First Presentation

After two weeks working, the first presentation started in Istanbul Technical University. Although Cassidy tried to invite people from Sulukule Platform, only Cassidy, Yves and Michael and all BUDD students are present. In fact, we heard that the eviction movement from government started again in Sulukule from yesterday and today. I understand why they were absent. It is strange emotion. We tried to keep local people on site but they were continually kicked out of their homes.

At half passed ten, accidentally we found the presentation PowerPoint was left in hotel. When we were waiting for the PowerPoint, everyone had an informal discussed about how to prepare a presentation. Yves suggested that putting your PowerPoint in internet or DVD, preparing handouts, playing picture slides and music to draw attention at the beginning of presentation is like a starting of a meal which assists listeners involve in this presentation.

Beyond the problem of preparation, actually organization is the most conflict issue in our group. After day to day tiresome group meetings and discussions, everyone would agree that it is more efficient and easy to work individual than in group. Ironically, we are leaning participatory which encourages everyone join and shares their ideas. Good participatory is by considering every opinion through negation, communication and understanding processes. In our situation, when every idea came out, the group work became more and more complex. If the outcome only selects some ideas, it would disappoint idea-contributors. Furthermore, limited time makes situation even more difficult. That is why most governments prefer the top-down approaches. According to Michael, “blanking eviction is easy, convenience and wrong”. But it still exists in this world because for government it is efficiency. Additionally, the objective for Sulukule project regarding to our prospective is too broad which needs long term approach. River said “if we have time, we can save this world.” Yes, she reminded us that we need more practical and face the reality according our capacity.

At 11:20, Jonathan, Elsie and Cristina presented our work and after that we received many good suggestions. Basically, we did many data collections but we didn’t show important data numbers and key findings. However, the message in our presentation should be clear in order to impress audiences. Fortunately, Cassidy and Yves helped us organize our “view” of the project to “concrete missions” through “analysis, proposal to action”. That is great help. So in the end, everyone needs to provide individual work for action projective which includes tangible, intangible heritages, resettlements and livelihoods.

After finishing the presentation, we walked back through the lovely coast. I think the beautiful scenery comforted everyone today. We passed through a developed area which is modern, clean and pretty. We all enjoyed it. However, this urban regeneration may be another excuse for small group of people to get huge profits without considering original poor settlement. But we still took pleasure in the result of modern development……