Workman Of Child - This was what is written within the "profession" field of my passport when I was 5! The color of my eyes were described as gr.blue and my special marks(?) as normal.

There is no such thing like "workman of child" in english, of course. Nevertheless, I feel thankful to that unknown officer who gave me such a strong label which sums up my destiny: Born in Moosburg, where the biggest german POW (Prisoner of War)camp named Stalag VII A were located during the World War II, I used to read some xenophobic mottos such as "Auslaender raus!" (Foreigners go home!) written on the walls along my way to school. I always felt guilty, bored, frightened and imprisoned in this world - my officer, he, must have known all these before.

Being another "workman of child", my father earned his daily bread as a shoemaker in his whole life. At nigths, he used to gather some paper and make notebooks for himself which he filled patiently with long stories of his own. One day, at my age of 28, he preached me like this : "You are a good writer, and I mean it. But if you have the foolish dream of becoming a famous one, always keep in mind that you are my son, that is the son of a shoemaker. So you'd better expect to get known a little bit at your age of 60".

Sad but true - all "workman of child"s have to spare some time and power for themselves that is left to them after the work for daily bread and write their own stories of truth for the sake of A WORLD WITHOUT PASSPORTS AND VISAS till the day they die.

ozcan@workmanofchild.com , Last updated 01/05/2008