Global Village - Storytelling Brings us Together

Edited BY G P Kennedy Gul- Aegean Coast, Turkey  The weather was icy cold last week, when I said I can’t take another day, suddenly that feeling of spring was in the air.   According to the Turkish folk calendar, the first Cemre - imagine a meteor fireball passing by up in the sky, warming the air - fell on Feb 19 and 20. There are two more yet to fall, one on Feb 26 and 27 and the last two in March – also will lead to the New Year Nevruz (Nowruz, Iranian).    They say the first Cemre always falls to the air, the second to the water, and the third to the earth.  Nowadays, because of warmer weather, we are able to have coffee in our garden with our neighbors and have a chat. Otherwise, we were overwhelmed with loneliness.  POLITICAL CRAZINESS  Our ordinary lives can be boring but daily politics is the opposite, there was a controversial event almost every day this week.   This country will make all of us mentally sick. It is ...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Elie - Milan, Italy  It feels great to start this new season - in the cycle of nature and of life - with the symbolic fog that is so typical of Milan and Lombardy.     Just like the winter solstice and the emergence from the darkest darks is symbolic of a new beginning of light, the winter fog in Lombardy that gives way to clarity is symbolic here.     The end of winter traditionally is marked with the feast of the Giobia at the end of January, where the Giobia is a puppet of a witch. It is ritually burned on the square as a leave-taking from the cold.     But of course, this year it was canceled. So now this last fog of the season was the occasion of taking the leave and welcoming the sun.     As I promised last time, I am showing you some of my work and processes that have occupied my time.     It is also seasonal work and I feel like a farmer that keeps a close watch on the movement of th...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Tassy - Karachi, Pakistan Front line health workers continued to get vaccinated in Pakistan this week. The rate at which they are being vaccinated is still slow but it is a start. There is however a less-than-enthusiastic response of some front-line health to be vaccinated against Covid-19. This is troubling as it sows the seeds for further mistrust of vaccines by the general population. News reports of corrupt individuals using bribery and unscrupulous means to use the vaccines meant for health workers for their own and their family's use have also begun to emerge.  The Government is aiming to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating a large chunk of the population by the end of the year. Being a skeptic (and a realist) I think this is highly unlikely. Today's newspaper spoke of the Health Department trying to launch a fresh process for the recruitment of vaccinators as the previous ones selected had failed their written exams. News like this alw...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Olivia - Liverpool, UK Did you know that the oldest surviving Valentine’s poem was composed from a cold prison cell in the Tower of London?  In 1416, at the height of the French and English wars, 21-year-old nobleman Charles Duke of Orleans wrote the poem to his wife whilst imprisoned by the English: God forgives him who has estranged Me from you for the whole year. I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine. I suspect that a lot of us were able to relate to the poor Duke this Valentine’s Day.  With the UK is still under full lockdown rules, most of us are feeling the pain of being cooped up and isolated from our loved ones.    Due to the current ban on household mixing, I celebrated a virtual Valentine’s Day this year. My long-distance boyfriend and I posted our cards and gifts to each other and opened them on Facetime.  It was a dismal day for us, as we haven’t seen each other in person since before Christmas, and don’t know...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Gul - Aegean Coast, Turkey LIFE IN EXILE This pandemic makes me feel exiled. It’s always been my dream to spend some time in such a seaside town. It wasn’t in the plan that we were away from our home, family, friends for 10 months because of a virus. If it is not your own choice, the best location is out of sight. Probably was for Trotsky too. Leon Trotsky was one of the driving forces behind the Russian revolution, exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, lived on one of the beautiful islands in Turkey, Büyükada. Apparently, Trotsky lived a quiet life there, and the distance from the mainland gave Trotsky some sense of security from the assassins he knew Moscow was sent to hunt him down. (The Guardian, 8 Aug 2015).   HOPE IN EXILE These days, many young people think of moving out of the country due to a lost hope for the future. Many students from elite schools are planning to move out to live in a free society. This week, Bosphorus University stude...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy What a week this past one was! Life is always a roller coaster ride, as the end of 2020 brought me to recognize. But being in the downward section of a scary round is not fun at that very moment. So, the thrill of this week is the upcoming Carnival. Of course, the real, in-person celebration is canceled in most places this year, but not the accompanying traditions, like the special treats that come with the season. Like these chiacchere, simple fried dough sweets covered with powdered sugar. And at that, Milan is special because two Catholic calendars are valid here that give us the chance of two carnival celebrations. According to the Roman rite - the calendar valid most everywhere else - this year it's on February 16. But in Milan, where St. Ambrose was so politically powerful that the city was allowed to keep its Ambrosian calendar, it is on February 20. In other times, this double chance to a celebration is seen as a special privi...