Sea Brill

Today was another serious talking day - four presentations sessions starting at 9, ending at 5:30. All good presentations.

In the morning we first heard about Turkey and the EU (from an International Affairs scholar) and then about Human Development in Turkey from an Economist who works on (and with) the United Nations report on the human development index. The afternoon included a Sociologist explaining something of the history of secularism and religious parties in Turkey, and then a discussion with a lawyer from Amnesty International about human rights in modern Turkey.

I won't get into the details (thankfully?) - but actually they were all good presentations. It seems most of these talks always return to the issues I mentioned yesterday: European Union membership and Secularism (which is right now all concretized into the thing about college women wearing headscarves).

But - I am beginning to develop a few conclusions. I remember some columnist saying how Iran is a thriving democracy wrapped up inside a theocracy - Turkey seems to be something of a military dictatorship wrapped up inside a military dictatorship. The history of democracy here - ever since 1950 - has been fairly regularly interrupted by the military pushing the "reset" button on constitutions and political parties every ten or fifteen years. People seem to perceive that another one of these is in the works right now - or maybe next month.

There is a "Constitutional Court" here that was designed to represent the best wisdom of the military, the more traditionalist (Kemalist) political elite - and their task is to make sure that legislation and policies (produced by the democratic National Assembly) never get too far out of hand.

So - I think maybe the EU has some genuine problems with Turkish membership, because this Constitutional Court really is an anti-democratic institution. This is a bad conclusion for the Turks because they are putting tremendous effort into joining the union, and I am also picking up the idea that they see membership as a kind of solution to the role of the military and the Constitutional Court (military coup is just not something they would tolerate). So - there is something of a Catch 22 here as well.

OK - I won't go on about this stuff, but before I start talking about food again I wanted to get down one detail of the economic presentation. It was very entertaining. This economist explained the UN "Human Development" index - what it's components are, why it exists, how it is calculated,etc. He has been asked and appointed by the UN to work and review the Turkish figures, and a lot of his research has been on this as well. In the session, he explained the details and got us involved in a quick discussion of who we think is at the top (rank), what their rating might be (index), at the bottom, where the US is, etc.

This would be a GREAT exercise in the classroom - and all the documents and info are available online through the United Nations. So - we should steal that feature from his presentation.

OK - now food.

After the usual post session sauna and swim, I headed out with C to the Tunali area of town (that is a street near here - something of the upscale shopping district. We explored the bohemian, beery student part of town yesterday). We relied on the tried but true method of finding a restaurant by simply going to the place that seems the most crowded by locals. Tonight this was a fish place - and as it turns out another group from the seminar was already there.

We ordered the grilled Sea Brill - a fresh fish from the Black Sea (Ankara - I gather - has a good reputation for getting fresh fish from the Black Sea). So, I am now not only meeting Asians but also eating their animals. Wonderful fish - and a nice array of mezzes too.

The Turkish are smart about mezzes. Rather than simply putting appetizers on the menu, they actually put them in little dishes and bring them to your table when you are hungry. So you get two or three of these little dishes to share while your drink your Efes Pilsner or Raku and wait for your meal. Very pleasant.

Tomorrow promises to involve more walking and seeing and perhaps a little less concentration. We are doing some site visits to a craft cooperative (where crafts are taught to poor women to give them a means for earning - and WE are going to learn about marbling paper), a tour of a squatters city/shanty town on the edge of Ankara, and a tour of the old city. We finish up with a cooking lesson where we eat what we cook (and maybe, if they are nice, something they cook).

So - there might be some more interesting and original pictures up here tomorrow. I need to get some shots of Ankara city as well.


Most Remarkable Thing:

Perhaps the Sea Brill - but it was food yesterday - so I'll put down the remark from the economist:

"Channeling development funds is easy, the problem is getting it to stay where you put it."