My friend Bahadir Acuner who lives near Seattle said something about Youtube being banned in Turkey a few months back. İ thought it was some kind of dealyed April Fools joke at the time.
But now that İ am here İ have found out that this is indeed true!
From what İ read on the internet the Turkish government which is even less popular than Bush is back home decided that there were too many nationalist Turks and Greeks trading insults with each other through Youtube videos.
Youtube took down the videos which included video rants from the Greek side about how Ataturk the founder of the republic was gay as well as counter rants from the Turkish side about how all Greeks were gay.
But Ankara decided enough was enough.
İ wonder if the real reason is because there is growing hostility towards the Turkish government. İ even saw a bumper sticker in Bursa which said: WE DONT WANT THE AK PARTY. The caption had a toilet plunger beside ıt!
But Facebook is very popular here. İ have seen lots of young people use it at various internet cafes around İstanbul and Bursa. There is even a Facebook reunion group for alumni of the local middle school here on the island of Buyukada!
Another thing which is popular in Turkey is violent American video games. İ have seen 11 year old boys playing Scarface with their friends and laughing as they shoot each other.
Perhaps if the government is going to ban something they should ban these games and let people watch Woody Woodpecker cartoons on Youtube!
Amazingly enough the traditional gun violence which has ruined cities like Philadelphia (thanks to the NRA and people like Clarence Thomas) is not a problem in Turkey. But there are more terrorists here. Perhaps a statitician should compare the figures and let political pundits like George Will and Paul Begala figure out which country is more dangerous to live in.
Oh İ forgot to mention that the ruling AK Party are the equivalent of the modern Republican Party back home (where are Eishenhower and Ataturk when you need them!). They have İslamic roots and they have managed to put the Blue Mosque on a postage stamp....among other things.
A businessman in Bursa told me they were ruining the country.
İ guess the world is a small place after all!
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