it ain't interesting when the old kind of Turks get no Police spanking

[r16]

or a rant-against-the-media again ...

a coal mine in Turkey has been site for a disasterous accident , the death toll will probably reach 350 . Took place on Tuesday this week , at 15.30 at the shift change , doubling the number of people . Was first reported to be an explosion of electrical systems . Later amended to coal dust catching fire without fire , making a concentration of Carbon Monoxide that suddenly got all over the place with an explosion of the said coal dust .

the mine belongs to a corporation which apparently is the largest one in the country ; one of the New Turks . Some bearded guy bragging with the Minister for Energy -also bearded- using cool machinery to extract coal , with all the TV cameras in attendance on happy days some 9 months ago . Am also bearded of sorts , saving money with shaving once a week ; so , so what ? The company says everything was OK and they always passed inspections with full marks . An abnormal fire , if you will .

anyhow , all the news channels cover it non-stop . ı hear it on the radio first at about 18.00 . 15 killed , 200 trapped underground . Bad , but accidents happen . By 22.00 the number of dead climbs to 17 . Good , there are bound to be some heavily injured who unfortunately will succumb ; just 2 more shows things are good . They will probably dig people out soon .

now 7 or 8 newschannels follow each other on the TV , about 2 are always pro-goverment , one is Congregation and the rest are ... you know the ones were people have to watch it , if they want to keep their jobs . And oh dear , one pro-goverment channel is warning the Audience about false rumours ! Alarm bells ? At the end of the that 7-8 channels there is one colloborative thing across Europe that has a Turkish language edition and ı zap until ı get there . They are saying 157 killed ... A mistake , a keyboard mix-up ; has to be . Wait , they are giving the relevant Turkish State Authority as the source , there are 600 people still down there .

in the morning , 08.00 hours . Open the TV , every channel says there are 200 killed with more to come . Not 17 ; when you have European partners in Media , you don't get phone calls from offices in Ankara . What would happen , the dead would rise if they weren't accepted to have died ?

newspapers ... ı get it , they wrap up by say 21.00 in the evening , newspapers are not supposed to be quick about things . Yet in light of the thing that it has been the only thing on TV for the whole Tuesday evening , there is actually a newspaper on Wednesday that doesn't have a single picture of the mine thing on the frontpage . Can't say if they covered it inside , considering ı don't buy it . The only thing worth noting on that front page is the PM declaring they won't give up , surrender to Hubris . Referencing the head of a Lawyers' Association that hopes to oppose the PM in the elections in August as the Monument of Hubris ...


the PM arrives in town . Don't expect to see people ripping the License plate off his car on TV . That's in a rabidly pro-opposition newspaper on Thursday . Though there are vague images of people kicking some Black coloured car on many channels . He has his press conference ; he cites similar large scale explosions killing large amounts of people , from 1840 England to 1960 China . Every TV Channel carries the conference . You hear that there has been no fatalities in mines in Germany since 1948 ; only if you chance upon some Labour Union guy . The shock is such that he is kept talking on this line on a New Turkey channel . Even the PM used the word "Emekçi" to refer to the miners ; it's such a Leftist thing ... It's afterall May , the weather turning to summer . In summer there is still chemical irritants in Police water cannons , yet it still beats catching cold in October or December .

and of course it can become unbearable , all those tales of people having to walk a kilometer inside the mine , 30 starting and 2 making it and 28 not making it . After the careful tone of the first two days all the media has like turned against profits over safety . The clean shaven owner guy and not his bearded son (?) in the bullseye . For claiming they have created sheltered spaces in that very mine that can hold 500 people for 15 days , wih every need taken care of , yet they have cut costs . Unlike the almost Communist State organization that produces a metric ton of coal at 140 US $ , they do it at 28 . The beardy has too many pictures with the Energy Minister . Bah , just the usual .

trust Al Crusading to make so much of the little demonstrations that take place . Yet , they are good enough to edit Anita McNaught's piece to remove her large smile when she reports 5 times as many Turks die as Chinese for ton of Coal mined . The full definition of that seems to be 7 fatalities in Turkey per million metric tons extracted . Despicable , even more than Haşim Al Barra looking happy whenever El Kaide kills somebody . And mind you , this still falls short of their resident Turkish expert who kept smiling even after the interview was over and they showed him on and on . Ah dear Qataris , well known that you will sell your allies , the new Turkey guys , but ain't it kinda insulting ? Why don't just wait , until America comes and bombs ? Isn't it for your dear allies , the new Turkey guys that you have managed to get 150 000 200 000 Arabs killed ?

 

[ArneHD]

First of all, you have my condolences.

If I understand the situation correctly: Accident happened in recently privatized mine which had just passed inspection, minister of Energy and new owner being very friendly with each other, media (government friendly?) under reported casualties by an order of magnitude, Prime Minister is an idiot on camera. Is that about right?

 

[r16]

ı just lost my day's downloads at the web cafe , so it's just me ranting .

the PM's problems stems from that he's so accustomed to winning . As such the entire apparatus that supports him and benefits from that gets rather nervous when things go pear shaped .

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Is "New Turks" a term similar to "New Russians?"

I saw the picture of that Erdogan aide kicking a striker, lovely administration you guys have over there, between this and last year's protests...

 

[r16]

it refers to the proponents of the "New" Turkey that claims to be different from the Old with respect to Human Rights and Democracy . Crowned with ecnomic success and Foreign respect and influence that supposedly drives everybody to jealousy , at home and abroad .

whether that's correct or false greatly depends on whether you would vote for the A-K-P .

the aide thing is just an example . They don't know what to do . If it's not in their book , if the situation does not allow full fledged use of force if necessary . Can be greatly explained by the admission by the Little Imperialist aka the Turkish Foreign Minister that the PM had to take refuge in a supermarket as the relatives of the dead were not that impressed by the PM's obvious touch with people or lines of the Police .

 

[Formaldehyde]

Any mine disaster with 250-350 dead is huge news. This sort of thing just shouldn't happen anymore.

It sounds like safety was deliberately substandard. The next thing to look for are the politicians and bureaucrats who were getting rich looking the other way.

 

[r16]

well , the Left in Turkey has no greater enemy than itself . Considering the mine disaster has been scary enough for the smarties , the Left has arrived to do battle with this "Act of God" ; some column writer said the 300 plus guys deserved it , actually saying they deserved it , because in elections the A-K-P officials gave them money and they all got into cars and buses and the PM's meetings always outnumbered any conceivable Opposition gatherings .

other Leftists' attempts to cash in by demonstrations in Soma has been stopped by the Locals who shout abuse and stuff . In any case the Police bans any out-of-town vehicle and person anyhow to keep everybody out , justifying this with possible disturbances in the town . Due to angry locals and incoming agitators .

even the mine gets walls , purportedly to stop further fires by blocking air . There's quite an anger against the site ; doubtful if it will be re-opened . (Translation : Wait 6 months , there are always enough people who need an income ...) And of course that might also be real . There were TV reports of still burning mines in the world . One coal deposit reportedly has been on fire for 5 000 years . To stop such an everlasting fire , ı hear , the miners dam the gallery and fill it fully with an water and ash solution .


led to angry questions in the Press Conference of the company . The Journalists asked how many bodies they were thus burying in the mud . The death toll is "301" ; Opposition MPs claim 346 bodies were already turned over to their kin . Goverment vigourously denies anything higher than 301 . Company denies there were any "Contractors" , workers who lack various aspects of Social Security hence make 28 23.80 dollars / a ton a reality . This is -of course- Turkey : There are contractors everywhere . Goverment also denies that Syrian underage teenagers -childworkers- were employed . Likewise to the claims that the official casualty list on the official website contains false names . Can't say -in case there is anything to it- that whether that would be used to cloud the number of the dead or to benefit from the Compensations bonanza .


there are arrest warrants flying in the air . The New Turkey types spin hard that this will be investigated to the very bottom . Considering people are so ready to believe that the clean shaven guy was dirt poor in the early 2000s that he couldn't pay his grocery bills , yet had just started a second "skyscraper" in Istanbul , in addition to his first 191 m high tower . Well , it turns out he was taken to court in 2007 , for some kind of legal cheating -buying the property of a bankrupt businessman real cheap for "safekeeping" . 7 years and the trial is going on . Apparently a session this week or the next month . Doesn't this kinda prove he was a darling of the newlies or something ? Real important question ; his wealth needs other explanations that he has so far sold 18 million tons of coal to the State . The beardy who is indeed his son , is also taken by the Police , as the CEO of the company . Funny things , too . Mine officials taken in and the company doesn't provide lawyers for them . Well , the early attempt to blame low level technicians , preferably those who died down there , went nowhere . Every hint that they slept on the job gets 10 counter-claims that they did not . Apparently the coal was warm for weeks ; and as far as ı understand the Carbon Monoxide sensors are one shot affairs . When they stop reporting you get that the gas levels are above the danger level . If no sensor has been operational for 5 minutes , and if you see it and if you don't sound Red Alert or whatever to evacuate , you will have lots of dead people . As it was reported on the very first day ...