Turkey
APRIL 23 INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY
This national day (23 April National Sovereignty and Children's Day) in Turkey is a unique event. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.

I will be posting a poem on this topic soon!

In the mean time, from the mouth of the children..........

We are the Children
 
 
We are the just kids
Alone in this world
My name is Amir
I wish you to meet all my friends
Here is my Jewish friend
Over there my Syrian friend
Beside me my Indian friend
Ah there is my Libyan friend
The little girl, she is from Ukraine
There is Tatiana from Russia
Maria, well she is from Paris
 
As I know you reading are all grownups and big people
I tell you our nationalities
I know this is important to you
You killed all of our parents in the name of it
 
I am too small
I have no wish to be big and adult
As I have no wish to kill anyone
If ever though I become big
I will have big demands from all of you
 
Birthday Cakes for all my friends
Please let them have a birthday even
Balloons, we all want balloons
Can we have animals? Pets? We love them too!
Music and dancing
We want to see all the big ones singing
Laughing and chasing us with hugs
Not guns
 
I am just a kid
I am not a poet
Nor a writer
So these are simple words
I would say to you, if….
If I could go to school
You see, I can not read or write
My dream is only you take away my hunger
Give me my mummy and daddy back
If you can
 
Give us quiet nights
Warm beds
Shake away our fears
Love us more than any hate you have
Tell us a bedtime story
So that we sleep in happiness and peace
 
Knowing in the morning
You will be there
 
I am just a kid
A very small one that knows
Something is wrong in this world
I beg of you, each and every big one
Make it right
 
Please

This is a great Non Fiction book that reads quite frankly like a novel. It is on of my favorite books about Lebanon, in fact this book was a gift to me by Samir Harfouche when I was in Beirut. Thank you deeply Samir. Lebanon is indeed a small state, the ancient land of the Phoenicians, and this book gives you a play by play score of today’s recent history. I might add that many facts outlined in this book, I have verified with many second sources, and I thank them for showing me another way of viewing the world!

Let me introduce Ron Wilson, a poet and writer, I have asked him to be a guest contributor because this story, was both entertaining, but also resonated with me, having studied the history of the middle east. Its refreshing to hear accounts of every day life, rather than from someones political point of view. I wish to thank Vee wholeheartedly for contributing here!

Sputnik - The Joke
This will be, when finished, a blog about the very first satellite in history, Sputnik. This being an event that happened well over 50 years ago, I think, cruising southward through the Suez Canal on board a US Navy Destroyer, I may have a few if the details a little wrong and in conflict with one of me sources, to aid in my memory gathering, being Wikipedia. Some times we must have to trust our memories.

It was HOT, and of this I am very certain, Wikipedia does not even mention that. We had just seen the wreckage of many ships, some of them their masts sticking out of the water at Poet Said. Or was it Port Suez, of that I am really uncertain right now, but it was the one at the North end of the Suez Canal. I saw my first camel that morning, with a rider on board, it was then that I wished I had a camera, a feeling I did not correct until a few weeks later in Genoa Italy.

About noon, the Captain came on the ship's intercom, announcing, of course, that "This is the Captain speaking..." But of course, what else could the Captain say, being that he never, ever had come on the ship's speaker system before about anything, and so we all knew that this just had to be some big news. To be sure, it was so rare that many of us wondered if we even had a Captain.

His announcement, to wit being, "I want announce that the Soviet Union has just launched the first satellite in history, the Sputnik Satellite. Carry on."

"Soviet Union? " we asked ourselves, "Isn't that in Russia or someplace?"

The rest of the afternoon was spent making up stream of Sputnik jokes that seemed to have no end. Even when, 2 days later, playing softball in Eritrea, which was known to be the hottest place on the planet. We even called our softballs "Sputnik," to the joy and excitement of hundreds of Africans who had obviously never seen softball before.

When our batters got a hit, we shouted, "There goes Sputnik..." and the excited native Africans, many of them scantily dressed, caught on and began shouting, "Sputnik! Sputnik!" when the balls were hit.

But it all ended a few days later, when President Dwight Eisenhower decided to give military support to Lebanon, during its most recent crisis. So, our Persian Gulf tour, to everyone's sincere and great disappointment, was abruptly ended.

And so, our course was reversed and we sailed back through the Suez Canal, (Or is that the Said Canal?) back past the same wreckages of ships that Israel had just sunk the year before, and when we got off the coast of Lebanon, we put the first of a stream of US Marines ashore in full battle dress and gear.

The Marines were great, and there were dozens of beautiful, bikini clad Lebanese girls watching them and cheering them on. This in itself made the whole tour of duty with the 6th Fleet worthwhile and it was probably the strangest invasion in history.

But it did not stop the Sputnik jokes. 

This is story is also an intro, into the next "GOOD READS" blog!!!!!

This time the title is a lie! This was not a great read , this was an AMAZING read, one of the best books I have come across, the type you can not put down. A book with a 1000 stories inside the story and lessons of life we all could take heed from.

They are all around. In a turbulent world, where the news shows us one disaster or horror after another, we sometimes forgot about the good that exists within us all.

This video  I am posting touched me, and the idea is not to have a feel good moment, but rather take a moment to pause and reflect, on how lucky many of us are. If we all took a small moment, once a week, once a month, even once a year, I challenge you all, find that moment, find the time, do a good deed and plant the seed of kindness. You will be surprised at the results.
 
I will also say, so many times people do not act , not because they don’t feel too, but often out of shyness, be bold, be a leader, and as the famous NIKE add says, just DO IT.