We’re arrived at our next destination during our trip from Iran to Mexico. Our next stop is the beautiful country Turkey! I really wanted to visit this country, because of the beautiful culture and all their facilities.
I was also very curious about the economic situation. Is Turkey really such a bad member for the EU? And is the EU right to not accept Turkeys ask for membership? What will happen with Turkey if they become a member of the EU?
I really wanted to find out. That’s why I’ve searched for an article about this subject.

The negotiations between Turkey and the European Union already began in 2005. Today there is still no agreement about the entry of Turkey, mostly because of the opposition and controversy from other members of the EU. Nevertheless Turkey has all the necessary political and economic reforms to be a member of the EU. The fact that Turkey isn’t accepted as a member of the EU, would be due to his Muslim factor, geographical position, population size, violation of human rights, …

There also would be a huge advantage for all the members of the EU, the market would grow by 72 million customers with an average purchasing power. Next to that Turkey is situated in the Middle East, and is respected as a fair facilitator of conflict resolution by both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. A membership for Turkey would encourage this role. This would also be good for our relationships with the central Asia region.
Another advantage for the EU, is that Turkey since 1995 participates in the EU internal market for goods. Turkey has also a great potential in labour force, which will continue to grow, particularly after a possible EU membership. We don’t see this in eastern and central countries of the EU, there the labour force growth seems to be shrinking, which is very positive for Turkey. When we accept Turkey as a member, our labour force will also get a boost. On the other hand, the agricultural sector is inefficient. Similar to the eastern and central countries of the EU, Turkey uses one third of its labour force for agriculture.

Another problem is, that the Turkish society still practises things that undermine female dignity, arranged marriages, crimes of honour,…  But there has been some progress the last years, although there are still human rights violations.
In the article they conclude that the destabilisation of the credibility of the EU at home and abroad is a possible failure for the Turkish negotiations.

I find it very difficult to say whether Turkey would be a good addition to the members of the EU or not. There a lot of advantages, but Turkey also has a lot of problems which we can’t ignore.
I think the biggest advantage is that Turkey has relations with us, Europe, and with Asia. I think it’s very important to have a good relation with those countries in the future. Turkey would be a perfect help with this.

One of the biggest disadvantages is that Turkey doesn’t seem to follow the human rights. I guess Turkey must realize that this is a very important point. Before they keep that in mind, they will never become a member of the EU.

But the situation seems to be very good in the big cities in Turkey. I didn’t mention anything of violations against human rights. It’s more a problem of little cities and villages I think.

That was everything for this week! I hope you enjoyed my blog and I’m looking forward to the next destination!

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7825790/turkeys_bid_to_become_an_eu_member.html?cat=62

06-03-2011 om 13:19 geschreven door Sieglinde Debeer  

Hello everybody!

We are still in Iran and we’re having the time of our life. We just discovered today that there are a lot of subway lines under Tehran. So who thought that Iran is just a poor country where you had to do everything on foot is totally wrong! Well, I have to admit at the start of this adventure we probably all had that thought…

Today we were looking for a way to go to another place in Tehran. They told us it was ‘only’ a 2 hour walk. That’s a little bit too far, so we needed to find another way to get there. What we didn’t know, is that there is a very modern metro line in this city. There are 7 different lines, so you can get practically everywhere in the city. First we were a little bit afraid that it wouldn’t be nice to travel with, but it is just amazing! It’s so clean in there! Sometimes we even thought it was nicer to travel with the metro here than in Belgium.

You don’t believe us right? We thought about that and took a picture for you!

And that’s not even all of the public transport; Iran has also his own plain company, Iran Air and railways to other big cities.

Sadly enough, these subways are only in the big cities, so it’s just the same as in Belgium. I think it would be more fun if there were subways everywhere, so that people can leave their car home more often.

Travelling with the subway also helps you to get to know a lot of people. We’ve met Afsoon, a girl who lives in Tehran, in the subway. The moment she saw we were tourists, she guided us through the city. We saw a lot of places we wouldn’t normally see if she hadn’t brought us there.

I’ll send a message again next week to tell you about our further adventures! See you!

Source: http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/tehranmetro/

Bijlagen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_Metro   

Hello everyone

First of all I would like to welcome you on my blog. In the next six week I will be traveling from Iran to Mexico. I will make several stops in different countries, and this great and exciting adventure I would like to share with you. Every time when I move on to another country, I will give you a short review of my stay in the visited country.

The first country I have visited is Iran.
During my stay in Iran I have met someone who told me a lot about the Iran's energy industry. And I would like to share this information with you.

The engineer told me what the outlook for Iran’s energy industry is very dark. The National Oil Company’s employees had a pay cut and lost 30% of their income. Many of the oil company's employees are members of the paramilitary Bassij, so they don’t protest about their new wages and when some others protest, it isn’t useful because the paramilitary forces are defending Bassij.

They are thinking that it would be ripe for a start of larger strikes, and with this strikes they cripple the Iranian regime.

I think that the employees are to loyal to their bosses and organizations. They don’t have an union who stands in for the employees and negotiate with the organizations. When everyone would stretch together the employees wouldn’t have got a pay cut, and the companies would stand under pressure.

This was my first blog report from Iran. Thank you for reading and following my blog, now I will be traveling to the next country on my way to Mexico.

Source: http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21477:locals-in-oil-rich-city-contemplate-irans-economic-future-&catid=30:life-in-iran&Itemid=43

28-02-2011 om 11:08 geschreven door Olivier De Smet