Stormig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA6uHf7-9HA

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-222200-the-hrant-dink-award.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANDREW FINKEL The Hrant Dink Award Any regular reader of this column -- or indeed anyone who has read it more than once -- will appreciate that while I sometimes take a stab at being sentimental, it is not really what I do best. So I am at a loss at how to describe the ceremony I attended the other night in İstanbul. It was to bestow the second annual award named after the Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink. “The award is presented to two people from inside and outside Turkey,” or so the rubric runs “who work for a world free of discrimination, racism and violence, take personal risks for their ideals, use the language of peace, and by doing so, inspire and encourage others.” It took place on Sept. 15, the day of Hrant’s birthday, and not Jan. 19, the day that he was slain. This, I take to mean, is that it is designed to commemorate his work and not to mourn his sacrifice. Yet the truth of the matter is that I found the occasion terribly, terribly sad. I am sure I have succumbed in the past to the temptation of claiming a friendship with Hrant and to be affected by his death in order to justify my own opinions. “This is what Hrant thought,” I argued -- and so it has to be so. It is true that I liked him as a person and respected his opinions. I interviewed him once in detail and would phone to ask his view on this or that; but our lives did not intersect all that much and, if pushed, I would have to describe him as a colleague or acquaintance. I did write a public letter once protesting the cruel imbecility of the court sentence he received for insulting Turkishness and I am proud of my reward -- a big bear hug the next time he saw me. This, oddly enough, was at the trial of Orhan Pamuk, where Hrant was baited by the ultranationalist crowd in the street outside. I associate that hug with the one I received from the Armenian patriarch, Mesrob II, at Hrant’s funeral, his body wracked with sobs. That was the last time I saw Mesrob as well. He now suffers from a wasting illness. So perhaps I was being indulgent in feeling maudlin, not uplifted, by the packed auditorium last Wednesday who applauded the modest speech delivered by Hrant’s widow Rakel. She lingered only to thank Tuba Çandar, the author of a new biography of her husband. I enjoyed, but did not sway to the beat of Arto Tunçboyacıyan -- joyous and as much Soweto as Yerevan. In all, it was a well-crafted event: entertaining with no dreary protocol speeches to distract from the purpose of the occasion. Only at the end, with a delightful bit of footage of Hrant tiptoeing back to pick up the award he left on the podium of another international award ceremony, was any sentimentality allowed to creep in that risked triggering the grief so near the surface. It took one of the recipients of the award, the Spanish jurist Baltasar Garzón Real, to mention the elephant in the auditorium -- the recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that mocked the Turkish courts’ willful misreading of Hrant’s own writing that resulted in his conviction and, ultimately, death. The ECtHR has also reprimanded the Turkish state for failing to protect a life they knew was in danger. Real is the Spanish judge who tried to extradite Gen. Augusto Pinochet from Britain and who is now under suspension for exceeding his authority in trying to pursue now pardoned crimes committed under the Franco regime. It is not accidental that the committee chose to award a combatant in the battle against Spain’s deep state. The national winners were the Conscientious Objectors Movement in Turkey -- an organization whose existence, I confess, I was unaware of, but whose “covenant to fight against militarism and speak the language of peace” fit the mood of the evening. “With this award, from now on, we have given a promise to Hrant,” said Mehmet Tarhan who accepted the prize. For many outside the auditorium, it is not so much a case of keeping faith with the memory of Hrant Dink as avoiding the shame and embarrassment his memory evokes. And that is the saddest thing of all. 21.09.2010 Columnists

Hello, long time no see, etc., etc., etc., and getting straight to the point... I was just given the responsibility of interviewing people we might hire on occasion for interpreting jobs. We won't be hiring from agencies because in our field some students do much better. Thing is... I've never interviewed anyone for anything before, and here I will have to set up a qualitative system to evaluate. Has anyone ever done something like this to care and share an opinion, advice, or what have you?

The collective wisdom of the ages, blah blah blah... Isn't that what confines women to the kitchen and the bedroom? Yup, the old way is the way to go...

The unlikely idea: earth sciences. Great fun, and you never know where you end up. I had no idea at the time when I was making my choices that a geologist could have a couple hundred K - or more - in shares in the consulting company he worked for alone. Of course, it depends on whether you are motivated enough to take the risk of metabolic syndrome. Even if not, still it could be great fun, entirely satisfying, depending on what floats your boat.

So which is it? Is it the politicians, historians, lame-arse Turkish academicians, or - oh, get this latest one - students that decide? Enh???

Not just cultural and ethnic but also species. Homosexuality exists in the rest of the animal kingdom as well, whether in the wild or in captivity. It doesn't get much more "natural" than that. It exists in their classical literature, for goodness' sakes...

Actually, I quite enjoy soft porn/erotica with F+F...

My goodness. So when you have sex, it's like having sex with your parent?

Sip had just said they don't advocate homosexuality but the acceptance. Are you, like, some illiterate Turk?

[don Gregory House tone]Yeah, that definitely IS the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.[/tone]

Thanks. My "bad" was excluding the "ec" in "sec" and limiting myself to m/s.

Am I a moron? Why can I not find an average value for the permeability of concrete online so I don't have to look up dusty books? I'm all Googled out. Oh, hi, all.

Goodness, you are histrionic.

This one made my day.