There is SOOO much i want to tell you guys about Turkey. ıt's much better than that stupıd D.A.R.E. commercıal back ın the days where the dope fıend was lıke "are you chıcken?" and the pressured kıd saıd "ı'm not a chıcken, you're a turkey!" I thınk that ad really had an ımpact on me, because up to now I really wasn't ınterested ın Turkey.
oh, before that, just have to recall thıs funny ıncıdent when ı crossed the DMZ on a bıke ın Cyprus. The Greek guard was lıke "Nıcholas Alexander?? Are you Greek?! That's a Greek name!" and he happıly stamped my passport and have me a huge smıle. ı passed through the buffer zone, whıch ıs nothıng more than old dılapıted buıldıngs and UN apartments and offıces. A Carlsberg beer truck was allowed to pass to delıver some kegs of beer to the UN personnel. That's the real reason that the UN doesn't want a real solutıon: they just want to drınk beer ın one of the most beautıful countrıes ın the world. It seems lıke they mıght try reconcılıatıon agaın. ı talked to thıs one turkısh cyprıot woman who told me "we're all cyprıots, whether greek or turkısh." I thought that was a nıce summıng up of the ıssue. Lots of people told me that polıtıcıans were to blame for the ımpasse.
The Turkısh border guard dıdn't seem to be as happy about my name, but he let me ın. I was ın the Turkısh Republıc of Northern Cyprus! ı am savıng that stamp ın my passport.
The one thıng that stuck ın my head as I crossed customs ın Istanbul was that there was thıs TV that was passıng all these ads wıth skınny models sportıng fancy watches or bronzed muscle-men lookıng ıntensely at somethıng ın the dıstance. Well that wasn't the ınterestıng part. The ınterestıng part was between those ads and pıcture of a haıry, smıley guy popped up. It was Ocalan, the head of the PKK and they were announcıng how he was prısoner on a lıttle ısland ın the mıddle of the Marmara sea, just outsıde Istanbul. It was pretty surreal.
People have flags and photos of Atatürk everywhere. It would be strange ıf we had pıcs of George Washıngton pasted everywhere. He's lıke a god here. People seem really natıonalıstıc as well. I'll put up some pıcs of Topkapı Palace, the Blue Mosque and other stuff later. There's a lot to learn here. I'm also enjoyıng lots of apple tea. People are frıendly as usual, but no one seems to speak Englısh! It's lıke, come on, we gıve you guys so much mılıtary aıd, why the hell don't you speak our language?? ı thınk we can start a campaıgn for Obama to drop aıd to Turkey based on thıs very ımportant fact.
Anyways, that's ıt for now. Sorry for the "ı", ıt's really hard to get used to fındıng the "i" on thıs keyboard. Rıght now at the beach and hopıng to check out the rest of the country later.
Besotes!
Nıko
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Letter from Cyprus
Slowly working my way closer to Istanbul, city by city. now it is 2pm, 4 hours to go until i can relax (at the house where I'll stay tonight, can't arrive before 6pm). the sun here in nicosia is brutal. met this nigerian guy and his nigerian friends and they took the bus with me to nicosia (the capital of Cyprus and coincidentally, my homeland. Oh, also they drive on the left hand side here, legacy of the Brits.). he was really nice, helped me with my bag, and since i was really tired, he helped me get to a park where i slept a little more on a park bench. feel a little better. he said he would come back after his meeting with someone, but it started getting sunny and i got hot. so i walked out and ran into a little sri lankan store! (actually, I didn't run into it, but coolly approached it). i took a picture and walked in, and started chatting the guys up in my awful sinhala. but they were cool. the guy asked if i had had lunch, and i said no, and started hoping for offers of nice curry and string hoppers, but he didn't say anything more on the subject. maybe he was just interested to know if i had eaten. haha. in any case, he was really impressed by my bag, he thought it was really heavy, though he had gigantic muscles, more greek-like that sri-lankan like. and there are so many different people here in nicosia, not at all like larnaca, which we could compare to manhattan in terms of touristy, and nicosia would be brooklyn. it would be nice to live here for awhile. i saw a sign in the park announcing a handsome european man was looking for a pretty filipina. well some things never change. one of the first things tony, the nigerian, told me was that it was nice living in larnaca (he lives there, but studies in nicosia) but that people say "strange things". i pressed further: "like racist comments?" "Yeah." melting pots are always so volatile. Like the one time in Puerto Matilde (Magdalena Medio) when a pressure cooker full of beans blew up and tore a hole through the aluminum roofing bought with money from the European Union.
The bus ride, through my sleepy eyes, was nice, the countryside is hilly to mountainous and, at least in this part, arid and sort of sandy, but with those pretty thin trees that make me visualize a greek countryside. Tonight after showering and relaxing, hoping to get a tour of the city and maybe check out the wall, since it is the 30th anniversary of the Turkish invasion today. I imagine it will be something like the Berlin Wall. There were two Greek Cypriot nationalists handing out flyers in Greek over in Larnaca, and I asked them to explain it to me, but either they really couldn't speak English, or they refused to. Oh well. I should probably ditch the flyer before entering Turkish Cyprus.
Other than that, there are a lot of really gorgeous people here. Seen a few bronzed Greek gods and goddesses like in the movies. Some fake looking ones, too. I was reading in my in-flight magazine that Cyprus was one of the premier destinations for plastic surgery. Maybe I will get my lips thinned out... is that called labiaplasty?
love, nico
ps: don't forget to click on my name! enjoy! please let me know if you appreciate these informational videos.
The bus ride, through my sleepy eyes, was nice, the countryside is hilly to mountainous and, at least in this part, arid and sort of sandy, but with those pretty thin trees that make me visualize a greek countryside. Tonight after showering and relaxing, hoping to get a tour of the city and maybe check out the wall, since it is the 30th anniversary of the Turkish invasion today. I imagine it will be something like the Berlin Wall. There were two Greek Cypriot nationalists handing out flyers in Greek over in Larnaca, and I asked them to explain it to me, but either they really couldn't speak English, or they refused to. Oh well. I should probably ditch the flyer before entering Turkish Cyprus.
Other than that, there are a lot of really gorgeous people here. Seen a few bronzed Greek gods and goddesses like in the movies. Some fake looking ones, too. I was reading in my in-flight magazine that Cyprus was one of the premier destinations for plastic surgery. Maybe I will get my lips thinned out... is that called labiaplasty?
love, nico
ps: don't forget to click on my name! enjoy! please let me know if you appreciate these informational videos.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
"Pacho" Santos, NAM and Colombians in the Sinai
I was just flipping through the news the other day when I stumbled upon a telecast of the 15th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), being held from the 13th-16th of July in Sharm El Sheikh (the hotspot for all those overly tanned Russians, Israelis and other Europeans on the Red Sea). Does anyone really know (or care) what the NAM does anymore? I don't. All I know is that everyone was calling Mubarak "His Excellency" and he looked, as he usually does, proud of himself. Someone took a great picture of him, here.
Anyways, jokes aside, I was pleased to hear the King of Swaziland decry the coup in Honduras (finally, we had been lobbying him hard just to get him to say that!). The President of the DR also mentioned Honduras quite often (he was actually delegated by Zelaya to do carry forth the Honduran case), and the newly sworn-in Nepalese PM seemed to be tired. At least while Colombian VP Franciso "Pacho" Santos was blabbering, his eyes were half-closed. Mine were, too, as I listened to Pacho squeal out his defense of the Uribe regime and how all NAM countries have to continue collaborating in the fight against "terrorism". How are countries like Colombia still considered "non-aligned"? Does the proposed installation of US troops and "advisors" in three Colombian bases (one of them used as a launching pad for a massacre of 18 civilians in 1998) to replace Manta mean that Colombia is still "non-aligned"?
It was reported on the Vice President's website that after Pacho's talk, he would hit the aguardiente and dancefloor in the Sinai with members of the Batallón Colombia, part of the independent international observation force assigned to make sure no funny things happen on the border between Egypt and Israel, such as indiscriminate bombings of Gaza civilians. (Ok, that really isn't in their mandate. The Batallón Colombia, made up of some 150 or so soldiers and civilians is actually the only unit in the Colombian Army not mandated to fight or kill. Incredible!) Santos will celebrate July 20th, Colombian "Independence" Day in the middle of the desert, most likely in this outpost (headquarters of the Batallón Colombia in Zone C of the Sinai):
Haha, sucker. I hope it's really hot.
Afterwards, he will travel to Israel (of course) to meet with "the hawk" Lieberman and "the dove" Livni, as well as a handful of "technology and innovation" companies... see more about Israel-Colombia connection. Israel has long helped Colombia in "innovation" and "interrogation" techniques.
Well, I got so bored of watching the NAM after a while that I changed the station and enjoyed the Egyptian rip-off of "Don't Forget the Line" with the host who dressed EXACTLY like Wayne Brady and even looked as white as Wayne Brady (joke). But they really did find an Egyptian who acted pretty Wayne Brady-ish.
And two articles were published recently. Natasha's on Cell Broadcasting in the Maldives (yeah!) and Carmen Andrea's article on Escobar's Dead Hippo. Yeah for both of them! I'm out of Alexandria tomorrow, will check in when I get a chance!
Anyways, jokes aside, I was pleased to hear the King of Swaziland decry the coup in Honduras (finally, we had been lobbying him hard just to get him to say that!). The President of the DR also mentioned Honduras quite often (he was actually delegated by Zelaya to do carry forth the Honduran case), and the newly sworn-in Nepalese PM seemed to be tired. At least while Colombian VP Franciso "Pacho" Santos was blabbering, his eyes were half-closed. Mine were, too, as I listened to Pacho squeal out his defense of the Uribe regime and how all NAM countries have to continue collaborating in the fight against "terrorism". How are countries like Colombia still considered "non-aligned"? Does the proposed installation of US troops and "advisors" in three Colombian bases (one of them used as a launching pad for a massacre of 18 civilians in 1998) to replace Manta mean that Colombia is still "non-aligned"?
It was reported on the Vice President's website that after Pacho's talk, he would hit the aguardiente and dancefloor in the Sinai with members of the Batallón Colombia, part of the independent international observation force assigned to make sure no funny things happen on the border between Egypt and Israel, such as indiscriminate bombings of Gaza civilians. (Ok, that really isn't in their mandate. The Batallón Colombia, made up of some 150 or so soldiers and civilians is actually the only unit in the Colombian Army not mandated to fight or kill. Incredible!) Santos will celebrate July 20th, Colombian "Independence" Day in the middle of the desert, most likely in this outpost (headquarters of the Batallón Colombia in Zone C of the Sinai):
Haha, sucker. I hope it's really hot.
Afterwards, he will travel to Israel (of course) to meet with "the hawk" Lieberman and "the dove" Livni, as well as a handful of "technology and innovation" companies... see more about Israel-Colombia connection. Israel has long helped Colombia in "innovation" and "interrogation" techniques.
Well, I got so bored of watching the NAM after a while that I changed the station and enjoyed the Egyptian rip-off of "Don't Forget the Line" with the host who dressed EXACTLY like Wayne Brady and even looked as white as Wayne Brady (joke). But they really did find an Egyptian who acted pretty Wayne Brady-ish.
And two articles were published recently. Natasha's on Cell Broadcasting in the Maldives (yeah!) and Carmen Andrea's article on Escobar's Dead Hippo. Yeah for both of them! I'm out of Alexandria tomorrow, will check in when I get a chance!
Monday, July 13, 2009
'We won't let anyone turn us around'
from Viva Palestina Convoy.
Michael Prysner, ANSWER Coalition delegate on the Viva Palestine convoy to Gaza.
At about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, we arrived at the Suez Canal in a lead contingent of approximately 50 individuals, including New York City Council Member Charles Barron. Our four buses pulled up to an Egyptian checkpoint carrying wheelchairs, crutches and walkers for the multitude of amputees in Gaza, along with school supplies, clothing and a variety medical supplies scarce in Gaza.
The plan was to head to Al-Arish and wait for the rest of the convoy before heading out for the Rafah border. In all of the planning leading up to our departure on July 4, and during the week we spent in Cairo, we have gone through all the necessary channels with the U.S. and Egyptian governments to ensure a safe passage. Both governments are well aware of our presence and mission here, and we have complied with their every request.
But when we arrived at the checkpoint, the Egyptian authorities had been waiting for us, and immediately directed us to a side road which was barricaded. They were given orders to not let us pass no matter what. They persistently attempted to turn us around back to Cairo.
At this checkpoint, however, we were not even crossing any borders. We were simply trying to move about freely within Egypt, from one province to another, a right granted to U.S. citizens in the country. We, of course, refused to turn around.
After three hours of negotiations, the authorities showed no signs of budging. They would give us no explanation why they would not allow us to cross. We all exited the buses and began chanting in support of the Palestinian people.
Failing to bully us, the Egyptian police began threatening the bus drivers with fines and arrest, and demanding that they turn the buses around. A police arrest wagon rolled in, along with riot police, obviously threatening arrest, but we were not intimidated.
Our delegation stayed strong throughout the night. The Egyptian police physically assaulted Viva Palestina members several times, shoving young women and grabbing young men. Each time, the entire force of the contingent stood up to the police.
A wave of press began to cover the unfolding confrontation. We were interviewed by international media.
As the sun began to rise, with all of us camped out around the buses, the police suddenly said we could cross. We all loaded in, believing the ordeal had ended. Our excitement did not last long: as soon as the vehicles began to move we realized that it was a trick. The buses were being directed back to Cairo. We jumped off the moving buses and blocked their path with our bodies.
Throughout the entire conflict, Councilmember Barron was on the phone with the State Department, the White House, the U.S. Embassy and other officials. Many other delegation members called the Embassy describing the events.
By about 9:30 a.m., we had reached a stalemate. Nobody in the Embassy, foreign ministry or State Department would request that we be let through.
After nearly 12 hours of negotiating with the Embassy, we were informed that we would be allowed to pass if we completed some additional paperwork?which the Embassy claimed was required from the beginning, yet without ever bringing that to our attention prior to this point.
We have now met up with British MP George Galloway, former U.S. Congressional Representative Cynthia McKinney, and Dead Prez rapper M-1 back in Cairo. Galloway confirmed that we had complied with all of the Egyptian government?s requests several times over; the new requirements were bureaucratic hoops meant to stall our caravan. Galloway said, "If the Egyptian authorities want us to jump through yet another hoop, we will."Our plan is to return to the same checkpoint tomorrow with over 50 vehicles and 170 people strong.
Standing together were teenagers as young as 17 and seniors in their 70s, people of every religion, from a multitude of nationalities, speaking nearly 10 different languages, and encompassing a wide range of political experience. Several in the group only recently joined the Palestine solidarity movement after the December 2008/January 2009 Israeli massacre in Gaza?a massacre appalling for its brutality. The ability of the Palestinian people in Gaza to remain steadfast in the face of this has in turn inspired solidarity from people all over the world.
The Viva Palestina convoy expects progress on all fronts tomorrow and is calling on sympathetic organizations to mobilize their networks and stand ready for actions such as solidarity protests at Egyptian embassies and consulates.
For more information, read here.
Michael Prysner, ANSWER Coalition delegate on the Viva Palestine convoy to Gaza.
At about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, we arrived at the Suez Canal in a lead contingent of approximately 50 individuals, including New York City Council Member Charles Barron. Our four buses pulled up to an Egyptian checkpoint carrying wheelchairs, crutches and walkers for the multitude of amputees in Gaza, along with school supplies, clothing and a variety medical supplies scarce in Gaza.
The plan was to head to Al-Arish and wait for the rest of the convoy before heading out for the Rafah border. In all of the planning leading up to our departure on July 4, and during the week we spent in Cairo, we have gone through all the necessary channels with the U.S. and Egyptian governments to ensure a safe passage. Both governments are well aware of our presence and mission here, and we have complied with their every request.
But when we arrived at the checkpoint, the Egyptian authorities had been waiting for us, and immediately directed us to a side road which was barricaded. They were given orders to not let us pass no matter what. They persistently attempted to turn us around back to Cairo.
At this checkpoint, however, we were not even crossing any borders. We were simply trying to move about freely within Egypt, from one province to another, a right granted to U.S. citizens in the country. We, of course, refused to turn around.
After three hours of negotiations, the authorities showed no signs of budging. They would give us no explanation why they would not allow us to cross. We all exited the buses and began chanting in support of the Palestinian people.
Failing to bully us, the Egyptian police began threatening the bus drivers with fines and arrest, and demanding that they turn the buses around. A police arrest wagon rolled in, along with riot police, obviously threatening arrest, but we were not intimidated.
Our delegation stayed strong throughout the night. The Egyptian police physically assaulted Viva Palestina members several times, shoving young women and grabbing young men. Each time, the entire force of the contingent stood up to the police.
A wave of press began to cover the unfolding confrontation. We were interviewed by international media.
As the sun began to rise, with all of us camped out around the buses, the police suddenly said we could cross. We all loaded in, believing the ordeal had ended. Our excitement did not last long: as soon as the vehicles began to move we realized that it was a trick. The buses were being directed back to Cairo. We jumped off the moving buses and blocked their path with our bodies.
Throughout the entire conflict, Councilmember Barron was on the phone with the State Department, the White House, the U.S. Embassy and other officials. Many other delegation members called the Embassy describing the events.
By about 9:30 a.m., we had reached a stalemate. Nobody in the Embassy, foreign ministry or State Department would request that we be let through.
After nearly 12 hours of negotiating with the Embassy, we were informed that we would be allowed to pass if we completed some additional paperwork?which the Embassy claimed was required from the beginning, yet without ever bringing that to our attention prior to this point.
We have now met up with British MP George Galloway, former U.S. Congressional Representative Cynthia McKinney, and Dead Prez rapper M-1 back in Cairo. Galloway confirmed that we had complied with all of the Egyptian government?s requests several times over; the new requirements were bureaucratic hoops meant to stall our caravan. Galloway said, "If the Egyptian authorities want us to jump through yet another hoop, we will."Our plan is to return to the same checkpoint tomorrow with over 50 vehicles and 170 people strong.
Standing together were teenagers as young as 17 and seniors in their 70s, people of every religion, from a multitude of nationalities, speaking nearly 10 different languages, and encompassing a wide range of political experience. Several in the group only recently joined the Palestine solidarity movement after the December 2008/January 2009 Israeli massacre in Gaza?a massacre appalling for its brutality. The ability of the Palestinian people in Gaza to remain steadfast in the face of this has in turn inspired solidarity from people all over the world.
The Viva Palestina convoy expects progress on all fronts tomorrow and is calling on sympathetic organizations to mobilize their networks and stand ready for actions such as solidarity protests at Egyptian embassies and consulates.
For more information, read here.
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