There’s a question that’s been on my mind for days: “Are we the ones with a fish’s memory, or are the fish?” I’ve started questioning myself over this.
No doubt, having this question on my mind is benefiting the fish in my home.
Whenever I see the aquarium at home, I go over and feed them.
The interesting thing is that I’m still hesitant even as I feed them! I ask myself, “Have I already fed them?”
The owner of the place where I got the fish tells me there are many people facing the same problem. He’s very happy about it! Because fish that aren’t fed die, and that boosts his sales.
Anyway, the fact is that you need to feed the fish once a day, and we can’t even keep that in mind. So the real question comes up: “Are they the ones with a fish’s memory, or are we?”
Having a fish’s memory isn’t actually such a bad thing. Forgetting mistakes and not remembering pain must be a good thing. Yes, these are the values that make us human, but if we forgot them from time to time, we’d probably have a happier life…
We’re actually quite good at forgetting.
In other words, we like to forget. Perhaps the ‘happy life’ I mentioned above motivates us to forget; I don’t know why, but it’s certain that we forget!
We choose to forget both our personal experiences and what we’ve been through as a society.
It’s actually a talent!
In other words, with a little tinkering in our minds, we can forget certain things about our personal history. But how we manage to do this as a society is something I find very strange, to be honest!
There’s an election coming up, and perhaps we’ll be asking ourselves how we ‘forget’…
But first, let me ask you!
Have you forgotten what happened?
How will you question yourself when you go to the ballot box?
Are you happy with your life?
Have you come across a party platform and team that you think could give you the life you’ve dreamed of?
Have you found a party leader you feel speaks for you?
What is your voice?
How do you make yourself heard?
Have you made any attempt to make yourself heard?
Or will you stay silent again, make no noise, and choose to forget what’s been done to you?
What has been done to you?
…
Anyway, let me go feed the fish!
Hope to see you on Friday…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful in traffic!
Note: I left the last item in the questions blank; you can carry on with the questions. Just don’t go to the ballot box without questioning yourself! The Mission: Finish the Cyprus Film! ---3.04.2009 When it comes to judging and disregarding something, focus… Believe me, there is always ‘effort’ put into it by someone.
To be honest, if effort has gone into something, it must be respected!
In addition to respecting work that people have put effort into, we often obtain it by paying a price …[truncated].
But there are some efforts whose price we cannot repay.
There is no repayment for them…
Sometimes it’s a kindness done for us; at other times, it’s effort expended for the good of society.
There is no material compensation for such things. Sometimes we regret that there is no way to repay them. We feel overwhelmed by the kindness. But one day, somehow, we repay it…
There are some efforts that have no repayment.
The effort expended in the matter at hand is meant to win our appreciation.
We call it ‘art’…
Although we constantly debate ‘who the real artists are,’ the meaning itself conveys the necessary message… The word ‘sanat,’ which comes from Arabic, derives from the root “san’a,” meaning to perform or make something. It covers professions involving work carried out with the help of tools and a certain degree of manual skill. In short, in Arabic this word describes work that people do using their minds and intelligence.
Although works of art created through the use of the human mind and intelligence often win our appreciation, from time to time some have also been seen as a threat.
But it’s not the fact that art is seen as a threat that prompted me to write this!
The other day, Hüseyin Köroğlu wrote an article.
In this article, titled “If You’re Aware,” Köroğlu spoke about the final version of the film “Görev Kıbrıs” (“Mission Cyprus”), which was shot in our country last summer.
As I read the article, the sentences above kept circling through my mind!
Köroğlu says:
“Friends, we couldn’t support a film that takes place 99 percent in the TRNC. It is only natural that Mr. İlhan Kızılkaya says he came to our country based on promises he received from certain people, and he has always talked about the promises made to him. He also received promises in the settings I witnessed, from our ‘statesmen’ at the very top of the state. But Mr. İlhan Kızılkaya was still left alone. Believe me, I can say that I was ashamed of what happened on behalf of my country.”
Now, should I talk about how we’ve embarrassed Mr. Köroğlu, one of the most important artists our country has produced, or about our statesmen failing to keep their promises? Or should I talk about how, because those promises weren’t kept, a film that would undoubtedly make a very significant contribution to promoting the country and its tourism has not been completed? Or should I talk about a film that had been 98% shot, with only one scene left, and involved the work of dozens of people, but still could not be released? And what about the film’s producer and director? They brought the film this far by trusting certain people, spent time on it and worked hard, and those who made them promises turned their backs on them…
However you look at it, something utterly absurd emerges!
I’ve never understood what possible rationale there is for turning our backs so completely on cinema, the crown jewel of the visual arts and one of the most important tools of propaganda.
Especially when we need it so much!
Mr. Köroğlu continues in the same article: “I’m determined, friends: if the film cannot be released, you’ll read everything that happened here in this column, one by one. And this time, I won’t write in veiled terms; I’ll name names and show you the documents.”
I’d like to say that I’m eager to learn those names…
As I said above, there are some efforts whose price we cannot repay…
We call it art…
Hey, you who made promises for this film, have you ever put effort into art?
Hope to see you on Tuesday…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful in traffic! | Poll Wars ---7.04.2009 Some terms carry meanings that directly affect our lives. One of them is ‘statistics.’
Statistics are very important for human life, and they are also vital for administrators. This is because statistics are a guiding science for taking the pulse of society, meeting its needs, correcting misguided practices, and understanding the level that society has reached.
We can define statistics as:
“The science of numbers, the art of making numbers meaningful, and an absolute standard for objective evaluation.”
However!
In proportion to the importance of statistics, the institution that uses this science to conduct research is also important!
Statistics are used in many fields, from finance to sociology, psychology to meteorology, and medicine to econometrics.
Polls, one of the most debated topics in our country in recent days, are also the product of scientific work conducted using statistics.
In other words, the “things” whose results we dismiss as ‘biased,’ ‘made up,’ or ‘not reflecting reality’ are the product of scientific work. Yes, polls may not produce the results we expect. But how right is it to label a scientific study this way for that reason alone?
I can’t help being surprised as I hear the discussions and comments about KADEM’s poll! After all, when this same institution once produced the results that those criticizing it now wanted, the debate went the other way. I also recall that at the time, the results of KADEM’s research proved accurate.
Aside from all this, when we consider how much my own teacher, Muharrem Faiz, values science, his scientific work, and his role as a university professor, I think we need to raise the level of the criticism being made.
Don’t you think it’s contradictory to oversimplify a study that uses many scientific methods, turn your back on science, try to condemn it with such remarks, and then aspire to govern the country?
A government that doesn’t believe in science!
You may not believe the results of the research; you may consider the study biased in your view. But that doesn’t give you the right to dismiss it… If you don’t believe it, what you need to do is simple: the study in question is based on certain arguments, and the records are available. You can ask for them to be disclosed and examine the scientific aspects of the research. And so on…
Or do we have a confidence problem?
Hope to see you in more rational times…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful in traffic!