5. In hell, there is going to be a free press. Cause the heaven that
the great, mighty Erdogan is so sure he is going to go to will naturally be
controlled by him. In heaven I have to watch “Miss Turkey 2013” , “Penguins – how
do they live in the cold?” and “Who wants to be a millionaire? We know you do,
but you never will be so at least if we play it on repeat while the government
you think might make you a millionaire are killing people on the streets, you
wont have to use your brain for half a second and work out how full of shit they
are”. In hell there are people with their own cameras reporting whats going on
– the locations of thousands of heavily armed police, where you can get help in
mobile hospitals, how you can protect yourself from the effects of the hundreds
of tear gas cannisters being shot at you from close range and from helicopters,
and who will shelter you when it gets too much.
4. In hell, I can drink beer, wear a swimming costume, have sex,
read what I want, watch what I want, believe what I want. And no one is going
to explicitly or implicitly refer to me as an alcoholic, a whore or a
marginalist. As if that is a bad thing. You know, I was thinking about being an
obedient sheep but then I remembered the whole brain/conscience/free
thought/respect for others thing and changed my mind.
3. In hell, when I hear a loud bang, its not police firing burning,
choking, filthy gas at me. It's a bunch of people getting together and letting
off fireworks and dancing, chanting, being arm in arm even though they support
different political parties, different factions, different football teams.
Theres a 60 year old lady who taught at a public school all her life, a young
kid from a village far away that no longer fears gas cause he grew up with it,
an anarchist who sees how rotten the system is and puts up the barricades and
starts the fires so that the people can walk forward to the police and register
their own disgust despite their fear, the blind who cant see but feel the
effects of tear gas in their eyes, young girls with handbags screaming every
time they get scared but staying all day and into the night despite that fear, and
all the other ages, races, backgrounds jumping up and down together in the joy
that finally, finally they have a way to express their anger and rage that has
no political or factional or racial or religious or any kind of boundary.
2. Tayyip’s gonna be in heaven. Him, and his devout obedient
unthinking believers. Those civilian police that drove directly into a crowd of
people and after being surrounded by them reversed high speed into those
behind, mowing them down and carrying a man underneath the car for 30 metres
before speeding away, leaving blood and terrified angry shocked people and
death in their wake. You better believe those mother fuckers will be there. His
army of supporters that walk beside the police with their clubs, at liberty to
attack women in the street, the marginal, the unarmed with no fear in their
righteous eyes. The armies of police that seem to be never ending never
sleeping never seeing that fire into people with their filthy gas, fire into
children, fire into buildings, take an army of 50 to beat the shit out of an 18
year old girl, patrol the streets late at night as if they are their streets
and not our public space to protest and celebrate and do what we want, all in
exchange for their soul. Current price is free public transport. Those women
that locked people out of their building when other women and children were
being shot at by water cannons. Those for whom an economy is more important
than a community with diverse ideas and beliefs.
1. Number 1 reason I am happy to go to hell? The people who will be
there. Oh, the people you will see.
There are people holding signs saying “DOES ANYONE NEED ANYTHING?”. There are
scores of medical students walking around providing first aid amidst the smoke
and chaos. There are doctors setting up mobile hospitals in cafes and shops,
and cafes and shop owners are happy to give them their space and help out
however they can. Everyone has milk or lemon to help you with your burning
eyes, so much so that every time a bomb lands close you are asked 10 times in 2
minutes if you need any. There are people giving the same service to street
dogs and cats, who are there because of our carelessness and suffer for reasons
they cant understand. There are young men and women who run towards the gas
bombs, pick them up and throw them into
water, or run to a sewer where they can toss them underground out of harms way,
or toss them back at the police cause the police are protected and, hey,
sometimes you gotta be five and say “he did it first!”. These men and women
will run all day, looking to the skies for the bombs, doing anything to keep
them away from the people. And of course, those people from before are there
again, running after the young heroes and immediately applying solution to
their burning eyes. There is this one
guy who drives a three wheeled bike, collecting the injured from the front line
or the middle line or anywhere anyone needs help and will deliver them to the
nearest medical centre. He’s well into his middle ages and has enjoyed a few
good meals, but he will puff away all day through the acrid smoke and heat. I
cant forget the old ladies that cant and shouldn't be out on the streets but
who dutifully beat their pots and pans out their widows every night and cheer
for those walking in to join the party. You can tell they are a little envious
of the younger and less fragile, but happy to be waiting at home for their
neighbours who still have the fearlessness of youth. There are people clearing
any barricades or fires so that ambulances can get through even though
sometimes those ambulances are carrying tear gas or police cause one time they
might be coming to help, and we have to take that chance. There are people
standing in the side streets, watching, chanting, clapping and they have
families and jobs and fear for what might happen but they stay all the same
cause being there is what counts. And there are the leaders, who call people to
the front when they might want to hang back, who call out for calm to prevent
panic and send the call back for doctors when they are needed. There are people
playing drums, and setting off fireworks and singing songs and carrying funny
signs so that everyone else can remember through the smoke and the terror and
the violence of the police that we are here because we believe in freedom and the
worth of the individual and not in the tyranny of the majority, and they help
us all to remember that even though we might not agree all the time when we
come together it is something far more powerful and beautiful than democracy,
it is the rule of the people when they believe in themselves and no longer need
to rely on a government that doesn't care for them. They can care for
themselves. Fuck Tayyip. I’m going to hell.
