FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT – THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF OUR ATTENTION SPAN

Hurriyet
Sunday, January 24, 2010

A dilemma that surfaced in our afternoon news meeting Wednesday is
not a bad metaphor for what is perhaps the principle policy challenge
in Turkey: the ability to focus.

The front page is always tough. It is a group effort of subjective
judgments made in service to the goal of objectivity. What is most
important? The imminent collapse of diplomatic talks between Turkey
and Armenia? Growing furor in the allegations sweeping through the
media about "Operation Sledgehammer?" A pending court ruling on the
separation of civil and military judicial authority? A fast-developing
storm set to paralyze the largest city in Europe? A hunger strike
by state workers in the capital? Or the ongoing anguish of Haiti,
more mass burials and Turkish efforts to aid a people toward which
our empathy is great?

We did the best we could against the laws of headline physics. And
then an editor asked: What about the shipwreck? A storm-swept freighter
had gone aground in Kilyos on the northern edge of Istanbul.

No fatalities, but it was literally split in two, with clean-up crews
en route. And we had no room left on the front page.

As circumstances would have it, a Danish journalist was a guest in
the meeting. She was aghast that a Turkish newspaper could consign a
shipwreck to the inside pages. In Denmark, this would dominate front
pages across the country for days. Under the influence of our Danish
colleague, we contrived an "announcement" to at least draw readers’
attention to the news inside. And we returned to the issue in the
weekend newspaper, seeking a few days later to give the issue of
maritime safety its due.

We mention our little discussion in our little meeting at our modest
newspaper only because we think it illustrates a much larger issue.

This is that so many issues get scant attention – from violence against
women to collapsing agricultural productivity to street children to
a crisis in education – simply because they are swept from the public
mind by subsequent events.

When our reporter Aslı Saglam looked further into the shipwreck,
here is some of what we learned: The clean up crew says the bay at
Kilyos will be back to normal in 10 days. Yeah, right. After being
bathed in 96 tons of fuel oil and 25 tons of diesel. The new shipwreck
actually rests atop another. This is just routine, say locals, as
queuing at the mouth of the Bosphorus and a sandy sea bottom add up
to anchor dragging in any storm. Turkey ranks among the world’s top
10 for shipping accidents. The waterway, including entrances from the
Black and Marmara seas, has seen 500 accidents in the past 50 years.

Meanwhile traffic has grown to nearly 50,000 ships a year, which
transport more than 100 million tons of oil.

Certainly seems like an issue that should get more of our attention.

And Turkey’s. But how to focus?