Long NYT piece on Gulen schools in USA

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 There was a quite long piece in the New York Times a couple of days ago on American charter schools, particularly in Texas, that are associated with the Turkish religious figure Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, who was forced out of Turkey in 1999, is the center of a large network of schools, businesses, and media holdings (including Today's Zaman) located in Turkey and in other countries. Fethullah Gulen

N & P: Early September Fire-and-Snow Edition

Friday, September 11, 2020

The big news in Bozeman this past week was the fire that broke out in the Bridger Mountains last Friday. The fire had started just over the big "M," a well-known (if a trifle Hoxhaesque) Bozeman landmark located outside of town, about six miles to the north of the MSU campus. 

I had, in fact, just gone for a hike at Drinking Horse Mountain, which is located across the road from the "M" (which you can see just to the right of the rooftop in the picture above). After riding my bike back home, I noticed small wisps of smoke just above it. By Saturday, however, the Bridgers had become an inferno. On Saturday night I could see the fires burning orange up top.   

Sunday was also hot, and the fire grew to over 7000 acres, but on Monday we got something of a reprieve. It being Labor Day, temperatures dropped by about sixty degrees to hit the low 30s, with rain turning into snow overnight. Somehow, we ended our 3-day weekend both freezing cold and on fire, but I guess that's pretty much the way things are rolling in 2020. 

Turkey: On to the next crusade

Saturday, April 19, 2014 It was an arresting headline: "Turkey mulls leaving World Wide Web." No, it wasn't from the Onion. Apparently, the article was real: During an informal meeting with journalists in the Parliament on April 19, Elvan argued that not only Turkey, but also several European Union countries mull to establish "their own national Internet protocols." "Instead of www, a ttt system can be formed. Turkey and other countries can establish their own domains. Such a move would detach the Internet systems from each other. This is a controversial issue," Elvan said. Elvan also called for an "international convention" to cope with the "the lack of control over social media."  Those of you who follow the news in Turkey have no doubt heard about recent efforts in that country to block YouTube and Twitter, while rumors had been running wild earlier this year about the imminent closure of Facebook.

Erdoğan's interview with Charlie Rose

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan had an hour-long interview on Charlie Rose the other night. I found it pretty riveting. Then again, my taste in entertainment isn't always so great. A lot of the questions that Charlie asked him were pretty classic. The Kurds. The Armenians. A sleepy-looking Rose (did the slip him something beforehand?) perked up for a brief moment when he actually thought he might get Erdoğan to issue a sort of apology for the Armenian genocide on live TV. It didn't happen, but I was nevertheless surprised to see the Prime Minister indicate, after providing a series of qualifications, that he might be open to doing something like that in the future.

Smoky End of Summer N & P

Friday, August 28, 2020

It's been hot and smoky up here at the Borderlands Lodge for the last couple of weeks. This isn't so out of the ordinary for the northern Rockies, as we typically find ourselves ensconced in the smoke of not only local fires, but also those burning in other western states. This year seems worse than normal, though. 

Biking through the birch tree forest,
in Bozeman

Still, I've been getting out, trying to enjoy the outdoors even with the school year opening up. Classes have been going well--no electronic glitches so far--so in my free time I've been trying to get out and away from screens. Given the alternatives, I like online teaching, but it does give me headaches from looking intensely into computer screens for so many hours per day. I find myself giving small--five minute--breaks in my classes so that we can all get away from the screen.  

Turkish coup attempt: my hot take

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Yesterday was a typically beautiful example of Bozeman in the summertime. It was gorgeous out. Cool, clear, nice and dry. I'd worked at home in the morning and then met up with a friend for beers in the afternoon. 

I'd left my phone at home, but by the time I'd returned I could tell that something weird was going on. There were a bunch of cryptic messages in my email and on Facebook, as well as a number of calls from friends. All of them were just asking: have you heard the news in Turkey? 

News & Propaganda: Mid-May Fun at the Borderlands Lodge

Friday, May 15

Hello again, Borderheads, I hope this week's N & P finds you well. Life is moving ahead swimmingly at the Borderlands Lodge. A week ago, I submitted my final grades for the spring semester, and now I'm preparing for the summer. I'm going to be teaching a class online on modern Turkey and am planning on doing some travel in the Eurasian Borderlands.

The weather has been really windy and nasty here lately, but that's okay. Nothing lasts forever, even blustery days in May. 

 

N & P: Trimming the Tree Edition

Friday, December 11, 2020

This past Sunday I participated in one of my favorite Montana traditions: cutting down a tree and decorating it. 

The practice up here is to buy a permit for $5 at the hardware store, then go to a national forest and saw down a tree. Growing up in a pretty suburban neighborhood in Ann Arbor, and then really only living in large or large-is cities since then, I'd never experienced something like that. The first time I did it in Bozeman was on Christmas Day, 2009, when I went north of the Bridgers to cut down a tree with a group of local Russians. For the last several years I've been cutting down my own tree to the south of Bozeman, usually with a group of friends with whom I picnic, drink, and stalk trees. 

This year, of course, things are different. But there was a pandemic bonus: rather than the $5 that the rapacious hardware store extorted from us, now Montanans pay just $2.50 to get our permit online. Merci buckets, Recreation.gov!

It was nice to see some friends, outside at a quite socially distanced space. I brought a couple of beers and a turkey club sandwich and joined in the conversation with friends I hadn't seen for months. Then I borrowed a saw and cut down my tree, which I then dipped into an enormous vat of hand sanitizer. 

All in all, a nice day. And there was a strange feeling of nostalgia associated with it as well, as I had kicked off my quarantine back in March by taking down last year's tree. I wonder what the world will look like by the time I throw out this one. Better, I hope. 

And yes, that is a Santa Claus hat on top--purchased on the streets of Istanbul many a year ago. I've never been one for putting crosses or stars on the tree. Loyal readers of the JMB should know, at any rate, that the Borderlands Lodge is one of the last remaining outposts of secular Kemalism in Gallatin County. 

It's good to be in the mountains and, for the moment at least, healthy at the Borderlands Lodge. It's nice to have a tree, and even better to have friends willing to lend you a saw and set up a bonfire. 

And in the Eurasian Borderlands? What is going on there? Well, I thought you'd never ask...