Durdane of Istanbul!

Information

Durdane is a woman who lives in the city of Istanbul, which is the capital city of Turkey.

She lives alone in a small apartment building.

Her 7 siblings live in Germany.

Her parents went to Germany when Durdane was young and died very early there. They were buried in Istanbul again

In her house, there are lots of stuffs by which she can recall her childhood, such as plates, kettle, etc.

Her apartment building is not completely finished yet, since no buyer wants to pay for it. Even though Istanbul is located upon an active fault line, the apartment is not earthquake-proof.

When she was young, she lived in a small house, with 10 people in it. There was electricity in her house, but there was no WATER in her house. People in Istanbul started apartmentization by building one floor themselves.


Feeling

 

     The appearance of Istanbul in the Highrise video was like the  80s of Korean Society. In the 80s of Korea, the life of common people were not able to maintain a prosperous life. Korea was still a developing country at that period, so the welfare and the quality of the life was ignored to achieve more economic devleopment. The life of public was not a pleasant one. There weren't many families which could have enough water, food and electricity in their houses. The houses of them were not well constructed, too. They were temporal buildings which were primarily focused on a temporary habitation. It lacked basic supply of electricity and water. Personal hygiene wasn't even considered important to the people at that time. What they focused on was to live everyday life, eating three meals a day and sleep in a warm blanket. Most of the people couldn't eat more than 2 meals a day, and even the food was not nutritious. Water they had to bring from common well or stream was not clean, since all the houseworks were done there. However Koreans bore all the ordeals and achieved a great success.

     When I think of my hometown, Mokpo, I sometimes come up with the place where there are many illegal temporary buildings. It is located on the slope of a mountain. There aren't many facilities near there and not many people even go through there. People living there mostly are so poor that their income is far below the poverty line. It is also said that the government of Mokpo has decided to get rid of the village since they have to build new apartment buildings to provide wealthier citizens with more houses. Since those temporary
houses are illegal, the government won't pay them much money. Residents would fight against the city for their life, however, the odd is not favorable for them.

     Istanbul is a city where 80s and modern Korean societies coexist. Istanbul is a city which is developing but cannot be developed. Mokpo is a developed city but is not developing. What I want to focus on my Highrise essay is the difference and the similarity of Mokpo and Istanbul.