IMPROPER VARIETIES OF CULINARY HERBS FOUND WITHIN THE WORLD SPICE MARKET

In the recent course of events, I came across to an advertisement online, showcasing a new crop laurel leaves, accompanied by a captivating photograph. Swiftly discerning, however, that the offered product was not the true laurel leaves renowned for their culinary employment.  To be precise, the accurate nomenclature is "Laurus Nobilis L." in the realm of Latin botanical classification, and it is rigorously harvested within the Mediterranean costal areas. This botanical treasure is mostly encountered in Turkey and we are the principal purveyor to the world market.

Journeying back in time, I reminisce about an occasion when I was strolling amidst the alleys of the AL RAS trade market in Dubai. This sparkling area is now hosting to a big assemblage of global merchants, each displaying their merchandise upon shelves, close to a veritable but much more vibrant international exposition and trade centre.

As expected, the majority of these traders are from the Indian subcontinent, having an important knowledge in the art of commerce.

But when it comes to the products beyond their trading knowledge there may be a problem. I saw rather bothered the very very low grades of Turkish dried fruits on the shelves.

And l came across, within a commodious sack resided verdant leaves labelled as laurel (Bay) leaves, though distinctly different in essence from the genuine laurel plant that we supply. Engaging a discourse with the vendor, I endeavoured to elucidate the mistake but I have been defeated by  the lack of knowledge before me. My endeavours proved futile against his strong conviction in the authenticity of what he was offering.

In a separate juncture, an inquiry for thyme arised from a country from an Eastern Europe. Turkey handle an array of wild thyme variations, particularly flourishing in close proximity to its seashores. Having an accumulated legacy of 43 years in the industry, our quality department staff and our workers know them very precisely and can distinguish them easily all. Our prospective buyer requested a sample for Thymus Vulgaris -which is very common in Turkey-. The exportation reaches over 1500 tons every year.

To our surprise, our sample was rejected because of DNA discrepancy and  tests results done by TLC /HPLC.

Another experience that we had in the past was in cistus leaves. Cistus are extensively used as herbal tea in the world. There are also some minor pharmaceutical usage . The laboratory who tested our lot found %20 marjoram leaves mixed in it. We couldn’t convince our buyer informing that there is no any marjoram farming in Turkey. Moreover the price of marjoram is at least two times more expensive if not three. Luckily we succeeded to sell the lot to another buyer nearby and get rid of the trouble.

Some importers may not have broad knowledge on botanical varieties of the plants they are handling. At this point the expertise of the supplier, the producer and the exporters become crucial.

Avram Aji

30.08.2023

HUMAN RIGHTS

 From the moment of our birth, we're taught the principle of human equality. We're told that both women and men hold equal status and possess the right to live with dignity. We're also reminded of the rights of animals and the importance of conserving nature.

Ironically, the reality of our lives often contradicts these principles. The survival of larger fish hinges on the existence of smaller ones, as illustrated in Lafontaine's well-known fable, which imparts the message that "might is right."

Presently, the sustenance of the global population, numbering eight billion, relies on a staggering 34 billion livestock. This sustenance necessitates the use of billions of tons of chemical compounds like fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and insecticides, and involves excessive irrigation that disrupts the natural water cycle.

It's a fact that humans are inherently unequal, and the preservation of animals and plants is equally vital. Even before humanity's emergence on Earth, there was a constant struggle amongst various animal species. Human beings aren't solely responsible for the extinction of creatures such as mammoths, bisons, dinosaurs, and countless other species.

Disparities among students are glaringly evident in university entrance exams. I personally knew a considerate classmate who excelled in these exams through rote memorization of textbooks.

In my secondary school, only 50% of students graduated, and in high school, the percentage dropped to 30%, leading to the expulsion of many students.

In summary, the reality remains that human equality is an ideal rarely achieved. Despite the eloquent phrasing of documents like the "Human Rights Declaration," which extol principles of honor, equality, and inalienable rights, and despite attempts to curb the power of monarchs through documents like the "Magna Carta Libertatum" and events like the French Revolution, the outcomes have often fallen short.

AVRAM AJI

26.08.2023

EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL LEARNING

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has stated in one of his recent speeches that it is obvious that evolution will continue for all species that continue to reproduce. There will be more mutations, and the fittest will continue to survive.

However, we know that the world's chicken population is 33 billion, while the populations of pork and cattle are close to 1 billion each. These figures show us that these animals, in total, are four times more populous than humankind is. Despite this, none of them is on an evolutionary track. We only select the more productive breeds.

The saying "big fish eats the small fish" implies that the goal of the small fish should be to become a big fish as soon as possible and before becoming prey.

There is a slight conflict between Dawkins' argument on reproductive activity and the feeding habits that we have.

Some monotheistic religions encourage, and even sanctify, having as many children as possible. We may believe to this as a support to the divine evolution process.

Currently, the top 10% of the world's population holds 85% of the world's total wealth.

What's worse is that this imbalance continues to deteriorate in contrast to the poorer counterparts, with the top 10% becoming even wealthier.

How can we secure a place within the top 10%? Are these top 10% of people more evolved than the remaining 90%? We know that the size of our brain is very similar among all individuals.

At this stage, I would like to introduce you to evolutionary biologist Kevin Laland, who emphasizes the importance of social learning abilities in living creatures. If we are not innately very talented, our struggle will rely solely on social learning.

AVRAM AJI

25.08.2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INDUSTRIAL BATTLE AND THE POWER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

 I AM READING the very knowledgable book of Neil deGrasse Tyson "STARRY MESSANGER" where this scholar emphasize the power of the upcoming quantum computers and advanced programs . 

Human losses in traffic accidents  every year reaches 1,3 million already. This is cathastrophic number. When the new generation of self driving cars and trucks will replace human drivers, this cathastrophy will be eliminated in a large extent.

Which countries and companies in the world are investing on a self driving vehicles? Amazon - Jeff Bezos , Alpabet Google -Lary Page ,Sergei Brin , Sundar Pichai and Apple -Tim Cook are on the top along with Toyota.

Isn't it very strange that the gigantic automotive sector falls behind of the IT companies? These companies are very rich and can spare large amount of money to researchs on various sectors. Moreover the industry needs more advanced sensing technology and elaborate the big data recieved by them and  take action much faster in new vehicles.

THE NAVIGATION system that we are using nowadays is created two dimensional incorporating lively the traffic population and suggesting us instantly the fastest route we need to take. But still is not working very accurate . On the road a new congestion appear and the estimated journey timeline may fall well behind. Computerized traffic lights does not solve either the congestions on rush hours in big cities.The commuting time is getting bigger and bigger even with public transportation wasting our precious time.

Needless to say the three dimensional information data and instant information flow which the autonomous vehicles needs must be millions fold bigger. 

Avram Aji

08.07.2023

HOUSING AND HEALTH CARE - THE TWO MAJOR DEAD END SOCIAL WORK

TO SUPPORT CITIZENS OF LOW INCOME all governments are putting their utmost efforts to keep interest rates of morgages at the lowest level possible and longer matırity. In Turkey we hardly got 10 years of maturity in some banks. But we know in USA is as long as 30 years. Housing is an activity which promotes the construction industry. Also reduce the unemployment rates. Those who are in a dire situation need more care from the government.

I WAS AMAZED to hear that in Singapore the government give a house to the young citizens for free according to their needs. For instance if you are married have children you get a bigger house with more rokms while a single will acquire a smaller house. But how this all-important support be evenly distributed among citizens in the need? You may be a children of a very rich family. 

Finland has implemented a number of programs aimed at improving the housing situation for its poor citizens. These include subsidizing rents, providing grants for renovation and maintenance of housing, and providing free housing for those in need. The government has also made a commitment to build more affordable housing and provide incentives for developers to build affordable housing.

South Korea has implemented several policies to improve the housing situation for its citizens. These include providing low-interest loans for housing renovation and construction, expanding rental assistance programs, and providing tax breaks for homebuyers.

THE INCENTIVES GIVEN to citizens for housing are very important but its location and floor space is also very difficult to consider ,acknowledge the need and satisfy the people. 

ONCE YOU OWN one room cosy flat you start thinking a for spacious one , closer to your work, or other family members, or a tiny house with a small garden in front, When you marry and have babies one room flat is no more sufficient.. This is an endless series of needs and expectations. 

HEALTHCARE IS ALSO is now considered as a human right. But who will pay it expenses? At what extent the tests, CT scans, MR scans any many other investigations will be done? What will be the frequency and the coverage of routine check ups? This has no end , moreover very costly day by day?

Mostly from the very first day that you start working , an automatic - so called all inclusive-  healthcare system come into force legally in most worldwide countries. Everyboday has to pay a percentage of his salary to this general healthcare system... But than why and how private health insurance system works? Why  the public healthcare is unable to cover all the immediate needs. The sad outcome is that riches have more chance to get a better healthcare and live more.

Avram Aji

27.01.2023

QUESTIONS QUESTION QUESTION, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?

I am now 70 years old. During the last three years we had two health issues in our family . I am glad that both my wife and I recovered totally .Staying at home long hours during Covid pandemic also has changed our lifestyle involuntarily. On the other side my passion for reading turned to a more inquisitorial side on what is life, why we are living , is the life has a meaning, are we living according to that purpose?

I found many books of Lenoir where I found some of the answers of my questions thus I created this summary including my thoughts as well.

We have not decided to born into this world , but we have to learn to live it as like to play a piano, or cooking , or sculpturing . 

Since the antiquity philosophers gave various answer on these questions. We too aren't we asking to ourselves on how we could be in peace with others and our self, how we should react against suffering and disasters, how we can recognize our self, how we can solve our contradictions? How we can obtain our internal freedom? How can mute our internal voice? How we can love? How we can attain a long term happiness? How we can achieve success in our social relationships and material acquisitions?

There are so many tangible books and YouTube videos that there is no need that I quote them over here to you. My aim in writing this essay is to point it out few of these that I am mostly finding very important to carry out a good and meaningful life.

I faced all kind of troubles in my life that you cannot even imagine. When I start to examine about on what happened to me I am always thinking on at what stage I made mistakes. Needless to say without "if" s without blaming others. I am pretty sure that if we face again same situation we will react similarly because our past experiences and existing knowledge will not allow us to react differently. You can name it as destiny our coincidence... What is important is to take lessons from our experiences and do not repeat our past faults and wrongdoings.

Many of our surrounding people blame others to whatever evil they experience to find internal serenity. If they are unemployed it is governmental fault , if they could recover from an illness is the fault of the doctor, if they lost at a law court the judge is guilty or the lawyer, in every car accident the faulty is always the other driver. If they football team lost the game the umpire is very bad. 

You encounter so many people of such behavioural style in your daily life. As these people do not have any activity to rectify themselves they cannot be happy in their life neither can emit happiness to others.

We do not have to blame ourselves for all the troubles we encounter, neither  hold responsable others nor to strive to please everybody. Where can we find equilibrium?

At the entrance of the Delphi temple during the ancient Greek period it was written NOSCE TE IPSUM "know yourself". We need to know ourselves , we need to explore the real truth which is very important not only for ourselves but for all the humanity.

Meantime the truth itself is changing permanently.

Before we go on further let us first find answer, a definition on what is life . We denominate a living creature to any formation who can move with his own willpower , reproduce himself and those who have the ability to control his living activities. All the plants and eukaryotes too are within this scope although their movement ability are very restrictive.

The signals sent by our senses make us to notice that we are living. If we don’t see, smell, feel , hear and taste we can not discern that we are moving hence living.

We live our life in our brain. Moreover in our mind. By remembering all the memories that it is recorded into our mind, makes us to realize the notion of the past and the future , thence the time . 

Our memories create awareness that we live. By remembering the past and our accumulated memories , reveal that we have a beginning. And while we are living we learn that our life also has an end. Death is a phenomenon that we cannot accept. We always think about that our life and living is very precious. In reality, our life has no value. The most precious for us the life our belowed persons and living creatures in our surrounding. Losing them  give us a big sorrow . 

After a death only remains a stack of dry bones.

Has the life a purpose, are we living according to this purpose?

Sometimes by looking to the end of an effort, we may understand the purpose of an endeavour. 

Let's image for a person who endeavour to construct a building and when he finishes he starts to live there than we can say that all the efforts spent by him was to build a house for him.

But the end of our life is death. In addition, death does not give us a clue on the purpose of life and living. Might it be all remaining after our death be the purpose of life. 

What precious things remain after our death? Children we raised, pieces of art, some inventions, useful foundations.

I like very much this French proverb. ״What is crowning an endeavour is the end".

A child, creation of a very similar creature of our self , biologically is the most important outcome of our life. It is also admirable that our children have also the ability recreate their children.

What we call a living being is a biological program that is working incessantly, an algorithm sorted by a molecular scale. Reproduction process is a very big and complex program. Imagine that coded onto 23 DNA molecules this program is producing by order, in 40 weeks from hair, to our heart, from our eye retina to our liver, our kidney.

Is this program is ameliorating itself -like machine learning process of today- in every reproduction process? It is not be possible to observe and verify this process within our lifetime. But what Darwin and his successors is advocating the evolutions and natural selection in their theory. During the symbiotic reproduction process  parental chromosomes are coupling to create the most excellent child possible. The probability to transfer a genetic disorder is diminishing in every reproduction process.

As a benchmark we can take the world most complex machine - a Boeing 737 jumbo airplane-  which contains 4 million components while our body contain 17 billion cells. I think this comparison is demonstrating how far we are yet to produce complex forms.

Moreover we do have the ability to run our reproduction program -although unconscious- as many times we want.

What we admire such as Mona Lisa painting can not create another one or The 9th symphony of Beethoven can not compose the 10th.

Is the world move forward to a good and excellency or are we creating our extinct. When you start following  the TV and other social medias you just encounter news about disasters. Today in Izmir there was no any car accident or no earthquake has no informative value.

Vaclav Smill have many books on this subject. Even the TV's or social medias  do not tell us , the amount of people in hunger or without any kind of shelter is diminishing, literacy is increasing, longevity is rising, working hours diminishing, health  are improving.

To my opinion, the increase of the world population is the most realistic indicator. The world population was 1,7 billion at beginning of the XX century. Now in 2022 the population surpassed 8 billion. How on earth the population increased by 5 fold . 

The widespread environmental pollution , the access to a potable water and healthy foods, humanistic housing problems stem from this extreme speed of accelerated world population. I would like to draw your attention for not to be duped of myriad conspiracy theories at the social medias but search scientific and academic data’s.

As from the begging of our life , our close neighbourhood impose to subscribe ourselves into a certain ideology and connectedness. Some wants us to be communist , or socialist or nationalist , religious , fan of a certain soccer team, or political party. When we are young we embrace social problems putting aside our troubles and our life.

On the contrary our impact to major social problems is too little. Today's war in Ukraine , or the deadlock in the Middle-East, autocratic regime in some countries, high unemployment , environmental pollution , inadequate and lack of education are challenges that have to be managed at governmental level. Our personal contribution can only be very limited.

WHAT IS EXISTANCE ?

Cündioğlu says that existence and entity are totally different notions. Living is an art. Existence has a beginning and an end.

An entity is identified as infinite. There is no way that we as a human to understand infinity. Maybe the capacity of our memory is not as big to comprehend.

The notion of existence in fact,  a beginning evoke many questions over genesis. Many thoughts over genesis , interpretations, descriptions are shaped under traditions , concepts starting from our parents, later on by school friends, relatives , friends and nowadays the social media of the internet. The imposed model of genesis , or presented any idea differ from person to person where who belongs. For instance, the meaning of life according to a religious person is serving to God. But the view point of a scientist may interpret od describe, the purpose of life as reproduction endeavour.

What we say a living creature is in fact an enormous running program, an algorithm of myriad lines. Moreover it runs all along our life time. This unconceivable program is transferred by a  by tiniest gametes.

Nowadays the most advanced aircraft Boeing 737 mounted of 4 million parts. On the other side in a living human there are 37 trillion cells. From that point of view, we can realize how we fall behind in science.

Moreover this running program has the ability also to transfer the recreation skill that we own.  Admirable excellence of Mona Lisa painting do not have the ability to create another masterpiece. Neither Beethoven's famous 9th symphony cannot create the 10th.

DOES  LIFE HAVE MEANING ?

Lenoir says "The meaning of life is the meaning that we give it".

FAKİRLER NEDEN FAKİRDİR

Fakirlik sorunun sebebi zenginler değildir. Demokratik devletlerin yönetim biçimleri fakirliği yok etmeye yetmiyor. Zenginler ve aşırı zenginler elbette kendi çıkarları doğrultusunda hareket edeceklerdir. Kendi servetlerini koruma içgüdüleri olması çok doğaldır. 

Fakirlerin de temel ihtiyaçlarının karşılanması çok gereklidir. Hatta insanlık hakkıdır. Ancak temel ihtiyaçların da sınırı yoktur. Örneğin barınma ihtiyacı olan birine ev verebilirsiniz. Ama neredeki ve ne büyüklükteki ev verilecektir? Çalışılmadan  verilen şeyler insanı tembelliğe de yöneltir. Çalışarak ev almış birinden nasıl ayırd edileceklerdir.

İnsanlar, becerileri ve zekaları doğrultusunda biyolojik olarak (istemesekte ) düşükten yükseğe bir yelpaze içerisinde yer alır. En üst seviyedekilerin doktor , mühendis olmaları , bilimsel çalışma yapabilme kapasitelerinin yüksekliği normaldir. En yetenekli çocukları en iyi okullara gönderirseniz başarı oranınız yükselir. Ama sosyal dengeyi daha da bozucu bir sistem yaratırsınız.Günümüzdeki sistem budur. Aslında bir okulun veya bir öğretmenin başarısı yelpazenin en altında olanları eğitmek, onlara beceri kazandırmak olmalıdır.

Orta ve alt katmanın hem motivasyonunun arttırılması hem de pozitif ayrımcılığa tabi tutlması şarttır. Sınavlarda iyi puan alamamış , okulda başarı derecesi düşük olanların üzerinde çalışılması , onların üzerinde yoğunlaşılması gereklidir. 

Zengin bir ailenin çocukları evlerinde çocukluklarından itibaren para yönetimi, yatırım, girişimcilik , ticaret , kar , zarar, insan kitlelerinin yönetilmesi gibi konularda ister istemez haberdar olur. Hayata daha üst basamaklardan başlama , çevreleri dolayısıyla sıçrama yapmaya daha yakındır. 

Düşük gelirli memur çocuklarının girişimcilik ve risk alma  yetenekleri gelişmemiştir. Hayata alt basamakta  başlama durumundadır. İşi kaybetmeme uğruna üst yöneticinin eziyetine katlanma durumunda olduğunu hisseder.

Avram Aji

15.12.2022