Save the date

Yesterday, September 16th, seen the death of 16 army members in Turkey. Within this week, Aylan Kurdi, the child of a refugee family trying to escape Canada drawn in Agean Sea.

Besides the massive media coverage and social media protests, nothing special, in political or legislative terms has been made. A common understanding is that, for many people, these two events, which indeed occur as a result of systematic political mistakes are seen as rare misfortunate events.

Suffering on social media is effective, yet not enough. As the lucky ones, please do keep an eye on the more vulnerable. You can support the national and international NGOs, be an active member, an activist or make only a small donation. What is more important, you can vote on November 1st, to establish a government which feeds all our hopes.

I would like to dedicate this song, Vay,  from Sezen Aksu, to all individuals residing in Turkey, in this misfortunate days.  Vay, yine mi keder, ama artık yeter...

Please be aware, think more, act more. One individual's problem, because of his/her identity is the problem of all human being.

With  lots of Love,

Hediye 

Over 25000 Children Died Today

Don't look for the headlines, it will not appear in your magazine or don't turn on the TV for the war or natural disaster news. This is a systematic murder occurring each and every day, and it has an invisible killer: Poverty kills them all.

The last five years have seen the death of over 60 million children because of hunger and
preventable diseases. Figures are depressing, solutions are not impossible but the efforts are still

limited. The first and most important problem is the limited public awareness. The ignorance of mainstream media leads the continuity of this public shame and the huge number of loses occurring systematically everyday seem the ones in developed world as some "unlucky" insignificant propotion.

Obviously, the respondents of highest rate of child death is from least developed countries where the national resources are limited. The proposed solutions to stop or at least lessen the number of deaths are not easy , but not impossible .As all the problems regarding basic human rights, a complex and politicized decision is necessary. Lack of domestic policies together with limited resources locks all the solution doors for underdeveloped nations and an ultimate need for international intervention occurs. The efforts of international organizations inevitable but they mostly remain as direct aids which has no further sustainability.

So still one in two children tries to find something to eat around somewhere and we still hesitate to stop this shame.

1 Dollar a Day

Think of what you can do with an additional one dollar in your daily budget. The alternatives do not vary so much, you can buy some chocolate or chips, may use on lottery or save for the end of the year and may buy the new PSP. These are the alternatives for living in a shelter, having enough food and safe water to survive. Now, forget about them, and take a look at the map below to see what does one dollar a day really mean .

One dollar a day (in terms of purchasing power) is the international measurement of poverty, above which people are considered to be able to survive. At first glance it may seem a little bit funny, and you can say who may need a dollar, but in fact, this is the ulitmate life-time goal for most people living in Zambia, Moldova or Liberia where only one of ten people can achieve more than two dollars a day.

Unsurprisingly, all these "red allert" centers of the poor world are not far from each other, but why it is so is the topic of another discussion.

I Have Some Issues

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them"

Shaw, G.B.

World is not fair and life is not easy. We do not have a magical receipt to keep all the things going well, but at least we can feel some sort of empathy and imagine how all these people living in the "other world" feel.Thats why I have some issues.


This blog is for the ones who can make a distinction between a "weight loss plan" and poverty in the third world, or at least for the ones who have an interest to understand the reasons of famine, human rights and fair development. It will have some numbers and figures, but nothing making you afraid to read will appear.


Keep tracking and please keep sharing.