By Heidi Trautmann

It never fails to amaze me to read about International Days which give cause to celebrate or/and to admonish, to bemoan the loss of something; just listen to what was entered into the list of UN recognised special days between March 20-22, I think it must have something to do with the beginning of spring:

International Day of the Francophonie which is at the moment being made aware of by concerts by the Jazz Group Aleas in Famagusta and Kyrenia – I went to the concert on the Belediye Square in Girne, great musicians, unfortunately very few people; there is theatre in various places, I reported and there is a competition running for school kids on composition in French and painting and books in French are distributed. All organised by French culture associations, namely the Institut Français and the Franco-Türk Association in Lefkoşa.

There is the International Day of Happiness, how are they going to realise that? Then we have the World Sparrow Day, we have plenty of them in our bougainvillea; the day for the elimination of Racial Discrimination; are you sure it is eliminated? Ah jahh, the Poetry Day! We have poetry associations in Cyprus, in the North as well as in the South, and they get together and recite their poetry to each other, they often invite international poets or join festivals abroad, poetry is spreading again worldwide; I remember that in school we had to learn poems by our most important poets, I wonder if they do recite more modern ones in school today, or must they all be dead before taken up into the school curriculum.

We have the International Day of Nowruz, which is the Persian Spring Festival; The World Down Sydrome Day, an important event to get together and discuss methods; the World Puppetry Day: We used to have a Puppeteer in Nicosia, the last one, Mehmet Ertuğ has not found someone to take over his job; he plans to establish in the rooms he rented at the Büyük Han a museum with all the puppets he has collected and made himself. The International Day of Forests: Did you know that a forest burnt down takes 100 years to grow again? This I was told by a forest man who fought the big fire in North Cyprus in 1995, may God prevent that it happens again. We do need the forest for a balanced climate; there would be more rain if we had more trees. Yes, and finally the Water Day, water the stuff that keeps us alive, water in lakes, rivers, in our households and in the sea; water to be kept clean for the survival of underwater life. Mankind is so selfish that they think not further than the gate of their garden, après moi le deluge!

Besides the many village festivals, Tulips Festivals, all kind of nature walks and more village festivals, we had a lot of bird song lately, millions of tweets, from a country where they are not wanted anymore.