Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
And Did They Take Every Ounce of Sanity With Them?
Back in the 1990s, I taught English to Turkish students in an Istanbul high school. I was hired with about a dozen other Canadian teachers and for the school in question, it was a real “get.” It was a private school and foreign teachers were quite the draw, an attraction for parents who wanted their kids to have some kind of advantage when it came to university admissions (some of our students went on to go to university in the UK, US or Canada). The school itself was owned by a businessman/entrepreneur who was married to a moderately famous Turkish singer. On our first day, we were invited to the principal’s office, not because we were in trouble, but because we were to be welcomed with a little party.
We sat down to cake and coffee and the singer pulled out her guitar and asked us to sing along – it didn’t take us long to recognize the opening notes of Where Have all the Flowers Gone. At that point, I did not know my Canadian colleagues well, but we really shared a moment. We could not look at each other for fear of bursting out laughing. It is pretty hard to sing while trying to not laugh and not look at anyone else in the room. Somehow, we managed. (I am in touch with one colleague from that time, and whenever I see him, he bursts into Where Have all the Flowers Gone.) I should mention that due to the singer’s celebrity, we did – later in the year – have the honour of seeing the Whirling Dervishes perform. Kind of like all the Hollywood types who love the Dalai Lama and flirt with Eastern philosophies, this woman loved the Dervishes and flirted with Sufism. It was quite something to see them. So thanks to her for that.
Türkiye’s relationship with Israel back then was decent: sort of a formal peace diplomatically that did not always translate down to ground level, but remained solid. I went to Israel that year for our winter break and my students did not seem miffed about it. Rather the contrary, they were curious about my experiences – stark contrast to that poor teacher in New York who had to hide from her loony Jew-hating students when they learned she supported Israel. We had a couple of Jewish students in the school – I honestly don’t know if they were subjected to any nastiness. Likely they were, but what I do recall vividly was a Kurdish boy being called “Kunta Kinte” because, according to the kids bullying him, he had darker skin than they did. Argh. It was difficult. When I could not handle things in the classroom – a not infrequent occurrence – I asked for help from the posse of “assistant vice-principals,” all of whom had big rulers they would slam down onto desks, accompanied by some yelling that involved the word yabanci – i.e. foreign. I think they were saying, “Don’t upset the foreign teacher.”
Funny (not in a “ha ha” way) story: a Turkish colleague introduced me to the music of the late Ahmet Kaya, a left-leaning Kurdish-Turkish singer who was considered controversial by various governments in Ankara. I heard he was giving a concert in Istanbul and with a couple of the other Canadians, purchased tickets. About two days before the concert, the man at the ticket wicket came and found us – we really stood out, especially me – at the school and let us know, through a combination of mime and our lousy Turkish along with his lousy English, that the show had been cancelled. I remember him acting out people with guns and danger. Er, ok.
Fast forward to the onset of social media and, to my great astonishment, many of my former students have found me and connected. They all seem to have only good memories of our time together. I suspect this is a testament to their good natures and not to my teaching skills or general delightfulness in leading them through Bleak House. (I was barely older than them and it showed.) To a kid, they all seem to lead modern/Western lives and none of them are overtly political on their pages/sites. I don’t broach such matters with them – I think there are times when a superficial online relationship is the best. I bring up this time in my life because I have been so dismayed to see Erdogan effectively support Hamas and more dismayed to see huge anti-Israel rallies in Istanbul. Dismayed but not surprised. There have been a lot of changes since my time there – I have no desire to go into them here, but suffice to say I think the direction taken has not been positive. (Interesting piece here about it and something I wrote about my time in Istanbul).
I do find myself wondering where all the flowers have gone, though. For it is ceaseless upside-down world out there, or “opposite day,” as we said in school. Some examples from these past few days alone:
Greta Thunberg has completed her transformation from teen eco-warrior and fan of flowers to undergrad Jew-hater and enemy of blooming deserts, chanting “Crush Zionism” (Krossa Sionismen) at a protest in Sweden. Simply dreadful, but as someone quipped online when she held up a “Free Palestine” sign shortly after October 7th, I suppose she’s happy Hamas didn’t use any plastic when they beheaded babies. Is this what climate activism has become? We should have seen it on the horizon, with the half-wits who throw soup at works of art. Works of art – miracles, really – that the soup-throwers could not come close to creating themselves.
Headlines have referred to the “hostage exchange” between Israel and Hamas. What? There is no “hostage exchange.” It is an exchange of hostages – people kidnapped from Israel – and prisoners – people in prison because they stabbed/shot/tried to blow up Israelis/threw a petrol bomb, etc. You would think their worst offense was rowdy behaviour at the Ramallah High prom. The chutzpah winner has to be the Palestinian “hostage” who failed at killing Israelis with a car bomb, ended up disfiguring herself and is now complaining that the Israelis won’t help her with plastic surgery.
The land of (some of) my people, Ireland, has covered itself in shame on this issue, with Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, accusing Israel of “collective punishment” in Gaza. Does this mean that Varadkar would say the Allies were guilty of the same in World War II? In 2018, I was on a press trip to Ireland (my second trip to the country) and one thing that struck me was how often our guides reminded us that Ireland was neutral during the war. Neutral? Against Hitler? I understand the wounds with England and not wanting to be on their “team,” but at one point – when it comes to Hitler, say – one ought to put that aside. Also when it comes to Hamas. With the release of Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand from captivity, Varadkar tweeted that Emily had been “lost” and was now “found,” as though she had taken a wrong turn and the police spotted her. Accused of minimizing the situation, he said he was referencing the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Perhaps he was – bad time for poetry, though. What I found worse was that Hand’s family had been in Dublin seeking support for their daughter’s release and were apparently denied a hotel reservation due to their Israeli citizenship. (I cannot find a comment from the hotel.) All I can say is, if I ever find the deed to Kill House, the (once-upon-a-time) Adamson family home in Galway, Israelis can stay there whenever they want.
[Kill House, Galway, Ireland, which belonged to John Evans Adamson, my great-great-grandfather. Image taken from the Irish Independent.]
Speaking of the Bible and parables, the Corbynization of my church continues. I wrote a letter to the diocese nearly six weeks ago and have not received a reply. Now, my letter did not demand one, but I find it odd. I’ve worked in large organizations - one always replies. My partner says it is like the government – it will take months and I will get a squishy reply full of bureaucratic blather and probably numerous references to “both sides.” I also find it odd that the pastor in question has not reached out; I was a regular attendee. But hey, it’s upside-down world.
And finally, there is Susan Sarandon. Great actress, but not an expert on geopolitics or ethics, from what I can gather. At a rally, she said that Jews were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.” Can you imagine saying such a thing as a reaction to Hamas’ atrocities and the subsequent and horrifying eruption of worldwide antisemitism? Or ever? If Sarandon is truly concerned about violence against Muslims, surely the answer is not to cackle about it being heaped on another group of people. So much of this reaction to Israel/Jews is steeped in jealousy, steeped in rage. I think of Thomas Sowell’s great answer to the question, “What can Jews themselves do in order to minimize the hostility they face?” His reply? “Fail.”
(A good book on this matter here.)
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Note: there were some amazing Irish heroes of World War II, including this hero of the Holocaust.