Elif Shafak's Istanbul

After the professor's vitriol about Istanbul, a city he loathes in Bliss, it may do us well to revisit the metropolis with our guide, Elif Shafak.

She focuses on Ortaköy, perhaps my favorite neighborhood (so far) in the vast city.

Embedding the video is not permitted by YouTube, so here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXTmEgb5M2A&sns=em

The 1960s British-spy-show music is rater hilarious, but it's not Orientalist. Well, in a Post-American century, as other nations grow and rival for global attention, perhaps Istanbul will be the next hot spot, as "Swinging London" was in the 1960s during the British Invasion?

Shafak's tour gives me hope that the voices of intolerance and ignorance in Turkey--and at home--won't sound loudest. Having just had a great conversation with an Indian-American I.T. manager about his cosmopolitan travels, I feel confident today that narrow-mindedness will not win out. There's a diverse world out there to explore. Perhaps the type of gloom we see from Livaneli's Irfan may be his perspective and not a prediction for the future of Turkey or the West.

And in Turkey, there's rapid economic growth now. Perhaps it's their hour to shine.