Eren YÜCEBOY
İstanbul
For the two young marketers we talked to in Istanbul, it doesn’t matter whether it’s summer or winter. Their life is all about work. Such a work that 7 days a week; without having time to blink during the day. Even two hours of free time a day is a luxury for them. They work for minimum wage, and they measure the pulse of the economy very well. “There are some places, for example, that can only buy fruit with grains. But in general, purchases fell in the market as well. Nobody is buying anything. If nobody buys, we can’t win either.”
We are in the Kavakpınar neighborhood of Pendik. We start our conversation with the young people playing basketball in the neighborhood park.
19-year-old Cem is a marketer. “How are your summer months going? What do you do?” When we asked him, Cem stated that there was no difference between summer and winter for him and he said, “We already work in the summer and in the winter. The only difference for us in the summer is that the fruit on our counter changes.”
He dropped out of high school when he was in the first grade and started to earn his living by trading. He explains the reason for this situation as follows: “I used to go to the market while I was going to school, since I was very young. I also started school, but it was clear that it would not last long. So the school wouldn’t give me anything. But I still started. The teachers had no hope for us, and I for the lessons given by the teachers. As such, I left high school before I finished the first grade.”
Cem says that he misses certain parts of his student life, even if not the education he received in high school: “I don’t miss the lessons, but I miss the friendship atmosphere at school sometimes. At least we were chatting and chatting with friends. Now we are loading and unloading crates from morning to night.”
16-year-old Kadir is also a marketer like Cem. But unlike Cem, he has no formal high school education experience, even for one year: “I started open high school. I continued that way for two years. This year, I didn’t see it, I quit.”
The reasons for not taking formal high school education and dropping out of high school openly, “Let’s say I went to high school, after that it was not clear whether I would go to university or not. Let’s say I studied at the university and graduated, the state of the university students is already obvious. I see university graduates here and there. Most of them are unemployed looking for a job. Not looking for a job, working for minimum wage. Let the best buy, come on, seven or eight thousand liras. Few take it. I already earn as much as minimum wage now. At least I thought I’d start earning without wasting time,” he explained.
2 HOURS LEFT A DAY!
Since his education life was short and his job takes up most of his time today, Kadir says more about marketing than he says about education: “Marketing is hard work. We go to the market at 10 o’clock in the evening, until 8 o’clock the next day. You get two hours a day. Even if you go to bed in those two hours, it’s not worth it. If you don’t go to bed, you can’t find anything to do. That’s seven days a week. Most of the time, I don’t go to the market, I go directly to where the market will be established. Especially if you are going to the halo, there is no time left. If we find it during the day, we can only rest our eyes when the counter is not busy.”
THE PAIN HAS NOT LEFT LET ME GO TO THE MARKET
Kadir then pauses for a moment and corrects his own words: “Because I said seven days a week, you now ask why are you here today (we don’t have the conversation at the market). Normally, there is Heybeli Ada market today. Well, it leaves money if you compare it to other places. But we were very tired from the previous evening. I never counted how many safes we downloaded and removed. Otherwise, there is good money in Heybeli, but the pain did not leave me so I could go. You see, I’m not even playing basketball, I’m just watching.”
Cem, who is older than Kadir and has a wider body, while he continues to shoot, re-joins the conversation in this part: “I don’t have pain anymore. I got used to it. Kadir gets used to it in a year or two anyway. I didn’t go because Kadir didn’t go. Otherwise, he says it’s true, there is good money in Heybeli. Besides, people want to go out for a day anyway. Although I rarely go out, I come here to play basketball. But it rarely does. For example, we will not come here for another month.”
After that, we tried to chat with Cem and Kadir about their own future and their expectations from that future, but both of them are sure that they have already drawn their way. According to them, their future will not be much different from today. They see their own future, as they live today, as a mere bargaining. They both said, “If we can get a job, there is no one better than us in the future.”
SOME OF THERE ARE PLACES TAKING FRUIT WITH GRAINS
Since the price written on the label in the market and the number of people who can afford that fee give a lot of clues about the economic course, we wanted to listen to the economic trend from young marketers. Cem and Kadir said: “How many kilograms of which fruit people buy generally depends on where the market is set up. The very rich do not come to the market anyway. But the rest are also separating themselves. For example, there are some market places, people are a little richer. There are some places, for example, that can only buy fruit with grains. But in general, purchases fell in the market as well. Nobody is buying anything. We can’t win if nobody buys. Whatever the bench earns, the municipality gets half of it. You give some of it to the halo. There is not much left.”
