Happy Anniversaries to me

This week in 2001 I first arrived in Turkey. This week i 2003 I came to Turkey for the second time. Much has changed in this time, particularly the prices.

The University Entrance Exam

Tomorrow, almost 2 million Turkish students will be taking the University Entrance Exam (OSS). A fellow employee and my boss’s daughter will be amongst them. The exam is very cutthroat. Some students have studied full-time for the past year just for this exam. Their whole future will be determined by this 3-hour exam. Some details on the exam are here.

The Answer to my Previous Printer Conspiracy

Tom, on his excellent blog, has pointed out this brilliant speech on Digital Rights Management (DRM) given by Cory Doctorow to Microsoft executives. Amongst many other things, Cory helps explain the conspiracy I experienced earlier in the month:

We have companies like Lexmark claiming that their printer cartridges contain copyrighted works — software that trips an “I am empty” flag when the toner runs out, and have sued a competitor who made a remanufactured cartridge that reset the flag.

Suprise, suprise, Australian citizens are still recommended to defer all non-essential travel to Turkey.

Previous related post

In news just in:

The Turkish government is reviving plans to build a controversial nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, close to Mersin. This power plant has been in the planning for a long time and was last dropped following in early 2001 following the economic crisis. This is actually the first time I recall hearing about the plant.

See:

Turkey Revives Plans for Nuclear Power Plant

Akkuyu plant details (not up to date)

A previous international campaign against the plant

Last night, whilst watching the Russia-Portugal Euro2004 game, I made a new personal record for the mobile phone game Snake II: 1736. This beats my previous best of 1597 detailed in this post.

Today I received my replacement South Australian drivers licence in the post. I had lost my original one several months again.

To obtain this replacement, I:

a) requested the sending of a form

b)visited the embassy in Ankara for a witness to my signature; and

c) sent back the completed form along with a credit card authorisation for AUD$11

The funny thing is the diplomat’s signature at the embassy cost AUD$20, almost twice as much as the licence itself!

Last night I saw my friend, Toygun, for the first time in several months. In early November 2003 we visited Anazarbus and in December he started his compulsory military service. 6 months later he exited the army. Toygun described his military service as very boring as he didn’t have much to do after his initial training period.

Turkey is moving towards a more professional army with less reliance on poorly-trained military service conscripts. Compulsory military service is a huge waste of money and the resources used should be put towards far more useful purposes. Having said that, military service in Turkey does provide a great discipline and development tool. Toygun himself acknowledged the military turns boys into men. He now wakes up earlier and keeps his room tidier than before!

PS: Both yesterday and today the ADSL Internet access is very intermittent, making surfing the web or sending emails extremely frustrating. I can’t complain too much, though, I could be doing military service!

The Israeli High Court suspends the ban on pork sales in 3 localities. I would love to go there to celebrate by eating some bacon or roast pork or ham or…

The funniest and saddest part of the article is this quote from one of the local Jewish fundamentalists:

“The High Court has driven a central nail in the coffin of Jewish identity in the state”

Pork is not banned in Turkey and is freely available where there is a demand for it, including the tourist resorts and in large supermarkets of the major cities. Unfortunately, it is not easily accessible in Mersin. I do miss pork but not enough to go out of my way to find some.

Saturday, 12 June 2004 is the day summer belatedly arrived in Mersin. It was not a sudden, drastic arrival, but an incremental increase of 2 or 3 degrees, making day and night ever so much more muggy and uncomfortable. The peak of summer has not yet arrived, but it is summer nevertheless.