Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Considerably exaggerated
We have no water problem in our house. We have a water tanker. I think the water problem is considerably exaggerated, says Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
These are the key-sentences, TDN-editor Yussuf Kanli chose for his Monday-column, in which he complains about a short period of three days he has been short of water.
But read and judge yourself.
Turkish lesson as warm-up
Piece two.
Well, and herewith we enter the world of very very bad journalism.
Before leading you to the essential inheritent interior essence which is hidden in the root of the kernel of quoting Prime Ministers out of the context, let’s have a tiny Turkish lesson.
Today’s curriculum: Help yourself, create your (n)omen.
Gökçek contains of
a) gök = sky/heaven ; skyblue; cyan; unripe;
b) çek = cheque
gökgözlü = blue-eyed which in turn in German is also metaphorically for “in good faith”.
gökkandil = dead drunk
Finally:
Knowing I’d interrupt her digging for water, I asked a friend in Ankara – by the way, without ANY explaining context - if Melih means the same as does melik (king).
Answer:
Dictionary says: nice, pretty, cute.
His parents couldn’t guess how tricky & dishonest he would be.
Some infidel facts about water
All right then.
To start with the beginning.
Piece one.
Here are some so-called facts for all those still tending to rely on science-based expertise.
Being published on Bloom’s Day, it is, of course, infidel stuff for all those claiming to know that water-shortage in Turkey has been intelligently designed approximately 10.000 years ago.
All my posts "Crushed" by Ingsoc
Spent all blogging time at Crushed by Ingsoc.
But tomorrow night.
Ah, it will be a tiny little story.
About what?
Ah, well, about . . .
a) water and no water,
b) a mayor who is a prime-example for that in some countries no career would fail due to incompetence,
c) a prime minister who does not like people exaggerating
and
d) about people who might soon ask their prime minister the same ... :)
Monday, August 06, 2007
Baykal takes Brecht's advice
According to our absolutely honest and trustworthy source, for approximately 80 per cent of the Turkish people Deniz the Magnificent is the outstanding thinker and theoretican who has fully mastered Atatürk's revolutionary ideas; he is the sagacious leader of his Party and people who is possessed of brilliant wisdom, unusual insight and refined art of leadership; and he is the real leader of the people who has unboundedly lofty virtues.
TDN's Yusuf Kanli seems not able to accept Mr. Baykal's victory. Mr. Kanli is even mocking about Deniz the Magnificent.
But we know better.
Mr. Baykal and his (sic!) CHP won.
Not enough to drive Mr. Erdogan to Kars, where he could work as extra at the revolutionary local theatre, when it is next time snowing.
But - and nobody could deny: Only about 30 per cent more, and Mr. Baykal and his (sic!) Party would even have won the absolute majority.
Now, why did / COULD this not happen?
Officially one could hear all those arguments Mr. Kanli is mocking about.
One should not blame him, though. He does not know better. He CAN not know better.
Fortunately we can and DO.
According to my closest friend's either omnipresent and absolutely honest and trustworthy source, who's deep throat knows the büyükbaba - not to muddle up with Büyükanit - thus again: who knows the grandfather whose cousin's grandson's aunt knows the sister of a very very influential editor of Cumhurriyet, Deniz the Magnificent has told this extraordinary influential beacon of independant and unbribable Turkish journalism - sub rosa and off the records - the ultimate reason why him and his (sic!) Party would not get - at least - 98,9 per cent of the votes: "The stupid people did not vote for us. But at the next election WE shall turn the table. WE elect a new people."
The very very influential editor has not been seen, since. Influenza, it says.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
It's as simple as that
It's somehow a pars pro toto for the daily secrets being published.
Ah, and - perhaps - it is about the time you are to be introduced to one of my closest friend's "ceterum censeos":
Banquo knew before
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
In German it sounds even more impressive (and not only because "Death is a master from Germany")
Oft, uns in Elend zu verlocken
Erzählen Wahrheit uns des Dunkels Schergen,
Gewinnen uns durch ehrlich Spiel im Kleinen,
Um uns in größten Dingen zu verraten.
Shakespeare, McBeth 1.,3
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Victim of Loneliness
Some ignorant people might not really understand that "loneliness is a very serious thing, and the life of a MP can be a very hard life."
My closest friend immediately took a plane to Rome.
- After all, Signor Mele lives closer to God and his wife than the intelligently designed Republican primate who recently received forgiveness from God and his wife. My old friend Ratze will give this victim of loneliness a private audience and afterwards Signor Mele's reputation will be as immaculate as . . .
- Tetrapilotomos!!!!
. . . hm, . . . as snow from the Aetna. . . . You are worse than the worst chaperone.
Büyükanit or The Name of the General
- Ah, General Büyükanit remembering his people of what party is de facto ruling Turkey?
- General Büyükanit is doing nothing but his duty.
- Which is – according to George Bernard Shaw – what a stupid man always declares when doing something he is ashamed of.
- Let’s be serious, Tetrapilotomos. There have 46,59 per cent been voting for the AKP.
- Thus 53,41 per cent voted for a putsch. Which is, by the way, bigger a margin than George Bush once could let his little brother organise in Florida.
- What are you going to tell, then?
- Nomen est omen, would you agree?
- Hm.
- Nomina sunt omina?
- Yes, yes , ...
- So let's look at Büyükanit.
- Oh, please, Tetrapilotomos, no jokes with names.
- I am just trying to inform those of your readers who unlike you are fluent in spoken and written English, but like you do not speak Turkish.
- We shall speak about this later on; without any emotional blockade and off the records. Go on then.
- All right, to cut it short: büyük means great; anit means memorial; thus, Büyükanit means Great memorial.
- Ah, isn’t it nice to have - even being - one’s own memorial in one’s lifetime?!
- I have not finished, yet. Would you agree that language is magic?
- I do, for the first time after a long interval.
- Now, a Turkish native speaker would perhaps know better. But, one can read General Greatmemorial’s name Büyük-anit and/or Büyü-kanit.
- Interesting. And what does this teach my readers?
- büyü means sorcery / witchcraft / witchery / wizardry; kanit means evidence / proof / argument; thus, Büyükanit means f.e. Evidence of Wizardry.
- And what is the essential inheritent interior essence which is hidden in the root of the kernel of everything, and thus in your words?
- Depending on what spell General Büyükanit will be casting when it’s coming to presidential election, once the Turkish people might build him a memorial – perhaps even in their collective memory.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Cave Cihan, Mr. Erdoğan!
Forget about what I have been posting yesterday.
Of course, Tayyip Erdoğan is the winner of election in Turkey.
Congratulations, Mr. Erdoğan.
I, me and myself do not have any doubt of your integrity.
My closest friend, though - a writer who would not write for reasons I shall probably never understand - just murmured: "He should not forget forget the mission of July 30th, 2003."
"Well", I said when watching the first photo he showed me from his REUTERS-archive, "not everybody on this planet is a horseman."
"For sure", Tetrapilotomos smiled, "and the photos , OF COURSE, would not have been published in Zaman."
"But why?" I asked. "It's not a shame to get in trouble with a horse."
"Hm, Turkish journalists know pretty well to use the scissors in their mind (brain)."
"Actually, Tetrapilotomos, I think some Turkish journalists are very brave. Much more brave, indeed, than I'd be."
"Well, Sean, it's not because of the horse alone. It's because of the horse's name."
"C'mon, Tetrapilotomos, what was or is the horse's name?!"
"Cihan."
"Sounds nice."
"Indeed, it does. But would you like to be unhorsed by the 'World'?"
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Congratulations, Mr. Baykal!
No doubt that Turkey's next Prime Minister and President (the rest of the world just would not know the real facts, yet) would dispense lenity to horrific ignorants like Yusuf Kanli, although such smocks not being able to read the auspices, would surely deserve to enjoy (at least) the next legislative period on water and bread old as the hills.
Isn't Wikepedia wrong and doesn't Article 301 in fact read: "A person who publicly denigrates Deniz the Magnificent, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between 48 months and four years"?
No doubt either Mr. Baykal could say: "It's not correct that Deniz Baykal is the greatest politician ever born on Turkish soil. True is however that there has never been a greater politician."
* Don't believe what you will read at Wikepedia. Here you get the real historical fact:
Monday, July 23, 2007
In dubio pro Bekdil AND Akyol
The Flann O'Brien Prize Winner is ...
- Sean!?!
- Yes, Tetrapilotomos?
- Who do you think deserves the prize?
- Actually, I could not decide. Both, Mr. Akyol and Mr. Bekdil deserve it.
- I fear, Mr. Akyol would not appreciate to share the prize.
- Why shouldn't he?
- He is missionary, while deep in Mr. Bekdil's heart the serpent "Sarcasm" is darting. Mr. Akyol seriously believes in what he is writing, while Mr. Bekdil does not take himself too serious.
- Hm, Flann O'Brien is not missionary at all. Would you say, Mr. Akyol is not as amusing as Mr. Bekdil?
- I said Mr. Akyol would not be amused to share any prize.
- So, let's wait with the decision, until Mr. Bekdil offers his reply to Mr. Akyol's reply to his, Mr. Bekdil's, reply.
- There won't be a reply to Mr. Akyol's reply to Mr. Bekdil's reply.
- ?
- Mr. Bekdil knows very well that Mr. Akyol would let nobody have the last say, the more when this "Nobody" is an agnostic.
- But there were none of his 2.185 words indecent. And, missionary?! He seemed even glad and proud being able to tell that "the Diyanet, the offical religious body, announced last year that it would cleanse the hadith tradition (the reported sayings and deeds of the prophet) from remarks that humiliate women".
- In other words, Mr. Akyol accepts without protest that the reported sayings and deeds of the prophet would be censored. This is either blasphemy or ...
- Hold on, Tetrapilotomos! The prophet reportedly said this and did that. And you know as well as God and his wife would know that some reporters' skills are ... are ... let's call it suboptimal.
- Well, anyway, I should never write this, but I do hope there would no peaceloving colleague of the late Ayatollah Lankarani come to know of this passage in Mr. Akyol's masterpiece. I mean, it would be blasphemy to think that the prophet did not instruct all good men to beat up their wives whenever they feel like, wouldn't it?
- Hm, what did the friendly looking old man say the other year when there was a two weeks or so campaign for not beating up one's wife in Turkish media: A man who does not beat his wife, is not a man.
- There you are, this humble man surely had studied and internalised the sura important for his character building. And now, suddenly and out of the blue should be wrong what has been right for the past 1387 years?! But we are slightly extravagating. Now, who deserves the prize?
- Be it: Burak Bekdil.
- Why? Because he wrote just one article containing 1.741 words, while Mr. Akyol cast 2.185 pearls for swine?
- No. Because Mr. Bekdil is a true humourist.
- Wrong. Mustafa Akyol is much funnier. And he is an intelligently designed primate.
- He did not explicitly say so. Besides, according to my daughter, who is presently writing her master thesis about Dandyism in the English and French literature of the late 19th century Mr. Akyol might be a fine specimen for Dandyism; by seemingly promoting the idea that there is or has been a potter who's first name is/has not been Harry who about 10.000 years ago took a clot of loam, designed a being, shortly afterwards took a rib of this being and formed him a female so that he would always have something to beat up, Mr. Akyol wins lots of plaudit and praise, while in fact by doing so he is covering his world weariness by making fun of all these poor stupid idiots in the classical sense.
- Mr. Akyol may have some dandyesk attitudes, but I do seriously think he believes what he is writing about intelligent design.
- Couldn't it be that he anticipates the change of wind and that soon there will be enforced intellgently designed biology curricula, and therefore is trimming his sails?
- Is there anything Mr. Yesbut would not anticipate? By the way, nobody, I repeat, nobody could yet thoroughly explain the difference between opportunism and pragmatism.
- Mr. Yesbut?
- Well, you would often if not mostly find Mr. Akyol initially praise any Mr. Siyahyol's opinion with oriental amplification, and after the comma there would follow a but.
-Who is Mr. Siyahyol, Tetrapilotomos?
- Everybody who is not Mr. Akyol.
- ?
- Akyol means White Path. And therefore all those not of Mr. Whitepath's opinion are walking on the black path.
- Doesn't siyah colloquially also mean the same as afyon?
- I don't like dilettantes secretly consulting dictionaries. Neither I know if Mr. Akyol ever got stoned by opium. Actually I think he’d prefer cannabis, but, of course, would probably not inhalate.
- Do you know Mr. Akyol?
- Only by his writing.
- And you think you are fair with what you are talking here?
- Unlike Mr. Akyol I know that I could err.
- Ah, Tetrapilotomos, before we are getting from Pontius to Pilade, let’s make a compromise.
- All right. So, let's award Burak Bekdil the Flann O’Brien Prize, and Mr. Akyol the Huysman & Wilde Prize.
Hurra, we got it!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Turkey in a Nutshell
For those not familiar to Turkish politics, and those who are and therefore would not know how to put into a nutshell what Turkish politics is about, I recommend reading the following masterpieces by Mustafa Akyol and Burak Bekdil in chronological order:
Akyol's artwork published July 12th, Bekdil's reply (July 18th), and Akyol's "sequel" (July 21st).
And - as it's election day - in my next post I shall let you know who my closest friend and I'd vote to become winner of the Flann O'Brian Prize.
Yes, I could right now, but I do not wish to get accused of manipulating my readers' opinion making. :)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Variatio delectat
Carpe noctem. :)