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The TEPAV USA Center Celebrates its 1st Anniversary with Pulitzer Winner Tom Friedman American journalist Tom Friedman said that despite the impressive development of Turkey in the recent period, the number of journalist in jail, the self-censorship in the press, and the intimidation of the media are displeasing.
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29/11/2012 - Viewed 1830 times

 

ANKARA – The first anniversary of the TEPAV USA Center was celebrated with a meeting that hosted American journalist and winner of three Pulitzer prizes, Tom Friedman. During the meeting, titled “The US and Our Flat World after the Elections,” Friedman focused mainly on globalization, technological transformation, and the social media while he commented on recent developments in Syria and his observations about Turkey upon questions from the audience.

TEPAV Director Güven Sak and TEPAV USA Center Director Bülent Alirıza delivered the opening address of the meeting on Thursday, 29 November 2012, which received broad participation from the public and private sectors as well as academics and diplomats.

“Hyper-connection caused interdependence”

In his speech, Friedman, referring to his book published in 2004, said that the world being flat and connected had inspired the title The World is Flat while today the world was moving to “hyper-connected” and “interdependent.” He stated that not only distant countries and cities but also distant towns were not connected. This, he argued, left no room for the average and reinforced the need for entrepreneurship. He emphasized that in today’s world, countries that are willing to continue with ethnic, religious and nation-state wars would be left farther behind faster so that they would not be able to  even see the fast-moving train anymore.

Concerning social media, he said that he needed quiet and to digest things and that there is a need to question in which direction technology is carrying people.

He stated that the US has been struggling with three key challenges,the debt deficit, energy, and climate change; and how to respond to the merger of globalization and the IT revolution; and that foreign aid now had to be used in a different way. He added, “My president is busy. We are not going to do your work for you. Those days are over. You need to step up and then we can amplify you.”

“We honestly don’t know what to do about the Syria issue”

Pointing out that people were expecting the US to take action on Syria, he said, “The reason we are not doing anything is we don’t know what to do. We made mistakes in Iraq. Then it was you break it, you own it. In Syria our motto is you touch it, you own it.”

“Turkey and the AKP were like manna from heaven”

Touching upon the US-Turkey relations, he spoke, "For the last 50 years, we have treated the Arab world as a collection of gas stations.  And we have had three messages for them: keep your pumps open, your prices low, and don’t bother Israel. On 9/11, we got hit with the distilled essence of all the pathologies that were going on in the background.” Accentuating that relative to the Middle East, Turkey and the AKP looked like manna from heaven and the US might have been a little caught by that, he pointed at certain problems in Turkey alongside impressive developments. He said:

“What has happened in Turkey over the last ten years in terms of economic development and political evolution is really very impressive. I am a friend of Turkey. The economic growth in Turkey being internally driven… You didn’t just find oil but did it with people’s energy and entrepreneurship. That really floats my boat, really impressive. The number of journalists you have in jail, the degree of self-censorship in your press, and the degree of intimidation on your media are not very impressive.”

Who is Tom Friedman?

Tom Friedman is a prominent American journalist, columnist and author, currently writing a column for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs including global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues, and has won the Pulitzer Prize three times (in 1983, for his coverage of the war in Lebanon. A distinguished example of international reporting; in 1988, for his coverage of Israel, a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs; and in 2002, for his commentary illuminating the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat). Friedman has written a number of award-winning books, the latest being The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century published in 2005. Friedman is the recipient of the 2004 Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement, and has been named to the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and an MA degree from Oxford University.

Please click here for Friedman's speech.

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