adventure of the month!

I was in Zhejiang last week. I went to shanghai at first, stayed only one single day and changed to Zhejiang for a several days business trip.  I was alone in Shangai this time and went out to have a dinner in a Helal Muslim restaurant. It was too late when I went out from the room and it seemed there was no place to eat by the Hotel. I have walked  around and found a good place to eat noodle. Lanzhou Noodle is pretty famous all around the China and you can find small Lanzhou Noodle restaurants in eveywhere. They are so cheap  and not so hygienic too but they pay too attention to islamic regulations and culture a lot. They dont allow non-islamic food and beverages in the restaurant. So you can trust them and can confidentially eat at their places. I entered one of them which I decided that it was the most hygienic one among others. I ordered a cup of Noodle and randomly sit on a place in the empty  restaurant.

The other morning, after I have finished my business, I reenter to the restaurant and ordered chinese dumpling this time. I ate something and left from Shanghai. Being in Shanghai after a long time made me remember my initial days in the city as if I came back to my hometown again. Leaving from the city became an uneasy thing  for me later on. I went to Jiangsu province primarily to visit my old friend Emre who has been working there for years. After staying two nights with him, I changed to Zhejiang to look for some lace fabrics samples. Keqiao is a small town in Zhejiang province and it famous for its textiles sector. You can find almost any kind of fabrics there. I had been there four years ago but I had stayed only three days at that time. I tried to remember the places but I couldnt do well. The second day, I found an arabic restaurant and an uyghur restaurant. There was a small mosque on the second floor of the uyghur restaurant. I went there to pray at the noon and have eaten uyghur rice with well-cooked lamb meat. I have walked almost all around the town and discovered many places for the next time.

When I was in Zhejaing, an old friend who begun to work for a chemical company to call me for a small thing. He asked me to visit a factory that they want to make a cooperation with them and plan to purchase a big amount of a chemical product. The only thing I would do was to meet with the owner of the company and see the factory. I would take a short time but it was in another province and I had to go to by plane.

I bought my ticket and set off in the evening. I planed to go one day in advance to stay at a hotel near the factory and visit the company in the morning . I had the address of the company but it was in English and without having Chinese address, it is more difficult to find the place. If I had the address in english, I could find place but there was only the name of the industrial zone, but the exact Street name and number was not available. I had to find the place a bit early because I couldnt get contact with someone from the company. I emailed them and had been waiting for a relpy. But I couldnt get any reply. That was the reason to make a plan to be in Taiyuan one day in advance.  If I couldnt get in contact with them, I would try to find by myself.

I went to the airport and started to wait for take off after the procedures. In the airplane, there was a couple sit beside me. I asked them if they are native of the Taiyuan city. They have suprised when they saw that I could speak Chinese as the probably only foreigner in the plane.  They are from Taiyuan and the name of the guy was Li, which a common surname in China, just likethe surname Kim in Korea.  They were curious about my trip to Taiyuan which is the capital city of Shanxi province, located on the northern part of China. I said that I would make a visit to a factory and showed them the english address if they know the place. Thanks God that Mr. Li knew the place and he said that he live in a place very close to there. He said he could drop me to a hotel around there and the other day morning he could come to the hotel to pick me up. He could help me to find the factory if I couldnt get any contact person.

When we landing in Taiyuan, It was about eleven of the night. In spite of my plan, I have listened the words of Mr. Li who was a person I didnt know two hours ago and I jumped on his car from the airport to a place I have never been before. In the midnight, a foreigner in a car with three strangers.  I should admit that I have felt a bit fear sometimes to be with them and I coldnt do it even if I was in Turkey. But an inside voice said that it wouldnt be something bad, and I should trust them to not make my things more complicated. They were the native of a city where I was looking for a place, that made me feel easy but they were also the native of a city that I was a foreigner and alone among them, and unfortunately that made me feel so uneasy. I had both fear and easy feelings together at the same time while the car moving along the deserted road at the midnight.

But they droped me at a hotel near the place I had to be in the morning and left from there. I lied down on the bed and turned on the tv to watch news in english but a show attracted my attention. It was the Chinese version of the american dance show but It seemed pretty original. With the local and modern dances, It was really a great program. It was too late but I watched it almost two hours.

In the morning, I tried to contact with the company but I couldnt. They told the customer that they have a factory in Taiyuan but they didnt have any in reality.  Mr. Li called me in the morning and asked if I get the address. I said I couldnt get contact with anybody. He said he could come to the hotel to take me and I accept his offer. He took me to some places in the city like the old mosque, some historical places and we had lunch together in a good islamic restaurant. He was very respectful and kind for my belief and ideas.  

There was more than one hour to my flight when they dropped me to the airport. I was there for a factory visit but I made a good friend besides to the travel in the city.  When I told this story to my friends, they didnt believe it. But I should admit that I couldnt be so brave in my own country and I wouldnt get on the car of a stranger at the midnight, not even in the city I live in. But interestingly, in China or in any place I have been as a tourist, I always become a more fearless person!

TV series in Turkey

TV Series.. That is what we call popular in Turkey for the last decade.   More than one decades ago, Turkish people were watching Brazilian and American tv series, but Brazilian series were more popular after all. At that time, there were some poor-quality Turkish-made series on some tv channels. .  Marimar is one the most popluar brazilian tv series in Turkey in 90’s. Almost in every home, you could hear the tearfull voice of Marimar. But why people watched the foreign series in Turkey? Why we had imported foreign series? We already had been watching the foreign movies, especially Hollywood based ones. Coulndt we at least shot  our own tv series?

No, honestly  we couldnt. We couldnt do at least worth to see ones. Turkish tv series sector was pretty bad in 90’s. Not only the sector of series, but movie sector was quite poor as well. We couldnt produce good movies actually and the quantity of released movies were quite low.

Last week, I read an interview with a famous Turkish director which has released on a best-selling Turkish paper, and in that interview the director stated that in Turkey, the number of produced movies has been rising since 2000 and there is no restriction for the directors during the governing  AK party which is ruling under the leardership of PM R. Tayyip Erdoğan.

That is an undeniable truth that the country has been developing , not only economically but also socially in a better democratic situation. Because the republic has never been so democratic before, after the leading party has been following the critarion which has been forced  by EU for allowing Turkey to enter to the Union in return.

When we consider the democratic situation we are in, we can see that Turkey is in somewhere which can be called more democratic and more powerful  from some of European Union countries. Because the culture we have is already inherent democracy. So democracy has been adopted by Turkish society so easily.

Developing economically and politically help to all sectors to develop in parallel. Cinema and TV sectors are as well.  Today in Turkey, there are really good tv series and movies have been shooting since last decade. Every TV channel has its own series for per night. Consequently, most of people in Turkey turn into series-addict  and some series have been watching by millions.

I am a bit lucky that I live in abroad and keep myself away from these series. When I got back to Turkey, I stay less than two months and I mostly keep myself busy with my family and friends. But this time, I had to stay more then four months and I surprisinly begun to watch a tv series called ‘SUBAT’ on TRT1. I couldnt espace from TV, because TV becomes an inevitable evening entertainment in the life of Turkish too,  just like the people around the World.  But it is good that I quit to watch anymore after getting back to China. Here, my friends watch many Turkish series on computer but I dont like to wait next episode for a week. I hate to wait curiously for the what will happen in next episode. I prefer to watch old series which all episodes have already released and I dont have to wait in a curious mood.

I started to watch ‘Lie to Me’ starred by Tim Roth who is one of my favorite actors. I have all seasons. I can watch whenever I want.

Turkish movie series are good and have been watching all around the World, Especially in the arab World. By the influence of Turkish series and movies, number of arabs who visit to Turkey as a tourist rised to millions. A lot of series which have not been followed by Turkish break the rating record in some arab countries. We exporting our series to other countries just like Brazil did it in Turkey several decades ago. But it is obvious that our series are better and worth to watch. Not only visually, but they find good scenarios as well.

Originally, there are tens of series, but I know only some of them which are more famous in the country. Because some of tv series even can become a subject to cross talks and discussion programs on TV which they are kind of programs I follow mostly. Or some of the times, you can see a tv series on a paper as a news topic. So you cant espace from to hear at least the name of the series.  As a friend once told me, if you live in Turkey, you have to follow a series. I think she absolutaly right. You can not keep you you away, even if you dont have a tv at your home.

Anyway, If you wanna watch a Turkish TV series, you can choose one of these;  Suskunlar, Şubat, Karadayı, Kurtlar Vadisi, Leyla ile Mecnun, İşler Güçler and so on.  Not regularly but  I sometimes watch  ‘işler güçler’, ‘Leyla ile Mecnun’ and ‘Şubat’.  I regularly watch ‘Lie to Me’ which is not  Turkish series as you all know. J

Some other books at Mollie Used Book Store

I made a routine visit to  'Mollie Used Book Store' three months ago when I was in Taiwan and there was something that surprised me a lot.
It was a regular rainy day in Taiepi before the first days of the spring  time and I was on the way back home while it was about to getting dark. I entered the book store and looked over the shelves to find an interesting book to read. I firstly saw the 'Kapitalizm ve Yoksulluk' by 'Çiğdem Şahin' and took the book to view content. At first I thought that the book should have been left by a Taiwanese student who may be a student at Turkish department at Chengchi University. 'Anyway' I said quitely and have replaced the book on the shelf. But I saw another Turkish book on the other shelf and another one on another place and another one too. 'Wow' I said, 'There are many Turkish books here!' and I started to think that  a Turkish student must have left them there to take some Chinese books.

I decided to buy one of them at first but dropped it out later on to buy another interesting magazine in English. It was so interesting that I have never seen a book in Turkish during my all five years in China but found many in Taiwan in one year. It is surely right that the world is a global village today and nothing should have surprised you in this century.

Deng, Modern China and Turkey

Deng Xiao Ping who is one of the most important figure in recent history of China. And China is the most developing country  in the World for now as we all know and there is no country which can stop China to be a leader one in the future.  What is the connection of Modern China and Deng?

What is the role of Deng Xiao Ping in the process of creating a World power?  What does he do for modern China and Chinese society? What does his ideas and thoughts on China to become a rich society? Does he a communist indeed? Has he followed the way of Mao during his leadership after Mao Zedong?

What was his aim when he stop the students while they dream to live in a better economic situation in a democratic country  and holding a demonstration against  governing communist party at Tiananmen square?

If we take a look at the recent history of China, we will see Deng as one of the most important figure at China’s recent economic and politic development. If Deng was not exist, we might not see  a leader China today. Because, no doubt that who has economically opened the liberal way of China was Deng Xiaoping. When he said his famous saying ‘It does not matter if it is a black cat or a yellow cat, as long as it cathes mice!’, he meant that it doesnt matter if you govern the country by the communist or capitalist idologies, it is more important to have a successful economic power by going beyong the ideologies.

Truly, Deng has created an alternative system which is called politically communist and economically liberal. For being a liberal economy, China has been experiencing an economical power around the World for the last three decades.  It s passed only around 70 years that China has recovered from civil war and I think, that is a great success for Chinese that  they are not only dressed the wound of civil war, but also has created a World power in the shortest time when we compare to Turkey. And we can not think all these efforts, diplomacy and progress without contributions of Deng Xiaoping. In my opinion, Deng as a small giant, is more important than Mao for a modern Chinese society. 

I read boks and papers which has written on the biography of Deng, and I got the point that Deng is the most important political figure as for  Mao is the military genius for Chinese. And I think Deng could not be a Mao, and Mao had not potential to be a Deng Xiaoping. They both have many in common but also different in many ways as well.

Deng is not a real communist indeed, because he made concession  from communist ideologies and opened way of innovative economic  policies instead of keeping used and fruitless communist policies of Mao.  

Deng was a loyal politician to the Chairman Mao until Mao has passed away and he took over the leadership and begun to implemet his own ideas and policies. Mao would never allow to use capitalist tools to get a better economic situation but Deng has done successfully. Mao knew that if he use liberalism to have a larger economy, the  economic gap in the society would be increased in parallel, so he never involved in such a so called successfull economic policy (Mao was right when we think of the benefits of the society).  Mao was absolutely right, because the result of the economic development is a huge gap between poors and riches in China. Mao could not manage economy in the interest of people and Deng made it for the rich capitalists. Every passing day, as Leonard Cohen sing, and as Everybody Knows, poor stay poor and rich get rich. That is how it goes in China today.

Lastly, I have to make a point of the Tiananmen square protest as well. Because most of people around the World heard the name of Deng after the square massacres, as for Deng was playing a major role in that case.  

In 1989, Students revolt against communist party for the democracy and the governmet (Deng was at top at that time) warned students to disperse from the square but students insisted to protests. Government decided to use hard ways to clear protesters and soldiers entered the square with tanks and weapons. Deng commanded soldiers to run over the demonstrators and kill all who could insist on prostests. More than 2000 people had been murdered at that time.

There is an unforgettable moment left from that case which was a student standing before a tank and trying to hold it up against the students and democracy. Thanks to foreign press to be there, everybody witnessed that brave man via news and the famous picture of him became a symbol of the tiananmen  massacre. Even the Time magazine used the picture as the cover page when they gave place to the incident details.

Deng made a statement later on and said "The entire imperialist Western world plans to make all socialist countries discard the socialist road and then bring them under the monopoly of international capital and onto the capitalist road". The one who brought China under the international capital and onto the capitalist road was not imperialist western countries, instead, it was Deng himself.

No matter what kind of person Deng is, his life should be known to understand the recent  rapid development  of the country. If you want to understand the recent history of China, you have to understand the ideas of Deng Xiaoping and learn his life.

But I am afraid to say that you can not find any Turkish document and book  about his life, not even on the Turkish page of Wikipedia while there are a lot in English. As another developing country, Turkey  must understand China and chinese society. We have to turn our face from Western to Eastern. In order to be helpful on this way, I set to write his Turkish biography as a goal. I want to write a book on Deng’s life. Let’s hope to get success and go even further.

More environmentalist,more better!

In Turkey people have to use cheaper and more economic alternative fuels. Reason is so simple. Despite of locating very close to the oil-rich countries , In Turkey the prices of fuel is the second highest in the World after Norway, and it is same for prices of petrol and lpg. In Turkey, people dont want to pay more for gasoline which some users do not prefer to use such fuels for being not so environmentalist.

Due to the increases in fuel prices in the last two decades, vehicles owners have been starting to look for more cheap alternative fuels. There is a great alternative and much more environemtalist fuel for them . It is compressed natural gas that is used for cars and so popular all around the World.

Brazil is the fifth natural autogas user country all around the World. Argentina is the first country where people use natural gas for their vehicles. And I as a Turkish, I am afraid that Turkey has no place in this category. In Turkey, people will to profit by this cheap and environmentalist fuel but they can not take adventage of it because of lacking re-fuel stations. There are several re-fuel cng (compressed natural gas) stations around the country . That’s why CNG is still in dark in Turkey.

People do not intend to invest Money into this sector, because building a CNG fuel station need million dollars as I know, and investors need some support of the state for investing money into it. Turkey is not good at using CNG as an alternative fuel but within and without the region, it is one of the largest consumers of lpg.

Last month, I went to a west Black sea region tour with two sales specialist from the company to observe local lpg kits sellers in different cities around the region. What I saw during the tour is that everyday thousands of people convert their vehicles to LPG system and there is a huge lpg kit market in Turkey. And I figured out that increasing prices of gasoline does not agitate every citizen of Turkey, rather, such cases make kit sellers and autogas services so happy. When they hear that gasoline prices increased or will be increased, they begin to thank God, because when people hear the new increased prices, they start to rethink to convert their vehicles to lpg for saving more money. And autogas services make good business at that week untill to another increasing price news.

Until to find another and better alternative fuel, LPG is one of the most environmentalist and economic preferable fuel for vehicle owners in Turkey. If you are a Turkish, you have to pay much more tax both for your car and fuel together. There are still more than 2 million unconverted vehicles in traffic in Turkey and kit sellers aim to convert all cars to lpg in the future, not only provide a chance to save more money, but also participate to create a better environment.

Most of people afraid to convert their cars to lpg for a reason: The danger of explosion. If there was no danger, I think that the amount of unconverted cars would be less than 1 million today. Actually, there is no explosion danger today, because of the last technological sequential systems but people still not aware of this reality. Two decades ago converted vehicles did not converted properly and they cause not only a bad name for lpg but also cause danger in traffic today.

I wish that in the near future, we would see more CNG fuel stations and using CNG for our cars could spread to every corner of Anatolia. At that time, we could save more than when we use lpg and could avoid the danger of explosion of LPG. Because there is no explosion danger of CNG when we compare with LPG and gasoline.

A story that contains many!

Semra. She is my cousin but we have never have a chance to meet until last year. She was at her 25 and had a girl. She used to live in Tatvan with her family but she was in Istanbul when we met. We didnt know each other even though we are blood cousin but her story has attracted my attention pretty much after I heard about her.

She was at the end of her story when we see each other or honestly, she didnt even see me, she was not even in that condition. I saw her from a long distance in a miserable situation.

As I said, she was at the end of her story and the last section of this a scenario-long story passed away by struggling with cancer at hospitals. She wasted away in a year and fall into desrepair. The situation she was in smashed her up since she got ill.

Semra passed away in a slum hospital in a hot summer day with her all dreams to experince good days with her family in the future and left relatives in tears. We all say that death is a kind of benefaction and we should bless it as well. This eternal depature was a release from all the pain she had. I prayed for her to be recovered in no time but I believe that Allah knows the best for her and He took her along for a better life.

Name of the daughter of Semra is Viyan and she lives in Tatvan right now. She got back to home after she lost her mother. Even though so small but she still was aware of the situation and she could sense the death of her mother at that time. When she saw me at the first time, she called me with my name and made me so surprised. She saw my picture when she went to the home of my elder sister and asked my sister for who is the guy in the pic and my sister told her that his name is Arif and he is your uncle. She interestingly didnt forget my name and my visage since the day we met.

When I left from the place she was at, she asked me about her mother and said my mom is going to die and you all still keep it back from me though we all believed that her mother would be better , so we always tried to console her and make her believe to the return of her mother one day. But her m

other went to a place where is impossible to return from and left her daughter behind, all alone in this world.

Why do I recall this story after passing one year over it? The reason is a song. This Kurdish song was available before the story of Semra but if you listen the song , you will see that as if the song has been written to narrate the story of Semra after she passed away. Sometimes we are all think that some songs address to the feelings we have and they say the story of us, we say. But this song is really seems to be written for the story of Semra. She loved to listen this song and she was a great vocalist too. She already adopted the lyrics of the song when she was singing it at the boring room of the hospital.

The name of the song is Birindar which means ‘I am injured’ in English. Birindar mentions abroad, sickness, loneliness, vulnerability,longing, suffering and anything difficult you see in the scenario of her life. These words compose the summary of the time she left behind.

When I write the last part of this post, my mom has come and gave me more details about the sickness of Semra. And according to the information I got from my mom, there was a love story at the background of this 25 years-long tearful life. My mom explained that Semra was in love with Zülfikar who is a guy from the same village but elders of the family went against the marriage of them and they gave Semra to another guy from another village. Once, when Semra returned to the village to visit her family, she saw Zülfikar at entrance of the village and had fainted. After this incident, my mom said that she became ill and getting worse gradually. And she said the pain of being separated from each other caused the death of Semra. This story can come so arabesque and simple to you but everyday, tens of such love stories happen at the land of Eastern of Turkey because of ignorance. Solution? Education!

Here is the original song you can listen to feel this miserable story.

http://fizy.com/#s/3w3k97

does someone look for some adventure?

Yesterday I met with one of my old acquaintance friends. He complained about staying in Turkey and he said that he is like a slave in Turkey. As he said, he is not so satisfied and pleased with his life. ''My life would be same here in this country for a lifetime and it never change, I know'' he said. He is obviously looking for something adventure. 'So, do you have a plan to change this fate?' I asked. 'I dont know, maybe!' he said. 'İt seems that there is a ray of hope for you!' I respond. 'Actually,' he said with a murmuring sound, 'there is a way.' 'I met a girl from Brazil and she is 7 years older than me and she loves me, I think I love her too.' he began to explain. 'Since last year' he told me when I asked 'Since when you talked to her?'.

He said 'No one knows this but you, Arif', and went on as saying 'not even my family'. 'How do you know she a trusted one?' I asked. 'She told me everything about herself and she is ready to send me money to buy a ticket to fly to Brazil.' he said. 'Wow!' I said, 'go to see her then!'

'She wants me to stay with her and work in brazil!' he continued. 'What about the language? You are not even able to speak English, let aside the language of Brazil!' I asked with curious eyes. He doubtfully responded that 'She told me that she will send me a language course to learn portuguese, she said that learning portuguese is not so hard if you live in Brazil.'

'That s so nice then!' I said, 'I would try if I was you!' I said. 'Look Arif' he went on after I encouraged him, 'you are an educated person, you could be faced with such situations or maybe know more people have such experiences, so I am so happy to have a chance to take your advices here' he said.'Please dont make fun of this serious situation, ok?'

'Why should I have do that?, I am so serious when I said I would try' I said by making it clear for him.

'But I still have some hesitations ' he said. 'I dont know I could be happy with her.'

'As I understood from your words, she loves you so much' I started to recount, 'İf you believe that you love her too, then what could be the obstacle before your happiness?' I asked her.

'Difference of culture?' he stated with an undecided sound. 'I am afraid that the difference of cultures could cause a miserable end to this love!' he said.

'Go to try Şakir, go to be happy with her!' I said.

We both looked each others and I think we both thought the same things: Marriage is not a matter of trying! So you have to know opposite pretty well and internet is not a good way to do it.

My advice to him was that he should go to Brazil and meet that girl in a closer way to know her better. If they can sense that they can get along well and can do it for a lifetime, then they should not think more to marry.

İnternet is a common way of dating and meeting of couples today and it will be more common in the future. I think no one will find this way of meeting so strange in the near future.