villa luna

how many millions?

a couple of weeks ago, i had a VERY istanbul evening. went out with turkish friend who is a photo editor at one of the papers here. he brought along an english photographer friend. after a few minutes of talking, turned out the english guy used to date one of the turkish women i've met at the acrassicauda shows and who is friends with the band. a few minutes later, we realized we had emailed and talked on the phone about a year ago - about work stuff - but we had never met.

then the two guys said something about how they were going to meet with their danish photographer friend, who they named. my first thought was - "j? noooooo.... can't be the same j." about that time, an iraqi friend showed up. the turkish guy mentions j again and the iraqi said, "oh, you're going to hang out with js?" ahhhhh.... it IS the same guy i was thinking about! i'd never met him but know his name because he filmed part of the "heavy metal in baghdad" documentary in baghdad. (rockumentary?)

i left the guys talking and went to meet an american friend (we met in bucharest a few years ago) who was in town for her job at microsoft vienna (tough life!). as we were sitting outside a restaurant having a drink, the guys all walked by so i finally got to meet j. a few minutes later, a friend from work and his bulgarian girlfriend and her family walked by and stopped to talk. then a few other friends passed. my american friend was stunned - especially given the huge crowds out on the street at that time.

after dinner, my friend and i went to meet one of her turkish friends and his wife for drinks. in the middle of that conversation, he looks at me and apropos of absolutely nothing that i could discern, says, "you know c, don't you?" at that point, i didn't even have to ask which c. for probably the same random reason he asked, i knew who he was talking about. yes, i do know her. she is my neighbor. in fact, i live in her old apartment.

did you know, there are 17 million people in istanbul, plus or minus about 2 million? and that's just the residents, not the expats.

so it goes.

this past saturday, as i was walking home around 8 in the evening, after an afternoon of aimless wandering, i ran into c and her husband and sister. they were headed for nevizade for meze (think tapas) and invited me to join them and some other friends. as we sat at the exact same table where my friend and i sat the week before, we were joined (as planned) by several other friends. what wasn't planned was that my roommate was at the same restaurant with her friends. nor was it expected that another friend and his wife would also stop by.

welcome to istanbul. it only seems like we all know each other.

because i have a one-track mind

i'm going to repeat myself - again!

thanks to carpetblogger (and some magical key words like "acrassicauda" and  "heavy metal in baghdad"), two other bloggers have picked up my post about donating to help acrassicauda stay in turkey while they wait to see if their refugee applications to the UNHCR are accepted. (in other words, they applied to UNHCR and now they have to wait to see if they will be granted refugee status and resettled once and for all in yet another country.)

so thank you carpetblogger, melissa maples and on the pod.

and here's the repeat (which is really just a rewrite from the HMiB website) -

acrassicauda

HELP SAVE OUR HEAVY METAL FRIENDS FROM AN UNCERTAIN FATE IN BAGHDAD

In November 2007, the Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda was able to get to Turkey through the help of friends who donated money for them to leave Syria. Their visas in Syria were expiring and the government of Syria was threatening to force all Iraqis to return to Iraq.

Now they are in Turkey and their money and options are running out. Life in Turkey is very expensive and very difficult for people waiting to find out if they can officially be resettled by the UNHCR in another country (Turkey does not accept refugees from anywhere other than the West). As it stands now, they may have to return to Baghdad, simply because they can't afford to stay in Turkey much longer. It's impossible to stress just how dangerous this will be for them. It could very likely be a death sentence, and the time in which we can help them is quickly running out.

You can help by making a donation to assist Acrassicauda in surviving while they are stuck waiting in Istanbul. The band has no bank accounts and Paypal doesn't function in Turkey so the makers of the documentary (HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD) about them setup a Paypal account on their behalf. No donation is too small. By giving as little as ten dollars, you can be a part of keeping the heavy metal dreams of four young Iraqi men alive.

DONATE HERE!

Born out of a basement rehearsal space in Baghdad, Acrassicauda (Latin for "black scorpion") is Iraq's only heavy metal band. Inspired by western bands like Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot, they began writing and playing metal in 2001. Their dream of performing live in Iraq soon became the struggle of their lives.

Due to increased security precautions throughout Iraq, it became difficult to practice-much less get through a show-without literally risking their lives. As the situation worsened in Baghdad they began receiving death threats from insurgents and religious fundamentalists accusing them of Satanism.

The war has now all but destroyed their dream of living in peace, growing their hair long, banging their heads and shredding as loud as they want. The members of Acrassicauda are currently seeking asylum in Istanbul, Turkey.  All of their visa applications to foreign countries have been denied.

i wish there were some other way people could do something to help. this feels an awful lot like throwing money at a problem - without really doing anything to solve the underlying issues. however, in this case, cash contributions really are the very thing that is needed. so please make a donation to this paypay account. maybe you can skip a couple of lattes this week or have dinner in with your friends instead of going out this weekend. every little bit helps.

while you're at it, please forward any of these links (carpetblogger, melisssa maples, on the pod (scroll down to acrassicauda) or villa luna) to all your friends.

and please don't forget - DONATE HERE!

peace

 

acrassicauda

HELP SAVE OUR HEAVY METAL FRIENDS FROM AN UNCERTAIN FATE IN BAGHDAD

In November 2007, the Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda was able to get to Turkey through the help of friends who donated money for them to leave Syria. Their visas in Syria were expiring and the government of Syria was threatening to force all Iraqis to return to Iraq.

Now they are in Turkey and their money and options are running out. Life in Turkey is very expensive and very difficult for people waiting to find out if they can officially be resettled by the UNHCR in another country (Turkey does not accept refugees from anywhere other than the West). As it stands now, they may have to return to Baghdad, simply because they can't afford to stay in Turkey much longer. It's impossible to stress just how dangerous this will be for them. It could very likely be a death sentence, and the time in which we can help them is quickly running out.

You can help by making a donation to assist Acrassicauda in surviving while they are stuck waiting in Istanbul. The band has no bank accounts and Paypal doesn't function in Turkey so the makers of the documentary (HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD) about them setup a Paypal account on their behalf. No donation is too small. By giving as little as ten dollars, you can be a part of keeping the heavy metal dreams of four young Iraqi men alive.

DONATE HERE!

Born out of a basement rehearsal space in Baghdad, Acrassicauda (Latin for "black scorpion") is Iraq's only heavy metal band. Inspired by western bands like Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot, they began writing and playing metal in 2001. Their dream of performing live in Iraq soon became the struggle of their lives.

Due to increased security precautions throughout Iraq, it became difficult to practice-much less get through a show-without literally risking their lives. As the situation worsened in Baghdad they began receiving death threats from insurgents and religious fundamentalists accusing them of Satanism.

The war has now all but destroyed their dream of living in peace, growing their hair long, banging their heads and shredding as loud as they want. The members of Acrassicauda are currently seeking asylum in Istanbul, Turkey.  All of their visa applications to foreign countries have been denied.

i wish there were some other way people could do something to help. this feels an awful lot like throwing money at a problem - without really doing anything to solve the underlying issues. however, in this case, cash contributions really are the very thing that is needed. so please make a donation to this paypay account. maybe you can skip a couple of lattes this week or have dinner in with your friends instead of going out this weekend. every little bit helps.

while you're at it, please forward any of these links (carpetblogger, melisssa maples, on the pod (scroll down to acrassicauda) or villa luna) to all your friends.

and please don't forget - DONATE HERE!

peace

 

echoes

an iraqi dentist in baghdad had this post today. it's a bit of a long read but i found it interesting and the final thoughts seemed an echo of what i said this morning.

5 years

i've thought a lot about what i wanted to say today and have come to the conclusion i don't, for once, have any words. i don't know how to express my sadness, frustration, anger and confusion. i also don't know how to say how much respect i have for all the people who have been so deeply and permanently changed - in a long list of ways both good and bad - for the things they have faced and endured and, at times, overcome.

i ask only one thing today even though i know it sounds completely sappy. be kind. be kind to the people you know. the people you don't. the people you encounter every day at the store or the office or on your walk. be kind to the people you love and somehow forget to show that to. be kind to the people you don't like and don't understand. to the people who make you angry and crazy with frustration - even to the people who provoke you.

and if you can, do it for more than one day. we could all use a little more kindness and understanding these days.

acrassicauda

HELP SAVE OUR HEAVY METAL FRIENDS FROM AN UNCERTAIN FATE IN BAGHDAD

In November 2007, the Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda  was able to get to Turkey through the help of friends who donated money for them to leave Syria. Their visas in Syria were expiring and the government of Syria was threatening to force all Iraqis to return to Iraq.

Now they are in Turkey and their money and options are running out. Life in Turkey is very expensive and very difficult for people waiting to find out if they can officially be resettled by the UNHCR in another country (Turkey does not accept refugees from anywhere other than the West). As it stands now, they may have to return to Baghdad, simply because they can't afford to stay in Turkey much longer. It's impossible to stress just how dangerous this will be for them. It could very likely be a death sentence, and the time in which we can help them is quickly running out.

You can help by making a donation to assist Acrassicauda in surviving while they are stuck waiting in Istanbul. The band has no bank accounts, and Paypal doesn't function in Turkey so the makers of the documentary about them (HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD) setup a Paypal account on their behalf. No donation is too small. By giving as little as ten dollars, you can be a part of keeping the heavy metal dreams of four young Iraqi men alive.

Donate Here!

Born out of a basement rehearsal space in Baghdad, Acrassicauda (Latin for "black scorpion") is Iraq's only heavy metal band. Inspired by western bands like Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot, they began writing and playing metal in 2001. Their dream of performing live in Iraq soon became the struggle of their lives.

Due to increased security precautions throughout Iraq, it became difficult to practice-much less get through a show-without literally risking their lives. As the situation worsened in Baghdad they began receiving death threats from insurgents and religious fundamentalists accusing them of Satanism.

The war has now all but destroyed their dream of living in peace, growing their hair long, banging their heads and shredding as loud as they want. The members of Acrassicauda are currently seeking asylum in Istanbul, Turkey.  All of their visa applications to foreign countries have been denied.

Just pissed off

Did you know that the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration reported in 2007 that there are almost 5 million Iraqis who have been displaced by the violence in their country? FIVE MILLION PEOPLE out of a total population of 27 million people. Give or take, that's one in every five people. At that rate, if the same thing happened in the US, there would be at least 60 million displaced people. It'd make New Orleans look like a cake walk.

About half of the displaced Iraqis are still in Iraq, having been forced from their homes to seek shelter in hopefully less hazardous parts of their own country. In mid-2007, Iraq was declared by Refugees International to be the "fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world".

As for the people who have left Iraq, they often have no idea what the future holds for them. Many have wound in Syria, the only country that initially placed no restrictions on Iraqi immigration. According to UN statistics, as of early 2007, Syria had taken in about 1.25 million displaced Iraqis. Beyond that, the UN reported 500,000 Iraqi refugees were in Jordan, as many as 70,000 in Egypt, up to 60,000 in Iran, about 30,000 in Lebanon, approximately 200,000 spread across the Gulf states, and another 100,000 in Europe, with a final 50,000 spread around the globe.

With the bulk of the Iraqi refugee population in Syria reaching 1.5 million people toward the end of 2007, and making up as much as 10% of the country's overall population, the Syrian government changed the visa regulations in October 2007, making it more difficult for Iraqis to obtain Syrian visas and then limiting their stay to just three months.

On February 15, Syrian President Bashar Assad promised that no Iraqi refugees will be forced out of Syria while their country remains a dangerous place to live. Assad made this promise to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. The two met during a Middle East tour that Guterres is making in an effort to get more assistance for the refugees.

"We received reassurances from his excellency the president and the government that, independent of their legal status in Syria, Iraqi refugees will not be pushed back into Iraq against their will and that the asylum space will be preserved in Syria for Iraqis," said Guterres. In the last few months there have been reports that Iraqi refugees were beginning to return to their country but there are no clear figures on this and a trend has not been confirmed. The Iraqi Red Crescent said in January that almost 45,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria had returned home between September and December 2007. However, those figures have been disputed.

More importantly, the explanation media give for this return is that people are deciding it's safe to move back to Iraq.

Many of the Iraqi refugees in Syria are not allowed to work legally.That means that meeting basic living needs for food and shelter can be very difficult. Despite what so many of us think, the average refugee does not get any help with these necessities.The story is the same in many of other countries where Iraqis have fled to.

An article in Al Jazeera said, "the constant stream of those escaping violence has put a strain on Damascus. Rent in many Syrian cities has rocketed by about 300%".

Needless to say, many Iraqis who fled to Syria have used up their savings and are finding they have no other choice but to return to Iraq, regardless of the situation.Who would have believed the conflict would continue for so long?

However, according to Refugees International, Iraq's struggling government recently warned it can't accommodate large numbers of returns. Many of those who have returned were subsequently displaced again.

Anyone can dispute the fine points of this post - how many refugees are in what countries, how many are internally displaced, how many are returning. The fact remains that as much as one-fifth of the Iraqi population has had to move as a result of the ongoing violence.

CNN reported on February 13 that last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice authorized the US Embassy in Damascus to talk to the Syrian government about the flow of Iraqi refugees, but made clear it was not the start of a broader conversation on Iraq. Finally.

Also on February 13, the US State Department said the Bush administration hopes to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to the US THIS YEAR.

According the Human Rights Watch, the US accepted 1608 last year.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Guterres to outline a new US program for Iraqi refugees, which includes $18 million for additional funding for UNHCR to assist with resettlement of refugees in other countries and humanitarian aid.

The decision comes amid pressure from the US Congress and the international community to do more about the growing refugee crisis.

Hold your representatives accountable for these promises the administration has made.

That's 7,000 Iraqis resettled in the US in 2008 and $18 million in additional UNHCR funding.

remiss

why is it that habits are so hard to make and so so soooo easy to break?

it seemed like it took me at least a week to get in the practice of blogging every single day (way back in november) and about 22 seconds to get out of the habit when the challenge was completed.

huh.

in the interim, i've regressed in other ways as well. over the holidays, i went to the states - carrying with me a couple of loads of laundry to be washed! i could say it was because i ran out of time before i left to get everything clean and that would be partly true. mostly, i thought, "what's the point? i can wash all that stuff in the states in about an eighth the time it would take me to get it clean and dry in turkey." also true. it's also a fact that i looked at the pile of stuff and thought it would just be easier to pack a bunch of rumpled clothes than bother with folding them.

as it turns out, i was so busy running around seeing friends and eating pork products that i didn't even get around to washing all the stuff i brought with me. how pathetic is that? i did prove a second time that it is easier to pack a wad of dirty clothes than try to fold and neatly fit them into a crowded suitcase.

anyway, my clothes are all clean now and i'll do my best to get back to writing on a regular basis. probably.

a cultural christian's wishlist in turkey

it's not a complete wishlist but ever since carpetblogger said she cooked an entire kilo of bacon when her fridge died - again - i've had a bacon obsession. O-B-S-E-S-S-I-O-N.

then i found the perfect gifts - that i think i must have NOW.

   

seriously? who could resist the allure of having fresh bacon breath? mmmm...

and to help me get through my long baconless days (and since i don't have a car), i can
put this bacon-scented air freshener up by my desk and have the smell of bacon  wafting around me as i sit at work...  (sorry about the picture resolution.)

finally, i can carry around all my new bacon products     

in this cool lunchbox.

if saint nick sees fit to bring me any of these things, 2008 will be a crazy good year in istanbul.

why am i doing this?

curses! carpetblogger tagged me with a meme to tell seven silly stories that people don't know about me. first of all, i'm such a model of perfection, i just don't know how i could possibly have silly stories about me.

but if i did have any such stories, everyone who knows me has probably already heard them.  however, as carpetblogger pointed out, most people reading this probably haven't heard them.

that being said, i suppose i have a story or two. most revolve around how extremely gullible i was as a child.

1) when i was about 3, my dad told me he had flushed my mom down the toilet. i so totally bought it. never mind that i didn't check the bathroom to see if she might still be in there, i did what any self-respecting kid would do - i went running outside to rescue her from beneath the house. fortunately, my mom stopped me before i could be carried away by the dozens of hairy, million-leg monster spiders i was sure lived underneath the house.

2) i believed in the easter bunny for a very long time. i distinctly remember telling my friends, "well, i KNOW about santa but the easter bunny... i think he might be real." (in my defense, the easter bunny did write me some loooong letters!)

3) one year i asked my dad to take me to see santa. he handed me the keys and said, "you know where the mall is."  i responded in my uber no-nonsense way - "but i'm too small to see over the steering wheel!"

4) i believed my mom and her youngest sister were witches. i believed my aunt could fly. i believed they taught me the first steps in learning how to fly. i believed one day i would be able to fly too. (this backfired because we lived in "the south" aka biblethumper land at the time. the baptists didn't get it and the neighborhood kids were afraid to come to our house for a long time after that episode.)

5) i sincerely and truly believed that if i swallowed cherry pits, a tree would grow out of my belly button.

6) i sincerely believed that if you poked my belly button just right, i would go flying around the room like a balloon when you let the air out of it.

and finally, not a childhood story (carpetblogger reminded me of this) -

7) i have always been confused by math. i'm much better at hungarian than i am at math. i think people who get it are probably aliens from some crazy planet where people do math for fun (gasp!). hence, it should come as no surprise i failed university algebra for idiots. twice. the silly part  - i never told my parents. NEVER. (unless i get lucky and they aren't reading my blog.). the first time, i figured i'd just been lazy. the second time... i realized i just didn't get it. my parents very kindly paid my tuition so after the second complete failure, i paid out of my own pocket to take a night class at the community college so i could pass my school's math requirement.

there you go.

i'd tag helen in beirut but since she hasn't actually started writing in the blog she says she set up, i'm only going to tag alison (whose name i spelled correctly this time!).

otuz, XXX

this makes me think of the day i tried to tell an istanbul taxi driver that it wasn't as hot in cappadocia, in the center of the country, as it was in istanbul.

instead of saying it was 36 (celsius, of course), i told him it was 306 degrees. not so hot, i said. he looked at me doubtfully. so i thought it must be my pronunciation and i repeated myself several times over. yeah, it was 306. 306. 306 in cappadocia.

i couldn't understand why he couldn't get it.