Prefab houses and tents are being sent to Elazig, the area in the east of Turkey that was hit by an earthquake early yesterday morning. And in the coming months, the people affected by the earthquake will have better houses than they had before. Not built of sun dried mud bricks like before, but of solid concrete.
In all the stories …
Pictures, people want me to take pictures of Istanbul in the snow. It’s been snowing rather heavily for a few days now, and I guess the people who request pictures imagine the most beautiful views: mosques covered with snow, the old city turned white, narrow streets with snow flakes coming down.
But that version of Istanbul in winter doesn’t exist. At …
There they are in Radikal newspaper: three boys aged seven, nine and eleven. The arms of the kaymakam, a local governor, is wrapped around them as he says: ‘These kids will read’.
The kids have been in the news for days now. It started with the news that a five year old boy, Bedrettin, was found beaten almost to death: he …
I went for drinks last night with the International Professional Women of Istanbul. I have never really wanted to join in these expat things, because I want to mingle in normal Turkish life and was afraid that getting too much into expat life would hinder that. But now after three years just one expat thing would be ok, …
The man who suddenly starts talking to me is angry. ‘This is not how it’s supposed to be done’, he says, ‘this is not how it’s supposed to be done’.
We are standing in a so called ‘Kurban Kesim Yeri’, an open air space designated by Istanbul municipality to butcher animals for the Feast of Sacrifice. Mainly cows are slaughtered, but …
An economic crisis and high gas prices: it’s not a good combination in winter. Because, what do people do when their income goes down and the gas prices are higher than the price of coal? Exactly: they stop using gas and throw the dirty black stuff in the heater. Optimist that I am, I always tell myself that living very …
Istiklal Street in Istanbul is famous. It’s Istanbul’s main shopping street, also known for it’s countless bars, cinemas, historical buildings – and countless people: on the weekend, about 3 million people a day visit Istiklal.
Being the thriving heart of this metropolis of 16 million people, this is also the place to be if you want to make yourself heard. Whenever …
The Istanbul municipality recently started pulling down apartment blocks in the parts of town where heavy rain caused flooding and the deaths of 32 people last September. The apartment blocks were built in such a way that they blocked the natural run-off of rain to the Marmara Sea. By correcting these city planning mistakes, the municipality hopes to prevent more …
‘It’s okay, just throw it down’, I hear my love say to the guys who are putting new windows and window frames in the kitchen and living room and who are not sure what to do with the old frames and glass. I want to protest: Are you crazy, you can’t just throw things down from the balcony! But I …
I practiced fishing on the street, with the owner of the shop where I bought my very first fishing rod ever. Last Friday that was. The guy taught me how to handle the reel, when to release the line, when to stop it again, and how to cast the sinker as far as possible into the sea. We had to …
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