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<DIV>Dear colleagues,</DIV>
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<DIV>After a stay of just about 3,5 months in Australia, I'm going back home to Turkey this week. During my stay in Melbourne, I tried aiding the CP practice focused on immigrants from Turkey and on child-friendly communities. This was facilitated by the CP network here and particularly by Heather Gridley. I am grateful to them for letting me engage in what I truly enjoy doing.</DIV>
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<DIV>I participated in three meetings with parents with young children. The first one was arranged by the Communities for Children team and others were arranged by the community liaison/multicultural aide. </DIV>
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<DIV>Communities for Children team arranged another session last week for professionals about preschool education and childcare in Turkey and Australia. This was not an easy session - it is hard to work with a group consisting of multiple professionals without offending any of them.</DIV>
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<DIV>I wanted to highlight a sad observation from this session: The immigrants from Turkey have been around for 40 years now and not a single professional - except for those with roots in Turkey - spoke a single word of Turkish. </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>During my stay here I wrote two pieces about Australia, both of which appeared in my weekly newspaper column in the Sunday supplement of the daily, Evrensel. The first was about the Stolen Generations, which I wrote in February after the public apology. This piece received a good amount of attention.</DIV>
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<DIV>The second piece had to with McDonald's. About a month ago I visited the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and was able to ask in person why there is a McDonald's at the ground level - it is huge and as visible as one can imagine. Turned out McDonald's was a big contributor to the hospital coffins and I was not the first one to raise the issue. Also irritating was the big sign I observed at the entrance that noted the big contribution a gambling company had made to the hospital. I put this story together along with a close look at why/how McDonald's focuses on children. I hope to write another piece on McDonald's later on, exposing their games focused on children.</DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 12pt">I hope to see some of you next month in Lisbon at the 2nd International Conference on CP.<SPAN class=text::webboard::source></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 12pt">Serdar</P></DIV><BR> </DIV>
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<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Serdar M. Degirmencioglu, Ph.D.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Visiting Research Fellow</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Victoria University School of Psychology</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Footscray Campus</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>P.O. Box 14428</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Office: <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE /><SKYPE:SPAN onmouseup="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'0',false,16,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" class=skype_tb_injection oncontextmenu="javascript:skype_tb_SwitchDrop(this,'0','sms=0');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmousedown="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,2,'0',false,16,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" id=softomate_highlight_0 onmouseover="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'0',false,16,'');" title="Call this phone number in Australia with Skype: +61399194440" onclick="javascript:doRunCMD('call','0',null,0);return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmouseout="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,0,'0',false,16,'');" durex="0" context="+61-3-9919-4440" IamRTL="0"><SKYPE:SPAN class=skype_tb_imgA id=skype_tb_droppart_0 title="This is a Australia phone number. The country code cannot be changed." style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE:
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<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Mobile: <SKYPE:SPAN onmouseup="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'1',false,16,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" class=skype_tb_injection oncontextmenu="javascript:skype_tb_SwitchDrop(this,'1','sms=1');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmousedown="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,2,'1',false,16,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" id=softomate_highlight_1 onmouseover="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'1',false,16,'');" title="Call this phone number in Australia with Skype: +61435120862" onclick="javascript:doRunCMD('call','1',null,0);return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmouseout="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,0,'1',false,16,'');" durex="0" context="+61-435-120-862" IamRTL="0"><SKYPE:SPAN class=skype_tb_imgA id=skype_tb_droppart_1 title="This is a Australia phone number. The country code cannot be changed." style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE:
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<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Fax: +61-3-9919-4324</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size=1>Permanent address: P.K. 18, Goztepe 34730, Istanbul, Turkey</FONT></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></div><br>
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