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OT: World Politics

Essential reading.

www.theguardian.com

Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world

The long read: The word has become a rhetorical weapon, but it properly names the reigning ideology of our era – one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Peer through the lens of neoliberalism and you see more clearly how the political thinkers most admired by Thatcher and Reagan helped shape the ideal of society as a kind of universal market (and not, for example, a polis, a civil sphere or a kind of family) and of human beings as profit-and-loss calculators (and not bearers of grace, or of inalienable rights and duties). Of course the goal was to weaken the welfare state and any commitment to full employment, and – always – to cut taxes and deregulate. But “neoliberalism” indicates something more than a standard rightwing wish list. It was a way of reordering social reality, and of rethinking our status as individuals.
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www.thenation.com

Bolivia’s Remarkable Socialist Success Story

President Evo Morales has transformed his country’s economy with an unapologetically left-wing agenda—but can it last?
www.thenation.com www.thenation.com

Morales’s left-wing program was one of many that swept through Latin America in the “Pink Tide” of the 2000s, during which populist leaders in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and elsewhere rose to power with socialist and social democratic agendas. Morales went in with a mandate to shatter the neoliberal policies of austerity and privatization that had shaped Bolivian society for the past two decades. “From 1985 until [Morales’s] election in 2005, Bolivia was under the yoke of one version or another of the Washington consensus,” Mark Goodale, an anthropologist at the University of Lausanne, told me.

Once in office, Morales passed a law seizing tens of thousands of square miles of land deemed unproductive or illegally held, and redistributed it to landless peasants. He placed the natural gas, oil, telecommunications and electricity industries under state control. And he continually raised the minimum wage, which has tripled since he entered office.
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I have an opportunity to spend 3 months in Kas, Turkey.
From Mid-November to Mid-February.

I was about to accept and book my tickets, then saw what happen with the Trump tweet and Turkey planning to invade Syria...

Would any "World Politics Savvy" here care to share his opinion as to wether or not I should cancel my stay in Turkey ?

Will the situation for tourist and people in Turkey deteriorate or stay relatively the same ?
 
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Thunder said:
I have an opportunity to spend 3 months in Kas, Turkey.
From Mid-November to Mid-February.

I was about to accept and book my tickets, then saw what happen with the Trump tweet and Turkey planning to invade Syria...

Would any "World Politics Savvy" here care to share is opinion as to wether or not I should cancel my stay in Turkey ?

Will the situation for tourist and people in Turkey deteriorate or stay relatively the same ?
Click to expand...
Kurds can't touch Turkey. Maybe the odd bombing but Turkey will remain a safe country overall.

Kurds will get curb stomped but thats up to you as a person how you feel about that.
 
Thunder said:
I have an opportunity to spend 3 months in Kas, Turkey.
From Mid-November to Mid-February.

I was about to accept and book my tickets, then saw what happen with the Trump tweet and Turkey planning to invade Syria...

Would any "World Politics Savvy" here care to share is opinion as to wether or not I should cancel my stay in Turkey ?

Will the situation for tourist and people in Turkey deteriorate or stay relatively the same ?
Click to expand...

Turkey Travel Advisory

travel.state.gov travel.state.gov

Depending on how well you personally blend into the crown (language, skin colour, etc) and where specifically you were planning on going (syria bordered side vs bulgarian border), I'd reconsider. For example, if you're white as the driven snow, don't speak the language, aren't muslim and are planning to visit part of the region that Kurds consider "Kurdistan"...yeah, I'd pass.
 
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MindzEye said:

Turkey Travel Advisory

travel.state.gov travel.state.gov

Depending on how well you personally blend into the crown (language, skin colour, etc) and where specifically you were planning on going (syria bordered side vs bulgarian border), I'd reconsider. For example, if you're white as the driven snow, don't speak the language, aren't muslim and are planning to visit part of the region that Kurds consider "Kurdistan"...yeah, I'd pass.
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I just assumed he would be going to Istanbul or Ankara like a normal tourist.
 
Altair said:
I just assumed he would be going to Istanbul or Ankara like a normal tourist.
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Probably a good assumption...I just didn't want to say, oh yeah man no problems and turns out he's going as some sort of missionary group to a war zone.
 
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Kas is closer to Greece.
From what I have been told, it’s kind of a seaside expat hub.
Far from the Syrian / Iran borders.

It’s in the Antalya province, which is not mentioned anywhere in the travel advisory.

When I travel in 3rd world countries alone, I usually blend in.
Most Asians or Arabs will think I am either Spanish or Italian and I’ve never had any problems anywhere whatsoever.
Last year in Morocco, two different parties of tourists thought I was Moroccan, I did not understand why they thought that but whatever.

But I’ll be travelling with my woman this time and she is white as snow and do no blend in as well.

I would imagine the biggest threat would be terrorist actions / retaliations.

Thank you for your input guys, much appreciated.
 
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Thunder said:
View attachment 5020

Kas is closer to Greece.
From what I have been told, it’s kind of a seaside expat hub.
Far from the Syrian / Iran borders.

It’s in the Antalya province, which is not mentioned anywhere in the travel advisory.

When I travel in 3rd world countries alone, I usually blend in.
Most Asians or Arabs will think I am either Spanish or Italian and I’ve never had any problems anywhere whatsoever.
Last year in Morocco, two different parties of tourists thought I was Moroccan, I did not understand why they thought that but whatever.

But I’ll be travelling with my woman this time and she is white as snow and do no blend in as well.

I would imagine the biggest threat would be terrorist actions / retaliations.

Thank you for your input guys, much appreciated.
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Kas itself should be safe enough, I imagined you would be talking about traveling the country.

I'm hitting Greece next year and I'm trying to hit Athens, Mykanos, Kos, Naxos, Kea, Satarini.

The Kurds tend to want to hit political targets more than tourists. Their chances at a future state relies on global goodwill, and one doesn't get that from attacking foreign nationals.
 
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