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Thanks, nkuler. IF I go and depending on how long I stay, that crater is something I definitely would like to see. Plus it's on the way to Kilimanjaro. But unless things calm down in Egypt and Greece, I don't see me going anywhere other than in the U.S. 😮I hope I can handle these primitive accomodations too.
You know Before Tanzania the last two countries in Africa that I went to were Tunisia and Egypt...Just saying... 🙂
Short answer, No. I don’t see how Islam and its attendant values and social customs are compatible with secular western values and customs. To my personal view it is like oil & water, they just don’t mix. For there to be a possibility of compromise there has to be some common ground to begin with and I just don’t see it. Those that claim to be moderate Muslims are fooling both themselves and the west. They are as close to being good Muslims as the Cathars were to being good Catholics, which is not at all.
Scout, how would you explain Turkey then? It's been almost 90 years since we went secular and altough there is a marginal fringe that would like to bring back the Caliphate an overwhelming majority of a society that is predominantly muslim prefers to live in a secular country.
Has anyone ever been there? I want to see this place.
I haven't been to Serengeti itself but I've been to the Ngorongoro Crater, The Tarengiri National Park and the Lake Manyara National park in Tanzania. These are all very close to the Serengeti National park. For what its worth it was the most amazing trip I've ever gone on. It's a completely different world from what we as developed and developing countries know. I missed the place before I was on the plane back to Turkey.
Doughnuts = fat pills.
But they are sooo tasty! 🙂 Sadly, I cannot get Krispy Kremes in europe. 🙁
Really? We have them in Turkey!
There was an interview with the provincial governor of Agri today in the Turkish press and he essentially admitted that it was a publicity stunt to attract tourists to the region. Sorry, don't have an english translation handy.
You are looking at Istanbul (Constantinople-Byzantium) from only one perspective – western christian – and I think it's misleading. It's true that Istanbul was never as influential as Rome from a western christian perspective. But after the Ottomans took over it was the undisputed center of trade, learning, religion, and arts of the muslim world. It remained as the most important city for the Greek Orthodox' and it exerted infulence over the Balkan's and even southern Russia (Crimea, Caucasia etc). I believe it's uniqueness stems from the fact that it's a city with Christian roots, govered and inhabited mostly by muslims. Thus it has influence over and it has been influenced by both.
“12.The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.Not sure this had much influence. It was important to the Russians, but again, they really could have cared less about what anyone was putting in place as they planned on domination in the future anyway."Not in terms of WW2 but this didn't hold up even a year as it was percieved by the Turks - rightly IMO - as a limitation of our soveregnity. It would have been impossible to defend the then capitol Istanbul with the Dardanelles being open to anyone and everyone. This was also one of the reasons Ataturk moved the capitol to Ankara to benefit from its central location.
We dont want to have to go back in 10-20 years, so it is in our own interests to establish a stable regime, even if it is not exactly an American style republic.
I don't think anyone can dispute this. The question on my mind is can you in fact do this in such an unstable location, with an even more unstable population. Do you really think its possible?
Our apparent victory in Iraq has set them back(while incidentally getting thousands of terrorists killed there instead of America), reforming a backward place like Afghanistan will sound the death knell for the Radicals agenda throughout the Muslim world.
I find this a little to optimistic. I agree that something had to be done with Afghanistan but trying to reform an entire country that doesn't want to be reformed is a herculean task, if at all possible.All reforms that can stand the test of time need to be rooted from within the country, because at the end of the day it's the same people that will be left there. That's why I think physically being there was the wrong move for the US both in Iraq and Afghanistan. In my opinion you should've outsourced both wars to local entities that were symphatetic to you. As with any oppresive regime there were plenty of dissidents to choose from.
Scotch and not even close. The only blend I enjoy is Chivas and I'm not that familiar with bourbons except jack and jim and I can only drink Gentleman Jack.
Can't say I've played but it looks interesting. I may have to try out the demo version sometime.
I highly recommend it. It's infinately re-playable, very deep and more accurate historically than any other game I've ever heard of. For those that have not heard of it:http://www.europauniversalis3.com/
Ladies and Gentlemen, what we have here is a certified American Hater. :-
I just think he suffers a bit from delusions of grandeur. But what do I know, I just learned that I was Chinese so I feel like I've been living a lie my whole life...Pray tell sirs, what kind of Chinese are the rest of you? Aware that you are one or ignorant of your...er...Chinesedom?
where else other chinese such as the Mongols,
That's a little offensive and very arrogant.Mongols and indeed Uygurs in Sincan (Xinjiang) are not chinese. The Former is an independant state and an entirely different nation whereas the latters are an ethnic Turkic tribe who are currently Chinese citizens.
I have always thought that education, at least the basics, is the key to a functioning enlightened society. Is the Turkish hinterland really so full of illiterates or marginally literate people? And if so, is the government trying to improve schools or are they content with the status quo? In America I see us with the opposite problem, we are regressing into a preliterate society. People are content to be ignorant and even know they are so long as they can still get there MTV and dose of internet. I have even taking to calling the internet mind-porn because it seems to suck the life out of people, I know people (myself included at times) that just have to get their internet fix of mindless videos and crude humor.
To answer your first question the rural east is still basically a feudal land of serfs and the landowners. It is gradually and very very slowly progressing but it's still not anywhere near what I would call satisfactory or civilized. Your second question is a little tougher to answer. All major political parties have been claiming to try their utmost to fix the problem but meanwhile all political parties also deal with the landowners and contribute to the "herd democracy" of the region. Even the local regional dynamics are against progress. As you probably know the PKK is a terrorist organisation that has been active in the southeast for almost 30 years know. Their main targets are school teachers. It's easier to manipulate the ignorant masses, once you have a thinking man as your citizen ou actually have to convince him without the mindless rhetoric.But the internet and mass media has made keeping people in the dark impossible, so altough I'm dissapointed in the current state of Turkey, I'm still hopeful for the future.
