Hello all,

Welcome back to the issue #2 of Thought Box. I am very happy to see you here, joining me in this week’s issue. Now we are 25 people, who is reading this and I wasn’t expecting this amazing support from day one. I can’t thank you guys enough and I hope you will continue enjoying this newsletter.

Unfortunately, that’s all the good news that I have. We had very tough and gut wrenching week. Turkey was hit by two devastating earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 in the southeast region. I spent all the week in front of the screen and trying to spread the word but there are only finite amount of things that you can do. So I was even unsure to write about this issue but then I thought I can make this issue completely about earthquake special edition.

I am writing this newsletter from the Oslo-Bergen night train, currently it’s 2:46 AM, complete darkness, just me and my tablet - and my thoughts, of course.

We have a lot to cover so without further ado, let’s just start, shall we?

⬇️ Earthquakes knocks down many lives in Turkey 🙏☹️

theemredanisan

A post shared by Emre Danışan | İtalya | Gezgin | Mühendis (@theemredanisan)

Turkey was hit by two devastating earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 in the southeast region. Over ten cities have been severely impacted by this disaster, one of the worst in our country’s history. The current cold weather makes the situation even more critical, and the people in affected areas desperately need help.

This earthquake is the worst event that happened in our 100-years history of Turkish Republic. The numbers are overwhelming and hard to grasp. But for those who are new to the topic, here are some official numbers(as 13.03.2023):

29605 people died,
80278 people injured,
6444 identified collapsed buildings,
10 affected cities with casualties
13 million affected people

➡️ I am NOT looking forward to see this again!

Okay, let’s talk real here. This is a huge tragedy and thousands of people lost their lives, critically injured, lost some relative or family member, or simply lost their whole life. There is no need for sugarcoating. We are hurt, we are sorry. Yet again, I was incredibly greatful to see and experience the Turkish hospitality, the kindness, the helping each other, all the good bits. But there are plenty of things that I am NOT looking forward to see again:

Let’s start from the top of the hierarchy: Saying “Everything is great”, when nothing is great. There is nothing great, not even good. We need to accept our flaws, we need to respect people’s losses and help them. Accept the situation as is. Accept it and move forward to make it better. Nothing will be great, if you just say “Everything is great”
Second thing is Twitter or let’s say as accessing to the Twitter. Without Twitter and people’s effort on it, we will be in unimaginable mess. Everything is organized from there. People ask for help from there. People are learning and donating this cause from there. While everything is going from there, why you are restricting access to the Twitter. Just why? I bet, there is no single acceptable argument about this topic. This is the most absurd thing that can happen to our country. People are trying to access a webpage via VPNs and seek for help, while they are stuck under a collapsed building. I will never get this. I will never accept this.
Enough with this unsafe buildings, just enough. Turkey is literally in the middle of the earthquake zone, surround from edge to edge, from three sides and still we are talking about collapsed buildings which is 1 to 3 years old. As of today, well - technically yesterday, one of the constructor for 1000-people-population project, got arrested while he was trying to flee the country. Why? Because he build something so bad that those 1000 people now under the collapse building while they were sleeping. There is more, this building was only 3 years old and sold as “earthquake safe” buildings. Okay, it is good that we arrested this guy, but be open and transparent about it. What will happen to this guy, what is going to charged with, how he will pays his unacceptable mistakes and blood of those 1000 people?
Since day zero, everyone is screaming about something similar: “We have resources but we are not able to operate it efficiently.” Since day zero, there is a disorganization in the zone. Who is handling what? Which team works where? Which district needs which supplies? Nothing. Just chaos. Keep in mind: While we are trying to solve things on the ground, every second people are trying to be alive under that rubble. Why soldiers or police arrived so late? Speaking about soldiers, and police; I can’t express my anger and my hatred on those who tried to loot buildings, attack to donation trucks to loot the donations. How?! Why?! There is too many hateful words that I am keeping reserved for them but I am just wishing for them to be caught quickly and face the true tragedy of their own.
Last but not least, I am not looking forward to experience this again. please. Let’s listen to the expert on their fields, gave them the budget they need. Help them in all ways.

Let’s focus on the value of the human life.
Let’s be rational.
Let’s be real.

⬅️ Throwback to 1999, when former-deputy prime minister about the earthquake

This will be closely related with the section above when I was talking about being honest with the mistakes and accept it as is. On 17 August 1999, a catastrophic magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Kocaeli, Turkey, causing monumental damage and 17,127–18,373 deaths1.

So this video is from that Golcuk earthquake. Here you can see, Mesut Yılmaz, the former-deputy prime minister is addressing the issues and accepting the flaws and the defeat. You know, winning or acting like winning is not everything. Sometimes you just need to accept defeat and seek for help, look out for better ways to resolve the problem. Especially, when we are talking about human lives. Time to remember and never forget this famous quote: “Earthquake won’t kill, but the building will.”

So the problem is very easy to address, even though it may take couple of years to fix it, it is the only way to do, and tackle this massive problem. You can’t swipe this under the rug. Let’s own our problem, listen to the experts of the field, and proactively working on it.

⬆️ Time for step up, cooperation, helping each other

Time for step up and being proactive on this cause. Turkey needs your help. As you read until here, now you know the real impacts and how many people is really affected by these massive earthquakes.

Luckily whole world is in our side and trying to help. Sending monetary and humanitarian aid from all over the world. You can also help too!

tugcedurak

A post shared by Tuğçe Durak (@tugcedurak)

You can use the link here and donate to this cause via AHBAP. AHBAP is a non-profit organization which is actively helping to the affected people since day zero and they have more plans to do in the earth quake zone such as:

Making container towns for the affected ones
Rebuilding schools
Rehab centers
Elder care centers
Student dormitories and many more.

ahbap

A post shared by Ahbap (@ahbap)

Well, here we are. We just completed the thought box. Thank you so much for joining me in this issue.

I really hope to see you in the future issues and in the better days. 🙏

Please feel free to reach to me from here or any social media. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram!

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Looking forward to seeing you on the next one!

Have a great week and more importantly - be safe,
Furkan

1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake

Issue #2 - Earthquakes | Help Turkey