Hasn´t EU membership helped with the economy a little bit?

When I was in Greece, all the people I met were complaining of the negative consequences of EU membership almost all of them advising us the neighbors to stay away fron it.

With all that red tape of regulations, compliance steps, economic aid schemes etc one would expect better results from EU integration.

Some of the inevitable results of the membership appear to be heavier taxes, a gradual drop in purchasing power, stagnancy and loss of political control over domestic and internal affairs.

The EU seems to be designed for the benefit of the powers that be within Europe. With Germany at the helm and France poking its nose in every affair. That must be why the UK has been so reluctant about an integration in the sense conceived by Germany.

The UK was right from the beginning, I think this union will not last more than a few decades. It will begin to collapse when those smaller nations have sorted out their economic problems after making all sorts of concessions to the big powers.

 This is what I am.

I am ten years older than you and women tend to have longer lives.

No. I guess the problem is I am going through what they call a midlife crisis.

Well, this experience thing must be more true for women.

They call these people as the third generation Turks. They are the grandchildren of the Turkish workers hundreds of thousands of whom settled down in Germany in the 60´s. These first settlers have been holding on to their Turkish identities with some of them even refusing to learn German. 

The second generation of Turks were raised in Germany with strong ties with the homeland. They are fluent in both German  and Turkish. Culturally, they are still more Turkish than German due to their strict Turkish upbringing.

The third generation was born in Germany absolutely fluent in German and poor at Turkish. They have much less interest in the homeland. They are probably more German than Turkish.

In Germany, there is a rich vocabulary used for describing foregners especially Turks.  The words they use to refer to Turks is "kanaken" which is roughly equivalent to "niggers". Turks are the niggers of Germany. Those who are not that considerate even call them kakalaks which means cockroaches.

It is absolutely hormons that make sex so appealing. As a matter of fact, teenage is by and far the best age for sexual experience. As time goes by, it turns into a routine activity and when those hormones are no longer wildly secreted the thrill is gone.

I can always use myself as an example because I believe I remained a virgin (as a male of course) much longer than most girls. I was something like 24. I was raised in a setting where it was taught it would be cruel to sleep with girls before marriage.

Turkey was like an iron curtain country then. There was isolation from the world, from the other sex and from everything that could potentially give you pleasure. Still, I was a lot luckier than the generation before me. Today, young people are living in a country vastly different from the restrictive society of our childhood.

Of course, the town I lived in (Bursa) was and it still is much more conservative than Istanbul.

The dictionary meaning of the word virginity when used as an adjective is free of impurity or stain. Since the Latin root it is derived from "virgo"  mean young woman, it is not difficult to realize that it initially signified the state of transience into womanhood from maidenhood on marriage. All other connotations must be based on the assumption that a young woman is pure, free from sins etc and she loses this quality when she has has with a man.

Regardless of how lightly people seem to take this matter these days, virginity has become an iron clad norm in people´s minds hence it is used for describing other matters like extra virgin olive oil, virgin voyage etc. Virginity essentially signifies purity which is treasured by most and it arouses a well-known desire to possess it and to stain it.  In a way, it can be likened to branding animals.

It is not just some men who value virginity; some women are keen defenders of virginity too. Even today, maidenhood is used by women for creating a sex-appeal. Britney Spears promoted her albums by highlighting her virginity. Christians call Mother Mary as Virgin Mary or the Virgin. She is considered to be a symbol of chastity.

Therefore, if you believe in something, the concept of virginity usually comes complete within that belief system. It seems it would not be consistent to both believe and to denounce the importance given to virginity.

In Istanbul, we use a thingummabob like the one in the picture. You can load credits on this device using an automatic machine available at important stations.

By touching the metallic part of the device on the sensor of a turnstyle you make your payment and gain access. When you do this you hear a confirmatory beep sound if you have enough credit on your akbil. If not, you are warned by a different beep. Student akbils beep differently too. There is some discount for akbil users and other advantages such as a charge free transfer to train after a boat travel.

All means of public transportation (commuter train, ferries, passanger boats, seabuses, the subway system, trams, public buses, cable cars etc) work with akbil.