Qadi’s Girl, America

[Translator’s note: The term “qadi’s girl” (kadi kizi) is an expression in Turkish that basically means “a person who commits mistakes throughout his or her life.”]

When my original flight at 4:30 p.m. was canceled at 9 p.m., I left the waiting room and went outside into the storm with winds at 100 kilometers per hour, which created a magnificent scene by ripping out a tree right in front of my eyes. The storm ended the early spring in New York, as well as my privilege of not being delayed during my arrival. This was the third biggest adventure I had experienced at the JFK Airport. The previous ones were undoubtedly worse when compared to this incident. The first time around, I walked out of a wrecked plane in the middle of a snow blizzard, with no clothes on. The second time, I was very agitated when I had to experience one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. As the plane took off at the end of the 24-hour adventure, I was thinking about the “designer and builder America” that I had depicted in my column on Monday. The libertarian America that invented technology, capitalism and the society-centered political regime that it demands, has most recently been experiencing a deficiency in its infrastructure. It is astounding, however a reality. JFK, one of the oldest airports in the world, is insufficient and falling apart. It is impossible to compare it to any airport in Turkey.

My brother Yavuz, who came to visit when I used to live in the U.S., could not hide his astonishment in two areas. First, the roads were not asphalt, but concrete, and riddled with surface flaws. It was worse than a molehill. Could the gargantuan America not take care of this problem? Secondly, the streets were dark as a dungeon at night time. Maybe the main avenues of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles were illuminated, but in the boroughs you could not see your hand in front of your eye. It was difficult not to be amazed while noticing the poor lighting, which reminded both of us of the wooden, dully lighted lamps, attached to long poles, swinging in the rain and wind, which we saw as children in Kars [Turkey].

America managed its own public work infrastructure during the depression of 1930 with a Keynesian understanding, and subsequently passed everything on to the private sector. Today, there is an America that cannot afford new investments. That is why during the elections Obama was talking about restructuring and building the America of the 21st century. The deep and serious cut caused by this negligence lies underneath the U.S.’s efforts to fix health care and social security issues, which are becoming more difficult.

Only those who are wealthy enough get to benefit from the blessings of this country that has the capacity of manufacturing big technology, and thus provide research and renovation. The streets are being lit by those citizens who organize fundraisers, not by the government or the municipal authorities. Many end up lighting their own front doors. Hospitals that aid incurable diseases are falling apart. Right after September 11th, when several people rushed to the hospitals, it became apparent that the system, which many presumed to work like clockwork, was crumbling down. In this society, the level of scientific research is completely different from its execution and what becomes available to the public. In the end, unlocking a busted aircraft hatch and evacuating the passengers may be within reasonable security measures, but it happens several hours later nonetheless.

This is monetary America. A country in which those who cannot afford are merely condemned to perish. Civilized, without a doubt. It is a fact that the conception of negative freedom is being implemented to the very end. However, America will begin not teaching handwriting to children in a few years’ time. On the other hand, a transition is being made from an educational system in which the syllabus gets assigned by whoever demands it, into a jointly determined curriculum with common goals. America is as such, yet the poor and the orphans who give up their lives on the streets are innumerable.

What is to be said? Does freedom and secularism, when not integrated with the social structure, not hold any meaning, or can such delinquency be also found in qadi’s girl?