Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Rahmi Koc'un komplo teorisine yanit

Koç'un Aradığı "Gizli El"i Açıklıyoruz

Rahmi Koç, "çok gerekli olmasına rağmen" son 20 yıldır Türkiye'de nükleer santral yapılmasını bir "gizli el"in önlediğini söyledi. Türkiye'nin "en büyük" sermaye grubunun "şeref başkanı" Koç'un sözünü ettiği gizli elin kimin eli olduğunu açıklıyoruz.


BİA Haber Merkezi
31/07/2007 Erhan ÜSTÜNDAĞ

BİA (İstanbul) - "Rahmi Koç'un bahsettiği aslında kapitalizmin kurucu ideologu Adam Smith'in eli. Çünkü nükleer enerji çok pahalı ve son 20 yılda sadece Türkiye'de değil dünyanın hiçbir yerinde yeni nükleer santral inşa edilmiyor."

Greenpeace Türkiye'den İklim ve Enerji Kampanyası sorumlusu Hilal Atıcı, "Koç Holding Şeref Başkanı"nın bahsettiği, "çok gerekli" nükleer santral ihalelerini engelleyen "gizli el"in kimin eli olduğunu bianet'e böyle açıkladı.

Smith, 1776'da yayınladığı Ulusların Zenginliği'nde "herkesin bencil olduğu bir toplumda uyumun, bilinçli bir müdahale olmasa da kendiliğinden oluşacağını; bu kendiliğindenliği sağlayanın piyasa ilişkilerinin gizli eli olduğunu" söylüyordu.

Görünen eller

Bunun dışında Türkiye'de beraberinde getireceği ekolojik ve insani yıkım riski nedeniyle nükleer santrale karşı mücadele eden binlerce insan ve onlarca kurum, grup var.

Gerçi onlar pek gizli değiller, elleri ortada. Rahmi Koç'a hatırlatmak için kısaca sıralıyoruz:

* Mesela Türkiye Yeşiller'i. Grup, son olarak 2002'de yayınladığı manifestoda "Dünyada gelişmiş ülkelerin terk ettikleri nükleer santraller ve nükleer atık alanlarının ülkemize girişinin önlenmesi için etkili eylemler yapılacaktır" diyor.

* Ya da Greenpeace Türkiye. Örgüt, nükleer enerjiye karşı hem ülke çapında hem de bölgesel çapta kampanyalar yürütüyor.

* Bir diğer örnek de, Sinop'ta nükleer santral planlarına karşı 24 bine yakın imzanın toplandığı sinopbizim kampanyası.

AKP: İlle bizim de olsun

Nükleer santral planları Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) döneminde tekrar ve ciddi biçimde gündeme geldi.

Buna karşı 30'dan fazla meslek odası, sendikalar, çevre dernekleri, çevre platformları, sol-sosyalist partiler ve bireyler Nükleer Karşıtı Platform'u oluşturarak birlikte hareket etmeye başladı.

Enerji Bakanı Hilmi Güler, 21 Mart'ta bir röportajda "Bizim de bir nükleer santralımız olması yönünde bu sefer çok kararlıyız" dedi. Koç'un açıklamalarından büyük sermayenin de en az bakan kadar hevesli olduğu açıkça görülüyor.

Ama ne yaparsınız, görünen ve görünmeyen eller buna izin vermiyor!

Fine for insulting the queen

(just check out the lawyer's take on it! Why is every bloody thing an immigration issue in this little country... hmpf...)
30 July 2007 Expatica.com
AMSTERDAM – A magistrate in Amsterdam sentenced 47-year-old Regilio A. on Monday to a fine of EUR 400 for seriously insulting Queen Beatrix and a police officer. It is the first time in years that someone has been taken to court and penalised for insulting the monarch.
The man will also have to serve a seven-day prison sentence he was provisionally imposed earlier. The justice department wanted him to be sentenced to an additional two weeks in prison for his insulting comments. The maximum sentence for lèse majesté is five years in prison.
A. got into an argument with police officers on bicycle in Amsterdam on 7 June. He performed a Nazi salute, called a police officer a "rotten bastard," and called out "I hate your queen. The queen of the Netherlands is a whore."
He then spoke insultingly of the monarch using sexually explicit language and racist comments.
The man's lawyer says that A., originally from Surinam, was confused and under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and that he did not insult the queen personally but as representative of the Dutch people.
"His feelings of revenge and hate towards white people put him under such pressure that he could not help but utter those words."
The court felt that authority figures should be somewhat thick-skinned in cases like this. "The queen as well." But the sexual insinuations make it clear that the man was not uttering commentary of a socially critical nature, the court found.
There have been few cases of penalties for insulting the monarch. There have been a few verdicts pronounced over the last years convicting individuals for insulting the crown prince, however.
In 2003 two people were fined EUR 250 each for jeering at Crown Prince Willem-Alexander on the day of his wedding to Máxima the year previous. One had called the prince "dumb," the other had thrown a bag of paint at the royal carriage.

Monday, July 30, 2007

LDP loses in upper house elections

After writing a long and enjoyable piece on Japanese politics and having lost it due to the obscurities in Iexplorer, I am simply citing the newspaper articles that talk about the upper house elections in Japan. The governing LDP-led coalition lost the majority of the House of Councillors for the first time in more than 50 years.

BBC Report (En)
Radikal News Article (Tr)
OPINIONS (well done Harro, the buzzword was Global Warming for the young generation)

Thursday, July 26, 2007

V8.P4. Faversham


It was great to meet Paul (again), and his son Tau (for the first time) and to stay at their boathouse in Faversham.

It was the most quiet town I've ever seen in England and it had the most beautiful church tower (Although the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII the nearby St Mary of Charity, Faversham Parish Church remains. It has an unusual 18th century flying spire, known as a crown or corona spire, which is visible for long distances), the oldest brewery in England, and a history of wars and destruction.

Wiki says:
The town of Faversham is known in Kent as a harbour and market community but is also at the centre of the county's brewing industry — home to Shepherd Neame, a brewery, acquired from the last heir of the Shepherd family by Percy Beale Neame in the 1840s. Abbey Street and the centre of the town include a remarkable collection of original medieval houses. Much of it was intended for demolition as recently as the 1960s, until the value of the buildings, now listed, was recognised and local people began a determined fight to restore and preserve the area.

V8.P3. more of London

The last few days, I was busy seeing friends and exhibitions:

1. Dali Universe
@ County Hall Gallery
This was a great exhibition of his sculptures. Here's a little glossary...

Melting clocks
The famous melting clocks represent the omnipresence of time, and identify its mastery over human beings. The inspiration for this concept came from a dream of runny Camembert one hot august afternoon. These symbols represent a
metaphysical image of time devouring itself and everything else.

Crutches
The crutch is one of Dali’s most important images and features in many of his works. It is first and foremost a symbol of reality and an anchor in the ground of the real world, providing spiritual and physical support for inadequacy in life. The crutch is also the symbol of tradition, upholding
essential human values.

Drawers
The drawers arise from their Freudian explanation as a representation of the concealed sexuality of women. Dali portrays many of the drawers to be slightly ajar, indicating that their secrets are known
and no longer to be feared.

Elephants
Dali’s elephants are usually depicted with long, multi-jointed, almost invisible legs of desire, and carrying objects on their backs, which are also full of symbolism. These elephants represent the future and are also a symbol of strength. They are often shown carrying obelisks, which are symbols of power and domination, and not without phallic overtones. The weight supported by the animals spindly legs shows weightlessness, only made more significant by the burden on their backs.

Snails
The snail occupies an important place in the Dalinian universe as it is intimately linked to a significant event in Dali’s life – his meeting with Sigmund Freud. As Dali believed that nothing occurred to him simply by accident, he was captivated when he saw a snail on a bicycle outside Freud’s house. He connected the snail with a human head, more particularly Freud’s head. As with the egg and lobster, the hard shells and soft interiors of snails also fascinated Dali, and their geometry of their curves enchanted him.

Eggs
The egg is another favourite Dalinian motif, given the duality of its hard exterior and soft interior. Dali links the egg to pre-natal images and the intra-uterine universe, and thus it is a symbol of both hope and love.

Ants
When Dali was five years old, he saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. The swarming ants in Dali’s pictures and sculptures are references to death and decay, and are reminders of human mortality and impermanence. They are also said to represent overwhelming sexual desire.

Grasshoppers
Dali had an irrational fear of grasshoppers, stemming from his childhood torment by other children, who often threw grasshoppers and other insects at him. When they appear in Dali’s work, grasshoppers are used as a symbol of destruction, waste and fear. Dali represents them with a fearful nature, as large and intimidating in comparison to the other figures, and they are often shown in the act of eating the main subject of the work.



and some quotes:

The important thing is to provocate hallucinations and dreams without drugs, and that's what I do. My paintings are hallucinations.

The human body is full of secret drawers which only psychoanalysis is capable of discovering.

Don't be afraid of perfection. You will never reach it!

There is almost always something holy about mistakes. Never try to correct them.

What we see isn't in things, but in our souls.

Now I am going to fill it with drawers because the only difference between the immortal Greece and the world today is Sigmund Freud.

Gala transforms my madness into a rational organization of a critical type.


2. Dutch Portraits @ National Gallery

Following its independence from Spain in the 17th century, the Dutch Republic experienced an era of unprecedented wealth, the so-called 'Golden Age.'

Thanks to the successful activities of its merchants and entrepreneurs - and in sharp distinction to the rest of Europe - a new middle-class elite emerged. Its members became the dominant force in local government and civic institutions, and as a result became the new principal patrons of the arts. Portraits were especially suitable to express their newly found self-confidence and desire for representation, and artists responded by developing new types of portraits to meet the demands of this clientele.

This exhibition includes some 60 works, all painted between 1600 and 1680. Exhibits range from small, individual portraits meant for the private home to the large-scale group portraits of members of charitable institutions and civic guards.

The one on the left is a 1599 painting by Jan van Ravesteyn: 'Portrait of Hugo Grotius'. By the time this portrait is made, Hugo is only 16 and yet is thoroughly involved in politics. He is known to be the father of international law (at least in the Netherlands)...

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Initial election results...

AKP gets the 68% of the parliament with only 47% of the votes, and guess what: it is the opposition parties who support this ridiculous 10% election treshold!

It's good to hear that Ufuk Uras
(Ist) is (most probably) elected but Baskin Oran (Ist), Ali Özdemir (K.Maras), and the Green candidates Bilge Contepe (Izmir) and Neriman Gül Eren (Bursa) couldn't make it.

Democracy! (but of what kind?)

Theorists of democracy often rely on Habermas’ work on the public sphere and communicative action. The most straightforward critique of deliberative models of democracy has been provided by the ‘agonistic’ understanding of democracy, as employed in the work of Claude Lefort, and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.

Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism
by Mouffe

Also:

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

V8.P2. plans for the weekend...

TimeOut London suggests:
Dalí & Film (Tate Modern)
"Elsewhere, ‘Dalí and Film’ deploys paintings, short films, scribbled scenarios and photographs to make every possible connection between the artist and the cinema. When not cross-referencing the iconographies of his paintings and his films, the wall texts link his canvases’ vertiginous angles to Harold Lloyd’s slapstick, and his dramatic lighting to German Expressionism. The latter feels dubious, since Dalí was clearly hugely influenced by the hard light and shadows of Spain; and also because we’re not given sufficient info on, or any examples of, what Dalí watched."

Dutch Portraits (National Gallery)
"In some ways the National Gallery's 'Dutch Portraits' reflects our own preoccupation with status, not least when it comes to our scant appreciation of traditional portraiture, bygone fashions and knowledge of world history. I suppose they want us to look beyond our own shortcomings and presumably, past all those furrowed brows and beards, too."

State Britain (Tate Britain)
"recreation of the banners and placards of Parliament Square anti-war protester Brian Haw in the Duveen Galleries."

Monday, July 16, 2007

V8.P1. Back to UK

I posted the last few posts from Amsterdam, of course. I spent a whole two weeks there. It was mostly frustrating so I decided not to post anything about my work or life at that moment. but now, I'm back in good old Essex.

There really is nothing much to tell... I'm enjoying this process of being mesmerised by theory and philosophy (and I think I kind of got used to the Essex campus). Moreover it's great being a student again :)
At a parallel but separate level, the psychoanalysis continues...

To make it simple, I will put the link to my reading list here. You'll agree that I now have to go and read near the lake if the ducks let me be...

Thursday, July 12, 2007

V7.P3. Cambridge




Cambridge was huge and historical. All I could see was the University of Cambridge. If there is more to the town, I am not aware of it (and didn't have the time to explore much).

Sunday, July 08, 2007

V7.P2. South of Wales

It was a combination of first times: I have seen Alptekin for the first time in years, for the first time I had a long drive in the English countrysides, I've seen my first -proper- British gardens, and I've been to the Wales for the first time period.
I will do this tour with the help of photos, as Basak suggested (and because the photos are nice).
It was about books and it was about gardens.
First, the books: Hay-on-Wye (wikisays:)
often described as "the town of books", Hay-on-Wye is a small market town in Powys, Wales. It is on the River Wye, which is the natural and administrative border with England.

Hay-on-Wye is the UK's mecca for bibliophiles, boasting "thirty major bookshops"

trivia: On 1 April 1977, bibliophile Richard George William Pitt Booth declared Hay-on-Wye to be an independent kingdom with himself as its monarch. He sought publicity by declaring Hay an "independent kingdom" with himself as its king. The tongue-in-cheek micronation of Hay-on-Wye has subsequently developed a healthy tourism industry based on literary interests for which some credit Booth[2]. He recently announced plans to sell his bookshop and move to Germany; on this occasion Local MP Roger Williams was quoted as saying "His legacy will be that Hay changed from a small market town into a Mecca for second-hand book lovers and this transformed the local economy")





and then the gardens:




















Wednesday, July 04, 2007

V7.P1. I was away for a while…

As you can notice from this weblog, I do enjoy travelling, and yet, recently it has exhausted me a little. I was dying to come back home at the end of last week (I’m not sure why exactly anymore)…
So I will write about them only shortly.
After coming back from NY, we organised the Amsterdam Conference on Earth System Governance. As I was in the management team it was a hectic time, and as my bag –including my laptop –including our paper that we could work on only in NY- was stolen on my way back from NY, I was presenting a paper that ceased to exist. Still it was the first presentation of a shared work with Sander, and it went really well.

Then I went to Milan, for a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Conference in the EU context. I think I did a good presentation there as well (this time of the project work), and met political scientists and business scholars with a lot of inspiration. The familiar Mediterranean hospitality just made it better: the food was great, the organisation and schedule was relaxed, and although we were in Milan the weather was good.
The highlight was Duomo, the biggest and greatest cathedral of late gothic architecture in Italy. Built from the late 14th well into the 19th century (and in a sense, never completed as work continues), it is one of the world's largest churches, houses almost 3500 statues that are spread over an area of almost 12,000 m2. The tallest spire, which has the famous “Madonnina” on top of it, is 108 meters high. The statue of the Virgin Mary, the “Madonnina”, is covered in 3900 pieces of gold leaf.
The streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals how the cathedral occupies the most central site in the plan of the city.
Wiki says: “Given Milan's notoriously damp and foggy climate, the Milanese consider it a fair-weather day when the Madonnina is visible from a distance, as it is so often covered by mist. The 1934 song "O mia bela Madonina" by Giovanni d'Anzi about the golden Madonna statue on the spire is until today the unofficial city anthem of Milan, even used in ringtones and sung by the soccer ultras of AC Milan. Mainly Milanese dialect speaking people, due to the centuries needed to complete the Duomo, use the "Fabbrica del Duomo" ("Fabrica del Dom" in the dialect) as an adjective (sometimes in a humoristic way sometimes not) to describe an extremely long, too complex task, maybe even impossible to complete.”


After a few days in Amsterdam I went to good old Colchester, for a graduate conference on "Multitude, People, Resistance", where guest speakers were Simon Critchley (wikiprofile, one of my fave texts, interview1, interview2), Michael Hardt (wikiprofile, Full text of Empire, Žižek on Empire), and Ernesto Laclau (wikiprofile, interview).

In the weekend I had a short visit to London and drove with Alp to South of Wales, and then I headed to Cambridge… but those I save for another post.

Yesss!!!

just in case you didn't hear about yet...
you can read it here:
Yes Men Strike Oil: Civil Disobedients Make Modest Flesh-to-Fuel Proposal
and watch it on youtube

QuoTe OF THE DAy

I don't need a baby growing inside me for nine months. For one thing, there's morning sickness. If I'm going to feel nauseous and achy when I wake up, I want to acheive that state the old fashioned way: getting good and drunk the night before.
Ellen DeGeneres