kar. snow

i am currently reading "snow", which was listed as one of the ten best books of 2004 by the new york times, written by the turkish author orhan pamuk. pamuk is the winner of the nobel prize in literature in 2006. in his writings, influenced by thomas mann, fyodor dostojewski and leo tolstoy, he usually touches upon modern western and radical islamic conflicts in turkey.

the content of the book: it is about the poet ka, who lived in german exile in frankfurt for many years and now comes to his hometown kars, a turkish provincial town, where strange suicides occur (religious girls killed themselves because they refused to take off their head scarves). the town is in the hands of islamists and they also want to win the upcoming elections. there are strong politico-religious tensions and suddenly, there's a military putsch - it's a fight between islamists and liberals and ka gets involved in this clash of different ideals. in between that, he re-meets his former beloved ipek and tries to convince her to go back to germany with him. but no one can leave the town because it's continuously snowing.

i read it in english because the german translation is supposed to be not very good.

pamuk is one of the few, who judges the mass killings of kurds and armenians in ww1 and who defends freedom of speech in turkey. therefore, he is publicly criticised and is offended with murder threats in turkey. in 2005, for instance, he was taken to law due to "insulting turkishness" but the case was dropped. why turkey dropped its charges against him, read here. his situation is similar to the one of hrant dink who has been recently murdered (19 january 2007) in istanbul. yesterday, pamuk cancelled a trip to germany in fear of his own life (yasin hayal, who organized the murder of dink, carried out a threat) which was not the first time as it happened before in 2005. more information in german. this is sad in view of the fact that he should have been rewarded honorary doctorate of the free university of berlin which shows how popular he is in europe (he already received the €25,000 peace prize of the german book trade for his literary work which is the most prestigious book prize in germany).

handball world champs I

hooraay, germany beat spain today! *hehe* actually i don't like handball - booooring! but it is my belief that germany needs my support. next game will be germany - france, that's my favourite combination as i wanted to see this combination in summer with regard to football. but no, the italians made it. don't get me wrong, i like the italians and their ice-cream!

2007 - year of the pig

the year of the boar brings fertility and virility... it's still a bit early but today there was a little chinese new year festival at our university. puh, didn't know that we have so many chinese students -the house was full, they danced, sang and acted well but what a pity - everything was in chinese and i totally understood nothing so i went home earlier. :(

female cats vs. male cats

due to a recent comment

"i look forward to more jokes. Next time, maybe you can tell a "Fatcat" joke!"

(this is actually for insiders cos the fat cat is a pub in sheffield, uk, where hot ppl go to)

here's another joke, well, it's not that funny (unfortunately, didn't find another one) but i want happy readers and therefore i willingly fulfill the wishes of my commentators:

how can you tell that male fat cats are lazier than female fat cats - and, indeed, little baby cubs?
because when they say they're getting up, they're always lion.

a joke

a duck walks into a bar and asks the bartender “do you have any grapes?”
the bartender responds: “no, duck, this is a bar” and the duck leaves. the next day the duck comes in again and asks the same bartender “do you have any grapes?” the bartender, annoyed, responds: “no duck, i told you yesterday, this is a bar. now leave me alone!” the duck leaves again. but the next day the duck returns and asks the same bartender “do you have any grapes?” now the bartender is furious and tells the duck: “no. we don’t have any grapes! if you come in here asking for grapes again, i’m gonna nail your feet to the floor!” the duck leaves again. the next day the duck comes back into the bar and asks the same bartender: “do you have any nails?” “no” the bartender responds. then the duck asks: “do you have any grapes?”


well, needed something to cheer me up (the meal at the greek restaurant didn't help). if anyone knows a better joke - send it to me!

city of bursted dreams, cologne

cologne, choconet's not coming! what an up and down in choconet's feelings - found out that the fair is only for wholesale and retail buyers etc. but not for normal people like choconet. *sniff* hey, choconet was willing to skip seminars for this fair but all this adrenaline was in vain. *sniff*...choconet is now going to eat some christmas sweets. :o( *choconetfrustratedandsad*

cologne, city of choconet's dreams

is anyone out there willing to go to the confectionary fair in cologne with choconet? could have gone there today but didn't know that it takes place at the moment. watched an ad on n-tv a few minutes ago and now CHOCONET WANTS CHOCOLATE because CHOCONET LOVES CHOCOLATE and there you can eats loads of it (not like in the cadbury factory in birmingham which choconet visited in december where you only get a few chocolate bars)!! More details for you: the ism (internationale süßwarenmesse) in cologne, germany, is the biggest and most important confectionary fair in the world where producers show you the newest kinds of CHOCOLATE, ICE CREAM, cacao, biscuits, confectioneries, pastries, munchies and so on. mmmhh, choconet can smell it, yummy sweet experiences for her tongue... yes, choconet agrees, ism - the future of sweets! but it's a pity that it only takes place till wednesday. :( anyway, cologne, i'm coming!

p.s. for all chinese people reading this: there will be a similar sweets fair in september in shanghai, china - the so called sniec - powered by ism. choconet is already looking forward to going to china in september. *lol*

by the way, china admitted to climate failings today (failed to make process on improving and protecting the environment, china produces most of the greenhouse gases in the world after the us). read the full article at the source.

ich will auf die süßwarenmesse!

childless societies

is today a good day for politicians all over the world telling women to get pregnant?

hakuo yanagisawa (*1935), japan's health minister and member of the conservative ldp, called women "birth-giving machines"! they should do their best to overcome this problem. needing 2.1 children to maintain population levels, they only have 1.26 children per women at the moment. just read that japan has the highest ratio of elderly to young people, wow, thought germany is on top of the list. *g* the japanese birth rate already shows a small rise at the moment, let's see if yanagisawa's speech further helps. for more information, see the website of the japanese ministry of health, labour and welfare.

another politician with similar ambitions is the russian president wladimir putin (*1952) who announced that the support of families is one the highest priorities of his politics due to a decreasingly dropped number of births. but mr putin, please don't forget all the other problems your country has got!

just noticed

this little ugly person on our balcony when i wanted to go to bed... i better switch off the light, then i can't see him anymore... know only one person who builds things like that. don't ask.
at least, free advertisement for coca cola :)
good night snowman, hope you're gone away when i wake up.

kostenlose werbung für coca cola auf meinem balkon!

snow is a beautiful thing

the city i live in is going through its annual dose of genuine winter

just in front of my house

winterlicious

yes, it's really winter now and it's freaking cold outside but i freaking llllove it!

my first (zoo) entry

i went to the zoo today, well, didn't see many animals outside, ok there was this anxious peacock,











the snow goat (it's really called like that!) and














the artificial reptile but all the other ones were inside :(