11th day .... Interim Presentation

After long night of preparation for the interim presentation I think each of us had his/her daily share of sleeping hours with little deduction. Heading the university equipped with new advisor: Yves Cabannes. I hope that you ( Yves) can scratch your head like Alladin’s Lamp, and get some magical idea to help us in our project!!!! Ah I forgot that you have to be one of the audiences for our presentation first before you enrolled as instructor.

10:00 am: the presentation has to start now everything classified in the this small Flash memory , its nice to see the whole effort that all the team member effort capsulated in 1 * 5cm Plastic Box. Anyways when Meghna started the presentation the encapsulated data expanded back to show information, pictures and maps about our finding and direct observation about Sulukule, Romani community and Istanbul. Every one took his / her part in the presentation including the instructors ( thank you for your help). The presentation was an attempt to open dialogue and discussion about how invited people see the development of Sulukule. This was done by proposing some idea that can help open the discussion.

I believe that books could help you understand any subject, but if you want to feel reality and understand society dynamics in Istanbul, you have to conduct a dialogue about this subject. The responds that we got from the different sources showed that dialogue inside society clearly, Academics (Prof. Albert) with nice coherent social , anthological explanation about Romani community, perception and identity and belonging to the place. Hacer (A.L.A Representative) highlighted the social dimension and what will happen for people who could not afford the new houses in development. Numbers were flying around: owners who already sold their houses and others who live as tenants and will be pushed away. It not only that their was gap in information but also official source of it the municipality officials was absent. Thank you Cassidy for organizing the dialogue and keep it on track.

Sorry Sulukule that we couldn’t present for you our work because of the funeral. Thus we have to rest now for a bit after the preparing and presenting, but it’s not for long time. It seems (at least for us) that all of Istanbul’ dynamics have been capsulated in Taksim Square area even the French activities. As part of a 40 days 40 nights activity, a film about Romany music has been screened. The Romany Music float around the world starting from India passing to Egypt, Turkey, through Europe ……. and finally landed in Spain. The talented film director made the link visible between these communities and music. But what was implicit there is the tension between Romani people and the place. Children, music and education appear but then vanish from site to site, one site you will find a child listening to music and try to imitate the play. Another location, the child is the main figure who sings. The film showed the authenticity of the music, a music which stems from their way of life. It has not been taught through an educational system, it’s the way they participate with life and express their feelings about it. Besides all of this, what is the relation between Romani and the city can be inferred!!!!

After this , it was the time to rest , watching another film at home and relaxing , sorry the film was nice but we were so tired to see the end of the King of Scotland.

Iyad Issa