Blue Turtle Rising

A new site is claiming to be the solution to the nagging problem of what to pack when you’re drafted. It’s called Nizamiye.com and its slogan is, “Now you can stop worrying when you’re about to start your service.” Because you can order stuff online, see. Yes, I bet that’s what the young boys are worried about, because mines or bullets can crack their bones but itchy, standard-issue underwear will hurt the most. The site’s target audience comprises Turkish Armed Forces conscripts, though perhaps in the future the owners could expand their business by offering Kevlar vests to American soldiers who’ve been sent to Iraq without proper body armor by Donald Rumsfeld. Or to those Iraqis who might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Don’t you think it would be cheaper to order online and ship such a heavy product to your son or daughter serving in the U.S. military from a neighboring country instead of paying a tidy sum at the Cumberland post office?

But alas, as of end-June, the site offered only 26 products (some of them kits comprising products also listed on their own), ranging from nail clippers to sewing kits, socks, and naturally, boots. The site needs some work: if you click on the product link for The Soldier’s Handbook, you get the read accolades for a little plastic enclosure for your bar of soap.

I looked in vain for a Kurdish phrasebook. Looks like Turkey’s soldiers will continue to have to rely on fellow conscripts in their units who are, um, bilingual.

It’s hard to beat sunrise in summer, but when you’re a kid eager to try out your father’s camera and your parents are willing to give you a ride, it just might be possible. I can’t remember whether we had breakfast first or not. I recall that the streets were empty and we were able to race the clock without worrying about an accident. The coup of September 1980 must not have happened yet, or perhaps nobody had yet gotten killed for not stopping at a checkpoint. We’d see plenty of that, eventually.

This is how it looks when we first pull up at the park. First we’ll have to run closer to get some decent shots, because last night someone left the 24 mm lens on the body. Then would follow hours of frustration in the darkroom, and some 25 years later, computer manipulation. But first:

I took some more wide shots, finally switching to the zoom just as the sun was coming out from between two trees.

Over the years we would go back for more.