Originally written on September 18, 2001.
Revised, restructured and developed in May and July 2004

There was something bothering me. I had heard that the loss of the TWINS had cost 20 billion dollars on the TV news. Following that, American Central Bank had transferred 38.2 billion dollars to the American banks in order to prevent an economic crisis and a collage of cash flow. The next day, again on the news on TV and papers, we all learned that President George W. Bush had been granted the authority of spending 40 billion dollars for a counterattack.

The thing that I do not understand is, if there is this many billions of dollars to give up, why could not this money be channeled for improving humanity? What was the obstacle to this? At the end, as Cahit Sitki Taranci emphasizes in his poem, "Age: Thirty-five:

Immutably death is all men's fare.
"Slept, never woke," will be the story,
And who knows where or why or how late?
You shall have but one prayer's glory
On your stone-bier throne lying in state. 

What a deep scar it is to watch on TV again and again those who lost their lives in the TOWERS without even having their "glory on [their] stone-bier throne" had to leave us in a sudden and were turned almost into dust. Should we never forget these images shown for days in order not to live again similar tragedies!

Again on the TV, there is another perspective presented to us: the American image that has been shaken by the suicidal attacks on one hand, and as a reaction to it, the maneuvers to compensate the shaken image on the other hand. However, always forgotten, made to be forgotten and neglected is HUMAN itself!!! Nothing will ever bring back the thousands of people who were gone at those attacks.

At the end, America will erect those TOWERS again, possibly even with more splendor, but those people from many different countries who were raised by many toil and education investments will never come back. And every counterattack to be made against this will open new channels to turn many more thousands of people into dust. Isn't it possible for us to go forward without losing temper?

Immersed in these thoughts, I dreamed of having, maybe not 40, but 5 billion dollars. This dream or this number has been coming to my mind from time to time, but it was more of a reaction to the questions of my close friends who uttered: "You live in America for so many years; when are you going to make some money?" I used to reply: "I don't need some money, I need 5 billion dollars." (Within my mind, I was imagining the Light Millennium as a powerful global alternative platform which would represent all people's voices, and also then it was an emerging dream towards the Global School Project.)

As I hear and read about the material loss of the ruined TOWERS, the amounts of money pumped to banks and the budget costs for counterattacks, I cannot help myself thinking how else that money could be used instead of spending it on attacks or means of war.

None of the projects that I strive to implement--which exceed, not my imagination, but my economic power--suit the definition of general expectations or success. Or, the toil-accumulation and energy investments do not turn into economics. However, I handle every dream or project with the love and sense of responsibility that I feel towards my children.

My projects, like my children, should be born, grow up, develop and gain their independence. The time needed for the average work and education from getting pregnant, to raise a healthy baby with good values and until him/her becoming to stand on his/her feet in a society or attaining a profession is between 22 and 26 years. Of course, the responsibilities or dependency of parents to their children would not even end at that point. From his/her birth on, you care for raising that baby always with love and extra concern and you do whatever you can for his/her good.

When you age and cannot take care of yourself, there is never a guarantee for your child to take care of you either! How much can he/she do this in his/her life conditions even if your child wants to take care of you? In the essence of giving birth and raising a child, there is a different tie to love and life. You wouldn't give birth to a child for someone to pay you such an amount of wage. Even more trivializing it: growing flowers, or owning a cat or dog is a reflection of a similar tendency. For this reason, I cannot see my projects different than my children in essence. The common essence of both of them is to be able to build a bridge of love and continuity.

Of course, this project will be possible by a systematic contribution and incorporation at the level of states and multinational companies, and nation-wide and global institutions as well as foundations and organizations in the next five years. Such an educational project will bring humanity on Earth to an average standard in terms of consciousness, development, and economic and social standards, and only then, our world --where only an economic globalization is mentioned-- will be raised to an average in terms of social, cultural, economic and consumption levels. And only under these conditions, our beloved world will deserve a global village status at every level which Marshal McLuhan has foreseen in terms of communication.

Certainly, this project will need much more developed, detailed, and seeded for its growth within a newly formed foundation similar to the Millennium Challenge (http://www.mca.gov/) in order to enable it.

Yes, the dream of having an annual budget of 5 billion dollars to implement such a project is giving me inspiration and joy of life. If such a thought has come to my mind, certainly somebody else somewhere has thought of it or will help us to create necessary bridges in terms of its realization.

Again back to the dream of 5 billion dollars: in our age where money is sacred, and in a mechanism where human is forgotten, earning these amounts through labor is even beyond impossible if you are not a Bill Gates, or Rupert Murdoch. When the situation is this, you might make others to laugh at you when you even dream of earning this much money by labor, by hour or just dreaming to have it!

These thoughts have been bothering me for a long time because I could never entirely fit in either Istanbul or New York in terms of economic means and definable or common sense happiness. In my attachment to Istanbul, maybe there is the continuous need of returning to my original sources. However, New York is the only city where I feel that I can live alone for a hundred years. New York demonstrates the existence of some trails that dreams can always come true; it opens the way and I am trying to trace those trails.

In this city, when I could not stand the economic pressure of life, I forced myself very much to earn money from time to time. Every time, I became more disappointed. Maybe I was not born into this world to make money. Well, not everybody has come to this world just to make money. But what's happened? All of us have become prisoners of money standardly and mechanically. If we go even further, saying MONEY MONEY MONEY, we have sold our souls to devil and have created maybe the biggest GHOST or DEVIL for ourselves

Unlike it's been presented to us in the American cinema and TV films for years, never has never been an attack from an enemy creature from space or have there been any creatures that eat/swallow humanity on Earth. Generally, the evil imaginations --which are intentionally created that way-- have been crafted to make people afraid to think beyond the present and actual. The Final Fantasy is one of the latest examples to this (2001). What need is there to make us lose interest in the future by the GHOSTS coming from other planets or scary wild imaginations! If you pay attention, in the essence of all, there is an effort to make us believe that wars are inevitable for the sake of living. In the space crafts created in the space atmosphere, what is aimed to make us dream through the highest technology is a merciless life struggle against the risk of a cruel destruction!

Didn't the last tragedy prove that THE MOST SCARY MONSTERS have been raised amongst us? With the big contributions of the money monster that we have created in us, in our daily lives, haven't the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or Catholic turned into prisoners of it?

Isn't it time now to cleanse our souls from this money monster and to give equal shares to values other than money in our souls, thoughts and lives? When that time came, poverty on Earth would end, millions of children dying of starvation would decrease in numbers, and there would be nobody left on Earth illiterate or without a job. As a result of this kind of a transformation, all kinds of investments and actions toward terror, war, guns and destruction of human, nature and environment would become the BIGGEST CURSE AND INFINITE DISGRACE OF HUMANITY.

I both define money as a monster buying our souls and talk about a dream of 5 billion dollars. What a big contradiction, isn't it? Yes, it indeed is a contradiction, but this is at the same time a diary of a search experiment on how can we turn this monster we have created into our use by giving it new roles in a balance of values and powers to change it from the bottom. 

* * * * *

Let's go further on dreaming and with the awareness of understanding that to spend 40 billion dollars for "revenge" and to invite bigger risks is not a power gain but loss like in the past, we should not only dream about such a global school project to be implemented in every continent, but also see that it is functioning. Otherwise, if President Bush and his administration do not change their minds, to activate such a dangerous decision will come around as much bigger damages and losses--mostly within itself through many sided internal explosions.

Which one would you choose in such a situation?

Also, isn't the responsibility of preparing tomorrows with hope and light for our children, and to leave them a future that would make them go much further from their standing point, a duty of both an individual and a country and its administration?

We should get ready for the years 2025-35 when our 5 year old children today will be 25-30 year old adults and when many of us would depart this life already and the rest would be busy with acting the last act of the play; and for that we need such hopeful projects. These kinds of projects make it urgent to invest for children, the forgotten humanity, and the future. We should bring these projects into life immediately - on the contrary of war syndrome and hysteria!!!

This is at the same time a dream of providing a 5 billion dollars budget in the next five to ten years and to form, develop, and detail the project and bring it into life at the end of this period. The starting point should be to formulate how the economic precipices can be minimized in a country. In a level of average education, culture, profession and economy, to be able to lean towards mutual life standards in a global frame, not according to the standards of this or that country, and to leave a world enveloped with love seeds is only possible by the implementation and continuity of multinational global educational projects. These projects are especially necessary for developing and underdeveloped countries; however any country whose conditions and needs match with the main principal of this school project can be considered as a potential as well.

In spite of America's self-esteem, which she presents on the display with so much wealth, super nation and power symbols, it is much behind Germany in terms of social justice and rights. Why can't America provide a system like Germany that does not forget its own citizens and social justice despite its rigid and cold image?

Overall, America owes to all her people as much as to the whole globe to make this world a better and safer place to live in rather than putting it into risk!!! For this very reason, American institutions, national, international and multinational corporations should form a foundation which will enable to activate this project within its concept and dimensions.

As an individual, I have a big responsibility to all cultures of respecting, preventing, and reflecting all differences and ideas. And in its subtle level, I am hoping also to be able to serve for weakening and fading all prejudging mind sets in the world that I and we all live in. These strong feelings had led me to The Light Millennium's formation as a public benefit organization (July 2001). Since then, I have been realizing more and more that these urges have to be brought into life at least in two main channels for daily exercises which in the long run will merge and serve for creating global community with positive energy and synergy:

1)    An open global multi-media alternative platform in order to create a global community, positive energy and connectivity;

2)    From bottom to top, investing to the Children of the World and for their education: this is not about bestowing them one or two weeks or couple years of education, but providing them a home and education system until they are ready to join the work force in every part of the world.

During Nazim Hikmet's period (1902-1963), an idealist could easily be stalked, imprisoned for years or life time, or even killed because of his/her challenging ideas against the existing political system and power. Today, I think, the challenge is and will be coming out from ideas that we can apply and practice in our daily lives over the years. When all's said and done, our challenge and achievement will be based on what we can accomplish to make things better within our personal as well as organized capacity. For this purpose, I change Nazim Hikmet's verses, feeling that he, too, would agree with all his heart on such a project that will serve this world to become a better place to live in:

For if I shall not make,

And you shall not make,

If we shall not make,

Then who will dispel the dark?

Translated by Figen Bingül

The Light Millennium - Global Diversity School Project - An ongoing development process...

©Bircan Ünver, The Light Millennium - Global Diversity School Project - An ongoing development process... May - July 2004, New York