The man was called Mesut Hançer and the hand he was holding was that of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, who had been killed in her bed when the quake brought the building down...“‘Take a photo of my child,’ he called out. Then he let go of the hand he was holding and showed me his child. I saw a person’s head under the rubble. I asked his name. ‘Mesut Hançer,’ he said. Then I asked his child’s name. He was a little far away, and I had trouble understanding. He said his daughter’s name was Irmak.”
I hope the father's request that the photo be taken by a photojournalist is a reflection of the public's anger in Turkiye about the longstanding history of shoddy construction resulting from corruption of public officials. I hope that anger goes above the corporate level to include higher levels of government.
Click to supersize the heart-wrenching image.
Addendum: Videos show Turkey's Erdogan boasted letting builders avoid earthquake costs. Similar to the report that the train that spilled vinyl chloride in Ohio was classified as nonhazardous to save Norfolk Southern money and regulatory inconveniences.
Blegh. Sad.
ReplyDelete(What's the deal with using the endonym Turkiye? If you're going to do that, you should add the dots on the ü as well.)
from wikipedia:
DeleteIn December 2021, the country issued a circular, calling for exports to be labelled "Made in Türkiye". The circular also stated that in relation to other governmental communications, the "necessary sensitivity will be shown on the use of the phrase 'Türkiye' instead of phrases such as 'Turkey', 'Türkei', 'Turquie', etc." The reason given in the circular for preferring Türkiye was that it "represents and expresses the culture, civilisation, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way".
…
It was reported in January 2022 that the government planned to register Türkiye with the United Nations. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu sent letters to the UN and other international organisations on 31 May 2022, requesting that they use Türkiye. The UN agreed and implemented the request immediately. The United States Department of State officially began using Türkiye in January 2023.
(and yes, ü should be used. if there exists a turkish best practises for environments without easy access to the glyph, following that is an acceptable alternative. for german, for example, it is acceptable to replace ä/ö/ü with ae/oe/ue, not that it has an iota of influence over the anglosphere’s understanding of what’s ‘good enough’.)
raphael
Well, let's hope that Turkish media will return the honor by using England, English, The United States etc. instead of İngiltere, İngilizce and Birleşik Devletler.
DeleteReally? The comments that come to mind about this heart-rending photo are about the spelling of Türkiye?!
ReplyDeleteIt's the third post on here where I've seen the usage now, so I wondered why. And I clearly said "Blegh. Sad." before turning to the matter. ;)
DeleteIt is too easy for us to only mentally assent to the common humanity of us all. I recall shortly after the Indonesian tsunami some years ago, I saw a picture of a weeping grandfather, holding the lifeless body of his precious grandson.
ReplyDeleteWe can think that those of other cultures and religions are too removed from our culture to ever truly come together in unity. This is yet another picture proof that all parents love their children, and that children are to be treasured. My heart goes out to the man who wanted one, last, fleeting moment to be enshrined to his daughter.
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/10yw7bs/the_only_building_in_the_neighborhood_that_has/
ReplyDeleteTurkish civil engineers cut corners for other people, as witness above: but not for themselves.