Women's Rights VS Women's Happiness

With the celebration of the 99th International Women’s Day last month, people were brought along to consider women’s issues. Is there a relationship between women’s rights and their happiness?

Firstly, the definition of “women’s rights” is essential. It refers to “freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages” such as the right to vote, to work, to get equal pay as men, to own property, to get education, to have martial, parental and religious rights. Specific indexes, such as “Gender Equality” and “Women’s Suffrage”, can be reflections of the general term.

Different people have different ideas about "women's happiness". However, based on the Gender-Related Development Index , measures of well-being include life expectancy, education, purchasing power and standard of living, research shows that the best countries to be a women are:

While the Ten Worst Countries for Women are Afghanistan,Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nepal, Sudan, Guatemala, Mali, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Somali.

This is a reflection of the happiest and least happy women in the world.

Among the top 10, Sweden is said to be a country in which women truly thrive. A 2005 report by the World Economic Forum found this Scandinavian nation to be the world's "most advanced country" for women, with greater levels of equality, power, health, and well-being among women than anywhere else.

This result is correspondent to Gender Equality ranking and Adults at High Literacy Level, in which Sweden is on top of the list.
In an overview of higher education in Sweden, it is said that the rapid increase in female students is one of the most striking phenomena in all higher education systems, which implies that more Swedish females have the right to obtain higher education, compared to other countries.

These are good examples showing that Sweden is definitely one of those countries in which women have the most rights. As mentioned above, the Gender-Related Development Index measured based on life expectancy, education, purchasing power and standard of living – the possible components of happiness for women – shows that Sweden is the 6th best country in this category.

In the case of Swedish women, seems like they do feel happier if they have more rights. Then do women feel unhappy when fewer rights?

According to a survey, the people least satisfied with their lives are those in eastern and southern Africa, where one-in-five have a negative view of the future. Nine out ten worst countries are Islamic countries, which means Islamic women are the unhappiest. They are treated as second-class citizens at best. For example, in Afghanistan, men can marry up to four wives and can easily divorce their wives without court proceedings simply by repeating "I divorce you" in the presence of two male witnesses.

To conclude the information above, there does exist a relationship between women’s rights and their happiness. Women in countries which provide them with more rights tend to be much happier than the women who have very few rights in other countries.

However, sometime as women have different definition about happiness, they may have different standards of expectation. Maybe other examples can be found that in some less developed countries, women still feel happy even though they have fewer rights than those who are in developed countries.

More Internet = More Democracy?

Since 1989 when Tim Burners Lee first invented the World Wide Web, the Internet has contributed enormously to communication development. Diverse forums, video sharing websites, blogs, etc. enable people to get their voices heard by a large number of others. It raises the question that is there a relationship between unrestricted use and available access of the Internet in a particular country and its level of democracy?

According to the “Democracy Index” complied by The Economist, based on the answers of the 60 survey questions, countries are classified into four groups:
1. Full Democracies (scores of 8 -10)
2. Flawed Democracies (scores of 6 - 7.9)
3. Hybrid Regimes (scores of 4 - 5.9)
4. Authoritarian Regimes (scores below 4)

“Internet access” can be defined as the percentage of internet users among the whole population.

The relationship will be evident if we compare the two major sources mentioned above. First, let’s take a look at the first 10 countries on the list of Democracy Index of 2008:
Now let's take a look at their percentages of Internet usage:I found it quite interesting that the top four countries on the list, i.e. Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands, are the same ones as those top four on Democracy Index, with a little difference in ranking. The similarity suggests that the relationship between larger Internet access and higher level of democracy can be true.I checked these countries from Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. It is not surprising that they have similar structures. In fact, these countries can be categorized into Scandinavian countries which have common Scandinavian cultural dimensions: relatively low power distance, extremely high individualism, extremely low masculinity and medium uncertainty avoidance.

When we take a look at the other end of the Democracy Index, they are mainly African countries, Middle East countries and some Asian countries. Checking the figures of their Internet coverage, most of these countries have really low Internet usage. In other words, the penetrations are mostly under 2%.

Democracy Index survey for 2008

Internet Penetration (% Population)

The two graphs listed above show similarities in those countries which have low democracy index and those which have very low internet coverage.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that, the higher the Internet usage is, the higher the democracy level is. Or the lower the Internet usage is, the lower the democracy level is.

Still, there are some special cases. For instance, Saudi Arabia (Democracy Index: 1.90, Authoritarian regime), the 7th least democratic country, has an Internet coverage of 26.8%, much higher than that of South Africa (9.4%). However, the South Africa (Democracy Index: 7.91) is actually categorized as a Flawed Democracy country. In spite of special cases like this, the relationship still generally exists.

Our Flags, Our Countries

It’s been a month since I arrived in Turkey. Time flies.

This is probably the quietest weekend that I’ve ever had here so far: sitting in the couch, drinking a cup of Turkish chai, on Sunday afternoon. Looking out of the window of my apartment in downtown Ankara, guess how many Turkish flags can I see? Nine. That was my first impression of Turkey – flags everywhere. And of course, pictures of Ataturk everywhere. Turks love their country, I think.

View from my balcony. Sorry that it's not big enough to see the Turkish flags.

I was amazed when I first arrived and saw so many Turkish flags. Apart from the flag poles either standing in squares or on top of buildings, small flags can be found in offices, restaurants, buses, cars or hanging from apartment buildings. Maybe it’s because this is the capital, I thought.

Being in the capital city of Turkey, as a Chinese, I can’t help recalling my memories of Beijing, the capital city of China. I visited Beijing 10 years ago for the first time, but I couldn’t remember that much because I was too young. I’ve always been longing to visit it again, and now I have fresh memories of it because I travelled there this January, just before I left Shanghai for Ankara.

Well, in Beijing, according to my memory, there were not as many flags as in Ankara. I had this kind of feeling because I paid attention when I am a foreign tourist and I don’t pay attention when I am a citizen? Hum, this may be part of the reason. Or maybe Beijing actually used to be like this in the first few years after People’s Republic of China was founded? But I think Turkish people and Chinese people are similar but just have different ways to show their love for country, in terms of national flags.

Instead of putting flags everywhere, we have the most significant flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square everyday at dawn, which every tourist to Beijing knows. For foreigners, even for some Chinese, watching this flag-raising ceremony can be a once-in-lifetime opportunity. I attended the ceremony once when I visited Beijing the second time. I think you cannot be called a real Chinese if you haven’t been to. I felt so proud to be a Chinese when I saw the flag raised as the national anthem plays.

Chinese Flag being raised at Tianmanmen Square. (I took this picture when I was at the ceremony)

When two countries are compared with each other, Hofsted’s five cultural dimensions is one of the mostly used methods. I learned about it in both “Introduction to Communication Studies” class, “Intercultural Communication” class and “Advanced Issues in Communication Studies” class, either in Hong Kong or Turkey.

Geert Hofsted has found five dimensions of culture, which is of great use when analyzing and comparing people in different countries, especially during cross-cultural communications. The five dimensions are:

1. Small vs. large power distance: the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.

2. Individualism vs. collectivism: the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.

3. Masculinity vs. femininity: the measurement of the value placed on traditionally male or female values.

4. Strong vs. weak uncertainty avoidance: a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.

5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation: the importance attached to the future versus the past and present.

Let’s see the index of China and Turkey based on research.

	Power distance	Individualism	Masculinity	Uncertainty avoidance	Long-term orientation
China	80	20	66	40	118
Turkey	66	37	45	85

Both Chinese and Turkish people rank high in power distance index, which means the less powerful accept power relations that are autocratic or paternalistic. I think this has a lot to do with the history of both countries. See what I found about the word “imperialism”: Imperialism in ancient times is clear in the unending succession of empires in China, western Asia, and the Mediterranean; Imperialism is most commonly related to historical content such as the ancient histories of Rome, Greece, and China. Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when I was visiting the Topkaki Palace in Istanbul. As I said in my last post, I found so many similar elements between the palace of Sultans and palace of Chinese emperors.

Both Chinese and Turkish people rank low in individualism. I think this also has something to do with the imperialism in ancient times, and in China I think the spread of Confucius has been playing an important role, as Confucian beliefs emphasize on collectivistic values.

The biggest difference between Chinese and Turkish people comes to uncertainty avoidance. Well, according to the figure, Turkish people tend to adopt strict rules, laws, policies, and regulations. I talked to one of my professors who is a specialist in Turkey studies, and he said that this is highly related to Islamic culture. Hum, that’s probably right. You see, Muslims pray five times a day, on fixed schedules, which shows that they have explicit rule on religious. I did a little research about this, and it’s not strange to find that all Muslim countries, such as Arab World, rank high in Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_arab_world.shtml).

See the Turkish flag? The crescent moon is a traditional Islamic symbol. See the Chinese flag? A big star circled by four small ones stands for the Communist Party is centered by people of all ethnic groups of the country. Isn’t that an interesting example of Chinese collectivism? Well, I think religion has a huge influence on a country’s culture.

Oh yeah, some of us exchange students are planning to go to a Hamam (Turkish bath) some day. It can be an interesting experience I guess, and maybe it can be a good opportunity to see real Turkish people’s life. But an exchange student from France said that none of his roommates (local Turkish students) have ever been to a Hamam.

Well, it’s kind of interesting that you may doubt whether they are real Turks or not, but I think this is understandable because usually local people wouldn’t do what tourists do, just like a lot of Paris citizens haven’t been up to the Eiffel Tower; a lot of New York citizens haven’t been up to the Statue of Liberty; a lot of Beijing citizens haven’t been to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag-raising ceremony… just because people are so close to it that they ignore the importance of it.

We plan to visit somewhere else next weekend. Alright, local Turkish people, any suggestions? You must have some ideas. If you haven’t been to the place we’re going to, maybe you can join us :)

Escape to Istanbul!

What is the best part of being an exchange student? Travelling! Yes, let's go to Istanbul! As I've heard hundreds of times from my Turkish friends that Istanbul is so much more fun than Ankara, the capital, all of us were extremely excited about the trip, although we read from the weather forecast that it might rain during the weekend.

Planning the trip is always of great importance, especially when you're travelling by yourselves. I agree that following a travel agency is much more convenient, still I prefer self-planned trip because for sure it is so much more enjoyable! Well, I'm kind of confident that I am a good trip planner and I had experience in planning trips to Guilin (a city in south China) last spring, to Thailand last summer, and Harbin and Beijing this winter. I was so concentrated when I was searching information beforehand that my parents joked that I should have majored in Tourism in university. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with doing research, right?

So 1:00a.m. Friday morning, we got onto the bus. It was raining in Ankara, as predicted, and the loud thunders with lightening scared us a little bit about the six-hour long night bus ride. Anyhow, all of us couldn't wait to see the historical Istanbul, no matter what weather it is.

7:00a.m., finally we arrived in the city. Good morning, Istanbul!

First impression of Istanbul? Nice weather! Seeing the clear blue sky, I knew that it was going to be a sunny day. Lucky us! Sorry, I'm not going to trust you any more, weather forecaster!

The hostel we booked online is located in Taksim, one of the most popular places where mostly young people go in central Istanbul. Hum, eight o’clock in the morning walking in Taksim Street just reminded me of walking in West Street in Yangshuo (a famous county close Guilin, China for backpackers). The two streets are similar in that shops, restaurants, bars, clubs, and hostels occupy both sides and make you feel busy checking them out. Well, there is always something similar among tourism spots, and you can tell that mostly young people are the target group because they’re the largest consumer group nowadays, I think.

It is not too difficult to get around in Istanbul with metro and tram, as written in some guide books. After talking to the nice people at our hostel, well, better keep to our schedule. Blue Mosque, first stop.

In Turkish, it is called Sultanahmet Camii (Sultan Ahmed Mosque), however, it is known as Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. This is my first time visiting a Muslim mosque, I paid a lot of attention to the architectural factors. Its design is the culmination of two centuries of both Ottoman mosque and Byzantine church development. It incorporates some Byzantine elements with traditional Islamic architecture and is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period.

Blue Mosque in Sunlight

A Muslim washing his feet before going into the Mosque to pray

Hagia Sophia, the next. From the Greek name "Ἁγία Σοφία", which means "Holly Wisdom", the cathefral is famous for its massive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and to have "changed the history of architecture."

Interior Hagia Sophia, emperors used to be crowned here

I know pictures are not enough. Hey, check this video.

Time for shopping! Destination Grand Bazaar! You will probably get lost here because it is almost a labyrinth. You can get everything about Turkey here, but usually you need to bargain to at least half of the price the shop owner asks. I like the bazaar because it is a good place for tourists to get souvenirs. On the other hand, I dislike it because local businessmen are too tricky on tourists that they make you feel uncomfortable. I’ve been to similar places in China and Thailand, it is almost the same situation as locals always want to cheat tourists and make money. But I think as long as you have the idea of protecting yourself, you can always get ideal souvenirs at reasonable prices.

Turkish carpets sold at Grand Bazaar

What can be the other interesting places to go on the second day in Istanbul? Topkapi Palace. It was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years of their 600-year reign, from 1465 to 1856. The Harem inside the palace, containing more than 400 rooms, were homes to Sultan, Valide Sultan, or Mother Queen, Sultan's concubines and wives, and the rest of his family. When I was visiting the Harem, I feel something similar between it and the Forbidden City in Beijing. Emperors, no matter in which part of the world, were always treated as the son of God and live a superior life. This is a kind of political revolution in human history that most countries have experienced.

Another video about Topkapi Palace and Bosphorus Bridge

See the nice weather in the video? You know what? We were so lucky because it started to rain when we took the bus back to Ankara, which means we avoided the rain luckily. When back to Ankara, my friend told me that it was not good weather in Ankara. Hum, we had escaped to Istanbul from the bad weather!

Good things must come to an end. As the Istanbul trip this weekend is quite short, we didn't have enough time to go to all attractions in the city. We know that there are way more to see, such as the Asian Side, the Prince Island, etc. And we understand that it takes at least one week to "study" Istanbul. Never mind, we know we will be back. Studying Istanbul is included in my study plan in Turkey.

Stay tuned for more exploration.

Global Warming? Truth? Myth!

If you easily believe that the global warming is the truth, you might lack the knowledge of the other side.

Let me recall since when I’ve heard so much of this phrase: global warming. Oh yes, for a few years already. For a certain period since I watched the movie The Day after Tomorrow (2004), there seems to be doubtless evidence supporting global warming theory. Five years later, another movie based on similar idea in climate change gets into the center of discussion – 2012 (2009).

Don’t be one of the global warming pushers. At least I don’t believe that the doomsday will come because of global warming. And I have my arguments.

No matter what figures you have showing that the average global surface temperature has increased since mid-20th century, it is only a little, zero point something, less than one degree Celsius. And don’t be misled by the so-called prediction that the earth surface temperature will continue to rise, even seriously, in the coming years.

Above all, it’s all about natural phenomenon. You must have learned about El Nino in your geography class. Right, it occurs once in a period of time, causing temperature increase in oceans as tropical trade winds actually reverse for a time. The resulting temperature changes cause severe storms, flooding and even draught on every continent on earth.

This provides an answer to the question that some people ask: why there are snowstorms although the earth is experiencing global warming. Because there is no global warming, El Nino is all natural. And it’s said that El Nino has been wreaking its havoc across the globe since long before man appeared.

To break the seemingly powerful evidence of the melting ice, there is a quite interesting argument. In 1914, Titanic crashed into a floating iceberg, which shows that ice has been melting before we had cars. Then where is the point attributing temperature rise to emission of car gases? I found the following graph which shows that there have been widespread temperature fluctuations throughout times.

Instead of “warming”, according to Scientific research through U.S. Government, satellite and balloon measurements shows that the temperature is actually “cooling” - very slightly - 0.037 degrees Celsius. This "cooling" trend has been most accurately documented over the past 18 years with modern science and improved equipment. Ironically, that's the same period of time when there are growing warnings of “warming”.

Since then, people get various suggestions about how to prevent global warming, such as saving energies. However, what seems funny to me is the assumption of being a vegetarian. How can you force people not to eat meat because animals release lots of carbon dioxide?

Isn’t that ridiculous? Well, you have your own ideas.

You're hi-tech, man!

When being a foreigner, everybody would face language problems unless you speak the language well, not to mention you do not understand it at all. Yes, that's true, I'm talking about myself. Here I am, in Turkey, knowing nothing about Turkish. Luckily, I can still survive, because there are some certain kinds of "languages" that humans share, such as music and smile. And interestingly, technologies help.

The 3rd day of arrival in Ankara, Erasmus Bilkent organized a trip to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations for us exchange students. When everybody was showing an expression of lost, Seyoong, one of the Korean exchange students, seemed to be quite confident after taking out his electronic dictionary and pressing several buttons. "You're hi-tech, man!" Seyoong got compliments on his "hi-tech" dictionary. The Korean looked happy.

The other day when several of us exchange students were chatting with each other about the food of our own country, I mentioned that Asian people eat a lot of rice and we use rice makers. Well, "rice maker" seems to be something new to a Slovenian girl because she couldn't understand how rice makers work. After I explained to her that this kind of technology makes rice-cooking so much easier, she commented, "You're lazy, man!"

I find it quite interesting that people have different views towards hi-tech. Well, I would say, we become hi-tech because we are lazy and we are smart.

One of the most powerful examples is vehicles and spacecrafts. Transportation nowadays is so much more efficient and more convenient than a few hundred years ago. Our ancestors would have never expected that centuries later, it now takes only a few hours to cover the distance which might took them a few months or even years.

They walked. We fly. They rode on horses. We ride in cars.

My Dad’s office is only 15 minutes’ walk from our house in Shanghai, but he drives everyday. Guess how much time does it take to drive? Ten minutes. The time used for starting the car, waiting for traffic lights and parking makes his car ride less enjoyable I guess. But he’s a typical lazy person, I think.

What makes it worse is that, a bunch of lazy guys like my Dad complain about the traffic jams without realizing that they’re actually among those who make the jams happen. Sadly, technologies make us lazier.

See what happens afterward? As people drive everyday, they lack exercises. Being fit, however, is what we generally pursue nowadays. Therefore, some people spare extra time and money for gyms. Huumm, maybe we’re easy to get bored of the most natural ways of exercises. Are we simply spending time and money for freshness? I hope not.

Hi-tech vehicles which really fly high in the sky appear in some scientific movies. Personally, I believe that is how the vehicles will look like in the future. Aren't you excited about this?

There’s no point criticizing being hi-tech nowadays, because we need technologies. What really matters is how you use them.

Endless Exploration

Two years ago, I left home for university. Goodbye, Shanghai! And hello, Hong Kong!

There is no doubt that Shanghai and Hong Kong are two of the most important cities in China, Asia or even in the world. Being two financial centers, they have similarities as well as differences. I feel proud that I can be part of the two, being both a citizen and an explorer.

To some extent, I may say, for mainland Chinese students, studying in Hong Kong is kind of similar to studying abroad. Although Hong Kong is returned back to China for more than 10 years already, the education system is still following the western style, which can be largely different from that in Mainland China. The biggest difference can be the teaching language, as we have classes in English, we do our assignments in English, and we mostly communicate with each other in English, especially when you talk to international or exchange students studying in the university.

Thanks to the internationalism of Hong Kong, I have made friends with people from all over the world: US, Canada, Australia, France, Sweden, Poland, etc. Not only have we established precious friendship, we also learned a lot about the culture of each other's country. I feel so proud that some of the international exchange students visited Shanghai during last Chinese New Year, and I acted as their guide. I feel great that I can introduce my own culture and at the same time getting to know more about the world.

Apart from the international friends from America or Europe, I met a lot of Mainland Chinese students as well. Students from all parts of China come to Hong Kong with the pursuit of first-class education. It's always a great feeling that I can meet people who have similar goals with me in a far-from-home place. Each year, there are around 200 Mainland China students enrolled in my university. We regard each other as life-long friends or even our own family.

I've always been looking for the similarities and differences between Shanghai and Hong Kong, and I think this should be my long-term work.

When I was with the other international exchange students in Hong Kong, I always told them that choosing Hong Kong for exchange life is the best choice ever. As Hong Kong has the mixture culture of East and West and it is located in the center of Asia, it makes their exploration much easier and more convenient, both culturally and geographically.

I have noticed that there are definitely better hardware facilities in Hong Kong than those in Shanghai. You can't deny that Hong Kong started de develop much earlier than Shanghai. Still, as a Shanghai citizen, I feel so glad for the development of Shanghai in the past 10 years. Oh yeah, don't forget to come and visit Shanghai World Expo 2010!

One week ago, I arrived in Ankara. Goodbye, Hong Kong. And hello, Turkey. Yes, I'm now an explorer of a country which is totally new and different for me.

Once again, here I met so many people who have similar goals. Exchange students from USA and all around Europe come to this magic land for exploration -- to search for the mix of East and West. I talked to an American girl. She said, to the Americans, Turkey is more eastern. For us Asian people, however, Turkey is of course more western. Isn't is interesting that we will share our views of this ancient country in the next four months? I'm pretty sure that we will learn a lot from each other.

New exploration has started. Stay tuned.

Ataturk's Mausoleum in Ankara.Atatürk was originally buried in Istanbul and brought to this megalithafter it was completed in the late 1940s.