Guarding Ataturk’s Memory- pt.1

In the beginning of “Crescent and the Star: Turkey between two worlds” Stephen Kinzer tells the story of a young Turkish third grader who was asked to write an essay about love. He wrote, “Love means love for Ataturk. Love means love for Ataturk’s mother, Zubeyde Hanim. Love means love for Ataturk’s father Ali Riza Bey” (Kinzer, 35). This attitude is still reflective of the memory of Ataturk even until present day. It’s amazing how a humble boy, born in Thessaloniki (located in modern day Greece), could become and remain Turkey’s most admired hero nearly seven decades after his death.

The Ottoman Empire once stretched from North Africa, extended through the Middle East and lay at the door of some of the promising European countries. England, France, and Russia called it the “Sick man of Europe” because the Ottoman Empire was economically and politically falling apart at the seams. It lacked the leadership and the vision to hold its vast empire together as it once had. During the the start of the Great War (WWI) when it looked as if Germany and Austria-Hungry (the Central Powers) would win, the Ottoman Turks decided to join them. It was a manoeuvre that would ultimately cost the empire its life. When the war ended Germany, Austria-Hungry, and the Ottoman Empire lay prostrate before the Allied powers who subsequently presumed they had the right to carve up its rich carcass (Kinzer, 39). The last 250 years of the Ottoman Empire were a sad story which modern Turks would like to forget (Spencer, 44).

Yet it was in that story that a young Ottoman soldier found his calling. Mustafa Kemial, later christened Ataturk, was largely regarded a hero among the peoples of what is present day Turkey even before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. By 1915, he had proved himself to be a true leader. During the Great War as the British fleet converged on the Gallipoli Peninsula he was there with his forces to guard it. For eight long months the battle raged but never in all that time did the peninsula fall. Kemial held the straight and ultimately expelled the British lead invasion. It was the only important Turkish victory of the war.

Let it be bad

A quickly inspired free flow poem:

Let it be bad they say Let it be bad

It maybe very grand and not a bit bland,

but still let it be bad.

The Cuba Question

Ninety miles south of Florida lies what most in America would agree is one of the greatest blunders in American Foreign Policy.  Over the last 48 years, Cuba has staved off a US sanctioned embargo intent at toppling the communist government of Fidel Castro. For the last 28, Cuba has done so despite the collapse of its one time largest partner, the Soviet Union.  So what went wrong? Why the embargo?

Scholarship Essay~ Sample

TRiO. I had never heard of it before an academic counsellor marched me down the corridor and into a crowded office area. “You need this and you qualify,” she said. I wasn’t so sure, but I desperately needed help. 

 

Like many other students from South East Minnesota, I am a first generation University student. Higher education was not something that most people back home had– Especially not my parents, or my grandparents or my great grandparents.  So there I was; in over my head, trying to navigate a system that no one in my sphere of influence had ever navigated before. It was all a constant fight. A fight with Financial Aid. A fight to balance time between the 30+ hour job I badly needed and the 16 credits I needed to take.  A Fight to feel like I belonged on campus. And even a fight against the system I came from to be here.

African Debt Crisis

Debt- It is a word that the average American fears today. Especially with jobs being outsourced overseas, jobs going out of business, and credit crisis in tow. People here are worried about what they will do to elevate all the debt they have without having to go into bankruptcy. But what happens when that debt is on a higher scale? — When it affects a whole nation instead of just one person or one industry?  A lending institution surely is not allowed to foreclose upon a state. Therefore, the problem becomes a logistical one. What is to be done with a nation or a set of nations that cannot repay debt? In an attempt to make this subject more manageable, let us specifically examine one region of the world in which debt is ramped.

The continent of Africa is rich in natural resources, customs, and people. However, it has a serious problem. Africa is in debt. At last check, 34 out of the 41 countries listed on the World Banks list of heavily indebted poor countries (HPIC) were located in Africa[i].