Pups Lives!

Our favorite animal in our residential complex is a grumpy old dog we call Pups for lack of creativity. He would always be sunbathing or lying in the shade under cars in front of our building during the day. The first time he met each of us he barked but them after realizing we would scratch his head and stomach become calmly friendly, always trotting up with wagging tail and sniffing around any shopping bags we might be carrying to check if there was anything for him. Other neighbors seemed to like him as well, stopping their cars beside him to roll down their windows and scratch his head, asking How are you, my son? He was wholly harmless; the only physical altercation he got into in front of us was with a crazy-ass cat who sent him away yelping.
At night, though, he turn vigilante and enjoyed hiding in the bushes and then howling at anyone who passed by after curfew. Evidently this pissed off enough neighbors that one day last week, I heard him yelping and looked out the window to see two men in municipality polo shirts trying to get him out from under a car and into a grey hearse-like vehicle using one of those lasso-ended poles. He managed to give them the slip and run off just as a lady from my building came out asking what was going on, what were they doing. One of the men ignored her entirely and got behind the wheel of the hearse to drive it around to the other side of the complex; the other, left on foot to walk in the direction Pups had fled, just said brusquely that the neighbors complained and they didn't want to do this either but they had to. A little while later the hearse drove back past and out of the complex.
I asked the unhelpful complex security guard and then the very helpful employees of the mini market inside the complex if there was anything I could do to get him back and would they kill him. They laughed and said no, the neighbors had been complaining about his night howls so they'll just give him vaccinations (he had a tag on his ear already, but evidently old) and something to calm him down (??) and then bring him back.
My girlfriend was skeptical of this claim, and the fact that the phone numbers for the possibly Orwellianly-named municipal "Street Animal Rehabilitation Center" were not functional, along with news of police killing beloved street dogs for no reason in a nearby neighborhood, did nothing to allay concerns. The men from the municipality showed up a few days later together with a vet for something else and I asked them what became of the dog. As brusquely as usual, they told me that they hadn't caught him, he'd escaped. Then why haven't I seen him since the day you came? I asked, and they didn't bother to answer. I asked the super after a few more days of no Pups and he said yes the municipality took him but they just gave him vaccines and dropped him back off. He was back in the neighborhood, just hanging out behind the building nowadays but he would come back out front.
Why the contradictory stories? Was everybody lying in that weird Middle Eastern way where people think that they are softening the blow of a death by just denying it happened?
That was what I thought until last night when I heard a familiar howl from the woods behind the building. The area is inaccessibly fenced off, a shared backyard for the neighbors living on the ground floor, and in the dark and through the tree cover I couldn't see anything.
But then tonight, another howl and then, from our balcony, we watched as Pups came trotting over like nothing had happened to a neighbor's back door to where she (probably a she) had moved his food bowls, which used to be out front.
My theory is that Pups did indeed get away from the municipality and then our neighbor took him into her back yard to hide him from the Man and put a collar on him for good measure to show he wasn't a street animal that they had jurisdiction over. The super must have seen the municipality vehicle come and then seen Pups a few days later and figured they had caught then released him. My faith in the neighborhood is restored.
It would be nice if he could come out front so we could play with him again, but I suppose better that he is protected from the street animal gestapo. Maybe I will go downstairs and introduce myself to the neighbor and ask if we can go into her back yard to play with Pups. Play is a strong word--unfortunately he has no idea how to play fetch or inclination to chase flying object, but we could go give him a scratching.

Croatia wrap-up

We are back in Istanbul. For a pure baking-on-the-beach-and-exploring vacation experience Dubrovnik might be my favorite place I've ever visited. For starters there were no jellyfisgh and virtually no mosquitos and the tap water is potable.



The food was mostly excellent: my favorite was "the cheerful Bosnian," a rumpsteak wrapped in a tube around vegetables in a creamy sauce that I ate at a Bosnian restaurant improbably named Taj Mahal. The seafood was also good, though these whole prawns were a bit advanced for me, particularly the one that oozed black goo from its midsection, I now know a sign of being not so fresh.


Our favorite place was Lokrum Island, a short boat ride from the medieval walled city center. The city center and beaches near the ferry landing were very crowded with tourists, but everywhere in the city and on the island we went, just a few minutes walk and we would find ourselves completely alone. The perfect swimming cove we kept returning to, and mostly had all to ourselves:



Lokrum is heavily populated by peacocks and rabbits, though they seem despite drawing tourist love to be officially ignored as pests rather than attractions. Nowhere in pamphlets and guides are peacocks mentioned.

Notice anything missing from this guide to the city's birds found on the island?



When we tired of swimming and hiking and sunbaking, there was a half-build monastery on Lokrum with an airy cafe inside where we could play cards. When hungry, we picnicked on Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party-style carved wooden chairs and table. They were all cut from a very aromatic wood that smelled halfway between pine and cedar.

Dubrovnik

We are in Dubrovnik, Croatia for a little vacation and visa refresher. You may recognize the old city as King's Landing in Game of Thrones. The show seems to have been a great boost to the city's tourism, as there are film location tours and souvenirs everywhere and I've already spotted Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister wax sculptures in shops.

Dinner of Dalmatian smoked ham and risotto stained black with cuddlefish ink.

The photo below is from the very nationalist Homeland War museum atop the ridge that overlooks the city. Dubrovnik was under siege by Yugoslav National Army in 1991 and 1992 in what they also call the War of Independence or War of Serbian and Montenegrin Aggression. The museum, a fort built by Napoleon's marshall in 1806-1812 that then served as a stronghold in the 1991 defense of the city (not the bullet marks behind me), has room after room of weapons from the war of independence and photos of Croatian soldiers looking brave (a disturbing number of them with a weapon in one hand and a beer toasting the camera in the other) and old ladies looking sad and the city's buildings and boats burning.

When we first arrived the weather was a perfect 80 degrees sunny and we were looking forward to just baking on the beach, but yesterday was rainy and cool and today looks to be the same, so it will be more culture tourism and soggy hiking until the sun returns.

Belgrade Forest

We spent about 5 hours walking in Belgrade Forest just north of Istanbul. It is shocking that there is an enormous park just a 30 minute bus ride from our apartment where, if you go past the picnic areas near the main road, you can go a very long way without seeing anyone. It will be a real pity when they turn it into a strip of giant convention centers after they complete the third bridge and third airport.

A dam, built, the plaque said, in 1797 by order of Selim III's mother. There are amazing aquaducts running miles from the reservoirs that used to supply the city with water, though we didn't hike past them today.

There were a few weird stretches of path lined with logs; we passed what seemed to be a little loggers' tent camp at one point.

It was somehow very satisfying to be on the city metro with hard earned mud of the feet.

Istanbul Modest

Yesterday we went to Istanbul Modest Fashion week, which is being held at Haydarpaşa train station, though unfortunately not in the grand old interior. Still I have to give them credit for creativity in repurposing a train platform as a runway.

Not pictured here but our favorite brand was http://www.mimya.com.tr
Great looking kaftans and mosaic-looking prints but unforunately up close almost all were rayon and elastine, not so nice in texture to actually wear.

Unforunately modesty does not seem to imply reasonable heels.

There were some kinda Victorian-modest designs mixed in with the Islamic-oriented stuff:

 A design team (from Indonesia or Malaysia, can't remember which) takes a bow. I wonder if there is controversy about gay men designing clothes for conservative Muslims. Didn't seem to be any and the male designers seemed to be like I would expect at any other fashion show.

 And the designer of those wedding dresses in the last runway photo:

After the runway show, some designers from various countries gave demonstrations on particular ways they liked to do up their hijbabs. Here an American-Palestinian blogger demonstrates. There seemed to be a big split between the pro- and anti-fastening pin hijabis.

The festival pamphlet said something about how there was a big problem in modest fashion that it was mostly localized without much by way of global trends. I guess the dark motive behind this kind of international festival and demonstrations of various hejab-tying styles is to create a more homogenous global style so that modest fashion giants can start bringing in H&M money.

On our way to the ferry after the show we happened by another market festival, this one for products produced by prison inmates from around Turkey. It seemed that they mostly produce wares that their regions of incarceration are famous for. So Bursa inmates produce towels, Kütahya inmates produce porcelain, etc. I wasn't clear on whether purchase here (prices were excellent) would be moral because it would go to a budget to improve prisoners' quality of life, or immoral because tantamount to supporting slave labor. I got just a döner from the market, and wish I had asked what exactly prison labor's connection to the spinning meat was: do they raise animals? Butcher and process?

These dresses from a prison in the Black Sea region were a bit cheaper than those at the fashion show:

UPDATE: apparently there were protests by anti-capitalist Muslims who didn't appreciate the commodification of piety: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/turkey-istanbul-islamic-fashion-week-splits-conservatives.html

Middle Eastern bathing habits

It has always been a mystery to me how Iranians and Afghans bathe. They go into the bathroom fully dressed, come out fully dressed in the same clothes. Afterward there is is water over the whole bathroom floor, even if the shower is partitioned off. Yet their clothes do not get wet. I had an Iranian roommate very briefly here in my previous temporary squat in Istanbul, a mutual friend of the apartment renter passing through town. Once I walked to and out of the bathroom in just a towel and he gave me grin and said Bah Bah, like "Well look at you!" I thought maybe he was hitting on me but I think he was just scandalized and perplexed by the way Americans bathe.
My current temporary squat has great roommates but black mold in the walls that is killing me with allergies so I am doing all my work in cafes. I may ask to stay with another friend. Just 6 more days until I get a place of my own to stay until September.

recent bombings

Avoiding civilian casualties or protecting civilians really doesn't seem at all part of the strategy of any of the parties in the now three-way war among the Turkish state, the PKK, and ISIS. TAK, the PKK subdivision responsible for the 2/17 and 3/13 car bombings in Ankara, has explained that the reason they killed 37 random mostly random people in the latter attack was that their operatives were trying to drive into a police outpost to detonate themselves but then were cut off on the street by a transit bus after the police spotted them, so the operatives were obliged to just blow themselves up and kill a busload of civilians. Oh well.

The press is now reporting that the suicide bomber of this morning's attack in İstanbul is Savaş Yıldız. Yıldız is a Turkish citizen known to have re-entered the country from ISIS territory in October 2015 and has been connected to the suicide bomber who kind of kicked off this whole shit show by killing a bunch of youth activists in Suruç last summer (they were part of the same cell originating in Adiyaman in eastern Turkey). The leftist opposition newspaper Birgün reported in 2 different articles back in November that he was traveling around the country freely using his govt insurance card at doctors' offices and pharmacies.


The author of the article above was arrested for insulting the president in December*, showing the government's priorities, whereas no greater effort was apparently made to catch Yıldız. There are now reports in the Turkish media that he used that same ID card in a pharmacy in Istanbul yesterday.
Fuat Avni, a mysterious Twitter whistleblower who seems sometimes to have insight into government plans, tweeted "'The plan of the path to the presidential system passing through chaos is being implemented. 'The more explosions the more support,' they are saying."

At risk of getting really pulled into the conspiracy theory realm, it is worth noting that a pro-govt newspaper article claims Yıldız was a former member of the leftist, super secular utranationalist DHKP-C back in 2007, which is at the opposite end of the ideological spectrum as ISIS, though it shares with ISIS the methods of assassinations and suicide bombings and the accusation of being heavily infiltrated by Turkish intelligence services. When DHKP-C conveniently killed a prosecutor who was investigated the death of a 15-year-old killed by a police teargas canister during the Gezi Park protests, for example, anti-government conspiracy theorists went nuts.

Geez am I becoming a conspiracy theory nut myself? The way allegiances weirdly cross and official stories and excuses never fully make sense (back in October PM Davutoglu said it a TV interview that the govt had a list of possible suicide bombers, "However, legal action cannot be taken until the realization of the criminal act" because Turkey is a nation of law; then they arrested a bunch of professors for signing a petition) could bring it out in anyone.

*The AKP Eyüp Municipality Women's Promotion and Media Unit Director İrem Aktaş tweeted that she wished the Israeli tourists who had been wounded in this morning's bombing had died. A few hours later she got her wish with one of them. I wonder if she will be tried for her insults.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: Savaş Yıldız has disappeared from the headlines; now it is Mehmet Öztürk from Gaziantep, also ISIS but with no connect apparently to Adiyaman group.