"Cote: Respect still in flower
Warfare, suffering, poverty and filth - that's what we imagine when we hear the words "Third World country." On TV, we see the sorrowful eyes of malnourished children; we hear the rattle of gunfire in the Middle East.
No one can, or should, deny the truth of those descriptions.
I spent my teen years in Turkey. Years later, after I graduated from college and launched into my first newspaper job in Florida, a co-worker mentioned he'd spent a week in Istanbul. "Oh, it's not so bad there. It's almost like the U.S." I corrected the fool. "
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