Only in Istanbul
So, I'm out trying to do a few last-minute errands before I leave when I see the riot police out in their Robocop gear with the batons and the plastic shields, and I know I've been thwarted for at least an hour, because whoever they're waiting for must be coming down the street in pretty big numbers.
Now, some very small percentage of the human population is immune to pepper spray; it's genetic, it just doesn't affect them, and I happen to be one of the lucky minority. (I usually don't explain this to my friends if we get sprayed, though; I prefer to cultivate the legend that I'm terrifyingly immune to pain.) So I don't worry about that, I just worry about which way the coughing crowds are going to run if this ends up, as so often it does, in tear gas, and whether that's going to stand between me and the discount shoe store. After I figure that they'll go up the street, not down, I decide I'm curious about what kind of protest this is. Pro-AKP? Anti-AKP? Anti-Israel? Then I see them coming. Trade unionists, apparently, against constitutional reform. Well, fair enough. Nothing particularly newsworthy about that.
But the protest against animal rape was really one of those only-in-Istanbul sights.
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May '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Poison umbrella tips, blowing $#uff up with cell phones, so much to learn about spycraft. Get most of mine from Burn Notice, natch. Not MI-5, though it does feature Hugh Laurie.
I think you should play up the immunity. Remind people that King Mithradates of Pontus made himself immune to poison. They probably remember King Mithradates of Pontus.
Man, my Little Sis has about 50 pairs of shoes (and does she wear them?), but never tried running through rioting mobs to buy them.
Re: Only in Istanbul
Random question: What will you do with your cats? I don't suppose they'd be particularly well behaved during the Heritage Foundation event. Or would they?
May '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Claire - as well as tolerating the odd play (pepper spray) misty for you; does your superpower immunity mean you can also eat the hottest chillies, curries etc
BTW I sent you a short email on the current Australian Election result to your Berlinksi website address, in case you are interested in the loss of a left government in the Antipodes.
Hope the shoes were worth it, Fratelli Rossetti copies perhaps?
Jul '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Careful, Claire. Generally the stuff deployed in clouds by riot squads will be CS or CN tear gas, which functions differently from the OC pepper spray that is used on individual targets out of a can. Your immunity to one may not help you with the other.
Luckily, the CS/CN doesn't work as strongly as directed OC. Clench your teeth and then breathe through them, it helps.
Re: Only in Istanbul
My wonderful cat-sitter Nasser will be here: He's a gay Iranian refugee who is extremely tender and gentle with cats, and one of these days I might write about him--I'd like to put a very human face to the stories you might read about the persecution of homosexuals in Iran, because if you were to sit down for an afternoon and speak to him about what that really means, you would weep.
Re: Only in Istanbul
Wylee Coyote: Careful, Claire. Generally the stuff deployed in clouds by riot squads will be CS or CN tear gas, which functions differently from the OC pepper spray that is used on individual targets out of a can. Your immunity to one may not help you with the other.
Luckily, the CS/CN doesn't work as strongly as directed OC. Clench your teeth and then breathe through them, it helps. · Aug 21 at 10:20am
No, no, they just use pepper spray--they're not uncivilized. It's just a bit of crowd control, the Istanbul equivalent of a policeman's whisle.
Edited on Aug 21, 2010 at 11:22amRe: Only in Istanbul
You all got so caught up in the pepper spray that you didn't notice the really interesting part. Protest against animal rape?
May '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Well, um, y'know. Who would scape whipping?
Jul '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
That actress protesting against animal rape is so... "western." She is in the very grand tradition of the lady who wrote "Black Beauty", protesting the terrible wrongs against horses in Victorian England. The story gives me hope for our future.
Jul '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
You know, there are two sides to every controversy.
Has anyone asked the animals how they feel about this?
Aug '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Kenneth: You know, there are two sides to every controversy.
Has anyone asked the animals how they feel about this? · Aug 21 at 1:33pm
Some people try asking. (I know because I've met 'em.) But so far they don't understand the animals' replies.
Jul '10
Re: Only in Istanbul
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Kenneth: You know, there are two sides to every controversy.
Has anyone asked the animals how they feel about this? · Aug 21 at 1:33pm
Some people try asking. (I know because I've met 'em.) But so far they don't understand the animals' replies. · Aug 21 at 2:24pm
Or one could, as Mark Steyn suggested, "...swing by the pasture with a bouquet of roses and a Johnny Mathis album."