Sitting in the tea garden (çay bahçesi) in Kaş with a friend today I was treated to a demonstration of useful mass communication. My friend was in the middle of a sentence when the public address system interrupted him. Most towns in Turkey have a public address system that is used to make official announcements and for foreigners it isn’t long before it becomes part of the general hubbub of the town to be ignored along with the barking of dogs and tooting of car horns. Of course ‘official’ can be a subjective term and is often treated to a liberal interpretation. Thus my friend was interrupted by the announcer saying that someone had found a digital camera somewhere in the town and if the owner came to the Municipal offices they could reclaim it. What a wonderful system, why don’t we do that in UK?.
Not long after the aforementioned broadcast the loudspeakers boomed into life again. The fishermen had landed a really good catch and fresh fish was on sale in the square.
Now these are examples of a public address system being used for the advantage of the public. I know, I know, it’s a novel concept but it was nice to see a service in Turkey showing the way to do it to the rest of the world.
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