SHIP IN STORM

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

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.

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

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

A PLACE FROM HEAVEN

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,...

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.

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[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)

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

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

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

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