Turkish Delighted

I saw Istanbul this weekend.

First time.

What an alluring merger of Past and Future, The West and the Rest. That is how I remember that city, in Capital Letters. Nothing there seems small or temporary. Nothing seems to fit a small print. There I felt as if I were walking inside, not a city, but a thick and mystical history book.  And that visit felt like a brief gaze over a brief paragraph. No time to even look at the next page.

When I close my eyes and think of Istanbul, the film that circulate inside my head is made of hundreds people, food of all kinds and colors, and the countless voices.  The city felt as vibrant as I had imagined it. And yet. The city suprised me, no doubt. That stamina! That market! The bargaining. The agressiveness of a game that has been played each day for thousands of years.

Tell me, a merchant with piercing black eyes asked me, What can I do so you give me your money?

It was blunt.  Wasn´t he being too harsh? But then I figured that there was no difference between his point and my daily encounter with the Western consumer society. Every year, every day, every hour someone is trying to get your money anyway.  At least in the Istanbul grand bazaar you are enchanted by the magical atmosphere of a marketplace that is sharp and alive after thousands of years.

There is much more I could write. (How can one not linger on the Food, also to be written in capital letters!) But for now let´s stick to the unapologetic and yet charming transactional life that made a city into something know as Istanbul.

The Next Supermodel: Nordics!

From the cover of The Economist - 2 Feb 2013

According to The Economist Nordic countries have much to teach the world.

The question, I suppose, is whether the world will convince itself that Nordic lessons can be adopted outside Nordic nations.

Living in Oslo has made me appreciate the Nordic model even more. It feels confident without being arrogant. It has a sense of collective good that allows citizens to believe and exercise the power of collaboration.  Norwegians, for example, can grasp with the global climate challenge.  They don´t feel it is a conspiracy against their country.  When I lived in the US, I noticed that "personal achievement" was at the core of their model. You must achieve, achieve, achieve.  Even what you want to achieve will cost you everything (Yes, I am thinking of Lance Amstrong).

Perhaps the sentence in The Economist´s piece that surprised me was:

"And as the Asians introduce welfare states they too will look to the Nordics: Norway is a particular focus of the Chinese."

And why not some Latin American countries too?  I am sure many smaller countries like mine would be happy to learn.  Green taxes anyone?

Freedom of Press

The world rankings of the Freedom of the Press are out for 2013.

The top three countries are Finland, Netherlands and Norway.

And happy to report that in Latin America - where there is inmense room for improvement - my country, Costa Rica has the highest score!  Well done ticos!  We are number 18 in the world (higher than Canada and US and ahead of some several EU countries including the UK and France). If you zoom in this map, you will see a white dot in the Americas, right in the middle (White color means: good situation).

And when we do have freedom of press, do we take it for granted?

This Index by "Reporters without Borders" is a sobering reminder that outrageous things are happening to brave journalists and "netizens" around the world (e.g political bloggers). 

For people working on climate issues, like me, this index poses the heavy, almost asfixiting question: Can countries where change is imperative ever have an honest national debate on climate matters when these countries lack freedom of press?
  

In the meantime, let´s celebrate each time we are able to read a newspaper of our choosing by journalists and thinkers who are speaking their minds!

Paul Auster & Siri Hustvedt in Oslo

What happy surprise it was to find this note posted at Bookshop's window in Oslo's main street:

And for a change, I was able to make it - instead of being somewhere else working!

The bookshop was packed and they improvised some readings that in the end turned out well.

I waited - with a big smile on my face - for about 1:30 hrs before I had the chance to get them to sign my books.

In the meantime I had the chance to talk to some lovely Norwegian ladies - who knew Paul Auster were there mostly because of his wife the novelist Siri Hustvedt (American of Norwegian decent). 

In case you do not know, Paul Auster is one of my favorite writers, I would say top 3. And Book of Illusions has a spelling effect on me.  I would be happy to read it again.

If you have not read it any of his books, this one or The Brookling Follies are good novels to enter the world of his imagination.  As for Siri Hustvedt, "What I loved" or "The Shaking Woman o History of My Nerves."

He jokingly said that writers must ignore others say or write about them if they are to preserve their sanity.  That dictum - I would argue - applies to us all!

We thought we only had to sign books!

The line was about 2 hours long. . .

The Visiting Snow

I love when the snow shows up for a visit.

You just don't know for how long it will stay.

And because I am not entirely used to seeing a city painted in such perfect white - every inch -, I celebrate its arrival with an warm enthusiasm that some locals might interpret as winter madness. (I just keep starring at the white blanket that seems to cover the sky).

And those majestic trees that stand so perfectly silver-sprayed they almost look photoshopped.

So I went for a walk at the Palace park. Here is a photo and you can tell: this is not Buckingham... You can almost get to the door and go in! There are no fences.