In Turkey there are no “objective” broadcasting on any television. They are just try to manipulate people in the way that their bosses wanted. A perfect example for this is the recent Tayyip Erdogan vs. Aydın Doğan debate. Doğan the chairman of Kanal D was showing all the dirty tricks of Erdogan on Kanal D when ATV that owned by a company that is close to Erdogan was showing Doğan’s. So It was like who likes Erdogan was watching ATV and who dislikes him was watching Kanal D. Unsurprisingly, no t.v channels in Turkey investigate the subject seriously and tried to figure out who was right objectively. Because of that now I don’t even remember what was debate about, I think it is what goverments and other powerful people want anyway they simply want you to believe something but they don’t want you to know anything.

First of all I must say that I don’t see any part of media as a reliable source to get information about any serious stuff, especially in Turkey they are just not even close of being one. Because whenever I see some news or any kind of information about a subject that i know very well, they are wrong!!.. They don’t even care to do enough research they are just filling the newspapers with some stuff they hearsay. Also you never able to see what is happening behind the scenes and I can’t trust some authors that will change their ideology as soon as their boss changed. In entertainment part, it is ok for me but i never take media serious as I said before..

Television is the most effective way to manipulate people in Turkey because turkish people have a social culture that is pretty much based on home. What people have been doing in order to entertain themselves was mostly home visits to their friends and relatives but with the big city life it just get harder to do that. So T.V was there waiting for people as the easiest way of entertainment and now Turkey probably is one of the countries in the world that has most percentage of T.V addicts. In 1990’s there were a lot of serious information based shows on T.V but after 2000’s televole culture become dominant on turkish televisions. Well, the reason behind this was simple people were so addicted to television and they were simply watching whatever is on and as long as they see some familiar faces(some celebrities they like as presenters) they were happy. So why they would bother theirselves to make serious and informative programs when they can earn money easier and why would they make the people informed about politics and other important stuff when tv is the most efficient way to reach lower class people so they can easily manipulate them to get what they want. Well, they did not and when you turn on the tv today it is all stupid, meaningless (un)reality shows and on the news it is not much different. When they have to get in politics it is simply what their owner wants is on. For example ATV is always with the current goverment and Kanal D always blaming them..  This is also the reason why it is a priority for every new goverment to change the director of TRT. Has anyone show TRT researching something against the goverment? or any kind of other thing that may result against the goverment? it is simply impossible

first i must admit that, this short story was the easiest to understate in terms of language compared to other short stories we have read so far.(at least for me)  What has got my interest about the story was how Irene keep listening other people’s lives even when it makes her miserable. I think writer got a point there, we seem to be a lot more interested than we should be about other peoples lives and we are trying to prove that how our lifes are so superior than others. So it is why most people are interested to find about others life and their problems and make gossip. It’s just another way of egoism.

Ah nerede which was shot in the time mostly referred as the golden age of the turkish cinema is one of the best romantic comedies in turkish cinema history. Although having kind of a cliche theme the good acting and the strong script are the reason why everyone still loves this movie and watch it when they see it on tv after 30 years. The characteristic of the father in this movie is very common in most turkish films and of course most of the turkish families. A rich country-man who wants his children to be well educated and lets them leave to istanbul for a good university education. Main characters of this film are of course the children who came to İstanbul for education Ferit, Murat and Ömer. They all say to their father that they have a successful school life but things are a bit different. Ferit the eldest brother is one of the classic casanova characters that we used to see in a lot of movies, instead of going to school he spends his time and money chasing girls. Murat wastes his time in cafes gambling and youngest brother Ömer spends his time going to political meetings and protesting goverment. the Father is a strict man who wants his children to listen his word and when it turns out none of the children are really successful in their schools he calls them back to country and make them work in the fields so they can learn how tough life can be if they won’t finish their schools. the Mother loves their children a lot and does not push them to do anything and the father blames her a lot for spoiling them. She even send money to the children secretly when they ran from the country house eventhough the father was not talking to them. In the end children realise that their father had a point and they become sucessful students also the father who is a tough but loving one forgives his children.

image retrieved http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7530/ahneredeposteric7.jpg on 19th november, 2008

First i have to say i liked the story, at least I found it a lot better than “A Rose for Emily”.  I think the dialogs in the story were good and thanks to good dialogs it was more of an enjoyable reading. What I find odd about the story is Connie at least for a few moments did seem interested in Arnold. I think it is ridicilous because any girl with little bit of logic would understand that something is wrong when someone ended up in your door asking for a date WITH A FRIEND. Who would go ask a date with a friend near him?

I just wanted to add this funny picture here, of course it is not a serious evidence against the people who thinks online file sharing is stealing, but I think it is funny enough to deserve a place in my blog. I think nowadays laws are written to protect strong companies more than ordinary citizens. The reason behind this is obviously the politicians need powerful people behind them to be elected and eventually those people who had helped them, asks for a favour. As Charlie W. Moore noted in his article that there is a law proposal in United States and when it becomes a law even a single unconscious copyright infringement will take you to jail and that is showing music producers, the powerful people are trying every possible way to get “internet pirates” out of their way( I don’t think artist care about it that much because they earn good money from their concerts, advertisements and so..). Is it fair? Well It may be but when u looked at the other side of the picture this requires goverment to watch everything you do on the internet and that is simply a breaking someone’s personal privacy what should not be allowed in any circumstances in my opinion.

image reference: http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/6998/Piracy.html

My problem with the short stories is that I know that there is going to be a surprise ending and while reading I’m always way more suspicious than I should be. With this approach, it’s unavoidable for me to be disappointed at the end of the story as the original ending is never as extreme as my predictions. It wasn’t any different for “ A Rose for Emily “ as well. So I ended up having thoughts like “ hmm, probably Homer Barron’s homosexual lover is going to kill Emily” or “ this servant should be a serial killer “ while reading parts that author probably wrote to make reader think about the life of a noble woman in old times. So it wasn’t fascinating for me to end up with a simple drama ending while expecting a better one. The servant in the story Tobe probably thought the same and was like “ What am I doing here if i’m not going to do something unexpected? “ while simply walking away at the end of the story.