Auditor
With great power comes great responsibility. - Spiderman
With great responsibility comes great power. - Auditor
The link between Toyota and Tomatoes
Today Toyota announced another news about new round of falsely produced cars, around 200K sold all around the world. It is reported that the engine might suddenly stop during the ride. Well, it is very dangerous if you're passing another car in a narrow road and if another car is coming from the other direction.
The situation looks like this: The mistakes that Toyota makes cause a wide-spread problem around the world, and Toyota should be blamed for it.
I believe not. It is just a matter of consolidation of volumes. Check this out:
(The numbers are just made up)
Year -- No of cars produced -- No of car manufacturers
1970 -- 10.000 - 100
1980 -- 100.000 - 200
1990 -- 500.000 - 150
2000 - 5.000.000 - 100
2010 - 50.000.000 - 50
So simply there's a remarkable consolidation because of the cost issued driven by the thin margins in the automotive industry. It kills the diversity. Where 1 manufacturer was responsible of (manufacturing) X amount of cars 40 years ago, they are now of 1000X cars. So the mistake of 1 entity could damage X amount of car owners before, now 1000X.
15 years ago in my country there have been around 1000 different types of tomato seeds. You would differentiate from the shape, the color, the smell etc. Now there are only two types of seed, imported seeds from the Netherlands and Israel.
Now that I wonder if there's a mitigation plan in case of an illness very specific to these two kinds of tomato seeds hits Turkey? It is very probable. Every plant has a weakness, but the most successive ones are not affected by many of the diseases. But what if 'that' disease comes and hits to the farms in Turkey?
That is step one. What about the grain seeds all around the world? The farmers around the world prefer the most productive seeds, decreasing the diversity from thousands to tens of different types of grains. What if a disease very specific to the surviving grain seeds in the world?
Toyota pays do the people who suffered, and the case is closed. But would there be anybody to save the world if there's no bread left to feed the people? I am not sure..
Efficiency is good. But I guess diversity is even better :)
Random Thoughts on Europeans and Muslim Immigrants
- Recently we heard 2/3 of the Swisses voting in favor of the ban for new minaret construction, France banning burqa from public places, unstoppable rise of a anti-Islamic party in the Netherlands, Belgium to vote for banning the full-veil and many other little things that cannot find themselves a place in international press.
- There are 6 million Muslims in France, there are growing Muslim minorities in Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria etc. But that is just now! I remember reading an article in the Economist, where it mentioned that in 2009 half of the new-born babies in the Netherlands had Muslim parents. So imagine Netherlands 2030.
- So at one side we have Europeans with an increasing antipathy to Muslim immigrants, and on the other side we have an increasing share of Muslim population. It seems like the issues will grow bigger.
- I can empathize with both sides. I imagine waking up in my hometown in 2030, and find out that half of my city is not Turkish, I would freak out. (e.g. 55% of Rotterdam's population is immigrant-originated) On the other hand, from an immigrant's point of view, no matter what my roots are, if I am born in a country, that is my homeland. So who are you to tell me how to live in my own country?
- But I find it ridiculous that the native-Europeans, who complain about increasing immigration, generally make only 1 or maximum two children. It has been so obvious in the last decades that if you would like to keep this economic growth you should have a big population accordingly. So either make babies, or don't complain about the immigrants.
- I also think that integration is just a European utopia. The majority of the Turkish-originated immigrants I met in Europe classify themselves as Turkish, not Dutch, Belgian or German. Turkish is spoken at home, leading the children learn Turkish as their mother tongue, not the local language. Instead of adopting local habits, they make their neighborhood look like a Turkish neighborhood.
Life in cycles
I don't know if this will ever come to an end. It has been years that I have been living my life in one year cycles, now even there's no change in the horizon for this year, my body is already reacting if there's a change on the way.
Well, I already started my job hunt, but I don't know if my new job will be in the same company, city or country. Everything might or might not change, but my I feel like everything is going to change upside down in some months again. Moving to a new country every year since 2006 made me expect to move to another country.
It is a hard-to-control stuff now. I am getting less tolerant at work, I tend to not think long term for my position even when I know that I might stay.
The mood for the change has started.
Dunno what is to come...
Forget about it!
Yesterday I found out that I had forgotten to bring sport shoes to gym, and today I forgot taking spare clothes with me. As usual, first I got frustrated, but then I started thinking about the various things I managed to forget 'till now:
- My belt in the office toilets
- My motorbike in front of the doner kebap shop (and went back home to sleep)
- My mother's, father's, sister's and girlfriend's bday
- That my flight was at 11:00 am (and had brunch at the airport for 2 hours)
- To take my food to the office, 3 consequent days!
- My e-banking password
- To take an important document with me to the Spanish Embassy when I went there to apply for a visa
- The keys on the door
- To lock my bike (and two of them got stolen)
- My suit in the taxi on the way to my best friend's wedding
- ...
First Impressions on "5 Countries / 5 Occupations in 5 Consecutive Years"
( + )
- See lots of new / different / interesting cities, not like a tourist but in 360 degrees. Not only the hotel and the center square, but also the garbage man, non-touristic restaurants, the park to chill-out on a Sunday afternoon etc.
- Get familiar with different cultures, question what yours imposes on you. (Quote from Sebas: The farther from home, the deeper into yourself). Find out what aspects of life-understanding are relative, which are identical everywhere.
- Enhance your understanding of business by working in various company cultures /scales / industries / geographies
- Meet some people with interesting stories, and see how these interesting stories can turn into ordinary ones when you are with 15 other strangers from all around the world
( ~ )
- Get used hear different languages around. Switch to French when you just start feeling comfortable with Spanish
- Get addicted to change
( - )
- Never own anything. Anything that does not fit into your luggage does not belong to you.
- Never get a senior job. 'till the time you get promoted you are already in another country / company.
- Can't have a close friend near you. 'All means none' in some cases, the more time you spend with new people, the less close friends you make.
- The hassle of moving multiplied by a thousand
- Get used to being a stranger / foreigner, get familiar with registration and immigration offices, have contact with few local people,
The Best Restaurant in Brussels
Nothing could make me happier! There is a Chilean restaurant just by my house, in which an old man plays guitar and sings all night long. Oh... Such a relief... If I were to ask only one single thing from God, that would be something similar I guess.
They cook real good... Dunno about all the menu, but the Argentinean Steak is 'perfecto'. Also, There's a family serving inside the restaurant. You can see the little boy crying and asking his juice to be replaced by Coke, or a daughter serving, a father playing and singing, and a mother smiling and talking to the customers if they like the food. That's life.
It has been three weeks in Brussels. For me, this is the most beautiful place of Brussels.
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