Daily Musings — 13th March 2017

At around 1600 today, I was convinced I was dying.

I had the most awful stomach pains, right across my tummy, below my bellybutton. Walking hurt, breathing hurt. I was lying sprawled across the uni sofas. My friend, took me to the Tube to go home early, I was giving him a last goodbye. I thought “this is it”.

When we got to the Tube, it stopped. I said: “You know what, I feel fine now let’s go back to class”. He thought I was taking the proverbial. Must’ve just had wind and it passed eventually (or maybe it’s my uncanny ability to cheat death, more on that later). Still, it was a tad embarrassing as I accused my friend of overreacting due to giving him a cold and there I was dying due to a bit of wind. Sorry ‘bout that bud. Still really hurt though.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s diplomatic kamikaze mission continues with the Dutch government giving travel warnings to its’ citizens after threats from the Turkish President.

This follows two Turkish ministers being barred from giving talks on the upcoming referendum on presidential powers.

Now, whilst I disagree with the Dutch stance due to it being a limitation on free speech, to openly threaten retaliation is rather counter productive. Firstly, Turkey’s tourism industry has taking a big beating due to security concerns already, this will make it worse. Dutch people being warned by their government not to travel will not travel. This will be a problem that Erdoğan will have to fix.

Secondly, by acting in this way, he’s showing the Dutch and German governments that their views on him are correct. He’s not being diplomatic about it all. Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist found herself detained for comments criticising the regime. This is not an isolated incident, and by accusing other governments of behaving like Nazi’s, he’s not going to make them like him. He’ll continue to divide Turkish society between secular Kemalists and more conservative religious individuals, by creating a siege mentality. But, maybe he wants that.

Also, today, Boaty McBoatface will make her maiden voyage. What a name. I like it as it is juvenile, as someone rapidly approaching their twenties, I’ve begun to appreciate the sense of childhood innocence I had before. There’s nothing wrong I feel by embracing that side of us, as it reminds me of a time that was simpler, care free. The world was a blank canvas and that’s why I think it’s fitting a submarine travelling the Antarctic has such a childish name.