Hopes for life

Two days ago on the Marmaray line, I overheard two university students confiding in each other; 

“There is nothing left that gives me hope for life,” the young woman was saying to her friend. 

“Even if I graduate at the top of my class, there are no jobs. If I try to go abroad, I don't have the courage. If I think about getting married, men my age don't have the financial means. And being with an older man has its own set of problems!”

The life this young woman in her 20s had mapped out for herself and her sense of being trapped really stressed me out. 

“Hope comes from the courage within a person. It gives you the power to make the impossible possible. Doors will surely open for those who are different, who dare, and who think differently,” I wanted to say. At that moment, her friend took over. 

“Do you know, bestie? Temperatures have reached the highest level in world history. April has broken the heat record of the last 100 years.  We have passed the 1.5-degree warming threshold. Temperatures have risen above 1.61 degrees. If global warming continues like this, half the world will be underwater, and the other half will struggle with drought. Many species will go extinct.

I have no hope left, not just for my own life, but for the future of the world!”

While listening to this interesting conversation, I was also reading the public savings package announced by our Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek. 

The expenses of the Beştepe Palace, where the daily electricity consumption alone is equivalent to the monthly salaries of 20 minimum-wage workers and daily costs exceed 15 million TL, were not even a subject of the public savings package.

When we arrived at the Söğütlüçeşme station, an announcement from the IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), different from the usual ones, echoed through the station. 

“Emergency, evacuate the station, emergency, evacuate the station!” 

I threw myself out of the train and headed for the emergency exit. The alarm was ringing. The escalators had stopped. I quickly climbed the stairs and reached the station door.

When I turned back to look, I saw that only a few people had gotten off the train like me. 

Why was this announcement made? Had a tip-off been received? While all these questions were running through my mind, I was surprised by the passengers' lack of reaction. 

Unfortunately, it was our fate to be citizens of a country where the troubles we experience as a nation have made us indifferent and insensitive to everything. 

The majority, who chose not to leave the station, continued to wait for the next train as if nothing had happened.