Hi, all. I’m in Turkey for a couple of weeks on a great trip that combines some good time with the spouse (to celebrate our 25th anniversary) and some good time with Turkish friends and colleagues. Not much time to blog but plenty of opportunity to do some deep thinking.
Currently, we’re in Istanbul. Ship’s horns, fresh breezes, huge bustle, excellent urban mass transit, monuments from a former empire that are far more beautiful, extensive, and impressive than those in London (where I came here from.)
Actually, part of the problem in Britain is that so many Brits have still not come to terms with the fact that the country they’re living in is indeed the head of a former empire. They still love to talk about “punching above our weight” in world affairs, the “special relationship” with the US, etc. So there hasn’t been that clean break with the past glories of empire that you had in post-Ottoman Turkey. Let alone any of that post-imperial “melancholy” that Pamuk writes about at such length, regarding Istanbul.
London, of course, was also interesting to be in, with the Daily Telegraph doling out a gob-smacking daily diet of revelations in the still-unrolling “Expense-gate” scandal. Most of the amounts involved were not large. But the fact of all that jiggery-pokery going on pointed to most MPs, from all parties–and in this, I think the DT was trying to be quite “fair”–having this strong sense of entitlement to feed liberally from the public trough, and a tin ear as to how this would be received by the now-hurting public whom they claim to “represent.” Such a sense of insulation from the public mood is something that builds up over time, of course.
It will hurt both big parties to some extent, and the institution of parliament in general. But it is bound to hurt Labour more than the Tories. Plus, of course, Labour and in particular Gordon Brown have to take direct responsibility for the economic policies that have led directly to the current economic woes. (Labour also has to take responsibility for the craven lap-dogging with Bush that, under the dreadful Tony Blair, led Britain so deeply into its expensive participation in the US’s foreign wars.)
Anyway, it was my intention not to blog much here, but to leave this post as an open thread for your comments. Have at it.
16 thoughts on “Open Thread, Istanbul, London”
Comments are closed.
My (second-hand) info is that the Daily Telegraph has become, not “fair”, but monarchist. The following link refers (got it from a Trot friend):
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6730/
The Imperialism of London is all too real, I fear.
US presses Israel over settlements
However, Netanyahu told Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic house speaker and John Boehner, the Republican house minority leader, that he saw “an American consensus” regarding “the special relationship we have between Israel and the United States”.
He means The Israel Lobby has all US politicians under its thumb. The American people, aghast at Israel’s barbarity in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, don’t count.
“We face opportunities and [a] challenge. The challenge is the potential arming of Iran with nuclear weapons capabilities. That is a great danger to all of us,” Netanyahu said.
“I was assured by President Obama yesterday [on Monday] that the US is committed to preventing that from happening.”
Obama declared a readiness to seek deeper international sanctions against Iran if it shunned US attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.
He said he expected a positive response to his diplomatic outreach by the end of the year.
Iranian officials did not publicly comment on Obama’s decision to give the country until the end of the year to respond to US diplomatic overtures.
Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, reiterated on Tuesday that Tehran appreciates Obama’s new approach but is waiting for concrete changes in US policy.
How about international sanctions on Israel for failure to sign and adhere to the NPT, both of which Iran has done and is doing?
How about international sanctions on Israel for its campaign of imprisonment and starvation against the Palestinians in Gaza?
How about international sanctions on the US and Israel for their campaign to foment civil war amongst the Palestinians with their funding, arming, and training of Elliot Abrams’ Al Fateh Contras?
How about an end to all military and financial aid to Israel as long as there are illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestine?
I’m afraid that Netanyahu is right. Our politicians are working for him, not for us.
“How about an end to all military and financial aid to Israel as long as there are illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestine?”
And the Golan Heights.
Enjoy your trip, Helena !
And happy birthday !
John Francis,
What would you do with your life without Israel?
As a zionist, I am so happy to provide you with your daily dose of righteous anger.
Can’t yo say anything at all about anything else?
What a sad existence!
Ruth I don’t feel that you should worry about John Francis: he is probably equally opposed to injustice elsewhere.
The peculiar position of Israel is that it relies upon Europe and North America, particularly the USA, to provide it with the materiel and the political cover for its atrocious crimes.
It is terrible to bear witness, to choose a recent example among many, to what occured in Gaza, the sense that our governments made such things possible would make any but the terminally callous, angry.
Helena from my heart congratulations for you in occasion of your “Silver” anniversary, wish you all the best and a happy & Joyful holiday.
Btw, don’t forgot to visit the Aya Sofia Museum also those small Island from Istanbul you can ride small ships to go there and enjoy the marvellous gardens and nature with very nice food.
Helena If you like the food do not forgot to eat and test Istanbul Shawarma (كص بالعراقي ) it’s the best I experience in the region…. very yummy….
Enjoy.
Good comments on the Brits trying to punch above their weight probably aggravated by the US providing cover for that illusion to go on. The size and scope of their contribution to the Iraq force was pathetic, their performance in stamping out their own home grown jihadis is sad in spite of all the curtailment of freedoms and unlawful arrest they made, and now they have the ridiculous list of people denied entry including the worst moslem terrorists, and an American talk show host! (MIchael Savage). Is that political correctness or just stupidity. A guy just like Helena with an opinion and a microphone, just on the other side and probably less venom than Helena to be fair.
Good luck on your trip to Turkey and make sure your handlers pay you in cash, small notes preferably.
I think you are underestimating London as a metropolitis of Imperialism, Titus. I think the stuff you are mentioning is a diversion as compared to, and from the point of view of, the “City”.
(MIchael Savage)
Humm. if same “Michael Savage” with an opinion and a microphone talking about Israel/Jews what will be the reaction to his talk show?
looks your mindset smilier to his man…
We seen here in this Helena space people with political views talking about Israel. Pro-Israelies lined up and confront the commentators to cover the truth what Palestinians daily life under Israeli occupation.
Anyway he can appeal the dission as its ” democracy” isn’t?
Netanyahu Adviser Steps Out of the Shadows
Mr Arad, recently appointed the head of Israel’s revamped National Security Council, will oversee an organisation that Mr Netanyahu regards as the linchpin of the new government’s security and foreign policy…
Mr Arad has been outspoken both in rejecting Palestinian statehood and in promoting the military option against Iran…
Mr Arad is… charged with devising a strategy for dealing with Tehran and its supposed ambitions to attain nuclear weapons…
Arik Carmon… has described Mr Arad’s proposal to arrange “territorial exchanges” to strip some of Israel’s Palestinian minority of their citizenship as “racist”…
Alon Liel… has called Mr Arad’s efforts to derail recent talks with Syria by demanding the continuing occupation of the Golan “ridiculous and nasty”…
In 2007… Mr Arad also fuelled… speculation about Israel’s plans for a military strike on Tehran, after he described it as “easier than you think”. A wide range of non-military Iranian targets were legitimate, he added…
…few doubt the prime minister’s fierce loyalty to him… Mr Netanyahu pushed through Mr Arad’s appointment as national security adviser…
He had been barred from entering the US by the Bush administration after implication in a spying scandal. A Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, jailed in 2006 for passing secrets about Iran to the Israel lobby group AIPAC, was reported to have met Mr Arad frequently.
The Obama administration has since restored Mr Arad’s visa and agreed to his political rehabilitation, not least so that he will be able regularly to meet his US opposite number, Gen James Jones.
Mr Arad spent more than 20 years in Mossad, much of it working in the intelligence section…
He was also closely associated with a leading neoconservative think-tank in New York, the Hudson Institute, in the 1970s…
It was then that he established an influential think-tank, the Institute for Policy and Strategy, at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre.
The institute stages an annual conference, dedicated to the “balance of Israel’s national security”, that has become the most important event in the Israeli calendar for politicians, generals and diplomats, as well as attracting high-profile US guests.
Since the first meeting in 2000, the conferences have defined the major security issues supposedly facing Israel, closely mirroring Mr Arad’s own key obsessions.
Chief among these have been fears about the demographic threat to Israel’s Jewishness from Palestinian birth rates both in the occupied territories and among Israel’s own Palestinian citizens, and the danger posed to Israeli hegemony in the region from Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear bomb.
…Mr Arad recently told an interviewer: “We want to relieve ourselves of the burden of Palestinian populations, not the territories.”
He has suggested that the Palestinians be required to become economically self-reliant, in the hope that their leaders will be forced to promote family planning methods to reduce the population. His motto is that the Palestinians need “one man, one job” before they need “one man, one vote”.
He has also promoted a complex territorial exchange involving Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt that would see many Palestinians relocated to the Sinai so that Israel could take control of chunks of the West Bank.
But his greatest vehemence is reserved for Iran — an antipathy apparently shared by the Israeli prime minister. In the past he has called for “maximum deterrence”, including threats to strike “anything and everything of value” in Iran, including its “holiest sites”.
As Mr Netanyahu’s plane touched down in Washington on Sunday, Mr Arad briefed reporters that Tehran posed an “existential” threat to Israel and that “all options are indeed on the table”.
There’s “nothing happening” publicly between Netanyahu and Obama, other than Obama’s back-pedalling on his attempts at “jaw, jaw, jaw” rather than “war, war, war” with Iran. It’s all taken place already, behind the scenes.
Obama clearly never intended to actually do anything about the increasingly brazen Israeli theft of Palestinian lands.
Obama’s job is to provide the illusion of American control of American foreign policy in the Middle East and to the same people who have willfully suspended disbelief, who have bought his happy talk of “change” without changing, he’s still performing well.
In truth Obama is the stooge of the Israeli far-right.
And President of the United States.
Congratulations, Helena (and to the spouse).
You will love Turkey, and the food. Almost all the best ‘Arabic’ food originated in Turkey. Only the Lebanese have adopted those recipes fully, as you probably know.
But I don’t think Turkey has Mansaf, that wonderful lamb and rice and yoghourt, nuts and raisins dish piled on top of a large flatbread (kubbes).
By the way, Salah, I think shawarma probably originated in Turkey as Doner Kebab, and that’s why they get it so right.
Getting back to politics, though, wouldn’t inviting Turkey back into the Levant result in another 400 years of peace?
congratulations on your anniversary!
thanks for the excellent links john francis lee, much appreciated.
Salah, I think shawarma probably originated in Turkey as Doner Kebab, and that’s why they get it so right.
May be I don’t know really, but visited Turky in 1977 its was very nice trip I stayed for a month, I enjoined each moment there. spacailly the historical sites and minarets. spacailly Masjids around Istanbul. the famous Suleymaniye (the Magnificent)outstanding piece of architecture was built in the 16th century by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan for Sultan Süleyman the Magnificient
As for food its all yummy you can’t resists to eat, I loved those Cafes/small restaurant which along the highways you exit Highways and get in like smal Garden with Answers.com
hanging Grap-Tree on trellis, you can order very tasty food of Lamb charcoal barbecue (the ribs) sooo yummy.
Btw, its was very cheep I don’t know now days, it was USD1.0=100 Turkish Liras.
Mansaf, oh also in Jordan and western Iraq of course of Syria and Lebanon but I have it in Iraq very very nice and Jordanians also but different taste than Iraqi.
Sorry, Helena.
Not “happy birthday”, but congratulations on your anniversary!
It looks as though the DT either collaborated with Cameron or at least gave him time to sort out a strategy to deal with the miscreants in his own party. Expenses fiddles are just the tip of the iceberg of corruption in UK politics. The real dirt is dished up on a fortnightly basis by Private Eye, which carries more muckraking investigative journalism than all the mainstream media outlets combined.
You’re absolutely right about the clinging to illusory world power status. Poor, damp, crowded little island : have pity on us !