Istanbul-Asia

Istanbul, the beautiful exotic city which is over 3000 years old, has a population of more 20 million, of which 2/3rds live on the European side and a third on the Asian side.

Our tour group comprised of two Jamaicans, two Austrians, and a British Couple. It was a friendly group led by Turkish students, Emre who lives on the Asian side and Burrak who lives on the European side.

It was am interesting , wonderful and educational tour.

I didn't find an 'Asian' look as over time, as both sides appear to have integrated totally so look rather similar.

However, I personally prefer the Asian side, as it attracts far fewer tourists, so is less congested.

There are  three distinct sections, Muslim, Christians (mainly people of Armenian descent who were mostly followers of the Roman Catholic faith) and Jews. 

However we were informed that while this was how it was originally, its mostly older Jews and Catholics who remain now.

 The synagogue was recently vandalized due to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, so it is being repaired.

As Turks tend to be mostly Muslims, every square has several elegant mosques. 

This is a modern mosque built by the current government.

In the olden days,  Muslims knew when it was "prayer time" based on the position of the sun. This plaque shows how.

The Bosphorus Strait separates Istanbul's European from the Asian side.

Numerous ferries take residents and visitors across daily. It's about a 20 minute ride.

You get a great view of European and Asian Istanbul from the Strait.

A community garden. You can only reap if you sow!

Fresh sardines. Had only seen tinned ones before😊

Where you wash up before entering a mosque 

The European side behind us.

A Turkish submarine heading to the Black Sea

Six streets converge here

A street of lamps

A Christian church 

We are unwanted 😡

 We Jamaicans tend to hold ourselves in high esteem and based the performance of many of our nationals at home and abroad, we have some reason to feel so.

For on an individual basis, so many Jamaicans tend to be world beaters!

This is s especially so in sports, music, the arts, etc although when it comes to, operating collectively, especially in sports, we tend to bomb out.

I am not at this time thinking about sports though but our reputation as a country.

A paradox is that despite our terrible reputation at home and abroad because of crime, we remain among the most desirable vacation destinations in the Caribbean

 But that’s for another debate.

The latest statistic which gave me a jolt recently, was when at I heard on Radio  Jamaica (RJR) that in the Caribbean, our passport is one of the least desirable. It’s something, I have never really mulled on, although I travel a lot.

This is demonstrated by the extent to which countries are prepared to refuse to take a chance on us, by allowing us into their countries without visas!

According the report, Barbadians, can travel to over 160 countries without needing a visa and Bahamians are next on the high list with over 150 countries not asking them to get visas.  However, Jamaicans can only travel to 90 countries without a visa. (The entire list and ranking are online).

Even other Caribbean countries don’t particularly like those of us trying to travel to their countries with a Jamaican passport, despite us holding something marked a Caricom passport.

I remember the last time I went to Trinidad, how they scrutinized my documents from top to bottom.  I was just attempting to get home next day after leaving Guyana!  This while other Caricom nationals just ‘zoopsed’ through. 

At that time, I had to catch a connection through Trinidad .

 I was just overnighting there to catch my connection!

As I have been mainly been travelling to Africa recently, my esteem was lifted a bit by the fact that quite a few countries on the Continent, welcome us without visas.

These include Botswana, Zambia, Ghana , Kenya, South Africa.

 I must admit though, I was shocked when no such privilege was extended to us by Ethiopia!

 Shocked, because so many Jamaicans hold Ethiopia in such high regard, with some of our nationals even considering their former King a high prophet.

Besides, quite a few Jamaicans have made that country their home.

Could it be because of the actions of the Jamaicans there why they put in the visa restriction?

On the other hand, more Jamaicans have made Ghana their home and they haven’t slapped any visa restrictions on us!

(According to my research, 1000 Jamaicans live in Ethiopia and around 4000 in Ghana).

Our government needs to tell us why we are the personae non gratae in the Caribbean and why they are not negotiating bilateral agreements for us to travel more easily?

Visas are quite expensive documents and considering how we open up our country to the rest of the world, isn’t it time we get a break?

I forgot, politicians travel on diplomatic passports so don’t have the hassle of getting visas.

Anyway, our passports are probably blacklisted because the world knows our governments are so notoriously corrupt with no one ever being held accountable for anything, so they don’t want people who consider corruption the norm, to visit them!

So, I guess we will continue to be the pariah of the Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

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 [jw1]

The exploiters contender

 The story of Africa has been one of brutality, racism and exploitation. This by rich countries which have vied over the centuries, to steal the wealth of this resource rich continent.

Not much has changed over the centuries except maybe the modus operandi of the vipers and an increase in the number of those who may wish to join the rape.

The most recent entrant into the band of potential pillagers is of course China.

They have not come with the violence of the previous exploiters though, but with apparent kindness.

I only hope African leaders have learnt from the experience of  others though and most recently, the Sri Lankan experience with China. 

They also need to pay close attention to the extreme racism Africans and other blacks are often subjected to in China! (During the pandemic, it was widely reported that several African ambassadors had to write to China’s foreign minister, calling for the “cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans” and Uganda even expelled some Chinese from their country in retaliation!)

Interestingly, Zambia only recently discovered huge emerald reserves. 

That’s why I find this you tube discussion I just got, so interesting: https://youtu.be/EvW18HDsFyw.

It sure stirred up bad vibes!

Hopefully the Zambians have a similar wise warning proverb like ours in Jamaica which is :’tek sleep mark death’.

Last lick

We have now left the motherland and are on our way to Florida.

After flying 8 hours from Lusaka to Dubai, we had a long layover and took a tour to Lahbab Desert which is an hour and a half away.

And guess what? Met another Jamaican who had gone to Bali and Philippines and was also hanging out in Dubai during the long layover before heading to Miami.She is going back to Jamaica on Wednesday. 

So wonderful to see Jamaican young people traveling the world!❤️ She went on another tour but we headed to the desert.

There we got to ride the camels and frolic over high a treacherous sand dunes with an expert driver in an SUV.

Flying through the dunes felt at times like being in a roller coaster ride and others, like being on rough seas in a small power boat.

It was a lot of fun though.

On our return to Dubai we asked the young man to drop us at the famous Dubai Mall, a man-made beauty.

It’s really magnificent (and expensive!) and shows to some extent, what you can do when you have unlimited petro-dollars!

Now all I have is memories of the wonderful adventure we experienced over the past few weeks.

They will last me a lifetime 😊.

Picture Gallery 

 

Dubai international airport is the most humongous airport I have ever seen in my life! 

We took Uber from downtown and told the driver we were going on Emirates airline. Clearly he didn’t know about the airport either, but he can be forgiven as he told us he had only been in Dubai for six months. 

He is actually from nearby Indian Kashmir and incidentally, Dubai seems to have a huge number of Indians and Pakistanis working there.

Anyway he dropped us off at international departure only for us to discover that we had to take the Metro to get to Emirates’ gate!That’s how huge the place is and busy and expensive too.

But all’s well that went well and we had the experience of a lifetime every day everywhere.😊