as jobing in istanbul is not a good deal, one has to do his or her own business, some way. i tried selling fotos on street, which was not really feeding me, but all in all intersting, because İ got some inside view on street business. know its time to try something else, and becauese İ had to produce an advertisement, İ do publish this text here as well:

visit more istanbul!

guided gecekondu tours

İstanbul was growing rapidly in the period from the 1950`ies to 2000. people where mostly coming from the east of turkey, in order to escape both, the desolate economic situation and the civil war . Gecekondu - litterally “built over night” - is the result of this development. simple housing and poor infrastucture at least at the beginning.
so there`s not the one gecekondu style. some are 50 years old, some five, some are bungalow style, some 3-storey-concrete-buildings. and often one style is located just next to the other.

how to discover istanbul`s outskirts?,

well, if you just have one or a few days, you will not really get an overview of istanbul as an whole. on the other hand, if you just take a bus and go somewhere, you will most probably see something interesting.
İ can offer you some guiding. This does not mean, that İ will know evrything worth to be visited, nor, that there will be a strict program what to see. İ just have some experiences visiting european side outer districts, and some knowledge, how the issue gecekondu is discussed in turkish society and western art and sociological literature.

tour example

drive to gaziosmanpaşa and take a walk through old village style gecekondu from the 1950`ies.

have a çay somewhere.

drive to the egde of the city, yes, this city is not neverending.

see examples of planned city enlargenment as a contrast to gecekondu.

go back - this should be enough for one day.

terms:

guiding through gecekondu isn`t like guiding through an museum or offering a bosphorus boat tour - which you absolutly should do, if you`re in İstanbul.
Be aware, that all of us will be strange there. we will be asked, why the hell we`re going there. So it`s much about communication, where İ might be able to help a little bit.

For some reasons İ will guide you to areas, İ`ve never seen before: going every week to the same places will influence them enormous. İ don`t want to show you something pure, but İ think its better to change places.
On the other hand, İ want to learn more about these issues, to be able to show and tell you about more detailed and - of course - because of my couriosity.

mostly the tour can be made by car, which is not available every time. But it`s also possible to do by buses, minibuses and other public transport.

So, İ can`t promise you anything . Therefore ist`s hard for me, to tell a price for my guiding. İ expect costs of my transportation and beside that, what you want and are able to pay if you`re not disappointed.

So, that`s it, you have to do without my very progressive layput, cause İ couldn`t translate to html.

to jelena, who insisted to read full text rss-feeds.

jelena was writing about the missing “maedchenworld” cartoon in jungle world. As İ can read jungle world only online, İ have to without the junk world cartoon page.
But, İ can read the disko discussion page. İt`s about mooching. One is just saying, it sucks, the other, moochers are doing an important job, giving people the chance to show their generosity.
So, İ prefer the second view. And so İ want to give my thanks to the about 50 year old woman, who is asking people in asmalı mescit mah. for money for alcohol and drugs. alkohol yardim. She`s great and earning quite much money on good days. And giving an relaxed counterpoint to the philosophy of survival, which is driving the city.

thanks, vera

the most intersting information you can find in the blogcounter user stats is the sechtion browser/OS. 44.1 % of my readers is using linux, followed by Win XP (33.3) and Mac OS X (8.3). So it seems, that the blogsphere is a gang of nerds, as i consider, this is not representative for internetusers at all. About 5 % is able to hide their OS, or is using one, which isn`t known, maybe BSD. Most of them are using Konquerer 3.4.

One was using mozilla 1.8, which is not yet available as stable version, as far as İ know, one İE 5.01, which should be some years old. İ`m thinking about uplaoding one of these Pics, which is troubling not up to date İE users, just for fun. maybe the oldest browser, which visited me, was NS 3.01. But must are using mozilla 1.7, 66 % of the users. so Mozilla really seems to have reached the goal to replace İE (5.4%) as the one and only standard browser.

İ don`t know, how many times İ had this book in my hands and İ decided not to buy it. İt was in a small second hand bookshop in galatasaray. The same where İ got the first edition of Feuchtwangers “Jud Süss”. Second hand books usally cost about 1 EUR, but Dan Diners “Das Jahrhundert verstehen” was 15 EUR.
He`s doing the impossible: writing about the 20th century universally. Talking about sovjet revolution and shoah, first worldwar and 1989 changements. And about, as he calls the armenian catastrophe.
İ haven`t read much yet. İ just know, that Dan Diner has interstings views what`s going on know in middle east and that he is insisting to compare the shoah to the stalinist gulag system, comparing in difference, like he say`s.
So İ start to read, reading critically, as İ do not really understand, why he is playing with this pattern, used by revisionists.
Now İ bought this book, also because İ would like some answers to the questions İ asked here.
So, dear readers, if you are able to give me some hint`s, how to read Dan Diner, You`re welcome.

What you can write about, spending your day surfing the internet? reflect it as an addiction? Ah no, that`s to much like morality to me. there`s nothing wrong about being lazy. but i remeber the definition of blogging, i wrote about before: “updated regulary”. some blogs are called “dead”, just because it`s not uodated anymore. but maybe someone somtimes just doesn`t feel like writing. like thinking about things, someone else cueld be interested in.
At the moment İ feel more like listening to others and not to comment. Ok, lets drop some links: lysis - what should i say about, İ like reading it.
but, it`s not so much interesting, to write about my online life. So, offline it`s like this. it`s getting colder and so i had to react. İ put weatherpixie on my blog to remind me, not to miss any sun. - bored? - what`s wrong, talking about weather, it`s something, evryone is realted to.
İ could write about bigger issues: society, poltitics, art and eplain the world to you - or İ could wrtie about me, my dreams, desires and all that personal stuff. İ could write about evrydays live, how to get food and hoe to deal with the telekom bureaucracy. Or about the ramazzan and how it is affecting my life. But İ wouldn`t do, because İ wanted to tell someone about, just to entertain my readers, even not knowing, if they`re intersted.
So, regularly updated, İ have to feed you, you have to feed me. fast food every day and massive fare, like … oops i can`t drop a link here, cause it`s to heavy for me. İ`m really not in the mood to evaluate which one of the intellectual stuff is nonsense in faszinating language, which one is good.
should İ visit one of the world biggest malls or write about my last trip to the outskirts, not having developed my fotos yet - yes İ`m using old style analog foto technology. Sould İ present you an foto from my archieve? ok her it is:

hah, it`s not even istanbul. So, İf you wan`t you can guess.

this view is from the ferry to the islands, showing kadiköy in the foreground and şişli in the back. The ferry is the fastest way to get out of the noise and dust of the city, but İ normally don`t feel like this.