PFFFT

Foreign Aid!

Do you ever think of how important words are? You can confuse Effect with Affect (Effect as a noun, means 'result' or as verb, means 'to bring about' or 'accomplish.' Affect means 'to influence') or Among with Between (Among compares many while between compares two. Compare "Between you and I . . . " to "Among the three (or four etc.) of us . . . ") and create confusion or indicate you are an idiot for not knowing the difference. My Bete Noire is the made up word 'Finalize' and 'finish?' Finalize seems to mean a process of completing with no promise of ever being finally done. The word 'Finish' gives that promise. I submit all these differences may be important but the difference between two onomatopoetic words; 'zing' and 'pffft,' is crucial. Let me tell my story so you'll know the difference. I know that I know the difference!

I am a businessman who buys then sells high precision mechanical equipment; pumps, valves, heat exchangers, that sort of thing. It's all peaceful but most of my clients are in businesses unpopular with environmentalists. The equipment is very expensive as it's made from expensive materials to extremely tight specifications. Highly skilled machinists are needed along with extreme care. To hold prices down I seek to create new manufacturers for this equipment. One way I did this was to get involved with foreign aid.

The deal was simple. Country A needs help modernizing, country B has foreign aid money to spend if they could show the modernization would pay off and I could provide assurances of orders if specs can be met. I could just agree, wait for final prices and samples then reject them if they didn't measure up but I didn't. I won't do that for it would disappoint everyone and not do me any good. I call that the Japanese way. It is easier and protects you but leaves a thin film of mistrust. I prefer to do reasonable things to assure success.

I traveled to Country A to do reasonable things. I will keep Country A anonymous by calling it Turkey. In the late 70's I traveled to Turkey, took a suite at the Buyuk and called the U.S. Ambassador. He set up meetings with Turkish technical schools, universities, the managers of companies bidding on the foreign aid and the government ministers they would work with. The plan is to have several companies with advanced equipment and training to make such equipment so there would be a pool of employers in Turkey and at least two capable of making equipment for me.

I met with all these people to present the specs plus the skills needed to implement them; precision machining, metallurgy, quality processes, statistics, good business practices and honesty. I asked questions. How many students can be trained? How can companies import the required materials? How can companies instill the discipline needed? How much will all of this cost?

I went to all the technical schools and universities where I learned how they would train workers, engineers and managers. I gave them sample texts to use for teaching, not references but a free copy of several textbooks for instructors to study. I gave them the plan we use to teach our requirements to our suppliers and master copies of teaching materials to use. I did this to save time in setting up their courses.

I did the same with the managers of companies bidding on the foreign aid giving them books and outlines of what people needed to know. I also gave them cost information on materials, maintenance costs, quality costs etc. to be successful. I learned about government regulations especially about problems importing and exporting and discussed with them how they could solve them.

At the government ministries I learned about regulations, monetary controls, and how the system worked. I outlined for them what other countries did to speed up processes and reduce graft.

I tell all my employees it is not enough to exchange information but you have to build up relationships and be resilient enough to still work together when things go wrong. I had to follow my own advice for if I assigned someone else to follow up the messages might be mixed up. I therefore agreed to visit regularly during he entire AID process to see progress was being made in what I hoped was the right direction. Of course I would send my technology and business experts to plan and implement details. My visits weren't too difficult because I spent considerable time in Europe and modifying my travel arrangements to include Turkey as a minor addition to the total time away.

Turkey would need more technical assistance than first world countries and I provided it at no cost to be sure it was accepted. There is a theory that if someone pays for something they would take it seriously. I preferred to get as many to sign up as possible, set goals and weed out those who didn't meet the goals ending with two or three who did. It also was a reward for my best experts who invariably took their wife and added a vacation to the end their tour in Turkey.

Why do I do this? You already know my company will benefit by having lower cost labor supplying the equipment so I will get more sales and maintain my edge selling in this market. Most of the cost savings will be passed on to my customers but I will benefit overall with more business. I also looked at it as my own minor foreign aid program.

After a week in Turkey I decided a man would be a fool to bring his wife here. Not that she would be unsafe though. It's just that the men are so handsome. Even old age seems delayed for I met many men who were in their 50's or 60's just beginning to gray and still in good physical condition although a number of them had been to the U.S. for heart surgery. There is little fat on Turkish men, I can't think of one I met who was obese.

The fat seems to have found its way to the other side of the coin, the women. Young women have nice faces and figures. You can't tell much more because they pretty well cover themselves from head to toe but they don't cover their faces. My estimate is that the girls retain their beauty until they are 18 to 22 then put on weight. They can still work very hard though.

There are exceptions. The most beautiful woman in Ankara, the capitol, is a Dutch girl married to a Turk. There is a gorgeous Turkish girl at the rental car company in Istanbul but she works at the rear of the office so I've never spoken with her. She shows off by not covering her hair and by wearing sweaters that, while not tight, do show her endowments. She always wears jeans, they are very expensive here, I've never seen jeans used to better purposes. In Izmir, a resort with a Navy facility and some business community, the Turkish women by the pool at the hotel are very modern in their one piece bathing suits with an occasional fling with a bikini. Few fail to keep the promise of those suits.

But I decide to bring my wife to visit Turkey despite these thoughts for I know she will enjoy it here. I brought my wife on my second trip, going directly to Ankara to meet with the Economic Attache at the Embassy and the Turkish Ministers. Again I stayed at the Buyuk for it was near the Embassy. From the hotel it is a short three-block walk up the hill along Ataturk Bulvari near the Embassy. Ataturk Bulvari is a wide thoroughfare from the airport through Ankara and on to the south. The hotel and Embassy are just beyond the edge of the main shopping district and at the start of the expensive suburb GOP. In 1980 there was little traffic and that was mostly busses and taxis. I walked on the wide sidewalk on the west side of Ataturk then crossed to the Embassy. This route took me past the Russian Government Cultural Center whose rooftop was covered with antennas I could see from my hotel room above. Clearly they listened to the U.S. Embassy and transmitted back to Russia just a few hundred miles away.

The first item I discussed with the U.S. Economic Attache was about my trouble getting a commercial visa. "It seems the Russians have protested your being here," the Attache explained. "But be assured the Turks want your participation in this project for they know it will improve our success. This visa issue is a minor thing and is just to show the Russians we did something when they asked."

As to the question why, he explained, "The Russians are concerned about military applications of the technology."

"But there isn't anything here that isn't in published reports and even text books," I protested.

"Yes, but the Russians just want to make trouble. I assure you the Turks won't interfere with your program."

Sure! At my first meeting with the Economic Minister he told me the Russians did not want me to travel in Turkey within a hundred miles of the Russian border. He explained they just want to be a nuisance. After that we had a good meeting and he gave me several suggestions of people I should meet and even assigned a middle manager to take me to meet these people.

Turkey was corrupt at least to some extent leaving me with no idea whether these people were truly people I should work with or not. I met them and made my own decision. At the end of the day I discussed all of this with an American businessman I met on the plane. He was building a plant near Adana and deeply embroiled in working with the Turks.

He said it is very difficult to identify who to do business with in Turkey. "There are many fine companies but some are aligned with one faction in the Government while others are in another faction. You should find a Turkish partner to do business with and I will help you line up the people."

I explained, "I can't afford a Turkish partner because holding down costs was is of primary importance to my success. If a Turkish company can't be competitive I'll have to drop him. A 'partner' would make me drop more companies and might jeopardize the entire project."

We talked about other problems of doing business in Turkey and among them he told me I could get eMails here if I wanted. I had to get permission from both the Telephone Ministry (PTT) and the Department of Defense. If I befriended someone at the air base I could use their lines and not have to get permission.

It turned out it was my wife who earned her keep. When she was shopping one day she met some embassy women and wives. It was easier for me to take cabs rather than hunt for parking places I let her have the car to go touring. The tourist places and the best bargains for shopping seemed to be near the edge of town where finding cabs took a long time and were expensive. My wife was able to get everyone home faster and they arranged to have lunch and take her touring the next day.

At night I told my wife of the problems I had and, as always, she sympathized. The next night she told me she had found a solution.

"I mentioned your two problems and the women said they could take care of them both. I was introduced to the wife of one of the civilian contractors at the airbase and you and I will play bridge there tomorrow night. You can ask him about eMails. As for the second problem, I found the name of the man at the embassy who can find out about companies that are close to in the Government. He and his wife will be here for cocktails tonight."

So it was just too easy. I should have brought her before.

Within a week I had a list of companies to visit to determine who would be the best for me to help. Meanwhile my wife made travel arrangements to visit them the following week by car. We would spend both weekends touring, the first touring in the eastern region to visit old ruins, then drive along the coast to visit companies near the sea and the second weekend to tour the western region for art and historical sights.

It was a wonderful trip with visits to ancient Hattusis, Capadocia, Crusador castles along the coast and then Pamulkale, Izmir, Ephesus and other interesting spots. I was also able to get more information about the ability to manufacture top quality product.

Hattusis is an ancient city founded about four thousand years ago when Hittites crossed the Caucasus Mountains from the Ukraine and founded an empire that stretched down to the borders of ancient Egypt. Now only rocks remain, mostly walls and fortifications. You have to have a guide to understand anything but you can immediately understand why the settled here when you stand by the fortified wall and can see forever.

Capadocia is more like the Grand Canyon, a work of nature, but also is an ancient city. Water and wind eroded the harder top cap rock to carve from the more porous rock below into deep canyons and weird Fairy Chimneys. In some case caves were eroded intothe sides of the rocks but later people carved places to live with more rooms added by later arrivals. Christians hid from the Romans here during the early Christian era and it is still used as a refuge. Now it is Americans living off money sent by parents. They came with a visa that has long since expired and use the money to buy drugs and food while they live in the rocks to avoid being deported.

The Mediterranean Coast is dotted with Crusador castles built in that era by Christian Soldiers who ruled the local portions of the coast and used the local port for trade. One of the interesting features is the edge of the castle extending past the edge of the cliff with a hole allowing a rope and winch to haul up food and water when under siege from the land side. When not in use for this purpose the holes were used to toss criminals to their death below. Now they are called ‘death wells.’ [My wife and I still refer to large highway potholes as ‘death wells’].

Pamulkale is the opposite of Capadocia. Pamulkale is a series of pools on the side of a hill that were formed of calcite from hot spring water that evaporated. The hot springs still flow making this a natural mineral bath in a natural bathtub made of minerals. The white calcite looks like cotton balls, Pamul in Turkish, and the mountain top makes it look like a fort, Kale in Turkish.

Not far from Pamulkale is the coast city of Izmir, Smyrna to the Greeks. Izmir’s history goes back to 3000 B.C. when Western Anatolia was under a rich Trojan civilization influence. The settlement areas built on the Aegean Coast also developed generally under the Trojan influence. The Hittites which Homer wrote about in the Iliad, were an active force and civilization in the Anatolian mountain pastures because the Trojans were allies of the Hittites and they had a big influence on the Aegean settlements. So now we had come full circle with the Hittites from Hattusis to Smyrna. Izmir came into the possession of the Hun Emperor Attila but this authority did not last long and the city re-taken the Byzantines.

Nearby is the ancient city of Ephesus that was one of Christianities earliest enclaves and a site of the early ancient church. It is being excavated now but I got tired of looking at rocks and daydreamed as we toured there.

The touring part was fascinating and we found the local Turks to be friendly and anxious to please. The food was delicious and, amazingly, this was always true even at the least expensive places. My wife insisted on shopping at each city we stopped in and, of course, we stayed at hotels.

The hotels were always on the beach as that was where the highway was and we always wanted to swim if we could. The hotels were clean and comfortable but without most modern communications. They did have electricity and hot water but they were unreliable. Although clean, minor repairs were done on the cheap. If someone cracked a tile in the shower it was calked together or replaced with a tile of the same size but different color. Chrome plated water fixtures were corroding due to the sea air and broken furniture might be given only minimum repair. These were minor problems though and we found our biggest problem to be the language problem. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves none-the-less.

We drove all the way to Istanbul where there were more companies for me to meet with. I kept my schedule very lax so I could go somewhere with my wife every day. I met with companies in the morning while my wife took a tour then I met her for a late lunch and we went exploring on our own. Every night we tried a restaurant from a list I'd made listening to people who said, "I know the best restaurant in Istanbul . . . " One afternoon we returned to the hotel to clean up and there was a great commotion in the lobby. My wife went over to look. She came back and asked, "Have you ever heard of Fatma Girik?"

I told her I hadn't. She answered, "Good. We are going to see her at dinner tonight."

She kept it a secret and even had the desk give her a note in Turkish for the taxi so I wouldn't see where we were going until I arrived. There I found it to be a restaurant I had heard of but it wasn't on my list. The sign announced a famous belly dancer would perform tonight. We were seated near the stage and in the center, they always give foreigners the best seats. It turned out the meal was excellent. Many of the Turkish restaurants serve simple and delicious meals that no one could fault but after so many trips I got tired of shish kebabs and tried more European places. If you think about it, many of the great restaurants in Europe are managed by, and employ Turks as chef's so why not return to Turkey and make a first rate Turkish restaurant. The fare was still simple and delicious but many of the dishes had a twist that made it different. Some of the fish looked as if prepared by a Japanese chef while the desserts were pure European.

During the dinner there was Turkish music by a live band. Some of the Turkish patrons danced although there was no dance floor. Then the band took a break and when they returned the main lights dimmed and the crowd hushed for the show was about to begin.

All I know is that the dancer is usually a woman with exceedingly well-trained abdominal muscles, and it doesn't hurt for her to be shapely. The jangle of gold coins merged with the beating of Indian drums signaled the start and a gorgeous women in coin-covered bra sashayed and twirled in her swinging full velvet and silk-tiered skirt that brushed the ground while she flaunted her bare midriff while swaying to the hypnotic beat. Her dress was of black, red and white, vanishingly short in front but full and sweeping in the rear. She accompanied her moves with clangs on small finger cymbals called zil.

During the dance, appreciative observers stuffed paper money into the recesses of her costume. She danced close enough that they could do that; and when she danced close enough lots of men wanted to do that but as far as I know, belly dancers do not yet accept credit cards in this fashion. Belly dancing is not limited to women for men can do more than just stuff money into a dancer's clothing. At least one brave guy jumped up and showed some moves of his own. It was difficult to judge his proficiency because he was fully clothed and I thank goodness for that.

After the performance she changed into a Muu Muu style robe and came to our table to talk to my wife and ask me what I thought of the dance. Superb! That's what I thought.

According to the program Ms. Girik began her movie career in 1957, was a Turkish film star in the 1960s and 1970s and most recently appeared in Nefret just released in 1984. Her most famous movie was in 1977, a Turkish version of Hamlet.

The program exclaimed of this, "Kadin Hamlet (The Revenging Angel), feminizes the character more radically, when gender stereotyping is turned into sexual fact: Hamlet is a woman and daughter. Putting aside the gap between south-east European performance traditions and more western ones, what you see on screen is a very powerful lady of action. This is made plausible by a plot stripped down to the revenge elements only.

Death Wish

Fatma Girik presents a woman who takes on the “masculine" role, adopting characteristics which deny her femininity. This on screen female Hamlet is a powerful women when it comes to social standing, a position conventionally reserved for males: in the Turkish version Hamlet’s standing within a well-off estate owner’s family is not disputed. She is an equal among equals and needs to hide under the guise of madness to make her actions, such as the revealing theatre performance, plausible.

[Years later I was invited to visit Turkey by the Prime Minister to receive an honor for my work earlier. At a dinner I again met Fatma Girik who told me she was now mayor of a key Istanbul district].

After she left I paid the bill and we returned to the hotel where I showed my wife how much I appreciate her being a good sport. Our balcony overlooked the Bosphorous and the lights sparkling in the night from Asia across the straits. It was a very romantic view.

After finishing my business in Istanbul and buying more carpets and brass pots than an airliner could carry, we drove back to Ankara for a few days to finish up with the government and the embassy.

On the last night when I was finished in Ankara and walking back from the Embassy to the hotel before leaving for the station to take the train to Istanbul, I passed the Russian Cultural Center and just in front of the entrance gate a sound behind me made me jump back just as car sped onto the sidewalk. This was not unusual for traffic on Ataturk Bulvari does not allow cars to slow down when turning off. Even so, one more step and I would have been hit and probably dead. I counted myself lucky.

My wife was more upset about it than I was but there was nothing she could do and she knew better than to tell me not to come back. She shared with me the anger of not wanting the Russians to win.

We took the overnight train to Istanbul as people said it was fun and it was. Neither of us slept well on the train but we enjoyed being awoken whenever the train stopped in a town, even at 3 in the morning, to buy trinkets or yogurt from the citizens all of who seemed to be itinerant sellers. The yogurt was delicious and I hate yogurt. Then at dawn we were in 'Stambool and took a cab to the airport to return home.

My third visit was the last before the AID package would be presented to the Turks. I was finishing my trip in Ankara when I was taking an American Professor to introduce to the Ankara University Engineering Professors. The purpose was to give an unbiased assessment of the problems with the technology. It was all technical and of little interest to me.

Afterwards I took him to dinner in the GOP. (No, that isn't a Republican enclave but stands for Gazi Osman Pasha, a great Turkish General who conquered Byzantium and made it Turkey). It was a nice day and we were walking to take advantage of it. There were many noises on the busy Bulvari and most people blocked them out to hear the conversation. One sound was unusual; it was a 'zing' just like the sound of a screen door spring breaking just as it is stretched to the limit. Even in 1980 Turkey no one seemed to use screen doors with springs to automatically close the door. I hunted as a child but haven't had the time since leaving high school. At one time while hunting I heard that zing when a hunter shot over my head not knowing I was there. That bullet went about fifteen feet over my head and about ten feet to one side. I was pondering if there had been the sound of gunfire before the zing when I heard 'pffft.' And it was very close.

I turned to comment to the Professor but he wasn't there. He was against the spiked fence of the Russian Cultural Center with blood flowing from his chest. I could only drop flat on the ground just before another zing passed by.

I crawled down the sidewalk until I came to the edge of the Russian compound where I had some protection. I did not look back but ran downhill until I had to return to the sidewalk and was still running as someone came out the front of the hotel and I zoomed in huffing and puffing. Things were normal for this time of the day. The tables near the stairs to the Mezzanine were filled with Turks doing business, there were a few people arriving in formal dress for a reception on the Mezzanine for some Embassy and there were few guests registering.

The man behind the desk asked me what was wrong as I huffed and puffed. I told him the Professor had been shot. It was as if they had a procedure for guests being shot; the manager was called, I told my story, the police were called and I was taken to rest in the manager's office to tell my story again.

Evidently the Embassy was also called because a woman from the Embassy, who I had never seen before, quickly arrived and took my story. She stayed with me when the police arrived and perhaps spoke more than I did. The police seemed to think this was a random shooting even though Turkey was under martial law. I told them about being almost run over at that same spot then asked if they would consider it being the Russians. The policeman spoke to the Embassy woman in Turkish and she answered him then told me in English, "He says they will speak to the Russians," but I'm certain that isn't what he said at all.

Finally I went to my room after asking to have dinner sent up to me.

I had to stay until the Professor's body was sent home then finish the work that had been delayed. The Embassy men were very kind and helped me with the Police and the body. At least one of them had lunch or dinner with me every day. I think the Ambassador ordered them to be certain I did not do something stupid. I would have if I knew what was stupid.

When the nightmare was all over I returned home with the body. I took him home for it was the least I could do. I never told anyone but the police and the embassy that I think I was the target. I think knowing too much leads to strange results. I stayed for the funeral then returned to my home and my family.

After all that the program turned out to be a success for several reasons. The first was that I had alternative suppliers that despite some startup problems turned out to be first rate. The second was I made a lot of money for my effort and the last was other companies did similar things for different products thereby giving a big boost to the economy.

I am proud of my work and the work of everyone else. I have to admit though that the change and benefits were not as great on the grand scale as they are on my scale. I think foreign aid of any sort takes decades to get to the critical point where it can take off with impact. In the meantime there are still problems and even though we can't solve them all we can solve some of them.

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Last Updated 1/27/05

PFFFT

Foreign Aid!

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