Holiday Snaps: Powerless without knowledge

Horror without horology

Knowledge remains an important factor in the purchase of good and services – this would either be knowledge you have or your implicit confidence in the expertise of those you depend on by trust to share the knowledge.

For instance, when I visited Ephesus, there were shop signs with Genuine – Fake Watches. It made you wonder if the watches were genuine, fake, imitations, seconds, factory rejects or counterfeit.

Without good horological knowledge, regardless of what type of watch it is, there is no way to vouch for the durability, quality, movement, standard or usefulness of the watches you buy from those stalls.

Much as they glitter and shine, they will come with no guarantee, warranty or consumer protection for service, return or repair. In essence, the hedonistic folly that persuades anyone to buy those watches will read as a fool and their money being soon parted.

Numismatics mathematics

Following in the footsteps of the peddlers of suspect time-pieces were sellers of supposedly ancient coins. My knowledge of contemporary coinage is rudimentary at best, that of contemporaneous coinage is non-existent.

My thinking was, if the coins were of any significant value, they will be displayed in reputable museums as part of the cultural heritage of the places where they were discovered or in auction houses having been proven of quality and progeny earning a fortune for the owners and definitely not in the hands of fly-by-night vendors selling base-metal tat.

Maybe, I am given to too much analysis of situations that I might fail to see a bargain. Honestly, it is only wise to speculate in things where you are an authority and never in thing where you as a novice are ready a target for hoodwinking by confidence tricksters playing a bait-and-switch on you.

Lighting up space

It was a very clear night on my last night in Marmaris and I could not help but notice 2 large telescopes set up on the promenade pointing upwards to the sky to view Saturn for a price.

I will probably confuse astronomy for astrology and besides the moon and the sun, I have never given attention to the location and sighting of planets, stars, suns, constellations, galaxies and the like.

I had my doubts that these telescope owners were professors of astronomy or space exploration enthusiastic about sharing new discoveries of faraway worlds.

There was a bright orange-ish light in the sky above, visible to the naked eye, it could well have been Mars, the red planet.

I could have ventured and been inquisitive, asked difficult questions, sought unimpeachable evidence and all that, but I might have met hostile retribution for interruption what was uniquely a selling-point that traded on the curiosity of the crowd – View space in time for a fee and be thankful for the privilege. They did have custom.

Sea shells with no shelf life

Mussels, clams, oysters, sea shells – to a novice, I knew no better but there were trays of them with cut lemons available to eager customers.

The traders had no shop windows, just tables set up in the open for people to sample the delicacies of the sea.

If any of them ended up with food poisoning, it will take time-travel forensics to determine when the tray tables folded up and the purveyors of the poisons disappeared into thin air.

I was just not knowledgeable enough to dare; not this time and maybe not ever. Knowledge, they say, is power, by inference, you are powerless without knowledge.