who is bedreddin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedreddin
basically, an early leftist theologian who led a revolt against the established forces of pre-capitalist oppression
off Olum yuh be, iyice ipne amerikali olmussun. yok anxiety manxiety, nerde kaldi turk damarin, soyle bi biyik birak, bi tesbih al, omzuna at ceketi dolan ortada. Bak gorursun gelirler abi bi emrin var mi diye ayagina.
p.s Just a bit of a p.s, I'm sure Bedreddin isn't 'bedridden' spelled wrong, but my Turkish stops at 'merhaba' and 'zahmet olmazsa' so please tell me what it means!
@C78O. Ozgur Can I've really enjoyed reading each of your diaries, which I wish I'd found a long time ago. You really have a way with words, and understand people superbly, better than some people give you credit for. Your sense of adventure is unbelievable, too; I hope there will be more to read soon.
I've just read the comment that the gay journalist made. It's very sad how people with access to so much education can be so ignorant and yet so self-righteous at the same time. Juxtapose it with the knowledge of the gypsy kids in Turkey, for example, and the modesty and warmth of some of the people you met in Africa. I hope some day we'll meet up in Georgia, where my next trip is to, and have a beer together. We could even send him a postcard, if we knew which of the 50 states of La-la-land he lives in.
Keep writing and stay safe,
Jon
hopefully not the end glad to hear you disagreed with my views :) hopefully "real soon now" i'll be writing up a storm (i'm way behind).. but you know how it is... after a while you realize no-one understands what's going on anyhow and it's just a way to pass the time, and you write in your diary enough as it is... hence the lethargy.
Is that it for you? No more blogs? If that's the case, I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your writing, even if I disagreed with a lot of your views. I followed your blog from the start, way back in Turkey, and was hooked from then on. Your writings on Egypt and Ethiopia in particular were my favourites. It's too bad you've called it a day, but I know from experience how tiring it can be to keep updating a blog, especially if you don't enjoy it anymore, and feel you're only doing it on demand. So good luck!
sen onaylamasan da, ben yazicam.. senin icin.. baska turlu bir sey benim istedigim ne de olsa, ne agaca benzer ne de buluta.. burasi gibi degil gidecegim memleket.. denizi ayri deniz, havasi ayri hava.. ;)
adalar ozlemis seni.. gun olur alir basimi giderim.. denizden yeni cikmis aglarin kokusunda.. su ada senin bu ada benim.. yelkovan kuslarinin pesi sira...
um, what? Dangger, wtf on earth are you going on about? how the hell does being gay, a gay journalist, a gay secularist or a non-gay non-secular journalist whatever the fuck have to do with ANYTHING expect your fragile ego? In any event, great fucking blog bedreddin, you are a lucky bastard to be in a position to do it, but i have a feeling you know that. keep pumpin it out.
not that you wanted to hear from me, but i just needed to add that i have read some of your other blogs, and my recent rant was part necessity and part frustration, not simply from you, but from so many willing to cut things down to stereotypes, and rash conclusions. and after thinking that, i realized i was being a tad hypocritical. so in saying that, i hope your journey is going well and well, to each his own.
hopefully youve still got the quite key travelers beard.
reprioritize your values it was with great difficulty i read your blog. granted this was a couple of years ago, and you will most likely never lay eyes on my piece of mind, i still feel it necessary to shell out.
before you visit a country again, check your history, your facts, check your surroundings and your attitude. in case youd never heard of the red terror which struck ethiopia less than 20 years ago, and starved millions, displaced more, then you would think the country had more than enough food. And to think that every child who says they dont have a father, daughter, sister, mother is simply a lying con artist, i worry for you. There are 5 million AIDS orphans living in Ethiopia, 1.2 million just in Addis. And that is merely AIDS orphans. The entire population of mothers and fathers are being wiped out by disease, starvation and poverty. That leaves grandparents and children. Grandparents, who are too old to work, sending the kids to work, resulting in a child without an education, growing up on the streets, and what job is there without education, without a learned trade? and before judging by the world relief boxes you see shipped in, think about practicals. Just this year, anti-retroviral drugs are being shipped to Ethiopia to help those already infected with AIDS, just this year. Now, there are many, many men, women and children in Ethiopia who are thriving, getting an education and working to change the "beggar" aspect you so detest. But what I find amusing to the point of disgust, is how easily you dismiss a child, a child who no doubt is at the world's mercy, victims only of the environment we create for them.
I am a 19 year old who has lived in Ethiopia, not just a jaunt to see the sights, but consumed the people. I have never met friendlier, warmer or a more hospitable group of people. Most I have met have very little to give, but will gladly give whatever they have. did you even learn to eat with your right hand only or look painfully white while trying to copy their intricate and beautiful dance moves? Did you treat the elders with respect as one should, perhaps play soccer with the street kids, let a child cornrow your hair, or learn the very detailed process of making injera? Something tells me you spent your nights trying to hook up with girls and days avoiding the locals. your fear of others is obvious and you, as you seem through this entry, are void of what man needs most. Perhaps one day you will find what I am talking about. Please do not stop traveling, because the world is not done with you. When you have had that moment of realization, when you have let the world and the plight of others consume you to a point of no return, please contact me. For then, and only then will you have slightly fullfilled a journey worth blogging.
Greco Armenian hostility Bedrettin, my friend, you have opened Pandora's box here. Our Greek and Armenian adversaries are itching to take their revenge. No wonder, they have been brainwashed in their churches at Sunday schools for nearly 80 years.
It is time they accept they are not the "chosen people". They do not have a special place in the world. They, like us, have to suffer once in a while and shut up. There comes a time in history when strong displaces weak.
Yanks displaced Indians in North America, Spanish displaced Aztecs in Mexico, Spanish and Portugese displaced Incas and other natives in South America, Spaniards displaced Moors in Iberia, British displaced Aboriginies in Australia and Maoris in New Zealand. The list goes on and on............. As the saying goes: "mal sahibi, mulk sahibi.... nerede bunun ilk sahibi?"
In the end, Turks displaced Greeks in Anatolia. There is nothing strange about that. Are Yanks, British, Spanish, Portugese going to leave the lands they conquered from natives? .. Definitely not... Same with us.
So my suggestion to our Greco Armenian opponents: Chill out and forget living in the past... look at the future..
Yilmaz
XXXXXX "that man" whom you refer to is one of the most successfull military strategists of all time. He is a man who created a truly "workable" model of the Islamic state. It is his achievement (with the help of the masses) that has shaped you into who you are today buddy!! So he should be present in every corner of the nation, for without him it would not exist, nor would the freedom to practice Islam on the soil that comprises modern day Turkey.....a paradox that most seemingly enlightened individuals fail to acknowledge.......no amount of respect would be enough!
good to hear your thoughts! Hi Ozgur, I don't personally know you but we have a common friend. I was reading parts of your diary and also your replies to the various comments left about your diary, and for some reason I can't get the idea out of my head that I'm hearing our friend speaking through you at times. I would know, because I have spent many late hours staying up and conversing with him. I know he has a habit of getting into your head, and sometimes even confuses your mind a tad bit. Anyways, I just wanted to give you a shot out, and was curious about whether my theory that our common friend helped you write part of this was true. I'll ask him when I meet him tonight. By the way, I've been talking about him all this time without even mentioning his name. His name is Jack, although his good friends call him John. His last name is Daniels. Thank you very much for your time.
to Doug You rock. This comment had me laughing out loud! ;)
BTW, can we *please* post these religion/secularism related comments on the "Eastern Express" blog (where they belong)? This blog is supposed to be for me to brag about how well I deal with bureaucracy.
BTW, to the secularists: there was a suicide attack on some spanish tourists in Yemen yesterday... this is what happens when you take away the peaceful options, and the democratic path to freedom.. you get blind rage and violence. But then... I know no-one will wise up and they'll just say "They Hate Our Freedoms!"
Your fun is over As a gay man and a gay journalist I find it highly doubtful that an individual who does not even know how to spell 'bedridden' can have anything enlightening to communicate to the civilized world. Plus if he really is 'bedridden' (not bedreddin, thank you kindly) how is he able to travel to Sudan, Ethiopia, Palestine, Armenia, and all these other exotic places? I could almost believe him until I came to the part where he mentions his trip to Georgia. My friend, Georgia is one of the 50 states of this great nation, not a sovereign country of its own. That's point numero uno. Second point; you can take that "erti, ori" and whatever other crap you made up and stick it up your 12 year-old, bedridden ass. It might not seem obvious to some at first - because of the way those dumb bimbos at the airport talk- but they do speak ENGLISH in Georgia, not some fairy tale language called Georgian. That's right, my man, E-N-G-L-I-S-H. Now, descending back down to Planet Earth from our little trip to LA-LA LAND, I have this to say to all of you: leave this 12 year-old son of a bee-sting to cook in the hot place, and return to normalcy in your lives. He's been getting all of you worked up about religion, and history, and the injustice in the world, meanwhile he has another open window of his browser with the URL set to www.GAY.com and if you were in the room with him, all you would see would be his right hand going up and down, up and down. For any of you who don't like my tone with this kid, or my choice of words, I can only say this to you; try to resist the temptation to be homophobic. I'm a gay man and a gay journalist, and I say it as it is. As for you bedridden punk, I heard there's a new Harry Potter movie coming out, so lift your pants up from around your ankles and get to it.
Fesupanallah What an exciting discussion! Why is it that all secularists sound like each other and don't have any original ideas? Also, why do they preach from a pedestal when their only philosophy in life is to imitate Westerners and have no self-respect? I highly recommend using the brain God (in his mercy) has given you, instead of purchasing all your ideas wholesale from one man (I think it is understood who) that is no longer living and probably wished for something more than a country full of people with their knuckles pathetically dragging on the ground, however pleasant their clean-shaved faces or their bare heads may look. Imagine the future of a 6 year-old schoolboy who is embarrassed of his nationality and apologetically lets everyone in school order him around and takes pride in serving them. Not so pretty. Put up at least some resistance before comfortably settling down to shine my boots. And I want them extra shiny today.
discussion is a bit off, but my 2 cents The fundamentalists or islamists have the nice way of representing themselves repressed by the secularists. I wished that you had the chance to have a closer look to them and what they'd do when they have the means. I know of a big company in Istanbul which required all of its male employes to have a mustage, to go to a mosque on Fridays, fest in Ramazan - they will basically leave no time for lunch, automatically cut a part of your sallary to get subscribed to an islamic newspaper, periodically give you Quran interpretations and other Islamic publications, gather money from the employees for sacrifices in Kurban Bayrami with no opt out. Same goes for peers in school: few class mates of mine were not looking/talking at girls at all in school or shaking their hands when they saw them somewhere. I was very understanding to religious females until they started inviting me to readings of Quran (maybe I should have held sessions to secularize them).
Unfortunatly when you are not in touch with the culture, it's very easy to accept what's projected: secularists do not have an understanding for the poor religious people -- who only want to wear something different. Do not forget that those secularists are also 100% muslims (I have not seen a godless or ateist person in Turkey, everybody is born with it, it's in the culture). For the understanding: I have not seen a religious family daughter unveil themselves (they'd probably will be expelled), but I have seen lots of religious girls surpassing their families' religion level. And have seen many girls in their 12s with "bas ortusu". Did they have a choice or the brains to do that? Also have seen lot's of girls denied the right to enter the exams and attend university and being wed right after highschool by their families. That's why I'd say tsk tsk when I see a female with a charsaf, because that represents a person who did not have the chance to not wear it or this person did not have the chance choosing for themselves, go to university, get a profession or other. Carshaf is nothing else but the Islamic way of "binding feet".
It's very good that you see many countries, but maybe you should spend some time in the varos'es (not Bagdat caddesi) of country which you sometime (when it's good for you) your choose to identify yourself with.
to: secularist ceylan All I'm saying is that the "secular"s need to learn to be tolerant of other peoples' views. The "fundamentalists" (contrary to popular belief) actually are more tolerant than the "progressive"s. It's the "progressives" who are telling people what they can and can't wear... and, we both know that an "okuz" is not the same as a fundamentalist. In fact, a fundamentalist wouldn't say "gotunu sikiim anam"... although maybe he'd say "tsk tsk tsk"... but then, YOU would say "tsk tsk tsk" if you saw someone in a yemeni-style "charshaf". So... lets all try to be more understanding of others. And, paranthetically, I AM NOT A PRETTY BOY! ;)
You may as well try to be a little more sympathetic to the secularists ozgur can, considering you would be one of the first people kicked out of the country if the religious fundamentalists got their way. Remember the muslims are the capitalists now, they are the ones backing all this privatization shit and selling off infrastructure to foreign countries. And as a woman it is fucking unbearable to have to deal with all this sexual repression and tsk tsk tsk and "gotunu sikiiim anam" from the sex-crazedness that comes with islam. You even get it being a pretty boy. Its like all this haram stuff makes the whole male (and female) population completely pornographically minded every moment of the day. Maybe if they saw a few more mini skirts they would get used to it and not act like pigs.
fanatical islam? My understanding of history is that the Ottomans weren't really that fanatically muslim. I think fanatical Islam is a latter-day phenomenon, and born out of weakness and frustration (so it didn't exist back in a day when the Muslims didn't feel like religion is their only refuge). But hero worship has always been popular in Anatolia... The Romans and Greeks were into that sh*t too... Apotheosis and all..
My trip began (July 19, 2004) as a 14-month leave of absence from my job, with the intention of "seeing the world", and a bunch of unrealistic ideas of what can be accomplished in a year. Turns out a year isn't as long as it seems, so I've recently quit my job (yeay!) to become a full-time traveler. Until, that is, I run out of money or decide I'm ready to rejoin the ratrace.
In the meantime, I'm trying to blog at least once a month from the countries I'm visiting. I'm not interested in Western Europe, so don't expect pictures of Venice here. My blogs are basically my impressions of pla... full info
bedreddin
Ozgur Can Leonard
who is bedreddin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedreddin basically, an early leftist theologian who led a revolt against the established forces of pre-capitalist oppression