Those poor seven women who drowned and baby Dila who escaped from her mother's arms and was not found until now. But the images of “looting” spoke volumes.Many comments suggested that a handful of criminals committed this shameless act. A bystander, while looking at those “criminals” with abhorrence, said to TV cameras in a flaky tone of voice that “such a move does not suit the Turkish nation.”
But the looters were not only a handful, as far as I can see from the images. Under the heavy rain, they were standing next to each other and forming barriers in the water, which was almost up to their knees. They were trying to keep their balance while they were staring at the “goods” coming towards them and opening their arms to grab them.
One of them was able to clutch a plasma TV, right after that moment the cameras showed this man's face, who was in his early 20s. He was extremely happy, just like he met with a loved one at an unexpected moment.
“I will be able to watch soccer matches,” he shouted. Of course, I cannot know, but it seemed to me that in his small world, one of his big dreams was to be able to watch soccer matches on a plasma TV.
He was not alone trying to catch goods coming from the flooded Evkur store. There were old and young women, children and men opening their arms for china, irons, water heaters and carpets.
The ladies were after china, an indispensable part of dowries. They were collecting them from the mud with happiness on their faces. One of them collected cucumbers, too.
Most of the goods collected from the water were taken to homes; at least this is what I thought. Because I did not see any person who was there with a big sack, cart or something similar to take as much as possible. It seemed to me that the looters were only taking their dreams home.
Sixty-one of them were detained by the police. Security forces said that among those detained for looting was a group of travelers from Zonguldak.
When I was watching these images, I wondered if those people knew about the source of these goods. I think they knew. If they thought that these were goods from the houses of other people, the number of the looters would definitely be less. I also think that in any country where the unemployment rate is almost 15 percent, the same scenes would most likely be worse than what we witnessed.
But the thing is, although the images and pictures were heartbreaking, I was not angry or in a reproachful mood. Just the opposite; I had some difficulty understanding all these comments claiming that such a move did not befit the Turkish nation.
Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying looting is acceptable, but before condemning it, we have to think about the reasons for it. It sounds to me like it is not easy to explain why one collects china, plasma TVs and cucumbers from the mud, and one cannot say it is simply because of greed or one's evil nature.
I wish it were possible to conduct a sociological survey on those who were arrested. My inner voice tells me that most of them were not detained before; they did not think they were doing something illegal. Their dreams are extremely limited, and most likely they were looting not to sell these items but to use them in their homes. Most likely they would be very surprised to hear that their actions harmed the famous pride of the Turkish nation.
Our national pride usually keeps us together and gives us the power to deal with some of our problems, but sometimes it turns us into blind people: Instead of thinking about the reasons behind looting, we just prefer to ignore it.
This habit of ours is one of the main obstacles hindering us from improving our lives and solving our problems. The dominant political culture prefers to snub anyone who is acting or thinking differently. We don't like foreigners who tell us certain true things about ourselves because all of these things hurt our pride.
Since we have a tendency to forget the shameful events that harmed our pride, like the flood, we are not taking any measures against them, and we are not thinking about the reasons for them. Therefore, we are paving the way for their reoccurrence.
In order to continue to develop our national pride, first we have to make some concessions to confront the realities and correct them.
Otherwise we will be stuck in the mud one day.
