 Ozgur Can Leonard - bedreddin | All Comments |
Comments | |
| 30th July 2006 Jeff | the ability to walk away - From: A day in the life compassion, regardless of your feelings that those you see suffering deserve it, is lacking in men's hearts today....we have seperated ourselves so, that the plights of others have no impact on our own well-being.....to see the poverty of a nation and see no more than an unmotivated beggar in their want for bread. - Jeff The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. ~John Berger |
| 27th July 2006 Drake | Good Times at Hisar - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Yo, sorry I didn't say goodbye in Istanbul. Hope you're taking it easy for all us sinners and having lots of cheap drinks at Hisar! |
| 23rd July 2006 KHaas | Gettin' Jiggy - From: Yellow Men in Israel and the West Bank Nicely written. Your piece transported me to my last visit in Hebron ('97) where it was Isralis soldiers on patrol, settlers creating consternation, and Palestian taxi drivers blasting Will Smith's "Gettin Jiggy With It" in earshot of the spice racks of the Souk. I'll never forget it... and I'll never forget the feeling that maybe in the music (?) there was some strange global unity. Amongst the kids (on both sides) anyway...... Thanks for the article. Keep writing. |
| 17th July 2006 Sarah | Nice one - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Best blog I've ever read. I'm in Doha at the moment, got a bit stuck. They wouldn't give me an exit permit after saying their anti Danish cartoon stickers were not going to make me commit suicide for their cause. Now I'm teaching Technical English to Aviation and Engineering students from Qatar, Iraq and Lebanon (how I ended up doing that I don't know). Planning to leave this building site for good in Feb and travel around Africa, that's how I came across your site - I was checking about the possibility of getting a ferry from Yemen to Djibouti to start the trip. Where are you now? |
| 11th July 2006 king for a day | is it over - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home great journey, but it feels like you are about to wake up. |
| 9th July 2006 Darrell | Tesekkurler, arkadasim! - From: 48 Hours in Djibouti I can't imagine how rough it is, and I find myself speaking Turkish occasionally when the Arabic starts off... why couldn't you buy anything? You should have went to the casino! :) |
| 6th July 2006 Syrian at large | The tower tombs - From: Leaving the SAR Hi, I am a Syrian and I have got news for you. I worked on an archeological expidition at that same tower in the picture years ago, and it belongs to the Palmyrian Family Attanatan. Awesome picture dude. Cheers :) |
| 22nd June 2006 Muna UK | - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place I think you should of approached Somaliland, or Somali’s with an open mind, you should of researched into their history and culture before or even during your stay (access to internet is very easy there). Your experience I must say is disappointing, but very rare. Why were u given hostile stares, rather bizarre. It’s actually very shameful in Somali culture to be inhospitable; one of the greatest traits of Somali’s is their hospitability. There has been an increased Islamisation in Somalia as whole post-war. The green paste exfoliates the skin, it has minerals. One must remember Somaliland once a thriving city was left without a single roof on the houses during the war…its recovery compared to the previous destruction is remarkable given the time. By the way, how long were you in Somaliland? you should of really mixed with some of the educated classes, to have a proper dialogue and insight into the people. Its not really a place for tourist at the moment… may be with the recovery of the central govt…possibly soon, can Somaliland become a place for reckoning, and Somalia as a whole. PS the Turks are very mixed people, there are Turks with blue eyes, green eyes, naturally blonde, light skinned, darker skinned… the stereotype that a Turk is dark and looks a bit like a belly dancer is wrong...u just need to go to Turkey to see that. “I think it’s telling that Turkey is the other muslim country I’m aware of that is also pretty intolerant of other religions”... Turkey is a secular state, where Islam is not the state religion. Throughout Turkish history, they have been a very pluralistic tolerant society, with their personal law systems e.g. a Jewish persons laws/religion were recognised and accepted (in addition the Turks protected Jews during the WW2). Turkey according to its history is possibly one of the most tolerant states ever, when it came to other people’s religion, the position was “there is no compulsion in religion” surah 2 verse 256 of the Holy Quran. Apart from one dark chapter- Armenia…by the way, the history here is fuzzy and clouded in controversy. It’s possibly also in Turkeys interest not to join bureaucratic Europe at a time of good economic growth. Ps... blogger u seemed p****, if ur up for the challenge..may be in the future, u should reassess ur view of Somaliland and their ppl |
| 22nd June 2006 Zach | Very Cool - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Very Cool. Zach, Vancouver, Canada |
| 13th June 2006 me | about me - From: Commemorating the fallen :O ben bile bilmiodum trojan horseun turkiyede oldugunu cus yani hic gercegede benzemio camlari kapilari olmasi gerekmiomu bu atin ? |
| 10th June 2006 stone | - From: The Fastest Way to Receive Money this narration rouses a great pity for his author ! He is pitting on everyone, and his gobs are the exact reflected image of what he really is : somebody without a personality, moving in an ocean of emptiness, with some taste for masochism... For instance, what that idiot had to stay and to do with French people if he could not back up them ? Pityfull... |
| 31st May 2006 Nawar Majbour | welcom - From: In Defence of the Veil If you came to latakia you would to enjoy very much i advice every on to visit my great city welcom to Syria welcom to Latakia your brother Nawar |
| 22nd May 2006 Ahmed Trabulsi | are u sure ur in lebanon - From: Tripoli, Hiking, Partying and Baalbeck woooww this is sooo biased , sorry but r u a muslim extremist or something?? i have lived in lebanon all my life , i am a muslim ,, aftr reading all ur posts on lebanon i just cant believe what u r saying,,1st ur comments about people with tattoos of crosses on thr foreheads, these r not tattoos my friend , ths is a maronite christian tradition wer wen a very important person dies or on the monday after easter after the funeral or prayers black paste is put on the fore head , (from dust ur r made and to dust u shall return), come on man this is a terrible mistake!! and u seem to judge all the lebanese from a couple of extremists you met in bcharre!! thn u go make the palestinians look soo innocent!!! as a muslim i feel for the palestinians but i also understand y the christians dont like thm,, the palestinians slaughtered soo many christians u cant even count them ,after the lebanese goverment accepted the palestinians into their land , thy turned against us and totally messed ur country up!!! |
| 13th May 2006 marlowe | A swift kick in the rear end for you - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Turkey/mogadishu man/Jesus/ whatever they're calling you these days, I believe you left behind a certain Pakistani flag on a flagpole where it had no business being hoisted. The authorities are still looking for you so they can return it. Quite a surprise stumbling on your blog. Anyway, glad to see you're living your dream while you can. Don't get killed and don't let them send you to gitmo. They just might mistake you for the next John Walker Lindh. Give me a holler sometime you hacker! |
| 9th May 2006 ed | stupidity? - From: Of Lorries and Rebels there is a big difference between stupidity and ignorance... you only have to look at a whole swathe of middle america to see a race suspicious of books... as Bill Hicks recounted... "hey whattya got there... a book? Why you readin' that? Oh Oh... we got a reader here...." |
| 9th May 2006 Ed | Ooh too much for the white man - From: The Fastest Way to Receive Money Your supercilious attitude, blogged with a self importance only a pitifully immature and dispassionate a person could have, makes me wonder why you bothered making the journey at all... travellers such as yourself give westerners a bad name .... but hey your blog is compulsive reading all the same, if only to give oneself more reasons to dislike you and your French friends. Just wished you appreciated the life you live a little bit more... not many people get the chance to experience what you have of the world. Just give up about the begging lark FFS!!! |
| 8th May 2006 Katrina | 'curly-bearded religious fanatics' - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home ah..so..endearing... Beautifully written, Can. |
| 7th May 2006 cowgirl | good article - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place Never been to Somalia, but your description and story kept me reading. Good photos and descriptive text. Perception on political realm seems 'right on,' for unfortunately U.S. has earned the name "ugly American." |
| 2nd May 2006 me | - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home is it you - "mogadishu man"???? |
| 30th April 2006 Zavier | - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home I am not sure about the no longer desperate part! |
| 29th April 2006 brian | - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Just came across your blog, it's great. I've only read the past few blogs but your writing style is fantastic, as well as your stories...maybe one day I'll leave everything behind and travel |
| 27th April 2006 me again | "i am human" - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home What is the black shadow on the right side of the"manhattan of the desert" pic ?? :) |
| 25th April 2006 me | desperate? - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home What did you refer to when saying "desperate"? I really enjoyed your blog (had to grin broadely!)! Good to hear from the pashtun warrior again :) By the way - What about your pashtun warrior's sword (stick) ?? |
| 25th April 2006 Devrim | Bakalakadaka Street! - From: MIA in Yemen Dirk, bakalak, Mohammad Jihad, a sherpa sherpa sherpa |
| 24th April 2006 Unemployed Ian | - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Late arrival to your blog, but enjoying it hugely. |
| 24th April 2006 devrim | qat chewing pos - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home Surprised you didn't mention your near abduction... I guess it's quite difficult to compress 6 months of undescribable experiences with archair warriors who cannot appreciate half of what you describe and are looking for the two second version. I'm really glad I got to come and see you though; Yemen is awesome and I also hope to come back one day. Hope you don't miss chewing qat too much you POS. |
| 24th April 2006 Devrim | Janvier's Hass - From: The State of Eritrea When you guys told me his story about the 10 hour jeep ride in his own shit in Pakistan I almost lost it... haha, good memories. :) |
| 23rd April 2006 ConMel | - From: Bringing the 'War on Terror' home good to have you back writing, Yemen looks cool. |
| 10th April 2006 Mengdi Deng Sheng | Love one another - From: Sabra & Shatila I do not understand; what is the problem or the difference between christians and muslims, since you are all arab, palestinians and lebanese. We in China, consider all Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Tibet as part of China we respect everyone religion - we do not say China is for Chinese - it will never happen - what we say is China is for everyone - I think you should learn from us. According to your population census, currently the majority is muslims and the rule of thumb the projected 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - 50 years the christian population is going to shrink - if you are having a problem now what will happen in the future? Look at your neighbor Israel - they do not say Israel for Israelis - but they welcome russians, brazilians, argentinian, romanian, turkish, ethiopians - they are not saying that they are better than others. In my opinion live together love one another, you are a small country and not a strong country. |
| 9th April 2006 David Dylan | Turkish impersonating to be a european - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place I have a tough time understanding Turkish people. They have changed their language, alphabets and even clothing to make themselves look European, but they are not. I despise the Turkish men whispering 'sex arkadash' and 'Natasha' the sex slaves. Thank god Turkey will not be admitted into EU. |
| 7th April 2006 jazzar | they diserve - From: Sabra & Shatila i am an a lebanese forces member and i made the massacre their.i was the leader of the troop i killed 10 childrens and a lot of armed adults because they killed my child in damour by cuting his hands i asked the israeli helps and they didnt refuse so the israeli was outside and we with amal and some of syria allies entered the camp and we left when we killed everybody and we are obliged to do it again we will do it because the palestinian maked the civil war starting from ain el remmaneh |
| 6th April 2006 ozlem | - From: MIA in Yemen Nerdesin Leo? |
| 6th April 2006 m | shukran jazilan! - From: MIA in Yemen thanks a lot for your blog from a bosnian and her husband currently in istanbul. i only wish there were more people like you. Please do not omit the political comments, we need it to counterweigh all the insipid and cowardly garbage that dominates the media. it's a relief to read notes from a "leftist" turk who does not hate the arabs! |
| 3rd April 2006 none | happy 28th - From: MIA in Yemen Happy 28th Birthday! |
| 27th March 2006 anonymous | Ignorance - From: A day in the life Thank you whoever wrote the comment before me. How can anyone generalise a whole country? I was quite enjoying the report until this idiot, i am really sorry but you must be very ignorant, writes that Ethiopians are spoon fed. Let me tell you something maybe you don't like the fact that Ethiopia was never a colony and doesn't see the white man as god and says yes and amen to everything. Maybe you and your friends or whoever they are just expected to be spoon fed. i guess you just thought these stupid poor starving Africans will do whatever you desire. Think again!!! |
| 8th March 2006 Aisha | are you alive? - From: MIA in Yemen woow long time no update..some of us are beginning to wonder if your alive? some of us also want to hear about your adventures..hence...UPDATE!! |
| 6th March 2006 Jeniffer | Simslots - From: Mevlana (Rumi)-land A great site where one can enjoy the thought of a great mind long departed. Cheers for the good work! |
| 5th March 2006 Baybora | AVA - From: MIA in Yemen |
| 2nd March 2006 Me | - From: MIA in Yemen i wanna read more, canim.. |
| 27th February 2006 charlesfred | - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place I don't know what you must have been doing to receive hostile stares. I was in the country in November and got mostly smiles and welcomes. I felt perfectly safe and very much at home here, amongst a fine and proud people. Maybe it just wasn't your kind of place. Who knows? |
| 26th February 2006 bedreddin | to Serb boy... - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place dude, grow up. To Somalilanders: I do *not* agree with this loser's statements or thoughts in any way... I realize his comments must be very insulting, but I'm leaving them there since he's basically proving my theory that racism is the trademark of the *West*, not the East... |
| 24th February 2006 Stefan SERB | Ha ha - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place I cannot believe you visited this shit hole, this is by far the worst country on the planet along with Afghanistan. God damn and I thought people believed Eastern Europe was rubbish, this is the most underdeveloped savage area that Earth has to offer, I would sooner die than travel there. For some photos of a truly beautiful European city visit: http://www.pbase.com/stefan_serb/belgrade_2005 FUCK ALL SOMALI SCUMBAGS FUCK OFF HOME YOU PIECE OF SHIT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!! LEAVE THE UK NOW!! |
| 22nd February 2006 Melih | Good Luck - From: Pergamum I am reading your comments about my home town Bergama from Dubai. Please continue to travel and tell everbody how beatiful Bergama is, good luck |
| 18th February 2006 Jack Highland | ignorant and boring article. - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place Congratulations!! there is finnally someone who is talented enough to write in a ignorant and boring style. You have obviously not studied the country's history before you actually vistted it. There is a whole lot more to Somaliland than what you have stated. As a psychologist I am sensing acertain "ARROGANCE" and a certain factor of jealousy due to the fact that americans have lost their culture (not that they ever had culture since they are our cousins "THE BRITISH"). I have been to Somaliland 6 times in the past 4 years and the expiereince as a White British traveler i.e. pack packer always seem to amaze me. The coutry's efforts to surrvive without international regognition is pretty impresive. But your comments are more than right wing, it more like a racist (the most small minded people in this world), people like you the people who don't like to see development in the world. I'd like to ask you ask you why is it that you don't want any critical views about your blog? what makes think that the people have posted their their true thoughts about you blog? Any way just to confirm the it takes a real man to expiernce and live the somali why of life, just ask me. your manhood has been severly dameged in somaliland just because you are coward to start with ant you are probably one still. If somaliland wasn't safe why have I White Britsh mandecide to to build the house of my dreams in the Hagiesa the capital. Anyway i hope this sinks in I know it's a big chunk to swallow but it's only the honest truth. So best of luck in your next journey, make sure that you you don't commit any murders in TAXAS or you won'y live to tell the story. Peace!!! |
| 14th February 2006 An Ethiopian | Stupidity - From: A day in the life I was amazed at your comment with regard to Ethiopians having an attitude and requiring spoon feeding. Walking through the countryside and seeing the poverty did not faze the utterly cold heart that both you and X have. On the contrary, Ethiopians are hard working when given the chance. Goes to show you the western preception? If it had been Ireland where you encountered this misery, you would be up in arms but for your black brothers no sense of pathos. To you I say, may you never find what you are looking for. May you never feel contentment. May you feel the sense of starvation on a full stomach. Ptuff(I am simulating spit to punctuate my curse.) |
| 1st February 2006 erkan | Turkey belongs to Turks - From: No Greeks here... I think some people find really hard to realise that this country called Turkey and belongs to us for centuries and we will fight to keep it for centuries to come.Now, any minorities or any other nationalities who lives in this country are welcome to live with us under Turkish Flag as long as they respect and contribute to this country.So many example of good citizens from different background have no problems with us and they are quite happy to pronounce themselves as Turkish citizens.Like in many counries we have people who dont like our ways,this is ok.we believe in tolerance but there are some wants to stab us from our back,since the unfair treaty of sevres,to this days Iam afraid the only answer to this people and the ones who provokes them is you just wasting your time and my time of course,like i said TURKEY BELONGS TO TURKS understand.... |
| 22nd January 2006 Tammy | - From: MIA in Yemen I want to read more.... |
| 19th January 2006 pecheur | good job! - From: A Dangerous And Uncertain Place Of course the author ignorant of the local culture, what do people expect, he's NOT FROM THERE! How EXACTLY do you expect him do understand fully the local culture when this is the first time he has ever been there!?! You can't expect somone to be knowledgable of every single culture on this planet. But he is acutally making an effort by going to a place most westerners would never dream of visiting. I applaud your effort bedreddin. |
| 18th January 2006 Tolerance | Goodwill - From: No Greeks here... I think that Turkey, if it wishes to join the European Union and be accepted as a Tolerant and responsible nation, schould show some real Goodwill to her Minorities and their culture. The Turkish state should attempt, in a real effort, to not carry out any more anti minority policies or tolerate anti minority actions. It is a fact that the area of Turkey has got a huge non Turkish history, and if the Republic of Turkey is to deserve to be the guardian of all their treasures, it should protect them and treat them well, and come forward and publicly regret and accept the wrongs that it commited in the past and try to make reperations, and stop these things from re-occuring. Actions such as turning churches into mosques is a real cultural insensibility and can be considered a provocation, and cannot be part of our modern world. Turkey tends to retain its 'token' remains of other cultures but lets the rest decay or be demolished, since the human representatives of these cultures were evicted, or worse, murdered, by the Turkish state. Turkey should show that it can do better. |
| 29th December 2005 fenl | what happened to the far east? - From: MIA in Yemen i was expecting that you will pop up in china or somewhere in the far east. at least remember reading it somewhere. what made you change your mind? |
