V2.C.P3= Kalimantan -final(ly)

I loved Kalimantan.

For that very reason, I will keep the story to the absolute minimum and will try to help you envisage it with as many pictures as possible...

The moment we took our little boat towards the river that would carry us to the rainforests (the Orang Utan National Park), the horror of Kumai was left behind and I was already feeling refreshed. It was a bit worrisome to hear that we didn’t have a shower onboard (see our little boat on the pics), but there was no possibility of changing that, so my grey cells quickly moved on to more important issues: who was onboard, how I was going to change the trip and how the trip was going to change me… In the middle of all these there were of course “the people”. The people, or as they have been referred previously as Harro’s mysterious gang, were worth mentioning because despite the beauty of the landscape and my moods, this trip would never be the same without them:

Vince, for easing me (about being me) / forcing me (on the concept of “discourse”) / sharing a curiosity about books,

Timme, for being the balance point and the voice of wisdom –despite putting the blame on the “waterbottle” / for teaching me a new song to play (and hopefully even sing better than he does) and making it the theme song of my trip / for recording most of it and later on editing it (well… I hope you are Tim!) / and for (probably) being the only one of us who was missing someone and therefore making us realise that life was not all about this forest and this river and the sky and the horizon… (thanks Kirsten!)

Rob, for all the silence and the talk,

Harro, for being positively surprised and having to deal with my mumblings / readings / confusions and attempts of sharing Foucault and Latour as I read through them / for allowing me to exploit his camera (which DID became an important issue as “I was out of memory”... makes me think that we do need a lot of space as people, and these days one space that we need is measured in bytes! This very fact could easily freaked me out especially if you think that I was in the utmost middle of nature)

And all, for the songs and the movies, opening and closing the doors, containing Anjis (our guide), being around and about and constantly radiating positive energy…

Then there was our cook: And I will not try to write about him but simply refer to his artwork (after a few hours of hiking in the forest, it is even more appreciated)

Then there were the small things of the previous kalimantan post: the butterflies (and Vin, with whom they fell in love with!), and the mushrooms (as I wrote, I DID FEEL like Alice!)

And then came the mammals –the orang utans: first the babies, and then the adult versions: Rosemary being my favourite, with a cloud of mosquitoes around her and coming from the back and surprising / scaring (the line is thin in a rainforest) us (see pic)…

There is more on orang utans (info + video) and their forest (here).

"The word orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest", thus "man of the forest". Orang Hutan is the common term in these two national languages, although local peoples may also refer to them by local languages. Maias and mawas are also used in Malay, but it is unclear if those words refer only to orangutans, or to all apes in general. They are endangered species as a whole.

The Borneo species of orangutans is highly endangered, and the Sumatran species is critically endangered, according to the IUCN Red List of mammals, and both are listed on Appendix I of CITES. The Borneo population is estimated at about 50,000 in the wild, while the Sumatran species is estimated at 7000-7500 individuals.

Orangutan habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. A major factor in that period of time has been the conversion of vast areas of tropical forest to oil palm plantations, for the production of palm oil. Much of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development. There is also a major problem with the poaching of baby orangutans for sale into the pet trade; the trappers usually kill the mother to steal the baby.

Major conservation centres in Indonesia include those at Tanjung Puting in Central Kalimantan, Kutai in East Kalimantan, Gunung Palung in West Kalimantan, and Bukit Lawang in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the border of Aceh and North Sumatra. In Malaysia, conservation areas include Semenggok in Sarawak, and the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary near Sandakan in Sabah."

Then came the gibbons:

"Also called the lesser apes, gibbons differ from great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans) in being smaller, pair-bonded, in not making nests, and in certain anatomical details in which they superficially more closely resemble monkeys than the great apes do. Gibbons are masters of their primary mode of locomotion, brachiation, swinging from branch to branch distances of up to 15 m (50 ft), at speeds as much as 56 km/h (35 mph). They can also make leaps of up to 8 m (27 ft), and walk bipedally with their arms raised for balance.

One unique aspect of gibbon physiology is that the wrist is composed of a ball and socket joint, allowing for biaxial movement. This greatly reduces the amount of energy needed in the upper arm and torso, while also reducing stress on the shoulder joint. They also have long hands and feet, with a deep cleft between the first and second digits of their hands. Their fur is usually black, gray, or brownish, often with white markings on hands, feet, and face. Some species have an enlarged throat sac, which inflates and serves as a resonating chamber when the animals call. This structure is enormous in a few species, equalling the size of the animal's head."

A gang of 5 gibons decided to prove us how agile and acrobatic we could have been if and only if we evolved differently. It was better than any circus I've seen. They posed for us and played around us for at least half an hour, and naturally made our day!

And then there was the rain… and the light… and thunder… and the forest a huge WHOLE! We all were in constant amazement, and our typical day was looking out of the boat, taking pics, observing, looking out more, taking long hikes, looking our more, taking more pics (see photos)...

(Before all these of course there was Kyla, who gave us the idea of going there. It was sweet to find her notes on the campblog that we all had to sign and write to on each every camp we ended up in. we took a pic of that too...)

All in all, Kalimantan was the symbol of a huge experience that made me think it was worth all the effort to do, and to have done whatever I did and will do… It brought me back to my more-ecologist-self, which I have lost touch with throughout the time I was more into the development and justice side of environmental issues. It was big, and I felt wonderfully small and yet, almost a part of a whole that meant a lot to me and embraced me. In such a way that no existential problems would be allowed into that embrace…

feelings that passed by:

- tranquility

- absolute fulfillment

- peace

- harmony

- being at the top of the world

- longing for a shower

- desparation each time we came across the mines and palm plantations and each time we heard the speed in which the flaura and fauna was disappearing...

- absolute love towards the planet and each and every iota.

- excitement

I know what I sound like... it sounds naive/hippy-like/unreal once you are in the world of technology and modernity. but "there in the still, all that you feel is tranquility" and it was more real than any other experience...

Being back made me want to read Walden again...

webblogs as self-reflection (only this and nothing more...)

'...if you are not like everybody else, then you are abnormal, if you are abnormal, then you are sick. These three categories, not being like everybody else, not being normal and being sick are in fact very different but have been reduced to the same thing...'

Michel Foucault,

'Je suis un artificier'

click on the pic!

the cover of the last issue of the journal Foucault Studies

QuOte oF ThE DAy

"No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other. "

Jascha Heifetz

Türkiye Kyoto'yu İmzala!

Yeşiller'den 2 aylık bir imza kampanyası:

"Biz aşağıda imzası olanlar,

Türkiye’nin iklim değişikliğine neden olan gazları hızla artan oranda üreten bir ülke olarak,
dünya üzerindeki yaşamı tehdit eden küresel ısınmayı durdurmak için üzerine düşenleri yapmasını, ilk adım olarak de sera gazlarında indirim hedeflerini belirlemek için gerekli çalışmaları yaparak, Kyoto Protokolü’nü en kısa zamanda imzalamasını istiyoruz."

Metni imzalamak için tıklayın!

Iran Deal Clouds Free Trade Plans With US

(politics as usual...)
February 7, 2007
The Bush administration has put a free trade deal with Malaysia on hold after Kuala Lumpur signed an energy agreement with Iran. This Inter Press Service article argues that the US - desperate to isolate Iran over its nuclear program - is attempting to pressure the Malaysian government to abandon its deal with Iran. However, Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz stated in response that the free trade negotiations will not be "held hostage to any political demand."
Source: Global Policy Forum

URL of the day

Giddens vs. Foucault

The theory.org website has been keeping me busy for a while. I like their cards (click on the cards to read), which they also turned into a screen saver (you can download it here!)

There is much more to it, but I will let you figure it for yourself.
As a final touch I copy and paste their motto: "Social theory for fans of popular culture. Popular culture for fans of social theory."
(they recognise the need you see... most of us are incapable of being both...)

ENJOY!

V2.C.P2= Kalimantan (trailer: butterflies and mushrooms)

It took me so long to bring myself to write about Kalimantan... I am not exactly sure why but I have ideas:

It can be because I didn’t know where to start and end, as the geographical, spiritual, intellectual and psychological merged and diverged from the beginning to the end.

Or because I wanted the sound/taste/feel/look/smell as great as it were in reality reflect on what I write –which I think is impossible- so I hesitated.

It may as well be because of what was lacking and what was abundant and how they related to one another (I’m not only talking of lack of booze and abundance of great conversations here!)

In either case, I took more than a month to start writing about the Kalimantan trip and I could only do so by giving up on the reflection bit. I will not attempt to describe what it was like. Nothing can look, feel, smell that wonderful. Nothing feels so real and so much touching my heart. Nothing so far has justified my life so straightforwardly. In no other time I felt at the top of the world without making any effort -so much for trailers… The easiest way of writing about Kalimantan is to refer to a previous post: small is beautiful.

What amazed me most was the butterflies and the mushrooms in the rainforest. The former were constantly around, and very hard to take a picture of, but they did play with us, almost constantly. They were small and fragile, and we think they have a short life... uh oh, what a life, and what an exhausting one in my opinion. Although they were particularly in love with Vince, they gave all of us some attention at some point. The butterflies alone would make it!The mushrooms, my little mushrooms...
I felt like Alice just by looking at them. They were constantly giving messages, "I'm poisonous" said one, and "I'll prove you the wonders of the microcosmos" assured the other...

The smallest and most interesting of all were the ant-eaters: radiating the smell of a sweet substance and then closing their "lit" once the ants are in, they reminded me of... life? or love...And finally, this little photo-proof, diamond-shaped spider (that looked like nothing but a spider) reminded me of a quote from the Earthsea Cycle: As the Master Hand was examining a spider web, one of his students asks if one can turn a rock into a daimond:

"To change [a rock into a jewel, to do that even to such a small] scrap of the world is to change the world. It can be done. Indeed it can be done. […] But you must not change one thing; one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on the act.
The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. Power of changing […] can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow.

A rock is a good thing, too, you know… Let the rocks be rocks..."

Fur and Olympics...

For those who are interested...

Climate Action Tonight: lights off @19.55-20.00

English

Tüm dünyada küresel isinmaya karsi ortak bir eylem!...

Eylem plani su: yerel saatlerin farkliligi gözetilmeksizin bütün dünyada 1
Subat
19.55-20.00 arasi tüm enerji kaynaklari kesilecek. Evde ya da isteyseniz
salterler inecek! Arabadaysaniz yol kenarina çekeceksiniz vs. Yapabilen
yapacak! Amaç bütün dünyada yer alacak bu 5 dakikalik kesintiyle meydana
gelecek enerji tasarrufuyla karar mercilerinin dikkatini çekmek.

Bu e-postayi ne kadar çok kisiye iletirseniz eylemin kapsami o kadar büyük
olur.

Ayrica 2 Subat'ta vizyona girecek Al Gore'un "An Inconvenient Truth" (Uygunsuz
Gerçek) adli küresel isinma ile ilgili belgeselini izlemeye davet ediyorum.

Op 1 februari doen we ALLE LICHTEN UIT van 19:55 tot 20:00 u!

Neem op 1 februari 2007 deel aan de grootste mobilisatie van de burgers voor
actie tegen de klimaatsverandering! Laat ons alle lichten doven, zodat de
(politieke) besluitvormers beseffen dat er iets mis is.
L'Alliance pour la Planète (groepering van milieuverenigingen) doet een
oproep tot al de burgers; 'gun de planeet 5 minuten rust': iedereen wordt
verzocht alle lichten te doven op 1 februari as, van 19:55 tot 20.00 u.

Het gaat er niet om enkel die dag gedurende 5 minuten energie te besparen,
maar wel om de aandacht van de burgers, de media en tevens de politieke
besluitvormers te vestigen op de energieverspilling en op de noodzaak om
dringend iets te ondernemen! Gedurende 5 minuutjes zal de planeet kunnen
uitrusten: dat duurt echt niet lang en het kost niets. En het zal de
politici duidelijk maken dat de klimaatverandering een onderwerp uitmaakt
dat weegt in het politiekedebat.

En waarom op 1 februari 2007? Omdat die dag in Parijs het nieuwe rapport van
de klimatologische experten van de Verenigde Naties uitkomt. En dat gebeurt
bij onze buren; wij kunnen dus onmogelijk deze kans laten voorbijgaan en
moeten bijgevolg de schijnwerpers richten op de dringende aard van 's
werelds klimatologische situatie. Als we allen deelnemen zal deze actie
werkelijk een mediatieke én politieke invloed hebben! Laat dit bericht
zoveel mogelijk circuleren, stuur het zoveel mogelijk door, ook naar lokale
politici; vermeld het in nieuwsbrieven, op je site...

http://www.lalliance.fr/

Le 1er février 2007, dans toute la France :

Participez à la plus grande mobilisation
des citoyens contre le Changement Climatique !

L’Alliance pour la Planète lance un appel simple à tous les citoyens, 5 minutes de répit pour la planète : tout le monde éteint ses veilles et lumières le 1er février 2007 entre 19h55 et 20h00. Il ne s’agit pas d’économiser 5 minutes d’électricité uniquement ce jour-là, mais d’attirer l’attention des citoyens, des médias et des décideurs sur le gaspillage d’énergie et l’urgence de passer à l’action ! 5 minutes de répit pour la planète : ça ne prend pas longtemps, ça ne coûte rien, et ça montrera aux candidats à la Présidentielle que le changement climatique est un sujet qui doit peser dans le débat politique.

Pourquoi le 1er février ? Car le lendemain sortira, à Paris, le nouveau rapport du groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du Climat (GIEC) des Nations Unies. Cet événement aura lieu en France : il ne faut pas laisser passer cette occasion de braquer les projecteurs sur l’urgence de la situation climatique mondiale.

Si nous y participons tous, cette action aura un réel poids médiatique et politique, moins de trois mois avant l’élection présidentielle!

Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered...

(The quote of the day section is back...)

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

E.F. Schumacher

Not of frogs nor the prince: this time it's the princess!

I received this tale today...

"This is the fairy tale that we should have been reading as little girls!

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat, contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.

A frog hopped into the princess' lap and said: Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.

One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young Prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can satisfy my needs, prepare and serve my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.

That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself:

I DON'T F***ING THINK SO!!!!!

Share with all the princesses you know! It's sure to brighten their day!"

The only point of posting this is that I've recently been telling my stories about frogs (that I kissed a few and nothing happened) and I was told that in my case it would be more useful to want to become the white horse... so the joke is on me ;)

V2.C.P1= Towards Kalimantan (starters)

As the tourists call it, ‘Borneo’, is the third largest island in the world (after Greenland and New Guinea) with its 748,168km2 area. It is also the sixth highest island in the world. It is administratively divided between Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia and among them nine provinces; but ecologically it can be divided into seven ecoregions: The Borneo lowland rain forests, Borneo peat swamp forests, the Kerangas (Sundaland heath forests), the Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests, and the Sunda Shelf mangroves, Central Borneo’s montane rain forests, and the higher Kinabalu montane alpine meadows. Hence the 30 ethnic groups living on the island share it with about 15,000 species of flowering plants, 3,000 species of trees, 221 species of terrestrial mammals, and 420 species of resident birds.

The word Borneo comes from the Malay word Brunei, one of the largest cities on the island, and was changed by the Portuguese to Borneo. Historically, however, the word belongs to the colonisers (the Dutch, who has weird ways of calling pretty much everything, even themselves, so Borneo is still quite ok. To clarify, I mean the pronunciation of Dutch words in general, which I find quite difficult –which of course is none of my fault ;P But the name joke is even better: together with China, the Netherlands are one the two countries whose dominant population tries to make a cool name out of their long and cumbersome –in this case Christian- names…) so is obsolete among Indonesians, although the tourists for some reason cannot figure this out. Maybe if Lonely Planet (the bible) highlighted this fact it would be educational for some poor western souls...

Anyway, in Indonesia, the island is always referred to as Kalimantan while in Malaysia the northern section is referred to as East Malaysia (as opposed to Western reference of Malaysian Borneo). The Indonesian part occupies the central and southern regions of the island. So I establish that I was in Kalimantan, after a one-night-stay in Java in which (after Aceh) I celebrated being back to a more familiar world (the world of Bintang and familiar faces).

But first I’ve to tell you about the trip: I left Aceh on a foggy day with a Garuda flight. To my surprise they were much better this time: they are on time and they get you where you want to go to unlike some other airlines that were operating at that time: the plane crashed.

I found the hotel Harro “texted” (I can’t get used to this “verb”!) quite easily, liked whatever I saw of Semerang from the taxi (which was very little, but still… I liked the complexity already), joined Vince, Harro, Rob and Timme (from right to left in the pic) in the pub with a few pitchers of Bintang. They were at the end of their Java trip and told me of Mount Bromo and Borobudur (see what I missed/saved for the next trip in the pics) and me about Aceh –a little non-stop I’m afraid...

Naturally, the next morning was one marked by a huge hangover. We also experienced our first delay (which foreshadowed our Christmas day) and out first tiny plane that morning. Yet, we managed to get to Pangkalanbun, then to Kumai, where we were to stay for one night before we started our trip to the rainforest. We got the necessary permits to make the trip and fixed a boat that would be our transport, accommodation and restaurant for the next five days. But Kumai was a hit: The hotel we stayed at, the Aloha Inn, was the filthiest place I’ve ever stayed (for the details refer to the 72nd paragraph of Rob’s post on Indonesia and NOT to the bible, as all holy texts it has its limits and probably not very updated). The town in general was hard to bear and I think I ejected most of it out of my memory but there is a misleading picture I took in the nameless restaurant we ate at. We were surprised to figure we were all alive the next day…

The saddest thing about Kumai was not the noise, the dirt, the smells, the lack of alcohol, clean water and electricity, nor the (can't find the correct adjective here) toilet, the overpopulation of the mosquitoes, not even the stagnant modernism vs. fundamental religion debate of the people we met (which I found very hard to bear), but the fact that powdered milk, insoluble coffee (Nescafé), Coke and Sprite, and Marlboro to be available everywhere and nothing that looked vaguely edible, fresh, natural although we were only three hours away from one of the world's most beautiful rainforests and in the country of some of the best coffee in the world…

The happiest thing about Kumai was leaving it (although those that have left a week after we did on 30th of December would not say that: the ferry sank). When we set sail towards the Orang Utan forests everything turned from a nightmare into a dream…

He pulled the tails of elephants to make them hop over mountains...

"His days ended before all elephants hopped..." as he would put it...

We lost Ismail Cem today.
To Turkish people of my generation, he symbolised clever and elegant diplomacy and the possibility of clean and complex (yet understandable) politics. Now we are left with single issues and complex calculations...
I wonder what Turkish politics will look like shortly...

One of his latest interviews (tr)
His books (tr)
Wiki info (eng)
BBC Profile (eng)

Çok ileri bir tarihte
Çok yaşlı olarak
Sessizce ayrılmalıyım
Kimseye pek gözükmeden
Ve kimseyi rahatsız etmeden.
**
Masamın üzerinde
Dünden kalan işler
Tamamlanmamış yazılar
Okunmayı bekleyen kitaplar
Ve anılar ve umutlar.
**
Filleri kuyruğundan çekerek
Tepeleri aşırtmaktı görevim
Günler bitti filler tükenmedi
Ben elimden geleni yaptım
Gerisini siz tamamlayın.
**
Boşa geçmedi hayatım
Daha fazlası olabilirdi ama
'Buna da şükür' demeliyim
İşte sevgili dostlar
Ben böyle veda etmeliyim.

İsmail Cem,New York, 1995

Sometimes One Just Can't Write...

I've been trying but I cannot write about this.
It hurts.
I'm sad.
And there is no end to this circus...

I get angry but my sadness covers the flames of that anger.
I'm less today and I cannot fill that gap myself. I can only hope that there will be many more Armenians to do what he did (and more) who will give me a part of my own identity back.

But how can one expect that after this very event? see, I cannot write about this.
It hurts.
I'm sad.
And there is no end to this circus...