Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

Oil Prices in Oil Producing Countries
The following is the comparison list for Oil Prices in Oil Producing Countries sent by a friend. The oil prices are sorted in descending order. It seems that the highest price oil is in Malaysia. It may be due to cost of production. If you look at the cost of producing oil in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia there must be huge difference.

Note: The currency for comparisons is Malaysian Ringgit.

MALAYSIA RM2.70/litre
UAE RM1.19/litre
Eygpt RM1.03/litre
Bahrain RM0.87/litre
Qatar RM0.68/litre
Kuwait RM0.67/litre
Saudi Arabia RM0.38/litre
Iran RM0.35/litre
Nigeria RM0.32/litre
Turkmenistan RM0.25/litre
Venezuela RM0.16/litre

COLIN’S Jeans Wear in Malaysia

Colin’s Jeans Wear, the famous successful jeans wear company of Turkey opened its branch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December, 2007.

Colin’s brand is a product of Eroğlu Group in Turkey which started the business journey 23 years ago in a small workshop sized 50 m2.

The machine park had 6 machines only when established in 1983. Now it is a big giant in textile industry of jeans wear which has hundreds of branches in 32 countries with 6,000 employees and 17 million production capacity.
Eroglu Confection had as brand name ‘Kulis’ in 1986. It produces all kinds of jeans wear, trousers, t-shirts, shirts. It has a great trend of growing like other major sectors of Turkey.

Turkish Restaurants in Malaysia
There are not many Turkish Restaurants in Malaysia. Several attempts were made to open Turkish restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. However, they were closed due to low demand from people. I will try to discuss here issues related to Turkish Food Restaurant in especially Kuala Lumpur.

Why Turkish Restaurants in Malaysia?
Turkish restaurants in Malaysia are the first alternative for visitors from Turkey, some European countries, Iran and whole Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates etc. This is because Malaysian taste or in general the taste of far east are so much different from those countries mentioned above. Turkish restaurants offer wide range of food products or meals appropriate for their taste. This is because Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Greek and Persian cuisines.Turkish cuisine also influenced these cuisines and other neighbouring cuisines, as well as west European cuisines. Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm with influences from Middle Eastern cuisines, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia such as yogurt. The Ottoman Empire indeed created a vast array of technical specialities. It can be observed that various regions of the Ottoman Empire contain bits and pieces of the vast Ottoman dishes.

Before my trip to Malaysia, I was warned by my some master students from Saudi Arabia that I should make a plan for food before going to Malaysia. They told me that they had to find fast food solutions in Kuala Lumpur since they could not eat sweety Malaysian food. I did not have big problem myself overall but initially really difficult to get used to too much sweet nearly in every food. My best friend Azmi took me to Malaysian restaurant with my daughter. We really enjoyed the food there. But as we said there was sugar or sweet in every food. If you are not happy with sugar in your fish then you have a problem. My friend offered me Kebab and he added ‘this is your food and you will like it’. After tasting, I said ‘Oh my God. There is sugar in this kebab. We loughed a lot’.

In my opinion, the Malaysian food is not very healthy due to high level of sugar concentration in daily diets. There is currently one Turkish Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur as far as I know. You could comment if you know another.

The Address for Turkish restaurant in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia is given below.

Some Comments about Turkish Restaurants in Malaysia


‘Great place for a change in Kuala Lumpur. Enjoyed decor a lot. Check it out.’

Have been to the restaurant many times with my family. I think they open only in the evenings, not sure about lunch. The place is great! Atmosphere is way cool, food is superb,… It is a no-alcohol restaurant. Overall, still one of the best in Kuala Lumpur!

‘I had lamb kebab and my very first baklava in a Turkish restaurant in Kuala Lumpur 3 years ago. I was looking forward to try out Turkish ice-cream, which the friend recommends. The Turks are renowned for their sweetmeats, and I was confident they would be equally adept with iced confectionary. In the end, our original intention to have authentic Turkish ice cream had to be postponed due to our overburdened stomachs. Which is just as well, as it gives me another good reason to visit this multicultural outpost of Turkish gastronomy.’

Some of the pictures and photographs that we have taken during Malaysia trip may be found from the following album. We have not added all pictures yet but there are currently pretty good number of pictures. You can also read the entries regarding Malaysi trip and general knowledge about Malaysia from the link Malaysia. It will be updated when we have an interesting event about Malaysia.

Pictures about Malaysia are at Malaysia Pictures

Vision of Malaysia for 2020

Wawasan 2020 or Vision 2020 is a Malaysian ideal introduced by former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Bin Mohamad during the tabling of the Sixth Malaysia Plan in 1991. The vision calls for a self-sufficient industrial developed nation, complete with an economy that will be eightfold stronger of the economy as of the early 1990s by the year 2020.

Wawasan 2020 is also the title of an article by William Greider about globalization in Malaysia.

Challenges in the vision

In several of Mahathir’s speeches, he outline nine challenges that Malaysia must overcome to achieve Vision 2020.

* Challenge 1: To form a nation that stands as one.
* Challenge 2: To produce a Malaysian community that has freedom, strength, and full of self confidence.
* Challenge 3: To develop a mature democratic community.
* Challenge 4: To form a community that has high morale, ethics and religious strength.
* Challenge 5: To cultivate a community that is matured and tolerant.
* Challenge 6: To form a progressive science community.
* Challenge 7: To cultivate a community rich in values and loving culture.
* Challenge 8: To ensure the formation of a community with a fair economy.
* Challenge 9: To cultivate a prosperous community.