Money, Career, Fuck Those!

All I want to do now is go somewhere and have a simple life. Like volunteering in Africa! Is it normal to be sick and tired of all at the age of 23?

My Eurovision Favourites

Here are my favourite Eurovision songs. Don't get discouraged by the first couple of rock songs. It gets better as you go down.

Wig Wam - In My Dreams http://fizy.com/#s/1m9t0j
Hanna Pakarinen - Leave Me Alone http://fizy.com/#s/1sbu5l
The Ark - Worrying Kind http://fizy.com/#s/1srs3j
Lovebugs - Highest Heights http://fizy.com/#s/1mlflj
Natalia Barbu - Fight http://fizy.com/#s/1mheq3
Roger Cicero - Frauen reiger'n die Welt http://fizy.com/#s/1lva8o
Sopho Khalvashi - Visionary Dream http://fizy.com/#s/1o7a0k
Magdi Rusza - Unsubstantial Blues http://fizy.com/#s/1n1soq
Anonymous - Salvem el mon http://fizy.com/#s/1ns9ac
Eirikur Hauksson - Valentine Lost http://fizy.com/#s/1nnx1v
Lisa Andreas - Stronger Every Minute http://fizy.com/#s/1hn2yn
Juliana Pasha - It's all about you http://fizy.com/#s/1ma3o1
Julia Savicheva - Believe Me http://fizy.com/#s/1lti6g
Nicola - Don't Break my Heart http://fizy.com/#s/1mb6bu
Kayahan - Gözlerinin Hapsindeyim http://fizy.com/#s/1agmfo
Maria Haukaas Storeng - Hold on be Strong http://fizy.com/#s/1lxhh3
Jade Ewen - It's My Time http://fizy.com/#s/1nvdcy
Paula Seling and Ovi - Playing With Fire http://fizy.com/#s/1lsnkw
4Fun - Love or Leave http://fizy.com/#s/1mb37a

Does Islam Impose Arabic Culture?

Last week I was thinking about not being able to pray in a language other than Arabic in Islam. It's fuckin annoying to say words that you do not understand the meaning of and certainly not helping in communicating with a supreme being.

I think Arabs are a nation who haven't really been able to produce science or anything that people would benefit from for many centuries and the way Islam forces people to follow Arabic culture is just a way of keeping Arabs important in history. Recently, I read about Islamic scholars saying that Qoran should not be translated at all.

Wow! A nice way to force the rest of the world to learn Arabic. My arse!

Mosques

It wasn't anything like the scene from the classic movie The Omen when I first got near a mosque. It didn't pull my mum's hair or shout in inexplicable anger. It was just the feeling of discomfort and a sense of not belonging there.

Of course, for the first couple of times, I did not mind being there but it all started when my mum asked me to join the Koran course during a summer break. It' not that she was a die-hard Muslim. She just wanted me to do what was popular in the neighbourhood.

When the lesson started I was extremely uninterested in the Arabic language and the shapes in front of me. The instructor was wearing clothes that certainly did not belong to this century and as a teacher myself I can tell now that he did not know anything about how to teach kids other than make them memorize things without any context. Wait, I'm not going to criticise the way he was teaching - at least that's not my concern.

I believe it was the second or the third time I went to the course when my mum realised that my ears were turning red and extremely hot after I came back from the mosque. She asked me what was wrong and I was glad to tell her that I felt a huge amount of stress when I was in that mosque room. Afterwards, she did not insist or anything and just left things as they were.

Since then, I only went to mosques as a tourist. I did not feel any stress or anything like that. I don't know the reasons for it but I guess it was the fear that as a kid I was exposed to. Fear God! He's watching us!

Being in a mosque felt like being in an exam room with 5 invigilators watching only you. For fuck's sake I'm not doing anything wrong and I know you're watching ME!!

I don't think I'll ever go to a mosque as a believer again.

Purgatory

Many have discussed what purgatory would be like. Dante devoted one third of his masterpiece The Divine Comedy. Colin Farrell defined it as being "like Tottenham" in his best movie "In Bruges".

I did not have an idea of what it would be like until I had a very interesting phone call with my ex-girlfriend. I don't want to put her on a pedestal (which I have done for many year - it took me about 2 years to get over her) but when I was talking to her about a very irrelevant matter, I realised (I think she briefly mentioned the same thing) that I was having a lot of fun talking to her and I believe that was what made us start a relationship back in the day.

At that point you start thinking; Was it at all necessary to get involved in the first place?

I guess I will never answer this question and will stay in that place called purgatory whenever I talk to her. All the good and bad past memories and enjoying the moment without thinking about the past.

Still, I'll keep thinking; What if?

Where Do "YOU" See Yourself in 5 Years?

I think it was lunchtime at work today. A colleague asked me a question just to start a conversation "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?". I always thought I had an answer to any question, be it nonsense or not. This time I had to think for a while and didn't really give a realistic answer.

I have been thinking since then. Where am I going to be in 5 years?

Divided We Stand - United We Fall

Yesterday there were news about a big scale fight in Inegöl, Bursa between two groups one of which was defined as "Easterners". This, of course, is a euphemistic term used by mass media in Turkey when they refer to Kurds. Apparently, the fight broke out because some Turks told a Kurdish man not to drive through a street. Details are yet to be revealed, however, there is one thing certain: Tension between Kurds and Turks has come to a point where both parties do not want to retreat.

for details;
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=40-detained-in-conflict-2010-07-26

What do people want? People living on the western side of Turkey want the Kurds to go back to wherever they came from since they are linked to crime and discomfort. Uneducated and culturally different Kurdish people (especially young men) are causing lots of trouble. The only solution Turks can think of is sending them back and it looks like the only way to solve the problems. Many people still think that all Kurds support PKK and the long conflict has caused people to feel this way. Who can blame them?

Personally, I would like the country to be seperated. This way, Kurdish population looking for independence would be happy. Turks who do not want their taxes to go to a war that never ends would also be happy. A population exchange would be fine choice as well. After the seperation I don't think we could live together anymore.

After almost 90 years of living together, both sides should feel that this is the most logical thing to do. With the immensely growing Kurdish population, bigger events look inevitable and we should stop that before it gets worse. My "modest proposal" also offers a map seperated from Artvin-Rize area to Gaziantep-Hatay area as the line for a border.

If something does not work, you need to look for alternatives. This is one.

Bursaspor: Magical Bunch or Lucky Bastards?

Last year, I would call you crazy if you told me Bursaspor was going to win the Turkish Super League. A surprise for everyone, including those who support Bursaspor.

As a Bursan, I have always supported Bursaspor as my second team but for the past 23 years, my two favourite teams had never fought for the title. It was a weird mash of feelings when Fenerbahçe lost the title to Bursaspor but it's alright, I guess.

How could Bursaspor break the monopoly of the big four of Turkish football? That's easy to see. Bringing the ex-big four players together. However, that's not the whole story.

First of all, they were given 3 points for a match against Diyarbakırspor that had to be stopped due to crowd misbehaviour. The next point was that not all the smaller teams (Anatolian teams as we call it in Turkey), did not really concentrate on getting full points from them. Many simply did not defend against them.

Did they get lucky because Beşiktaş and Galatasaray were simply shit? You could say so. Fenerbahçe's last minute nightmare came back from 2006 to haunt the club. Still, this does not mean that Bursaspor played some good football all year long. Their success is somehow overemphasized everywhere. We'll see next year if they really deserved all the praise.

My prediction for next year;

Bursaspor will finish between 4th and 7th spots in the TSL and get 2 points in the Champions League and get out of the tournament in the Group stage. (That's NOT what I hope. It's simply what I predict.)

Why was Lundegaard in trouble?

Those who watched the movie Fargo by Coen Brothers might be familiar to the name Jerry Lundegaard who was a useless and talentless car salesman with huge financial problems. When asked what kind of trouble he was in, he simply refused to mention the reasons.

Having watched the movie more than 5 times, I can claim that his huge trouble was that he got into debt while cheating on his wife. His mistress was the woman in the diner where Jerry and Wade discussed the ransom and the kidnapping. Why do I think so? Well, the lady was smiling at him while he grabbed the drinks.

As a total failure, this was the only time in the movie when someone smiled or showed interest to him. There is no other way this could be explained.

Vuvuzela - Football Fans' Baptism by Fire

It all started in the summer of 2009 when the Confederations Cup was being played in the South Africa. The tournament is seen as a rehearsal of the actual World Cup and takes place one year before World Cup.

Noone expected such a horrible rehearsal since the noise of the Vuvuzelas blown during the cup was unbearable. My only hope for the World Cup was that fans from around the world would outnumber the South African fans in the World Cup which would lead to the minor use of the Vuvuzelas. It didn't work out the way I hoped.

Last Saturday, I sat in front of my telly at home and started watching the Argentina-Nigeria game and realized that I was not really concentrated on what was going on during the game. Even a pint of beer didn't help my concentration. I found the reason later on. The noise coming from the stadium did not reflect any spirit or the chants. I felt like I was watching a game in a beehive.

I simply do not understand why it is not banned as players, referees, spectators and viewers all around the world are distracted hugely. I haven't been able to watch a game in full comfort so far. The only time I enjoyed a game was with a bunch of American and English friends and a lot of beer.

There is only one way to stop this horrible experience: Fans from Europe should go and get after each and every bastard that is blowing a Vuvuzela.

Are You in Favour of Terrorists as well?

For quite some time, I had been seeing billboards everywhere in Istanbul saying "Our route: Palestine, Our load: Humanity".

I had heard about the organisation that was collecting aid and I thought they were just trying to screw people like the other islamist aid(!?) organisations. Recently, they started to appear on TV saying that they will end the blockade on Gaza and go there directly.

Israeli response was not late and they said they would not allow a direct aid flotilla and asked the flotilla to first stop at Ashdod Port. Their only aim was to detect the aid to see if it included any material that would be used by Hamas. They assured that the aid would reach Gaza after inspection. They also added that they would use force if the flotilla tried to go without inspection.

At this point, it becomes clear that the aim was not to help people in Gaza strip but create tension. Even when the Israeli forces warned the IHH, they changed route and came back in the morning to get more publicity for what they have done.

When the Israeli Forces tried to board the ship, the aid workers responded by firing their pistols. Of course the Israeli Forces were wrong in attacking the flotilla on international waters but this act clearly showed that the aim was something else; to create tension between Turkey and Israel. That's what our government had been trying to do anyway.

As a result of these, the most terrible thing is that our long friendship with Jews has taken another punch.

One thing that should not be forgotten is ; Weekly aid given to Gaza by Israel: 17000 tones. The aid brought by IHH: 10000 tones. Even this shows that IHH's only aim is to create problems in the area. Well, they got it!

Another thing to add; Rich Arab countries seem to be doing fuck all about the issue and the situation in Gaza. If they cared about the welfare of other Arab countries, they would go and send aid to the area. Egypt has borders with the area. Just keep our country out of the fucking matter.

Arabs are not friends of Turks. This is not a matter of humanity. If you consider this to be a matter of brotherhood between Muslims, you have another thing coming!

If you want to have a look at the relationship between Hamas and IHH;
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm

As a Turk, I believe that if another country tried to help terrorists in my country or send aid through them, I would want our army to fight them off.

Live and Learn

I had been so busy lately that I even forgot that I had a blog. Now I could barely find the time to write some stuff.

During the past 3-4 weeks, I had my own enlightenment and realized that nothing can be taken for granted and that everything and everyone can change. I learnt to make sure that I shouldn't trust anybody completely. Also, hearing about a good friend's illness (Fatih was in hospital for diabetes) I understood that everything can change in the blink of an eye.

What's next for me? I don't know. I will be moving in the next couple of weeks. Probably, this one will be the last post for sometime. There's one thing that I'm sure of though: I will be more mature the next time I post here.

Till then, Cheerio!

King Arthur Zico

As another Europa Cup match approaches, I found myself checking random photos of Arthur Zico's photos on the internet. Is it because I miss the days when he was our manager? Surely!

Tonight Fenerbahçe are playing a team that they should be able to beat easily under normal circumstances. Yet, I'm not feelin comfortable at all and even considering not seeing the game. Being a Fenerbahçe fan hasn't got a lot to offer other than blood, sweat and tears when it comes to European success. Only one man and his army could change this; Arthur Zico and his Knights!

Remembering the days we just missed out on Champions League semi-final spot deepens my pain. I wish we could go back to those days and have full trust in our manager to decide on what would be the best to win the game.

Rock and Metal Scene in Turkey

...is not very exciting to say the least.

Back in 1996, I was spending time on the terrace of a close relative. It was the place-to-be for me back then. Cool older cousins who listened to weird music as I called it those days. There was a little TV in the terrace with Kral Tv on, the leading music channel back in the day. How would I know that the next song to come on would change my life completely? The lyrics went "A-hey-hey-hey". I would like to give my sincere thanks to Kargo for some brilliant music.

Apart from Kargo, who went into line-up changes and did some crap job later, there were not so many good bands. I can recall Kurban and Duman's first albums as having quality music. Everything changed when Duman released their second album "Belki Alışman Lazım". The first single of the album was a cover of Sezen Aksu's "Herşeyi Yak" and the song had a lot of arabesque elements. With the huge chart success and fame, all the bands followed suit and put ridiculous oriental melodies and singing styles. Not only did this popularize rock unnecessarily, it also directed the coming bands to the same, arabesque fashion. Everytime I had hopes with new bands such as Manga (their first single was original), Redd, Mor ve Ötesi (I wish they had stayed as they were), they went and covered some stupid old songs to grab more money.

Çilekeş, Seksendört and performers like Hayko Cepkin and Aylin Aslım were even worse cases in composing and singing.

Even the more consistent part of the rock scene changed ways to be more appealing to teenagers and emos. The highly respected Pentagram (Mezarkabul, as it is known in the West) started releasing DVDs and giving concerts that had an audience of kindergarten children. Şebnem Ferah tried to make herself look as gothic as she could and her music started to get worse after the 2003 album, Kelimeler Yetse.

Being more different than the other Turkish Metal bands, Almora was giving a lot of hope but they just wanted to be like Therion later.

The situation does not look nice at all now. Every single time I listen to something on the telly, it feels like the guy is suffering a lot because he's been shot in his balls. That's not what you should be doing. I can't recall a Turkish rock/metal album that has had recognition outside Turkey apart from Pentagram's Anatolia.

Why do I have to go back and listen to the same old albums like Suffer Hits by Antisilence? The answer is quite simple; all the new bands suck!

Tight Pants and Dancing

If I were singing in a band, I would definitely try to look like Mick Jagger or Scott Weiland. Don't know why but when I think of the two, I can only come up with one thing in common; Tight Pants!

I used to be skinny once. (About three years ago - App. 62 kg) There were those huge mirrors in the dorms I stayed in and I remember looking at myself and imagining myself on stage with really tight pants and rock the hell out of the arena. Both guys look very unhealthy but anyway. I really practiced dancing like Scott Weiland though. It didn't really work out. That bastard is magical.

Why did The Dude hate The Eagles?

This morning I told myself "A lotta ins, a lotta outs" and then remembered various scenes from the cult movie "The Big Lebowski". After a while I started listening to some Eagles and realized why The Dude hated the Eagles.

In the movie, The Dude was at the back of a cab, visibly hurt and intoxicated. As a CCR fan himself, no one would actually expect him to hate the Eagles but at that very moment, the song "Take it easy" was on the radio and the state he was in didn't let him take things easily. We had also seen him say "Just take it easy, man." at the beginning when he was rather annoyed at what Walter said.

As a result, it's only the song that makes him hate the Eagles. Maybe he doesn't hate them but at that very moment he doesn't want to "take it easy".

Arse N Bullshit

Not a day goes by, -not a day!- without a sports page with Arsene Wenger bullshit on.

I was very happy this evening, with part of my family's surprise visit and a couple of beers in a rather cold Istanbul night. The next thing I saw was this bastard's comments about FA cup and the League Cup.

The first thing he said was that it was OK not to win anything. I could agree with that, thinking the state Arsene is in, I could say he was a coward but anyway, let's just agree.

The second thing he said was that winning the League Cup could hardly count as winning a trophy. Now, if I were in England and was having a conversation with that French maggot, I would have thrown a mug to his head. (The Big Lebowski - Malibu Chief of Police style)

What makes this arrogant French fucker have an opinion about every single thing? What's his problem? FA cup and League Cup are two trophies that have traditional value and every team has the right to take pride in winning those trophies. I started to believe that every single year without trophies makes this man lose his mental ability.

I remember him celebrating the last FA cup he won with Arsenal. (see picture) He's just making excuses for his rubbish management. I bet he would call the other teams as "rubbish" if they won a cup with older players. Why? Just because our Frenchie thinks winning with young players is good.

There is no need to talk about him anymore since he's showing his deficiencies day by day. Wasn't he the one saying he wouldn't buy players older than a certain age? So, guess who bought Sol Campbell back after his 35th birthday. A little clue; not me!

Ekşi Sözlük - the Turkish Wailing Wall

There's hardly anything written in English about one of Turkey's most popular websites. As a member myself, I decided to write a little bit about what it is and how it works.

Ekşi Sözlük is sort of a dictionary where any member of the site can post and add information to. (I bet there is a fancy name for what it actually is but I can really be arsed to check it out now.) Using the motto "The Holy Information Resource", Ekşi Sözlük tries to give information mostly based on the users' experiences or thoughts. Of course, anything that would legally get the website in trouble is not posted.

I remember the earlier days of the website (I think I had first visited it in 2002, have been a member since 2007) and I think the reason why it's so popular is that it's not different from the coffee house culture of Turkey. In a typical Turkish cofffee house, you can people arguing, discussing different thoughts or topics on many subjects ranging from politics, sexuality, sports, religion, etc.

When I have a look at the frame on the left side of the page, which is basically a list of topics which have been contributed to recently, I see topics about pretty much anything. That's probably why I like it too. You can say almost anything about anyone.

I sometimes wish the content of Ekşi Sözlük (lit. Sour Dictionary) was in English sometimes so that people from other parts of the world wouldn't think Turkey is a shithole.

Goodbye King of Kings!

Jeez, I don't know why I didn't write about that before.

As a big football fan, I grew up watching highlights from European Leagues and thus had a great love for players in Europe more than the ones in Turkey. I remember watching Glasgow Celtic highlights on NTV. The only reason that made me watch the boring Scottish Premier League was a Swede that had long dreadlocks and incredible intelligence on the pitch. I have been a huge follower of Henrik Larsson since then.

About 2 months ago Henrik Larsson hung his boots and ended his long career - one that is full of success. I don't know about others but I think he was the best striker that the history of football saw.

Recently this superb man started his coaching career as well. I can only hope my dream of seeing him as a Fenerbahce player one day will come to reality with him being the Fenerbahce manager.

2009 Music Review

Autumn 2009 was supposed to be an interesting time for me in terms of listening to the new albums of my favourite bands.

Humbug of Arctic Monkeys was very different than what I had expected (not in a negative fashion) since the reason why I like Arctic Monkeys is that they tell (at least they used to) the stories of 20-something working class (we can refer to that as lad culture) and because they are familiar.

In Humbug, however, some songs are completely about sex or drugs. This surprised me. Of course there are some great songs like Cornerstone or Secret Door but why did they become Americans after all?

On the other hand, the new Editors album was a load of crap. Change doesn't mean losing your musical identity and the reason why Editors had become so popular was because of their incredible vocal-drum-guitar harmony. What has it been replaced with? Fancy keyboards and Kraftwerk-esque melodies.

Sometimes I wonder why managers don't warn the musicians about their career moves.

Family and All That!

This is my first entry in 2010 and also the first one after a long while. I couldn't come up with anything decent to write about so it took a while.

Recently, I happened to realize most of the things that we are unhappy with are related to family and that we cannot get rid of them no matter how hard we try. It's not like I had a bad experience recently but as time goes by people get further away from their families. I think there are two reasons for that.

1. You have a shit family.
2. You want out.

I belong to the second part. Most of the time, people who attend university go and see their parents in every possibility they have. As time goes by, this becomes an obligation and even though you are working and have time just for short periods, you are expected to go and visit them.

Well, in Turkey this is made a big issue and families often don't get the reason why you don't want to see them. I think it should be considered OK from now on.