Meanwhile on TRT-Arabic...
Güven Sak, PhD
16 September 2011
It is not France but Turkey that is the natural extension of Europe's soft power in its region. The Prime Minister of Turkey is making a successful official trip through North Africa nowadays. He is saying what is has to be said. He is showing in practice the role Turkey can play in the region. And the attention he is receiving signals that Turkey actually can play that role. In Cairo, the first stop of the trip, Mr. Erdoğan was welcomed with enthusiasm. I watched those moments on Turkish television with pride, as any other citizen of the Republic of Turkey. Only the Turkish channels had a live broadcast. Al Jazeera made no broadcast about the Cairo visit. I wondered what the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) Association was broadcasting and took a look at TRT-Arabic channel. Guess what t
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Sending non-Muslims away was a bad idea
Güven Sak, PhD
10 September 2011
Regional disparity is an important issue in Turkey. Take for example, the top 1,000 industrial companies list of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO-1000). Have you ever looked at the geographical location of the companies in the list? Let me tell you: There are no factories in the east of Turkey. Let me correct: If you look for provinces with at least three companies on the ISO-1000 list, then the whole east of Turkey looks empty. It is sad.
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Political stability does not guarantee policy stability
Güven Sak, PhD
09 September 2011
Second generation reforms are closely connected to how business is done and are associated with the structure of the public administration. Can Turkey become the tenth biggest economy in the world? Of course, if we can stay focused on this target and decide on our priorities. Since the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) granted the government the authority to issue decrees with the aim of restructuring public services, I have been expecting a statement that reads like this: "The following are our priorities to make Turkey the tenth biggest economy in the world: (First Hundred Days Priority List). In order to handle these priorities as soon as possible, we have to concentrate the public administration as a single target. The first two hundred days of the program are of critical importan
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In whose shoes I would never like to be?
Güven Sak, PhD
06 September 2011
The fact that the number of persons in whose shoes no one would like to be is increasing implies that we are in a process of deep transformation. Nowadays, I do not know the answer. Before, I would have taken a look around to answer this question. Actually, this is a good method to find subjects to write about. In fact, it is a perfect way to avoid the domestic issues in the current milieu of "advanced democracy." But for some time now, I have been unable to decide the winner on my monthly short-list. Nowadays I make a "persons in whose shoes I would not like to be" list. Can you see what this means for Turkey? Nowadays all of us must avoid thinking through, "What will happen next? What trouble will we face?" I believe that Turkey is going through a process in which its room for maneuver -
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Karl Marx in corporate boardrooms
Güven Sak, PhD
03 September 2011
If Marx was right in his opening remarks of "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" in 1852, then is he in trouble? Remember the opening lines? "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice." he wrote. "He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce." Look what is happening now. Not a day has passed without seeing a piece titled "Karl Marx was right." It is a kind of a second coming for the great philosopher and activist. Che Guevera has turned into a disco dance tune lately and what of Marx now? Should we be concerned? I don't think so.
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What a contrast!
Güven Sak, PhD
02 September 2011
It is wrong to issue decrees that will confuse investors instead of taking steps to ensure that the new Turkish Commercial Code (TCC) functions properly. The parenthesis provision on independent administrative authorities is also wrong.
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The Chilean Winter is not so different from the Arab Spring
Güven Sak, PhD
30 August 2011
Throughout the world, the middle-class has a problem. From this perspective, the Chilean Spring is not so different from the Arab Spring. Camila Vallejo Dowling was born in 1988. She is a member of the Chilean Communist Youth Organization and the second female president of the 105-year-old Student Federation of the University of Chile. Chilean secondary and tertiary students have been in the streets since June. Camilla is leading them. The Chilean education system was privatized with Pinochet's coup. The youth ask for a reversal. This makes one think of the old adage that history repeats itself. Prof. İsmail Türk said this years ago; but I did not think that this argument would prove correct this soon. Globalization has accelerates history. Let me tell you why history is repeating itself.
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End of Mickey Mouse state in Libya
Güven Sak, PhD
27 August 2011
Libya is one of those countries where two cultures meet with each other in a rather visible fashion. Do you remember the opening observations of Trotsky in "Russian Revolution 1917"? Just like that: "Savages throw away their bows and arrows for rifles all at once, without travelling the road which lay between these two weapons in the past." Whenever I think of the now deposed president of the Mickey Mouse state in Libya, I think of this articulation of cultures and/or modes of production. There are two types of countries in the world: Those that are integrated and those that are articulated to the global economic system. Libya belongs to the second. There are so many countries in our neighborhood that belong to this second group. Turkey on the other hand belongs to the first gro
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I want to read news about innovation
Güven Sak, PhD
26 August 2011
Making local authorities compete for industrialization is one of the best aspects of the Chinese model. These days the news in the papers has been depressing me. One paper says that independent administrative authorities will now be dependent. We can even abolish these authorities, a minister argues. The crisis will not hit Turkey even slightly, they say. What is more, we are planning to manufacture the most beautiful car ever. What can I say? Let us hope for the best. But I do not want to read such news in the papers anymore. I want to read news like what was published in The China Times recently. If you wonder what I am talking about, please read on.
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Is the US$ 1.2 trillion bank bailout bad?
Güven Sak, PhD
23 August 2011
On the eve of the Second World War, although ten years had passed, the Depression of 1929 still had not come to an end. Most likely this business will continue; it would be wise to remain cautious. This happened here in the past as well. It happened in the US again in the middle of the crisis. During the 2000-2001 banking crisis, the Central Bank of Turkey (CBT) declared the amount of financial support in the form of overnight debt it had provided to which bank . This time it was Federal Reserve's (Fed) turn. The news was first announced the other day by Bloomberg. It was when I was thinking, "What will Fed President Bernanke do? Will he execute the third quantitative easing?" Economic decisions are more political than ever now. This development made me think that a hard task awaits us.
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