Author: beril doga gunduz

Hello Readers,

This week, we watched American Sniper in class and talked about the movie. I was always looking these kinds of movies as a genre I would never watch because I really don’t enjoy American war movies because I think they are biased and doesn’t reflect the reality very well ( its my dad’s favorite so we can never find movies that we both enjoy ) However, this week showed me that if you watch a movie with a critical eye and make comments about it, despite its subject, its a really interesting journey. While I watching American Sniper, a lot of issues came up to my mind. Butler’s argument about griefing, the poem book ” The connection between everybody with lungs” by Sphar, the post 9/11 attitude of U.S and beyond. I started to watch the movie in this perspective and the movie becomes much more than just a biased war movie. In the movie, one scene affected me the most. The sniper from America was eating with an Iranian family but he notices the elbows of the men who are eating right in front of him. He understands that he is a sniper just like him and he freaks out and attacks him.  In this scene, we see how two ” enemies” could eat a friendly meal and laugh and talk but in reality, they are shooting to each other and killing people from distance like its a video game. During the movie, we see how dehumanize Chris Kyle became. He kills a kid because he was carrying a grenade. Even though we could see that he wasn’t proud of what he has done but there was a dehumanization for sure.

This movie reminded me the term that soldiers mostly use. ” I can die for the soil of my country “. In the movie, this was exactly the mentality of the soldiers who went to Iraq. The trauma of 9/11 created a heater towards Muslims and a lot of Muslims who are innocent was tramped as terrorists. This mentality leads to Islamophobia and we can see the effects of it even today. Also in the movie, the killing that American soldiers do is being portrayed as a heroic act however killing cannot be associated with heroism just because of its legitimized. The killing that the army does is not different from the killing that the terrorists do and it cannot be cleaned just because it’s a military power. This shows the hypocrisy of American media and how it wants to portray certain things in the eyes of the viewer.

Hello Readers,

Two weeks ago, while I was on the phone with my boyfriend, we started to talk about the war in Syria and how Turkish soldiers are getting killed by the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD ).The operation is called ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in Afrin. He was telling me what happened and he was talking about PYD like they were not human beings. He was saying ” I’m glad that they die because they killed so many innocent people.  I was feeling extremely bad as well however I wasn’t seeing the Kurdish people who try to create a country as demons.  This issue is a taboo in Turkey and there are lots of people who hate Kurdish people just because of this war between Turks and Kurds.  I don’t want to be misunderstood. I’m not for terrorism nor I support any kind of terror act, however, this is not a reason to hate a group of people who are just victims of this situation.

Sometimes I feel like we are supporting soldiers like we are supporting a football team. The more we see this as a game, the more we are dehumanized and detach from the reality. People die and we are smiling for their death. I tried to explain myself to him and I was accused of being too naive. I’m an antimilitarist and I was like this since the beginning of high school because I know that the ‘fight’ that we are in, feeds bigger powers and I feel like we are being manipulated. There are people watching this war from distance and enjoy the chaos and I don’t want to be the one who butters their bread. After the talk that I had, I automatically think of  Butler’s book chapter that we read in our Astu class. She was talking about how we are not allowed to mourn for some deaths because we feel distant. Also, she talks about a poem which is about how we fight for peace. The operation that Turkey do is called ” Operation Olive Branch”. I can’t be the only one who sees the irony.

I question a lot about nationalism these days. Also borders, language, race, ethnicity. The more I question, the more I feel stateless. Is it really necessary to belong a single nation and ” die for your flag”? Of course, the feeling of belonging is beautiful however If you have to kill, I don’t want to belong. I don’t want to support my army like I support a football team.

Hello Readers,

For our Astu Class, I went to MOA and saw the Amazonia exhibition. To be honest, I was mad at myself for not seeing it before because I had a great time. After visiting Amazonia, I checked out the other sections of the museum and I was fascinated

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Before entering the Amazonia section, there were seven male and female figures sitting inside of a bowl and the name of the piece was ” Kitxoko Clay Dolls”. It captured my attention the moment I saw it. Then I read about it and learned that elder women from Karaja which means three related groups) are known for their ceramics and its an important source of income. There population was around 9.000 in 18 th century however after, their lands were occupied by industrial farmers because of the policies of the Brazilian government and their rivers exploited for commercial fishing. Because of this, their population decline and 600 individuals were left by the early 20 th century.

There was a section called the “Market Place” and there were jelewery, handbags and all kinds of belongings which I learned was made by The Yekuana woman. They made pottery, loincloths and seed necklaces and men made baskets, combs, and bows. In 2009, the Brazilian National Foundation

 

 

 

n made a project to support Indians however it was a failure. The Yekuana have used their crafts to affirm their identity and resilience. About 1900 individuals have migrated from their traditional territories to escape from white settlers.

Another peace which attracted me looked like toys for children in first sight. However, after reading it, I learned that it wasn’t for children at all. These figures were called “Balata Figures” which were made of balata, the latex of the tree known in Brazil. I learned that these are floated down the river to trading posts or warehouses in Amazonian villages.  During world war II, The Brazilian government promoted 55,000 peasants from northeast to the Amazon to participate in the war effort. These soldiers remained in Amazonia, molding figures out of latex as a way of life.  Moulding these figures became a tradition and a way to supplement income.

I love the quote which was attached to the door, ” Everyone has the right to a protected and balanced environment ” which made me think after seeing this exhibition. The Amazonian indigenous were forced to leave their lands after the white settlers just like the indigenous people in Vancouver. To read their history made me feel heartbroken. At the end of the exhibition, there was this wall covered with drawings of kids who visited the exhibition. They wrote all kinds of slogans like ” I can treat cultures with respect” and ” I can respect first nations culture” which I think was really nice because to teach this to kids in an early age is extremely necessary.

Also, there was this video named ” Trails of Knowledge: Higher Education for Native Brazilians” and it was about the everyday life of Indians as high education students. The kids who they interviewed said that they were proud to be Indian but the problem that they were having is to be able o keep up with the rest of the class because their background education is too different. The sentences of one girl which they interviewed was striking. She said ” When you were little, you think you are perfect but as you grow up, you start learning that in fact, you are different from others and you need to protect and defend your culture because no one is going to do that for you”               w

After the exhibition, I understand the issues of Indigenous people and their concerns. I read an article from the Guardian about the Peru tribal leaders threatened to block the government from accessing their territories and halt oil production unless an indigenous rights law is applied within 20 days. I agree with them and I think the governments have to be more sensitive about the Indigenous rights. I like the way Canada especially UBC acknowledges the fact that we are in the lands of Musqueam people and I really respect that

 

 

Hello Readers,

In our Astu class this week, we read Persepolis and we had discussions about this wonderful book.It’s about a little girl which is the youth of the Author who witnesses the changes that happen in Iran with the Iranian revolution and the Iran- Iraq war. After reading it I realized that there are so many ways to approach the book.It has a lot to tell. For example, we can analyze the form of the book and its contributions to the context or we can talk about the representation of feminism, but one part of the book specifically affected me.It made me think about how religion is being used for benefits. In the book, there was this part that explains how 12-year-old Iranian boys decide to go to war by being “hypnotized”. They are being convinced with a false image of the afterlife and brainwashed with this idea. They give plastic keys to kids and making them believe that it’s the key to heaven.

It made me think about the middle ages in Europe. The church had all the power and used religious beliefs to keep its power. The pope was selling lands from heaven and he was convincing people to donate money to the church in order to purify from their sins. The exact same thing is happening with extremist and functionalist terror organizations as well in nowadays. For example, ISIS making suicide bombers to believe that the thing that they are doing is for god and It serves a great purpose. They are believing that they are going to be rewarded for this action. The way how religion is being used for self-interest was always the same. It just changes form during the time.

In Political Science we talked about “power” and how it’s being used to manipulate. In Persepolis, we see how the repressive regime of Humeyni changed the way people think and act. In my opinion, just like other political leaders, he was using religion to strengthen his position. Erdoğan, the current president of Turkey is doing the same thing. I assimilate the actions of him with the regime of Humeyni. It’s not that extreme but most of Turkish People who know the background of Iran and the fast change in the regime has a sort of phobia about this issue. After 2000 with the rise of the conservative party in Turkey ( Ak Parti) people started to look at the similarities with Iran and started to compare. There was always the same question in the head of people. “Would Turkey turn into the regime of Humeyni?”After reading the book, I started to question this as well. I saw a lot of conservative leanings In Turkey like Iran.

To sum up, religion was always been a sensitive issue and this sensitivity was being the target. When we look at the world and the relationship between power and religion abuse,  it looks like it’s not going to change any sooner.

 

 

Hello Readers,

When our professor told us to write a blog in our Astu class, the first thing that I thought about was the genre. In the first couple of classes we had, we discussed this and I realized that I was really fascinated by the idea and the true meaning of this specific word. I always thought it was a way of classification in art like literature or music.

When I left the classroom that day, I started to look around more carefully. While I was walking down the street, everything in my head about this word started to get clear. When we said the genre is a way of thinking, It didn’t make sense at first but then, I started to link it with the real world around me. Everything was a way of self-expression and the way people express themselves were highly interbedded with the culture around them. I remember the first time that I read “language is sensitive to situation”. In my case, the situation in this sentence was culture. When you are inside of your own culture, you do not realize this at all. For example, when I was in Turkey, I wasn’t paying attention to the different genres and how it was related to the environment that I’m living in. It wasn’t new to me and when you see things over and over again, you do not realize how fascinating it can be. I started to compare the genres that I see in Canada and the ones that I see in my own country. For example, advertisements were similar in the situation because the purpose of an ad is always the same in every country, but I realized that the form of the advertisements was very different than where I came from. Being Canadian was highly in the foreground and  I could feel the nationalism in every advertisement that I watched.The words that were chosen and the structure of the sentences were supporting this idea.

(“I am Canadian” commercials, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up0i0G_y05A)

The formal forms were different too. When you were filling up your personal information like your date of birth, you were writing the month first.I am used to writing the day first so I had a confusion when I first saw this format. (M,DD,YY) Or on the highway, the signs that showed how much time it takes to arrive somewhere also showed what were the exciting things that you can do in that area. I found this very interesting as a new genre which I had never seen before and it was intrinsic to this country.

This was the first time that I was in Canada.The culture and the language was new to me. I started to look around more carefully. The more I look, the more I realized the small details. Even when I was ordering coffee, there was this unnamed way of doing things. You have to order in a specific way. Even ordering coffee had a rule and a situation behind. Can this be a genre too? I’m still not sure but thinking about it made me feel excited.

I understand that looking at different genre’s in a new country gives you a lot of hints about the way of living and about how some things work around that specific society. The name of our Cap was “ global citizen’s” The meaning for me was to have different perspectives and combining them for the purpose of being a part of something bigger than your own culture and personal identity. Maybe it sounds silly, but thinking genre made me realize I was inside of a pool of diversity and I realized this while looking details and searching for new genres around the country that I just moved in. I felt like I expended my way of thinking. It was an exciting experience for me and it still is.

 

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