15 Kasım 2008 Cumartesi

UNIFICATION OF CYPRUS

In these days there was a hot debate for the unification of Cyprus between Turkish and Greek side. You will ask what makes Cyprus very important. Throughout centuries, Cyprus has a key geographical point in the East of Mediterranean Sea. The history shows that Cyprus had witnessed many wars and massacres. Then in the beginning of the previous century, Ottoman Empire was dominating the island before the Libya War (or “Trablusgarp war”). In 1912 England had the control of the island with the permission of Ottoman side. Unfortunately, Ottoman Empire had no power to retake the control of Cyprus in 1913. After that, until 70’s, there were a silence expectancy for the war and a willingness for land. Both sides had no intention to bring the peace to the island. And the war began. Now everybody thinks that the war is ended successfully, but the truth is not the same. Today everybody could see that the effort for the unification. However, this small island is the reason of meaningless problems. Both sides are confused to unify the island. Turkish side may be doubtful due to the past experiences such as the independence war, massacres. Also Greek side is obsessed with some privilege that Turkish side wants. In my opinion, I do not support the unification of Cyprus for the following reasons: Cyprus is indispensable for Turkey due to it’s strategically importance, there are some economic reasons, and behavior of European Union and Greek side are imbalanced.

I believe that Cyprus is a strategical point in the Middle East of Mediterranean Sea for Turkey. First of all, Turkey has been struggling to have a control in Northern Cyprus since there are 200,000 Turkish citizens on the island. Moreover, there are many areas that will have strategic consideration. In addition, Turkey took the control of the Northern Cyprus with the war which was fateful. This was an intervention but it had been done for the right of Turkish Cypriots. After the intervention, Turkey invested millions for the development of the new republic. For example, large ports built for commercial in the middle east of Mediterranean Sea and these harbors are now strategically important. Finally, the sea region is important for Turkish side. The Greek side has already occupied the region in Aegean Sea. As a result of this, Turkey has to prevent its right in the northern land has a seashore at Mediterranean Sea. All in all, it seems that Turkish side will not agree with the alliance that will treat its right and strategic importance of Cyprus.

I strongly believe that the unification will be harmful both for Turkish economy and harmony in Cyprus Economy. First of all, Turkey has been the only country that legitimizes the Cyprus Republic. Because of this reason, the fundamentals of Northern Cyprus economy were set up by Turkey. Also, according to the explanations from Northern Cyprus Prime Minister, old Rauf Denktash, we can infer that Greek sides want unification for the natural resources of Northern Cyprus and tourism economy. In such this way, Turkish side will not allow to use northern resources and other things by preventing possible unification. In addition, from the economic graphs we will see that there is an enormous difference between two side’s economies. In one side there is Greek Republic which has strong economy and it is about to take visa from the European Community. And in the other side there is weak economy of Northern Turkish Cyprus Republic. If the peacemakers want to make peace, they have to solve economic difference between two countries. If the economic problems are not solved, the unification of Cyprus will be an endless dream. In brief, there are many economic problems which are so complicated, and these problems are alike mountains before the unification.

Finally, the behavior of the European Union and Greek side is out-of-balance. First of all, there are countless current news on television, newspapers and web sites about the subject of the unification of Cyprus. Every night, I heard that there was a convention for unification with the peacemaker; the United Nations. However, these conventions have no end as both sides’ wants astronomical necessities. Nevertheless, it is better to add that there are some negligence’s of the UN. For example, they do what the Greek side wants. The Greek side has asked for more land, and then they did. Moreover, the Greek side has now asking for more economical privileges and political dominance in the possible unified Cyprus. As a result, the UN will accept this offer too. Furthermore, even now there is some confusion about the peace procedure. For example, in previous days meeting, the UN acted by supporting the Greek side. I think that there are some misunderstood situations in Cyprus. Turkish citizens have settled the island since 16th century. The Greek Cypriots have been there more than the Turks have been. According to me, these historical relation makes the UN thought that Greek side is right since they are the previous settler of this island. In brief, for this reason, I do not believe that the unification in this island will be done fairly so that I do not support the idea of unification.
All in all, I believe that the unification in Cyprus is not necessary and it will be harmful for Turkish side. There are three main reasons; Cyprus is very important island placed in an indispensable area, unification could be harmful for Turkish economy, and the unpredictable behavior of the UN and Greek side. In my opinion, “the peace” is beautiful word for Cyprus. However, in reality “the peace” is not suitable for Cyprus. There had been countless war for the island in the history, and this war continues in the universal area like the UN. The best thing that both sides could do is to try to understand the idea of society.


Bibliography

A historical Overview.
http://www.mfa.gov.cy/mfa/mfa.nsf/EUHistoricalOverview?OpenForm 2002

Ataturk and Turkish Cypriots
http://www.kibris.gen.tr/english/articles/articles22.html

Chronology
http://www.kibris.gen.tr/english/chronology/index.html

Cyprus Peace Operation
http://www.kibris.gen.tr/english/peacecamp/index.html

Joseph, Joseph S. Cyprus: Ethnic Conflict and International Politics: From Independence to the Threshold of the European Union, Toronto: Palgrave Publishers, 1997

Kadritkze, Niels, Turkish Cypriots Dream of Europe.
http://mondediplo.com/1998/09/07cyprus September 07, 1998

Turks martyred between 1965 and 1967.
http://www.kibris.gen.tr/english/massacres/theperiod_1965_1967.html

THE GREAT DICTATOR

“The Great Dictator” :
Compare and Contrast Essay

There were many historical events that was memorized by people. Also these events are in our history books and related multimedia tools. Especially, we could remember historic battles, rulers, big empires. Nevertheless the most important moment that everyone could remember is the World War I and World War II. These historic events are known all around the world since they are the war of the world, many countries participated and millions had died and billions had suffered due to the economic scarcity and psychological problems came with the Huge War.[1] Before, World War II, we know that there was unstoppable nationalism and dictatorship. Particularly three big power in Europe, which were Germany, Italy and Soviet Russia were dictated by Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. These dictators were managed the faith of the 1940’s society and also the faith of ours. At that time society made their reaction against the war in different ways. Democratic countries know that the way they were going is the way that fight between dictatorship and democracy. However, there was not only the fight, there was also psychological wars between countries. Countries published books, other media related objects, and movies. Before the war and during the war, people showed their response against war. From these response, I am going to discuss the film, directed by Charlie Chaplin and Wheeler Dryden, named “The Great Dictator”. “The Great Dictator” was also accepted as one of the best films throughout the film history. The film had many controversial issues that many people have had many different ideas from now. Some people have thought that the film is magnificent, and Chaplin made a good job by criticizing “the Hitler” or “Axis” phenomenon that was done in 30’s and 40’s Germany. On the other hand, some other part of the society have thought that the film had the extreme criticizing. Especially, for the ordinary film, it was so criticizing that German Dictatorship community was accepted as awful in the film. So there was two opposite opinions, and I will explain the good side of the two opposite issues.
First of all, in my opinion, the critics over the film are not as extreme as some people considered. People reconsidered opinions and the consideration of the time of the 30’s and 40’s. Someone had to do something against the war, since from day to day, causalities were increasing exponentially. “The Great Dictator” was the representative of the against war and dictatorship opinion. The film was directed in a way that we see the power of the Hitler’s Germany as “Tomania”. Also, we see the weak part of the Adolf Hitler. We see the power since there was huge armies and commanders with numerous medals and honors. As we know, in reality, Hitler’s army conquered Russia in a short time up to Moscow. They were really powerful. Nevertheless, Chaplin made a clever movement in there. He wanted to prove, the power that the Axis have, was not the real power. According to him, the real power was the humanity and peace and when these power was discovered by the world society, everything has changed. Also, Chaplin’s object was simply to persuade viewers that Germany and Italy, but especially Germany under Hitler, posed a clear threat to world peace. He understood the elements of mass persuasion because he understood cinema art as designed for mass audiences: touch the emotions first, and paint the characters in monotones so that there would be no mistaking the distinction of good from evil. Scene after scene in “The Great Dictator” evoked fear, love, hate, sympathy, or humor, emotions which elaborated Chaplin’s central purpose of taking sides in the conflict of good against evil as epitomized by innocence brutalized.[2] That was the main idea of film, and tragicomic incidents were related at the center of against war opinion. Also, Chaplin made the film that Dictatorship management at the Germany was “awful” in some points. For example, their secretary of war or Field Marshal “Herring” was “left handed” in the scenario. In the film, Hitler’s Dictatorship suppose that they had the largest army and the most technologically developed ones. Instead, when Billy Gilbert as “Herring” made new innovations, they were unsuccessful in the testing part that was made in front of Chaplin as “Hynkel”. That was the message to the world by the film. No matter how they had the power and technologically developed, Hitler’s community were human beings as the other people in the world. So they could not be flawless as the community believed in Germany and all around the world. As a final comment for these issue, Chaplin was right to show them inexpert since Adolf Hitler had chosen to commit a suicide after the defeat at WWII. Hitler was helpless at the end of the war when we compared his inspired speeches before the war and during the war, and his helpless was the reason of why he choose to commit a suicide. He did not think that his magnificent days of Germany will end soon. However, Chaplin saw the future and in his film, sometimes we see powerful Hitler character, and also sometimes we see that he is helpless.
In addition, against the war opinion thought, we may say that Chaplin criticized the Jewish Genocide. In the scenario, we see that there were happy Jewish Ghetto. People were living their ordinary love. Also, Chaplin as a “Jewish Barber” was happy and soon he was in love with a girl. However, their happy lives were ended with the “Hynkel” one day decision. One day decision is important key point in my sentence because Hitler was famous with unexpected decisions. I believe that Chaplin criticized Hitler’s decisions in that way. If Hitler did not think about conquering the Europe and even world, Germany and the world would be different today’s world. As a notice there would be no absolute power of US. Moreover, we see that Hitler’s advisors have the great effect over final decisions. Jewish Genocide begun with his advisor’s advise. Meanwhile, the Jews terrorized no one and beat up on no one (except when Hannah and the barber bounced frying pans off the heads of storm troopers). When faced with Hynkel’s policies, they simplified to the friendlier confines of Osterlich. There was a mixed message here. Clearly, Chaplin preferred peace, but he also advocated resistance by the Jews and others to the dictator and his storm troopers, because non-resistance only encouraged them. Free people must do more than merely desire freedom; they must fight for it when necessary, and in case any one missed this particular point, Chaplin gave Hannah these lines following the skillet-bashing incident: ‘That did me a lot of good. Sure got a nerve the way you fought back”. As a final notice, we could agree that Hitler characterized well, and his weak points determined to show that Hitler was also a human and he was not as a flawless person as the world society considered. With this film we saw that the most powerful dictator may have sentimental weakness and also he might be managed by his advisors.
Finally, the issue that supports the against war and behalf of the peace is related with scene when “Hynkel” played with the ball in his office. Chaplin could have great criticism over the Hitler politics. In my opinion, Chaplin gave us a message that some people especially Adolf Hitler was a player of the world. They had the power and they wanted to use that power to play the world like a ball. In the film scene, “Hynkel” played with the ball very long time and these moments were the happiest time of him. When he played with the world, he was happy. In real life, Hitler was like “Hynkel”. He conquered Austria which was his homeland, then continued to Poland, Russia and west of the Europe even to Paris. He was probably happy when he conquered somewhere. Nevertheless, he did not consider the happiness of the society because war came with destruction of conquered country. People were hungry and homeless as we saw in Chaplin’s film, and many people, even in Germany, are penniless.[3] So there was also social and economic destruction all over the war countries. Many people migrated to somewhere else and lost their relatives. There would have been civil wars, if the war had not finished. As a final comment to that paragraph, as we see today dictators even today have had egoism that he could play with world. Even they have not had sufficient power, they like to play with his society. Chaplin saw the ego of the dictators as it was in Hitler and Mussolini.
On the other hand, other side whom could not be against war and dictatorship, also have opinion that there was extreme criticism in “The Great Dictator”. First of all, as Adolf Hitler or in film as “Hynkel”, they were dictators and dictatorship is managing a country with dictator’s and his representatives. So as its natural, people under the dictator must obey the rule. Hitler wanted to manage his society since he thought that they did not have sufficient background the rational thinking. He wanted to manage them as today’s dictators do, and as we saw they were very talented that they had speeches over millions that were listening. So there was also society’s irresponsibility. If they wanted, they would get democracy no matter how it was hard and could result with civil war. In Hitler’s speeches over the society, people supported him and he got the power of the society. Also, it is better to add that Hitler’s ability to manage the society was so high that millions were brain washed. As a conclusion of that issue, Chaplin might not consider the society tendency in Europe. Especially, we consider three power; Russia, Italy, and Germany had dictatorship.
In addition, critics level sometimes too high in “The Great Dictator”. From, the title to the end of the film we saw severe criticism over the dictatorship. As an example, when US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, they were ruled with democracy and republic. As an another example, after WWI, invasion over Turkey was made by democratic countries. Many people believes that Hitler’s massacre over civil people and also destruction was non acceptable. However, other side of the war was not purely innocent. Stalin, Mussolini were also dictators and had been in war with Germany dictatorship and at the side of Allied countries. So as a final conclusion about that issue is “Allied countries had also mistakes and during the movie we could not see the critics over the Allied side”.
Finally, critics over the Hitler regime with “the Great Dictator” was also too unrealistic sometimes. As we know, Adolf Hitler was not only the ordinary people, he was also writer of his own book called “Mein Kampf”[4]. He was also good artist. Maybe, according to me, Chaplin and many people, he was only a dictator. However, he inspired his society as a great dictator. As their massacre’s and destruction was not happened, Germany could be more powerful for now. There were lots of inventions made by German scientists. Nevertheless, in the film we saw that these scientists were so awful that their inventions were useless. However, in reality, there were lots of inventions that effects today’s world. Consider the WW’s Beetle, it was the design of Hitler’s engineers. Also, new airplanes, bombers, missiles, submarines that has the main technology that US army use today.
As a final conclusion, in my perspective, I think that the film of Chaplin was used for increasing morale of the USA and other Allied countries. The film had also many messages to society, that could not the government carry easily to the far places. But Chaplin probably did with his film. He increased the morale of Allied countries and hope for peaceful and democratic world. From two points of view as you will predict that criticism over war and thinking against the war was my favorite one. The aim of the film was against the war and it was cleverly done by Charlie Chaplin. Especially, if you watch the film, you will like Chaplin’s tragicomic narrative, and most remarkably you will remember the last scene. It was played so well that democratic point of view magnificently explained by the Jewish barber. It is interesting…

References

1. Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf” or “My Struggle” .
2. Jack Oakie, “When Your Boss is Charlie Chaplin”
3. ROBERT COLE, “Anglo-American Anti-fascist Film Propaganda in a Time of Neutrality: The Great Dictator,1940” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001
4. “The Great Dictator”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator
5. “The Great Dictator”, movie
[1] “Prizes for Basic Research – Human Capital, Economic Might and the Shadow of History”

[2] [2]
[3] World Economoy in 30’s and 40’s
[4] [1] “Mein Kampf” which is “My Strugle” in English and “Kavgam” in Turkish

ALCOHOLİSM

Alcoholism is a complicated problem for a lot of people.Lots of people are drinking alcohol because of having fun or sadness.But some peoole become addicted to alcohol.They always have a will for drinking alcohol.If they don't drink, they lose their control.For example, swearing other people or resorting against family.Alcoholism affects addicted's life because of the excessive want of alcohol.It has a lot of effects on people's lives but the most common effects are:social problems, health problems, family problems.

Alcoholism causes social problems in alcoholics' lives.Alcoholics have to drink alcohol, this is their need but society doesn't approve of large consumption of alcohol because society believes that only drunk people drink too much.However, the truth is alcoholics are addicted to alcohol.Alcohol is a need for them as water.But society believes that alcoholics are losers so society wants to get rid of them.For this reason, alcoholics lose their interaction with society.Some alcoholics are different because they want to be apart from society.Their society is alcohol.They think that they don't have to need society.They think society can't solve their problems which are related with life.So they create a society with alcohol.Firstly, alcoholics lose their jobs.Thus, they have more time and they can drink more.Unemployment is a big problem because society doesn't think well about unemployed people especially if they're alcoholics.Secondly, they lose their family.Thirdly, they lose their all communication with other people.These are the levels of the alcoholics' loss.

Alcoholism increases problems in families.Marriage is a partnership and If one of the partners doesn't do his or her duties, there'll be problems in this family soon.Alcoholics can't do their duties for which they are responsible to their family or society.This causes arguments in families.If engine doesn't work, how can the car go?Alcoholics are broken engines in families.It's hard to fix them but it's not impossible.Alcoholics usually lose their jobs and they have to find money for alcohol.Accordingly, they sell something from the house or they spend their spouses salary for alcohol.Large alcohol consumption and ignoring the family contribute to divorces in alcoholics' lives.

The most important bad effect of alcoholism is health problems. Excessive use of alcohol usually causes cirrhosis.Cirrhosis is seen very often in alcoholics.Alcohol affects alcoholics' livers.The usual treatment of cirrhosis is liver transport.Cirrhosis is a serious ailment because people can't find a new liver easily and every liver is not suitable.If cirrhosis is in advanced stage, people have to find anew liver.Moreover, after that disease you have to give up alcohol but it's very hard for alcoholics.Also, there are another types of diseases which is related with nervous system.Alcohol affects people's brains so people lose their body control.Alcohol related problems usually result in death.

Alcoholism is a big problem for community.It has a lot of bad side effects.It makes lives of people worse day by day.Alcoholism has a lot of side effects but some of them are more common, such as:social problems, health problems, family problems.These effects cause lots of problems in people's lives.It's a difficult problem but it has an answer and alcoholics have to find this answer with the help of the society.

Göker

IMPORTANCE OF ENGLİSH:

In today’s global world, the importance of English can not be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everwhere. With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering, and education, which, in my opinion, is the most important arena where English is needed. Particularly, as a developing country, Turkey needs to make use of this world-wide spoken language in order to prove its international power. This can merely be based on the efficiency of tertiary education. Consequently, English should be the medium of instruction at universities in Turkey for the following three reasons: finding a high-quality job, communicating with the international world, and accessing scientific sources in the student’s major field.

The first reason for why English should be the medium of instruction at universities in Turkey is that it helps students find a high quality jobs for students to find. In business life, the most important common language is obviously English. In addition to this, especially, high-quality jobs need good understanding ability and speaking in English. Therefore, companies can easily open out to other countries, and these companies generally employ graduates whose English is fluent and orderly. For example, the student who is graduated from a university which takes English as a major language will find a better or high-quality job than other students who don’t know English adequately. In other words, the student who knows English is able to be more efficient in his job because he can use the information from foreign sources and web sites. He can prepare his assigments and tasks with the help of these information. Therefore, undoubtedly, his managers would like his effort or prepared projects. In addition, many high-quality jobs are related with international communication and world-wide data sharing. University graduates who are in a international company and business are needed to communicate with foreign workers. For instance, if their managers want them to share the company’s data, they are expected to know English. Moreover, they will even have to go business trip for their company. Absolutely, all of these depend on speaking English;as a result, new graduates have to know English in order to get a high-quality job, and the others, who don’t know English, may have lack of communication and be paid less money.

The second and the most important reason, for English to be the medium of instruction in the Turkish higher education system is that it enables students to communicate with the international world. In these days, in my opinion, the most important thing for both university students and graduates is to follow the development in tecnology. For this reason, they have to learn common language. Certainly, they should not lose their interest on communicating with the world. However, some of the university students can’t obtain English education in their university. Unfortunately, these people may lose their communication with worldwide subjects and topics. In short, they will not communicate foreign people. To prevent these people from lacking of speaking English, universities’ administration will provide English education to them. In addition, university students can use some specific hardware and software of computers with their English to communicate others. For example, the Internet, which, in my opinion, is the largest source in the world, based on English knowledge and information. Also, most of the softwares such as “Windows”, “Microsoft Office”, “Internet Explorer” are firstly written in English, and these programs are the basic vital things for communication over computer. That is to say, even in a little resarch about something, they need these programs and the Internet to find necessary sources and information.

The last reason for favouring English as the medium of instruction of Turkish universities is that it faclitates accessing information. All of the students have to do some projects or homeworks which are related with their field during the university education. In these projects or homeworks, they have to find some information which is connected with their subject. They find sources from English web sites and books, but they have to replace these data to their projects. During these process, if they know English, they will not come across with any difficulty, but if they don’t know, even they may not use these data. As a result, the student who knows English will be more successful at his/her project. For this reason, to obstruct possible inequity between students, management of universities should accept English as a second language in order to provide accessing information to the students. In short, university students need to know English to access information.

All in all, the education in universities should be done with English for three reasons. First, students who know English are able to find their favourite job related with their field. Second, they can communicate with others internationally. Third, as a major language in universities, English makes accessing information easy for students. In my opinion, internationally, people need one common language. For many years, English has been the common wold-wide language, and it will be in the future. For this reason, if you want to follow trends, new gadgets and technology, modernization of the developing world, you have to know English whatever age you are in.

Melih Sözdinler

IMPORTANCE and BENEFITS OF SPORTS

Have you ever thought why people do sports? Absolutely, many people seem not to know the reasons. As a anectode, there are many people who do sports for nothing around us. Everyday we can encounter with these people. They regularly do sports; however, none of them realizes the benefits and importance of sports. In fact, vice versa, some people want to be fit and attractive, look smart. Unfortunately, these people can’t consider other benefits of sports. In my opinion, there are several benefits of sports that people often do not consider: sports are required to be healthy people, are needed for enjoyment, and are great market for countries’ economies.

The first advantage of sports for people is that they help people be healthy, and be fit. Throughout history, people can’t give up their interest at their body. I belive that now many people love themselves no matter how beautiful or ugly they are. Naturally, people’s first aim should be healthy and fit with the benefits of sports. Due to this fact that Sports keep our body healthy. As a possible example, imagine that there is a car which has not worked for years. If you try to run the motor engine, it will not work anymore since it has been rusted and its engine may be broken down. As a result, people is smillar to engines and motors. If we don’t do sports, we will be forced to rust, in other words, decomposition of our body; afterwards, we may have some problems with our body when we even need to small walk. In addition, sports balance our body’s blood pressure and circulation. According to many researchs which have been done by scientists, we can prove the importance of sports for our health because 70% middle aged people who did not do sports in their youth are now struggling with the problems such as high tension, trouble with blood circulation, easily become tired due to the lack of sports.

The second advantage of sports for people is that they are required for our daily lives and competing at the internatinal area because of enjoyment of sports. For many years, sports have been done by people. For example, have you ever thought why people want to play football or other games? The answer may be easy since sports are entertaining. They are sometimes magics as they catch our attention and give us pleasure as much as we need. Sometimes overwhelming life conditions may be unfair and make us unhappy. However, if there is a sport activity when we are unhappy, we will probably be motivated and be refreshed again after the sport activity. This should be the most important benefit of sports because many people do sports for this reason. In addition, have you ever thought why millions of people watch World Cup match without breathing? There might be some reasons behind the action of watching football match. The most important one might be the excitement and enjoyment of sport. Football match is exhilating because it gives us pleasure to watch. In the pitch and near the pitch, there are more than 18 men, and they are the representative of our sport culture. Within the excitment of sports, countries are able to compete in the international area. Due to this fact people like sports since they and their countries are able to compete and beat opponent countries and this is the most important reason to take pleasure from sports.

The final and least advantage of sports is that they are the huge market for countrie’s economy. First of all, if we look at only football industry. There are more than thousand professional team and at least these team have 25 players. If this is calculated, there are approximately 25000 players without working staff, scouts, coaches and managers. This shoud be the largest industry which employs many people in Turkey. In addition, countries and clubs have to establish new facilities for sports game. Some of them are the largest buldings in the entire country that represent countries, for example Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Turkey. Supplying funds for this buldings may be the publicity of countries since constructing well designed stadiums help country preapare or organize big competitons such as World Cup, Olympics, and Tennis Tournaments. Finally, sports allow advertisement companies to make publicity of strong brands. For example, sponsorship is one of the best publicity of one company. Everyone watchs thier favourite team or atlethe, and audiance will probably see the sponsor of team or atlethe. For example, in England, Manchester United which is one of the most powerful clubs in international area has a sponsor called Vodafone. I am from Turkey, and I even know its sponsor. This will probably show the effectiveness of sponsorship in sports.

All in all, we can conclude that there are several advantages and benefits of sports. First, sports are required by people to be fit, smart, and good looking. Second, sports are entertaining due to many facts. Third, sports are the huge market for countries’ economies. In my opinion, despite sports’ advantages, many people can’t believe that sports are useful and beneficial. I hope that in the future these people will tend to be more optimistically to sports since they are the neccessity of our lives.

Melih Sozdinler

IS IT WORTH TO TELL A LIE?

Can anybody say “Throughout my life, I have never told a lie”? The answer is absolutely “No, I lied before,”or “I lied many times that I can not remember the number of lies”. Nobody can imagine a person who is completely truthful. In most of the incidents, people in fact do not understand that they tell a lie. Lies are so common place, they almost seem like the truth. Actually, it seems like a truth to the eye of the liar because liar’s world accepts it as a truth. We all accept our own truths in our own worlds. However, lies are not very harmful or serious problems. In addition to this, telling a lie is sometimes more appropriate than telling the truth. In my opinion, it is sometimes better to lie than to tell the truth.

First of all, it is sometimes better to lie than to tell the truth so that we do not hurt others. Some people will feel disappointed, frustrated, or upset if the words from other people aren’t the wanted words that these people expected. They will built castles in the air about everything before the conversation, but unexpected words during the conversation will collapse their castle, in other words, thier desires and dreams. For example, imagine that you are going to have a meal at your close friend house in one evening. During the evening, you may not like the dinner that your close friend serves. What would you do? Of course, you mustn’t say “ Your meal is irritating and I hate it”. This would be very rude. Instead you should try to be more polite. Although you don’t like the meal, you should say “I like your dinner tonight, your dessert and the other courses are the most delicious ones that I have ever tasted”. After meal, you will see that your friendship will be strengthened, and your friend will behave more respectful to you since you will have said the things that he/she wanted from you. The other example is that you can motivate somebody by telling a lie instead of hurting . Imagine again that you are teacher, and there is a student who is unsuccessful. Other teachers think that this student has no intention to study hard. Also, his heart was broken because he thinks that he hasn’t got any speciall skills and talents. In this case, our behaviour to student must not be hurtful. We can tell him a lie -to motivate him- like, “Tom -George, Amelie, Ali, Veli-, your performance has been increasing in these days, I hope that you will be a good student in the future”. This words which comes from our mouth will impress the attention of this student to courses. Besides, we will not hurt the student’s feelings. By the way, even he/she could be successful in his/her courses. (Moreover, there are many researchs about telling a lie to the students. According to research result, the way I explained you is the best way that teacher can conduct over students. For example, in one experiment, scientists chose a classroom at the first class of elementary school, and they always said the students in this classroom “You all are very intelligent and succesful”. Although they were not intelligent, they begun to believe that they were intelligent. As a result, they finished the courses very well. From all of these, we can understand that as a teacher, we can motivate students by telling a lie.) Final example is that lovers may not hurt their partner’s feelings by telling a lie. The partnership always needs respect and mutual understanding (respectiveness). Naturally, if they want to be understanding, they will have to tell a lie. For example, our partner has given a gift to us. Unfortunately it isn’t the gift that we expected. If we say him/her “I am sorry, but this kind of gift is not appropriate for me.”, we will absolutaly break our partner’s heart. On the other hand, we will say “Oh dear, this is the gift that takes place in my dreams. I like it very much”, then you can look at your partner’s eyes. They seems very pleased. As a result, your relationship goes on more vigorous than it used to by telling a little white lie. In brief, people can make other people by telling a white lie instead of breaking their heart.

In Addtion, it is sometimes better to lie than to tell the truth so that we don`t have to do something that others want. Sometimes we will get confused because of the hardness of the life. In that time, we will think that no one can make us do something. As a result, we will tell a whlte lie to get rid of other people desires. For example, one night your friend calls you and said ‘’I want to go out tonight, would you like to come with me?’’ Although you feel so good in that night, , you don`t want to go out with him/her since you don`t like him/her. There is only one way to reject your friend offer and it is telling a white lie. You can say ‘ I`m very sorry, but I am not avaible to go out becuse I feel upset and tired. In the afternoon, I have to work hard in my office’’, or you can say "I am afraid, I can't accept your offer. I feel not good, but on Friday, I am available to go out" . After telling this white lie, your friend will be persuaded and you will solve this problem without breaking his/her heart. The another example is that you can tell a lie not to do things that you don`t like. For example, suppose that you don't like to go cinema in a sunny day, but your friends want to watch "X-Men 2". Instead you want to go open air cafe or place. You can tell a little lie like "I heard that the germs of SARS comes from the dark place like cinema, theatre, etc..." After that, you can add "The open air places will be more appropriate than cinema. We should go to the cafe to taste the pleasure of the sunny day.

All in all, as you see telling a lie will be appropriate and inevitable as a solution of some problems. With telling a lie we can manage our relationship and keep the friendship. There are many ways to tell a lie in some events, and telling a lie is more profitable than telling the truth. In my opinion, sometimes our lives are full of lies and the real becomes a lie with not telling the truth. The truths can be changed and there is no person who says "I have never told a lie". If he/she says "I have never told a lie" , we can understand that he/she is a real liar.

Melih Sözdinler

MEN AND WOMEN

Have you ever thought why people are different from each other? There are many differences such as intelligence, opinions, appereances, personalities, and genders which, in my opinion, are the most basic ones. Genders represent the differences and also similarities between female and male, or women and men. In general, men undertake different responsibilities, tasks and women too. From history to modern time, the border –differences- between women and men hasn’t changed exactly yet. However, many people pretend not to see the similarities between men and women. In my opinion, it may be claimed that there are some differences and similarities between men and women in terms of responsibilities and tasks.

First of all, we can say that there are some resemblance between men and women in terms of their responsibilities. According to many ancient and modern philosophers, people born in equal conditions. Their appereances may exactly be different, but they have same intelligence, opinions such as beliving God, living in a good way, helping each other, etc. However, their social environment changes from people to other people. Then the differences begin since people continue their own individual way, and the basic reason of these differences is being a man or woman. In addition, many married couples share their duties in their homes equally and similarly. For example, in many countries, men and women prepare meals with helping each other. Especially, in developed country, they help each other since both women and men work in their job. Moreover, married couples are more sensitive at loking after their children than their previous generation. For instance, they help each other to put their baby or young child to the bed. Also, they show their love to the child. In the past, chidren love their mother more than they love their father since most of the things such as feeding, changing diapers, playing with them were being done by mothers. However, their mind has changed because fathers look after them too. Now they love both their father and mother equally. Furthermore, in business life, people take on similar tasks without looking their gender. For example, women can promote in their profession as easily as men do. That’s not all, they may also become a manager in their job like their oponent gender. Also, men can take place in the jobs, which are appropriate for women, for instance, beauty experts, baby sitter, birth doctor, etc. Also, They have started to learn how to work under a successful woman manager.

While it is true to say that there are some similarities between women and men, in fact, vice versa, there are many differences because of the unchangable facts; for example man is stronger than women, and women is foxier than men. Despite of philosphers, many people believe that the concept of one person is unique. That is to say, this person or nobody can have exactly similar twin including real twins. As a result, it is natural to say that men and women have many different responsibilities, tasks, objectives since they are two concepts which have different characteristic and proporties. In addition, at home, they take on different responsibilities, and they share the household tasks. For example, in many countries, generally, women wash the dishes, do the loundry and the ironing, tidy and clean the house. However, men work and earn money, do the necessary daily shopping, repair hosehold goods, take care of the car if it is present, etc. Furthermore, in business life, some companies regard their staff according to their gender. For instance, women can not work in construction work because it needs endurance and strenght, which are not available in the women’s bodies, and as a consequence of this, construction companies don’t hire woman builders. Also, in Turkey, men don’t tend to work as secretary and nurse since they are known as a woman job. As a result companies release the job advertisement for women.

All in all, it may be accepted that men and women have both similarities and differences. In my opinion, all people are created in a different way. Before the birth, they are loaded their destiny, and during their lives, people experience their faith. Due to these facts, people, namely men and women, undertake different tasks, responsibilities. It shouldn’t be important to share all the things equally between man and woman; the important thing is to be understanding and to help each other.

Melih Sözdinler

MENTAL BREAKDOWN

Have you ever thought why people fall down? Absolutely, there are many reasons, but the most important one is breaking down the mental of people. In such instances, these people have a tendency to do violence and not to obey the rules. Sometimes, as a consequence of their environment or living area, they face discrimination and they accepted like criminal and guilty person. We can come across with these people in our lives or we can see them in movies. The movie called “Falling Down” deals with this problem as a subject, and there is a man -D-fens- who experiences mental breakdown in the film. In my opinion, there are many reasons why the man -D-fens- has a mental breakdown.

First of all, the world around him is unfair, and he can’t accept inequity; therefore, he show his violent face which is the effect of mental breakdown. There are several incident about inequity in the movie. For example, in the market, the Korean man does not have any intention to give change to him. Because of this, he show his anger:he hits the Korean shop owner, breaks up his shop with the basball bat, and at the end of the scene, he pays the cost of coke supposing that he doesn’t damage to anything in the shop. From these behaviour, we can understand that he is imbalanced and impatient. Also, he doesn’t like the citizens of other countries. Second example is that, in the golf area, the old golfer said that “Miserable and poor man can not go into the golf field.” Actually, he said this sentence to D-fens. Therefore, he shows his anger again:he draws his gun and threatens the old golfer. As we can see from two examples, mental breakdown of D-fens is the result of his circumference. He behaves so rude and violent that it shows “the Falling Down of one person”. In brief, in this paragraph, we see that the first reason why D-fens’s mental brokedown is the inequity and injustice in his environment.

In addition, according to him, the system which takes place in government, restaurants, construction industry is not appropriate one. In his walk to the family house, he comes across with many people who represent the improper system. For example, in a fast food restaurant, the restaurant’s owner doesn’t have wish to give breakfast although three minutes passed the breakfast time. D-fens insists on giving him a breakfast, but the manager doesn’t care. Then he shows his violent face again, and he shots the ceiling of the restaurant. This example shows that a person, whose mental was broken down, always objects something around him/her since he/she can’t control his feelings and reaction. Interestingly, in this scene, we can understood that they only want to harm their target, not to other innocent people. For instance, he doesn’t want to hurt the costumers in the restaurant because his target is the system of the fast food restaurant. The second example is the wealth of a plastic surgeon. D-fens wonders how the plastic surgeon can make a fortune like that. He says that he had worked for many years, but he has nothing now. Maybe, this unjustice made his mental broken down. In brief, in this paragraph, we see that the second reason why D-fens’s mental brokedown is the unfair system around him.

Finally, his unsuccessful business career and mariage may be the reason why he is experiencing mental breakdown. First, his marriage were ruined because of his imbalanced behaviour. We couldn’t know why he seperated precisely, but it may be frustration and be driven to violence by the inherent irritations of everyday life. However, we exactly know that he is in a bad mood, and everyday life is torture for him. Second, he would have unsuccessful business career due to the fact that he couldn’t earn much money to live prosperously. It might be the reason why he separated from his wife and daughter. Everyone knows that the family is everything for people if they love their partner. We see that D-fens loves his wife and daughter. However, his wife doesn’t love him and let him to see his child. The main reason and starting point of his mental breakdown must be living without his family. No matter how he has violent behaviour and imbalanced movements, he doesn’t deserve a behaviour like that. In brief, in this paragraph, we see that the final and most important reason why D-fens’s mental brokedown is failures in his life.

All in all, in my essay, I explained how D-fens experienced mental breakdown. There are three main reasons: living inequity, the unfair system in everywhere, and unsuccessful life experiences. In my opinion, people can experience mental breakdown even though they have no tendency and intention. However, they may face one big problem, and this problem may be the begining of their ruin. We saw that the problem of D-fens is not inside since he is sometimes emotional, merciful, and even humorous during the movie, but his environment and living area are full of with crime, injustice, inequity and improper system. Those made his mental broken down.


Melih Sözdinler

STUDENTS WITH THEIR FAMILIES

In my opinion, university students should live at home with their families for three reasons. First of all, people are happy with their families in general. People love their parents as they are everything for them. Students also love their parent. Some of them can’t live without their families; however, they may not be happy, or they may not like their friends. We can add several problems like these, but the origin of these problems are unhappiness of person. Furthermore, university students need their families help since most students can’t work or have a job when they study at university. These students can’t afford their expenditures. For example,they need money for rented accomodation,foods,allowance and paying bills. Moreover, they don’t merely need money. They also need motivation and family support. Families can motivate their childeren to study or be succesful. Some students who live without their families, may have psychological problems, and they would suffer from problems if they didn’t solve their personal problems. This is an extraordinary situation, but in the end, when they are desperate, they choose committing suicide to solve problems. Finally, if university students live with their families, their families will not worry or wonder about them. For instance, imagine that you live in a dormitory. Your roommate comes and he wants to go out with you. You will probably accept his offer. In that time your parents call you, and you say ’’I am going out with my friend.’’ In this stiuations they will worry about you, and they probably won’t show their anxiety. Therefore, these will effect your parent’s psychology. Certainly , they will call you again and again.

Naturally, you have to come back your dormitory earlier. This will be insulting situation for you. In brief, university students probably won’t be happy without their families, they always need their families support, and families will worry about their childeren if they don’t live with them. In my opinion, students should stay with their families if they don’t have to live without their families. Neither of them can live easily when they are separated, and in recent researchs, students live with their families are more succesful from other students.


Melih Sözdinler

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE CAN BE A CITY WITHOUT CRIME

After the creation of people, the crime started. The son of Adam killed his brother, and suffering and savagery has begun to affect our lives. Throughout history, human beings have seen the rise, improvement and disappereance or ruin of many civilizations. However, none of them, even the most glorious ones such as the Byzantines, Rome, or the Ottoman’s couldn’t stop committing a crime in their society. Although many sactions, ans laws have been applied and legislated, mankind have continued to commit crimes. Similarly, in the future, there will be no way to stop the crimes precisely and entirely, especially, in large cities including Istanbul, Paris, New York, and London. In London, crime is one of the most serious problem. In my opinion, as society and government, three main things should be done in order to help reduce the amount of crime in London: obtaining sufficient life possibilities to the people who are potential criminals, supplying more funds to the security departments such as “The police”, and giving a proper education to the people who are not aware of the strenght of justice and law.

The first thing that Ibelieve is neccessary to prevent crime in London is providing adequate life possibilities to the potential criminals. According to the recent statistics, many prisoners were convicted since they commited crime like bank robbery, kidnapping, snatcing, stealing, etc. However, if we look at the life possibilities of these criminals, the fact is that they havee done these crimes in order to find enough money to continue their lives. In addition, many of them have families, and they are regretful and desperae due to the life in prison. In fact , if the government of the U.K. or the administration of London had provided enough money or regular jobs to these people, they wouldn’t have committed a crime since the reasons why they commited a crime were that they had to make a living, have sufficent money to live, and even look after their family. Furthermore, to imagine their lives, we should put ourselves to the position of these people. Everyday, every way that you try ends with frustration. You are poor and desperate. No one has any intention to give job and aid. What would you do in such desperate and suffering life conditions? There are two possible answers; you may choose dying from day to day because of misery and poverty, or you have to commit a crime or steal food or money from people and shops. Needless to say but, you will be arrested by the police and soon be imprisoned. It would be very harsh and unfair situation for you. In short, we should understand the conditions that lead other people to commit a crime, and as government and society, we should try to help them not to ruin theri lives.

The second precaution that should be done in order to decrease the amount of crime in London is obtaining more funds to the security departments such as “The Police”. First of all, I believ that there is a discrimination of areas in London. Particularly, in many areas, the forces and officers of police department are not enough to maintain the safety of area. For instance, in Liechester there are more criminals than Nottingham or Arsenal. According to you, isn’t this unfair? However, the police department has no more choices because they have funds only for rich areas! Actually, they have, but as usual in government departments, they spend the money on purchasing new expensive and luxury cars to “the head officers” instead of investing on entire police department in London. If the government takes control over the administration of police department, the situation will not get worse. Obviously, the government has to promote fair and reliable staff to the administration of police department in Istanbul. After that, “new head officers” will use extra funds to regulate tha management of entire police department. As a result, we may have more sensitive, reliable and fair police department. Maybe, in the future, we will have London with less crime than now.

I strongly believe that the crime rate in London will decrease, if vital and proper education are given or provided to the citizens. Almost the quarter of the population of London does not know the laws that were identified and legislated by the government. In practice, some of them obey the rules that they accept as true. Interestingly, many people suppose that rulers such as mafia leaders, gang leaders are right. It is certain, if they had been given proper education, they wouldn’t have followed these rulers since they would know the strnght of government. As a result of going on practising the rules that “fake rulers”, namely, gang and street leaders, accept, gradually, they commit a crime since there are many people like these rulers in London. Rulers individually have some rules. However, if there are many rulers, their rules and traditions may conflict and oppose. Due to these, street wars are happening in London. As a result, they called as anarchits as they interupt the government’s rules. Soon these people are arrested by the Police without avaring why they are guilty. Many of “ the Fake rulers” even don’t know the real justice, and they begin learning and practising the government’s justice and rules in jail or prison. Unfortunately, “fake rulers” and people who are the victims and toys of “fake rulers” are the representative of wrong education system in London. Also they are the victim of unfair world, dirty places, and bad intentions. Individualy, these people may be excellent, but they need the interest of government and society. Especially, proper education should be given these people.

In conclusion, I explained how we can reduce the amount of crime. First, we can provide adequate life possibility to the potential criminals. Second, we can supply more funds to the safety departments. Third, we can educate people who are ignorant or don’t know the real justice. From all of these, we can understand that we have many choices to reduce the crime rate. However, actually, we can’t control the crime precisly. There has always been crime in the world. In fact, we can contro the criminals behaviour and desires by giving importance to their lives. The last thing that we should not forget is that everyone can be a criminal if the life conditions and circumstances around us are suitable.

Melih Sözdinler

THE WAR ON IRAQ

Can the USA interfere in Turkish internal politics or can Turkey help the war on Iraq? In recent proposal, permit was delayed to later date despite the tremendous pressure from the USA. As we know, Turkey and the USA have had a good relationship for ages. They helped each other in the past. They battled together in Korea and Etiopia. In my opinion, the war on Iraq will probably be the turning point of the relationship between Turkey and the USA. However, we don’t know how it will affect the relationship.


The USA will cut off the relationship and offering money to Turkey since Turkey didn’t do what the USA wanted. The USA supposed to interfere in Turkish internal politics, but actaully they couldn’t. Before the crisis of Iraq, The relationship was well organized and depended on mutual respect and understanding. Turkey and the USA had a good friendship among the citizens and politicians of these countries. However, Turkey didn’t accept the proposal despite of the initial offer from the USA. After that, the USA may try to use different institutious such as NATO, UN, etc. For example, the USA will try to send the proposal to the U.N. The U.N. is able to control relationship in the world, and the USA is one of the strongest members of the U.N. Because of this, the vote for war on Iraq will be accepted in the U.N. If the U.N. accepts the vote aginst Iraq, all of the members of U.N such as France, Germany, Russia, even Turkey have to enter the war. Therefore, Turkey will have to join the possible war without the money(15 billion $) which was offered by the USA before. Furthermore, in the future Turkey may continue their way without the US’ help. In addition to this, the second way, which the USA will try, is to send the proposal to NATO. NATO is the largest allied millitary force in the world, and it is managed by the presidency of USA. That is to say, the USA are able to control the NATO and its decisons. As a result, if NATO accepts the proposal , Turkey will have to join the allied forces as a one of the members of NATO except taking any financial help.


There are some unresolved issues around Turkey as a result of its stragetical importance. Throughout its history, Turkey has had the support of the USA in some problems such as Northern Iraq Kurdish problem and the problem of Cyprus. However, Turkey may lose the friendly support of the USA, and the USA may help the enemy side in these problems. The first problem is Norhern Iraq Kurdish problem. For years, Kurdish society in Northern Iraq has wanted to establish a country in Northern Iraq although there are many Turkish citizens in there. Also some of Kurdish people claim unreasonable beliefs such as ”The South East Anadolu belongs to us”. Nowadays, they have started to propagandize to reach their goals as they rely on the USA. Moreover, the USA started to support them to reach their objective against Turkish side and the USA might help them to establish a new country if the USA won the war. Turkish side might be alone in this matter. The other one is independence of KKTC. As we know from the history, Cyprus is the most contradictory issue between Greece and Turkey. In this little island, both Turkish and Greek side says that they are right, but Turkish side seems to be right because the island was the Turkish land during the era of Ottoman Empire. Before the possible Iraq war, the USA want to solve the problem fairly. However, Turkish side didn’t accept the proposal for the war on Iraq, so the USA will support Greece aginst Turkey for the solution of Cyprus’ problem although the Turkish side is right. As a result, Turkey would be unsuccessul to defend their rights over Cyphrus.


On the other hand, relationship may continue well as in the past between the two countries.Especially, the explanations on Monday from US State Departmant are relaxing for Turkish Government. First, White House spokesman said “Turkey is a NATO ally, and will always be a NATO ally”. Second, US Ambassador, Robert Pearson expressed “We are disappointed, we had certainly hope for a favorable decision by the Turkish parliament, and I want to emphasize our relationship and the importance of the work.”In addition, the USA will wait for another proposal from the Turkish parliament. The USA can be more patient until the Turkish parliament approves a new proposal which will gain a majority vote. After the silence of disappointment, the USA will come with new offers to Turkey. Maybe they can offer more than their initial offer. However, the USA may come with the same offer. Explanations from Turkish prime minister, Abdullah Gül, president of Justice and Development Party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and president of General Staff, Hilmi Ozkok gave a guarantee to the USA. First, Abdullah Gül said “Friendly relationship with the United States would not change despite our parliament’s rejection of a proposal to let 62,000 U.S. troops operate from Turkish bases and ports in the event of a war with Iraq.” and added “We may send a new proposal to TBMM. This time, it may be accepted”. Furthermore, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ”We have an unbreakable relationship with the USA. It is very hard to break out a war on Iraq, but as Turkey, we have to prevent ourselves from the fire on the neighborhood. If we can’t, we will play our last trump to join possible war.”Finally, Hilmi Ozkok said “We should join the war on Iraq to secure our rights in the Middle East and Northern Iraq”. We can understand from these explanations, Turkish side has a intention to send a new proposal to the Turkish parlaiment, and all of the disagreeableness between Turkey and th USA will end in near future


In brief, there will be a possible war in near future. This war will be inevitable for Middle East and the world. America have started to war on terror to catch Bin Laden in Afganisthan. Their second goal is to defeat Saddam Huseyin and his dangerous weapons such as biological, chemical and maybe nuclear wepons. During this period, the relationship between Turkey and the USA may change either positively or negatively. In my opinion, the most important thing that innocent people may not die during the ppossible war. As we know, the war is not a permanent solution for the world’s problems. Wars were valid in the past but not now. Current days are the time of technological war.

TRADITIONS OR NOT

In changing and developing world, many things lost in the deepness of the history. Many civilizations, races and cultures found, rised, and disappeared. Among these civilizations, there is one thing which the history could not destroy, and it is the “Turks”. Turkish civilization don’t vannished because of its rooted traditions and beliefs. However, nowadays, Turkish traditions are even losing their importance although they are the only things that have been preventing Turkish culture throughout the history. In my opinion, we should preserve the two most importnat Turkish traditions in order not to be disappeared, to be known as Turkish society, and many other reasons: the fact of family, respect and friendship.

The first traditions that should be protected in Turkey is the fact of family. The fact of family is inevitable custom for our society structure. Needless to say, the family is the most important material of society and civilizations. Many corruptions and errors firstly happen in family life, and then gradually they affect all the entire Turkey including prime minister and representatives of Turkish parliament. That is to say, the family life is the indicator of whole life in a country. Unfortunately, new trends, developing technology, fashions force family life into the way that can not be accepted by our ancestors and traditions. People intend to live with their partner illegitimately. Also many people separeted due to the severe lack of harmony. In my opinion, these disharmonies and non-marriage lives may be the beggining of the corruption and social ruin. To prevent themselves from these, we should realize the fact of family and the holliness of family concept. In addition, why is family life so important? The answer is easy. The family is the begining of the chain. For example, assume that a family, and there are many disagreement between husband and wife. They can’t get along and they decide to get divorced, and these incident is the preface of the chain. After that, everyone hears that they got divorced. Gradually, it affects the hapiness of relatives. The worst thing that if they have children, they will be unhappy too. Absolutely, their friends may unhappy too. From this assumption, we can make a decision that the begining of the chain is family and their relatives and friends are the continuance of the chain. If there is a problem at the begining, it will soon influence other people. Moreover, we can say that there are many divorces in Turkey:as a result, whole society may be affected from this unhappiness.

The second traditions that Turkey should preserve is respect and friendship. In the social life of Turkey, citizens used to be respectful and have a good fellowship. However, these days, these two things have forgotten in many area. The world of people is set up for materialism instead of emotions, friendship and respect. Avarices and ambitions are the most important things for people lives. For example, many worker do whatever they think to promote. Sometimes, they forget the importance of friend in order to promote and be paid much money. In my opinion, this will be the onset of social destruction. Moreover, from day to day, people as a concept depends on loneliness because many people believe that their loneliness is the reason of their success. In addition to this, many people has broken their relationship with their relatives disrespectfully. In fact, many people think that they will be more comfortable and not need to visit them if they have no relation with their relatives. There is some truth in this cases as in some families people live in different areo of Tukey. However, this can NOT be the reason to break off the relation. According to recent survey carried out by TUBITAK, 30% of people did even not visit their parents, 50% of these people also haven’t seen their relatives for ages. These results show us that people have begun to give up communicating with their relatives. As a result, social destruction started many years ago.

All in all, the two most important Turkish traditions should be preserved in order to prevent their absence’s negative effects. First, the reality of family should be protected. Second, the fellowsip and esteem among citizens should be preserved. In my opinion, throughout the history, Turkish culture and civilization couldn’t be destroyed because of the strenght of traditions. Obviously, our traditions have begun to change since people’s mind change. According to some people, many traditions are needless since they are not the representative of the modern world. I hope that these people do NOT forget the reality of Turkey. If we need a revolution, this should be made slowly.

Melih Sözdinler

TV PROGRAMS WHICH UNIVERSITY AGE STUDENTS WATCH

In these days, people usually spend their free time on watching TV. They watch television because it is such an interesting gadget that people can be aware of world’s new patterns, fashions, up-to-date news, etc. Moreover, watching TV program becomes a usual thing that people do, especially university age students do. If they don’t go out or meet someone at the evenings and nights, they will probably watch TV. There are several programs that university age students watch and we can catagorize these TV programs into three common groups according to their aims: to improve their English or foreign language, to follow current(daily) news and to have fun.

The first aim of programs that university age students watch is to improve their English. First of all, they watch series that broadcast with different languages such as English, French, German, etc. For instance, the TV channel in Turkey, CNBC-e broadcasts English and American series such as Ally Mc Beal, Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire, Simpsons etc. Most of the university students like to watch these series since they can learn new English words and how to speak in daily life. Moreover, they think that these series and soap operas help to improve their English directly, and some of them claim that they are able to speak clearly and fluently after they watch series which produced withe English because they can practice speaking English with accompaniment to the conversations. In other words, they can learn some complicated and fixed expression with understanding conversation as many series include subtitles. In addition, university age students are able to watch foreign movies. With a develping technology, they can watch international channels. For example, a student who can speak German can watch SAT 1, PRO 7 in Turkey. Also, English learners are able to watch Hallmark, BBC and CNN. Even a student, who wants Russian programs, can watch TV Center. As a result of these, both university age students can watch movies to improve their secondary language knowledge and they learn how to speak efectively and efficiently from the mimics, movements, conversations, expressions of players. Indeed, if university age students are language learners, they often watch TV programs, movies and series with their secondary language.

Another aim is that university stuedents watch TV in order to follow current, daily, up-to-date news. In today’s world with developing technologies and trends, university age students want to be aware of global news and news of Turkey. For instance, they watch CNN Turk, NTV, Skyturk, Haberturk and TV8 to refressh their memory of news so that they know what is going on the world. As we know, these TV channels give university age students adequate information and knowledge about their favourite subjects, sports, hobbies, high-tech news, and daily events. Nowadays, they watch news programs to get information about war on Iraq. Of course, they are not only concerned with political news. Especially boys also watch sport news and girls watch magazine news and music news. Indeed, university age students watch TV for news particularly “up-to-date news” to be aware of the world.

The final and most imortant aim of watching TV is for fun. University age students watch TV to entertain themselves as their duties, tasks, and objectives sometimes cause stress or unhapy life. Most university age students watch TV to refresh themselves. For example, in Turkey, they generally watch series, which includes daily life events. While they are watching TV, they think that their stress and unhapiness disappear gradually. They enter the world, which doesn’t cause stress. Many people, naturally university students, may not watch TV for knowledge, but, from the entertainig program, they can learn daily life because TV is a reel life. There are lots of people and visiual interactions on TV. Finally, there are several programs for fun that university age students can watch. For example, series are the most enjoyable ones. These are “Cocuklar Duymasın”, “Married and with Children”, “Kocum Benim”, “Mad about You”, etc. Moreover, compettion programs are also common such as “Who wants 500 Billion TL” and “Kripton”, etc. Furthermore, there are lots of programs that include stand up, magazine and famous people such as “Bir Baska Gece”, “Beyaz Show”, “Zaga”, “Hulya or Gulben show”, etc. Indeed, most of the university students watch TV programs, which includes entertainig things as they need happiness and nonstress lives. As we see, the most common aim for watching TV is for fun.

In brief, there are many programs that university students can watch and we carogorized them into three common groups: to have fun, to get news, and to improve their secondary language.
In my opinion, TV can turn into different shapes for university students. I mean, they can modify the TV easily. The media shows them many ways in order to set up thier own world. They can set up a world with funny, entertainig, interesting and improving programs. However, they can spend their leisure time on watching illogical, purposeless programs. The first way seems to be more suitable. You should be selective and cautious when you choose your favourite programs.


Melih Sözdinler

TYPES OF MOVIES

Nearly one hundred years ago, human beings invented the gadget called camera. Nobody could have known the importance of this invention when it was devised. After years, television and cinema were invented, and people gradually understood the importance of these gadgets. They had a chance to join entertaining, interesting, and even amazing world of television and cinema because the life they saw in movies usually resembled their daily life. Now people have cosidered that movies are inevitable for them. The movie industry has become the largest industry with millions of employees, and producers have started to earn enourmous amount of money from the movies that they made . While all these change were happining, people’s pleasures and trends changed. Going to the cinema and watching movies in the evenings have become usual events of weekends among the young people (youngster). There are several types of movies that people watch regularly, and we can catagorize them into three groups according to their popularity: comedies, action movies, and sentimental movies.

The first type of movies is comedies. Comedies are inevitable type of movies since people always seek fun and entertainment (or joy, recreation) in their lives. Sometimes life is boring and dull, and usually it is the problems that people face that make life boring. In such instances, these people would rather watch comedy films than struggle with their problems as they can escape from their reality. Interestingly, even a person who has lots of problems can forget his/her problems during the two hours that he/she watches a comedy. Moreover, there is no age for watching comedy films. Even your grandmother and your little son/daughter can watch comedy films as they are not too complicated, they are easy to understand, and they use common language called comedy. The most renowned comedian is Charlie Chaplin becuse he knew to use this common language. In those years, there was no sound in movies, but people were able to laugh at the mimics and movements. Even, now we laugh while we are watching his films. After Charlie Chaplin’s movies, producers understood that comedies might have a brilliant future. After that, they started to produce new films. Today, comedies are known as a classic. There are several poplular comedies. For instance, “Scary Movie”, “American Pie 1 and 2”, and “Road Trip” are the youngster movies. They include naughty young people who make fun of their adulthood. Moreover, “The Mask”, “Pink Panther” , “Ice Age” and “Shrek” are fantastic comedies. These films have fantastic and bizarre characters. Furthermore, “Liar and Liar”, “Hot Shots” are the comedies which make fun of other movies. Finally, “Ace Ventura” , “Dump and dumper” are the comedies which are performed by Jim Carry. Many people resemble him to Charlie Chaplin because of his popularity and his similarity to Charlie.

The second type of movies is sentimental films. Sentimental films are one of the most popular movies and usually sentimental films take awards in Oscar cerenomy. For example “Titanic”, “Life is beautiful” and “English patient” are the award takers that I can remeber in recent years. In this types of movies, we usually come across with dramatic stories, modern love stories, and tragic love stories. People watch sentimental films since the subject of these movies is not new for people. Everyone can experience love stories. People’s nature is set up for partnership. The most important sentimental film, which people have ever seen, is “Casablanca”. Then film producers (makers) have begun to make movies that affect people’s emotions. There are several sentimental movies. For example, “You have got mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle” are produced with (performed by) Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Both of these films have a unexpected love stories. Moreover, “Sweet November” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” are the tipical examples for sentimental movies.

The most poplular type of movies is action films. Action films are always favourite since they are different from others. They show us that life can be dangerous, dejected, bloody, and mortal or it can be glorious, innocent, and normal. It depends on the producers of action films. There are many different people outside of our houses and properties to make a movie about them. The action films deals with the endless action around us, and even the action around of ancient people and rulers. In fact, they affect us as sometimes they are produced with huge budgets. Directors and producers use computerized technics, and several action films are made in unreal studios or in computers with computerized technics. Developing technology allows them to built imaginary places or they can make a small-model of the place. For example, in “Fifth Element”, Star Wars’ series, and “Travel to Mars”, the cities, places, and strange machies were not real. They are the latest product of high-tech industry. Also, the batle ground (Miğfer dibi) in Lord of the Rings:Two Towers actually is a small-model. Furthermore, there are lots of explosion effects, hot pursuits between police and bad men in many action films. Some people watch action films in order to see explosions, blood, adventure, violence, visual effects, and popularity of these films. There are countless action movies that I can remember. For example, “Terminator 1 and 2”, “Robocop 1,2 and 3”, “Dune”,and “Star Wars:Episode 1 and 2” are the action films with robots and bizarre beings, and some of them takes their subject from other planets. Another example is “The Matrix, which in my opinion is the king of the action films, and forthcomming sequance may be better than “Enter the Matrix”. In Matrix, producers used computers many times. For example, during the fight between “Agent” and “Neo”, producers made the fight incredible with “Slow motion flying effects”. Also, the series of “Die Hard (1,2,and 3)” are the well known action movies. Furthermore, several movies of “James Bond (007)”, “Mission immpossible”, “Charlie’s Angel” are full of action scenes. These films are the reel action films. The series of “Lethal Weapon (1,2,3, and 4)” and “Mad Max” are the classics of actions with Mel Gibson. Recently, Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, the imaginary historical fiction of Tolkein, get the highest revenue all around the world. The serie is not historical, it was the history which was written by Tolkein. Also, “Braveheart” , “Gladiator” , “Joan of Arc” are the reel historical films which took historical incidents as a subject. Finally, “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Combat” are the movies which was adopted from their computer games.

In brief, I catagorized movies into three common types according to their popularity. The first common type is comedies, and the second type is sentimental movies, and the most popular one is action movies. The development of movie industry started with the invention of video camera, and no one can know the future of movie sector. I suppose that as viewers, we will have a chance to join the movie with a character which we choose from the movie and the scenerio will continue in the way that we act. I hope we will live long enough to see this type of films.

MELIH SOZDINLER

14 Ekim 2008 Salı

AUTOMOBILES AND IMPACTS

There are things and objects in our life that could not be given up when they become part of our life. Throughout the history, there have been many objects and things like that. At the prehistoric ages, that had been their hunting tool. At the medieval age, especially for men that was his horse or his domestic animal. At the modern age, those have been their automobiles. Since for now, automobiles are so important and impactful for us and our daily life in many aspects. These are cultural, economic, and environmental.



Firstly, as a cultural impact, automobiles came with new concepts and thoughts in our life. Especially, when the first automobile was introduced, it was working with steams like locomotives. It is not much more than bicycle at a first glance. Also, it had many problems and continued to have a problem after its invention. Then, automobiles with gas were introduced. With gas cars, many things changed. From day by day, they became more popular. Furthermore, with Henry Ford's assembly line, they were cheaper at that time when they compared with their ancestors. That affected the history of automobiles. The love affair between people and automobiles has begun like as it happened between men and their horse at the history. The new horse was our automobiles. After Henry Ford's contribution, in 50's, American's hit the road. There were new concepts like "American muscle" and automobiles have been the inevitable part of "American dream". After now, people have started to go to job, shopping, in short travelling to anywhere, with their cars. Indeed, with automobile history, we could see the impact over our culture and change in our lives is apparent.



Moreover, economic effect is inevitable too. First of all, Carrying objects with the automobiles come with problem how much we can carry. The solution was big automobiles called trucks and buses. That changed the mass transit, individual transit and trucks transportation resulting with economic issues. Now, people can go to their works using their cars and mass transit. That could change the city life. Discarding the traffic problem, it was a miracle for men or women both to work in a city and to live in rural area. But now, millions of people live like that in most of all of countries. Also, new industry called transportation industry was born. Adding that, there are now huge amount of earnings from mass transit, taxes, ticket collection. By using this money, government could spend on other issues in a country. As a conclusion, automobiles have another impact over economic events.



Finally, environmental impact is another big aspect of the subject. At first, no matter how automobiles are miracle for our lives, environmental pollution increase is the problematic part of them. Think about several millions of people are smoking in the area of sized city. That could be harmful for us as well as environment. Now think that, these smoking people are now automobiles. That is destructive for the nature, come up with diseases for living beings. Even in some areas, the number of cars is equal to the number of people. So, from now on non-polluting cars are popular and will be much more popular in the near future. For example, hybrid cars can be seen on streets as a price of middle class cars. These cars are the friend of nature, and some of them have zero carbon emission. There are also some alternatives such as cars with hydrogen fuel. Since combustible with carbon results with carbon dioxide, hydrogen cars give water to the nature. This is another miracle for the car history. As human beings try to find solutions to every problem, we will try to find forthcoming problems of automobiles as we have done in the past.



In conclusion, cars have several impacts on our lives. They have changed our lifestyle, living habits, city lives. They have also great effect on transportation and mass transit. Finally, they changed the way we think to our nature and environment. Indeed, we could not live without automobiles. They will change their technology and appearance but the way that we use in our lives may not change. And from generation to generation, we will have new habits and things as it was happened in the past.


by MELIH