War on Tourism
Woke up this morning to VOA news to hear about the hotel blasts in Turkey. Funny, 20 days ago I was in the same area the explosions took place "Sultanhamet" which lies in the Asian side of Istanbul. Home of the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and the famous Pensions where backpackers linger.
I was having dinner with a friend just round the corner from our Pension in Mimar Mehmet Aga the night of 21st/July and we heard an some gunshots, most of the turks and Europeans acted indifferent. We later learned about the drunken"kurdish"Turk who shot a man for flirting with his woman! According to my Turkish friends, this never happened in a very long time. Apparently that area was very dangerous and housed many gangs, prostitutes and drug dealers but the gov has cleaned it up in the last two years.
It’s sad to see Turkey hit twice in less than 6 months. In this summer I witnessed two incidents of "War on Tourism", Israel's air strike of militant camp southern Beirut July 20th. 2004.
My heart goes to Athens.
posted by Mama Fusla at 10:49 PM
9 Comments:
This is a different age and time, these things will be more common, we are not tolerant any more and charged.
intolerance, devine or earthly?
What do you mean?
can there be harmony in intolerance? isn't that the fundemental nature of the universe, and Harmony is only an idealistic halucinations created for earthlings? by who? and why?
oh now you are starting to sound like me.
Harmony does exist, but I call it balance. I do not know by who, depends on one's beliefs, could be God, could be out of nothing, could be a race of aliens, etc.
However, to prove it exists is tough, so the measure we use for balance and harmony is based on our "human" understanding of our universe.
We try to change things by implementing our subjective understanding of the world, which can cause harm or lead to good, in "human" perception.
The violent nature of today is not new, it has been going on from the start of time, it is part of human struggle against the elements. Only now we see it more clear because of the rapid development of media. A visual is much more powerful than words.
You were actually on the European side. I used to think that was the Asian side simply because it had the all the grand mosques. Turns out the Asian side is the mostly residential part of Istanbul across the large bridges.
With that out of the way, my heart goes out to Istanbul, one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I am truly worried about Athens too. I just know something terrible is going to happen.
Purg
As humans we have learned to romantaise the harmony amongst humans and nature etc.
The dualism of nature is harmony, the human envolvement causes the embalance by adding negativity or by being passive and inorder to keep that balance, humans try to surpass nature in its posivity. Yes the world becomes more harmonious according to "man" but in effect, nature becomes more embalanced and is forced to evolve to the new wave of standards created by man's ideals of Harmony and thus original harmony is never restored!
Tata
Terrorism Tourism, visit the worlds most prominent Terrorist outlets. Should we start with Kuwait or Saudi?
Zaydoun
Thanks, the mosques threw me off!
cos nature can be good or bad, active or passive and so can man. According to the Chinese I-ching philosophies, The universe is governed by the harmony created between The sun and the moon (Yang and Yin), or (Active Male and Passive Female) Or (Summer/Winter Solstice) etc.
We find the duality of nature in everything and the duality of things creates the harmony.
With America globally franchising what is quintessentially an all American baby - the war on terror, its ugly conjoined twin - war on tourism, is now sadly gone global ( Bali, Tanzania, Kenya and now Turkey).
Most people in my neck of the woods would wager that no tourist mecca is totally immune from this nuisance as long as the language of international politics continues to be dominated by Anglo-American hypocrisy together with a certain je ne sais quoi....Rumsfeld-eseque arrogance, if you will thrown in for good measure, at any international arbitration these days.
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