Turkey and Greece

You know you're an IA major when...

you cringe overhearing a conversation that goes like this:

girl 1: "ugh I hope we don't have to know the weird little countries like [significant pause to search a map on her screen]... with hesitation, Turkey?

girl 2: "yeah... Turkey & Greece aren't very important"

me: [said to my table] "Turkey & Greece aren't little and they're very important, I cringe at people's conversations sometimes."

C[my friend]: "yep, me too"

girl 1&2 continue their geography quiz debacle. Might I mention it made it really hard for me to focus on my research of Gender Disparity in India's Education. 


I've attempted to write my commentary on this conversation multiple times, with every attempt I sound more and more pompous and snooty. So, who cares. my blog. my snooty.

1. Turkey is a highly controversial and significant country in the world. It's economically more suited to follow european precedents and institutions yet socially it's more inclined to interact with the MENA (middle east north african countries). Some people hope that it will be crucial in bringing about social reforms to the middle east region while others see it as a threat to "european culture."  Turkey has taken steps to enact the 10s of thousands of laws to obtain membership to the EU (which requires a unanimous vote... which no one expects to see anytime soon)

2. GREEK FINANCIAL CRISIS. it's literally in every newspaper. every day. All of europe will be to differ in saying greece is unimportant. Greece is at the center of a european financial crisis. yep, european. Since europe's economy is so interconnected through the tons of boring EU institutions in the last 50 years. It means what happens in greece adversely affects - France &Germany- luckily the UK's decision to keep European affairs and British affairs separate has benefited them to no end this time.

That being said. My favorite thing in the world is to talk about things I know. Not because I know them but because it allows me to process all the info into words which commits it to memory and opens up space for new room. So i love questions. I love asking and answering questions.

I LOVE LEARNING. #nerd