Powergen Europe 2019 Paris

PowerGen Europe 2019 in Paris France

I attended the PowerGen exhibition and conference for the first time in 1996. It was organised in Madrid that year. Nearly 10 employees came from the Turkish USA joint venture Company. We went with the financial support of the American partner company. Academics that we sponsored came with us to the conference. We distributed company catalogs, books, manuals. The following year we went to Milan. In 1999, the Company closed down, and I started to do other things independently. In the following years, I participated by spending my own travel expenses out of my own pocket, in Cologne, Barcelona, ​​Amsterdam, Vienna, Milan again. Paris, France for the first time this year.
Our energy market employees come there. As you walk around, you encounter many people, you hear clear information or a lot of hidden things.
Names change places, names change jobs, you are promoted, there you learn, encounter, meet and congratulate. New technologies develop, new applications come, new experiences are shared.

My first visit to the city of Paris was in the summer of 1971. There was student's boycott in my university METU. I was in third grade. I had to do a summer internship. The rector's office announced a long break. I received 50% discount on Thy Paris round-trip ticket with the "student" certificate I received from METU. At that time, Thy could fly to Paris at most, there was no London flight. I went down from Rome to Paris Orly airport. There was no visa requirement. With a simple handbag in my hand I reached to Paris city center using the shuttle Bus. I reached the "gare de Nord" north train station on foot, then I bought train tickets for London. I had a train ride all night, I crossed Calais to Dover by ferryboat at midnight, then transferred to the British train and reached London. The money in my pocket is enough to reach Wolverhampton, the factory city where I would spend my summer internship. I gave my Last money for a week at the YWCA hostel. On the way back, I bought a plane ticket with my intern money. I didn't know there could be 2-3 airports in a big city. The plane left me at the LeBoujet airport, across the city of Paris. I crossed LeBoujet Orly from the ring road. I've barely reached the Orly to istanbul Thy plane.

Since then, it has never been possible to see Paris again. Fortunately for the first time this year, the Powergen Europe conference was held in Paris on November 12-13.
We boarded the Istanbul SabihaGökçen pegasus ps1135, and after the 3-hour flight of 737-800, we landed at Paris orly. We did not wait for the luggage because we had cabin luggage with us. The passport police stamped the entry to passports without asking too long. At the exit we boarded the OrlyDirect bus and paid € 12 per person. Within half an hour we came to the "gare de Montparnasse" train station in the city center by ring road. We walked long in underground tunnels up to the M12 subway line. We tried to get a train ticket from the machine. we got the ticket and took the M12 subway train. On the way the electricity was cut off, the engineer's apologetic sound was heard from the speaker, the electricity came shortly after, we continued on the road, after a while the electricity was cut off again. In the developed city of Paris, the electricity is cut off the subway. It was quite surprising, not anywhere else, not even us, but here in Paris. Anyway we went down to the metro at the last stop. We reached our hotel on foot, made registration, got our room. The life in Paris is expensive, hotels are very expensive. Smallish room, bathroom toilet. Breakfast in the morning is very simple. Everything is kept at minimum in all services facilities.
The following days we visited the city on foot, first on the banks of the river Saine, the Eifel tower, Chanzelize boulevard, Arc de Troiphe, Concorde square, Luouvre, Dorsay, NotreDame. We arrived at the hotel late by metro train. We walked a total of 16.5 km on Friday. We slept without fatigue. Saturday morning we started with the Egyptian obelisk in Concorde Square, SacraCoure, Louvre, Dorsay, NotrDame, Opera Garnier, Galerie Lafayette. 30 million foreign tourists come to Paris every year. The population of Paris today is around 6 million. As for so many tourists, the prices are getting too high. Pickpocket on the subway are very active. You better leave your passport in the hotel safe. Take very little cash and a single credit card with you, and store them in your inner pocket at the bottom of your bag with the zipper closed.

"PowerGen Europe" Conference Fair and Exhibition was held on 12-13-14 November 2019 in Paris (France). During the conference, we met, talked and exchanged information with many local and foreign energy professionals and employees. We watched presentations and followed presentations. many markets players from Turkey were public officials and private employees. In the exhibition hall there were serious well prepared ones as well as those who brought the fairy atmosphere completely, eating cocktails and disrupting the order, looking for drinks, and contemplating the scope of sightseeing and holiday shopping. In the afternoons, all types of drinks came out from bags, suitcases, boxes, everyone served drinks  to everyone.

Foreigners first asked me about our economy and investment environment. What can I say? The current practices in our country are contrary to them. Competition, rule of law, judicial independence, separation of powers issues are very clear in their countries. The investor parties  are no investors who come to these environments. Usually they feel reluctance, indifference towards our market. Those we have Spoken,  foreign investors have cautious attitude towards our climate to escape the risk, We have observed. Investment expectations can be perceived very differently in the future.

In the face-to-face meetings, there were a lot of first-hand market rumors. The time has passed, technology is finished, prices have remained very expensive, the old big fossile fuel  firms are out of business. There were people I knew from the old times, separated from the company, trying to get another place. Far Easters were very aggressive but they were speech-impaired. The Germans, the French, the Spaniards prefer to speak their own languages.

We sensed that our engineering companies were in shortage of funding. Most of them have changed ownership, projects have been cancelled, they have borrowed a lot and had to sell their majority shares to the companies they borrowed. Those who are still in business are having a hard time. There are many foreign finance groups to buy these precious companies with ready human capital.

With the customs walls, western domestic market demands are difficult to take in a competitive environment. There was a full introvert environment in the companies of the Mediterranean countries. It's very difficult to deal with a strangers.

The number of manufacturers and engineering companies in the exhibition were very low. Those who took part in the exhibition hall, those presenters at the conference and those who visited the exhibition are diminished in number. Investment potential in the fossil energy market has stopped. It's full with the software companies. Renewable energy equipment and software came to the foreground.

In the past there were free Internet-Cafes, now the internet is free to use wireless, already everyone has iPhone, free wifi is already standard in hotels.

The major US energy investors, the GT-ST (OEM) manufacturer and boiler companies, have lost interest in the market and their prices are now very expensive. There are similar equipment, products, facilities on the market at a much more reasonable price. You just do the basic design, the rest is easy. It is very difficult to get  business orders  in world markets with US prices.

Next year (2020), the PowerGen Europe conference and exhibition will take place in Milan, Italy on October 27-28-29. If you are working in the energy sector, We recommend you to participate. It is not always easy to find and talk with so many energy market companies, investors, financiers and top executives of international companies. We wish you all a nice week. With my deepest regards and respect.

Paris, 12-November 2019

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Haluk Direskeneli graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1973. Since his graduation, Haluk Direskeneli has been working mainly in thermal power plants / detail design, manufacturing, marketing , sales and projects in public, private sector and US-Turkish foreign partnerships (B&W, CSWI, AEP, Entergy). He has provided consultancy to local market, engineering companies, investors and universities in thermal power plant design software. He is a member of Energy Commissions of MMO and METU Alumni Association.

Pickpockets in Paris

Pickpockets in Paris

On Saturday, November 9, 2019 in Paris, we left our hotel for siteseeing. We arrived on foot to the "Mairie D'Issy" metro station, 1-km away. We took the subway train. We would go to the SacraCoure chatedral in Paris city center. We purchased our tickets' 1,90€ each one way. I wished to pay cash when I opened the wallet. Cashier doesn't accept cash. He wanted a credit card. My son paid tickets with his own credit card. At one time in metro trip, My wife found the environment too hot, she stood up and took off her uniqlo feather-filled vest. She was standing next to her purse. She put the iphone in his bag. Then she sat down. My backpack was always in my lap with the zippers closed. We got off the train.
I wanted to put my backpack on my back. I found Two zippers open. I closed the zippers and continued. We stopped at a bakery (bulangerie) as we walked along the road. My son came in and asked for a donut sandwich, and My wife wanted to pay for it. She took her wallet out of her purse, opened it, no money. Money in her purse was stolen,  around 200-300 €. The purse was empty. We panicked. We thought it was stolen before in the hotel room. However we recalled that The cash money stood in the purse  when buying subway  tickets.
In subway car, a young woman in front of us was sitting with big bag in front to distract attention. She pushed the bag forward and appearently she emptied our bags at the bottom. My wallet was also emptied, gone at € 10.
In the zippered eye of My wife's  bag, there were cash 1000 € in a nylon bag.
Fortunarely That cash money was not stolen.
Every year 30- million tourists come to Paris. Paris's population is only 6 million. Pickpocketers are teenagers, they are mostly children of Eastern Europe.
Parisians spot the wrongdoers immediately, and they take precautions.
Captured child age thieves are released soon, since they are protected by law due to  their young age, so there is no way to punish them. It is estimated that each one of them can steal 4000€ per day. Total theft is estimated to be around 3million € per year. Throuma and theft shock on tourists are not so easy to heal.
The next day there was a similar situation on another subway car, this time My wife noticed earlier, the pickpocket was another young woman with a big bag in front  her, pushed towards us. Hands from below met to each other. They take only money from the wallet. We need to keep the money and passport in the inner zip pocket or leave it at the hotel, and watch out and be very careful in Paris subways.

Paris 18- November 2019

Languages

Spoken languages ​​of the Prince islands in istanbul

In Büyükada Bazaar selfservice Köşem restaurant indoor space at deep left corner  tables in the afternoons, Safarad Turkish ladies come and take a long table. They  choose simple vegetable dishes. The meals are simple, they are reasonably priced and delicious. They speak among themselves first in Turkish, then in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino). Then the conversations return to the high school French of the educated prestigious Dame DeSion. The grandchildren come to pick them up in the evening, and the grandchildren speak in New York english dialect, which we hear in the movies.
The staff of the restaurant can speak very fluent Turkish besides Arabic, Kurdish, Persian and even Russian and English when needed.

One of the rare places of Prince Islands that have been rescued from the Middle Eastern tourists, the Beach Horoz Cafe is the place where the old islanders play  bridge and you can hear various languages ​​at the tables. Upper income groups prefer the Büyükada Anatolian club.

Australian-New Zealand English accent  is said to be influenced by immigrants of the 18th century, while the English accent of Americans was influenced by the 17th century. Canadian Quebec French is also different from the French modern accent. The pre-revolutionary 17th century Quebec French has old words.
Brazilian Portuguese spoken and today's language in Portugal are quite different.
Latin America Mexico and Spain are also very different in modern spoken languages.
The Eshkenaz Yiddish language is a medieval German-Slavic accent.
When I hear Yiddish, I feel that German is spoken.
Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Bulgarian, Gagauz Turkish are very different from each other, but you will soon understand and get acquinted with.

We have a Safarad Jewish Turkish friend who spent summers on the Prince islands, whose family fled from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and came to Istanbul by ship. After graduating from a French high school in Istanbul, my friend graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Business Administration. He speaks Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) in his family atmosphere at home, he learned Turkish at school and then French, and English, he speaks all of them excellent.
A high school colleague who does similar business says, "Let us go to Spain together, help me to negotiate and I pay our business expenses, and you will benefit from it". He has never been to Spain until then. They get on a plane and go to Spain together.
The next day they go to the company where they will partner, negotiations begin in the meeting room, they speak French and English. While the Spaniards talk amongst themselves, my friend looks as their conversations similar to Ladino in his own home environment, he understands everything. He is encouraged at dinner and starts to speak with his Spanish partners in their language. The Spaniards are very surprised. In his speech there are old spanish words used in very old times. Spaniards learned these words in their own literature classes, but they no longer use them in daily life. Cervantes DonQuiote says these words, "we understand, but in everyday life we ​​use these words, not those words". When the Spanish language is spoken, the harsh atmosphere of the business environment passes and the agreement is made easier.

In recent years, the Spanish parliament passed a new legistlation for those with Safarad Jews heritage  whose ancestors left the country in the 15th century. The  Safarad Jews fleeing the inquisition now have the right to be granted Spanish citizenship again. Many well-educated Turkish Safarad Jewish business people who documented their status through synagogue records became dual citizens by taking advantage of this right and hence they obtained the right of free movement between European Union countries. They easily passed the basic Spanish language requirement thanks to their Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) they spoke in their family.

We went to Syria many times between 1990-1994, we made offers on behalf of our Turkish-US joint venture company, we received orders, we did business and we earned money. Our local representative in Damascus was the grandson of an Armenian family who immigrated from Kahraman Maras in Turkey before 1915. They came to Damascus without much influence from the war, they settled, established business, became rich. The mother of our Syrian representative, mother Maria invited us to her house for dinner at the end of our first trip. With her two helpers, she prepared us a table consisting of very rich Levant Armenian cuisine. She spoke to me in fine kind old Turkish, which she learned during her childhood. She spoke very nice and polite with the old Turkish words that we read in our literature books but which we no longer use today. I listened without interrupting, I wanted her to talk a long time. On the last day of each my visit to Damascus, my hosts mother Maria  set me up at the table in her home. She shared the good old days, her childhood, her Maraş memories. Now those good old days no longer exist. Relations with Syria need to improve again, and it takes decades to repair for trade to be made.

Languages ​​are great wealth that brings people closer.

Prinkipo, 07 November 2019

Biennial

16th Biennial on the Prince Islands in istanbul

Within the scope of the biennial, activities and art exhibitions were held in Istanbul Pera Museum, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum. The Nakkaştepe Abdülmecit Pavilion exhibition was very interesting with its hyper-realist works.

Biennial events were organized for the first time in 2015 on the Prince islands. It is not  held  in 2017. This year, between "September 14-November 10, art events were held in five different venues in Büyükada. Many local and foreign art lovers came to the Princes' Islands (Büyükada) to visit the artistic creations.

Kadıyoran Taşmektep (Stone house palace) garden was full of visitors all day long. Tour groups, curious individual visitors came. The sound installation by Hale Tenger in the garden was very interesting. Volunteer guides informing the guests of the venue, said that the number of daily visitors is around a thousand. Taşmektep was built in 1870 -1880 years. It was used as a summer house by the archbishop of Alexandria Sofronios until 1922. Certainly Sofronios wanted to take office at the Fener Patriarchate in Istanbul, but he always kept a place in Istanbul. He escaped from the hot summer months of Egypt and took refuge in the cool house of Buyukada. At that time, the luxury cruise ships from Alexandria to Istanbul carried Egypt's educated elite wealthy people here.
Taşmektep was designed by a French architect. The two-storey building on the back left, was given  to the housekeeper and the maids, behind which the barn was built.
Now these places are being used as private property, beautifully manicured summer  houses.
Taşmektep was abandoned in 1922 by the Archbishop, and used as a primary school until 1967 during the new Republic period. The children of the Kadıyoran slope, our cousins ​​who live in Büyükada in the summer, attended primary school here. Two floors with high ceilings and a basement. On top is a solid roof, made of thick outer walls. Very magnificent beautiful building was completely abandoned in the 1970s, furniture was removed, the building was evacuated, solid windows and windows were dismantled. The wooden floors of the building were rotten in time. Now walking around is very dangerous, the rotten wooden floor may collapse at any moment.
During the biennial we entered the garden of Taşmektep many times and talked to other visitors in the garden. What can be done in this beautiful building? I wish it was primary school again, if the playground was filled with children's voices. Whether it is a cultural center, or "literature house" can be a place to gather. As near Berlin Kudam, you can have a bookstore in the lower basement, a cafe in the garden, tea coffee pastry service, cafe on the lower floor, library on the upper floor. Who knows, maybe one day we can realise. This place should be used, let it work, own it, look it, repair it.
The important feature of the Biennial is the opening of closed private houses/ spaces throughout the year for the residents of the islands and the visitors coming from outside the island, creating the opportunity to visit these places. The gate of Taşmektep was closed all year, thanks to Biennalle, the garden was opened and the building was inspected from outside.

I always wondered about the Mizzi mansion with the tower on the way to Nizam. This year, thanks to the Biennial, it was possible to enter and visit. The restoration was recently finished by the new owners. The interior is very splendid with high ceilings. The front yard is beautiful. "Glenn Ligon" designs were exhibited here.

There was also a "Monster Chetwynd" installation in the front yard at the Hocopoulo manslon in the former district governor's office. We sat on the benches in the yard, it was very enjoyable. The building has undergone a new restoration. It was too old, I hope it would be nice. It is not yet clear what to use as then. This is a nostralgic place for the islanders. The district governor's court, population and health services were here. The building lived because it was used inside. We all had business there, we entered, we followed the business, we knew every floor and every place.
After the district governor moved from here, the building got old rapidly, the wooden floor rotted, it was dangerous to walk in.

Anatolian private club's first building was built in 1900 as an English sailing club. "Armin Linke and Ursula Ayer" artworks were exhibited in the yellow mansion. The upstairs sea view was great. The exhibition in the twin kiosk next door attracted visitors' attention. The second remaining behind the kiosk needs serious  maintenance repairs. We hope the money will be raised to repair soon. It is a great pleasure to sit outdoors in the garden of the Anatolian club and drink tea and coffee.

The "Andrea Zittel" arrangement, which was exhibited in the open space in front of the Atatürk statue, was the last stop for the visitors. Concrete rectangular work was interesting. Thanks to the Biennial, the Islands received visitors in many different profiles. Istanbul's educated academics students, youths flocked here.

The next Biennial will take place in October-November 2021, two years later. We got to offer to suggest suggesting new places for this biennial. The church gardens come to my mind,  also restored Armenian church, which had undergone a new resoration on Mehmetçik Street. Classical music concerts can be held here during the biennal. It could be the old Eyed Mason lodge on the way to the mine section. Famous novelist Resat Nuri Güntekin house or John pasha lodge. The Trochky mansion can be repaired and opened to visitors. Greek orphanage, Hristos Hill, Aliye Berger House, AyaYorgi Hill, Synagogue Garden, each with its own history.

The biennial must spread to other islands. Local people, retirees  living on the islands should be volunteer guides during the Biennial. In order to volunteer, you apply to iksv.org and send your resume to the Iksv website. You share your history with local and foreign visitors coming to the islands. As you know the islands, you are adding something from yourself.

It's nice to be in these beautiful places, to talk to visitors, to seek better for the islands, to seek solutions to problems. As the islanders, we must also contribute. We would like to thank the iksv foundation and Eczacıbaşı Group and the sponsor Koç Group for their support. Thanks to them, Istanbul has had a very nice event lasting two months.

Prinkipo, November 10, 2019