Mazzy Star: Flowers In December

This is one of the songs I like the most, maybe because it is a song of a soundtrack of a movie which I like very much, or maybe it reminds of my flower, the December Flower. Since now it is again December, I wanted to share it with you as well. Hope you'll like it.

Helsinki: The City of Tender Rain, Gentle Breeze and Shy Rainbow

I had the chance to visit many European countries over a process of two years when I was a master's student in Sweden. However, among the three neighbors of Sweden, I had visited just one: Norway. Denmark and Finland were very close as well; but instead of visiting these close Nordic countries, I traveled extensively in the continental Europe.

It's been approximately two years since I finished my master's studies in Sweden, and one year since I moved back to Istanbul; however, I kept traveling to Sweden from time to time, and this time, I had the chance to visit Finland too.

There are various companies, such as Viking Line, Silja Line, etc. that offer cruise trips between Sweden and Finland. We decided to go with viking line. It travels between Stockholm and Helsinki, departing at 17:30 in the afternoon, and arriving at its destination at 10:00 in the morning. As you can see, it takes very long: about 16 hours! So, we (me and my girlfriend) got on the boat at 17:30 on Thursday from Stockholm, and after 16 hours, arrived at Helsinki on Friday morning.

The first thing attracted my attention when we arrived at Helsinki was the bilingual character of the street names, traffic signs, etc. They were written both in Finnish and Swedish. Second thing that came to my mind was that Helsinki looked very similar to Stockholm. However, after a while I thought that evaluating Helsinki with respect to Stockholm would be very Swedish-centric, therefore I decided to be not so hasty, and wait until I spend some more time in the city. I thought that I could make another evaluation/judgment at the end of the visit.

When we arrived in the morning, we first walked through the shore toward the city center. It took about 15 minutes. On the way, there were some people selling souvenirs, vegetables, etc. When we came closer to the city center, another interesting thing attracted my attention. There were Finnish soldiers almost in every corner, standing still with their bags full, with a small cup in their hands, and asking for donations for Red Cross (I think) from people around them. Although turning soldiers into money collectors on the streets can be considered a creative idea, to me, to be honest, it seemed a bit irritating, since I don't really like seeing soldiers around me. I think in this way, Helsinki is not leaving a good impression on the visitors either. Tourists probably go back to their homes with the image of Helsinki in their minds that is surrounded by soldiers in every corner, and I assume this cannot be a very good thing to tell back at their homes.

Fourth thing I should mention that the two cathedrals in Helsinki (Helsinki Cathedral and Uspenski Cathedral) were very beautiful. We had the chance to enter the Helsinki Cathedral, and I liked its simple interior design as well. One other interesting thing inside was that there wasn't a statue/image of Jesus hanged on a cross. Instead there was just a picture (a drawing) of Jesus being put down from the cross. Though I don't know whether that difference does really mean anything, it was interesting.

After we visited the Helsinki Cathedral, we went to the University of Helsinki - Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies to meet Andreas Bieler. First, I visited him in his office, and then we went out for a lunch together at the university cafeteria. (Those who are interested can find a detailed story of my meeting with Andreas Bieler at my other blog: http://neogramscian.blogspot.com) After meeting Andreas Bieler, we went to a café to drink something. After drinking something warm, we went to a bookstore at the city center. There were some interesting books I found in English, and I bought two books. One is Eric Hobsbawm's On History (12 Euros-Hardcover), and the other is Bertrand Russel's book Has Man a Future? (3 Euros-Hardcover).

I spent a lot of time at the bookstore, and after a while we got hungry. We went back to the university cafeteria to have dinner. After the dinner, the departure time for the boat was approaching, and so we had to walk back to the boat. On the way back to the boat, rain started pouring down; however, it was not just a simple rain. It was a very soft, tender rain, with tiny drops pouring down and tipping on our faces. It was also a bit windy, but rather than a wind, it was a gentle breeze embraced our bodies. It was a wonderful situation. You could walk under that rain for hours, but never get wet at all, and walk in that breeze and never feel cold at all! Maybe you could ask whether what the big deal with the rain and breeze is; but for me, it was a very special situation. Finally, when we arrived at the boat, the rain stopped, and the sun showed itself. And with that, a very nice, shy rainbow appeared behind the clouds shining over Helsinki.

And at that moment, I thought that I could make another evaluation/judgment about Helsinki, and I decided to call Helsinki as The city of Tender Rain, Gentle Breeze and Shy Rainbow. Though I am sure nobody would agree with me, that was my perception and characterization of Helsinki. :)

Iceland Eurovision 2009 - Yohanna - Is It True?

Now the Eurovision song contest is over, I feel that I should write something about it. :) Not that the debate would be less complete if I was out of it, but I feel that I have been involved with this Eurovision debate and all the other talks around it for some time - at least since I started getting more involved with it after I went to Sweden in 2005. :) The first thing I want to talk about is my favorite songs. Or maybe I should say, my favorite song. :) As some of you might agree with me, it is rarely the case that there appears a really very beautiful song in the Eurovision contest. And in case it happens, I haven't yet experienced any year in which there were more than one really very good songs. I remember Serbia's song of "Molitva" which was one of my favorites of all times, and this year it is this song Is It True from Yohanna. I don't know if this is a mere coincidence that these two songs are slow ones, or not, but maybe it is so. I don't know. I first listened to this song during the contest and I don't know how better to express the things I felt when I listened to it, but maybe I can just briefly say that it touched me. Would that be explanatory enough so that you could also understand what I mean by that? :) Maybe, or I hope so. :) In my opinion, of course this song should have won the contest, but unfortunately the best songs don't always win. :) Well, Serbia won, but this couldn't... Anyway... The second thing I want to write about is that this voting system. You know it too, if you're in a way following the contest, that the voting system is a big issue here. Until this year it was the people who were voting, and with this year, as far as I know, a jury system has been incorporated to the voting system. So, I think, half of the votes is coming from the peoples' votes, and half is coming from the jury. This new system was expected to decrease the role and weight of neighbor-voting to a reasonable level, and in addition to that, give some weight to the artistic quality of the songs as well. The contest ended, however, the debates regarding the voting system didn't. :) I don't know if it will ever end, or what will happen in the following years, but first of all there is nothing naturally bad or good about it, or naturally criticize it because all the participant countries, in one way or another, is benefiting from this habit of voting for the neighbors. Secondly, I think the debate or criticisms toward this neighbor-voting issue is limited. What I mean by limited is that this neighbor-voting issue doesn't affect the whole participants, or the whole contest at all. I am not saying that it doesn't affect things, of course it does, but it doesn't determine who is going to win the contest. This neighbor-voting habit affects the countries which take their place in the mid-table, that is to say, no country can win the contest only by depending on the votes that are coming from their neighbors. So this habit affects just the mid-table of the final result. If a song is going to win, it definitely needs to get votes from other countries as well. So, in that regard, it can be concluded that the weight and role of neighbor-voting issue is limited with regard to its impact on who is going to win. Deriving from this a formula can be put forward like this: To win the contest, one song needs to get high points from its neighbors, and in addition to this, it definitely needs to get high or middle points from other countries as well. Please let us not forget that there are 42 countries who are voting, so the neighbors are just making 5-6 of these 42 countries.

The Origin(s) of Ambition

Most of us think about some calm, unmanned, if not completely deserted or desolate, places. We dream about them, we think about them, we admire them, both the places and the people who live there. Not all the time, but sometimes... Sometimes; when we feel ourselves frustrated, exhausted because of the high-tempo of our daily lives in the cities. People flow out of subways, people run to catch things, people try to do better, people try to work more, people try to produce more, and eventually people try to earn more. And yes, sometimes the moment comes, and we start questioning things, the ways we act, the ways we believe and of course, the ways we live. Why am I doing the thing I am doing, why am I not satisfied with what I have, why am I unhappy with my current car, house, clothes, shoes, etc. are the questions then start wandering in our minds, and of course bothering our minds. Not all the time, but sometimes... And then those times together with the questions they bring carry us to some further questionings which finally lead us to the examining of the origins of the things: origins of the ambitions.

Two weeks ago I was reading on the formation of modernity, industrialization, the emergence of "modern economy" and so on and so forth. There I came across a small piece from Adam Smith which is titled as "The Origin of Ambition". Simply put, Smith is interested in the factors that lead people to desire more and more and more. In the essence, Smith argues that it is not the ease, but vanity that motivates people to better their conditions, their lives. He argues that there is nothing good or bad in the idea of richness, or being rich, or becoming rich. Being rich is not something good or bad in itself; rather it finds its meaning or desirability when it becomes the object of vanity. Smith asks:

"For to what purpose is all the toil and bustle of this world? What is the end of avarice and ambition, of the pursuit of wealth, of power and preeminence? Is it to supply the necessities of nature? The wages of the meanest laborer can supply them. We see that they afford him food and clothing, the comfort of a house, and of a family. If we examined his economy with rigour, we should find that he spends a great part of them upon conveniences, which may be regarded as superfluities, and that, upon extraordinary occasions, he can give something even to vanity and distinction. What then is the cause of our aversion to his situation, and why should those who have been educated in the higher ranks of life, regard it as worse than death, to be reduced to live, even without labour, upon the same simple fare with him, to dwell under the same lowly roof, and to be clothed in the same humble attire? Do they imagine that their stomach is better, or their sleep sounder in a palace than in a cottage? The contrary has been so often observed, and, indeed, is so very obvious, though it had neve been observed, that there is nobody ignorant of it."

And then Smith continues explaining how does it happen to be that way, that people want to better their conditions, why people have such ambitions... In short, how does it become so that richness, bettering of one's own conditions becomes and end in itself, a goal to be reached? Smith continues:

"From whence, then, arises that emulation which runs through all the different ranks of men, and what are the advantages which we propose by that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition?"

And the answer Smith gives is: "To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it. It is the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us. But vanity is always founded upon the belief our our being the object of attention and approbation. The rich man glorifies in his riches, because he feels that they naturally draw upon him the attention of the world, and that mankind are disposed to go along with him in all those agreeable emotions with which the advantages of his situation so readily inspire him."

This is the answer of Adam Smith that was taken from his less-known work, The Theory of moral Sentiments (1759).

And then one week later, I was reading some chapters from Marx. There I came across with the same issue, or problem, whatever you call it. And I found that Marx, similar to Smith, was considering the idea of bettering our conditions, not as things good in themselves, but as things which become significant, desirable when compared to the conditions of the others. Marx says:

"A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But let a palace arise beside the little house, and it shrinks from a little house to a hut [...] however high it may shoot up in the course of civilization, if the neighboring palace grows to an equal or even greater extent, the occupant of the relatively small house will feel more and more uncomfortable, dissatisfied and cramped within its four walls."

Of course these are some answers from another time, not necessarily reflecting the "reality" for today's world. Yet I think the question remains the same, and of course unanswered because I know people around the world, here, there and everywhere, continue to struggle for bettering their conditions, but never being able to forget the mind-bothering and disturbing question of why? Isn't the question very simple, and therefore very provoking?

Why?

Başka Türlü Bir Şey

başka türlü bir şey benim istediğim,
ne ağaca benzer, ne de buluta.
burası gibi değil gideceğim memleket.
denizi ayrı deniz,
havası ayrı hava.

nerde gördüklerim
nerde o beklediğim
rengi başka
tadı başka...

bir başka yolculuk dalından düşmek yere
yaşadığından uzun

bir tatlı yolculuk dalından inmek yere,
ağacın yüksekliğince,
dalın yüksekliğince rüzgarda
ve bir yeni ömür
vardığın çimen yeşilliğince

başka türlü bir şey benim istediğim,
ne ağaca benzer, ne de buluta.
burası gibi değil gideceğim memleket.
denizi ayrı deniz,
havası ayrı hava.

nerde gördüklerim
nerde o beklediğim
rengi başka
tadı başka...

Do We Have to be Scientists?

Little by little I start thinking - first provoked by my girlfriend actually - about the importance and relevance of academic social scientific research in providing people a meaningful, practical, explanatory and emancipatory picture of the world, the people, the society, the economics, the politics, etc. Many already argue that the science of economics, for instance, has long been detached from the real world out there, and turned into some kind of a game with numbers, statistics and formulas. It is more of a mathematics, so to say, rather than economics anymore. Due to this increasing mathematicization of economics, today a significant number of students, scholars of economics have almost nothing to say about the current global economic crisis. They don't know what's going on; they don't know how to explain it, why and how it happened, how it might be ended; they don't understand it, and of course they don't know how to fix it. Furthermore, many speak of the similar problems for political science, sociology and for other social sciences too, saying that they no longer produce any relevant scientific knowledge when the world is having various kinds of crises, be they economic, political, social or individual.

Is this happening because social sciences, as some argue, become detached from the social reality that they are working on? Did they loose their practical applicability to the real world? Did they become too "academic"? Did they become too "inhuman"?

At that point, I start thinking about ordinary people, not academicians, but who are still, in a way, concerned with these "big" and important, or "philosophical" questions, but nevertheless who are not in any way applying the "scientific", "academic" methods of the academic world in their thinking, investigation, writing, analyzing these questions, such as how wealth should be distributed, who should rule/govern and according to what principles, what should be the basic grounds, norms or values on which a society can be built, how can the conflicts in the world be prevented, etc., To me, it seems like, in the future, maybe soon, the thoughts, ideas of these "ordinary" people holds the potential to be much more valuable in providing people a meaningful picture of what's happening in the world, or in the society they live in.

Damien Rice - I Remember

I have seen Chris de Burgh live, been to his concert. Now, there are a few more groups and people whom I want to see. And among them, Damien Rice is probably the one that I want to see the most (together with Nightwish! :P )! For me, he is very unique. He has a different style. When you watch him performing, it seems like he is crying inside, something tearing him up inside. It feels like you feel what he is feeling. He is great in showing this. So, in the end, it is not just somebody who is singing a song, but also performing in the full meaning of it. There are not just words, but also different voices, and even strange sounds, but in the end, these what make the song and the performance very touching, very intimate, very sensitive, etc. I should definitely watch him performing live. I should definitely feel these feelings live, in that atmosphere.

Let Me Out... (This Time You!)

My sleepless nights came back. I am happy on one hand because now I feel that I again have something that can keep me awake in the middle of the night. Something that again burned that fire in me... This motivates my desire to look for the truth, and it is good from this side. However, it is also bad on the other hand. It comes together with its problems, with its difficulties. It brings hopelessness with itself, and that starts another fire on the other side which feeds from my hopelessness of not being able to find it. But all in all, I become happy with the situation in general anyway, because it is just then I start to feel that I am alive again, that I live, that I breathe, I think, I be, become and exist.

What is a man if he can sleep without any difficulties, if he can fall asleep just as he puts his head on the pillow? A man without any sleeping problems is a man, for me, who actually doesn't live in the full meaning of life. They fall into the basket which carries those who don't know the questions, let alone thinking about them or answering them. There are also, as you know, some, who know the questions, find answers (or take them for granted from God, tradition, religion, customs, myth, legend, or whatever) and live with them. And there are also some others, who know the questions, find some answers, but never become satisfied with them because they know that what they find is not the real answer of the whole: the reality, the eternal truth. There is no way out for them either.

At the middle of the night, tonight, I turned my computer on, went on to youtube, and started listening to Damien Rice. This time with another thing in my mind, but with a very similar passion, and wanted to write my feelings, my thoughts, my cryings, my screaming and everything that comes from the deep of my heart and soul and everything that I have inside of me. The song will be my voice, my thoughts, my words...

Sometimes I just want to empty my head, but it doesn't work. I usually do what I need to be free, but I can't achieve in anything. What I want from all of us is to empty our minds, and look for the things really, truly with a pure good intention inside; with the intention of finding them, their essence. We will fail, I know that, but still I don't want us to go blind because I don't want to go blind.

I tried, but I couldn't learn to let it go. In the end, perhaps that was the only thing that I learnt. So I kept looking, trying, searching... I couldn't invent something on which I could believe and live with.

I couldn't leave it, I couldn't find it. And all through these things I have lived and continue to live, I sometimes just wanted to cry out loud and say:

Let me out...
Let me out...
Let me out...
Let me out...
Let me out...
Let me out...

The Part and The Whole

In one of my essays, I dedicated some effort in thinking about this particularism & universalism issue, or the particle and the whole problem. I also wrote a few things about this issue in another essay because this has been one of the problems that I had in my mind for a long time. Just recently, I came across an article by Leo Strauss who in some ways touched to these issues too. Since the concerns are very similar, I wanted to write some sentences from him.

"Philosophy, as quest for wisdom, is quest for universal knowledge, for knowledge of the whole. [...] The absence of knowledge of the whole does not mean, however, that men do not have thoughts about the whole."

"A quest for knowledge of 'all things' means quest for knowledge of God, the world, and man - or rather quest for knowledge of the natures of all things: the natures in their totality are 'the whole'."

"Philosophy strives for knowledge of the whole. The whole is the totality of the parts. The whole eludes us, but we know parts: we possess partial knowledge of parts. The knowledge which we possess is characterized by a fundamental dualism which has never been overcome."

"Knowledge of the ends of man implies knowledge of the human soul; and the human soul is the only part of the whole which is open to the whole and therefore more akin to the whole than anything else is. But this knowledge is not the knowledge of the whole."

Leo Strauss, "What is Political Philosophy?", The Journal of Politics, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug., 1957), pp. 343-368.

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