War torn Beirut and War torn kids

Here below you can find an article on Beirut’s war torn neighbourhood Tariq Al Jedidah and its local kids playing war gaimes around. 

It is quite common to bump into devastated buildings all around the town, but having some newly built flats sold with a price coming up to million dollars and in  just a few kilometres away bombed building is pretty sh0cking. In particular for the kids…

For the comments, please refer to the NOW Lebanon’s page: http://nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=143754

Reminders of violence past

Cagil M. Kasapoglu, February 4, 2010

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What remains of the Rahme Building in Tariq al-Jdeideh, still home to a few families. (NOW Lebanon/Cagil Kasapoglu)

Over the past two years, Beirut has been enjoying a period of calm that is only occasionally disrupted by the sound of celebratory fireworks. But in Tariq al-Jedideh, a Sunni neighbourhood in South Beirut, the remains of the devastating wars that have rocked the area are still plainly visible and set the perfect backdrop for the local children’s war games.

Plastic guns in one hand, artificial grenades in the other, area children run after each other pretending to take the Rahme Building by siege.

The building was one of the main targets during Israeli airstrikes in July 1981, which led to the escalation of the conflict between the Jewish State and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and soon thereafter the 1982 Israeli invasion. The massive attack on parts of Beirut targeted buildings where members of the PLO were hiding and left nearly 300 dead and hundreds more wounded. During the ensuing invasion, an estimated 18,000 died, most of whom civilians.
 
The Rahme Building was spared during the 2006 July War, despite Tariq al-Jdeideh’s proximity to Dahiyeh, which was targeted during the Israeli airstrikes. 

Still, almost 30 years after it was hit during the civil war, Lebanon’s Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) has not rebuilt the Rahme Building. CDR officials told NOW that the government never issued a request for them to work on it.

Though plants have taken root on the crumbling floors, satellites dot the decrepit roof and laundry hangs from exposed wires. The building is still home to a few families who have nowhere else to go.

“We are the opposite of Ras Beirut. The government and the police don’t really visit us here,” says the owner of local food store, who wished to remain anonymous because of his affiliation with the PLO.

But residents of the building say they are confident it will be reconstructed soon. They say they have faith Prime Minister Saad Hariri, whose picture hangs across the pox-marked walls of the building, will address the problem.

Meanwhile, they can only wait.

Garbage litters the streets, and local kids play with tiny explosives shaped like military tanks. Firecrackers are easily found in stores scattered among the devastated buildings in the area.

“This became a tradition for us. We equip ourselves into groups [and] hide inside the building to protect ourselves,” says 9-year-old Mohammad in broken English. “It’s fun and exciting,” he says while trotting around with his bike, which is painted a military green and decorated with a plastic knife on the back.

Though the younger generation manages to find fun in the devastated building, the older generation cannot forget the area’s bloody past.

Another resident who did not want to give his name because of his political affiliation describes what he witnessed during the Israeli attacks.

“Red! All we could see was the blood of our relatives,” he says.  “After three decades passed, we no longer see violence, but [when I] look at our kids’ war games I see the victory of the attackers.”

Turning the corner, on the same street as the Rahme Building, there is a video game store with shelves covered in pirated violent video games and DVDs of a Turkish mafia TV series, both of which, according to owner, are “best sellers.”

Violence is introduced to the children of Tariq al-Jedideh early on. Even if they haven’t witnessed the war their parents lived through, the shadow of violence is ever present in the devastated buildings they call home.

Bourj Al Barajneh

Active Ageing Centre

Someone really cares about the Palestinian elderly in the camps! I went to visit Active Ageing House at Bourj al Barajneh, run by an active and committed social worker Melek Nimer, and funded by private sources, mostly by her friends…

Infrastructure? Imagine heavy rain..

“It’s not about the money, it’s more about keeping them active,” say the officials at the organisation…

An article about her work and a more detailed view of the camp is on the way but here are some pictures.

By the time, the gun holder hands standing next to kids become a habitual scene to witness at the camps.

Meanwhile, the groups known to be opposition insurgents were shaking hands and sharing their political views right in front of a Turkish journalist… Apparently we’re still quite trustworthy in the region. Even as a journalist..

From the Centre

Another interesting remark to make is that, most of the Palestinian residents believe that Turkey’s support is a temporary populist movement that is likely to be faded if the current AKP government loses power in Turkey.  

They are taking the cause more as a religious movement rather than humanitarian. I “wonder” why it has been reflected that way……..

No more visa between Lebanon and Turkey

Here is the piece I wrote on the abolishment of visa requirements between Lebanon and Turkey.

Although not much seems to be changed for Turkish citizens, the new regulation will save Lebanese travellers’ time spent while queuing at the Embassy of Turkey located far from Beirut’s city centre.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=visa-free-middle-east-to-boost-tourism-in-lebanon-and-turkey-2010-01-22

For the comments please refer to Hurriyet Daily News’ page.

European Turkey in the Middle East

Turkey in the EU or Turkey in the Middle East? That’s a question that most of the Turks are busy trying to find an answer. But what about that one: European Turkey in the Middle East?

I spoke to some Turkish experts and wrote a piece  for NOW Lebanon about Turkey’s Middle Eastern policy and whether or not Turkey is distancing itself from Europe.

Interested? Can have a look at this link below:

http://nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=139342

Soon to come

FYI, and for those asking why I’m not updating the blog. I’m actually back to Beirut like a week ago but I had to delay typing my accumulated stories.
I will soon begin to post my articles.

Best

Blog Break till I move back to Beirut

For those who got caught by a few tags on this website, and those who were curious on what this Turkish girl had to say about the Middle East and Turkey, for your information, I’m giving a break to my writings till I move back to Beirut from where I will be reporting and blogging.

Meanwhile, I unnecessarily developed a book idea on which I’ve been thinking for quite a long time but I sincerely have little hope to materialise this illusion. Anyways, it’s always good to live with a carrot in mind, even if there is no stick yet to attach.

I’ll be back in January, writing from southern Mediterranean where I will have my Efes replaced by Almaza and my Doluca by Ksara.

Best

Contemporary Art unites East and West in Istanbul

Once a city of Byzantium, then the capital of Ottoman Empire and now the centre of a unique civilisation where the East meets the West, Istanbul for the fourth time, meets contemporary art lovers to display a culturally blended cocktail of art works.

More than 70 domestic and foreign galleries participate in Contemporary Istanbul Art fair and exhibition 2009 with hundreds of works between 3^rd and 6^th of December at Lutfu Kirdar Congress and Exhibition Centre. As the most extensive “modern and contemporary art” event in Turkey, the organisation aims to promote and present the cultural and artistic life of Turkey. 

The term “contemporary” in art is relatively new in Turkey since, this year of 2009 marks only the fourth time despite its promising potential of modern artists. Especially after being chosen as one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2010, Istanbul is increasingly becoming the hub of art lovers, performers and art traders with high hopes of overcoming the economic crisis.

For the ones, with no sufficient funds to carry the works home with them, the event sets a sort of theatre scene to enjoy as a spectator. The guests first are welcomed by a shiny green coffin with a goose squeezed in it, followed by a huge pig head hanged on the wall. The scene initially forms a type of jungle for the Turkish audience not used to see art in animal forms, but their puzzled face turn into admiration after a while.

“I’ve always thought that art meant a set of images in glittered frames, but I now see in modern life, that art is everywhere,” says a young Turkish student for whom the Contemporary Istanbul sets his first meeting with contemporary art.

"Jungle" by Artplas

 “Contemporary” might also bare a meaning of “controversy” for some societies like Turkey where taboos can only be shaken by the power of art. Such terms as homosexuality, sex and nudity happen to sound hard in articulation for Turkish society but one of the participant galleries from Turkey, Artplas displays mesmerizing paintings of nude human bodies with explicit symbols referred to sexuality and homosexual relations, but labelling their work as “No Name.” The works of Turkish gallery Artplas are displayed in a black room with a warning: “Not Recommendable for below 18s.”

By Donato Piccolo from Riff Art Gallery

“The images have indeed a message to give,” says the owner of the art gallery, while posing to journalists in front of a large painting of nude male bodies, “Art is not something to be scared of!”

Modern and contemporary art have long been matched with Western values and norms since they require an ultimate form of freedom in performance which was practically not seen in Muslim dominated Middle Eastern countries. However, this year of 2009, Contemporary Istanbul for the first time hosts two Middle Eastern countries Syria and Dubai as a part of its “New Horizon” project that aims to bring together the Eastern and Western artworks into one common ground.

Ayyam Gallery from Syria participates in the event with paintings, photos and sculptures of Ammar Al-Beik, Safwan Dahoul, Nadim Karam and Nassouh Zaghlouleh.

When asked about what they brought from Syria to Turkey, “I carried the light of Damascus with my photos,” Nassouh Zaghlouleh responds. Syrian photographer’s photos are depicting a naive picture of narrow streets in Damascus which reflects the game between the shadow and the light.

“Those pictures are the dark and white sides we have, it’s up to us to choose where we position ourselves,” Zaghlouleh continues. One of his pictures has a veiled woman’s figure on the back, which he says was not the intention while taking the picture, but “women always add the charm in art.”

Another interesting work that captures most of the visitors’ eyes is from Strasbourg’s Riff Art Gallery. The human shaped sculptures of Donato Piccolo are displayed in action by a secret electronic system. One of them is hitting his head on the wall, another one stuck in legs on the ground trying to save himself and one with no head but instead a bubbled vaporised glass box.

By Ayyam Gallery from Syria

“This is the renaissance of thought,” says Steven Riff, while describing the artist Donato Piccolo’s work of humans in different forms. “One is trying to get out of the prison that he finds himself in, another one is trying to break his taboos. This is the violence, fragility of human nature that is displayed in body forms,” Riff continues. He adds that “the message of this art is rather social than political.”

Another significant contributor country is Germany. As part of the commemoration of 20^th anniversary of Berlin and Istanbul becoming sister cities, numerous German participants display their interesting art works and also hold a number of events, special activities and events in varied forms of installations.

In addition, France, United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Canada are among the foreign participants alongside their Anatolian counterparts. Amid the discussions on where Turkey is positioning itself between East and West, contemporary art, particularly the international way it is represented proves that Turkey is rather a great mixture of cultures.

Istanbul, famed with its traditional Ottoman style art works mostly displayed in glorious palaces all around the town, now appears to be the centre of contemporary art through its young and promising capacity of creative artists.

Voltaire needed in the ME

Voltaire

Giving a break to everyday politics, I want to share my favourite quotes of my favourite philosopher, writer, a true French Enlightenment figure: Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) – 1694-1778

Voltaire was first introduced to me when I was 12 years old, in my first year at Saint-Joseph High school. But, a genuine confession, it took me ten years to understand what he really meant in his writings. I remember my father talking about “Candide” as he was himself and suggesting me to read him the first year I began to learn French. Well, sure it was not the first French book to read while I was too busy with Gaston Lagaffe, Lucky Luke and Asterix.

By then, “Candide” was also an imaginary French cartoon character for me, with a bit of similarities that of Gaston Lagaffe. Voltaire’s exaggeration and irony were apparently best reflected in his “Candide” the ultimate optimism ever granted to anyone was united with all of its forms in Candide’s body and soul. What a heroic sarcasm and an erratic personality… I believe we need such personalities in today’s world; a bit of sarcasm of reality would not hurt anyone.

“We must cultivate our garden” Voltaire concludes his book Candide after all that long search of optimism. This debatable quote and the conclusion bring the reader to the difference between “nature” and “nurture.” Although “nature” is an accepted process, “nurture” is what will define one’s choices in life, thus, efforts shown on the way of a better situation surely will be praised by the outcomes of the work… Me, myself and I, very much tempted to take Candide’s side in this debate, BUT I have to admit that I try to follow Voltaire’s side…

Candide Book Cover

Unfortunately we are sometimes forced to hide ourselves behind the realities to avoid the virtue of sarcasm with the fear of hurting someone… So, this leads me to relate the sense of humour and irony with cultural development. Not everyone can bear the bitterness of irony, particularly in the Middle East. Well, this is not to say that sense of humour has to be universal, but people HAS to be as tolerant as their universal counterparts in order to open their minds and “think twice” of what lies behind the visible words…

 

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will fight to death your right to say it.”

 

Here are some of my favourite quotes of Voltaire:

- “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

- “Indolence is sweet and its consequences bitter.”

- “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” (Oops, in my region, you can’t get away from politics)

- “The secret of being boring is to say everything.”

- “Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.”

- “There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.”

- “Think of yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.”

Binary Oppositions of Turkey

Turkish politics appear to be shaped around dangerously driven binary oppositions in the last few years dividing the public opinion as pros and cons. “Headscarf Vs Mini-skirt”, “Islamic Green Vs Military Green” and finally geographic expansion of controversies, “Europe Vs Middle East” had long occupied headlines and fragmented the society.

Although the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had the majority of votes as a single party in the last national elections, Turkey haven’t appeared to bare such thick lines between the opposition groups since late 1970s when the atrocities between the right and left wing parties ended by an anti-democratic military coup of 1980.

First, the “Headscarf Vs Miniskirts” binary opposition was erupted in the first months of 2008 when the AKP government was selected in 2007 for its second term during the national elections. As a highly divisive subject in Turkey, first to be brought in the parliament was to allow the use of headscarves in public space.

 Subsequently, despite the opposition of Turkish secularists including journalists, academicians and Turkish military members, the constitutional amendments easing the ban on women wearing headscarves in public spaces had been approved by the AKP- majority parliament. 

While the smoke of “headscarf fire” wasn’t cooled down yet, in the same year of 2008, “Deep State” trial, so-called Ergenekon case had polarised the country, accusing the Turkish Army allegedly to topple Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government. This ongoing trial against Turkey’s secular establishment had divided public opinion on the legitimisation of justice and merged another binary opposition of “Islamist Green Vs Military Green.”

In the last row, Turkey, while forging closer ties with the Middle Eastern countries, lead the eye brows raised on its EU-bid and the rapprochement was questioned whether its foreign policy is leaning towards the East rather than the West. Although, Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insistently deny claims of distancing the country from Europe and rather keeping on a romantic relationship with its “Muslim brothers”, political statements prove the change in priorities of the government.

The cancelled trip of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, who is charged of war crimes by the International Criminal Court relatively, relieved the Turkish society in fear of losing international credibility in the eyes of European Union. However, government statements were quite concerning on what the AKP was standing for.

“A Muslim can never commit genocide,” had said Turkish Prime Minister, while bringing Al Bashir’s religious identity prior to its ill-humanist character.

Again on the same occasion, amid the debates over Al Bashir, responding to EU’s warning over the issue, Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s statement: “What are they interfering for?” clearly demonstrated that EU is not a binding institution for Turkish government. As an obvious stance, AKP’s foreign policy choices spark another geographically discussed binary opposition of Turkey: “Europe Vs Middle East.”

Dangerously enough, all the oppositions are mostly driven by the religious character of AKP government. It would be sad to see Turkey squeezed in the “Clash of Civilizations” as American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington had described and placed Turkey as a “torn country.”

What is to be scared of more is that on the final stage, Turkey would be discussing “Us Vs Them” which would not only further estrange Turkey from global arena but also would create a domestic atrocity in defining what “Us” would stand for.

Interview: Joumana Haddad

With the magazine she produced in the Middle East, Joumana Haddad outlouds the unspoken words of the region. Lebanese poet who describes herself as an “organised rebel”, rips off the world of squeezed women with her red nailed fingers!

Cover

The original Turkish version of the interview is published in November Issue of Tempo Magazine with her profile picture taken by Giorgio Pace. The complete profile is only available in printed form but the introduction can be seen at:  http://www.tempoonline.com.tr/haberdetay/54596.aspx 

- Copyright Tempo Dergisi -

The English version of the interview can be read below:

Cagil M. Kasapoglu – Tempo Magazine

BEIRUT: “I’m not Hugh Hefner of the Arab World!” Joumana Haddad says, referring to the founder of Playboy magazine. “I’m more dangerous than that.”

Joumana Haddad, Lebanese poet and intellect speaking seven languages, has introduced a literature of sexuality to the Middle East in 2008 with her “controversial” magazine called “Jasad” (Body in Arabic).

“It’s also a poem, but in a more straight forward language,” she describes her magazine.

Before she begins to talk about her strong standing against Middle Eastern values as a woman, she takes off her high-heeled stilettos and says, “I hope you don’t mind, you are a girl, so you understand me.”

Joumana Haddad, author of ten books, makes women more visible in the society through her writings. While tackling the thorny subjects, she does not just “create a sexy bar, but she shakes the temple.”

The stories covered by the magazine include, self-mutilation, cannibalism, transexualism, cannibalism, penis, Kama Sutra, sex life and women’s personal experiences printed with graphics and illustrations from famous artists.

Joumana Haddad reminds the Arab world, with her magazine Jasad, that such words literally exist in their mother tongues which are most frequently used in French or English to dispatch the guilt.

The emphasis of body and arts in any forms is the spot of her literature. “The longest relationship a human being has, is with his/her own body, from the day we are conceived till the day we die … Being ashamed of this body is very sad but also very dangerous,” she says, as a response to general critics she receives for her magazine.

She expresses her anger toward the schizophrenia, hypocrisy and duality of the people who tempt to decide for the rest, on what should be said, read and watched. “It is humiliating”, she says, taking a guard position with her red polished nails as a cat ready to scratch and continues, “I am an organized rebel!”

Haddad refers to a binary opposition of “Us Vs Them” and stresses the reason why she doesn’t feel any belongings to those people who live in hypocrisy especially in the Middle East.

“The more people pretend to be conservative, the more [in secret] they lead to double lives, where they do things that “we” even would not think about.”

Although, her quarterly magazine raised the eye brows of several religious authorities and women’s organizations in the Middle East, Joumana Haddad thinks that dealing with outside pressure is easier than the inner censor developed by traditions.

“It’s like a cancer inside of me. Being raised in this region, I have been exposed to all the so-called values and habits that somehow try to keep me from sayings things I want to say. You always have to be aware and not lose your attention … Freedom is not for granted, it’s a fight.”

She began her fight for freedom at the age of 10, by revealing the “unwanted books” that her father used to hide at the top of library shelves. With the help of a single chair, she was lifting up herself to reach the wisdom of literature which was going to bring her to the front stalls of worldwide bookstores. And as a 12 years old girl, she stepped in the world of “Marquis de Sade” while her peers were reading fairy tales.

She depicts a picture of a mature, solid and sophisticated visage even at the age of 7 when “death” was introduced to her, with her grandmother’s suicide.

“Since then I have been thinking about the theme of suicide, at one point I discovered that my favorite poets have committed suicide as well,” Joumana Haddad said, giving the reason of writing her anthology in 2007 of 150 poets who committed suicide.

 “I write a lot about the body and sexuality in my poetries. Death, is the other side of the coin,” Haddad said. She added that, she felt the need to challenge the moments of abandon that have made those poets to take that step.

“The only way I could challenge, was to confront my own death. It was like fencing, a battle with death. I like to elude myself that I won that battle, for the time being.”

Poet, translator, journalist, administrator of International Prize for Arabic Fiction and Member of the Book and Reading Committee in the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, but “most importantly” she is a mother of two kids in 17 and 10 years old.

“I am very proud of them, because it is not easy to have a mother like me.”