had always been interested in the two Mediterranean countries and thought that my thesis would be a good opportunity to study the relations between the two. However, after I returned to Amsterdam, I realized that my interests lay somewhat more to the east: the Levant. Thus, I changed my plans and started thinking about a Levantine topic for my thesis.

At first I tried to focus on Syria, another Mediterranean country/region, and was intrigued by the Syrian political scene in the late Ottoman period (first quarter of the 20^th century). Within a couple of weeks, my interest shifted to the relation between the Ottoman capital Constantinople (which is Mediterranean too) and the Syrian political scene (btw Syria included Lebanon - also Mediterranean - back then). I decided to do research on the former's influence on the latter. However, I was soon caught by the idea that I had to be familiar with Arabic to carry out a 'good' research on this topic and subsequently dropped the Syrian issue from my agenda.

I continued with the Constantinopolitan political scene and was now interested in the ideology of nationalism during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918; also called the Young Turkish period). That's where I'm at now and I hope that this will really be the end of the trip. I've just finished the first step of the research: an analysis of the thought of Ziya Gökalp, the most prominent thinker in the nationalist camp at the time.

The second step appears to be a bit more difficult to take. I have several options and I just can't decide! That's why I'm asking you to vote for one of the three options below:

1. I might compare Gökalp with a liberal thinker, like Prince Sabahaddin, and find out whether the differences between the nationalist and liberal camps were superficial or deep (the liberals were the main adversaries of the nationalists). This would also include a research on the balance between the two camps in the political scene. This is interesting, because it enables me to assess the prevalence of nationalism in the Second Constitutional Period. In literature, the period is often described as one in which nationalism is rising.

2. I might use the Gökalpist theoretical framework to analyze the Kemalists policies in the 1920's and 1930's. This is interesting, because Gökalp is often mentioned as "the father of Turkish nationalism". This option would enable me to check this claim.

3. I might bring in IR theories (Realism, Idealism and Social Constructivism for example) and try to place Gokalp's thoughts in the modern academic context of IR.

Dear Readers, please help me on this matter and leave a comment with your vote! Any kind of suggestion or criticism is welcome!

Pious lady breaking taboo of sexuality

Breaking the taboo of sexuality in the Middle East is often regarded as the endeavor of 'Westernized' minds. The reason for this is not quite irrational. Western modernity has influenced the Middle East in various ways and since a very long time, so it is quite likely that its way of dealing with sexuality - for those who are uninformed: sexuality is generally an accepted topic of conversation in Western societies since the 1960's - has found cheerleaders in Middle Eastern societies too.

It is in this respect quite a suprise if you see a pious Muslim lady on Egyptian television encouraging people to have more sex. I'm talking about Heba Kotb¹, a female Egyptian sex therapist. She has her own tv show in which she answers questions on sexuality and advises the audience on sexual topics.

In her shows she appears to say, among others, that couples should have sex all the time to keep the relation interesting. They should also mix up positions and not fear explorations.² I stop telling more right now, cause otherwise my blog will probably appear in the list of those Middle Eastern guys googling for "sex"!

I guess you are curious about Kotb's source of inspiration... Well, you might not believe it, but one of them is just the Qur'an!

See Kotb's website for more information: http://www.hebakotb.net

1. I'm not sure whether this is an alternative spelling of Qutb. If so, it woul be interesting to check whether she's a relative of Said Qutb! (No I'm not serious on this)
2. "The Dr. Ruth of the Muslim World", in ABC News, 11 April 2007. Available at http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3027905&page=1 (accessed on 05/24/07)

A critical female Saudi voice

Thanks to improvements in communication technology, we are nowadays able to inform ourselves more easily about distant societies. I believe this wonderful development is a huge opportunity for all of us to get rid of our prejudices. However, as it can be quite demanding to actively engage in a continuous act of broadening the horizon, sometimes this prejudice-obliterating information needs to be provided by others - let us call them Prejudice Terminators for the sake of originality. (I surely would not dare to call myself a Prejudice Terminator, but I do admit that I occasionally make an effort to show 'the other side' of some situation, as I will do now)

In most parts of the world, including the Arab world, the image of the Saudi woman is not very cheerful. Most people think of Saudi women as submissive beings with no ability to speak. This may indeed be true for some women - and this may obviously be true for women in other parts of the world as well - but let us not stick to that part of reality and start looking around us for those other pictures the reality is offering.

While surfing on the fascinating waves of the blog ocean, I hit on this remarkable youtube film. It is a fragment of an Arabic talk show about whether women should appear on television (at least the first part of it, the second part is about brainwashing in Saudi Arabia). The charming but critical lady is Buthayna Nasser, a Saudi newscaster. The talk show was on LBC, a Lebanese television station.

Caught by viruses

My dear friends, I've caught a cold! Oh how wonderful, isn't it!

If I were devoutly religious, I would probably think that God was punishing me for things I had done wrong and would feel terribly conscience-stricken and ashamed. If I were a member of a Nuer clan, I would probably think that someone had bewitched me and would be quite furious about that. Isn't it funny that a fact can be interpreted in such different ways that it will trigger completely different emotions?

Well, I'm not religious, nor a Nuer and I don't have any intention to become either one in the near future. I don't know whether I'm being punished by a supernatural being or whether I'm bewitched by someone feeling an intense antipathy against me, a humble human being, but I do feel pretty fucked up.

Those ruthless viruses have obstructed the functioning of my brain in such a way that I can't think of anything else than how to stop my running nose. Ergo for now, no stories about Blair visiting Maliki or the fifth (!) truce between Hamas and Fatah.

Oops, I've run out of tissues...

Gulf of Peace

A couple of days ago, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the honor of being the first Iranian head of state ever to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This may actually sound strange if you realize that the UAE has been Iran's largest trade partner since years. The two countries have a dispute about three little islands in the Gulf, but this doesn't seem to disturb their commercial links in any way.

It is well-known that the Iranians are not very fond of the American presence in the region. They feel surrounded on all sides. Indeed, almost all neighboring countries have pro-American governments and most of them also American military bases. You might expect the lionhearted, audacious Ahmadinejad to criticize Iran's neighbors on this point, but he is actually not as gutsy as he seems.

Expressing the wish of wiping Israel off the map and questioning the Holocaust, do not have any serious consequences, since Iran doesn't have any relations with Israel and neither with its American ally. These actions would at the most lead to disapprovals by Europeans and other countries in the world, but at the same time it would boost the regime's prestige in Iran and the region.

The situation is quite different when things really are at stake. Could the regime afford to be rude against its largest trade partner? Don't think so!
See below how elegantly the oh so ferocious Ahmadinejad addresses the issue of the American presence in the Gulf:

"We all wish that foreign troops would leave the region and give a chance to countries in the region to establish security in the region themselves. [...] With each other's help, we can turn the Persian Gulf to the gulf of peace and friendship."¹

Ahmadinejad visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
source image: IRNA / balloons and text by Ponentin

1. Quoted in "Iran calls for 'Gulf of Peace'", on Al Jazeera Net, 13 May 2007; available at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FA9EB904-7553-4641-B715-C394D2CCF0F1.htm (accessed on 16 May 07).

The Triumph of Death

As you might have noticed, I've changed the banner on the top of the page.¹ What you see here is a detail of "The Triumph of Death", a painting by Pieter Brueghel (c.1525 – 1569).

Quite fascinating, huh?

1. I will try to update the banner on a regular basis. The previous banner was a detail of "Christ carrying the cross", a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.

The struggle against and for the center-right

After Ankara and Istanbul (see my post on April 29^th), a major demonstration in favor of the secular establishment in Turkey, is now also being held in the Aegean city of Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. As one can see on the pictures, the demonstration is quite similar to the one in Istanbul; beside the usual banners, the main instruments of demonstration are again Turkish flags, portraits of founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and war veterans in late Ottoman/early Republican military uniforms. Today, however, I'm not going to complain about nationalism.


Fatih Saribas / Reuters


Hürriyet


Hürriyet

According to news reports, the demonstration is attended by hundreds of thousands of people. An unnamed military officer in Izmir even mentioned a number of 1.5 million. Similar numbers were also mentioned for the demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul earlier.¹ It should be clear that these demonstrations are not 'just demonstrations'; they are quite significant, they mean something.

Supporters of the current AKP² government have usually claimed that the current resistance to change in Turkey, is simply because the secular elite doesn't want to loose the favorable position that it has had in the past 84 years. This argument would imply that the issue is strictly bound to the elite and that there is a difference between what the elite wants and what the people want.

The huge number of participants in the last three demonstrations indicate that this is not simply a matter of 'an elite resisting change' at all. A considerable part of the population does favor the secular establishment and does believe that its way of life might be in danger - perhaps not immediately, but in the longer term. Even though the AKP has often expressed its attachment to democracy and the secular establishment in Turkey and has claimed to be a center-rightist or moderate conservative party, the secularists have never really trusted the party. ³

On the other hand, another considerable part of the population has indeed considered the AKP as a party of the center-right. It is this fact that complicates the Turkish political landscape.

Since the beginning of the multi-party system in Turkey in 1946, the Turkish political scene has been characterized by a struggle between the center-right and the center-left. The center-right has usually been the dominant political wing in Turkey. Its main opponent, the center-left, won elections only a couple of times.
The center-right was in the fifties represented by the Demokrat Parti, in the sixties and seventies by Adalet Partisi (Justice Party), in the eighties by Anavatan Partisi (Motherland Party) and in the nineties by Doğru Yol Partisi (True Path Party) and again Anavatan Partisi. Now it seems that this task is being carried out by the AKP.

So, in a way, the traditional political struggle between the center-right and the center-left is being continued as before. The situation is just more complicated now, because the current party claiming to represent the center-right has itself actually no origins in the center-right, but rather in the religious right.

The center-left has reacted to this situation by adjusting its political rhetoric to attract not only leftist voters (who are already secularist) but also the secularist rightist voters. On the other hand, the traditional center-right, being pushed out of the political scene by AKP in the first half of this decade, now wants to return and to regain its position. In its campaign the traditional center-right too uses the secularist rethoric, as they want to create the impression that it is exactly this point that distinguishes the traditional center-right from AKP.

And there they are, hundreds of thousands demonstrating against the AKP government and in favor of secularism! Among them is the center-left, struggling against the center-right... And among them is also the traditional center-right, struggling for the center-right.⁴

1. "Turks stage rally against Islamic-rooted government", in International Herald Tribune, 13 May 2007; available at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/13/europe/EU-GEN-Turkey-Secular-Rally.php (accessed on 05/13/07)
"Turks rally in Izmir despite blast", in Al Jazeera, 13 May 2007; available at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/476B952C-8237-4629-9369-77DF4E1A7BC0.htm (accessed on 05/13/07)
2. Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party.
3. The reason for this is that the AKP was founded by former members of the Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party) and the Refah Partisi (Welfare Party) , the former being the successor of the latter. Both parties were suspected of anti-secular tendencies and were subsequently closed down by court decision. The AKP was founded in 2001 as a center-rightist or moderate conservative party, but with the previous political affiliations of its founders still fresh in the memory, the six years since its foundation just haven't been enough to convince secularists of this change in political orientation.
4. These demonstrations are not organized by political parties, but by civil society organizations. There are those who want to depict the demonstrations as pro-center-left, but indubitably the demonstrations are also attended by rightist secularists.

"Che ragazzo serio!"

When I asked my Italian friend E to have a look at my blog, the first thing she said was "Che ragazzo serio!", which would translate into something like "Oh god, you gotta be kidding, this is far too serious dude!". She obviously referred to the prevalence of politics and society related writings and in particular to the absence of personal and light subjects in my oh-so-wonderful blog.

It is actually not a coincidence that these three words were uttered by this lovely lady from Florence. "Ah, Florence! Of course, that romantic city with its refined taste for food, fashion, arts (etc.) and its la dolce vita lifestyle; that's why!" I hear you shout, but that's not the reason. She's actually Neapolitan and not very fond of Florentines (and for some strange reason the Florentines are not very fond of Neapolitans either). The reason is in fact much simpler: she just hates politics and stuff.

There's a Turkish proverb that says "Look at one's friends and you will know what one is like". I must admit that this is largely true for me. Most of my close friends either study politics and society (or anything that is related, including humanities) or are highly interested in the subject. Most of the time they're advocates of cultural pluralism and often also anti-nationalist, or anti-rightist in general (which does not imply that they're leftist).¹ It must be for this reason that they haven't remarked about the general course of my blog so far; they must be thinking it's great! (or don't you?)

Only a few of my friends, among who E, do not match this general description and I think that is a very good thing. They keep me reminding of things of which I myself wouldn't think in the first place. I mean, at first I had no intention to write about personal things, but now the idea doesn't seem that bad at all. In fact, most of the bloggers that deal with politics and society, also write personal stories. It's not an unusual thing.

I guess a blog would simply be too heavy if politics and society would be its only contents. A personal, easy digestible writing now and then, would in this respect surely do good. In any case, it would give the blog more personal traits. After all, it is not some organization or whatever that keeps this blog running, it's me!

Obviously there are still many things to learn for me, but that's just how things go. Let us not forget that this is a process, not a project!

1. Needless to say, my friends are not as one-sided as depicted in those few sentences. Let us for the sake of convenience skip a comprehensive examination of their interests and activities as a whole, and assume that they are all multifaceted intellectuals.

Another world through exchange

For the ordinary man reading his daily newspaper, it may seem like squabbling is the only form of intercourse between the West and the Islamic Republic of Iran lately. I have to admit that this is indeed true for politicians and diplomats; they keep on arguing, bickering and maneuvering, yet not producing any tangible results. But hey, it's their job to act like that! We wouldn't have expected it otherwise, do we?

I'm happy to say that there is much more dialogue on much more levels between Western countries and Iran. In fact, at this particular moment, a group of Dutch students is visiting Iran, as part of an exchange project between the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Tehran based School of International Relations (SIR). A group of Iranian students had already visited the Netherlands in March 2007. The exchange project was started in 2002 and is repeated each year with new groups of students.

It is worth noting that the participants have always described their experiences as very positive. The exchange is indeed a perfect tool for the development and facilitation of mutual understanding and dialogue. The participants not only get the opportunity of studying the country on location, but also of meeting fellow students and maintaining links with them. To give just one example: this blog itself is also read by Iranian students! (Hello my friends!)


Dutch and Iranian students in Tehran.
source: www.pidad.org

I myself participated in this exchange in 2005/2006 and I'm still involved in the project in some way. Together with fellow exchange students (both Dutch and Iranian) from my year, we have developed an online platform with the aim of making the dialogue stabler and permanent. Visit the platform for more information: PIDAD. Oh by the way, you can already read the report of the Dutch students' first day in Tehran!

Guys, I'm eagerly seeking new exchanges! Anyone organizing one?

Escaping sexual moral codes on the internet

Yesterday I stumbled upon a very particular news item in a Turkish daily.¹ At first I was shocked by the news item itself and soon after by the very fact that I was shocked in the first place. In my few trips to the Middle East, the very first thing that I noticed was exactly that what appeared from this news item. It was actually nothing new for me, was it? Or was it just that I hadn't expected it to be that pathetic?!

I'm talking about the conclusions of Google's Zeitgeist and Trends services, which report about search trends all over the world. The funny thing is that you can actually look up the information yourself! Try it out!

Anyway, the news item focused on a couple of very remarkable keywords: sex, porno and child porn. In all three cases Turkey ended up in the top ten - and in the last case even as number one.² I especially found the top ten for "sex" very interesting, please have a look at it:
1. Pakistan
2. Egypt
3. India
4. Turkey
5. Morocco
6. Viet Nam
7. Iran
8. Saudi Arabia
9. Indonesia
10. Serbia and Montenegro

I don't know anything about Viet Nam, but isn't it just so typical that all the others in the list are countries with a rather conservative sexual moral code? Isn't it funny that those who criticize the West for lacking sexual morality, are actually embarassed by members of their own society on this specific subject? I love the irony!

Searching "sex" on the internet itself is a quite trivial consequence of the suppression of sexuality by society, but it can actually lead to much more worrying situations. Several months ago women were sexually assaulted by gangs of men in downtown Cairo in broad daylight. The incident was much discussed in the Egyptian blogosphere; read this account of Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey (who has just quit blogging). This was apparently not the first time. Journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy writes in his blog that a similar incident occured in January last year.

On Malek's blog you can actually see pictures of the incident (the blog is in arabic, scroll down for the pictures).

Just don't ask me where the police was when all of this happened. OK?

1. "Seks arayışındaki tanıdık ülkeler" ["Familiar countries in the list of googling sex"], in Radikal, internet baskisi, 05/07/07; available at http://213.243.28.21/ek_haber.php?ek=sa&haberno=3473 (accessed on 05/08/07).
2. Please note that this does not imply that these keywords are the most googled keywords in Turkey; they are not! The top ten of most googled keywords is in fact not very unusual and certainly not embarrassing: Most googled keywords in Turkey

Hızır arrives with drops from heaven

Six weeks long, the people in the low lands of Northwest Europe enjoyed the rays of Helios without being disturbed by drops from the skies. Apparently, Haddad¹ became so inconvenient about this exceptionally long period, that he finally made it rain yesterday.

It's quite remarkable that it started raining on this specific day, the 6th of May. No, I'm not referring to the misfortune of Sarkozy being elected president and neither to the hanging of 21 prominent Muslim and Christian Arabs in Beirut and Damascus by Djemal Pasha, 91 years ago on this day (and please don't make me start talking about the inability of the Turkish parliament to elect any president, whatever his political background!). I'm rather referring to the much more pleasant event of Hıdırellez, the day that marks the beginning of the Days of Hızır.

Hıdırellez is a holiday celebrated in the Levant, mostly in Turkey, but also by Roma and Albanians in the Balkans. In the Western world the holiday is better known by its Romany name, Ederlezi, due to Emir Kusturica's "The Time of the Gypsies" ("Dom za vešanje") and Goran Bregović's soundtrack for this film, "Ederlezi".

The name Hıdırellez is actually a contraction of the names Hızır, or Hıdır (Arabic: الخضر, al Khiḍr), and Ilyas (Arabic: إلياس), both of them religious personages. Hızır is believed to be a saint, sometimes also considered a prophet, that became immortal by drinking from the spring of life (ab-ı hayat) and has pretty much all of Jesus' (or any other prophet's) supernatural abilities. Ilyas is the Arabic, Persian and Turkish name for Elijah, a prophet in ancient Israel mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the Christian Bible (New Testament) and the Qur'an (Newest Testament?).


Hızır and Ilyas sitting at the Fountain of Life.
source: www.khidr.org

In Turkey, the two act among others as the protecters of travellers. According to traditional belief, 6 May (23 April according to the Julian calendar) is the day on which Hızır and Ilyas meet each other to decide in which part of the world each of them will serve. It is usually thought that Ilyas takes care of travellers at sea and Hızır of those on land.²

This great meeting, however, is not the main reason for people celebrating it. Hıdırellez is actually a holiday marking the beginning of a new season: the summer. In the old Rumî (=Julian) calendar, the year was usually split in two seasons: the summery Days of Hızır (6 May - 8 November) and the winterly Days of Kasım. In this respect, Hıdırellez is actually part of an old common tradition in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East of celebrating the arrival of the temperate season. Nowruz is another example of such a tradition.

In fact, celebrations on the 6^th of May are also held by Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. They celebrate the day of Saint George (Serbian: Ђурђевдан, Đurđevdan, Bulgarian: Гергьовден, Gergyovden), a saint considered important by many Christian nations. However, just as in the case of Hıdırellez, the celebration is actually related to the arrival of the summer.

It may not be a complete coincidence that Saint George's Day and Hıdırellez fall on exactly the same day and are so similar to each other. There are some indications that Hızır is actually associated with Saint George (Arabic: مار جرجس, Mar Jirjis/Girgis). Near Betlehem, Muslim and Christian Arabs and Jews commonly visit a shrine of Saint George and all refer to the saint by the name al Khiḍr. In the Balkans, Muslim Albanians refer to the saint as Hızır, while Christian Albanians call him Saint George.³ It must be no coincidence either that the alternative name for Hıdırellez is simply Ruz-ı Hızır: Hızır's Day.

Anyhow, while the Balkans and the Levant are welcoming summer with celebrations, I'm welcoming it with drops falling from a grey sky...

1. Haddad, sometimes called Ba'al (Lord), is the Mesopotamian God of the sky, the storm and the rain. He is equated to the Egyptian Set, the Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, Norse Thor and Germanic Thunder.
2. Uysal, A.E. and W.S. Walker, "An Ancient God in Modern Turkey: Some Aspects of the Cult of Hizir" in Journal of American folklore nr. 86, 1997; available at http://khidr.org/hizir.htm (accessed on 07/05/07)
3. Hanauer, J.E., Folk-lore of the Holy Land, Moslem, Christian and Jewish, 1907; available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/flhl/flhl12.htm (accessed on 07/05/07);
Hasluck, F.W., Christianity and Islam under the Sultans. Oxford University Press, 1929, pp. 319-336 Chapter 2: "Koranic Saints"; available at http://khidr.org/khidr-turkey.htm (accessed on 07/05/07).

Traditions of the French... and those of others

Today is a big day for the French. On this fine Sunday in May, they will decide who will occupy the most powerful office in the Fifth Republic. If we are to believe the two main candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, France is going to change a lot once he, or she, is elected.

The questions is whether this will happen indeed. According to this article by Craig Smith, entitled "Forget who'll win in France. Change is a loser.", France will move only a little, certainly not as much as the candidates claim.

"We have traditions, attitudes, an attachment to social welfare and, even if change is desirable, we won't accept change overnight.",¹ it is said by French historian Michel Winock.

I find this a quite interesting way of reasoning, especially if we would apply it to other countries in the world. Can you imagine the reaction of the Americans if the Iraqis suddenly say:

"We have traditions, attitudes, a habituation to authoritarian rule and, even if change is desirable, we won't accept change overnight".

1. Quoted in Smith, Craig, "Forget who'll win in France. Change is a loser", in International Herald Tribune, May 5, 2007. Accessed via http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/06/news/06smith-web.php?page=1 on May 6, 2007.

Remembering the Dead?

"True friends reveal themselves in times of misery"¹ is a saying existing in many languages and expressing the fact that many people are eager to share one's happiness, while remaining indifferent towards one's sorrow. The saying even proves to be true on the national level, which especially becomes clear in periods with a couple of national holidays.

On the 4th of May each year, the Dutch remember the victims of the Second World War and of all other military conflicts since then.² According to the annual research of the National Committee for 4 and 5 May, 82% of the Dutch find the Remembrance of the Dead important and also think that commemorating is more important than celebrating.³


The ceremony on Dam Square, Amsterdam (Het Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei)

For someone attending the main ceremony on the Dam Square in Amsterdam - admittingly, I myself had no intention of attending the ceremony at first, but as I was in the neighborhood around that time, I decided to do it anyway - the results of this research are not really convincing. There is obviously a huge difference between finding it important to commemorate and actually commemorating!

In contrast to the thousands of people on the streets in the entire city center and its surrounding neighborhoods five days ago on Queen's Day (see my post on May 1, 2007), only a couple of hundreds were present at the commemoration yesterday, not even filling Dam Square. The whole event did not take more than half an hour.

Did someone say commemorating is more important than celebrating? That really sounds great, but let us rather stick to "True friends reveal themselves in times of misery". It's just so much closer to the truth.

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1. "Dost kara günde belli olur." is an example from Turkish.
2. Initially only Dutch victims were commemorated. From 1961 onwards the commemoration has included victims of other military conflicts as well.
3. "Draagvlak voor 4 en 5 mei blijft groot", on the website of Het Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei, 1 May 2007; available at http://www.4en5mei.nl/4en5mei/nieuws/nieuws/nieuwsdetail/_rp_kolom2_1_elementId/1_115593. (accessed on 05/05/07)

New layout!

Yesterday I have been busy developing a layout for my blog. I didn't like the templates offered by blogger.com and besides, everyone uses them. A good blog needs to be somewhat distinctive in both contents and appearance, doesn't it? Anyway, what you see now is the result of my design efforts yesterday. You like it?

I could use some feedback though, so just leave a comment!

In Turkey, everything changes but May Day

A few days ago I showed some pictures of the pro-secularism demonstration in Istanbul on the 29th of April. Below are pictures of another demonstration in the same city:


Volkan Şahin / Birgün


Volkan Şahin / Birgün


Volkan Şahin / Birgün


Volkan Şahin / Birgün

These pictures are taken during the demonstration on the 1^st of May. Trying to guess why these pictures are so different? Hint: look at the date again! Yep, it was May Day!¹

This whole event was actually organized to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the 1977 'Bloody' May Day demonstration, when gunmen fired at peaceful demonstrators, killing 34 people. It is quite ironic that even the commemoration of this incident is perceived as such a great threat by the authorities, that public transport is paralyzed, tv stations are prevented from live broadcasting the demonstration, busses from outside Istanbul are blocked from entering the city and demonstrators are harassed with water cannons, tear gas and batons. At the end of the day several hundreds of people had been arrested.

Well, we live in 2007 now, which means that it has already been 17 years since the 'communist threat' ceased to exist. In the meantime, a true classical Islamist occupied the office of Prime Minister in the staunch secularist Turkey (back in the '90s), and yet another one, appearing to be the 'evolved' version of the former, is currently doing the same... Wow, can you imagine that?! Apparently things do change in Turkey!

So what's new for May Day then? Uh... Nothing, Turkey has a chronic allergy to anything that is associated with socialism!

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1. For more about the demonstration:
- "Hundreds detained in Turkey rally" (BBC, 01/05/07)
- "Hundreds arrested at Istanbul rally" (Al Jazeera, 01/05/07)

and... an 'Orange Monday' in Amsterdam

Yesterday, it was the most crowded day of the year in Amsterdam. Completely covered in orange, the city was home to a massive outdoor festivity. No, it was not a soft-drugs festival and neither had it to do with prostitutes, as some might have expected from Amsterdam, but it did involve drinking a lot of beer and partying on the streets! Yesterday, it was Queen's day (Koninginnedag in Dutch) in the Netherlands, a national holiday which is most extensively celebrated in the capital Amsterdam. ¹


ANP

At first it may seem like the Dutch are very attached to the monarchy and are eager to celebrate the birthday of their queen. However, a brief observation of what is actually happening during that day, will be enough to understand that the public enthousiasm is not really about the queen or the monarchy.

The holiday was initially meant as a tool to strengthen national unity back in the 1890's. However, especially in the last two decades or so, the link between this holiday and the monarchy has appeared only superficial. The truth is that the new generations Dutch don't bother much about the queen or the monarchy. Most of them being apolitical, the queen doesn't play any role in their life, her existence doesn't affect them in any way. So when the Dutch appear en masse on the streets on this particular day, it is not really because of their wish to celebrate the birthday of their queen, but simply because it is just another opportunity to party!

I mean, the holiday may be called Queen's day, but the youth still prefers to be at Museum Square, a large square where big concerts are organized, rather than in that small town somewhere visited by the queen.² The youth prefers dancing, while taking a pull of their Heineken, instead of waiting along the road for the queen and waving passionately when she passes.

This story may give the impression that the queen is very unpopular in the Netherlands, but that's certainly not the case. It's just that Museum Square is hotter!

So did the holiday actually achieve its aim of strengthening national unity? I'm not sure about that, but with those thousends of tourists attracted by the festivities, I guess its next aim is already quite obvious: international unity!

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1. The 30^th of April is actually the birthday of the previous queen, Juliana. Her successor Beatrix wanted to continue celebrating Queen's Day on the 30^th of April as a mark of respect to her mother.
2. It has become some kind of a tradition that Queen Beatrix visits the festivities in one or two places.