Turkey in Europe

[imomus]

'I don't know why I think this,' wrote my brother in an e mail the other day, 'but I have the impression that you are about to leave Berlin. Is that true?'

It's true that I get restless after two years in a city, and I moved to Berlin in March 2003, so the 'two year itch' is due any month now. And it's true that, since coming back from my summer in Japan I haven't really embraced Berlin with much fervour. But I'm not sick of Berlin by any means. I like the city a lot -- the politics, the culture, the air quality, the low prices, the international young people and the local old people, the seriousness, even the deadness of the place.

Well, the deadness maybe a bit less. There is a fusty grandeur, a monumental splendour about the Karl-Marx-Allee, the socialist boulevard on which I live. It has fountains, Soviet-style architecture, a certain otherworldliness which comes from its origins as a propaganda showpiece for the virtues of communist egalitarian prosperity in the 1950s. But mostly, these days, it's just six lanes of traffic. Under the admittedly glorious avenue of chestnut trees, a rather sedate and chintzy sort of life goes on. Elderly East Germans potter through tacky shops in incongruously palatial spaces. The local food shops are mostly run by North Vietnamese, as is the street market that migrates daily between the Kino Cosmos and another spot closer to the Kino International and sells frilly underwear, cheap clothes, watches, meat and cheese.



I'm not leaving Berlin, but I'm on the verge of moving to Kreuzberg. Whenever I go to Kreuzberg, as I did yesterday to shop in my favourite Turkish supermarket, Tek-Mer, I feel a big sense of relief. This is what a city should be! Instead of cars and monumental boulevards, there are narrow 19th century streets milling with people. Instead of shops which shut early there are shops which stay open late. Instead of old people, there are young people. Instead of beauty salons and Mexican restaurants, there are some of the most radical bookshops and art galleries anywhere (NGBK is currently showing an exhibition of art which breaks the law, Legal / Illegal). Instead of clubs and alcohol there are hammams and tea. Instead of Germans, there are Turks.



I love the Turks. I love their food: olive oil, flat aromatic bread, proper chick peas (not the soft German rubbish you can only get in soup), big tubs of plain yoghurt, big cans of garlicky olives, feta cheese, dried figs, tea and rice. I don't much care for the colours and shapes of the packages in German supermarkets, but I love the colours and shapes and smells in Turkish markets, especially the twice-weekly at Maybach-Ufer by the canal. White Europe hasn't had this kind of density, this kind of vitality since the Middle Ages, since Breughel.

I don't care for the western pop music piped into German supermarkets, but the Turkish pop music in Tek-Mer is a delight to listen to. Two songs on my forthcoming album are in Arabic scales, and it's for pretty much the same reason that two years in New York's Chinatown left me with a taste for Cantonese Opera rather than The Strokes. The faces and clothes of people I see in the Turkish quarter are much more appealing to me, aesthetically, than faces and clothes of Germans in a district like Mitte, no matter how trendy, affluent and creative the Germans may be. For much the same reasons I left London, after ten years there, with a Bangladeshi bride, not an English one. The real vitality in London, the really sympathetic people, were out in the ethnic suburbs, in places like Ilford and Woodford, where the Asians were. A European city without at least one immigrant quarter is a dying city, a sad place of senescent blandness, deadening safety, cautious affluence.

I'm moving to Kreuzberg at the earliest opportunity. I also support the idea of Turkey joining the European Union and I hope that when the decision on Turkey's membership is made on December 17th it's a yes vote and a green light. For Europe's sake as much as Turkey's.

Comments

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

With its declining birth rates and aging population, plus the influx of young people from the Middle East and Asia, it's posible that Europe as we know it may cease to exist in a few generation's time--or at least it will look very different. Is there more chaos, more energy, more vulgarity, more variety, more crime, and more religion in Europe's future?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Europe's demographic problems are probably irreversible, even if there were a major turnaround and more 'vital' nations like Turkey entered the EU, which is by no means certain to happen. There's also a cultural climate here in relation to work, which is basically, why bother? Let's do less. This has its good side: the defeat of the work ethic, an emphasis on cultural activities and quality of life, environmentalism. Sometimes I get frustrated with it, though.

Some observations on these issues are here:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/events/2004/amsterdam1004/presentations/gros_daniel_amsterdam.pdf

http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf

I just came back from Shrinking Cities, a big show at Kunst-Werke about post-industrial cities like Leipzig, Liverpool and Detroit. I may blog something about it tomorrow.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an interesting show--I look forward to hearing about it.

One wonders--fears--if today's post-industrial cities will become tomorrow's re-industrial cities, if ever the developing world itself becomes post-industrial. Hopefully we might transcend our current idea of industrialization altogether by that time.

As a non-European, I do not feel qualified to comment, but I have some European friends who would likely agree with your assessment. The whole idea of work has to be re-imagined; surely there must be a humane, productive alternative to the European work model and the Japanese/American work model. I'm a bit incredulous over the 'play ethic' concept as a whole--although the distinction between work and toil is an important one.

Side note: Summerisle seems to go nicely with Nico's more autumnal Marble Index on iTunes. Good harvest music. Might carve a Nic-o-lantern (or a Nick-o-lantern) this evening.

Nothing like the marvelous, starchy-sweet smell of the inside of a pumpkin.

Happy Diwali,
W

shrinking cities

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, please do blog about it. This is something that fascinates me and I'd be interested to hear your angle.

Lotsa good info related to this topic can be found here:
http://www.worldchanging.com/


Cheers,
Neil

Re: shrinking cities

[(Anonymous)]

The worldchanging blog entry about shrinking cities:

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001376.html

Neil

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

The most frightening number from the first report you link is the projection that by 2025, approximately half the population of Japan will be past working age. While there is some discussion of increasing the level of immigration there is no workable policy yet in place. Many Japanese people believe (absurdly, in my opinion) that robots will be the solution to the problem.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I was looking over those reports yesterday. Germany and Japan's aging figures (no pun intended) seem to be very similar.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I've read long term global demographic projections, and it appears that going by current trends, the world population may top off at around 10 billion by the middle of this century, then slowly decline (this may have changed since I've last read up on the subject, which was several months ago). The economic implications are chilling, provided we are still using the same growth-oriented economic model at that point.

If you want a real scare, look at the population figures in sub-Saharan Africa. Entire countries are on the verge of collapsing because there are so few people of working age available to maintain them.

Diverging demographic trends (developing world getting younger, the developed world getting older) do not bode well for future international relations between the two.

W

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

Can someone explain to me why, in the second report linked, the District of Delaware has a much higher GDP/capita than any other State? Does it have something to do with dodging taxes?

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

There are no sales taxes in Delaware--and yet, the sole toll plaza on I-95, the principal artery that runs the length of the entire Easter Seaboard, is in--that's right, Delaware.

Oh, Delaware...

[ex-ebb439.livejournal.com]

So Europe could wind up like the US in the future (?) - we are going to see a huge change in our population majority. I hope it happens in my lifetime - I find it rather exciting.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

If you're referring to the increasing Latino population, rest assured that you will be around. On the Northeastern Seaboard, an old-stock WASP like myself seems to be a bit of a rarity as it is, so I wonder if a larger Latino population would make much of a difference in the variety one sees on any given day. Whatever keeps Walter (http://paginau.univision.com/content/photoalbum.jhtml?cid=157636&toShow=1) on the air is fine wih me.

In my travels abroad, most populations tend to be a bit more homogeneous than one is accustomed to, especially when one leaves the urban centers (Central America seems to be an exception). This is becoming less true with every year, though.

Even in this small, rural town there are Turks, Mexicans, Indian Sikhs, Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese--and I think some Russians, Scots, and Bosnians as well. Remote, traditionally homogenous American cities like Lincoln and Tulsa now seem to have recent arrivals of Asian and African communities, which is encouraging to hear.

I look forward to the day when we have an Australian Aborigine neighborhood in Brooklyn and they open up a Witchety Grub bar (they can call it "Little Uluru"). It can be like fondue or something. Some say they taste like peanut butter, but I think they taste like scrambled eggs.

W

[ex-ebb439.livejournal.com]

I'm from DC originally and I loved that I could find so many different cultures packed into such a small area. I would ride the bus some days and hear a melange of languages; different dialects of Spanish, an occassional click language from Africa, some island creole... I loved it. Some days I would be the only English speaking person on the bus, save for the driver. I'm bilingual, so it sometimes afforded me the opportunity to speak French with people from a variety of North African countries. Talk about the crossing of cultures!

I work at a small private college, so I hear about the population change all the time. Higher ed is trying to bend with the times and accomodate an ever changing demographic.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I was in Africa a few months ago, and had a first-hand crack at those linguistic 'clicks' you mention. Phonetic pronunciation of the language is so elastic, and the roman alphabet does not do the spoken language justice.

Zulu:
Saw(u)bonnn-na ('hello')
N'(g)yabonn-ga ('thank you')

Xhosa is very 'clicky'. So is the language of the !Kung bushmen. ('!' usually denotes a click).

W

[ex-ebb439.livejournal.com]

The director of our international studies office is an Africa expert and he speaks one of the click languages fluently. The funny part is that he's a Jewish boy from Brooklyn.

Did you ever read Nisa? It's about a !Kung woman. It's a very good read.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read it in college--a cultural anthropology classic.

I wonder if anyone might care to share with us the most unusual or incongruent immigrant neighborhood they've encountered (say, 'Little Finland' in Rio, or something along those lines)? It always amazes me where people wind up.