When we were kids, there were street vendors. They would sell vegetables and fruits with their street carts, and they would call out loud the name of whatever they were selling that day. They would shout potato seller, onion seller, watermelon seller. Milkmen would sell the fresh milk they milked from the cows in the morning on the streets, calling out “milkman”. Everyone would buy as much as they needed from them.

            My friend, whose father was a wise man, told me. When he was a child, they lived in a big mansion. At that time, refrigerators were not yet common. It was around noon on a hot summer day. At that time, his father, who was reading a book at his table, called out to the family from where he was sitting; Come on, get milk from the milkman! His mother came and answered. We got our milk from him today, she said. I know, said her husband. You see, this is the third time the milkman has passed through our street. If he could sell his milk, would he be walking around like this? Look, the weather is very hot. When you buy a few more kilos of milk, you can use it at home as you wish. But if the milkman cannot sell the milk he has, how will he preserve all this milk in this hot weather? The milk he has is also his capital. Think about his situation, he said.

I had witnessed a similar example. I had gone to visit my brother Efrahim, who worked in a blacksmith shop that produced doors and windows, at his home in Istanbul. He was a poor man. He was working for the lowest wage. It was a freezing winter day, which Istanbul was not used to. At that time, mobile phones were not yet in use. When I arrived at his house, he had not yet come home from work. After a while, he came out with a bag full of oranges. His wife told him; There were oranges at home. I know, her husband replied and continued; I froze in two minutes from getting off the bus to coming home. That street vendor was trying to sell his oranges on the street in this cold. I felt sorry for him to be working on the street in such harsh cold. I thought that if he could sell his products right away, he would go home earlier, he said.

            I included these two examples in my book “Effective Education, Effective Teacher, Effective Student” that I wrote 22 years ago. I explained how important it is to raise students who do not only think about themselves, but who have social responsibility based on a culture of living together. I think it is very important to raise future generations with this virtue.

In countries where income distribution is worsening and the income gap between the rich and the poor has become a chasm, two issues draw attention. First, the rich build high walls around their homes to protect their property. Second, they hang threatening signs on the garden wall saying ‘BEWARE OF THERE IS A DOG’ for fear that someone might still try to enter the house.

            The same is true of people’s reckless behavior towards nature. As long as we disrupt the balance in nature, we will not be able to live safely under the same sky. As long as we do not take into consideration the situation of the other, we will not be happy enough ourselves. Happiness can only be spoken of where everyone is smiling.

By Dr. Osman Ozsoy