From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 20:43:31 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] ABC: Cold Turkey ABC: Cold Turkey Turkish Reality TV Show Reflects Country's Minimum Wage Woes By John Cooley Sept. 5 - A new Turkish reality series is bringing new meaning to the term "going for broke." Engin and Sema Ozden were the winners in a new reality show that challenged two middle-class couples to see who could survive the longest on Turkey's far-below-poverty-level average minimum wage of $84 a month. For their trouble, the Ozdens won a grand prize of around $17,500 in U.S. dollars, a new car and an all-expenses-paid trip to Budapest, Hungary, for a week. The runners-up, Hikmet and Suzan Kocibahimoglu, won a consolation prize of around $800. Bread and Water A solidly middle-class couple who make about six times the minimum wage, the Ozdens were able to live on their allotted wages by eating stale bread and carrying free water in buckets from their neighborhood mosque. Cameras and microphones recorded both couple's every move for the month. During that month, they were allowed to see one movie at their neighborhood theater, buy one newspaper a day and one book. Each couple in the contest was also allowed to buy four items of new clothing and four pieces of underwear. Rent payments were exempt from their minimum wage allowance. The contest highlighted the difficulties that many Turkish people have in living on the country's paltry minimum wage. Turkey's currency, the lira, has lost about half its value since last February's financial crash, and about half of all Turks have to live on less than $200 a month. The recognized poverty line for a family of four is $474 a month. Fellow Turks watching the show encouraged the contestants to persevere, declaring them to be heroes who are suffering the same lot as just about everyone else. But others were not so sympathetic. "They are lucky," Menekse Yucel, an unemployed secretary looking for a job, told The Associated Press. "Most Turks are stuck with minimum wage for life, and there is no award awaiting them." -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
