İ am continuing my blog diary of the trip to Turkey. Alas due to the fact that these entries are being conducted from various internet cafes İ am not going to even attempt to add images!
Anyone who has travelled in a foreign country (although I am not sure İ can call Turkey a foreign country since İ speak Turkish and my late father came from here) has come across an unsettling experience.
İ had one on Friday as we were going through the port district of Yenikapi in İstanbul.
We decided to eat at a Korean restaurant that just happened to be across from the boat landing as we were getting ready to take the boat to Bursa.
Turkey seems to have relatively few ethnic restaurants compared to most western countries though we did eat at a Russian restaurant in the Taksim district of İstanbul as well as a Chinese restaurant in İzmır during previous trips here.
There are many complicated reasons for this but alas there seem to be a handful of people who are so nationalist that they can not contemplate eating anything besdides shish kebab or doner (gyro meat).
One such person appears to be a Turkish waiter who was working at the Korean restaurant. Upon our entrance to the vacant restaurant the waiter informed me that the restaurant did not serve Turkish food.
İ said İ assumed this was the case since it was a Korean restaurant.
He then asked if he was sure İ wanted to eat at this restaurant. İ said yes. İ explained to him in Turkish that there were plenty of ethnic restaurants in America and İ thought Korean food would be fine.
İ wondered how the waiter could get away with criticizing his own place of employment until İ saw that the Korean family who ran the place did not speak Turkish.
When the waiter got us appetizers he warned us that they would be spicy. He then effectvely asked if it was indeed too damn spicy unlike Turkish food.
İ later reasoned that some of the reason for his Koreaphobia was because some of the meals had PORK!
İ informed that my main course which was a squid dish was great. And it sure was. He was taken back by this. Though he was probably more taken back by the fact that we refused to leave him a tip!
Some American tourists might unfortunately surmise that this xenophobic waiter was indicative of all Turkish people. That is not the case though. İ told some people İ met in Bursa about this experience and they laughed at the insane foolishness of the waiter.
As a Turkish person living in a small town in North Carolina İ fully sympathize with the Korean restaurant owners all too well. And it seems quite disturbing that when someone is a native foreigner that the very people they trust the most are the very ones which might well turn on them without hesitation.
Simply put_ there are far too many people like this xenophobic waiter all over the world and we must each be aware not only of the power of discrimination but the fact that each of us is capable of judging other people unfairly especially if one feels there will be no one who will stand up to their bigotry and disagree with them.
NOTE: There are no commas in this entry as well as apostrophes because İ sımply have a hard time finding them on a Turkish keyboard. This is made more frustrating by the fact that İ teach several grammar classes back home!
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