These are the children of the world. Every year, they gather in Turkey to celebrate their day: April 23st Children’s Day. It was Atatürk’s idea, the founder of Turkey, to celebrate a day for kids. They are our future. They will live in this world when we’re gone. And we are responsible for them. We need to leave a better world for them to live better. Not wars, not famines, not hunger. They deserve a better world. Don’t they?
I took these pictures in Antalya on April 19th, 2006. Children from 60 countries came to Antalya to show their folk dances. They were in their folkloric costumes. They were flowers. They had hope. They had laughter. All I need to do is to take their pictures. Unfortunately I couldn’t see the whole show. I missed most of it.
The kids from Moldova, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Japan, Hungary and Ozbekhistan were the ones I could see, touch and share a smile with. Their joy broke my heart. What could I say to them? How could I explain the wars? The killings? Why rich countries don’t help the poor? Why we have to feed ourselves with these genetically modified foods? Or unhealty biscuits, fries, drinks, sugary foods...
Do they deserve that ugly food? Do we have to make rich international food companies richer by buying their junk food? I have answers for all these questions in my heart but I know all I can do is to change my attitude towards the world. Towards children. Towards nature. So let me leave you with the beautiful smiles from the children of the world!
9 comments:
great pictures Tijen! thank you for posting these!
well the kids are great fethiye.
can't you see how their eyes shine?
tijen
Love the photos of the kids.
Great post. I will distribute to our Amerikan Turks Yahoo Group.
thanks murat,
thanks kalyn..
children are flowers.
that's what I believe.
tijen
great pictures annd you are absolutely right. plus we have one more reason to cook great food.
thanks chloe!
I agree with you.
tijen
Intersting posts. If you don't think rich countries help poor countries, then you'd have to ignore the existence of the Red Cross, dozens of UN agencies (which, I'll admit, pocket plenty of money themselves), private and religious charitable organizations, etc. Is the world perfect? No, of course not. But complaining that nobody helps is just a great way of turning the people who do care and give into angry and cynical people that don't think they're making a difference, or are appreciated.
And if your biggest concern in life is choosing to eat GM food or natural, I think you're life is a mighty high and fine one indeed.
Wonderful pictures, and I appreciate your posting. Thanks for sharing with us.
Not to start up an all-out battle ;-), but if we in the wealthy countries truly helped the poor countries, we'd spend less on ourselves and divide up the spoils better across the world -- that's my feeling, at least.
Thank you for your blog: it's warm, humanistic, and revolves around lovely enjoyment of day to day fresh food. How nice that is!
Makes me really want to be browsing the markets of Turkey as well.
Tesekkur ederim,
Catherine
http://bitterorange.blogspot.com
(I haven't yet figured out how to include other blog links on my page, other than to mention them in an entry, which I've done in this case.)
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