The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) lead a coalition of leading Turkish American organizations to host the inaugural Capitol Hill Turkish Cypriot Day, on October 2, 2012.  Over 200 Member and committee staffers from over 50 Congressional Offices, as well as experts from Congressional Research Services (CRS), attended the all-day drop-in event that featured Turkish Cypriot cuisine, Turkish Coffee, Turkish Delights, Turkish Cypriot music, and displays of Turkish Cypriot art and history.
 

Somewhere in Beijing there must be an incinerator for burning reports from outsiders telling China’s leaders what to do. In February the World Bank, in cooperation with an arm of the Chinese government, issued a report called China 2030 that included this gem: “Where contract disputes arise … the disputants should have access not only to legal recourse but also to a transparent and effective judicial system that imparts justice without fear or favor.” It’s hard to imagine President Hu Jintao slapping his forehead in wonderment upon reading this: “But of course! Why didn’t we think of that? Stop the theft of intellectual property at once!”

As silly as it is, the “ignorance hypothesis”—the assumption that people in power would do right by their citizens if only they knew better—“still rules supreme among most economists and in Western policy-making circles,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Daron Acemoglu and Harvard University political scientist James Robinson write in their new book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Nations fail, the authors argue, because “those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose.” For the brutal few, hanging on to power and wealth outweighs all else.

By David Swanson -  Sibel Edmonds' new book,"Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story" (352 pages, $21.95 trade paperback, available from Amazon.com in print and Kindle editions) is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence. The experiences she recounts resemble K.'s trip to the castle, as told by Franz Kafka, only without the pleasantness and humanity. I've read a million reviews of nonfiction books about our government that referred to them as "page-turners" and "gripping dramas," but I had never read a book that actually fit that description until now.

A Tulsa-area non-profit group hosted a Turkish festival on Saturday. The Tulsa area is home to between 400 and 500 Turkish people, according to Raindrop Turkish House.  Most are Turkish-Americans with American citizenship, around 300, and the rest are Turkish ex-patriots. The Turkish-American community in Tulsa held its third annual Raindrop Turkish Festival on Saturday, which included the grand opening of its new building in the 4400 block of West Houston in Broken Arrow.