“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

However you define life, you are right! There is no mistake or right and wrong answer in the definition of life. if you say life is beautiful, so it is. If you say life is bad or ugly, so it is.

But remember the way you see and think about life and the people around you so it would reflect back to you. What you think will translate in your actions and it will attract the same actions onto you. If you think that, life is bad and people around you are bad, so you would act badly towards those people and they too would react badly towards you. This would confirm those thoughts you have about life and the people around you. If this trend continuous, you would be unhappy throughout your life.

And if you think that life is good and people around you are good, this would have a positive effect opposite to the previous thoughts.That would attract good people to you and you would enjoy good relationships with people. This would make you happy forever. What you need to remember is that ' action and reaction are always equal and opposite'. This is not only a law of physics but also a natural law. It applies any where in the world.

Let me tell you something about people you need to know. There are three kinds of people. First groups of people are GOOD PEOPLE. They can't do any thing aside good things. They are naturally good! The second groups of people are BAD PEOPLE. They can't do any thing aside bad things. The first group and this second group are only 2% of all the people in this world. The rest of 98% of people are all within the third group. They may be good or bad depending on situations and condition s they find themselves in. Because of the third group of people you need to think good about life and people so that you would enjoy good life and good people around you always. 

“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.” if you make it good, so it would be! and remember how and what you think make you life.

Hafiz Mohammed

The Turkey You May Not Know - Çanakkale Geçilmez

Çanakkale Geçilmez

My picture in Canakkale in front of the statue of Şeyid Ali Çabut.

It is the end of blessed month of March and I want to start writing the series with the major event that took place in the history of Turkey and it significance to today’s life in Turkey.

‘Çanakkale Geçilmez’ is a Turkish sentence that roughly means ‘Çanakkale is impassable’. The work Çanakkale is pronounce ‘ Chanakalai’ in English Language. It is the name of the capital Çanakkale Province, located in the Northwestern part of Turkey. Similarly to Istanbul, the province has an European (Thrace) and Asian part. Çanakkale is the nearest major town to the site of ancient Troy. The city has a long history and we cannot tell the history of the modern day Turkey without mentioning Çanakkale.

During the First World War, in 1915 (101 years ago), the then Ottoman Empire (Turkey) fought along side Germany and Russia. British Empire and France attempted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and secure a sea route to Russia but they failed and suffered severe losses.  This battle is called the battle of Gallipoli or the Dardanelles Campaign or Gallipoli Campaign or the Canakkale War. The victory the Turks won in that war has being celebrated annually since then. 18th March every year mark the climax of the celebration. İt is celebrated by the government ahd people of Turkey. It is one of the unified celebration in the land. There are several books, poems and movies prepare every year to mark the anniversary. Some of the movies are ‘ Sons of canakkale’, ‘Gallipoli: End of the Road’, ‘Gallipoli’ etc.

They honor the martyr of that war by whose effort and sacrificed they were able to defeat the then time super powers and that by their victory they failed to fall under the colony of any western powers. The national heroes are being cerebrated much in Turkey and if you want to be in peace with Turks don't say any thing bad about their national heroes dead or alive.

In my visit to the battle field I was told that, a lot of youth fought in that war and every family give out one male to represent the family on the battle ground. İt is one of the reason why it is compulsory on any male Turkish graduate to undergo military training and to serve the nation in that capacity for minimum of eight months. For your information the youth are happy to serve the country.

Due to the canakkale war and other events in the country, the government and most NGO are youth centered. Comparing turkey to other countries, Turkey support its youth very much. As an international student you would the opportunity to enjoy some of these supports. The programs of ministry of youth and sport is opened to both nationals and international students.

From what I learnt, the important aftermath of the Canakkale victory is the youth centered approach of the government and people of Turkey and in return the patriotism and the willing of the youth to serve the state any any capacity.

If you come to Turkey, don't forget a trip to Canakkaale; a city along the Aegean sea, peaceful and calm with loving people. And as international student do not forget to take part in the programs organised by the ministry of youth and sports for they will go long way to help you. Should you learn single thing from this writing it should be the Turkish sentence  ‘Çanakkale Geçilmez’

The Turkey You May Not Know

The Turkey You May Not Know.

Today is the beginning of series of stories about Turkey. As an international student studying in one of the universities in Turkey, I want to share my experiences with the world about the Turkey I know and I am learning that you might not know at all. 

Follow me in this journey of true story telling to get inside information of and about Turkey and its people.

The setting of most of my stories would be Sakarya, where I stay for the past three years, a very beautiful city.

I invite you to follow me and read and learn about Turkey and Turkish culture from international student originally from from West African country, Ghana.

See later for the first episode of The Turkey you may not know

Endless Romance

What a beautiful union
What an everlasting relationship
What a marriage with endless romance

The union that every one want
The relationship that no one want to missed
The romance that everyone fantasizes

Only few couples enjoy this kind of marriage
The marriage that need to celebrated
That is the marriage between PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS

There is a bid of goodness in every soul

There is a bid of goodness in every soul.

By Hafiz Mohammed Nazifi

There is a bid of goodness in every soul. It may be hard to belief that but giving the same conditions, rights and privileges every one would do it best. Aside  the genetic issues, every child is the same at birth. It is the parent, the family at large, the community or society, the religion and the school among others that changes the child has he or she grows up.

Good or bad is what a child learn from the environment he found himself  or herself. This remind me of a story of man called Enhama who was born and raised who the strongest survive. He was lucky that he was born in a strong family. He does what he like and want because no one can touch him. Imagine all the bad things you can think about, and again imagine that he does those bad things. He is strong at heart and fear nothings. 

But one day, that day he met a poor weak family comprising of father, pregnant mother, her 14 months old daughter and 3 year old son. Enhama robbed this family of their small amount of gold and punishing them for having only small amount of gold he rape the  pregnant mother. The only thing her weak poor husband could do was crying as his wife bleeds. As Enhama was going way from the sad scene he created he heard a voice of the 14 months old girl crying and automatically the bid of goodness that left in his soul Spackle. For the first first time in the life of Enhama he felt sorry for what he did. He came back, gave the gold back to them and carried the woman to a near by village where her life was saved by a herbalist. Enhama cry for all the harm he had cause and promise not to do it again. 

Whatever you are doing either good or bad give it a second look, if you are doing the good things you will continue to do even more and if is a bad thing you might be lucky to change to good. Just pay attention to the bid of goodness in your soul how matter the case.   

Let it go and you shall be happy

LET IT GO AND YOU SHALL BE HAPPY

My forefathers; the Yoruba people have a say that goes like; the struggle of a man begins at birth. Everyone has a something he or she struggle with in life. Is not your struggle or what happened to you that matters but how you react to it.

It took me long time to be able to understand the principle of letting things go and be happy. It all start in 2013 when I fell in love with a girl I met on facebok and for 6 month I wasn't having the courage to informed her of my love for her. Lastly in January, 2014 I break the ice and I informed her. To my surprise she warmly accepted my love proposal. This begin a new era of my life. 

We were always happy to be together. For good 5 month everything is moving well till her family started pressuring her to bring out man for marriage. Yes, they said that and she told them my man is still in school so please let him finish because he has only a year more but No they said. I had to talk to uncle but he never understood me. They cutoff all the privileges and even some right she was  enjoy making her always sad and unhappy. This too make me very sad and unhappy too.

Until one day she informed me that they were forcing her to marry one man (truck driver). I was sad very sad but I can't do any thing. Although we come from the same community but I was another continent and wasn't prepared for marriage at that moment. So we brought our relationship to an end at a moment when I was preparing for my end of semester examination. It has hell for me. I couldn't learn, sleep and even eat. No one understand me. I lost focus and a lot of weight and lastly...

As a researcher, I was researching how I could come out in that situation I was in and finally I found what worked for me. It was mindful meditation of letting go of my worries. It works well for me but not faster. It was slow but effective. Let your worries go, see them moving from your mind slowly like waves. Observe the feelings and ever judge them. Breathe in and out and let your worries go and you shall be happy.       

let your name work for you

As a junior scientist, i have to the realization that, it is always the best to start a career by working hard and have the authority in your field to support and train you. you can only make a mark in your field by collaborating with others and joining organizations and societies. try doing this faster so that it would help you in future. I hope if you do that, one day you will sit down and your name would work for you.