Most people don’t do these. Especially people from San Francisco. They tell me about their trips to Istanbul or how they’ve heard that it’s beautiful. Even if they haven’t heard of Turkey they ask great questions that sometimes lead to amazing conversations. I’m not an advocate for Turkey, or any other country for that matter. It’s just funny to me how some people I meet think it’s okay to ask these questions and use that degrading tone.

Some people insist on taking this approach, and I shit you not, it’s no longer amusing to me.

1- So you guys travel by camels?

I don’t think that happens in metropolitan cities anymore, let alone Turkey. The only time I’ve seen a camel was in a zoo. I also don’t like the degrading tone. In Turkey, people travel by cars, public transportation and motorcycles. Just like they do in America or most of the world. The use of bicycles are usually limited to young people and mostly children.

2- So you guys live in the desert, right?

The city I grew up in -although not very pretty- was the capital of Turkey. The population is about 4 million people. It was not the desert. It looked something like this:

The city that I later moved to was Istanbul. With a population more than 12 million, the city was set on two continents Asia and Europe. Through the city is the Bosporus, which connects the Black sea to the Marmara sea. It was not the desert. The area I lived in looked something like this:

and the city and the Bosporus looks like this:

So NO, I did not live in the desert. However, Turkey is a country with a lot of geographic diversity (just like America). As you go towards the east, the climate and geography change drastically and there are areas that are deserts, and people do live there. But I’ve also been to beaches with white sand and clear blue water.

3- My friend (sic) said Turkey looks like Afghanistan.

I’ve been getting a lot of harsh comments on this. I had no intentions of implying that Afghanistan is “bad” (saying that an apple is not a pear does not mean the pear is bad, if you take it that way, maybe you should look at yourself). I think there is a certain perception of Afghanistan in America and when someone makes this kind of comment, they’re not giving me information but rather they’re trying to push buttons. I don’t want delve into this. Just because Turkey is not like Afghanistan does not mean there is no poverty, terrorism and many more problems. “Looks like” is something completely different. It also does not mean there are no deserts. I’ve referred to this on #2, there are deserts along with beaches and forests. Please stop taking blog posts this seriously, mainly ones that are not written to be taken seriously.

I’ve been getting this a lot. This pisses me off. First of all, your “friend” is an idiot. Go to #2 for geographic information. This statement usually continues with “it’s all sandy and is a desert. You ride camels around, women wear burkas etc). What pisses me off with this question is that the islamaphobia the media has infused into American culture shows itself. Just because Turkey is a muslim country does not mean it is a 3rd world country. It does not mean that people there ride camels or live in huts. Afghanistan is a war-torn country. Mainly because America. The reason you’ve just said that is so you can somehow feel like you’ve degraded me. If you don’t know anything about the country I grew up in stop giving me “facts” about it. Ask me how it was if you’re interested in it or better yet, if you’re not, just say something like “cool” and leave it alone.

4- When you’re in Turkey, do you (have to) wear head scarfs/burkas?

Although I can somewhat understand where this question comes from, it’s become the most asked and most boring question on this list. No I have never worn or intend to wear a head scarf or burka. I am not a muslim. There is no law that says women need to wear certain types of clothing. Most of my friends, including me used to wear revealing clothes, especially when we went out at night.

All my pictures from Turkey are imprisoned in one of my old laptops that I can’t turn on (I should get on that, I really want to see those pictures). I found this on facebook. It’s a picture of me at a cafe in Istanbul a few years back (sans make up).

As you can see, I’m dressed in everyday clothes. This was pretty much how I walked around every day.

However, there are women in Turkey who opt to wear head scarfs and burkas. There are women in Turkey who opt to have pink hair. The ratio usually depends on the city or region you are in.

5- Turkey the animal.

Any joke regarding the animal turkey or food is stupid. It’s not funny, never was. It does not offend me. It just makes me think you’re an idiot.

6- So you guys hate those Greeks, riiight?

This question usually comes with a nudge. No I don’t hate Greece or Greek people. I, for a matter of fact have no problems with any particular race on this planet. I do have problems with some of the governments and their policies, but that does not mean I hate a races or countries. I would be extremely offended if someone asked me this question while I lived in Turkey. I would love to visit Greece one day. But, just like everywhere else, there is racism in Turkey. Even though sometimes it’s extremely subtle. It’s sad but true. I’d also like to note that Turkish people visit Greece and Greek people visit Turkey and have no problems.

7- You can’t be Turkish, you’re white!

Yes, I’m in fact a Turkish citizen. I however do not have Turkish ancestors. My ancestors mostly come from Northern Europe (moved to America more than 200 years ago) and some from Russia. This does not change the fact that there are white Turkish people. There are also brown Turkish people. You strongly stating that I’m not Turkish is offensive. You somehow thinking that telling me I’m white and therefore can’t be from a Muslim country, is a compliment is stupid. It’s not about the skin color but that you insist that I’m not from there. Turkey has great diversity in skin colors. Telling someone they are not from a certain country because of their skin color is idiotic.

Please let me know if there are more you want to add to the list.

My advice would be, when faced with a foreigner, ask constructive questions. Ask them what their country was like rather than throwing some offensive stereotype out there. This goes for any country.

Who the fuck names their main character Bella Swan. SERIOUSLY. WTF? Beautiful swan? The book and the movies are full of – no scratch that – made out of such cliches that it actually hurts. I highly doubt that a emo 13 year old could ever come up with something so unimaginative.

Sparkling vampires? Vampires who can, but choose to not fuck? Here, this is a quote from the douchess: “one of the great things about fantasy is that research rarely applies”. Seriously. Did I just travel to bizarro land? Oh, oh here’s another one “When I write the story, it’s not like I’m thinking about what I’m doing” I rest my case.

Also, why the hell is she advising tween girls “to threaten to kill themselves if their boyfriends want to leave them”. The movie (which I watched -not in the theaters-, since I’m not going to read the crappy books) is so full of sexism that I was in shock for a few full hours. The lead female is spineless and has a creepily dependent personality, the lead male is an asshole, and is emotionally abusive.

Now that I’ve made myself clear. Please get the hell out of my life. If I ever see that emo poster again, I’m going to barf on it. It’s the most shittiest editing job I’ve seen on a hollywood poster.

On a final note, Robert Pattinson is not hot, he is scrawny and just plain regular. Not showering does not make you a hot, bad guy, neither does sparkling like a fucking diamond. If you seriously think he’s so fine that he blows your mind, please gtfo and go suck a lemon.

And that is the end of my rant. Now something nice to listen to to do away with all the crappiness I’ve been talking about.

The three types of people I come across in this issue are:

*”Strong headed feminists”
*Women afraid of being labeled a feminist
*People who think feminists are men bashers.

It’s very rarely that I come across someone who understands what it really means.

Well, what it’s really about is: CHOICE

Choice to live free of stigma,
Choice to lead the life we want,
Choice to have control over our own bodies,
Choice to be whoever we want to be.

Neither a housewife nor a stripper does anything wrong or bad for the “feminist movement”. It’s their choice and doesn’t mean that other women can’t become CEOs.

Women are the first to bring each other down, label each other. Slut, whore, gold digger, bobble head. We give the power to men to make us feel like a lesser sex. Oh us and organized religion, on that subject I can’t believe how any woman would believe in books where she’s as valuable as a piece of trash.

What some women don’t understand is a woman has the right to use her sexuality as much as she has the right to be a member of the congress.

Using our bodies don’t make us lesser women or lesser feminists.

A prostitute is not a lesser woman than a school teacher and a school teacher is not a lesser woman than any other. We -men and women- are equal. Life is equal.

If someone is happy with what they are doing then who are we to talk.

This is not feminism.

Feminism is claiming the right that women have the CHOICE to do anything any other human being does. We can do what we want to do, and be what we want to be. We have the right to be free and happy.

We are claiming our bodies, our identities and our freedom back.

So my friends, YES, I am a Feminist! This is what I’m fighting for.

I didn’t see a lot of response to ida from Americans, as my friends in San Francisco are smart, reasonable people and tend to think like me in similar situations. But sadly friendfeed has showed me many idiotic Turks who don’t believe in evolution. (which I would say believe is not the right word, but I can’t find another one)

First up, tard, you may not believe in evolution (which in your case makes you a stupid asswipe) but don’t go around making fun of Darwin and Ida (she is a damn fosil you brainless piece of shit). Anyways, I find it funny that people do believe in creationism, so basically a invisible guy made a human out of dirt and made a woman out the dirt guys ribs, then they fucked their brains out and then their kids fucked each other (and possibly them too). This story has already become illegal in many countries. So you’d rather believe we are retarded children of incest who are made of dirt, than believe we evolved from a single celled organism.

Another thing that pisses me off.. Why do people say that they did not come from monkeys. Yes, we know that, we shared an ancestor. This is their first go to argument “I’m not a monkey, are you?”. No tard, I’m not a monkey. No, my grandfather was not a monkey. I know your brain can’t contemplate that evolution happens on a million year basis. It doesn’t happen in ten years. Open a book that’s not the khorana or the bible.

As for Ida, she was dubbed the missing link. I hope she is. She was just discovered. We can’t expect her to be understood right away.

New York described her as

“Described as the ‘most complete fossil primate ever discovered,’ the specimen is a juvenile female the size of a small monkey. Only the left lower limb is missing, and the preservation is so remarkable that impressions of fur and the soft body outline are still clear. The animal’s last meal, of fruit and leaves, remained in the stomach cavity.”

There is a lot debate over what she is, is she a adapid? They don’t now yet. But let us please trust the palaeontologists, men and women of science to extract the right information.

I also get pissed when they challenge scientist to “prove” shit. No tards, science does not have to prove anything to you. Found a quote on NewScientist.com, they have a great article on the subject.

And there’s really no debate at all. As the Knight Science Journalism Tracker wrote, while commenting on a similar slant in the Wall Street Journal story:

“The two fields, one of doubt-based scientific inquiry and one of faith-based declaration, don’t really debate. They hardly speak.”

To read more on the subject go to

ScienceMag.org

NewScientist.com

ksjtracker.mit.edu

ScienceBlogs.com

or watch the bbc video

She’s this Scottish woman who was on Britain’s got talent.

So what’s her deal that everyone is going crazy over her.

First of all she has an amazing voice. So far so good. Over the past years many similar shows had some pretty talented people on them. Nobody became this famous, or got this much attention.

So the big deal with Susan Boyle is that, she is UGLY, OLD and FAT.

OH MY.

What a big bloody talent. She’s fat and ugly so it’s impossible for her to have talent, but here she is breaking every law of physics.

This is where I come to the conclusion that people are idiots and EXTREMELY superficial. Of course no surprise there.

For the past few days I’ve been noticing how people on friendfeed like to discriminate against others who are different. I’ve seen them discriminate against people with birth defects, people overweight, homosexuals etc. But then again, that’s another subject.

So, back to what I was saying. I’d much rather watch this lovely, very talented girl blossom into an amazing artist than freak out about an ugly fat woman that can sing. I also have to admit that I was intrigued when I watched Paul Potts the mobile phone salesman from wales who just got up and started to sing opera, it was interesting because it seemed like a hidden passion of his.

I’m not saying Susan Boyle is not talented or not worthy of fame or attention. I just feel like it’s the wrong kind of attention. Wikipedia refers to her as “another unexpected singing talent discovered by British reality television”. Why does being ugly make her an unexpected talent? Argh, I just find it twisted and unjustifiable. Bunch of bigots. Fucking pisses me off.