FROM THE TRAIN 2: MT ARGAEUS
-Mt Argaeus— Erciyes Dagi – Hiding out in the smoking car, the only place free of a very loud long [amplified] lecture. – My companion at the table tells me that all these dams that are supposed to help Turkey have dried it out. “They have created a dust bowl of Paradise.” – And now they want to sell the rivers that are left. – Building such big dams with no thought to the effect – The dam that will drown Hasankeyf is supported by 4 countries: Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Turkey – Big money 1, 2, 13 banks – The air conditioning has quit. – Red rock ramparts – Hay piled up behind the barns – Hilltop community and lowering above a monolith that must’ve housed their gods for millenniae – Miles of brown wasteland and in the middle a verdant greensward from a surviving river. This is what the country SHOULD look like. – Near bottom land full of stumps [tombstones?] an apple tree’s offering goes ignored. – An actual mesa – Oh Mama! I love trains!—–I would have loved the long amplified lecture too, but my Turkish wasn’t up to it. People on the train who spoke English educated me as to the reasons for the protest.