What not to wear - Istanbul edition
A t-shirt with this on it:
The Turkish Daily News reports on the crackdown in those parts on drug-related t-shirts: "Several stores in the Beyoğlu and Kadıköy districts of Istanbul were raided, with police questioning storeowners whether they kept T-shirts that promoted drugs". Whether this is a law, or police discretion in operation is not entirely clear, nor yet whether sporting a shirt like so will give visiting tourists a chance to have the full Midnight Express experience.
I imagine that most folk wearing t-shirts like so do it mainly to annoy their parents etc, as a sage shopkeeper interviewed notes, "The ban is meaningless since people using or selling drugs never wear any kind of drug symbols in order to remain inconspicuous". Well, exactly.
Sartorial questions to one side, there is a very serious issue here as to the right or otherwise to campaign, one way or another for a change in the law. Would a plain t-shirt with the slogan 'Repeal [insert penal code reference] now', without a cannabis leaf, ecstasy pill etc bring down the wrath of The Man in the same way? And if so, what if the penal code reference was to something else, like - cough - Article 301, which prohibits 'insulting Turkishness', by way of pointing the finger over the Armenian genocides?
The Turkish Daily News reports on the crackdown in those parts on drug-related t-shirts: "Several stores in the Beyoğlu and Kadıköy districts of Istanbul were raided, with police questioning storeowners whether they kept T-shirts that promoted drugs". Whether this is a law, or police discretion in operation is not entirely clear, nor yet whether sporting a shirt like so will give visiting tourists a chance to have the full Midnight Express experience.I imagine that most folk wearing t-shirts like so do it mainly to annoy their parents etc, as a sage shopkeeper interviewed notes, "The ban is meaningless since people using or selling drugs never wear any kind of drug symbols in order to remain inconspicuous". Well, exactly.
Sartorial questions to one side, there is a very serious issue here as to the right or otherwise to campaign, one way or another for a change in the law. Would a plain t-shirt with the slogan 'Repeal [insert penal code reference] now', without a cannabis leaf, ecstasy pill etc bring down the wrath of The Man in the same way? And if so, what if the penal code reference was to something else, like - cough - Article 301, which prohibits 'insulting Turkishness', by way of pointing the finger over the Armenian genocides?
Labels: Art of not 'getting' it, Common sense? What's that?, popular culture, Turkey
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on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 11:16 am.
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