A little about last night: Erkal bought me a little bottle of Rakı (pronounced rahkuh) which is a traditional Turkish drink. It's 90 proof and came in a little 5 cl bottle, which - as Feier aptly pointed out - is cute. In the Turkish tradition, it's drank in a tall thin glass. Unfortunately, the only somewhat appropriate glass I have is a highball glass. You must chill it and then add the same amout of ice cold water - but you don't you ice. After the Rakı is in the glass, you poor in the water which clouds the drink. It's a very cool effect. The taste is like black liquorice, so it's similar to a light colored Jägermeister. Here's a picture of Erkal and I with the drink and the bottle:
Cheers!Also, Erkal is slowly teaching me some Turkish. Very slowly. The only word I know how to spell is susadım, which means "I'm thirsty." Sa is water. I also know how to say hello in a more polite way. It's like popping into a room and announcing, "I'm here!"
A little about Nagy: His most important characteristic is that he's Hungarian. That explains why most of his examples come from Hungary. He's a pretty good teacher. I'm actually learning how the EU functions, which is what I was hoping to do. Some of the things he talks about, like their energy policy, is really interesting especially when you put it in context. For example, the oil pipelines coming out of Russia and the pipelines that service Western Europe are different diameters. This means that if there's a problem with the oil supply in Russia, such as when it's coming through Ukraine, all of Eastern Europe has a serious problem (they can't connect to Western pipelines). I think it was last year that Slovenia couldn't get oil from Russia and had to shut down production for a week and a half. That cost them about 3% of their GDP. But it was either shut down production or shut off heating in all the houses. Energy is a serious problem for Eastern Europe.
Another interesting thing Nagy talked about today was how to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of EU development programs. When the EU gives, say, Hungary some funds for a specific project, the way the funds are dispersed (and the low level of monitoring) make it very easy for the employers to made the addition of 3 jobs seem like they added 10 jobs. When this is aggregated, he says that the figure of, say, 10,000 jobs is actually a lot less. But the employers won't report the real figures because then the EU funds will be taken back. The only reason he was able to get this information was that he'd actually go sit with these employers, drink a couple shots of pálinka, and once they're loosend up, maybe half of them would tell him how the scheme works. Pálinka is a homemade, traditional Hungarian liquor, by the way. It's flavored with fruits or honey and is very good.
Another important point he made is that in the northeastern part of Hungary there is high unemployment while in the south towards the Austrian border there are a lot of employers looking for workers. The Hungarians in the northeastern part don't move south to where the jobs are even though there is no language barrier because they just don't want to. He said it's a cultural thing. I'd like to know what kind of unemployment benefits Hungary disperses. Chances are, they're pretty high, because if those people were really unemployed for that long of a time, they wouldn't have the money to sustain themselves. They'd have to move.
On employment, there was a very interesting discussion about language barriers and national pride. In the US, you can live on the east coast, get a job on the west coast, and - in theory - be out there in around a week. Everyone speaks the same language which makes the move that much easier. Plus, people on the west coast have no allegiance to whichever state they're from because they're from the US, not California or Nevada or Washington. They have no incentive to hire a Californian or Nevadan or Washingtonian above a New Yorker or Ohioan or Virginian. In Europe, someone from Hungary or Rumania will have a much harder problem getting hired in France or Spain because they don't speak the same language and those country's citizens prefer to hire their own countrymen before foreigners. Even though the labor market is theoretically open, these problems still persist. He did say it has recently gotten better.
Finally, the title of this post is, again, from a song. The song's by this Turkish artist called Teoman and it's really funny. It's also really good. Whenever I hear it, it reminds me of Tom Waits because of his voice. The Turkish culture is very different. They have different words for older brother and younger brother. They have completely separate words for aunt and aunt-in-law. According to Ozan, if a man isn't able to provide for his family, he doesn't really feel like a man. I think this is similar in the US, but not to the extent that it is in Turkey. Honestly, I think this sentiment is dying out in the States, especially in my generation. This is good, I think, since it allows men not to feel that kind of obligation and pressure if his wife can provide. It seems like in Turkey, if a man's wife's income is the main source of funds, the man feels even worse than if no one would be able to get a job. I'm not sure if this is true, but this is the impression I got when talking to Ozan.
That's enough for this one. So. Start wearing purple for me, now!
3 comments:
In Bulgaria its called ракия, or "rakiya", and some of us like to say its traditional Bulgarian. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to add ice.
Zack...why purple?
Iori, you can add ice to anything. My old boss at Scott puts ice in her beer. But Erkal told me that you don't add ice in Turkey. Hence, you aren't allowed to add ice.
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