We recently had a package sent to us from the states that contained Vitamin C packets and two boxes of Thera Flu. When the package did not show up, we found a note in our mailbox informing us that the package had been detained at the post office and that we needed a note from our doctor explaining why we needed the "medicine" before it would be delivered. While it may be feasible that the post office would randomly open packages and look at the contents, it really surprises me that they would then take the step to make us justify why we need cold remedies that are purchased over the counter in any Whole Foods or health food store.
When things like YouTube are blocked, you only begin to realize how limits to the freedoms we are so accustomed to in the US can impact how you live and interact with others. Since the ban, we have had several e-mail messages from friends and family highlighting a YouTube video that now we cannot access. These small things help put daily freedoms into perspective in the United States. While our government is far from perfect and at times appears to be a model for disfunction, I cannot imagine social media outlets like Twitter or YouTube being blocked.
So why do people continue to support a leader who appears to be placing more and more restrictions on how people live every day? A lot can be said for the power of progress and the impression that things are getting better for everyone. The truth is that "As inflation rises and the Turkish currency's buying power drops, more than 70 percent of Turkish families live on less than $1,000 a month and nearly 20 percent of those live at or below the Turkish Statistics Institute's definition of poverty. Since the majority are monolingual, monocultural and low-skilled, it is little surprise that they instinctively hew to Turkey's populist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan... Aside from building roads, electrifying villages and raising incomes more than his predecessors, Erdogan provides his supporters with the illusory comfort that the market's harsh logic won't crush their dreams and that his party's model of welfare handouts mixed with religious charity will shield them from globalisation." Check out this article: (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/04/istanbul-coming-neo-cosmopolitan-20144312445133382.html).
It's an interesting time for Turkey and Istanbul and also an interesting time for us as a family. While it can be frustrating to experience the limits to our daily freedoms, the limits are temporary as we know we can always return to the United States and that ultimately we are benefitting from the value of the dollar over the Turkish Lira. We are not forced to live on $1000 a month as a family, we are not dependent on economic growth or borrowed credit, and we are not in a position to support a leader just because there are no other viable alternatives. These things help us to appreciate freedoms that we often take for granted or fail to appreciate in a true democracy. It also helps us to have empathy for those people who do not have any other choice.
The pictures are taken one week before the elections. Mike