Alternate Vision

That jelly legs feeling has become an indistinguishable sensation. I think I am still fatigued from doing Cyprus, leave along my last 5 days of galavanting around the country. You would think sleeping at night would be easy, that I would pass out in a heartbeat. Yes but no. With a fan placed 2 feet away from me, half naked, I do my best to close my eyes and forget that relentless heat and lethal humidity that so effortlessly tortures me and everyother foolish individual who chooses to brave the Adana summer without the perks of an AC. But such is the way of life in these parts of the woods. The idea of a 4 am shower is beginning to sound inevitable. Henceforth, my picture posting on this blog will be rather erratic, in fits and stuts, for destiny demanded that my camera be taken away from me last week. If I had a clue as to its whereabouts, then I would atleast mourn with the pleasant thought that maybe somewhere, someone is doing justice to my Optio-S. But I haven't a clue. That, however, didnt stop me from having a whale of a time in my most recent travels to Istanbul and Cappadochia. More stories and pictures to come.


If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well enough to travel - Sir Vivian Fuchs

One Radhakrishnan over a thousand Blairs or Bushes!

Dr. Radhakrishnan has always emhpasized that the spiritual message of Hinduism is adequate not only to meet the needs of India, but those of the whole of mankind. "The great religious tradition of India which has had a continuous life from the seers of the Upanishads and the Buddha to Ramakrishna and Gandhi, may perhaps help to reintegrate this bruised, battered and broken world and give it the faith for which it is in search. Indian wisdom is essential not only for the revival of the Indian nation but also for the re-education of the human race." He admits to the absurdity in speaking of Indian monopolies of philosophic wisdom but maintains that the essential spirit of Hinduism is universally valid because there is "one perennial and universal philosophy" to be found in all lands and cultures.


In the present day world where we are witnessing an erosion of moral values in every walk of life, his thoughts become all the more relevant. His greatest contribution was making the heritage of the east accessible the west. Dr. Radhakrishnan belongs to a group of outstanding thinkers and world leaders that are in a league of their own. The world could use another Radhakrishnan right about now.

From Adriano's blog,


Saturday night. Sitting at a Caffe Rouge's table, talking about nothing specific, we realize once again the extraordinary experience that we are living: sitting at the same table, drinking beer and coke, talking as old friends there are an american, an italian, two romanians, a tunisian, a taiwanese, an australian, a finnish and a british. The feeling that the world doesn't have borders anymore has become a sweet routine.
It's half past nine pm, we decide to go dancing; short lay over to buy a cold beer and, sipping, we start walking to the club. The neon sign saying CAZARA is on; we pay and one by one we enter. The club is not a disco; the atmosphere riminds a disco-pub one, but there isn't enough room to dance. It doesn't matter: we order a Raki, an alcolic turkish licorice-flavored drink, and start dancing. The peculiarity of the club is the possibility to write whatever you want on its walls; inevitably my eyes start looking for some writings that I can understand. On a wall, between turkish sentences, an english one stands out:

"I'm a space monkey. I just press a button, pull a lever and I don't understand why. And then, I just die"

The hand that wrote that sentence is placeable: it is one of the Adana INCIRLIC base's american soldiers'. Guys of my age who, without having choice, decide who has to die and who has to survive, guys who play an horrible videogame where it doesn't matter how many points you collect, if the enemy hits you, there is no bonus life to use. They are in front of me right now, they dance and sing normally, they smile and drink beer clapping their hands following the music's rhythm. They are just like me, they look happy, at least for tonight; tomorrow they will be again simple space monkeys.

Adriano

Travelling is never all fun and games. This weekend was testament to that. Juan and I, with empty wallets, backpacks, high spirits and some Finlandia set out to Girne, North Cyprus from Taşucu. I was pleasantly surprized to find a duty free shop at the Taşucu harbor. The seabus ferry ride takes about 3 hours when most normal ferries cover this distance in 5-6 hours. Ten minutes into the boat ride and the onboard clerks come around with beer,drinks and snacks for sale. They are smart about doing the rounds twice, just incase you change your mind. Ten minutes later they come around with plastic bags. My first reaction was "why the need for trash bags so early?". Then suddenly, one by one, half the bus empties out to the exit doors for fresh air. Everyone was sea sick. Apparently the sea was rather choppy that afternoon, but this didn't slow the seabus down. Within an hour all the four exits were crowded with people (including myself) breathing heavy and fighting for some fresh air. I have never seen so many people throw up at the same time. It took me a few hours to recover from the journey.

A lot more went wrong this weekend, but none of it is worth blogging about. Cyprus is a quaint, interesting island in the mediterranean with a fascinating history. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all controlled the island at some point in time. That was several centuries ago. Today, most of North Cyprus has been converted into a highly overpriced haven for tourists seeking some "club-med" action. Gazimagusa, on the east coast of the island is home to the Eastern Mediterranean University(EMU) and is a tad bit less touristy. It also boasts of an insanely large international student body with most of them coming from Nigeria, Cameroun, Tunisia, India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Palestine and England. Reason for this is a lot of them come here on scholarships that afford them a free education. At around 3 am on Friday night I ran into Ike, the Nigerian from Lagos. Fancy having a conversation in pidgin on Cyprus? How about a samba party? The troupe came from Belo Horizonte. Next afternoon, on the bus ride back to Girne sitting behind us were two Sri Lankan men. They spoke to eachother in Sinhalese and Tamil and everytime their phone rang they would take off into Turkish. Fascinating.

I made sure to overdose on avomin on the way back. I would go back there but only for the beach action and to see Jimena.

From G-8 to Live-8 to online blogs it seems the focus is, and maybe has been for a while on Africa. The blogging revolution is unleashing its true potential. Emeka Okafor is just one of the many individuals who is using the world of blogs as an avenue to inspire thought and promote awareness around contemporary issues that the continent faces. Definitely, the same can be said for other parts of the world (Middle East, Asia, South America etc), but I wish to discuss the blogging revolution and and its immediate impact on Africa.

If you google search "Africa blogs" one of the the first things that results is Blog Africa, an open webspace to list African related blogs. The first thing I noticed was the diversity in the type of blogs listed-porn,sports, economics, sustainable alternative development, digital aid, NGOs, random bloggers, music and so much more. Five years ago, am sure none of them existed. With the ushering in of this blogging era (and internet age) you have now a melting pot of really random, eclectic, unsorted bits of information that holds the key to Africa's future. How, you ask?

Well, certainly the the fate of Africa's future lies in the hands of this next generation of dreamers, entrepreneurs and young and upcoming social scientists who quite obviously realize the urgency in rescuing the continent from being completely marginalized in the globalization race. Quoting Wafula Okuma, "these leaders will be dissimilar to the present crop that desperately seeks to feel intellectually superior to the masses, believe that they alone have access to ideas that will make the world a perfect place for the masses if they sheepishly follow their ideas, yearn to be makers of history, and have a tendency to substitute their ambitions for leadership, their wishes for ideas and their ideas for truths which others must live by. " Fluffy ideals and big words yes, but there is truth to be drawn from that statement. The blogsphere (and the internet ofcourse), I like to think, has afforded individuals, organizations, entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers and random nobody's a platform to not just express their ideas and views globally but also exchange and coordinate these "unsorted" bits of information openly, giving each of them a stake in mapping the road to the future.

If you delve deeper you will be staggered by the number of such blogs and websites that are working towards such ideals. Take digital africa for instance, a blogger reporting live from Gleneagles, sharing his perspective not just within his capacity as a reporter, but as a human being for the world to read. And then there are blogs like ink revolution and genesis that throw light on myriad issues and topics pertaining to the continent that have a sublime effect on you, the reader. To drive home my point, books have been written and speaches have been given but never in the history of man has there ever been such large bits of information being exchanged by anybody and everybody daily. Sort these bits together and the revolution will have taken shape. Food for thought.

I am no authority on this subject, rather just another one of them nobody's who gives a damn. In my humble opinion this is an unprecedented phenomenon and should not be underestimated. I guess it remains to be seen what effect this will have. I look to the future with folded arms and a twinkle in my eye. Shanti!

And to think its been a year already. Was it not yesterday that I was standing behind the Ross' watching the vadyaar(South Indian Priest) oversee the proceedings at the wedding with tears in my eyes? Things were infinitely different back then, it seems. Mentally and emotionally, I was in seventh heaven yet the inner voice that continues to guide my every action, reaction, thought and emotion spoke louder than ever before. Those ten days will always mark a turning point, not just in my life.


Happy First Year Anniversary Megz and Chap.

In the words of S.J. Perelman, "love is not the dying moan of a distant violin, it's the triumphant twang of a bedspring." You better have a good enough reason for not picking up your phone this weekend ;)

It was around 6 in the evening. We were riding a dormuş (30 seater bus) back from the beach. The sun was no where near ready to retire, rather it was in full form; relentless; unstoppable to the point that you felt every ray slice through your skin. My head was throbbing. Juan and I managed to grab a seat at the back of the bus, both of us fatigued from having spent a long, much needed, day on the beach doing what not. It didnt help that we were gorging down a döner sandwitch, with oil, parsley and onions spilling all over the place everytime the bus jerked. The bus conductors (two of them) weren't too pleased about this.

The bus ride back from Kizkalesi was a modest hour long back to Mersin from where we had to catch a train back to Adana. Ten minutes into the ride and the bus was packed way beyond its normal capacity. Passengers lined the middle aisle. All of them were standing with some pushing and shoving taking place between them. Now, sitting a row ahead of us to the left was a lady who must have been in her late thirties, with her 2/3 year old son sitting on her lap while her daughter, who was probably 6 was forced to stand. The mother was visibly stressed, almost to the point of being distraught. Her son, from what I could see sitting at the back, was diseased. I will spare you the details. To add to her misery her daughter was almost in tears because she was desperately sleepy and didnt have a seat to sit in. So she sat on the floor next to her mom, desperate to close her eyes. It was quite a pitiable sight and all the mom could do was tell her daughter to hush up, for fear of disturbing the people around them. She looked helpless. My heart went out to them.

Juan and I decided to take turns standing and gave up one seat for the girl. The mother couldn't understand why we would do this for, dare I say, chivalry is certainly not a quality that men here possess, atleast not on a bus. So the girl sits down and minutes later is fast asleep. The bus conductors were perplexed and babbled something at us in shock. Minutes later, the bus halts at the next bus stop. Some seats open up and Juan and I both have a seat again. Pleased with the status quo and with no energy to think I fall asleep. Twenty minutes later the bus jerks to a halt at yet another bus stop. The jerking awakes me and I notice a couple enter the bus along with some others. Everyone finds a seat to sit in except for the man. The conductors' first reaction was to turn around, grab the girl by the arms (who was still fast asleep) and force her to stand. Everyone else seemed calm about this and lost in their own world. The mother was embarassed that this had to happen and looked on at all three men apologetically. So I stood up and offered my seat to the gentleman who, along with the conductors, noticed I was a forgeigner. They insisted that the young girl's seat was available to him and that I shouldn't bother.

Here I was witnessing for myself a complete lack of respect for the opposite sex. Yes, it is a traditionally conservative society where men's outlook towards women is, again, dare I say, backward but this was ridiculous.

I refused to let them take her seat and stood for the rest of the ride, which was only another 10 minutes. All the while the conductors remained perplexed while the mother remained speechless. And again, dare I say, this is but the tip of the iceberg. This world needs some fixing. Badly.

We can be heroes, if just for one day!















With love from Kizkalesi

"India feels that it stands to lose its traditional rights over yoga and related ancient fields of study about medicine and health and possible revenue streams, if it does not act fast. Thus, India's Science and Technology (S&T) ministry is pushing for a more thorough patenting of the country's traditional knowledge base to prevent future misuse and bio-piracy. Yoga is one area that is being examined with considerable zeal. " Asia Times

India moves to protect its traditional knowledge. I'm thinking its about freaking time. Many would argue that this is sacrligious and putting a monetary value on spiritualism is outright wrong. But, in this age of globalization with bio-piracy as rampant as it is, this is much overdue. The thought of documenting and patenting yogic asanas cracks me up, but yet I see how its essential . I have mixed feelings about the 1995 WTO agreement that requires many non-western countries to switch over to "product patents" (mandatory to be a member), but after studying about the legal system in the west, it is obvious to me that countries wanting to adopt a market economy will compete at a disadvantage without this. Implentation for the newer countries such as India will cost a fortune, while mutinational companies simply continue to augment their profits. I wonder what Dr. Nichols has to say about this.