Funny/Not Funny

The Turkish Minister of Forestry and the Environment was quoted in yesterday's Vatan Gazette as saying that he trusts God to sort out the drought problem here, and that he's leaving it in God's hands (funny). I'm so glad Turkey's elected officials' strategy is to do nothing, and everyone is happy with that because they mentioned God (not funny). Istanbul's reservoirs are at about 20% capacity. All the government has done about this is raise the price of water by 130% and encourage the populace to buy dishwashers (funny/not funny). If the drought continues and water cuts increase over the coming summer, I'm curious if the ingenuous populace will think God doesn't favor AK Party, or if they'll think God is punishing us and we deserve it somehow. Only time will tell, and some AKP officials too, no doubt.

In other news, last week, a building exploded (not funny) in the part of Istanbul where BE works. This was because, in the same building, there was an illegal gin distillery and an illegal fireworks factory (funny). The tank of gin blew up first, which then ignited the illegal fireworks, blowing 3 floors off the building and killing 22 people (not funny). Among the 22 killed were eight passersby who stopped to gawp at the fire from the distillery, and who were then blown up by the fireworks explosion (a little bit funny?*). The owners of the two factories are nowhere to be found (totally predicatble).



*Maybe it's only funny if you live here and have seen how quickly gawpers appear out of nowhere to gather, stare, offer commentary, and as often as not, begin arguing or fighting. They gather for the smallest event, like someone standing on the street looking up. They gather for car accidents and further hold up traffic, even in areas where there are no houses or businesses or people or anything.