Turkey vs. United States (U.S)
I am a citizen of Turkey. I lived in the states for 10 years, 5 years of graduate school and another 5 years spent in profession, worked at two great companies. My youth? I was in Turkey till the age of 22. I am back, a permanent resident in Turkey.
I think I can draw a crucial distinction between Turkey and the United States. The U.S has well integrated into their "social system" (and still does) all the best practices for life: if there is something that makes it easier for people to go through their daily life, you have it there. Tightly integrated. In Turkey, it is almost the opposite. Best practices are well integrated in successful people's heads. It stays there, as a competitive edge. Or else, in other people, it is more of a series of tips to remember and be aware of all the time without building well structured shortcuts.
So what would this mean? It means we Turks will waste a lot of precious time for the stuff that we could have taken for granted only if we incorporated such best practices well into the heart of our social system.
I strongly believe that Turkish community has a grand potential to outreach and exceed any expectations we could ever have in building a great nation to innovate and lead the way in the new century for a "better world".
Look forward to seeing the better of you, Turk!
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Examples
- The most vivid one is the interactions with Police. In the U.S, there is a certain protocol. You do exactly as the Officer say. No questions, no answers before questions. This has great implications. With a standardized way to behave (or according to protocol), the Police Department can optimize on external factors, and ensure utmost safety. They can study, offline, all "certain" scenarios. Everything that is outside this frame of mind and behavior is an outlier, and it has to be treated specially.
This social behavior probably has far more consequences in day to day to life that I cannot even foresee or think of at the moment. One thing for sure is that it enforces social responsibility and respect in human interactions.
In Turkey, there is no certain rule. There is no protocol. Even if there is, it is not enforced properly. Officer is someone to be bribed away with talks, intimidations, money.
- The other thing is tuition. In the U.S, almost all students receive student loans to pay off their higher education expenses. Each student graduates with a lump sum debt in her bank registry. However, each student also pretty much knows for certain that she will pay off her debt by working with utmost professional attitude and will. The outcome is yet another socially responsible individual serving and being served through life. This is golden. In Turkey, we are 30, 40, 50 year old walking kids. Spoilt deeply to our guts and radically irresponsible for our society. We can do it though. We know the problem. We know what to do. We got to have the patience, the vision, and the passion to outgrow ourselves. I know we have it. We have to be persistent, and it will take some time. But it will happen.
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