more yeditepe thoughts

Besides the Ataturk pictures, some buildings display a large picture of the Founder, a smiling chubby Madoff-like face, apparently a former Mayor of Istanbul, who is now "away." We hear rumors that he and his family owe an enormous tax bill to the turkish authorities, which is why he is "away." But everything is quietly whispered...Curiously, we might know more if we could understand Turkish since there is a verb tense used only for rumor or conjecture...

Security is a major issue. A formidable metal gate stands at the top of the steep hill we climb to leave the university grounds. We must pass through security to enter the university, and cars without some type of special clearance are inspected. Trunks are opened; mirrors are placed underneath cars...Even the dogs may play some role in security. I had been curious about their seeming silence, but then witnessed a pack of them snarling at a car. There is a second entrance also manned by security guards..We can only wonder at the reason for the precautions...Even Larry's building is "protected." His office and classroom are open to anyone, but to enter the department offices he must use a special magnetized pass. Just now I had to rush over to give him his pass, which he had left in our room, because he couldn't join his colleagues for their morning coffee!

Our tv viewing is rather earnest stuff, only what we can access on line:charlie rose, 60 Minutes, News hour with Jim Lehrer...but we do some turkish tv while we eat. In the morning as we eat our toast and olives in the student cafeteria, we can see Turkish music videos displayed on the flat screen tvs. At lunch in the faculty club restaurant the flat screen televisions present restful, hypnotic scenes of fish...At night in the same locale we'll see Turkish news, always local stories..A few nights ago the lead story was obviously about a demonstration going on in Taksim with police and protesters fighting each other. We watched demonstrators lobbing rocks into store fronts, looting...police lobbing tear gas canisters...Innocent bystanders rushing to get away...It looked so intense and dramatic. We read later that the protests were against the meeting of the IMF going on in Istanbul. turkey has one of the 20 largest economies in the world, but , as we have seen, there is a wide gap between the haves and the have nots...But no one else seemed to think much about the demonstrations; they occur from time to time. What to American eyes looked upsetting was the physical violence...It seemed not to have ever been intended as a peaceful protest...but our knowledge is so limited. Just seeing the news without understanding the words gives a rather skewered view of everything!
And when we eat in the student fast food area on the weekends, we'll see football matches or once a basketball game between the national teams of turkey and greece. The game went into overtime, and the intensity of emotion of students hinted at the historic conflicts between the two countries. The students were so silent when greece finally won..