If you’re on the Vestal campus as you read this, look up.

Before you notice the dark cloud cover that envelopes this valley and makes everything damp, take a closer look at the blurry haze directly overhead.

That’s right, you’re living in a bubble, as most of us are.

But other students here are interested and keenly in tune with what’s happening in their own homes and to their own families who are thousands of miles away.

The unique exchange program in place between Binghamton University and Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey, brings hundreds of Turkish students to the Southern Tier every semester. For them, the conflict between Iraq and Turkey is as immediate as it is personal.

But how many of us know about the hostility that has been making headlines? How many know what the conflict in Myanmar is about? How many know what Myanmar is?

The student body is segmented into groups of insular interests, few of them circulating around what is happening in the world.

This editorial has little to do with apathy, the popular scapegoat used across the country to describe our generation. Apathy can be scorned and called a symptom of overindulgence and pampering from our parents. It can be chalked up to the new collegiate priorities of high GPAs and future employment.

But ignorance, especially on a campus of dynamic international interactions, is far more disappointing.

We’re not pointing fingers or placing blame. The editorial board of this newspaper could barely piece together a coherent understanding of the conflict before doing some research.

In fewer than five minutes, we had fed our curiosity and learned that Kurdish guerrilla forces are using areas in Northern Iraq as a launching pad to attack Turkish troops in southern Turkey. The Kurds, who occupy parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, are an ethnic minority who are fighting for an independent state. Iraq has since enlisted Iran’s help in negotiating with Turkey to keep troops from crossing the Iraqi border to combat the guerrilla fighters.

Many say Turkey is on the verge of war ‘ a conflict that affects Turkish students here as much as Israeli conflicts affect students with Jewish backgrounds.

There is no simple remedy, save sucking it up and reading world news. In the Opinion section (indeed, below this editorial) you will find a column submitted by a Turkish student who studied here last semester. The World Page, on Page 10 of this issue, presents a brief overview of current events, including protests organized by students in Venezuela.

Read us, read somebody else, but read. There is, after all, life outside of Binghamton.