I thought long and hard about what the title of the final column of 2009 should be; in the end, the title above is what came out...
I’ll return to the subject of this title toward the end of my column.
I won’t say the usual things like “May the new year bring health, happiness and prosperity”; my wishes will be more tangible, more definite. Just like in my column titled “I hope in the new year,” which I wrote here as well…
At the end of this year, just as we did last year, please add the phrase “I hope in the new year” to the beginning of the lines below, where I’ve written down what I hope for in the new year: \- The finance minister will try to take action instead of calling on people not to “spend their 13th-month paychecks in the Greek Cypriot side.” We’re tired of writing about these measures, but they haven’t grown tired of reading about them…
\- The Cyprus Problem will be resolved; we’re “fed up with discussing it”…
\- During the election campaign, we’ll listen to one another instead of turning on each other.
\- We won’t have to deal with swine flu, horse flu, giraffe flu, or the flus associated with other animals whose names I can’t recall.
\- In our country, where public-sector employees are forbidden from having a second job, those who have a second job and block the way for the unemployed will have a change of heart.
\- Politicians will set aside their habit of “identifying problems” and do what they are actually supposed to do: “solve problems”…
\- The words of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, won’t be cut off. After all, our world couldn’t take another “one minute” incident…
\- Our world, grappling with global warming, will not have fruitless meetings because of the incompetence of world leaders. After all, the failure of the “Copenhagen Climate Change Summit” caused serious disappointment among all environmental organizations.
\- The “International Community,” constantly called upon by our president to intervene in resolving the Cyprus Problem, will realize that the President is referring to them and take action…
\- The Highways Department will come to its senses, and our roads, which have become practically a “booby trap” for us all, will become safer.
\- The Cyprus Problem will be resolved, and Hristofyas will have to swear an oath in a parliament featuring our flag, which he described as a “monstrosity”…
\- Those like me, who are tired of hearing the words “I want peace for the whole world in the new year,” even though we know they won’t come true, will see those who say them put peace into practice, since it is in their hands to do so.
\- Those reading these lines will have days of great prosperity…
\- …
I’ve deliberately left the dots there; you carry on…
Now, let’s get to our title…
What I mean by saying “You smile, and the world smiles” is this: Even though we encounter hardships, life is too short for us to dwell on them and frown…
So, in the new year, set yourself a goal and, despite all the hardships, “you smile, and the world smiles,” dear reader…
Until Tuesday, I hope…
I hope that in the new year I won’t have to say, “Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful on the road”... A traveler in London ---2.01.2010 I met many people in London…
But there was one person whose stories really caught my interest.
Ümit Silman is one of the Turkish Cypriots living in London, but what makes him different is that he is a citizen of the world… When he lost his wife during childbirth at a young age, Silman hit the road… Since then, he has visited nearly a hundred countries and every city in Turkey… Silman has a different story about each country… You’ll be able to read these stories in the Star Kıbrıs Newspaper in the coming days. Today, though, you’ll have the chance to read the interview I did with Silman in London and get to know him… Take a look at what Silman has been through.
Cem Kar: Were you born in England?
Ümit Silman: No. I was born in Cyprus.
Cem Kar: So when did you come to England?
Ümit Silman: In 1965, immediately after finishing 19 Mayıs High School in Limassol, I left Limassol by ship to come to England.
Cem Kar: What was the journey like? It must have been difficult by ship…
Ümit Silman: Yes, it was difficult. The first stop for the ship I boarded was the island of Crete, then we went to Piraeus, Athens and, via Yugoslavia, to the Italian city of Venice. From there, I set off for London by train… I’ve lived here ever since, apart from when I’m traveling…
Cem Kar: How many Turks were there in London when you arrived? Were there as many Turks as there are now?
Ümit Silman: There were as few as you could count on one hand… When I heard someone speaking Turkish, I’d run over and introduce myself. Back then, the English looked strangely at people who spoke a language other than their own. I think they considered it disrespectful. So my first step was to take a language course.
Cem Kar: When did your passion for traveling begin?
Ümit Silman: I became a British citizen in 1970, and that same year I took my first trip, to Paris, France. At the time, the French didn’t particularly like the English. Perhaps that’s why they kept me waiting at the airport in France for a full three hours. They absolutely wouldn’t speak English. Finally, they asked if I knew anyone in France. I said I knew Brigitte Bardot, the most important actress of that time. When I said her name, the customs officer suddenly changed his attitude and let me into France. In the end, I had a wonderful holiday in Paris, thanks to Brigitte Bardot…
Cem Kar: Interesting… I suppose you continued your travels after that?
Ümit Silman: I had even more interesting experiences. For example, I went to the Canary Islands in 1972. It was June, and when I arrived in the Canary Islands, it started raining, just as it does in London… Apparently, it doesn’t rain there at that time of year. From there, I went to the African Sahara for a two-day tour. Back then, that place was under Spanish rule, which is why it was called “Spanish Sahara.” It started raining the day I arrived; it turned out that it hadn’t rained in that region for 40 years. The next day, the people living there rose up against the Spanish and won their independence. We were a group of 18 tourists, and they treated us like kings in a five-star hotel for three days and three nights, saying we had brought them good luck…
Cem Kar: You’re very lucky…
Ümit Silman: There’s more. I came to Cyprus in 1974, and the military intervention happened right afterward. I visited Turkey in 1980, and there was a coup the next day… In 1989, I was going to Tokyo. At the time, British Airways flew to Japan via Alaska. We landed in the city of Ancorage in Alaska. Meanwhile, the glaciers melted and the airport closed for five days. And throughout those five days, British Airways looked after us very well. After that incident, British Airways began flying directly to Tokyo.
Cem Kar: I know you’ve visited more than a hundred countries around the world… Did you meet any Turks in the places you visited?
Ümit Silman: I’ve been to New Zealand three times. On my last visit, I met a Kurd; an organization that had deceived him had taken him to New Zealand, telling him it was London. He only realized this two years later… And when I went to the Rio Carnival in Brazil, I met a Turk from the Black Sea region. He’d been living in Brazil for ten years and had married a very wealthy woman there who was 15 years older than him… We had a good chat, and he invited me to his home. His wife spoke perfect Istanbul Turkish… I was very surprised. I asked why. The woman said exactly this: “My husband stubbornly refused to learn my language. So I had no choice but to learn his.” It turned out that the friend from the Black Sea region whom I’d met hadn’t learned a single word of Spanish in ten years…
Cem Kar: So, which places among the countries you’ve visited have impressed you the most?
Ümit Silman: Egypt’s pyramids impressed me, as they do everyone… Iceland and Bhutan, a little-known country, are two very interesting places. In both countries, the crime rate is practically nonexistent… You won’t see a single police officer in the streets. When I asked why, the answer I got was quite clear: they said there were no incidents that required policing. That seems very far removed from our experience…
Cem Kar: Yes, unfortunately, it does seem very far removed… What are you planning to do from now on? Which countries are next?
Ümit Silman: I’ve finished exploring Europe. I’ve traveled to every country, right down to the smallest ones: San Marino, Andorra, etc. As long as I have the time, I want to travel and get to know new countries and new people. My late father was an imam in Limassol, and he would always say to me: “God said, ‘Go worship, my servant,’ but you understood it as, ‘Go travel, my servant.’”
Cem Kar: Mr. Ümit, thank you for this pleasant conversation.
Thank you. “WHAT’S THE REASON?” ---5.01.2010 I’m resisting the urge to write…
I’m caught between my mind and my hands…
I can’t stop my hands; jsajafjalkldfa they won’t listen to me!
My mind says, “What are you going to write about this? osjdsaodjndj It’s all there in front of you! Why do you need to write about it?” But my hands go dlğsad3pakdsndaj& and apparently say, “The more you write, the better” ndda/9ddnal…
As a result, nonsense letters appear in between, as above; I have to put an end to this.
Last week we started with RedBorder’s poll, and this week it’s KADEM…
There are many points of overlap between the two polls; examining these issues one by one is a job for the experts.
But there are one or two things on my mind…
In both polls, the people living in the TRNC agree on a federal solution: they don’t want one, and by a large margin…
In both polls, Turkish Cypriots have no hope in the current negotiation process!
In both polls, Turkish Cypriots do not support Talat, who insists on the two points above, and even say they will vote for the other candidate, who will probably run against him in the upcoming presidential election.
On the other hand, the situation on the Greek Cypriot side is no different…
According to another survey conducted by KADEM; The Greek Cypriots’ first choice is a unitary state, while the Turkish Cypriots’ first choice is a two-state solution…
35 percent of Greek Cypriots and 30 percent of Turkish Cypriots are categorically opposed to a federal solution…
Under the circumstances, one can’t help asking: WHY?
Why this insistence?
Why are you trying to bring together people whose views are so opposed?
A very interesting situation:
THE TWO LEADERS HAVE BEEN DISCUSSING FOR MONTHS A FORM OF SOLUTION THAT BOTH PEOPLES DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT.
Do you think they can’t see this?
Of course they can see it; but they have this in mind: Hristofyas is secretly pursuing an agreement that would lead to a unitary state, while Talat, though he can’t say so, wants a confederation…
So, when we can all see this game being played in the open, how can they still insist on it?
I guess they don’t understand…
Let’s try to find out by asking both leaders a question in the Cypriot dialect: “Since we can see all this, and the polls are saying all this, what’s the reason, Talat and Hristofyas?”
Until Thursday, I hope…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful on the road! How “temporary” are the “temporary workers”? ---7.01.2010 Yesterday, a conversation I had with a friend who has been working temporarily at a government institution for years took an interesting turn…
After the usual “How are you, are you well?” chat, we started talking about work. I said I was busy; he said his anxious wait had come to an end…
“His anxious wait had come to an end…”
Naturally, that caught my attention, so I asked him about it; he began to explain: “Cem, I work here on a temporary basis. There are people like me who have temporary status and have been working for years. We’re all on the same list, and it gets sent to the place we report to. I guess they didn’t notice me in the meantime. Or maybe they actually know I’m a UBP supporter! I’m still working. I’m a UBP supporter, and all my relatives are UBP supporters, but they could have said, ‘This guy was hired earlier; let’s get rid of him.’ If they’d let me go, I’d have had to run around trying to sort it out… Call this person, call that person… I could have managed, but it would have been a problem! Anyway, for now, we’re carrying on.”
As I listened to what he was saying, I once again witnessed just how intertwined working life and politics are in this country…
My friend feels he has to prove to someone that he’s a UBP supporter in order to keep his job…
Some of you may be saying, “Well, Cem, why are you surprised? Didn’t you know?”
That’s exactly the problem.
We know all this, and we’re not surprised!
We’ve become so accustomed to it that we can’t even imagine things being otherwise!
Politicians have put the system in place so well that it doesn’t even occur to us to step outside it.
In other words, we’ve made what’s wrong right, and what’s unnatural natural!
We’ve come to fear not being with the party in power…
Our future has come to depend on how closely affiliated we are with a party!
We’ve started voting while asking ourselves questions like, “Will I keep my job? Can I get a job in the public sector? Will they fire my child?”
This situation doesn’t concern only the working population.
It affects businesspeople, academics, and almost every segment of society as well.
Society has come to vote while asking questions like, “Can I win the tender? Will I keep my job at the school? What obstacles will they put in my way?”…
The saddest part is that we consider this situation perfectly normal.
In conclusion:
Almost every segment of society is temporarily in one place or another, according to politicians’ preferences, and it is politicians who assess those people’s political views and decide how temporary their situation will be…
In other words, temporary politicians decide who will be temporary…
Yes, it’s absurd…
But in this country, it’s perfectly normal!
Until Tuesday, I hope…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful on the road!