Mound Builder is a general term referring to the Native North American peoples who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential, and ceremonial purposes. These included Archaic, and Woodland period, and Mississippian period Pre-Columbian cultures. The term Mound Builder was also applied to an imaginary race believed to have constructed the great earthworks of the United States, this while Euroamerican racial ideology of the 16th-19th centuries did not recognize that Native Americans were sophisticated enough to construct such monumental architecture.
The final blow to this myth was dealt by an official appointee of the United States Government, Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology. His lengthy report (727 pages, published in 1894) concluded finally that it was the opinion of himself and thus the United States Government that the prehistoric earthworks of the eastern United States were the work of Native Americans.
Are they Kurgans[1] of North America if so, is there an Asian connection?
Mavi Boncuk |
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft [1793-1864]
American ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft was influential in studies of indigenous people in the North American continent. He travelled with an early geological survey through what is now Wisconsin (the Cass and Doty expedition), and was eventually superintendent for Indian Affairs for the territory of Michigan in the 1830s.
Although best known in general for recording stories and language of the Native American tribes, Schoolcraft is most important to archaeology in that he was among the first to identify evidence that the people who built the thousands of raised earthen structures throughout North America were the ancestors of the people being displaced by European in-migration, and not the mythical lost tribe of Israel called 'mound builders'. Source: K. Kris Hirst
Cyrus Thomas [1825-1910]
Cyrus Thomas was an American archaeologist, associated with the Smithsonian Institution, who spent his career studying Native American burial mounds throughout the midwestern United States. During the late nineteenth century, he was the Director of Mound Exploration at the Smithsonian, when he published several treatises proving that Native Americans had built and were buried in the burial mounds, putting an end to the moundbuilder theory. Or so one would think, anyway. Source: K. Kris Hirst
[1] "Kurgan" is a Russian word meaning "mound" and refers to the custom of building mounds for burial purposes It's speculated that the so called Kurgan were the original Indo-European people; lived northwest of the Caucasus, north of the Black and Caspian Seas, between 5,000-3,000 BC. Some scholars have suggested an earlier homeland in Asia Minor, 6,000-5,000 BC (Renfrew)
Aspects of Kurgan culture: domesticated cattle and horses, farming, herding, four-wheeled wagons, mound builders, hilltop forts, complex sense of family relationship and organization; counting skills; used gold and silver; drank a honey-based alcoholic beverage, mead; multiple gods (sky/thunder, sun, horse, boar, snake); belief in life after death evidenced in elaborate burials (Marija Gimbutas, 1956)
October 16, 2010
October 14, 2010
2010 Antalya Golden Orange Awards
Mavi Boncuk |
2010 47th Antalya Golden Orange Awards
Best Feature Film: “Çoğunluk”
Best Debut Feature Film:”Gişe Memuru” (Tolga Karaçelik)
Best Director: “Çoğunluk” Seren Yüce
Best Screenplay: “Atlıkarınca” Mert Fırat , İlksen Başarır
Best Cinematographyi: “Saç” and “Gişe Memuru” Ercan Özcan
Best Film Music: “Kar Beyaz” Mircan
Best Female Performance: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak” Claudia Cardinale
Best Male Performance: “Gişe Memuru” Serkan Ercan and “Çoğunluk” Bartu Küçükçağlayan
Best Supporting Female Performance:”Kağıt” filmi ile Ayşen Grude
Best Supporting Male Performance:”Kavşak” Cengiz Bozkurt and “Saç” Rıza Akın
Best Editing: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” Aylin Zoi
Best Art Direction: “Haydi Bre” Nihat Düşko
Antalya City Jury Prize: “Kavşak”
Best Short Film: Berf (Erol Mintaş)
Best Documentary Film:”Anadolu’nun Son Göçerleri” (Yüksel Aksu)
Best Debut Documentary: “Ofsayt” and “Herkes Uyurken”
Film Writers SİYAD NationalAward: “Sineklik”
Film Writers SİYAD International Award: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” (Derviş Zaim)
Best Male Performance International Film: Nik Jelila
Best Female Performance International Film:: Emma Suarez
Jury Award for best Documentary: “Ordu’da Bir Argonot”
Public Golden Orange Award: “Son Helva”
Documentary Jury Award:”Dönüşü Olmayan Yol”
Digital Film Academy Award: “Bisiklet”
Behlül Dal Special Jury Award: “Press” Aram Dildar and “Atlı Karınca” Zeynep Oral
Dr. Avni Tolunay Special Jury Award: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak” Elvan Albayrak
2010 47th Antalya Golden Orange Awards
Best Feature Film: “Çoğunluk”
Best Debut Feature Film:”Gişe Memuru” (Tolga Karaçelik)
Best Director: “Çoğunluk” Seren Yüce
Best Screenplay: “Atlıkarınca” Mert Fırat , İlksen Başarır
Best Cinematographyi: “Saç” and “Gişe Memuru” Ercan Özcan
Best Film Music: “Kar Beyaz” Mircan
Best Female Performance: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak” Claudia Cardinale
Best Male Performance: “Gişe Memuru” Serkan Ercan and “Çoğunluk” Bartu Küçükçağlayan
Best Supporting Female Performance:”Kağıt” filmi ile Ayşen Grude
Best Supporting Male Performance:”Kavşak” Cengiz Bozkurt and “Saç” Rıza Akın
Best Editing: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” Aylin Zoi
Best Art Direction: “Haydi Bre” Nihat Düşko
Antalya City Jury Prize: “Kavşak”
Best Short Film: Berf (Erol Mintaş)
Best Documentary Film:”Anadolu’nun Son Göçerleri” (Yüksel Aksu)
Best Debut Documentary: “Ofsayt” and “Herkes Uyurken”
Film Writers SİYAD NationalAward: “Sineklik”
Film Writers SİYAD International Award: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” (Derviş Zaim)
Best Male Performance International Film: Nik Jelila
Best Female Performance International Film:: Emma Suarez
Jury Award for best Documentary: “Ordu’da Bir Argonot”
Public Golden Orange Award: “Son Helva”
Documentary Jury Award:”Dönüşü Olmayan Yol”
Digital Film Academy Award: “Bisiklet”
Behlül Dal Special Jury Award: “Press” Aram Dildar and “Atlı Karınca” Zeynep Oral
Dr. Avni Tolunay Special Jury Award: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak” Elvan Albayrak
Çoğunluk / Majority (2010) by Seren Yüce
“Çoğunluk” (Majority), a film directed by Seren Yüce, was among the 12 films featured in this year’s Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days program. The film tells of the son of a working class family in present-day İstanbul. Starring Bartu Küçükçağlayan and Settar Tanrıöğen, Seren Yüce worked as an assistant to Özer Kiziltan on Takva: A Man’s Fear of God (04) and to Fatih Akin on The Edge of Heaven (07). The Majority (10) is his feature directorial debut.
full credits
Principal Cast: Bartu Kucukcaglayan, Settar Tanriogen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Producer: Sevil Demirci, Onder Cakar, Seren Yuce
Cinematographer: Baris Ozbicer
Editor: Mary Stephen
Sound: Mustafa Bolukbasi
Music: Gokce Akcelik
Production Designer: Ozkan Yilmaz
synopsis
Mertkan leads a simple life in Istanbul until he meets Gül, a Kurdish girl from Eastern Turkey who has run away from her family. But their relationship is obstructed by Mertkan’s father Kemal, and the chauvinist culture in which Mertkan is imbued.
“Humanity’s complicated structure, which is disguised under the veil of technology, is always affected by the power of masculinity. Majority is a critique of myself and Turkish society, of which I am a member. My aim is to look at ‘us’ through a family, which is the core of society.” (Seren Yüce)
Will it be possible one day for a character of a Turkish movie to look back at his youth and get to understand his tyrannical father as did the liberated character of Padre padrone? Nowadays, we hear a great deal about the oppression suffered by women in many traditional societies, but Seren Yüce shows us an oppressed young man. The son is subdued to his father. Fear of his father proves more powerful for him than his love for an “alien” girl. Is this passive character aware of this oppression? This film makes us face a paradox: In a patriarchal society a woman may find it easier to emancipate herself than a man. (Tadeusz Sobolewski)
world sales The Match Factory
Balthasarstrasse 79-81, 50670 Cologne, Germany
Tel. +49 221 53970 90
Fax +49 221 53970910
info@matchfactory.de - festivals@matchfactory.de
www.the-match-factory.com
Production Company: Yeni Sinemacilik
Principal Cast: Bartu Kucukcaglayan, Settar Tanriogen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Producer: Sevil Demirci, Onder Cakar, Seren Yuce
Cinematographer: Baris Ozbicer
Editor: Mary Stephen
Sound: Mustafa Bolukbasi
Music: Gokce Akcelik
Production Designer: Ozkan Yilmaz
synopsis
Mertkan leads a simple life in Istanbul until he meets Gül, a Kurdish girl from Eastern Turkey who has run away from her family. But their relationship is obstructed by Mertkan’s father Kemal, and the chauvinist culture in which Mertkan is imbued.
“Humanity’s complicated structure, which is disguised under the veil of technology, is always affected by the power of masculinity. Majority is a critique of myself and Turkish society, of which I am a member. My aim is to look at ‘us’ through a family, which is the core of society.” (Seren Yüce)
Will it be possible one day for a character of a Turkish movie to look back at his youth and get to understand his tyrannical father as did the liberated character of Padre padrone? Nowadays, we hear a great deal about the oppression suffered by women in many traditional societies, but Seren Yüce shows us an oppressed young man. The son is subdued to his father. Fear of his father proves more powerful for him than his love for an “alien” girl. Is this passive character aware of this oppression? This film makes us face a paradox: In a patriarchal society a woman may find it easier to emancipate herself than a man. (Tadeusz Sobolewski)
world sales The Match Factory
Balthasarstrasse 79-81, 50670 Cologne, Germany
Tel. +49 221 53970 90
Fax +49 221 53970910
info@matchfactory.de - festivals@matchfactory.de
www.the-match-factory.com
Production Company: Yeni Sinemacilik
TIFF Notes
Sometimes a debut feature startles by virtue of the simple clarity of the story it tells. Such is the case with first-time feature director Seren Yüce’s The Majority, which transforms a sober account of family life into a trenchant social critique.
The film revolves around Mertkan, the shiftless scion of a middle-class family and the heir apparent to his autocratic father’s construction company. Mertkan works so hard at upholding his image as a freewheeling young man with no responsibilities that he has lost interest in pretty much everything: cruising the malls with his friends, smoking in his dad’s SUV or working for his father’s business all bore him equally. He feels no need to plumb for any meaning in life or any inkling of a professional calling.
When he meets Gül, a young woman putting herself through university by working as a waitress, Mertkan seems poised to break out of his empty routine. However, his family disapproves of his new girlfriend on the grounds of her being a minority from the Eastern city of Van; their values are too imposing for Mertkan to challenge. He is, after all, unaccustomed to doing anything that requires real effort.
While setting out along the arc of a coming-of-age narrative, The Majority builds to much more. Through Yüce’s examination of one man’s choices – or perhaps his lack thereof – the film offers an alarmingly realistic study of a stratum of Turkish society that nurtures nationalism and militarism through the seemingly innocuous relationships of parents and their children. The fact that the film is set within a liberal and modernized Istanbul makes Mertkan’s inability to shun tradition all the more ironic. The Majority emerges as a study of the inertia of private values that can co-exist with a fast-changing public sphere.
Cameron Bailey
Seren Yüce’s slow-paced, feature debut Majority is a critique of Turkey’s misogynistic culture, in which the victim of social oppression is a young man who doesn’t have the courage to get out from under his father’s thumb and be with the woman he loves (Esme Madra).Mertkan (Bartu Küçükçağlayan, in his film debut) is a non-ambitious slacker in his early 20s who has little desire to do anything but hang out with his friends, much less work for his father’s construction company. The only person who sparks life in him is Gül (Madra), a Kurdish student who has run away from her family to attend university in Istanbul. Their relationship, however, is immediately opposed by Mertkan’s father Kemal (Settar Tanrıöğen).
The slow pace that Yüce sets in the film further conveys the endlessly oppressive setting. The story’s men are either overbearing, like Kemal, or submissive. Moreover, they control everything in the macho society but are emotionally inept for the fact that they never really have to interact with the other half of the population.
At the Q&A following the film’s official Venice Days screening, the director said the story, which he also wrote, “comes from myself and my neighbourhood and the friends I remember from when I was [the characters’] age. Unfortunately, not much has changed, the cycle continues today.” Küçükçağlayan, a theatre actor who had to tone down his performance for first film role, and Madra spoke of the nurturing, friendly atmosphere created on set by Yüce, who held few rehearsals and asked only of his actors that they be “real.”
For his part, Tanrıöğen admitted that playing Kemal was easy. “There are so many men like him in Turkey that it was easy for me to recognize the character and portray him,” said the veteran actor of his standout performance. Majority was produced for approximately €250,000 by Turkish company Yeni Sinemacilar and will be released domestically at the end of October by Özen Film. International sales are handled by The Match Factory.
Natasha Senjanovic – Cineuropa.org
High Flying Turkish Airlines
Mavi Boncuk |
Turkish Airlines took delivery of the first Boeing 777-300ER. During the next 10 months another 11 will join the fleet. Airbus purchases are lot lagging behind. Ten Airbus A330-300 will head to the high flying company during the same period. [1]
Two of the Boeing 777-300ER's were recently wet-leased by THY Turkish Airlines from Jet Airways. The aircraft retain their Indian registrations and flags.
Two of the Boeing 777-300ER's were recently wet-leased by THY Turkish Airlines from Jet Airways. The aircraft retain their Indian registrations and flags.
[1] On September 29, 2010 Turkish Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A330-300 and first A330-200 Freighter at a delivery ceremony in Toulouse. The aircraft, both powered by Rolls Royce engines, will support Turkish Airlines’ ambitious growth plans in both the passenger and cargo markets.
Joining the airlines existing passenger aircraft fleet of A320, A330-200 and A340 family aircraft, the A330-300, seating 28 passengers in business class and 261 in economy, will be used on medium and long range routes from the airline’s hub in Istanbul. It is the first of ten of the type ordered by Turkish Airlines in 2009. The A330-200F will be used by Turkish Cargo on long haul routes to Shanghai and Hong Kong, and to expand the Turkish Cargo network. It is the first of two A330-200 Freighter aircraft that will join the airlines existing all Airbus freighter fleet of four Airbus A310s.
Airbus aircraft share a unique cockpit and operational commonality, allowing airlines to use the same pool of pilots, cabin crews and maintenance engineers, bringing operational flexibility and resulting in significant cost savings. With a true wide-body fuselage allowing very high comfort standards, the A330-300 is able to accommodate seat and class configurations to suit the diverse customer requirements. It has a range of up to 5,650 nm / 10,500 km with a full passenger load. Orders for the aircraft stand at more than 450.The A330-200F is the latest addition to the highly successful A330 Family. Offering the lowest operating costs in its size category, it is the only modern mid-size, long haul, all-cargo aircraft capable of carrying 65 tonnes over 4,000nm/7,400km or 70 tonnes over 3,200nm/5,900km.
Airbus aircraft share a unique cockpit and operational commonality, allowing airlines to use the same pool of pilots, cabin crews and maintenance engineers, bringing operational flexibility and resulting in significant cost savings. With a true wide-body fuselage allowing very high comfort standards, the A330-300 is able to accommodate seat and class configurations to suit the diverse customer requirements. It has a range of up to 5,650 nm / 10,500 km with a full passenger load. Orders for the aircraft stand at more than 450.The A330-200F is the latest addition to the highly successful A330 Family. Offering the lowest operating costs in its size category, it is the only modern mid-size, long haul, all-cargo aircraft capable of carrying 65 tonnes over 4,000nm/7,400km or 70 tonnes over 3,200nm/5,900km.
Credit Notes Roundup
Credit Notes Roundup for Turkey
Mavi Boncuk |
Standard&Poor's BB+ Positive
Moodys Ba2 Positive [1] (Ba Questionable security. Ability to meet obligations may be moderate.)
Fitch BB+ Outlook Stable
Fitch BB+ Outlook Stable
[1] Moody's uses a letter grade scale that ranges from Aaa ("Exceptional") for the highest rating to C ("Lowest") for the least favorable rating (ie., Aaa, Aa, A, Baa, Ba, B, Caa, Ca, C). For classes Aa to B, Moody's adds a numerical modifier, from 1 (at high end of category) to 3 (at the lower end) to indicate the approximate ranking of a company in the particular classification.
October 12, 2010
First Manager of the Turkish national Soccer Team
First Manager of the Turkish national Soccer Team was William "Billy" Hunter who took the team to the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France ranking 17th at the end of the football games{1]. Four athletes (Mohamed Burhan, Şekip Engineri, Rauf Hasağasi, Ömer Besim Koşalay) and a single male fencer (Fuat Balkan) [2] also represented Turkey in 1924.
Mavi Boncuk |
Scotsman William "Billy" Hunter was a Scottish professional football player (the Bolton and Millwall) and manager. He had a successful managing career in Europe in the 20s, managing amoung others Lausanne, Sport Club Hakoah Wien[3] , Galatasaray and the Turkish and Dutch national teams. He supposedly was 34 years old when coming to Vienna in 1923. [4].
[1] Turkey competed in the Olympic football tournament for the first time in 1924. Round 1 May 25, 1924 Stade Bergeyre Attendance: 5,000 Referee: P. Chr. Andersen (NOR) 15:30
[4] 1924–1926 Turkey / 1924–1928 Galatasaray
Mavi Boncuk |
Scotsman William "Billy" Hunter was a Scottish professional football player (the Bolton and Millwall) and manager. He had a successful managing career in Europe in the 20s, managing amoung others Lausanne, Sport Club Hakoah Wien[3] , Galatasaray and the Turkish and Dutch national teams. He supposedly was 34 years old when coming to Vienna in 1923. [4].
[1] Turkey competed in the Olympic football tournament for the first time in 1924. Round 1 May 25, 1924 Stade Bergeyre Attendance: 5,000 Referee: P. Chr. Andersen (NOR) 15:30Czechoslovakia 5 (Sloup 21', Sedláček 28' 37', Novák 64', Čapek 74') - Turkey 2 (Refet 63' 82')
[2] Fuat Balkan (1886 – 28 May 1970) was a Turkish Olympic fencer. He competed at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. Founder, president and number ! member of BJK Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü. (pictured right)
[3] A pair of Austrian Zionists, cabaret librettist (Kabarettist) Fritz "Beda" Löhner and dentist Ignaz Herman Körner, founded the club in 1909. Influenced by Max Nordau's doctrine of "Muscular Judaism" (German: Muskeljudentum), they named the club "Hakoah" (Hebrew: הכח), meaning "the strength" in Hebrew.
[2] Fuat Balkan (1886 – 28 May 1970) was a Turkish Olympic fencer. He competed at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. Founder, president and number ! member of BJK Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü. (pictured right)
[3] A pair of Austrian Zionists, cabaret librettist (Kabarettist) Fritz "Beda" Löhner and dentist Ignaz Herman Körner, founded the club in 1909. Influenced by Max Nordau's doctrine of "Muscular Judaism" (German: Muskeljudentum), they named the club "Hakoah" (Hebrew: הכח), meaning "the strength" in Hebrew.
[4] 1924–1926 Turkey / 1924–1928 Galatasaray
Atta-ila of the Huns
Attila (1954 ) French/Italian co production in Italian; screenplay by Ennio DeConcini and Primo Zeglio; directed by Pietro Francisci; produced by Lux-Ponti-DeLaurentlis; Running time: 83 min. Cast: Attila the Hun/Anthony Quinn ; Honoria/Sophia Loren; Ezio/Henry Vidal; Grune / Irene Papas
Mavi Boncuk |
Attila (406–453), also known as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. The death of Rugila (also known as Rua or Ruga) in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk (Hungarian: Bendegúz, Turkish: Boncuk), Attila and Bleda (Buda)[1], in control of the united Hun tribes.
The origin of Attila's name is not known with confidence. Pritsak considers it to mean "universal ruler" in a Turkic language related to Danube Bulgarian. Maenchen-Helfen suggests an East Germanic origin and rejects a Turkic etymology: "Attila is formed from Gothic or Gepidic atta, "father," by means of the diminutive suffix -ila." He suggests that Pritsak's etymology is "ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable". However, he suggests that these names were "not the true names of the Hun princes and lords. What we have are Hunnic names in Germanic dress, modified to fit the Gothic tongue, or popular Gothic etymologies, or both. Mikkola thought Attila might go back to Turkish atlïg, "famous"; Poucha finds in it Tokharian atär, "hero." The first etymology is too farfetched to be taken seriously, the second is nonsense." The name has many variants in modern languages: Atli and Atle in Norse, Attila/Atilla/Etele in Hungarian (all the three name variants are used in Hungary; Attila is the most popular variant), Etzel in the German Nibelungenlied, or Attila, Atila or Atilla in modern Turkish.
[1] the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube takes its name from the name of Bledathe Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.
Mavi Boncuk |
Attila (406–453), also known as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. The death of Rugila (also known as Rua or Ruga) in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk (Hungarian: Bendegúz, Turkish: Boncuk), Attila and Bleda (Buda)[1], in control of the united Hun tribes.
The origin of Attila's name is not known with confidence. Pritsak considers it to mean "universal ruler" in a Turkic language related to Danube Bulgarian. Maenchen-Helfen suggests an East Germanic origin and rejects a Turkic etymology: "Attila is formed from Gothic or Gepidic atta, "father," by means of the diminutive suffix -ila." He suggests that Pritsak's etymology is "ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable". However, he suggests that these names were "not the true names of the Hun princes and lords. What we have are Hunnic names in Germanic dress, modified to fit the Gothic tongue, or popular Gothic etymologies, or both. Mikkola thought Attila might go back to Turkish atlïg, "famous"; Poucha finds in it Tokharian atär, "hero." The first etymology is too farfetched to be taken seriously, the second is nonsense." The name has many variants in modern languages: Atli and Atle in Norse, Attila/Atilla/Etele in Hungarian (all the three name variants are used in Hungary; Attila is the most popular variant), Etzel in the German Nibelungenlied, or Attila, Atila or Atilla in modern Turkish.
[1] the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube takes its name from the name of Bledathe Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.
Turkey Reaches for Top Spot
Mavi Boncuk |
Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Travel Awards 2010
Earlier this year we asked you to vote for the things you really like about travel, from business hotels to destination spas, airlines to specialist tour operators. From your responses we compiled the Readers' Travel Awards 2010, the best the travel world has to offer...
DESTINATIONS: COUNTRIES
Turkey is your favourite holiday destination. When asked to score it (with 'a percentage of satisfaction' figure on 10 criteria), you gave it top marks for range of accommodation (86.48) and that increasingly important component of any holiday: value for money (87.20). This year, Italy (88.93) and Spain (85.73) got your votes for food/restaurants, closely followed by South Africa (84.48), while you reckon Australia has the best climate (96.56) and India provides the warmest welcome (you gave it a heartfelt 94.44 for people/hospitality). Egypt scored highest for culture (88.03) and clean-living New Zealand came out on top for environmental friendliness (86.12).
1. Turkey 94.81*
2. Egypt 94.22
3. Australia 93.25
4. Italy 92.36
5. New Zealand 91.37
6. Spain 90.39
7. India 89.65
8. USA 88.94
9. South Africa 88.58
10. France 87.00
11. Mexico 86.29
12. Canada 84.90
13. Brazil 84.20
14. Chile 83.53
15. Sri Lanka 82.51
16. China 81.33
17. Greece 80.70
18. Portugal 79.87
19. Thailand 78.92
20. Morocco 77.49
*What are these numbers? They are an index of satisfaction with travel facilities and services, scored out of a maximum of 100. In our Readers' Travel Awards questionnaire, you were asked to choose the best that the travel world has to offer - everything from hotels and spas to airlines and airports. You were then asked to rate your choices according to various criteria, such as service and value for money. From your responses, we calculated the average mark on each criterion, and used this to provide the overall satisfaction percentage figure that you see in the league tables and The World's Top 25.
Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Travel Awards 2010
Earlier this year we asked you to vote for the things you really like about travel, from business hotels to destination spas, airlines to specialist tour operators. From your responses we compiled the Readers' Travel Awards 2010, the best the travel world has to offer...
DESTINATIONS: COUNTRIES
Turkey is your favourite holiday destination. When asked to score it (with 'a percentage of satisfaction' figure on 10 criteria), you gave it top marks for range of accommodation (86.48) and that increasingly important component of any holiday: value for money (87.20). This year, Italy (88.93) and Spain (85.73) got your votes for food/restaurants, closely followed by South Africa (84.48), while you reckon Australia has the best climate (96.56) and India provides the warmest welcome (you gave it a heartfelt 94.44 for people/hospitality). Egypt scored highest for culture (88.03) and clean-living New Zealand came out on top for environmental friendliness (86.12).
1. Turkey 94.81*
2. Egypt 94.22
3. Australia 93.25
4. Italy 92.36
5. New Zealand 91.37
6. Spain 90.39
7. India 89.65
8. USA 88.94
9. South Africa 88.58
10. France 87.00
11. Mexico 86.29
12. Canada 84.90
13. Brazil 84.20
14. Chile 83.53
15. Sri Lanka 82.51
16. China 81.33
17. Greece 80.70
18. Portugal 79.87
19. Thailand 78.92
20. Morocco 77.49
*What are these numbers? They are an index of satisfaction with travel facilities and services, scored out of a maximum of 100. In our Readers' Travel Awards questionnaire, you were asked to choose the best that the travel world has to offer - everything from hotels and spas to airlines and airports. You were then asked to rate your choices according to various criteria, such as service and value for money. From your responses, we calculated the average mark on each criterion, and used this to provide the overall satisfaction percentage figure that you see in the league tables and The World's Top 25.
October 11, 2010
Article | Intelligence gathering in the Eastern Mediterranean (1908-18)
Mavi Boncuk |
Harry Pirie-Gordon: Historical research, journalism and intelligence gathering in the Eastern Mediterranean (1908-18) Author: David W. J. Gill
DOI: 10.1080/02684520601046382
Published in: Intelligence and National Security, Volume 21, Issue 6 December 2006 , pages 1045 - 1059
Abstract
British scholars were active in the Levant during the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. Harry Pirie-Gordon toured medieval castles in the region during the spring of 1908 under the auspices of the British School at Athens; T.E. Lawrence used his maps in the following year. Pirie-Gordon continued to travel widely in the Near East as a member of the Foreign Department of The Timesand was involved with the survey of the Syrian coastline around Alexandretta. He was commissioned in the RNVR in 1914 and took part in the raid by HMS Doris on Alexandretta. Pirie-Gordon served in an intelligence capacity at Gallipoli before returning to Cairo to work with David Hogarth. In 1916 he was involved with the occupation of Makronisi (Long Island) [1] in the Gulf of Smyrna. Later that year he took charge of the EMSIB operation at Salonica until its purge in early 1917. Pirie-Gordon returned to the Arab Bureau in Cairo and took part in the Palestine campaign.
[1] Long Island (Long Island, now called Cheustan island in the bay in front of the Turkish city of Izmir / Smyrna)
Name given by British forces to a small Turkish island in the Gulf of Izmir now known as Cheustan. Long Island produced an interim emissions authorized in May 1916 during the British occupation. (These are now List by Stanley Gibbons catalog English ed.) un'inaccessibile Today the island is a military zone, but in the last years of the Ottoman Empire belonged to a wealthy English family, the Whitall. When the Turks allied with the Austro-Germans in World War I, the head of the family went into exile, but later his knowledge allowed the British to reclaim the island by the Turks in 1915 and block Smyrna (Izmir), the main port of the Turks to Asia Minor. Long Island was occupied in the spring of 1916 by a British force and a legion composed of Greeks of the Aegean Levantine coast. Lieutenant Commander Harry Pirie-Gordon was appointed civil administrator in April 1916 and authorized a series of stamps for Long Island. SourceThe first three tax stamps were overprinted GRI Turks POSTAGE (on the right) with extra pounds. GRI means "Georgius Rex Imperator". The tax had been requisitioned in a post office during a raid in Syria in December 1914 and Pirie-Gordon was brought with them for 18 months waiting to find a good way to use them. SOURCE
Harry Pirie-Gordon: Historical research, journalism and intelligence gathering in the Eastern Mediterranean (1908-18) Author: David W. J. Gill
DOI: 10.1080/02684520601046382
Published in: Intelligence and National Security, Volume 21, Issue 6 December 2006 , pages 1045 - 1059
Abstract
British scholars were active in the Levant during the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. Harry Pirie-Gordon toured medieval castles in the region during the spring of 1908 under the auspices of the British School at Athens; T.E. Lawrence used his maps in the following year. Pirie-Gordon continued to travel widely in the Near East as a member of the Foreign Department of The Timesand was involved with the survey of the Syrian coastline around Alexandretta. He was commissioned in the RNVR in 1914 and took part in the raid by HMS Doris on Alexandretta. Pirie-Gordon served in an intelligence capacity at Gallipoli before returning to Cairo to work with David Hogarth. In 1916 he was involved with the occupation of Makronisi (Long Island) [1] in the Gulf of Smyrna. Later that year he took charge of the EMSIB operation at Salonica until its purge in early 1917. Pirie-Gordon returned to the Arab Bureau in Cairo and took part in the Palestine campaign.
[1] Long Island (Long Island, now called Cheustan island in the bay in front of the Turkish city of Izmir / Smyrna)Name given by British forces to a small Turkish island in the Gulf of Izmir now known as Cheustan. Long Island produced an interim emissions authorized in May 1916 during the British occupation. (These are now List by Stanley Gibbons catalog English ed.) un'inaccessibile Today the island is a military zone, but in the last years of the Ottoman Empire belonged to a wealthy English family, the Whitall. When the Turks allied with the Austro-Germans in World War I, the head of the family went into exile, but later his knowledge allowed the British to reclaim the island by the Turks in 1915 and block Smyrna (Izmir), the main port of the Turks to Asia Minor. Long Island was occupied in the spring of 1916 by a British force and a legion composed of Greeks of the Aegean Levantine coast. Lieutenant Commander Harry Pirie-Gordon was appointed civil administrator in April 1916 and authorized a series of stamps for Long Island. SourceThe first three tax stamps were overprinted GRI Turks POSTAGE (on the right) with extra pounds. GRI means "Georgius Rex Imperator". The tax had been requisitioned in a post office during a raid in Syria in December 1914 and Pirie-Gordon was brought with them for 18 months waiting to find a good way to use them. SOURCE
See also: Captain Larkin and the Turks: The Strategic Impact of the Operations of HMS Doris in Early 1915 by EDWARD J. ERICKSON
The film that changed my life: Sandra Hebron
Sandra Hebron is the artistic director of the London film festival, which opens on Wednesday. I met her when we shared national jury duties at the 22nd International İstanbul Film Festival / 2003. She is a friend of Turkish Films than and a Fassbinder film with a Turkish character made an impact on her years ago.Mavi Boncuk |
Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
Fear Eats the Soul is about Emmi, a German cleaning lady in her 60s, who falls in love with a Turkish guest worker called Ali. The first time I saw it was as a student in the mid-80s in Sheffield, at a fantastic repertory cinema called the Anvil.
I found this film so compelling because it's profoundly political while also being deeply personal – a love story but also a swingeing attack on mid-70s Germany, the period it's made and set in. You get a real sense of how much prejudice Ali faces as a Turkish worker and how that spills over into Emmi's life because she's having a relationship with him. There's a scene where they dance together in a down-at-heel bar, the two of them alone together on the dancefloor. It's an incredibly tender moment, but it's also when you realise their relationship is destined to end tragically. I found that incredibly moving.
I was dabbling in making films at the time and it made me realise I would be a better film-maker if I watched a broader range of films. Then I became more interested in curating, which is what I do now.
I saw Fear Eats the Soul more than 20 years ago, but it's something I return to, and I still find those scenes upsetting.
Poster image Source: Posterman
October 10, 2010
You say Lira I say Yuan
Turkey's ties with China have been complicated at times because of Beijing's heavy-handed approach to unrest in Xinjiang, home to China's Muslim Turkic minority of Uighurs.
Mavi Boncuk |
Turkey and China will use their currencies, the lira[1] and the yuan[2], in bilateral relations Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday after holding talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Both members of the G20 group of rich and developing countries, Turkey and China have two of the fastest growing big economies in the world. Inward-looking just a few decades ago, they are now looking to boost their global influence to reflect their economic muscle.
Mavi Boncuk |
Turkey and China will use their currencies, the lira[1] and the yuan[2], in bilateral relations Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday after holding talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Both members of the G20 group of rich and developing countries, Turkey and China have two of the fastest growing big economies in the world. Inward-looking just a few decades ago, they are now looking to boost their global influence to reflect their economic muscle.
[1] The lira was introduced in 1844. It replaced the kuruş as the principal unit of currency, with the kuruş continuing to circulate as a subdivision of the lira, with 100 kuruş = 1 lira. The para also continued to be used, with 40 para = 1 kuruş. Until the 1930s, the Arabic script was used on Turkish coins and banknotes. Kuruş (derived from the German Groschen; Ottoman Turkish: غروش gurûş) is a Turkish currency subunit. Since 2005, one new Turkish lira is equal to 100 kuruş. The kuruş was also the standard unit of currency in the Ottoman Empire until 1844, and from that date until the late 1970s was a subdivision of the former lira. It was subdivided into 40 para (پاره), each of 3 akçe. In European languages, the kuruş was often referred to as the piastre, derived from the Italian word piastra. Kuruş eventually became obsolete due to the chronic inflation in Turkey in the late 1970s. A currency reform on 1 January 2005, provided its return as the 1/100th of the new lira.
See also: Ottoman Coins
[2] Yuan in Chinese literally means a "round object" or "round coin". During the Qing Dynasty, the yuan was a round and silver coin. The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The distinction between yuan and renminbi is analogous to that between the pound and sterling; the pound (yuan) is the unit of account while sterling (renminbi) is the actual currency. The yuan was introduced in 1889 at par with the Mexican peso, a silver coin deriving from the Spanish dollar which circulated widely in South East Asia since the 17th century due to Spanish presence in the region, namely Philippines and Guam.
Orientalism | Jean Baptiste Massard (1740-1822)
Mavi Boncuk |The Public Dancers, from Volume II Costumes and Portraits of 'Description of Egypt', engraved by Jean Baptiste Massard, pub. under the orders of Napoleon, 1822(b Bell?me, Orne, 22 Aug 1740; d Paris, 16 March 1822). French printmaker. He studied engraving under Fran?ois-Nicolas Martinet and Jean-Georges Wille, establishing his reputation as an engraver of book illustrations by contributing 16 plates to the edition by Pierre-Fran?ois Basan and No?l Le Mire of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1767-71). However, it is in his engravings after Jean-Baptiste Greuze that the velvet-like texture of his work can be seen to best advantage, notably in La M?re bien aim?e (1775; London, BM, Portalis 6) and La Dame bienfaisante (1778; London, BM, Portalis 4). Massard's plates have always been criticized for being overworked, but an anonymous writer of 1779, thought to be the engraver Charles-Etienne Gaucher, blamed this partly on Greuze, who overemphasized the importance of tone in line-engraving and took such an interest in the engraving of his own works that he would often add the finishing touches himself. It seems that Greuze did in fact retouch Massard's plates. Massard also engraved genre scenes after Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, includingLe Lever (1771; London, BM, Portalis 1), one of his best plates. As well as continuing to engrave for some of the most luxurious editions of the period, Massard collaborated on several of the publications on museum collections, such as Jean-Baptiste Wicar's Galerie de Florence (1789-1807) and S.-C. Croze-Magnan's Mus?e fran?ais (1803-9). In 1785 he became an associate of the Acad?mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, but he did not become an academician. He was a devout Roman Catholic and a staunch royalist, resuming his former title of Graveur du Roi with the restoration of the monarchy in 1814.