Kahlil Gibran wrote:

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Freedom with a capital f-

click to go to the video by Carlos Lascano

A Sad State Of Freedom by Nazim Hikmet

You waste the attention of your eyes,
the glittering labour of your hands,
and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves
of which you'll taste not a morsel;
you are free to slave for others--
you are free to make the rich richer.

The moment you're born
they plant around you
mills that grind lies
lies to last you a lifetime.
You keep thinking in your great freedom
a finger on your temple
free to have a free conscience.

Your head bent as if half-cut from the nape,
your arms long, hanging,
your saunter about in your great freedom:
you're free
with the freedom of being unemployed.

You love your country
as the nearest, most precious thing to you.
But one day, for example,
they may endorse it over to America,
and you, too, with your great freedom--
you have the freedom to become an air-base.

You may proclaim that one must live
not as a tool, a number or a link
but as a human being--
then at once they handcuff your wrists.
You are free to be arrested, imprisoned
and even hanged.

There's neither an iron, wooden
nor a tulle curtain
in your life;
there's no need to choose freedom:
you are free.
But this kind of freedom
is a sad affair under the stars.

MY PROPOSAL PAGE FOR THE FIRST ANGLO-AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE 2011' AT BILKENT UNIVERSITY

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE : A GUIDE TO HOW TO OTHER

        In the field of the continental philosophy the concepts of ‘the other’ and ‘othering’ has been introduced in the first half of the nineteenth century. And it has been attached political, economic, social and psychological connotations apart from its philosophical meaning over the last two hundred years. Indeed, we have heard of the term during the studies on literature several times, only from different points of view and different concentrations on it; stereotyping, racism, gender problems .. And of course orientalism.

James Bond series, written by Ian Fleming, became widely recognized in the second half of the twentieth century. The fifth James Bond book called From Russia With Love was rated one of the best books in the series by the readers while the film version was popularized with Sean Connery’s interpretation of the agent “double O seven”. Both the film and the book incorporated scenes that take place in İstanbul. James Bond’s arrival in İstanbul and the time he spends there is an important phase in his adventure. For an informed eye this phase bears a serious amount of orientalist attitude along with tendentious details as to the daily life of the Turkish people. Hence, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate the way that the life in İstanbul is being portrayed by Ian Fleming’s selective and western eye, mainly focusing on the Turkish people figures and references to the city environment of İstanbul in the book.

ShapE-MAde video

Unofficial Poem Translation by Sema Nur Ketenci - "Ses" by Nazım Hikmet Ran

Çeneni avuçlarının içine alıp, duvara dalıp kalma!. Çeneni avuçlarının içine alma!. Kalk! Pencereye gel! Bak! Dışarda gece bir cenup denizi gibi güzel, çarpıyor pencerene dalgaları.. Gel! Dinle havaları: havalar seslerin yoludur, havalar seslerle doludur: toprağın, suyun, yıldızların ve bizim seslerimizle... Pencereye gel! Havaları dinle bir: Sesimiz yanındadır, sesimiz seninledir... SOUND Do not just stare at the wall, With your head resting In your palm! Do not just stare at the wall Stand up! Walk to the window! Look! The night is pretty as a southern sea out there, The waves are washing your window Come! Listen to the air: Air is way to the sounds, Air is full of sounds: Of soil, of water, of stars And of ours... Walk to the window! Listen to the air: Our sounds are with you, Our sounds with you...

TANGO FIRE - Verano Portenas

CAMILLA - ALEJATE DE Mİ (BACHATA VERSION)

NICE ;)