Dear Editor,
I found the following piece of news about a traffic incident entertaining and edifying, even absurd in its implications for us in this part of the world.
King Apologizes
(Turkish Daily News, Wednesday, April 19)
Sweden's car-mad King Carl Gustaf apologized for speeding in his latest Ferrari while on his way to pick up his children for the Queen of Denmark's birthday party. "I am sorry and I apologize,"Carl Gustaf told Swedish news agency TT. The king confessed he had broken the 110 km (70 mile) an hour speed limit on a motorway near Copenhagen while driving to collect the children, who were flying in for Queen Margrethe's 60th birthday celebrations. He was driving at 140 kmph (87 mph), TT said. Danish police said they had received an anonymous call from someone who said he had seen a car with Swedish plates driving very fast on the motorway, and he believed the driver was the king of Sweden.
Prof. Bülent Bozkurt (Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Letters)
Discussion of cell phone usage on campus continues:
Dear Editor,
I am a 3rd year Management student at Bilkent. At the moment I am in an exchange program in Denmark. I was browsing through previous editions of Bilnews and the attack on cell phones really surprised me. First of all, I seriously think that a cell phone is a convenience. It may have been a luxury a few years back, but now it has become a sort of necessity. I think that the extreme use of cell phones, not only in Bilkent but in Turkey, is due to the culture. In Denmark, many people have cell phones but they don't use them a lot. But in Turkey the culture is different--people always feel the need to interact with one another. I do agree that people shouldn't use their cell phones in the library and in the computer labs, but suggesting a university-wide ban on them is ridiculous. I think people who attack cell phones should buy a cell phone themselves so they will see its advantages and will stop complaining.
Salim Ahmed (MAN/III)
