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Last two weeks the world commemorated the centennial of two events that shaped the modern history of the Turkish Republic and the Armenian people. The first event was the Battle of Gallipoli where the Ottoman Empire forces put up resistance to defend the Strait of Dardanelles stopping the European Allied forces. If Turkey had lost that war, the fate of Turkey would be very different today; a majority would speak English or French, not Turkish. The second event of the April 24th, 1915 was the Ottoman Empire’s decision to arrest and exile Armenians to the Syrian city of Aleppo. The Armenians consider the mass deportation and systematic massacre to be genocide, while the Turkish government denies that it was genocide, saying that the killings were a necessity of war. As a matter of fact, many of the major superpowers committed atrocities against others who did not agree with them or who objected to their power and, as a consequence, crushed them with bloodthirsty forces. We see some of the heads of states publish emotional statements to commemorate the victims of war. Their true motive is not about human feelings, but about still using the moment as a scapegoat or symbol for their political and personal purposes. Continue reading →

Most of us are aware that something is wrong with our climate and that some countries that have four seasons are seeing those seasons slowly disappear. We also know that scientists have been divided on the issue of climate change. Some scientists argue that climate change is  a fabrication, some agree climate change is occurring, and some have even made a fortune discussing the issue. For example, the former American Vice President Al Gore made millions of dollars from his book An Inconvenient Truth, and subsequently owned Current TV that he later sold to Al Jazeera at great profit. The climate change debate has evolved as more and more research is being done about global warming’s impact on the economy, on the public, and even as a threat to national security. Several factors continue to impact the issue. The oil companies are not very transparent about their polluting activities. Also, global energy demand indicates fossil fuels will not disappear overnight. No magic bullet will solve this problem, but is may be retarded if all the governments, first, focus on renewable energy and reducing emissions by switching from coal to natural gas for electricity generation, second, deploy carbon capture and storage technology, and third, create a fair, balanced carbon-pricing system. Oil companies should enter into the public debate alongside other NGOS, scientists, and public and private sectors to offer some realistic solutions to our global climate change, not just rely on some big oil lobbyists’ reports. Continue reading →

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman once said, “We were divided by walls during the Cold War, but now we are united by the web.” Because of the advancement of technology, we have become more connected than ever, and we are now interconnected like a global village; consequently, international collaboration has become integral not just to higher education but also to high school education in the twenty-first century, and recently international partnerships among other countries have been growing incrementally. For countries to survive globally in their economy, they need to prepare and equip their students with international experience and with perspectives and skills. Under the pressure of technological progress and modernization, the Philippines has initiated K-12 educational development programs and committed to fully supporting and modernizing its K-12 education system. The problem is that the government has given some guidelines for schools to implement these K-12 programs, but does not have any pilot programs to replicate them nationwide. Therefore, Minority Care International (MCI) has partnered with Thompson Christian School (TCS) and invited a guest speaker Dr. Sweeney, the superintendent of Boles Independent School District, to address the topic of educational development and to train some of the schoolteachers for the K-12 program. The workshops about K-12 program helped TCS to usher in the newly nationally mandated 11-12 grades and to develop a seamless K-12 curriculum program. Besides training the TCS teachers, MCI in partnership with Boles Independent School District and TCS, has initiated a unique international experience involving a semester of its Cross-Cultural Teacher/Faculty Exchange Program. Continue reading →

Last week a nuclear deal with Iran caused quite a controversy in the region and in the U.S. despite strong objections from Republican lawmakers and from Israel, both of whom were not happy with the outcome of the Iranian plan. The framework of the nuclear deal should support efforts to promote peace and stability in the region. I always believed that eventually, the West and the United States would be friendlier with Iran than with any of the Sunni countries in the region. The Arab Spring put an end to the secular Muslim dictators who ruled the Islamic countries for decades, and the Arab Spring gave rise to political Islam in the Middle East and Africa. The majority of Muslims are Sunni, and the majority of Muslim countries have rich resources and access to technology. What they are lacking is that they have not been united; if they were united, then this union would result in the end of Israel and Western civilization. Continue reading →

The mess in Syria began five years ago with most analysts assuming that the Assad regime is the main cause of the problems in Syria, and that Assad must be removed from his position. Now, however, the USA government has changed its policy from insisting that Assad must go to negotiating with his regime to end the deterioration of the state. In fact, Secretary of State Kerry indicated this week that negotiations should now include President Assad although Kerry still believes he should resign. But the problem is that several NATO member states, including Canada, have been involved in the recruiting and helping of the ISIS terror group. Continue reading →

                For nearly a century Turkey was ruled by Kemalist oligarchies that exploited the country and for decades with international support of these oligarchies. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, ended the Islamic role as the state religion, banned teaching Islam in schools, and adopted the Western culture and education system. After Ataturk’s death, the military saw itself as the guardian of Ataturk’s legacy and banned all the Islamic parties, institutions, and symbols in conformity with Ataturk’s vision of Turkey being a Western-like country. Continue reading →