You are invited!

PRESS RELEASE
15th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, “Peace at Home, Peace in the World,” 28th - 30th April 2010, at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Türkiye
On 28th - 30th April 2010, the 15th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies will take place at Bogazici University.
The conference’s Public Event finds place on 30th April 2010, in the Albert Long Hall/BTS & BTS Fuaye. This event is open to everybody who is interested in the topic and entrance is free.
Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS, www.humiliationstudies.org), a global transdisciplinary fellowship of concerned academics and practitioners who wish to promote dignity and transcend humiliation. We wish to stimulate systemic change, globally and locally, to open space for mutual respect and esteem to take root and grow, thus ending humiliating practices and breaking cycles of humiliation throughout the world. We are currently around 1,000 personally invited members, and our website is being accessed by between 20,000 and 40,000 people from 160 to 180 countries per year.
The Public Event will feature speakers from Turkey who speak to topics related to dignity and humiliation, and the president and the director of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. They are as follows:
• From Shock to Awe: From Humiliation to Dignity, by Evelin Lindner, Founding Director and President of HumanDHS
• Education as a Vehicle for Social Transformation: How to Promote Dignity, Unity and Transcend Humiliation, by Vineeta Kamran, Principle of the City Montessori School, Kanpur Road Branch, Lucknow, India
• The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Refugee Law , by Paresh Kathrani, Director, Centre for Global Morality, is currently undertaking his PhD in Refugee Law and Philosophy at the School of Law, Kings College, London
• Appreciative Enquiry and Humiliation, by Linda Hartling, Ph.D., Associate Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Boston, USA.
. The Meaning of “Peace at Home, Peace in the World" by Hayal Köksal, Ph.D., Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, and the HumanDHS Education Team
• Human Rights of Women, by Nazan Moroğlu, author of Human Rights Treaty of Women. She is the general coordinator of the Istanbul Women Associations Unity. She is also giving the course: Women Law” at Yeditepe University, Law school.
• Disability, Dignity, and Humiliation, by Ramazan Baş, President of the Spinal Cord Paralytics Society of Turkey (SCPST), an NGO whose work is related to the wellness and empowerment of the disabled.
• The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Positive Psychotherapy, by Tuğba Sarı, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Head of the Positive Psychotherapy Centre in Ankara (only on 30th April)
A Peace Exhibition in the lobby painted by the world children will also be opened during the event.
Evelin G. Lindner

Celebrating the "National Sovereignity and Children's Day" & A Reflection from Iran

Dear All,
Today is the National Day of Turkish people (23 April National Sovereignty and Children's Day) and it really a unique event. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.
Every year, the children in Turkey celebrate this "Sovereignty and Children's Day" as a national holiday. Schools participate in week-long ceremonies marked by performances in all fields in large stadiums watched by the entire nation. Among the activities on this day, the children send their representatives to replace state officials and high ranking bureaucrats in their offices. The President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers, provincial governors all turn over their positions to children's representatives. These children, in turn, sign executive orders relating to educational and environmental policies. On this day, the children also replace the parliamentarians in the Grand National Assembly and hold a special session to discuss matters concerning children's issues.
Over the last two decades, the Turkish officials have been working hard to internationalize this important day. Their efforts resulted in large number of world states' sending groups of children to Turkey to participate in the above stated festivities. During their stay in Turkey, the foreign children are housed in Turkish homes and find an important opportunity to interact with the Turkish kids and learn about each other's countries and cultures. The foreign children groups also participate in the special session of the Grand National Assembly. This results in a truly international Assembly where children pledge their commitment to international peace and brotherhood.
The importance of April 23 as a special day of children has been recognized by the international community. UNICEF decided to recognize this important day as the International Children's Day (Source: www.delinetciler.net).
With love and peace...
Dear All,
Upon my sharing the above article I got a very lovely letter from a Dost in Iran. I want to share it with you. Thanks a lot Hesam...
Hayal KÖKSAL

Dear Hayal,
YOU ARE A GREAT (F) HERO!I really admire and commend your spirit both the national sphere as well as international.
I enjoyed very much Ataturk's short citation in 1934. It has all energy for a nation to move ahead and conquer future, as it happened:
" Those heroes that shed their blood and
lost their lives...! You are now lying in
the soul of a friendly country, therefore
rest in peace. There is no differences between
the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they
lie side by side here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away
countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now
lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having
lost their lives on this land they have become
our sons as well."
ATATURK, (1934).
Great men are always remembered and respected and their inspiring existence will continue for a very long time.
I would like to CONGRATULATE you on this very outstanding day of our Turkish brothers and sisters. please convey my deep hearty message to all your friend, colleagues and all others.
I think I can understand this historic great day. Thank you very much for sharing your joy and exciting moments with me. I am with you and with my Turkish friends in celebrating your great day!
Love,
Hesam AREF KASHFI

Many Events

Dearest Dosts,
I would like to start my blog today with an unlucky event from Icelend. As you have already known all Europe and partly Asia have been suffering from the cloud coming from Icelend. It affected all the international flights. A massive cloud of volcanic dust has covered vast areas of northern Europe after the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano erupted in Iceland on 14 April. See below link for details on the extent of the dust cloud and for projections of its future spread. The cloud appears on the satellite images (left) as black, pink and then red as sporadic eruptions launch ash into the atmosphere where it mixes with different thicknesses of ice clouds. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8625813.stm (Source: BBC News)
Our dearest Dost, the president of Human dignity and Humiliation Studies Network_Evelin Lindner also has been stranded in Schiphol on her way to Istanbul. We have been looking forward to meeting her for two days and she is still in Amsterdam. Some instructors of students of Bogazici University are blocked in Amsterdam as well. Human beings cannot still find way outs before the natural disasters. Whenever we will learn how to think scientifically and start finding rpoactive measures; only after that humanity will find sllepping himself/herself safe.
Dearest Dosts, the month April is full of activities:
On 9th April, we hosted the introductory seminar of Dr.Katrin Rabanus from Germany. With 180 teachers from different parts of Istanbul, we witnessed a new methodology of teaching how to read and write for difficult learners. It was interesting!
Yesterday (17th April) was the 70th Anniversary of the foundation of deucational miracle_Village Institutions. Within ten years more than 17,000 village children had been trained as teachers and a huge step was taken in bringing villages into modern levels, however, they were closed by some political reasons. Thus, a huge wall had blocked the improvement of village children. Those institutes were the schools of Enlightenment Period of Turkey. Atatürk had guided tham in 1935 just before his death. I would like to include an article of a village instutute graduate_author Mr. Gursen Kafkas_ below. you will like reading it. He was also one of the panelists yesterday which I chaired.
This week we are going to host Dr. Jagdish Gandhi for a Child-Law Meeting at a Turkish university. A disabled students team with their teachers are also from CMS in ıstanbul to participate in 4th Smiling Child Festival, held by the Society of the Spinal Cord Paralytics_ www.tofd.org.tr_.
On 28-30 April, I am hosting the "15th Annual Conference of Human DHS" along with Peace Center of Bogazici university. I hope that bust month will be beneficial for all participants and humanity as well.
Lots of love from a rainy Istanbul day.
Hayal Koksal

Village Institutions as a Sample Case
Dr. Köksal’s one of the main interests has also been “Village Institutions“for years due to their quality-based essence. She had graduated from Izmir Teachers’ Training Institution in 1976 and she was trained mostly by the graduates of Village Institutions throughout her education. She was aware of the great value of those teachers.
Village Institutions were the schools opened under the guidance of great leader Atatürk. She believes that the main functions of Village Institutions were to train contemporary villagers (TQPs) and to take the torch of Ataturk’s reforms to small towns and even very small villages. However, those quality philosophy focused institutions did not live long and they were closed due to some political reasons.
Dr.Köksal always believed that it was one of the biggest mistakes within the educational history. For, during her first years of teaching professionly, she had worked in the north-east corner of Türkiye (1978-1981) at a very small town and she had seen the social and educational needs and expectations of the people living there and felt sorry for them. The interesting side was that village institutions were opened in late 1930s and closed in late 1940s. If they had still been living in 1970s, Türkiye would have been in a totally different position among the world's countries.
After so many years, Dr. Köksal has been working at the educational faculties of different universities and training teacher trainees. Her courses are TQE-focused and all the mid-terms and final exam projects are designed in SQC/İmece Circles form. Thus, teacher candidates learn about the quality applications during the pre-service education.
For 3 years, she has been also conducting a project concerning “Village Institutions“. Teacher trainees focus on one of the most important characteristics of “Village Institutions.“ After reading books and watching videos about them, they study in circles, list the present problems of schools and based upon the village institution understanding they try to bring solutions to those problem areas. Then, they present their projects via technology. There have been 18 village institution projects up to now, and when they total 21, she will collect all of them in a book.
Some Final Words and...
Village Institutions trained nearly 17,000 teachers in a limited time. Most of them became very famous authors, educators and politicians. Their second and third generations are still very contemporary and productive. After that point, a Village Institution graduate teacher and author Mr. Gürşen Kafkas’s article will be placed to the Conclusion part of the paper. He is one of the well-known authors of Village Institutioners. He is very productive, with 36 books.
THE MIRACLE OF VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS by Gürşen KAFKAS
Village Institutions were an unforgettable miracle of our educational history. With the light there, human beings were gaining a secular viewpoint based upon logic and science. The system was teaching the young village children how to be productive through personal efforts and social team work (called İmece). The main aim of the Turkish Republic and the reforms of Atatürk were in fact to create the enlightenment period in education. The only way of realizing this was to reach at the small towns and villages. Villagers had been seen and accepted as tax payers and volunteer soldiers for ages. Whereas, with the Village Institution Project, the village people and the government would have been hugged. Of course, it was a long and difficult job. So, Mr. Ismail Hakki Tonguç, who was one of the architectures of this project, used to whisper the following lines continuously with a great joy: “I try the steep roads and I overcome each obstacle....”
He was very happy to be training young, bright and professional village people whose efforts and productivity would have returned back to their villages again. The system of training “Village teacher“ program of Mustafa Necati had been transferred to multi-functional, full-equipped “Village Institutions“. That change in education was behind some new developments. A great amount of population of Türkiye had been living in villages and the aim was to turn their lives to a modern, productive and rich way. In other words, to improve the way of thinking and living of all those villagers who had been slaves of the Sultans and Aghas for centuries was the target of Atatürk and his Ministers. Thus, slavery would leave its place to free and scientific thinking.
Through their training, social development and personal improvement would have been realized. That project would also stop the immigration of villagers to cities. We would never witness the suburb area problems and all the villages would now have been modern and cultivated lands to be visited by the city people. On the other hand, there was a great need for some leaders who are good at healthcare, technical issues, environmental consciousness and ethical values. As a result of the hard work of Hasan Âli Yücel and Ismail Hakki Tonguç, the “Village Institutions Law” was prepared. While preparing that law, they made use of the systems and success stories of the various developed countries.
They believed that the students of those institutions must have come from the villages and they must have had a villager’s agricultural knowledge, understanding rural area habits and health. Within the foundation philosophy of Village Institutions; respect, love, collaboration and tolerance were the main ingredients. After the difficult battles and the Victory after a great Independence War, it was the time of being a social state. For a better and productive, modern life, they must have been trained and enlightened. It was a great need to send all kind of services to villages and also to train such teachers who would take that spirit to the villages in Anatolia. That was the reality and essence of “Village Institutions!”. They had formed such a system that in which all the villagers would grow whatever they needed and it would have been based upon working and laboring, and within the educational system everyone would learn by doing.
In that system, theory and practice would go hand in hand. As a result of those efforts, all the empty, neglected fields turned green. Wheat and oats covered all the land. Mr. Tonguç was sending trained teachers to villages by saying: “You are our hope for the future”. All the village teachers were solving all the problems of the village people one by one, teaching them the virtues of ethical values, women rights, social responsibilities and rules of citizenship.
Cultural training was being realized through practical applications and scientific research was the essence of all solutions. Through the productive training, all the young people were gaining self-respect and courage for problem solving. Twenty-one different village institutions had become the source of hope and achievement for many young village children. Our folklore which had been covered for years had started to shine again. Every corner of Türkiye has been changing with the Aegean children’s “Zeybek”, and Black sea region children’s “Horon”. All the Turkish people from East to the West corner were hugging each other and their values had been mingling with each other on the way of attaining the same goal. The culture of Anatolia had been appearing with the poetry, songs and cultural dances of the children. That was not enough for the village institutions. Students were also learning the values and products of international cultures. The Classical books of the Western Renaissance were being read by the village people and thus the curtain over their eyes had been opened, and they had tasted the enlightenment.
The following lines were one of the most popular rhymes on their lips:

On the same route, the same effort
The same wish in all the hearts
To see the villagers ahead
To improve the villages...

Village Institutions would be the hope of our future, all the future would have been founded by them. The form of the new state was Republic, the throne of it was Democracy and the light of it was education. Within that educational system, the only honorable and prideful source was the village institutions. The children of ignorant villagers were running to institutions and then to their own villages as they trained human resources. That system was such a system that it was student-centered, far from memorization, leading and preparing the youngsters to the problem-solving futures.
Village institution students were those who were not affected by hunger or bad living conditions such as hard beds; they were strong and full of hope and motivation. Only through that system villagers would read, learn and improve. For their hygiene, their nurses and healthcare personnel would have run to villages. They would do their agriculture through scientific methods, take care of their cattle through modern systems and share their folklore with joy and fun. Things and/or people taken from villages would go back to villages again as stars and lights. They would enlighten the darkness.
Villagers would have been conscious about the values and responsibilities of citizenship, would have spoken a better Turkish, would have gained national values and would love their nation and land in a different way. They would carry their flag, Independence Rhyme and Atatürk as national symbols in their hearts. For, village institutions were giving the feeling of being a nation to all minds and hearts.
Dark hands and cruel tongues resisted the improvement of the villages. Some evil people related to the Business world, politics and religious order collaborated with those who were against the development of Türkiye. They closed those schools and they re-powered the darkness again. What a pity that; since 1923, we have been struggling with huge educational problems without making use of that excellent educational system we once had. The fate of those schools started with Ataturk’s Enlightenment Period; however, the light of that torch had been turned off. What a big loss for Turkish people!

YOU ARE INVITED!

Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies
Breaking the cycle of humiliation
15th Annual Conference
“Peace at Home, Peace in the World”
Public Event: 30th April 2010,Bogaziçi University, South Campus, Albert Long Hall

We warmly invite you to attend the Public Event for the
15th Annual Conference of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network
Friday, 30th April 2010 (09.00-13.30)

Human Dignity and Humiliations Studies (HumanDHS) is global transdisciplinary network of concerned academics, teachers, practitioners, peace activists and others dedicated to cultivating mutual respect and equal dignity, thus ending humiliating practices and breaking cycles of humiliation throughout the world.

This event is free and open to the general public! Translation from English to Turkish is available.
To learn more about the program and conference, please visit:
www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/annualmeeting15.php.
We are looking forward to having you join us!

Hayal Köksal (Convener)
Linda M. Hartling (Director, HDHS)
Evelin G. Lindner (HumanDHS President)

Rabanus & Alphabetization Methodology

Dear All,
Our Peace and Quality Center (KALBE-MER) and THE Association for Continuous Improvement (Sü Ge Der) are going to host Dr. Katrin Rabanus on 9th April 2010. If you want to learn about her new methodology for teaching how to read and how to write, please read the following.
Love,
Hayal Koksal

Everyone can learn to read!According to Art. 26 of the declaration of the United Nations of human rights the right to
education belongs to everyone. The right to education is a definitive premise for the
changes in a society. These changes can only be claimed, achieved and sustained by
people that can at least read and write. The United Nations stated in their "Millenium
Development Goals", that by 2015 children everywhere in the world should have the
possibihty to complete an elementary education.
A/phabetization.org (a registered non-profıt organization subjected to german law) is
committed to teaching literacy by application of an extremely effieient and very low-eost
reading method.
This literacy method originates from Germany and was refıned by german Katrin
Rabanus. It is based on finger signing which was fırst developed by german Frenz-
Joset Koch. in private and publie schools already applied, this llteracy devaloping
method has been tmmensely successful, It is provinq to be so popular that the founder
Katrin Rabanus -8 learrıing difficulties speciaüst teacher- has translated it into other
phonetic languages, including Spanish and subsequently into Quechua, Ayrnara and
Guaranı. common in the Andes and in the jungle regions of South America. At present,
it is being worked on versions for the English and -hopefully soon- for the turkish
language.
Everyone is invited to benetit by taking the advantages this method provides. Due to
our experiences in Germany and in Southamerica this method can be called
.waterproof": Elementary schools, schools for slow-Iearners as well as children with
discapacities and disabllities are targeted to be helped.
We'd !ike to introduce you to the benefits of that method
and will show how much it will help teachers in their daily
effort teachlng children that need special attention.
Together we can devetop the method for the turkish language in order to pravide all
teachers in Turkey with that highly efficient and easy-to-learn teaching tool!
Sineerely,
Christian Rabanus
A/phabetization e. V.
Aıphabelization.org