Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
Like Ursula, I don't generally think of myself as a precious girly-girl. But while scanning through our local newspaper so better to serve you with valuable insight into Turkish high politics, I came across this item, to which I am not having the most manly and stoic of reactions:
Istanbul residents are facing concerns about the quality, not just the quantity, of the drinking water in the city’s dams following a report of dark, foul-smelling liquids flowing from a pipe into a key reservoir.
The origin of the pipe has not yet been identified, reporter Tahsin Aksu wrote in daily Milliyet on Thursday, noting that the body of a sea gull was found on the shores of the Alibeyköy reservoir near where the liquids were being discharged, and that white foam was observed on the water as well.
I pause now to shriek, call for the smelling salts, and fan myself until I regain my composure. That is disgusting beyond words.
In other news from the daily Turkish news blotter, the General Staff is refusing to hand over the 102 allegedly coup-plotting military officers--including some 30 active-duty generals--for whom arrest warrants were issued last week. Supposedly, the officers were part of the shadowy subversive Ergenekon clique that allegedly planned to crash Turkish jets and bomb Turkish mosques during prayer time as a pretext for staging a coup against the AKP. Where are these officers now hiding? No one knows.
Meanwhile, the new head of the main opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is blustering about accusing the AKP and the former chief of the General Staff of being in cahoots; he's claiming Erdoğan and General Büyükanıt made a secret deal, in 2007, to support the government by threatening to overthrow it during a secret meeting at Dolmabahçe Palace. Now, follow this if you can: In 2007, the military made what many thought was a veiled threat to stage a coup, via its website. Erdoğan called the military's bluff and held snap elections, which the AKP won handily. Kılıçdaroğlu's claiming that the whole thing was a phony--the chief of staff was actually propping Erdoğan up. Get it? I thought not.
Meanwhile, in the fetid backwater towns of İnegöl and Dörtyol (no need to put them at the top of your "must-see before I die" list), enraged Turkish nationalists went on a rampage, destroying shops and buildings, clashing with security forces, burning official vehicles, and attacking police stations in the hope of lynching themselves a few Kurds. Who's stirring up this unrest? Depends who you ask. Everyone has a theory! The AKP's backers say it's the hydra-headed Deep State, of course, which they believe is trying to provoke a civil war so best to get rid of the AKP,
And the AKP's opponents quite naturally blame the AKP, which they claim is trying to provoke a civil war so best to get rid of them.
"Civil War Rehearsal!" as the local Taraf newspaper is calling it. Next up: In a triumph for Turkish press freedom, the academic İsmail Beşikçi has been detained for "making propaganda for a terrorist organization." Apparently he wrote an article titled “The National Self-Determination and Kurds.” Obvious terrorist propaganda, for sure. It was published by the Contemporary Lawyers’ Association in the academic journal Law and Society in Our Time. He's facing up to seven years in the clink. For good measure they arrested the journal's editor-in-chief, too. And finally, following David Cameron's enlightened lead, the German foreign minister has pledged enthusiastically to support Turkey's EU bid. You know, I get it that these officials might be really busy and might not have time to read the Turkish press, but isn't it odd that they don't have someone on their staff to do it for them? I mean, you'd think you'd want to do that before inviting Turkey to become the most populous and powerful member of the EU, wouldn't you? Oh, well. I've got bigger things to worry about, like how to get the ickiness off my skin. | |||
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
Or, as David Cameron would say, Turkey is just Sweden with a little extra drama.
May '10
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
Wow. And I thought DC water was putrid and SC politics were opaque. Looks like I didn't know the half of how low it can go.
May '10
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
A basket and rope sounds good right now, I presume?
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
Oh, no, txmasjoy, apart from the sewage in the drinking water, this is the kind of thing I just find tremendously interesting. I mean, you have to admit: After this, anyplace else would be so boring, wouldn't it?
May '10
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
My theory is that this is a new public health measure being propounded by the Istanbul Department of Public Health.
Dr. Alexander Khoruts cured a woman of an horrendous case of C. dif by injecting her lower digestive system with her husband's processed biological waste. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13micro.html?_r=1) (note- I negotiate agreements for Dr. Khoruts relatively frequently)
The human alimentary tract has a surfeit of intestinal flora (bacteria, "germs") and they all keep each other in check, sort of like Metternich and the balance of power. Kill or remove too many of the bugs, and the others, unopposed, grow out of control and take over, with very bad consequences. This was actually the proximate cause of my sainted, and desperately missed, late father's multiple organ failure at the untimely age of 83 a decade ago.
They are just adding the needed gram-positive cohort for all of you.....
May '10
Re: Out-Grossing Ursula's Bedbugs
Claire Berlinski:
Who's stirring up this unrest? Depends who you ask. Everyone has a theory!
That seems like the worst aspect to me. A people can't even begin to work toward justice if they can't discern the truth. One generally can't fix a problem before finding the source.
My suburb was finally taken off our local groundwater and placed on Houston city water a few weeks ago. The notice said that fish might die and people on dialysis might have problems, due to a difference in filtration. It sounded bad at the time.
Stay safe, Claire. I hope your American citizenship at least bolsters your chances of immunity from the media crackdown. Have you, like Judith, ever set out conditions that would merit a quick escape back to the U.S. should they ever come to pass?