ISTANBUL — I was at the cashier of our local grocery store, chatting with another customer as I waited for my change. Suddenly, a small hand at the end of a thin smudged arm pushed us apart to put a couple of coins on the counter. In return, the grocer took two cigarettes out of a pack and pushed them toward the hand without a word.
The hand belonged to a boy, half the size of my 11-year-old daughter. As I watched him place one cigarette behind an ear and light up the other, I could not help but exclaim, "My goodness, he is what? Five, six? And smoking already!”