We were fortunate enough to invite the two top peace negotiators for Palestine and Israel to discuss the potential of peace in the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. The event was enabled by one of our students, Ali Erakat, in which, he invited his father Dr. Saeb Erakat and Avi Gin to talk briefly at Manhattanville about this huge issue concerning today’s media but has been apparent since 1948. It was an amazing speech, which the entire audience enjoyed; especially because one could feel the sincerity and how hopeful these two men are for searching for peace. They stated that there are terms that need to agreed upon from both sides about the division at the 67 line in which both a state of Palestine and a state of Israel would be established and these lines would create the respected borders. The reason why i enjoyed the speech so much was because of the speakers and their bold characters and the manner in which they spoke. One can tell that they are incredible humans with peace at their hearts. One of the comments Dr. Saeb Erakat said led me to tears and the humor they both encompassed on such a serious issue was heart lifting; that they are doing what they can but they still have a optimistic view on the world. It was an incredible speech that gave us great insight on what they are doing to achieve peace. After the speech we were able to have a relaxing dinner with them and I was lucky enough to sit at the table and listen to them speak on other issues.
Overall, a great event, really one in a lifetime and I thank the school and President Berman for enabling us to have opportunities such as these.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The bastard of istanbul
Martina Colaizzi
Professor Metcalf
Analysis of: The Bastard of Istanbul
March 18, 2009
With the evolution of time comes the evolution of culture. This evolution can encompass either a mass deterioration or a sudden resurgence. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak takes the history of Turkey and manipulates it into a modern story of family ties, history, and secrets. With this book the reader grasps an understanding of the presence the past has in the present. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the argument the author is making that the present as modern and ever evolving it is always has ties to the past, thus we must acknowledge and accept what happened in the past and evolve from it.
What connection can we make with the past and the present? For what reasons is the past the past and the present the present and how do we establish these differences? The Bastard of Istanbul argues that the past and present are not different studies but are intertwined no matter how different the present time may seem. Thus, it is important and necessary to understand our past in order to fully comprehend it and go about the future ever evolving and avoiding the mistakes.
The revelation at the end that the Turkish step father, Mustafa, raped his sister, Zehila, and had a bastard child, the young girl who is met by Mustafa’s American step-daughter, the same age, makes the point on how the past does not die. The underlying argument of the author is that even years after the evidence remains of the past, in this specific case in Turkey of a horrific event that occurred on the eve of the First World War, the Armenian genocide. Moreover, it also shows that the past is able to link different cultures with the book connection with the two families, one in Turkey and the other in the United States.
On the eve of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire, the last greatest empire standing was deteriorating due to economic, social and political issues. The twentieth century became one that was deficient in unity that had keep the Empire in existence, with religion being the top unifying force, and saw a resurgence of nationalism due to cultural ties. Hence, religion had no more been the unifying force and the Armenians in Turkey, who where the Christian sect of the Ottoman Empire, became the scapegoats of the failure of the Ottoman Empire. As the conducted reports state, the Armenians were a threat to the Empires security, and sadly over one million Armenians between 1914 and 1918 were slaughtered by acts called “relocations” or better known as deportations and massacres, which used Russian style execution tactics, rape, displacement, and separating those who were strong enough to suppress the weak, specifically by putting the strong men into the passive segment of the army. As if the First World War was not requiring the Ottomans to put in all their time and resources, they were able to utilize a section of their empire, Muslim-Turkey, and have them massacre a small group of Christian people that were always in the picture, but were seen as promoting factor of stripe in the empire. Hence, a significant point that is presented here by Elif Shafak is the noteworthy impact Turkey’s denial of what occurred in 1915 has had, although today termed as genocide by many scholars and governments, and how the future is willing to accept these mistakes again because of the impact this denial has created. Sadly, we subsequently see this occurring during the Second World War when Hitler-Germany exterminated the majority of the Jewish community, because they were also seen as the causes to Germany’s strife.
Hence, although it is a book written in a satirical matter, based on what is occurring within the families and its four major characters and their clash between modern culture and traditional culture, the argument is presented of what we are willing to accept from our past. In the novel we find four profound characters, one daughter being a Muslim mystic, another a high school teacher, another a schizophrenic and the youngest, who is the central figure of the book, being that it is her daughter that is the “bastard of Istanbul”, who owns a tattoo shop. By telling the stories of each character the author is actually using them to comment on the importance of how the past does not die with time or relocation but rather it is always present. Therefore, one can boldly state that the Armenian genocide was still alive after all those years due to Mustafa’s crime against his youngest sister, Zehila.
Reading The Bastard of Istanbul, allows the reader to understand the significance of the past of the present in a satirical manner. It is extremely important that we understand what occurred in the past to aware ourselves of what may come in our future. The books comments on how Turkey, as young as a nation it is, is struggling with its traditions that was conceived by the Ottoman Empire, and its role in today. One can use the example of the anxiety the European Union had when the question of adding Turkey to the EU came about. In conclusion, the purpose of Elif Shafak’s novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, is to acknowledge to the reader that the identity of a nation is based on its past. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was flooded with nationalism, revolutions, wars, and invasions all to suffice the ethnic struggle it was in on the eve of the First World War. We are educated in history due to the importance it can have on the future, in means of avoiding mistakes that have occurred. Although we see history repeating itself, with wars and specifically today with the economic crisis we are in, which resembles that of the 1919 stock market crash, the past is important to comprehend because it does not die but vividly lives in the present.
Bibliography:
1. Adams, L. "'The Bastard of Istanbul': Turks, Armenians and a troubled past." International Herald Tribune , Jan 19 2007.
2. Shafak,Elif. The Bastard of Istanbul. New York New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.
Professor Metcalf
Analysis of: The Bastard of Istanbul
March 18, 2009
With the evolution of time comes the evolution of culture. This evolution can encompass either a mass deterioration or a sudden resurgence. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak takes the history of Turkey and manipulates it into a modern story of family ties, history, and secrets. With this book the reader grasps an understanding of the presence the past has in the present. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the argument the author is making that the present as modern and ever evolving it is always has ties to the past, thus we must acknowledge and accept what happened in the past and evolve from it.
What connection can we make with the past and the present? For what reasons is the past the past and the present the present and how do we establish these differences? The Bastard of Istanbul argues that the past and present are not different studies but are intertwined no matter how different the present time may seem. Thus, it is important and necessary to understand our past in order to fully comprehend it and go about the future ever evolving and avoiding the mistakes.
The revelation at the end that the Turkish step father, Mustafa, raped his sister, Zehila, and had a bastard child, the young girl who is met by Mustafa’s American step-daughter, the same age, makes the point on how the past does not die. The underlying argument of the author is that even years after the evidence remains of the past, in this specific case in Turkey of a horrific event that occurred on the eve of the First World War, the Armenian genocide. Moreover, it also shows that the past is able to link different cultures with the book connection with the two families, one in Turkey and the other in the United States.
On the eve of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire, the last greatest empire standing was deteriorating due to economic, social and political issues. The twentieth century became one that was deficient in unity that had keep the Empire in existence, with religion being the top unifying force, and saw a resurgence of nationalism due to cultural ties. Hence, religion had no more been the unifying force and the Armenians in Turkey, who where the Christian sect of the Ottoman Empire, became the scapegoats of the failure of the Ottoman Empire. As the conducted reports state, the Armenians were a threat to the Empires security, and sadly over one million Armenians between 1914 and 1918 were slaughtered by acts called “relocations” or better known as deportations and massacres, which used Russian style execution tactics, rape, displacement, and separating those who were strong enough to suppress the weak, specifically by putting the strong men into the passive segment of the army. As if the First World War was not requiring the Ottomans to put in all their time and resources, they were able to utilize a section of their empire, Muslim-Turkey, and have them massacre a small group of Christian people that were always in the picture, but were seen as promoting factor of stripe in the empire. Hence, a significant point that is presented here by Elif Shafak is the noteworthy impact Turkey’s denial of what occurred in 1915 has had, although today termed as genocide by many scholars and governments, and how the future is willing to accept these mistakes again because of the impact this denial has created. Sadly, we subsequently see this occurring during the Second World War when Hitler-Germany exterminated the majority of the Jewish community, because they were also seen as the causes to Germany’s strife.
Hence, although it is a book written in a satirical matter, based on what is occurring within the families and its four major characters and their clash between modern culture and traditional culture, the argument is presented of what we are willing to accept from our past. In the novel we find four profound characters, one daughter being a Muslim mystic, another a high school teacher, another a schizophrenic and the youngest, who is the central figure of the book, being that it is her daughter that is the “bastard of Istanbul”, who owns a tattoo shop. By telling the stories of each character the author is actually using them to comment on the importance of how the past does not die with time or relocation but rather it is always present. Therefore, one can boldly state that the Armenian genocide was still alive after all those years due to Mustafa’s crime against his youngest sister, Zehila.
Reading The Bastard of Istanbul, allows the reader to understand the significance of the past of the present in a satirical manner. It is extremely important that we understand what occurred in the past to aware ourselves of what may come in our future. The books comments on how Turkey, as young as a nation it is, is struggling with its traditions that was conceived by the Ottoman Empire, and its role in today. One can use the example of the anxiety the European Union had when the question of adding Turkey to the EU came about. In conclusion, the purpose of Elif Shafak’s novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, is to acknowledge to the reader that the identity of a nation is based on its past. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was flooded with nationalism, revolutions, wars, and invasions all to suffice the ethnic struggle it was in on the eve of the First World War. We are educated in history due to the importance it can have on the future, in means of avoiding mistakes that have occurred. Although we see history repeating itself, with wars and specifically today with the economic crisis we are in, which resembles that of the 1919 stock market crash, the past is important to comprehend because it does not die but vividly lives in the present.
Bibliography:
1. Adams, L. "'The Bastard of Istanbul': Turks, Armenians and a troubled past." International Herald Tribune , Jan 19 2007.
2. Shafak,Elif. The Bastard of Istanbul. New York New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The facts I collected over winter break as I was following the war in Gaza.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "outraged" by the attack on the UN compound and demanded an explanation as he met Israeli officials in Tel Aviv
Israel has been occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the 1967 War, ignoring the Fourth Geneva Conventions and over eighty United Nations General Assembly Resolutions.
The Israeli military controls the movement of the nearly four million Palestinians through a system of checkpoints, roadblocks, and segregated roads.
The Israeli Army exercises virtually unchecked freedom to detain, threaten, arrest, inprison, torture, and even kill Palestinians, often without charge or trial.
The Israeli government sponsors the transfer of Jewish Israeli citizens from Israel to Israeli colonies in the Palestinian Territories known a-settlements.
Israeli settlers suffer no legal consequences for building new settlements or expanding existing ones on internationally recognized Palestinian land, or for threatening or physically attacking Palestinians.
The "Security Fence" that is currently under construction by Israel in the name of preventing terrorism in fact weaves through, not around, the West Bank, with the primary effect of separating hundreds of thousands of West Bank Palestinians from their land and from each other.
Speaking from Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it continues to ignore UN demands to end the fighting in Gaza.
"How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the UN Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the UN?" he said.
"The UN building in Gaza was hit while the UN secretary general was in Israel... this is an open challenge to the world, teasing the world," he said.]
[friday jan 16]
Many of the more than 40,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to leave their homes for medical treatment because of the Israeli onslaught and hospitals swamped with the thousands of injured.
Every year, billions of American tax-dollars are funneled to the Israeli military, which uses most of the money to purchase American-madeweapons.
Fact compiled from Al Jazeera News
http://www.btselem.org/eng
lish/Gaza_Strip
http://electronicintifada.
net/v2/article4933.shtml
http://www.mepeace.org/for
um/topics/the-true-story-b
ehind-this-war
http://www.unitedforpeace.
org/downloads/If%20Gaza%20
falls.pdf
http://electronicintifada.
net/v2/article10055.shtml
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "outraged" by the attack on the UN compound and demanded an explanation as he met Israeli officials in Tel Aviv
Israel has been occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the 1967 War, ignoring the Fourth Geneva Conventions and over eighty United Nations General Assembly Resolutions.
The Israeli military controls the movement of the nearly four million Palestinians through a system of checkpoints, roadblocks, and segregated roads.
The Israeli Army exercises virtually unchecked freedom to detain, threaten, arrest, inprison, torture, and even kill Palestinians, often without charge or trial.
The Israeli government sponsors the transfer of Jewish Israeli citizens from Israel to Israeli colonies in the Palestinian Territories known a-settlements.
Israeli settlers suffer no legal consequences for building new settlements or expanding existing ones on internationally recognized Palestinian land, or for threatening or physically attacking Palestinians.
The "Security Fence" that is currently under construction by Israel in the name of preventing terrorism in fact weaves through, not around, the West Bank, with the primary effect of separating hundreds of thousands of West Bank Palestinians from their land and from each other.
Speaking from Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it continues to ignore UN demands to end the fighting in Gaza.
"How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the UN Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the UN?" he said.
"The UN building in Gaza was hit while the UN secretary general was in Israel... this is an open challenge to the world, teasing the world," he said.]
[friday jan 16]
Many of the more than 40,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to leave their homes for medical treatment because of the Israeli onslaught and hospitals swamped with the thousands of injured.
Every year, billions of American tax-dollars are funneled to the Israeli military, which uses most of the money to purchase American-madeweapons.
Fact compiled from Al Jazeera News
http://www.btselem.org/eng
lish/Gaza_Strip
http://electronicintifada.
net/v2/article4933.shtml
http://www.mepeace.org/for
um/topics/the-true-story-b
ehind-this-war
http://www.unitedforpeace.
org/downloads/If%20Gaza%20
falls.pdf
http://electronicintifada.
net/v2/article10055.shtml
Israeli Ambassador At Manhattanville.
In late February, the Israel Ambassador to the United Nations came to Manhattanville. The campus was filled with secret service and police force; why what did they think was going to happen, we always had ambassadors come to school, why this be any different, maybe because of the reaction to what occurred this past late December and early January. During this time more than 1000 Palestinians, mostly women and children living in the Gaza strip were killed all in order to accomplish the political goals of the existing israeli government to eliminate Hamas.
After reading accounts from Al Jazeera and CNN I though i had sufficient background information to ask a question to this ambassador. Except like all the other questions it was only half answered. He stated how he believe we are dealing with moderates and extremist on the the arab side and that its the extremist that lead the Israeli continue with their asults, Thus i asked if he believes it a struggle almost arabs that are moderate and extremist what would he consider Israels tactics on Gaza, extreme or moderate, for example the accounts of the use of white phosphorus and the shelling of a united Nations school. Sadly i did not receive an answer but rather a reaction that completely did not acknowledge the comment on white phosphorus and denied the United Nations school incident.
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