☻Residents of the Bodrum peninsula celebrate Christmas and welcome in the New Year in style, though perhaps slightly restrained by the lingering effects of the economic crisis. The new mayor of Bodrum, Mehmet Kocadon, hosts the traditional Christmas cocktail reception for the international community in the Marina Vista Hotel on Boxing Day, 26 Dec. ’09 starting at 18:00 hrs, while kids may prefer the Patika Annual Christmas Show in the Marmara College theater featuring an appearance by Santa Claus – starts 17:00 hrs same day). Christmas and New Year parties are catered by numerous hotels and restaurants – too many to list here, but easy to find by ubiquitous ads. An event that invites participation is the 13^th Annual Noel Bazaar (25-28 Dec, Oasis Shopping Center, 11am-6pm each day) where nice gifts can be bought – proceeds going to educational projects on the peninsula. We must also mention New Year Balls inscribed on the social calendar, presented at the following venues: The Marmara Bodrum, Gardens of Babylon, Bodrium Boutique Hotel & Spa and Hapimag – Sea Garden.

▼The rainstorms that swamped Bodrum in the period 11-17 Dec once again brought to light the unconscionable violations of building codes by land-hungry folk who gleefully built on stream beds obstructing natural drainage of overflow and creating flooding. Now the mayor is calling on the violators to raze all such illegal construction, promising enforcement by the municipality if not complied with voluntarily. We’ve heard such pronouncements often in the past, whenever it rained heavily and property damage was experienced, so we’ll wait and see if this time words and matched by deeds – but we’re not going to hold our breath, daring the mayor to prove our skepticism misplaced.  Mayor Kocadon has two other important projects on his plate which he introduced at a press conference: 1. Disposal of solid waste for the peninsula, and 2. Design and construction of a proper solution to the Bodrum-Torba-Guvercinlik road intersection that has been the scene of many tragic traffic accidents. The intersection is scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2010 summer season, but the solid waste disposal project is still in its infancy. A protocol to study the problem has now been signed with CETCO Europe, a firm apparently specializing in such matters.

▲The Konacik Municipality seems to be ahead of Bodrum, at least in some endeavors. Already in full swing is an Organic Products Bazaar conducted every Wednesday in the multi-purpose tents located by the Bodrum-Konacik highway. It’s our pleasure to help spread the word about this worthwhile enterprise – let’s give it our support. Another Konacik project in the works is an endeavor to generate electrical power. A protocol was signed between Konacik Municipality and the Marmara University Center for Research and Application of New Technology to study and provide advice for the use of alternative energy sources. (A tongue-in-cheek observation: with all the hot air blowing around the peninsula wind power generation seems to be an ideal candidate as a cheap source of energy!)