The last day of Xiamen Fair…
A meeting is set…
I call it “Xiamen Youth Committee”, they call it “Y Generation Summit”.
Brilliant young people, who will guide the sector’s future, are together. Each fluent in English, and educated well.
Topics of collaboration, finding solutions for the sector’s problems, integrating technological developments into natural stone are being discussed.
I consider myself as one of them, or as Çağlayan Sueli describes, one of the “Y Generation of Marble Trend”
We are all cool with technology and innovation.
But I ask…
Are you willing…
*to sharply criticise the authorities to solve burocratical problems instead of uttering unclear sentences that go around your implications?
*to slam your fist on the table and say “Stop, we’re all in the same ship. We’ll fall if we don’t unite.” while Turkish stone loses value to domestic competition?
*to stand up against the customers’ discount demands and say “I’ll decrease production if I have to but I won’t decrease the price”?
*to say “We don’t receive the government promotion to make organizers rich” at the fairs in which you pay 4 times more than the other countries?
*and of course to ask “How long do we have to wait before we can repay your investments in us?” and ask for more authority from your families?
Are you willing to do all these?
If we don’t stand together,
If we quarrel over fancy positions,
If we waste time trying to climb hierarchy steps in associations
It will be a pity for the youth.
Since it’s time to move, not to talk.
