Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

IT IS H-1B NOT H1N1…

2009-12-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of economic growth theory classes, the equation of economic growth is taught at universities. The main factors in production are capital and labor. Also efficiency, technological development and many other factors somehow are in this equation as a reason or result. These factors are interrelated with each other and each factor affects to production level in both ways. Labor force is indispensable factor in economic growth theory and it directly affects to production level of a company or a country.

After World War II, some Western European Countries such as Germany, France, and Belgium needed to more labor force to rebuild their economy. During 1960’s and 1970’s many Turkish people moved to those countries to live in better conditions. They generally were not skilled people and they worked there as a labor. After 1990’s, due to economic crises, those countries changed their immigration policy. Nowadays developed countries are willing to accept only skilled and qualified people as labor force. On the one hand, moving of skilled people from their home country to developed countries is thought as a good example of immigration policy for developed countries, on the other hand the same issue is thought as a brain drain for home countries of those people.

Skilled, qualified, specialized labor force always stimulates the economy and increase the growth rate. President’s and government’s opinions about giving opportunities to foreign students and people help USA to stand as a super power in many fields. There are many foreign origin smart and qualified people working in all sectors in the US. They are in software, chemistry, marketing, defense and many other industries. This is one of the most important advantages of the US because qualified people, scientists, engineers and many others can work here freely and comfortably.

This is the reality of people and countries because qualified and skilled people living in not good conditions always look for the better place to live and to be more productive. Providing better life to them is really important issue for developing countries to catch developed countries in many areas.

Source:

http://www.onepennysheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/unclesam_u_on_you.jpg

DIFFICULT DECISION

2009-12-02T21:51:00.001-08:00

After watching his speech, I realized one more time that President is one of the best orators in the US. He knows how he should use his voice during speech to impress people. Many people can be convinced after watching his speech. Yesterday night as many other people did, I watched his speech on Afghanistan with mixed feelings.

In his speech, he mentioned three important points which are planned for the next 2 years period of time. First one is to prevent access of Al-Qaeda to safe place opportunities in that region. Second one is to reverse Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan and the last one is to strengthen Afghan Military Force and Afghan Government in next two years.

Since the first primitive society, people have been always in war. Various kinds of reasons can be said to go to war with other nations such as economical, political, religious, racial issues. However, if it was asked to each individual living in any country whether he would like to see a war or not, his apparently answer would be “NO” to any kind of war or fight in any country. Sometimes, we should ask this question and give frankly answer to ourselves about this issue.

Recently, newspapers published statistics on the world’s most indebted countries and the US as in many other areas is the number one in that ranking. Especially last few years we have been witnessing the US’s increasing debt which can be sustainable now but might not be sustainable in the future. Besides the Health Care reform and other regulations, sending 30000 more soldiers to Afghanistan will create extra economic burden for the government and surely for tax payers.

Another interesting question is why big countries try to bring democracy to only in Middle East and Afghanistan. There are many countries in Africa dealing with democracy problems and terrorism. They need to democracy as well, but neither any international organization nor any big country has been handling this issue seriously. Sometimes many people living in the US and other countries can think there is something more beyond democracy and human rights concerns to interfere in internal affairs of those countries. Having received the Nobel Prize, the President was thought as a leader who would settle the peace in the world and everybody’s expectation has increased about the President’s efforts in that politics. I hope he and government will be really successful in settling peace and democracy in Afghanistan, and also people in the US having one of their family members in Afghanistan will be reunited with him/her soon.

Source:

http://www.un.org/events/peaceday/2006/images/afghanistan.jpg

UNTITLED

2009-11-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

When checked my blog yesterday, I realized there has nothing been written for almost one week. On Wednesday we would have class and I thought something should be written by Wednesday. I spent almost 15 minutes to find a title for this essay but at the end I decided to put a title after finishing it. Actually, I don’t know what I am going to write here and I want see where my words are moving. This writing will be some kind of self-criticism because I am going to write how I feel directly. Instead of thinking, studying, and writing I could watch a good movie on television or read a book that I like. However finally I managed to sit on the chair to write something about anything.

When I look at the people in my classes, at the beginning everybody had motivation to study and they could concentrate on classes. After a while I observed some motivation loss and I started to hear some complains. Now while approaching to end of the semester, students seem as if they lost their motivation and they don’t have any will to do something for classes. Nevertheless, I strongly believe all students in my classes will manage to be motivated and they will be able to find energy and concentration to finish this semester successfully. I don’t know how students can do that but so far I have been witness to such finishes.

Although I have not much knowledge about psychology, there should be a subdivision for students’ such as their mentality, factors affecting them during school, or any physical factor. It is interesting to observe people at their age of 50 acting childish when they are announced as students. I saw many people even including myself acted differently in different atmosphere. While they were working, you might think they could be the most serious people in their workplace, but on the other hand when you saw them as students, they could act the most childish way that you ever seen. In our class, even if there are various kind of students at different ages, we are students now and we will manage to finish the semester successfully with same feelings as many others students before us and now.

Source:

http://www.valorifussell.com/i/fig_thinkingMan_l.jpg

LONG DISTANCE BUS JOURNEY…

2009-11-21T22:35:00.001-08:00

Sometimes we are informed about interesting topics such as ratio of sleep in our lives or average walking distance per day for average person. One of my favorite statistics is how many times people travel alone by public transportation during their lives. Travelling alone is always important to me because many important decisions are taken especially during long distance travel.

When I was 13, I left my family to study at boarding high school in another city which is 500 km far away from my home town and I started to long distance travel in those times. I preferred to window side and I like to lean my head on the window by help of pillow. In 1990’s it was not forbidden to smoke in buses and the only bus from capital city to my home town was at night. It was terrible journey due to smoke in the bus until morning. Fortunately, firstly smoking in public transport was banned few years after my first long distance journey and then the law was expanded as in all indoor places.

After settling on the bus seat, the journey into inner world of the man also starts. Even if sometimes a person by you pretends to start a talk with you, you can always have enough time to think about yourself. People not only think about our pasts, but they also think about their now and futures. These journeys are rare opportunities for people to confront themselves. People can judge better themselves and be objective while they are alone. They also can enjoy their journey very much feeling mixture of different emotions.

Travelling might be more enjoyable in Turkey because transportation by bus is very popular and service sector in long distance bus transportation is developed. During your 8 hours bus journey, hot and cold beverages with snacks are always provided by Bus Company. These are nostalgia and living the nostalgia again might be enjoyable and exciting.

Sorce:

http://www.ilkhabergazetesi.com/wordpress/wp-content//2008/09/yol_manzarasi.jpg

INFIDELITY

2009-11-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in one of the episodes of “This American Life” radio program, the topic was infidelity and there were interviews with people who cheated their wives, husbands, girlfriends or boyfriends. One of the stories was about a woman who had cheated her husband with his close friend. They all expressed their feelings during what they had been living and after the end of everything. They were stating their opinions and reasons of their treats in order.

Sometimes I think whether the meaning of cheating is same in every culture or not. While in some cultures the punishment of cheating is death, in other cultures it is considered as normal behavior. There are many factors such as religion, social structure, traditions and economic independence of people which constitute different perceptions.

I felt they were so relax while they were interviewing that nobody blamed to others. I was confused whether they were much modernized people or very far away from humanity. I think my words would be different if I were born in any other society. Our believes and ideas are formed according to environment where we grow up and people who we communicate with.

A few weeks ago I heard similar things on another radio show. The topic of the program was cheating and the reasons of that in USA as well. One of the listeners participated in the program to share what he had lived with his wife. He told his wife had cheated him with her boss at the work. After coming out of the event, when he asked why his wife had done such a thing, his wife’s answer was fear of losing her career. She told him that if she had not slept with her boss, she could have not progressed in her career. The more interesting thing in this event is this reason was accepted by her husband. Listener said that they were still married and together after that event. Some people can accept such a reason but personally I do not accept that kind of reason.

Source:

http://www.palme.nu/comics/w4h-infidelity.gif

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO START FROM SCRATCH EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE…

2009-11-17T22:38:00.001-08:00

Today I listened the story of a man called Joe in one of podcasts. It’s about ordinary day of that man and life story of him. He likes gambling, rather his life is based on gambling. Las Vegas is the city of gamblers and it is difficult to say whether he is taxi driver or gambler. He prefers to work at nights and 5 days a week and he earns more or less $2000 per day which makes $10000 per week and $500.000 per year. However he has almost nothing and he starts his every single day around $30. He divorced and his daughter lives in another country due to his addiction to gambling.

I have never gambled in casino and I don’t know how people feel during and after game. What are the motives that encourage them to gamble? Money, passion, ambition, and winning feeling are examples of those motives. Sometimes I think is there any other situation that we earn or lose a lot of money in a short period of time called in minutes. You can earn thousands or even millions in one night or you can lose your money or house in another night. Actually people don’t lose only their money or house; they also lose their families, futures, social environments. It is like a drug which makes people be addicted and people might be impatient when gambling is concerned. It is difficult to understand choices, lifestyles and decisions of gamblers for people who haven’t gambled in their lives. Selling own house might be thought madness but gamblers can do it.

Their perceptions and interpretations of life are totally different from regular people. Some problems or events which are thought terrible by some people can be thought reasonable by people gambling. I wish I could understand their way of thinking, impressions, and mentality.

Source:

http://www.stathis.co.uk/galleries/illustration/gambler.jpg

URBANIZATION IN ANKARA

2009-11-15T22:45:00.000-08:00

As the capital city of Turkey with around 5 million populations, Ankara is a metro pole. Like many other metro poles, Ankara has some problems during its enlargement. Every year many people come to big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir to find better jobs or to get better life. Increase in population in these cities requires more infrastructures, schools, hospitals and buildings for social activities.

In such cities, territory and real-estate are very valuable and profitable like they are in many other big cities in the world. In some part of city, building of skyscrapers is allowed but in some other parts it is not. Managing and carrying out zoning issues in metro pole cities are always tough. Mayors are appointed by elections and they have to be equitable in their decisions. Municipalities are non-profit organizations and they are for everybody in that city.

In Ankara, decision and application process about zoning and development are complicated. If new territory is planned to develop as residential area, first residential density of that region is decided by metro pole municipal council. Then zone plan is prepared by the metro pole municipality and macro plans are decided by the municipal council. In macro plans, details concerning residential are not shown but when macro plans are passed from that council, micro plans are prepared by the sub-provincial municipalities to make residential area plans more detailed. In that plan, streets, parks, houses, school area and many other things can be seen in detail.

People who have territory in that region can appeal to decisions taken by the council. Interests of people are the key issue in those situations. While in some districts, the residential density is low which means you cannot see tall buildings in that region, in some other districts it is high and people who have territory in that region get more profit. As mayors are appointed by elections, unlike their responsibilities, they sometimes make favor for people or district who voted for him. Although, urbanization is supposed to be technical issue, politics always involves in decisions.

Source:

http://www.collegenews.org/Images/ankara3.jpg

PLANNED URBANIZATION

2009-11-10T14:24:00.001-08:00

In some countries we like cities that we visit very much. Do you think why we like those cities very much? Some reasons can be said such as nature in that region, hospitality of people, historical sites and buildings, arts and architectures in that city. People living in there would like to relax when they go out. They would like to look at river, sea, or green to feel better. They don’t care about the income of any store operating in skyscraper in the vicinity of those places.

Governments, municipalities, city councils, or some other social organizations are the primarily responsible for keeping cities as livable environments. Besides all these organizations, residents living in and sharing same environment are also responsible to make their cities better. As in many societies, some people’s interests are different from others’ like their concerns in money issues might be more sensitive. They may want to make more profit from less capital. Chiofaro Harbor Garage is good example for that kind of situation.

It can be asked to residents whether they want to see those kinds of buildings or structures in their cities or not. Especially in cities which attracts huge amount of tourists and have some important characteristics should be done. Munich is a good example for that kind of measures. A few years ago when I went to there I had a chance to visit some historical and touristic places. Everything regarding to city was planned very well. You could use efficient and punctual subway to move one place to another; you could find what you wanted easily. However while you were doing all these things, you could live intimately with nature. During my visit, I hardly saw tall buildings or skyscrapers. When I asked my cousin living in Munich why I hardly saw tall buildings, he answered me that a survey had been held to decide what kind of buildings people had wanted to see. Majority of people voted against tall buildings and all authorities in regarding Munich Municipality has obeyed this decision since survey results.

Planned economy, planned urbanization, and planned living scares people especially in the US. As a matter of fact planned urbanization is needed for all cities to make them better places for all living things. Sometimes we see cities where huge skyscrapers and small houses or cottages are standing together. New cars on narrow roads, insufficient infrastructures and traffic jams are only some problems for those unplanned cities.

Planned urbanization, strict good rules and laws, conscious people and responsible governor are prerequisites to live in beautiful city.

Source:

http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/culture/towns/images/tint5_1.jpg

BOSTON

2009-11-09T22:31:00.001-08:00

When we received this assignment two weeks ago, I thought it would be easy to write about what I believe. However, today I am reading my third attempt at the perfect essay after two cancelled drafts. I have realized it is extremely difficult to express feelings and ideas in 3 minutes. I think our professor assumes that we can write such an article in an hour, but the reality is different. I found myself constantly writing and re-writing sentences. I even considered writing an essay entitled, “I Believe Writing an Article in English for People Whose First Language is Not English is Definitely Challenging Especially in the Process of Their Language Improvement”. Finally, I gave that idea up and decided to write about Boston in the sense of contribution to the quality of each of our lives. This essay will be some kind of monolog.

I think impressions of people about Boston depend on many different reasons such as duration of their staying here or their purpose of visiting or living in Boston. Some people are born and live here, while others come here for a shorter period of time like us and some people come here just as tourists. Looking and seeing have different meanings. People who come to Boston as a tourist look at the city and they visit some tourist sites. They enjoy what they do but we cannot expect them to feel the city. People who live in Boston see the city which means they can see and feel what the people coming for vacation cannot.

So, you are thinking that where the point that I believe is. You are right so far I have not stated anything about it yet. What I would like to share with you is I believe Boston is a city that transcends a surface level experience, rather one needs to dip deeper to truly experience Boston in its entirety. You can say transportation facilities, cost of living, number of social and cultural events, and so on. All these are required to decide on it but there are some more for me like nature, river, sea or ocean. Last ones are really important to me. Whenever we get bored or we have problems in our minds we need fresh air and also sound and view of water. Furthermore, walking under the colorful trees or fishing relaxes our bodies and minds worth to many things. Let me share an anecdote with you. There is an advertisement in some countries about a well known credit card company. In short, it says in that advertisement “value of buying tickets for you and your girlfriend is this amount and value of having dinner together with her is that amount but warm smiling and hugging of her is invaluable. There are things in life which money doesn’t work, for the rests that credit card is enough”. Why I said it to you is stressing on some special moments which cannot be felt easily. Boston contains many beauties which gives you those kinds of special moments. As many other attractive cities, it also provides activities, social events in some areas such as arts, history, outdoor activities, sports, science, tours, family fun, and shopping.

So far I have looked to Boston but I hope I will be able to see it as well soon. I believe Boston is a good city to live.

Source:

http://www.massaudubon.org/Images/schoolgroup/forestpath.jpg

THE POWER OF LOVE

2009-11-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

“Love” as a word consists of 4 letters and it has different impressions for each individual person. Yes, now you are thinking on love between a man and a woman. However, “love” which I would like to express has broader understanding. Just try to imagine contrasts in the world. How there are contrasts in the world such as day and night, black and white, goodness and badness, likely human being lives with his contrasts. People are born with these contrasts, they live and die with them. Between birth and death we all have ambitious, happiness, successes, disappointments, expectations. Love is the key point in our life.

What are the main goals in our life? Happiness, peace, calmness, success, career, wealth and many other beauties result from love of people to their jobs, environment, and other people who they communicate with. It doesn’t matter what you do, if it doesn’t contain love, unfortunately the result would be worse.

In this class, everybody’s preferences are different. Some of us like to dancing, cooking, reading and some others like to live in boat, and fishing. What is the common element here? As you know, love is the common element and we feel happy with what we love to do most. It is same for success in our business life because it is not possible to be successful and efficient in a job that we dislike. Also same thing can be said for social environment and relations. Do you think a person who doesn’t feel any love can create a good relation with others? That kind of people cannot be happy or successful in their lives.

Love is the most important positive motivation for us. Look around and think about the important people in the history who nowadays are remembered as the good. They left us a heritage in art, science, music and in many other fields. How could they succeed to be remembered during years? They loved with passion what they did and this brought them fame and respect after many years of their death.

Always try to feel love in our lives for better life.

Source:

http://www.nilaytorum.com/wp-content/love.jpg

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

2009-11-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

Good evening everybody! 2 weeks ago our professor told us that we should write an article about which we really believed. So during these 2 weeks time I thought to write an article such as renewable energy source, relationships between people, education system, and political struggles of nations or why people have different believes. However, I didn’t know how I could handle the subjects because all these topics are so serious not to finish in 3 minutes speech. Finally, I decided to write something which actually was not I believed but I wanted to believe.

How many mistakes have you been able to count so far? If they are more than 10, I am not going to keep talking.

I tried to write something about us and my speech will cover topics on international students and their adaptation process. I will mention what the main problems are and how we can overcome these problems. When we came to the US leaving behind all our caring families and facilities, we had to start facing lots of problems to adjust to new life. All we looked for places to live and we needed to know where to eat and do shopping. These were beginnings for us in foreign country. After that, we have been facing with cultural shock, home sickness, language learning, social barriers, and academic difficulties.

Are you still counting the number of my mistakes? Should I keep going?

Each of these problems is not to deal with. Especially language is always a big problem for international students. I don’t know how many of us come from countries where English is not frequently spoken but we sometimes feel the stress in our academic and daily life. Although we already have English skill proved at least by TOEFL, most of us find it difficult keep up with our classmates and people. Sometimes we have problems in keeping our confidence. Sometimes, when finding Americans roaming and discussing within their groups, I would feel a little bit hard to catch up with them and awkward to join the talking’s. We have also some academic difficulties resulting from language which indirectly increase our workload burden. For example, while an American student can finish a book in an hour, an international student who doesn’t speak English as a native language may spend 3 hours to finish it.

After saying all these difficulties, it is time to talk about suggestions. I checked some internet sources concerning adaptation to new life for international students. They suggest us to be patient, keep an open mind, build a healthy life, work on improving English, make some new friends, and look for help from institutions and work hard. I can say my point of view that I am patient enough, open minded and I am going to swimming after class to build healthy life. Also I write 3 articles every week to improve my English, every day my circle of friends is expanding (finding girl friend will be talked you during break time!!!). I don’t know whether the topic is relating with believing or not believing but at least I can say that I want to believe.

Source:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/75/184848118_f14b4c7668.jpg

SHIP IN STORM

2009-10-30T22:58:00.001-07:00

Invisible hand, prisoner’s dilemma, unemployment, growth, inflation rate, recession, stagflation, interest rate, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and many more are used to explain what is going on around us. Every day, we drive our cars or take public transportation vehicles to go our work or school. Usually everybody has breakfast before leaving their home, sometimes people go to their favorite team match or theater to enjoy. They pay their bill, they buy something cheap or expensive or they apply to bank to buy a house by utilizing mortgage. Then they watch economy news on tv or they read newspapers to know how economy is going on. All these things are in macro economics issues. On the other hand, companies run for making their profit maximize. They compete each other in competitive or oligopolistic market and sometimes they determine either quantity or price of their products. They follow developments in economy and decide their strategy based on these economic data. All these things are in micro economics.

World economy fluctuates periodically; sometimes time lags between global crises might be long and sometimes short. The last one started in 2008 and we still don’t know when it starts to recover. After 1 year, for the first time national economy grew in the last quarter. Economic growth was seen in some countries such as South Korea and this can be thought as a positive indicator for recovery. While we are seeing recovery in national economy, in Massachusetts unlike the past, economic performance is worse than nation’s. People’s wages, incomes have reduced and their purchasing powers have reduced as well. This seems a deteriorating spiral because companies cannot sell as much as they did before and due to reduction in sales they try to reduce costs by starting from wages. Then people’s wages reduce and they cannot afford to buy as much as they did. In end of 1920’s the similar situation lived in USA and the cure for this crises came from John Maynard KEYNES. Last stimulus program was an example of Keynes’ theory. Government expenditure increased and market’s cash needs were met. Now it is time to reverse spiral but authorities in economy should be careful about inflation rate especially after that kind of recovery.

Global crisis are the good examples for “butterfly effect theory”. If it happens in one of the biggest economy in the world, it spreads out immediately to all countries. Free movement of capital has pros and cons and nowadays we live the disadvantages of it. However, last week we got the good news concerning growth in USA national economy and this firstly will affect all states in North America then other countries gradually. Unfortunately, even if economy recovers after each depression, people lose their jobs, wages, and dreams in those times and the most suffered class in society affected from the crises is lower waged people.

Countries and people face with rain, storm, and thunders for a while but at the end sun always shines…

Source:

http://www.canvastar.com/images/backh03.jpg

THE MORE RENEWABLE ENERGY THE BETTER WORLD

2009-10-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Nowadays we often hear news about renewable energy, investment plans for wind power, solar power to produce electricity. President Obama and his cabinet announced that the government would invest into new energy technologies and sources more.

Based on the data of the US Department of Energy, U.S. electric power comes from coal (46.1%), Nuclear (21%), Natural Gas (20.5%), Hydroelectric (7%), Renewable (4.1%), and Petroleum (1.2%)[1]. As it can be seen easily, the major source for electricity is coal in USA. There are many motives for governments to invest new technologies such as reducing bills, clean and better environment, insufficient coal source in the future, and new jobs for people, and secure energy for everybody.

From ancient history to today, humanity has been used and consumed energy sources. Especially with the Industrial Revolution, some nations, without caring about the environment, used coal as a major energy source in many fields. In the 20^th century technology development started to accelerate enormously to make people’s life facilitate. New transportation vehicles, electronic devices, new mass production methods have all been invented for people. While people have been having some facilitation in their life, the earth has been polluted increasingly. There are millions of cars, buses, trains, planes, and many more which use petroleum in transportation and petroleum reserves are decreasing by time. That kind of energy sources have been always reasons for wars in the history and today. In today’s world all our lives depend on energy, we use it in lighting, heating, communication, transportation, etc. We have to find new ways for our unlimited demands under limited energy sources.

Obama’s government has some goals on this issue like to meet 25% of the nation’s energy needs from the renewable sources by 2025 which is today around 11.1%. Government plans to approve some projects on building solar plants which they hope to create 50000 more jobs by 2011[2]. Obama, in his speech, mentioned to invest into renewable energy in billions dollars in 10 years time. He called it “win-win” theory which is good not only for environment but also for economy. Another as much important issue as creating renewable energy is to prevent energy loss in transmission network. They are also required to be renewed by time to prevent energy loss.

In fact this issue is not only in the agenda of USA, members and candidates of European Union decided to promote renewable energy before USA and countries in that organization put some laws concerning new energy sources into effect and took some measurements about this issue. Energy sources, climate change, renewable energy, pollution of environment are global problems and concerns. Each nation has to take care of this problem. The cleaner energy source the better life for everybody to live.

Decisions and plans of new government is late but not worse to implement. Steps taken by the government in this regard should be supported. These steps will be not only beneficial for people living in USA but they will also be useful for people breathing in the world.

[1] http://www.energy.gov/

[2] http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-09-07-renewable_N.htm

A PLACE FROM HEAVEN

2009-10-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

There are some special places in earth which give people opportunity to journey to their own inner world. I know one of them called Lycia Way. It is accepted as one of the world’s top 10 long-distance walking routes. Lycia is the name of the Tekke Peninsula, which is located on the Turkey’s southern coast. The mountains rise steeply from the wooded shore giving beautiful views from Mediterranean and varied walking. Lycians were independent people with high standard of living. They absorbed Greek culture, and were later conquered by the Romans. On the way, there are many ruins and historical sites that you can see.

The length of way is almost 500 km and it takes around one month by walking from start to finish. However, there are some special parts in that way of which distance varies. The ruins of 19 archaic Lycia cities by the help of signs on the road which were put by Kate, English excursionist, would be interesting for travelers. The most convenient months for walking are between April-May and September-November. The altitude may change from sea level to 2300 meters during walk.

Amazing views above the cliffs of Butterfly Valley, the 12 km long beach at Patara, spectacular scenes over the coast from above Kas and Kalkan, the Church of the Angel Gabriel in the hills above Myra, the lighthouse at Cape Gelidonia are waiting for people. Also people feel the friendliness of the villagers and they walk in deep forests, by white rocks and side to blue Mediterranean.

This is such a way that people feel free from their sins during walk. It is difficult to meet anyone during 2 days in some part of way. You can feel calmness, life and nature in sounds of crickets, trees, and wind. Sometimes we see suggestions on magazines, newspapers or travel books about some places that we definitely should go before dying. I believe in Lycia Way is one of them.

Sources:

http://www.lycianway.com/

http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/show.asp?t=likya+yolu

www.google.com

MONEY, CAREER, AMBITION, BROTHERSHIP, TRUST,...

2009-10-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Last week we read the news which seems about the business world but in fact about the relationship of two brothers. It was not the first example and it will not be the last one for business world. Actually no one can know the core reasons for those kinds of problems. What are the real factors drive them that kind of attitude? Their ambitious, desires, plans for the future?

Over 5 billion people live in the world and there are more than 200 countries in 5 continents. Each society has its own dynamics, characteristics and cultures. All we grow up in different cultures where we have our friends, families and other relations. In eastern societies, generally, relations among the family members are stronger than they in western societies. Some factors can be claimed to explain this situation such as economic development of countries, educational system, and social dynamics of society, cultural and historical heritage.

In eastern societies, the oldest person in a family is accepted as the most wisdom person. He has roles like unifying members, problem solver and peacemaking for resentful people. In general, all other younger people have to respect to him. As a matter of fact those kinds of relationships are resulted from economic dependence of people to their elder. Young people depend economically to their parents because of lack of economic independence.

Another important issue for their relationship is their pasts. I wonder whether they sometimes think about their childhood times. They grew up together; they cared about each other in many troubles. What did make them think different and feel different? I haven’t read their curriculums but I think they went to school kind of business or management. They learnt how to make profit maximize. They learnt the ways of enlargement of company. They were taught how to be successful in business world.

I remember the statement of Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli[1], the author of Prince, which says “the end justifies the means”. This quota was made almost 500 years ago and it is still debated. In fact, Machiavelli wrote and supported this pragmatic statement especially for the states needed improvement and stabilization in administrative areas. According to his views, this kind of approach could not be used by people for their own benefits and ambitious. Machiavelli’s aim of writing this philosophical expression was any possible short-term cruel measurement taken by government decreases the probability of rebellion of citizens and keeps the system secure[2]. In today’s business world, people are ambitious, greedy and materialist just like in statement said by Machiavelli for governments. They dare to resort to many unethical ways to have better carrier, to earn more money or to benefit more. Whenever we ask them whether their choice is right or not, they begin to sort their excuses to justify themselves as those brothers.

People generally tend to confuse the meaning of “ends” and “means”. Sometimes they do bad things to get small benefits in their business life. Formation of human character takes time and if your character is formed once it is very difficult to change it in the better way.

Everybody has priorities in his/her life and they might be money, career, and power for some people; and friendship, strong relationship, calm life for some others. If a human feels the taste of power or money, it would not be easy to be away from its effects.

In briefly, an elder family member is needed to admonish them to bring them together as their childhood times.

[1] http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/machiavelli.html

[2] http://www.philforhumanity.com/Does_the_End_Justify_the_Means.html

SU AKAR YOLUNU BULUR (FLOWING WATER FINDS ITS OWN PATH)

2009-10-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

My first meeting with the definition of war was in early 1980’s. I saw missile attacks of Iran and Iraq on television. Every day I heard some information about knells from both sides. They used martyr instead of death. Then when I was at sixth grade, one day in the morning I heard the attack of USA to Iraq on the same day’s early hours. It was Gulf Crises and War in that region. Then I witnessed war in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Iraq again. By the way there has been a constant close combat in Gaza for many years. I can say more about these wars or combats but the common ground of all these things is that Turkey plays an important role in that region. Relation of countries is different from relation of people and there is no room for sentiment in international relations. People like or don’t like some others but country’s choice is not as simple as people’s. Countries have to get on well the others even if they have some contradictions.

Middle East is one of the most sensitive regions throughout the history. This region is the cradle of three major divine religions; it is also at the location of major oil reserves in the world and the water source is vital for that region. These are the common interests of countries for the region and on the other hand in case of any conflict or war every county would like to see Turkey as its ally. However, none of these countries would like to see a powerful Turkey in all respects in the region. Notwithstanding it seems a dilemma, rules of international relations are different. When we look at the last 100 years, during the negotiation on Mosul after independence war, suddenly rebellion came out in east part of Turkey; or after operations in North Cyprus, ASALA came out to kill Turkish diplomats in mission. Many more examples can be given as coincidences. Last few years we have been hearing genocide allegation from many countries. However, the same question can be asked to France, Italy, Serbia, USA, etc. This is called international relations in textbooks and diplomacy.

People see the 13 episode drama on television or when they read the news about this conflict, their mind will form based on what they have gotten from the surface about it. However, I have no doubt about the relation between Turkey and Israel. I think this kind of speech or action from both sides is not extraordinary situations. These can be called political maneuvering of countries especially to provide more supporters in domestic politics. Therefore, neither Turkey nor Israel can jeopardize the relations. If Israel suspended relations with Turkey, it would be alone in that region because it has problems almost all countries in Middle East.

In Turkey we have proverb as “akan su yolunu bulur” which can be translated into English as “flowing water finds its own path”. So sometimes there might be conflicts between countries, tension between them rises and falls but at the end relations keep going on…

Source:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://turkbirdev.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Harita_OrtaDoguHaritasi.12290008.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.turkbirdev.info/dunya&usg=__lL_Q0FvK0KtvJHn-w6IekdrrAqE=&h=1327&w=1103&sz=202&hl=tr&start=7&um=1&tbnid=cK-E-Db3-J87PM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dt%25C3%25BCrkiye%2Bisrail%2Bortado%25C4%259Fu%2Bharita%26hl%3Dtr%26lr%3D%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2009-10-14T21:19:00.001-07:00

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In economics classes especially in microeconomics it is stated that one of most strong indicators for recession or recovery is the number of businesses entering into or leaving from market. Instructors always mention this topic in their classes to give an example. This observation is accepted almost as a theory by people in economic world. However nowadays, unlike the perceptions, some things are happening in Chinatown-Boston. It may be called renovation of Chinatown which we have been witnessing of new restaurants, groceries, art galleries, markets for 1 year.

Although economic crises why people tend to invest into new business? New opportunities, new environment, new immigrants, belief of faster economic recovery than expected might be given as reasons for that question. Regardless of the reasons, some people especially from young professionals are still investing in Chinatown. They are trying to make that place more attractive for all people from different origins.

One important point regarding clustering of businesses from different cultures in home city is habits and characteristics of people who live in different culture in abroad. For everybody one of the most difficult things is changing their habits. It may be eating habits, entertainment habits or sleeping habits. When people move into another country, they primarily look for something familiar to them such as people, foods, and environment. I had chances to see to different countries and cultures which I liked very much and all those things were experiences for me. In each country I saw different foods at their breakfasts. Some had had breakfast mainly with meaty food and some others like me had had breakfast cheese and vegetables. Although I like to try new and different things for new experiences, I sometimes can be conservative in some issues for example cheese is my must for breakfast and many people from Far East like China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Korea have their own musts. So businesses from similar cultures are gathering in some places in order to be found easily and provide a familiar environment the people from same cultures. How I don’t like to have breakfast without cheese, some other people have their own preferential for different things.

We can see many Chinatowns especially in the United States. People from Far East create their own habitats in cities like restaurants having familiar cousins, art galleries, sport centers or cafes. When they go to Chinatown, they feel as if they lived in their home countries. They have dinner from Chinese cuisine, after dinner they go to art gallery of artist from Far East and they dance with the Chinese music in the disco.

Despite the fact that the economic crisis is still affected by business entities from every level, some people have strong belief to stimulate the environment and to see the light end of the tunnel by help population expressed in billions…

Source for photo:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/03/21/1206107991_8837.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/us/hawaii/articles/2008/03/23/artful_renewal_in_chinatown/&usg=__08lMZwp3gSAU0xX1IhqYMBik1H4=&h=359&w=539&sz=67&hl=tr&start=7&um=1&tbnid=imQw-vJY5NKtFM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dchinatown%2Bin%2Bboston%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE SCARES

2009-10-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

As we do every week, we are going to review what Jeff Sommer talked about last week business world. Last week he mainly talked on unemployment statistics in the United States. Besides that, he went over Hollywood hotels, digital book piracy, and true price of bailouts and limits of cost-cutting.

Last week after announcement of employment bureau of the US relating to unemployment rate in the United States, I thought the effects of global economic crises will be felt for a while. Although, some pep statistics are given by some government agencies such as growth in service sector or labor demand in healthcare education to be though optimistically, we haven’t seen strong indicators yet to convince us about recovery of the economy. Even if the government talks about some measures such as stimulus package to overcome recession, all those measures are seem to be not sufficient enough to solve major problems. Those problems affect the income of actors in economy which result in the reduction of tax revenues. Especially in housing, financial and manufacturing sectors are still in bad condition to be thought optimistic. Since in economy both actors and sectors are tightly interacted with each other, deterioration in one sector affects the others in chain.

Probably employment policy will be the number one issue in 2010 for government and the number of people hired in government will be much higher in 2010 than before. Some factors might be counted for that such as the general census are going to be held due to constitution and political reasons in senate. The important danger and threat for the government is the rise of unemployment rate. People don’t much care about political contention between parties, they are not much interested in things happening far away them but they seriously care about their job guaranty. Their payments for mortgage, health insurance, pensions are directly related to their constant income. If they lost their jobs, life would become unbearable for them.

Another important topic in last week agenda was the digital book piracy. Depending on the internet technology, controlling of products and services provided in internet has become more difficult in the context of intellectual property rights. This issue should be evaluated as not only ethical problem but it also monetary problem of people. Someone gives time and effort to write a book or to compose a song and many people get it from internet without paying anything. Besides people getting those products, some more people who are bad examples even earn money by selling those products. Deciding the level of abuse in ethics is not easy. Someone can say violation of rules is not ethical even if it might be used for amateur purposes and some other can say the selling of those products illegally is not crime.

Source:

http://jeffsommer.wordpress.com/

http://www.reuters.com/finance

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blogs.southtownstar.com/money/unemployment.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blogs.southtownstar.com/money/2009/01/&usg=__FCs0cqoZAwvDBkKlOBuWu4J35ps=&h=512&w=415&sz=97&hl=tr&start=4&um=1&tbnid=s2H7e_PL0tRoBM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=106&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dunemployment%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

SLEEPING GIANT HAS AWAKENED

2009-10-01T22:29:00.001-07:00

Last parade of China Army in Tian’anmen Square reminded me the celebrations in Soviet Union during Cold War. In those years I was a child and I watched the parade of red army in Red Square and I believed that the Red Army was strong enough to unify the nations under communist regime. It was, as a child, not possible to understand the welfare of a country was not depended on only the military power of that country but it was also connected to economical situation such as income distribution or gross domestic product of it.

Marching of soldiers as a one unit, showing high-tech systems and new technology weapons, using some special products which are made by China were the parts of parade. Over the years, the scopes of the speeches made by governors in the celebrations or parades have been also changed. Giving number of missiles, fighters, tanks and many other weapons in their public speech is not sufficient to convince people about how powerful they are. However, China has been in progress in many aspects for last 10 years. China is one of the biggest exporters in the world and its external trade surplus shows that China has been producer country for a long time.

Two major communist countries were Former Soviet Union and China in 1980’s. Although managed under communist regime, both countries had some fundamental differences in terms of transition to communist regime. In former one, labor class in industry the determining power but in the latter one people in agriculture were dominant power in transition to communist regime. On the other hand Soviet Union and China have some important differences regarding adaptation to capitalist system. While Soviet Union chose rapid transformation of regime, China preferred to gradual adaptation to capitalism. Although recovered in many aspects, Russia lived some major social, cultural and economical problems after collapse of communist regime due to rapid transformation. On the other hand, China chose to gradual transformation path to capitalism and up to now their decision has been seen right. Although communist regime in power, China has been succeed to adapt to capitalist system of the world. Especially last 10 years Chinese products have important in international trade. You can see all these products relatively cheaper prices in every country. Instead of producing imitation products at the beginning, China is also able to producing high-tech products. According to many assessment and prediction, China will be much more powerful in the near future in many ways. Nowadays China is thought by some people to be the new leader of the world.

Years after collapse of Soviet Union, I am still watching parade of army of communist country as I did many years ago but this time I see not only weapons, soldiers with gun but I see also parade of more advanced more technologic and more developed country…

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02china.html?_r=2&hp

RIGHT VERSUS WRONG

2009-09-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we do something wrong intentionally or not intentionally. Which one is better or in more accurate description which one is the lesser evil? I am thinking about what I did something wrong during my last 20 years and how many of them were intentionally. One, two, three… I cannot count it because they are too many to count. We can ask who is responsible for those attitudes such as me, my parents, my teachers or the environment where we lived. We can ask another question about the reasons of those attitudes like structure of society, people’s lifestyle, economic structure of the country where we lived. The number of questions can be increased.

When we decide on something in our daily life, we always listen to our inner voice to be guided for right choice. The determinants of our inner voice might be religion, social norms or our education. So as we see there is no exact definition what is wrong or what is right. However, we have some fundamental basic criteria for something right or wrong. Killing someone is both unethical attitude and it is also crime. Likewise, stealing someone’s property is both unethical attitude and it is also crime for heavy sentence in almost every country. On the other hand, violation of intellectual property rights was accepted as a crime but this issue is still on the agenda of countries whether they apply the law or rules strictly or not. Violation of intellectual property rights is also questioned by people in ethical aspects. I think we are all agreed that it is unethical but sometimes we have strong reasons for doing that such as the tax rates of government on those products or profit margins of all intermediaries.

I many times downloaded songs, movies or some software programs from internet without paying any fee and I am still doing that even if I know it is illegal and also unethical but whenever I live such a situation I ask myself why I make that kind of behavior. Let assume that I download songs of a popular music group from internet. If the price of that CD was 5 dollars, would I buy it legally? Yes I bought it from where it is sold but the price of that CD is not 5 dollars. People need to be socialized, people need to read, people need to enjoy and many more. For all these aims, people should go to Red Sox or/and Patriots matches, people should go cinema and theatre and people should buy books, newspapers. When all these necessities are brought together, it makes much money. Can everybody afford it? I think many people answer saying “no”.

A few years ago, one of my friends told me that some publishers printed both original copy of books and also offsets of them. The most important motivation element for them is making more profit. More profit for business, more affordable life for people, more effort and labor force for owner of the product and less tax for government. As a human being, put yourself into the most appropriate place among these actors.

I downloaded songs from internet, I am still downloading them and I will download them if all variables are as long as same.

Source:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.iyibilgi.com/images/haber/16941.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.iyibilgi.com/haber.php%3Fhaber_id%3D72000&usg=__Azc_mzkKORB-dD6SfvC__AqW9zs=&h=155&w=222&sz=12&hl=tr&start=17&um=1&tbnid=iS_VM2yVCHQ5_M:&tbnh=75&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Detik%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

LAST WEEK AGENDA

2009-09-28T21:27:00.001-07:00

Some major topics last week in business world was relating to financial regulation reform, unemployment problem in Nebraska, organ-transplant economics, executive compensation. I will not go through all these topics but two of them are interesting to be talked on. Firstly, financial regulation reform which concerns many people from every segments of American society will be discussed. Secondly, another important issue-organ transplant economics- will be handled.

New financial reform will re-regulate many rules to bring more secure future for people. This reform will include especially consumer credit, mortgage, and other consumer financial products which protect consumer from unrestrained market.

Before last global financial crisis, Turkey lived similar financial crisis in 2001 due to same structural reasons. Banks were managed in deregulated way and there were no serious control over financial institutions. Since their reserve requirement ratios were low, banks had created more money than it should be. After destruction of trust environment in country, most of foreign investors moved to other profitable countries with their money. Central Bank could not control the foreign currency reserves and primarily dollar and euro currencies appreciated. Most trustable and also profitable banks went into bankruptcy. After that financial earthquake, government decided to change some laws and rules to re-regulate the financial environment in country. We met with the some new independent financial institutions which have been monitoring and controlling the market. Lots of people who had wanted more interest and benefits lost their money in 2001 crisis. Everybody learned something from that crisis and up to last year we lived only economical fluctuations due to external factors like rising up oil prices or decreasing demand in international markets.

No matter how many times we live economic crisis, each of them has drastic effects especially on low-income people. After each crisis, governments increase taxes (especially indirect taxes) as first a measure, then tight fiscal policy is applied to control budget and to recover the crisis. In any case, low-income people cannot avoid these measurements.

As far as I can follow to scope of it, new reform brings more control power to authority. Also it brings more protection to individuals as a priority which can be thought as a good approach to issue.

Another important topic of last week was organ transplant and organ donation. Based on a last year’s survey in USA regarding people’s approach to organ donation, three quarters of them were willing to organ donation but the numbers of donation show different result to us. Based on another survey, donation numbers change country to country according to reasons such as religion, ethics, fear, etc.

Depending on age, medical condition and conditions at the time of death, some organs such as heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, small intestine, eyes can be donated[1]. In 2006, first time number of organ donors passed 8000 in the United States. Last decade, organ donation trend has been upward and new regulations in some states encourage organ donation like in Illinois. Before receiving driving license, people have to answer whether they want to donate their organ or not in Illinois.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/1277/onakli001jz4.png&imgrefurl=http://www.dergi.biz/yazi/Organ-Bagisi/&usg=__75kHTnX7X6kHn3E2xh5J458_xps=&h=151&w=250&sz=58&hl=tr&start=9&um=1&tbnid=FMUbV63q6URKPM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dorgan%2Bba%25C4%259F%25C4%25B1%25C5%259F%25C4%25B1%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

[1] http://www.buzzle.com/articles/organ-donation-facts-and-statistics.html

FROM BROADER PERSPECTIVE

2009-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Last week we read interesting news in the newspapers which we are unfamiliar to see in the United States. Many people working in Hyatt Hotels Corp. had been fired and Governor of Massachusetts stated if the company didn’t rehire those people he would direct Massachusetts employees to boycott them.

Both fired employees and executives of Hyatt Hotels are giving statements regarding reasons of that firing. It might not be right to say something about this problem without knowing the essence of issue but we can say something about the social state and the balance between being social state and having capitalist system.

If we look at economic history briefly, as you know very famous economical idea was said by Adam Smith, the father of classical economy, in 18^th century. “laissez faire” and “invisible hand” are the keystones of his idea. It means all economical factors be at optimum level for every actor in economical system without government intervention. It sounds impossible to survive this kind of system and during the history people have witnessed to economic crises due to lack of strong regulations.

In economic fluctuation periods most of the economic actors and especially private companies are affected from unstable financial atmosphere. They have to take measures like reducing investment, labor force and costs to protect themselves from uncertain economic environment. However, some private companies which are not as much affected as the others are abuse their rights. In general meaning, I have not seen a boss or executive of a big company selling their luxury car or yacht. On the other hand whenever you ask them how their economic situation is, they always come to point of economic bankruptcy. They think firstly to reduce the cost of labor force instead of doing alternatives. We as an individual cannot blame those people for their attitude but government has to do something for the people suffering from economical crises most. Governments have to have such a role to support lowest wages people in society.

If we specifically come to politics of Hyatt Hotels Chain, the temporary solutions proposed by the general manager of that company are not seemed credible. Moreover, if the fired people did not say lie, the dismissal policy of Company was impolite. Any competent authority in that company may have decided to talk to issue with people whom are thought to be fired. Hyatt Hotels Chain may think economic crises as an opportunity to reduce the cost of working people by cutting wages.

Regarding call for boycott, it might be thought that Governor of Massachusetts is doing political maneuvering for next election. This is another matter of this undesirable event. We don’t know his intention in this event but reacting to any unfair attitude should be supported. Governor should find a conciliatory solution for fired housekeepers and Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Adam Smith’s theory is valid under applicable excellent market regulations. Without regulations and control mechanism only the jungle rules are valid…

Source:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/24/governor_threatens_a_hyatt_boycott/?page=full

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/images/31/2009/09/thumb160x_091709-002-hyatt-boston.jpg&imgrefurl=http://consumerist.com/tag/hyatt/&usg=__vcKsd9AQbITBk3-USO7sfEpVd2E=&h=158&w=158&sz=15&hl=tr&start=5&um=1&tbnid=f5iWG1Ah1U1t7M:&tbnh=97&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhousekeepers%2B%2522hyatt%2Bhotels%2522%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

VOLTRAN VOLTRAN VOLTRAN

2009-09-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

In 1980’s there was an animated cartoon which was called “Voltran” or “Defenders of Universe”. I don’t know how many of you familiar with it and I am not sure whether this animated cartoon showed in other countries or not but it was my one of the favorite television programs for children. The main characters of series were 5 mechanical robot lions and 5 hero warrior controlling these robot lions. Each lion had a separate ability. In case of emergency, they can either fight separately or form Voltran to protect universe from enemies. Everybody remembers stories of Voltran if you watch them.

Those days I was around 7 years old and every week I was eagerly waiting for that series to see new story of Voltran and the pilots of 5 lions. One week I was wanting to be pilot of black lion which forms head of Voltran and another week I was wanting to be pilot of red lion which forms right arm of Voltran. It was our hero of our childhood time. It was so popular that you could see it on chewing gum, chocolate, toys even our shirts.

One day I saw an advertisement of a company which sold chewing gum including picture cards of Voltran. They said that if we could bring together all these serial picture cards and send those to company until due date, the company would send us a big spectacular model of Voltran. There were 200 picture cards that I had to bring together but I was patient enough to achieve this. I started to either buy those chewing gums or exchange picture cards with my friends. Because sometimes I had more than one same card and so did my friends therefore exchanging picture cards saved time. It took my weeks to bring them together. I almost found all picture cards only except one. I tried to do my best to find that card but I couldn’t. I bought many chewing gums with all my pocket money and I asked all my friends if they had one that I missed but I couldn’t find it. Due date was approaching and I was so upset. I had to do something to get that big model toy. I decided to write a letter to company and I would put that letter next to picture cards in envelope. I wrote to company that I had seen their advertisement and like many other children I had started to collect those picture cards to get their model Voltran but I had been not able to find one picture card. I stated that the company became so popular that every child knew its name after that campaign and I asked company if they could send me the model Voltran even if I had sent series of picture cards with one missed.

I did not know what the company would do regarding my request. 2 months later I received a package from that company. Can you guess what it was in the package? ….. There were 2 boxes of chewing gum including picture cards of Voltran instead of model Voltran. I thought that the company deceived us and in fact the missed card had not been in the series. I was disappointed again at first but later on I consoled myself due to 2 boxes of chewing gum with picture cards of Voltran.

Source:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8003/voltran5yu.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.frmtr.com/nostalji/1830966-voltran.html&usg=__63aTVdg8Af6VGwaY-jrOVemPkDg=&h=567&w=457&sz=146&hl=tr&start=1&um=1&tbnid=bZrT_VfxdU6d2M:&tbnh=134&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvoltran%26hl%3Dtr%26rlz%3D1C1CHMB_trTR324TR324%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

ECONOMIC REPORT OF LAST WEEK

2009-09-20T21:40:00.001-07:00

If you have a chance to visit Jeff SOMMER’s blog or New York Times’ web page, you can be familiar to last developments in economical and business arena. Jeff SOMMER interviewed some people who are in business issues about global economic situation, possible developments of Saturn, expansion of Amazon and rising share holder dissent.

Relating to global economic recession, different opinions are stated. According to some thoughts, on the technical point of view it is not a recession but it is look like a recession and when it is compared to last winter, economic indicators relating to production or industrial output is better. The arguments for economic recovery were also discussed in that interview. There are some strong arguments which give clues about the economic recovery like housing industry, budget balance and rehiring of people. Also based on the Barkley’s opinion, it is expected to 5 % GDP growth for the next year first quarter.

Regarding to global recession, one important matter is people’s fear of deflation. People are worrying about it but for the actors in economy, deflation is short-run phenomena. Conversely, for the long-run inflation is the real phenomena. Another important matter according to economic experts is the value of gold. Gold is stored by people as investment tool but as what happened to oil in last summer, the value of gold will fluctuate. Last summer barrels of oil increased to $ 145 and then it landed down softly up to $ 33. Therefore it can be thought that the value of gold for the moment might be overvalued. Also the depreciation or appreciation of currencies among themselves might be problem. Especially depreciation of yuan against euro and pound will affect the international trade and foreign trade deficit.

Lastly regarding to global economic crisis, on the first anniversary of collapse of “Lehman Brothers” President OBAMA warned economic actors on the weakness and fragility of financial system. He especially asked Wall Street executives to accept the strict rules voluntarily.

This year G-20 Summit will be held in Pittsburg on September 24-25. Strengthening transparency and accountability; promoting integrity in financial markets; reinforcing international cooperation; and reforming the international financial institutions are the some major topics which will be assessed during summit[1]. Another possible topic for USA and Chine to be discussed is international trade conflict. After 35 % tariffs was imposed to Chinese tyres by USA, Chine immediately started to investigation of damping on American chicken and car parts. Formidable negotiations are waiting for these countries.

One of the major development in business arena last week was the announcement made by GM regarding to Saturn cars. GM stated that if Saturn car was not sold, the production of this car would be stopped in 2011. Roger PENSKE, chairman of Penske Automotiv Group. seems to be volunteer to acquire brand name of Saturn. In 1980’s he succeed to make profit for GM. He can motivate people and increase their productivity. Probably, he will use the same car retailer network. Authorities think that Mr. Penske will success in this project.

The last development for the last week is expansion of Amazon. It started to sell books online 14 years ago, it still sells books online but now it sells variety products online. Last year it grew approximately 35 % and competing with Amazon for the small business companies is becoming more difficult each year. It has some serious advantages like storing capacity of products, selling some products to some states without tax, and using its scale in negotiation with suppliers. For the moment, stopping to Amazon’s growth seems not possible.

See you next time…

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=business&st=cse

https://www.pittsburghg20.org/Calendar.aspx

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/3161995578_b27ec4971f.jpg

[1] http://www.pittsburghsummit.gov/about/index.htm

WHILE HEADING TO CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT

2009-09-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

The world has been faced with some major global problems especially for 30 years. Global warming or in other words climate change is one of the biggest threats for humanity. After 1990, climate change became more important and countries gave more importance to this issue. One of the most important reasons for climate change is releasing of greenhouse gases.

Countries to reduce greenhouse gas emission, gathered in Kyoto which is a city in Japan. Kyoto Protocol is a legal annex of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which binds countries legally with respect to releasing of greenhouse gases into atmosphere.

Although countries came to agreement in that summit on this issue in 1997, the Protocol could enter into force in February 2005 due to existence of precondition which states that at least 55 countries which are responsible for the 55% of greenhouse gases emission have to sign it.

USA is the country which releases greenhouse gases into atmosphere most; this country with Australia has not signed this protocol yet. However, USA invests almost 5 billion dollars per year on research and development to prevent the greenhouse gases effects. The Protocol will be valid until 2012 and countries under United Nations have already begun to think about this problem. There will be international meeting concerning climate change in December.

Nowadays actors in this issue in United States state their opinions. On one side some of them think that completing a new treaty in 3 months looks not possible and there should be “B Plan” for the summit which will be held in Copenhagen in December and on the other hand some officials in the senate declared that this summit might be the last chance to progress seriously in fighting to climate change.

Another important matter in fighting to climate change is the financing of developing countries by developed ones based on the new treaty. This dispute has been discussed since Kyoto Protocol and it seems to be continued during summit.

As some officials said, this process may take more than 3 months but at least some rules might be set up for the future progress. Negotiations should be held in common framework based on mutual understanding. Since this ongoing problem concerns every living on the earth, countries will have to handle climate change seriously. None of the countries will avoid sharing responsibility in fighting against climate change. Results of this changing will affect all of us and the more greenhouse gases releasing the more our earth is in danger. Therefore, the US senate and all actors in this process should be ready for this summit by preparing proposes in 3 months time even if health care reform occupies them.

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/09/17/17climatewire-obama-administration-pushes-climate-talks-in-22433.html

http://unfccc.int/

http://www.climate-changer.com/2007/06/