Spain in our hearts

We are in the best position to understand what they are going through. How the Spanish behaved after the attack has also provided us with some lessons. Hundreds of thousands gathered in the streets and protested such crimes. Civil society took over.

Even if the true perpetrators are Basque separatists, ETA or al-Qaeda, both lost. Common sense won out.

To enjoy Can Kirac
Can Kirac teaches us that productivity has no age and that retirement does not mean segregating ourselves from society.

He is a true Istanbul gentleman with his broad knowledge, perfect Turkish and optimism.

He collected his collage of works and memoirs in two separate books. His collages carry more emotional weight than his many-pages-long articles. His memoirs are not only his. They explain the transformations that Turkey went through since the early republic. His life is written like a movie scenario.

Thank you to Parliament’s Justice Sub-Commission
Thank you very much.

Please, increase the penalties a little more.

Prevent those animals from entering traffic ever again.

These praises are for an article I read last week.

Parliament’s Justice Sub-Commission added an article about "endangering road safety" in the Turkish Criminal Code. According to this article, those who zigzag on the roads, pass cars dangerously and those who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol can be punished with two years’ imprisonment.

I can’t tell you how happy I was.

I get crazy when I see these vulgar people on the roads. I feel like I should get out and beat them. They don’t even care. They just continue on their way.

That’s why I support this increase in penalties.

How should elections be watched?
I watched the Greek national election in Athens. I worked at the press center set up for local and foreign journalists with great awe and jealousy.

It has a maximum capacity of 500. There were giant TV screens for the media. There were phones that you could use to call anywhere in the world. There were many computers with Internet available. Two diners and two restaurants were open 24 hours.

There was also an area where party leaders could come and address the media.

There were special arrangements made for simultaneous translations and TV cameras.

Everything worked like clockwork from the very beginning.

After seeing this, I asked myself why we couldn’t do such a thing.

There is no similar press center in Istanbul or Ankara. Those that exist are not used. Some are being used by my colleagues as coffee houses or association buildings. Neither local nor foreign journalists can utilize these facilities.

I researched this and discovered what was wrong.

The Greeks handed the press center over to a foundation. The foundation manages the center just like a private-sector initiative and rents it to anyone.

When the state left it alone, everything proceeded like clockwork.

Let’s hope it will also happen to us.

The Greek nightmare of the Olympics
This year’s Summer Olympics will be held in Greece, but those involved in the Olympics fear that the Greeks will fail to complete everything on time and that they will encounter serious difficulties for the first time ever.

The world has turned its eyes on Athens.

Now, completing the Olympic preparations is more important than anything else.

The top priority of the new Costas Karamanlis government is the staging of the Olympics without a hitch. This has turned into an issue of national honor.

The international community has already delivered its verdict. They claim the Greeks will not be able to pull it off. For Karamanlis, this is the most important problem. Even more than Cyprus or the Aegean Sea.