Let Us Solve This Riddle

Let Us Solve This Riddle

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes out first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

          Fenerbahce park, night time

Do you have an answer for this 'Riddle'?

Thank you,

Ben

🤓

Importance of Water

Importance of Water

I would like to bring attention to the following statistics regarding 'Clean Drinking Water'. 

          Banff Alberta 

- 70-75% of the Earth's surface is covered with water,

- 97.5% of the Earth's water is salt water,

- 2.8 billion people live in areas of high water scarcity,

- 2.2 million people die every year, from unsafe water and poor sanitation reasons,

- 2 elements make up water: hydrogen & oxygen,

- 96% of a cucumber is made up of water, 

- 65% of an adult human's body is made up of water,

- The same water that existed on the Earth millions of years ago, is still present today,

Water is the life of all living things, every living creature depends on water to survive.  

Last statistic:

- Of all the water on Earth, humans can only use about 1% of it.  Usable water is only found in groundwater aquifers, rivers and freshwater lakes. 

Please be cognizant of the importance of this liquid, and use it wisely.  

Sincerely, 

Ben here ehh,

Living is

Living is

“Money is not everything, Living is.” - Ben Oak

The life of Esengul, Part II

The life of Esengul, Part II

Now, here is the much requested, and anticipated part II of 'Esengul's' life.  

        A poster from the streets of Istanbul 

In part I, I wrote up-until the night of March 30'th, of 1979, you can find the link below:

http://onlythebrave10.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-life-of-esengul-part-i.html?m=0

now, here is the conclusion. 

I will begin part II by writing about the in-famous night that I like to refer to as the 'start' of Esengul's last 20 days, prior to the car crash.  

        Scene from her single movie

It was approximately 11:00 PM on March 30, 1979, and she was performing at 'Semiramis Gazinosu', which translates to English to mean, 'Semiramis Bar'.  A man with connections to the Mafia named Ismail Hacısuleymanoglu, who went by the name "Oflu İsmail", which translates to English to mean "Hurting Ismail" was seating at a table drinking.   While 'Esengul' was performing a song, 'Oflu Ismail' stands up and yells to the singer to say 'Taht Kurmussun Kalbime parcasini bana oku!', again, a translation is required, he yells out to say "Sing me the song 'your on the throne of my heart'". 

I have attached a link of this song below, please take time to listen to this heartbreaking, emotional masterpiece of a song from late 1970's.  

http://youtu.be/7Li5ElKnIAw

        Number 1 singer from the mid 1970s

Esengul, stops singing and the band stopped playing as well since an argument irrupted at the corner of 'Semiramis Bar'.   We are then shocked to learn that the owner of the Bar 'Akbulut Karaoglu' and lead waiter 'Hasan Yolal' are shot and killed, while numerous people are injured.   

'Esengul' is able to get away unharmed.  

'Oflu Ismail' also gets away.   

Now, begins the count down to April 18, 1979.  

All of the events in 'Esengul's' life are unfortunately coming to a crashing end.  

Number 1, the Mafia connected rival boyfriends are trying to win her love, 

Number 2, 'Oflu Ismail' is no-where to be found, and wants vengeance for her since she did not sing the song, he requested, and caused the fight/killings,

Number 3, the 'Police' is questioning her of the shooting, and finally,

Number 4, the Mafia bosses are getting nervous that 'Esengul'' might speak to the Police about them regarding other criminal events that she surely would have witnessed as a lover.   

         Beutiful 

April 18, 1979, 'Esengul' and her current lover 'Faruk Ozfıratlı' were driving in his car to drop her off at her residence, when the car could not 'break/stop' and hit a wall at very high speed.   We soon learn that the vehicles 'break cables' were cut, and therefore it could not negotiate a turn in the road, and the shocking crash was the result.  

'Esengul' died at the very young age of 24.  

No person was arrested and charged for her death.  

On April 18, 2014, it will be the 35 year anniversary of her untimely death.  

Rest in Peace. Esen (Esengul) Agan. 

Sincerely,

Ben

The Life of Esengul, Part I

The Life of Esengul, Part I 

I would like to write about one of my favourite singers 'beautiful' life, that ended 'tragically', as a II part series.  

Here is part I.  

Her real name was 'Esen Agan' and she was born on September 24, 1954, in Istanbul, Turkey.  

She 'needlessly' passed away at the age of 24, on April 18, 1979, from a car accident, in the neighbourhood of Atakoy, Istanbul, Turkey. 

She was one of the most popular singers of this country from the years of 1971 to 1979.  

Her mother was 'Piraye Agan' and she was educated as a Consortium Musician and therefore Mrs Agan, thought her daughter about music and singer at a very young age.  

After a lengthy education from her mother, Esen received formal music lessons from the following gentlemans of Mr Cavit Deringol, Irfan Ozbakir and Abdullah Nail. 

It was Mr Abdullah Nail who gave her the nick-name "Esengül" at a very young age of 15.  The name does not have a very clear translation to English, however I will elaborate on this further, to make readers understand how the beautiful name matches the voice and the personality. 

'Esen' translates to mean 'Blowing' or Waving'. 

While, 'Gul' translates to mean 'Flower'.  

Therefore, the name roughly translates as 'Blowing-Flower'. 

'Esengul' entered her first singing contest, and won it with overwhelming support.  Afterwards, she released her first single titled 'Askimi Supurmusler', which translates to English to mean, 'my love is swept away'.  I tried to attach a link of this song, unfortunately it does not exist on the World Wide Web, at this time.  

After the 'hit' song, she became a popular singer at a very young age, and travelled to the large cities in Turkey.  

She was a beautiful woman, I have always made the comparison that 'Esengul' had the aura of 'Marilyn Munroe', and I will go as far as to say, 'Esengul' was more talented then Miss Monroe.  

Esengul, married Orhan Akcinar prior to becoming popular at a tender age of 17.  However, this marriage only lasted for 3 months, and the conclusion was a divorce at 'Istanbul Law Courts'.  

Afterwards, she married a popular singer from the 1970s named Adnan Senses.  This relationship lasted longer then her first marriage, however it was not her 'forever love'.  Therefore, these two separated after a year.  

After her second breakup, Esengul started to get the attention and desire of the 'Mafia' bosses of Istanbul.  She unfortunately, was not in the habit of using 'discretion' while dating these frightening and troubled men, and this caused friction and standoffs by the men, over the beautiful young woman. 

From her 'relationships' with the 'Mafia' men, she began to be followed by Police of Istanbul to try and use her as an informative, for the mafia men.  This all was unfolding while she was a 'Fan-Favorite', and kept creating number 1 singles in the mid to late 1970s.  

I will continue with part II, another day.  

Thank you.  

Remembering Kevin Carter

Remembering Kevin Carter

"I am depressed, without phone, money for rent, money for child support, money for debts,  money!  I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain, of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners.  I'm really, really sorry, The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."

These were parts of the final written words of Kevin Carter.

On July 27, 1994 Kevin drove to the Braamfontein Spruit River, this was an area where he used to play as a child.  He committed suicide by taping one end of a garden hose to his pickup truck’s exhaust pipe and running the other end to the passenger side window.  He died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  He was only 33 years old.

"Who was Kevin?", you are asking me.  

He was the photographer who took the above picture.  This month, marks the 20 year anniversarry of the month this disturbing photograph was taken.  The picture won him the 'Pulitzer Prize' for the best picture for that year.  Now that he had won this prestigeous award, he had to deal not only with the acclaim, but also with the critical focus that came with this fame.  Some poeple within his circle were whispering that he had somehow set up the scene.  Others such as St. Petersburg Times questioned his ethics and stated "The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering, might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene."  Did he help the child? was the first question that came to many peoples minds.

Briefly, this is how the photograph came to be:

In March 1993 Kevin went to Sudan for a business trip.  He travelled to the village of Ayod to witness the United Nations operation called "Lifeline".  This operation was to distribute food to the people of this country.  Just outside the village, He heard soft whimpering, he followed the sound and saw a Sudanese girl crawling to the food hand-out center.  The girl had stopped to rest, whereupon a vulture landed right behind her.  Kevin had stated that he waited for approximatelly 20 minutes because he was hoping that the vulture would spread its wings and in turn he would take the photograph, but the vulture did not do this.  Frustrated, Kevin took this haunting photograph and chased the vulture away.  However, he came under criticism for just photographing and not doing more for helping the Sudanese girl.

Kevin took his own life less then 4 months after photographing this scene.  How could someone who had moved so many people with his craft, end his life so soon after such an acheivement? 

RIP - Kevin Carter

Thank you for reading.