Sunday 30 March 2014

Changes

On the day we go to the polls, here is a quick example of how fast things in Turkey can change.

The first picture was taken 3 weeks ago, on 9th March, in front of the football pitch in Bodrum.  


The down-and-outs are two of four who have been around for a while but the graffiti was new.  We are a mostly graffiti-free zone in Bodrum so I was  quite shocked to see it appear overnight.  I know I should be more upset at the homeless guys sleeping on the street but we've got used to them weaving in and out of the traffic, cigarette in one hand and bottle in the other, asking for money to buy more booze.  I wonder what they did today while the sale of alcohol was banned during voting. 



Three weeks later, this is the same wall.  The mayor sent a team to dig up the rubble, lay irrigation pipes, plant rosemary, oleander, sow grass seed and repaint the wall.  The vagrants can still sit on the steps and drink their wine, but hopefully a better solution can be found for their well-being.

I wonder what changes we'll be facing tomorrow?  

4 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Polling day in Budapest is at the end of this week and we can certainly identify with this post. The city is alive with workmen digging up and planting things, all in a somewhat erratic fashion. Is the electorate so easy to deceive we ask?

    And, like you, we wonder if the changes which are needed which are not purely cosmetic will ever take place....

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  2. Things do change so fast in Turkey, Let's hope the politics change quickly too, if you get my drift.

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  3. B to B, Ooh, do we hate graffiti. It's the one petty crime for which I think only public humiliation of some kind is an appropriate punishment - perhaps painting over what you besmirched at your own expense.

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  4. I bet all governments wish they could whitewash their misdoings as easily as this wall was spruced up.

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