In Turkey and Bolivia, long-serving leaders who should have been term-limited have used the extension of their reigns to construct new executive mansions. Why? It seems an odd thing considering that the greatest republic in history, the United States, has had the same presidential palace since 1800, only enlarging it as necessary. But Evo Morales saw fit to build a huge presidential skyscraper that violated the height ordinances of Nuestra Señora de La Paz, the Bolivian capital. He had to hold a vote to overrule the height restrictions to build the 29-level Casa Grande del Pueblo. But what was the purpose, why did the Bolivian presidency require it? The same could be asked of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, whose palace of 1100 rooms opened in 2014, in the capital of Ankara. The Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi or Presidential Complex cost over half-a-billion dollars. Is it odd that long-ruling leaders of republics are building great palaces like the monarchs of the past? In neither case is it a response to an apparent deficiency with the old residence. While both presidents trumpeted themselves as the herald of a new era, the projects appear to differ in historical direction. In Bolivia, Morales demolished the historic 1821 Casa Alencastre, an old residence of the Catholic archbishop, breaking with the past and pushing toward a secular Bolivian modernity. In Turkey, however, the use of the term Külliyesi is a curious one because it means a “complex” which is centered on a mosque, a clear nod to the Ottoman past and a break with the secular history of modern Turkey. Again, like old hereditary monarchs, these long-ruling authoritarian presidents have used palaces to cement their legacies. But should we be surprised? Vanity of vanities.
Month: March 2021
Racism is Heresy. Plog #2
The roots racism which I1 call a heresy, began in fifteen-century Spain near the conclusion of the holy wars of the Reconquista. The Christian victories brought large Muslim and Jewish populations under the rule of the Iberian Christian princes. For various reasons, including genuine conversion, threats of violence, social pressure, and a desire to advance in society by adopting the religion of the new overlords, many Muslims and Jews converted to Catholicism. The converted were denoted by former religious adherence, either conversos, former Jews or moriscos, former Muslims. However, Spanish Christian animosity influenced by the legacy of warfare and resentment of the upper-class position as professionals and courtiers occupied by many converted created an obsessive fixation on the truth of their adherence to the Catholic faith. In practice, many “old Christian” Spaniards did not want to treat the converted as fellow Christians, even if the concerned families had been apparent practicing Christians for generations. Known as the Limpieza de sangre, the Spanish judged an individual’s status in the community of the Church based on their ancestry. If an individual had the “wrong” ancestry their public confession of faith was insufficient. This was a heresy, plain and simple, and was opposed by Church authorities at the time. But the heresy persisted as individual and government bias against the converted, eventually becoming part of Spanish law in the sixteenth century and leading to violence and expulsions with many victims. This was the beginning of racism, the belief that one’s ancestry could impede one’s acceptance as a Christian or invalidate requirements that other Christians treat you as a brother or sister in the faith. Simply put you could treat human beings badly based on their descent even if that violated your religious ethics. You could sin against people and their descendant forever, especially the indigenous peoples and the African slaves in the Americas.
(quick notes)
Albert Thompson1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/limpieza-de-sangre
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0101.xml
Plogs or Blogs? Plog #1
I find that often a good idea can be explained in a paragraph. Problems with being a succinct thinker and explainer. However that does not make for good essays of blogs. Or could it? I’ll find out by starting new section called Plogs: paragraph blogs. Plogs sounds better the short blogs or “slogs”, either way this is the first one. I will write short blogs about topics of interests. There, that’s the message.